 So if there isn't a quorum, you can couple different things. You can, you have a huge group here. You can just chat. Can't make any decisions. Can't make any emotions. It's not usually the most useful meeting time, but you have that option. And then the other option is to set another time. A certain to meet. And then. And I think, I think the thing is that we should, like that we should check in on that we didn't check on two weeks ago when we, we ended up canceling too was stipend outreach, just like check-ins. And then the Vermont League of cities and towns, town fair applications are due Friday. And so that, that was looking to be another business thing anyway, but like, I think if people just want to say like, I'll be applying or something. And then the things that we maybe need, we can maybe discuss now, but have decisions about later are like partnerships with other community group opportunities. So like the public arts commission reached out like a month ago now. And so we should get back in touch with them. And then I think it's also just like this discussion of like committee, other committees and other city DEI trainings. I don't know if all of you guys get this too, but I feel like we, I just like people are like, you will know who my organization can hire to do this thing. And I'm like, like, no, like they don't, they don't exist. Like there's not enough of them. Like we need, there needs to be more. And so just like, if there's not, if creative discourse can do DEI training, like if there's other potential processes that we should go through to solicit kind of a list of folks who can do those trainings, but maybe holding off on making decisions about that, making decisions about partnerships, other community groups, and not discuss our project priorities. Next steps, how does that sound? That worthwhile. Maybe end it early. You can do that. Should we start with that first one that I was just talking about of the committee and DEI trainings. Have other people been getting this too? I'm just like, yeah, Cameron was, I get, or Cameron, do you want to just like explain what the emails were for following our last meeting? So I reached out to creative discourse and sort of asked them what their recommendations were for standalone trainings or sort of trainings that we could bring to staff. Like I said before, we sort of piloted the whiteness at work training and got a mixed result, like mixed feedback on that. So that wasn't something that would be easy to roll out to all staff. So we're looking at sort of what trainings can be given to all of our staff and creative discourse. Let me just pull up the actual email. So I'm not like misquoting her. She said most of the DEI colleagues are moving away from one time trainings towards longer term relationships, but we could check in with Abundant Sun or CQ strategies to see if they are able to offer anything or have other suggestions. So there wasn't really a definitive like, yes, we can help you. It was more like just ask around and see, you know, I think having a longer term relationship is fine. We, you know, we need funding for that. But, you know, we can't make any progress if we don't get started somehow. So it just seems like there's just more investigation to do with, I guess, Abundant Sun and CQ strategies. Well, that was my question for you, Cameron. That's a two part question. First is in terms of the logistics of getting people to go to go to trainings. If it's all going to be a long term thing. Is that going to get in the way? Is it going to be harder to recruit people because it's, you have to sort of build into their schedules. Another thing. Yeah, that was the feedback we got about the whiteness at work training is that it was like longer and it took, you know, multiple classes and they were long. And it was, I don't want people to resent training because it takes them away from their jobs, right? And they, you know, care very deeply about getting their jobs done. And that was a very difficult thing about that ongoing training. And we have had quite a few required large scale training for staff. So might be a good option to look into. I'd love to just share that my perception of, of doing this work and it's based on what I've been involved with is that, you know, I think what it requires to really have a personal shift is to do like that long term. Like I did, I've done two different study groups on two different books. I was about to join a third one that was going to start in a couple of weeks. And, but, and I think that that is what is, is really helpful is like the constant reminder and the constant self-reflection because as white people, that's where we, I think we really need to start is looking at our own biases and understanding how we, how we continue to impose those biases and, and prop up the existing structures that are racist in, in our systems, right? So that doesn't solve the problem, but that's my, I think that's actually a better way to do something. But I also think in the workplace, like it's extremely difficult to ask people to do that. Yeah, I was just looking back through, because we sent out an RFP that was due. March 18th of 2020, which is funny to remember. But the people who answered the RSVP included CQ strategies. And that's really, that's Kathy Johnson, who lives in Montpelier. And like, I feel like Lauren and I have both done trainings with her organization through our work and maybe others of you have too. And we ended up getting three proposals. So it was Gannon Morris, Gannon and Morris, which I have not heard of other folks using, using them. And then equity solutions, which I think is based in Brattleboro as well as CQ, creative discourses. And so they're all kind of like, you know, we really wanted someone in Vermont based. And obviously the goals of what we wanted to have from that process was much more like strategic planning oriented