 Yeah, and then Michelle, you should be can be co-host or. Yeah, I don't need to be Pamela as long as you are going to be keeping an eye like Kathleen Anderson is going to come into the meeting at some point. She's in the attendees. But either way, if it's easier for you to make me co-host I'm fine with that too. So whatever works for you. So I can just, I'm going to make Pamela the full host because I'm a little bit worried that if I leave the meeting it's going to close and. Yeah, that's a good and that's a different issue. And I know that is not able to make it. I am going to text Alexis real quick and see if they are able to make it. Did you just get a notice Pamela that you're the host? I have not. But I will check to see what my status says. Yeah, the status does say host, so. Okay, have a good meeting guys. All right. All right, Dr. Shabazz, I'm really liking your background. Look at all those bugs. Okay, let's see here. I'm going to go ahead and get us started. Let me just pull up the agenda. Sorry, I had it and then something happened here. See here. All right. So I am calling to order the September 19th meeting of the African heritage preparation assembly 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. No in person attendance of members of 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 means. And I'm just going to do a sound check quickly we'll go through if you could just say that you can hear us and make sure we can hear you and I'll start with you Dr. Rhodes. I'm here and I can hear everyone. Great. Pamela. I'm here and I can hear everyone. Wonderful and welcome Alexis. Thank you my God I didn't know I wasn't muted. Thank you. Dr. Shabazz. Cheers everyone I hear you fine. Great and Ms bridges. I'm right here I can hear you. I. Great. And Hala. I can hear you can you hear me. Yes. Perfect. I can hear you well. Yep. Thank you. All right. So, Yvonne as I said will not be able to join us today. And I'm going to do a quick review now of the agenda. It looks like we have some meeting minutes to approve. I think Jennifer sent those around but we'll come back to that. I'm going to spend most of our time today talking about our engagement campaign that launched last week at the block party. Really, really excited. Congratulations. It was a great launch. We'll get and talk more about that. And then we have CDB G funds on here as well. But the two things that we really have to get to today are the engagement and consultation campaign. And then we also have the annual stabilization transfer that you see on your agenda. So. You may remember, and Ms. Bridges, I can bring you up to speed on this as well because this is sort of before you came on that every year about this time now, the finance committee will be making a recommendation about the transfer of money from free cash into the stabilization fund. And that's happening soon. And so I wanted to consult with you all about how we may want to. Send something to the chair of the town council and the finance committee, formally acknowledging that we are aware that that's coming up and requesting that that happen. So just something to sort of formalize what's already been made and making that request again in writing, although I think, you know, it's been made, but we want to, I think that would be helpful for us to do that. So. So, and we have Kathleen Anderson is in the audience and Kathleen is going to join us for some portion of our discussion today about our community engagement. Kathleen has been organizing the black assembly of Amherst, Massachusetts. And I believe would like to help us strategize and we would like her help in strategizing how we can reach more residents of African heritage in Amherst. So before we bring Kathleen in, I just want to pause and see if there are any general comments or questions right now. Yes, Dr. Rhodes. I just want to read the last meeting. I wasn't at or had to cut out earlier and part of it was to do with the survey. And I just want to make sure that we don't leave that behind. Without a doubt, you are absolutely right. And that is on here as an item. So we can, we can discuss that today as well. We were going to get an update from you. I think last meeting before you had to cut out about your meeting with the Donahue Institute. So let's definitely make sure that we do that today as well. So let's start with bringing Kathleen in. And thank you, Pamela. And just to frame our conversation today and to be really clear about where we are here in this process. So last week, our engage Amherst page launched. I would like us to review it today and make sure that at least for right now it's everything that we hoped it would be. If there are any tweaks that need to be made, I can pass them on to Brianna. And I wanted to go through and just consult with you about a couple of things, particularly the engagement. Method that we're using for the broader community and see if you have any thoughts and ideas about that. So we launched our engage page. In addition to that, we launched our portal, our inclusion portal. And that's something that we want to have a broader conversation about. With that, we produced a bunch of postcards. And we want to talk about now, how do we reach as many residents of African heritage as possible and invite them to include themselves in the portal? And what other steps do we want to take? Whether it be listening sessions, community forums, anything like that. I can update you all that I believe the Gazette is going to do a piece about our work and about the engagement campaign. I know that the Amherst Indy has already posted in there. I'm very grateful to them for that. And we should talk about other ways that each of us as assembly members can get that information out. So welcome, Kathleen. Can you hear us? Oh, I was on mute. That's okay. So there's been an effort, like you mentioned, to start collecting the names of the African heritage. People who live in Amherst. I think right now, the list has about 130 names on it. What I have been doing is sending the list to all of the people whose names I have. I have been asking them to look at the list. And add names of people who are missing. And that has been pretty helpful. A couple of people have been pretty consistent in adding names. Of missing people. Although. I don't have email address for those people, but I do have their street address and phone number. So I think one of the members has. Express an interest in placing phone calls. To people who don't want to, or don't have emails. So Christina Shabai Shabai has. Said that she would make the phone calls to people who. Don't have an email address. So I think that's a good idea. And then Paula is going to. Set up a zoom call for next Saturday. So that those people who I do have email addresses for. We can meet via zoo. And then talk about the seriousness of this effort. That is real. So