 Okay. Sorry about that. All right, so Stella's a minute taker and our first item on the agenda is to review and vote minutes from the previous meeting. Does everyone reviewed the minutes. I move that we go ahead and accept these minutes from August 24. Second. Thank you. Let's do a voice call. D. Yes. This is your first names Jesse. I don't. Yes. Andra. Yes. I was not present so I'll abstain. And Lori. Yes. And it's a yes for me as well. And yes for Steve. Oh, yes for Steve. Sorry. All right. Let's open up to the public for any comments. Please raise your hand if you have any comments. Okay. No public comments. So the next item on the agenda is staff updates. So I have an update for, for Stephanie. So Stephanie got promoted to the director position in Amherst. So she's a director of sustainability. So she wanted to also say thank you to Andra and Laura for all the support. So again, thank you, Andra and Laura. Really appreciate it. Totally well deserved. And guess about time. So I'm glad that happened. Is she still going to be working with us? Yes. Okay. Cool. Did we know what it means? I think she'll probably tell you, but I think what she did was she took items from the car created basically a job description for the role. So she's essentially going to be doing the same thing supporting us. I don't think it means that there's an open role that they need to fill. It's still going to be one person that we have. And I know we've talked about this being a bottleneck and that's something that will continue to press forward. But yeah, so it's no changes in terms of what we're doing and her role. It's a promotion for her. That's well deserved. Any updates from you? Yes, go ahead. Hi everybody. Sorry, it feels weird to just stay with with not raising my hand. I don't have any updates at this time. So Stephanie and I did get permission to meet. We're just, we just need to find a time to do it. So apologies for the delay on that things have been a little nutty. And other than that, I don't have, I don't have any updates that are specifically pertaining to ECAC at this point. Thanks Anna. Thank you. And Anna, you're going to talk about the capital inventory memo today. No, so that's what Stephanie and I are meeting about. And we haven't had a chance to do that yet. Sorry. I have a question. And then I have a question from. And then don, you have an item on the agenda around. See face or pace. And I know you emailed me saying you need some more time. Will you be ready for the next meeting? Or probably not because you're on occasion. On mute. Confused. Is the next meeting is three weeks from today. Is that right? I will be ready three weeks from today. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I thought of a question for Anna. She's still available. Yeah. Go ahead. I just wanted to see if there's any updates on the process for revising the rental registration bylaw. Out of the loop and just was curious if how that's moving along. You know what, I don't know that there are any updates. I do know that it's moving along and they're hoping to have it done to us. I believe later this fall or closer into fall. But let me look up that really briefly. It is, it's still in CRC. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. No problem. And Steve, let me know if you want them to consult you again and they haven't, I can, I can get on them about that. Okay. I'll let you know, or I'll reach out to Mandy Joe. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. Any other questions from. Right. Any. Yes. Sorry, but this is related to a previous comment. I first apologize. It's good to see everybody. I missed the last two meetings. I'm not sure if I missed the meeting. From the beginning, but I missed two in a row. And I apologize for that. And I just wanted to be clear just for my own calendar. We're not meet. We're meeting on the, what's now the 26. Is the next meeting. And then are we meeting the very next meeting next Wednesday? Are we going to start going every two weeks after that? So the. It's a ladder. So the next meeting is on the 28th of this month. So in three weeks. And then it'll be two weeks after. So October 12th will be the next one. Gotcha. Okay. Sorry. I misspoke. Okay. So the 28th. Yeah. Sorry. I was looking at October for some reason. Okay. So it's the 28th. And then every two weeks after that. Okay. Thank you. Does it work for everybody? I think we agreed that work for everybody. Okay. Okay. I don't see any answers. There was a reason we did that. Wasn't there. Yeah. A lot of people are out next week. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the next for the next meeting in two weeks. Okay. It's a holiday. Okay. Any other. It's just a good time to bring up the. Black party. Yes, I was just going to bring it up. Yes. I think we should be there in some form. I think. It was a really good way for us to. You know, You know, We don't have to have members and. Make our presence known. We don't have to have a fancy display. We could just have, you know, and easel with a pad, big pad paper and. Ask people what their priorities are. You know, we got real fancy the first time we did it. I think that's not necessary. It's on Wednesday, Thursday. Thursday, five to nine. And we don't have to fill every slot. Decide. You know, we'll just be there five to seven or whenever we have people who can. Unfortunately, I'm, if it's next Thursday, I'm still out of town. I think it's a great idea. Andra. Could you explain what was done last time? Was it last year or several years ago? No, it hasn't happened for. Two years. Okay. Jesse, you explain. So. Block party is a pretty great event actually in our town. A lot of people come out. The town puts a lot of effort into it. And it's really. It's the. All the restaurants come out. They closed down. They closed down. They closed down. They closed down. They closed down. They closed down that stretch in North Pleasant street. And the last time we were there, there was a lot of people. And we. Absured a lot of what they had to say from little kids to. Professors. High school, every, everything we were stationed right next to sunrise, which was great. So there was a little cross-pollination there. But I think Andra's right. I think all, you know, we had a whole digital survey. That we put forth. And I think Andra's right though. Let's go analog. I think. Pad of paper. Place to sit. Any, just some kind of. Simple signage or anything just to say. I think also a great chance to sort of. Tell people what we've been up to. Be ready to practice our elevator pitch, et cetera. I actually, I, I do think it was a pretty successful and it ended up being kind of a kickoff to a lot of our other outreach that happened over the. The forthcoming. Time and just nice to humanize the whole process. Is that my missing anything. Yeah, I think it's a great opportunity for us and. I think we can. Jesse, can you make it. Next Thursday we do something. Or anybody who's. And anybody. I assume so. I haven't left. Haven't left ever since three years. Hope it's not next Thursday that I do. What was the time span five to eight. I think it's nine o'clock. Yeah, it doesn't really make sense to be there much. You know, after dark, because then the. Yeah. College students take over. It's nice to be there when the families are there at the beginning. I know you said in the email that you can help support lead it. Do what help do you need? What are you thinking? We just, we have to get a table. Spot. And I don't know. I mentioned it to Stephanie. Before she left and she said. She wasn't sure if we need to go straight to the bid or if. We could go through the town manager's office. So. That's a. I could probably do it. It