August 19, 2026 – Cultural Council – Video & Transcript
August 19, 2026 - Cultural Council
So, I am calling to the order of the August Cultural Council meeting.
Is there a Kevin there, do you think? Kevin is here. And there's two Mustafas, but I think the sound is a different one, right?
Oh, I don't know why there's two of me. Okay. Wait, I used his link, is that why?
That's probably why. Is that you, Iniyan?
Yeah. Okay. That's perhaps more of an existential question, why there are two of you.
Exactly. Yeah, see, Iniyan, see if you can actually change your name, but that's okay. If you can't,
it's fine. We know it's you. But if you are talking, you have to tell me who it is, otherwise I'll think.
Yeah, I figured it out. Okay. Okay. Roll call.
We have myself. We have myself, which is Pallavina Geisha. Naresh?
Yep, here. Marie? Yes, here.
Mustafa? Present.
Iniyan? Here he is. Cheers.
Okay. And Haley? Here.
Thank you. So, this is a formality. We have to do this, Haley. Take a roll call.
Although I can see all of you, but for our records, we need to do this.
And this is being recorded. The meeting is recorded, and people can watch it at some point.
So, and Kevin?
Yeah.
Okay. Perfect. Now we have, we have a quorum, and Haley just joined the Cultural Council,
and I just want to go around introducing ourselves to her, and she can introduce herself to all of us.
And I can get this going. I'm Pallavina Geisha. I'm currently the chair of the Cultural Council,
and I will be until the current grant cycle is done. My term ends in 2029, but I've been the chair for a
few years now. And I am transitioning this over to Marie, and she has been shadowing me for a few
months now, and she'll continue to shadow me until the current grant cycle is done, and then take over.
And I'll continue to serve the Council until 2029. That's the plan. I am, of course, a long-time
Weyland resident. My children grew up here. Both are out of the house and gone. And I have, I'm an
Indian classical dancer. I have a dance school in Weyland, and I teach. I used to work in tech,
but I no longer do. So I'm concentrating on other things. Non-profit work mostly. This is part of
my giving back to the community that gave me so much. And I love it. I love it. We have a great group
of people here, and we work very well together. And we have fun. So that's a little bit about me. And
anybody else wants to take over? Go next. I'll go next. I'm Marie. Hi. What do I want to say?
I moved to Weyland in 2016 so that I could take care of my grandchildren for my son and his wife.
And I remain here. I have mostly, like, a working-class life. But I'm always interested in the arts and have
always been exposed to it. And I definitely, I couldn't actually live without it. So that's one
thing right there. I'm also interested in supporting this group because I really do feel that we have a
a lot of potential. I know the town of Weyland is rich in arts of all sorts. And we have an important
place in that. And it would be lovely to be able to maybe, maybe to either partner or to form some
relationships with other arts organizations in this town. And let's see. I think, I think I can leave it
different. Oh, sorry, Chair. I am ready to take on responsibilities. But I am also most interested
that we need to do what we are best at. So however I can support the council is how I'll be happy to do
it. I plan to be active. And I'm very interested in learning about the states and regulations and how
best to maintain such an organization. But I, again, whatever anyone on this council is able to do,
I will support. And if someone else is interested in being a chair at some point and they have the
qualifications, I'd be happy to see how that goes. It's not that I don't want it, but I just feel,
as I say, we all have a whole range of talents. And I would, I would like to see us make the most of
what we have. Thank you, Marie. The only qualification we need is unbridled enthusiasm.
Do you want me to go next? Sure, Naresh. Go ahead. Hi. My name is Naresh. I've been in
Weyland since 2003 or so. Both my kids also went through the high school or school system. Yeah,
my wife is an artist. She exhibits her art all over the Weyland. So I thought I would join the council
because I'm not quite an artist. I just appreciate art. So I'm the current treasurer. I think my term
expires this summer. I'm not 100% sure. I got to check into it. So, yep. 27, I believe. Yeah. 27.
Okay. So I'll be there. I'll do the treasurer's work. Unless someone says they're also interested,
then I wouldn't mind handing it over. But otherwise, I'll stick with that plan. All right.
So welcome, Haley. Thank you. I can go next. Okay. My name is Mustafa. I'm a rising senior at Weyland
High School. And I'm one of two of the youth liaisons for this culture council. Just, you know,
general info about me. I mean, I guess like, I mean, I do track and field. I'm really interested in
healthcare. I like to see myself as an outgoing person, which is why I decided to, you know,
look for this opportunity to join the council. And something that we did in the past was that we,
you know, I organized with the help of this council community dinner. And I'm hoping to do it again this
year. And yeah, that's just some info about me. I'll go next. Thanks, Kevin. Hi, my name is Kevin.
Um, I've been, I've been a resident of the town since 74, since my parents moved to town. Um, I started serving the,
the town in many way, many ways. I started on the Well and Transportation Committee back in the 90s,
trying to get better transportation for the town, which I actually, we were actually successful in doing,
but it took many years to do it. And then after the Transportation Committee disbanded in 2011,
I joined, uh, the Well and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and I was on that until, um, until the
end of 2024. Um, so, and then after that, I joined, joined both the Human Rights, Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion Committee, which I just got renewed for another three years. I had served on it first,
for a year, served on cultural council for a year. And I also renewed that. So I'm on it until,
um, 2022. So hopefully I'll renew at that point. Um, so, other than that, that's about me.