I think that's a good idea. I think that's a good idea. To follow through and make sure that. Our intentions. Are discussed and heard. And forwarded to your. Your committee. Other than that, I'm not sure of how to. Get the other names. Well, I should, I should take that back. Yeah. Hi, my name is Kathleen Anderson. And so I've gotten names that way. And idea. That the. Tabling. That the AHA did. Could be done at the grocery stores. That maybe we sit at all the growth. Turn sitting at the grocery stores and. Stopped all the black people who walk in and. Are you resident of Amherst and. Let them know about the reparations. Effort that the town has put forward. And. Meeting in person might also be helpful. So that's something that I know Shabazz and I had talked about. In person meeting. Yeah, absolutely. And I know more and more and more people are starting to again meet in person. And I do see that as. Really helping the efforts. Dr. Rhodes, your hand is still raised. Is that a hold over from before. Okay. And so Kathleen and Dr. Rhodes, just to clarify, as I understand it. It sounds to me like half of the lists. Or so of folks. That you already have, have been emailed today. And they've received the links to the portal and. To our engage page. Is that accurate? Yes, I sent out half of them. And Kathleen is going, I think about half of them. I think it's less actually less than half. I think it's probably a third. Maybe. Good up. And then Kathleen is going to take it up on herself to send the rest out. And the reason why she is doing that is that her bro's is incredibly incompetent. As regards digital communications. So Kathleen is going to take over. Okay. And Kathleen, do you feel, is that, do you have the capacity to do that in the next couple days? Or is that. I just, I just will copy and paste the list and put it into the blind copy and send it out. Okay. Great. And I think herbs sent you. Oh, I sent you some stuff. Herb sent you. So if you need anything, if you need the, the digital design with the QR code, I think has been included as well as the link directly to the portal. So whatever you need though, please do let us know. Okay. Yeah. So the link to the portal is more than just on that. Just on that card, right? Just more than just on the flyer thing. Yeah. That's not linkable. The flyer is not linkable. It needs to be. Separate. And I think that. I saw. The link to the portal and to the information page. Separate in the email. Yeah. So the email that I provided to you and her as a template to use included the engage Amherst. URL, the URL to get directly to the portal. And then the postcard, that's the digital postcard, people can put their phone up to that QR code. Okay. Even if it's on their screen, they can literally just put it up like that. And that. But, you know, you make a point, it may be possible to turn into a PDF for emailing out. And then if it's a PDF, the HRA engage page will be directly linkable. So I can look into that to see if I can do that. Or I can just go out and email. Yeah, but I think what you're saying, right? Is that the, because we want that postcard to circulate. And so if you attach it right now, it's, it's attached as a JPEG. And JPEGs don't allow like the links aren't, they don't take you anywhere. You'd have to like to hype it in like, you know, whereas if I send it to you as a PDF, the link will actually link itself off to the page. Somebody has to, if it's a PDF, it goes as an attachment. Yes. That's the doubt. Exactly. That's the doubt. I mean, those don't actually work for me too well. I agree. I'm. Why I'm saying that I can just send the email with the links that are already included. And the postcard is just another picture that can be. People can see, but they'll have the links already there. That's, that's excellent. That's perfect. Yeah. That works. Dr. Shabazz, I see your hand is up. Yeah, so I wanted to ask if. I was the portal. Address can be made into like a very short and handy. Like perhaps via bitly or something. Possibility of that. Yeah, I think Alexa showed us last time we shortened it that way, but I think that bitly would even shorten it further. So we can look into doing that. I don't think that will change. The only problem is is. Well, actually it wouldn't matter because the QR code, regardless of what we changed that URL to, should still take us to the form. So I was just thinking about the 600 postcards that we just printed. But I think they'll, I don't think they'll be affected if we change it, although I'm not a hundred percent. Postcard. So on the postcard has just the QR code. So I, I don't think that will. No, it won't affect. It won't. Okay. Perfect. So yeah. I think people who are familiar with the QR and doing that, that's going to be great. But we're talking about situations where if we had just a hand, a handy URL for someone that doesn't operate from the, from the QR codes, it would be good to back it up with, with that. I'm seeing right now online. It's docs.google.com slash form slash D slash a very long alphanumeric string. Now that's been saved to. I don't have the postcard handy to see what it looks like on the postcard, but. I'm going to pull it up for you so you can see. So on, I, so earth sent me a copy of this. All I have to do when I get it is put my cursor. On the highlighted. URL. And it'll take me right there. I don't have to do anything else. Just put my cursor there. Punch the cursor and it will take me to the form. Yeah. So the cursor works as well, which is really cool. And Dr. Shippas, this is the actual. I see it now. Yeah. I see Alexis's hand is up and I bet they have something to say. Good about this. Please, Alexa. Well, I was, I was going to say that, um, I think that if we're looking for people to be able to type in something easily, I think that the easiest thing that we have right now is engage Amherst.org slash HRA. That's something that someone. You know, you know, you know, you know, you could potentially remember where I think even the shortened version of the URL or even a bit Lee, it's still going to be a bunch of random letters and numbers that like no one would really be even able to remember. So I think that this might be the best way. This engage Amherst.org slash HRA feels the simplest and something that you don't have to type it in. You can just click your cursor on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I guess we were saying in the event that you're not engaging with it in this particular way. I think that I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't see it necessarily becoming more simple if we add more types of links. So that's, that's just my two cents. I agree with you. So, and that's what I'll. Send the people or let people know as a, as a link is just to click engage Amherst.org. slash AHRA. And then go to where it says click here for African heritage black