--------- Hello. >> Hi. Do you hear me now? >> Yep, I hear you. >> Okay. Every time I open Zoom, and I do it quite frequently, it's a new adventure. >> No, they keep changing the screen. And
>> yeah, >> there's all these new exciting things you get to dismiss. It's very complicated. >> Good morning. >> Good morning, Sarin. Wait, I'm trying to hear if I hear louder. I'm trying to figure out how to
adjust the volume on this. So, somebody has to talk. >> Hi there. >> Okay, I got you. >> How are you? >> I'm okay. >> What a nice day. >> It is. It's beautiful. But no, no wind.
They thought they would have lots of wind and then so bright. >> You know, if you can get over the loss of nice weather, this is pretty good. >> Oh, I know. I know. >> You have to get over it first.
>> In in February or something for a day like this, we say, "Oh, it was like a summer day." >> Exactly. Exactly. But you know, you have to just your mindset has to change. You know, you you I do not like the winter. There
are people who like the winter, but that would not be me. >> I know. >> And I just I have to change my whole mindset like, okay, given that it's going to suck, it's pretty good. >> I know. I
Well, luckily, you know, uh we're lucky to have houses with heat >> and The town is doing their best to dig us out of the snow, major snowfalls. So,
you know, that's life. >> No, I think it I think it, you know, I mean, a lot of it has to do with acceptance. >> You just Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Hi, Reginald. >> Good morning, everyone. >> Good morning. Do you want to be called
Reginald or do you have a name you'd prefer to be called? Reggie. >> Reggie. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. Cool. >> All right. Gotta ask. You don't ever know. >> Some people, you know, some people don't.
>> We were just talking about the winter. So, how are things at UMass? Did any of your students that you work with live in the Olympia place? >> Not to my know. My my title here, my role do not really interact with students anymore on a one-to-one basis.
We was doing that mainly when I was at we were called access coordinators like case managers. So now my role shifted. I'm more like an outreach and speaking education events on campus. So do not really meet with students oneonone and have not heard from any of my colleagues
if anybody who was and most likely we have close to four or 5,000 students who have registered with us. So in some formal way somebody's probably connected with this office with that tragic fire. >> Yeah. Unbelievable. >> Yeah. Yeah. That Friday night, I was out
in the Drake at a comedy show and the comic kept mentioning, "Wow, you guys have a a lot of like sirene, ambulance, police activity." He was making like a joke out of it. He did not know. And that was the same time that the fire was going on like 8:15 that Friday evening.
>> I wasn't in town cuz I only live about a mile and a half from there >> and and I would have been aware of it, but I wasn't in the town. I was somewhere else. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, what a horrible like just like unbelievable. >> And then that brings some pressure to
the town to increase the number of firefighters by 18. >> So, >> now here's the question. Uh, everyone got out, thank God. >> Yeah. But was the building equipped for
example if there were any people with disabilities that needed to get out and happened to be there? I mean it was thankfully a Friday night and a lot of people are not home on Friday night
>> and it started in building that wasn't occupied. It was under construction. So that also set up enough alarms then luckily >> Yeah. But I'm wondering about that building. I mean, they never they they didn't say anything about
>> problems with compliance with codes or anything. >> So, they haven't said anything like that. But I'm thinking from the evacuation perspective if you know I don't I don't know. I
mean, thank God everyone got out. It wasn't an issue. But along with many other things you have to think about when you have that kind of fire, you know, that kind of huge incident, you have to think about what else could have gone wrong if more people had been
home. >> I know. >> You know, Friday night at college campuses, not that many people are home. >> Absolutely. You're so right because the timing, first of all, 8:00 at night, most college people are up at that time. You know, mo there could have been a couple of people who went to bed earlier
taking naps. However, nobody got caught off guard like at 2:00 prior. >> You have to run out the house with your pajamas on >> and that building, you know, never been inside of that building. However, there's a bus >> and sometimes I jump on it goes through
it stops at Olympia over the years. It's like the maybe the 38 or 36 bus that goes through Ammeris. And I always would watch and look outside look at the building like it is a relatively new building. >> Oh yeah, >> most likely hopefully the codes and
violations and policies are should have been all up to date. >> Well, >> I think they were. They have not complained about any of it. >> Yeah, >> it's just a wood construction building, you know, and that's sort of what happens. They did say that the sprinkler systems that are required in buildings
of that size, if they're residential, are not as powerful as sprinklers that are required in commercial buildings, which seems to me it should be the opposite. But >> you know, Myra, it might be an idea for
us to send a uh inquiry to see, we hope like uh is there any way you could update us with the preparedness Hi Jim, Jim is here. We were just about the fire in Olympia Drive and Myro brought up a
question to see if the building occupied parts are equipped with alert systems in case of fire. So, >> well, I'm not sure what I was asking. I was just saying that, you know, we didn't start the meeting yet. Jim, you
made a quorum, so now we can. Um, but I I was just I was amazed in some ways that nobody got hurt. And I think everyone is amazed that nobody got hurt cuz it went so fast. >> Yeah.
>> It was so big. Um, and I assume it didn't have any terrible repercussions with PE, you know, with life because nobody Well, a lot of people weren't home because on Friday night >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. College kids are not home on Friday night.
>> No. And just the impact of this of the fire, you know, explosions, usually when you hear explosions, that usually means some injuries or or casualties. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's really quite remarkable. They said there were animals lost
>> um like pets um but I assume dogs or cats or who knows what else. But um anyway, we can start the meeting. Um because we now have a quorum. Um so
let's see. Does some um does somebody want to read the disclaimer so we can get going? Philip, you could do it. Jim, you could do it. Sarin, you could do it. I don't know if you could do it, Reggie. >> No, >> but it's not not in braille, so I can't do it. >> Um
and even if it was um Jim, are you there? We We know you're there, but we don't >> here. I'm gonna need to find it. Philip, >> I don't have >> I can pull it up. >> It's on the It's on the agenda of the top. >> Yep. I could read it. So, >> thank you. >> Accordance to chapter 2 of the Acts of
2025 extended through June 30th, 2027. The ability of public bodies to meet in a fully remote or hybrid manner. Member of the publics who wish to access the meeting may do so via Zoom or by telephone. see instructions below. No
in-person attendance or members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. >> Okay,
>> cool. Thank you. All right, so we need to start with a roll call. I'm here. Myra Ross, I believe Sarin Darren is here, correct? >> Yes. And Jim Craneer is here. >> Yes. >> And Reginald Andred is here.
>> Yes. >> And I don't think I know Pamela is on vacation. And I don't think Ian or Cody are here. Am I correct? >> Correct. Cody said that he will not be able to make it to the meeting. He just messaged me. And Ian said that he will
be a little late, so he may join soon. >> Okay. All right. All right. So, the first order of business is wait if my Oh, where's my Hello, my speech is gone. There we go.
Um Oh, yeah. Okay. So, the first thing we were going to talk about is the parking at town hall. >> Okay. >> So, did you meet with Guilford?
>> Yes. Okay. >> It was a cold morning, but it was a dry cold morning. So, we met and then Pamela joined us about maybe 15, 20 minutes late uh because she was just coming out
of another meeting. And poor woman, she didn't even get a chance to put her coat on because she didn't want to miss any part. She just said just a shirt. >> Oh, no. >> Yeah. But she kept it very bravely. So
we went around um and I showed uh what I had in mind and um Guilford said, "What is it? What will happen if we put the way I was thinking of putting two next
to each other where the old HP parking is? uh we will be losing one space and he says he can do that but it is not in his jurisdiction
to lose a space which needs to have special uh approval from the town manager and then we thought about you know there are two places
there right now with the sign up which wasn't up before. So we said maybe we shouldn't really touch it. Leave it like that. Then >> is it is it clear that there are two spaces there? >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. But that not adjacent to each other. One is on the north side, one as you enter the parking lot, one is on the south side.
>> Okay. So if that means anything. So uh then um I said you know what is like if you park get out of your vehicle and trying to go to the accessible entrance
that walkway uh that driveway is shared by the cars that pull into that parking lot. And there is a little space looks like a little race on the left side
close to the building which is west side. >> Yeah. >> Wait a little what that is next to the building. I missed the word you said >> like sidewalk but it's not really raised sidewalk. >> Ah okay. There's part of it that look
like the starting of a sidewalk and I said if this could be extended a little bit widened a little bit that will and then uh that could provide or with signs or whatevers you know that could be a
safe walkway for people with mo mobility impairments. And um and then we looked uh Pamela was there at that time. Then we looked into the darkness and at while we were doing
this there was a car that pulled in uh through the driveway from the street but of course they noticed that we were there. So they were very nice and slow uh slow and um so it didn't look like an
imminent danger. But then uh I said at night if they have night meetings and it doesn't even have to be night meetings you know when you're getting out of a meeting the days are much shorter now and I said maybe we could have better
illumination. Oh then uh Guilford said yes that could definitely be done and so did Pamela. So that was one good thing out of that. I mean they we're going to look into the sidewalk.
>> I think there's two good things out of it. >> Yeah. >> The sidewalk and the light. >> Yeah. And then what is very very interesting is I always said there is another door that is an entrance to the
um to the um entrance to the basement of the town hall. And then uh Guilford did not have the key. He says I don't have any jurisdiction into inside the building. Period. I cannot do anything about it. I
don't even have access to the thing. And then at that time Pamela joined. Oh, she said I can open it. So she opened it. She unlocked the door. And it is a beautiful entrance. And >> where is it?
It is uh when you park your vehicle on the north side and then say you are going toward the accessible entrance of the town hall. You're on that p on that um what is it
>> on Main Street? >> Yeah. I mean you're not on Main Street. You're trying to get to the main street. This very close to the parking where you got off your vehicle. There is a door to the basement of >> Not the one that we know that has the
big the big uh the big ramp. Not that one. >> Yes, that one. That one. >> That one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's the back door. >> It is It is so nicely ramped and carpeted and um >> Wait, that ramp is very steep.
>> It is steep. Yeah, that's the only thing. And I have no idea. But it is if it was just a little bit less steep, it would have been a perfect entrance. Perfect. But that I cannot know. I mean,
I don't know what could be done. I >> Well, it's a narrow passage, so they can't make a switch back there. There's not enough room sideways to do it, right? >> What do you mean? Like the ramp is very steep. That's I've known about that for
all the time. But I knew that you couldn't you couldn't if you went on that that would be a suicide thing if you went by yourself. >> No, it's not it's not really that that bad. >> It's not that bad. >> Not not that that bad because I was able to do it.
>> I mean, my PCA was next to me, you know, ready to catch me, but I could do it, but it was very steep. >> Well, they have to extend it to bring it up to code. That's really the only option. Yeah, >> there is no place though. >> There is nowhere to
>> There is no It could be extended inside. >> The only thing they could do >> is they could build a bumpout on the building and start the ramp inside so it would be less steep. But that's a big thing.
>> Yeah. >> You know what I mean? Like they could move the entrance, but then you'd lose your sidewalk. So you have to have one or the other. >> Yeah. I mean if they provided this ramp, I mean if if it was one way achievable,
it would have been perfect and it looks so nice and it just there is just a door which you need to go uh inside to get to the elevator. But anyhow, so that was I mean I had never been. >> Sarin, when you go in the door, does the
ramp start immediately at the door or is there a little platform there? Like you open the door, you go in. My My recollection is that the ramp starts right away at the door. >> It might, >> but I It doesn't. >> It It might, but I can't remember.
>> Hi, this is Phillip. It It does start immediately once you open the door. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, the only thing that could be done is a bump out where the ramp No, it wouldn't even work. >> Yes. >> I was thinking if there was a platform there, it would work, but it doesn't.
>> Yeah. Pamela and um Guilford, we went all the way down and then tried to go up and we couldn't really see any solutions. They are more knowledgeable than me. So, but anyhow, so we then uh
turned around. So, we checked the front parking uh spaces and which were very nice and I learned one thing like when you look at the spaces right by the town hall, adjacent to the town hall, there
is double lines before the HP marks are on the ground. And I said, why did they do this uh double lines? Why don't why didn't they put the uh parking next to
the building? Why? Oh, they and uh Guilford said you can get on it. Oh, really? I said, you know, because all the time I thought when you see double line, it's a get out of that. It's no no entry, nothing. You know, that's what I
thought always. But they said, "No, it's not. You could just park on the double lines." And so that I thought was interesting. >> Wait, if that's not clear to you, >> it's not clear. >> That's not clear to anybody.
>> Well, I mean, I don't know. I can't claim that I know it all, you know. So, what do you think, Ste? Jim, >> I'm I'm trying to visualize it. Could you could you describe it again? >> Okay. All right. Now, uh you are going
you're on Main Street. >> Yeah. >> And you are making a um turn to Bog. >> Yeah. >> And it's a oneway street, >> right? >> And there are uh two parking places. >> Oh, wait. You're not talking behind the
building anymore. >> No, no, no. I'm in the front. >> Ah, I'm completely not where you are. Okay. All right. So, go back to the front of the building. You're on Main Street. You're turning in there to go Okay, got it. >> Yeah. Okay. And then you're going toward
the uh what's that? >> For the church. >> Yeah, that's right. So you there are two places adjacent to the building but adjacent to the building you see double
lines and then maybe about four or five feet wide and then on the outside of the double lines you
see the parking places HP parking places and then I said you know why Guilford why did they why didn't put the uh double I mean why did they put even a double line why did they do that
you know like for and he said it is somebody if they need to get out of their vehicle on the left side then there is uh space there and Then, but if you enter, get off like I do with my
van, then you will get kind of to the street. >> They were supposed to put those parking spaces on the west side of like on when you go down from Main Street, they were supposed to be on the right side.
>> There are two on the right side. Yes. And then there are two on the left side to the uh close to the town hall. >> Yeah, but they're not a van accessible. Well, I mean, I think they are, but the
double lines are on the like if you're coming with your vehicle, you will see the double lines on your left side and then the parking is immediately to the right of that.
