 So technically you can either wait a few minutes or you could even get started. We are recording. We have a quorum with four before. Yes, Stephanie. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. No, you don't. Sorry about that. I was just counting boxes, not the fact that one of them is me. Sorry about that. Yeah. And Laura's out. Steve is out as well today, right? Laura's out. Laura's out and Steve. Yes, I believe Steve. Yeah, he was iffy, but I think he may not be able to join us today. Okay. So we're waiting on Dwayne or Don. Or Jesse. All right. Laura's here. You are here. She was. Well, you have more, more than a quorum. Yeah. So we are recording and you do need someone to be the minute taker. Yeah. And I believe it's your turn today. I'm happy to do so. I'm talking and I'll get prepared. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. So. Let's look at the last meeting's meeting minutes. So everyone reviewed it. Do you want me to post it or not? I can quickly share. Is there anyone who did not review the meeting minutes? Stephanie, I don't think we need to. If we want to just. Okay. Sure. Any questions on the meeting? By the way, you were saying something. And we switched off in the beginning from bossy to me. Taking notes and it's noted. I refer to. Something in. Anna's. Report that. Isn't in Anna's report. It was the. New tool that's the. Town is using. I didn't know what that was called. For communication. I think. Input. Engage. Engage tool. I think it was. Yeah. You have the link as well there in your meeting minutes. All right. Does anyone want to make a motion to accept the minutes? Emotion to accept the minutes. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Second. Okay. I need a voice vote. In no particular order. Goldner. Yes. Rose. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Selman. Yes. Yes. Rocker. Abstain. Allison. Yes. All right. Thank you, everyone. So we have a packed agenda today. So let's start with public comments. See if anyone in the public would like to speak, please electronically raise your hand and I'll unmute you. I don't see any hands. Let's. Yeah. Nothing. Okay. And do you have updates from a town council standpoint? I know we talked about. Engage embers last week. The last meeting. Okay, Anna, you're unmuted. Thank you. Hi, everybody. No major updates. Yep. So I think there were two tools that might have been being referred to as one. So there's the engage embers tool, which is an asynchronous online portal for gathering input. And what I was referring to, believe in the last meeting was the rental registration bylaw. But I think what you were referring to. Andra. Can you correct me? Is it Andra or Andra? Andra. Thank you. It doesn't matter. It does matter. Okay. So what Andrew, I think was also referring to was the, in the moment feedback tool that they were using during the CRC meeting, which I believe was on Monday. And that was, that's called community click. And that's something that we're still piloting and figuring out how to utilize. So there were two different things, but all that said, the engage embers site is still active for the rental registration bylaw review process or work process. So please go on there and share all of your thoughts and opinions because they're deeply valued. And then if you have something as a committee that you would like to make sure you're, you're speaking on behalf of your committee, I know that Steve is really involved right now with Mandy on that work, but I'm also happy to advocate for, for you all as much as I can. So please keep me. Let me know how I can help. The only other thing to have on your radar, we have talked briefly about the zero waste Amherst, sorry, it's not coming from zero waste Amherst. It's coming from a couple of different counselors regarding zero waste. There we go. And that is, there's no official proposal in front of the council right now, but we are discussing it more conceptually on at our August 15th meeting. We do not have another meeting in July. So if you're interested in. Comp, universal composting and trash hauler contracts. I don't know how to make that sound more exciting other than that it is pretty exciting. So please consider joining us for August 15th or sending any comments that you have either as public comment, or if you'd like to speak as a committee, I'm happy to relay anything that you'd like me to relay, but again, there's no specific proposal. So now is a great time for, for you to give input. And I know last time, as just a reminder, because I'm reiterating the same points last time I, we had discussed how you all had endorsed a prior proposal. And it might make sense once we have a new proposal to bring it back to you to see if, to confirm that you still endorse it. Once we, once we have that in front of us. That is it for me. Nothing, nothing major on, on our front. That's not true. Nothing. Nothing majorly new that pertains to, to ECNC. I won't, I won't bore you with sewer regulations right now. So that's, that's, are there any, yeah, questions? Yeah, thanks for the update. You also wanted to talk about the capital inventory. Oh yeah. So I have not had an opportunity to check in on that yet, but it's still on my radar because we don't have a meeting in July. I'm hoping I might have a couple extra hours to, to start working on that. Yeah. So if you all want to get that on a future agenda as an agenda item and let me know, I'm happy to, if you can give me some notice, I'm happy to prep. Prep something on that. And maybe we can come up with some, some ideas, but I know Stephanie and I will need to connect and all of that. But as you're thinking about your future agendas, if you put it on a future one, please let me know. And then we'll be ready to, we'll be ready to, we'll be prepared to discuss it. Sorry if that's just for the minutes. What was the question? It was on the capital. What inventory memo. Thank you. Yeah. Does that work in terms of planning ahead? Yeah. So, and I, do you think you'll be ready for the next meeting in two weeks? Or do you need more time? I don't know. I'll see if she thinks she and I should connect before that. And if that's possible in the next few, in the next two weeks. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Yes. All right. So then, yes, I think in two weeks, that's fine. And we will. Yeah. Go from there. All right, Stephanie. Any updates from you? Sure. So in your packets, I included a few items. One is the report that was done for that limited. Solar project analysis. So we hired. Cadmus group with our meta grant fundings that we got through DOER. And that funding supported an investigation of specific buildings and parking lots that were identified from. A request from town management on which buildings and parking lots. They wanted an analysis of paired with battery storage. So I provided that document in your packets that report. It also just recently went out to the town council as well. I also included the RFP for the solar assessment. The RFP went out on Monday. And I also included a couple of items. And then Wayne worked quite directly with me on developing that RFP. So basically I drafted, sent it to him. He edited it. I sent it back to staff. And so it sort of went back and forth for quite a few weeks, actually. Until we finally came up with the final version that we all agreed upon. And so that went out. It's being submitted through the state system, which means that there's. A couple of things that we didn't know about. We didn't know about it. We didn't know about it either. It's an extensive list, but it's just, they've already been vetted through the state. So actually. It's a, it's a decent list. We didn't. We didn't certainly know everybody on there, but both. Dwayne looked at it. I looked at it. So we didn't know everyone. We knew a few, but we thought we would just send it to the entire list. Just that way we covered all bases. And so we're going to be doing that. We're going to be doing that in the next two weeks. Turn around. So we should be hearing back with proposals within the next two weeks. And because I am on the agenda later, I'm just going to limit it. My comments to those two items. Unless you have questions about something specific. Thanks, Stephanie. Any questions. Any updates from Stephanie. Any progress with. Family outreach. Yeah, yes, we have a draft contract, but we're still on the contract stage. So. Hopefully that will, I would say within another week or so, we should be able to really get that moving. But they're poised and ready to go, but they're being patient. So it's hard at summertime too. Stephanie, will we be, I mean, I know there's a, I'm looking at the feasibility assessment. So, Dwayne, will you, are you planning on sharing a quick summary of what's going to be done? What's the expectation from. Sorry, taking minutes while I'm listening. So is that, was that with, with regard to this solar assessment? Correct. Yeah. I mean, I'm happy to speak with Stephanie on, on how we plan to approach it, but also to how you can be helpful and we'll be helpful in that process. I think how we planned was how, how we plan to approach it was that. EECAC is identified as having at least one direct meeting with the consultant. In the development of. Of that assessment and they're putting together a timeline. So I think it's one, you know, this is a detail that we will have to sort of flush out with them once we. Create a contract with a vendor. So once we know who they are and we have some more specific conversations, there certainly will be at least one meeting in which you all will be weighing in, but I, I fully expect you all to be getting a draft of the document. At least once, if not twice in the process before there's a final. Okay. And I think there's another way that we will be involved and Stephanie, you can. I'm not going to go into your thoughts on this as well, but the, in the scope of work is for the consultant to look at. Various different scenarios of how, how a certain number of megawatts. Could might be. Sighted in the town. And over a variety of types of sites built environment, non-built environment. And that though those scenarios in terms of how many megawatts. We want to look at. Will be provided to the, to the consultant by the town. But my, my suspicion and. Desire would be that you can't would have. Work to offer to the town and some suggestions to the town that we can work on together to offer to Stephanie and the town. To, to guide the consultants. Okay. All right. Any other