HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-05-15-2020-min (Demographic Change Subcommittee)Town of Lexington
Subcommittee on Demographic Change
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Room G -15, Town Office Building
Present: Albert Huang, Nirmala Garimella, Margaret Heitz, Bhumip Khasnabish, Dan Krupka, Peter
Lee, Susie Lee -Snell
The meeting was called to order at 7:20 p.m.
Action Items (to be reported on at the next meeting):
• Identify a potential member from the Korean community — Nirmala Garimella
• Membership counts and the number of members of Asian origin on the High School and Middle
School PTSA boards — Nirmala Garimella
• Membership counts and the number of members of Asian origin on Elementary School PTSA
boards — Susie Lee -Snell
• Steps taken by Chinese American Association of Lexington (CAAL) to increase participation in
Town activities —Peter Lee and Albert Huang
• Steps taken by the Indian Americans of Lexington (IAL) to increase participation of its members
in Town activities — Nirmala Garimella and Bhumip Khasnabish
• Contact Paul Ash regarding protocol for inviting teachers in the Lexington schools to meet with
the Subcommittee — Dan Krupka
• Contact Candy McLaughlin regarding invitations to the Fire and Police Chiefs to brief the
Subcommittee on the steps taken by their respective departments to deal with Asian residents
who do not speak English well. (Item 1 of the Subcommittee's charter) In issuing the invitation,
the chiefs are to be alerted that the CAAL and IAL members on the Subcommittee are ready to
organize help with translation as needed — Dan Krupka
• Contact Candy McLaughlin regarding the need for the members of the Subcommittee, who have
already signed a certificate of Open Meeting Law Materials, to sign an additional form — Dan
Krupka
Introductions
The members talked about how long they had lived in Lexington, their work on other committees and
boards and what led them to join the Subcommittee.
Discussion of the charter
We reviewed the Subcommittee's charter, focusing on the five tasks. During this discussion, Peter Lee
volunteered that the formation of the Subcommittee comes at a favorable time because the CAAL has
been trying to get more of its members involved in Town activities in general. Even in the fairly recent
past, there had not been this level of willingness. The CAAL has set up a task force, one of whose
objectives is to foster greater involvement.
One of the Subcommittee's tasks is to estimate the number of potential candidates for various boards
and committees, recognizing that there may be a significantly large fraction that are transient residents
in Lexington, e.g., visiting professors, postdoctoral students, business people on temporary assignments,
who are unlikely to be interested in serving on boards and committees. Susie Lee -Snell reported that it
has been estimated about one third of Korean residents fall into this category.
In a brief discussion of potential barriers to greater participation, we identified the concern of many
regarding their ability to communicate comfortably in English. Accordingly, we agreed that membership
on small committees, especially PTSA boards represents a much more realistic route to greater
involvement than running for Town Meeting. This, in turn, led the Subcommittee to decide to
investigate the current level of participation by Asians on PTSAs. (Please see action items)
In contrast to the CAAL and IAL, there appears to be no comparable organization for residents of Korean
origin. However, it is possible that some members of the Korean community are interested in learning
from the CAAL and IAL about forming such an association. In the meantime, Nirmala Garimella will
approach someone from that community about joining our Subcommittee (Please see action item
above).
Plans for our first few meetings
We hope to hear from the Fire and Police Chiefs regarding the steps that they may have taken to deal
with emergency situations involving residents — particularly the elderly — who speak English poorly or
not at all (Item 1 in our charge). In addition, we hope to speak with teachers in the schools who are
particularly familiar with Chinese, Indian and Korean parents. We expect that they may be able to
provide additional estimates of the magnitude of the transient population and, perhaps, advice on how
to recruit more residents of Asian origin to PTSA boards or other committees. Dan Krupka will contact
Candy McLaughlin regarding invitations to the chiefs and Dr. Paul Ash regarding the protocol for inviting
teachers. (Please see action items, above).
We decided to collect additional data regarding participation on boards and committees and report on it
at the next meeting of the Subcommittee. (Please see action items).
Meeting schedule
We agreed to meet at 7:30 on the second Tuesday of the month. Accordingly, our meetings for the rest
of the year will be held on the following dates: June 12, July 10, August 14, September 11, October 9,
November 13 and December 11.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m.
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Minutes submitted by Dan Krupka