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October 20, 2026 – HRDEI Committee – Video & Transcript

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October 20, 2026 - HRDEI Committee

 
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All right. Good evening, everyone. I'm Karen Blumenfeld, the chair of the Human Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Today is October 20th, 2026. Let us begin with a roll call. All right. This will be alphabetical. So, Marianne? Here. Is Ken here? I don't know who the other... There's Ken. Yeah. Oh, can you bring him over? I've been right now. Okay. So we're going to come back to Ken because he's not in here yet. Sophie, are you here? I think Ken's up here. Yeah. But Sophie isn't here and she's our note taker so we'll need to get to that in a moment if she isn't here. We have a new member named Justin Chu who will be here a little bit late. Kyle Davidson? Here. Thank you. Denise Fortin? Here. Kevin Goodwin? Here. Mariam Libdy? Here. Thank you. Janot, I don't think, is here. She was traveling, I thought. I thought she was. No, she's expected to come. Yeah. She was here at a four o'clock meeting with Energy and... Climate Committee. Okay. And Hernan? Voila. Here. Thank you. Jeno, are you here? I'm here. Jeno is here. Heather, are you here? Here. Sarah is not here, although I guess that's my homework there. And Yawu? Yeah, here. Thank you. And Karen Blumenfeld, I'm here. And Ken Bruss, are you here? Yep. Okay. So, Sophie is not here at the moment. She may come, but she is our note taker. So I'm wondering, is there someone who on short notice would be willing to volunteer to take notes for this evening's meeting? I'll take notes. Thank you so much, Mary. And if she comes, then we can switch over. Okay. Okay. And Heather, you're going to do the land acknowledgement, please. This meeting is being recorded and will be made available to the public on WACAM as soon as possible after the meeting. Anyone who would like to make public comment may do so. We ask that public comment be limited to two minutes per person. Indigenous land acknowledgement. Today as we begin, we would like to acknowledge the following Indigenous peoples on whose traditional homelands we live, work, and gather today. The Massachusetts, the Nipmuc, the Wampanoag, and the Pawtucket. We acknowledge their ancestors, particularly Carto of the Massachusetts tribe, who was steward of much of the land now encompassing Sudbury and Wayland when European settlers arrived to colonize this place in 1638. We seek to understand, acknowledge, and remember the painful, ongoing history of war, genocide, and forced removal of Indigenous peoples by European settlers. And we offer a living celebration of the Indigenous communities who are not just part of the past, but who continue to live and make new history here today. May we all commit to deepening our relationships with Indigenous communities and to being their allies and working for justice. Thank you. Pam, is there any public comment? No. Yes. Do we ever check in with people who are on Zoom to see if they can hear us? Oh, to see if they can hear us? Yeah. Which people? You mean our? Yes, our people. Yeah, because they... Like whether the owl is working in it. Well, they responded when I called them. They called order. Yeah, everything's working. Yeah, okay. Thanks. Okay, so item number three on the agenda, since there's no public comment, is to vote on last month's minutes. Does anybody have any comments on the minutes from September 15, 2026? If there are no comments, would someone please move to approve the minutes? I move that we accept the minutes. September... September 15, 2026 meeting minutes. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Denise was the second. Okay, so Kevin made the motion. Denise seconded. Are there any comments? If there are no comments, then we will take a vote. Marianne? Yes. Ken? Yes. Kyle? Yes. Denise? Yes. Kevin? Yes. Marianne? Yes. Thank you. Jeno? Yes. Hernan? Yes. Heather? Yes. And Yawu? Yes. Yes. And Karen? Yes. So that is unanimous. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda, item four, is updates and discussion of ongoing business. Marianne, would you start us out with Human Rights Day? Yeah, very exciting news. Jeannot and I visited with the ECC Energy and Climate. Committee. Committee. Thank you. And they're going to co-sponsor the event and share our flyer when we get it together with all of their contacts, which is probably over 100 people, which is really nice. So there's way over 100. Anyhow, but more importantly, they're going to participate with Jono to work up a program, a 20-minute program about climate as a human right. So that's very timely, and we're very excited about it. We'll get a chance to talk about they'll get to be present, and we will also hear that important news about climate as a human right. So now I'll reach out to the Village Bank to see if they'd be willing to sponsor money for some food and some signage. I think we're good to go. I'm very excited. That is so exciting. It's going to be at the COA December 10th, 7 to 830. And we hope everyone will come. And, you know, for those who may not know about the event, there are 30. It was started in 1948. And there are 30 human rights statements, one sentences. And we come together and we say them in multiple languages, as well as English. And it's very touching, the whole event, that part. And then we have, you know, a program that helps elevate, you know, how we might think about that in a more specific way. And actually, I saw that Kyle, you had collected some things for your... People for Solace. Students for Solace. I don't know if you have anything else coming up, but we could, in the past, we collected things for the Village Bank, but if you, or if there was another group in the high school that, you know, would be, you know, in a way somehow related to human rights, we could collect items and you could set up a table at the event. So think about if that works. For your group or any other group in the. I'm all for it. That sounds amazing. All right. Thanks, Kyle. Can you repeat the date, please? December 10th. It's always on the 10th because that's when it was established by the UN. And we do it 7 to 830. And that's a Thursday night. So what you might want to tie into that is something to do with the fact that it comes during Hanukkah. When you're lighting candles and light and all of those good types of things. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's good to think about how we could do that. Yeah. It might be nice if somebody wanted to set up a little Hanukkah menorah. I have one. Have a candle lighting. Okay. I use it and, you know, we put it out for Hanukkah. Yeah. What day of Hanukkah is it? Give me one sec. Check. Four, five, six. Okay, so we'd have to have six lit, right? Yeah. Okay, well, we'll talk about that, about how we'll do that. So we can definitely try to work that into the program. That would be fun to do. Yeah, let me know if you need any help with that. We've got, you know, tons of menorahs as well. Denise has already volunteered. That's fine. It's not real candles. It's kind of you just push the button. That's probably desirable. That's better for the COA. Yes, for the COA. We don't want open flame. No. Is that considered doing something religious? An event that we're hosting as a governmental body. That's a good question. Would everybody feel comfortable? Excuse me, how many public institutions have Christmas decorations? Yes. Some may argue that Christmas is like Thanksgiving, but I don't celebrate Christmas. So if I have, you know, Christmas decorations to say that, you know, lighting Hanukkah candles is a problem, I think it's just an issue we want to deal with. We actually we have a guideline and Karen's going to try to pull it up that we we wrote fairly. Early in the life of this committee, and we structured it as a set of questions so that anybody who works for the town or serves the town in any way... If this kind of a question came up, if we could just sort of go through that checklist. I guess my question is, it's a little bit long. Do we want to do that now, or do we want to do that in November? Well, to be honest, we still have time, so we have time to think about this a little more. Maybe we could share it with the members, because we have a lot of new members, and all of us can't remember it anyway. Then we could talk about it next time. I'm just going to go on record that if we have a problem with it, then I'm going to ask us to re-examine the town's use of Christmas decorations. I don't have a problem with Christmas decorations, but I do believe