No, I'm just describing it terrible. >> No, I'm just really I'm worried about people getting out of the vehicle >> and getting hit by a car. >> That's kind of what I thought because I
said I would like to always pull close to the close to the sidewalk >> and then get off that way and then there I will see, you know, the double lines on my street side so I could just safely
land in there. But he said, "Don't worry. You can park again close to the sidewalk and lower the lift. This time it will the lift will be lowered to where it is
marked the handicap sign on the on the road." So, but I learned for the first time that I would be allowed to work on double line. That's what he said. Well, I said this is something learned new I
learned. But >> you feel comfortable getting out of your car into a stripe area on the street where the cars are whizzing by on your right. You feel comfortable with that? >> Well, if I don't, then there is another one.
>> You do it on the other side of the street. Yeah. Okay. >> See, I don't think those should be van accessible spaces. They're very dangerous for that. They're okay for a for somebody who's on the driver's side. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. If you get
off the your vehicle and you cannot park the other way, turn around and uh put it so that I can >> It's a one-way street because it's a oneway street. >> Yeah. You can't do that. >> Yeah. >> That would be even more dangerous. >> So, I thought, you know, it was kind of
interesting and I said, "Well, maybe there was no other alternative they could figure out." So, but it was a it was a very good productive meeting and Guilford was very in in able to assist whatever he could
but he says and I said sometimes we write things and we don't really see any results you know and he says just keep on uh addressing to the town manager and him and Pamela and of course so it was
Okay. So, where are we technically? Do we need to write a letter? >> Yes. >> Requesting better lighting and that sidewalk. >> It can't be a rise sideway, but
sidewalk, but it has to be a visual >> sidewalk. Like, so the it would have to have like >> big striping on it as a sidewalk. And then one of the lines would have to be tactile. >> That's right. That's right. So those are
the two things. And uh you could quote that in that meeting. Uh I was president so was Guilford and Pamela. So they >> um do know what day that was. >> Oh, I think it was a Friday. Let me see.
I can find out from my calendar >> because I can write a note to Paul Buckleman on behalf of this committee. We should take a vote, but I can write a note to Paul Buckleman about the fact that you had this meeting. Two members of the commission were there, you and
Pamela, and you met with Guilford, and these are the recommendations. Um, and I'll send it, you know, as we as I understand it, those are the recommendations, and those are not well, the electricity is a little expensive, but the sidewalk
striping isn't. >> So, that's pretty good. Yeah, I think >> I think that was was the 14th. >> What's the question, Jim? >> Are we talking about sidewalk striping
on the that existing bit of extended curb in the in the alley going to the back of the building? >> I think what she Let me understand what you're saying. adjacent to the town hall. You're saying >> Yes.
>> that that instead of that just being the road, >> it should be demarcated as a sidewalk. >> Yes. Part of it. Yes. Close to the town. >> Adjacent to the building. >> Yes.
>> Okay. So, I don't know how wide it needs to be according to the >> MAB and all that. We have to check that out. But >> what you're saying is keep the cars off of it. So that people who are in wheelchairs or otherwise, you know, coming out of there on foot don't have
to compete with the traffic. >> That's right. That's right. Especially and we can tie it to the illumination because when the meeting ends in dark >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I can write something. I can write that up. >> That's right. >> Thank you. That's great. Thank you for
doing that. And then Guilford also said, well, I said to both Pamela and Guilford, I said, you know, I just faced this problem when I w was going into the building to sign to be part of this
commission. And I asked the person, I said, um, I are you allowed to park behind the building? And he said, yeah, people that work there can park. So I said you know to me it seems like when
the parking is very limited why can't the uh workers be provided some other place where you know they could park without paying any money you know and then they could walk into their jobs and
uh they said actually they're not supposed to park there but it is just written in paper so it is not really enforced. But it could be a friendly reminder.
And we also were told that the workers there are not allowed to park in the parking lot to provide access to public. But that's >> you know interesting. That's my
understanding. So >> no, that was a very productive meeting. Thank you. >> I mean yeah I thought so. It was very friendly and we were all trying to find a solution to the problem. So maybe Philillip might know about this
rule of the parking. >> Okay. >> Whether the staff could do it or not, but that's my that I that's what I grab from this meeting. >> All right. I think we need to move on. But that was really really good because that's been coming up for years. I'm so glad you took care of that
>> and then you're going to, you know, you're going to get the best result out of the space that you could get. So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> But we hope we get the result. Let's see. Who knows? >> Okay. Now, um I put something on to set a goal or goals for the commission
because we seem to be good at being reactive. People bring things to us, people mess things up. Um, but we um haven't really had time to think about
what what would we want to do if it came from us? What would we want to achieve in the town? Is there something in a place? Is there something programmatic? Is there something that you think would
benefit people in this town who have disabilities that we could work toward? And that's what I wanted to ask. And I wish the other two people were the other three people were here. So maybe we should table it. But um
I just I I I don't know what people think of the question. Let's find that out first. >> No, I like I like that question. As far as you know, I live and I've been living in Ammeris for 21 years and I live right
in the center of town right behind Xander's clothing store right next to the >> Yeah. >> Western Cemetery. So, a couple of issu know often I always walk people always see me walking around and I like sitting on the benches in town just especially
when it's pretty busy. But a lot of I noticed a lot of the well several storefronts on the same side as where Toy Box X is located and going all the way up to Subway to Main Street. Some
businesses have sandwich boards which they place in the middle of the sidewalk which is you know I've walked into them several times. I've seen other people, in fact, I've I've seen people walking with canes who are visually impaired or or blind like trip and stumble over
sandwich boards. Is there some sort of policy not to have sandwich boards placed in the middle of sidewalks? >> That's a good question, and I do not know the answer. >> Um, all right. So, that's a good question.
Um, and I will write it down. Hold on. Oh, well, go on. Um, all right. So, we want to find out if there are any is there anything about um Hold on. Okay. Okay. All right. Um
I don't know. That's a very good question. >> Yeah. >> All right. But and I don't know. I I think um eventually we have a liaison to this committee, Reggie. um at from the town council at the moment. It's um Pat um D'Angelus.
She uh did not run for reelection. So, she will be off of the board after the December meeting because they get sworn in again in January and they will assign a new liaison to us. Um we don't have
any input into who that is. Um but they will assign somebody to us and this would be the kind of thing that if the liaison were present we would ask them to find out about that. Um and normally
the liaison would also bring some of these concerns to the manager. So right now we have to communicate directly or normally Pamela would communicate uh directly about things that are of you
know extreme importance but we usually try to write memos put things in writing. So um that is a very good question. I was thinking I was wondering whether anyone has anything
more broad. For example, in the summertime when the eating was outside, the outdoor dining, were there any concerns? They tried to address those and there are rules in the maab about the where the tables can go
and everything. Did that work well? Did anyone have trouble with that? Well, like the side which I just mentioned that side of the street on North Pleasant Street where >> Yeah. >> Toy Box and you know going all the way up in terms of
>> outdoor tableabling not as much. The only seem like the only tableabling is outside of the Antonio's Pizza Restaurant and which is in the street. So it does not really impede like the walk-in area. Okay. However, on the other side in front of the Fresh Side
Cafe, >> that notice those tables often if people have chairs may leave chairs in the middle of the sidewalk, which often impedes by walking up that street and I'm sure other people as well.
>> So, you maybe there needs to be a sign pushing your chairs. I mean, sort of human courtesy, but that went human courtesy went bye-bye years ago. So, >> I mean, I >> there's also in front of Ammerst Coffee
on um on Amity Street. Yes. >> Tables. >> Yes. That one gets pretty tight because the tables are on both sides of the sidewalk. One facing the glass of the restaurant, then other tables on the right side. So you have to walk exactly
down the middle or you will get caught up on a chair or a table, especially again if a chair is left out in the sidewalk. >> Okay. So we should maybe get to that in the spring. But I was just even thinking more lofty goals. Do we have any is there anything that you've always
thought, you know, it'd be really good if this town did X or if you know, I've seen Y in a place and I think we should do it or um I think there should be better um like for you Reggie, you work UMass
Disability Services. UMass is its own country really. It doesn't people don't really interact with the town unless they do you know but there's no formal interaction between for example your office and this
committee now we have you but I don't know if you see any need for it. Yeah, but for example, every November campus and sponsored by the UMass Police
Department, there's an event in the evening called Walk for Light. Walk for Light. And people volunteer. They meet at the student union building here on campus, break up into groups, and each group is responsible for a certain
section of campus to walk at night. And the event lasts for perhaps about two hours, 5:30 to like 7:30. Then in the findings, you notice where there's faulty sidewalks. There are cracks in sidewalks for wheelchair users. There
could be potholes in the grounds for wheelchair users. And in addition, which I can really apply to as far as living in Ammeris, the lighting, the street lighting. I noticed certain sections are lit in Ammeris in the center of Ammeris.
Many are poorly lit. And now the time the sunset is 4:20, 4:25 in the P.M. It gets very dark and amorous especially those like from for for example my condition have a time adjusting like if
I go from daylight to night time and sometimes just picking up just different things that might again for like the sandwich boards or if there was better light even where I live I'm not even sure who to contact every year so there's two light poles behind Xander's
clothing store the toy box that box and >> y >> every couple years the lights go out and I always call nobody else seem like nobody else calls to get them because when I leave and come in to my apartment it's usually leave very early in the morning and I usually come back at the
end you know now early evening so it's dark so it took about >> two months this year for the lights to get replaced the lights which are against the side the cemetery graveyard wall the stone wall and it lights up that parking lot however there's another
parking lot to the left. When I walk straight in, when I usually walk in, I cut in between Xanna's clothing store and the gas station. There's a driveway. >> Yeah. >> I walk straight ahead to my apartment complex. >> There's no lighting there. And there are vehicles parked on both sides and oftent
times it is a hindrance as far as I might bump into a vehicle because of the poor lighting. So, I'm not sure who to reach out to about getting more adequate lighting in in the area. >> Okay. U Myra about your question. I have one idea that just came to me.
>> Okay. >> To give it as an example. By the way, I found out the meeting we had with Guilford that day was uh November 7th. >> Okay. >> In the morning. >> Thank you. Perfect. Okay. when we were uh going around the building from the
back of the building uh tunnel toward the main street and right when you make a left turn to the on the sidewalk there's a big ditch there
you know I mean it's for uh people that are able body it's no big deal but for somebody like me if you're going it speed, you know, it's just scary. It's just it's it needs to be filled. So I
and I as I said, see, it's very difficult. I cannot really go through it easily. Maybe I could have done it 15 years ago, but right now I don't feel like it. And then I asked my PCA to be
to help me. And even Guilford joke with her, so you know this. And she was he was joking at SOA. And SOA said, "Yeah, I've been doing this for a long time." So anyhow, and on our we went around
this and then we came back again and we were just looking at the lights. We were at that intersection again, that corner, and some people were moving some carts from the outside of the accessible
entrance, and they were maybe three people, they were pushing something for the Veterans Day celebration or something. And what do you know, the guy almost fell off that thing? And I said, Guilford, what >> because of the hole?
>> Yeah. I mean the the break in the sidewalk, you know, it's like maybe about 2 in wide. Uh and uh it's really a problem and I it just happened in front of our eyes. So I said, Guilford,
uh, why can't something why don't you just get something and fill that hole until Don't wait until all the sidewalks are going to be repaired because you asked for this fancy grant and the town is going to put so much of it and so
forth. And he said, "I don't have the money, Sarin. Show me the money." Well, I said, "Are are you looking for donations?" So my my proposal would be that if the
town would allocate say $150,000 each year on a fund to be used for immediate needs, immediate accessibility needs, whatever that will be,
>> you'll be lucky if you get 50,000 >> well or 25. >> And the same is true. I mentioned again the same thing that Jim brought us to our attention across FL Florence Bank. Yeah, it's going to be something
beautiful when it is all done. But when I hope my lifetime will be and I'll see it. You feel like I feel like saying that >> you know. So if they had something but we can propose you say we have what we
dream of this is what will be a great achievement from my perspective of looking because I always see that they don't do small projects because there's no money allocated for such things. >> Yeah. He also said, right, because I
think Jim asked at the last meeting and he said contractors don't want to come in and do a small project, they want to do a big project, >> right? And so maybe they should have handyman that works for them on a call
basis. You know, there so many people handyman just give them something and say, "Okay, this needs to be filled this space." You know, you don't have to have a contractor. something small scale like you would handle in your own house. >> Yeah. You would hope that he would have
people on his staff who could do that. >> Well, I I I would say though that um last week along College Street there were DPW guys. >> Yeah. >> Filling in
where they had done all that road work >> on College Street. >> Yeah. Um there was a the entryways to all the little plazas there had gotten screwed up. I mean that is that the road was too high for the
entryway or something like that. But anyway, so it was DPW guys who were doing that work. Um so I mean I I think it is a matter of money. I think that we can ask for however much we want and then see what they do with it. Uh maybe
we only get 25,000, but on the other hand, uh maybe we'll get 150. Who knows? Uh and then we just have to have a concerted effort um to identify the problems as they come up, whether it's right around town hall or
whether it's in the the sidewalks uh near where Reginald lives, however it all works, you know. But >> yeah, >> um the sidewalks in this town are well they're a lot like the roadways in this town. Uh they're not in good shape for the most part. Y
>> and so um >> it's expensive, you know, that I understand. >> And it's an ongoing problem. I mean, it's not a one-year thing because three years down the road there'll be another problem >> at that same spot probably. But nevertheless, I think it's worthwhile to
do it. One of the things that Rob Moira said at some point was that yeah, they often have little bits of money to use. Uh but they don't know when they'll have it or how or why. But if we're active in
identifying the problems that exist, then, you know, maybe he can use his little fund or we get a fund of, you know, $150,000. Why not dream, right? and and go about things that way. Anyway, I I I think >> Yeah. No, I think I think that's good
and maybe we should start the list. >> Yeah. Then we can just tell them that this is not a money that needs to be spent, you know, and if we can have the control prioritize how that money will
be spent like the little projects like the uh Florence savings with across from that place might buy the town hall and buy the places Reggie was talking about and there will be >> appropriated money. Yes.
