 Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is the public affairs show right here at Amherst Media that's co-sponsored by the Amherst League of Women Voters and we are trying to help folks here in town see the evolution of our new form of town government as we've transitioned from our town meeting and select board to our town council and today we have a really interesting trio. The Troika are here today and the first of the three is Brianna Sunrid and she's one of the three people that is splitting the job of community participation officer. So Brianna tell us the origins of this position and what this job is all about. So the position of community participation officer came out of the charter so what we're working to do it's outlined in the charter as a position that will come in either from an existing staff person or to hire a new person so obviously we decided to go with existing staff. The town manager has appointed three folks to do this important work myself being one of them I'm the communications manager for the town so my work overlaps with a little bit of the community participation officers goals some of those are increasing that participation with town government especially this new town government whether it's through boards and committees serving in different other volunteer capacities so we started our work I think it's just been under a hundred days now and I work with quick ramp up yes quick ramp up there's lots of lots to do there was some short action items that we were looking to get off the ground but we're also planning for our long range vision which includes measures of success different data that we can collect to see how we're doing and I work closely with Jennifer and Angela the two other participation officers were seated seated very closely together on the mezzanine and we get the chance to collaborate and shout ideas over the cubicle throughout the day so I think it's a great team. That's terrific so you said its origin is the charter and when the town adopted the charter they created by that vote this new position but instead of hiring a separate person to do this job it's divided among three of you have you found many other towns that have community participation officers and if so how does this construct jive with the other communities. That's a great question because we we constantly have been looking to Framingham for a lot of things because they've gone through this same government transition almost a year ahead of us and I've actually become colleagues in a sort with their citizen participation officers how they call it and she's a full-time staff person and what her and I are doing are actually building out a network of these types of positions in communities in Massachusetts so we've met virtually over the phone a few times we're hoping to create some sort of listserv or best practices for people who are in this position because we found that it's not called the same thing throughout the community it looks very different from community to community Framingham has a full-time person we have our trio working on this different communities are calling it different things and so you have found it in a number of other places and and from time to time you discover yet another and you are adding them to the list how many we up to at this point do you think so I am taking on western mass and central mass as my kind of data collection points I found about 15 people who either have a similar title or parts of their job are related to this and we've reached I've reached out to them to say this is what we're working on would you like to be included it's it's early days but we're hoping to in similar municipal positions like human resources director they have a really robust group where they share ideas of best practices and I think it's really important for us to be able to do that any other community that's divided the job among more than one employee not yet not in the traditional sense of you know having a call for that type of position and then splitting it I've seen different communities having little pieces of this work being done by set different folks but nothing like what we have in Amherst okay so that's interesting so it's not an unusual function in town governments now but this isn't perhaps an unusual structure for it as when we put on our taxpayer hats we should feel pretty good about this because we basically not putting together a job description hiring a whole new person with all that's involved in that and also I would assume that if you hire a separate person then you have all kinds of coordination issues because that person is now a totally different function and they're gonna have to they're going to be things that are overlapping with other town employees and in this case we don't have that because you're integrating it into your existing job descriptions based on your specialties and so each of you had something you were doing this has been added to it and it's consistent with what you've been doing so in your case if I remember correctly prior to taking on this responsibility you did IT and you did communications correct and so website is not an unusual thing within that picture because you use the website for communications and it's also a function that fits in the IT realm of course so what are you doing in the website realm since the new government has been formed so that's one of my favorite projects to talk about so I'd be happy to give a little more about that and just the the genesis of the work I'm doing now is the communication manager I still am in the IT department but we realized that a lot of things I was working on were public-facing and trying to collect those projects so we have a cohesive plan for communications either going out or coming in so there's gonna be a lot of work about around that the website is the chief tool that I think we have to at our disposal that to get this information out but also to get that feedback back in we have a big project a complete website redesign that's gonna be kicking off in the next six to nine months we're planning for that right now and what that will allow community members easier access to information being able to to search for things and having the search be optimized so that they're finding the information that they're looking for improving ADA compliance so that everybody can access our site and we'll also be designing the website mobile first because we're looking at that means that instead of designing it to be experienced at a desktop and then kind of shrinking it and smushing it down to render on your phone we're gonna go into actually be designing it with mobile first in mind so that it renders just fine on every device that you're experiencing and that's some feedback we've gotten from residents and community members that they wanted to look up this information while they were walking through town and they couldn't access it the same way that they would if it were designed a little bit better great and what are the kinds of other kinds of things that you want to improve in