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Home My WebLink About2013-05-14-2020-min (Demographic Change Subcommittee)Town of Lexington Subcommittee on Demographic Change Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Ellen Stone Room, Cary Hall Present: Pat Costello, Nirmala Garimella, Margaret Heitz, Martin Hwang, Bhumip Khasnabish, Dan Krupka, Peter Lee, Susie Lee -Snell The meeting was called to order at 7:40 p.m. The minutes of meetings on March 28 and April 25 were approved. Action items • Contact Candy McLaughlin regarding the process and the process owner for applying and being assigned to a Town board or committee — Dan • Contact Diamond Hayes regarding an estimate of the breakdown of Asians who rent and those who buy as a way to estimate permanent and temporary residents. Inquire about other real estate brokers who may have complementary information (Becky Ho, Paul Hwang and others) — Dan • Contact Al Zabin, Chair of the Lexington Human Rights Committee, regarding any support that may have been given to Town Departments who may have experiences challenges in communicating with members of the Town's Asian communities - Dan • Distribute Minuteman article describing what attracts people to Lexington — Nirmala • Update sections of high -level report outline (as described below) — All Interviews: Status, plans and assignments • 16 interviews of members of Town boards and committees have been completed. Only 4 — 5 remain, and interviewers have been assigned • 12 interviews of PTA and PTO members have been completed. Only 5 remain, and interviewers have been assigned as well. • We agreed to complete all interviews as rapidly as possible, recognizing that making arrangements in the summer will be very difficult and we will need to start analyzing the results. • The interview status is available on Google docs. What we're learning from the interviews In preparation for the report, we discussed some of what we're learning from the interviews. • With one or two exceptions, the interviewees were born outside the U.S. • Virtually everyone was invited to participate on a committee; only a few applied on their own • Virtually no one encountered any problems serving on a committee • Many thought that Asians do not like to serve on Town committees because • The committees are viewed as being political • They perceive there is an entrenched culture that does not welcome a different perspective • The committees require a three - year /once per month commitment, while many expressed an interest in short -term projects • The process of getting on a committee is perceived as chancy in that you may not be able to join the committee that is the best fit for your talents Plans for the next seven months We discussed a high -level outline of our report, distributed before the meeting by Dan. It consists of the five elements of our charter, each accompanied by topics that would need to be covered in the report. Following the discussion, members of the subcommittee volunteered to take the lead on four of the five elements in preparing material for the report: 1. Assess steps taken by Town Departments — Margaret and Pat 2. Investigate the factors that attract Asian - Americans to Lexington plus demographics — Dan 3. Identify barriers; propose steps to reduce — All 4. Develop ideas regarding activities or events that will increase the community's inclusion of Asian - Americans — Nirmala and Peter 5. Assess steps taken by Massachusetts communities — Bhumip and Peter For the next meeting, we agreed to flesh out the report outline (Please see Action Items). An updated version of the outline will be distributed with the minutes. Schedule for report preparation Dan has prepared a rough plan for the next seven months. Please see page three for the details. It will also be sent out as an attachment to the minutes N Tentative schedule for remaining sessions (May 14,1013) June July August September October November December Report outline fleshed Follow up regarding Rev 1.0 of report Rev 1.1 complete and Discussion of Rev 2.0 at Rev 2.2 complete and Presentation to 2020 out, section by section Department Manager complete before the circulated to September meeting discussed at November Vision Committee as described in minutes requests (Margaret and August 13 meeting so subcommittee and meeting of this meeting Pat) that it can be discussed stakeholders (key at the meeting interviewees, CAAL, IAL, Dept Managers) All interviews complete Second pass at Feedback to editors re Feedback collected from Rev 2.1 prepared and Final version prepared assessment of results Rev 1.0 so that they can Subcommittee and circulated performed at July 9 create Rev 1.1 stakeholders meeting Initial assessment of Develop initial Rev 2.0 prepared and More reviews by Final version circulated interview findings recommendations at circulated subcommittee and forcomments performed at June July 9meeting stakeholders meeting Census Bureau data Complete outline complete (Dan) Newspaper article on the work of the Subcommittee Margaret, who had previously volunteered to write a newspaper article about the work of the Subcommittee, has concluded that the best way to handle this is via a press release to the local papers and Patch. More details at our June meeting. Next Meeting Our next meeting: Tuesday, June 11 in the Parker Room of the Town Offices. The meeting adjourned at 9:25 p.m. Minutes submitted by Dan Krupka