might be better if it came from the chair. I don't know. I was just going to say I could do it. Okay. And then they'll, you know, tell us where the table is. I guess we could bring our own table if they don't have them. I think. They did provide a table last time. Do you remember Jesse? Don't know. Or we just snuck on the edge of the sunrise table. No, no, I think it was the other way around. And, and we might want to do that again. I know that the couple of the climate organizations want to. Be there. And we're probably not going to have like a lot of stuff to put on the table. So it would be. Good for us to have like. One thing. I don't know. Did we have a handout, Jesse? Yeah, we had. We had a sign and a handout and a digital survey and an easel. And pads. And. So I don't have access to an easel and pad. If anyone else does, I'd be happy to pick it up. And, and do the setup. You don't, you don't think the sign exists anymore. Jesse. No, it's a, it's been repurposed. I know how that happens. I think we can bring an easel and some, some markers and, and if anyone who shows up at five o'clock or so to set up, we can make something pretty. Okay. That sounds good. And if we need a tent, I do have one. I think if a tent is required, we shouldn't go. It's required. It's raining. Oh, no, but it does help to kind of. Define your space. Might want it. Cool. Yeah. I'll bring an easel and markers and someone else brings some creativity. Okay. Good. And can I let a sunrise and mothers out front and. Some of the other organizations know that. We're trying to get a space. Yeah, let me contact bit as well. And if I get approval, I'll let you know, Andra, and you can communicate. Okay. Good. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Any other thoughts on that or additional suggestions that we could. Take. I would, I would just suggest that I'd love to be there, but I can't, but I would suggest that there, that we know who's covering what hours so that we're sure to have someone there and we don't run into. A problem with the last minute. So I don't know if we can do that offline. Just make a sign up sheet somewhere. Maybe just have people sign up for an hour here and hour there. If I recall from last or whenever it was a few years ago, it's helpful to have even two people there at a time. Yeah. Cause often you're talking to someone and somebody else comes and there's nobody for them to talk to. Yeah. So Lori and Don, are you the only ones who cannot make it? Are there. Is there anyone else who will not be able to make it next Thursday? Dwayne's good. Jesse's good. Steve and Stella. I can make it probably a little after five and hang out for. Probably two hours. I'll see if my family's interested in hanging out. Okay. We can make it, but I'll be bringing a three year old. So it would be like. I can't like commit to. To the table. We'll see if there's, you know, an art activity that we can. Get the organization's drum up. Three years. Bring people over to the booth. She did great at the UMass tree giveaway. You never know that was giving away trees. So. I am so bummed I'm going to miss this block party was fun. Yeah. I'm happy to bring an iPad and FaceTime you in Lori. So I'll probably be out writing a mule on the grand canyon or something like that. Sorry, you're going to miss the Amherst block party. Okay. And if anybody has suggestions that. I can send it over to me and then I can compile it. Send it to Andra. Let's do that. And then I'll call it as well. No, I'm fine with. Any ideas coming to me. Okay. Thank you. This is September 15th. Right. Next Thursday. Yep. I think that's the mule ride day. Okay. Any other ECAC member updates? Great. Yeah, I'm happy to. Let folks know I've been working with Stephanie. I've been working with. Michelle Miller. And with. Members of the. African heritage reparations committee. Assembly. On a proposal. Wearing, wearing my, my clean energy extension, UMass hat, but also ECAC. And with my colleague at UMass, I'm going to be working with. Amal car Shabazz. Who similarly. Where's his UMass hat in African American studies. And, and, and on the assembly for the town. We have a. Letter of intent. That was submitted today. To the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. With great. Interest and enthusiasm by the town. And I'm black on the name of the DEI. The, the, I, the EI. That I would go as coordinator. To, to look at the opportunity for. Developing a solar business oven by the African American. African heritage community. To own and, and. Manage a small solar project. And how that can. Benefit. Directly the African American. Communities. And particularly how that. May. How that works as a form of reparations. Of dedicating reparation funds for that purpose. And how that sort of is compares to other options for reparations. In terms of economic benefits. As well as. As well as accept, acceptance and acceptability and perceptions. So this, this. Proposal. It's a letter of intent. Hopefully hopefully odds are never great on these, but hopefully we'll get a. An opportunity to submit a full proposal. Or an encouragement to do so. But, you know, really stressing the unique up, that have dedicated reparation funds, though there is quite a bit of interest nationwide from other in other areas on reparations. And this call by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation was specifically about public policy to support people of color and equity issues with regard to people of color. And so we're excited about this, the town is, the university is and we'll see how it goes, but just want to let you guys know, and certainly if we get to the situation where we have a full proposal to write, we'll engage a little bit more with ECAC to get input. As these things go, we don't have much time to pull these things together. We did have a pretty substantial meeting with people from the town. I took it on to represent ECAC in that situation, but we'll share it in more detail with you guys if we get the opportunity to submit a full proposal. But happy to talk about it if anybody's interested. Thanks, Sweeney. Thanks, fantastic. Any comments for Dwayne? Any other ECAC member updates? Okay. I might just add an interesting side note. I recently spoke to someone who's moved to this part of the world as a climate refugee and looking to buy a house and electrify it. And it just sort of touched on a lot of the issues that we work on. And it was the first kind of formal climate refugee that I had met other than sort of understanding the thousands and if not, or millions of more that have already happened, but this was more of a, well, that was an interesting, why'd you move to the area response? Can they make it to the block party? I'll ask. I mean, I think it's the, you have a person who actually moved from somewhere. So I'd be more powerful. So I'm staying in Albuquerque with my dad who recently moved from Northern California where their house year after year had to be evacuated because of fires. So they finally decided to leave. So another climate refugee. I think we'll be hearing a lot about that. But what's the temperature in Albuquerque this week? Oh, it's in 95 in the middle of the, we're actually in siesta mode at the moment. So the parental unit is, you know, taking a nap and waiting for the cooler weather to arrive, but it's dry. So it's not bad compared to some places. Right now what we're seeing are the refugees who can afford to move or moving. The real problem is gonna come when we have killer heatwaves and people move, you know, people can't afford to move or try to survive. Not to mention 30 million people in Pakistan. Exactly. And it's happening everywhere. Yeah, I think stories like