Okay. Okay. So, it is 5:15 on Monday, April 28th. So, I'll call to order this meeting of the new home human rights commission. First item on the agenda is approval of minutes from the March 24th meeting. So, I'll have everybody review that and let me know if there are questions or changes
needed. Oops. Oh, does he Thank you. Any questions or changes so far? Um, if everybody's through it and we don't have any questions or changes, I would entertain a motion to approve the minutes as they are. So, move second.
All right. All approve say I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. That motion passes. Um then next is the budget report which is attached here. So we have most of our budget remaining. We've just had a few um things reimbured for supplies for the human rights award ceremony. So supplies
and food. So we have 98% of our budget remaining. There'll be a few items as we're coming up here that will um likely take some out of that budget. We don't need a motion on that at all. The next item on the budget is we need to prepare our 2026 budget
request. The deadlines to submit this is June 27th and then we have to determine an amount to request for each category and that is also attached the process and the budget. So we'll go through and decide what we want
and then we'll send it to Lisa and then it'll get submitted. The city staff will review applications to prepare the information for the city council review. There'll be a work session with the city council on July 15th to discuss and we should be prepared to have a representative at the work session and then contributions will be approved in
August. And then she has budget requests for 2026 attached also. It's not letting me load it. Hold on. Are you doing the same thing? I'm struggling to get Yeah, I when I download it, it doesn't come up. When I hit view, I just get the sheets, but I
don't get the information. Same. Anybody else having any luck? I was able to get it to download. You were okay. Just give it a second. What did you How did you do that? Got it. So, if you hit download, go back
to it. Oh, it's loading over here. Yeah. Thank you. What are you looking at? The budget request for 2026. It's a community
events, human rights awards essay contest contest. I swear it wasn't. Okay. Does it have blanks there or numbers from last year? So we have 2025 what we requested for 2025 and then 2026 what what we need to
put in for what we proposed. So the first item is community events and pro promotional materials. Be fair booth parade, banner signs, logo, stickers, etc. That was $1,500 that we requested in 2025. The human rights award reception and plaque was $500 in 2025.
Essay contest prizes $1,200. Poster, contest, prizes, $1,200. Program expensive expenses, so speakers, honorariums, publicity, and materials, that was $2,200. Educational expenses, fees, and travel expenses to attend human rights educational events,
$1,900. The total we requested in 2025 was 8,500. We got 6,50. And we did get 1,100 carried over from 2024. So, our 2025 budget was 7150. and the notes basically correlate with
what the item was. So basically we have to decide what we want to ask for for next year and then go through that process to request it from the city council. Any questions? Madam Chair, I heard you state the amount in the 2025 budget for the human
rights awards at $500. Is that correct? Correct. Yep. Since we had two plaques this year, did that go over budget or it that so that was from the 2024 budget? So we elect or we pick the um human rights award in 2024, but we didn't do
the ceremony till 2025. So the plaque actually came out of the 2024 budget. So and did it cover? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So if we were to do two in the future, it would be Yeah. It would still be sufficient. Yeah. because we also have
um food and depending on we do for a ceremony. So we have it's the the bulk of it is not necessarily for the plaque. We just have it in there for the ceremony. Mhm. How does this track with previous years? It's very similar. Okay. Um I think in
previous years we've just carried it over. Okay. Um unless there was something that we felt we had fallen short on or needed more. Um but we've generally just carried over the amount requested. I know that we didn't use the essay and contest essay and poster contest prizes, but I know coming up
later down in the agenda, we talk about something different we could do. So, I don't know that I necessarily would want to completely eliminate that because we're still trying to come up with something. Mhm. The other thing I would ask is last year we had $500 for the Welcoming
America uh related promotion and it's my understanding that that was a one-time opportunity and I'm hearing or recall that the feedback was very positive from that event and if going forward we want to continue that as a commission we
might consider uh for the 2026 budget of putting in an extra 500 or a thousand for that event. Yeah, good point. Yeah, it to me that was um uh well done and I think that the community um did participate and if we continue with it,
it would only get bigger and better. Yeah, I agree with that. And then if we do a partnership with Park and Wreck for their wellness event and I'm trying to recall we were hoping to get a grant for it and I feel like the grant was more than we did not receive the grant I know
but it was much more than even what park and wreck would have been seeking. Yeah, I feel like the grant was like maybe up to $1,000 and we wouldn't have used I can't remember what we requested but we didn't request the full like amount you could get for that grant. Um, so I think I want to say it was
about $200. Okay. Was what Park and Wreck was seeking. And for everybody else that was just they they did like a free community event. So you could get into the park to Vogle for free and then different
organizations could have a booth there. we could provide like healthy snacks or you know something that kind of fit with that theme, but we were hoping to participate in that and we we didn't this time. It was kind of a short timeline honestly. Um but they're having another event in the fall. Yeah. And
they mentioned that we were going to try and still do it. Mhm. But we just the timeline just didn't work out because it was so fast because we were waiting to hear about the grant and then we didn't get the grant and it just didn't work out. So they did let me know that they let us know that there was an event I think in September. Mhm.
