 And Philip and Ben, if you guys would like to get started. Let's see what is the time. I will call the HRC meeting at 632. But do you want to say the pursuant to chapter 20 or do you have that up or now. I'm going to zoom in. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. 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. See instructions below. No in-person attendees 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 via technological needs. Awesome. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Just give me a second. I'm trying to pull up the agenda to see what we're doing. Let's say so. I don't know what it says. It says to review notes, but I don't think any notes were attached on the agenda. At least I have not reviewed notes. If that was. Attached. The minutes weren't attached. We'll have to table those to the next meeting. All right. Sounds good. Table that. And next we have public comment. I don't see anybody raise their hand. We're going to move on. Let's see. Next we have member reports. And Liz is not here for. Affordable housing trust. But I did end up going to that meeting and from there. If we all recall from our last meeting that we were trying to. Potentially a joint listening session with the affordable housing trust in terms of viewing housing as a human right. And so they discussed that. Possibility at their meeting. And they all voted that they would like to work with us in that capacity. And so. I believe their co-chairs or if not, then I ask co-chairs will reach out and try and facilitate something to. Make. An initial meeting happen. But as far as. That report goes, that is all I have on that. Anybody have any questions there? All right. Ronnie, I should have talked to you right before, but do you want to give the CSS JC last meeting since you were there? Update. And I can jump in whenever. Fill in some gaps. Sure. I'm just talking off the top of my head now. I think. There was a lot of. Concerned there about, because the talk was all about. Police and racism nationally, as well as locally. So there were sort of macro and micro issues being discussed, but. Focusing on locally. I think there was. Quite a bit of concern. About the fact that the recommendations. Of the CSWG had not. Largely been. Responded to by our town. And whoever the authorities are, whose responsibilities it was. And some of the recommendations were read out and they did feel very heavy. I think. Largely having to do with. Comments about. The culture. Racism. Unequal power. I'll just stick my own bias in here a little bit too. This whole question of. Interactions with police. Where. Even if nothing happens, if you're stopped. In this context where the power disparities are so large. And I'm using my own words here. I think this is. Part of the kind of thing that people were feeling very intense about in that meeting. When you're stopped in that interaction. And then you drive off. Whatever happens. There's still this terrible thing. And maybe it is for everyone. But it does seem to be. I believe a lot worse. For people of color. Anyway, there's this thing that there's this broader. Culture question that I think people felt had not been addressed. The crests and the. DI department also were part of those recommendations. But those were not really discussed. I think people's main concerns were not institutional. Or even money wise, but more about this power disparity. And there was some discussion about. Potential policy changes. And it concluded with trying to find. Some change that's strategic that would address these power disparities. That doesn't necessarily associated with a budget, but has more to do with this. Sort of culture of inequality. And there was, I think, interest in working with HR. To do that to somehow. Narrow down somebody mentioned three. Goals. And I think I mentioned potentially one. That would then be. That we would focus on one kind of change from those recommendations that we would really. Lobby with town counselors on and other decision makers. To try to get that change made. That was also a bit of discussion about the small businesses and our funding. I don't know, Phillip, if you want to go into that. Yeah. I guess I don't know where to take it from there, but as far as. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. I mean, there was discussion about it. And there was some debate about why and why not. That's certainly black businesses felt that they didn't get their share. I would say for my own part as a small business owner myself, I benefited considerably during COVID. I was able to keep my business alive and going. Because of all sorts of local supports. And they were very easy to get. And there were lots of forums where I could go. I didn't. But one could. Get on zoom and spend two hours with a workshop leader who would walk you through the application process and help you get it right. And so on. I don't know if anybody who didn't. Who applied, who did not get the local funding. Where I came from. So for me, some of the. Issues that were raised. Seemed. A little bit shocking actually, because. I mean, this money is supposed to help. Businesses. So if you don't fill out the forms, right. You're supposed to get help to do so. Anyway, there was a lot of sort of. That kind of stuff that. You know, I think on the one hand, Amherst does seem very progressive to me. I mean, But there is this feeling also that there's something that's not working. There's this power gap. Do you want to add. Philip. And is that accurate? Yeah, no, that's, that's, I feel like that's accurate. I will say that. Being on the committee and reviewing it. I don't know the exact number, but it did seem like some people did not receive money. And I'm not going to pretend like I know why or what. They did or didn't. But yeah, I think that that is definitely something that gets brought up in the CSS. Tracy. That's adding to the report. I would say that. Possibly actually if Pamela or Jen, if you all could share the CSS. Or the CSWG report. With the HRC members. That would be great because there is. I guess a request. I mean, we have to approve it just like we're going to have to talk about a possible meeting with the. Affordable housing trust, but. The CSS JC would like to meet with the town council and they would like us to be a part of that conversation. And I fell as if that. One, we need to know kind of what we're talking about. So reviewing that report would be handy and good. And two, if that's even something that the HRC would like to be a part of with the town council. So I think that that discussion will need to happen, but they're not looking to really try and meet with town council until April is what they were aiming for. So I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. And I think