these will make a more powerful impact if you bring people who've been impacted to this block party. I think it will make it more relevant with that a little bit of an emotional connection. Okay. Thanks, Jesse. Any other e-cap number updates? All right, let's jump to the next topic which is around the CARB strategy execution. So let me share my screen and I will send this over to all of you after this meeting. So give me feedback. Let me know whether it makes sense or not. And then I also wanna appreciate all of you for taking the time to meet with me individually to go over, you know, what you like to do and where you think e-cap should be heading. So appreciate that input a lot. So I'm hoping that I've covered some of the conversations that we've had individually into this summary. So let me start with our e-cap charge. Just wanna make sure that we're all familiar with it. You're probably gonna see more of this or a similar version of this going forward. So, you know, the first item is around the CARB which is basically done. The second item is around planning and prioritizing cross-functional efforts. Third item in the charge is to recommend programs to implement our climate reduction goals and then several areas. And then the fourth one is around proposing creation of task forces, proposing strategic options and incentives, proposing actions to protect environmental justice, proposing measures that assist with tracking and reporting, proposing funding opportunities that the town can consider. And then the last item on the charge is to promote what we're really working with, members, engagement, education, being a liaison with businesses and other stakeholders and embers, working with the town manager and serving as a resource. And then on the right are the town manager's goals. And I don't know if people have seen this, but the 2022 town manager's goals for the relevant to climate action is around CCA. It's around implementing portions of the CARB and prioritizing that have already been prioritized. So I just highlighted the things that are maybe common because we do support the town, but we're kind of a liaison between the community and the town. But what we say matters to the town manager because it is part of his goals as well. So while we prioritize, those prioritized actions are implemented by the town. The third one is around ensuring that all decisions, almost every decision is done through the climate lens. It's also around educating the town multiple member bodies and staff and including the capital inventory for buildings, vehicles and equipment. And then the last one is reporting out on progress. So again, just highlighting a few things here. Prioritizing is our action. Using that prioritized action and implementing is the town's action. We have engagement as part of our charge. Education is part of the town manager's charge. And then there's also the reporting as part of town manager's goals. And then I think we also have one that's around tracking and reporting town's progress. So probably you've all seen this and obviously, I don't know if you're all familiar with the town manager goals, any questions on this slide. And stopping anytime because I can't see your raised hand or just talk to me, you don't have to raise your hand. Okay. So what I did was I took our charge and I thought about what our vision should be. I'm hoping that I get some feedback from all of you. So our vision is to work cooperatively with the town and community to raise climate awareness and achieve results with a sense of urgency. And everything we do, we will put people at the forefront of our decisions. So what I'm gonna do as part of these meetings is I'm gonna start with our vision and charge. So we continue to understand what we're here to do and really to move with the sense of urgency. We have the carp, awesome document. There are actions that we wanna take from the carp and we need to have a more focused approach. Hence the sense of urgency. So let me know if there's any feedback on the vision, but what I'll also cover is on the right, is on the charge. So basically what I did was I took elements of the charge. Some elements have already be completed like the adoption of the carp and then there are some items that remain similar theme, planning and prioritizing cross-sector efforts, recommending programs, proposing creation of task force and protecting environmental justice communities, liaising with different groups and engagement. And I have one thing that was not covered in the carp is to prioritize exponential improvements and not incremental. And I added this because I think we need to understand that the things that we're doing, the time we spend as ECAC outside these meetings are very important to drive items in the carp. And hence the reason for adding this is just continue for us to ensure that we're spending enough time outside of these meetings to engage the community and make things happen. I'm gonna pause there for any questions or feedback on this. I guess I have a question on the vision statement. Yeah. The last part and everything we do, we'll put people at the forefront of our decision. Is that perhaps too prescriptive? Could there be a time where we put the environment ahead of people perhaps in some situation? Yeah. Everything we do, that's pretty much, that's everything. Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that, I mean, my reasoning was the first sentence, does it really cover the environmental justice protecting the communities of color? And that's why I added that statement. And if you think that it's already covered in the first sentence, then yeah, I think I could remove that. I mean, I see what you're saying. I'd like the sentiment that it's there. I think it adds more than the first sentence. Yeah. I think that it should say what you meant, which is to put environmental justice at the forefront. I would agree with that. Yeah, I like that. And putting it at the forefront doesn't necessarily mean that it'll be the top priority of every decision, I believe, but I would read this to say that it's one of our primary considerations when we make decisions. So it's not binding as the priority. Right. But yeah, I'd like to under suggest it. I'm happy with that. Okay. Okay, anything else? I was interested in what you were implying about our ECAC activities outside of the meetings. Maybe that's something in upcoming slides of what you're gonna propose. Yep. Great. Okay, I'll move on to the next slide then. So this is our carp, right? So on the left is the 2025 roadmap, page 25, and this lists out the items that are critical that will significantly move the needle. So what I did was I took the elements from page 25 and I created four different sectors or actions that we can be more focused on. So if you see your name in bold, it means that you're leading these meetings outside of the regular bi-weekly meetings. So in this case, Laurie would have conversations with Jesse, Andra, and Steve. So the four sectors are heat pump, right? Residential energy, solar, transportation, and pace. I think I'll remove the C there. So the intent here is to have Laurie work with Jesse first and I have Andra and Steve idolized. And the reason for doing that is because Andra is also working on CCA. Steve is also working on the rental bylaw. Steve's also working on solar. So what I would ask and suggest is it's either, in Stella's case, just one person there. And in other cases, work with just one other person. Like, so Laurie and Jesse work together and then bring the elements of what you think we should do first with Andra and Steve and then bring that up at the ECAC meeting. And I'll talk about what we should be talking