HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-13-TCC-min
Town Celebrations Committee
Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2021
Virtual Meeting
Members Present
June Baer, Chair; Glen Bassett, Steve Cole, Linda Dixon, Cerise Jalelian, Sondra Lucente,
Lorain Marquis, Geetha Padaki, Sandy Podgorski, Sue Stering, Mary Hutton, Gresh Lattimore,
Bill Mix, Rita Pandey
Members Not Present
Karen Gaughan, Julie Miller, Wayne Miller, Ashley Rooney, Suzanne Caton, Wei Ding, Sam
Zales
Also Present
Jill Hai
Business:
June convened the meeting at 7:05 pm and read the Town notice regarding the conduct of
public virtual meetings.
The committee approved the minutes of November 18, 2020.
Patriots Day, April 19, 2021
Patriots Day will be totally virtual, per Lexington Select Board meeting Jan 11. Some
consideration given to postponing, or canceling, the event, but decided to cancel and hold
it all virtually in April 2021. Select Board asked TCC to hold meetings with each Patriots
Day stakeholder to determine any virtual content or events planned.
Select Board (Doug Lucente) would like a “virtual Patriots Day” on April 19, consisting
of a schedule of virtual events
Lexington Minute Men (LMM) will be doing virtual reenactment, but Steve Cole will
bring to the LMM whatever the TCC is requesting they do. LMM have a lot of recorded
events from past Patriots Day, plus they’d like to do some live/recorded reenactment and
ceremony events (e.g., fire volley at cemetery). June/Mary/Sue have met with LMM to
start understanding what virtual events might be possible. June’s understanding that
LMM would do some sort of video reenactment with vignettes that include experience of
MM families, etc. Also, Parker’s Revenge (in the Park, per Steve Cole) to recognize the
MM who kept fighting even in the afternoon. Steve Cole suggests we include the DAR
along with LMM as they will want to be part of Patriots Day.
Select Board asked that Awards Program be included. So, White Tricorn Hat award,
Youth Commission presentations, and other awards are to be encouraged, but will have to
be virtual
Discussion of stakeholders and participants (distinction between stakeholders and those
who only participate). Lorain to provide list of Stakeholders. Include Lexington
Historical Society, Hancock Church, Scouts, Girl Scouts, DAR, 10th LMM, William
Diamond Junior Fife & Drum, Lions Club (White Tricorn, USS Lexington, virtual road
race), 1st Parish Church for Dan Fenn memorial (or reach out to Tom Fenn), Paul Revere
group.
Don’t need DPW, Police or others normally included to support live events.
Possibly reach out to/send flyer to Youth groups (Scouts, Girl Scouts, William Diamond
F&D)
June solicited help, to meet in the next few days, to arrange for Stakeholder contacts.
Linda Dixon has not heard yet from LexMedia.
June wants to be sure Stakeholders know we won’t be filming events, that groups will
provide virtual content and TCC will coordinate a schedule.
June is still looking into a youth parade
A virtual Parade is under consideration, consisting of pictures from past parades to
assemble as on-line virtual content. Including reaching out to marching bands, etc, who
participated in the past.
Need to think outside the box
Linda Dixon suggested creating a “scrap book” for virtual on-line viewing. A fun
collection of 50 years of Patriots Day celebration. Just reaching out to the community for
content would help build enthusiasm and excitement for Patriots Day program.
Jill Hai stated that TCC is expected by Select Board to make decisions, collect the virtual
content and organize Patriots Day – not to produce actual content.
Geetha suggested telling virtual contributors to post their own content and not send us
individual video content. June agreed that we don’t want to have to edit down individual
content, but possibly to just collect links and send out links so TCC becomes more of a
coordinator. Jill Hai agreed, that TCC does not want to become the producer for the
whole virtual Patriots Day, but only the coordinator.
Sean Dugan can help advertise.
June showed a copy of the program of events for the April 2018 Patriots Day (attached).
Discussion of which events from 2018 might apply to Stakeholders for 2021 virtual
events. Bill Mix stated that DAR normally lays a wreath after the Road Race.