it's a good idea to go out to town council that all has to get flushed out and see if that's even a possibility. Or not. One more thing about that report if I might add. I had seen that report when I first moved to Amher. So I sort of had an idea of what was there, but after that meeting, I went back and looked it up. And I was able to find the report that I had seen very easily on the town's website. And I was able to find the report that I had seen on the town's website. And I was able to find the report of the report. And part B, I didn't see, I've never seen. So what would help is to see what's in part B. Yeah. And that is accessible in town. Go ahead Pamela. It must be somewhere. Yeah. So both part A and B are on the town website. Under the community. Working group. It has a separate link. To it. That's distinct from the CSSJC. So I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. I can send that out tomorrow. Yeah, I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Pamela. And that is. Oh, actually, and then. CSSJC is partnering with Crest to have a listening session. And that is more just information. HRC is not having anything to do with it. Other than that, if we could just help get the word out and. In our circles or. We could just post the flyer if we need be in our. Personal time or anything, but that listening session is with Crest and is. Looking to be March 25th is. That I'm sure more details will come from that. That is all I have for those two updates, but do any other. And thank you so much, Ronnie for jumping in and helping. I know it kind of put you on the spot there. Really appreciate that. But does anybody else have any other reports? All right. See that there is no reports from anybody else. We will move on to the next agenda item. Which I don't know why my computer is giving me such a hard time pulling it up. It is a lunar new year debrief. I, after the event, I had sent out to kind of a quick little email on that and just really want to highlight that. That event was amazing. It went super well. We had over 200 people come. I don't think that any of us were really expecting that. And it was like. A really super well attended event by various. People in town or town counselors as well. Shout out to Jen and Pamela for the food and all that. Decoration aspect of it. But I do want to put out there that it was, it was a heavy lift. It was, it was a big lift. And without Jen and Pamela there, I'm not sure that the HRC in its body could have did it. Having been the only member there. And so I do just want to. I just want to highlight that. If we could have anybody come, I think the next event that we did the black history month flag raising was super great because there was multiple. Of commissioners there. And so I think about those types of helping, you know, just little things from putting things on a wall or just decorating standing there to serve just really helps and adds to. Just like for people who don't. But it's definitely kind of like an affiliate event, a big one that's done in events up and I will totally. Accept and acknowledge that I think that our. Events need to be planned out in a way that. One, we make sure that everybody's scheduled. Is good. So like we talk about it ahead of time, whether it not be three, four months out, wherever we are to be like, Hey, save the date for this date. Cause we know that we're going to do this, probably less than the burden there of trying to either move something around or all of a sudden come into a meeting and then be like, oh my gosh, like we have an event next week, like I didn't know and I have something else. And I totally understand that we all have lives outside of, I was going to say room, but outside of Zoom call here. So I just want to stress that point enough. And I think that that's, we're leaving some room in the agenda here to hopefully go through some events that we're looking to highlight in the next couple months and really like nail down some details, nail down, like, hey, this date does not work for me because I will be out of town for whatever reason. And then just acknowledging that like, okay, that was like three or six members that said they were going to be gone. We probably should pick another day if that's going to be the case. So that's what I will add to that. But again, huge shout out to our staff members that help out really honestly, great, great work. So the last time that we had spoke, we had talked about, and I think I put a motion out there, but I don't think we actually voted on it because we didn't know really what could be the outcome of it. We had talked about breaking up some of the work into subcommittees or subgroups. And I don't know if you all have just had a chance to look at the revised agenda that was sent out, but it was a memo. Was that memo from you, Pamela, or was that from Athena? Yeah, so I sent a memo just to you and to Ben as the co-chairs. I'm not sure that other people have had an opportunity to see it. I had trouble finding the packet tonight, so I don't know whether it was included. I got an updated one like an hour ago from Jen that she sent out and that did have the memo in it. If people want to look, Jen, you're off me. Were you going to say that? It was. I don't know, Phillip, if you want to share your screen with the memo up. Oh my gosh, I'm on an iPad. I don't know that I'm going to be able to do that successfully. I think I might be able to do that. Let me just go off camera for a minute. While I locate that. I don't know, but I can't share a screen with an iPad or if I can, I am not technically savvy enough to do it. Take me a moment. Welcome, Juliana. All right, can you all see the memo? So the basic, oh, go ahead. No, you go ahead, that's fine. You'll explain it a lot better than I will. I don't know if I will, but anyway. So following the last HRC meeting where you all had the discussion about the subgroups, you know, Jen, and said that she felt that we needed to have a discussion with Athena, who is the clerk of the council, to ensure that the working groups would not violate the open meeting law. And so we had a conversation with her and she basically, I'm going to scroll down, presented a couple of options for the HRC. So having the small working groups, the way they were described in the last meeting could violate the open meeting law. And so her suggestions were one, to form official subcommittees of no more than four persons and post the meetings as we would a typical HRC meeting. So essentially, you know, meeting in small groups, but complying with the open meeting law. And then the second group or a second recommendation was to identify one person as the lead for the area, for the area that you wanted to discuss and have that one person work on, you know, the