Other thoughts? Do we typically I mean this has been my experience in the past whenever seeking funding is you usually get less than what you request. Yep. Is this pretty typical? This is pretty typical of what we request and what we get back. So, Yep. or get approved. So, yes.
I guess most my questions are going to end up coming up when we talk about the education because I don't want to jump ahead but like like that part of the budget like that's where my question is like do we allocate that somewhere else or do we try to like
what's our plan? Yeah. And I know like in the past if we've had something that we haven't used like in the past we haven't last in 2024 we used a lot of our speaker budget. Some years we haven't used that and we've used it for other things. So this isn't like a hard and fast okay you have $1,200 for this
prize. We can move it around, but this is about what we estimate that we use for each item. Okay. How are we doing on supply? We are going to talk about that. Okay. Oh, yeah. It's down here. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. All my questions have to do with
stuff stuff later in the agenda. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Any other questions or thoughts, discussion? Uh, what is the city budget looking like this year? It's pretty premature. I'm sure there
will be a lot of asks. Yeah. Um, and I don't know if we're going to it'll be more conservative just because of some unknowns, but Sure. that I can't speak to. Yeah. Fair. And we did use a lot of our budget. the reason we
didn't use this $1,100 from 2024 was because we didn't have any um entrance into the essay contest. If that's the case, then I feel like we should seek the same amount um that we have in the past with with the hopes of getting
awarded, you know, 6 thou similar to what we got last year. And then with our carryover, I mean, I think we're pretty good at um I also agree to add 500 or a thousand for the for the um welcome week. Event. Yeah. And I believe that is on
the agenda, too, to discuss continuing that. So, it'd be a good item to add if we're going to want to make it an annual thing. So, just uh increase the community events to $2,000. Yeah. 1500.
Yep. that would tie in with that. Any other discussion? Okay. Do I have any motions on that? Are we motioning for a total of total requested of $9,000 then? Yeah. If we're going to add I would say if we're going to add 500 onto it, we're
we're understanding that what you guys are proposing is that we would ask for the same amount plus $500. Mhm. and we would add the extra $500 in the community events. Um, well, I propose or yeah, I propose that we approve this
budget increasing it to $9,000 total with that extra $500 being part of the community events and promotional materials. Okay, I'll second. You have any other discussion? I'll approve say I. I
oppose. Same sign. So, that motion passes. Okay. So, then we're down to events committee. Um, so the first thing on the events committee is the human rights awards ceremony, the summary of the March 26th event. And then we do have a thank you from one of the recipients.
And so I had her attach it. She sent it to me, but then I sent it to um Lisa to have attached. She just said, "Please share my appreciation for a wonderful evening last night with the members of the Human Rights Commission. While I usually try not to be in the limelight, it was a blast. So many kind wishes and caring people. the program was thoughtfully presented. Again, many
thanks to the entire commission for your efforts and for enriching our community. So, summary of the event, I think it went really well. I think it's the best turnout we've had in quite a while. Um, and just very positive energy having two recipients. I thought it was really well. It went really well and it
highlighted kind of different ways you could support human rights. Yeah, it was I counted 50 50 people attending which is really good. Yeah. Any It worked really well to have it at the community center. We've done that the last few
years. Probably went overboard on the refreshment, so I have to keep that in mind for next year. But we can remember that. I think you planned appropriately for the number of people, just not for the lack of appetite about that. Yeah. Yeah. But I thought there it didn't seem
excessive to me. It just I was kind of surprised not many people were were taking it. It was really nice. We don't always have um so like we had asked the people who nominated them if they would read their nominations and speak and then we asked for the nominees to speak. We don't always get that cuz people
don't necessarily want to talk or say much. So it was really nice that all the people who submitted nominations were able to present their nominations and then the people who received the awards were able to speak. I think that was that made it it was really nice. It was it was great. Okay. And then a forum regarding
immigration concerns report from the April 1st committee meeting. So we had a meeting on the first to discuss this. This was brought forward um at the previous meeting. And so we just met to talk about what we were going to do going forward. Um, this is further down the agenda, but we reached
out to Copal, which is a organization that um provides services to the Latina community and they do they've done some forums on immigration rights and what are your rights, what you know, what options you have, what's out there. So,
we were going to partner with them to do an event that would be open to the community. Um, looking at the end of probably beginning of June now, just because David wasn't able to come tonight. Um, but they he did reach out to me. had a little bit of a meeting with them. He was very open to participating. Um, so our we envisioned
having possibly like a virtual part of the event so that people who weren't able to come would be able to listen to the information and then actually having it at the um community centers for people to come and just thinking that people who would come who would want resources but then also open to the community just to learn more just
because immigration is so complicated and there's a lot of misinformation out there. What am I missing? I think that that about summed it up. The cards. Oh, yeah.
