##VIDEO ID:iDTE6FA5aQI## this meeting to order on Tuesday January 14th at 7:02 PM of the Littleton cultural Council this meeting is being recorded just want to let you guys know in advance because the town clerk instructed me to announce that every single time so I'm just being a good doie um well welcome so Karen I think this is your is this your first official Littleton cultural council meeting my first official meeting yes y welcome Ken um do you guys all want to go out around and introduce ourselves really quickly cool all right well I'm Melissa Lang wongo um I've lived in town for like I feel like 11 years now I have a daughter in the school system she's um a seventh grader her name's Abby I live in Hartwell and um yeah I just really am very passionate about arts and culture and I went to Emerson College so it's kind of like goes hand in hand so I'm just trying to Doom apart who's next I can pick up next all right Sarah go ahead yeah Kim we won't ask you to talk when you're actually chewing that might be um I'm Sarah Rustin I've only been in the area for three years now I think um I have two little ones system one in first grade at Shaker Lane and one in uh dayare so I guess not in the school system yet but we'll be starting kindergarten next year um I also am just feel really strongly about you know arts and culture and quality of life and a lot of my education has been in kind of the general Arts and Cultural space in several different roles and work experiences so okay do my part too I can take it back so so Kim I've been here since 1993 and um I brought a husband with me and then I divorced the husband but I kept my three kids and so I we we grew them up over on Foster Street and they're all they're 28 25 and 23 now so my babies are grown and they're really fun and uh that was great back in the day I went to endicot college for an art degree I was an interior designer with a minor in Psych which really works well for the Interior Designer work and with realtor that I am now so I just I I'm just like all of you I think without Arts life isn't really that great and so I would hate to see it not be funded I can go next um I'm Kiki Donahue um I've been in town do we move here and since 2018 so that's like six years I guess um I live here with my husband I have two kids in the school system uh my daughter is at the middle school and I have a son at nishoba Tech High School um in the culinary program and he's a a junior so he's newly licensed as well so watch out for a gray RAV four gray Rav 4 I apologize in advance um I uh yeah I also um went to college a degree in music I'm a professional singer I'm married to a Pianist who teaches piano lessons and we're both um music directors and sing in local churches uh and then I direct the Children's Choir um yeah I'm also you know passionate about the Arts and without without music there's nothing in my soul so uh and I'm also just glad to do my part and I'm also um the secretary so I'm the one that will send you the agenda emails and I'm doing my best to type up the nexts so feel free to let me know if anything is missing I am not I am not easily offended just say right to my face good to go I can go next I'm Juliana I moved to Littleton from Houston in a in August last year so just a few months ago I'm originally from Mexico City where I studied industrial biochemical engineering but I I did at the same time I did four years of vocal training and theater and so I music and theater have always been a great part of my life I ended up after many years of doing engineering I ended up doing working for a music foundation in Houston before I moved here and believed that arts and particularly music and in my opinion are just like the best thing ever so yeah that's I have two kids one in Shaker Lane in second grade and one in sixth grade in the middle school and a dog that you might hear if somebody approaches that hi Karen I'm Jen um I've been living in Littleton since June of 2020 um I am on this committee because I wanted to serve the town in some way shape or form and this seems like the best fit so I also serve as the um the pastor at the Congregational Church in town um I have a grown son so I don't have any children in the school system but um that's I guess that's me I'm not sure what else to say so nice to meet you that's fine nice to meet you too also very funny just get her out very funny um well thank you and I guess it's my turn so um I've actually been in Littleton since 1999 um we live I live with my husband and daughter on spectacle Pond Road U my daughter's name is also Abby um good name and she actually graduated from Littleton High School in 2020 so she was part of that tricky year and um graduated from the University of Rhode Island in this past May um so she's home again which is very nice um you're all much more talented than I am as far I have no real um background I enjoy theater I enjoy music U my husband actually is The Talented one in well he plays um he's been in a band several bands he plays guitar uh my daughter has also been in the theater program or she was in the theater program as part of littlton high school actually she started in Middle School um so I love seeing her perform we go to um shows all the time in Boston and New York um and she is actually part of the alumni um group that's been performing the last couple years so yeah um so anyway but thank you so much and um I look forward to being part of this yeah I wanted to contribute something too so yay thank you I know Ray joined us I don't know Ray we were just introducing ourselves to Karen if you just wanted to say your name and a fun fact no yeah hi Karen um rain Ash I live not far from you I'm on um Sheridan Lane right off Harwell of course y um uh we've been in Littleton uh wow uh it'll be 10 years this summer lived in Connecticut before that um my oldest is at the high school and my my other two kids are at the middle school right now actually I do have two nephews that are in the school system so I guess I'm still part of the school system one is um a freshman in high school and the other is in middle school so we're still who's the Freshman that's my daughter's year um last name is f Jackson F he's in the I know who in theater too very involved in the theater my daughter is Caroline Nash who's been in many of the theater show with yes they know each other pretty well yeah it's a very small town he's also helping out at the Middle School production right now for Newsies and um aby's in that right now carine I can't wait to see that on next Friday right I know yeah we can't wait either yeah I know Tracy does an amazing job with those kids oh she does 60 kids or something in the show I'm trying to get my daughter to like you know she's shy in front and I just was like I just do de just to be involved with it because I think I think she would get a lot out of it but she's like very like timid and shy you know so I'm hoping she'll see this and see how many other kids are involved and it'll like Inspire her um I'm not we're gonna try and go I I'm not sure what night we're going because um they have all states auditions this weekend and I'm one of the adjudicators and so I have to keep both days open in case it snows so hopefully there's no snow and I'll be able to go on Sunday yeah it was weird they didn't have like a nighttime show on Saturday this year I saw that yeah that's all right yeah yes all right so we went through um that I kind of skipped in the agenda sorry about that it was just kind of you know changing things up keeping people on their toes um but I'll go back to the agenda item and it did say that we need to approve the minutes from December um I don't know if everybody had a chance to read them over um yet um I think most of us like did and then responded an email but just to official um call a vote um can we vote to approve the minutes from December yes make a motion that we approve seconded meetings all in favor I I all right officially approved um and then just to piggyback on Karen's enrollment we also um have one more seat to fill um so Stephanie is officially um off of the LCC she has moved to Gren we will miss her terribly um that means we do have one more spot to fill so if anybody has a friend that they can guilt into coming to our no I've tried I've tried same like come on guys um I'll recruit at newses we'll see uh um yeah so it's really just what I found is it's it's