 So this morning, we're here for the ACM Northeast Conference here in Burlington, Vermont and we have quite a Session plan for you this morning and many many workshops for you to enjoy and Celebrate community media and I am so glad to see all the familiar in new faces in this room and many people have changed positions and are growing in our Industry and this is fantastic and I want to celebrate all the positivity that we have created and that we embrace during these tough times It is my pleasure this morning To introduce to you Many people but first I would like to thank The the conference committee for all their hard work and endless hours to make this happen This is not a single-person job. It takes many many many hands to make this happen and I would like to thank Megan or work Rob Chapman Debbie Rogers is not in the room and is that registration right now barbara Chisholm Jim Palmer Tim Egan And if I forgot somebody Bernardo Tim Egan Fantastic, and I'm sorry if I did forget anybody because it We had a lot of people working on Keith the but oh yes Can't forget Keith with the vendors and I know I'm forgetting somebody else to Glenn Williams So I want to thank everybody and this morning. We are gonna start off We have the chief innovation officer from the city of Burlington, Vermont and he's gonna come up here and Tell us a little bit about himself in in Burlington. Thank you Hello, everybody. I can't believe they've locked me behind a podium normally when I do these I wander all over the place So we'll see what how this works. I want to say thank you first for inviting me Megan to Speak this morning. I won't take too much time I promise because you have way more pertinent speakers than myself To listen to today, so I want to say first and foremost Welcome to Burlington and congratulations on missing folian season, but landing smack dab in the middle of stick season I don't think everybody there you go. I don't think everybody appreciates just how stick season goes And while you're here, I hope you do get out and enjoy Burlington We have some amazing restaurants and definitely I remember years ago When my daughter was probably ten years old We met my parents in Pintwater, Michigan and every night we would walk to the lake and my mother would say Have you ever seen a sunset like that? My daughter was ten. She's kind of a sassy sassy ten-year-old at the time And but she was very polite and then later she said I just wanted to tell her Nana Yeah, see that every night in Burlington So make sure while you're here Hopefully you're here for two or three nights and you get out and you hopefully will get some great sunsets over at Lake Champlain And the Adirondacks, so please enjoy the fair city And you know maybe eat drink be merry leave a few dollars here behind and we appreciate it so While we as we're gathering here to have you all talk about best practices and ideas and Share some innovation around the idea of community media I wanted to chat a little bit about our local partner and Megan. I don't know where she went, but There she is town meeting TV CCTV and talk about the important relationship that we have between Burlington and town meeting TV And Megan said hey, can you talk a little bit about the transparency that that offers and transparency into Municipal government is a huge piece of the puzzle with CCTV town meeting TV There's no doubt that that is a big part of where we're at But I actually wanted to not only in for reinforce the importance of that but talk a little bit about what I think is an Equally important piece of the puzzle which is accessibility and equity in terms of how does how do we get that out of? CCTV as well Community media plays a huge role not only in the transparency of as I said municipal government But also in making sure that it's accessible to the people of the community If we talked about it from the accessibility perspective, it makes meetings more accessible because Where did I lost my seat? I usually have all these memorized to They're usually There's there can be time limits for people trying to get to that meeting So they oftentimes have to watch a recording because they're working at the during the middle of the meeting We have meetings that started my wife happens to be on the church Street Commission She started a meeting yesterday at 9 in the morning Sometimes city council meetings is on Monday nights run until 1 in the morning It's tough to maybe get to all of those but 90% of them are recorded somehow and CCTV town meeting TV plays a huge role in that We're also talking about more accessibility from people with sight or hearing Challenges where they're gonna get to captions you can see there are some vendors out there I kind of strolled around real quick There's at least two of them out there that provide live captions and one of them that provides Translation on the fly so we're a refugee resettlement city for instance We have I want to say there were 27 languages spoken in Flynn elementary Where my daughter went to elementary school if all those people want to be engaged in the process of government? CCTV is one of the first places are gonna stop because not only do they can they watch a recording they can get the transcript They can translate the transcript and then it makes sense to them from their perspective again showing you not only how it makes Government transparent to those people but also Accessibility and because accessibility equals equity we're working. We're leveraging that to try to make it a more equitable process They're also There's also the the idea of We talk about During COVID everything went online, which I have to praise CCTV and TV Town meeting TV for making that happen and helping us make all of our meetings go totally live or totally remote Now that we're back to Normal, I guess I think somebody called it the new normal one time We like to think of it from the perspective of we can't go back to all 100% in-person meetings Yes, we're gonna have in-person meetings and every every meeting will have an in-person Content to it, but we have to have those hybrid all the time because of what we were just talking about because of the Transparency because of the accessibility because of the equity issues You have to have a hybrid approach and partners like community media are huge in providing that and I want to say again Thank you to our partners there We could not do it without town meeting TV We couldn't do it without CCTV and The ability for us to go forward in a very hybrid model where we're not only in person But broadcasting that live on channel 17 But also where you can you can see recordings