 Oh crap. Well, I don't know what happened here. We hear you or were you. I'm back. I'm back. You're here. I was taking a tour of the screen. I'm not. Technology is not a friend of mine. All right. Okay. So hi, Yvonne. Nice to see you. I'm sorry. I missed all the great stuff. Yeah, that's all right. You know, I'm glad you were with us in spirit and you're here now and I'm really happy about that. Hold on one second. I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order here. So it's 203. I'm calling to order the October 31st. Meeting of the African heritage, African heritage, reparation assembly pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. The meeting will be conducted on this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted. But every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time. And I'm going to do a sound check. And I will start with you, Jennifer. Can hear you. I can hear you. Can you hear me? I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. Now we can. Yeah. Great. All right, Ms. Bridges. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Okay. And Dr. Rhodes. I can hear everyone and I can see everyone. Great. And Yvonne. Yes, I can see everyone and you can hear me, I hope. And I can hear everyone. Heard. Definitely. All right. I do know that Halla will be unable to join us today. I think that Dr. Shabazz is planning on joining us. He may be late. And I'm not sure about. Elec Alexis, though. Just send a quick text. All right. So. On our agenda for today is to talk a little bit about the listening session that we hosted last Thursday. To hear. Member responses, reactions, questions. And then to begin to dovetail that into our discussion about use of funds and eligibility. I know that Dr. Shabazz was going to provide some framework to us. And I think he planned to do that today. I also wanted to take some time. Jennifer and I had a great conversation following the listening session related to community engagement and. How we might, since we've had this kickoff event. And taking what we know about that event. And I think we're going to be able to talk a little bit more about how we might. Continue with our engagement efforts. To reach more black residents. And so that's something that. I think we have some specific ideas about, and we can talk about that as well. So let's just start by. Talking reactions. I know you've on, you weren't able to be talking about that. But I think we're going to be able to talk a little bit more about how we might be able to do that. And that is just incorporating the slides that we used. And then that will be. Definitely for internal purposes. And we need to decide as a committee in terms of, and I will talk with Pamela. And Jennifer about that too. In terms of distributing it or, or how that. How that should go because there have been people. In the, there was some great, great coverage. So if you haven't, I think I sent that, some of that to you all. So. We probably want to make that video available. But maybe we want to review what Amherst media put together and then have a discussion about that. So. The floor is open. If anyone would like to just. Share reactions, share questions, concerns, anything about the listening session on Thursday. And just a little, oh, yes, I'm going to go to you, Ms. Bridges, just to give Yvonne. An idea we had a, but over 70 people in attendance. And very well attended. We had some very rich, I think discussion. And it was, it was in the beginning parts, a little quiet. And then as people got comfortable talking, it, it really rolled really nicely from there. So yes, Ms. Bridges. I was. Impressed with the students. I was really impressed with the Amherst college students. And I think a couple from Hampshire college, but I was very, very impressed. I'm always impressed with Cyrus. But I was impressed with how much. They, their input was to do and what they don't see. Like one student said he was surprised that they didn't have. Street names after. Black people. You know, and he was surprised when, you know, when he was also told Nina Simone was here. And I let him know actually. And I was surprised. I was surprised when I met Natalie Cole. When I went to school with her. Well, she was leaving as I was a freshman, but there. And not just. Not just. Famous people, but people that have done things, black people that have done things in this town. You said what teeth went to school was here. So I think there's a couple of ways to do this. I think my grandfather, my grandfather, my grandfather who was 106 and he was a famous. Banjo player. And he's up on the mirror. I mean, you know, and, you know, not just him. There's other people. Like. You know, Maddie who had the, the. Boarding house on the Clelland street. You know, different things. aren't, you know, not to know, but even my dad who got the plaques and raised money for the plaques. There's not that many you could put up here, but I mean, it would be nice. You have, you have other ones, you have Dickinson, you know, so he these students made up a very good point is why isn't, you know, why he was surprised to say, why isn't there a street? So I thought that they were very, they were very, they were to the point and raised a lot of questions and like, why not? And these are kids out of the mass of babes. Yeah, I observed that too, Ms. Bridges. And I thought that here it was such a fresh perspective in many ways coming from them. And I thought that was really powerful. And I will say that Cyrus let me know after the event, the inauguration for the president of Amherst College was on Friday afternoon. And Cyrus was the student, a student speaker. And he tells me that he talked about the president being open to listening about reparations and what's happening about reparations and what's happening in the town. And so he spoke very publicly in this very, were you there Pamela? No. No, I wasn't at the inauguration, but I, when the Amherst resident talked about Amherst College taking their family property, it, I mean, it very clearly like that's an easy thing to document. And for