AMPUp Advisory Committee Hybrid Meeting - Apr 10th, 2025

Meeting held in the 2nd floor annex of town hall, with a remote participation option. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/36591/18.

Review intended purpose & scope of the hybrid meeting

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff envisions the hybrid meetings as being for group discussions. Stantec needs time to present a lot of information during the monthly meetings that they attend, and these meetings will give us a chance to talk among ourselves. We'll use a 6:30 start time for future hybrid meetings.

Attendance at hybrid meetings is optional, and we might not always have a quorum. So we will not be voting during these meetings.

Reflections of the Kick-Off Event

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff thought the kickoff event went well, though he was disappointed that Phil Schaeffing wasn't able to make it. He felt the table discussions were lively.

(Grant Cook) Mr. Cook enjoyed his table discussions. He hasn't seen much follow-up on social media, but there was one person who felt like the process was performative and the outcome predetermined.

(Steve Revilak) Mr. Revilak happy to see a lot of people that he didn't recognize. Our goal was to engage people who typically don't participate in town efforts, and he thinks we did well in that regard.

Mr. Revilak says that every time he's participated in a planning effort, there have always been people who claim the outcome is pre-determined. He interprets this as opposition to the fact that a planning process is being undertaken.

(Tristan Boyd) Mr. Boyd says there were some natural conflicts at his table, but that's okay. He tried to look for common threads.

(Rebecca Gruber) Ms. Gruber wasn't able to attend the event, but she watched the video on the town website. She says there are points where it's difficult to hear the speaker.

Committee members discuss how to treat input gathered from the event. They'd like to have everything posted to the project website -- including pictures of the maps and any transcriptions of written comments.

(Rachel Weil) Ms. Weil got 16 people to attend. For most, it was the first time they attended a town event.

(Eugene Benson) Mr. Benson thought the location worked really well, and his table had good luck in trying to write down as much as possible. He felt the report-backs were a little disappointing.

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff agrees that it was difficult to summarize everything during the report outs.

He'd like to provide feedback on maps for future events. For example, if a map includes the location of a school, then it should include the location of all schools. He'd like to see more visual resources -- like maps -- on the project website. Perhaps the website could have a page for visual resources.

(Claire Ricker) Ms. Ricker says that Stantec was impressed by the size of the turnout.

(Angelique Bradford) Ms. Bradford suggests we have a way for people to make suggestions about what kinds of materials go on the website.

(?) Several high school students attended the event, which was good to see. We should think about how to engage students and youths.

Mr. Roubenoff, Mr. Prokosch, Mr. Revilak and Ms. Ricker will try to get together and come up with constructive criticism on the presentation slides.

Outreach Materials: Website & Survey

The website survey is scheduled to run until April 27th. Committee members would like to extend that date, so we can announce the survey at town meeting.

Meeting in a box material should be ready in the next week or so. Having printed copies of questionnaires and maps would be helpful.

Ms. Ricker has been talking with Stantec regarding questions to ask different town committees. She thinks it worthwhile to have different questions for different committees, in order to take advantage of their areas of expertise. It would be nice to formalize these by the end of the month.

Mr. Benson was concerned about the slide that listed all of the planning reports the town has done since the last comprehensive plan. He thinks it's fine to use them for background information, but they won't be driving the conclusions and recommendations for the updated plan. He'd like to make sure we're focusing on new data collection. Mr. Prokosch thinks they're a good source for terminology, but shouldn't be imported wholesale.

Committee members discuss how to ask questions that might be considered "risky" in the current political climate; things like equality, gender, diversity, or topics important to international communities. Committee members feel that opinions should be gathered anonymously. For example, if a survey asks for an email address, it should say why that information is being requested, and how it will be used. Committee members do not want to self-censor their work.

Committee members talk about how the current level of uncertainty might affect the process. Members feel that we should be clear in stating where uncertainty exists, rather than trying to tiptoe around the issue. It's okay to say what the uncertainties are. Our vision for the future shouldn't depend so much on current conditions, though current conditions might affect strategies and recommendations.

4/26 EcoFest Tabling Event

(Tristan Roubenoff) Mr. Roubenoff says that that Ecofest is our first tabling event. Four people have signed up so far.

We'll have an updated flier to hand out, with a link to the project website. We'll also need to come up with a set of questions to ask during the event.

Meeting adjourned at 7:25.