HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-08-30-2020-min (Steering Committee)
Meeting Minutes – Lexington 2020 Vision
Steering Committee Meeting – August 30, 2000
Members Present:
Fernanda Quezada, Marjorie Platt, Peggy Perry, Robin DiGiammarino, Helen
Cohen, Todd Burger
Consultants and Town Staff:
Wendy Rundle, Suzanne Orenstein, Candy McLaughlin, Rachael
Herrup-Morse
Call to Order
Discuss Draft Report
The Committee extended its thanks to Wendy Rundle and Suzanne Orenstein for the draft Report
they developed. Each member present was invited to provide comments and suggestions about
the report. Peter Enrich and Alan Lazarus had submitted comments in writing.
It was decided to reorganize the sections putting the Themes first, not the 2020 Vision history.
The Committee does not want to lessen the impact of the Report by having readers wade through
the details first. It would be better to highlight the message. This decision led to a discussion of
the purpose behind sending the Report out to the community. Among those reasons the
committee sited were: communication to the whole community the success of this process, asking
for feedback, engaging the “unengaged” parts of the community, getting the community to reflect
on major themes, and increasing the legitimacy of the 2020 Vision process in the eyes of the
community. All these seemed to suggest the need to reorganize the Report to better meet these
objectives. The decision to put the themes up front will satisfy most of the above needs and will
also provide some context for the action items that come later. Various ways of reordering the
themes were discussed.
Another issue raised about the Report included the divisive nature of the Hanscom debate. Todd,
who was party to much of the Working Group’s discussion said that the Transportation Working
Group never got around to discussing the Hancom issue thoroughly. The Committee agreed that
great care should be taken in the Report writing process to avoid representing the Lexington
opinion as being unified. The goal of the Report is not to alienate or misrepresent the members of
the community and their diverse viewpoints. It was decided that the consultants should review
the notes of the Working Group and get the Chair’s input on the Report to ensure accuracy.
Tentative agreement was reached to acknowledge in the Report the wide range of opinions
Hanscom development garners in the community. A final part of this discussion involved the
acknowledgement that there were several instances throughout the Report where action items
contradicted each other.
Wendy pointed out that many of the concerns concerning effective communication could be dealt
with in the Executive Summary that will be part of Volume I. This led to a discussion of the
merits of producing a Fact Sheet in addition to the Executive Summary that would cover the high
points of the 2020 Vision process and could be used as hand-outs in the community. It was
decided, after much discussion, that the Fact Sheet would be a one-page document, containing
much of the information that would be found in a press release, which would be suitable for mass
distribution. The Executive Summary would be a 6-8 page document that would be part of, but
detachable from, Volume I of the Report. Fernando stressed the importance of having the
Executive Summary be a “stand alone” document.
Also discussed was the need for a summary section of the Report. This could be accomplished by
splitting Section VII into two parts, the first half being in the Executive Summary and the second
half being made into its own section entitled, “Next Steps.” This newly created section would
also be a good place to insert a paragraph that explains the concept of forward planning and how
it has worked in other communities. It was agreed that there should be some reference to the
models on which the 2020 Vision process was built.
It was decided to put less emphasis on the Steering Committee, more emphasis on the whole
range of participants, notice of the efforts made to have the 2020 Vision process be inclusive and
the removal of the reference to the creche debate that arose in one of the committees.
Tentative Future Scheduling:
The Executive Summary will be completed by Wendy and Suzanne by the week of
September 11.
The revisions to the Report will be completed by Wendy and Suzanne by the week of
September 18.
The next Steering Committee meeting will be on September 22.
If there are no major revisions, the Report will be emailed to the Working Group chairs and
the CPG soon after.
Revisions should be returned to the Steering Committee by October 6.
The Steering Committee will meet to incorporate any changes and to finalize the report in
mid-October.
Adjourn