HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-08-24-2020-minTown of Lexington
Lexington 2020 Vision Committee
Minutes of Meeting of August 24, 2012
A meeting of the 2020 Vision Committee was held on Friday, August 24 at 7:45 a.m. in the Parker Meeting
Room in the Town Office Building at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue. A quorum of 7 was present.
Members Present: Fernando Quezada, Jane Warren, Dan Krupka, Marian Cohen, Peter Enrich, Peter Lee,
Bhumip Khasnabish, George Burnell, Greg Zurlo, Margaret Coppe
Staff: Candy McLaughlin, Michelle Stevens
Members Absent: Alan Wrigley, Andrew Dixon, Chuck Benson
Others present: Carroll Ann Bottino
Action Items:
• Margaret Coppe will try to find school staff and volunteer demographic information.
• She will also recommend that Dr. Paul Ash meet with the Chinese American Association of Lexington
regarding recruitment of a diverse staff.
• The liaisons from the three elected boards will ask their respective Boards to support language stating
they are hoping to use the community survey to inform their understanding of community perspective.
The meeting acted on the following items:
The Committee approved the minutes from July 20, 2012.
Heard and discussed report from subcommittee to broaden Asian - American participation in local
government: Dan said the subcommittee would like to change the subcommittee's membership to include Pat
Costello, Nancy Corcoran- Ronchetti and John Lee. The Committee unanimously approved changing the
Subcommittee membership to 12 total members, with 3 -4 members from the Asian- American community and
4 -5 members from the community at large.
Dan said the subcommittee has three streams of work occurring. The first is learning what the Town has done
in response to the DCTF report. The subcommittee is also exploring barriers to greater participation with a
survey and questionnaire. Finally, the subcommittee is interested in exploring what other communities are
doing, such as Newton. Dan said the subcommittee will draft a letter reaching out to other communities for
staff to review.
Bhumip said the subcommittee was especially interested in the schools' efforts. Margaret said one of the
School Committee's goals is to support hiring a diverse staff. However, she said it has become a longer term
goal than anticipated because the schools are finding recruiting a diverse staff has been difficult. Margaret said
the schools are considering expanding the Students to Teachers program. In the meantime, she said she will
recommend Dr. Ash meet with the Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL). Peter Enrich also
said the Committee would be interested in knowing what percentage of volunteers that are Asian. Margaret
said she will look into it.
Discussed revised community survey: Marian distributed an updated draft of the community survey. She said
a majority of the concerns the Committee submitted prior to the meeting have been addressed in the updated
draft. However, she said there are some items the Committee needs to address. Dan asked if the survey should
include a question regarding fears, or what would really raise alarms in Town. Peter E. suggested an open-
ended question, such as asking what potential changes would be of particular concern. Dan also asked how the
Committee is going to sell the importance of this survey to the residents. The Committee asked the liaisons
from the three elected boards to support language stating they are hoping to use this survey to inform their
understanding of community perspective. The liaisons said they will take the language to their respective
Boards for review. George had a question regarding the survey and addressing the larger question of the
government's role. The Committee decided they need more time to address these concerns and advertise the
survey, so they pushed the launch date of the survey to late January. Carroll Ann said it was important to have
paper copies of the survey available to residents, as the Committee discussed earlier. She said this was of
particular importance to the Council on Aging.
Meeting Adjourned: 9:00 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Michelle Stevens, Scribe
Future meeting schedule: September 28, October 26, and November 30, 2012