not you know it's it's a once a month commitment our busy time is like in the fall when we're doing the grant cycle items and the rest of the year I think it's manageable probably because of all of the work that Kiki does behind the scene but um yeah so if you know anybody let us know I will also I'll repost that image I'll just update it because it says three vacancies I'll just update it to one and post it back out on social media so um if you guys see it on Facebook and you want to share it out that'd be great and I already asked Diane to put it on our website but I noticed it wasn't there yesterday when I was looking so I will ask again all right do what we said about like it's a new year like do you want to commit more to the town or something like that somebody yeah I was gonna make um like something like that like New Year you New Year's resolution to get more involved like join the go I love it yes like bu people into it EXA exactly yeah so I'll send that around and I'll attach it to an email so you guys can have the image too um if you want to send it to anybody or one person asked me about it and said gosh you got have a lot of turnover and I said well actually it happens that way on purpose so that more people get to be involved like we can't stay more than a few years and then you got to scadaddle and then come back and do something else but that was an interesting thing so we may want to make that note when we're posting is the term has expired or someone actually moved out of town there are reasons it's not personalities are too difficult or any of the things that might be in somebody's mind the truth is we all love being on this group together and so having one more would be great oh that's a great Point yeah thanks for mentioning that I'll put something in there about like you know uh terms have expired or something like that like to make it pointed for sure like and feel free to let me know if we feel like we should change the language or whatever after I send it around no problem no I'm sure it'll look good that's a good point Kim I like that okay um all right moving backward again um Reay we have a number three item as a treasur update do you want to give that or do you want me to do something else first um I do not really have a treasure update this month I need to do an update to where we stand with our financial transactions and what grants have been given out okay and I frankly need to catch up on if there's any final Grant requests there I think there was only one left for fiscal year 24 there won't it won't be possible really for there to have been any for fiscal year 25 I don't think but maybe I'll be surprised when I open up the email inbox so I uh so I don't have anything for this month I'll try to have a better update for next month no worries so we can just bump it to the next to the February meeting um agenda um I'm going to skip around again um because the number five item is the public art project but I think I want to just close out the grant cycle action items first um so Sarah um had went in and confirmed the dropdowns um based on the spreadsheet that we all went over at the last meeting um did you have any trouble with that Sarah it sounded like it went totally fine we were actually pretty much on the same page with most of it it was just that like I had added that extra level of detail where requested and that wasn't but we looked at that and I think it was fine I don't think that there's any concerns there great okay so final submissions are due on the 16th but it sounds like we are finally submitted oh sort of sort of okay I apologize here I made a mistake on this one I thought that final submissions were actually due on the 16th well it turns out they were due on the 1 so that you could have the 15-day waiting period before the final submission on the 16th which I just I didn't catch I I should have caught it but I didn't catch it I P into the cultural Council just to like make sure that we're good I don't I don't I don't think it's going to be an issue I submitted on the 5th so it'll be the 20th instead of the 16th it's not a huge time difference all of our um all of our approvals and denials are all in um so ready to go the denial letters have already gone out and like I said we're in that 15-day waiting period so again my apologies I just I I thought the 16th was the deadline and not the first I just like completely misunderstood I didn't know either I thought it was the 16th so you're not the only one and and like I said so I do have a couple of questions about the final report because in addition to submitting the grant uh the denial and approval questions decisions we also have to submit a final report that just has a little bit of information and Ry I think these questions are both going to you um the specifics at least so when we when we discussed the grant decisions one of the things we decided to do was knock the admin hold back down from I think it was 350 to 100 as you know as you have in your spreadsheet Ray um y that means I do have to change it within the system too so I just wanted to check with you before I did that because I have to change it in the financial report that our rant hold Grant admin hold back will be 100 and I actually have to put it as 108 because it won't go through the system unless the amount available for granting exactly matches the amount that we're granting really yeah all right I guess the state doesn't want us keeping keeping any cookie jar reserves on the side or something like that that's fine yeah that's the right place to get it to to plug the number and get it to all foot so that's fine so you'll get you'll get a confirmation on that because you're in there as the contact for that report so yep one I wanted to just make sure everyone was on the same page with that still that that was that was acceptable and two I didn't want to like send it through and have you get this random email that caused Panic like yeah when we when we went through the grant deliberation we specifically agreed and I thought we documented it in our minutes for the meeting and decisions of the meeting that we were bumping down the admin to only the 100 right yes now I'm second guessing my memory no no I also double checked your spreadsheet like same page because it's a change on an official report I just wanted to make sure everybody was on board before I made it I didn't want to yeah overstep okay and then the other I'm good with that about the amount that we're holding back for um our local projects our public Arch projects the little town In Bloom and the the the Labyrinth and whatever else we do um there is a question within the system about whether or not we're using a portion of this year Grant allocation for those projects and if so we need to describe them but my understanding is that this year's Grant allocation is only like $7,000 so I think we can just say no and do those projects with the other money that we have in our accounts because we we also have like our local allocations and we have some carryover and stuff and it wasn't a huge amount Ray does that line up with what what okay yeah it does yep okay then as soon as I hear back from the council or once our 15 days are up I will I will add those two pieces in and uh get it submitted good work thank you much lot it it it everything lined up perfectly it it went relatively smoothly except for those couple questions and I think it's just because it's the first time I've done it so great thank youy so oh go ahead Sarah I can take care of the letters um oh the grantee oh awesome great I was just going to ask that if somebody wanted to if do you want help at all like let us know because I know there's quite a few but it sounds like the share drive has them in there from last year and you can just modify the dates but if it's like too much like just let me know I'm happy to help out yeah same if if you go into the that email the info email and go into the scent folder you can see them all in there and like the attachments because it's just like we attached like a W9 and then the the letters you know those things just to see a sample okay I'll I'll look I have to admit I haven't looked through it yet because I knew we couldn't yeah anyways I'll look through it and um let you know if I have questions I think I I suspect it's one of those things where it's just easiest for one person to do it because you kind