about. But Laurie is taking the lead on the heat pump program. And the same with the other sectors that you see here. CCA is going to be outside of what we do. There's work being done, but not really. It's pretty slow. So Andra is taking the lead on that. And at this point, we don't need a lot of time being spent on CCA. Hence the focus on the heat pump program which we do have grants available and there's a lot of work that we can do. And then in terms of these four actions or sectors that we wanna look at, you'll be looking at all of them and looking at it from a, how do we engage and educate the community across the four different platforms. And then what I will be doing is I'll be leading the strategy and partnerships and working with the bid, working with different advocacy groups and bringing in somebody from the state to educate. So what I want this meeting to become is a report out on progress that each of these programs we're making. But I also wanted to be more of an education where we bring people from outside and communicate and what's going on, whether it's massive or the state talking about the decarbonization roadmap. My hope is to have more participation from the community. And I'll show metrics that I have that I started working on. But I see two members of the public here. My hope is to get to a much bigger number. So the intent being we will report out on progress across these four. So we're very focused. And then we use the remaining time for education. And again, hopefully get more members in the community involved in these meetings. And then in terms of transportation. So there is the Transportation Amherst Committee and I believe they have a charge as well. So Stella in this case will be going back to TAC and understanding what they're working on, looking at our car and driving our actions potentially through TAC and bringing issues forward to this committee. Vasu and everyone, would it make sense to have a thought partner with Stella in this? And Stella, you might answer that as well, but just sort of right now I see everyone's got someone where they can bounce an idea. They can collaborate. And my experience is that even that quick exchange with one other person can elevate concepts before they make it back to the group. Stella, I am confident you don't need someone. But if you have someone, it is missing. Yeah, I mean, obviously I would definitely love someone. I'm like flexible. To some extent it also depends on what the expectations are around meetings. Because quite honestly, I'm not sure I have time for another extremely regular meeting. So it sort of depends if this is, I forget what the rules are, if it's just one other person, if we're just allowed to like email back and forth and do it asynchronously or what? Yeah, if it's one other person, I believe you can. And that's why I tried to keep it to 2% for sector in order to enable it to have discussion and also in the heat pump program. Really, it's Lori and Jesse communicating with one another, but Andra and Steve are also there because there's a lot of other things that they're doing in residential energy. I think we could- So Stella, how often are the meetings, the meetings at the TAC? It seems like it's really hard to figure out. It seems like there may be monthly or maybe there every other week too. I just look, it looks like there's one tomorrow, but like, for example, tomorrow, I'll probably end up watching it over the weekend and not attending because tomorrow I'm like childcare alone. So yeah, but it's a little hard to figure out. Yeah, and Stella, this is an untapped area. And I mean, that's why the TAC exists. So I don't know if there's gonna be specific programs that come out of transportation sector that you're leading. Maybe it is, maybe that's what might come out of your regular meetings with TAC. And you say, okay, let's look at, if I look on the left is zero emission vehicles is going to be the focus. And then you can partner with somebody else in ECAC to drive zero emission vehicles. That's how I see it, Jesse, is because it's such a big sector and it's untapped. My hope is Stella can attend those meetings and then say, okay, this is going to be the focus in transportation. And then we can then work with Stella to identify somebody else who can support her. Right now it's just transportation. What is transportation? What are we gonna do? We have no idea. That makes sense. It's more of a report back investigation. Yeah. Investigation report back. And I can imagine that some of it is relationship building with TAC because I think it seems like from the outside not having attended one of their meetings yet, it seems like they're in kind of a similar position of having this like very amazing comprehensive Amherst Bicycle and Pedestrian plan that's basically completely unimplemented. So I could imagine that they're in a pretty similar state like with respect to like where ECAC has the carp and TAC has this like unimplemented bike and ped plan. So Stella, is that okay with what I said then is to continue attending those meetings, bring programs forward that you need help and support that align, you know, you're the only person here listed in transportation. Is that okay? Yeah, I mean, and if it doesn't work, it can always change, right? Like none of this is set in stone. Yeah. Okay. So the goal is to be very focused only these four sectors, nothing else. I know you're already doing other things, but my hope is that you can focus 80, 90% of your time dedicate yourself in these areas. So Vasu, I have one problem with that, which is what this leaves out is specific policy implementations, which are also a big piece of carp and I think was on the town managers list somewhere too. And what I'm thinking of, I mean, I think we should be flexible enough to have other agenda items as they come up. I mean, one of the things that I've been thinking of doing, you know, is contacting Andra about this, what's the word I'm looking for? Home rule petition thing and trying to figure out if there's a wedge for Amherst to get in there and what the proposal should be. I haven't had time to think about it much yet, but it's definitely in the back of my mind is something that at some point ought to be on the agenda and we ought to discuss and we ought to make a recommendation to the town. So that sort of thing, I think there needs to be flexibility for other agenda items always. I completely agree with that. My only hope is that we spend more time in place for and if there's conversations that we need to have on something else, we will still have e-cac member updates, we will still have those conversations. Yeah, by no means I don't mean to stem our, ability to or potential to innovate and change things around if we need to. Then that makes good sense to me and might help focus things. And I think in particular, if you're thinking of doing more education during these meetings, I think that's a great idea sort of devoting the second hour to a presentation, either by one of us or by someone from MassSaves or someone to talk about C-PACE or someone to talk about, even residential when we talk about transportation, we could also, I could imagine an hour long, there are a lot of people I know who are looking to buy electric cars and don't know where to start, maybe an hour long seminar on that, right? Then just invite the town in, not necessarily us putting these things together but bringing in somebody who's capable of talking about this for an hour or even for 15 minutes to get a conversation started. Yep. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. It's a great, great idea. Any other questions on this slide? Okay, we'll go to the next slide. There's gonna be a new agenda for these meetings. I wanna change these to an hour long meeting instead of two hour meetings because at this point we're implementing or rather give an hour back for you to have discussions with your team in your sector. But I wanna start these meetings with the vision in charge. We'll continue to review and vote on meeting minutes from the previous meeting and then have our public comment. And then I wanna jump directly to progress reports. And my intent to do this is to stay focused on the four topics. We will still have staff updates and eCAC remote updates but that will happen after those progress reports. Education, like I mentioned, is needed. And then that's when we get into updates. So a slight change with the intent being that we're here to be more focused on the four areas and then anything else that we have can be talked about after. And I think we can wrap this up in an hour if we only have two topics to discuss. So I said heat pump and solar will be the first meeting of the month and seat base and transportation will be the last meeting of the month. The only problem with that is it doesn't leave room for education during the meetings. So if you're going- Yes. Good point, Lori. So I forgot to mention about that. So if I do bring somebody from outside or someone here wants to educate the community, then that meeting will be extended to whatever extra time we need. And that'll be the only time we will have an extended meeting, depending on how long it takes. Yeah, thanks for mentioning that, Lori. Does that help, Lori? Yes. Any other questions on this? So the next three slides is an example of how I think we should be presenting reports at these meetings. So what I wanna do, what I want all of you to do is take the next three weeks and start thinking about some of these questions over here on for your specific programs. And this is not all encompassing. So if there are more questions, because again, think about this as a forum where we might have more community participation and they might not know anything about the program. So if you can explain what it is, why is it important and things are on what we could do, I want this to also be a forum where when you present this, the remaining members can brainstorm and add some value and suggest changes to your strategy and how you're gonna implement that program. I'm getting a little bit of heartache looking at this because there's a lot in here that it's just not ours to do, right? I mean, I can summarize this almost right now, right? There's mass saves, it's important. For the reason all of this is important. The only thing we can do is encourage people to make the change. We can bring somebody in to talk about it from mass saves. We should do that. Yes, there's funding available, it's very confusing. There's a lot of it, it's hard to access and you need to have money up front. All the stuff could be covered in a single, how will we implement it? Well, I don't know what that means because we don't implement this. We just maybe get the word out. I'm not sure that we have milestones on getting, I'm not sure what key milestones means in terms of ECAC. So my intent is what are we going to do? And it could be, milestones could be, we have engagement, education with the community, we talk to bid, we talk to the town manager. Those are milestones, although we're not implementing it, there are things that we can drive to help the town implement this program. So it is, what are milestones that we can drive for the town to implement? And it's just to start to think about what, I mean, my thought was, well, there are things that we don't have control over and I want us to make sure that we understand that because a lot of times, you know, Stephanie says, this is all you could do. And I think it's important to have that conversation because we have a charge that says, we can plan and prioritize things in the carp and the town manager takes some of the elements in the carp. And so just trying to reread the things in the carp and what are we here to do? And I want us to start thinking about that when we, you know, capture this information for each of those programs. So in this case, one of the things that Stephanie is going to write a grant for is for residential heat pumps, I think. So we can be shaping what that will require, what, you know, a consultant would do. And I think we have to think through what the best approach for the residents would be. So, you know, rather than wait for a consultant to come in and tell us. Yeah, thanks. And that's really my intent. And I know maybe these questions may not make sense, but it's that intent is what can we do and what are we going to do by when? Yeah, I think that what can we do as ECAC in some ways is that's the guiding question of all these questions. And it might take some reflection and it might change our approach, but it's how can we be a positive force in this topic which we've all agreed is an important one. So I think it's the exercise seems worthwhile. We might, it might answering all these questions might do what Lori said. It might lead to some dead ends, but it also might lead to some, and I think particularly in this one with the work that Stephanie is queuing up and the input that we could give to that makes a lot of sense. So that's helpful. Both comments are helpful, thanks. Thank you. And then laying it out in the timeline. How much, how long is it gonna be? What are we doing? This is basically your key milestones, right? Again, looking at our vision, sense of urgency, prioritizing exponential improvements. Just starting to think about what do I need to do by when? Just think through it, right? With your team. And then you might say, there are some roadblocks and this is the roadblock. Stephanie is the only person that's there. And then that's where I can come in and talk to the town manager and say, well, this is part of your goals is to meet the 2025 goal. We're not gonna be able to do it without doing this. And this is 4% of GHT emissions. So using some sort of data instead of just writing a letter to the town manager, I want a more database approach where I can say, hey, we need this by this date. Otherwise we're gonna miss the target by whatever percent. And really that's the intent and the other part being, but it also helps everybody else in the group understand how long things are taking. And just to keep an eye out for what we need to do next steps. So my hope is the first two slides can be completed in the next time we meet. So the last week of the month is C-PACE and transportation. So my hope is for C-PACE and transportation, we just start thinking through some of these questions if you can, and then also putting some timeline together. And then the last slide here is as part of these updates, you can use the same slide deck and hide this slide. My intent is when you come into these meetings, highlight the things that were done since the previous review, what are some of the roadblocks? We can talk about the roadblocks. And this is where if help is needed from any one of us, we can talk about it or we can talk to people offline. And then what are some of the actions that you have? So pretty simple in a way, just what did you do since the last review? What were the roadblocks and what are some of the open actions? And I hope is that we continue capturing this, just take a copy of this slide and hide this slide and then have an October update. And so at the start of, I mean, your updates will basically be this, it'll be the timeline so we can all see what the timeline and then this is just to help you and then the rest of the committee members can give you feedback. So it'll be a one-time