logistics of whatever that you wanted to do and then have that person bring back that individual's work for the larger group to decide. So in the memo that I sent to Ben and to Phillip, I suggested that for the bylaws discussion that you want to have, I think it probably would be a very good idea to have a subcommittee and post those meetings the way you would a regular meeting. And as Athena pointed out, that would allow for public discussion and input, which of course, you know, is the charge for us. And then perhaps to select an individual to be a lead for some of the other topics that you wanted to cover, which was cultural events and educational heritage. So those were the two options that were presented. And of course, you always have the third option, which is to continue to do the work as a full committee. And, you know, a suggestion would be to limit your agenda so that you could actually get work done so that you can do it as a full committee. So I think we could probably share, I can send out this memo to everyone for them to review it, but essentially that was the recommendation from Athena. Everyone should have the memo though. Oh, okay. Yeah, I didn't see the packet. So yeah. Yes. I just have a question of verification. So the idea of option two is that one person talks to a bunch of people from a committee but just not together. So in option one, everyone sits down and discusses like we assume, but in option two, it's one on one. Right. Is that primarily the difference? That you're still consulting a committee. Yeah. I think that is primarily the difference. The, you know, Athena's concern is that there's any, that there's a quorum formed and that individuals are sharing. So even under option two, you would be limited in what your interactions would be with other committee members. So for example, you would need to send in a document to Jennifer and I, and we would have to send it out. Like you could not send a document to one person, have them forward it onto someone else because that sort of forms this chain, which would also be a violation of the open meeting law. Yeah. So going through this process, my thinking is that it is time to revise the open meeting law statewide. But yeah, that it is not an easy task. All right. Does anyone need to see the document anymore or can I stop sharing? I think you could stop sharing. Okay. Jen, you have your hand up. Yeah, because I kind of thought that the understanding was you could have, well, I think in the case of the HRC, it's five that makes the quorum, so you're correct. You need four under. But the second piece of it was that it's really, I thought one person that is kind of spearheading the work of something and then bringing it back to the committee. So I think that even if you meet in twos, then you need to, that is considered a subcommittee in that it needed to be posted. I guess maybe I'm not understanding open meeting law to the extent of what it is, but any type of work done in a capacity of more than one would be considered a violation if it's not done together, like in a whole setting, because if our quorum is five, my assumption would be then that if there was four of us working on something that's not a quorum, so I mean, I don't know if you two have the answer to that, but. Yeah, I think that my logic followed your logic, but that was not the information that we received. So I mean, the open meeting law if you think about it's really about transparency. Right. And so it's the fact that everything that's being done in with more than one person from a committee, the community has access to that. So I think that that's where the logic behind anytime you have more than one person meeting to do work together that it just needs to be posted and somebody needs to take minutes. So I know that's not helpful. I'm sorry. No, I know you didn't make the open meeting law so I guess I'm trying to understand it because I'm not even thinking of it as the town council, like when they work on documents and they all have access to a document that's first worked on before it's viewed to the public and like a shared folder or shared document. How has that done then before anybody else has access to it? Yeah, so I actually think that there's a perception that they're working on documents and they may actually be one or two people who are looking at documents or sharing ideas, but the sort of behind the scenes look is that information is coming into Athena for her to share with in the same way that she described this process for this committee. So they're also bound by those same sort of restrictions. I see, yeah. And I guess to your point, open meeting law probably needs to be reviewed and looked at for certain things because I think for the governor and so I mean, that makes sense to me to have that open up to the public because I think our public will have insight that I may not have or other people may not have on whatever subcommittee we form to create bylaws or just simply input from the public just as great and all knowledgeable but like a community event. I don't know that doesn't make so much more sense to me to have a subcommittee that has to follow all these things and be like, here's a flyer of what we're doing and please show up. But I understand that you do did not make it. I'm just airing out, I guess that frustration that I have with the media law. And I actually think that the open meeting law for local municipalities is a little more stricter than it is at the higher legislative levels. So. Yeah. Got it. So then to move this conversation along if no one has anything else to add to kind of a preliminary talks. I think as a committee, we kind of need to decide how we want to move forward, how we want to do things. What is it that we do want to do? I think between the memo that Pamela has sent us with kind of a laid out options of it. What are people feeling? What are people thinking? Tyler, go ahead. Yeah, I think that the bylaw subcommittee is probably a good idea for the reason that bylaw changes are going to necessarily be a little more complex and labor intensive. And also probably not something that really needs the whole committee involved in in every step of the process, but that probably still needs multiple people involved in and working on in every step of the process and possibly something as well that really could benefit more from the open meeting law because like, as you said, it could benefit more from public input. And it's something that might be more subject to public scrutiny than making flyers and planning events and such. So I do sort of support going with a subcommittee for that one or some of the other stuff, the cultural committees and such. A part of me is kind of wondering how far open meeting law really goes. Will it require the