Wonderful. I am, I'm Indian. Uh, I've lived here, uh, well, since 2012, I'm a rising senior. I'm also the other youth liaison. So I'm just, like, interested in, um, uh, engineering mainly. So I saw this as, like, a way to, you know, see the arts, like, the other aspect of, I guess, this town. Um, for fun, I play tennis and go biking. Awesome. All right. Well, I guess it's, uh, up to me to introduce now. Um, I'm Haley Fuquay. Uh, my husband and I moved here to Weyland in May of 2025. So I've been here just a little over a year now. Um, we live right near, uh, where roots 20 and 27 meet. Uh, and, uh, we have two cats, no children. Um, and I am a professional opera singer. And so I, I also have a parallel career in technology. Um, but I, for a number of years, worked in nonprofits and had a consulting agency for a number of years. And so I'm very familiar with the MCC and all the LCCs, uh, through the grant making process, through either the helping organizations that, uh, were clients of mine to apply and go through this cycle as well as myself as, um, an independent artist. And so, uh, as, as we've come to Weyland and, um, especially since we don't have kids, I've been looking for ways to get involved and to, uh, deepen my roots within the community. And this seemed like a very natural fit since, uh, I have connections all over Massachusetts with, um, members. I mean, members, uh, rather staff who work at the MCC, uh, know many of them as well as just the entire cycle and kind of what, what that looks like to, um, either be an independent artist or also part of a larger organization that's, uh, benefits from MCC grants. Perfect. Perfect. Um, yeah. So I have also been the recipient of multiple MCC and Weyland Cultural Council grants. So it's a great way to give back. Yes. Yeah. Welcome and we're glad to have you here. Um, I don't see any other attendees. So they know, I don't think there are any public comments. Um, the next on the agenda is the approval of the June meeting minutes. And I know, uh, Murray, you said that you wouldn't have quorum, so you didn't have a meeting. That's right. Um, we need to fill out the meeting minutes and just add that one line saying that meeting was not held because there was no quorum. Okay. Right. Um, and then I can get that approved online, um, with all of you and then submit it. Um, okay, because we, we ended at 717. That's fine. That's fine. So just, we just need that one line saying that it was called to order. There was no quorum. You ended it and that's it. Nothing was discussed. Okay. Okay. So, um, since we had a new member or a couple of new members, hopefully Sherry will either watch this or, um, read the meeting minutes after. Um, but I just want to go over some of the council membership and governance, um, points just so that all of us, if you haven't done it, or if we want to do it again to refresh our memories, we can do it again. Um, we do need more members. So, uh, continue your recruitment strategy. Anybody who get in touch with, just keep telling them, Hey, we need more members. Um, join the more, the merrier we can have, I believe 15. So we know we're close to that. So, uh, we should, we should, uh, continue to recruit. So basically we have, um, read to the few people that have been reappointed are myself, uh, Donna was not reappointed. Mariam, um, was also not reappointed. Kevin was reappointed and Charles was reappointed. Um, and I think all of ours, if I'm not mistaken, ends in 2029 or 2829 thereabouts. And I, uh, and I think I mentioned this, I will say this officially now that, um, I am transitioning out of the chairmanship and Marie is starting to take over. So, uh, the upcoming fiscal year for the grant, which ends in January, end of January, 2027. Once I submit all the grant making information, I will hand this officially over to Marie and she has been kind enough to run some of these meetings in my absence in the meantime, and she gets, um, acquainted with, with the, with the duties. Um, and again, as it is every year with the new grant here, you know, we get to take all these wonderful training. Um, I, I think everybody should, and typically, um, the youth liaisons in a lot of other cities are non-voting, but in our, in our, um, district they are. So, um, in valent, our youth liaisons do vote on things. So, um, I need all of, I need both of you also to take all the trainings so that you understand what this process is. So, um, when the email comes in, um, I will once again forward it to all of you, even though it should come to all cultural council members across the state, I will just forward it to our, our, um, team so that all of you have it and you can go through all the trainings. You know, there's open meeting law that is very specific to valent. Um, there are the, um, mass cultural council guidelines, but we should read. And, uh, before we start looking at grants, I want all of us to have read the conflict of interest, um, guidelines and, um, sometimes we do have it. Um, we know some of our friends or we ourselves apply for a grant and we need to make sure all of us have signed the conflict of interest, um, statement if that is going to happen. So all of these, um, meetings and regulations, please make yourself familiar with it. And, um, I will, as I see them coming in, which they will start coming in now in August, I will forward them all to you. I believe the conflict of interest is every two years. Every two years. Correct. So you have to sign my, if you've signed it last year, you don't have to do it again. Right. But it is required for voting privilege. So we want to make sure. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, the MCC webinar was last night for the, uh, new members and general information about the, uh, everything. And so I know that is recorded and we'll be on their YouTube as well, but so, uh, just paid in that last night and learned lots. Yeah, I do. I did too. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I, there are, I know that there are new things that, and, uh, our, uh, our liaison is great from the NCC. He really sends us a lot of information, Greg, and, um, he's very approachable. If you have any questions, you can reach out to him. He's very open and approachable. That's great. Thank you for taking that. And I wish to find Indian. Um, if you haven't go check out that, um, and sorry, can you just remind me? So the, is this separate from the email that we're going to get about the conflict of interest training? Yeah. So the, the, what you're saying right now, how do we access this? So it's the MCC training. I will find the email and forward it to you should have gotten it. Um, but yeah, he'll be sending an email about the video with the video link. Do you, do you mind forwarding it to me just one more time? It might've gone to my spam or something. Yeah. That hasn't come out yet, but it will. Oh, okay. Okay. The, the, uh, notice about the meeting yesterday, the zoom session yesterday had come out of a while ago, but they will send out the link to the meeting recording.
It was just an hour. They didn't go over anything. So yeah, I think I, we at least have the various links from it, but the, the video is not yet, um, there. Yeah. And you can just go to the MCC, um, website and they will probably have all the information. Okay. And, um, another point that is not on the agenda that I am just adding on is that I need to add the two new members to our panel list on MCC. That's my job. I'll do that. Um, Marie, let's set up a time and I'll show you how to do it. Okay. Sure. Okay. Um, all right. Any other questions about council membership and governance? Um, I was curious to know, do we, uh, so Naresh said that he was a treasurer. Do we have, uh, secretary and, or a co-chair? So Marie is the co-chair. We don't have a secretary. Okay. Gotcha. We don't have a secretary. Um, and if you're interested in taking over from Naresh, you can, you can shadow him as he does his work. Okay. Great to say last night, um, that you can have a titular secretary as long as the tasks are distributed among council members that you do not have to like, take all of the burden of say, I'll call it a burden this moment, please. Excuse me. But, um, uh, but, uh, that, that can be shared with other council members so that no one has to be, uh, you know, pretty much overwhelmed by anyone to ask if they're welcome to be shared. So Haley, one thing that we have done over the many years is, um, the meeting minutes. We do use the recording. So there's a, they send us a transcript and I do, I do put that in, in chat GPT and say, give me, give me a, you know, give me this in this, uh, because we have to put, put it in a particular format. So I said, give, give it all to me in this format. And then I go look over it. So I'm, I, I continue to take my notes as the meeting progresses, but, um, I, I double check and send. So it, it, it has cut my note taking. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. In half, but, um, but still, it still is a little bit of work, but it's not as bad as it used to be. Good to know. And, um, I mean, you, anybody can give it a try, right? Um, I will, before we have, all of us have to read through it and vote on it anyway to submit it. So, um, it'll be passed around and we can make additions, installations, whatever corrections before, before it is publicly published. Okay. All right. So we have something, um, the carryover projects and outstanding grants. Um, I have to say this time, the, the granting, so, or rather the, um, release of funds mechanism from the town has been not as at its usual self. Um, the town is very understaffed and, um, there's only one part-time clerk, like working through all of this. So it has been slow. We have, we've tried to address things. I've had multiple meetings with the clerk to go to push through some of the things, but hopefully, um, we still have, we still have four months and hopefully things will kind of get through the pipeline and things will move a little faster. Uh, so I have a question. So, um, so I usually get a report from Kelsey on the, uh, year end report that are used to file for the next year. Right. So, um,