questions for Stephanie. All right. Any member updates. I, if it's okay, I would take a moment. To speak to the group about the transition from. From the previous chairs to the new chairs. So if anybody has. Something like a glass, grab it. I would want to speak to, I wrote this down. So it's going to be a little longer and I'll be quick as I can. Laura and Andra. Thank you. Really thanks to everyone here, but for the past three years, we've been meeting every two weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less to participate in what I can only describe. As the impossible. Yet somehow you make it feel possible. This is a struggle that can be technical, political, interpersonal, emotional, emotional, emotional, emotional, emotional, emotional. Sustained, urgent, frustrating, and thanks to you even at times satisfying and successful. We'll never know how much time you spent organizing for meetings, synthesizing ideas, preparing presentations and thinking about this committee way more than is probably healthy. I want to read a quote from my favorite poem slash manifesto, I'll probably know what that means in the context of the climate crisis. In this case, I'm joyful because you are the facts. You're ready to speak truth to power, to do so with poise, science and commitment. I am honored to push for energy and climate action by your side. You set the bar very high, no pressure Vasu and Laurie. So take a quick moment, raise a glass or a fist or whatever you guys have. This one's, I'm gonna say to our chairs, past, present and future. It's crazy work, thank you. Here, here. Well said. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Andra. Yeah, no pressure at all, Jesse. Sounds like we may need something stronger than the iced coffee I just found. All right, any other ECAC member updates to beat that one? I wanted to report in on state climate bill progress. Last week, the Senate and House voted a decent climate bill. It had a lot about wind and electric vehicles, but it also had some things that improve on mass-save, including setting a sunset for programs that provide incentives for fossil fuel equipment and taking biomass out of the renewable portfolio standard and other pieces that are really important. And right now it's on Governor Baker's desk and we are, you know, climate activists, organizations are asking people to contact the governor and ask him to sign it as is, not to make any negotiations behind closed doors to weaken it. And he has until Sunday. And that's, you know, maybe he'll do nothing. And then the bill goes in as is. There's not much time, but register your opinion that the legislature already did a lot of compromising and they should sign it. Yes, Wayne. I'll just add to Andra of the importance and really lots of wonderful provisions in this climate bill. I'll just highlight one that I'm really excited about and worked on with the local delegation, which was to restore the adder in the smart program for the pollinator friendly PV adder, which was taken out not so much by DOER, but DPU. And our local delegation was really supportive in trying to get or putting that back in legislatively. So DOER can take action on that without waiting for DPU. That's really exciting. It's UMass Clean Energy Extension is involved in that certification process, which has come to a screeching halt in the six months that that was taken away as an adder. And up to that point, there was hundreds of acres of pollinator habitat that was on the books to be put into pollinator habitat as these solar projects were being developed. Thanks, Fran. All right. Any other e-tech updates? Yes, Laura. Thanks for us too. And thank you, Jesse, for that very nice message. So received note and something you may know more about this than I do, but that the green communities program is getting revamped and they're looking for feedback on the proposed revamp of a new program called climate leaders, which if I understand correctly would be sort of the next level for communities that have been actively participating in green communities, which we have, thanks to the steadfast work of Stephanie, we may be eligible for more funding and opportunities through this new program that they're building. So they're asking for feedback by August 5th. I can forward this email or Stephanie, if you've got the same email that I have, you could forward it to the group. I think it probably makes sense for each of us to just submit comments ourselves just in the interest of time. But I think anything you want, there's a slide deck included that kind of runs through the proposed updates as well as a webinar that you could watch. If you want to watch them present the slides. I think some ideas that popped up based on some of our discussions are maybe, you know, how could the green communities or climate leaders program support us on some of the things that we know we need and that other communities probably also need like inventory support, data collection. Maybe there's also opportunities here to build in like, you know, the requirements or the idea we've thrown around before of, you know, having all the job descriptions that are coming out of the town include climate action as part of that description or integrating climate action as a performance metrics for town staff, you know, making sure sustainability as a director level position or hire, things like that. So those are just ideas of things we could throw in. But Stephanie, if you could circulate that, that would, and folks can just respond if they have time. And Laura, the feedback goes to Stephanie for everybody. No, no, there's actually submitted. Yeah. I really recommend watching the video. It was only like 23 minutes long. And I understood it better hearing it than just reading myself. Okay. All right, so we're just going to go into that form and submit our own comments, right? Okay. Okay. Is there a clarity of where to find that information? I'm going to send it. Okay. Yeah. If Stephanie sends the email, it's just a link right here to say submit form. So. Thanks, Laura. And then I've been. Oh, fussy you froze. Can you hear me okay now? Now we can. Yeah. No, I was just saying, I'm starting to meet with Stephanie offline to figure out what the transition plan needs to look like, you know, again, I'm going to start with you, Laura and Andrea for all the great work. So, you know, I know we struggled towards the end with the implementation. So, you know, between Stephanie, Lori and myself, we'll start to look at how we want to go about implementing strategy. So there's going to be new things on the agenda that will come up at the next meeting. I want to start with the charge again. Also look at our town manager's goals and see how we align. We have community groups now that different community groups now that they've formed a coalition group. Andra, you. Amherst climate justice community or something is what it's called alliance. Yeah. Alliance. Yeah. So the organizations in town that are. Residents run. Yeah, so everyone's doing things and everyone's doing different things. So I'm going to be connecting with these different advocacy groups and see how we can all align and work, work towards a common goal. So more to come. I'll keep you updated. Okay. Let's go to the next topic or our power fund. Sustainability initiatives. Stephanie. Thank you, Vasu. I distributed two documents to you. One is ARPA sustainability programming snapshot. And the other is our bar sustainability. Intern, snap, intern snapshot. I'm going to open the programming document and share that with you. Give me one moment here. Okay. Can you see that? Okay. So when the town had received the ARPA funding. Mostly department heads were. We reached out to, to ask for programmatic ideas. For use of ARPA funds. And I was contacted for. Identifying some. Sustainability programming. And I did initially. Have just a few items that were very kind of baseline. And so I shared those with Laura initially, but then I was asked by the town manager and the finance director to further elaborate on the programming and identify the use of funds. So this is the information that was submitted to the town manager. And approved. So. We currently have $385,000. In ARPA funding to specifically be used for a residential heat pump program. And. Where I see you all fitting in with this is helping me develop this. So we are identifying a staff position. It would be a part-time position. Where we would hire someone to sort of assist with. You know, sort of coordinating the outreach. Kind of being the lead point person for the program. So I would certainly be there, you know, be working with them, but it would really be somebody else hired from the community. Hopefully who could. Lead this initiative. So this is something that I was just thinking that I think the best way is for me to draft something. Flush it out a little more and then share it with you. Maybe at the next meeting or meeting after that, but, you know, I would basically give you all something to sort of review and weigh in on. You know, give me some feedback and help me sort of. Identify what that could look like. And I was thinking that. I know Laura, and I believe even Lori, we're both wanting to reach out to block power if they haven't already. And perhaps this is something that, you know, there could be a partnership for something with a program like this. So that was one of the programs I just wanted to identify. The other, which you are not as really directly involved in is just the, for the land use sector. Money for the mobile market. So we have two years of funding for the mobile market, which were. The years were actually identified by folks who organized the mobile market because they were set for the next couple of years, but felt in 25 and 26 that they weren't as secure. So they now have funding to get them through those, those years as well. And then we have some funding that's identified for the community gardens. Mostly. I think that might go towards signage and additional languages, but there may be other things that. You might be using that for. There's also $25,000 that was identified for a community dashboard. I was specifically thinking about the. Lundgren associates environmental sustainability dashboard. I think that's the one that conquered uses other communities like data music as well. And it's kind of the kind of the gold standard of sustainable sustainability dashboards. But they're, they're not inexpensive. It's, you know, $15,000, I believe, to set it up and then $10,000 