HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-04-30-2020-min (Steering Committee)Meeting Notes
Steering Committee — April 14, 2000
Steering Committee Members Present: Helen Cohen, Peter Enrich, Paul Mammola, Marjorie Platt, Fernando
Quezada, Peggy Perry,
Working Group Members Present:
Consultants Present: Wendy Rundle
Staff Present: Candy McLaughlin, Monicka Tutschka
Call to order
The April 31, 2000 Steering Committee minutes were approved and it was agreed that all future Steering Committee
minutes will be emailed to the Work Group chairs.
Peter Enrich visited the Fiscal Stability Work Group to learn more about their process and their concerns. The
Fiscal Stability Work Group has decided not to go back and revise their Environmental Scan. They are making real
progress in the vision and goal matrix component of the 2020 Vision process. They initially had 18 goals identified
and they are now consolidating these goals and identifying conflicts amongst goals. Their outreach will be limited
to the Town's financial committees, the Lexington Coalition and the Citizens for Responsible Spending.
Peggy Perry indicated that the group very much appreciated Wendy Rundle's participation in their last meeting. Ms.
Rundle helped motivate the group. They have created subcommittees, there will be an extra meeting in April and a
co -chair has been nominated. They are charging ahead with a more limited scope and with tangible goals. Their
schedule has been changed to accommodate for school staff members. The superintendent has come to a meeting
and Ms. Perry believed that it would be a good idea if a school administrator came to Thursday meetings. Peggy
Perry thanked Ms. Rundle for her help and guidance.
Helen Cohen stated that the Sense of Community work group was well on their way to completing their goal matrix
on time. They are brainstorming about possible action items and assignments have been given.
Alan Lazarus thanked Ms. Orenstein for coming to the Productive Connections between Citizens and Town
Government meeting. There are 5 people in the group and many of the topics that were addressed by Ms. Orenstein
had already been addressed by the group. Members agreed that the Environmental Scan was just a skeletal sketch of
what they had previously discussed and they agreed to expand their scan to fill in the gaps. Mr. Lazarus stated that
he needed help from the Town Clerk to gather information about the age of Town Meeting Members and to learn
more about the political process in the town. New comers need information relating to Town policies and
procedures delivered to them in some form. Fernando Quezada asked whether the group had considered user
friendliness and the use of public services in general. Mr. Lazarus stated that the group had discussed these matters
and added that both the citizens and the Town need to understand their rights and responsibilities.
Ms. Wendy Rundle reopened the discussion about the Educational Excellence Work Group. She stated that the
group has come a long way and she understands how difficult it is to develop a process around such a large issue.
There is so much material available and because there is so much material getting a hold of it and reading all of it is
a colossal project. The group has divided into subcommittees and they are focused on having something prepared
for May 1st. Ms. Rundle has agreed to call or check up with Elli, who is a member of the group, once a week. At
present, there is still no formal plan to have a school administrator or staff person attend each meeting. Their next
meetings are April 24thand 27th. They plan to outreach to the PTO and distribute information to the children's
libraries. They know that the state audit exists but they have yet to get a copy of it. They will attempt to make
better use of the resources available.