the college to make reparations would be, you know, appropriate. So I immediately thought that that would be something that they could act on if they chose to. And Jen and I have a meeting coming up on the ninth with some Amherst College staff, diversity staff, they have several different offices, but well, that will be something I think that we can also mention during our meeting on the ninth. That's great. Yeah, any way to tie that all in. Cyrus also informed me after hearing. So, Yvonne, just so you know, T.C. Coleman is a resident of the community and has had family here dating back to the beginning of the town's inception. So he was not able to be at the listening session, but he shared a very powerful story of his grandmother's house being taken, basically purchased for a small amount by Amherst College in return for caring for the house. And in the end, they never did care for the house and it was in shambles at the time she died. And then it was bulldozed very shortly after. And Cyrus tells me that he has already been in touch with Mike Kelly, who's the archivist at Amherst College and others to dig into that particular story and stories like that in that area. So yes, Pamela, that would be really great to just sort of keep that alive. Thank you, Miss Bridges. Thank you for sharing that. That was, I saw that you sat down with a couple of the students after and so I knew you were probably feeling that. Would anyone else like to share reactions, questions, concerns? I wanted, can I add, I didn't go, but I was really moved to deprive your stories of, you know, this student who said naming streets after, you know, black folks and Amherst. And I think maybe that's one of the things that we add to our list of things to do from the committee. We've had some really great jazz musicians who have lived here and been here. Yusef Latif is one of them. R.T. Shep as well has been in the area. I'm not sure if his house is actually in Amherst, but him as well. Natalie Cole did go to Amherst College and her sister as well. Say it again. She actually went to UMass. Oh, she did. Her sister went to Amherst and Max Roach also. Yes, and Max Roach. Maybe sit for his children. I took a class with Archie Shep. My brother played with Max Roach. So there's a lot, but there's a lot of them. These are musicians who are, have our world class. James Baldwin, definitely. Yeah. He, that's who the student first brought up about James Baldwin. Yeah, definitely. So there's no lack of people we could name streets for, you know, even the well, well-known and not as well-known. And not as well-known. Exactly. Yeah. So like I agree with you, if they've got Emily Dickinson, this and that, and this and that, we've got a whole bunch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when Dr. Shabazz and I spoke to the Amherst College Senate earlier last week, and he, he talks better about this, but he talked about that sort of like sense of place. And he was saying, we don't need to remove names like Dickinson and other names, but there are lots of streets that have zero significance, West or, you know, something that has no tie to anything that can be easily changed. But, you know, New York City does it all the time. You know what I mean? Like there's streets, you know, people still call, you know, like in Harlem, there are avenues that are still called like 23rd Street or 3rd Avenue or whatever. But then it's like, you know, it's, it's renamed MLK Boulevard or something. It's got, you know, so there's that, you know, that it's not like, yeah, like you said, not taking away, but we can add, you know, and then what happens, folks are like, whose name is that? Youssef Latif Boulevard? Who's Youssef Latif? And they look it up and then they know more about Amherst and about Youssef Latif, you know, as a great musician. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. Ms. Bridges. Yeah, again, it's not about taking the names down. Like you said, you can, you can even put, I've seen some places have two street names up there. But like you said, you know, you could, there can be something that's not, you know, West Street, okay, put it up there or, you know, and anything that's not, you know, you know, Dickinson is, you don't, you're not going to do anything with that, but there are other streets all over the place that, you know, you could change, you know, you could change Amity Street, you could change, you know, there's, there's, there's so many of them that if you just look and put down a map saying, oh, they could change that name or whatever, but it makes sense to at least put a, you know, half, at least a half a dozen they could do at least. Hey, I say way more than that. Yeah, but you know, I'm just, I'm just, a start would be nice. And that's how I see it happening here. A start would be nice. Absolutely. Yeah. And also, you know, there are facilities that are town-owned, there are other, so that is one sort of piece of, and I'm, as these things start to come up, I'm, you know, we'll keep, keep notes here. So that sort of naming and, and that came up very strongly, I think. I think one Hampshire College student, it was very powerful, she said, that she was newer to the community and that she just straight out felt uncomfortable here. Like she just remember that and the way she said it was just, whoa. It wasn't just like, yeah, I don't feel comfortable. It was like very powerful the way she said it. Dr. Rhodes, did you have any impressions that you'd like to share from the listening session? I was just thinking that all these famous people, especially Yusef Lateef, who I knew well, set in around the couch with them at various homes. And it's sort of like, we forget that these great musicians match road to another one. I mean, they were here, walked our streets, played, you know, and that there aren't any streets. I'm actually stunned when I heard that. I think, wow, it's true. We don't. We really do not have any streets named after a lot of great people who have walked these streets and amours, visited the restaurants, played music, etc. Yusef Lateef is a giant, a giant. And it's amazing that I'm just shocked when I think about, yeah, right. Yusef Lateef, maybe sometimes familiarity with people that you knew, you don't think about, well, why aren't we honoring them in this town? Welcome, Dr. Shabazz. Can you hear us? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay, we're just talking. We're sharing responses to the listening session. And Ms. Bridges kicked us off by sharing what the sense from some of the college students, particularly around street naming. And I wanted to ask you, Dr. Shabazz, you referred to that as something when we were at Amherst College. What did you, because I'm keeping notes for myself, what did you call that? Something space? Oh, you're muted. Hi. I think they were referring to the language about the symbolic conquest of public space. Got it. Perfect. I wanted to get that. And Pamela. So I did try to take notes during the listening session. So I will share those with Jennifer and we can type them up and get back to you. Just my general impressions was I thought the organization of the event went fairly well. I thought it was really important to talk about the brave space and ropes to sort of set the container. There were, of the, you know, many different suggestions that we got from the participants there about the use of funds. There were two things that really struck me. The stabilization fund and then a lot of comments around education. But I actually think Dr. Shabazz, you said the thing that really struck me the most, which was around thinking about the use of the funds for eliminating the wealth gap. And so I think if you really took that as your direction, you would start to help you create the criteria for eligibility and for use of the funds. If you start to focus in, I thought that was really key and really resonated. And I think you could get a lot of agreement among the community about focusing either on stability or education with a greater goal of sort of eliminating the wealth gap. And then the other things that we talked about was like, of course, you know, $2 million will not go a long way and it will take you 10 years to get there. So what do you do in the interim, you know, and thinking, so I actually left the meeting sort of thinking about, so what would I do if I had the responsibility that you guys have of deciding how to utilize the funds? And I didn't want to wait until I'd gotten to the $2 million mark. So one thing would be to think about limiting the amount of funds you utilize over the 10-year period, so setting aside $100,000 a year until you got to the million-dollar mark, and then, you know, you sort of create a larger pot of money that you can utilize going forward, or, you know, Jennifer and I have been talking about other funding streams. I think it's going to be hard to find grantors for reparations, but what other opportunities would there be to grow your fund? And Jen, remind me, there was something else we talked about, and so you might have to jump in. So I think, did you talk about the five harms? Oh, yeah, that another way that you could sort of set up the criteria for your funds would be to think about using those five harms as a framework. So that would give you, you know, five categories that you generally start to think about distribution of funds for. So anyway, I do think it was a really good start and, you know, that as you continue to work on community engagement, you know, obviously more ideas will come up, so. Absolutely. And I just, I really want to thank you, Jennifer and Pamela, for being there, and it was just wonderful to have you there and have you right at the front greeting people and the funny moment when Jennifer raised something to sort of help facilitate what we were saying. And the NEPM reporter turned around with his, do you remember that, Jennifer, with his big, long speaker and you this extra long microphone and I was like, wow, okay. How convenient. That was really funny. Okay, Dr. Rhodes. One of the things that struck me afterwards, and I was thinking about it, and when the comments about the two million dollars, that one of the things that we, as HRA should pursue is to have that fund matched by Amherst College and UMass, that they could match it. And that is something that we should figure out how to take forward and implement. Do they do this when there's good words said? I'm doing that. Yeah, and that will take some strategy and in collaboration and in education. And so, yes, absolutely. I am going to just pause because we do have three attendees and we have two public comment periods generally. So I'm going to call a public comment period being that it's 226 and give folks an opportunity to weigh in here or provide public comment. During the public comment period, I will recognize members of the public when called on. Please identify yourself by stating your name, pronouns and address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes and we will not engage in a dialogue necessarily. Sometimes we will respond if there's a question, but we'll definitely be listening very closely. So if you would like to make public comment, please use the raise hand function now and we will bring you into the room and we can also make another time later if you'd like to make public comment later. It looks like we have maybe Lauren. I think it's Lauren. Can you hear us? I think if you can unmute. Oh, just heard you for a second there. Yes, there you go. Yes, hi. I don't do the pronouns today. I'm a mother and I will do my address. It's a long metal jot. I was at the listening session and I'm happy that it finally happened. I did try to jot down my thoughts, so I do have a few things to share. One, the first thing, the listening session, I wish there was a questionnaire for all of the attendees to fill out even just writing down what their thought of what reparations mean to them would have been nice to capture because I don't think a lot of people, although they were listening, I don't think they shared their thoughts. So that would have been nice. And I think that while we are still asking