that if part of our mandate is inclusiveness, we don't pick and choose. And that's really the intent of this checklist is to just follow the methodology to be sure that we are being inclusive and that we're not inadvertently being exclusive of anybody. And I'm wondering if we look at it, because I don't remember all the exact language, if it would help with the idea that I'm wondering, the distinction of going into a space where there may be Christmas decorations, menorah, Hanukkah, decorations up versus actively lighting a candle. And I'm not sure if our policy would help us with that question. Well, but on the other hand, if you're using an electric menorah, You can actually have it on before the meeting starts, which means that you wouldn't need to recite any blessings, but all you need to do is acknowledge its presence there. There may be other holidays of light in our community, and we may want to acknowledge all the holidays. There may be other decorations up in there. We don't know. We'll have to check to see what's actually going to be there. They may have some. I started with the menorah because we have a few Jewish people, and there's one on my floor, and I asked her if she would do it. The person thinks when she does them in school. Sure. And that's in your home, which is different than in a public space where we're a civil, civic organization. Ryan does not look at it as our home. And we try to get in trouble. Oh, well, okay. Yeah. So it doesn't always sit well with some people. Yeah. You know. But they don't live there. Again, I'm going to go on record as saying that if this becomes an issue, I'm going to ask us as a committee to re-examine how... We heard that. I just wanted in a minute, that's fine. Yes. Marianne, Sophie is here, but she's not feeling well, so she asked if you would continue with the minutes. Is that all right? Thank you. How do you see our wall? I think we're always talking about the cultural and the religious, sometimes it's very difficult to differentiate. So that's another thing we need to think about when we make this kind of decision. Yeah, that's why we developed this list, which I can see in front of me, but we're not, I don't want to get into it now because it'll take too long on the agenda, but we'll definitely do that in November. I'll send this to everyone so you can have a look, especially for those who are newer to the committee. We should probably review it every year as we go into, you know, winter holidays. Well, the thing was, the select board asked us to come up with a policy, a proposed policy. This is what we propose to them. And so, yeah, so it's ours to revisit, I guess. We need to. Yeah. Okay. So thank you. Anything else about the Human Rights Day? Just, of course, all of you are invited to sign up to read one of the articles of the Universal Declaration. And if you do speak a different language or including like sign language, it would be wonderful to read it in both English and another language that you might like to share. That's our kind of home tradition. Once you have a flyer, do you need help with a flyer? Because there's people on the committee who could. Help you do a flyer. Well, I haven't figured out what we're going to have. We need a couple of weeks to put together our plan so we know what we're saying about the program. We're going to work up our program jointly with Energy and Climate. Great. So when you're ready, we can find you some help with Canva to create the flyer, and then we can send out information to our lister. Great. Okay. Yeah. Excellent. Hey, would you like to do a Wayland Festival debrief, letter B, of item four on our agenda? Okay, I will speak for that. Okay. Yeah, I think this year we're doing interesting, yeah, especially on the table area. It's pretty much, this year is... The Ask Wayland is pretty much doing the performance. And you can see the stage. The Ask Wayland is the only one acknowledged. The big sign is always the Ask Wayland. And touch track is always touch track. So we are very much focused on the tables. We try to do more cultural stuff on the table, especially we are focusing on the holidays. So we have with the Chinese community, we have six tents doing the things around the mid-autumn festivals. That's the festival we have around this time. Also, Islamic group, they have their holidays on their tents. We try to get, talk to other groups, the Egyptians, Jews, and Indians, India, but unfortunately they couldn't. They don't have enough time to do it this year. So we hope with next year, we could be more focused on that. Another change we have is we have more music on the table. So we did have a magician specialist on the Chinese instrument called Fru Su. So she was there performing, not really performing. She's there to demonstrate the instruments with the students. So it makes the place much more lively. So it's a very, very lively place at the table areas. So I think that's a good direction to go. I don't know. That's my report. Were we calling it the multicultural marketplace this year? Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Well, no, I don't call it multicultural. It's a multicultural, not a multicultural pavilion.
Sorry. Multicultural. Multicultural Provenience. Oh, okay. Yeah. So since Marianne and I joined the Energy and Climate Committee a little earlier today, we heard them... Very enthusiastically saying, reporting on their participation in the festival, that it was great for them, that they had all kinds of conversations at their table in the pavilion area. And actually, I was involved in four tables. You were, Mary Ann. You take the prize. Everybody in each table felt that they had a lot of... Conversation. So one was a Peace Lutheran Church, and we had activity over there, and we also had, thank you to Yahoo, there was the... At Peace Lutheran Church is the Chinese Gospel Church. And so they came for a couple hours in the morning and had a display and were able to talk to anybody who came by who was either from their church or, you know, who spoke Chinese. And then there was... Native for Black Lives Matter and the Wayland Freedom Team and HRGIC. So I think we all felt we had a lot of valuable conversations through the course of the day. And so I felt there was good. I don't know how many. Did you ever hear how many people were there? We haven't gotten to count. Like last year was 6,000. I don't know how many were there, but there were a lot of people around. No, but I did see it in the Wayland Post. Oh, what did it say? I did see the picture. I don't know. Oh, they gave it names. I think they said also around 6,000, something like that. Anyhow, it was fun. A real community event. A lot of groups represented. And this year, we had Buster's. Buster is someone who plays an instrument. Busker. Busker. And so that was a wonderful, so every street or arm had a couple, there were at least three playing at any particular time. And that was very exciting. They had their, you know, their instrument, whatever, open for some contributions. It was, you know, a great low, you know, kind of thing that, you know, people can get an opportunity to be out there, you know, playing, especially our young people who had a number of high school students out there playing. And, you know, I don't know how often they've done that, but it was exciting to, and I made sure I went around and said, thank you, and left a dollar or two. So, yeah, it was nice. Hernan or Kyle or anyone else on Zoom want to share anything about the festival? One thing that comes to mind, and I noticed that Marianne at the table right next to us, you have some great activities for children, and that is a great magnet and made it educational for the little ones as well. And, you know, we had a lot of literature for adults, but nothing. tailored for the children. I was wondering if for Human Rights Day, if we're going to have climate-related elements to it, if we could have some kind of maybe like a map where they figure out what country is affected by climate change. We have like a trivia type game or something like that so that children can also feel included and involved and they seem to like those kinds of activities. You know, just having some activities like those I think would be very helpful for children to also relate to the topic and to feel more included and to take more out of it as well. I love that. That's a wonderful idea. Could you remind us next year? We have you in Jonas. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. We were also able to serve free moon cake. So we were very lucky to get that. Food helps every time. Yes. Yeah. So let's reach out to me after the meeting and let's figure out that game, Hernan. Okay. Sounds good. Yes. Great. Can I just take a quick break to say we've been joined by our newest member who I saw? Oh, there you are. Justin Chu, who is a Wayland High School student, and we want to welcome you warmly and say we're so glad you're here. Thank you. I don't know if you have sound yet, but yes. Justin, you can hear us? Yes. Oh, and we can hear you. Yay. Okay. Thank you. Wonderful. So I had one thing I heard from a few of the pavilion or vendor type people. Just wondering if the day has gotten very long. I noticed that by... When did I leave? Like around three. It was getting pretty quiet and some people have packed up already. And I'm wondering if we would consider like condensing just as feedback. Could we make the day a little shorter? It seems like a lot of people are there like 10 to 2 or 10 to 1.30 even. And then it just dwindles off. And I'm wondering if we might be able to attract more people to come if they didn't feel like it was quite as long a commitment. The group has, we haven't had a debrief in the bigger group, but we, I, with you, wanted to, I also, I'm worried that there are groups that, because they can't feel people for seven hours, don't come. Right. And so it's just, you know, so yes, we need to consider that as a real issue. I will just say that, you know, the touch of truck, they like to start at 10. But, you know, I have leaned on our recreation and say, well, you know, they're just going to go to bed. They're going to take their nap later. But so we'll see. And we also have the issue with trying, you know, if we could have it just be in the afternoon, we could, it would be more amenable to having it on an alternate Sunday. So it's not always on Saturday. So I'm hoping to. So bring that up at that meeting. Thank you. But the only problem is that you might have it on a Sunday. You might have people that are going to church. Well, again, at 12. It would be for the afternoon. Yeah. And Saturday, I mean, is the Jewish Sabbath. So, I mean, it's always difficult. Just personally, I'd volunteer to recruit people if it were on a Sunday, but I'd feel uncomfortable approaching a synagogue to participate on Shabbat when it conflicts with services. That's just me. A few, some years ago when we were doing the multicultural festival, we did have some folks from the synagogue come in the afternoon, not in the morning, and this could be a model also to address Marianne's thought. They shared a table. So one group had a table. The rabbi closed the multicultural festival. It was the last act. One group had a table in the morning, and then those people... You know, they had half the day and then those people left and the others came in. So sharing tables is also a good way to address your thought about people may not be able to field the table for seven hours, but they could do it for three hours or three and a half hours. But, you know, you always have, whenever you have people moving, like a lot of people moving out, like at a break time, then... It looks like people are leaving. True. So, you know, it's something for the bigger group to figure out how we can do that to maximize the event. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who organized and planned the festival, everyone who showed up to staff the table and was able to speak to some people who showed up at our table in languages other than English, which was incredibly cool. Yeah, so thank you to everyone. The festival is an amazing, amazing. And the Wayland Student Press Network published a nice article about the festival. Thank you. That's great. Yeah, I think, yes, they came around and talked with us. Terrific. They've quoted Heather Pino, P-I-N-O. Definitely send it around. Okay, then let's move to item C, community conversations. Heather will just give us a quick update. We have, as everybody knows, we've been working on two programs for this year. The first is coming up in December 1st and December 3rd at the community center. We're still negotiating the role of what we're going to do with Zoom versus the community center, but tentatively at the community center and Zoom with Dr. Edmurene Hayes doing curious kids, confident caregivers for anybody who is a caregiver of children and would like some. Practice and to do some learning about how kids perceive and need to talk about all these issues. Is that just for adults or could that be for like kids who want to be babysitters or I don't know? We can ask. We can ask. I think the intent was adults, but we can certainly check. It's on the second and the third? I mean, the first and the third. The first one is for caregivers of younger kids, and then the second one is for caregivers of older kids. Some people most likely wouldn't go to both, so anybody's welcome to, and they could if you're little kids and you want to prepare. You might go back on the second one on Thursday. Can I just confirm, though, this is different than the community conversations that Essential Partners does at the library? Essential Partners hasn't done anything at the library, but you're thinking about what Dr. Ian Renee Hayes did at the library? Is that what you're thinking about? Yeah, but I know they're talking about bringing Essential Partners in to do something, but that's a different program? Yes, that's a different program. That's training facilitators. Oh, okay. Training facilitators to lead community conversations. So we are in conversation with them, so we won't be duplicating efforts, but yes, that is different. But it is the same Dr. Eden Renee Hayes who did those library programs who will be leading these conversations about raising inclusive kids. So in that case, again, I'm just trying to understand language here, but is this part of that same series they did in the library last year, or is this something different? Something new. We're sponsoring this. And with support from the Wayland Public Schools and funding from the town, from both schools and the town. And who funded the thing in the library last year? Oh, gosh. The library? Yeah, but the library had like three or four different funding sources for it, but it was the library hosting it, and they got money. I know from the library trustees, from the Gossels Fund, from the Cultural Council, and there might have been one more source. Okay, thank you. I'm just trying to keep track of all the language and groups here, and I'm still raking the leads. Thanks a lot. The second series we're doing, which is included under the same funding with the same partners, is Jamil Adams is coming back for a series of four community conversations. We're still working on the specific topics. They will be January 28th, February 25th, March 25th, and then Tuesday, April 27th. The first three are the last Thursday of January, February, March. And then the last Tuesday of April. Can you get that at those dates again? Sure. January 28th, February 25th, March 25th, April 27th. Okay, thanks. And I've been in touch with Chris about potentially using space at Arts Wayland. So that we could have, it's a nice space and it would be a different space to have a community event in. So we're working on that at the moment. Otherwise, we'll look at other possibilities. And when it's called again, we don't have a time. Well, last year it was conversation, not confrontation. And this year we're trying to come up with something a little bit different. And we're trying to balance having a theme or themes going into it with keeping it open as a safe space to have conversations depending on what is going on in the community at the time. And is this going to be for adults or adults and kids? Oh, yes. This one, yeah, this one we were trying to have adults and students. Jamil did some work at the high school last year. And I still work. And so, and because we are co-sponsoring this with the Wayland Public Schools, we're hoping that we'll be able to get some, at least high school students involved in the conversations with us. But maybe not elementary. No. No. And I don't think middle school would be bailiff funding. I would assume it would be high school, but thank you. Item 4D, know your rights and resources. Just a quick, so does anyone have any quick updates about where you've handed out any more? I just have here something to hand out to religious organizations. I brought one to mind, East Lutheran. Does anybody belong to a church in town, a church or religious organization that they are part of that they could drop gifts to? And you're Catholic, right? Yes. And there are two. Actual buildings, would you like one for both buildings? Or I don't know if they have offices in both buildings. No, they don't. Okay, fine. Anybody