inclusion portal. Got it. Yeah, that's perfect. And then if we just, I just want to pull this up real quick. I don't know. Let me see how I'm not sharing anymore. Hold on. Okay. And so what's on the postcard that we printed as well is that link that you're all referring to. So at least we know that's what's consistently going to be going around. Somewhere here or there people may come in contact with that direct link that I've included in some emails, but I think that this is the most intuitive, you know, way to do it. So. So let's see here. I had a couple of questions just from sort of a managing, managing this stance. I don't know how to stop my share now. How do I do that? Oh, there we go. Okay. I'm so sorry. Something just came up. I got to go. Okay. Okay. No, that's okay. Bye-bye. So I just wanted to check in with the group about. Keeping the portal secure. So one of the things that we have on there is that people's registered people's inclusion in the portal will be. There will be a numeric code that's assigned to folks so that if anything is ever made public or talked about publicly, nobody would have their names attached to that. So I think that would be a good idea. I think that would be a good idea. I think that would be a good idea. I don't want to keep it very private. But in terms of the assembly, do we want. Right now, Dr. Shabazz and I are the only ones that have access to see who is registering. And so I wanted to ask the assembly for guidance. About whether that should be opened up to all assembly members, whether we keep it as is for now. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's on that. I'd appreciate it. Okay. Well, we can continue to think about that and. And decide how we want to go ahead and manage that. But I think really what's so important right now is that each of us as assembly members. Do our part as much as we can to get this out to folks and to ask folks to share. And I think that's a great question. I think we've talked to Ms. Bridges. I've already talked to, I think Dr. Shabazz. About Dr. Shabazz already picked up a bunch of postcards. But we have about 500 of them. And so I'd love to be able to like tomorrow I'm going to leave some with Ms. Bridges at the bank center. And I'd like to coordinate with others, including you, Kathleen. To give you the physical postcards. We have lunch together later this week. And I think we'll be able to get some of those. And get them to share with you then. So are there any other though? Sort of, I think that I guess what I'm trying to get it is that there are a lot, there's no one black community. There are a lot of communities. And there are a lot of. People maybe that don't even consider themselves to be in a community and we're trying to reach. All of them. So. Dr. Shabazz, I know you had some ideas about how you want, thought we could reach some more folks. And do we want to. Plan some sort of. Forum or listening session. Now for say October. To invite folks for the first time. Who would like to come and. I think we should be able to do that. I think we should be able to do that. And express them their views on this. And I'm talking about residents of African heritage. Do you want to speak to that, Dr. Shabazz? Open for others to weigh in. I certainly feel that the. Some of the things that have been mentioned are good to go, go forward with. You know, to the extent possible going to events. That are being organized. There is starting this week, the stolen beam. Series. And for the, you know, African-Americans who attend, I plan to go with my iPad and hand open to the form. And just to, to talk to people. And if they're interested, they can do it as I keep telling people in videos and things that I'm making on this, you can do it in a minute. In a minute or not more than two minutes. To put in all the information really less than a minute. So I plan to walk with iPad and hand to certain public events that I attend where there might be persons of. Of African descent that are there and invite them to join. So I think we're going through the inclusion portal. Our process. I think that we are. Also finding some youthful energies out there, willing to be boots on the ground to, to go, go places. The key thing there is really just kind of the roadmap. That you aren't just. Since we're talking about less than 9%. We're talking about the inclusion of Amherst, technically speaking, only one out of 10 doors you knock are likely to be. An African American and maybe even less than that. So you'd be knocking nine doors where there's no one of African descent to get the one before you get to one where, where there might be. So I think we really have to think about how to deploy boots on the ground in a way that can be, you know, the most effective and efficient later at the end of the, before the meeting ends, I do have some announcements to make of some upcoming reparations events locally, but, but for right now, the only other thing I would add is, is that we might think about a ground mailing. A ground mailing based upon. I have some of the. I think that we're going to have to look at the ground mailing from November of last year. There may be, there may be a run that's more, more up to date than that. I think you were checking on that. Councilor Miller. And as such, then I've gone through and actually have found names just, you know, recognizing people that are not on the, the BAM list. So I think we're going to have to, we're going to have to look at them to, to Kathleen for our Hala for inclusion to the, to the BAM list. But, but these come complete with, with mailing address. So it could be possible to have a, a mailing may not be only a hundred names, maybe just be a hundred, hundred addresses, but, you know, that's something we could certainly look at doing to make sure that we're, we're again, covering all bases. I'll stop there. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And I did get an updated voter list. As of just a couple of weeks ago. So I have that ready to send to you. So that's available. And I'll just say a couple of things. So I, I have a very, very good friend, my best friend. In fact, who's the director of development at the Hitchcock center. They're doing a lot of work around climate and racial justice. If they might be interested or would be willing to give us space to use for a listening session at no charge. And they enthusiastically came back with a yes. They will offer us free space. And they will also ask that the bus stop be moved. And they will be able to access the Hitchcock center. And they will be able to access the event in front of the Hitchcock center so that if anybody is using public transportation, they'll be able to easily access the Hitchcock. So I, my suggestion is that we get a date set for a listening session and that we use the Hitchcock center's space. It's a beautiful space. And they've offered it to us without any charge and very important. So that's a great issue with that. I will get together with my friend and find out which dates would be available. But if you could give me some general sense of. Like, is it best to have it on a Sunday afternoon, for example, or should we do. A weeknight evening or what are the general parameters that you would think would be best to draw the most amount of folks. So I think we could start with, I think they've, they've sort of offered their space for us to use. And maybe we do two or three, but we might start with doing one on like a Thursday evening or something like that after, like at. You know, seven o'clock or after dinner time. I think weekends can be. More challenging for people to with kids and. And maybe I can figure out a way that we could offer childcare. To make this truly accessible. So maybe we can find a way where, because it's at the Hitchcock, especially we might be able to get somebody who can. Mind the children that may be there with their parents. So if you have any thoughts on that, let me know the other things I was the other piece about the youthful energies. So I am meeting with Cyrus tomorrow, our Amherst, one of our Amherst college collaborators. And I was going to print out the census maps for him. And suggest that he use those. To deploy the senators that are working on this with him. But I know, I think it was you, Dr. Rhodes that said, or maybe you, Dr. Shabazz that said, like, I don't know if you have any questions. I just wanted to ask you, I think some of those blocks that were identified might literally be like all college students, for example. And so how do we. Manage that. I see Kathleen in your hand is up. Please. Yes, I just wanted to ask a question about. The Cyrus person you mentioned. Yeah. Is that Cyrus Clark. No, this is Cyrus Wheaton. I don't know. He's an adult male who's on the list has been a long time resident of Amherst. Okay. I don't have his email address. I thought if this was the same Cyrus that I would ask you for the email address, but it's not. It's not. Yeah. Just to give you a little background. So Cyrus is the. Student Senate president at Amherst college and we recently, the AHA has reached recently formed a collaboration with the student senators and they are helping us with boots on the ground efforts to get the word out. And so that's the Cyrus. The other, the other couple of things that I wanted to respond to that Dr. Shabazz said is the mailing. I think the mailing would be a really good idea once we, if we can cross reference, as you said, Dr. Shabazz, the voter list. So I don't know if, do you feel like you can, once I get you the new voter list, maybe take that on as a, okay, great. And then that's all I have right now in my notes here. Are there any other questions? I'm going to pull up our engage Amherst page in a second. I'm going to make sure that we're all on the same page about that, but. In the meantime, if you do have another question. Oh yeah, please Kathleen, go ahead. So Debra, do you know the boss worths? Yes. Yes. Do you, do you know if any of them are still in town? I'll have to check maybe. I think they're in Springfield. Okay. But there, there are one I'll check with it because. Okay. And also I'm surely have I saw her while we're back in the parking line and stop and shop. And I think she's still a resident of Amherst, right? Yeah, I see her all the time. I'll talk to Shirley. She's my aunt. Okay. And was worth is also related to my grandmother's sister. So if there's another one around still here in Amherst. I have the name of a female boss worth on my list. I can look at it and let you know what it is. But for some reason I'm thinking that she's her name starts with the S. Oh, okay. I'll get back to you on that because I know the boss worse that I grew up with, I think they're like Janice, but I think they're in Springfield. Yeah, I thought, I thought a much of them, many of them had moved to Springfield. Yeah. Yeah. This particular one I was. Okay. When I find that out, but I will talk to my aunt. And yes, she's still here. She's an ID one and she's still here. Yeah. And also her daughter lives with her. That's great. Yeah, we, it's so important that we sort of get the, the best possible way to get there. I think that's a much of a spectrum as possible. Age wise, everything, you know, so that's great. I'm going to just share my screen here. Oh, Dr. Rhodes. Yes. I think I mentioned this to someone. I'm not sure. But somehow we have to engage the schools on this. Because the PGOs. Interact with huge numbers of parents. And I'm not sure if they have. Re-instituted. Open houses for the schools. I did remember that that was something where. Huge numbers of parents will show up. Especially by part parents. So anyway. The PGOs in the school somehow we have to engage them at this. And do you have any suggestions? Does anyone here in the room have contact with any of the PGO coordinators or anyone sort of in the administrative, like that would be, have access to a man getting the mailing list, getting something in the mailing list or the newsletter or something of that effect. Jennifer might be able to help with that. She actually mentioned that there was a PTO. That was a meeting this week. So we can ask her about that. That sounds perfect. And I have a note to ask Jennifer. About upcoming events. Because I know she's aware of a lot of, you know, the events that are going on in the various communities. So we, that's great. We'll ask her about that. And herb, I think that's just a really, really great question. And, and even more so, this is a separate topic because it's not on our agenda, but being that you're on the school committee, how can we involve the school? And I know Dr. Shabazz and I have had some conversations about this. So I'm going to add that to a future agenda. So that we can really talk about that because I know in the beginning of the meeting, we had a meeting with the City Council, the City Council, the City Council, and the City Council's own reparation committee. As a subset of the Evanston reparation committee, the town municipal one. And they have a chair of that committee and that person coordinates with the municipal committee. Yeah, it would be, it would be really a good thing for us to strategize around how best to use that resource. Because it's there. Okay, I'll add that to a future agenda. And so I'm going to share my screen here. I just, I'd like us to briefly go through the engage page. And see what we need to do. To get this in the exact place we would like it to be. I think first and foremost, we need to get a picture. That includes all of us. So that's something that I'm going to ask Paul, if we can use the town photographer, although, oh, Dr. Shabazz, you said you have a photographer. Is that right? Well, I had one that night. He