Steve Cole asked what we could film on location for the virtual program? Jill Hai advised
that we need to coordinate this with Steve, Doug Lucente and her to determine what
could be done. June met with LMM who said they’d like to use spaces in the National
Park that could be used in lieu of the actual places which might be more public and cause
more concern about a group doing some filming.
June suggested we might get the Women’s Club to provide color commentary on
pictures/video of past parades/ceremonies as the Virtual Parade idea.
June suggested working with Cary Library to do a couple of programs, such as Women in
the Revolution, African Americans in the Revolution, LMM in Kit interviewed as their
specific MM character to bring the knowledge of real people to the virtual program.
Sandy Podgorski discussed the 2019 Patriots Day program, other participants were Old
Guard, Gina Johnson with her Wall of Remembrance (Operation Home Ties), Scottish
Rite Masonic Museum & Library for their primary source document. June said we could
invite these other participants to contribute content.
June asked if we should invite content from Concord, Bedford and other communities.
Decision to not expand the content outside of Lexington, but possibly to connect with
them.
Jill Hai suggested we could use spaces in the new Visitors Center to do interviews or
films since it has very interesting backdrops, e.g., Lions Club for USS Lexington, etc.
Jill Hai said Select Board is hoping TCC can pull community together so they know
something is happening, and to guide them to it. No expectation for TCC to create
content. Linda suggested a pitch to Stakeholder/Participants about the plan and to recruit
other volunteers, as well as to solicit virtual content.
Lorain, Sondra, Bill, Sandy, Linda, Sue, Glen, Steve, Mary all volunteered to help in the
Patriots Day effort. Gresh and Geetha volunteered to also help with specific tasks.
June suggested that some groups who normally participate might appreciate receiving
some token stipend when they contribute virtual content. Sondra volunteers to take on the
“money” task to negotiate/resolve compensation with participants as necessary.
Steve asked what other resources could provide assistance for filming, editing, etc. June
said we would try to connect resources with content contributions/participants after we
have our Stakeholders meeting.
June will send out e-mail to volunteers to organize the first Stakeholders meeting,
including Zoom link (from Kim at town office), need for different skills, etc.
June asked what time would be preferred for Stakeholders Meeting - considering by end
of January or first week of Feb. Need to start early to get people thinking - this will take a
lot of effort, time and lead-time.
We are just starting to get it together. Next TCC meeting will be in 2 weeks.
Sandy Podgorski has a list of who has participated in Patriots Day planning in the past
and will provide to June.
Lorain suggested putting out a list of assignments before the next meeting. Lorain said
she can help put together that list.
Dance Around the World
TCC sponsors event that happens every 2 years.
Need a definite regular time for this so people can plan normally. Suggest early May.
May 2022 would be the next Dance Around the World event, not 2021. Last one was
2019.
Memorial Day
Just to get TCC thinking: plan for a Virtual Memorial Day in 2021.
Members should send/e-mail ideas for events/approach to June.
Martin Luther King Day, January 18, 2021
Jill Hai represented Sam Zales for MLK Day planning LexingtonMLK.org .
Congresswoman Catherine Clark will be joining Lexington for MLK Day this year.
186 of 200 spots for the Zoom meeting are already taken.
Select Board discussed having a Car Parade or limited Unity Walk, but Select Board
nixed these ideas. Parade will be purely virtual this year.
Anti-racism conversation to be conducted by external group coming in for this event.
Requested if TCC could consider adding MLK Day to event/budget requests in the future
(vs. Human Relations Committee as it is now).
June stated that TCC does publicity for MLK Day event and has coordinated with the
Human Relations Committee.
Jill said she’s thinking there may be several events throughout the year where there might
be room for collaboration between TCC and Human Relations Committee.
June said TCC may be able to promote other events using the resources, website, etc, we
already have.
Jill said, also, through Senior Services Dept, a service event being offered is Services for
Seniors by High School students, such as boxing things up for Goodwill, shoveling,
raking, etc.
June said we might find things we do this year in pandemic that we can carry through to
the future.
The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m. Next meeting: 1/27/21
Respectfully submitted,
Glen Bassett, Acting Secretary