so who, who can we get that from now? So, um, let me just take a look at this. So it's a new person. So we might have to, um, ask her about it. Um, let's see. I'm wondering if it may be Jalen. It is Jalen. Sorry. Thank you. I can never remember her. So it's Jalen Neresh. Okay. Um, she's usually, I'll send it, I'll send you her email. No, it's okay. I think I, I have her. So I, I did email her recently. Um, I'll just wait for her response, but I do need that report, I think, to, um, apply for the, you know, for our budget. For the new things. So we have to, we have, uh, we have until the end of the month, I believe, to submit the financial report. Correct. And once you submit the financial report, I'll have to submit my report to kind of tie it all in together. Okay. So, uh, if I don't hear from her by Monday, can I contact you Pallavi or you Marie, uh, for to go into the town building? Cause I'm not sure I can go, uh, since I do not work remote. I can find a way to, if I'm just saying Pallavi, I can find a way, but you're welcome. I literally live next door. So I am always happy to go into the town building because it is a one minute walk for me. So, okay, great, great. That is something I can always help with. Yeah. So I just go there and I, I meet with either Jalen or, um, Teresa and, um, they help me out. So, so whatever, Mariam, uh, Teresa and Jalen, these are our three contacts in the town and one of them will with any questions we have. So they're quite good at it, but they're severely understood. Okay. Um, okay. Anything, any other questions about that? So the next thing is the rail trail. Marie, do you have any updates on the rail trail? Yes. Um, let me see if I can get my document up. Um, the rail trail as of now, everything in the planning stages has been either built, planned and financed. Okay. So we are basically, uh, uh, waiting. I have the last time I talked to, um, Ms. Gossels was, um, at the end of May, I believe I wrote a report around June. So I would check in with her again, but the thing, what she was hoping for from us was, uh, banners for the new posts, the 10 posts that are going to line the Wayland, uh, section of the rail trail. Okay. And there's a whole activity that we can do if we wish to make it a community activity as far as design. And, uh, we do, I do have the name of the designer of the person who has designed both the plaques and the current banners, which are mostly just flags at this point to get us started. But I do not know as of this moment, exactly where they are in having those, because as you know, the, the pads were going to be poured and all that, but it was that part of the project is completed. Okay. So what exactly do they want us to do with the banners? Uh, we can order them. We can, uh, design them or, uh, run contests for the design. I've seen them in other parts of, uh, New England. Uh, some of them have veterans on them. Some of them have flags, poetry, uh, nature, um, various things that we could do seasonal. Uh, I forget the price right now. It's not exorbitant. Uh, so it's something that we can look at and we'll be coming up as I believe that they're definitely going to be interested in having that by the time they go around the, um, the Russell's town center part of the rail trail that we will be invited to join that part of it. So I'll be happy to, uh, uh, give you another update. I'll, I'll contact her when she's ready to give me some more. Uh, and then we can see what we want to do then, but it's an option. We can put in our time and offer some services or ideas and, uh, or execute, you know, the purchase or whatever we want. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, I think, I think, uh, we, we can definitely like hold a design contest because we've done that for the, for the boxes, right? Like the utility boxes. So we can do the same again, um, and see if we can get some traction on that. And once we know, uh, what the price for the banners are and we have set aside some money for them. So, um, definitely we can, we can see how many we can. Okay. All right. I'll do, do you want me at this point to get an idea of the price range that we're looking at? Yeah. Okay. How many banners and what's the price range? Okay. It's 10. I know there are 10 posts going up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. We can, since they have an initial banner for each post already, we can, uh, we can do sections or whatever, however works for us. We'll have some flexibility. We can, they all have banners and we can add to them as appropriate. So it's not that we have to do a crunch on that one, but we'll get some pricing. Yeah. That'll be great. Like we, if we have the option of not doing all of them at once, we can see that we will distribute it over, I don't know how many ever years and get them done. Like we did with the utility boxes, right? Okay. All right. Great. Um, so the mural project, where did we, um, leave that at, I, I, what I have from the previous notes is that, um, we need, we need some kind of a, from doc, we need some documentation and we need a final report on the vote of the $500 allocation for the mural project. This is the mural, um, that's going to go on the side of the way. And still collecting donations. This is going to be a reimbursement as well. Correct. This has to be done on a reimbursement basis. No, because this is, this is the special money we've kept aside for. So we were able at, to decide at what time it, when it's appropriate to disperse those funds. Yeah. I see. Okay. Okay. I do, it was, um, Arts Whirland, um, made a request for donations and put a, an image of the design. Okay. In that email, which I, I did make a PDF of it, uh, I could send that out if that helps. Okay. It wasn't specific. It's not on the website. I checked many of the sponsor websites. The only place I saw the design, uh, was on the Arts Whirland email. It's not, I didn't even find it on the Arts Whirland website. Okay. That's right. That's why I ended up with a PDF that way. Um, if somebody can follow up on that and kind of get, get us some information about, um, what, what the plan is and how we could, we did, we have set aside $500 for it. So how we can contribute, that'll be great. Do you know what the sponsors are on that email? So you could see which organizations, HRG, EIC, um, I I'm trying to, Arts Whirland is definitely one of them. And I believe we're already, we may or may not be on that list already. Okay. So if you want to list, cause I've already put out calls well today and yesterday, maybe, but I haven't gotten anything back yet. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Please feel free. All right. Um, next agenda was, I don't know why I have this in the agenda, but, um, the fair and community events. Do we have anything going on around that? Any community events coming up? Do I speak again? Okay. All right. I confirmed that the festival was October 3rd. I had gotten the email, which I did not keep. They had the deadlines for submissions and registration. Okay. If that's passed, I was going to suggest if, uh, one or two of us or however many wanted to use that as an opportunity to go out with, um, in the materials that we have or could have, or do some community feedback at that point. Cause Greg suggested going out with your clipboard, just talking to people and getting just general impressions. Uh, it was like builds, uh, some kind of conversation with the community. Um, we could talk and make sure that it was okay for us to do that. So that's something, again, we can vote on if that seems to make sense or any other ideas, please do jump in, but I'm looking through the dates and to see if we could still get in. Yeah, I agree. It would be great to participate in that. Uh, Weyland Fest. Wait, it's called Weyland Fest? Yeah. I'm trying to see if I have any emails about that. Do you have, uh, can you, can somebody pull up that email real quick and see what the dates are? I don't have it. I know I contacted, uh, a member of the HRDEIC committee today. She confirmed it was October 3rd, but I couldn't get any more dates as far as the process yet. Okay. I found it. Oh, okay. I, I will contact Yahoo. I see Yahoo's email, but there are no dates in there. So let me get in touch with him and see if, but this is mostly, I got an email for the cultural performances, but, um, oh, cultural boots and interactive experience. There is no fee, nonprofit cultural proof, bring your own tent. Right. So, um, what, what I can do is that email, email Yahoo, and I'll copy the cultural council on it and say, Hey, that can the cultural council put up, put up a booth. Finally, we have to take our own tent. Yeah. Well, you know, like we can, in September, are we going to be able to discuss this again? Because we should just get out there. Yeah, no, no, definitely. We should be getting out there. We, we have like, I have the big banners that you can take. And, um, by, by October, we can make a plan of what to do. Like last time when there was the, um, when the fest happened, we had things like, um, an area for kids to draw. We had stickers and, and people could make some art art and, uh, put it up, you know, on the, on the sides of the tent. Um, we could think about something different this time. Yeah. We could get one of the high school kids to do face painting, whatever. Yeah. So, um, definitely let's put this on the agenda for September to discuss. Uh, in the meantime, I will email Yahoo and say that, Hey, uh, the cultural council is interested in setting up a booth and see what, what comes of that. All right. Um, so we did the commute. So next is, um, the, about the strategic planning goals for 2027. Um, nothing has changed. We haven't changed our goals. Uh, our priorities also have not changed unless some of you say, say, come and say that, Hey, we should have some team going or whatever for the grants, but, um, um, I think it's everything is we, we can leave it as, as is that. Is that something too, that we can build on as we, uh, gather a little this year. I have to submit our priorities and goals to the, um, mass cultural council. Okay. So, uh, if we want to change anything, we should do it soon. Can I say create partnerships?