of it on YouTube and other places We can download video and put it in our meeting software if we need to there's a multitude of ways that that Transparency accessibility and equity really open up in terms of using community media So I want to say thank you again to all of you out there you all serve that same important vital role in your communities and I'm excited for you to be able to get together and share some innovations share some ideas and Share some networking some some conversations and hopefully a few laughs along the way so thank you again for coming I appreciate you all being here, and I look forward to hearing how it goes from Megan. So thank you Thank you Scott. It's great to hear our city so committed to being transparent and working with community media It's really inspiring and when we think of some inspiring That makes us think of the alliance of community media and our president Mike Wassner, please come to the stage Thank You Helen. It's great to be back in Burlington I first came to the shores of length and Champlain in the middle of January 2015 Perfect time for this Minnesota to Break bread with friends from Vermont for the first time It the state has an extraordinary network of community access Channels which have a exemplary record of service for communities that Very often are isolated Do not have local news service or have diminished news service have information needs like every other like every other American community and Yet, I'm proud to say we're in a state that has probably the highest per capita Service levels so for a state of 600,000 people to have 26 24 Access management organizations providing information services to people on a daily basis is quite extraordinary and so It's it's great for ACM Northeast to be in Vermont again It's great to be back at the the northern part of the state Last time I was in Vermont was in Brattleboro as part of both ACM Northeast's work there and then also the The roadshow that ACM National did a couple years back you know the the thing that I Remark about when I am with folks around the country when I point to Vermont As I point to the possible because many states That have greater populations, but have the same needs Do not have the resources that you have to be able to meet the needs of people in your neighborhoods in your communities and it's something that has to be preserved and Expanded and modeled Okay So as you're doing your work connecting with folks around the region and actually around the country There's some people from around the country who are here at the at the national conference I'd like you to think about those things very often. We think about preserving the things we have Especially in the context of changing technology platforms different audience different audiences Changing audience needs and preferences Changing Changing media styles We very often think about digging our heels in and hanging on to what we have hanging on to our subscriber bases hanging on to Franchise fees hanging on to to franchise support hanging under the relationships that we have with institutions that are changing around us Right, so yes, please hang on But also think about What is to come and how to be vital in the future of your community right If we're thinking just about trying to recreate what we had 30 years ago We'll never get anywhere in our work We have to be thinking about what the next 30 years looks like for service to communities How our communities will be changing and how their information needs will be changing and how we can model our work To be able to be in the essential place Okay, so the thing that I would ask you to think about is think about I know you're in a beautiful place Even though it is stick season Think about being in the essential place As your communities are growing and changing Right So that's part of our work here over the course of the next couple of days as we talk about Practice we talk about policies we're trying to build we talk about some of the struggles that are happening at state houses particularly Here in the Northeast There's actually some very very exciting work that's happening at the legislative level in state houses in the Northeast that I think a lot of Places around the country a lot of other states around the country are looking at and wondering about So we'll talk about that in the next couple of days But think about what we can build built together Right, that's actually the purpose for us coming together here. Not just to have a great time and to enjoy The breakfast burrito here at the Hilton I didn't travel all this way just for that breakfast burrito I Came here to help think about what we can be doing to build something better for our communities for the next 30 years Okay, so I hope that you think about that over the course of the next three days and I look forward to sharing with you That spirit over the course of the rest of the conference and it's great to be back in Burlington. Thank you Good morning again. I believe now Rob Chapman has some video introductions to present Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Burlington. All right I'm so excited to be here. I am unfortunately a former Vermonter But my heart belongs in Burlington I lived many years here and that view is just stunning I hope you all got a chance to enjoy the sunset if you didn't there'll be another one this evening. I hope so I you know, I am the committee chair for the conference And I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the incredible amount of work that people have put into putting this conference together We've been working on this. When did you call me Helen? I think it was November last year and said Rob. We got to do a conference and I'm like, let's go to Burlington. Yeah So, you know, there's too many people to thank you and recognize for the work that they've been doing But I do want to just single out the the programming committee that worked on putting together a great workshops and these Oh, these plenaries, you know who you are and I want you to know how much I appreciate it I'll tell you again and again personally when I see you but So my job today is to introduce the videos that we've gotten from the legislative our representatives in Washington Many people are aware of somebody by the name of Bernie Sanders who has run for president a couple times And we worked hard to try to get something from Bernie But he was very busy. I guess he is actually referring some fights on the Senate floor So he's taking care of some of that kind of business taking down on the Senate floor So he was unable to do a video, but we do have