was walking with me, but we got there a little late. Okay. I'm already gone. Okay. I don't know that everybody was there anyway. So. Yeah. So I think we're going to have to do, because everybody's not here today to decide on a day in time. So I know I didn't have a chance to send a doodle pull out with everything going on, but I will do that. And we'll try to determine a time as soon as possible. Unless I'm just just brainstorming quickly. Is there anything that we. Would all be at. Anyway, but. If it would incentivize, you know, I, I don't mind paying for everybody's dinner for one night, you know, and we all go to wherever we want to go, Savannah's or Hazel's or wherever I want to go and I'll pick up the tab if that would incentivize people to all come out in person and get together in one place. At least, you know, my other six assembly members. Super wealthy ones like her roads, I guess, could pay their own way, but. Not if you're offering to pay an offer is enough. Why would you want to take it off the table? Here's another question. Can this picture be Photoshopped and pictures added. I had the same thought. I really did. Yeah. I don't know what the answer to that. I don't know what the answer to that one. Because there's like some spots that are open. I don't know. If Alexis is here, I bet you they would have a good idea about that. And I don't know what the answer to that. Cause it is a great. It really is a great photo. I don't know what the answer to that one. If one, if you have the permission of the original photographer and two, if somebody's got the skills to Photoshop, it certainly can be done. Right. Okay. So what else on here? The thing that I will tell you the piece that I'm most challenged with that I, I know Brianna doesn't have a lot. There's not a lot of wiggle room with this, but it's not a lot of wiggle room. The only ability is to have it be one individual. Like, so she couldn't list. All of us on this front, you know, so you actually have to click in. And then when you click in, you go to read bio. And that's where you actually see the assembly member names. I was wondering if it made any sense to have something somewhere further up that would just at least maybe under the mission would just list the assembly members names. Because, you know, if somebody of a resident of African heritage comes here and they're looking around and they can't really tell who's involved and there's Jen there, but then there's Brianna. They might not know her, but if they see your names, you know, and I think Pamela, you should also be on here. If you, unless you guys have worked out something different. So that's my thought. Yeah, I don't think the software program allows for the capacity, but we can, you know, we could certainly ask that question of Brianna again. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, and even I know she did say like she could just include our names as text in the content part here. So like right here. So we could do that too. I wonder if this is a large enough call to action. The click here for the African heritage black inclusion portal like should we make that bigger and stand out more. Dr. Rhodes, your hand is up as that would please. Oh, okay. So, and then we have some ways that folks can be in contact with us. We have links to the HRE page and then this was the, so we've moved to the census into this newsfeed, which I like. But the quick poll for now, because I just wanted to get something up there for people to engage with is. Oh, that's weird. Just happened. It's going into the back. Yeah, sorry, I know. Let's see here. Yeah. I don't know why I did that. Just like the serve the quick poll didn't seem to. Oh, okay. Quick fall. There we go. All right. So right now this is just for anybody who comes on a scale of one to five, how much do you know about reparative justice one being nothing and five being a lot. So. It's really just very simple. It doesn't. And so if you have any thoughts about some other, I know Dr. Shabazz, we thought about using the five injury areas as a possibility. Oh, miss. Yeah, Kathleen. I see your hand is up. I think you're muted. I thought I had undone the. The microphone mute button. I think my hand was just up from the time before I didn't raise it recently. Okay. So that's where we are there with the website. And let's see. In terms of organizing allies, which is on our action and discussion items. We last week, we had a Mary Porchino come to our meeting. She expressed interest. She has groups of people that are very interested in supporting our work and helping us. And so she had put together some ideas about how we might do that. And she wasn't able to make it to our meeting today. So I said that I would. We would address it, but that we'll come back to that maybe next week when she's able to be here and talk with us about some of the things that we need to do. And so I think that's where we are. I think we're getting some support from the broader community. Part of I think what her. Message has been to me is that there are people in the community who want to get involved who are interested, but they don't know how to plug in necessarily. And we really haven't created any ways for people to plug in at this point. And so we have a lot of people who are interested in that. We have a lot of residents in this community right now. And so if somebody else wants to take on organizing allies who are interested in helping support us. I think that would be really, really wonderful. And we just have to figure out the right ways to do that. And so that's that. All right. I'm going to turn it over to you. Will you tell us. A little bit more about what you said about the survey. Yeah. So. Carrie and I talked. Three weeks ago. Probably. And she was really interested in. Don you into being involved in doing a survey. And. What we spent some time on was. Doing a survey that was random and representative of the African American population. Versus other kinds of surveys. That could be done. What she did indicate to me is that doing a random. Random representative sample of the African American community. Definitely could be done. But it would be a cost. That we would, they would have to determine what that cost was and get, get back to us. And so I said, you know. After I had talked with the group. That we would. Get back to her. To go further with it. In terms of going further, what we would have to do is outline. What we wanted to accomplish. And if we wanted to do a random. Random representative sample of the African American population. And give that to her and then get a cost estimate for. If we wish to do another kind of a survey, then we would have to decide and describe what that survey would be. So that's where it is. Thank you. Yeah, that's great. That's good information. And I think we need to decide. Maybe after we've given this, and I