of just get a rhythm and you just get going and get it done yeah right you just copy paste copy paste change the date yeah yeah before I forget since we're talking about the share Drive um can we send Karen a copy of that get her I was just ask yeah there's any access or documents I should see yeah okay so Karen I'll send you um the login for it's just like a Google Drive okay I don't think I have that either oh okay I will maybe send it to everyone and that top of the inbox right yes top of the Inbox and then Karen there's also a link uh for the what Sarah's talking about the MCC sort of portal I guess you could call it which is our um sort of space on the ma in the mass cultural Council um and so then it'll send you once you get signed up with there it'll just send you like monthly emails and sometimes it's a lot of just good reminders like oh if you're on a local Council here's what you should be thinking of and just information to about other stuff so um you can just sort of self register yourself and attach yourself to our Council and then that reminds me I should probably go in there and take Stephanie off too oh right y I'll I'll be in there doing the grant stuff do you want me to just take her out oh sure that'd be great as long as I'm there one less thing yeah just GNA say it I'm sad hate to see her go I know and I just took her name off of off of the minutes template as I was typing it I was like okay bye whatever maybe she'll join the Groton cultural Council and we can do a co-art project would she actually already did and she did ni conversation has already come up she it is so enthusiastic about it that she's hoping that we can sort of do something who knows that would be awesome um hey hey Sarah I was tippity typ typing here because I was trying to get back into the treasury report because you were asking me to confirm numbers and I was like nodding my head but now I'm in I actually finally got the spreadsheet open it took me a couple minutes can you just quote me the numbers that you were saying again it was 100 which we now are saying is going to be 108 they're slightly different in the in the um in the r system I think um give me a second I have it up so I had it up it lefted me out give me a second because I have down that we approved 12,160 of Grants a 100 of admin and 1,400 of Town Projects so those weren't the issues it was the the admin amount that was the issue so we had 350 still in the admin funds which meant that we only had something along the lines of $2,085 to Grant don't quote me on that that's just an approximate um which I can find for you if that's helpful but if we if we change the if we change the amount to the 100 that we talked about which is what we did when we were talking right we we change we could Grant a little bit more um and then change it to 108 then it matches exactly or within their rounding so I know in your uh in your remaining balance you've got uh 12,064 so I don't I don't know where the difference that like four to five different or three to$ four doll difference is coming in but H but the amount we're granting is exactly the same I i' like checked and double checked and triple check didn't want to promise somebody wrong amount does it does it tally up to the 12,160 dollars 12 GRS yes it's it's the it's the balance we have to reward that was a little bit different so it's it's the amount that that they thought we had in our accounts that was slightly different which could be like I don't know there's been interest payment since then or you know like yeah yeah yeah yeah now that I'm now that I'm like caught up because I was nodding thinking everything was fine but I was like a let me just double check would you be okay if I just took one quick look at the report before we it and just check it against the records so I I put in I put in the numbers and saved it as a draft okay this is just on the this is on the MCC site and share it now do you want to share screens is it is that easier Ray or would you rather do it offline okay either way I don't want to take everybody else's time though if we it's because I could just do it yeah we don't have a lot left really just little town and Bloom and then drafting uh the February agenda so do you want do you want me to share sure that'd be fine make sure I'm sharing the right screen I can see it okay so is this is the the form that Ray submitted with the you know account balances as of July Revenue interest income all of that kind of stuff right so none of this is something that was um challenging but what we ended up having as an issue was um this final number the amount available for granting came up as again 12,95 or something along those lines so the only thing I changed was changing the administrative funds from 350 to 108 which brings us to the 12,160 amount available for granting do you want me to pull the the final Grant report where this is like the actual place where this is needed could you just scroll back up again on this form if you don't mind for a second okay PA was right there and sorry I scroll back down just slightly and remember this was submitted in October so yeah I submitted it but now I don't recognize the numbers I don't recognize the 666885 that's not what I submitted that's why I'm that's why I'm a little stuck now do you want me to change it back to 350 and see if it changes that number no I think what we're putting in in terms of plan actions in 2025 is correct it's like the starting balance off for some reason um we don't we don't have to submit this today like do you want do you want to take a few minutes to look at it and just make sure that you're comfortable with where we're at yeah and and now the mass site is like making me reset my password so I was trying to like get in and look at some other because I think it would help for me to actually look at the fiscal year 24 report um how about how about this why don't why don't I take a bit of time and try to go in and take a look at a few of these or take a look at that report and the prior years report and just make sure that it ties out for because right now it doesn't does not Sarah while you're sharing can you click on where it says LCC account form so we can see if that was what was yeah that was the first one I showed you okay sorry I just want to look at yeah says 23 68 that's the beginning balanced in July right of last year June so that's the the fiscal cycle is right with the July 1 so just so everyone is clear what we have to do then is once we do put in all the grant ision we have to put in a report that talks about the voting meeting the council programs the decisions and then the submit um and this is where we ran into the issue the total of applications was 12,160 12,160 and then this which we're not seeing because I because I re because I changed the the the report to draft it's no longer exactly in the system but this was where it came out um as like 1285 or something along those lines and as you can see um you have to have like the total amount granted has to equal the amount available in order to to complete the section right yeah no I'm I'm very glad you're bringing it up and now I just need to go in and uh see what's going what didn't see what's not working well if it's if if you go in and it's easy and it makes sense just send me an email or or send us an email um if it's something that you want to like walk through with me I'm around tomorrow um happy to get on a call and dig through the details if that's useful yeah and I did finally get get it open so I'm looking at some of the financial reports too so maybe we continue with the agenda and I'll zone out for a minute and see if I can do do some quick reconciliation here on the Fly while while you guys move on with other agenda topics okay sounds perfect thank you for sharing uh that Sarah I appreciate it definitely and Karen I'm sure that all looks like a little bit foreign to you so don't feel bad I I came in like um my first year like right before the cycle um the grand cycle started and um I was just totally lost um but basically all that was was the last few meetings um we were we received Grant applications from um like local artists and submitters um and we are in charge of allocating the funds that we're getting um and um we basically had a few meetings kind of to vote on the projects we reviewed all the projects and allocated the funds the in the appropriate amount that we