the question, what does reparations mean to Amherst and the Black community, I wish that we were more farther along in answering that and not like discussing or debating that question. Also, I feel that I wonder what happened to the BAM assembly, the Black Assembly. I'm not sure of what the whole acronym meant, but there wasn't enough people covered Black people in the audience and I just think that there needs to be another group that is bringing those voices together and sharing the needs and the opinions and the interests of the Black community because in a lot of ways we are not coming together and I just wish there was a way to a group that would form that would bring those voices together. The AHR, I feel like it really needs to focus and strategize on how it is going to look forward. There just be one topic, but one area of repair because we know that there are a lot of issues in the community and if AHRA would like to focus on one of them. And at the listening session, there was a lot of comments on the school system and the educational system and how Black students are being treated, so maybe that would be an area that could be good to focus on. Also, the commitment to the funds that have been committed on through the town, I just feel like there should be some fundraising around or attached to that because, again, there's just not clarity around what the funds would be used for, how the funds would be used. It's just a lot of questions that are still up in the air that I really think I don't know who else is interested, maybe working people are just caring for their families and don't have time to put an end, but it would really be good to have clarity around just how funds would be used. The last thing, I'm sorry, the last thing is when I've been thinking a lot about just the whole town and what's going on in the town and I just would like to share this last thought that that when we look outward, if we want to repair from that has been done to us, there's always going to be a cost, but if we look inward and we look within ourselves and within those who really understand and are close to us and we can find that, we can make repair and we can make it a lot faster than I'm always looking outward. So I think... I'm sorry, Lauren, you keep going in and out and I can't quite hear you to type up what you're saying, which sounds very important. So I don't know if you're moving or not. No, I'm trying to stay right next to the phone. Yeah, just keep your I think maybe your head face toward the speaker because it sounds like you're going in and out of it. Okay, that's just probably my phone, but the last thing I'll just try to say what I said lastly again is that we need to look inward to heal ourselves and repair ourselves and also we are looking outward and looking to see what the town will do and so but we really need to start healing ourselves from within and so we need to just come together as a Black community and hopefully in conjunction with what the town is doing and not just wait what what the town has put together for reparation. Thank you very much, Lauren. And Jennifer, I think you know how to reach Lauren if there's any follow-up in terms of that comment. Thank you so much for those thoughtful comments and suggestions. And actually Lauren brings up, let me just see if there's anyone else with their hand raised. I do see that another attendee has come in since we called public comment so I just want to let that person know that if they would like to make public comment they can use the raise hand function now and we'll also try to get another public comment in toward the end of our meeting. Okay, wonderful. One of the really important I think pieces that Jennifer and I talked about when we were unpacking the listening session, Lauren has raised with respect to how do we reach our Black residents and not expect that they will come to us wherever we might set up whether it be a physical location or a virtual even location and so how might we think creatively as a committee about getting into the areas in town that we know there might be more Black residents living in and go right to those places. So specifically Jennifer and I talked about for example Village Park and could we go ahead and plan for example our next listening session to be at Village Park and it may not be that if we're doing multiple and consistent listening sessions all members of this committee may not be available for each listening session but we could potentially have a couple of us available to go to listening sessions so we can create more listening and more consistency and go out into go out to the people as opposed to making them find us and come to us. I think Lauren brings up a great point about working you know an evening I think Jennifer said this an evening during the week is very tough even though we provide a childcare but to get up and leave the house you know I think if a weekend may be more suitable it is getting colder so we'll have to think about if we for example go to Village Park we use their community space. Jennifer also had an incredible idea of hosting a basketball tournament that I would like for her to speak more to but I think we do need to really try to solidify our next two to three sessions and how how we want to see those go and we need to do that with some urgency here because now we've started the momentum and we need to be consistent about that so I'd like to see what the committee thinks about one of myself and Jennifer together calling for example Village Park and seeing if we can use the community room and seeing if there's a date in the near future that we can go to Village Park and host a listening session and then other ideas please are welcome and I don't know if Dr. Shabazz if you wanted to address BAM Lauren had mentioned BAM and if you have anything that you'd like or Dr. Rhodes or anyone who's been more in contact with that. Sure I hear the point being raised in terms of the organizing of the Black community to get more members of the Black community out. I was actually pleased at the listening session I