election of a chair and vice chair in a committee of three, for example? Because at that point, you have like chair, vice chair, member who didn't get a chair position, but I'm assuming it probably would. And I think that almost to this certain point that becomes a bit less useful and more busy work, but I do think that bylaw might be worthwhile to do the subcommittee. Thank you, Tyler. Anybody else have anything else to say? I want to add in. I think Tyler put that really well. Go to Ronnie. I also agree with Tyler. Ben or Laverne, do you all have anything to add? Nope, not really. Got it. So then I think for the sake of bylaw, then I think it sounds like we're moving to a subcommittee unless anybody has any reservations on that, which it did not seem so in this conversation. But if you do, now is your time to speak up. So I think the next point then for that is figuring out who is going to be on that bylaw subcommittee. If you have interests, who are we missing? We're missing Victor, Liz, and who else are someone else? Cedric. I think we could probably move forward on that. And Pamela, can I send out an email like asking if anybody else wants to join type of thing? Or is that? Well, we can send out an email. Jen and I can send out an email asking if anyone else has interest in joining. Okay. But if you reach for people here tonight who are interested, then there won't be. Right, I think, yeah, I think that makes sense to, yeah. So interest in joining, I will put my name out there. I think I've done a lot of the heavy lifting here. So I would like to still continue. Ronnie and Tyler, I see you both. We have one more on this call, maybe. I don't see anybody. So then we will move to Pamela if you could just send out an email and just if you could just CC everybody. And if anybody else changes their mind, please. So then it seems as if we do not want to move to a subcommittee for cultural events and education, if I am reading the pulse rate on this group, if I am not, please let me know. But if we are not moving in that way or we have a couple of ways of doing it, I guess two ways of doing it is we have one person as a lead for both of those respective roles. And I'm trying to read the memo right now. That's a quick read, but I am not a quick reader. But go ahead. Would you like me to read that last section? Yeah, please. So option number two was have one person identify as a lead for the other areas, which were cultural events and education. The person would solicit information from the committee and then propose a plan that would be presented to the entire committee at a regularly scheduled meeting where members would adopt the plan and take on assignments. So, for example, the next event beyond Black History Month would be the AAPI Month event. And so someone would take the lead for that event and ask for suggestions, can create the plan and then bring it back to the group for the entire group to adopt. And the one thing that I will add, so it may sound a bit daunting to sort of think about like taking the lead, but you'll have Jen and I as staff liaison to assist, but it would be nice to have other people doing some of the organization and thinking about some of the cultural events. Yeah, so we have that option of someone taking a lead and then the other option would be, I guess, plus all in a full meeting, so something like this, to where we just simply say like, okay, next month is going to be our focus of AAPI Month and hash out all the plans and everything in that way. So I guess I'm looking for kind of commissioners input as to what direction we want to go with. Do we want to identify a lead person and then know that we all are pitching in in some type of capacity, but the lead person is communicating with Jen and Pamela or do we want to break it down into a whole meeting and hash out all the plans to events? It feels a lot more efficient to just kind of delegate to like an individual contact person for each one and then kind of think it from there, but that's my thought. I think when we go about planning events through meetings, it seems like they get stretched out way too long and then kind of miss key dates and that sort of thing. Could we also do both where there can be a lead person but there can also be like a brief discussion within the meeting about ideas and suggestions and plans so it can kind of be like a kind of bouncing ideas off each other type of thing? Yeah, I think that would probably come naturally from a lead person, you know, like I'm saying, obviously this person would not take on the only responsibility and like that, if you totally need help and just sort of like trying to decide, I guess, of two things are like, oh, like I want to do this or I want to do that and you want to bring that up in a whole meeting discussion we can definitely make time on the agenda to do so. Is everybody feeling like we should identify someone for the event and this someone doesn't need to be the only person for that event that it could be like if you have a feeling of, I think last year I was very much so like I want to do Latinx heritage month, like to just throw your name out there, like if that's something that you wanted to take on, I think that we can have switching of people to not burn out one individual planning every single event that we recognize. Emily, you were going to say something? Yeah, so I think what will also be helpful and we didn't, I haven't had a chance to talk with Jen about this, but I mean, what would probably be helpful for us to have a calendar of events and to distinguish between those that are, really very robust like the Lunar New Year event or Latinx heritage and others that are less, require less as far as planning and activities. Is she and I, Jen and I did put together like a calendar of what we thought would be events, but it would, that the office and the HRC would likely cosponsor on, but we haven't shared that with you. And I think that might be helpful for people to sort of envision, oh, I might be able to do this one or I could assist with that. So, and Jen. Jen, go ahead. So I was putting those on the agenda for a long time. And so I can just put them back on the agenda, right? Like it was on the back page. So it wasn't necessarily part of the agenda, but it was like, here's a list of the events, but the big events, I can roll right off to the top of my head very quickly. So there's AAPI, Juneteenth, the reading of Frederick Douglass's speech or address. And then we don't have anything, we have Latinx Heritage Month, Kwanzaa, MLK Celebration, Black History Month Celebration, Lunar New Year. There's like eight. We haven't ever done anything historically for Indigenous Peoples Day. So somebody might want to think about that because it makes sense to me, but. Yeah. Go