for maintenance of like the next year. So this at least gives us, you know, the, the first year of establishing the site. A year of their. Technical support for updating. But then there's ways in which tools in which they can provide you with to update it on your own. And we can look at that down the road, but this at least will get it going and give it at least a solid year of. You know, technical support. The other thing we got funding for is for. A greenhouse gas inventory of our municipal fleet. So there is, I think I mentioned that I had, we had spoken to a company called you till a mark. And the finance director and I met with them last week. And he said, you know, we are going to move forward with. Creating a contract with them to create a baseline greenhouse gas emissions inventory with our fleet. And then a timeline in which to change that out. You know, one of the things we discovered is, you know, they don't necessarily just come in and, you know, do the inventory for us, which means that we have to provide them with information. So I don't know if that's going to be a lot more work or I may have to reach out to the clean energy extension and see if you can throw me an intern to help me with this. So. So I don't have any, an intern identified for that work, but I'm hoping that we don't need to have one. And then let's see. This is kind of the gist of that programming. This is just kind of the breakdown of like how the funding would be split up over time. This isn't in stone quite yet. You know, this has to be fleshed out a little more. So again, how I see you all supporting this work, especially with the heat pump program is just like. Helping develop that helping me develop that. You know, maybe even helping with, again, we talk about education and outreach, but helping to let the community members know that this program will exist. I think the community dashboard, certainly. I would think as we develop that, we may even have the consultant speak with you all as well to see if there are elements of things you think need to be on there. That you would like to see. So there's more opportunity for input there. And then the fleet inventory, I think, is just something that I'm going to be sharing information with you. And it's just more data that we've been looking to have. So. So I'm going to stop sharing for a moment. And I'm going to go to the other. Document. So go with me a moment here. So this, I have spoken about getting an intern there is funding. There's 10,000 $10,000 for. Securing an intern and there is actually two programs, only one is really fully kind of identified here. And that's basically to give us an update on our. Greenhouse gas emissions inventory. So. My plan for that is to go through. The UNH sustainability Institute. Program again and secure a fellow. They go. They take in fellows from across the country. It's kind of a rigorous application process and the level of work is pretty high. So our last intern. Who did the inventory was through this program. And I was very impressed with all of the interns that I, the fellows that I met. We had a gathering of all of them and all, you know, they all discuss the projects that they're working on. And it's quite varied, very diverse, very diverse group. But all incredibly capable and impressive students. So. So there's that position. The other inventory that I'm looking to have done, and that now that we have this funding, we can secure another fellow is to do the, the building analysis. So we would hire a fellow to do. An inventory of our municipal buildings. This would be the municipal stock building stock, but to identify all of our heating and cooling systems and having a timeline for transitioning, like, you know, rating where they are. And having a. Maybe a timeline for transitioning those over to renewables and moving away from fossil fuels. So that's the other inventory. So that's the funding. I just wanted to give you an update. And I couldn't share it before because I had to. Make sure that the town manager. Was okay with everything that I was proposing. And that was true for all department heads. That wasn't just me. They need, they needed to review and make sure that they were. In agreement with what the funding was being proposed for. So I didn't know if anyone had any questions. Yes. And then. Yep. Just a quick question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. And, and, and, and exciting, very exciting for, for us. And. I'm sure Steve's excited too. And I think I missed it, but can you clarify? It's $385,000, which is wonderful. Was that, did you say that that some of that money was also to go to. The bulk of the 385. Is it to be used for the incentive program. Or is that really being done in-house? And is the bulk of the 385. Available. To support. Incentives or in some way. Help to get the heat pumps out there. The bulk of the 385 is really for the incentives and the staffing would be part-time. So it wouldn't be all in-house. We would need to bring someone on to do this. I don't think we have anyone. Who can right now, and I certainly can't. And I'd be the most logical person. So. It is part-time. Originally I had actually proposed a full-time position. I was seeing it as job growth and an opportunity. And so. But that was, it was recommended that we use more of that for the actual program and less for. Hiring a staff position. So you'll bring that to us. Maybe the next meeting to dig in a little bit. I think I will shoot for the next meeting. To have a draft. Yes. Yeah, regarding the heat pump program, maybe this is details to be worked out, but of course there is, especially for low and moderate income families as an enormous amount of help available through mass saves. And I think that number is going up with the new. With the new incentives. So it would seem that, but those are rebates. I think not upfront money. So there might be, I mean, maybe these are all details. It seems to me that this has to play nicely somehow with the mass saves program. And sort of, you know, tack onto that in a way that makes it easier because right now it's so hard to access that money, even if it's fully paid for almost fully paid for just figuring out how to get there. And implementing. This is targeted for low to moderate income. That's the, that's what this is specifically targeted for, who it's targeted for. But those are the details, as you say, that need to be worked out. So, you know, and the idea is that this, even though there are some robust. Incentives that are offered, you know, if someone is low income. If someone is low income. Exactly. Those incentives don't do a whole lot and a rebate doesn't do a whole lot. Right. Exactly. To have it approach. So. Yeah. So the idea is we have to sort of work this out to figure out what that incentive could be. And maybe there's different incentives at different income levels. We just have to work out the details of all of that. Right. Because that $385,000 will go a heck of a lot farther. If we can make sure that everybody who accesses it is also able to do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's not like making use of those funds from mass saves. Right. It can be part of the requirement. So again, this is something we have to flush out. Yeah. So I'd be, I'd be happy to work on that. If you're looking for help with that. That's, I'm thinking about that now anyway. That's what I'm doing. Absolutely. I would be happy to work more directly with you on that. Even in the next few weeks. So we could wait for, meet virtually. Yep. I'm making a note. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm making squinty faces because I'm getting less and less. I. Block power has yet to get back to me. They have a couple more weeks to do so, but I'm not as impressed with what they offer anymore. They haven't even been able to find a partner in the area. So I'm not sure they're going to be any help at all. I'm going to keep talking to them, but I'm, I've had much more luck actually talking directly with. Program folks at math saves. They've been extremely helpful in figuring out how things work. So. That would be the first thing we ought to do in putting together a heat pump plan is get on the phone with them and find out. How to make this work. Yeah. And I guess the question for Laura, Laura, I know you mentioned a couple of months ago that you replaced. Your existing heating system. To keep up. I just wonder if it ties well. If you were able to document the steps and it ties well with Lori, what you were trying to put together. With everything that. You know, municipality should do. Household should do that document that you're trying to put together. Does it tie well with. Laura, you know, the steps that it. Somebody needs to take if block power is not the solution. Then. I mean, it's going to be outreach and more education. And as simple to follow steps. To help the. I mean, this is we're talking low income. Middle income community. So. I think. Really thinking about spoon feeding the information. I think might be a good way to go. If. Block power is not going to be liaison. Yeah. So I just wonder, Laura, if that's something that you could. Put together. And I mean, we're starting to build this document. And hopefully that document would be. Everything that. Households or municipality should do. And these are the steps that they need to follow. Absolutely. You're talking to me or Laura. Laura. Okay. Yeah. Happy to, to jot down my experience and maybe we can put a call up for other folks that have done it. I think the. The challenge. At least my understanding of what block power. Offered and what maybe this program could offer or somehow offer is. So I certainly think education and outreach could go a long way in making some of the steps that I had to go through simple, simplified. You know, but it's not going to help folks that don't have the money to put up front or credit to put up credit. Really, we had to get the loan. And we got the loan from. The credit union and you have to have credit to get that right. So like things like that, that you have to be able to do that is not going to be applicable to everyone. And so just keeping that, that in mind. But yeah, happy to write to send to Lori or whoever's still developing this document. And I had something. So what's as far as I can tell what a place like block power does is they have a HVAC partner in the area. Who comes in and does exactly what. Happens when you have any HVAC contractor in your house, which is they come up with a plan for