rather than like training oriented. But I know, I think that's, I think CQ strategies is more training oriented than strategic planning oriented. And I could be wrong there. But I guess I've just like, I think this is something that is probably going to be really helpful. You know, you don't have to go through an RFP for this city, right? Like you can just like reach out and schedule, like talk to folks and schedule something kind of, okay. But then also, yeah, just like thinking that could be like a resource that we could provide at, at CJAC is like on our website. Like if you want to learn more, we're not the people to do this, but reach out to these other groups for example. I just feel like the past like three months, I've gotten like seven different requests from folks. And I'm just like, I don't, I haven't done that thinking. So we, we're not making any decisions, but are there any other like next steps or discussion around this? I'm sorry. I'm got the train. Um, you know, that's something that I can continue to push forward. It's just see, I mean, that's like a goal of mine anyway, is to, to get training for staff. So I'll just continue investigating that. And I'll reach out to CQ strategies. Um, I don't know if you have any numbers updates, Cameron of applicants or anything else. And if, um, which, if there's any more discussion around stipend outreach. We have four people, I think off the top of my head. Um, who signed up, which is two more than the last time I talked to you. So. Yeah. Doubles our participation. Do we know of any like new applicants? When has that been a recruiting tool? We have had, we have quite a few, um, committee. Why can't I think of the word? Thank you. We have lots of applications to do tonight for council. Um, they, I, there's no question on our form. And it's about that yet. So, um, I don't know, but, um, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe become a committee member first and then they can apply for the stipend. Right. Yeah. Okay. How has the posting and outreach been going. Folks. Well, I did my, the one, the. 10 days or so that I was supposed to do it. And they never kicked me off. So. I guess that I guess it was the, and I did follow up to see when it, when it turned up. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to say. Um, But. It's, it's easy and apparently they don't care. How many times we, you know, we tried to do this. The question is, you know, is it, it's worth the effort. It's not much effort, but. Right. Do we want to keep doing it? Reminding people. It might be, it might be useful to. We have to, we can hold off. Any vote at any action anyway, but. To see the results of the city council this, this. Tonight in choosing new people for boards. Yeah. Then we can see if there's much of a need for it. Right. Can't think of another. I mean, I think front porch forum is the one that's easiest to do. And, um, since they don't, they don't, they don't monitor the number. I think the newspapers all would say, well, we did this week. We just. Um, and actually when I sent the press release to. VT digger, I got a very nice note. From. Oh, what is her name is Cassandra saying, oh, I just wrote an article about that. So. Um, they didn't put in the letter of my, my press release, but that was okay. We got a full page or I think it was a. Half page instead. Yeah. Yeah, I think we know for elections, like people need to be reminded nine times to actually vote for candidate. And so it's like probably more than that to like, actually submit an application and to remember that they wanted to do this thing and make this commitment. It's a much bigger commitment. So I'm just continuing to bash people over the head with. I think that's what I was offering seems good. Okay. Other business remotely of cities and towns, town fair. I think, um, let me pull up an email. Thanks for getting that to us Cameron. So, um, they're looking for applicants for their welcoming and engaging communities cohort. Um, and they have like a town fair panel discussion on equity, which will also give admission to the town fair applications are due on Friday. And then the town fair itself is. October 7th and killing 10. Um, and they're looking for like, if your town has a story to tell, they want to hear it. And as it looks like it's like two different asks, it's like, an ask about like. Montpelier's justice diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging success story. And it's like a engaging community is cohort. Of, um, Like eight to our workshops, um, paired with opportunities for municipalities to collect key inclusion and belonging metrics by surveying officials. No, I can't. I'm trying to read and do too many things. Um, Do you know more about this Cameron too? Or have you really don't. I've never been before. Or if anyone's been before or knows anything more. I went in like 2019. I've seen it. In the, in the 2020. And, uh, I mean, it's just a, it's just a conference. It's, it's not. But it's like a local conference to get to know folks. Um, It might be worthwhile to go to that, that talk. Yeah. Panel. Is anyone planning on applying? I mean, I think someone from. staff and then I think usually at least one or two counselors go so if we wanted to you know ask anyone if they if there's any like panels we particularly hope they might go to or connections to make or anything or like if they've got handouts or you know like we could we could certainly like pass along a message I think with the work commitments I can't do it that day but yeah um I know bill is going and maybe Kelly our finance director no I'm Kelly do you know if they got this email should we forward it to them okay I I guarantee you they got it but I will do them again great so maybe I'll just respond to her and kind of give you update then we're at um and I just got a text back from Pelin that she's planning on joining I think