this new generation of websites or is there different kinds of functionality that you want to add how does it relate to well everything that's on the current website be imported into the new one eliminating anything that's old and outdated replacing it with new but other functions and other other elements that you're gonna add absolutely so one of the main goals is doing almost an audit of our information and this is gonna be the perfect time to do that we're gonna be pulling the information over but checking it to see that links work that it's accurate updated information and archiving the things that need to be archived we have 772 web pages and so trying to look at that in a in a cohesive way and do we need that many pages do you need to click three or four times to get to the information that you that you want to see in one or two clicks so really looking at it from streamlining navigation just making things easier to find taking some of that heavy text on pages and representing data visually or providing interactive tools interactive budgeting tools so we have all these ideas and thoughts on our list that we hope to implement and the new site will make it more able for us to have integrations like that and once you make the decisions about who's gonna build the site for you and what you want on it how long will it take approximately for it to become functional so once we we sign a contract with somebody and procurement is kind of the the tough part to get through but six to nine months from the time that we sign a contract until we have a launch of a new website and does this work for for those of us who are not very technologically sophisticated is this a situation where one morning you come in and you flip the switch the old ones gone the new ones present so if you come online that day to go to the town website there'll be no interruption it'll be a smooth transition but it's just going to look different and function differently once it's up there correct we we will not have a time where there is that the site is down so we will be testing everything to the nines to make sure that there is no service interruption there will probably be even workshops leading up to kind of show off the new look of the site people are used to finding their information in one way and we don't want to disrupt that and leave them hanging when they're trying to find this information and it looks totally different the next day and what other communities have done Worcester Cambridge Somerville is they've left the link to their old site as kind of training wheels into the new site so that is something that we want to investigate if it's possible for us to do as well great other than working with your two colleagues the triad the trio whatever we want to call you or you want to call yourselves what's been the most fun and interesting part of this experience because it's really quite something to to basically take three people and put them together to create a whole and I suspect it's going to be a whole greater than the sum of the parts so what's been the most interesting and fun part of this and especially thinking about your own background and and your own life here in the community so the the most fun for for me has been thinking about ways that we can get out of town hall and meet people where they are instead of trying to bring people to us designing different programming and events that we can go out into the community and meet people where they are and that for me is really fun I did a lot of that work when I worked for the city of Worcester and you know half the time out in communities at neighborhood associations and in those types of meetings and I saw the value there and you see the impact more directly of the work that you're doing when you're back behind the the walls in in town hall so that's definitely curtain behind the curtain yes exactly oh so that's fantastic because communications is inherently a creative enterprise because you're always looking for new ways of getting the message across and capturing people's attention in this world where we're just inundated with information and so this gives you some new opportunities but it's not just about the paper communication and the social media and all that it's also now about how you engage the community appropriately through events and activities partly by you attending other people's events and integrating but partly by you thinking as a team about new things that you could do to create for the town absolutely and we do see it as three-dimensional or multi-dimensional and not just you know sitting behind the screen and putting out messages we genuinely want to meet people where they're at and have that conversation instead of a monologue yeah because the whole point of the position or in this case positions is to engage people to create more transparency and more civic engagement here in the community so it's always better person to person than it is paper to paper and paper to eyes so have you been to any of the town council meetings yet yes I have been to many of the initial meetings and I watched them from home as well okay because they're being broadcast or rebroadcast after how's that working so the town council the official town council meetings you're doing the town council meetings I meant to say district oh the district meetings okay those are not being broadcast yet but that's part of what the CPO team is working on to make sure that those are well organized and people are engaging correct absolutely one of our charges is aiding in the the planning and conducting of the district meetings and office hours which we've also been helping and Angela Mills has created a you know how to set up your meeting document and just kind of instilling some best practices from the logistics of meeting space to what are your technical needs and how can we help you get the word out and actually showing up at the meetings so I have been at the the district one district meeting which happened last month on a snowstorm on daylight savings time oh my goodness but we did have a you know a pretty good turnout and we were we had breakout sessions and folks were talking about important capital projects and my colleagues that you'll talk to today have also in just a couple minutes have also had really fulfilling experiences at the district meetings great well speaking of your colleagues for our viewers there are three CPOs and we wanted all three on today but the set only handles up to three people so we're going to take a very quick break now you're not even gonna hardly notice it at home but we're about to bring your colleagues on so we can continue the conversation Brianna thank you for being with us and for helping us begin to understand this new important function in our town government thank you for having me Sam you're welcome so welcome back to the second part of our show with the trio who are sharing the job of CPO community participation officer and as we learned in the first segment there there are a number of these around the Commonwealth but as far as we