>> Has to be spent or it goes away. It goes into free cash. >> Maybe it might be some other way to uh put it like >> we have a fun it could roll into next year. >> Remember, you can't do that. You can't
roll money over if it's appropriated money. But we have a fund. Remember, it's part of our fund. were supposed to get money from handicapped parking, which they do not enforce um rigorously in this town. And whereas
many other towns are leveling $300 fines on a second offense or even a first offense, Amoris barely does anything. You know, it's one of those other things that they don't enforce. So,
um we have potential for having money. So we, you know, and our money, unlike appropriated money, our money will not dry up at the end of the year. It rolls over. So that's why it's important to
differentiate. Um, you know, if they need to put some money in there so that it won't disappear and it's available, maybe they can do that. And maybe we can ask the um the state
uh like Jim you were talking about your Rob was telling and maybe they could be matching funds like if we collect like $1,000 from fines this year they don't think they do that
>> they don't do that but within our money we could do that >> don't say >> the state doesn't just come up with a you know $1,000 here and there they have grants grants that they give out for specific purposes. And actually, the MOD grant decision has
been made. I don't know what they decided, but I know that they made the decisions about who's going to get the money this year. Remember that's the 100,000 we lost. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um and I don't know, maybe Pamela was
informed. Philip, did are you reading Pamela's mail? >> Yes. I have not seen anything come through about that. Okay. Well, today's Tuesday. I heard on Saturday that they made the decision. >> Okay. Um, so if you hear anything or
actually Phillip, if you can write to do to Dave Zomeck or to Rob Mora or to both of them and say that you know that the MAD mod decision has been made. Can they can they let us know um whether
Amish received any money from the mod grant? >> That would be great. and then you could let us know. Um I know I know that it's you know it'll come out this week they said.
>> Okay. >> So that would be really cool. >> Um but okay so we need a better better emergency fund for dangerous sidewalk situations is really what you're saying both of you right all of you.
>> Yeah. the things are just ruled out as they don't have the money and this is a safety issue like these little bricks in the sidewalks is a safety issue and I know people talked
about uh around the um armor cinema that area but I haven't really personally observed that but this one by the town hall getting into the accessible entrance
is the those cracks on the sidewall and I don't know. >> Okay. I think I mean that's not like um I if we could figure out how we can get money in our fund and then we can ask them to do things, we can find out how much things cost. I mean, it should be
materials because he has people working and if we had money, I mean, he he says he would fix it if he had money. He said that a few times, right? >> Yeah. He says he doesn't have the money. >> Okay. Well, then let's figure out how to get him some emergency money.
>> Yeah, that's what I mean. to emergency for accessibility use and uh to provide safety for the residents of Ammerst. You know, it doesn't have to be only
somebody using a cane or a wheelchair like me. It happened to somebody that they were pushing a cart. >> Yep. Or >> it could be a baby stroller or who knows? I don't know. >> Yep. Yep. It is it is too bad. It is too bad that
>> the town of Ammeris does not enforce like you were saying for violators of HP parking. So for example >> here on campus and HP park pockin violators are heavily heavily penalized and quickly penalized and the money that
is received goes to this office disability services office for a scholarship fund. >> Wow. Well, it should be the same thing in the town and we part of the formation of this commission was the formation of an account that is allowed under
Massachusetts general laws for us to receive all of the parking the handicap parking funding. The thing is they don't hardly have any. So, that's an interesting question and we could Yeah, we can say that some of the Okay. All right. Now, we need to go
on. Let's see. Um, now that Worcester restaurant accessibility thing, did anybody read it? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I didn't. >> You didn't? Okay. Did you, Jim?
>> I didn't. >> Okay. So, what it is is a thing by the city of Worcester. Um, two restaurant. Um, correct me when you want to. Original. Um uh it's it's too it's
telling restaurants how to have a more uh pleasant and legal environment for people with various disabilities. And it has I mean it has a bunch of Worcester stuff on the top that's really irrelevant to this town. But um the the
meat of it is you know for people who use wheelchairs this is what you need to be sure. for people who don't speak well. This is what you need to be sure. If for people who don't uh who can't see, you know, for low vision people,
for people in um for people who don't hear well, have a pad of paper and pencil around, you know, like all that. And there some of the suggestions I thought were very good. Um, and I don't want to, um, I don't I don't know that we need to link to the whole Worcester
thing because there's a lot of Worcester specific telephone numbers and, you know, stuff to call and um, so I don't know if they would allow us to credit them, but to rewrite it for
ourselves, but I think there's some useful stuff on there. I think it would be useful maybe for people to read it and come up with any more. Reginald, do you have any suggestions? >> No, the the uh article, the story, the piece was very very good. It it kind of
reminded like for example, we have a a group of 14 to 17 year old high school students who come to UMass who are blind or low vision and stay on campus for two weeks in the summertime. In this office
we coordinate and we help support it from the Polish center and the one of the person people up there who we deal with is Joshua Pearson who UMass graduate who is totally blind came through our office and that was one
section of that story where in terms of in for example in dining halls just to try to give education to people personnel who work in the dining halls when these students are on campus going because that has been an issue over the
years in ter those tips, those pointers, those suggestions were very very good in that story. >> Yeah. Um I was trying to think if I even had any extra ones. I think we should bring it back one more time and look at it, Jim. Look at it, Sarah. See if you have any suggestions for things that
might be added to the list. And I think we could um you know I think we could um write our own and credit them for um you know or excerpted from you know and I think that that it would be
useful we could put Emmer specific things on there but I think it would be useful and then once we do it we could distribute it to restaurants or you know it could be distributed to restaurants so that they could have a sense of you know this is what is
required and expected of you in dealing with patrons who have disabilities. And the beginning of it is like, you know, a lot of people with disabilities have a lot of disposable income and they like to eat out. So, you know, like this is what you need to do to make, you know,
one of the things I don't know if you have this problem, Sarah, I'm assuming Reginald does. I know I do. My problem is you go with anybody anywhere. You go with your PCA. They talk to your PCA instead of you. >> Oh, yeah. Do they? That's nothing. >> Yeah, that's one of the things that's in
the um in the thing. And I thought that's that's absolutely true. I mean, when I was an elected official in the town and I'd walk in with my husband, um they would hand materials to him. They would talk to him as though he were my caretaker. It was like, what?
>> Yeah. I'm the elected official. He's just here. >> Yeah. >> Anyway, um it was it was interesting. I mean, you know, so I think there's a lot of education and, you know, East Hampton does a lot of those public service
announcement things. They've made some videos. That's not my thing. Um, I don't know if it's anybody's thing in this group. Um, but they have, you know, they put on um, and I don't know if they ever show them anywhere. I don't know,
>> but I know they made some. It could be something that could be on our website and it could be something sent to the chamber of commerce so they could share it with their >> the restaurant thing. >> Yeah, the rest.
>> Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, they could take care of it. That's right. They have a newsletter actually. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. Good point. Okay. So, I think we could rewrite that, but I'd like one more month for people to actually look at it and see if you have
any suggestions for things to add to the list before we go and do it. >> Where where was that thing? Where could we >> It's actually in the packet that Philip sent. >> Oh, okay. >> It's right after the >> I don't know why, but it must have been sort of a continuation.
>> Yeah. Well, Philip put it all in one thing. So, it's it's not it says packet instead of saying minutes. >> Okay. >> So, he didn't break it down, but in where it says packet, I couldn't find it either. And then I'm like, wait, maybe
he stuck it at the end of the minutes, which in fact is what he did. >> Okay. >> Yes, I did. And apologies if that's not how you all normally do it on on your commission. >> Yes. Well, normally >> directly to the place. That's the problem. >> Okay. We won't figure it out on our own.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean, you did it as a scan and I was able to read it as a scan. Normally, that's not an accessible document, just so you know, Philillip. Okay. >> It doesn't because it's read it's an image file >> and image files are not accessible.
there. Um, and both of those, I mean, it was the easiest way to do it, but both of those are actually doc files, and they they should have been sent as doc files because they are readable with a um with a screen reader. What I did was I went in Jaws and they have a specific
function that I was able to use. It reads many image files, but not all. >> Um, I don't know if you use that. Do you use do you use Jaws at all, Reginald, or do you not? Yes. What version of Jaws are you using, ma?
>> Oh, I have 26. I was I just did it as it's really old. I did it as OCR. >> I mean, I OCR it. >> Yes. >> It was what you can do forever. >> Yeah. I had to do the same. I have Jaws at the office on the desktop. Have Jaws 25. Just cut that
about a month ago. >> Oh, you should make you should get a new one. There's a better feature in it that is really cool. You should tell your mass to get you a better one. What? For the for the upgrade, they have a cool feature. Yeah. Where you can put you could you little digression here. Um you
can put your cursor you can go to your um form field any in a in a thing that you have to fill out or in a button that's unlabeled or in anything like that which is every place in a website. And you can go there and you hit insert
G and it tells you what the button is and it tells you what the graphic is and it tells you what the form field is and if you ever go back to that particular document, it stays there. So no longer
will it say button button button, it'll say what the buttons are once you've done it once. >> Is that right? Thank you very much. >> It's in 26 and you have to get it. It's very cool. >> So, Jaws 25 didn't did not have that feature. >> No. >> All right. Thank you very much.
>> 26 just came out like two weeks ago. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. It's very cool. It's a very because when we read websites when they like um a lot of the time they don't label stuff just so you know. So, it's it'll will go it'll say link link link
link link or it'll say button button button button button and you see a graphical um you know a design that shows you what the button is for but we have no idea what it's for. But they just created this way that you can go to
a form field that isn't labeled. So, it'll you'll get an edit box, but it won't tell you what they're asking you for. And you go, why what am I supposed to write here? So, you fill out forms and then at the end it tells you you did it all wrong because you don't know what the questions was, you know. Um, and now
it, you know, I'm sure it's not perfect, but it will identify unidentified things and will keep them identified, which is pretty amazing. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, it's it's it's really amazing. I just downloaded it two days ago, so I
haven't done a lot of using, but you should tell your mass to buy you a 26. >> And I, you know, I'm eligible for an upgrade. The thing here, so you cannot make any changes on my desktop without administration rights by our IT people.
>> Yeah. >> Have to call the IT. >> That's what happened to me when I was at the high school, too. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. You can't once you're in a system like that, but UMass is buying you the upgrades, right? >> So, UMass buys the upgrade and I'm still
registered with MCB, Mass Commission for the Blind, and my tech person, nobody here on campus is an expert in JAWS in terms of especially for any type of upgrades. So, for example, a month ago, well, every since I've been here, I
always have to contact my commission tech person. His name is Bill Hirs. >> Bill Hirs. Yep. >> Yeah. So, Bill has to come to my office. We have to schedule with Bill and then we have to >> and he does the upgrade. >> No. Well, well, Bill is able to make all the Jaws features and he he's good with
getting my settings from my previous device onto my new settings. And I also >> happen automatically >> and I have to have >> That's weird. >> Yeah. And I have to have an IT person here because every time we make a change has to do the administration rights and they have to type in their password and username.
>> Yep. I remember it well. But the high school people got good at it. They were they were good. They were very good. Um the UMass people should be good at it because yours is not the only computer on the campus that has Jaws installed on it.
>> There are quite a few. >> No. >> Anyway. Okay. But anyway, it's a very cool feature. I digress. We digress. >> But anyway, no, it's a cool feature. You need to get the new one. It's very cool. Um and wait, let me see. What were we
talking about? Oh. Oh. Oh, yeah. The Transportation and Parking Commission. Remember a million moons ago, they said that they were going to set up this group that was going to deal with roadways, parking,
all kinds of things like that that would be sort of like from the the the the TAC, which was the transportation um committee. and and anyway they
haven't set it up but they are about to set it up. So they want a member of this commission to be a member of that um parking commission. Um, and it's about roadways,
it's about bike lanes, it's about um, you know, anything that has to do with the public way. I think it's one of the most critical committees we could have in a way. And if we have really good
input on it, um, you know, it's going to have to be somebody who's really going to be committed to doing it because it's an opportunity for the voice of people with disabilities to be heard on this
commission about the whole public way, like where should those bike lanes be? Should they be in the street? Should they be on the sidewalk? I certainly have an opinion, which I'm sure Reginald shares. Um, they should be in the street. These should not be the bicycles
on the sidewalk. Um, but um, you know, where how are they going to stripe this? If they're putting in a new bus stop, where are they going to put it? How are they going to indicate, you know, I'm like, we don't want any floating bus stops, meaning you have to cross a bike lane to get to the bus stop from the
sidewalk. They're doing that in a lot of cities. they are very very dangerous. Um but they're doing it. So we don't want anything like that. And for example, if we have particular interest in know specific streets, um if they're re if
they're fixing something, should they be putting curbs there? Should they not be putting curbs there? Stuff like that. Um I think anyway, is there anyone who would really like to serve on this committee on this commission? Hi Myra, this is Ian.
>> Oh, you're here. Yay. I didn't know you came. >> Yeah, sorry. I I joined by phone on at at around noon. >> Oh, okay. Cool. >> I have a question. Would would that this commission also be uh we we've talked in the past about uh like getting buses and
and other transportation to accessible trail areas? Um would that be under the perview of this commission as well? >> I don't know that they have gotten that far, but that's a good question. >> Um
the and also a second question. Sorry. Do you know how frequently the committee would meet? >> It didn't say. >> Okay. >> Um I think that's what the commission would determine. Um the buses are a whole other issue. the town has virtually no jurisdiction over a lot of
it because it's PVTA. Um, right. >> And they're willing to do it or they're not willing to do it. They're able to do it or they're not able to do it. They do re they have changed a number of bus lines recently. Um, like they've
combined a bus that went from UMass to uh Holio Mall. It used to only go to South Hadley. I don't remember what they did, but they've they've tried to streamline their bus routes. They're trying to do the best they can with the resources
that they have. Um, but I don't think the town has jurisdiction over a lot of things. We could ask them to install a bus stop in an in an existing route, but getting them to change a route is not so easy. Got it. So,
>> um I I I would be interested um in in serving on that committee. >> Okay. Um we should ask they have not I mean everybody isn't here. So, actually we're missing Pamela. She won't want to be on it, I don't think. Uh she has way
too much else to do. Um but um Cody isn't here. Um so, you would like to serve on it. It's something that you're going to have to attend all the time and bring back to us. I think that's really really critical because
we we really need to talk, you know, the communication from who's ever serving on that committee to us is going to have to be really good and from us to them because so much of our conversation is
about the public way. um and how to how best to structure it, how best to repair it, where to put the you know the um emphasis of the money. Um you know how to design intersections.