so maybe we will get or should we just wrap up and call it a day it's up to y'all well I'd like to just we weren't able to get a very large in response to the last time we tried to get committee chairs to to meet and follow up but I'm wondering if it makes sense to for us to kind of create a list of the committees where we think we have most the most to offer them whatever that might be and really focus our efforts to work with with with committees in in town as I said so something to think about and then and where you know which would those committees be and what would be our criteria for kind of in a sense targeting a few places rather than just putting out these big general invitations to which nobody you know very few people reply hi Pelin and yeah I think like the public arts commission reached out to us like a while ago now and was wanting to find ways to collaborate and so does anyone want to like connect with them directly or yeah what's like do we have next steps with with that did everyone get that email I could do that who's yeah who's the contact person for that word Joyce is their chair and Josh Jerome is their staff support and Michael will connect so that's great that was like something that's been hanging over my head for like over a month so we can respond to them and get them in contact that's great thank you and then but Michael so like yeah are you thinking of like how what are the other groups that we want to be doing that concerted like we go to their meetings they come to ours and we you know like I guess like Carol how is this working for you do you like you know should we come to your meetings to or are you know housing or other groups does that make sense are you looking for my feedback now if you have any thoughts or like you know you've been coming to the you've come to a lot of these meetings and so just like would it be helpful if we came to your meetings or if we set up a more specific partnership or or I actually hadn't thought about I hadn't thought about that I hadn't really thought about that but Cameron is part of our advisory board that would be the meeting right and I so I think we already have that connection so I and if anybody else wanted to sit in on one of our advisory board meetings that would be great if we were you know especially if we were having a conversation about DEI which we what we've been doing at those meetings is they've wanted to the members wanted to create a study group on the book called the Little Book of Grace and Restorative Justice so we've been doing that and they took two months off this summer and we're going to finish up that book but I think it would be helpful actually to if we wanted to formalize a relationship and keep doing the work together and I've told Cameron this a few times that you know on behalf of the city I would like to be part of how the city rolls things forward if at all possible if I can fit it into my schedule and if there's a place for me to do that because you know just because I'm part of the leadership team so um and that's part of the reason that I come to these meetings is because I want to know like what are the priorities what's going on and you know how I can be helpful um I I do want to say that because I'm getting you know I'm also hearing that you know the whole idea of the recruitment thing and I'll just say that what the thing that worked for us when we were looking for volunteers I think was that that Sally wrote and she just wrote a two sentences about her experience as a volunteer and that we had 21 responses to one front porch forum post so um and then we've gotten I think eight eight new volunteers out of that so I think you know if rethinking like if you just say oh come and volunteer with us we'll tell you about the opportunities that's one thing but if you if you have something specific and you can tell a story about what the experience is going to be like I think people better connect to that and I think most people aren't looking for the money I and I think you know getting people to join who maybe need the financial support or would take advantage of the financial support I think is going to happen through direct relationships actually I think that's where going to places where those people are for however that works out maybe at like the you know the the Wednesday farmers market at the at msac or wherever it is that those people are food pantries or something um to do some outreach there I mean if you're looking for people with lived experience I think that's you're going to have better potential connecting with people and I think it's going to be relationship related I guess like Michael are you thinking I do have like a more thoughts on a proposal of who to do outreach to for partnerships or why or um how to go about that process well I can think of the you know the committees that are most closely associated with issues that we're concerned about housing the group um you know what was even well the tree board has some interesting issues about or questions about where to plant trees in places where there aren't any trees and you know like in public housing and stuff like that so and John snow is very tuned into those kinds of those kinds of questions so I think if we look around and just sort of quietly approach the chairs of of each each of the committees where we think there's an an obvious connection they might tell us what they would want from it from us if anything and I know we've got like the list of committees and we have this idea of going to all the committees as well and so and that was just like that's not going to be possible but like right there are 30 committees and that's when I tell 30 committees in the population of our town they said well who's not on the committee well Michael you're on all of them so that makes it easy no I'm not anymore this is the only committee I'm still on and the only wow sorry