know this is the only place where we've been creative and we have split the job among three people and so we have Jennifer Moisten here and Angela Mills who are going to fill out this picture for us and we'll start with you Jennifer you used to do work with the town manager and human resources you still do work with human resources correct yes but now you have a new lens that you're looking at human resources through tell us how this new responsibility is changing and enhancing what you do around HR I think the overall picture is to have Amherst become a reflection of its community not just outside of the school systems and outside of the university so that when people come into town hall that they're being addressed by or even for boards and committees that those folks are a reflection of who we have in our community so reflecting the diversity of race gender class we want absolutely really engaged because that's one of the principles behind the whole review reform of our town government and the creation of the town council in the new charter was to basically take the best of the past and build upon it but also really open the doors in a much more robust way how are you doing that these days that may be different from what you were doing before so I've been participating in multiple events that are happening around town and just having a presence in the community for instance the black is Martin Luther King breakfast I attended the community Martin MLK MLK junior breakfast I go to events at the schools and speak and try to recruit that way attending the district meetings as well or other ways that I have been trying to reach out to folks and just plainly being in town my kids are involved in a lot of sports so I communicate to parents that way as well so this is really about getting outside the four walls of the building yes and into the community both to reflect the town's commitment and the opportunities that are available as opposed to the historic role where you were pushing papers and hoping people yes rubber resumes will come in yes for both town offices and so for town committees and for jobs but it wasn't it wasn't as proactive as what you're doing now no it was not but and and so this is I'm going to assume more rewarding for you it is it's also nice to get out into the community and see to be out outside and beyond the building that's great and Angela how is this job changing what you historically have done this new role of CPO I've seen it as a great learning opportunity like Jennifer I've been attending district meetings and I was so pleased to attend the district meeting at the Jones Library that was hosted by district counselors and to learn that for decades there have been pockets in our community where people have rotating potluck dinners and not only are they sharing food with neighbors but also with students from the University who have hosted and there's a dedicated set of plates that go from house to house so there's a richness and a sharing that I had no idea was happening and so part of our job of CPOs is to take those best practices and communicate them to the other counselors and maybe plant a seed that it works in this part of town let's try it in you know the north part of town in the south part of town and and see our community kind of become more cross-generational that way yeah and speaking of seeing your community you you have a long history in town but now I suspect some part of this job is allowing you to see and think about the community in some different ways talk about a little bit about what you've been your life like has been like here in the community and how that's affecting what you're doing now sure so I grew up in the Midwest and I came out to Western Mass to attend Amherst College in 1991 and after graduating 95 I've lived a little bit all over New England but my husband is the football coach at Amherst College and so we decided to start our family here and working in the school system for seven years has kind of helped me connect with mostly South Amherst because I worked at Crocker Farm but also get a feel for how incredibly diverse our student population is and how 17 languages can happen under one roof and socioeconomically there are lots of kids who are grow up in our town and we are fortunate to live in a town that has three institutions of higher learning but many of those children have yet to experience a college campus so I think one of the things we're thinking about as as we start citizen not citizen but community forums is to connect those kids with mentors and with people on those campuses so that they can see that as a legitimate opportunity as they grow in their education. What kind of response are you getting as you show up at various events in the community out there being missionaries for engagement in everything that's Amherst so I think overall we have a high response in our citizens activity form which is the form that you complete for boards and committees I feel kind of feel every time that we go to an event we have a few more submitted as well and and we've made some changes to that so yeah it used to be the citizen activities forum and now we've changed it to community activity form because we recognize that so many people who live in Amherst aren't necessarily citizens right but during their time here as they pursue their education or as they help in different ways in our community they can take part in all of the boards and committees without necessarily being quote-unquote a citizen but more part of the fabric of our community. Do you take those forms with you to these events or we do for a laptop okay through the laptop I was going to say because I thought you had to do it online yes but you just bring the laptop which is the equivalent of the clipboard in the form today and we're happy to have people call us and we'll fill it out for them over the phone so there are several people who have chosen that option great and have you seen an uptick in the number of people who are starting to file and you're starting to recognize some growing diversity in the population that's yes so you're starting to see some actual direct immediate results from this work which as Brianna said is only about a hundred days old yeah diversity in lots of different ways I would say I mean we've made lots of things optional so like the gender identification soft optional the age range is optional you don't have to tell us necessarily whether you rent or own anymore all of those things are optional I think the piece that we really like is that we're seeing people who have never put their name forward for a board or a committee come forward and say we want to be a part of this well that's terrific the fact that you don't have to pigeonhole yourself right which then means that it's almost like in higher ed what do they call it blind need that you're not making judgments based upon the legacy of the parents or whatever you're judging the person on on what they tell you and if they give you enough information you can see oh this person looks really interesting