think what we talked about her was giving this. Inclusion portal sometime seeing how many folks we get. Building up there and then added to the, into the inclusion portal before deciding which avenue to take with respect to the survey. Is that. What do you remember? Yes. And just, just remember that, you know. At this point in time. Our time horizon is shrinking on a week by week basis in terms of our expiration date. So, and things that we need to get done. So we need to keep that in mind. If we're going to do this, we're going to have to come to a decision fairly quickly. And in terms of. How we're going to go about doing a survey. And what that survey is going to look like. And keep in mind, there are other people or other groups in town. Who are also contemplating various surveys of the African American population. And we need to keep that in mind. It is. For as I'm concerned, and my two cents. I would love. To have. An African American survey done that's random. And representative. And I do not see it as a one and done thing. I see it as something that that sample. Is in place and changed over time. So that the town and could go back to it. As many times as they wanted to. For example, sort of like a Nielsen. Kind of a survey group that is put together. And it's one and done. So the, the cost is spread out over a number of times. And that's what we're doing. But spread out over numerous times. Yeah. Thank you. And I think you're absolutely right. I know the board of health. I know that D I and crests have talked about surveys. So I think that. That we need a more coordinated effort, maybe a meeting. That includes Pamela. And Carrie from the Donahue Institute and maybe even Paul. And I think that we need to have that conversation. You know what I mean? To see where there might be cross purposes. And what sort of investment does the town really want to make into that right now? Where, as you said, isn't just a one and done type thing. So. Just. I wanted to mention that the CBDG. The CPA grant proposal period is open. It's closing on September 30th. They always take CPA. Application. They also take CPA applications out of rotation. But if we wanted to put anything in for CPA, we would literally need to like hand it over. To somebody. To do it for us in a sense. I don't, I can't imagine. Or at least. To help us because I can't imagine in 10 days that we would be able to get a CPA application put together. And I don't even know what we would be putting together. So maybe it's more that we need to go through this consultation. And then if we want to do an out of cycle. So in terms of. However, in terms of funding, do, does the committee have any problem? And does the committee authorize me to send. A very clear letter to the chair of the finance committee stating that we are aware. This decision is going to be made about that transfer. And that. We are just formally requesting it again. Yes. Definitely. Yes. Okay. Great. Let me address the, how I'm seeing the funding piece. And as Dr. Rosa said, you know, I know our time window is compressed, but for purposes of writing the report. That were charged to write. I think maybe over the coming weeks, we can try to schedule time with, for example, the best person with CPA. To talk about the scope of what kinds of things they fund. Let them, we might could even preface, you know, our invitation to them with a letter or some discussion. I'd be happy to work on that or participate with that to say, here are the kinds of things that might come up. From the community. In relation to things that we think fall under your. Four areas that you fund. Could you come to us or, or we could workshop it to just a couple of people, maybe as opposed to take one of our meeting times, but then bring that information back so that when we are writing our final reports, we could identify areas that are coming up from our consultations with the community to say, and here are possible funding sources. As opposed to us thinking we've got to write a community development block grant right now. Well, we've got to, we've got to write a CPA grant right now. My vision is, is that we're identifying the kinds in our report, we should be identifying the kinds of areas that the community is speaking to being important areas for, for investment areas for reparative funding. Okay. And then from there, the successor body, if should we agree that a successor body, be created or a community black community stakeholders group should come together, then that body would be the one that would vet and would prioritize and conceivably either write for those funds or, or endorse be a space that could endorse for projects that would come before that successor body. So just as an example, if ancestral bridges identify a project concerning West cemetery for certain kinds of signage or certain kinds of memorial monument or something that should be there, that clearly might fall under CPA funding and either ancestral bridges itself might want to write the grant for the project or they may, or we may all know an entity that wants to, to propose that and simply then endorse their proposal. The successor group to AHRA could endorse that proposal from ancestral bridges or from whatever other group might say, here is a project concerning the renovation of West cemetery that would more high, that would highlight more prominently the African-American history that is there, the people that are, that are buried there and we, and that would then be part of the plan spotlighted in the plan, but I don't think our framework right now, certainly we can endorse things if, if an LLC, I'm affiliated with San Cofa Gumbo might propose something. I would recuse my, recuse myself from the vote, but yes, we maybe would, would, would look at that and say, yes, we endorse and ask for the time, you know, and call upon the town to support that, but I don't think it's, you know, and call upon the town to support that, but I don't think know that we, we should be in the business in the few months remaining to go through this consultation process with the community and then to try to write up a plan and as well as having in the background, the possibility of the state legislation for home rule. I think that's still critical because all we're saying there is, and I know the town, I heard that was listening to the town council meeting on this and I know they're still expecting us to work out eligibility, rationales and work out all these things before they would see it, but again, I'm simply looking at it as you create the legislation so that once the, our plan is submitted and people see and say, yes, and they create if they so choose to create the successor group and so choose to create the ongoing process for this kind of work that we outlined that we propose, then from there, you would have the legislation in place that would go already