I'm going to add that to the, and, um, I will send it around anyway, uh, for all of you to look at before I submit it. If it's not already there, I'll add it. Um, should we vote on it? Sorry. Are we at a point where we need to vote yet on any of these? No, not yet. Not yet. Okay. Um,
the only thing that I think we can vote on, which we spoke about, but I think we've already voted on the mural project, granting them the $500. So that's about it. And, and we will vote on the rail trail, um, once we have all the necessary information. Thank you. Um, so Haley, we already voted to set aside some money for these projects. Okay. So it's just about how much and what? That's what we have to vote on now. Okay. Um, okay. And, um, I don't know if any one of you attended the fundraising, uh, seminar that MCC held, um, but should we discuss some specific fundraising activities we want to do? Um, if so, what would they look like and what would we do with these funds? So it's an open question. I invite all of you to, you know, give me your opinions about it. Yep. So we, yeah, we didn't do much last couple of years, right? Yeah. No, we had some funds. So I think if you want to do fundraising and use the funds, there's gotta be some passion about some event we want to hold, right? Something, uh, where we require funds. So I think, I think that it'd be good to have that first and then, and then the fundraising effort. Yeah. Uh, you know, I think the tricky part of this might be to the work for the treasurer or somebody to be able to account for those funds as they come in. Like I'm interested in making a donation and I know that you can allocate the funds the same way you allocate other, uh, allocate other grants, I think, unless somebody says that's different, but it's really, I think it's, we've got to know where to put them and how we're going to, uh, get them released from our end. So if I'm not mistaken, the funds we raise, we are, do not go back into the cultural council grant making process. That is money allotted by the MCC to us, right? But we can use this funds to have a similar process if we want to, or, uh, like Naresh said, have a project in mind that we want to do and raise funds for that, right? So for that, I think first, like he said, to find something that all of us, it resonates with all of us and that we want to do this, um, would be the first step, right? Yeah. One of the things that we can do, um, in the simple, the most simple thing that we can do is say that, um, we want to be able to majorly fund the, um, the Fest, Veiland Fest next year, right? And what would that entail? And how do we raise funds for that? And we can come up with ideas for that. Or we can say that we want to have a bigger, like a banquet thing of, of the grant recipients for next year, for some odd reason. And then we can raise funds for that because we usually get, um, what about $300 to spend on it and we end up getting cheese and crackers and nothing else. So if you make it bigger, then can we, can we have like a sit down dinner? Can we do a buffet? How will that look? Is that important? If it is, then how do we achieve that? So those are the things that we, kinds of things that we have to start thinking about. What are we raising funds for? And how do we, I mean, because even to raise funds, we have to have these small things that, right? One of the things that we have thought about in the past is like a showcase of the stuff from the grant recipients, right? Like whether it's art, um, visual art or performing art or whatever we grant them for, can we have like a, a year in showcase of all of that, like sometime in November, right? So, um, if we do that, then we we can raise funds for that. So, um, what I would say is that we still have time. Um, if we want to do something like that for next summer, next fall or something, something in that timeline, let's start to think about this and maybe, um, come up with a few ideas for the September meeting, present it, you know, each of us would come, can come up with two ideas that we want to do and present it at the September meeting. And, um, I would say like we can use all those ideas. If, if you like one idea, the best, all of us like it. And we going with that, we can kind of use some of the other ideas to raise funds. Like for, for example, if I say that, you know, let's use, um, one of the, um, musician groups, the Boston post musicians, for example. So we can say we can still do that. If we don't agree that that's going to be our end goal, we can still ask them if they will perform for a fundraiser for us. So, um, their performance can be a fundraiser for this final performance. So keep that in mind as you come up with ideas, most what our big event will be for which we want to raise funds and how that is going to impact. So take a look back at our priorities and our goals and see how it matches and how that's going to impact our community here today. And then we can start thinking about what we can do to raise funds to meet that goal. Does that sound reasonable? Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Any questions around that? Um, anything else that I is not on the agenda, but people want to talk about, we have 10 minutes or nine minutes now. Um, just as, as a new member, I'd love to, um, spend some time or maybe, uh, with you, Naresh or Pahlavi just to, uh, understand kind of our budget. Where has our allocation been in the past, uh, how's that changed the volume of grants that we've, um, that we typically get and or review and grant in a year, um, as well as, um, oh gosh, there was, oh, and, and, um, understanding say, seeing some of the emails of grantees coming in, asking for reimbursements and understanding like where, where can I help assist there? Or is that all with the treasurer or to kind of get me up to speed so I can, uh, be useful. Yeah. Um, I'm happy to sit down with you and talk to you about that. Um, I don't work anymore. So you can just, um, grab me, but, um, um, this, this week is bad. I have, I have guests coming, but next week, but yeah, in the, yeah, I'm, um, um, yeah, that would, that would be great in the next couple of weeks just to like, sit down, learn a little more and, um, feel like I can be up to speed on some of the things that have happened over the past year so that I can jump in and assist. I'm happy to catch you up with, with, with, with all of that. Um, uh, just, uh, a quick elevator answer for you is that yes, Nuresh does have to take care of all the reimbursements. All I do is I ask him, Nuresh, does this look good? Typically he says, Pallavi, this looks good and I just sign it. So that's all I do, but it has to go through him or the treasurer, right? Um, we're trying to get rid of the middleman. That is the town. We do all the work and can MCC grant our, our, um, grantees directly. That's something that we are exploring. If that can happen, then this delay we've experienced this year would be faster. It would be faster. And it will also elevate, um, the burden on our town. Right. That their administrative burden as well. Correct. Yeah. So we'll see if that, that is possible. Um, as we, um, put in our, um, the information that they need, all the forms that, that they need filled as we're doing that, I'm going to try and explore and see if that's a possibility and see, but yeah. Um, next week, anytime, just yeah. Cool. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm out in Denver for work next week, but I'll, but maybe that first week of September, we'll, I can catch you. It'd be great to also. Yeah. Yeah. And we typically meet the second Wednesday of every month. Okay. Good to know. And, uh, this, this, uh, time around, we moved it by a week. Because of me and thank you. Yes. But we do meet second week of every, okay. So the Wednesday of every month at 7 PM. I will put that in my calendar now. Okay. So when, when is our next, when is our meeting person for September? So, um, yes, I will give you the exact date. I'm looking at my calendar. Um, it's like the ninth, like that. It is the, it's the ninth of September. Okay. So I might, I might have trouble that week. Uh, it's the labor day week. Um, so, uh, yeah. So I don't know. Can we do the 16th or no, that's not possible. We can, I just need to let them know that we need the zoom link for that day. If everybody's free, the 16th and wants to push it to the 16th, that is no harm in doing the 16th. Um, I can, I can, I can do the 16th. That's not a problem. Yeah, me too. How about, how about Indian and, uh, Mustafa didn't know? Yeah, it works for me. Okay. Perfect. So, uh, we will, uh, do this. Do me a favor. Yeah. Um, just send out a reminder so that I know. Yeah, I'll do that. So when I send out the meeting minutes, I will make sure that everybody knows that the next meeting is on the 16th and I will, um, write to Jalen and tell her to reserve the zoom for the 16th for us. Okay. All right. Um, I will be traveling that week, but I should be able to make it. So I will be in central time. So it's six, six o'clock for me. I should be able to make it. Okay. Um, okay. Great. Any, anything else that we haven't spoken about that people want to? So, um, in, in the September meeting, I will also go over the grant cycle and the grant making mechanism. Um, and just to refresh and Haley, when you and I meet, I will go over that in great detail with you. Okay. Cool. I should, I should, um, we should also invite Sherry so that she would be great for us to all get together. Yeah. I've, um, I've already registered on the, uh, grant making system from the webinar last night. So that's all good to go. Perfect. Uh, you both already have the town email, so I can add you to, uh, I believe I'll need your phone numbers. So just send me your phone numbers. I will add you to the MCC portal. So you can log in. So everybody needs to be able to log into the portal. So, um, I will set that up and for that again, Marie, maybe next week, sometime you and I can meet and I can do it with you watching me. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. We'll be in touch. Sounds good. Okay. Anything else?
All right. If there is nothing else, um, I will call to adjourn the meeting. Anybody? We need somebody to second it. I'll second. Second. Thank you. Um, Naresh, are you okay with it? Yes. I would. Yes. Indian. Yes. Mustafa. Yeah. Kevin. Yeah. Marie. Yes. Haley. Yes. And so unanimously, we close the meeting. Um, good night, everybody. And we we will see you on, uh, September 16th. Thank you.
Wonderful. I am, I'm Indian. Uh, I've lived here, uh, well, since 2012, I'm a rising senior. I'm also the other youth liaison. So I'm just, like, interested in, um, uh, engineering mainly. So I saw this as, like, a way to, you know, see the arts, like, the other aspect of, I guess, this town. Um, for fun, I play tennis and go biking. Awesome. All right. Well, I guess it's, uh, up to me to introduce now. Um, I'm Haley Fuquay. Uh, my husband and I moved here to Weyland in May of 2025. So I've been here just a little over a year now. Um, we live right near, uh, where roots 20 and 27 meet. Uh, and, uh, we have two cats, no children. Um, and I am a professional opera singer. And so I, I also have a parallel career in technology. Um, but I, for a number of years, worked in nonprofits and had a consulting agency for a number of years. And so I'm very familiar with the MCC and all the LCCs, uh, through the grant making process, through either the helping organizations that, uh, were clients of mine to apply and go through this cycle as well as myself as, um, an independent artist. And so, uh, as, as we've come to Weyland and, um, especially since we don't have kids, I've been looking for ways to get involved and to, uh, deepen my roots within the community. And this seemed like a very natural fit since, uh, I have connections all over Massachusetts with, um, members. I mean, members, uh, rather staff who work at the MCC, uh, know many of them as well as just the entire cycle and kind of what, what that looks like to, um, either be an independent artist or also part of a larger organization that's, uh, benefits from MCC grants. Perfect. Perfect. Um, yeah. So I have also been the recipient of multiple MCC and Weyland Cultural Council grants. So it's a great way to give back. Yes. Yeah. Welcome and we're glad to have you here. Um, I don't see any other attendees. So they know, I don't think there are any public comments. Um, the next on the agenda is the approval of the June meeting minutes. And I know, uh, Murray, you said that you wouldn't have quorum, so you didn't have a meeting. That's right. Um, we need to fill out the meeting minutes and just add that one line saying that meeting was not held because there was no quorum. Okay. Right. Um, and then I can get that approved online, um, with all of you and then submit it. Um, okay, because we, we ended at 717. That's fine. That's fine. So just, we just need that one line saying that it was called to order. There was no quorum. You ended it and that's it. Nothing was discussed. Okay. Okay. So, um, since we had a new member or a couple of new members, hopefully Sherry will either watch this or, um, read the meeting minutes after. Um, but I just want to go over some of the council membership and governance, um, points just so that all of us, if you haven't done it, or if we want to do it again to refresh our memories, we can do it again. Um, we do need more members. So, uh, continue your recruitment strategy. Anybody who get in touch with, just keep telling them, Hey, we need more members. Um, join the more, the merrier we can have, I believe 15. So we know we're close to that. So, uh, we should, we should, uh, continue to recruit. So basically we have, um, read to the few people that have been reappointed are myself, uh, Donna was not reappointed. Mariam, um, was also not reappointed. Kevin was reappointed and Charles was reappointed. Um, and I think all of ours, if I'm not mistaken, ends in 2029 or 2829 thereabouts. And I, uh, and I think I mentioned this, I will say this officially now that, um, I am transitioning out of the chairmanship and Marie is starting to take over. So, uh, the upcoming fiscal year for the grant, which ends in January, end of January, 2027. Once I submit all the grant making information, I will hand this officially over to Marie and she has been kind enough to run some of these meetings in my absence in the meantime, and she gets, um, acquainted with, with the, with the duties. Um, and again, as it is every year with the new grant here, you know, we get to take all these wonderful training. Um, I, I think everybody should, and typically, um, the youth liaisons in a lot of other cities are non-voting, but in our, in our, um, district they are. So, um, in valent, our youth liaisons do vote on things. So, um, I need all of, I need both of you also to take all the trainings so that you understand what this process is. So, um, when the email comes in, um, I will once again forward it to all of you, even though it should come to all cultural council members across the state, I will just forward it to our, our, um, team so that all of you have it and you can go through all the trainings. You know, there's open meeting law that is very specific to valent. Um, there are the, um, mass cultural council guidelines, but we should read. And, uh, before we start looking at grants, I want all of us to have read the conflict of interest, um, guidelines and, um, sometimes we do have it. Um, we know some of our friends or we ourselves apply for a grant and we need to make sure all of us have signed the conflict of interest, um, statement if that is going to happen. So all of these, um, meetings and regulations, please make yourself familiar with it. And, um, I will, as I see them coming in, which they will start coming in now in August, I will forward them all to you. I believe the conflict of interest is every two years. Every two years. Correct. So you have to sign my, if you've signed it last year, you don't have to do it again. Right. But it is required for voting privilege. So we want to make sure. Yeah. Yeah. The, um, the MCC webinar was last night for the, uh, new members and general information about the, uh, everything. And so I know that is recorded and we'll be on their YouTube as well, but so, uh, just paid in that last night and learned lots. Yeah, I do. I did too. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, I, there are, I know that there are new things that, and, uh, our, uh, our liaison is great from the NCC. He really sends us a lot of information, Greg, and, um, he's very approachable. If you have any questions, you can reach out to him. He's very open and approachable. That's great. Thank you for taking that. And I wish to find Indian. Um, if you haven't go check out that, um, and sorry, can you just remind me? So the, is this separate from the email that we're going to get about the conflict of interest training? Yeah. So the, the, what you're saying right now, how do we access this? So it's the MCC training. I will find the email and forward it to you should have gotten it. Um, but yeah, he'll be sending an email about the video with the video link. Do you, do you mind forwarding it to me just one more time? It might've gone to my spam or something. Yeah. That hasn't come out yet, but it will. Oh, okay. Okay. The, the, uh, notice about the meeting yesterday, the zoom session yesterday had come out of a while ago, but they will send out the link to the meeting recording.