you telling what you want. They come up with a plan for how to do the transition. If you know what you want, or if you want to let them just decide, it's easy. If you have any special needs, it's difficult, but block power partners with that person. They also get an estimate of what the energy transition is going to cost you or save you month to month by looking at two years worth of energy bills. Now this is a service that's fantastic. If it works. I haven't seen it work yet. I'm still waiting. I sent them all the information months ago now. Now saves claims. They're going to be offering the same thing. That was in the most recent community partner. Discussion. So if they do that, then that would be great. So, but it's, it's hard to deal with them. So anyway, they, they come up with this estimate and then based on that, they come up with a financing plan for you. That includes all of the local incentives. So I believe block power would come in and just. With their local partner, tell you what to do and how to finance it. But they don't have a local partner. That makes it hard. I want to say that. First of all. Asking block power as an individual is something very different from asking block power to run a program for the town. And that's great. We could ask block power to do it for. The CCA group. Northampton and Pelham in on it. And. It could be much more. I agree. Lucrative. Them and for a partner that you might be more interested. If they're more work. And second, the main thing that block power uses in their model is a lease. It's not just loans. It's, it's, it's a lease. So there could be nothing up front. That is one of their promises. Yes. Yeah, just to, just to highlight what Andra just said is that I think the leasing part of block power is what makes it. Much more accessible to folks. I will also say that. I agree with Andra that, you know, I think talking to getting more information from them is important, but like the most recent block power. Arrangement with this with a town required like city council. MOU, right? Like it's going to need to be a town based or a multiple town based approach. So I think that what's exciting, super exciting about this. Funding is that I think having a dedicated half-time person focused on this is going to be able to really focus on how we build off this program. Right. I think that's super exciting. So. Yeah. In the meantime, I think we can share what we offer. There's not a ton of HVAC providers in this area. So I think we can do three of them ghosted me. And one of them took four months. So. Like, you know, there's, there's bottlenecks throughout the process that we're going to have to deal with, but. Having somebody focused on dealing with helping to deal with it. And us being supportive in different ways to figure out how to deal with some of those bottlenecks, I think is a great path forward. And I was going to jump in and say that there are procurement that we have to follow. So obviously, you know, it would be great to work with block power, but, you know, we might have to sort of open it up and. Operate other consultants and companies. That's why block power needs that local partner because only the local partner is eligible for the incentives. What are you going to say something. Me. I thought you raised your head. No, no. Okay. Yeah, I guess should we take a two prong approach then. I know there's complexities in the procurement, but at least get estimates or possibilities with block power or consultants. And then if that's not going to work out, the other path would be. What can we do. I mean, we have the intern starting soon. What data, what information will he need to continue to move this forward. I want to make one more comment, which is that one thing that might be helpful is that mass saves is currently running a. Residential. What do they call it? Sorry. No. A residential. The first to do something. I can't think of the word. The decarbonization. Example. What's the word I'm looking for. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's a little confusing as to what the dates are, but the dates on the application say that it opened last week and it closes next week. So everybody who is interested in converting their house should sign up for this pilot program, especially if you're on ecac, because it gives us a nice. Extra insight into. It gives us a little bit more insight. It gives us a little bit more incentive to do it, to completely convert your home. Right. Not just heat pumps, but they're talking about everything. So I'm doing the envelope and doing the windows and, and coming in and just doing it as a pilot. It has extra rebates along with it, but my main interest in applying, which I did yesterday is to. I figured that if I, you know, if one of us gets this thing, it's, it's. It gives us a little more insight. It gives us a pilot program in our community. So we're only choosing 30 across. Yeah. So sign up. I figure I probably won't get it, but maybe if enough of a sign up one of us. Okay. Yes, definitely. I just wanted to clarify that the. The person who would be overseeing the heat pump program would not be an intern. This would be someone that would be hiring part-time. It will be just a programmatic position. So it's not an ongoing position for the town. It is just for the period of time that we would run this program. Okay. Thanks. Jesse. The one of the skill sets or many of the skill sets that would make that position. Incredibly successful would be someone that. Has professionally designs and installs. Managing, So there's a lot of skills that would be good. Is, is, does that introduce conflict of interest. If they work for a company. Like I just, yes. I figured, but maybe there's a way around it. Okay. Yes. I also. I'm interested in the workforce development piece. The possibilities here for local training and perhaps even looking for a somewhat local, like in the region, companies that might be interested in offering leases. Maybe not something they have ever thought of, but I wonder about working the local angle here to build our own economy, just transition all that. That's the hopeful idea. So Andre, you brought up, oh, Glenn, yes. Sorry, I'm not sure if Andre just mentioned this because I didn't hear completely, but yeah, it seemed like if we are with a heat pump program, if we're looking to engage with a couple heat pump vendors that will provide this program, work on this program with us, maybe a requirement would be that they take on some apprentice from local people that are capable and worthy, but that there's an apprentice or some sort of internship program that they are required to work with some of the local folks to train them up on how to do this work. I mean, I will say that installing heat pumps is probably something that in the long range needs to be done through like our vocational schools and community colleges to have training programs at that scale. This, Glenn, probably won't get us there. That's something that's in the state? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me for community colleges. Yeah, do that. Okay, so I think we talked about a lot of things here. Andre, do you think from us, I know you're part of CCA as well, right? Is that something that you can continue, you can take over the reins from Lori to talk about, talk to Block Power about the potential or other consultants? I think I can say that this would be something that local energy advocates would be interested in thinking about. And we do have a line of communication formally with Block Power, but that wouldn't be the appropriate way to go about introducing a official kind of contract. I think that would have to happen through the actual Belly Green Alliance, which is going to be the three towns, once we actually make that happen. Okay, yes, Tal. I just wanted to plant the seeds while apprenticeships and vocational schools and equity are on the table, because I think it's also relevant if people are writing in or calling in about the bill, that I don't think, I think we need, without paid pregnancy leave and not just paid parental leave, we're not ever going to have equity when it comes to like a just transition. Because I mean, speaking of someone who worked a quote-unquote blue-collar job during pregnancy, as far as like there's a lot of these jobs that we're talking about, like actual installation of solar, actual installation of heat pumps are like pretty impossible for a lot of people to do pregnant. And unless there's some provision for that, it's not going to work, you know what I mean? And so as far as I know, the only unions that have some form of like paid pregnancy leave are like some of the iron workers unions. But I'd really like encourage people to bring that up when you're commenting or like advising on this, because what I see a lot in the blue-collar industries that I'm like familiar with is you have increasingly people who can get pregnant who are young and enthusiastic and then like rapid rates of attrition when people want to have kids. And it's not because they like, it's not, well, for a while, it was because there was no paid parental leave, but now there's paid parental leave. But I would really encourage people to like just just point out the paid pregnancy leave thing in any context that involves apprenticeships and just transition in vocational schools. Yeah, thanks Stella. And then Stephanie, talking about the community dashboard, you brought up the town of Concord had best practice around their dashboard. There's also the mass-save data that has a lot of information on electricity usage. I don't know if our dashboard will eventually tie in with that as well. I'm not sure what the plan is, but is that want to just make sure that that is being considered as well? Because it's the overall state data around electricity usage. Right, no, nothing's been considered yet because we haven't even gotten past the point of making the proposal and getting it approved. So that's why I said I would be reaching out with you all once we engage Kim Lundgren Associates. Okay. All right, sorry, this topic here. Transplantation, Stella. Yeah, so Stephanie, do you want to share that chart or should I just share that chart? I'm happy to, just give me a moment. Okay, great. Yeah, so this is the chart that I mentioned last week or two weeks ago from a really great document that Laura sent me. I think it's a really good thing for just people to be aware of, especially in the context of this, the ARPA grant doing a fleet inventory, because then