and actually my term is up in September whoa okay and and I don't know if I don't know if there's a term limit but I've been on since the beginning and um you know maybe maybe I I am ineligible I don't know who knows that I don't think I do and there's no term limit for y'all okay thanks thanks for being that institutional knowledge Michael um I mean but yeah do do you have like should we be going to the housing board the tree board potential you know the advisory board um the camera's on already are there other specific next steps for this conversation I'll send y'all their meeting schedule okay well I think there's that and just getting the list of all 30 committees in front of us and sort of going through them and you know each of us doing a kind of checks well I can think of a way in which we might connect then we can at least narrow down do that kind of narrowing down before we before we have we start sort of groping around but using personal contacts this thing if that's accessible enough to do that right now in the meeting you know it's easy to get the list just that we just have to sort of sit down I think each of us down just think about you know is this one that we would that we would like to connect with and another way we could think about it is and maybe this is something like that Cameron um could help us with but like especially as we get to strategic planning and budget like like what are some of like the big projects that are coming up and what are you know equity implications of those so you know what are like some either kind of higher profile higher budget like I don't know things that are going to be like big projects the city's taking on and you know like the Elk's property you're you know like maybe picking a few big projects that are going to have big implications for the city as opposed to like trying to focus on entire committees and their body of work could be another way we could think about it yeah that was like our first agenda item so let's maybe now that we've got forums circle back to that of like discussing project priorities and next steps and just I think we've been kind of stopped I feel still very stuck on like how do we make that decision and I think we were like let's high let's bring in a consultant to help us with that again and then it's like or if the city knows what the big and what these things are can we just name them and support backwards from there so we've got Elk property yeah what are housing housing and homelessness right um what are the other pieces I guess Lauren you probably know off the top of your head yeah I mean I think we could go probably through the strategic plan and look yeah like what's the things I think your idea of like what are the criteria we would use to pick and like how many projects do we have capacity if we wanted to go that route which to some degree I feel like we need a little bit of like proof of concept to like work on a few projects and then our work with other committees will we can demonstrate like what what that looks like and the value it can bring right now I think it's just too amorphous for probably a lot of people but yeah so I mean you know it's like environmental stewardship so there's like our net zero and there's you know like Confluence Park there's there's so much going on so I think you could maybe look through that um the strategic plan is one place that has a lot of like high-profile projects and that will be updated we're doing that in that schedule for like October Cameron so September actually September so September and it's basically 2023 it's ridiculous well something that you that Lauren just said in passing so rang a bell the question I have is well what do we bring to this what is it that we are offering except sitting in on their meetings well I can speak for myself and thinking about like the Elks Club right we have you know a recommendation for a project manager going to council tonight and how that group that project manager group interacts in that public sphere right because half the project is really getting public feedback on ideas and concepts and making sure that we are and they are contacting the people who are most likely to be affected or the folks who um maybe are traditionally overlooked in public process I think is going to be a huge deal and I think we'll need like assistance to get there right and so I think that this group is an amazing resource to do some of that boots on the ground work too if needed right like can can do so much this group could help can could help like really make sure that other perspectives are being listen to and brought to the table I see that as like a huge benefit of this kind of committee because you've already looked at some of the issues and you have recommendations from creative discourse about groups that need to be brought to the table like English as a second language groups that we have it's a growing community in Montpelier I'm bringing them to the table I think that's a would be a huge benefit and I was putting like the budget impact worksheet that we developed in 2020 which is like not quite a one-to-one but like has some of those broad questions that could then be more specific to these projects and just like a list of marginalized populations to think through of how this is going to impact kind of thing potentially well I have a question about Cameron's Cameron's point when we uh worked with creative discourse they they would not tell us who they spoke with so if we're gonna start trying to help other committees we really should be able to get access to some of those names so that we can pass them along I mean otherwise I think we're as much in the dark as anybody else but I mean we know what the I mean yes but they told us they're not going to give us those so that's like a moot point right so how do we recognize that they spoke to X demographic how do we go and do the work