videos from our other representatives in Washington. Hello Is Peter Welch? I think the first one is Peter Welch Hello, is Peter Welch I'm sorry I couldn't be with you in person to welcome you all to Vermont's Queen's City And I surely hope you take the time to enjoy Lake Champlain the Church Street marketplace and all that Burlington and Vermont Have to offer while you're in town We have always known that democracy does not function if voters don't have access to accurate reliable information And that's more apparent now than it's ever been Which makes what you do all the more crucial? You don't just tell people what their government is doing. You show them on your channels and websites Citizens can watch the whole select board meeting the entire press conference Or the entire town hall meeting they don't have to rely on someone else to tell them what happened It's an incredibly important way to halt misinformation And during the COVID pandemic I know many of you went beyond broadcasting meetings to working with your local government to make it possible for the public to Participate remotely. Thank you in Vermont Work on media broadcast and stream the governor's press conference is live to tens of thousands of people Providing an absolutely essential service of reliable information Stations in Vermont have also worked with the congressional delegation to broadcast town halls and other forms Giving constituents a chance to hear directly from their senators and representatives. I thank you for that And for the essential and often unacknowledged work you do every day to enrich and inform your communities I want you to continue being able to do that work Which is why I'm very proud to join with my colleagues in the market of Massachusetts to support Protecting Community Television Act to let all of you receive the full-cash value of cable franchise fees And not allow cable companies to subtract in-kind contributions from the funds Congress has intended to support our community media stations. I'll stick with that Thank you again for what you do and and enjoy your time here in Vermont You couldn't ask for better host than the folks at Vermont access network And so we have a video from our newest representative Becca Baylent who took over for Peter when he moved up to senator She's been there just not even a year yet She was started in January and you know I now work and live in Massachusetts and I see her all over in the national press She's been doing really steering things up in Washington So this is Becca Baylent our newest representative from Vermont, which we only have one because we're such a small state Hello, I'm so pleased to speak to you at the Northeast Conference of the Alliance for Community Media For those of you traveling from afar Welcome to Vermont I'm sorry. I can't be there in person, but it's important to me to honor the critical work. You all do I Ran for Congress because I'm gravely concerned about the state of our democracy Civic engagement and citizen access to local government is so important to the survival and health of any democracy and informed citizenry is fundamental to self-government and In an era when big media companies are increasingly consolidating and leaving behind local connections and obligations It's more important than ever that we support community media. I Know that Brattleboro Community Television the community media in my hometown is so important to many folks in my town and county It helps to keep them up with local events and key local government meetings I know this because it's been so important to me, too and Right here in Burlington channel 17 CCTV Center for Media and Democracy is an amazing institution that provides comprehensive access to local government all over Chittenden County as Well as great event coverage and the key services of the Vermont language justice project. I Know these organizations are just two of the many that are represented here from all over New England You are the eyes and the ears of our democracy In a fractured media landscape you provide grounded local caring coverage that we all need to be citizens in a stable educated democratic society Thank you for what you do and please enjoy your time here in Burlington Okay, so in a few minutes we're going to get into sort of the conversation We've been wanting to have with this open plenary, but I did want to just say that you know as committee chair I am very much wanting to hear from you as to what what your experience has been like with the committee So there are other board members here. Do we have can the ACM northeast board members in the room? Please just give a stand and to recognize everybody So today's conversation is we are calling partnering for a transparent and active local democracy Moderating the conversation is Olga Peters who I understand works with BC TV in Brattleboro is a freelance videographer and content provider She can probably introduce herself a little bit better than I have because I haven't met Olga yet, but hopefully she's in the room okay And then we have a very special guest the Secretary of State from the state of Vermont Sarah Copeland Hansis I got it, right? who has agreed to sit and Take your questions and sort of have a conversation about just how important what an important role is local media plays in our communities and in our democracy so Thank you, Olga and Sarah if you're can make your way up to the stage here. I think we have chairs for you and some mics So excuse me folks. Well, I set up my timer And Well, I do that Welcome Sarah. Thank you. Oh god. It's nice to be here. What a beautiful morning to be on the shores of Lake Champlain I hope you all got outside Yes for those who don't know Secretary Sarah Copeland Hansis or Cunt She always tells me that and I always She served for many years as an educator and also a small business owner and Also as a member of the House of Representatives Until she was elected in 2022 To serve as Secretary of State after Jim Condos stepped down So very glad to have you here and glad to have you as a Secretary of State one of our democracy people. Thank you very much For folks who aren't from Vermont would love if you could just give us a quick overview of your experience with Community media centers and Some of the things your office is working on right now that might be of interest to to the folks here great Well, since we have folks who are assembled from a number of different states I'll just give you the quick rundown of what the Vermont Secretary of State does we have Four main divisions and two special programs. So we oversee Vermont's archives and records In