Um and everybody knows what I'm talking about except Oh, Reggie, you don't know. Last winter near the new school on Southeast Street, they decided to build the school at a place where they really hadn't figured out the traffic pattern for the cars
that are dropping off kids and the people who are going through that area every day to go to UMass because it's very it's an important place where people turn into UMass from the east and it's an important place where people turn to drop their kids and they figured out that there's no there's going to be
incredible gridlock and nobody's going to go anywhere at a few hours of the day. And so they tried to redesign the intersection after they placed the school on the site and had already started building it. So they couldn't
use a lot of the, you know, the area that they might have been able to use if they thought about it before. Um, and so it's a big problem and it was it was a failure of forethought for sure. Um and
they have not resolved it and but this committee I think will have something to do with that. Um anyway, so um I'm glad you want to do it, Ian. And if you, you know, I think we'll make a formal appointment after
they ask us, but if you would like to do it, I think we should have an alternate person also decide to um um because if Ian or whoever is going to go cannot go, that other person should go. Does that
sound reasonable? >> That makes sense. Okay. >> Um I I have one other question. Would would would this committee be in charge of like uh uh uh pedestrian uh traffic signals? Um
>> yep. >> It's public way everything. >> It's huge and it's extremely relevant to people with disabilities. It's a very I think it's a very cool thing that they're going to do and I'm sure that
there are going to be some people on it like I hope Tracy will volunteer. She knows a tremendous amount about transportation and about um roads. Um, and you know, hopefully there it's it's going to have like nine or 10 members,
people from the town council, people who have some expertise in transportation, but one of the people standing on the committee will always have to be somebody from this commission, which I think is huge. And if we take full
advantage of it, meaning we always have somebody there. That's why I think we need to have an alternate. Um, and we have to be we have to really communicate well back and forth because I think this is an opportunity for us to really be heard on a formal basis rather than
complaining about this and that which didn't already happen or which did happen but didn't happen, right? You know what I mean? So, um, yep. >> They didn't appoint the commission yet. They didn't ask us, but I wanted people
to think, I'm glad you want to do it. >> And, um, we would need, I think, an alternate. Um, so when they make the request, we're ready to go, right? Okay. Um,
let's see. Oh, town forms. I received from a town counselor information that uh the counselor received from a constituent about a form on the town website. This is a person
who's losing vision and can no longer fill out the forms on the website. I don't know if the person uses magnification or if the person uses uh speech. I don't know. But the thing was
that this person was unable to complete a form which is a fillable PDF which of course you cannot complete because they're never fillable with screen readers. I don't know about with magnification. They have to be specially written to be
fil fillable. Um, and this person was not happy that uh couldn't that that this person I don't want to put a gender on it. Couldn't fill out the form
independently. So, um, I sent a note, probably I shouldn't have done it this way, but I sent a note to Sam uh Gifin, who is the website person, because the form is off of the website. I don't know if she's the person responsible for
forms at all, but I wrote that in the note. I said, "Are, you know, I don't know if you're the right person, but if you are, Philip, you might want to even follow up on this." Um um there has to be forms that people
that the town has like for um what does the town have for forms? I don't even know. But there are forms that you have to fill out. um that tend to be >> I'm sorry.
>> Okay. >> Okay. They tend to be fillable PDFs and that's what they're called technically, fillable PDFs and they are fillable for people who can see them. They are not fillable with a screen reader unless
they are rewritten. Um, what I wonder is if we can have them post them as fillables or docx forms that actually when you save them or when you submit them to the town, they
automatically convert to PDF. So, they read them as PDF, they receive them as PDF, but the person who fills them out fills them out as a docs doc because um those are fillable. if that makes any sense. But anyway,
sometimes forms are confidential and they don't want anybody doing it for them. So, I think we need to look into this fillable forms to make sure that um that it is accessible for people to
use the forms. Um Reggie, I don't know if you have ever tried to fill out a fillable PDF. Um, >> oh yes, absolutely. In terms of working here at UMass, so many forms. For
example, we have where we put an accommodation for a housing accommodation. For example, if a student is eligible and qualifies for a single room on campus and in the past there was a form which was designed by the res life residential
life service office which was not accessible for me. So what this office we have a document conversion program document conversion program and we have one person who was a supervisor and what we would have to do we'd have to submit
her that inaccessible PDF form she would then work on it to create a fillable form for me to use which worked out very very well. >> Aha great. >> Well maybe the town can hire him to do some forms.
I don't know. But yeah, it's a problem and it's not everyone can do it. It's not you don't just push a button. There are there is some expertise required in creating fillable PDFs. I don't I don't have any because I can't do it because if you can't see the regular, you can't
fix it. when when on the computer and if I'm working on a PDF form and I want it fillable, uh there is, you know, for a little fee, the PDF could be converted to any form that we want. So, it's not it's already
in place. So, that's probably what the town might need to purchase. Maybe >> Oh, you mean Acrobat Pro? >> Is that what you're talking about? >> I don't know. But I mean I was trying to uh write something in the PDF and of
course it won't let you but for a little fee it could be converted to some other kind of a form. So that's the signal I remember getting. >> Yeah it's Acrobat Pro Acrobat Pro. You have to pay for it. You're right. Um and I don't know if that's how they do it
Reggie. Is that how they do it? Well, for example, here on campus, Myra, so for years have used Adobe for PDFs. Adobe. >> So, probably the last within the last year, there was a switch, a swap where
UMass was making a mandatory change to no longer have Adobe accessible for any staff employees. However, I had to get it a special accommodation privilege certain people where we are still because the other
cannot recall the name of the other PDF reader or like the Adobe Adobe is accessible as you know with Jaws however the other version was not. So when Bill Hirs came in, my mass commission computer guy, when he had to make an
installation on Jaws onto an Office laptop computer, we had to make sure that the Adobe Acrobat reader would launch and load as the default and they had to make some changes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there is a the Adobe Acrobat
is the one that we use to read. But Sarin is correct. If you buy Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can convert files. And I don't know if that's how they do it. That's a very good question, Sarin. I do not know. Um, but if that's all they do,
then they can pay for somebody to use Adobe Acrobat Pro and convert it. >> Um, I'm sorry about my >> What about in terms of AI, you know, artificial intelligence? Is that any support or assistance for filling out a form online for a blind or low vision
user? >> I have no idea >> because it's not the material. >> No, do you hear me now? >> Yeah, we could not hear you briefly. Yes. >> But do you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Yes.
Okay. So, what I'm um I didn't hear what you said because I was trying to mute myself because my phone was ringing. Um so, I didn't answer the phone, but anyway, I couldn't um I didn't hear what you said. Reggie, say that again, please. >> Yeah, as you know, you know, as far as with the latest versions of Jaw screen
reader, so there are now AI, you know, artificial intelligence capabilities. Is there a way in which there could be an AI assistant for somebody to complete a form, fill in a form who might vision or blind? >> Good question. I don't know, but I'm
going to ask Bill. I will write Bill Hirsh and ask him that how to do it because he might know. Okay. Um All right. Anyway, so I wanted you to know that there are inaccessible forms on the town website, but hopefully I mean linked to on the town website, but
hopefully we will work that out so that people can fill them out independently. Um, >> okay. I I'm not sure what the next step on this is. >> Um, I sent a note to Sam,
>> right? Hopefully she will get back to me. Hopefully somebody else doesn't say, "You shouldn't have contacted her. You should have contacted me." I don't know anything about that. I always do that wrong. Um anyway, um so the next step on
it is we have to find out how to do it and tell the town how to do it and then then they will decide who will do it. I guess, right? >> Well,
>> my take on that is that it's the town's responsibility to figure out how to do it and then >> yeah, >> clear it with us as as consultants basically or not obviously not me nor Saren, but you and Reggie.
>> You know what, Jim, you're right. Except uh Reggie and I know who to contact and they wouldn't have a clue. We have our own little world here. But I can find out how they would do it and then I can tell them >> request from the town manager
>> that we are having some issues with forms that is inaccessible for people with visual impairments. So we request >> a way to look into that. So what do you suggest and please get in let us know.
So you know because we cannot really in uh spend the time to educate ourselves what is available because it's not our field. >> Oh yeah. You know what they they won't take I it's better if we do that
especially since we know who to contact. They just have too much on their plate. This is so l incident. They're not going to figure this out. We can figure it out and tell them it's their job to figure out who's going to do it. and by when. But it's not our I I can tell them what
they need to do. I mean, I don't have a problem with that. If we know what to do, we should tell them. And if we don't know what to do, we should tell them we don't know what to do. But it is a problem. And the forms have to be accessible. Um, so, okay. Um, this is a good Let me
write this one down, too. Um, okay. Um, and is there anything else? Let's see. Oh, okay. So, I think we've actually handled
everything that is on the agenda. Is there anything that people want to bring up that um we need to bring up because it came up after the agenda was um created?
>> I I apologize for my dog barking in the background. >> I don't even hear it. >> Okay. Well, in any event, um I know that at the last meeting we were hoping that Mindy Dam could join us and talk about >> Oh, yeah.
>> the issue with and she wrote back and said she can't make it. >> I don't know where that is. I have a feeling the whole legislation is going to die in this session because that's how the legislature works. But in any event, uh where is that? Okay. So, I
actually received an email um from her assistant um she wrote to Pamela, but I got it too. Um and it basically we can't make this meeting. Let us know if we have to make it. We need advanced notice. Blah blah blah. That has to do Ian with um with the um
>> with Lindsay's bill. >> I'm sorry, >> with with Lindsay Tabosa's personal >> with the bill to ban mask b. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um, and so I think if we can tell her when the next meeting is and if we can put her on the beginning of the next
um, agenda, this one, this meeting happened at a time that it's not normally scheduled because it's the third week. So the second Tuesday in No, in December, December 9.
And do people want to have her come? Yes, >> I certainly appreciate it. Yeah. >> Okay. All right. I will write back. I will tell her assistant who just contacted us like yesterday um that um
that we're having it on the 9th and we would like her to come and report on the status of the bill and um what you know what's going on with it and what what she thinks about it because I mean obviously bills are put in if they ever get anywhere then they start to work on
them right they have amendments and they change this or that friendly amendments or whatever they do. So, you never know how the bill is going to end up. You just know what was what was proposed.
Okay. Um, anything else? >> Um, Myra, this is one other thing. Uh, this is Ian again. >> Um, >> I traffic and and and pedestrian traffic related question. Um,
are are there any specific rules about where uh accessible um pedestrian blinkers for visually impaired uh people are required to go?
>> That's also a very good question. the requirements are um I actually don't know that about pedestrian signals. There are rules about where stop lights
are supposed to go um and where they're supposed to be placed and I don't know all those rules. there are people who do know them. Um, but I don't I think um there aren't any rules at the moment
that require those pedestrian um those um accessible pedestrian signals. That hasn't been written into the code yet. So, the towns that are
doing it are doing it because of perhaps they anticipate the federal government has some guidelines that have been stalled because of Trump. Um, and so things that looked like they
were going to come to fruition are still sitting there. I don't know exactly the status of any of that, but I know that when you put in the signals, you you can't exactly um
I think I think at this time at this point we have goodwill in Ammerst. I think we have explained with sufficient reasonability to Guilford, to the town council that we need these things and they are putting
them in. But in other towns they are not. In other towns they are, but in other towns they're not. >> Got it. The the reason I ask is um uh on Pine Street where I live, there's a
pedestrian crossing that has a blinking light to to cause traffic to stop. >> Where are you? Where on Pine Street? >> Whoops. Do you hear me? Where on Pine Street? Uh
>> oh, he's gone. Or am I gone? >> No, we hear you. Um, Ian, are you still there? Uh, oh, that would Yeah, I didn't kill him. I promise.
I don't know where he is, but I didn't do it. >> So, yeah. Um, I think if he can hear me. >> I think >> Can you see if he's still connected? >> It just read that he left the meeting. >> Oh.
All right. Well, I guess he got disconnected. I don't think he would have left in the middle of a sentence voluntarily. Um, okay. So, if he comes back, it would be good to know where on Pine Street because he should we should talk to we
should put it on a agenda or he could contact Guilford and talk about, you know, find out if it's possible to do it there. If it's already a blinking light, the electricity is there. So maybe what he has to put there is
just a different um a different thing anyway. Well, he's not coming back. All right. Um November December 9 would be the next meeting. How long should we wait for him
to get back? I'd like him to get back. Um I don't know. Do you see? Um does it look like he's back? >> He's not. >> He's not. Okay. All right. I can send
him a note. Um so minutes. We need to do minutes. I need a motion to approve the minutes. So, I'll move. >> I need a second. >> Approved. >> Okay. Does anybody have any corrections to the minutes?
I did have one. It had to do with spelling and I can't remember it now. >> It was a funny one. Oh, well. I was relatively accurate. Um, okay. All right. Um, nobody has any
>> additions or corrections to the >> He just came He just came back to the meeting. >> Oh, Ian, you're there. >> Sorry about that. >> We can just vote and then get back to Ian. >> Okay. Um, additions or corrections to
the minutes. Ian, do you have any? >> Uh, not not on my part. No. >> Okay. All right. So, all in favor of accepting the minutes, please say I. >> I. I >> I all opposed to accepting the minutes.