thing that you will present to everybody is this slide and then these two slides will be part of your progress report. And then the final slide that I have is metrics. So one of the things that I have over here is for you all to start thinking about leading and lagging indicators. So I was thinking about, and Stella helped me with this as well, is I wanted community participation as part of these meetings. So currently we average less than three members from the community to participate in these meetings, sometimes less. My intent is to have this to be more than 20 if I can achieve that for next year. So whatever that I need to do connecting with people through the block party, through your own connections that you have because one of the things that you have for each of your sectors is community education and engagement. So while you're talking to the community, you also divert them to the ECAC forum that we have. So my intent and my goal is to have better participation in these meetings from the community. Because again, we are a partnership, we are a liaison between the community and the town. We help the town plan and prioritize, but we also need to help the community and educate the community. And that's the intent behind this metric. So when you have metrics for your programs, start thinking about those as well and whether they're leading or lagging indicators and we'll measure ourselves on how successful we are. And if we need to make some tweaks to how we're doing things. Vaso, I think there's a bit of a disconnect here, which is that if you do get a lot of people attending the meetings, I think that's great, but you won't be able to hold it to an hour because you'll have a lot of comments. And I think that's great, but it may be that a better goal is to get people to show up to the educational component. Which will be part of these meetings, right, Lori? But the second hour in particular. So, we would advertise it as the second hour, so we're not boring people to tears with the first hour. Assuming that they're there to attend a seminar that will teach them something, they probably don't need to sit through the progress reports. Do you think, Lori, that they wouldn't be inclined to learn about the other programs or you just think that they might be bored? Because wouldn't you want them to learn about the programs that we're leading? I mean, I'd rather have them show their support through attendance to things that we do that are meaningful to them, rather than attending the one working meeting where we all get together and actually get to work. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So I don't know that I'm always happy to have input, but I think the hour goal and the hour meeting and lots of input from the public are not gonna work. And I think that if we do get a lot of people, I think that's great, but I think we need to stick to our meetings and probably have the educational parts somewhere separate. That's just my thought anyway. I'd like to respond. I think that we would be really lucky to have a lot of attendance at the reporting out and people interested in seeing the progress and having people speak during our meeting would be important, a real symbol of engagement. And if it became too much in terms of the length of our meetings, which can happen with real hot button issues, then we could set up other times when we would be taking feedback. It is up to the chair how much time to allow for public comment. And I think that it will become something obvious if it needs to be managed or it may just come and go. And yeah, something might get pushed off the agenda if there's a really important issue, but we wanna hear. I might add to that, not I don't think I have a solution, but I think what I'm sort of hearing, maybe there's three main categories of public engagement regarding these meetings. One is just seeing what this group is doing, checking in on the group. Two is a planned educational experience. And then three would be times when the public is actually giving input and speaking. I see how it's, I could certainly imagine in meeting not having time for all three of those, but I do think as you figure that out, Vasu, but I think they're all really important. And I really like the idea of, if not at every meeting, making time for those aspects of public engagement. If this meeting has that, we can enhance that component, I think we'll benefit. But we do, I agree, need to make time for it. Yeah, thanks Andra and Jesse and Lori for your input. So I think what I'm hearing from Andra and Jesse is really played by year. There are things that are important and we just have to be more flexible if there are more comments, then we have to adjust our schedule. I mean, if there's more participation, that's awesome, that's what we wanna get to. And that's when we need to change our long meeting into something else. And Lori, you're worried that the public comments could drag on for more than 10 minutes. I think if we can, a lot. I don't want to characterize it as dragging on. Like I said, I'd also be thrilled to have people's comments. I just think it was unrealistic to think that you could do all of these things in the time that you described. Yeah. Unless I have 10 minutes, just 10 minutes dedicated for comments and then we'll move on to the next topic. Yeah, maybe we can play this by a year, Lori. If that's... Of course, of course. Yeah, I wish we have that. We're in a situation where that's an issue. I think it'll be a nice problem to have. I'll agree with you there. Yeah, okay. But I do think the way to get the public involved is to give them something that they're looking for. And I think the educational hour is the way to do that. I completely agree. Yeah, should we start off with education and the agenda then? Yes, well, not start off with it, but schedule it as the second hour and let the public know that this will start promptly at 5.30, right? They don't need to come to the 4.30 part of the meeting if they don't want, they're welcome to, but the educational part starts at 5.30. Yeah, I was just thinking if you say that, then people will come in at 5.30. I wonder if we say education starts at 4.30 and then the education's done and if they want to stick around, they can. Oh, sure, sure. That's yeah, right. If you want to reverse it, that's fine too. Yeah, sorry, I didn't understand the question. I think 5.30 is probably a more accessible time in general. Also true, yeah, good point. Okay, yeah, let's do that and leave the agenda as is then. Can I say one thing while we're on the topic of engaging the community? I should have mentioned earlier that the Zero Waste Amherst Group is organizing neighborhood-based teams to support that work, but they're open to also using that structure for other sustainability issues. And so we should think about if we can reach people in some way through those neighborhood teams. And the reason for doing that is to make it feel like less of a burden. The council will be deciding on how to proceed with this. And it's important to show both support from the community but also that some of the weight will be carried by the community. And I think we can support that too in other areas, because as we know, until we get another professional staff person, we're not gonna be able to move as fast as we want. And so the more engagement we have, the easier some of the work will be. Yeah, thanks, Sandra. I'm gonna need to be in my car, so I'm not gonna be able to probably talk or see you, but I'm still listening. Okay. Okay, any other questions on this? And that's the last slide, yep. I think this looks good, Vasu. I think it's good framework. And I wish I was a leader of a group, so