It was just an hour. They didn't go over anything. So yeah, I think I, we at least have the various links from it, but the, the video is not yet, um, there. Yeah. And you can just go to the MCC, um, website and they will probably have all the information. Okay. And, um, another point that is not on the agenda that I am just adding on is that I need to add the two new members to our panel list on MCC. That's my job. I'll do that. Um, Marie, let's set up a time and I'll show you how to do it. Okay. Sure. Okay. Um, all right. Any other questions about council membership and governance? Um, I was curious to know, do we, uh, so Naresh said that he was a treasurer. Do we have, uh, secretary and, or a co-chair? So Marie is the co-chair. We don't have a secretary. Okay. Gotcha. We don't have a secretary. Um, and if you're interested in taking over from Naresh, you can, you can shadow him as he does his work. Okay. Great to say last night, um, that you can have a titular secretary as long as the tasks are distributed among council members that you do not have to like, take all of the burden of say, I'll call it a burden this moment, please. Excuse me. But, um, uh, but, uh, that, that can be shared with other council members so that no one has to be, uh, you know, pretty much overwhelmed by anyone to ask if they're welcome to be shared. So Haley, one thing that we have done over the many years is, um, the meeting minutes. We do use the recording. So there's a, they send us a transcript and I do, I do put that in, in chat GPT and say, give me, give me a, you know, give me this in this, uh, because we have to put, put it in a particular format. So I said, give, give it all to me in this format. And then I go look over it. So I'm, I, I continue to take my notes as the meeting progresses, but, um, I, I double check and send. So it, it, it has cut my note taking. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. In half, but, um, but still, it still is a little bit of work, but it's not as bad as it used to be. Good to know. And, um, I mean, you, anybody can give it a try, right? Um, I will, before we have, all of us have to read through it and vote on it anyway to submit it. So, um, it'll be passed around and we can make additions, installations, whatever corrections before, before it is publicly published. Okay. All right. So we have something, um, the carryover projects and outstanding grants. Um, I have to say this time, the, the granting, so, or rather the, um, release of funds mechanism from the town has been not as at its usual self. Um, the town is very understaffed and, um, there's only one part-time clerk, like working through all of this. So it has been slow. We have, we've tried to address things. I've had multiple meetings with the clerk to go to push through some of the things, but hopefully, um, we still have, we still have four months and hopefully things will kind of get through the pipeline and things will move a little faster. Uh, so I have a question. So, um, so I usually get a report from Kelsey on the, uh, year end report that are used to file for the next year. Right. So, um,
so who, who can we get that from now? So, um, let me just take a look at this. So it's a new person. So we might have to, um, ask her about it. Um, let's see. I'm wondering if it may be Jalen. It is Jalen. Sorry. Thank you. I can never remember her. So it's Jalen Neresh. Okay. Um, she's usually, I'll send it, I'll send you her email. No, it's okay. I think I, I have her. So I, I did email her recently. Um, I'll just wait for her response, but I do need that report, I think, to, um, apply for the, you know, for our budget. For the new things. So we have to, we have, uh, we have until the end of the month, I believe, to submit the financial report. Correct. And once you submit the financial report, I'll have to submit my report to kind of tie it all in together. Okay. So, uh, if I don't hear from her by Monday, can I contact you Pallavi or you Marie, uh, for to go into the town building? Cause I'm not sure I can go, uh, since I do not work remote. I can find a way to, if I'm just saying Pallavi, I can find a way, but you're welcome. I literally live next door. So I am always happy to go into the town building because it is a one minute walk for me. So, okay, great, great. That is something I can always help with. Yeah. So I just go there and I, I meet with either Jalen or, um, Teresa and, um, they help me out. So, so whatever, Mariam, uh, Teresa and Jalen, these are our three contacts in the town and one of them will with any questions we have. So they're quite good at it, but they're severely understood. Okay. Um, okay. Anything, any other questions about that? So the next thing is the rail trail. Marie, do you have any updates on the rail trail? Yes. Um, let me see if I can get my document up. Um, the rail trail as of now, everything in the planning stages has been either built, planned and financed. Okay. So we are basically, uh, uh, waiting. I have the last time I talked to, um, Ms. Gossels was, um, at the end of May, I believe I wrote a report around June. So I would check in with her again, but the thing, what she was hoping for from us was, uh, banners for the new posts, the 10 posts that are going to line the Wayland, uh, section of the rail trail. Okay. And there's a whole activity that we can do if we wish to make it a community activity as far as design. And, uh, we do, I do have the name of the designer of the person who has designed both the plaques and the current banners, which are mostly just flags at this point to get us started. But I do not know as of this moment, exactly where they are in having those, because as you know, the, the pads were going to be poured and all that, but it was that part of the project is completed. Okay. So what exactly do they want us to do with the banners? Uh, we can order them. We can, uh, design them or, uh, run contests for the design. I've seen them in other parts of, uh, New England. Uh, some of them have veterans on them. Some of them have flags, poetry, uh, nature, um, various things that we could do seasonal. Uh, I forget the price right now. It's not exorbitant. Uh, so it's something that we can look at and we'll be coming up as I believe that they're definitely going to be interested in having that by the time they go around the, um, the Russell's town center part of the rail trail that we will be invited to join that part of it. So I'll be happy to, uh, uh, give you another update. I'll, I'll contact her when she's ready to give me some more. Uh, and then we can see what we want to do then, but it's an option. We can put in our time and offer some services or ideas and, uh, or execute, you know, the purchase or whatever we want. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, I think, I think, uh, we, we can definitely like hold a design contest because we've done that for the, for the boxes, right? Like the utility boxes. So we can do the same again, um, and see if we can get some traction on that. And once we know, uh, what the price for the banners are and we have set aside some money for them. So, um, definitely we can, we can see how many we can. Okay. All right. I'll do, do you want me at this point to get an idea of the price range that we're looking at? Yeah. Okay. How many banners and what's the price range? Okay. It's 10. I know there are 10 posts going up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. We can, since they have an initial banner for each post already, we can, uh, we can do sections or whatever, however works for us. We'll have some flexibility. We can, they all have banners and we can add to them as appropriate. So it's not that we have to do a crunch on that one, but we'll get some pricing. Yeah. That'll be great. Like we, if we have the option of not doing all of them at once, we can see that we will distribute it over, I don't know how many ever years and get them done. Like we did with the utility boxes, right? Okay. All right. Great. Um, so the mural project, where did we, um, leave that at, I, I, what I have from the previous notes is that, um, we need, we need some kind of a, from doc, we need some documentation and we need a final report on the vote of the $500 allocation for the mural project. This is the mural, um, that's going to go on the side of the way. And still collecting donations. This is going to be a reimbursement as well. Correct. This has to be done on a reimbursement basis. No, because this is, this is the special money we've kept aside for. So we were able at, to decide at what time it, when it's appropriate to disperse those funds. Yeah. I see. Okay. Okay. I do, it was, um, Arts Whirland, um, made a request for donations and put a, an image of the design. Okay. In that email, which I, I did make a PDF of it, uh, I could send that out if that helps. Okay. It wasn't specific. It's not on the website. I checked many of the sponsor websites. The only place I saw the design, uh, was on the Arts Whirland email. It's not, I didn't even find it on the Arts Whirland website. Okay. That's right. That's why I ended up with a PDF that way. Um, if somebody can follow up on that and kind of get, get us some information about, um, what, what the plan is and how we could, we did, we have set aside $500 for it. So how we can contribute, that'll be great. Do you know what the sponsors are on that email? So you could see which organizations, HRG, EIC, um, I I'm trying to, Arts Whirland is definitely one of them. And I believe we're already, we may or may not be on that list already. Okay. So if you want to list, cause I've already put out calls well today and yesterday, maybe, but I haven't gotten anything back yet. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Please feel free. All right. Um, next agenda was, I don't know why I have this in the agenda, but, um, the fair and community events. Do we have anything going on around that? Any community events coming up? Do I speak again? Okay. All right. I confirmed that the festival was October 3rd. I had gotten the email, which I did not keep. They had the deadlines for submissions and registration. Okay. If that's passed, I was going to suggest if, uh, one or two of us or however many wanted to use that as an opportunity to go out with, um, in the materials that we have or could have, or do some community feedback at that point. Cause Greg suggested going out with your clipboard, just talking to people and getting just general impressions. Uh, it was like builds, uh, some kind of conversation with the community. Um, we could talk and make sure that it was okay for us to do that. So that's something, again, we can vote on if that seems to make sense or any other ideas, please do jump in, but I'm looking through the dates and to see if we could still get in. Yeah, I agree. It would be great to participate in that. Uh, Weyland Fest. Wait, it's called Weyland Fest? Yeah. I'm trying to see if I have any emails about that. Do you have, uh, can you, can somebody pull up that email real quick and see what the dates are? I don't have it. I know I contacted, uh, a member of the HRDEIC committee today. She confirmed it was October 3rd, but I couldn't get any more dates as far as the process yet. Okay. I found it. Oh, okay. I, I will contact Yahoo. I see Yahoo's email, but there are no dates in there. So let me get in touch with him and see if, but this is mostly, I got an email for the cultural performances, but, um, oh, cultural boots and interactive experience. There is no fee, nonprofit cultural proof, bring your own tent. Right. So, um, what, what I can do is that email, email Yahoo, and I'll copy the cultural council on it and say, Hey, that can the cultural council put up, put up a booth. Finally, we have to take our own tent. Yeah. Well, you know, like we can, in September, are we going to be able to discuss this again? Because we should just get out there. Yeah, no, no, definitely. We should be getting out there. We, we have like, I have the big banners that you can take. And, um, by, by October, we can make a plan of what to do. Like last time when there was the, um, when the fest happened, we had things like, um, an area for kids to draw. We had stickers and, and people could make some art art and, uh, put it up, you know, on the, on the sides of the tent. Um, we could think about something different this time. Yeah. We could get one of the high school kids to do face painting, whatever. Yeah. So, um, definitely let's put this on the agenda for September to discuss. Uh, in the meantime, I will email Yahoo and say that, Hey, uh, the cultural council is interested in setting up a booth and see what, what comes of that. All right. Um, so we did the commute. So next is, um, the, about the strategic planning goals for 2027. Um, nothing has changed. We haven't changed our goals. Uh, our priorities also have not changed unless some of you say, say, come and say that, Hey, we should have some team going or whatever for the grants, but, um, um, I think it's everything is we, we can leave it as, as is that. Is that something too, that we can build on as we, uh, gather a little this year. I have to submit our priorities and goals to the, um, mass cultural council. Okay. So, uh, if we want to change anything, we should do it soon. Can I say create partnerships?