saw people I saw Black people there that I hadn't seen before in whether in electronic formats or otherwise so I was actually quite pleased that that someone found us out and and attended and participated so it's really just a matter of the process the point is that that I agree with the comment made that we don't have an organized Black community as far as I can tell from my reading of Amherst history we've never had a much of an organized Black community we've had a couple of churches and those those are institutions that bring some some level of organization effectively to from what I understand of the attendance roles of those churches you know you're you're talking less than 50 people you know 50 50 people of African descent and I only say that to say that this is the challenge the challenge is we don't have mass organizations of Black people there's no NAACP branch here it it's it's went defunct we have no we have these two Black churches with attendance roles combined attendance roles of less than less than 50 people of African descent and that's it so to to wish there was a Black Black community organization that you know has access to 100 200 300 400 of the African American residents of Amherst absolutely I'd love it I'd rejoice we don't have it and so BAM has attempted to do what it has done we have a list now of over a hundred names and those people we we did notify about the listening session some of them came out there were people in the audience from the BAM list that came out but but again that is our challenge that is our challenge and I I think to wish for to call into existence a new group or wish for a new group I'm open to any suggestion any suggestion whatsoever sorry thank you Dr. Shabazz I'm sorry I was muted there Jennifer do you want to add to some of the thinking you had a lot of really good thinking and strategy around getting out into the community and I talked about a little bit but would you be willing to add to that sure staying muted today it just seems like there needs to be some and and maybe intensified community engagement with the Black community we are here they exist you know they're in multiple different places throughout the town and it's kind of how do we get how do we bring everybody together or how do we inform everyone or get everyone the the right amount of information so like from my and this is only my experiences of things but one of the best things that Crocker Farm ever did was start to provide buses to after-school events that they were hosting like that would go to the different areas in the neighborhood where it was known that people didn't have cars or didn't have the transportation to get to Crocker Farm and while I think that we could do something like that like at the Hitchcock Center and bus people in but before we go there we really need to go to ground zero and start collecting or not collecting that's not the right word but start informing community members and really it could take one or two different areas of places where you can go and because everybody you know people are connected in multiple different ways across town throughout town that you could potentially have something and you would have to be pretty consistent about it but you could like if you hosted an event two or three times in one location consistently that information is going to get spread throughout town to some degree with people just because that's the way the nature of of the way the town works but absolutely we don't have an organized group and people are you know honestly you know as far as I'm concerned the town of Amherst is divided in multiple reasons from in multiple ways that are just you know it's too bad right so how do we get everybody to actually come together and and to meet and to talk about this and I think that it's very important because some of the things the reparations are going to or potentially programming that could happen through reparations has will affect people throughout the town and they all you know need to have some kind of stake or voice in it and I think even the door knocking needs to be it would be great if it were the members of this committee who were doing the door knocking just and again speaking from you know my perspective and how I feel I don't know if I would value that information coming from someone who couldn't answer the questions that I needed because they're not fully invested in it in the way that the folks on this group are so I just you know I just think that some some pretty heavily intensive community engagement needs to happen at the boots on the ground level and then move forward from there where we can get to the point of busing people to a specific location and naturally everything with community engagement always and requires food right just if you don't have the food like food and child care probably to the most important things that you know at community engagements often so and I got a little criticism for my food that I provided at the listening session because it was all sugar only by Ms. Bridges I think but maybe a couple other also no I'm totally joking but it was all sugar because when I went to the big why I think I was having a carb craving or something so I got a bunch of cookies anyway I see Ms. Bridges and then Dr. Rhodes I think what Jennifer said hits the nail on the head and I also think that a lot of the black community in Amherst aren't all together there's a lot of pockets pockets pockets I think if no matter what you don't agree on from one or the other I think that's separating people and what they need to do is everybody has their own opinion but I think the black community in Amherst needs to get together all together and you know it's not going to help if you know I don't like what that one said or I don't like what this one you need to get together period like you know come on now you just want to say get together and talk out you're talking out that's that's what's gonna that's the only thing I think that can help more here and and then you could have maybe more a little more people with boots on the ground a little