any kind of action items that are raised by the fleet inventory, I think there's likely a grant here that might cover some of that. One thing that it looked like there was new grant money for that hasn't really been raised. And I think I said this two weeks ago, too, is that there's various forms of incentives for employees to electrify private vehicles, which I don't know if that could or how much a part of the town's conversation that is. But that's something that was pretty stressed in this document, I would say. But it's just really handy because for some reason, the links didn't got broken when I pulled out just two pages from the PDF. But you can kind of see here, it shows you what the funding pool is, how much it's for, whether it's new or existing with the IIJA, and then a bunch of information about who it's available to. I think the other interesting thing, I think there's kind of probably a middle step too. And this is sort of getting into just my two cents. There's sort of a middle step between the inventory and looking for funding because I definitely am a little bit concerned that with some of this, there's going to be the inclination in a broad sense to just replace something that's gas or diesel with something that's electric, as opposed to really reconsidering whether that's even necessary. And that's something that I sort of have experience with seeing how sometimes you don't need a medium or heavy duty vehicle for what people are using medium or heavy duty vehicles for. And if that's the case, then those things can be electrified sooner than maybe could be imagined if you're just trying to replace a heavy duty vehicle with a heavy duty vehicle. But anyways, that's a little bit of a relevant aside. And this chart is just, I think, super helpful for thinking through some of the funding that might be available to the town. Yeah, thanks Stella. Is there information on what the acronyms mean and see formula and it says C and F? What does that mean? Yeah, so I think Stephanie is probably better able to speak to this. This is so when you follow the links, it becomes a little bit more clear. But my understanding is Stephanie is a formula grant where basically they just like plug in some information about the applicant and then like it's given by a formula. Is that what it is? I believe so. Yeah, like you have to have there's your eligibility is sort of based on certain criteria, I believe, which is different than a competitive grant. So a formula grant, I think you basically just have to sort of be qualified or meet certain criteria, a competitive grant, it is what it says. They're harder to come by. You can be incredibly qualified but your proposal has to be really well presented and they're harder to get. There's also the use, I don't know the context with all these, but the use at the federal level of a formula grant being that there's some, you know, X billions of dollars that are dedicated to a program and it's distributed to the states or to counties within the state or regions within the state by some formula based on population or economic needs and so forth. And just a formula that the federal government has and then the money's distributed to the state or to the region and then it's either used directly by the state or the region or they then offer programs to distribute the money. There's also some things. Yeah, that's helpful. Yeah, there's also some variability in like the helpfulness of the hyperlinks. Some of them take you straight to pages that makes it very clear like what the grant is, how to apply for it and so on. And some of them just take you to kind of the text of the IIJA, which is the bill that passed. So it's, I would say it's a very helpful document but some of the links are more helpful than others. Yeah, and so what do you think our next steps should be here? I think transportation and heat pumps are the two of the more important programs for us, right? So what would you propose that we should do here? I mean, I think the inventory is a great first step. I think I do want to talk to TAC and see what they're taking on because it seems like they're definitely active in thinking about this too. So I would say the next step is kind of exactly what Stephanie's planning with the ARPA and then also talking to TAC, which I can put on my agenda, which has kind of been on my agenda and just hasn't gotten done. Yeah, thanks. That'll be great. And Stephanie, have we applied to any of these grants already? Do we have money available or this is all new to us? I honestly haven't looked that carefully through the list. It might be new to me, but that doesn't mean it's not that it's new to other departments. So I don't always know what other departments are applying for. You know, we all have a tendency, sometimes we have a tendency to go for the same opportunities as well. So I don't really, I'm looking quickly, but I don't think there's anything that I've applied for. Most of the programs that I've applied for that we got funding for our EV charging infrastructure and also a couple of vehicles was through state funding. But sometimes the state is the administrator for federal funding. So possibly you froze again. I'll take advantage. I just want to point out what Stephanie just said about different departments, sometimes even going for the same grant or not knowing what each other are going for. If they're around sustainability, it's another reason why we really need a director level ability staff that would make that would make a big difference if Stephanie had that role. Yeah. So yeah, good point, Andra. And I know Laura brought it up too. Is that, is that something that we as a committee can propose to the town manager? You already have Laura and Andra proposed it very directly. So I don't think it's off the table. We should keep on proposing. Propose it to our council members as well. And Stella, if you don't mind, can we have this as part of our agenda at least once a month because this is a key sector that we need to continue talking about? Yeah, for sure. And also, I don't know how other people feel about this, but I would propose putting equipment in this same realm. Because again, like tree care being what I'm most familiar with, there's no real excuse for people using gas-powered chainsaws, for example, anymore. And yet people still are. So that seems like replacing a chainsaw is a lot cheaper than replacing a vehicle, you know. So I'm sure there's like equipment like that that's exists throughout the time. And unless people think that that falls into some other kind of area. But to me, like an engine is kind of an engine and equipment kind of goes with transport in that sense. Yes, Lauren. There are also massaged rebates and incentives for both retail and commercial power equipment for yard work. Some of them are pretty nice, especially if you're commercial outfit. Yeah, that's what I think we need that document, right? So Lauren, just continue to educate as we collect data, show them what the savings is and the impact and continue to increase our outreach norms. Okay. Yeah, so Stella, I think we should, every, the last week of every month, we should talk about transportation and progress being made. And I think I want to do that with heat pump program as well, whether we have updates or not, and I guess what support you will need. Yeah, that sounds good. That makes sense. Any other questions for Stella? Thanks, Stella. All right. All right. Laurie, the resources for everybody. I don't understand what you're saying. Not everybody. I've been, I spent a lot more time than that very, still very short list would indicate. It's quite a morass trying to figure out where all the incentives are coming from, and even just getting to the MassSaves website, which is all I, which is most of what I've done so far, can be quite difficult to figure out what's current and what's not. I keep finding surprises on every page, things I didn't know about. So I've been trying to list the ones that I think are particularly of interest to business owners and landlords. And that's what that document is. Now, it's not, there is a live link that I think you all got an email with the live link in there. There are some programs that I haven't even touched on yet, like Lean and CPACE and stuff like that. I mean, I haven't even gotten to that yet. So if you already know of something that you want to list in there, notice there are multiple tabs on that, and I'm going to add more. There are tabs for different types of, you know, complete energy retrofits and the debates and incentives for old and new equipment for replacing old equipment and buying new. So, you know, if you know of a program or you've been working on a program already and you want to add to that spreadsheet, please do. If it's not editable by you, let me know and I'll fix that. I meant to send an editable link. I'm not sure that's what I did. I think I may have sent a view only link. So just let me know. Also, I want to thank Andra who sent me a lovely list, I guess, put together by local energy advocates. They have a whole library of resources. Is that what I'm here for? It's actually the building electrification accelerator, the statewide programs that Amherst is a part of. Okay, so there's a whole list of programs on there, not all of them directly relevant to businesses and landlords. So I've been going through and trying to pick through them and list the ones and, you know, this is the program name, this is what it covers so that anybody who's looking for something specific, a landlord or a homeowner who's looking for, or a business owner who's looking for something specific can, you know, look at the, what does this do, can search on some keyword that they're looking for and find all the grants that have that in it or rebates that have that in it. So that's sort of the intent here to, because so many of these programs are not, you know, they're, they're for organizations or they're for municipalities or they're for research or these are the ones that just pay for the equipment and pay for the changes or finance them or otherwise provide rebates or incentives. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'll keep doing that. And then my intention was to start the same thing for homeowners, for single, you know, for, for individual homeowners. But it sounds like that's already underway somewhere else. Andra, is that something local energy advocates already has or where did I hear that earlier? Someone else doing that? Say it again, I started looking up what Newton has, because it just occurs to me, you know, everybody wants this list. Yes. And I've been looking for lists of lists too. That's an enormous number of bookmarks and web pages that I still have to look at. Newton energy coach. It looks like they have a question and answer page. And maybe they've got charts too somewhere. I will do that. And Lori, I mean, this is, I mean, this is great work so far, what have you put together. And it's a lot of work. And I just wonder, yeah, I just wonder if we should also share that if it's an editable link, can we share it with some of our advocacy groups and take some of the workload off you, right? Because I think there is interest from different people. So, can we do that? Is that, can we share a Google link? Yeah. So earlier, I was a little unclear about it. I mean, this seems to just be a list of resources. So there's no, as long as no one's commenting about any of the links, and it's literally just adding names and contacts, I think it's probably fine. But you can't do anything like, I don't like these people because I think we should consider just no comments at all. Okay, just a list of links and a list of links. And it's important that it be live because this is going to change. I mean, there's already at least one deadline on there that's like the end of December or something that I noticed right away. You know, it's going to change. Laurie, my other thought is to put some sort of guidance document. Say, you know, Laura installed the heat pump and there's a sequence of steps that we need to follow. And so there is, homeowner can look up heat pump and then there's these steps that they need to do. Yeah, I'm not there yet. That's unique to every house as far as I can tell. And every contractor and it's a, that would be nice to have. But I don't think there's one size fits all, except for calling now, like I say, I've had the best luck so far with just calling mass saves and talking to a real person, not just following their links. That's where I've had the best luck. Yes, figuring out how to proceed. Yeah, let me schedule some time with you, Laurie. I'm interested in this document that you're building. I'm just going to keep working through this stuff. But you know, if you guys see something wrong or you want to change something, I will, I will try to send another link that I'm sure is editable later, Stephanie, after the meeting. I think I think like I said, this one is only viewable. Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Dwayne on the solar bylaw. Yep, so I can provide an update on that. I think since our last meeting, we've had a working group meeting two almost two weeks ago. And when we're now in the process of planning our next meeting, which is on Friday, our last meeting was on the, I don't know what day, I think the 16th or something. It fell into this unusual timeframe where we had to meet in person. So we all met in the town room, which was nice. But also a little scary and masks and everything. I'm not used to it anymore. But we did recognize that it's actually nice to be together. And I think to some extent the conversation was enhanced by that. That being said, we did have one person out with COVID and a couple other people out. But we had a quorum and we had Stephanie and the IT person did great work in setting up the hybrid system. All that being said, we had a great first meeting. That was our second meeting. We got into a little bit more of trying to plan out our work and get everybody on board and some background information. So we really spent the time one first sort of reintroducing ourselves with a little bit more background of our perspectives and areas of expertise. Importantly then, Christine Brestruf. Brestruf. Brestruf, who's the planning director. And keep in mind, both Chris and Stephanie provide staff support for this working group. Chris gave us a great as scheduled zoning 101 introduction to what zoning is all about and how the town goes about zoning. That was really helpful as few of us on the committee or the working group are really experts in zoning. So that was quite helpful. We then spent some time reviewing well, two of the model bylaws that we are have are using as references. This is the Cape Cod Commission solar bylaw model bylaw as well as DOER has a now somewhat dated but still useful model bylaw as well. So one of our members provided a good overview of those. We still have the PVPC is obviously very applicable to us and they've spent a fair amount of time and effort over the very quite recently. The last year, I think it came out maybe eight months ago, nine months ago, but a solar by a solar model bylaw plus a guideline. It's a bit more than just a model bylaw. It's a fair amount of information guidance on how to go about developing solar bylaws and what the issues are. So I think we all got and that that's going to be reviewed at our next meeting on Friday. And we then prepared for our meeting on Friday and we have an agenda set for that includes review of the PVPC solar bylaw. Christine again is going to offer her wisdom and advice to us on basically giving us all an overview of what the land use looks like now in Amherst, a sort of an overview of land use in Amherst, working with some maps and so forth. So we all get a pretty good sense of what's currently out there in our portfolio of land use and rules and regulations with regard to conservation areas and so forth. And then we're going to start looking at sort of discussing our work plan and schedule for the next nine months or so. Keep in mind this working group on my keycap has a date certain when we're done which is May next year with a report and a presentation of these bylaws to the or recommended bylaws to the to the council as well as some other reporting requirements. So looking to sort of have a discussion on mapping that out in terms of the primary, the larger tasks we have to get us from where we are today to there. So that's that's an update. I'm happy to answer questions and that you know obviously it's a public meeting and ECAC is represented by me but other members are free to obviously and happy to have people join obviously as as as public participants. It's a Friday. It's Friday Friday noon to two. We're taking up work and time. I know it consumes a lot of your time. So thank you. Andrea. So PVPC is Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Yeah. Yeah. And was there another south of it soup that you mentioned? Sorry. Document for lists of acronyms to well, but yeah, yeah, I don't think I use any others. Yeah. Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Yeah. Vasu, you're starting to go Martian again. At six o'clock. Just wanted to clarify the timing of the solar assessment and how that information will be able to feed into your timeline. For I mean it sort of fits into I mean as applicability to this group as well as the bylaw. But yes, I've actually put that in front of Stephanie or something I shared before for her review, but yeah, Stephanie, you have obviously a better sense of the timeframe for that assessment work. Well, the assessment has a assist. Vasu, can we mute you please? Just I'm wondering if it's yeah, I think it's your your microphone. Sorry. So the the assessment has a six month timeframe. So it just went out on Monday. There's a two week turnaround. So when we execute a contract from the point of execution, there'll be a six month turnaround for the assessment to be completed. I think, you know, that will serve as a tool for the solar bylaw working group. But they're beginning going to be developed in tandem. So I think they'll hopefully be some feedback from the consultant to the well to you and to the solar bylaw working group. You know, again, some of this will be figured out in the, you know, once we have someone hired, we can create a timeline. Actually, they're being required to create a timeline. So that'll be clear. That's definitely any other questions we're doing. All right, let's move on to the next topic. Jesse, you had to create our unifying theme, our purpose, our why. So I'll turn it over to you. Well, that was harder than I thought it was going to be. But it's interesting thinking about all the work that everyone's doing and how to pull it all together. My starting point was this kind of question that Stella asked, how can town support you in your climate repair goals, which I really liked. But and the idea, I guess the basic idea is we're in all this work and all these phone calls and all this outreach and networking connectivity. So I like the idea of all those people hearing a similar message of sorts, something quick. And so I, and I thought it would not make sense to send this out as a written thing, because if you have to read it and sort of think about it and read it twice, then it's not an elevator pitch. It has to be something you can actually say out loud as a means of introduction. And so I'm going to read two, or I'm going to say two that I've memorized. And I think the idea, the feedback I'd like is, as you react, what's missing? Or what's too much? Or what does this statement, what does it really have to say? Is it even necessary? Does it feel like it helps for us to have this or work on something else, Jesse? But if it is helpful, what, what are the key points that need to be delivered? So the first version will be like something and, and again, this is, it seems like when it's, when you're thinking of it in the abstract, it seems so obvious to me. And then trying to do it. I understand it's hard work branding energy and energy and climate action committee is a volunteer advisory group working with the town sustainability director and town manager to support the town's climate goals. Our main approach is to focus on the intersection of equity and decarbonization. This happens in a few ways, public outreach, technical support, goal setting, and a few strategic initiatives. Now I relate that to what I'm talking to you about. And then I thought, can I say it in simpler language? As in, we're a town committee assigned a task of helping reduce townwide greenhouse gas emissions. We'd like to do this in a way that improves our quality of life. This includes anything from the electricity we buy to the way we power our school buses to how we heat our homes. We advise the town on reducing carbon emissions, but also want to support the residents and businesses in setting and reaching goals. And I don't know if I, in doing this exercise, I was like, I honestly couldn't tell if I hit anything