a giant warehouse in Middlesex we have wonderful assemblage of press clippings and We are the keepers of the archival Now video footage from Vermont legislature. You can see the actual original hand Scripted constitution of the state of Vermont in our archives It's a really fun place to be and I I keep hoping that at some point They'll they'll just forget that I'm in the archives and leave me for the for the night because I think it would be a Really cool place to get stuck So so in addition to archives, we also do professional licensure so anything from architects and engineers to tattoo artists to The nursing profession many many different professions in Vermont are our licensed by our office of professional regulation We have the business services division. We are the first stop for any business That is being established in Vermont and that is a really wonderful special place to be One that we really tried to lean into and leverage along with our professional licensure this past summer when Vermont Experienced catastrophic flooding in many places. We really wanted to make sure we got information Out to the businesses and licensed professionals who would be able to come in and help Vermonters recover from the floods And then our fourth division perhaps the most high-profile hopefully the one that Vermonters interact with most consistently Which is the elections division? And we trained 246 town clerks to be the local elections administrators For for their communities and we compile and certify the results Our two special programs one is the safe at home program, which is an address confidentiality program for survivors of Domestic abuse or stalking or human trafficking the legislature this year just expanded the scope of folks who are eligible to participate in safe at home to providers of gender affirming care or reproductive health care and Patients of those services if they are worried about harassment from from someone due to their Providing or using those health care services and then the last special program that I'm so excited about is our education and civic engagement Program and our ECE coordinator Robin Palmer is here with me today We are embarking on a real intense focus in civics civic engagement and Helping Vermonters understand how to do democracy And and that is really so very important in this era when misinformation Or just lack of information breeds either apathy or outright anger at government I Really feel that Vermonters need need help understanding how to do democracy How do you make your government do for you what you can't accomplish on your own? And so that's that's the general focus of our civics program We can dive into a lot of the details of that if you want to But how we how have I interacted with with community television? Over the years I have found that it's one of the most consistent ways of getting out to the different communities in Vermont with you know the decline in print media and The fact that the larger networks are are taken over by out-of-state folks who don't necessarily commit to Covering a local town meeting when I've been out on the road in my 18 years in the legislature trying to get Community engagement and action and involvement on the issues that were important to me and to my constituents Oftentimes it was those community access Stations that would come and cover the meeting and help to amplify our Message out to more people and I think that's critically important for folks to be able to stay connected and what's going on Around their community as well as around the state. Thank you secretary I really appreciate that last bit because I don't know about folks in other parts of the country but in Vermont I live in southern Vermont and we're actually in a media market desert. So a lot of our news comes from Boston, which Boston's a very interesting place, but We're not voting in Boston And so it's channels like Brattleboro community television Where I'm a host and producer of the Montpelier happy hour and they make our video versions look so good Emily Karnheiser and I so thank you And and we find that a lot of people when they're angry at government. It's because they don't have those civic Skills and they don't understand the process and so they get frustrated with the process. So thank you secretary How do you see? Community media centers role in protecting their community's right to free expression and access to information I don't think there's anyone else who's who's Occupying that space right now and I think it's critically important for for People to be able to stay involved in that way to be able to watch the entire select board meeting to be able to see that community forum You know back to the floods this past summer in I Was focused on Montpelier In attending those community meetings because our offices are in Montpelier and it was such a devastating impact but you know there was a gathering of over 300 people and Covered by the local orca media so that people who either couldn't get to the meeting or didn't feel comfortable gathering because of health concerns would be able to stay involved and And to hear the concerns of their neighbors and to come together around solutions moving forward and that's really Repeated over and over again in so many different ways with these community access stations where You know communities can come together around a problem And you can involve more people people who maybe can't come at the six o'clock dinner hour because they Are trying to get their kids to bed But would like to be able to participate would like to be able to pay attention to what's going on Thank you the funding landscape for Community media centers as you are probably all aware has really been in flux with the decline in cable subscribers and This year the state legislature Actually routed some general Fund support, excuse me with my microphone for Vermont's 24 community media centers through your office and Now that the Vermont access network is seeking more of a long-term solution How do you see that relationship continuing or what role do you see for for your office playing? Yeah, I mean I think the sky's the limit. It's a really It's it's an amazing collaboration and so much of the goals in particular of our Education and civic engagement program are right in line with what these community media centers do that I think I think it could be a really beautiful collaboration You know, I hear time and time again, you know Vermonters who are frustrated or have a challenge with something and they're not sure Which level of government is this a local issue? Is this a state issue? Is this a federal