I could try it out. But I think those people who are the leaders could take this as suggestions and modify it a little bit here and there, but kind of follow the overall framework. And I think it'll help. I think we'll get into a pattern and move forward with that sense of urgency that you wrote about in the first slide. Yeah, thanks. So for the next meeting, seat base and transportation, if you can come prepared with this slide and this, I know Stella is gonna be hard on you, especially the only person working on this. So it's really connecting with TAC at this point to understand what they're doing. Are you going to distribute these slides then? Because I don't remember this stuff. I will, yeah. I also just, this is like a small suggestion, but on the next slide, yeah, I suggest, just because we're all volunteers, I suggest we get rid of the green and red buttons. Yeah, okay. They're very scary and I feel like we're gonna lead to depression and burnout or changing what the actions actually are. So you don't have to put this scary red button on them. Like, I think we can all read dates. Let's just like leave it as a date without the like. Good point, yeah. Yeah, it makes total sense. And thanks for that feedback. Yeah, sometimes I think that I'm, this is just an extension of work, but it's not. So it's like there are no comments. That's all I have on this. Okay, the next topic is on the solar bylaw working group. So Dwayne? Yeah, okay, great. Yeah, so the solar bylaw working group is meeting roughly every two weeks as well. We have made some good progress. So I would say we're not quite into the writing quite yet of the bylaws. What I can say is that we have established a work plan, essentially. Keep in mind it's different than this committee in that it's a time limited. We have a deadline next May, basically to submit our recommendations on a bylaw. And so we have a pretty clear work plan to get us through that process. And we're gonna start, we have reviewed and will most likely be adopting. We've reviewed a number of model bylaws and then several bylaws that have been passed by other towns in Massachusetts. And some comments on those, but we've really been honing it on the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission model bylaw and guideline that they've provided as probably where we will start from. They have a pretty good guide and a draft bylaw to model bylaw to start with. So that's probably where we'll start honing in on. But we also have had a fairly detailed conversations about the role that our bylaw is playing with regard to, along with ECAC, and this is what I wanted to bring up with regard to public engagement on these issues and particularly around the solar assessment work that is out for a consultant bid. And quite frankly, there's some language in the working group charge that is not clear in terms of exactly our role, but I think what we have clarified with input from Stephanie is that similar to ECAC, we are really looking for the opportunity for our committees to not be responsible for this community engagement that's a bit beyond our scope and charge, but to be working and have opportunities to provide input and feedback to the consultant who will be taking that on as part of their scope of work. And so that is still probably a month or more away. There's still some discussions about whether the response that has been received is sufficient to go forward. I'll leave that to Stephanie to talk about when she's back, but it's really an opportunity for, separately or together, ECAC and the working and the bylaw group to really put forward their ideas as to the solar assessment consultant with regard to what types of questions, perspectives, and outreach, how to connect with the right people and the breadth of people that are important to get input from on their perspectives and the nuances of what we're gonna be asking. And so that's where there'll be an opportunity for and work that the working group, bylaw working group will be working on is developing some input for that consultant. I see that as my part of my charge in this group as well to solicit that from this committee. And I'll work under my solar and Steve, I'm looking at you, you're right in the middle of my screen to be my wingman on that. And then further, once the assessment work is getting through its work and more coming out with conclusions and mapping and so forth, there's still sort of a remaining question of what does the bylaw working group do with that and also the opportunity for ECAC with regard to that. I would say for ECAC in particular, what I'm keen on and I'll talk more about this as we get to it and working with Steve is the idea with the solar assessment is that the consulting team will sort of map out objectively for the land in Amherst, where what the potential is for solar of various different forms. Scrubbing out all the land and set aside areas that are not appropriate legally or otherwise for solar development, but leaving sort of what the potential is out there and then making use of this public engagement and gaining perspectives from the perspective, from the community in terms of what their preferences and priorities are, both with regard to where solar should go and should not go, but also to what extent they want solar hosted in the community as well as at what cost. And so all that has to be well worked out by this consultant and I think there's input that we can have and the bylaw group will have on that. The bylaw group also has access to another consultant that an RFP is going to go out to shortly that will provide some technical support for the working group. One of the areas of particular interest is with regard to battery storage and our scope for the bylaw working group is inclusive of battery storage or I think energy storage in general, but the focus is primarily on battery storage and issues. I think we still have to sort of deliberate on this, but I think even standalone battery storage, but there's obviously issues there that need to be that we don't have expertise necessarily on the committee with regard to safety, fire, setbacks and so forth that we need really scientific grounding on. There's a lot of perceptions out there. It's very different situation than mobile storage and electric vehicles, for example, which don't really have fire suppression opportunities that stationary storage has and so forth. So those issues will probably get some technical support on and I think those are the primary things to update folks on, but I'm happy to take any questions on that, but also any issues, thoughts, you want me on the liaison as well to the working group bylaw working group, importantly any input from ECAC that we want to share with the working group that is beyond what I come up with would be important to hear and I guess I can entertain that now or one-on-one if that's allowed. Beth, do you want to call on people? I see Jesse. I don't see anybody. Jesse has a real hand up. Is someone in the group privy to all of the NEC national electric code requirements that are coming with these things? That's something that I've watched just change year by year or as that code gets issued regularly every few years and they now do have a very some pretty specific language around the requirements for both PV and battery storage as far as setbacks on roofs and all. So as long as you have someone, if you don't have someone reach out and I can, I think I know some people that could give a primer to your group. Oh, excellent. Okay, well that was what I was going to say is that we do not have, we have knowledge within the group, not only by myself, but also some others that these codes are out there and