Um, we I took that to the city manager and we discussed that and we took it off the agenda just because they felt like it was actually providing legal advice and as a commission we can't provide legal like legal advice. So they said they did say like if this organization wanted to hand them out that would be
fine but as a commission we shouldn't be handing them out because it's technically legal advice and we don't want to be as a commission be seen to be like giving legal advice. So that why that that's why that was taken off the agenda. These were just little wallet sized cards that talk about your fourth and
fifth amendment rights. So again we're looking at June. Um, and they he basically just said if we just need to get some dates together, send some dates to him and then they can have representatives come. He was, like I said, this was further down the agenda, but he was going to come tonight and just kind of speak about the organization and everything they do, but
with the weather, he emailed me kind of last minute and I said we could just push him to the May meeting and so we'll get him rescheduled for that meeting. So, basically more to follow on that. We don't need a motion or anything. Um, we're just work in process and we're looking at June.
what goes into making it partially virtual. That's one thing we have to figure out. I was going to try and maybe partner with New Cat and see if they could help. Um that was a little bit up in the air because we just weren't sure how to make that work. So, anybody has any thoughts. Um and then welcoming week, which is also in the agenda. We just
threw it on the agenda now because it's April, just because we want last year we did a really good job and it was an amazing event, but we just didn't have a lot of runway. And so we just thought we'd put it on the agenda just so we can start thinking about it. Welcoming week is um we want to have the event between the
12th and the 21st of September. So just want to kind of target getting something on the books to start planning that so we're not so rushed to get it planned. So I think what we'll probably do unless there's discussion or questions about it, we'll probably just have Lisa schedule um so that'll be
under the HRC events committee. So, we'll have Lisa schedule a meeting for that subcommittee and then we can just start from there. Not to say that everybody can't help with the planning, but just have the group get together and kind of make some decisions on exact date, you know, in like what do we
envision for the event? What do we all want to do? Who do we want to invite? That kind of thing. What day of the week did we have it last time? It was a Friday. Okay. I liked it on a Friday. I think people are often looking for things to do on a non-school night. Yeah, that's that's why we did it, I
think. Yeah, I liked that. So, I would So, the 12th or the 19th then? Okay. Yeah. And just organizing like reserving the city building parking lot. We'll need to organize when we decide on a date. So, just want to get that going well ahead of time so we have lots of
time to make sure we contact organizations that we want to partner with, food trucks, whatever we want to do. So, we'll have Lisa put a meeting together for that subcommittee. I don't know. Well, that actually that actually brings up going back to the budget because we our notes from last
year. So, most of that 500 was the bouncy house and then everything else was voluntary, but we said garbage cans, uh portaotties, tables, and chairs. Yep. So, we would need 1,500 to get all of those things. So, we would
actually probably want to add to the budget if we actually want to have A couple porta potties and some tables and chairs. Gotcha. Unless they can be donated. And if we plan ahead time, that's something we might be able to to get to happen. But
if we have to fund it, we probably want to be prepared for that. Do we maybe have a motion on that budget addition? Uh, I'd like to motion on adding another thousand to the budget for this um event, the welcome week
event for portaotties, tables, chairs, and garbages. Do we have a second? I'll second that. Any other discussion on that item? Just a quick question on the additional $1,000 and I I heard you summarize some of the things it might be used for. Do
we have like an expense of what certain things would cost to I have a general idea from running events before and I do also know we might be able to get them donated but if that's all part of the planning process so it's better to have
it and not need it and than need it and not have it cuz it was definitely people were looking for bathrooms and having to go like downtown to use the you know use a restroom at a place that they weren't. Mhm. spending money at. Yeah. Yeah. And we
definitely Yeah. needed garbages, too. Yep. And there wasn't places a lot of places for people to sit and eat and enjoy the food trucks that we had there. Yep. That's true. And I think that's wise to plan ahead. But I in listening to what I heard on the budget plans and
Lisa's uh release of the agenda materials, it talked about um the council wanting to see the justification for the the amounts of money you're requesting. I think that's maybe a general instruction. But if we're going to add another
thousand dollar budget, I I think we should be prepared to list essentially what we might be using that money for. Yeah. I mean, I can get general cost information for all of the all of the vendor type items if we what it would
cost if we could not get it donated. Mhm. I would just need a general. So, it would have to be after Yeah. And it looks like the work session for the city council is on July 15th. So, if we Yeah. If we put a meeting together, just a preliminary start this event with the
events committee, we would have some time to kind of put together that and then um go to the city council work session to just kind of go over what we'd be spending the different things. Well, the money we're asking for in July is for next year, correct? So, so we already have the money. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yep. That is correct. It's a good call out. So, I think after Yeah. How long So, we have until July to finalize our budget request. Yes. Sounds like maybe we need to go back and uh rethink it. Maybe. Yeah. How about
how about this? And I'll give you my idea and then you guys can motion or not motion. We could table the budget request to the next meeting and have Lisa set up a meeting in the events committee so we could get an estimate for what that event might cost and then bring both things back to the next meeting and then we can just wait on
finalizing our budget request till the next meeting. I think that makes sense because even with like the education and and planning, there's going to have to be that subcommittee to figure out and yeah, and we're going to talk about materials today, too, which this is all
for 2026, which I understand, but at least it'll give us a good idea of what we're going to look for this year. And then Yes. Mr. Did I understand that the budget request for this commission has to be in the hands of the city treasuries office
by the 17th of July? Correct. Their work session is the 17th of July. So by the end our meeting in June, we have to have ours finalized and ready to go. Yes. Which gives us two meetings after this one.