else? Okay, thanks. Thank you. And I dropped off copies at the Sudbury Food Pantry, which is now in Wayland, which we hadn't thought of previously, but anyway, dawned on me. And so it went there, but I also wanted to let you know, at our last meeting, committee members asked whether we could get more visibility on the town homepage for the resource guide, for the Know Your Rights and Resources information. And I spoke with Jalen in the town manager's office about this. And they can't add any more navigation to the homepage because, you know, the navigation is fixed. But they can add references to it and have added references in two places. If you're watching this meeting online, if you go to the horizontal nav bar at the top of the town's homepage, you'll find rights and resources listed in two places. One is at the top, it says, how do I? And if you go, how do I? And then you go to find, it's the next level. And under find, it says community resources. And that's where you'll find our stuff. And the second place is also across the top. It says Residence. And if you go to Residence and then to Living in Wayland, then you go to Community Resources. So neither of those was there before, and now they are, thanks to this committee's great idea. So that information is now available in a few places. How does Residence align? Residence and Living in Wayland. Yeah, I couldn't find it at first either. There's a big drop down after Residence and Living in Wayland and then Community Resources. We also got some nice publicity in the COA's newsletter. Yes, thanks to you, Ken. That was great. Yes. Yes, yes. So, you know, we're getting the word out. Do we have any sense as to if... It's being used? We do not. We asked whether they can track usage, and at least at the time we asked, they weren't able to do that. I think it's probably worth asking again in another few months to see, because the website is new and they weren't doing that sort of, but maybe in three months they'll be able to do that. I guess the question, and it's an issue of how much effort we want to put into this, is if we want to talk to any of the organizations that we plug and ask them to add to the, like a number of organizations have, how did you learn about us question, and if we can be added to that. But that may be more effort than it's worth. Can you say that? I'm sorry. I didn't follow that. A number of organizations near the end of whatever contact form have a space. How did you learn about us? Was it from an email? Was it from a friend? We could get a line added to that, but we've got a lot of organizations that we have to contact to ask. So it's a question of, is it worth the effort to us? Where would we end up? No, we'd contact the organizations that we publicize in the guide. We would then contact those organizations and say, Do you ask people how they learned about your organization? And if they do, we can say, would you be willing to put, add to that, you know, the human resource guide so we can get some hits as to whether or not people are using it as a referral to contact you? Yeah. Let's keep talking about it. I mean, that's certainly a possibility if somebody wants to do that. Would you like to volunteer? Good idea. I'd be willing to take a few. Let me review it and I'll reach out to someone. I'll report back who I'm contacting. Okay. That sounds great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. And then let's someone just remind me to check in again with the town manager's office in a few months to see if they have built-in capability yet to track usage. I mean, yeah, anyways, I don't know. I have a question. What's the definition of the disabilities? What's the definition of disabilities? Oh, the one on number five. Number five? Number five, the definition of what? The disabilities. What a disability is? Yeah. There's certainly a legal definition. A legal, what is covered by the Disabilities Act. Yeah, what is this paper we wrote to? Oh, oh, that was, I hope, attached to, that's part of your packet. Okay, so first of all, let me give you an update, and then we're going to get to that document. That document came to you with the agenda, and so you ought to have a copy of it. Yeah, I look at that paper, yeah. So what do you find? What do we mean with disabilities? So maybe the people, obvious things we know, if I don't have a leg, I am disabled. But there's other things which may not be such obvious. So shall we include some costs, include all those areas we consider disabled? So, Yahu, I'm just going to share with you. This is from the National Network, Americans with Disabilities. So it's looking at the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a national governance definition. So they say it's important to remember. That in the context of the law, disability is a legal term rather than a medical one. And it has a legal definition. So the legal definition is different from how it might be defined under some other laws, for example, for social security and benefits. But the Americans with... Disabilities Act, the legal, national legal definition is a person. With a disability is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. That's it. So it includes people who have a record of such an impairment, even if they do not currently have a disability. Also includes individuals who do not have a disability, but are regarded as having a disability. The act also makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person based on that person's association with a person with a disability. So just to back up, the reason we're having this conversation is because recall that the Wayland Post wrote an article about Disability Pride Month. And we created, we helped them to write that article and Kevin was featured in it. And we created a did you know fact sheet. And I want to get to that did you know fact sheet. That's what was attached to your agenda because at the last meeting. You asked me to add something mentioning that even the most well-intentioned accessibility solutions sometimes miss the mark. So this document, which you all had already reviewed, just has one additional item. But before we get to that, I wanted to tell you, I wanted to report to you. For the committee on what I learned based on, again, your questions from last time. So you all asked a bunch of questions about what is the town doing and who's the ADA coordinator. So I went and spoke with Jalen in the town manager's office because we talked about, well, maybe we could invite her to meet with us. I wanted to start by saying, who is the ADA coordinator? Because I didn't know. Well, it turns out it's Jalen for the moment. And so I learned that and I learned some other things that I wanted to share. It wasn't my intention to necessarily go learn a bunch of things, but I did because we had a great conversation. So I learned that the town applied for a grant from the Massachusetts Office on Disability to conduct an audit of Wayland's ADA policies, programs, facilities, and practices. Go Jalen. So that any needed changes can be made. The town anticipates hearing from the Office on Disability in early November. And if they get the grant, then they will proceed to do the audit and make changes that are recommended. If the grant isn't awarded, the next grant cycle is in May. So that's one thing. Another thing that you all may know, I didn't know, is that Wayland has to comply with ADA federal laws for the town's website by 2028. And this involves requirements for contrast, color, text size, etc. And the town is working on meeting that 2028 compliance goal. And if you look in the tiny print, now tiny, sadly, but at the bottom of the homepage, there's all kinds of website accessibility information. It says, either it says accessibility or website accessibility right at the very bottom of the page. And you click on that and that's all kinds of information. And there's something in there that enables you to change the size of the font, apparently. But there'll be more of that to come as we move to compliance. So, those things are happening. And then my conversation with Jalen and the questions that you all raised last time led her to list the ADA coordinator in two places on the town's homepage. Again, in the horizontal nav bar at the top. Under how do I, and then find, and then ABA coordinator. That's the first. And the second one, there's a staff directory. And the staff directory has people listed both by name but also by category. And the categories are alphabetical. So now the very first one is ABA coordinator. So now people looking for this information can find it more easily on the website than before. Also, in response to all the