thought would make sense we made sure that they aligned with our uh goals that we set each year um you know sometimes we focus more on public art sometimes we focus more on um you know other particular topics and then we make sure that the Project's aligning with our goals and then um there's an official approval situation in the mass cultural Council website and that's what you were looking at so when you go to the cultural Council website you'll be you'll sign in and you'll probably see all of that information in there so that that clarifies a little bit thank you yeah I'll get there of course you won't have to do it until next when do we start is it October you really have to navigate that right right right exactly you'll just be in the meetings and PF of all the grant we send that out along with Ray's amazing spreadsheet that helps us like track all the different pieces and you just read through it and give your opinion and your thoughts and then me at the moment I go in and uh put in the numbers right you do you have the hard stuff yeah I have a question how how many more years do you all have in the comedy left a threee cycle it's a three-year cycle if you go on the um on our web page off the town it shows all of our ending dates I don't know if I know mine off the top of my head but um they you still have a few I mean it's not like you you guys are ending soon no well we so you also have the option to run for two terms right right okay right terms yeah so you can do two threee terms and then you have to take a year off at least okay I think in June I just started my second term here I actually just pulled it up so who oh you started your second okay so the O Reay is um due to go off in 2025 he's the only one I am oh do you have one after a second term or thought was through 2026 I don't know it says on here 6:30 2025 you know what's funny though I don't there's a part of me that feels like some of this isn't all that accurate because even at one point I when I was up for my three year it had me on another year and now mine says 2027 and I was like but I just had my second term in 2024 so your second term or your first term I'm sorry was someone address sorry you're trying to do something don't worry I'm just trying to figure out how long you were just wondering if this was your first term or your second term I took over someone's partial term when they resigned from the council and so my first term ended fast as a result of that I reup for second term which I thought went through 20 26 but I could be wrong yeah okay but everybody else is 2026 well Stephanie was 2025 but she's she's still listed on here but everybody else is 26 or 27 and that makes I'm on my first term still so I'm 2026 but like years like that I'm kind of getting the hang of it sort of little right as soon as the three years is up is when you feel like I'm good to go yeah I love that actually it's like I've got it I understand the whole we true um but yeah if you are if anybody is all of our previous all of our agendas and minutes and all of our you know end dates are all on that website like that's off the town website if you just Google Littleton cultural council is the first one that comes up okay perfect okay so moving on I know Ray's looking at a spreadsheet so you don't have to answer anything Ry but we um have a little segment about little town in bloom if you can believe it it is already time to start talking about it um so Karen last year was our first year that we did a Littleton cultural Council sponsored um public art project called little toown In Bloom um it was really spearheaded by the former chair Julie really is kind of her brainchild but um then and and other people too but um I always consider her the one who kind of like sparked it and um so basically what we did is we reached out to a bunch of um local community um partners and we had them each um basically decorate a large wooden flower and then we planted our flowers on the common um as kind of like a um I don't know spring is coming a renewal of spring and like we just sort of a fun art project to get the community involved and um it was it went really well except for the DPW taking all of our flowers off and because I had to mow the lawn how could they want to do their Jobe but but yeah but it went really well and so we talked about maybe um brainstorming some ideas to make it even bigger this year who else we would reach out to if we wanted to um I think one of my like ideas was to maybe launch like a community picnic involved in it if the weather was good um that might be a lot to take on but it still might be a fun idea to kind of launch it or partner with like the Garden Club um on it so we probably need to start um ramping up our materials and reaching out uh in February if we want to plant um a little earlier than we did last year um so that we don't run into the the lawn mowing situation they did say um if we kept them and I think we can we'd have to probably go before the um select board again just to get approval on the dates and be really clear I guess about beginning and end but they did say if we kept them in the mulch beds that we'd be able to keep them up longer so that's just something to remember um because they they just you know they're obviously not mowing in the mulch so we could probably just think about that a little bit in placement okay great yeah that's perfect of a bummer to do that too though because they're not going to be as like prominent yeah yes yeah I mean I don't think they all have to be in there but maybe we would cluster some and then you know be strategic think of that too and you know the truth is we mulch our flower beds so once I could get past that I was like okay we can make this work y yep totally yes again son finally got them out of Kiki's backyard so they're in my garage safe and sound before the snow hit so yeah nice team work makes the dream workor that's right that's right T of Interest last year too though so I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with more more yeah we order we have the receipts should we order more of the same this year and get the component so that we can reach out to people ahead of time and say Here's how many we have you know you can take one tenth of it or you know if we're going to send out to 10 groups or whatever I mean honestly it's a lot of flowers and so if we triple that I don't know where we'll keep them yeah is really great but I'm think oh my yeah and more green holes that we didn't even use last year just so everybody knows probably 20 okay maybe 30 that that we never even used last year just so everybody knows and we might I mean we could also explore the idea of if there was a group that got a lot if they wanted to store them or put them up in their space like it you know if if we had the schools involved maybe they could plant some there I don't know if if we have to continue like that we would maybe store them maybe we can come up with a you know a different plan with that I think just because it was our first year it was kind of like let's keep these so we can can can start off then it makes a bigger bang for the buck if we if we know that we'll take that whole thing and deliver it on one day is a lot nicer and then if a team comes and adds 10 more how nice but we have to tell them also here's the area you can use right yeah would it make sense to spread it out a little bit see if there are other organizations in town or places that might want like a little flower garden you know like in front of the fire dep department or the police department the churches um yeah I always love that idea I don't know I love that idea of there being like a cluster on Main Street but then almost like a little a little hunt like you're going around the town oh that's a really cool idea oh find the one at Spring Dell find the one at you know spring sorry Theo the Gazebo would be a really nice place right flanking the steps to the Gazebo and the fire station the police station those would be nice yeah it would just be more of a request to the select Board of course um so we'd have to include that piece in it when we go before them and ask for permission of course the businesses we won't have to but places like usess spaces like Fay Park yeah for sure um what do people feel about that I love the idea I think we could also say here or where we get our parts if you want to join us and put it in