Yes, that is correct. And I want to just double check. So, while we're having the conversation about that, um I think the reason to have it on the parking lot was so there was visibility
or is that something to rethink of taking it to German Park where there are restrooms and u grassy spaces and so on and that's also a city entity and maybe um that would be more inviting than a
parking lot. Absolutely. I I don't know with time to to plan that might be a thing but I feel like we did get a lot of foot traffic that didn't know anything about it because we were on Broadway with the bouncy house and food trucks and we did have even though it was a short runway we did have a lot of
advertising. It was on the um bank sign. It was in the paper. It was on all the city social media pages. Yeah. But originally we had talked about Yeah. about that as well because
um what was it that had just the music in the park was just ending? Yes. What uh would the food trucks be able to park down by German Park? Would they be able to park on German? It would have to be on the street and we'd have to get
the street have to get the street blocked off. You'd have to have the street blocked off. I believe they also could park, you know, on German park like they do for the night out. Look at the lower portion. The food trucks are actually right on the ground. Oh, the food trucks come to National Night
Out. I don't remember. I was stuck at the booth. You were You were happily assigned to the booth volunteering. I mean, I was assigned. I was doing my job. There was
a Lola's truck there. I do remember that. And then maybe another one. Yeah, there there were two trucks and then there was a third uh venue. I would think it was made rights or something like that on the grounds. Yeah. Yes. I think both. When is National Night Out
again? Wasn't it just like a month before this? Further down. July 30th of July. A little more. Two months before. I mean, we could advertise it there too that we're Yeah. Yeah. Now that we have Yeah. Okay. So, we're back to the budget
proposal. Sounds like we need to table it. Yeah. Have such a motion. So, move. We have a second. Second. Any further discussion on that? Okay. So, the motion to table the budget request until next meeting when we have more information
passes. And then I will have Lisa set up a meeting. I don't think you did. You vote. Oh, no. I didn't. I'm sorry. Got the first and a second. I got the first and a second. All approved say I. I oppose. Same sign. Now that motion passes. Sorry. Um and then I will have Lisa set up a
meeting for the subcommittee to start planning the welcoming week and that'll help us too with the budget for next year. Events committee. So Bavarian. So these are basically almost all yeah all upcoming events for the particip. So these are events that we participate in that we don't run as a HRC. the Bavarian
Blast 5K fun run sponsored by the wellness collective which is Saturday July 19th at 8 a.m. We did receive a request from this organization from the wellness collective to sponsor and the request is attached. So they're looking for
community partners to sponsor the wellness collective's first ever Bavarian Blast 5K fun run. Um they are a nonprofit and then for a sponsorship you get the lo our logo on a sign along the race route a logo on the back of the t-shirt so social media post from the
wellness collective social media your information and a handout given to all race participants and volunteers and then a taxdeductible donation receipt. So they're requesting the human rights commission to sponsor at $125 and again they're a nonprofit
discussion and I think the the rationale was largely around the free class Friday which our support how do we how does that fit into human rights is increasing access to those classes by offering the free class Friday with free child care.
Um, so removing barriers is is what they listed here. So, as I recall, that was kind of where we saw the partnership. Madam Chair, has a HRC done something similar in the past. So, there there's some history to doing such a thing,
sponsoring like this. I I'm unfamiliar with it. Not when I've been on the commission, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure of previous years, but not since I've been on the commission. No, we have not gotten a sponsorship sponsorship request like this or sponsored any um like activities like
this in town that I'm aware of. Is that might be something we should, you know, run by the city staff to see if this is something that we can do if we want to. We had a similar request last year from
the wellness collective and then there was confusion about whether they were a nonprofit and they have since established so we couldn't do it when they were not established as a nonprofit. So I do recall we've had some discussion with city staff. Right. Yeah. And we do review, like when I send items
to Lisa or people submit items to Lisa to get on the agenda, we do a review and if there's questions, she'll generally reach out to Chris, the city manager, um, and then circle back if it's something that would not be appropriate for us to discuss. So, I think as long as I mean, not saying we should or shouldn't do it, but I believe that
because we put it on here, it has been vetted that we can consider the request. Well, couldn't this kind of be considered going towards advertising budget because of all the logo logo packets? I think that's one of the reasons it was brought forward. It would
be an opportunity to kind of advertise the presence of the human rights commission and even our events and what we do. Yep. Just as a point of clarification, I do believe it was taken to our city attorney and the the feedback was that it would be okay as
long as they were not for profit. Perfect. Thank you. Yeah, cuz that was the hiccup last time. Correct. So, mayor, that was for this particular item. Yes, for the $125 request. Um, and you did not receive uh a copy on that
email. I don't think I I don't I'm pretty sure I didn't, but Okay. Well, you could do a motion saying if it is legally Yeah. correct, but my understanding was and I assumed that you had gotten that. So, I'm hope I'm not
speaking speaking out of turn here. So, if we passed it with the language of pending approval from Yeah. city legal staff, I suppose. Well, I would motion to approve pending. It's approved by the city to
um contribute the 125. Okay. Second. Okay. Any other discussion on that? All approved. Say I. I. Same sign. And that motion passes. Um, Bavarian Blast Parade is our next
item. It's Sunday, July 20th at 12:30. Registration deadline is June 30th. The fee is $10. There's a little um information attached on Bavarian Blast. We have participated in this in all past years that since I've been on the um commission, I know they've participated
in years prior to that. So, we basically just put together um not, you know, a car, a float and walk and hand out our yard signs and stickers and pamphlets and candy. I think it's a great thing to be involved in. It's always a lot of fun.