wonderful things this room raised last meeting, board and committee agendas, they're still working on where and how best to do this, but they're going to revise it so that, oh, no, no, no, excuse me. The board and committee agenda templates have already been revised to include an updated ADA coordinator phone number. So if a community member wants to come to a meeting and they need to know if the room is accessible. Now that full number is on all agendas, including ours for this month. And I asked them, can you add the meeting room to agendas for all meetings? Because that's what we had talked about. So for everyone, but especially for people who live with disabilities, then you know where to park your car so that you can get closest to the room. That's great. Yes. Yes. So they are going to do that. I talked again with Jalen today because... I realized people access agendas in different ways on the website. She was saying people access it through the calendar. I said, what calendar? The way I access the agendas is by going to the agenda center. So we both realized, oh, there's multiple ways to get agendas. So they're going to work on that. But so that people in the community will know where the rooms are for ease of accessibility. All of our meetings next year will now be in this room. Again, for ease of accessibility, we were able to secure this room for all 12 meetings. So... All of the great topics and questions that were brought up last time led to some really good, you know, changes, developments in the town. And we can continue, you know, that conversation with Jalen as we get more ideas and suggestions. So in light of that, can I ask a question from the last meeting? Has there been any success with the new restaurant that's handicapped accessible but has an impossible front door? I don't. I can't speak to it. I mean, that's not a town thing. But, you know, folks are welcome to ask the people at the restaurant about those things. Or the ADA coordinator. But I don't think we have any control. Well, I don't know. There might be laws for accessibility. I don't know. Seems that they would have tried to meet it and we would have had anything. I don't know. If anybody wants to look into that. Have, you know, the ramps or things like that. And then you go to the door. And you can't get it open. It's so heavy. But I don't know what the codes are. So, you know, that I don't know. This is a very impactful thing. Right? And it's very exciting to see just by having an in-depth conversation about a sheet that, you know, was addressing something that, you know, because of those months, I mean, I can think of a lot of reasons why we managed to get these things done. And I hope... I hope you have a file for next year's annual report because this is the kind of little thing that really matters in people's lives. And guys, we really did some things that made a difference just by having a conversation. And thank you, Karen, for following up with them. And the town was responsive. It's exciting to think that that would have been so impactful. But, you know, I'm thinking, I mean, Anar, did you know? Did you know that speaking up when you go into a shop or a restaurant and you realize that the door was hard to open, even if you can open it for someone who's not as strong or is in a wheelchair or is on crutches, it's impossible to open. I mean, we all need to advocate. And I mean, we can just speak up. Speak up. Absolutely. So if we could segue to that document, it's a document you all saw before because it was the did you know that we submitted to the Wayland Post. But folks asked if we could add one more item that saying that accessibility solutions don't always work. And so this item was added and I want to run it by all of you. It's number seven, and the topic sentence says, even well-intentioned accessibility solutions sometimes miss the mark. For example, automatic doors often shut before slower-moving individuals or people who use wheelchairs or walkers can pass through. Similarly, automatic captioning tools for viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing often lack reliable accuracy. We've all seen hilarious captions, right, that are so... And that's humorous if you can hear, but if you're deaf or hard of hearing, it's not funny at all because you don't have any idea what's going on. So anyway, that... Or if you're blind and you're getting it auditory and it's some... Garbled. Yeah, some garbled thing. So that's what we added, even well-intentioned accessibility solutions sometimes to miss the mark. And I think the thought is that if we all agree on this, that I think we would put it in the resources, probably somewhere, I guess, on the resources page. Disabilities in America, did you know? All right. I wonder if we could. Yes. Yeah, well, Kevin was just speaking, but you couldn't hear him. Can he finish it? I make a motion that we add a couple lines about sometimes accessibility solutions miss the mark to the, you know, disability factor. Can we do it a little differently? We never approved this in the first place. We just used it to share with the newspaper. So really, you can move that we accept this document as is and put it on our website. Okay. I make a motion that we accept the disability fact sheet with the addition of sometimes that... Disability or Accessibility Solutions, Mr. Mark. Is there a second? I know that sounds. It's fine. Jujun, Denise seconds. Is there any conversation, Yahoo, you wanted to say? Yeah, I just wonder if we can say something about what is considered as disability because there's a lot of obvious things. Maybe someone with a disability is not open with. So if we can have a simple sentence to remind people who are considered a disabled in this document so they will know. Yes, Kevin. Okay. Can I say something? That not every disability is... Visible. There are hidden disabilities, and I don't know if that's what you're getting at. Is that what you're getting at, or are you trying to define what a disability is? It is visible when it's physical, but how about mentally or others? Yes, you're in agreement with each other. Right, but what I'm trying to tell you is not every disability is visible. In other words, there are what's called, under the law, hidden disabilities. And I think that's what you're getting at. What you're saying is, you know, somebody who may have a hidden disability, they don't look like they're disabled, but they are. Under the eyes of the law that they are. Is that what you're getting at? Well, what I try to get is that the people will know that they are protected under this statement too. They may not know they are qualified to be considered disabled. That's true, too. Why don't we put a link to the ADA definition of disabilities on this document? That's fair. And then, I mean, no reason why we need to. Reiterate it. Let's put a link to what the ADA is. Okay. We could even say, you know, I mean, did you know what is the ADA definition? Go to the link. Yes, that's a good idea. So make that the new number one. Yeah. And recognizing, of course, that's not really going to fully answer the issue at hand because the ADA is... It's something that was concrete in a law. And that doesn't really change, though, what we're talking about in this document. Because it's trying to adapt to a world and not... Not only tied to ADA. Now, you know, codes and stuff like that are tied to the ADA, you know, building codes. But we as human beings are trying to respond to our community members around us and try to be inclusive. And so, and I'm guessing as my memory of that, that discrimination, right? But it's, but that it was kind of, you know, Our document was not limited by that definition because we just talk about opening your being aware and that once you get aware, you see a lot of things about this that would be different. It's nice to have the link. But if you go to the link, it actually, I mean, what I read, it opens with that. Establishing the context that we're talking about a legal definition, not a medical definition. And even, you know, some other definitions like for Social Security benefits may be different. So, I mean, that is the reality in this country. Right. From an action perspective, I think we can do whatever we want. But my hope would be that whatever. Medical and social service organizations folks with a variety of disabilities are dealing with would be checking in with their clients to inquire if they're receiving the benefits to what they're aware of and would be educating them accordingly. It would be nice to get this on our website. Is it possible that this is just adding the link? We can approve it so that Lisa can go there?