even close to a target. Can you share with me, Jesse? Yeah. So if it's important to have these in the minutes, which I'm not sure if it does, you could cut and paste them into the chat or something, or maybe you don't have a chat. There is no chat. Just send it to me, Jesse. Okay. I'll send it. Yeah. So part of it is like, if you have to read it, I didn't do it right. You know what I mean? I say that because yeah, I'm thinking about some key ones that you use are also, nobody have a charge. And our charge goes about how we're going to do it or what we're going to do rather, not how, right? So I think when I thought about this, Jesse, I think about this is why do we exist? What is our purpose? Because that is covered by the charge and carb action items, right? So you have, you know, you always want to start with why we exist. And you talk, I think the first two sentences in your second paragraph is awesome, right? And then the next part of the sentence around reducing carbon emissions and supporting residents, those are all in the charge. So those are your, you know, your how and then your what is all your carb action. So I think we could keep it really simple couple of sentences that we're a town committee want to be, I don't know, the best town in the state to or leaders in incorporating policies and programs to reduce emissions. That's our vision, right? I guess that's what I think about is something that could be our elevator pitch is our purpose. Other thoughts on this? I really like the opening sentence of the first one. I'm not sure the main approach sentence struck me when you said it as a little confusing. I think the obvious segue to that first sentence would be a sentence about the town's climate goals. So first sentence of the first one plus what the town's climate goals, keeping in the idea of equity and improving all our qualities, resilience, stuff like that. All the things that show up in our charge and that the town is interested in, focus on the town's goals in that second sentence. And I think that would be fine, just that. Then you could segue, whatever comes next is I could see tacking one of my documents on next, for example. And here's, by the way, is a list useful for business owners or a list useful for, right? As a business owner, you may want to consider this. Laura, Andra, and Wayne. Yeah. I'm sorry that I wasn't at the last meeting, but maybe could I get a little more background on who the audience is. For this, I guess. And what are we trying to, yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great question. In my mind, it's maybe anyone that we talk to that we haven't worked with yet, even if it's just what were you doing tonight? Well, I was at this meeting, or it's, I want to talk to you about this heat pump program we're doing, or whatever it may be. So, and for me, it's been, I've been wanting this for a while, is the idea of like, what is the elevator pitch? What is the brand, the branding? And these are all business terms. And I know that's not, we're not running a business, but it is like, how can we utilize sort of all of these activities that we're doing in order to have a consistent message go out that might not be the same, but sort of people know who we are, people know what we're trying to do, etc. I think that that captured, and I came up with this, Laura. And I am open to the idea of like, we don't need this. No, yeah, no, I think that's helpful. I think that helps me understand why we do need this, particularly in terms of our outreach that we're doing. That was the context in which all this came up, is we're going to be doing this outreach, we want to do this outreach, we keep talking about outreach. Well, where do we start? We start with some sort of statement of, you know, who we are that people will eventually recognize, hopefully, and then something that it was also a part of a discussion of, if we're going to go out and ask people for their input, we also want to have something to offer, which is where the idea of making these lists of programs came up. So you have this statement of, this is why we're here. Here's something I can offer you, by the way, what do you want to see done, or the other way around, you know, what do you think we should be doing? And by the way, here's a list that may be useful to you. So it's part of a cohesive outreach effort. And just quickly, too, we have, there's quite a bit of really great language between the charge and the Climate Action Plan that for anyone that's willing to read for some amount of time can get to this. My experience increasingly for myself and others is that that is not something people are willing to do. But the link should be included to the carp. Yeah. The link. Andra and Zindwin. I accidentally lowered my hand before. I really like the specifics in the second one. And, you know, I think we should think about what are the specifics, or maybe depending on, you know, what programs we're actually running at the time. It would be obvious, but, you know, which ones do we want to promote now and in the fall? Because that makes it real. And, yeah, I think that the last sentence to add is the, so what are your goals that we might be able to help with? I'll put it on our list. Dwayne. Yeah, just two, maybe two small things, but maybe significant. One is that I like, you know, just not exactly sure what this, what the format is, if this will ultimately be, but if it's sort of like a one page or it's something more that's written as opposed to spoken, I don't think we can each memorize this. So it will probably be written. I do like having, you know, the first one, I think it's important to spell out that we have this is the energy and climate action committee. The other one doesn't really mention our name. Just so people know that I would even put eCAC in there because that way people in parentheses, so people get familiar with that sound, I guess it is. But then also, well, you've disadvantaged me by scrolling down, but I think in that, I guess I was just reacting to that, you know, volunteer, that we are a volunteer advisory group working with the town. Sounds like we might just be a bunch of outlaws that have banded together to advise the town. And I think it might be worth noting in a few words that we've been appointed by the town to advise them on meeting the town climate goals. I would also pick the wording closely, carefully, so that it's very clear, which I think I do like the second, the examples in the second part, because I think it's really important that people really understand that this is not just about the town emissions, but for everybody. It's a community effort. It's community wide effort. And that is important in terms of the scale of it, as well as bringing people into the work that we need to do. Yes, Stella, and then Stephanie. I think in the second, I think I would edit it. So to just be, we are a town committee assigned the task of helping reduce townwide greenhouse gas emissions in order to improve our quality of life. Because I think at this point, we can state it as fact that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to improve our quality of life. And then in the first, I wonder about workshopping the word support a little bit, because I think the beauty, oh no, the other support the town manager to support the town's climate goals, because I think the beauty of being a volunteer advisory committee is like, should the town's climate goals as laid out, like we're advising the town manager. So like if we don't agree, like we don't have to agree, do you know what I mean? And to support the town's climate goals, like makes it sound like we, yeah, like guide, guide, I think is good. Or some, yeah, one of those, one of those new words to sort of, because that that is the kind of beauty of being a volunteer advisory voice in all of this. Stephanie. Yeah, I guess I was just looking at the language in the second one, where you say we advise the town on reducing carbon emissions, but also want to support the residents and businesses and setting and reaching goals. I think I understand what you're saying there, but the way it's phrased makes it sound as if the town doesn't do that as well or want set those goals or reach those goals. I just would, I don't know how, but I think I would want to have that word smithed a little more. And Jesse, just take a look at the charge, because you don't want to be repeating things that are in the charge. I mean, if this is going to be a quick 30-second elevator pitch, then we really need to start thinking about what we want to say. I mean, I like Andra's approach about in the end also saying here's what we're currently doing, but it needs to be something that can be said in less than a minute. I also recommend Jesse that you might want to look up Simon Sinek's Golden Circles. I don't know if you've heard of that. It talks about just strategy and our purpose and then moving outward to execution. Professor Andra has her hand up too. Yes, Andra. Jella had her hand up before too. I think she left it up maybe. She's not on camera, so. Oh, along the lines of what some people have said about this is sort of the introductory paragraph to something else. We talked a lot when we were working with the consultants to create the carp about doing a five-pager so that people don't have to weigh through 173 pages, whatever it is. I think we could still use that. I don't want to spend a lot of our time on that, though, because we should be doing stuff. And yet, if we're doing outreach, it might be helpful to have a brochure. Yes, Stephanie. Sorry, Jesse, but I'm not sure you totally captured I think the point I was trying to make. I wasn't trying to say that to be clear that the town is leading the charge. I guess what I'm trying to say is that ultimately your goals aren't different than the town's goals. You all set the goal for the town. So you're the ones who made the recommendation to the town council. So goals are the same. I think it's just it differentiates between, you know, the town's carbon emissions, but then also to support businesses and residences. I think they're all part of town emissions, I guess, is the point I'm trying to make. So maybe it doesn't have to get down to that other sort of granular level. And it could just be advise the town on reducing carbon emissions. And then, you know, wanting to support businesses in attaining those goals, you know, support businesses and residences attaining those goals. But you've got setting in there. And I think that's