issue? is it all of the above and I think that really Bearing down and leveraging that local coverage Is going to help Vermonters orient to where they should go in their advocacy? And so, you know, we were happy to be the You know the the granting agency to hold this general fund money and and to pass it along and we will also Absolutely be advocating for continuation of that funding for our community access centers because we know that That this is so critically important to our democracy and these services don't pay for themselves I'm curious. I know you're still relatively new to the office But have you had a chance at all to talk with your peers across the country and see how these issues are sitting for them or if they are engaged with them or so I haven't spoken to them put in particular about the importance of Community media but we do talk about the importance of civics and civic engagement and and it really is a Concern for many of us as secretaries of state who oversee elections And you know from my perspective in my 18 years in the house I always stood outside on election day and talked with people who are coming back and forth from the polls and And I would also talk with people who just happened to be walking by and I would say, you know Hey Susan, are you are you heading up to vote because Susan's heading in that direction You know and and invariably people will say things like I don't vote because I don't know any of the people or or candidates who are on the ballot Or I don't vote because my vote doesn't matter You know, they're just gonna do what those, you know, few wealthy elite people want them to do anyway So why should I bother? And so secretaries have stayed across the country hear stories like this and and see This frustration and apathy on the part of voters and so I think that this this collaboration With our local media is going to be very valuable and I hope it becomes a model for other states to consider doing Similar level of support. Thank you You mentioned at the the beginning of This discussion about some of the initiatives your office is working on But you're also working on a larger project called the civic health index project and From what I understand This looks really interesting. It's through the national conference on citizenship Their website is ncoc.org if anyone wants to find more information But it's an organization that's kind of looking at the civic of the overall civic health Of of a community and what they have found is that communities with these indicators tend to have higher employment tend to have stronger schools tend to have better physical health and tend to have more responsive governments They're currently working with 35 states Vermont being one of them would love to hear more about this and why your office became involved Well, you have done a perfect overview and View of what the civic health index is We we've shorthanded it the chi in our office because we've got so many different Projects going on right now that we we need to shorthand it but the civic health index Project is is a wonderful collaboration of a number of different organizations around the state the vermont humanities Council serve vermont the vermont council on rural development The office of racial equity in vermont Our league of cities and towns The university of vermont center for rural studies ymca the vermont agency of education And certainly we hope the cctv stations and and the community access stations around the state And what we are hoping to get from this is a is a a greater understanding and and perhaps even a roadmap of Of where are we seeing Higher community involvement higher civic health and where are we seeing lower and I think that Knowing the rural state as I do I think we could probably imagine that it is in the rural areas where it's harder To stay civically engaged. You've got to drive longer to get to work Takes more time in your day makes it harder to Participate in things happening in your local community. I think we can imagine also Some deficits in terms of the civic health Of our younger population. I have kids who are in their 20s They don't currently live in vermont But I do talk to them and to their peers who do still live here And there's a lot of frustration about the magnitude of the challenges That our country and our state are facing right now And they don't see a lot of people stepping up with really clear Plans for addressing them, you know, I'm talking about things like their student loan debt And how the heck am I ever going to be able to afford to buy a house? And you know Get married and have kids. I mean we're looking at climate change and in increasing climate disasters Is that really where you know, so there's just there's a lot of unrest among young people and I think that I think that engaging and empowering young people will help us Help them overcome the The apathy the the anger the the frustration with With not seeing progress on some of these really big issues Um So the other thing that I suspect that the civic health index will show us is that low-income people have a harder time staying staying engaged and Volunteering in community attending community meetings Serving on community boards and when when we get these results We will really use them as a roadmap for where we go. How do we engage vermontures? How do we empower them to make the change that will be relevant in their lives? And so looking forward to the the civic health index It's a really wonderful group of partners that will give us a nice You know 360 degree view of Vermont and vermontures and how they participate civically This nerd right here is really excited. We can't wait for the report to come out I think you brought up a really important point though when you mentioned folks who are living on low incomes We have a lot of media out there in the big wide world, but i'm always Cognizant of how much of it you have to pay to access And it makes me more appreciative of things like libraries Or community media centers that Have a very low Barred access Information which I just feel is really as you said crucial for An engaged citizen, right? Yeah, I mean if we want to thrive in democracy We need to make it easy to access information and the barrier to access Shouldn't have to be a subscription or you know a Thousand dollar cell phone or you know a tablet or whatever We need to make sure that we keep working on Access that will Reach everyone Thank you. Thank you secretary We have as I understand it some time for Questions before we go on to questions though. Is there anything else you'd like to add or share would be