ahead, Ronnie. I say this a little sheepishly because I cannot do this, but March is Women's History Month and it's also International Women's Day, which I know is sort of celebrated here, but around the world it's a big to do. There are so many countries where there's so much going on. So there's the whole month of March. And to be honest, I can't do anything about it, but if we are considering a list, I would like to see that on the list as well. So I have that on as something that the office would take responsibility and I'm actually trying to have an event that looks at allyship. So I've sort of envisioned something that would meet both needs. So it would really look at allyship between women of color and other women and be part of sort of the racial healing series that we're trying to do, but also have an opportunity to celebrate women. So I'm happy to talk to you more about my very basic ideas about that, but it is something that I'm thinking of. Yeah. And one other thing of course is December 10, human rights. Oh right, that we do do. Joliana, you have a hand up? Yeah. So could I just get a breakdown of what exactly goes into even planning of an event? Like how many emails do you have to send? Do you have to come up with an agenda, I guess, and make presentations? And if there's any sort of sponsors getting in contact with people about that, like I feel like I'm not even entirely sure what goes into just making an event. Right, yeah. And I think each event has its own complex, it's the cities in itself, is that like the flag raising event, which was our past one, right? Like that is definitely like we have our town council read a proclamation that is like, we would need to send over what we would want to add in the proclamation. They hash it out on their end of what they're actually gonna say and how they're gonna say it. And then the coordination of kind of raising the flag and all that, but that I would assume would need to go through our staff since we don't have access to all that information. But something that like Juneteenth or even Latinx Heritage Month, like, you know, you can envision it however you would like to do it. There are some that are already established that you could just follow suit to it. But food is always a good draw. Like if we can get some type of way, I know that we don't have any funds as the HRC, but if we can get a sponsor, a community sponsor, that would be ideal in that way. And Jen and Pamela, if you have anything else to add or Ben? So again, I think that it would be really helpful if Jen and I sat down and sort of made a list. I mean, the eight or nine that we've now listed here, but there are differences between those events. So the flag raising is a lot different than, you know, the Black History event that's coming up at the end of the month. So if we put together a list and what are sort of the key components and then share that back to the commission, I think that would be helpful. I think even if we tonight identify a person that wants to take on like the next thing, that person can be a part of that conversation. If you are okay with that. Sure, yeah. Jen, just hand them. We can just have someone who's gonna help with the AAPI and then I forgot the Youth Hero Awards, which is kind of a big deal. And then what's Juneteenth? That would at least give us some time to hash out everything else. And I'm more than happy as well as Pamela to help folks through the process. Like the AAPI celebration is new. Like it would be our first in-person. So whoever, whatever someone like can envision is what could happen. Like last year online, we had Professor Richard Chu from UMass come and speak with one of his former students who kind of walked us through the migration or not migration, what am I trying to say? The, yes, migration from the Cambodian community to Amherst. And so it was really interesting because not a lot of folks know, about the Cambodian heritage as well as we don't necessarily the town in general have a very good connection with the Cambodian community. So that's like one way to kind of build that bridge and then the Youth Hero Awards has typically been a barbecue where we celebrate and we give, I send out an email to all, to the schools and to the churches and to different local organizations that, for them to nominate youth, we usually give out an award to all of the youth who are nominated. And if there's a group, then everybody gets a certificate, but not a gift. And all the families and the nominators come. And last year we worked with the healthy living community who said that they didn't wanna take the lead on it this year, but they will be involved. So I know that if I'm correct that Edgar is really still interested in doing another basketball tournament at the same time, which was really helpful because it brought in the numbers and really kind of uplifted the human rights hero awards. And so there's those two things. And really we just need, we need someone to kind of partner with us to make some of that happen because planning events is kind of, it's a lot. And you need more than just one or two people really outside. Well, we need more than just Pamela and I. So it's always helpful when someone from the committee commission helps. And it's not, and we can, like, once a program is designed then we can, and the group agrees, then we can kind of say, you know, we need someone to go to the store, we need someone to pick up food, and we can divvy up the responsibilities once we get there. But the overall creation of the event is where we need some help and support too. So, and Juneteenth is pretty big. So, Juliana, did that help answer any of your question? Yeah, it did. The thing is, is that what I do, it does sound interesting. I think it would be something I'd want to help with, but I don't know how much realistically I can take on given my schedule already. So in terms of the creation of events, this is just kind of like brushing out what could happen and who you'd need to talk to and all that. I think maybe potentially I might be available to do some assignments when everything's all said and done and depending on like for the API, what's the plan for that? Has a plan already been made? No plan has been made yet. And so that's like kind of, you know, in what I would suggest is that whomever is going to volunteer their time for that from this point till we meet, like we would have to put together a separate meeting and kind of just bring our ideas right there and say, you know, we need an educational piece, we need, you know, food is always a good piece and some music and the community. And so you can just kind of go through those steps and create an event is usually typically what happens. It's just an idea and you have to kind of roll with it. Also reaching