Any abstensions? >> Okay, we're accepting the minutes. All right. So, Ian, where on Pine Street? >> Um, it's where Pine Street turns into, uh, I believe it's Bridge Street, uh, right near Kushman Cafe.
>> Okay. Um, and so, uh, there's a a button that you cress to to get the blinker to to to go to for cars to yield. Um, and it the button works on one side of the
street but not the other. Um, and and when I wrote to Pamela about it, um, I I was also wondering about the the legal requirements for for auditory accessibility, uh, for those types of budgets as well. >> I'm sure he would be happy to put one in
if he had one. Um, I think the last time we asked him, he had a bunch of them on order, but I don't think he received them all. Um, but I think um I think that's something that we could
um we could inform Guilford about that we're interested in knowing. Um, Phillip, can you leave a message for Pamela that asks her to contact Philillip about Pine Street at Bridge Street about
putting an audible signal on the existing blinker? Yes. And it's contact Guilford, right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I don't know if he has any at the moment. You know, he'll tell you he
doesn't have any money, but it's it's one of those things that should be on the list. And it's one of those things that should be, you know, that those kinds of things I think would be the kinds of things you want to come up with a transportation commission so everybody can understand why we need to have them
so that whenever the transportation commission makes any decisions about anything, they think, "Oh, yeah, we need to have one there." Instead of having it be on a case-byase basis. That's why the commission, the transportation commission, I think, is so important because right now we do everything peace
meal and this is a place to really organize it all into, you know, some really good steps. So, um, yeah, I think we can do that. All right. So,
it's 104 and I think we can have a motion to adjurnn. I move that we adjourn the meeting. >> I'll I'll second that. >> Okay. All right. So, December 9. Um and
that'll be the next meeting and we have some things to put on it that we already know. Okay. Thank you folks. Have a happy turkey >> or if you're vegetarian, a toeerky. >> Same for you. Thank you. >> Vote.
>> What >> did we actually >> do we have to vote to adjurnn? Yeah, maybe we do. >> Thank you. All right. Who's Who's not in favor of adjourning? >> I >> Wait, you're not in favor of adjourning? >> You're tricking us. You're tricking us.
>> I was just going to get people who weren't in favor of adjourning and then there wouldn't be any answer and then we would be able to adjurnn. Oh, but it's sort of silly. Okay. All in favor of adjourning. >> I >> I That was everybody. All not in favor
of adjourning. >> Okay, we're adjourned. >> Okay, bye bye. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Part: 2
Hi everyone. >> Hi. Can you hear? 12. >> I can hear you. >> Okay, good. >> Hello. >> Hey, Silus. I was really interested that you you
became Silus McShane in the notes. Did you notice that? >> I thought, "Oh, that works actually. Philip, you're a gem. Did you do the notes? >> I did not. Actually, one of our interns did it. >> Oh, that's why. McShane
makes you sound like a cowboy or something. >> Um, I assume Alex is coming and that Rswana's coming. Milan's here. Great. >> Yes. >> Just need we just need one more. >> Muhammad, I'm going to move you um out
right now and then bring you back in when you come up on the agenda. Heidi, >> excellent. Thanks. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Should we call or text Rana because I know she would want to be here and >> that would make a quorum. I don't know
about Liz's >> Liz. Liz will not be here. That's the only person that I've heard from that will not >> attendance. So we So we really need um Alex or Rosswana. >> Correct. >> Have you heard from them? I don't >> I have not heard anything from them
either of them. Um I can call or text Rosanna if you will call Alex. Shall we do that so we know going ahead so that you know especially Muhammad knows that we won't be doing any voting today. Is that
appropriate to do Philillip? >> Uh I'm sorry. What to call them to ask them to join? >> No to ask if they're planning to join. If they're not, we can just go ahead, but we won't be able to take any decisions. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay.
>> I can try the call first or something >> because I think Rswana wanted to be here. >> Yeah, I'm not. >> Here's Alex right now. >> Here's Alex. Okay, great. >> We have a porum. So, I guess we can start. It is 6:02 and I am now calling
the meeting of the human rights commission to order. It is November 18 and we have a quorum. Welcome everyone. Um today we have a somewhat complicated agenda. I'll just uh ask if there are
some announcements first before we start. None. Okay. So, I'll just roughly go over the agenda and then um we'll move into public comments and so on. We have a fairly tight agenda today. We have
seven different items. Three of them are substantial. Um others are more updates. So, let's try to be efficient with our agenda items. They are the minutes of course and then the racial justice committee of
the league of women voters is joining followed by Muhammad Elgadi of the U Amnesty International and then we have the Gaza statement to discuss and what we're going to do at our meeting with the town council on the 24th updates on
the video and also the DEI. That's pretty much the agenda. Is there anything anyone wants to add? Okay. Uh, in that case, we should go to public comment. Um, during the public comment period, the chair will recognize
members of the public. When called on, please identify yourself by stating your full name, preferred pronouns, and residential address. Residents are welcome to express their views for up to three minutes at the discretion of the chair based upon the number of people
who wish to speak. No speaker can seed their time to another speaker. The HRC will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised in public comment. And just to add after that, I will do the roll call since I forgot to do it earlier.
Is there any public comment? Okay, then we'll go on to the roll call for today. Looks like everyone's here. Milan Clark >> here. >> Liz Hagod. Liz is not here. Rizswana
>> here. >> Silus >> here. >> Ronnie, yes. Jay, >> yes. >> Alex, >> here. >> Okay. Um we are now moving to member reports. Um
are there any reports about what you've been doing? >> Yeah, I will um actually share my report with Jay and Alex. We have completed our human rights resolution and so we have handed it over to
Phillip. So that will come up as one of our agenda items a little bit later. So we'll discuss it more. Um I wanted to give an update uh that I've been going as you know to the meetings or briefings of the office for refugees and
immigrants and you may remember many months ago when we started looking into this issue we were talking about child guardianship because we were worried about the kids who would get left behind. So there's a lot there was a lot of information about alternatives
and so I will send that um the PowerPoint with that information. There's a thing called a caregiver a fit of it affidavit however it's said a caregiver statement which allows simultaneous caregiving so you don't give up a right it's not like
taking on the responsibility of being a guardian there are many alternatives for kids so I will send this to philillip and if you could put it in our resources page Philip under planning I would really encourage you to look at it and be familiar with all the options in case
somebody's detail and they ask you a question uh and also to know where it is so you can refer people to it. Um I'm really I have to say I'm really impressed by all the work the state is doing and uh all the resources it's putting forward. You'll
see there also how to get free legal services. So I think a lot of our questions early on are resolved in what's put forward in this uh presentation. So I wanted to share that with you. That's all I have. Anything
else? Okay. Well then, um the first step is a motion to approve. Does anyone have a motion to approve the minutes? >> Silus. I noted where your name was wrong, so that will get fixed. >> Great. Then motion.
>> Okay. Second. >> Okay. I'll second it. Um, and um, I did want to point out just one more spelling issue, which is Alex's name. Her last name is misspelled, but otherwise I guess it's okay. We can
move forward then. Okay. So, the first person on our agenda is Martha Hanner, who is here, who is the head of the racial justice committee of the League of Women Voters. And just for transparency, I have to say that I'm a
member of that committee as well. And uh she's going to talk to us about some of the work of the racial justice committee. Um so with that, um Martha, the floor is yours, so to speak.
Well, thank you, uh and thank you for inviting me. As I think you all know, our racial justice committee researched and issued a report in October about the CSWG
recommendations and how far the town has come in implementing them. And I so I think you've all uh at least seen that or know how know where it is and so on. So I I'm not going to go through it all
in any detail. I mean we definitely have a good DEI department, a two member department of which uh Philip is uh here supporting your group and of course Pamela Young is then the uh director and
so they do a lot of good things and limited only then uh by their lack of more staffing. They've done a lot of creative things and uh crest has been established but has some challenges. Um
the resident oversight board is something you probably have been hearing about from Ronnie because she was on the uh steering group and um so then they let's see they wanted to have a um a
sort of a a youth empowerment cultural center. That has not happened. However, there are uh a number of programs and I'd like to just advertise one of them and that is our racial justice committee hosts a zoom approximately monthly uh
highlighting some activity that's going on in Ammerst. And last Thursday we had Ray Harp and Becky uh Demling from the recreation department talking about some of the youth programs specifically the
morning movement program which you may be familiar with that uh it's hard for me to believe that more than 60 adolescents 8th grade plus or minus a little bit actually enthusiastically
come to school at 700 a.m. for 40 minutes of exercises, sports, and then mentoring with Amoris College students, UMass students, uh volunteers, couple of staff members, uh couple members of the
um Amoris Police Department show up and it's just a chance for for the kids to, you know, start the day well, to get help with their homework or consultation with any problems they have and just, you know, enjoy each weather and the
sports and so on. It just seems very positive. And then there's this rise program on Saturday mornings. That's a more structured program for about 12 youth together with at le I think 12 mentors so that each person has a
partner and it's more of a deep dive into troubling topics of you know racial identity or bullying or you know one's own personal identity and so on. plus building trust and again the Amoris
police uh participate as well as as other volunteers. So that has now been posted on our league website. If you go to our league website, you you see a a
at one point a topic called Judy Brooks topics and then you click on that and you go and you and you have them there. And so thanks Milan for getting that posted today and edited. It's always a challenge to edit the recording before
you can get it up. But you you might want to just tune in for something that really seems positive and inspiring as opposed to some of you know what goes on in Ammerst. So, you know, one of the big concerns that I've had after doing
all this re reviewing, talking with people and so on is just the overall lack of trust uh in our community, say between the police and many of our bipok residents and so on, they just don't understand
each other. The viewpoints just seem so polarized. And so we've been um talking about it and one of the ways to change things is through the town manager goals for each
year which are put together by the town council. And in fact, this afternoon, uh, Ronnie and I had a conversation with Anna Devlin Goutier, who's the town council member who's chair of the go committee, which has the nice job of
putting those together. And so, um, I'd like to just tell you what what our racial justice committee sees as some of those key things. And it might be, you know, topics that that you might feel are important uh and would want to push
for. But uh I'm going to see if I can if I can share screen. Um I'm going to try to put that up. Uh um yes. Can can you see that? >> Yes. Yes.
>> Yes. Okay. So, uh, one of the challenges that I'm sure you're aware of is that there has not been good integration of crest into our police department and dispatch. Dispatch really doesn't refer anything to Crest. There have been six
calls between January and the end of June and 2025. Uh, and the negotiations have rather broken down. And it seems that really it's going to take our town manager to really give that some impetus uh to go anywhere. And so the town council is in
fact uh taking that seriously now. And if if your commission feels that that's something important, uh it probably would be helpful if if you folks could um speak to the town council about it too. Uh because the the police, you
know, are just reluctant to change. they don't see that there's any problems and uh really feel that they are not being fairly criticized whereas uh a lot of uh bipok individuals feel that uh there is
you know police prejudice or harassment or you know judging being guilty until proven innocent and so on if you read the various reports and somehow we all together need to find some better way of
bridging that gap. Um, and I don't have that a great a solution, but it seems to me that that's an important topic uh for the future consideration this next year.
And then crest uh we documented that uh the calls are increasing but the problem is that crest is in the bang center which closes at 400 p.m. period. And yet if you look at the police dispatch logs,
the most activity is later. And it makes sense. You know, people come home in the afternoon, supper time, you know, crises occur and so on. And so we really would would like to see our town manager and and town officials uh help find a way uh
to allow Crest to be available for walk-ins, calls, dispatch calls, and so on. uh after 400 p.m. say 4 to 8:00 p.m. or on Saturdays and so on. So that we see as important and then the third thing uh
refers back to the CSWG report and the LEAP reports. I expect that you folks are familiar with the uh LEAP reports that were published in 2021. One was was sort of a roadmap for crass
and the other was really calling for the Amoris Police Department to to have a formal external review. Not because the individual police weren't professional, but but more of a management type
review, you know, sort of top down. What are the policies and procedures? Do they need updating? why do you still do um pretext stops and consent searches and so on? And so we see again that is
important for establishing trust and uh we're going to be submitting a a formal memo to the town council in just a few days. It's getting our committee to review it right now and so you folks can get a copy of it at that time and decide
whether any of those topics seem important enough for for you folks to um to work on or talk to your counselors about and so on. And one thing that uh councelor Anna Develin Goutier emphasized to us today is it's very
important for people as individuals as well as on your uh group together to talk to your counselors from your district, the ones that represent you or also any top counselors that you think
really have a sincere interest in the topic that you're pursuing because the council she's says works best when there are one or a few counselors that really sincerely support a particular topic and are willing to dive in and do a little
of the research about it and so on to support it. So that seems like a good tip for uh both of our groups uh to to follow up. But so I thought maybe that maybe the best thing Ronnie at this point is just to ask if people
have have questions or would like to discuss anything would that be best? Yes. Are there any qu you all understand the background first? Do you all know what the CSWG report is? Maybe we don't need to go that far back,
but >> I just assume other questions. Ask whatever questions you have. >> Yeah. Thank you for sharing this information and for the work that you're doing. Um I I am curious about that um next action
steps piece and it it sounded like um supporting this on on getting it onto our our town counselor's agendas and continuing it the conversation is is one component. Are there um could you kind of just reiterate the the immediate next
steps that the Human Rights Commission might take to um support this work? >> Yeah. Well, let me say first what my understanding of what the next steps are for the town council. Uh they have this committee called G whatever it stands
for government and something or other. Uh and that's the committee that has two assignments right now. First of all, they're going to meet next Tuesday that you know you can look on at the calendar on the town website for their time. It's
I think the meeting starts at 6 and they are going to be uh reviewing and perhaps finalizing the town manager's goals for next year and um I could look up and send to Ronnie for to send to you folks the
outline of the town manager's goals from the past year so that you can see what kind of format there are. into several categories like climate and housing and then uh community safety and social justice which is I think what you're
interested in and we're interested in. And so that's one thing that they're doing next Tuesday. And then they have been asked to study the ideas and the proposed bylaws for the resident oversight board and send a report back
to the council by the end of the year. Well, you know, in these next few weeks, there's certainly not time to do anything really deep, but uh they need to uh give recommendations on what should be the process for the council
going forward. And as you probably know from Ronnie who was on the uh the the uh working group that Paul Bachmann had was that two different ideas for a resident oversight board were were being proposed
and have been submitted to the council. one one being a quote an oversight board, meaning that they would be able to receive complaints and and conduct investigations, and the other would be they just receive complaints, but but then the police have
to do the investigations. Uh and so it seems to me the you know that's that's just reflective of this mistrust in the community between the uh between the um
you know the police and um many uh bipok members of our community. uh because the police just react to the word oversight as being something that's just wrong that they not justified. Uh and if we
just say well advisory then all the people who feel that there are problems feel that that's just kind of a a wash out you know. So maybe part of the challenge is to see if you folks could come up with a different name that would not uh you know trigger those
reactions. But it's what we wrote in our report was that some means is needed so that people in the community who feel that they've been subjected to to harassment by the police or you know something not you know hit over the head
with a hammer but but you know the m what one might call minor things you know but you know singled out for scrutiny or something that they have a safe way to file a complaint. with with the with an independent body and that
that independent group can then conduct some form of a credible investigation so that all sides then the police and the others would agree that yes, this event happened and here's what happened. Um, and >> thank you.