based on their experience and you have no idea what their gender is necessarily or their race or how long they've lived in town right which makes it even bad that's fantastic yeah that really makes a big big difference so what can you give me some feedback on how what your experience is going to district council meetings have each of you been to one or two of those yes okay you don't have to tell me about the politics of it but what what what's the experience like what are you observing because we this is a new mechanism in town want to make sure people understand it and its value and maybe consider participating I find it to be a great way for people to come and bring their ideas to the counselors or their thoughts or their concerns it's a great way to do that without necessarily calling town hall which is also okay too because we are more than willing to help people get through those or take their suggestions and pass them forward but it's another way for people to connect with the counselors and to be involved any thoughts to add to that I was so impressed counselor Pam and counselor Ryan invited me to their district three meeting and I only had like two minutes to kind of say we have vacancies on boards and committees but also we'd love to see you volunteer in small small ways if you don't feel like sitting at the table for a board and committee I stayed for the whole meeting and it was amazing to see people break off in groups and have really vibrant discussions in small groups and then come back together and share out what had happened in the small groups I thought the counselors were really innovative in the way that they had 60 people show up for their meeting and they knew not everyone would feel comfortable voicing their opinion in front of a large group so they sent around note cards and people could write their thoughts on the note card and leave them on a table face down and it was just really did they use those cards during the meeting without identifying the source they completely did yeah and so you didn't have to put your name on it but your thought got to the room exactly that's that's great and where they're when they broke into groups where they're reporting what did they do reporting back they did and did priority setting go after that or it was just okay we've now shared what we're thinking and we've put a little our little group put put it into priority but not necessarily the whole group so I think it would definitely go on to inform the agenda for their next district meeting good but the other piece that was fascinating is a lot of citizens or community members came out of those small group meetings and said we'd like for this part of the meeting to happen first and we would love for this to be the start or the genesis for a discussion and then come back to the plan event so they want to be able to speak out first and not have a directed feel like it's a directed conversation right have it happen more organically that's that's really interesting and have each of you been to only one or more than one and did you there's some variety going on at these meetings that show some possible best practices that they can learn from each other as counselors absolutely I've only been to the district 5 which is where I reside so I don't really have anything to compare to but except for Angela's stories and so I did take some of those ideas that Angela had spoken about from her district meetings to the district 5 counselors and and it works and it helps so I'm wondering if each of you are thinking down the road what you'd like to accomplish in the next let's say three months or six months or nine months because you've been standing up the job and this function you've been you've all been working together because I know I sat on a committee with all of you to plan the inaugural so I know how well you all work together but this is a new role and you're splitting a job and you're putting a function and the town government will be held accountable for this because it's in the charter so I'm wondering what are you thinking about the next 30 60 90 120 days whatever do you have a little work plan some priorities individually or collectively I think for myself there's a population of residents who don't know how the town government works and don't know much about town government so I would like to rope those individuals in and to have them become more involved it's just one of those things if you're not around someone who's in town government you don't necessarily know much about it unless you as an individual are reaching out to find out so I would like to do you have an idea or two that you're working on to actually exercise that or are you just thinking this is a priority for me and I need to find some ways to do that it's a little bit of both some of it just happens naturally again my kids all are involved in sports so it's as simple as being in out in the community and just talking to individuals and as other community events come up booking yourself in to go yes and how about you anything that you're planning and thinking about that we should know as we meet as CPOs the discussion for me is always like how are we going to measure this right like what's the metric going to be how are we going to be able to look back and say we were doing a great job right so deciding on that metric and then maybe having that guide us but it is it has been a really interesting passion project for I think all three of us in terms of finding ways for people to come through the door that look like us yeah and have and feel comfortable in the space that is town hall and that is kind of the seat of our town government so I think that's the push for me is and that'll happen at our next town council meeting there kids coming in from Crocker farm with this really interesting idea for book boxes at bus stops yeah and it's cross-generational the gentleman who is going to be building the boxes is retired and is donating the materials in the time so it's a great way for the kids to learn about how the town council serves its legislative function and guards the town way but it's also a visionary project in terms of bringing in people from lots of different age groups very good and it's also values driven which is part of the foundation of this it's driven by the Charter's desire to have more transparency more inclusion and more civic engagement in town and so congratulations to all three of you for standing up this new function and we look forward to seeing how this continues to evolve and as we said earlier it's only a hundred days so you had to put it together and you had to start actually getting out in the community and sounds like you've done an awful lot and you have a lot of passion and energy for it so thank you very much for adding all that additional work and also looking at your old work through a new lens so with that we've now learned something about our community participation officers and we hope that you'll say hello as you see them going around town and ask them how you can get involved thanks for joining us