I thought you were going to throw out a little quiz for these folks to see if they could remember I was and I got so nervous about talking to everyone that I forgot About my little quiz. So this will warm them up, right? This will work. They'll participate in this and then they'll have lots of questions So I was just curious Anyone want to take a shot at naming the five freedoms that are outlined in the first amendment And even you can just guess one and hope other people will dive in with the other four speech Religion awesome. Yep assembly pardon Yep petition your government. A lot of people forget that one. That's awesome. Yeah. Oh gosh, you guys have missed you. Thank you Thank you. I'm going to get worried there for a minute. I was wondering if If we were going to forget the one that most closely aligns with why you all are here, which is freedom of the press so Thank you And sorry to the sound person if I just dropped my thing and your headphones like exploded So any any questions for secretary? Yes We do have the mic behind you There's a mic behind you. Oh, how many times have you been filming meetings and someone says I have a loud voice I don't need a microphone. I I have a loud voice, but I'll be respectful Good morning. My name is Tim Egan. I'm actually part of the ACM New England northeast, excuse me board But I was a two-term state rep in New Hampshire and in my second term We actually voted in a civics requirement for high schools I don't know if Vermont has that but knowing the relationship schools have high schools have with community media stations Is there a way that they can help articulate civics Programming for young people so they know the what is available? What is required of them to be a good citizen? Absolutely, that's a great question so we have We have decided that that our first focus in terms of helping young people understand civics Will be to curate a list of civics curriculum materials For vermont school teachers. So robin is leading a group that we are calling the teacher advisory group They are working on a number of different projects to both create and curate Civics materials and lesson plans for For our school teachers in vermont, we have a very stark line that the education community is Defends very robustly That decisions about curriculum are never made at the ballot box And so in order to enact a a civics requirement In vermont what we need to do is we need to get vermont's board of education To establish that as a requirement that's going to be a conversation that we will have going forward Uh Where we are starting now though is to work with Work with teachers work with individual high schools work with school districts To encourage them to do things like adopting the civic seal on your on your diploma What are the what are the activities or? Engagements that a young person should do in order to establish that they should get that civic seal This is more of the carrot as opposed to the stick which we'll keep working on But you know, how does how do our community media centers play into that? So much of what needs to be demonstrated by By earning that civic seal is engaging in your local democracy or engaging in a community forum and so Absolutely if your community has a community media center That's going to be something that that a young person needs to know how to tap into We need more people to understand the access points that they already have Community media being one of them. Um, you know the the my voter page on the secretary of state's website being another You know, how do you how do you get into the zoom meeting to watch your local select board or city council? all of these all of these Activities are ones that we want a more Vermonters to understand As we work towards that requirement for civics Would No, I'm also the mic handler. So whoever's next you're going to pass the mic to the next person As someone's waiting to grab the mic just quickly in case people don't know the my voter page Yes, tell us a little bit about right so, um, we are really trying to double down on on Making sure folks understand what they can have access to on vermont's my voter page You can register to vote on the my voter page. You can change your address. You can change your registration within vermont And We are also for the 2024 general election going to create a voter guide Which will be available on your my voter page So from the my voter page, you can see all of the candidates or issues that are on your ballot And your uh, your voter guide, which will also be available electronically through the my voter page Will show you in the same order. What are the offices that we're voting for? Who are the various candidates and a brief statement from them along with their contact information and social media handle? You know vermont instituted universal vote by mail in an emergency basis in 2020 to protect The health and safety of our poll workers And to make sure that people didn't have to choose between possibly catching covid And uh being able to exercise their right to vote and it was so popular and we had such high turnout that We came back in in 2021 in the legislature And uh enacted it permanently So now vermonters are going to get their ballot 45 days ahead of the election Let's give them a voter guide also 45 days before the election So that they can use that time to find the candidate whose values most closely align with their own Um really strengthening democracy Fantastic. Thank you. Did I see yes? Yeah, good morning. Um, certainly our election system as we know is under attack Um, and we work closely with our board of elections and previously There was no concern about who they were and what they were doing and most recently in the past two years Their desire for visibility Um has gone to zero They feel that they have become vulnerable physically vulnerable under attack and intimidation And i'm wondering what you think The practitioners of community media can do To offset and push back on these unwitting forces that are undermining our democracy and make our Environment a little bit more safer for those who not only are hired to do the work but also volunteer Yes Thank you. And sir, what state are you from? Uh, maryland. I'm ritchie turner. I'm from maryland. I'm from maryland wonderful. Um, so This rise in, um Attacks on election workers really makes me spitting mad because what I know about these folks is that they believe deeply in Uh, in good functioning elections and in their civic duty to uh, to make sure that our elections are accessible safe and fair and um So I think that community media has a role to play In helping