>> Yeah. >> So, I just want to remind everyone we have a really long agenda today. So we'll hear's question >> and then we'll have to stop. >> Okay. Thank you Mara for sharing all of that and your concern for that.
Basically, if I um conclude uh as to what my understanding is that you want the human rights committee to serve uh as a bridge between Crest and uh the comm other communities, the marginalized communities basically
>> that's that's a possibility for you folks to consider. Certainly. >> So, we are basically bridging. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, anything that you folks can can think of that would maybe some special programs that you could
have or, you know, some ways of of getting people to talk or helping to establish uh trust or at least vent their anxieties or something. I don't know. Or maybe maybe you should be the board that that receives complaints and
investigates. I don't know what it would take. >> Okay. Yeah, the other followup is that um if we are going through our committee human rights, so we'll be framing everything uh through that through our
bylaws basically. >> Mhm. Yeah. >> All right. Yeah, that's it. Thank you. >> Yes. Yes. And Okay. Well, I can I can send Ronnie the the memo and and and things for for you to Okay. Well, thank you. >> Thanks.
>> Thanks, Martha. actually you know we'll we'll share with you uh Martha's email or the league's email so that if you have additional questions or if there are initiatives you want to take to support some of the recommendations of the league then u I think it would be
good to contact Martha directly. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Great. Thanks Martha. Thanks for coming. You're welcome to stay on >> but I think uh Philip will remove you as a panelist. >> Okay. And I see Muhammad is here
already. So our hello Muhammad. Our next agenda item is um I'll let Muhammad tell it but we have with us Muhammad Elgadi from Amnesty International. And um I will give you the floor. Muhammad. Feel
free to introduce yourself more and then tell us what you want to speak to us about. >> Uh >> Muhammad, you're on mute. And then I just have one uh follow-up question. There is um Jay in the audience. Is he also presenting with you?
>> No. >> Okay. >> Is he in? >> He's in the audience. So that's that's all I need to know. >> He's in the audience. Yeah, he's just like listening. Yes. Thank you very much, commissioners. Uh it's a an honor to be here. I was a member of the human
rights commission uh I think in since the 19 late 90s and I was member uh two times I think 2003 and then 2007 then I went like to Philadelphia to work yeah
far away uh but I'm so glad like I know that like how uh this human rights commission is powerful and makes uh major differences on the local level and also on international level in 2004 or
five I believe. uh we offered I came from the American friends uh committee uh the Quaker organization Philadelphia uh to advocate to have like different cities to become a sponsor for the uh an advocate for the
was going on in Darur at that time unfortunately still is going on since that time and Amharis was the second uh town or city nationwide here to issue a a resolution under four at that time. So
this is second time we came and we hope that like uh uh you guys you will do something for us here especially this is uh touching on something personal here for us here in the local chapter of Amnesia. Two of our members members at
large uh from Sudan were being persecuted. when is from both sides uh of the wearing factor uh factions the so-called uh Orthodan government and the so-called
alas government or Nala government it's I will talk about this later on but for for now we are so worried and about the fate and the life of these two members of our group chapter here in Amoris both
of them are lawyers and both of them activists in against war in Sudan and were like being providing us with a lot of information about what's going on all the arrests over there for the civilians. Uh unfortunately one of them
Mr. Abubak was uh he had to stay in town in Singata city to take care of his father and unfortunately when the other faction took over the city they consider anyone who staying in the city
is considered a collaborator with the other side. So they sent sentenced him to 20 years in prison. Uh, of course it was something like weird like to do that. Yeah. So he and his lawyer
appealed this uh the sentence and unfortunately the new court sentenced him to death by hanging and he's in the death row now waiting >> for that. uh it's it's a horrific
situation never happened but it's just like this is what usually what happened during war like no laws nothing here from any sides this is one case uh the other case is Mr. Khaled Sadi he's a member and I know him for a long
time he was advocate amnesty advocated for him few times when he was arrested in the '9s in the early 20 2000 uh this time he was arrested by the other faction from his home because he was also staying home and taking care of his
family and yeah so he disappears he's one of the disappeared people on the many many thousand people who are disappeared during this war We know that for a fact that he's been uh transferred as a detainine to the other side of the
uh country from Kartum. He was taken to Nala with all the other prisoners. Uh the good things both of them are alive and because of the pressure many people are putting a lot of pressure on what's going on in Sudan and specific on
these two cases uh from our side. Yes. And we met with uh our representative Gim McGovern and we spoke to him. He promised to do to take some actions also and we dealt with state department but
still like we could not like reach to is the right person to put more pressure but we think and we believe strongly believe that a resolution coming from you from this respected uh commission uh will make a difference when we add that
like Amharis town issued a resolution in support of the human rights in Sudan and situation. This will make a difference on them and it will send a message to those people who are trying to uh to hang this respected
peace activist lawyer Mr. Mansour and Abu Bakr Mansour and Mr. Khalid Sadi. So this is here at the beginning the situation in Sudan. I already said like some materials. Unfortunately it's on the news. It's it's horrific situation.
More than 50,000 people already being killed. More than 120,000 being injured. And I'm really worried more about the injured people more than the people who already dead because you know like when you are walking with a missing limp or
anything missing eye or anything this is a horrific people become like ah the trauma is too much there. This is one thing. There is f uh 5 million uh people who took refuge in Egypt uh 1 million in
Chad and another like 150,000 between the other three neighboring countries. These are like including many members of my family including my my sister directly. This is one thing but the hunger the hunger this is a major issue
and now here because there is no food uh the government in one of the faction is controlling any kind of a relief uh things to come uh because they think any kind of any relief has to come through them and then we can distribute it to only the people who are in our areas. So
it's become like a kind of a crazy situation. The good thing the human rights um uh United Nation human rights uh uh council in Genev uh held a held a uh a special session
two days ago and issued like a very strong condemnation to what's going on and uh will be sending an investigation or uh to uh factf finding committee to fasia because I fascin in Darur area where like many people
were killed there and rape is everywhere and it's it's horrific situation. It's if you can think about like what happened to Gaza, this is double this is double the situation what was happening in Gaza. In Gaza it was for a long time
unfortunately this is same people who committed genocide in 2003 when we came to the human rights commission to issue that resolution and therefore are the same people who are committing the same kind of genocide in other part of the
Sudan. Can I ask if everyone has had a chance to see the proposed resolution? Should we put it up on the screen or have you all seen it? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, we we can put it up again. But I have seen it. Yeah, it was a very good
one. You the way you uh >> put it on one single page. >> Yeah. So my understanding, Muhammad, is that you're asking us to approve and to express our support for this resolution that you drafted for us. >> Yes.
>> So I I do think that if we're going to consider it, we need to be able to see it first. Someone needs to move to consider it. Consider approval. Jay, and I'll second it. So let's look at it and talk about what's in there.
>> I'm pulling it up right now. Is that >> are we okay process-wise? Philip, I want you to interrupt me if I >> Nope, that's that's the correct process. >> Okay. So, um the preamble, is everyone in agreement with that? I'm going to take
it bit by bit because we need to um Are there any questions about the preamble? The only thing I would say is that it might be helpful to see that the HRC has condemned what is going on and put a
date on it um to make it current. Um I'm not sure what the language is. Um, it says origin findings of the HRC documented. Okay. Um, I think a date and a reference when you start with the
preamble makes it more solid. Um, otherwise just talking about the preamble. Does anyone want to move to accept that? I'm going to go in parts. >> I move to accept it. Second. >> Second.
>> Okay. Um, okay. Let's go to the findings and the condemnation. What What is it that we're opposing is is what this section is. Any discussion? Basically, I think we are condemning the
disappearance. >> Well, it's not just the disappearance. I mean, it's it it is also about the mass killings and then targeting particular groups from certain ethnic groups. You know, we're talking about violence against women and boys and girls, uh,
sexual attacks. I mean, it's this is a lot. It's a lot of >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. basically it is there but we need to be very focused on these specific people that we are putting up. I don't know this is what I feel that
it's a local resolution and these um lawyers are um from here you say so we are trying to get uh this we are supporting Amnesty International's call for immediate investigation and then we urging US state department involvement
and calls on >> can we go to actions later because that's all in the next section if we can just are we agreed with the way the findings are this is just a condemnation. This is just saying that we oppose, you know, all this violence
that's being targeted at many many groups and we specifically say we oppose and are concerned about these two individuals. >> Yes. >> So if everyone is okay with it, let's
move to accept it. >> A motion. I motion it. Um, >> okay. Second. >> Can I ask a clar clarifying question? >> Yes. >> Well, I think because it's the UN Human
Rights Council and it's parenthesis HRC, it's a little confusing because we're also the HRC >> HRC. And so I wonder if >> in subsequent uses it is referred to as by recent UN HRC reports for
>> um clarity's sake. >> Yes. I mean typically that is called UNHRC. >> Yeah, >> we can put UN there in parenthesis and then where it says in the recent UN. Is that good what I'm doing on the screen?
So I just UN HRC is correct. Yeah. and un there. And this is you all. >> This is us. It's written out. We don't need to say HRC. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh I'm moving to accept the
section called findings and condemnation. >> So I do have one question. >> Wait a second. >> I'm sorry. >> Yeah, >> I have a question. >> We're supposed to move before you discuss, but that's fine. Go ahead and ask a question. >> Oh, no. Go ahead. go ahead and ask your question. That's fine.
>> Um, yeah. Well, just on the findings and condemnation section, like is this directly from that human rights um like a report just cuz or cuz the findings I'm just kind of curious because um it just seems like it leads leaves out the
you the supporters or the backers of these groups and it seems kind of like these actions are being taken you know just kind of separately or on their own. But what we looked at was that they have support. So if we condemn, it's kind of
like condemning the actions of the puppets while ignoring the puppeteers. And if we are going to be able to use any kind of force as a body, I think there should be effort made to go after and to address the ones that are
supporting this conflict either financially or militarily. >> Um I is the rapid support forces. Do you want to explain more Mohamad? >> Uh yes it's uh actually like when we
discuss it here in our local chapter we phrase it this way so we can avoid like putting any kind of a question on one side. Yeah, the Rabbi support uh forces RSF and the other one which claiming that they are representing uh the
government which actually like they were one side they committed or stage a military coup in October uh 2021 and it started all this kind of mass killing in 2023 they started like conflict between each other and starting waring against
each other started this civil or not civil war the war uh So we tried like to avoid here uh who are behind. Yes, there is number of countries uh Qatar like the major two countries now is Egypt and
United Arab Emirates. United Arab Emirates is supporting and financing uh the rapid support uh forces. Egypt is supporting the other side and it's very like sensitive situation. If we condemn
one part like which everyone now think it's easy we can just uh condemn uh United Arab Emirates and avoiding that but I feel like we will be like not addressing the whole kind of two perpetrators here. The reasons people
avoid to condemn Egypt because there is five million people refugees are in Egypt and this will affect. So we made this kind of in general like condemns all the killing and people who are behind the killing. Yeah. For a reason. Yeah. >> Okay. >> And
>> so it sounds like what you've decided to do rather than focus on the perpetrators is to focus on the impact because I think multiple parties were involved. If I remember from Darthur years ago when we were talking about it, multiple
parties were involved and they all committed >> correct >> supposedly war crimes but definitely serious human rights violations. >> Yeah. >> Um so if we did list who it was, we'd have to do a long list, I think. >> Yeah. >> I I
>> Yeah. Go ahead. >> Okay. I I suggest that if we just say that uh because we as a commission cannot verify independently so just say as a solution as reported by United Nations Human Rights Council or
according to Amnesty International. So basic it is so we avoid implying ammer HRC has any you know firsthand verification >> I think >> that's why I that's why I thought sorry go ahead Jay
>> yeah I think it's quite clear you know when you read that you know preamble you know what is it saying >> yeah it's the preamble >> HRC and then at the end it says by all parties so there's nothing to really argue there >> right >> agree >> I think what that's why I focused on the
preamble I think it strengthens it to say something something specific about the HRC UNHRC that is if you if they just decided to condemn what's going on there it would be good to put that date on there
just to make it solid so it's not a general statement. >> Uh that's all and I think that would address your concern Razwana too. >> Yeah. >> So let's go to the actions. That's okay. >> Before before doing that, there's
another important thing also, Muhammad. The the issue is that naming you're naming specific individuals and that is legally quite u sensitive. So the solution might be the fact that there are two Sudanis human rights defenders or something like that affiliated with
Amnesty International because we need to be very sensitive to the legal implications. Um it says known members of the local chapter of Amnesty International who've been targeted for arbitrary detention. >> Yeah.