I'm going to add that to the, and, um, I will send it around anyway, uh, for all of you to look at before I submit it. If it's not already there, I'll add it. Um, should we vote on it? Sorry. Are we at a point where we need to vote yet on any of these? No, not yet. Not yet. Okay. Um,
the only thing that I think we can vote on, which we spoke about, but I think we've already voted on the mural project, granting them the $500. So that's about it. And, and we will vote on the rail trail, um, once we have all the necessary information. Thank you. Um, so Haley, we already voted to set aside some money for these projects. Okay. So it's just about how much and what? That's what we have to vote on now. Okay. Um, okay. And, um, I don't know if any one of you attended the fundraising, uh, seminar that MCC held, um, but should we discuss some specific fundraising activities we want to do? Um, if so, what would they look like and what would we do with these funds? So it's an open question. I invite all of you to, you know, give me your opinions about it. Yep. So we, yeah, we didn't do much last couple of years, right? Yeah. No, we had some funds. So I think if you want to do fundraising and use the funds, there's gotta be some passion about some event we want to hold, right? Something, uh, where we require funds. So I think, I think that it'd be good to have that first and then, and then the fundraising effort. Yeah. Uh, you know, I think the tricky part of this might be to the work for the treasurer or somebody to be able to account for those funds as they come in. Like I'm interested in making a donation and I know that you can allocate the funds the same way you allocate other, uh, allocate other grants, I think, unless somebody says that's different, but it's really, I think it's, we've got to know where to put them and how we're going to, uh, get them released from our end. So if I'm not mistaken, the funds we raise, we are, do not go back into the cultural council grant making process. That is money allotted by the MCC to us, right? But we can use this funds to have a similar process if we want to, or, uh, like Naresh said, have a project in mind that we want to do and raise funds for that, right? So for that, I think first, like he said, to find something that all of us, it resonates with all of us and that we want to do this, um, would be the first step, right? Yeah. One of the things that we can do, um, in the simple, the most simple thing that we can do is say that, um, we want to be able to majorly fund the, um, the Fest, Veiland Fest next year, right? And what would that entail? And how do we raise funds for that? And we can come up with ideas for that. Or we can say that we want to have a bigger, like a banquet thing of, of the grant recipients for next year, for some odd reason. And then we can raise funds for that because we usually get, um, what about $300 to spend on it and we end up getting cheese and crackers and nothing else. So if you make it bigger, then can we, can we have like a sit down dinner? Can we do a buffet? How will that look? Is that important? If it is, then how do we achieve that? So those are the things that we, kinds of things that we have to start thinking about. What are we raising funds for? And how do we, I mean, because even to raise funds, we have to have these small things that, right? One of the things that we have thought about in the past is like a showcase of the stuff from the grant recipients, right? Like whether it's art, um, visual art or performing art or whatever we grant them for, can we have like a, a year in showcase of all of that, like sometime in November, right? So, um, if we do that, then we we can raise funds for that. So, um, what I would say is that we still have time. Um, if we want to do something like that for next summer, next fall or something, something in that timeline, let's start to think about this and maybe, um, come up with a few ideas for the September meeting, present it, you know, each of us would come, can come up with two ideas that we want to do and present it at the September meeting. And, um, I would say like we can use all those ideas. If, if you like one idea, the best, all of us like it. And we going with that, we can kind of use some of the other ideas to raise funds. Like for, for example, if I say that, you know, let's use, um, one of the, um, musician groups, the Boston post musicians, for example. So we can say we can still do that. If we don't agree that that's going to be our end goal, we can still ask them if they will perform for a fundraiser for us. So, um, their performance can be a fundraiser for this final performance. So keep that in mind as you come up with ideas, most what our big event will be for which we want to raise funds and how that is going to impact. So take a look back at our priorities and our goals and see how it matches and how that's going to impact our community here today. And then we can start thinking about what we can do to raise funds to meet that goal. Does that sound reasonable? Sure. Yes. Absolutely. Any questions around that? Um, anything else that I is not on the agenda, but people want to talk about, we have 10 minutes or nine minutes now. Um, just as, as a new member, I'd love to, um, spend some time or maybe, uh, with you, Naresh or Pahlavi just to, uh, understand kind of our budget. Where has our allocation been in the past, uh, how's that changed the volume of grants that we've, um, that we typically get and or review and grant in a year, um, as well as, um, oh gosh, there was, oh, and, and, um, understanding say, seeing some of the emails of grantees coming in, asking for reimbursements and understanding like where, where can I help assist there? Or is that all with the treasurer or to kind of get me up to speed so I can, uh, be useful. Yeah. Um, I'm happy to sit down with you and talk to you about that. Um, I don't work anymore. So you can just, um, grab me, but, um, um, this, this week is bad. I have, I have guests coming, but next week, but yeah, in the, yeah, I'm, um, um, yeah, that would, that would be great in the next couple of weeks just to like, sit down, learn a little more and, um, feel like I can be up to speed on some of the things that have happened over the past year so that I can jump in and assist. I'm happy to catch you up with, with, with, with all of that. Um, uh, just, uh, a quick elevator answer for you is that yes, Nuresh does have to take care of all the reimbursements. All I do is I ask him, Nuresh, does this look good? Typically he says, Pallavi, this looks good and I just sign it. So that's all I do, but it has to go through him or the treasurer, right? Um, we're trying to get rid of the middleman. That is the town. We do all the work and can MCC grant our, our, um, grantees directly. That's something that we are exploring. If that can happen, then this delay we've experienced this year would be faster. It would be faster. And it will also elevate, um, the burden on our town. Right. That their administrative burden as well. Correct. Yeah. So we'll see if that, that is possible. Um, as we, um, put in our, um, the information that they need, all the forms that, that they need filled as we're doing that, I'm going to try and explore and see if that's a possibility and see, but yeah. Um, next week, anytime, just yeah. Cool. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm out in Denver for work next week, but I'll, but maybe that first week of September, we'll, I can catch you. It'd be great to also. Yeah. Yeah. And we typically meet the second Wednesday of every month. Okay. Good to know. And, uh, this, this, uh, time around, we moved it by a week. Because of me and thank you. Yes. But we do meet second week of every, okay. So the Wednesday of every month at 7 PM. I will put that in my calendar now. Okay. So when, when is our next, when is our meeting person for September? So, um, yes, I will give you the exact date. I'm looking at my calendar. Um, it's like the ninth, like that. It is the, it's the ninth of September. Okay. So I might, I might have trouble that week. Uh, it's the labor day week. Um, so, uh, yeah. So I don't know. Can we do the 16th or no, that's not possible. We can, I just need to let them know that we need the zoom link for that day. If everybody's free, the 16th and wants to push it to the 16th, that is no harm in doing the 16th. Um, I can, I can, I can do the 16th. That's not a problem. Yeah, me too. How about, how about Indian and, uh, Mustafa didn't know? Yeah, it works for me. Okay. Perfect. So, uh, we will, uh, do this. Do me a favor. Yeah. Um, just send out a reminder so that I know. Yeah, I'll do that. So when I send out the meeting minutes, I will make sure that everybody knows that the next meeting is on the 16th and I will, um, write to Jalen and tell her to reserve the zoom for the 16th for us. Okay. All right. Um, I will be traveling that week, but I should be able to make it. So I will be in central time. So it's six, six o'clock for me. I should be able to make it. Okay. Um, okay. Great. Any, anything else that we haven't spoken about that people want to? So, um, in, in the September meeting, I will also go over the grant cycle and the grant making mechanism. Um, and just to refresh and Haley, when you and I meet, I will go over that in great detail with you. Okay. Cool. I should, I should, um, we should also invite Sherry so that she would be great for us to all get together. Yeah. I've, um, I've already registered on the, uh, grant making system from the webinar last night. So that's all good to go. Perfect. Uh, you both already have the town email, so I can add you to, uh, I believe I'll need your phone numbers. So just send me your phone numbers. I will add you to the MCC portal. So you can log in. So everybody needs to be able to log into the portal. So, um, I will set that up and for that again, Marie, maybe next week, sometime you and I can meet and I can do it with you watching me. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. We'll be in touch. Sounds good. Okay. Anything else?
All right. If there is nothing else, um, I will call to adjourn the meeting. Anybody? We need somebody to second it. I'll second. Second. Thank you. Um, Naresh, are you okay with it? Yes. I would. Yes. Indian. Yes. Mustafa. Yeah. Kevin. Yeah. Marie. Yes. Haley. Yes. And so unanimously, we close the meeting. Um, good night, everybody. And we we will see you on, uh, September 16th. Thank you.