So can we amend it to just say we'll include a link to the ADA definition? Or the ADA, I don't know, whatever the ADA is. Information. Yeah, so you want to amend Kevin's motion? He moved that we accept this document, including the new item number seven, and you're suggesting that, Marianne, you're suggesting that we also add a link to the ABA definition of disability in the ABA, right? Yeah, that's fine. So if Marianne's making that motion, I'll second it. So now... Now you guys are going to confuse me. So are we voting? Just the amendment. Right? Right. Okay. Or let's put it this way. We're voting on the addition that I made, but we're also voting on Jeannot's addition to what? Her addition to what I added. Okay. So we're voting on both at the same time? Can we? We're adding the definition to Kevin's. Yes. So we're voting to accept this document with the addition of the new sentences in number seven and the addition of a link to the definition of visibility by the ABA. Okay. So let us vote. All right. Marianne? Yes. Ken? Yes. Sophie? Yes. And Justin, I want to say, if you don't feel like, I mean, for any new members or for anyone for that matter, you can always abstain if you feel like you haven't, you're not ready to take the rope yet. But Justin? Yes. Thank you. Kyle? Yes. Denise? Yes. Kevin? Yes. Marianne? Yes. Jenna? Yes. Hernan? Yes. Heather? Yes. Yawel? Yes. And Karen? Yes. So it is unanimous. Do we have to go back and vote on the first one? Or are we not? Good, because we voted on the amended one. We brought them together, so we're good. Okay. Kevin included the new language with the... Okay. All right. And Marianne, I will send it to you when it's done, and we'll get it on the website. Okay. Great. Okay. Thanks, everybody. And Facebook. Yeah, we can put it on Facebook, too. Thank you. It's a good idea. Number six. Number six. I know. Gosh, our brains are probably a little tired now for number six, but. Oh, yeah. This is a big one. Number six, if we have the wherewithal to do it, is to take a look at, oh, and I need coffees if anyone needs, physical coffees. Is it the recommendation being one? Yes. Yeah. So to look at the, if any, I mean, this really will work best if anyone has had time to look at it ahead of time, but, oh, here it is. Do you want a copy, Jenna? Sure. Thank you for thinking ahead. Yeah, because this one is hard to read. The print is small. So this is pages 26 through 29 of the Community Life and Engagement Executive Report, which can be found in the resources section of our webpage. And it's a summary of their recommendations. It's a lot of words, and they're in tiny print. But if anything, Prompted an idea for you about both about stuff that we have done that aligns with their recommendations as well as thoughts about what we could do in the future. It's just we thought we would revisit this briefly recognizing that we already have our plans for this year. We're doing the community conversations with even Renee and with Jamil. And we're doing human rights. It's not like we're going to get probably money to do a whole lot more stuff, but to be thinking about what do we want to be aiming for in the future? Marianne. First of all, I think we should do a little of this every meeting because we spend a lot of money for this audit and there's a lot of stuff here. But in particular, I am on page 28. Strengthen Metro Family Engagement Through School-Town Collaboration. And we are a town body. METCO represents a diverse group that we would like to empower their voices. And so I think... At least convene a school town medco working group. We should put that as an objective. And it doesn't cost any money, but it costs effort and outreach and how that would look. I don't know if Kyle, is there any organization in the high school that, oh, Kyle and Sophie and Justin, right? You're all three students, right? Yep. Is there any organization in the school that brings our students who travel from Boston in particular with the resident high school students? You mean Metco? Yeah. Metko, please restate the question. Yeah, just whether there's any organization like that. We used to have conversations around race. There used to be a course for, but that's not exactly just about. Okay, yeah. So, I mean, I graduated from Wayland High School in the early 1970s, but. She's admitting to it. Yeah. So I started the high school the second year of the Metco program, and we had a black-white club, which was specifically a place for. Kids living in Wayland to get to know kids from Boston that were coming in the... Oh, yes. I believe there's a Black Student Union or something like that. But, I mean, none of you guys on our committee are Black students. I mean, would you interface? Would you get involved in the Black Student Union? Or is that more for just solidarity among Black students? I remember seeing, I think white students are in that too. Oh, that's great. Something like that. I think I need to remember the name. So it might have a different name. Let me find, I'll get back to you on this. Yeah, if you could research that and get back to us, because that's probably the group that we should work with to try to, you know, convene this school town Metco working group. To have students involved. So you're thinking of a group that would be cross-generational? Well, I mean, actually, I'm opening it up to any group. What I'm saying is that here we have a group that lives 15 miles away and represents a significant amount of diversity in our town. A group celebrating diversity, trying to bring people together, and we should be thinking about what we should do. And it really means we need to sit down and talk with some people about how they, as well as us, see that happening. So I'm just saying that this is something that I'd like to see us make some effort about. And it is bigger than just us, obviously. I mean, we're talking about the school, but it doesn't have to just be about the school. We used to have, for the new members there, we did have a parent who was a Boston resident on our committee. We just haven't had someone that took her place when she left. So we've got work to do to think about how we do this. Oh, stages of seekers. Almost every year that I've been on it, I always get a Metco student, and it's fabulous. You know, you want to tell people what sages and seekers are? Okay. Sages are mature. Are you claiming to be a sage? I am a sage. And then the seekers. Are the students looking for help by looking to understand things? And I get just as much out of it as my seeker. That's nice to hear. I'm excited about that. I mean, there's one that came and her and her sister had to get up so early in the morning to take a train. into a certain area where they could then get the bus to come down. I don't know if this is what you had in mind, that we would actually kind of come up with, this is important. I mean, they're all important, actually. But I just see this as an opportunity that would bring, that we, these are voices we need to hear. When I look around, we need to hear these voices. So we need to. Find a way to bring these voices more actively in our town and in us. I wonder if a first step would be to reach out to LaToya to see if there might be, because we haven't actively reached out about filling that position on our committee and seeing if she would have any thoughts of parents who might like to join our committee and then be a part of creating something. And I would think that you'd really want to stress the fact that it's possible to participate via Zoom, because if you don't live in the area, commuting out at night would be difficult. That was definitely an issue. Transportation, time, out of your life. Most of them started by kindergarten or whatever, and have come all the way up. Marianne, would you like to... Take the lead on such inquiries. Okay. So that would, what I would say, if we're going to, you know, is to try to have me make some sort of update, you know, and which of course always makes you make sure you're trying to do something. So, so we'll see when I start with reaching out for Latoya. Yeah. I might have, I'm actually going to be working with Latoya on a couple of other things. It's an opportunity to talk about this, too. Yeah, maybe even if there isn't somebody who'd like to commit to being on our committee, would they like to commit to thinking about this idea so it doesn't become what we have done so often in the past, which is we, Wayland, decide what would be a good... Yeah, because it's two different things. One is this working group that you're talking about. The other is being part of this committee. Yeah. Right. That's a great example of something that we can do that it doesn't necessarily probably cost money and we don't have to wait till next year to get started on that. But if we can convene this group, Something for the group to consider might be how to approach, you know, the next recommendation, which is the, you know, auditing access and inclusion across the school programs. And also the establishing the clear fare process for reporting incidents could be something that that group might like to weigh in on. Yes. As far as that's concerned, I mean, we do have the Freedom Team, which is trying to get up and alive or up and more visible. It's a natural for that, but it's... So I would encourage people to go online just to look up Wayland Freedom Team and then also look up Freedom Team because there are other towns that have a Freedom Team. And just to educate, I mean, because that's one idea. And it would be worth it if we learned a little about that as a method. And Jamil Adams is actually the... Creator of the Freedom Team idea, there are eight other towns that have Freedom Teams. So it just, you know, it's a way to get started and to think about that. Just like looking at other. Human Rights Groups or what other towns are doing around inclusion. Do you know whether the Wayland Freedom Team is looking at these recommendations to try to weigh in on any of them? What is the Freedom Team doing? We're just actually... Made some