HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-04-13-2020-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, Monicka Tutschka, Rick White
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.
Work Group reports
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 Educational Excellence 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 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.
Ms. Wendy Rundle 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 1 st. Ms. Rundle has agreed to call or check up with Ellie, who is the
new co-chair 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 24 th and 27 th. 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.
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.
Core Participants Group
. The CPG met on April 6 to revise their vision statement and to hear Work Group public
outreach plans. Candy reported that we seem to have a “core of the CPG” numbering about 25, 18-20 of whom
attend any given meeting, out of the total list of 48 official CPG members. We haven’t heard from 17 since they
received the orientation packet. The remainder may have attended the Futures Panel but not a recent CPG meeting.
Work plan and schedule from now through mid-June
. Candy distributed an outline of proposed future dates for
meetings and deadlines, and asked for input on a few issues. It was decided that we will add a milestone for the
Work Groups to revise their documents after CPG review, and to submit final reports by June 12.