front of your own business here's our parts right so that we're not trying to get the parts to everybody or the paints we can suggest all the things and then they can do it and add to it and and my guess is we'll never have control of it again which is the whole point yeah that's not a bad thing right right right like then the creativity comes right like last year we got the creativity with each flower but now it will forever be bigger and different and unique yeah yeah I love that idea and I think you know if we sort of spearhead the common area or maybe the common and Fa like the sort of town areas quote unquote and then really encouraging others and we could put together some kind of a you know Google sheet or something we could send out to them here's the links I think I'd have to go back and look at the notes but I think Stephanie kind of cut a deal with that company because it was like a family run company and she told them like what we were doing with it and they were like kind of into it and so um we might be able to sort of give them that information to and say we may have other groups contacting you and giving out your information you know kind of thing I love that and I think um having it all be one resource at least it starts out looking the same and everybody understands that it's the same project and after that it explodes into its own creation yeah my only my only um thing I would say is this first year where we're reaching out to some more businesses we might want to have some extras on hand and strategically reach out to some really prominent businesses with our own flower first and then like build upon that like other B hey your business wants do this too like you were saying have the um just just so that we have some on hand because you know some businesses are very busy and frankly if I was a business owner like I'd be more likely to be like oh do you have all the stuff great you know then let's do it um then if maybe I'd forget to order it or something maybe for just like five you know bigger businesses and then then we could have that sheet that said hey are you interested in joining this project like you were saying do do you guys think that that is a good idea or do you think that's a waste of resources I think it's fine and I think we have to recognize that some people won't finish it and say if you find yourself in two weeks not being able to do this might you return it to us or call us right so right and we'll still get some that are languishing it just happens but sure and do we have a list of like um people we reached out to last year because I know it was right like parks and wreck yeah there was a spread there's a spreadsheet on the on the Google Drive yeah great I can um attach that maybe to the minutes put the link in there so that shows because I think last year we sort of had a person from the board was like a point person for certain ones which I think worked well so it's sort of like okay you know you're contacting this person and then the delivery and the pickup or whatever um yes was more streamlined you know and so I think that that was a good model personally right it might be worth brainstorming who else we could contact to like I feel like we have a lot like everybody has different contexts in the in the area I'm not sure I actually have anymore that might be on mine but you know but like we weren't thinking businesses last year we weren't thinking off the common last year so we weren't we weren't ready to go to schools or or after school programs or whatever so maybe maybe next week we could talk about like kind of who has contexts at the different places and maybe if they have some idea of how many people are likely to want to participate I know that's a little fluffy at this point but it might just give us an idea of the scope that we're looking at because like think of right think of mavi who does the beautiful silks and scarves and napkins Etc on the common he's in 20 meeting house having her out there with you know Indian patterns would be so beautiful and show new ways of seeing it and being there so yeah it could be cool and even even like the historical society and the Garden Club and the the Rotary Club you know who knows who will to but maybe the Boy Scouts who do the flags and the um all that might do something at the cemetery yeah you'd have at a certain thought but for the next meeting maybe we can all come up with like maybe two or three ideas for that and we'll make a big list yeah I'll I'll link the spreadsheet to the minutes and so everybody can maybe take a look at what who we reached out to last year um and I think I know the people that I contacted with um were all were all almost looking for more you know like we kind of had limited it because we were trying to so I think it's great to reach back out to them and say hey you want to do you know 30 this year or whatever um and and then to exp and then to break it out into other groups so I'll put that in the minutes like the link to it did we have a time frame in mind for this yeah um last year we went a little later I think than we had hoped in the beginning but since we're starting out in January maybe we can Target excuse me a little bit of an earlier date um I'd love to do April before this everything starts growing really fast and it kind of a it would there would be less happening on the common and so we would be more likely to be seen yes because we run into Memorial Day right yeah and we ran into the um then they have the sign the signs up for the seniors and we had to wait for that to come down I think or whatever it was yes graduation yeah realistically we're looking at needing to reach out to people right after our next meeting by the end of February so that we can get them ordered and get them to them by mid-march to have them ready by April right yes that's right Y and maybe we target it so that by the end of April vacation they're in they're installed I think that's good when is April vacation it's Easter starts it the 20th okay thank you yeah so it's like Easter Sunday and that week afterward so if we aim for getting everything back by the beginning of April that gives us a little bit of Right Time yep all right I like that the only other conflict we ran into last year is nobody wanted to uh be fighting for real estate on the common with the senior posters that go up maybe that's was already mentioned while I was senior posters what is so they put up like little La you know Square lawn signs with every uh child who's graduating from Littleton High School like their picture so it's like of high school sorry I not senior CI senior like older people class of 2025 people careful I'm getting very close to that Juliana I thought we were G to be friends and now you're calling me old no remember I'm Mexican this is language barrier right right fore I'm a foreigner that that was why we went so late last year because we were very concerned about this conflict and I think they go up on the common sometime in May I don't know exactly when I think it's like the week running up to the week or two running up to graduation which I think is usually like miday because I think they have to remove them by Memorial Day right for yeah you're right and that was yeah that was the other issue was the flags that for Memorial Day so we had to that's why we went late so we might want to do like even earlier than we're saying like get everything up by the second week of April so they they can stay for at least a month I think we should aim for the first first week of April yeah we don't make it till the second week but Kim you were the contact with the select board last year do you can you reach out to them and absolutely just that we need to be thinking about in terms of scheduling yes yeah and I think it just to make it clear to because I think one of the issues we had is that probably I assumed that the select board would let the DPW know that we had been approved and was doing that and I feel like that's what didn't happen so maybe just either asking that question like are you reaching out to the DPW should we reach out to the DPW um what I realize is being on the affordable housing trust is basically nobody talks to anybody else unless you are a subcommittee of something else and so your point is well heard and made noted you think everybody's talking to each other behind the scenes and really nobody is everybody does their