Yeah. Exhausting, but fun. Right. Hot. Very hot. That is true. So I make a motion that we participate. Second. All right. Is any other discussion on that one? I'll approve.
Say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. And that motion passes. We'll get that registration in. Um then new all night out is Thursday, July 31st from 5:30 to 8:30 at German Park. Um information will be distributed in May. We have always
also participated in this event. This is so this is when I was at with uh Janine last year and um I think it I think we should participate but I think we should get some sort of bags for people cuz I think that was kind of a popular thing when people
had their logo on a bag and then because everyone's handing out stuff. Uh we were early on in the sidewalk like the entrance or whatever. So, but yeah, I think it's another good event
where we just kind of are visible to the community. We have resources and stuff we hand out. Any other discussion on that one? Do we have to make any motions yet or is this just a notice since we're not getting information? We can just That one is just a notice because we don't
have registration. Brown County Free Fair. Um, again, that's an event we participate in. That's Wednesday, August 6th through Sat Sunday, August 10th. We always have a booth in the civic center. Um, looks like she requested regist registration
information, so we don't have that yet at this time. So, that's another FYI. And then the Southern Central Minnesota Pridefest parade and Festival, which is Saturday, September 6th. Again, she requested registration information. It's not available yet. So, that's another FYI that'll be staying on the
agenda until we get more info. And then we have the inventory of our current Human Rights Commission handouts. And we need to determine if supply is sufficient for summer events or if we need to order any items. Do we know how much we had going into
last summer? I don't. This is going through a lot. Yeah. the parade. Yeah, we went through a lot. Um, off the top of my head, I feel like we didn't we ordered signs last year and we had we didn't go through a ton of them. Yeah.
One of the things we found is that people didn't want to carate a parade was like the big thing, but also the the parade we ended up without a vehicle. Yeah. So, we didn't have a Yeah. Yeah. We only had what we had. So right now we have 81 yard signs and those are the humanity kindness
community ones with 87 yard sign stakes. 70 lip balms which just have our logo on them. 197 stickers that are our human rights commission logo. Um 466 stickers that are about kindness and social justice. Um two bags of candy that are
unopened. Five and a quarter pounds in each bag. 29 brochures. 82 bookmarks. We need to update the link that are on those. 48 business cards that have HRC info and universal declaration of human rights. Also need to update the link on them. And then plastic bags from Alina
containing NUMC info, band-aids, and holder. And that was from the welcoming week event. They were Alina bags that were donated to us. They couldn't have a booth at the um welcoming week event, but they gave us bags. So those are with the supplies. I can't remember what we originally
ordered for the lip balm, but I know that we were pretty close to out by the parade being done. And I think we split them. So, we had some left cuz there I mean 70 is not a lot, but we had 70 left. So, I think those were split off
for the fair. The stickers. Didn't we get another batch of 500 after doing a thousand? Yes. The kindness and social justice ones. Yeah. Mhm. Yep. Uh it seems like it would be a good idea
to kind of reup on everything except for the yard signs. Yeah, we have quite a bit. Plus, we got a brand new logo. Yeah, cuz I mean mine's still holding up pretty good in my yard. And I think we Yeah, we found that, too. People already had them. Yeah. And so then they didn't need
another one. I have mine, too. I still have the old one up and it's still going strong. Yeah, they they last fairly well. Well, I guess there I would like to table looking at some other things cuz I know we had talked about it last year
but we didn't have it in the budget to get some more fun things. Yep. So, we our first event is what? N Bavarian. No, the first event will be the Yeah, the Varian blast because then the national so we have a little time.