maybe what I'm focused on. Yeah. One, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Sorry. And before, no, that's fine. But I want to, so I'm going to have you try to ask you to do it again. It's probably me. But also the reason I put setting in there is that was my way of giving us something of a pedagogical role. We might have a conversation where someone doesn't even know they have a climate goal. So that's that's why I have the word setting in there. Gives us like an educational purpose in some way. But maybe could you just is setting is it that I'm separating the town climate goals from the town's people climate goals, which I did on purpose? I think so. But I don't think they should be different. I think the town's climate goals come from the people in the town. And it seems to me that for this language, this particular sentence, I think why it's I know, I know, I also get what you're trying to do. I know what I'm trying to say, and maybe I'm not articulating it well. But I think you, you advise the town on on how to reduce carbon emissions, as well as how to support the residents and businesses in reaching the town's goals, emissions goals, because they may have their own individual goals. But I think the whole point is that the town as a whole has a big goal. And that's what we're trying to reach. And we need people to be on board with the town's lofty goal. And you all set that. So it wasn't something sort of separate. You all were the ones that came up with the recommendation, you sent it to the town council, they adopted what you brought forth. So I guess I just somehow want to, you know, have a nod to that to that piece of it too somehow. I don't know, this is getting what I'm saying is getting more complicated than what I mean. I just simply I think for me it just simply felt like I know you want to separate it out, but I don't know that it should be because you're a committee appointed by the town manager and you're there to help the town identify strategies to get to this goal and to help educate the population about reaching those goals and helping, you know, people reach those goals. Don, and then Nandra? Stephanie, I mean, I think and I think I see what you're talking about. And I'm wondering if that can be dealt with pretty simply. And I'm just using the first paragraph or the first alliterations. Instead of talking about it as the town's climate goals, if somehow or other we could talk about it as the town's community wide or our community's climate goals, or something that makes it bigger than it's just the town. Because if we use that kind of community language, you can then invite members of the community to tell us, you know, what they think about, you know, what's important to them in that kind of reduction. Yeah, thank you. I think that is helpful. That's a helpful clarification. And I think that is more, it's more the spirit of we're a community. I guess I always, I feel I bristle when it's at the town and us. It's we're together. This is an effort, collaborative effort. We're the community. We are all the community. And so that's what we should be putting forth. And that was beautifully worked. Thank you, Don. Thanks, Andre. And then Laura. Yeah, Don, that's helpful. And that's something we always have wanted to do. And Jesse particularly talks about like, you know, this mind shift of it's all of us and it's culture shift. And so, yeah, we can talk from that perspective. But I think there is something under what you're saying, Stephanie, that I think as a committee, we do play a different role. We can be the link between the community and the town as the official committee. Anyone in town can come and talk to you and have, you know, input and influence. But we're, I think, thinking about our outreach in terms of our role as residents, reaching out to residents, and our role as, you know, the customers of the local businesses reaching out to our businesses. And that identity difference between, you know, we aren't the town. The committee has its own voice. And I think that is important. Yeah, good point, Andre. Laura? No, I think I'm good. I don't think I'm good. So Jesse, I don't know if you will have time to review this again at the next meeting. I can support you as well if you want to chat offline. This is what I would say is, am I allowed to say if anyone has any further follow-up ideas, shoot them over to me? They can send them to you directly, just not to the entire committee. Yeah, everyone feel free at any time to send it to me, including how you think you might use this clustering of words, if you think you might use it. And I will take that and whatever else floats through my head and have a version 2.0 next time. Stephanie, I'm kind of computer illiterate. Can you send me the draft document so that I can have it in an email? Because I'm happy to wordsmith some things and work on it, but I don't know that I can get it from having it up on my screen. Well, so I think Jesse was going to send it to me and I'll send it out to everyone. I need it for the meeting packet anyway. So I'll just send it to everyone. And I think in general, wordsmith all you want, that's fine. But I think for me, I'm more interested in what's the meaning behind the wordsmithing? Like why, and your example with the community is perfect. Like you said the why and then you gave the phrase that captured that. I really want to understand the meaning behind any wordsmithing. And the meaning could be this sounds better, but I want to, but it's like what, you know, so that would be helpful. And yeah, I'll send this to Stephanie. Thank you. That's great input, everyone. I really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks, Jesse, for putting this together. Okay, let's talk about our next agenda items. So I have Anna talking about the Capital Inventory Memo. Laura, pain points in the heat pump installation. Lori on the heat pump strategy. I mean, continue that discussion. And then I also want the transportation and the agenda, but it'll just be a discussion that we'll have at the last meeting of every month, Stephanie. So I don't know if that's something that we can just add and say discussions for the last week of every month. Is there anything else that we need to talk about? Oh, Jesse, and this topic again, right? Our elevator pitch. And solar bylaw working group update. Okay. And Stephanie is bringing back more detail in so we can discuss the heat pump. I think that's covered with me and Lori and I are going to have a meeting. Okay. And sorry. The first item you mentioned, Vasu, was it Stephanie speaking on the Capital Inventory or Stella? Anna. Anna. Bingo. Okay. Yeah. Then I also want to talk about seapace. And I know, Don, you were initially expressing some interest around seapace. And is that something that we can also discuss some findings that you might have unpacked? Yeah. I can dig into seapace and provide at least some information for our next meeting. Thank you. Anything else? Oh, yes, Sandra. Going back to the green community's 2.0 feedback that DOER is asking for. It gives me a lot of ideas for, oh, you know, we should be doing that. We should be doing this other thing. So I think that would be a really fruitful thing for all of us to look at, as well as give feedback to the state, but even just for us to look at, it's kind of, you know, if we didn't have a carp, it could be a guide for actions to take. And it might remind us of actions that we really wanted to do. And they just don't happen to be on the agenda right now. Yeah. One thing that Stephanie and I are going to do is we're going to look at the carp document with the prioritization and also a document that Sean and we're going to combine it and then see what are we going to do and how we're going to track things going forward. So I'm working with Stephanie on that. So we can look at that as well, Andrea, and see if it makes sense. I'm not sure, Stephanie, if we'll have that by our next meeting, but I don't know. I can't, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I also want to reconnect everyone on the charge. And I think it aligns well with what Jesse's trying to do in terms of the elevator pitch. I think we all should know what our elevator pitch is, what we're supposed to do. And then the carp actions that we'll drive. Okay. Anything else for our next meeting? Let's open it up to the public for comments. If anyone is interested in speaking, please electronically raise your hand and I'll recognize you. Ronnie, go ahead. Hi, this is Ronnie Parker. I came to your meeting several months ago and was sort of interested in your policy statement had just come out. And I thought it was great. And I sort of disconnected because I thought, oh, here's a great policy. Town councilors accepted it. And then you just go forward with it. So I'm just wondering some of the discussion I've heard about elevator pitch and so on seems to sort of go backward. Like why can't you just say we have this great policy? It's not just a policy. I mean, it's accepted. It's town policy. It's everybody's policy. And we're going to start doing these things to make them happen. I just, so I'm a little confused about what this group really does. I like some of the studies you propose. It's really exciting to hear that you will, you know, like measure emissions of town buildings and vehicles and so on. But, you know, that's one piece of the whole thing. So I don't know. Anyway, that's just a comment because you asked and I've been listening for whatever hours it is. So thank you. Thanks for the feedback, Ronnie. Can I comment on that, Stephanie? Or? You can. You're not obligated to, but you can. Yeah, I mean, Ronnie, when you were talking about policy, where you're talking about the charge, I wasn't sure. I think what we're trying to drive is as we continue to, you know, talk to more people in the community, the policy or the charges, you know, you've got to remember and memorize the whole thing. And it's really hard to do. So I think we're trying to really start driving some concise messaging to the community. And that's the exercise that we're trying to do. So I don't think we're taking a step back. I think we're trying to understand our purpose and driving the actions that are in the car. But thank you for the feedback. No one else is raising their hand. That's the last item. So again, thank you all for a very productive meeting today. And I'll talk to you all in two weeks. Well done, Vasu. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Bye. Thanks, everyone.