meeting and then goes home right like my my actual job yeah poin recorded no uh oh yeah yeah right kiding [Applause] HR love it there yeah but we should yeah that's probably you know just something to really be pointed about this time so that we know because I feel like that was a surprise to all of us yeah I'll take care of that I'm circling my name well and like you said Kim like if we're looking at April it's less of an issue we're not mowing as often it's not as big of it right and and it's probably gonna be easier to get on on boarded this year because we've done it before and we know what it takes you know how long it takes right um and we have all the contacts for at least everything's already Pi out now multiply it right ex yep okay so let's um Kiki you said you would send the link to the spreadsheet of all the people we reached out to last year in the minutes which would be awesome let's all think of a couple more contacts that would make sense whether it be a business or a town uh group like ours um and then uh we can kind of regroup for the February meeting and make a plan for like our actual date of installation um who we're going to reach out to and when and then um can you don't mind in the off couple weeks just reaching out to the select board and um okay perfect anything else we should do with this meeting for it or if you um need somebody to go with you or whatever let me know I'm happy to present afraid of none of them or even if it's like the timing doesn't work you know if they say you can only come to this meeting and you can't do it you know oh I I have a feeling all I need to do is call yeah I don't think this is a big thing that's what I did last year I called Mark ramacher and said hey this is what we're doing he's like cool apparently he didn't tell anybody else but that's but he didn't go forward so now I know the next question to ask funny EXC and we should think about locations too right not yeah people and locations location and those two might overlap really nicely right so yes what for sure great I love this it was was really really nice to see them last year and people and remember so this could happen again is that last year the town the center was under construction so there were all those big trucks all that big equipment flanking on all sides so that may not be there this spring so maybe I'll check in with DPW and just see so tell me what's going on right yeah because we can just move to the other side right right don't block our garden exactly right I know that was a mess and it was a really long ly ly mess right yeah Melissa the sign that we had last year was that dated or was that just generic so we could reuse it I still have it in my garage I can go check I think it's generic I thought it was too I was just trying to remember it was generic actually looking at it on Facebook because I I wanted to see what you all were talking about oh great I was like I know I have a picture on my phone but could I find it in a manner tell you that whenever I take a buyer to a house I go okay this garage isn't big enough and this is why bicycles and lawnmowers and also you're gonna be volunteering in the town and you're gonna need soccer balls and you're gonna need flowers and they're like what now and trust me you need brush you need a barn in fact yeah literally the person who helps out with the um with with like the theater signs yes you just return them to their Barn they have a giant Barn store there I've got I've gotten them out of the back of that Barn a couple times yeah I'm sure you have that's great oh my gosh um so Karen does it look like it's dat just yeah it just say I think if I'm looking at the right one um little toown and Bloom and then it just says a community art project sponsored by the Littleton cultural Council oh perfect that clever Kiki well done good work I was like I don't remember what happened good we can use that bad boy again but I was wondering if it'd be an idea to get two you know if we're or how whatever the locations are um or three of them and use my open house signs but I have to I have to think about that because I don't want to leave them there forever because I actually do do open houses but then there you know if I can get slide panels that are 12 mine are smaller mine are 12 by 18 and that one was much bigger like maybe 18 by 24 or yeah that one was like 30 by I remember 30 I can check I think I ordered the sign from somebody that we use for um um yeah it was that guy in Air yeah because I went there for the the uh Littleton um Christmas concert in order the stuff so thank you for that info he was wonderful to work they're great yeah and um but I we have I have like two more of those like A-frames we could probably use that we could borrow too that are that I think almost the same size but I can look at them amazing we can get into the weeds I guess on that as we get closer yeah yeah for sure okay so now we're I have room for two more in my garage oh fabulous fabulous so really the last item is just to draft our February agenda topics it sounds like we're going to do a more in-depth treasur update um membership updates and then uh really focus on the little town and Bloom project for 2025 um probably just confirm with Sarah that all the grantee letters went out which she said she's doing Ray you have a question sir um I figured out the financial stuff if we want to come back to that oh yeah okay sure great but we can finish February agenda if you prefer that was it really I don't think was there anything else that a Kiki that I missed on that no I think we're good okay I'm typing it all up thank you all right Ray the floor is yours all right so Sarah I really appreciate you bringing it up because there were a few things that needed to get changed I think I've got it in a good spot now but um it also made me realize that there was something that I and maybe we didn't realize in terms of how we were concluding things with our uh giving out our grants in December so it's probably something that needs to get documented and voted on right now do we need um to go in executive session for it or is it no sorry I mean this this whole group I think is okay but it's since we don't have any Community MERS with us I think it is it is being recorded though just so we're all aware so it's being recorded and could be accessed just in case there's specific numbers we're putting out that we don't want to share okay fine fine with me if anybody says that oh stop go ahead and speak up but doesn't bother me all right perfect go ahead um so I think we're all in agreement on the amount of grants that we approved and the amounts that we gave that was 12,160 now if I take into to the weeds of the bookkeeping that I have to manage with the town I go back to um the beginning balance for the year so the balance we started fiscal year 25 with which is technically July 1st 2024 it was $759 73 this was verified with the state with the town with me and I'll show you guys the record that um which is what Sarah had up on the screen as well so that's the starting balance everyone is all in agreement with that one item that was um not updated and it's probably because I didn't go in and update it uh in a timely manner is uh you have to put in whatever expenditures have happened since then because you have prior year grants that are still eligible to get paid and and other expenses this was a a dated number I I did recognize it but it didn't have all of the latest transactions so now based on the transaction report that I got from the town and terms of additional things that have been paid since July 1st and this is the Journal of report I'm saying this for sake of all of you in the recording the journal entry record from them tallies up if you look here on the lower right to $475 183 up through November 15 2024 are you you're not sharing your screen so we can't see what oh my goodness there we go I hate Zoom I'm so used to teams now can see I was just showing you stuff for like five minutes it was a graphic description so I felt like I was looking at it felt you felt you were there um let me go back $759 73 state says yes Town says yes I say yes and that's also what's in our share Drive in the treasur report as the beginning balance for fiscal year 25 everyone's with me um okay then the next thing I was saying is in the filing with the state The Next Step was put in all of your expenditures since