Yeah, I know that kind of became one of the things last year's like well we got to get something but and that's why we went with the chapstick but we had talked about like balls, you know, like the stress balls and then bags. Mhm. Um
I don't think we I know you know you know supplies. Yeah, we need the brochures and the pamphlet. Like I'm afraid those might end up in the Well, and I feel like we're gonna know if we need them. I feel like those are It's
like at the parade it was forcing people to take them where they were excited about the different stickers and the candy or the ch and the bookmarks and the brochures that be I like I feel like it'd be something that would like sit at our booth that they could take if they wanted. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Agreed. I think
if we were to get creative with promo items, it's kind of an intersection of something useful and fun, but also contains helpful information on it. Like that's kind of the perfect crossroads. Yeah. So maybe we just do some
brainstorming and bring ideas next meeting or that might be too long. Well, we could I mean because we're already throwing together a meeting about welcoming week. I mean, we could add I mean, that's Yep. We could add that on to it. I mean, that'll be the um the HRC
sponsored events committee, but I think it's fine. Or I could have her do a separate meeting with the participating events committee because they hand out more of the stuff. I think either way. Yeah, I think I mean I think it would probably be fine to
handle both of those at one rather than Yeah. Can I make a note? Okay. So then we will table uh proposal for um items to order till the next meeting education committee. So
distribution of community surveys report for the March 31st committee meeting. Anybody here that was at that meeting? Last three. Um it was a really good conversation. And I think I think we talked about a lot of different fun
ideas and places that we could go. [Music] Um try trying to remember in my mind. Um let's see. So yes, she had distribute fly with QR code and printed version of survey throughout the community. Create
a list and have members sign up for different locations to post flyer and pick up printed copies on a monthly basis. Yeah. I mean, we talked a lot about how hard it is to get responses for surveys and ways that we could address it from multiple
different media sources. So, not everybody uses their smartphone or QR code. Some people want printed. Um, so yeah, we had came up with a lot of ideas of where we could do that, right? Um, drop off places. Yeah, some community drop off places and brainstorm some
ideas in town where we might be able to post it in addition to everything that we've already done, which was I think we posted it through the city page because we don't have our own Facebook page, but um yeah, I'm trying to remember too.
Were we trying to do um paper option besides the QR code with a box at all of our booths? Right. Um but then there was also talk of distributing at different places around town like at the library and uh senior centers and you know
churches or wherever else just so we can kind of cast a wide net. Yeah, I don't know that there were really any action items for the larger committee from that. Okay. I mean, we may need some more
people when if we do end up having paper copies placed. We may need to share that work. Was about the only thing I think we would need. Okay. Is there currently like a printable version of it?
There's not cuz it's on a Well, it's in a Google form. So, there must be a way to print a Google form. Type it in. Yeah. Yeah. As it stands right now, no. But I think that would be fairly easy to do.
Okay. So, no action items. You think we'll just keep Yeah, I think just keep uh keep that on the agenda. Okay. All right. All right. And then the next item from the education committee was the alternate options for the poster
essay video contest also from the March 31st meeting. Yeah, I mean the discussion was really around I mean 6.2 and 6.3 all go together, but um maybe moving away from a student-based outreach to just a
community education focus. So it's not just for the kids because they aren't participating, right? Um, so we had, yeah, I think kind of where we landed is is talking about this 6.3 of living with limits and, you know, is there a way we
could do a series of sessions where we talk about, you know, different types of limits that maybe aren't, you know, visible ones, but also invisible limits. Um and how because one of our tenants is making sure everybody has equal access
to, you know, public services and um just kind of giving people an idea of of maybe ways they can make make their community more accessible both like through physical changes of of things that need to happen
in the community, but also just I don't know um awareness. even just knowing the resources they have when you have a disability. Like sometimes just not knowing what what our community offers. I I' I find in the work that I do a lot of that
limits people. They don't know they don't know that they can access help. Yeah. We also talked about having coming trying to come up with some experiential experiences, you know, to help people understand what it might be like to be
limited in one way or another. Yeah. I did some further research on that after the meeting and kind of what I came back with was that's a good intention but it's not really um it doesn't really have the lasting impact that oh okay one might think and
I was researching it from the perspective of people who are living with limits and I guess it's seen a little abbleist or something to I don't know to mimic some sort of way of living with a limit if it's not also
accompanied with an action item like that can't be the entire activity or action. It needs to be in the context of what you can do about that. So I think that's just something to keep in mind. But that was I'm glad I read about
it because it it made me think about it more and differently. I just want to bring up that I did use um an experiential training um with the museum. I worked in in Rockford, Illinois. This was back, I'm dating myself, but in the early 90s
with ADA was, you know, out there, but people weren't paying attention to it. And one of the things that came out for museums was that we need to put our labeling and our panels visually at a location so those who are in a
wheelchair, if you will, or motorized chair have accessibility. So what I did was staff, our management staff and there were five different departments. Uh the manager had to be in a wheelchair for a
day. And um then they the five managers came together and um shared their their experience. And then they decided or came back to me with recommendations how they would instill that with their staff
because basically it was a shoulder shrug like do we really have to or how important is this? But accessibility um just for those that are handicapped and in a chair like that that but it was an act action related to it Sarah but I
just wanted to share that with you because it was very impactful with the staff. Thank you. I living with limitations experience last evening at the Chanhasson dinner theater. I was uh my
wife was escorting me to the restroom and as we were getting close to it and obviously headed that way, a gentleman came up from behind and asked if he could help me navigate inside the restroom and I said, "Sure." And as it turns out, it was a gentleman from New.
