HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-04-14-2020-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, Alan Lazarus,
Working Group Members Present:
Consultants Present:
Wendy Rundle
Staff Present:
Candy McLaughlin, Rick White, Monicka Tutschka
Call to order
Minutes
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.
Work Group Updates
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 believes 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 Mr. Lazarus believed that 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.
Because there is so much material available, 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 1 st. 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
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plan to have a school administrator or staff person attend each meeting. Their next meetings are April 24 and the
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27. They plan to outreach to the PTO and distribute information to the school 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.
Sense of Community Participants List
3 individuals who began as members of the Sense of Community Work Group are not active members and the Work
Group has asked that they be eliminated from the contact list. It was agreed that these members (Alla Fedus, Muriel
Taylor, and Moly Rath Sim) be promoted to the Core Participants Group.
Meeting Postings
Alan Lazarus would like to ask all Steering Committee and staff members to reinforce to all working group
members the need to post accurate meeting dates and locations to the Town Clerk. In previous weeks, the
information on the bulletin board and in the newspaper has been incorrect.
Managing Transportation Public Outreach Forum
The Managing Transportation Public Outreach meeting took place on April 13, 2000. They presented the 2020
Vision Question and Answer sheet, a one page vision and 5 goals to a small audience. Eva Heeney from the
Minuteman paper came to the meeting and the Managing Transportation group hopes that an article will be written
for the Minuteman. Candy McLaughlin indicated that the Managing Transportation Work Group seems to have
completed its mission.
May 15 th and Scheduling in General
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It is clear that by May 15, some groups will be finished with their goal matrix while others will be turning in rough
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drafts of their product. Mr. Enrich suggested that there be two waves of exchange and discussion. On May 1 Work
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Groups will exchange some kind of draft vision and goals. On May 9 the Work Groups will exchange this
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information with each other. On May 15, the Steering Committee will hope that all the draft reports are submitted.
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On May 23, the CPG will review 3 of the Work Group reports and it will provide feedback to these Work Groups
by May 30 th. On June 8 th, the CPG will review the other 3 Work Group reports (this will give some of the Work
Groups till May 25 th or so to submit their draft report, leaving time to send the reports to the CPG and leaving time
for the CPG to read the report). The first wave should submit their final reports by June 12 th. The second wave may
not have enough time to revise their draft and submit their report by June 12 th. It was suggested that the June 12 th
deadline be pushed back. Candy McLaughlin reminded the Steering Committee that we had promised the Work
Groups that they would be completed with the bulk of their work by early June. Pushing back the deadline might
infringe upon the cherished summer. Wendy Rundle thought it would be prudent to keep to the deadline and hope
that all the information comes in on time. If it doesn’t, then the Steering Committee will have to make the
appropriate accommodations.
CPG Update
Wendy Rundle summarized the last CPG meeting for the Steering Committee. The second draft of the CPG Vision
Statement was completed at their last meeting. The CPG asked an important question about the last statement of
their draft vision: is this process “owned” by the Town government and its employees oris this process a vehicle
for the residents? Future discussion around this issue is sure to come up in an upcoming meeting. The CPG listened
to the Work Group members as they presented their outreach proposals. The Productive Connections work group
and the Educational Excellence work group did not attend the meeting. Candy McLaughlin gave some statistics to
the Steering Committee regarding membership. There are 47 card-carrying members. 17 of those 47 have not
attended a single meeting since the orientation. Therefore there are about 25 core members. Fernando Quezada
noted that different groups have different needs and are reaching out to the public in different ways. He stressed the
importance of identifying these differences and respecting the variety of approaches.
Work Group Chairs Should Receive Certain Information
The Work Group Chairs should now receive the Steering Committee meeting minutes.
They should receive the CPG meeting recap sheet.
Work Group Final Meeting
Some kind of meeting ought to be scheduled to provide closure to this aspect of the process to and inform Work
Group members about ways to become participants in the Implementation process. Rick White stressed the
importance of giving work group members the opportunity to continue to participate in the 2020 Vision process.
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This “congratulations and thank you” meeting could take place on June 15. Peter Enrich thought that the Museum
of Our National Heritage might be a nice place for such a closing meeting.
Adjourn