the start of the fiscal year which is July 1st 2024 I had not updated that so now I just did I pulled the transaction report that the town gives me which you can see a copy of that right here it's a lot of mumbo jumbo but you can just focus on the amount column and if you sum it all up you can see here in the lower right $475 183 up through November 15th was the last transaction I have a record of so then if you go back to the report $475 183 then I've updated that the treasures report also keeps track of the fact that we had $1,920 of open grants from fiscal year 24 now we've got three open grants that have not had a check cut yet and that's what that equals two have already filed the paperwork and it probably has been paid by now but I just haven't requested the latest month and a half worth of records from the town I sent an email to them earlier today because I was like oh I haven't done that so that's why that'll be my treasur update for next month so I'm imagining most of this has been paid but nonetheless as of the time of November 15th which is when the report is being set $1,920 is still open um $5,600 is what the town gave us we'll skip past the remaining balance okay then we get down to what Sarah was commenting on and asking for confirmation of $1,400 for Town Projects for little town and Bloom I'll come back to administrative funds you'll notice it's a big fat $4 doar now that's the thing we need to vote on in a moment the state allocation is $7,000 all of it now mathematically ties to the amount of grants that we just gave out $2,160 so the mistake that was made during our grant cycle in December was I think I looked at just I thought I looked at it as a surplus and in fact it was a deficit we thought that when we were giving out only allocating funds for $100 for admin I looked at the spreadsheet which is my own spreadsheet and I was like oh we have $95 left over no we are actually $95 in the red the color should given it away but okay um I'm the one that set that color so no we're in a deficit position so the easy way to correct that without changing grants is to either adjust the money that we're giving to the town art project or to adjust further the um administrative budget so just for sake of explaining this all to you on the screen i' bumped it down to four bucks for the administrative budget that gets everything to balance just fine deficit goes away I'm cool with that everybody caught up with me now so like that that's not a proposal I'm just showing everyone where the math goes then if you go back to the report which Sarah Was preparing we're all square and we're ready to go perfect but we have to figure out what to do about this $95 deficit do we want to reduce the admin funds in fiscal year 2024 we spent $42 on admin funds which is all for the Google domain for this website that I don't think we're any longer using correct and in fact I think we took an action to shut it down yes maybe maybe we didn't which would then save us the cost so if that's the case then we could tighten our belt and just say we're just going to plan on zero administrative cost or even if there is uh just roll it into the public art thing figure out what to do with that maybe I don't know we'll see what we that that would be a conscious choice to either not ask for reimbursement or to just not spend the money or or or or we could adjust the public art to like 1350 and then you got 54 bucks in the admin I'm open to it but I think we do need to like agree right now as a consensus and vote on this because that is a change from what we said before and then but then it all foots and we're ready to go so there is still a small administrative fee I think that comes for this G Suite it's like I don't um I don't know if we can go back up to the spreadsheet but there are some these little invoices I don't even know what they are it's like a dollar hold on I think I have one here yeah because you had also submitted for reimbursement at one point I'm actually trying to find that here yeah right here it was for like a oh no that was public art again that was for the um you know what do you call it that was art supplies and stuff yeah for the um third Thursdays but there was a one time it was like $12 or something that's last time I see a record of any admin fees it was only Katie Bonner for the website stuff we haven't reimbursed for anything else in a long time this says Google drive though not not a domain yeah so the domain is not happening anymore but the Google Drive invoice still comes and it gets paid um it's like $7 every once in a while but I'm not sure yeah I guess I I think there are some small uh payments so I guess my thoughts would be to to make the adjustment and put the $50 in there because I do think there are some small little things where it that are connected to the G Suite that are like $6 here $7 there so to have it have nothing in it I don't I don't think is a great PL but I'm happy with like 50 $50 and I don't know if that would make such a giant impact on the public art uh by line honestly I think the 1400 was a little arbitrary anyways right true yeah it was that was a little bit of a plug which was based on the recommended 20% allocation of the MCC funds so that could easily be adjusted there's no rule that we have to keep it at that level I have to agree with Kiki I'm a little uncomfortable with $ five dollar that feel or $4 sorry that feels there might be an unexpected cost yeah no I I agree now that you explain it that way I think that makes sense to take it out of the public art project I think that will be under budget anyway remember we're going to use it for the Labyrinth too though it's not just it's not just little tin of Bloom so which not huge expense like that's not going to be that's not going to make or break US Bank yeah so if we adjusted the admin to $54 and the Little T and Bloom to 1350 then you're all you're all square and that sounds good yeah that sounds good do we um want to somebody want to make a motion on that sure I'll move to approve that I second all those in favor I all right approved thank you for thanks Ray thank you thank you for thank you Sarah for notic I would not would not have caught it if you hadn't said something so I'm grateful this is why we're a team right exactly why we have to do it as a group L yes yes so I just made a live update to the form so so now I'm not going to submit this form but I think it will need to be submitted but Sarah I'm just GNA pass it back and say but I think all the data has been updated properly are you passing it back because you want me to double check things or oh this is the financial report I guess isn't it so no I probably could submit this one yes done great all right great job team yay yay all right so everybody has their well go ahead Kiki oh I was gonna say just one somewhat related to the since I logged into the um account I see a couple of emails from people just asking about their reimbursement updates do we have access to that spreadsheet just to see or which ones the towns have cut checks for I'm but you won't have the latest journal entry reports since November 15th that's what I just emailed them request okay and they're uh not the quickest at getting that detail back to me but I'm hoping within the next uh one two weeks you I just I have not been very fast with processing these this year to be honest it might make sense if we uh found a w than other just other than just me to process these because I'm routinely very slow in responding to the email inbox and processing the grant forms I don't think it's required that the treasurer be the one to get the two signatures and and do that I definitely need to record it and then submit to the accounting team at the town but a lot of the other steps in the process you guys could probably remember move it along faster than definitely delegate definitely delegate do you H do you just happen to know if that I think I I think I started to do that simply because Katie Bonner also was the one who did all of that but as I've gone on and recognized that I'm the bottleneck I'm like wait a second a couple of these steps really don't need to be me and we'd probably be more responsive to our grand bees if it weren't me um just from that spreadsheet for the one you were saying there was three of them is the Francis Hart one was it's there was a couple emails from Fran har I just was goingon to reply