sort of personalize who are these individuals who feel So strongly about democracy that they are willing to serve as your local elections administrators That they are willing to take the time To learn all of the steps in the process and execute them flawlessly every single time You know, I I think that some of Some of this anger towards elections administrators is really born out of an ignorance about what they do It's both an ignorance about who they are as individuals, but also an ignorance about What? Safeguards we have in place in each of our states that helps assure us that our elections are accurate and safe and fair and So I think You know a day in the life of an elections administrator is a great Feature for community access to do find your local elections administrator If they are willing to be Visible and to be on camera Which increasingly is is a scary thing for them because they don't want to be Made targets By haters, but find them find someone who will walk you through all of those processes And get that out in front of people I mean, I think the vast majority of people have no idea All of the checks and steps in the in the process of maintaining your voter registration list and seeing who's actually Voting on election day In making sure that that our elections are fair and safe And if we can highlight that then at least we have a possibility that people won't fall victim to To this misinformation about stolen elections We we forget how critical having faith In our elect our elective process is to our democracy and when people lose trust in it I mean we see what happens so Thank you Yes, hello. Oh, it's working. I'm poor for them from Connecticut Voter guides Do you have other groups in the state that already do voter guides? Will you coordinate with them? I'm also with the League of Women Voters, and I just did the vote for 11.org for three of the towns in my area Still don't know if anybody Checked anything and I found that probably we were preempted by a group of Of parents that Had special questions for the regional board of ed didn't coordinate with them But it might have been nice to coordinate with them Are there any possible projects for that? Yeah, you know coordination is always valuable. Um, we we Don't really have a good sense yet because this will be our first attempt at a universal voter guide that that hits From the top of the ballot all the way through your Your your state house and and senate races The League of Women Voters in Vermont Is very active and they do often host candidate debates And they do produce a voter guide What we are hoping to do is make it Make it so easy and accessible to folks because it will be available at the same place where they can look at their ballot ahead of time that That our voter guide will be the most comprehensive It's really challenging. You know, we have over 300 different ballot styles in any General election in vermont because of the different overlapping house and senate districts and county districts And so it's challenging for A group of volunteers such as the League of Women Voters to get each of those Ballot styles captured in a way that someone could look at their ballot and also their voter guide in the same format But the collaboration I think is really going to be helpful in in driving Candidates to provide their information. We don't currently have A requirement that candidates submit that and so I am blocking out time on my schedule in august To start calling people and saying we haven't seen your Your 150 word statement and I don't have your contact information. So help me out here And and you know, I hope that we can collaborate with some of the other You know pro-democracy organizations to help us really drive people to participate in this For some strange reasons sometimes when people are running for public office They'd rather stay under the radar and not tell anybody anything about what they're what they stand for and what they plan to do And that just seems like an odd An odd stance to take as a long time public official. I you know, I'm pretty much have to be an open book. So I'm hoping that others will Embrace the opportunity to speak to their constituents Thank you. Hi, Sarah Hello, how are you? Nice to see you. I'm well I'm revered mark Hughes. I'm the executive director of the vermont racial justice alliance here I'm also the co-chair of the health equity advisory commission for the state of vermont It's good to see you. I'm sorry that it is that it's taken this long to say hi since you've been elected so I'm looking for the the The ethics piece that you were talking about on the on the On your website. So if if some navigation would be helpful I think that um, I was really surprised actually that being a you know, as you know, oh shout out to To folks over in in bradford as well to your people Um, yeah, I was really surprised, you know, you know, I've been in vermont now for 15 years And you know, I've been around and I'm I was actually disappointed to hear when I was thinking about the Because I'm looking at things from an equity lens. That's just a nice way inside the state government to say racial justice Um, so I'm trying to figure out what kind of involvement that you know Black and brown folks and and folks from the marginalized communities Have in that process um, and it's It's um, I think it was james baldwin who said that once a black man is awake. He's in a constant state of rage And I you know as I'm listening to the discussion It's just part of it is just driving me up the walls. It's just that I'm learning how to manage that a little bit But yeah, we would definitely be happy To work with you. I'm sorry to hear that the only as far as I could hear involvement Is from the office of racial equity, which is a political pointee of our republican governor So I was disappointed to hear that but I but I am excited to hear that there is ethics initiatives underway across the state um, it's Troubling that that it's it's going out to 251, uh cities already Uh, cities and towns across the state and that it's already in play Uh, and it sounds like once again, um, we're talking about getting on a moving bus So I'd love to hear more about um, you know, just uh, with the efforts were to put not to put you on the spot But even offline because we've got plenty of time to talk Um with the efforts were to get some equity baked into that process because I think it's incredibly important across the state and then finally, um Just uh reaching out and saying I'm happy to sit down with folks from your um from your team To work to see if we can back into that process if if