>> And denied their fundamental rights. Is there something else you would like to see Rswana? >> If I >> No, I think Yeah, this is good enough. Yeah, I somehow missed it. Yeah. And and you said genocide also. So um so we have
to also say that credible reports indicating possible atrocity and crimes including crimes against humanity instead of genocide because it is you know we have United
Nations bodies, international courts and federal you know they are the ones who decide. Have they said it is genocide? Well, I mean, if the, you know, I mean, HRC, you know, already said that, right? You know, that's in the UN report. And
so now what you're saying, these are the findings from the UN report. It's there. >> So, if it's there already, you know, what's argue about? >> Oh, they have said it. I wonder if we could say uh findings and condemnation
from even though we've said it before from the UNHRC. >> Yeah. >> Well, it does say potential starting out potential war crimes, potential crimes against humanity. >> So, it's not really committing to that.
It is guaranteed, but that those actions Yeah. >> Good catch. Yeah. >> Yeah. Do I raise that? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It should be credible credible reports. >> Correct. >> Well,
>> I I I do agree. I I do agree uh with Roswana Rodana's uh comments here. Uh I I believe like we should leave this because there is a factf finding committee sent by the United Nation now and they would decide if this is a genocide or not. Most of
the other organizations they call it but like we should not I agree with you a genocide is a heavy word we should do it until like the fact committee. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. The other uh solution is
credible reports indicating possible atrocity crimes including crimes against humanity. So we can do something like that. How would you feel about putting a period at the end of crimes against humanity? Then you're not mentioning the
rapid support forces cuz they're one half of the old government, right? >> Okay. >> One of them is the the but we don't mention the other half of it. I don't know. I'm asking you what you think, Muhammad. >> No, I totally agree. I totally agree. I just want has like a the hero ask
commission to become very clear very neutral here like condemning both sides until like not only one side. Yes. >> True. >> So we're got to get rid of the highlighted section and put a period after humanity. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Right. >> I agree.
>> Okay. Then there's the specific um concern >> the the specific concern regarding the two members. >> Yes. Yeah, this is >> that's fine to me. I don't know. >> Yeah, this is this is very important
because these are two members of us here. >> There is thousand and thousand over like like hund and thousand people who are impacted now. Some in prison, some but these are uh related to our chapter here. >> Yeah.
Yeah. That that makes it more closer uh to us and is more closer to our home. >> Yeah. Exactly. I mean if there's a local story >> yeah this is local story >> then it you know then it makes sense. >> Yeah definitely.
>> So with regard to the actions I'm assuming this is okay now. Are there any other questions about this? >> All right let's go to the actions. >> Okay. >> One is directed to all parties in Sudan.
to ensure due process. To ensure due process and humane treatment for all detainees. So I guess the commission cannot urge all parties in Sudan directly. So I I if I would suggest that commission calls upon the international
community and relevant authorities to urge all parties. So through us we we create a chain uh ripple effects. So we call upon international community and relevant authorities to urge all so they
will urge other parties >> well >> in Sudan. I don't >> but we also uh have our own voice and we need to speak out for ourselves too. So if we want you know any kinds uh of you know disturbances, atrocities
uh killings, maming to end then we as HRC of Ammer should say so. But yeah, we are saying it but we are putting pressure on the communities that will make some kind of a dent or some kind of
an impact because as by ourselves we we don't have any bandwidth. So we are calling upon the international community and the relevant authorities might be we go to the you know the government or the senator or some sort.
Well, I mean that could be one approach, but you know, I've, you know, personally worked on things like this and they, you know, in the case of my student who was sentenced to 18 years in jail and I fought for his release, uh, we had to use his name, but there were other folks
from Tibet who were also in jail. doesn't mean that you have to, you know, that you can't use his name, but you use him as as a port of entry to address all of the other issues as well. There were also detailed, also, you know, tortured
and killed, and we had to speak up for those kinds of things. And so, it was a long road, you know, to get him released. But we did, but I did that through a school. And then through the school we worked through all kinds of other organizations like students for a
free Tibet and then there was the international campaign around it but it started small and so don't be scared about the small voice of a town. It it all adds up around the world and that's what I discovered personally. >> That's exactly what I'm saying. You were
also just a small speck there, but you created the ripples that the school took over and then they pressured other uh entities. That's how there's a pyramid thing going on, >> right? And then >> so exactly that's you know what I meant,
>> right? I mean, and then we took it up to Congress and they took it up. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's the same process. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So it sounds like it's actually in the third bullet where it said reaffirming the importance of international mechanisms to prevent
further atrocities etc etc. >> Yes. >> Right. So it does reference other international mechanisms. >> Yes. >> Um the only one really that I have an issue with calls upon the US government. Um,
I just don't I don't The US government has never been involved in resolving maybe never isn't a good word, but isn't a big player in resolving human rights complaints and I think that the third bullet is more important
>> and I don't see diplomatic pressure and whatnot and I think it would just draw the attention of the US government where we don't want it to be drawn. Well, I mean maybe just, you know, I mean, >> I guess I'm trying to avoid the politics of the moment here, but I'm just trying
to say that, you know, in my particular case when I worked uh for the freedom of one particular student, we had to go straight to the president and we did it at that time.
uh we worked with Congress and we passed you know a resolution by the Senate calling for my students unconditional release that was in 1996 I believe so that happened and there's
precedent for that and then they you know eventually got him released because there was so much of pressure in fact Colon Powell flew there and got him out >> so there is you know precedence >> yeah So in a way
>> Muhammad have your hand up. >> Yes. If if I may add uh the United States current administration is the major player now in ceasefire in Sudan and there is something called the
quadrat like four countries in United States, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. These are the four countries. They brought the four countries together to push for a ceasefire and successfully now they
issued like they made the uh the two parties well at least the RSF agreed 100%. The other party SAF the government uh is not like fully uh in this year but they agreed or a ceasefire for three
months and this without this United States like I don't think we will be able like to do it. Yeah. And thanks thanks God I think this is one of the major thing for our current President Donald Trump. He was trying like a to become like a the face of peace in
Africa. So he pushed hard for this and if successful hopefully like it would be successful it would be a good thing. So when we inserted this specific here >> uh language so they encourage him and the state department played major role here.
>> Okay. Thank you. I didn't know that others. I can't see everyone at the same time because of the share space. So, you might have to just say your voice because I can't see all the hands.
Okay. Any other questions or comments or reflections before we take a vote? I um have small editing or comment for the sorry for the previous findings and condemnations. Um
I'm wondering if in the third bullet we could start simply with >> voices grave concern regarding the safety and well-being. I I feel like as though if if we're releasing this resolution, it should be clear that it's the Human Rights Commission that is is doing it if they're reading the
document. Um, and so that would be my suggestion. And then to add known members of the local Amherst chapter, Amherst chapter of of Amnesty International. Um, >> right >> for for clarity. That would be my
suggestion, but otherwise I have no other comments. >> I I totally >> I totally agree with Stace because it is has to be framed within our bylaws and and show that we're doing something. And adding to that there is this thing about
instruct or pressure the US government. There's this these words there. So we should have a solution in saying that commission encourages the US government to continue diplomatic instead of saying instruct your
pressure. >> Can we fix the one that silos talked about first and then we'll go to the next part. >> Right. >> Starts with voices. Starts with voices. starts with voice. >> Yeah. So it it follows the same language
pattern as the two bullets above >> and >> so the first sentence first word of that bullet is voices. And then yeah >> and if we wish to keep the specific you
could change from from grave concern to specific concern if if that is if that detail is important. voices specific concern and then yeah we got Ammeristston in there. >> Okay. Is that everything?
>> I see no members of that. >> Sorry. I I think removing the Amherst Human Rights Commission would be um my suggested edit. >> Yeah, take it out. known members of the local Ammerst
chapter of Amnesty International. That's great. Yeah, because we know this is coming from the Ammeris human rights commission right from the at the top. So, we don't need to say that there. >> I think that sorry this is particular I would suggest also just deleting grave
concern. And I think voices specific concern captures the um meaning and I think if you could actually remove that um colon or whatever that is um for consistency with the rest of the
bullets. Thank you. raise your hand once you feel you've looked at it and you're ready to vote. >> We close the door. >> Um, >> go ahead, Silus. >> Sorry. One other thing I I might start with if if it's going small. If we're
thinking about the scale of impact for actions, I might consider um moving encourages local advocacy to the second point um which I I think is arguably more tangible for our commission um in
terms of priority and then moving the calls upon as the last piece since that's the the biggest um ask the broader >> would be my suggestion. Makes sense. Agreed. >> I think Silus was going for like little,
middle, large. >> It is >> right. >> Thank you. I I like it because you start where you can actually >> something that you can grab a hold of in your mind and then you let your mind expand and I think that's great.
>> Yeah. I mean it starts off with two individuals and then you say what can the local folks do and then what you know what does the country and the international community. So it's that >> okay. Um
so I move again I move to accept um the proposed resolution with two changes. We remove the word draft and we add something very precise in the
preamble like a date or a we have to reference something rather very concrete when we say documented widespread and systematic. we have to add something there. Uh where does that come from? We say human rights council, but if they've
just met and condemned, then we should reference that meeting. Um and that's it. Alex, >> um yeah, just a clarifying question. Under actions, it says called for. Do we mean calls for or is the past tense?
Okay, >> I think we can just take out called for alto together and just have the actions because they each bullet is independent. It speaks correctly, right? >> And it all starts each starts with the verb anyway. So call at the bottom. >> Yeah.
>> Well, bullet. >> I'm sorry. >> Where it says under actions where it says called for, we delete called for >> because the actions speak for themselves in those bullets. Okay. Anything else?
Alex, you have your hand up still. >> Oh, sorry. Could we add a colon after like after actions so that it matches the findings and condemnation? >> Yeah. Okay. I think stylistically I mean it's possible
you know to put in a footnote you know when >> you know like from a preamble or something you know where the sauce came from and just put the sauce you know from >> uh I guess the yum Uh what's the UN and HRC say look at which paper which
finding whatever data they just put >> or a couple of documents. Yeah, I think it really does need to have something concrete. Is that okay, Muhammad? Are you okay with that? >> Yeah, >> a footnote I think a footnote is a good
way to go with go with that part. >> I can say you it's it's the website of the United Nation Human Rights Council. Yeah, >> the meeting was Yeah, the meeting was on the to >> just site the meeting. >> Yeah.
>> Um, so we have something concrete. Okay, we're having trouble finishing with this. Let's any more questions? I don't see any hands. Okay. So I'm going to say that I am moving to
accept the proposed resolution from the Amnesty International. Uh I'm moving for us to accept the proposed resolution with the one change of the foot adding the footnote. Is there a second?
Silus. Thank you. So, um I'm going to call out if you're in agreement with this motion, um raise your hand when I call your name or say yes or whatever. So, Milan Clark, >> yes. >> Uh Rswana,
>> yes. >> Silus, >> yes. >> Ronnie, yes. Jay, >> yes. >> Alex, >> yes. Okay. So, the vote is unanimous among those of us who are here. Thank you very
much. I think I think the motion has passed. Muhammad, thank you for coming and speaking with us. Thanks everyone for the time and discussion. >> Muhammad, if you maybe >> Oh, sorry, Ronnie. Ronnie or Muhammad,
if you send me the um website to put in a footnote, I'll get that done and then I'll send that over to you >> and I'll Alex on the email. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you very much again. I really appreciate >> I'm quite sure like this would be very
helpful to especially uh the wife and children of Mr. Sadi. Yeah, >> I'll let them know tomorrow when I call them. >> Thank you. Thank you for Thank you for your time too, Muhammad. >> Thank you. Bye. Bye.
>> So, my question So, Philip, my question to you was just what are the next steps to make it happen? And you'll work it out, right? >> Yeah, I can work it out and then I'll make sure to CC on the emails that I'm sending out. >> Okay. Uh the next agenda item we have here is the Gaza statement. And before
we go into discussion, I would like to say that it it needs to be rewritten to follow the protocol or the way that we do them and all the references to the town council have to be taken out and the town of
Ammerst have to be taken out and so on. Um, so it sounds like you all didn't have time at the end to really address those issues that Philip and somebody else raised. So, I'm going to ask that either the three of you or I'm actually going to ask for another
uh volunteer because I'm not sure about what Alex's time is like. So, um is there somebody else who would like to work on it? Alex, is that okay with you? >> Yeah. >> Um um so, so that you just as we did
with this one, so that the three of you can go over each phrase, each detail in detail. make sure you're on the same page and then you can bring it to the commission and we can pass it quickly because I don't think anybody objects to the principles of what's being said. But
it needs to go in the format that that we need for the HRC. And also I think Philip can help because I don't know how much you all know but before Philip was in this position he was actually a chair of the co-chair of the human rights
commission. So he knows exactly what to do. Yes. >> I think adding in somebody, you know, I think adding in somebody like, you know, you know, let's say Milan, >> you know, could be >> Oh, you say Milan? >> Yeah.
>> For what? >> To work on the Gaza resolution. >> Yeah. Join us. >> It's just going to need a bit of time. Like, you have to sit together and really put some time into it because it's a format issue. It's not a
>> it's not a what what content one >> I mean I think the idea is there of what we want to say it's just that it needs to be put in the in a forum that is consistent with how we do resolutions and also it then it needs to be reviewed
in depth like all three of you sitting together and just going over all of it. Is this exactly what we want to say like we did before? Because resolutions are, you know, they're assessed and looked at by in many ways. And I, you know, I
think that uh it's important that we're very careful with the wording of the resolutions. So then you can bring it to the human rights commission and you know, we won't be wordsmithing. We'll just go to it and we'll say yes or no.
Anyway, since you're sort of an editor, too, what do you think? >> Sure. >> Okay. Um, so just talk to each other, talk together online or whatever. And I see
that, you know, I'm not going to downplay the work that's done. I see that it's really important. It's just that I don't think it's ready for a vote uh yet, but it will be next time. Um any questions or comments before we go to
the next item especially uh Jay and Rajana if you're since you guys worked on this other part. >> Well I mean contentwise I mean I I think that it carries the basic sentiment of what we all say or think. It's just the
audience and whose voice is used in that. You know we cannot speak for the town council. You know we were not voted in. So I guess styly >> we need to speak more locally for the HRC >> invoke that and then there's a way of I
think actually saying that uh there was one template I think that Philillip you know sent around of some prior you know resolutions and if if if we could just follow that format I think we'll be fine.