um so it's in the very same spreadsheet that I was just sharing you I'll just go ahead and bring it right back up um the three that have not had a check cut for fiscal year 24 so they're they're now I think they're now in the in the Zone I think right right where they no longer isn't at 18 months so they no longer can request this money I would think I forget the rules I apologize yeah I think it was sometime I think it was like February or something from last year but I'd have to look there's only so two are already like in in process clear path for veterans submitted theirs noobas and bonic band subed theirs okay um that's working its way through in fact I think I need update this I think those were submitted to the town so the check was sent on 11:15 to this Francis heart because he's saying on December 27 he hasn't gotten the check yet so that's why I was surprised that surprises me too once they finally cut the check it it's usually quick right can we uh email that person I am going to yeah they yeah confirm the address maybe because sometimes that happens where they we got the wrong address or they' been moved or whatever the only one that did not claim their money is actually town ofon the town cool yeah did they ever do that project is that why they didn't do it or because Brent brag is no longer Brent to brag is no longer working there right well there you go oh was that the library one uh yes I think so yeah I called about that one and yeah it didn't go it didn't go okay so then we'll have $820 back for this fall for the 2026 Grant fine so be it um let balance our budget yeah not the way we want to do it but but yeah that's the answer to your qu so we we just need to I need to follow up with the town and make sure clear path and nooba Valley Corral um nooba symphonic band are in genuinely in process to get paid yes we should respond back to Francis Hart and say like the town they cut the cheack yeah I will I'll do that right right now since I'm in here yeah thanks Kiki thank you did you guys and then I won't be surprised at all that we'll get a flood of immediate reimbursement requests because remember some of these 25 grantees already did their project right they were just wait waiting in line to get the grant approved so they'll probably flood us with a quick round of requests right away in January February so oh yeah I was gonna say earlier finally um the we are in the the 15-day review cycle we have not gotten any requests for review yet for whatever that's fa did we want um to reassign those tasks Ray that you were talking to somebody um now or do you want to wait till the next meeting and like officially how about this yeah how about we make it an agenda item along with the treasury report at the next monthly meeting perfect because that'll be good timing when a lot of the new 2025 paperwork is going to start coming in anyways and we can just decide how to do it perfect did I hear earlier that um this is raised last term potentially 2026 year we should check we should check on that oh is that so it is 2026 I'm not remembering that wrong it says 2026 on the website but like I said mine was wrong on the website and I had Diane update it so I can check in with her and maybe it's a and I and Stephanie's still listed on there too even though I confirmed she was off so I might just throw Diane a quick email and say like hey our website needs to be updated in multiple ways and we can just confirm all those dates although you thought it I'm sorry what you thought it was 2026 too right thought maybe maybe I was just thinking that if we need to plan for a transition for treasurer like that's a role that needs a little bit of like handholding right yeah I spent I spent a good good chunk of time with Katie so yeah I agree with you Sarah yeah so I'm not volunteering just to be clear not it yeah okay okay so we'll add that to the agenda item for next time to maybe that's we need to hire we'll say we're looking for a new Treasurer because ours has to retire and if you're good with money and you'd like to do this for us because if you saw my eyes glaze over you recognize I am not going to do this for you and so let's get somebody who can do it and do it well unless Karen I hear that you're looking for a new something J I followed the spreadsheet but I try to stay away from that you know I tutor math and I that's enough for me all right well we'll hopefully find replacement at a later time probably after the something we can talk about after maybe little town and Bloom or maybe he has an extension and yeah I I thought I had one more extension I don't know let's ask Diane when you emailed all of us about this like a year ago it's like this people have this much time like somebody have that oh my gosh you're right she did send us that yeah she did yeah I'm just remembering that now yeah that was CU When you said it I was like that sounds familiar I'm like wait because we already did that once um yeah you're right office I have it oh you got it oh good yeah um okay this is what I have in the committee at this point in time and this was May 15 2024 Kim first term 20 to 21 second term 21 to 24 then if she chooses to stay on it would be a two-year term 24 to 26 and then she would have to step down for at least a year and then could come back for another six years Julie's no no longer Sarah um first term 23 to 26 then if you choose to reapply 26 to 29 then you'd have to step down for at least a year uh me 23 to 26 second term if I choose to reapply 26 to 29 so Sarah you and I have the same um timing Ray first term 22 to 25 second term if you choose to reapply 25 to 28 and then you'd have to step down for at least a year come back for another six years yay no pressure then I have Jen 23 to 26 second term 26 to 29 and then Cathy uh who is not here tonight but 24 to 26 and then 26 to 29 and then wait where's Kiki oh there she is okay um 22 to 24 for KiKi second term 24 to 27 yeah I'm in my second term now okay oh this is good this is great you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna copy paste this and throw it into the share drive so that way it's not just sitting in our email well I'm G to re forward her email to you Kiki no I got it I found it too oh perfect okay great and Kiki did you see you can do one more year after that if you want to just say it's only 2025 I have two more years you're good I'm good yeah but you know what's funny is our website doesn't it doesn't match this so I might actually like resend this back to her and say he can you just m make it match that way we all can see it yeah all thanks for remembering that Ray that was perfect I forgot till just then all right all right I think we are good we all have our marching orders for the next meeting does anybody have any other topics they want to bring up before we close out the meeting sorry just the one last thing on the agenda is the public comments what's the public comments oh that's if anybody I think uh joined the meeting and wants to uh talk to us but I don't see any attendees other than LCC members can I make a public comment that there's a yes you can women's the the rally for women and the people's marches on Saturday in the town common at 11: cool cool thank you I'll be here in cold Florida oh that again Jen what there's a um like a rally going on on Saturday in the town common okay what's it supporting it's um it's the women's March you know the big one that oh yeah from so it's our it's our version of it small town um and also folks I'm on sabatical this starting in the spring so I'll be away for a couple of months good for you yeah that's outrageous it is are you staying local or you traveling what are you gonna do I don't know yet I'm still working on figuring it I've applied Rock I'm gonna yeah I've applied for some fellowship so we'll wait and see what what comes sounds good good for you I just saw that on Facebook too I'll reshare it on the um on our page too though I think it was posted on your page Jen yeah and uh the YuYu Church page too yeah I saw it I was going to repost it on the um on the Glick page too because I was like oh we gotta share that but I just literally saw it like two hours ago so we'll just have to be really mindful of Quorum when Jen is on her sabatical and uh hopefully we'll get another member before she goes out too and that'll make it a little easier all right I am officially closing this meeting uh 8:20 p.m.