out to community members who are, this is their heritage or cultural event or cultural celebration is also a good way to go. That way we're not doing something that's offensive, if that makes sense, right? Or we're not, and we're getting, you know, some ideas from that group. So I was thinking that Vera Cage would be a good person who we could connect with for the AAPI celebration this year. She and I chatted a little bit about it. Okay, so there would be a separate meeting or kind of coming together to figure things out. Yes. Okay. And just think we don't necessarily have to be in the cold Juliana for this one. That would be cool. So Juliana, do you want to take on AAPI month? Yeah, sure, I'm definitely going to need help because I've never done anything like this before. So would a separate meeting, would that be a separate Zoom call somewhere? Yeah, so we can arrange to meet. I mean, I know that you're in school, the bulk of my work hours. So we would, at a time that was convenient for you, we would just have a Zoom meeting or we could meet in person, whichever you prefer. And just kind of, and, you know, if you think about people in the school who are from the AAPI community, maybe that would like to be involved or I can reach out to some other individuals in the AAPI and the broader community of Amherst and see if they would like to participate. Okay, cool. Great, thank you. Before we get into the next one, and then I think that like we can discuss Juneteenth after that, Ben, I don't mean to put you on the spot but can you give us kind of a little rundown of the Youth Hero Awards? I know you've been doing it a tad bit longer than I have but I think you are a great person to give some insight on that. I was gonna say, technically, Jen would be better at the rundown but wait, let me see, I'll take a crack at it. So it's like an annual award that we give for like outstanding youth in the schools. Actually, Jen, you've been doing this way longer than me. No, you've got it, it's special acts of kindness, right? And those vary from individual to individual. Or group, we give it as a group. Right, so like Sunrise at the high school it was mostly a sustainability community or sustainability organization. They've received awards a few years in a row, I believe actually for their work in the community. Yeah, and so, yeah, so the one, the two I guess that I've been to, one of them was a barbecue type setting. That was, I wasn't actually an official member yet, I was just thinking about joining. And then the other one that Jen was talking about was we partnered with the Julius Ford and Parrot Tubman Foundation and they put on a basketball tournament that really drew in the crowd. And then we did as well the barbecue aspect of it with some food and the awards. Yeah, the, as Ben was saying, they kind of range from individuals to groups, any type of youth that has done something in our community. It was amazing, I think last year, if I remember correctly, there was all amazing ones, but the one that is sticking out to me is this sister duo that raised over $500 to send to a nonprofit organization through a selling of, I forget what it was right now, but so it's that type of highlighting of youth in our community that gets posted on the Gazette and other type of news areas, I forget which ones. And then as well as on the town, and so anybody can be nominated. And I don't know the full process. And I guess, Ben or Jen, do we reject anybody or do we just say yes to everybody? We've typically said yes to everybody and people are nominated like sometimes and even in elementary school, kids are nominated for, this is someone who really reaches out to help other students or defense kids from being bullied. There's just a range of different ways that the children and the youth are reasons that they're nominated for. And do we still do like the write-ups for each person? Like it'll be like a commissioner that writes them up? Yes, and they also receive a letter from our state representative, Mindy Dom. So she also does a, oh, I can't remember the name of it. It's not a, I can't remember the name of that one either. So you've said it earlier, Phillip, that goes to council. I don't know why, it's the end of the month. Yeah, so it's not a proclamation, but it's something similar that the state representative Mindy Dom usually writes something up and she attends the event. And if she cannot, then one of her staff members will have to attend the event in the past. Yeah, so it's a pretty big event that the HRC does. Weisen, I think that if we can definitely get Edgar to put on the tournament, if he's interested in doing that and coordinating that, that'd be great. And last year, their group did have a lot of more planning into it. It seems like they are going to be taking a backseat to it so it would fall on our group here to kind of flush off the plans. But is anybody interested in doing that? And man, Miss Haygood is not here. She probably would be a good one. Just one month, it's how, what month is it now? You know, that's a good question. I think last year we did it sometime in April, but the one that I attended, I believe was in June. Is there, Ben or Jen, is there like a time frame that we usually do it in? So the time frame gets a little tricky. It's so the one that we went to was in May, I think. It was Mother's Day and last year. And typically we've done it in June, but you kind of have to compete with like there's graduation, there's prom. And so a lot of times some of the nominees are high school students who are seniors. And so you have to be able to fit it in between all of their events as well. So we're looking at sometime in May then, is that kind of a fill? May or June, yep. I guess that brings my point up earlier, what weekend works best for most people so that way we can get the most amount of commissioners on board here. I know that's pretty far out to schedule, but. I would think either late June or early June. So we're not competing with like our own event, Juneteenth or graduation or I'm missing something. There's another big thing in June. Prom. There you go. So maybe late June, does late June make sense? Like when did it used to be, Jen? Like that was like the last event you guys would do, right? And so it was in between the prom and graduation. Yeah. And so a lot of times we were missing seniors from that event. I think in the past people kind of steered away from the end of June, because then people are on vacation and they've left town. So, I mean, I guess it's also a good time for the HRC to really figure out what events they do want host and not host, right? If we can't get people to volunteer for them. So. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. What about the weekend of June 3rd? Well, like first week of June, that's a good in between May and June. And it seems far enough away from Juneteenth and then API month, we could just plan possibly earlier in the month. I would say that we should look at the school schedule. Okay. But again, maybe this would be something that Liz would want to do, I'm not sure, but we should really, and I think maybe it comes, goes back to Pamela's point is we shouldn't come up with the list and then folks can figure out what it is that they think is, they should be putting the time in to celebrate. But thoughts? Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say that I don't have any issue with like kind of like doling out the responsibilities now and then just kind of letting folks start running with it, I guess. So we don't have a ton of time to plan these things out. So we should probably get cracking one. So much. I think the problem is that nobody's volunteering to work on that. That's why I'm saying, like we need to really, you guys should think about whether or not you want to celebrate these things or not, right? And so if we honestly don't have time to wait for next meeting, because we've already, next meeting is in May and then we already have an event scheduled for that month. And then the month after that is June. So I would say now, either you wanna do things or you don't wanna do things, right? We've given you about 10 or 11 things that are done, typically, and then if you guys wanna keep continuing to do these, then somebody's gonna need to step up. I don't like, I don't mean to be harsh, but we don't have March and April meetings. Oh my goodness, I've skipped like two months. Yeah. We do. Well, here's what I'll say is for the youth empowerment, I mean, for the youth hero awards, I guess if we're gonna work with the healthy living community and if Edgar is going to put together a basketball tournament, then we should, I don't know, have an answer sooner or later. I don't know. I think you bring up a good point. We definitely like would need that. We also obviously the nominations have to happen at least a month prior. So there's definitely a work that will go into it before the event happens. So I think you are raising a good point. I mean, I would say I would like to do the youth hero awards as a HRC. I would not like to see that go away. I don't know what others feel though, if that's something that they would view as a priority for the HRC. Yeah, personally, what I can actually commit would be like the nomination process and winding that part down. I don't know how much I can commit to planning or actually like, I kind of have like a whole other season coming up. So I'm not sure what I can commit to planning of the day of, but I can do like the preliminary, the nominations part, like it's real easy for me to reach out to the schools. That part is easy. And then if somebody else takes the event side, I'm good with that. Other members, Godrani? I just have a comment. I unfortunately really cannot do any of these things, but if the date works for me, then I would certainly be there and I could do things like errands and fill in gaps and, you know, if somebody said go get this or wear the missing chairs or we need water or whatever, I can, you know, I mean, I'm happy to help in that way on the spot or the day before or something. But even in terms of attending, I would really benefit from having the dates in advance. Yeah. Definitely, I think I had said that earlier. Because I understand that everybody is definitely busy, so planning out. All right. I don't mind taking on the Youth Hero Awards and planning out that, but I definitely been willing on you for what you said that you could help out within the capacity of that. And also if day of, definitely, there's always some running around that will happen. Is that June 3rd that we talked about? I'm looking at the school schedule and I don't see anything on June 3rd. Like May is hard for me, but June 3rd, I think I could do. I can help. There wouldn't be anything that would interfere with the school. Yeah, I don't see anything on June 3rd. Does June 3rd work for either June 3rd or June 4th? I mean, I don't care either way. June 4th does not for me. June 3rd and helping on the 2nd. That's just one person but since we're discussing the dates and I wouldn't help. Yeah. Does June 3rd work for others? I'm not entirely sure, because I have a lifeguarding job that starts like mid-May, end of May, and I might be very booked out, but I also don't really know this far out. That's fair. I also don't really know this far out, although that early into June, I'm not likely to have flown back to the US yet. Although I think I am fairly likely to be able to make at least one event later in June, whether it be Juneteenth or something else. As available in May. So that June date does work for you then, Lever? Yes. And Ben, what about you? Yep. Yes, I think that's four of us. I mean, I'll check in with Liz. What about Jen and Pamela? Sorry, I didn't mean to not look at your both schedules. You all are important pieces too. Yeah, I can make it work. I haven't looked at my schedule that far out, but Jen and I are supposed to meet on Friday and I think we'll try to devote some time to putting together a calendar of events with proposed dates. And I think that will be helpful. I also think it would be helpful to think about the events as having like two tiers, like what's required for like the flag raising is not the same as what's required for Juneteenth. And so people might feel like they have more capacity to take on something that's not as robust as you think about what the events are. Yeah, definitely. I think that puts us at least into the beginning of June. Jen, what does that tentative date work for you if we were to do that? Yeah, no, whatever date you guys choose is fine. All right, so then that gets us into before Juneteenth. So I think that hopefully is enough time to think about kind of what are the next dates, what are the next things. I'm wondering, Ben, Pamela and Jen, if you all, if we all would benefit from that meeting of sitting down and kind of like, okay, this is what BHRC has done in the past and what the DEI department wants to do and take on as well. I don't know if you all are open up to that. I see Pamela shaking her head, yes, Jen and Ben. Yeah, I think that would be very helpful. Yeah, so someone could skip over. I wanna be difficult, but like, and I know I think you said we were, are we gonna do Juneteenth too? Because Juneteenth, if we're gonna do Juneteenth, that takes months of planning. Okay. Yeah, I mean then, yeah, let's see if we can get some. And it's on June 19th. Right. Does anybody wanna take on Juneteenth? Thank you, Laverne. I'll help with it. Yes, yes, yes. I think this is important to say is that, signing