to find out how to contact that demographic I think that's part of the work they're not going to do they're not going to give us that information so we just got to figure out a different way to get to that there are you know affinity groups that we can work with or talk to in a respectful way remember when we this was like years ago at this point but we had also created like mailing lists of our own affinity group contacts yeah and um you know it's I think it's time to to re look into those I just don't I just don't think it's as um dire is that Michael I think we're gonna be fine so just to summarize this it sounds like the the resources that we can provide are like asking the right questions making sure folks are engaging people who potentially are going to be most impacted by these decisions we have some lists of what that could look like and we can just do specific personal outreach as well build relationships yeah so I very embarrassingly have not read I don't think I've read over this strategic plan or if I have I've forgotten it and so I'm like oh that's a oh that's new and so um I don't feel really ready to like facilitate this conversation of like where do we want to focus um we have like kind of like the strategic plan and then we like the list of of committees um and I'm not really sure how to integrate those if that makes sense if anyone has any ideas that's what I'm looking for facilitation support oh do I not have the right thing up no you do there's a live um we have a live dashboard that gives updates on each focus goal the dashboard is my baby and I care very much about it so I want everyone to stare at it all the time so beautiful Cameron thank you really really great can you send the link to that to the dashboard in the chat yeah okay I'm sorry I don't look at this every day now I know what I need to do well technically it only gets updated quarterly so you're not you're okay you're still embarrassing for me I'll forgive you I mean I think this could be something if you want to y'all come like maybe next meeting look this over and then come back with some of your like the things that you think are the most impactful that are coming up in the next year that you want to sort of focus more on there's also tons of opportunity if you want me to bring other staff members to talk to about projects and sort of the impacts of those projects and maybe help them think through like who is this going to be impacting most that would be I can do that too just let me know is the Elks Lodge is that that's happening like does that make sense as a place to start just because it seems like we know that that is a process that's going to have or are we're like reviewing the proposal now and so it makes sense to hold off for a little now we've got so our RFP came back we've had four responses we interviewed two on Monday and we made a recommendation to council yesterday so that's I will get I will pull that up and link that for y'all so no that is definitely happy happening council will vote to approve or not the recommendation tonight um if you click into agenda items and files at this link you can see item 10 we have all four proposals linked along with our recommendation in the cover sheet so that is a big project coming up very exciting I mean it does seem like a particularly good one because it's going to be I think there's a lot of opportunity where public input could shape this in a way that is maybe like more so than many other projects where it's more like maybe tinkering around the edges or something and this one it really feels like public input will be really important so like what who is participating and how is that input being considered and and stuff so it feels like one where you know and it's like touching on housing and recreation access and like there's a lot of components to it so I think it could be a particularly good one to kind of really think through like what we were talking about a few minutes ago about like what how we could help you know try to support groups to do more robust public input processes and think through proposals and planning in a way that really takes that input into consideration in a more thoughtful way and whatever so it seems like a really good one to me but maybe like I like the idea of everybody looking through since not everybody has spent lots of quality time with a strategic plan like Cameron and I have so like looking through that and seeing like what else jumps out to people but that one seems kind of like a really good one to be on our list for now from my perspective I agree it's the biggest profile project we have I think that involves a public component besides maybe Confluence Park but this one is doesn't have a plan yet so that's the exciting part Michael how does that sound knowing yeah okay Helen thumbs up cool so it's kind of a combination of this like reviewing project priorities next steps and partnerships with other community groups um check in on community other DEI training stipend outreach on the business we will I think we've we've captured kind of all the big things I think just going back to kind of our business meeting our meeting what am I trying to say are like regular but our meeting business I don't know like reviewing our minutes um I don't know what I'm trying to say I'm sorry that was a minute so again these minutes are from July 27th because we didn't have a forum at our last meeting so it's summertime summertime in Vermont go on vacation yeah until tomorrow when school starts you know like you want a motion to prove I'll make that motion Michael makes a motion to approve anyone want a second my second Helen seconds all in favor I any post all right motion passes um okay I'm I'm sorry let me just pull up the agenda again so I think our next steps here are um I will pass along the update about the VLTC workshop um Michael will connect to the public arts commission