So, I thought that was a good thing. I mean, helping out doing what you can. Yeah. Okay. Would you envision this like as an example when you talk about you know using new uh now they do a program once a month it's called something
artsy and I'm wondering if we could through I through the commission just an a suggestion not that we have to do it but if we would come up with a a subject matter and maybe do four a year where we the commission would somebody from the
commission or another expert uh could talk on a particular particular subject because the feedback I get is a lot of people watch those broadcasts. I'm I was surprised now maybe it's just my age group but people would come to me and
say I saw you on TV and I said you saw me on TV but it happened to be through NewAt and their broadcast. So that would be an opportunity for us. Yeah. Uh, I think the takeaway from that meeting of the subcommittee was looking
at an kind of an enduring activity or a a series of activities versus just trying to do one contest. Um, and so not only are you expanding the scope of people you're reaching, but also, you know, the time, right? Like multiple
touches. Multiple touches, right? Yep. more a lot more like engaging and uh thinking about tough things and you know just yeah just overall just drumming up a lot more discussion right and
awareness touching a lot more people involving more people um what do we think what are the next steps what's the next thing we need to I think the idea was to bring all of the
ideas here. Okay. And to kind of just get feedback on what people thought and, you know, whether we were kind of going down the right path, if this was something new that we wanted to try. Um, and if so, I think the next step
would probably be developing a framework. probably like you were suggesting through new cat, maybe doing like a quarterly deal, reaching out to different speakers or you
know developing material basically or even different groups in in other like um different different affiliations like ARS and like different things that already do things and giving them an
opportunity to have a platform. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I really I really like the idea of it like being throughout the year and having multiple touches and different topics and reaching as many people as possible because like you said, we haven't gotten a lot of particip participation with our um contest. Maybe this is a different
way to share information with the community and just kind of help versus just a one-time contest. Yeah. And I like the idea of partnering with other organizations that are doing
this accessibility work. Yeah. Every day and just supporting and being, you know, a resource for them to get their information out versus us creating something that we might not be the expert in, but we have resources that we can use. And that would be something that we could also um incorporate into those
other things that the group does. you know, the um the things we talked about earlier, the the Bavarian last day and those things, you know, absolutely that could also totally going all over the board here. Um that could all of
those events could be a great opportunity to hand out the physical surveys. Yeah. Oh, we did talk about that. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I feel like that was somewhere. We should also have a place to put them
at the same event because some if with luck they'd fill them out there and then they could just Yeah. put them out a box. Yep. Right. So I think the next steps are like what what different limits do we want to look into if that's I mean do we like
that theme I guess as a group. Y is there a title motion? A motion to keep looking into the theme that was selected of different um living with limits. Living with
limits. Thank you. I could have just looked at my sheet. Do I have a second? Second. Do you have any other discussion? All approve. Say I. I. I same sign. That motion passes and I will have Lisa put together another meeting
for you um to kind of work through that. Other business um update from Carl regarding the possibility of Herman Express pamphlets in Braille and other languages. I spoke with the manager of the county
transit Hartland and Herman Expresses and he got uh some information that to braille the pamphlet uh for Hartland would be $16 per pamphlet and for the Herman Express to
Braille would be $25 per pamphlet. and um he hadn't yet received any feedback on what the cost would be to print pamphlets in another language. Um I think we threw out
there perhaps in Spanish would be an appropriate one to do given our demographics in our area. Uh so he's seems and sounds like he's very interested in continuing to cooperate and work with us to you know print some
but it would perhaps need to be at least initially a limited run. I don't know the his resources that would be available to print too many of these at that price that he
quoted. So I said I would come back and bring that information to the commission and uh if we had any discussion about how many that we thought might be appropriate given you know what kind of utilization we could envision as well as
if it's a limited print um you know some very obvious places we would place them. Maybe not in every place where they currently have their pamphlets available uh throughout the community, but maybe at central locations like a library,
like county offices or city offices or the recreation center where you know high high use buildings or facilities um and just see what happens with that initial run and see if there's appears to be a demand for printing more or not.
But uh he said that he he would be happy to work with us and um you know reach reach a number that would be you know something that we could agree to and that he would be able to do with the budget restrictions that he may have. Is
there a limit to how many you can order or a minimum? He didn't indicate that. Um, you know, we talked initially about a number between 10 and 25, and he seemed that that would be something that
they might be able to work with was there's printing uh outfit that they use. Are they seeking help to pay for that or was it just a conversation? Okay. He didn't say so, but I don't know what he
has available. And if um you know, it's not a number that we would we would think we would want an increase that we might maybe be able to help with uh some limited number, but right now it's something it sounds like he has access
to to some resources to print a limited edition. And like I said, he didn't have a number yet for uh uh other language printing, but those so those three uh items of the language
and we're at to locate them. He would be looking for feedback and he'd be willing to come to one of our meetings as well. Um, now they have their they have a semianually
they meet as a county city joint board uh that oversees the transit operations. They have a meeting in June and of course I don't know if they have any plans to change schedules or any other information.