more of the black community joining in with boots on the ground I think that that would help a lot I just want to jump in there real quick and just say again that there's community members that don't know that the local government is here to represent them because it's not been representing them right so part of it is still just an educational piece like to empower our community right like that's the whole point of boards and committees is that you all are supposed to empower yourself so that you can go out and help empower the community so that the community feels empowered right so you know yeah we should get together and get out more Dr. Rhodes yeah what I was struck by was in terms of the audience at the listening session was who was not there when I think about all the people that I know kinds of people who have high profiles African-Americans who have high profiles in Amherst they were not there and that is concerning as to why were they not there it would be great to know why were they not there because absent that particular group of people black African-Americans who were not there it's concerning and the it would be really good to find out why and then from that why work towards gaining their attendance and their and their people that they know attending these kinds of events Dr. Rhodes can you clarify what you mean when you say high profile black residents there are some black residents who have a higher profile than other black residents who have been involved in town in the town for all you know for different kinds of reasons who have large followings but they weren't there and do you in your mind view those residents as having access to the sort of greater numbers of black residents or how do you see that relationship but you know it's like everything else it's a those particular people have their own followings and that that really is something that we have to tap into they have large followings when I say large followings they may have 20 30 50 people who follow them who are with them and and when I looked out over the audience none of them were there is zero and that's sort of like well why you know and you know I can share some of those names of people on this you know offline and people can reach out and ask the question why yeah I think that's really an interesting point and you know I think one of the things that we tried or that we talked about prior to the listening session was each of the assembly members reaching out to five or 10 people that they know and I think that most of us did do that and so I think that thinking about why folks wouldn't engage and I'd really like to check in with Robin Rusimans in Evanston and talk with her they have a much larger black community I think close to 20 percent so that's a different a bit of a different situation than ours but what what challenges maybe did they have and how did they overcome those challenges and I think education is a key component I saw Ivan and then Miss Bridges I think you might not have access to your hand raising so I saw you raise your physical hand is that right oh no okay so Ivan yes I raised my hand for one thing but some of what Dr. Rhodes said I feel it reverberates you know I really understand and I think that that might be another thing that we could discuss how to get at those pockets of people who have their own constituents and also yes the question why were they not there you know I think there could be more than oh they didn't know or maybe it's as simple as they you know um we're not available you know what I mean to come I mean there's lots of reasons why folks don't make it somewhere but we could feed into that more in a political way why folks didn't show up but I think that that's conjecture and that we don't actually want to take that road we want to at least be like oh let's see if we can identify who those folks are and make our a concerted effort a very genuine effort to make sure that they understand what what we're trying to achieve and um my initially I raised my hand because I was um agreeing with some of what Jennifer said which is there's a lot of folks who are hesitant to get involved because they don't know that um that folks like us are here um trying to move something forward that they will benefit from because there's always been like oh you you know you take that risk you put your neck out and then you don't get anything back in return right so I feel that there are two levels of overcoming that we need that that's going to be our responsibility some of it is the um public information that we talked about and this will you know we need to just add this to our list of things that are our things that we need to address in order to get at the folks we want to make sure are included you know so one one is exactly what Jennifer said which is overcoming this idea that it's not for me right that I don't belong and it's not for me and it's going to be a waste of time so why should I go to this meeting right so I think that that's number one that we have to um um and you know engender trust so that has to be a way for us to engender trust and the other one are those folks who have their own constituents they're these um leaders in the community that for some reason may not be able to come or may not want to participate it might be the same reason why they don't want to participate it might also be why do I need to put effort into this because there's not going to be a yield so again it's about trust but also in this area it's about networking and including those folks in in planning because if they're included in planning they're going to make sure that they're there and their folks are there um so those are the two areas I think we might want to spend some time strategizing create creating a strategy and I only use strategy because um strategy is not the right word because um sometimes strategy can can mean like ulterior motive or something and there's nothing there's nothing shady about this this is you know all on the up and up it's up front and I think that we need I mean for lack of a better word we need a strategy