business cards and we were present at the festival to get our name out there as if you have an incident of bias, you can call us. And we have a website, you know, that we're actually trying to get a form on it that people could use instead of emailing. But they could just, there is an email address that people could reach, could contact us. So, and so, I mean, there's a number of things we've done. And we hope that the Freedom Team will come meet with us at one of our meetings in the coming months. Yeah. So really, I mean, this clear, fair process for reporting bias incidents, you are on it. You're looking at how to make the reporting process through the website more inviting, more accessible. Well, our website just exists. We're not actually trying to make it more accessible. So you said you're working with form rather than having to write an email? Yeah, we are looking to have a form. But there are... You know, there was, before the human rights group started, there was a, what was that, that survey? It was a survey of experiences. There were a couple, actually. There was some that were driven by students, I think, and there were some about... A lived experience. A lived experience study. That was the group that was creating the HRD, I see, put out that survey. Right, so... You know, that is also a, you know, because to just come to the Freedom Team because, you know, I mean, this happened and I want to talk to you about it is one step, but also this lived experience may be, you know, I mean. You certainly got a response on that. I forget how many responses are there, but it's not dissimilar to what we would expect we might hear about, but maybe without the additional piece, you know, maybe people just want to say, this happened, and, you know, I don't want anyone to know me or anything, but, you know, I want the community to know that this happened, which kind of like the lived experience was. Actually, I don't know what the... What it said, what the question was that asked. That was actually on our website in the beginning. It might still be there. Oh, I think it's still there. It was there in the past. You know, but it's interesting because, I mean, it's a great example of how we have information, we have data, but we don't have, we have not, we haven't made any kind of progress on a normative way to actually utilize that data as a town. You know, I mean. We're just barely getting a reporting, you know, an incidence reporting mechanism going. I mean, we have the Freedom Team now, but it's not widely known. And I mean, we're making progress, but it's very, very slow. And we haven't done analysis. of the data that we have, which I would think, I mean, if we were to look at what are the, you know, what's the typology of what people have experienced, you know, it would just, it would give us ways of getting at the root of the problem rather than just reporting the incidents. We want to get ahead of it at some point. Actually. That's what the audit was all about. I mean, they put together diverse groups of people. There's a lot of data. There's a 100-page data book in there. We don't need any more data. And we're taking these recommendations that come out of that, but we are not making data-driven decisions or even discussions ourselves. I mean, the synthesis is really good. As you started out saying, I think we need to chew on this in little bits, maybe every meeting. We need to engage with it. And not just the synthesis, maybe we need homework. Quick question about the audit. Did it provide any recommendations? Yes. That's what we're looking at, pages 26 to 29. Okay. Are the recommendations in a nutshell, but it's a very voluminous, very word heavy, even though they did it in, whatchamacallit, in like presentation format, it's just a lot of words. So it is a little hard to digest. But in the agenda, I think there was a link, I hope. Yeah, there was a link to that report. So sometime when you have nothing to do. Yeah, and it's under resources. Actually, Karen, before you finish that, I'm going to say that's our homework. Our homework is to look at what we just spent tens of thousands of dollars to get written. And we are the Human Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. And we should be looking at that document. That is almost like a lived experience times 10 or 100. It's the synthesis of all the data and information available. That came from people who are sitting in spaces sharing their experiences. And we need to get our feet wet. We need to get into it. Okay. I'm sorry. So just to go back to that. So one of the reasons I was asking the question is because I've heard several references to getting data, studying the data, but I would imagine the audit did that. They did. They did. Okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. And we have visited this before. We have looked at it. And a lot of our programming and the efforts and the work we're doing, conversations about accessibility, like... We are, we have been picking away at trying to use it. I don't remember the last time we had it on the agenda, but I don't want it to seem like we haven't looked at it and we spent all this money. Like, we have been using it, and I totally agree we should come back to it again, because it is a roadmap of things that need to be done. And I wondered, I did wonder, I was just now that I'm, now that I didn't realize those were buttons at the top of the Wayland, Page. But the how do I, is it possible to have a how do I submit an incident of bias or something? Like if I wanted to do that, I would look at how do I or at residence. And I wouldn't think to go to the resource guide. Right. But I don't think the town is going to put a link to the freedom team. The freedom team is into town because they're totally separate. Yeah. However, the resource guide is full of things that aren't town related. For sure. We could add it to the resource guide. It's in the resource. Freedom Team's in the resource. Oh, okay. Yeah. And also, you know, I've been studying... Scholar, this guy named Ibu Patel, who we have quoted here in this room and this weekend at the interfaith thing. And he's the founder and president of Interfaith America. So his work is about interfaith, but a lot of it really applies to everything that we're doing. And I'm not ready to try to summarize for you. I'm still in the midst of trying to watch videos and read stuff about him. But kind of one of his bottom line questions is, he's not all that much about identity politics, the way it's played out in recent years. And he's saying... Again, I'm not really ready to summarize it for you, but one of the things he said on the podcast I was listening to tonight was, how do we create environments where it's easier for people with divergent views to cooperate? And so... It brings me back to something that you said, Junho, long ago when we were beginning our work together. It's when we started deciding to do the festival. And you said, we don't only want to talk about the bad things that are happening until we also want to bring people together to celebrate differences. And that really stuck with me, that we don't want to ignore the bad things that are happening, but... But at this point in our journey as a committee, how do we find the right balance? I don't have an answer, but the right balance between noticing the things that aren't going well and trying to bring more unity in a community that is every bit is subject to the vagaries of what's happening in this country as any other. So that's why for me the question becomes, can we pursue parallel tracks? Data collection is wonderful. We can collect as much data as we want. We can analyze it as if to do whatever we want with it. But I tend to be a bit more action focused. And I find opportunities to bring diverse groups together to just talk and listen and empathize. Makes tremendous progress. And I found, and I know that the community conversation series that we've talked about, the series that was done in the library, even the event that was held last Saturday, my concern would be, and I met, and Janelle, I met with a couple of your colleagues last week about And what we could be doing, and I walked away with the feeling that the best I could get from, you know, the WIAG group was join the group, let them get to know you, and then we can talk about if there's anything we want to do about anti-Semitism. And I've since then met with, and Karen, I'll be sending you the minutes of this, I've been following up with the Center for Interfaith Collaboration, and I'm reaching out to others, but... I think it's dialogue opportunities where we, and the suggestion from the Center for Interfaith Collaboration, which I thought was so powerful, was rather than using the broad topics, it's instead focusing on how are you feeling? How are your kids feeling? How do we deal with these sorting things? And so my main question would be that while You know, WEAG is focusing on data. To what extent are you aggressively working forward? And maybe it's with what was mentioned earlier, the, you know, community conversations, or maybe it's what the town selectmen are going to do at the library with regards to creating opportunities for people to dialogue and listen to each other. Yeah, that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, exactly. But I was turned down point blank. I came in with a request. I came in with a request for support. And I was basically told, join the group, and then we'll get to know you, and then we'll see. And as Karen has mentioned, I've been reaching out to the Islamic Center, and everybody's telling me that they're too busy. So I'm going to keep reaching out. Those are community groups. They're community interfaith groups or religious groups. But here in this committee, as a town committee, I mean, our mandate is to, I mean, it's to activate this unity and diversity principle. And the programs that you are citing that are successful are ones that this committee has either initiated or supported, and we want to do more of. I mean, let's focus on what we