immunize the town legally and that type of thing because the state would have cleared it. But again, I know there's still some things they want to see in the report. For example, maybe it's a matter of kind of, you know, maybe identifying what type of individual reparations we think might be in the picture. If there is a type of housing program, we might envision our housing voucher program similar to Evanston that if that's on the table for us, then yes, that would involve some individual citizens of African heritage, potentially getting monetary compensation. And then that's where you need a home rule legislation that protects the town. And I heard on this someone use the phrase, we want ironclad protection. You know, I don't know that there's ironclad anything in this world, but okay, as best as one could protect the town in the same way that that Evanston stepped out and, you know, has home rule to protect it, then it's the same thing here. So we've got a lot ahead and no, I don't think where we should be in the business right now of trying to sponsor, you know, applications or grants or this type of, any more of that type of thing. But we could certainly endorse things that, that relate to our mission and that we believe relate. Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Shabazz. Yeah, you bring a lot of great points up. And I think even just creating a formula for a successor body to be able to work, as you said, with the CPA with the other granting opportunities on an annual basis, that might be a recommendation that we make is on an annual basis, you know, and I like the idea about endorsements as well. While you mentioned the state legislation, I can't talk about it because I didn't put it on the agenda today in time, but I will say I had an excellent meeting with after I made the agenda, I believe I had an excellent meeting with Mindy and Joe, our delegation. And it, we, I have a lot to report back to this committee about that meeting and the, the legislation. So I'll make sure that's on next Monday's agenda. Let's please do that because I also heard concerning comments from a counselor saying that KP law had, had established a payment framework that was at odds with what, you know, with what the town charter allows. And, and I don't know what KP law document they read versus what I read, but I saw no, no payment scheme in the KP law document that I read. I don't know if anybody else read, I know we're not talking about that now. But again, as I saw that meeting, I was like, well, what document that they were, now it's fine if you want to say the, that the home rule legislation ought to be more declarative about the, the regulatory process in terms of that council will get a vote or whatever. But again, I didn't see that it made any framework about, you know, the percentage of the council that can vote the money and what money, I just didn't see that. I think Camel is trying to stop you and I'm going to stop. Wish of us. Hold that thought. I have it written down and it will, and I heard the comment too. And so we will address all of it next week. Definitely. Okay. That's great. So thank you. Quick question. Yeah, please Kathleen. Yep. Pamela, Pamela, you are not on our list of black residents of Amherst. I don't live in Amherst. But Pamela will be very much involved in our process. Just by virtue of her role on this committee as our staff. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. Okay. And Deborah, the name was Sean. Sean Bosworth. I'll look him up. Like he's a relative. I'm pretty sure he's a relative of Janice, but I'll let you know. Yeah. Let's, if you would don't mind Kathleen, it would be better. You and Deborah to talk offline about that. Just so we're not. Who may not want to be. Okay. Great. So let's just, I'm just. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just looking here. We've covered everything. Was there anything. Okay. So I think I, I, Dr. I noted that you mentioned you had a couple. Announcements that you wanted to make about upcoming events. Would this be a good time? I don't see anyone. I'm just calling for public comment. The only person that's here. Kathleen, you are still considered. If you wanted to make a public comment, this would be the opportunity to do that, but you're basically in the meeting with us at this point anyway. So, but it's up to you. Say that again, I can make a public comment. I was just saying that by regulation, since you came in, since you're an attendee, I have to call on, I have to call on, you know, to see if you would like to make a public comment. I don't have a public comment. But you're basically, you're already like in here with us. You don't have to have a designated time to make public comment right now, but I'm just calling it. I think I don't have a public comment. Okay. All right. So Dr. Shabazz. I, because I know, I think that. At least Ms. Bridges might have to be leaving by three 15. Is that true? Ms. Bridges. I think I can stay a little longer. I'm trying to postpone. I'm here this long. I can do another 20 minutes. Okay. Yeah. And I don't think we'll be that long. I think we really didn't cover a lot, but I'm going to turn it over. Dr. Shabazz. I think you're muted, Dr. Shabazz. Yeah. So I'm sharing just the basics of the five. Okay. So I'm going to talk about the areas of injury areas of systemic oppression and slavery. The areas are education, criminal punishment, health, people, hood, wealth, poverty, also land. And so in these, I wish to spotlight for number two. A good discussion around that injury area of criminal punishment. Tossily McKay has a, has a book out entitled stolen wealth, housing, and a, and it's called, For Mass incarceration. And a program is being organized here at UMass for September 30th. In which they're at from two 30 to four o'clock in the Bernie Dallas room on the UMass campus. With Tossily McKay present on a talking title. The time is. is right for reparations by Tassily McKay. I can send this information out to you all, but it is a discussion of America's long history of unreconstructed racial atrocity in particularly the areas of mass incarceration of how and the debate over reparations to African-Americans and raging in courts and legislatures and across the social sciences humanities and law. So it should prove to be a very interesting meeting and certainly in the book, Stolen Wealth Hidden Power, the case for reparations for mass incarceration should be a good discussion that can allow us even to think about ways in which mass incarceration and as well as systemic oppression in the area of criminal punishment as adversely affected relations in this town, here in the town of Amherst. But more broadly, as we were saying earlier in terms of listening sessions or events, if we could get one on education, have it right there at either the middle school auditorium or the high