that they are constantly in a flux because the technology is updating all the time, taking on the storage side, but we did not have sort of familiarity with them in any detail. So that's really helpful to hear Jesse. And so I appreciate that and that offer. Yes, Steve. I wonder, Dwayne, a couple of weeks ago, maybe it was when you were not here, but Stephanie was I wondered or proposed the possibility or asked if the solar by our committee was going to have a primer or a speaker, someone who can inform everybody about the Massachusetts clean energy climate plan in order to help the committee and people listening to the meetings understand what are needed to reach our 20, 30 goals and 20, 40 goals and 20, 50 goals. Is that something you're working on? Well, actually we did, we did do that. Okay, so I know Steve, you've been at some of the meetings, but obviously not that one. So Martha, Hannah, who's one of our committee, working group members, she took that on. She's she's some ex-professor and retired and actually does a really did a really good job in digging into the carbonization road, a decarbonization roadmap and provided the committee, I should say working group with a good primer inclusive, very much inclusive on on and really focused on the solar aspects of the decarbonization plan and land use issues coming out of that as well. And did a good job in terms of those issues and sort of what the role that solar is anticipated in the roadmap to play the sensitivity of that on other parts of the roadmap, depending on which path we end up going down, depending on how much hydro or offshore wind, for example, show up and how much electricity, electrification happens at what rate. And so presented that presented that as, as well. So she did a good job on that. If it's a, it's probably, it's probably a presentation that's on in the town website under our working group category. Yeah, I think I actually looked it up and I haven't watched it yet, but the town of Amherst has a YouTube channel and Stephanie last, our, our last meeting points it out. That's the easiest way to find the recordings of different working group and committee meetings and CAC. So I just Google the Amherst YouTube. I think I found it pretty quickly. You'll see all the other different committees, but maybe there's a way to search it more specifically. So yeah, I'll go back. I'll find that and watch it. Okay. And maybe that could be one of our educational sessions for one of our future meetings to listen to Martha's presentation, because it might be wise for all of us to know more about the clean energy climate plan and the decarbonization pathways. Yeah, it was a bit focused on solar particularly, which would be helpful for us, but other parts of that would be as well, particularly the electrification, I would think, and transportation. But, but yeah, let me know what you think, Steve, and we could present that to this group as well. And yeah, Dwayne, let me know what, if there's anything I can do, you know, background research or homework or anything like that, that I can provide you to take to that meeting. I'm happy to help. Great. Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Steve. And yet, and yes, Steve, let me know if it makes sense to have that video played at the next meeting or. Yeah, we can stop with that and see if it makes sense to have education as part of these meetings. That would be a good first test. I'll watch it later tonight. Thanks, Dwayne. All right, for the next item is to talk about the agenda for the next meeting. So the next meeting is on the 28th. So it's the last week of the month. So Stella and Don, are you still good with coming up with the thought process for the two sectors, a couple of slides. And then Stella, I think if you. Are alone in this, but I think Steve, I think you also expressed interest in transportation. So if you want to pick Steve, Steve's brain, please do. But if you also need to go to tack and I would highly recommend to go to tack and find out what they're doing as well. And Don, can you connect with Laura as well? Yeah. Okay. And then Steve, let me know about the education piece. For the clean energy roadmap. If that needs to be played at the next meeting. And then we have the block party next Thursday that most of us are going to attend. I don't think we talked about specific times. If we're all going to be there at five, five, 15. We could just take turns. I'm going to be there for the entire time. Anyway, so. You know, Stella, you expressed interest, but it's okay if you have a three year old that's running around. That's, that's fine. We'll try to help as much as possible. Anything else that we want to cover. At the next agenda. I think it'd be great if the next meeting, maybe we have, have give ourselves some time to maybe you just said this, but to recap from the block party. Yeah. I think we can talk about that experience. Yeah. And while we're at the block party, we should also be communicating to them about. These meetings. Yeah. Okay. Anything else. The last item is a public comment. Are there any comments? Please. Oh, Rene. Go ahead, Rene. Hi, thank you. Thank you. This. As a member of the public, I just had a few comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this meeting today. The, the structure of us who that you have put forth, I think. As, as someone who's been paying attention to the meetings, I compliment you on this. It really feels like. It feels like you're putting forth great focus and a, and a really great structure and. I, I deeply appreciate that. I also wanted to weigh in on the metric that we were using about. Getting more people to attend. And I want to, I do want to say that there have been other meetings where more people have attended. I know that. And I think there is tremendous interest out there. And I think that. I don't want to take the public there for education, but I think here in Amherst, we're only the age of silent. We have a tremendous interest from the public in. In policy and procedure, as well as education. So I hope that. You will move forward with an understanding that perhaps some people in the community just want education, but there are many of us who are very interested in the policy and the procedure and the thought process that goes into determining, you know, decisions that the town makes. So, yeah, I'm, I'm just weighing in on that as an overview and just one voice from the public. And, you know, if your goal truly is to get more people, certainly some of us who have been coming to a lot of the meetings will, will reach out and, and, you know, encourage others to come. And I do appreciate your, your desire to have to engage with the public. So thank you. And thank you all for the hard work you're doing. It is very hard work. Thank you for the feedback. And I also want to comment on that or actually have somebody comment on that and your thoughts. And I would want this to be more of an interactive meeting. Jesse, we also talked about this and any thoughts there. Yeah, I think that I don't, I don't have anything specific. I mean, thank you Renee. It's impressive. To have someone participate and, and I think have eyes on, on what we're doing and keep us honest and, and guide us and steer us in that way. So I, I, I appreciate that feedback. Yeah, thanks for any. Okay, anybody else. That's all we have everybody. Thanks for your time. I will send you the slide deck. And then I'll send it right away after this meeting. So you'll all have it. And then I'll also contact bid, by the way, and Andrew, I'll let you know what it says. And then we'll be good to go after that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thanks. Take care. Hi.