in order to create that trust amongst those particular and I'm sure there's other um subgroups that fall into what the ones that I outlined but I know what you're talking about Irv the Dr. Rhodes I understand there's groups you know of people who the you know it's it's this click mentality you know and sometimes the folks have their click and they're like this is my click so I'm not sharing that click it's my it's this is my crew you know and I think we want to get beyond that with this in particular with this it's important for us to you know this all feeds into um Ms. Mills who was here a few minutes ago talking about the same thing this is what it is we have to there are these things that are of they have come from um the black experience these are things that are inherent that have come from oppression these um ways that people adapt in order to survive some of these difficult and oppressive experiences that black people have so it's not I mean I don't want us to think that these things are negative they're just what we they are just things that we also need to fold into our strategy you understand what I'm saying I some people think it's like oh well this is this is negative I mean they can have some negative connotations just like anything else but in our in this instance it's you know it's stuff that's it's um remnants of a time at current and past of oppression and so we need to think about oh well how do we how do we engender this trust because there's a reason why there was a lack of trust to begin with right we're in this you know we're a town committee we can't forget that we're a town committee and this reparations is about undoing some of the racist practices of this town that we are a committee of right so we have to be put that into our strategy as well absolutely Dr. Rhodes um all of the list that you Michelle shared with us in terms of who you reached out to all those on those lists were people I was I'm referring to I also know that those people were a part of the BAM list that was sent out you know from the BAM BAM list that we have they received those notifications uh and again um it is you know baffling as to why and it would be good to know why so one thought I have or actually to um the meeting we had on Thursday was public and we are a public body and I think that what Yvonne is speaking to is very very um critical for us to think about because trust is is is very important in this process and I'm wondering how we might have focus groups that aren't public that maybe are and I would have to of course speak with the town manager and our town clerk to see if there are ways that one member can meet with a focus group of people and then be able to report that back I'm not sure if that's doable but something worth looking into the other thing is building off of what Ms. Mills was saying about and that Dr. Rhodes I think has really been focusing us on is getting some kind of survey or questionnaire out to the community um and more I think about it I do think a representative survey as Dr. Rhodes has talked about it is something really important that we should invest in but I'm wondering if even before that if we can build a simple questionnaire that can go out and you know for example with rental registration um and I know that's a very very different topic so I'm not you know I'm aware of that but they put a very simple questionnaire out and got I think 400 responses through the Engage Amherst page so we've got to find other ways to be reaching people too and I encourage us to think about not overthinking a questionnaire and let's just get something together that we can start to get out and that we can build on over time but not letting um not stop not just starting with something simple and then getting it more finessed as we get feedback so that's something that we can think about for our next meeting I'll put some thoughts together around those things and about I'll get some information about what we can do within the um confines of the open meeting law in terms of being in contact with people and listening to people in ways that aren't necessarily public um yes Jennifer and so I just think it takes all of these different ways to get everyone together right so there's no one way about going through it's a large enough town where people are spread enough and divided by multiple different reasons right and so it will take all of those different suggestions that we've talked about today to get everyone together if not even more right so I just think we have to keep moving forward with and I think a big piece of it has been consistent right like so when the as community participation officers during the pandemic we started attending the mobile market with folks trying to engage and so while we stayed separate away from them and the first few times like no one really came and paid us any attention but as we sat there over and over again week after week people started to engage with us so one of the things that I find is that you have to have that consistency so it's not like you can just do one thing at the Hitchcock Center and say four months later let's do something else I mean we need to have like a schedule of things that are going to be pretty consistent so that as the word is getting put out people know where to go and where to look and and move forward that way absolutely so maybe I can maybe we can get together Jennifer and if Pamela is available and we can create a schedule that we can then propose at our next meeting for approval by the committee and and and of course feedback from the committee yes Yvonne you were just talking about a survey so would that also be another way like that survey would be online right yes and then and then so we could publicize that survey as a way for folks who may not want to do stuff in person but they could do that online right so with multiple ways sort of like you know it's what Jennifer is saying except also not in person right you can also do it this way you can do it that way multiple different ways of being able to engage absolutely absolutely so yeah I think that