>> Okay good. All right. So, the any any more comments? Okay. I know we're really good on time, but today we may have to go over a little bit. I'm just warning everyone. Um, so the next agenda item is the town council meeting on the 24th.
So, we've been invited to come to the town council on the 24th and discuss the human rights report. And I had suggested that when we're doing that is when we should also ask about our bylaw so that we don't have two separate meetings.
So my thought is that you know I have sort of an outline of what we will present to the town council building on our report and what I would like to do if you can all be there is to give each
person a little piece of what I consider the talk uh to speak. It's very risky because it's we have a hard time all human beings have a hard time being very concise when the amount of time given is
very small but you know we want to have time for the town counselors to ask questions and we want them to have a positive feel toward us and I think they're used to getting these long things that they feel like they have to listen to but they're not really listening and so on. So I don't want to
get into that. I want us to do a really polished presentation so that we don't lose their attention and so I'll start talking and then I will just um I can talk to you separately about the parts but I'm
thinking that thinking exactly of what you would do like um if I can just have a moment to find my notes I can tell you what I'm proposing and if you're not okay with it then we can talk offline about what to do. Okay. So, I'm
proposing that I will pretty much start it and I'm proposing that um Wswana speak about um about the webinar particularly that a script was developed. It started with a former
chair and then um uh Milan following the actual making of the video. Um so you guys have to be we're talking one minute here. Sorry. Um, I wanted Silas to talk about um
the um Youth Hero Awards and sort of that whole piece about how we Silus, I hope you're listening about how we shifted to the global village, but again, you don't need to sit they've heard about the global village already, so we just need to use the words um and
the youth hero awards. Um, and also mention um the municipal affordable housing trust part because I think that's important. It shows that we're communicating with other boards. Um, if you are, I'm assuming you're all
going to be there. And I thought that um Jay could talk about the community engagement piece uh which I know Silus also did so you can talk to each other but Jay went out to the universities and gave out you know we did the red
card distribution but the main point to emphasize being that we really you know we've been working we've been reaching out to the community we've been let telling people about um I don't know we telling about who the human rights commission is many people
hadn't heard and we've started to build some relationships and um you know eventually we'll go back to them with our video um and I don't know what you have to figure out this stuff yourself and then in the I will conclude with the
challenges um and there I know your piece looks sort of small but we can talk about how to make it pull out more from the human rights commission but I don't think any of us should really be speaking for more than two or three minutes.
Um because when you have one, two, three, four people speaking um you know 15 to 20 minutes is the maximum and there's a bigger p Oh and the bylaws if Liz is there she'll speak about it. If she's not there I'll
address it because she and I were in the meetings with the lawyers. >> Is that sort of okay? But I'll send you an email explaining things a little bit more, explaining how I'm structuring it and then >> you can figure out what you're going to say and you can check with each other
and with me. >> Yeah. Jay, >> should we be you know posing the question about I don't know an an advisory capacity for the HRC uh in you know in the town council. Mhm.
It's it's the two challenges. Um, one of them is the bylaws and the other one is that they really haven't asked our advice on anything. Um, and I think
in the bylaws or somewhere it I was told that a town council person has to be represented in the on the human rights commission, but then they said no, there's no rule to do that. And Lynn said she would ask the town counselors
who have t who has time to be on the council and nobody volunteered is what I heard. But we have a new council next year. So, uh, one of the ways to get to them is to have somebody go back to them. And I it's your question hand,
Alex. Yeah. And we can also do that proactively. There's nothing stopping us from talking to our counselors or talking to whoever's the president of the council next year. I know that Lynn is quite supportive of the human right.
They all are in part because we don't, you know, we are very concise, I think, and friendly in how we talk to them. Um, and that's just a principle of good community engagement. So, Alex, then Silus. >> Yeah, just a quick question. Do we know
what time the town council meeting is yet or do we only find out that later? >> Uh, they will give us a more precise time, but I had asked that we be early in their agenda and not later. Um, and I think they said that's why they moved it
from yesterday, moved us from yesterday to the 24th. So, I'm guessing it'll be closer to the 7 o'clock, right up to the end of But I don't know. >> Right. >> They will tell Phillip and he'll tell us. >> Yep. Their meeting starts at 6:30, but yes, once an agenda becomes available.
And I am sad to say that sometimes that doesn't happen until the morning of or afternoon of, depending on what they're kind of fitting on the schedule, then I can give a more accurate time. I hope to hear something before Friday, but it would not be unusual if I'm sending out
an email to you all Monday morning saying this is a time that I was given and then it changed again. So I I think the idea is you know 6:30 is when their meeting starts and Lynn did say that you all are first on the agenda.
Silus, >> um just to quickly clarify, you mentioned the youth hero awards and the affordable housing trusts. Was there something else um there? >> Yeah, the global village as you know it was our effort to bring people together
many cultures to bring together rather than do a series of little events. >> I see. >> I I mentioned that because you worked on the global village, right? You were I think our one volunteer who really >> gave time to that more than any of us
did. >> I I don't know about that. I think >> Did you forget? But anyway, you were very I mean I think you should talk about it because you actually helped with the planning. >> I think Thank you. And I think Philip and um Pamela were the ones.
>> Well, of course, Philip and Pamela, but I mean on I mean on the commission, this is a report of us. Absolutely. >> I mean, we all showed up, but you put in much many more hours. So, I think you should talk about that as a another part of community engagement,
>> right? And so, this is in service of them approving our bylaws and um having >> no >> apart from the bylaws, every year we have a meeting with them after we've put out our report and we discuss the
report. So this is the discussion part of the report. That's really the purpose of the meeting. So we won't mention the bylaws till the end. >> Silus, this is different than a public comment there. You'll actually the counselors will will engage with you all. >> Yeah.
>> Because it's an actual presentation. >> Yeah. So I will go in person and I want you guys to come in person and I want to ask for us everybody who's speaking to be seated in front at the main table facing the counselors.
Alex, I'm assuming you won't be there. >> No, I think I I think I can be there. I think that's fine. >> Oh, you can. Would you speak? >> Yep. If there's there's a part that I can have. >> Okay. So, I structured all this cuz I
thought you couldn't speak at the council, but if you can, maybe I should just I'll redo all this and email you guys. Is that okay? I'll send it to Phillip and just assign you sections and
so all five of us will sit in six of us and maybe is that too much? Can we accommodate seven people assuming Liz is coming too? >> Uh I mean CSSJC just sat there so that was probably six or seven of them. I I don't think Liz is coming to that. I I
believe with the change in schedule she has a >> I would need a Zoom link because I'll be out of town. Oh, so you won't be physically sitting there, but the physically sitting would be two, four, five of us. I think that's manageable. It's a long table.
So, if we're all speaking also, just keep in mind, don't go over. Do not say write out, practice, time it beforehand. Okay? I really mean that because it will look bad for the whole commission if we go on and on. So we'll all be careful
and I I'll do that for myself too. Okay. Are there any other question about this? I think we need to rush and do this because it's on Monday. >> Um so the total speaking time is is how much? And I have a suggestion. And I
wonder, sorry, I just want to make so it's it's 2 minutes and then um I wonder if it'd be helpful if >> if you all would be willing to participate in this, but I could just keep time on my phone and then >> Oh, yeah. >> up like a card when it's like past time
so that way you can just kind of wrap up whatever you're saying so we stay on on point if folks are okay with that. Okay, that seems I'm just gonna I'm getting head nods, so I'm gonna gonna say yes. >> I So I think in the beginning and I'm not counting this in the two minutes, it
would be good to go around and introduce ourselves because they will ask us that. So be prepared to say something concise. We don't need your whole life story, but you know, it would be good to say something about what interests or inspires you about being on the Human Rights Commission or about the work of
human rights or something like that. Okay. >> Is this on the Monday or the Tuesday? >> Monday. >> Monday. >> The 24th. Monday. >> Boy, I was I was losing count of the day. If If it is a Monday, I might be
there physically. So, I'll have to squeeze in next to somebody. >> Okay. Um, we'll just squeeze in then >> and move in move move the phone around. Any other questions?
Okay, next agenda item. Wowee. HRC video update. I think it's Jay and Milan. Milan, is it edited? >> It is. Um, >> yay. Thank you. >> Yeah, it's uh pretty much complete. It just needs the music at this point and
it's got all the scenes together and all the visuals. Um yeah, I guess uh Jay, do you have the overall image of uh or idea of what it's supposed to look like? Cuz then we can go over and you can >> Yeah. Um,
yeah, I guess that I would need to find a time for the three of us, you know, to go through the stuff, but I could slave through that a bit first, you know, like if >> who's the third person, >> Dave. >> Dave, the guy at Ammeristo.
>> Okay, so we got Dave there, right? I mean, he's the key person. And then we've got Milan, who, you know, did a lot of the editing, of course. And now we need um you know non-copyright sounds
you know to fill things out. So yeah um and we have human rights day on the 10th. So that's the you ballpark time that we're aiming for. And you know Dave is
also quite aware of that time and we're in contact with each other. So I will find a time to slide into his space and work with him on that and then and then meet with Milan and Dave as well to sort
of finesse that. So see how it goes. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> So actually it would be good to tell them that we're aiming to have the video ready to go on Human Rights Day, December 10. you know, it's been in there
>> or it's been mentioned somewhere. >> No, I mean in the talk when you talk to the town council, it'll be helpful to let them know that. >> Um, >> well, I think that is something, you know, uh, I guess Razswan or even Milan could talk about that as well since he's
in the studio. I'm probably going to ask the two of you and Milan to figure out what each of you is going to say, but for Rswana, the whole business of writing the text, working with the commission to get it finalized, all that stuff and Milan
focusing more on editing and bringing it to form to to show. Okay. Um, anything else on that? I am so excited because that is something we did as a group. I mean,
it's not like we gave it to one person. And I'm going to make this point that, you know, we're a commission that works. We go out, we talk to people, we do work, you know, because we are committed to what we're doing.
Um, it's not just a thing. So, that's great. And Alex, it's great that you'll be there, too. because I don't think you've met the town council yet. All right. Um then shall we move to the
next topic, DI update? >> Yep. Uh let's see. I'm pulling it up right now. Uh I'll try and make it brief, but I know we're all getting a little tired. the DRI department has started um our
wallet has continued training for staff and department trainings. So this month we are talking about recruitment through an equity lens and and next month we'll be training the departments of the Joan Library and Ammerst Police Department um
the patrol people um there. So we'll get those in before the end of the year. The department has hosted a successful youth empowerment program. Um the event was on college preparedness. We had 17 youth in the audience and engaged. Um and just
want to give a special thanks to Ammer or UMass admissions and Ammerst College financial aid for helping out with their expertise in that. Um I think the youth were really great and kind of gave us some good ideas for future programming. So that was really good. Uh the
department helped um with you all um and many other organizations, the peace development fund, the university, the yuyu uh legal woman voters, the amishmer Jewish activists
for immigration justice um and lucay ACLU and the Pioneer Valley Worker Center for the training that happened on the 29th. I'm sorry, my son is being loud in the background, so that was distracting.
>> But um that training was well attended. We had over 125 people attend. Really great show out. I think the community um I've already had at least five people ask me when the next one is happening and some few people asking uh that they missed um
>> this one that occurred and if another one could happen. So I mean there's a lot of good energy for that. So, I mean that was really great for our community that you all helped out with. The department hosted our first becoming beloved community conversation for this
year. It was on civic, civility, and citizenship. Um, this month we are going to be having one from the Quabin mediation group on training active bystanders. Um, you will need to register for that which spots are limited. Um, it is a paid training that
our department is taking on. So, it's 20 to 25 people um that we can bring in right now. I saw that there was I believe 13 people. So, leaves about a little over seven um people to participate. Ronnie,
>> I couldn't find where to register. I got your message that said you must register, but there was no link. >> Okay, I could I could send it over to you. >> Could it send it to all of us? >> Yeah. Yeah, no problem. Um and then looking ahead um we invite you to join us for
your all's well okay well this was for someone else clearly. We invite you to join us on Human Rights Day for celebration. We're planning still occurring. Um, I have a meeting tomorrow with Ronnie Muhammad who you all heard from for Amnesty International and then
um Irene um from the middle school in terms of kind of how that is going to get all planned out and um participated. I think um if the goal is to have the video um done by then, it would be great to show it at that event also. But
Ronnie, you and I can talk about kind of the structure of of the day there. Um, save the day, national day of racial healing is coming up. Um, that is the day after Martin Luther King Day. That is July 20th of next month or of
January. Sorry, >> January. >> January. And it's a big thing. It's kind of what prompted our becoming beloved community conversations with everybody. And so it just is a way to have um you know conversations with your neighbors
around racial healing. And I believe that is it from me. >> What? It's 7:29. >> I I told you I try to be brief even though I was stumbling. >> No kidding. No kidding. Um so is there
anyone in the public for comment? Do you all have any questions or comments before we close? Anything else that needs to be talked about? Okay, awesome. Um, so our next meeting date, um, I don't know who wants to meet
on December 17th. I know I won't be around. Should we skip December? Should we do December? It's up to you. I would like to go to January because I think uh, it's too close December 17th to the holidays. But
if you all want to meet, you can. Shall we go to the third Wednesday in Silus? >> Oh, um I would move to move it to the third Wednesday in January or to meet again in January rather than later this December. >> Okay.
Okay. I second that motion. All in favor, raise your hand. >> Yes. Alex. Okay. So, the next meeting is going to be on the third Wednesday in January. Okay. And no other um topics.
So, it is 7:30 p.m. and the meeting is adjourned right on time. >> Thanks everyone. Thanks everyone. Good night. >> All right. See you Monday at the town council. >> Bye. >> Thank you all. Bye. Bye.