can do here. And so the two points in that would be one, I totally agree, and that's what I'm advocating to do more of. I also think that for this committee, as we're looking at inclusion, we need to broaden our lens because... If we only view Jews as being a religious group, if we only view Muslims as being a religious group, then we're missing the boat. You know, I think all of these groups identify themselves as being people, of which being religion is simply a component of that identity. But I'll climb off the softbox. Hernan, were you going to say something? No, I was just agreeing with Ken's point. I think it'll be great if we could find more opportunities of doing that. Now, one of the things, and I'm just kind of mulling it in my head as we're having this conversation is, and again, a lot of what we need to do needs to be very well organized and so on. I'm wondering to what extent is feasible to have maybe some kind of a rolling business collaboration where different businesses in town maybe will have, you know, come as you are kind of an evening kind of a thing. And people just, you know, without having it overly organized and scheduled and so on, maybe a little bit too grassroots, but. The idea being that people will just come together and have coffee. People will just come together and just talk, right? So you have kind of the pub concept where people will just come out and hang out. You come in for 15 minutes, you come in for three hours, and the business will make a little bit of money. They'll probably price it as a happy hour kind of a thing, and people will just come together. So to Ken's point, it's not this group, this group, this group. It is just... An open door kind of a thing. People come and go, just kind of mingle. And just get to know who your neighbors are. I'm wondering to what extent something like that might work, especially if the businesses will have a little bit of a commercial benefit without profiteering, of course, but we can't have it rolling. So different, you know, a coffee shop, a restaurant, a flower shop, you know, just different businesses having different things and just making it generally interesting for people to come together. And maybe that becomes a little bit of mingling within town. I love that idea. And I think it's, you know, it's a great way of involving businesses in our work as a committee, you know, both to, you know, to honor the diversity that all the different businesses bring to the community, but also, I mean, as a way to get townspeople to get to know maybe some of the businesses that they. Wouldn't necessarily frequent. Oh, let's do it at chocolate therapy. Yeah, chocolate therapy. Let's start there. We'll have to plan that for what we can sit outside. True. Yeah, but actually, you know, I mean, I think with the new owners of the town center, too. If we wanted to, you know, if we wanted to start with, you know, the town center and the Route 20 corridor and also, you know, start something with the sort of constituent village businesses, you know, to kind of emphasize the business community dimension, you know, to... Kind of, I don't think we have a very active business association, you know, like we don't have a chamber. We used to. We used to. We used to be more active. Yeah. And we could go to them and talk to them. And then we had the RMA. There is a Rotary. Which was the Retired Men's Association. Yeah, there's Rotary. But I think we could, I mean, we could almost plant the seeds. For some kind of business association to come together. Let's get let's let's do this. Are there key people that we can invite to a meeting as the business, like come to a meeting, brainstorm with us what we're trying to do and how the business community. Maybe the town center owners. I think the town center owners would, I think they have already, you know, expressed. Well, and they've had a couple of these sort of open house events. Yeah, I think that that would be, it'd be a good place to start. And I think they're generous-hearted enough that they wouldn't limit it just to town center businesses, but it would give us kind of a critical mass to get something going. And here's a population that I'm reasonably confident this group hasn't had anything to do with. The owner of Revival is a member of a very large Iraqi Jewish family. What's Revival? It's a new coffeehouse restaurant that I believe is opening in the town center. They have one in... They have several of them. They have one in Lexington. That's going to employ disabled people. Oh, the Gill? The Gill? Or the one out by Lee is a little bit farther out, Route 20. It's called Revival? Opposite the... Where whatchamacallit used to be, the big lot there. Opposite the library. There's a place opposite the library next to the depot. That's a woman. I know, but that's a coffee shop. We don't know what Revival is. It's called Revival Cafe. It's now in Cambridge. It's now in Lexington. And I thought I heard that they were offering one here. Is it the one that involves disabled people, Ken? I don't know anything about that. I know that it's a coffeehouse in Lexington, Watertown in Cambridge. I've been to the one in Lexington, but as I said, I know of it mainly because I'm friends with the owner's cousin. That's not the owner of the guild, because I've met the people who are organizing it. No, this is called, if you Google it, it's called Revival Cafe. They have restaurants in Lexington, Watertown, and Cambridge. And I heard that they were opening in Lexington in the center, in the whatever, Wayland Center. What you might have heard is that there is a cafe opening in the Greek Revival building in Wayland Center. I bet you're right. Because it was an old town hall building with the columns. Oh, yes. So I think that is probably where the confusion comes from. Well, if they open, I'm willing to reach out to them. Well, encourage them to come to the town center. Revival looks great. If you go to the one in Lexington, they'd great proof. I haven't been to the others. I've been to the one in Lexington that I enjoy. So another Ibu Patel quote is, there are many things people will disagree on. There are some things we can do together. What if we paid more attention to the things we can do together? And, you know, Adrienne Marie Brown, who some of you may be familiar with, she says, what we pay attention to grows. So my orientation right now is toward, you know, what can we pay attention to and help it grow in town in a way that helps people come together and doesn't focus. Only on the bad things and the way people are... I mean, Ivo Patel has this whole thing about if we focus on our victimized identities, it puts us in boxes and it's really harder to come together. And so it's just something I'd like us to keep in mind as we think about how we want to move forward. Well, I really like this idea that Hernan has kind of... Put on the table because it's a way of weaving connection. And I mean, if we if we want to do it, I mean, there are lots of techniques and methodologies, you know, sort of speed dating games that we could use to make it fun. But you don't really mean dating. I mean, speed dating, getting to know people, you know, I mean, who you don't who you don't know, giving people permission to introduce themselves and have a conversation with somebody they don't know. I mean, that was, you know, also the whole way that, you know, Boston Race Amity Day began. It was, you know, every hour celebrity announcers. Reading off pairs of people who introduce themselves to each other and drop their names into a bucket and draw prizes that businesses would give away as a reward for just meeting someone who might be a little different from yourself. And it's amazing how... You know, people respond to the prompt, you know. It's great. Dare to introduce yourself to somebody and have a conversation. Who knows? You might even become friends. Yeah. It's really four years ago. We wanted people together. We started a festival. Now we want a business together to find something to do, to have the business and fun, maybe promote their business. Also, like a restaurant week type of thing or something that business can work together. Let's think about that. Yeah. That is a wonderful idea, and I think that's a great way to end for now this conversation. It's a really creative, fertile idea. So we can and we'll come back to this topic. The last topic, which we don't have to talk about now, was to... Think about topics for future Wayland Post articles about monthly calendar observances. But I'm going to say, let's go do that now. I think we've talked a lot and accomplished a lot. And I suggest that we, in fact, make announcements and adjourn. Actually, it's Indigenous. People's Month in November. I'm not sure they're going to write another one. I mean, they're working on Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I don't think they're going to do them every month. I think it would be better to pitch a story in two months or three months than to try to ask them to do it every month. That would be my guess. And the thing is, just to say, is that since we're on this agenda topic, is... They want to write articles where they can feature somebody in Wayland. They want, they say their stories need to be hyper-local. They want the, yeah, personal angle to quotes. We can do that. We have, I know, we do have a contact, at least one contact, who's Native American, who lives in Wayland. So, I mean, that's, I can certainly ask them if they're open to it. Yeah. Don't miss the opportunity. Yeah. All right. So when is our next meeting? Our next meeting is, just one moment and I will tell you, our next meeting is November 17th. November 17th, the third Tuesday. The week before Thanksgiving. The week before Thanksgiving. At 7.42, is there a second? Second. So you seconded? Okay, so Kevin made the motion, didn't he seconded? Okay, let's vote. Marianne? Yes. Ken? Sophie? Yes. Justin? Yes. Denise? No, sorry, Kyle? Yes. Denise? Yes. Kevin? Yes. Mariam? Yes. Jenna? Yes. Hernan? Yes. Heather? Yes. Yalu? Yes. And Karen? Yes.