So, might be that they want to wait to see what happens at that June meeting before moving ahead with printing anything. If something in their materials may change, but uh he'd certainly be willing to come here and discuss those issues with us, we would
like him to. That's a good point. Are there other that schedule changes and then you print it and then it's no longer valid. Um, are there other options? Obviously, this isn't my lived experience, but do people
use like a QR code that can speak or, you know, is there some other way to convey this information that's not printed? And is that useful? I don't know. Mhm.
Well, I I I can share with you that uh in my uh phone, it has a what they call a voice over feature, and I I would suspect that most voice or most smartphones have that. Mhm. Right. So, if you can open up a web page or uh get
into like a PDF file that contains a pamphlet material, that function, that software that's in the phone will read that to you. It reads you reads to you what's on the screen so you can hear it. Um, and I use that for a lot of stuff on my phone.
Yeah, I would imagine it's hard to retain a timetable though when you're, you know, just hearing a timet and not being able to refer back to it for something like this for a schedule that could be hard too. So, well, you can you can save it, you know, at a certain spot
in your phone, like if you would get it attached to an email, you know, you can save those certain emails in different boxes in that in that app and uh find that folder that you haven't been, just
open it there, just replay it. Yeah. Okay. And that website's always there, their website. But that's for that's for folks who of course would be fluent with using technology right to get that
information. You still can call them uh you know to get the information that you need. Um I I don't know if they have it on after hours or on holidays. They have a voice message that folks could call
into, but um yeah, I don't know what their history is with serving the public that that would have those needs. Yeah, I'm not sure either. I don't know what their wrership and then I suppose there's a still pretty new. They're still pretty new and
there's probably people who maybe would ride but don't because they can't access the information versus the people who are already riding, they're not necessarily the ones that need I mean, they're already there, right? Um, yeah, that's hard to say. So, maybe it'd
be good to, you know, have him here and engage him in some of the those questions. Yeah, if he'd be is willing to come um and you have his contact information, you could just Yeah, let us know. Um, you could just email Lisa and then she could put them on the
agenda for the next meeting. Sure, that'd be great. Um the other item on the other business was David Mesa who's a representative from Copal. Um he was going to be in attendance to provide an overview of the organization, what they do, and what services they provide. They are a
member-based organization that was established in 2018 to improve the quality of life of Latino families. He couldn't make it because of the weather, so I will um add him back on to the next meeting agenda. Madam Chair, may I go back to the Herman
Express? Yep. Um, another thing that we might want to consider having conversation about is I expressed um hope that the Herman Express can
provide ridership uh later longer hours. I feel that people that use that basically have to go home at 6:00 at night and there's activities sponsored by the city. Let's say there's the concert in the park. There's other
things and it limits the independence or the ability to attend if they're dependent on a friend or somebody to give them a ride as opposed to being able to go on a scheduled route and attend those activities or going out to eat for the evening. Why is it? Because
you have mobility issues and wrership issues that you can't go out after 6:00 at night. Um, so, um, that's my drama that I'm and, uh, I, uh, did throw it out in just a conversation recently, uh,
with an individual that has some influence, uh, with the project. Uh, it's early on, but just imagine if you were that person totally dependent on, uh, the Herman Express. You have to go home at 6:00 at night. And um so I is it
possible for the city to say we want Herman Express to go longer and come up with the extra I don't know if it's 50,000 or $100,000 a year. Um but it's something for conversation. So if you
hear something about it, it's because I I am trying to figure out a pathway to make that resonate with more people in the community that are decision makers. Thank you. Um, legislative update. I don't have anything specific. I know there's a
lot a lot going on both state and the federal level, but I have not had time to kind of dig through. I don't know if anybody else has any other specific examples. Um, but just something to keep an eye. I'll try and do a better job next meeting of just going through things, especially at the state level. City council's Ohei and she's not here
tonight so we don't have an update. And then the date of the next meeting is Monday, May 26th, which is Memorial Day. City Hall is closed, so we need to determine a different meeting date. So far, she has alternate dates, uh, May 21st, 22nd, and 28th, which is
Wednesday, Thursday, and Wednesday. Okay. So, Wednesday, Thursday before and then Wednesday after Memorial Day. Does anybody have any preferences? Wednesday the 28th might be something that will allow our committees and so
forth to Yes, I like that. Ample time to meet and schedule. Give it more days to schedule. Yeah, that's the only one that works for me. So, it's the 28th. I make a motion we move it to the 28th. Second. Any other
discussion? All approved say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. And that motion passes. So it'll be on the 28th of May. Um with that I would entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. So move. Have a second.
I second. All right. All approve. Say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. And this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all.