um and then we're all going to review the strategic plan and the city committees um kind of side by side and see where we want to start with partnerships and engagement and reach out to Cameron if there's other kind of interim things uh or like other other outreach that we should do in the next you know two weeks before our next meeting um to have more conversations and then we'll be applying kind of our equity assessment tool and connecting folks to others in our community through our personal relationships recognizing that the Elks Lodge could be a good place to start but that we might want to for a public process but that we might want to also be looking at some other things do we get through it all with 10 minutes to spare or how are folks feeling anything else we should talk about shaina so um as I mentioned to shaina ahead of time I was uh I wanted to come to the meeting just get updates on how things are going with cjap and without the intention of writing anything about this yeah um so this has been helpful to me and just for looking down the road for example when you're talking about the stipend outreach that's you know that's something on my list to do a follow-up article about how how the stipends are going so um shaina if you or Cameron or somebody else wants to contact me I had a point when you have you know it's like some clear information to work with but right now so you have you know you've had four people sign up and you have some other things in the works um but it helps if if there's a particular event or number report or something that um makes it easier to focus an article but so definitely you know for the next couple months we want to do something for the bridge about about how the stipend program is going also with the dei training there are a lot of possibilities for doing an article about that too about what the city has done what approaches it's taking and you were talking about you know the differences between one time trainings and the the challenges of doing ongoing trainings but you know that again taking a doing article about dei training is a another good possibility and if you have ideas of at a specific time again as opposed to writing a random article when there's you know when there's some some specific thing happening that um really increases the news value of it so those are you know in particular the stipends on dei training two two uh articles I could do in the near future when you have some specific things so just so let me know on that things I mean I think you heard we're definitely in this transition time where we're like working on playing these things out and working on figuring out what's next and so I think for the stipends yeah definitely like at least two weeks as we got these new people joining it you know joining the vacant seats and then um kind of seeing where that's going and then remind I think just reminding folks sounds great and then um for the training I'm trying to like I don't know I don't think there's like specific outreach that is like going to be you know specifically helpful around that unless someone else has other thoughts but um I think like right just similarly like nothing urgent right now that we're like Tom can you write this story but like potentially in a couple of months but that I think we're yes just still trying to settle things out the general topic is I understand maybe it may be difficult to have specific timing for an article but it really is that's a major thing you know the the training of a city staff and increasing awareness DEI issues and and helping people to do a better job so it kind of underlies a lot of the work that you do so cool yeah thanks we will see you in touch and thanks for coming thank you so I wanted to just sort of confirm we've got sort of the same um agenda topics except next time we'll be sort of reviewing um the strategic plan and talk about the Elks Club project a bit talk about stipend outreach and then follow up on training outreach that I'm going to be doing so that sound right for an agenda good so your next meeting is scheduled on the seventh if that sounds right for everybody right um also this news is public but I did put in my um notice and my last day with the city is going to be September 22nd so I've got two more meetings with y'all oh my gosh so yay but also sad yeah so just letting y'all know so it's not coming as a surprise disappointment yes surprise yeah I'm just like yeah but what are we going to do without you selfishly is where I'm at that's my knee jerk reaction so I will feel more just like yeah more gratitude I am yeah I'm grateful thank you big shoes to fill Cameron yeah gonna be very missed in this role thank you thank you thank you thank you you should come together in person and just you know say goodbye to you if you want yeah I'm down we could have a meeting in person yeah I mean another meeting gathering party celebrate Cameron and the lack of this committee is productivity forever the end of the end of our um success no that's not true at all just kidding but I'm that's I'm happy for you I think sorry so yeah I'm just taking it in okay um I'm sorry um but yeah maybe on the 21st does that make sense or on the 7th does anyone have any preference can bring some scones 7th is better for me because I will be out of town um on the 21st great and I'm not part of the committee but I would love to attend on the 7th as well I'll also be out of town on the 21st so I would plan to drive that early to Montpelier home for that all right so I should plan for sort of scheduling a meeting room for that morning let's do it yeah okay all right thank you bring coffee and scone I don't know I'm thinking of scones I was like that's the thing that I used to make in the before days we would have morning meetings not on zoom but okay we'll see you guys in two weeks in person wow yeah great thanks everyone okay bye bye