school auditorium and just have a session. I can provide excellent researchers from the College of Education here at UMass, excellent researchers, I'm sure there are to be found in the district itself that can talk about what has been called the achievement gap, the academic achievement gap. That's simply a euphemism or another way of putting the case for reparations in terms of education, in terms of education, in terms of the effects of systemic oppression, anti-black oppression and slavery in relation to education, the kinds of gaps that have been caused. You know, Lisa Green, Dr. Lisa Green here in our linguistics department and with the Center for the Study of African American Language could certainly speak to ways in which the linguistic effects of racism, of slavery, of miseducation and limited educational opportunities deprived African Americans from being able to have access to standard, so-called standard American English and in fact evolved over the years a distinct language of their own African American language and how the needs for language acquisition can benefit from the knowledge that linguists have produced like Dr. Green has produced in this area. There are others out of our College of Ed besides linguistics that could talk about various aspects of the academic achievement gap and then from there, listen to people. So I don't want a whole long talk session but at least we could have a few marquee names that could talk about the case for reparations in terms of education and just have it right at the middle school auditorium. You know, Irv Rhodes opening the event as one of our officials on our school committee, okay? And then see what kind of crowd we could attract both allies as well as especially African Americans and open the mic for African Americans to talk about things that were highlighted in the original report by researchers like Mattia Kramer and others that talked about the disparity in the rates coming out of our high school that are going on to college, black versus the rest of the population, talking about the graduation rates, talking about other kinds of indicators. Are we at parity or are there disparities? And then how reparations can address that? What are proposals for how reparations could address that? Funding for specialized counselors in the school, funding for specialized folks to work on college preparatory to give college preparatory assistance to African American families in need above and beyond the resources that are there in the school that seem to not be enough, okay? So we could have a listening session just on education, set it up right there in the middle school auditorium or high school auditorium. We have this one coming up on September 30th that can provide a wonderful context for looking at mass incarceration and criminal punishment as an area. Likewise, the board of health has been mentioned and others, we have a school of public health here and I know researchers there that could certainly talk about disparities broadly within health, if not research locally on Western mass or Amherst in relation to respiratory diseases, heart diseases, diabetes, other areas where African American morbidity far exceeds the rest of the population, okay? Black women dying in childbirth, black women dying at a higher rate than any other group in terms of having a child, okay? So that's just in the area of health. But again, a little bit of talk and then listen, listen to proposals, listens to ideas, listen to what people have to say about ways in which reparative justice could address that in health and so on. I've spoken enough, thank you. Thanks Dr. Shabazz, Irv, Dr. Rhodes. Thanks for that, Amirka. I think that's, there's a lot of stuff in there that you said that we definitely could look at, especially around education. We know that here in Amherst, as in other areas of the country, there is disparities and graduation rates, achievement rates, et cetera, in between African Americans and the rest of the population. And certainly that can be examined. And the other thing, the only reason I raised my hand is that I have to leave. And I will be talking with you later. And I think that, again, Amirka, you raised, that is an excellent idea. And I hope that we follow up on it. Thank you. Thanks Dr. Rhodes. Okay, great. So I think we made, this was a great, great meeting. We had a lot come through very quickly. And given that we now are down to just three of us, yes Pamela, I'm sorry, I didn't see your hand. That's right, I just raised it. I'm just gonna follow up and say that if you've decided that you are gonna use those five frameworks for discussing reparations, then perhaps we should act quickly to include them in the next meeting. And then we should also act quickly to include them in the Engage Amherst page and perhaps an event associated with each of them so that there would be a thematic series of events around reparations around each of the five. And that would give you a lot of content for your page as well as perhaps assist people with maintaining interest as they knew that the other topics were coming up. I love that thought. I think that is an excellent framework for us to use in terms of the Engage Amherst page and in terms of potential events. So let's really try to dig into that at our next meeting and actually get the events on the table. So I plan to come back to you all next week with some dates and times for our first listening session at the Hitchcock Center with childcare provided. And then we'll frame this out and see how we can coordinate some events. I think this is excellent. So I think that we covered about everything on our agenda and I just wanna look for hands to see if there are any other questions or comments right now. And also just to check in, did people have a chance to review minutes? Because if not, you did, okay. So will we be able to approve the minutes that are on the agenda today quickly? Okay. So I am going to move to approve the five to 2022 and the five, nine, 2022 meeting minutes. Is there a second? A second. Great. And I'm gonna start with you, Hala. I think even if Hala isn't available to vote right now. I'm available. Sorry, hi. Oh, that's okay. Hi. Okay. Ms. Bridges. Yes. All right. And Dr. Schbaas. Yes. And I'm a yes. So those pass unanimously. Sorry I can't ask you for a vote, Kathleen. But it's so great that you're here with us. Thank you so much, Kathleen, for joining us today. Really, really appreciate it. And I think there will be more opportunities for that as your schedule allows as well. All right. Happy to sit in when I can. Thank you. Really appreciate it. All right. So I am going to, if there are no other, Pamela, is your hands up? Okay. I'm going to, if there aren't any other comments during the meeting at three 20. And thank you all very much. Great meeting. Bye, Michelle. Bye. Thank you. You're welcome. Bye.