up for it doesn't mean you are the only commissioner doing everything. The commission is here to help. We are nine individuals in any capacity that we can do it in that would be preferred and ideal rather than simply having one person do it. Thank you, Laverne, for volunteering for that. All right, let's see my agenda. Skip the wayside. Educational heritage was kind of the next proposal on that. That one is a much simpler lift, I think in comparison to the other two, that piece, it is in our bylaws and in our charge to have education be a part of the HRC. So what we have done in the past is kind of identify and Jen had alluded to, that she used to put it on the agenda there of the bottom kind of like, oh, this day is this, this day is that. And I think a couple of commissioners on here previously have kind of written like paragraphs and not just on like to Ronnie's point, like International Women's Day, kind of like what it means in a quick, like think of it as like a quick Facebook post or quick post on our website or the town to kind of just give highlights to the day because sometimes people may not even know that that's happening and just a quick little like, hey, come check this out, come look at this like link, like further educate yourself. So in that way, to me out of the two, that's an easier thing to kind of write up really quick and send it off to Jen to post what we've done in the past is kind of hash it out in our meetings here and like, oh, like I'll take on this day and I'll take on that day or that person will take on whatever day it is. I think that we need to go back to possibly having the list readily available because I'm not gonna pretend like I know what every single day is happening in March. I'm sure there are many things happening in March, but does that make sense to continue that type of practice as a committee? I guess is where I'll start. Seen some head shakes, yes. Yeah, so I think that for the sake of March I will look over some stuff and I'll probably email you Jen or Pamela to kind of get more ideas, but what we'll do for that rather than on this meeting because since we don't have a list is an email can go out and Pamela, I guess correct me if I'm wrong, if an email can go out to the committee of the list that is then there and then you just kind of sign up and you put like, okay, like Ronnie's gonna do International Women's Day and I'm only saying that just because you have an interest in it, you do not have to. But and then whatever other thing is on the list and like Glyver and take on this one and Tyler take on that one, so the not way there's a sign up for it and we can get it off to Jim and I think that that makes the most sense in that practice for this next month coming up since we're not meeting again until March which we will be already past certain days. So we will do that. I'm just writing myself a note so I don't forget. And after that, we have upcoming events. Laverne or Ben, do you both wanna or either one of you wanna talk about the upcoming event on the 26th? I know you both signed up to kind of help out with that event. So it's like a black history timeline through music. And we're breaking it down into little intersections. We're each doing a separate section. I was trying to think who's doing what eras but I know I'm doing 69 too right now. Anybody else wants to chime in and add details? That'd be awesome. So as Ben said, it's a black history through music timeline from 1619 to present day. Jen has the first segment which is 1619 to 1865. Laverne has 1865 to 1965. Sorry. I'm sorry, I'm having trouble hearing you. 1865 to 1919. To 1919, okay, that's right. And so yeah, I have 1919 to 1969 where Ben picks up with present day. And so Jen is hoping to have drummers for the very first segment. And then the other segments are likely to be pre-recorded music that we've selected a song or two for each of those different areas for the different genres in those areas. So, and Laverne, anything else that I've missed? It's going to be a wonderful celebration. Please come and enjoy. But have you covered it? Thank you all for that, yeah. So that's February 26th. Sunday. Is it at two o'clock? Is it one to four? Two to five. Okay. Laverne said, and that's at the middle school, correct? Yes. Yep, all right, awesome. Thank you, everybody for their work into that. Really appreciate it. And then yeah, it sounds like a very cool event. I'm excited and I will be there. AAPI Month, we already talked about. Jolana is taking that youth year awards. I'm taking that and Juneteenth Laverne, you're taking that. So that is it on the agenda, unless anybody else has anything else to add that we did not discuss. I just have one, I have one thought. Women's History Month, like I agreed that that should be covered. But I wondered like, could we collaborate with like existing like organizations like in the community that are probably already doing something since it's so kind of late, like in the late in the month. But I don't know what organizations exist that cover women's issues. So I think that that is actually a good model to have for many of the events that you're anticipating. So as I said, I do have some thoughts about March for Women's History Month. But originally I had thought about reaching out to the League of Women Voters to partner with them on an event. And I think that is an approach that the commission can take going forward to think about the other members and organizations in the community that can one, get the word out and also assist with the planning of the events. So they have a broader impact from the larger communities. And I don't know the community well enough to know all of the various organizations but I think that model about thinking about what are the events that you want to have and who can we partner with to sponsor them is one that would be good to use going forward. Yeah, I think I will add into the space here that if anybody hears of any events, definitely like share it out with the groups so then that way the HRC can do our part of just information of just sharing out to, I don't know, share out a flyer the League of Women Voters is doing something or any other organization that you hear about doing something. Yeah. Ben, do you have anything else to add on the agenda? Close up. Nope, nothing I can think of. Perfect, then. I will call this meeting to an end at 7.51. Thank you everybody for your participation, your time and I really feel like the groundwork that we're laying out for this next year hopefully can be productive and successful in this matrix that we are creating here. Jen, you unmuted, were you gonna say something? Oh, bye. I was gonna say bye. Bye, okay, got it. All right, well, we're good, we're there so. Bye everybody, thank you. Bye everyone. Bye.