there's something that we can do to contribute to it Um, so I think the most important thing right now for me is just point me to On your website, uh where this is uh, this is actually playing out. Thanks Sure. Um, so let me make sure that I understand mark your question Are you are you talking about the civic health index or are you asking for information on? As I understood and and I didn't have my first cup of coffee complete Uh, you said that there was an initiative that was underway, uh within the state secretary's office That was one of the five elements of the work that you do Uh within the state secretary's office. Yeah, so I'm just looking for that on your website right now and trying to better understand How to be involved in it. Sure. Um, I think that our education and civic engagement landing page is Near completion robin's giving me the nod Or near launch. I shouldn't say near completion because this is going to be a long process of Adding information as we go because the education and civic engagement Initiative is new It's taken us a few months robin just started in april so she's hit the ground running and uh, we will get more of that Education and civic engagement information up on our website shortly. It will be In the special programs section So where you find safe at home and temporary efficiency and uh, and now our civics program Um, and to your point, uh, dr. Hughes reverend Hughes about Making sure that we are taking a racial justice Lens, uh, it is our hope that the office of racial equity will be able to Provide to us data sets and information so that our civic health index report Helps us understand, uh discrepancies between People of different races in terms of their civic participation and civic health if I could just briefly redirect I just I would just want to just to say that um now it's clear. Thank you for that. Um, I would strongly implore The state secretary's office to reach out to the community And get qualitative data On how we proceed with this process Before we pull the trigger on it across the entire state. I would strongly implore you madam secretary to do that, um And thanks for the clarification and just to for clarity It is not currently anywhere public this program. It doesn't seem to be is that what i'm understanding? Um public Your website So the civic health index information is not yet up on our website. That's no the the program itself the state secretary's office Program that you just mentioned it is not on your website, correct? No, but I've been talking about it for a year and a half as I as I go around and engage with for bonner So to the extent that someone has come to a meeting that I was at, um, they will have heard me talking about this So so as you as as you know and for the folks in the room, um, as far as You know community engagement and um as far as racial justice work in vermont We are the preeminent organization that does that work in vermont And I am unaware of it So all I'm doing is is I'm offering you an opportunity to engage us And I would be happy to work with folks from your staff during this process. Excellent. Thank you Thank you so much. Thank you Um, I just want to do a time check Another five minutes. Fantastic. Thank you Well, I I think uh, is anyone else Have a question Well, I think mark brought up a really good point You know, you've mentioned a couple times and I've been hearing in conversations here too around outreach and in In vermont, we have so many different types of communities And they all have different levels of professionalized government or maybe it's like Three volunteers select board members and a town clerk and and so finding an outreach Method that that can work for as many people as possible Where for your office? Where are the struggles and where what have you found that's successful that maybe can help Folks here who also need to do outreach right in terms of meeting the needs of Different different communities. Yeah You know what we've noticed in conversations with our local government Entities is that There is a wide range of resources available just in terms of being able to make those Select board meetings Accessible to the public You know, not every teeny little town in vermont is lucky enough to have a community media Outlet who is able to come and and broadcast those meetings What we will do in the coming legislative session is we will advocate for Our local select boards to be able to get a grant from the state to invest in some of the Equipment that they need to make our public meetings more available more accessible to To folks in that community And you know the barrier to participation as I've said shouldn't be that you can That you can afford a A smartphone or a tablet or a computer So we also will advocate that all of those meetings continue to have an in-person component as well You you still need to I mean even with all of the technology and all the skills that we've all learned during the pandemic There is no substitute for being able to be in the room and to see who else is in the room And that is not always possible When when you're watching from online And so we will certainly advocate for that Thank you. Any any other questions for Secretary state No, okay It's like an auction if people move their hands. I'm like, oh you You Careful, I'll make you ask a question. You are the winning bid Lucky you anyone else going ones going twice Fantastic. Well before you head out So glad you could join us. Is there any last words you want to share or I think I just want to say thank you to all of you because I know the important role that you all play in helping your Neighbors stay connected with with what's happening in their communities And it really is critically important often Often not well understood The the amount of time and resources and care that needs to go into keeping keeping people Connected to their community to their local government So in case other people in your communities don't say thank you. I want to say thank you Thank you. It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me Have a wonderful time before everyone leaves. I just had a thought as a suggestion if you're looking for programming Visiting your town clerk's vault Like that's my favorite. Yeah, you can find the original charters For your towns the handwritten charts. It's amazing what they have in their vaults. Yeah, so if you're looking for programming I would highly recommend that Now now you all may go Thank you for joining us. All right Just a couple things. Thank you to our guests. It's a great conversation to start off our conference. Thank you all for moderating