maybe we can come up with a short questionnaire slash survey and a schedule for consistent outreach to bring back for a proposal to the group and then figuring out how we actually execute on that is a big a conversation okay so we have I know Ms. Bridges did you have to leave at three o'clock today okay so there I believe okay Lauren has her hand raised Lauren if that is a holdover from last time um you do have your hand raised if it's not I'm going to just leave it up and just uh I'll come right I'll come back to you um Dr. Cibaz has sent over something to give us a framework for eligibility I want to check in with our time frames here to see I don't want us to sort of just you know speed through that so if everybody has to get going within the next five or ten minutes we'll hold that and we'll bring that as our first point of discussion next week and that way we can call another public comment period and then whoever has to leave can leave does that work for everyone okay yes okay Dr. Cibaz is that good with you okay bye Ms. Bridges thank you good to see you um Dr. Rhodes is that work okay for you that's fine okay all right so um if we could bring Lauren into the room whoever's working at you hi thank you can you hear me yep I I I meant to lower my hand but I did want to um announce again that uh with the help of the public health department and um press was to be part of a community conversation that is going to be held at Butternut Farm this Thursday November 3rd from 4 to 6 I wanted to share that with you all um to invite you all and um I'm not sure if Earl is going to make it but we're hoping that another press responder will come and talk to the community about about the press a new press program and um so I just wanted to make sure that I was able to to share that with you guys but um also I just you know I you guys know that I'm a parent because I always mention that I'm a parent and we've talked a lot about youth and you know what is missing in the town as far as you know where you you know feel safe and where they can go and and so forth and so I just um I'm a little frustrated but I'm also trying to be you know engaged and so I think that the cultural center that was proposed really needs to be like part of the the master planning and part of the conversation like during you know the other town meetings it needs to be more than just an idea and I I think part of my uh frustration um is that there's a lot of ideas that are are being expressed but the money the money that the town is allocating for certain projects is is going all over the place and and there's nothing really that that we are planning for the youth in this town and uh I've lived here for six years and I'm very concerned very still concerned I'm I just don't understand why we cannot commit to a particular project especially when you know we're we're talking about you know funds and and reparations at the same time I think there there has to be a a real focus and I think that will bring more people to the table and again yeah so I'll just thank you Lauren um I just want to make sure I understand what you said about Thursday okay is that is there an option for an AHRA member to speak for a couple minutes at that event if they were available I'm sorry I didn't give the topic it's um it's mental health and stress and the public um uh health director Jennifer Brown is going to be there and hopefully a press responder will also be there to share um what they're doing in the community there is four to six and there will be like you know time to introduce people and and you know talk with who's there but I I don't think we'll have a like time to like explain a AHRA or you know reparations or like that it's more you know you're focusing on um mental health and stress and then um COVID COVID questions like if anybody has any concerns about COVID questions but whoever is there hopefully there will be community members there and you can surely bring you know information and talk you know to those who are who are there but as far as the the that time frame it's going to just be on the mental health sure okay that makes a lot of sense but it's open it's not only it's not limited to um but or not immunity outside members um yes yes got it okay thank you for clarifying that and did you say it was this Thursday I'm sorry okay yes it's this Thursday four to six okay thank you thank you Lauren um so I'll just check in with any members to see if there are any final comments questions thoughts reports anything that members would like to add otherwise we'll be meeting again next week at two o'clock our usual time I am finding that Alexis may be having a problem with that timing going forward and so I'm going to actually call and check in with her and get a better sense of that but for next week we'll keep things the same all right well thank you very much it was a great meeting um Dr. Shabazz I will send what you sent me to the packet so that we're ready and prepared to have that presented for next meeting and I am going to adjourn at three oh nine oh Dr. Shabazz please just announcing on Sunday at the Unitarian Meeting House at 2 p.m the public is invited to Mojuba a veneration of our African ancestors and followed by an intergroup dialogue being sponsored by the Bridge for Unity and there will be wonderful refreshments Debra Snow has been organizing from the Blue Heron restaurant from Hazel's from a number of other providers some really wonderful food so 2 p.m at the Unitarian Meeting House and Dr. Shabazz I'll get that out on both the multiple Facebook pages as well I'll make sure that gets out ASAP yes Jennifer I would also say Dr. Shabazz you couldn't put it on the community calendar that would be a good place for it if you go to the town website individuals are allowed to go ahead and submit events that are coming up in the community thank you that's great if you have a flyer I can send it to the PTOs too at the school all right awesome all right well thank you all very much and uh we will see you next week and it is 3 11 p.m and we are adjourned thank you bye everyone