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Date: 2020-08-13 Time: 7pm
Building: Town Hall Location: Town Zoom Call
Address: Remote Session:
Purpose: Monthly Meeting Version: Final
Attendees: Members - Present:
Kyung Yu, Kern Perry, Josh Goldlust, Jordan Serpone
Members - Not Present: David Clark
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Josh Goldlust
Josh calls meeting to order at 7:03 pm
1. Sharing Experiences
a. Comments on Lori Conway's resignation from HRAC. Jordan would be full
voting member for this meeting.
b. Kern shared that back to school plans and recall are hot topics in town. Josh
also commented on recall message for a 9/1 vote.
c. Jordan called out discussions on Reading Rant as 'spirited debate' and may
not be the best town barometer
d. Kyung shared that church committee is meeting over zoom once a month.
And all are good.
2. Police Readout:
a. None- Chief not present at meeting
3. Sen/ Rep Listening Event
a. Kerri gave quick update on her conversations with Rep Jones and availability
for participating in Sept.
b. Josh gave update from Lori's emails with Rep Haggerty prior to resigning and
his direct communication with Sen Lewis' staff
c. Discussion about event timing in Sept. Kyung talked about proximity to town
elections and would this be political? Josh felt this event format was mostly
inbound question & answer from residents so low risk. Kern and Jordan
agreed. Kern added that this would be mostly community listening.
d. Discussed framework for the event
i. 5-10 min per Rep/ Sen
ii. Sample questions around approach to divisiveness and how to bring
people together with differing points of view or how to engage with
people with different ideas
iii. Josh agreed to reach out to all (3) to coordinate a day/ time in Sept
that works for all. Target evening timeframe.
e. Josh made motion for HRAC to host a community event for residents to
engage with Rep Haggerty, Rep Jones, and Sen Lewis as part of Listening to
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Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
Understand different points of view. Kerr! 2nd. Vote: 4 in favor [Josh, Kerri,
Kyung, Jordan]. No one opposed
4. Pre-Planning MLK Jr '21 event
a. Josh brought forward the topic on planning for January's annual event
recognizing that it takes months to plan with few volunteers. There have been
lots of town discussions among residents and private groups in connection
with Black Lives Matters conversations. Kyung comments that this is HRAC's
most visible event. Kerr! commented that planning should focus on the event
being remote due to current Covid status.
b. For Sept meeting, Josh asked the team to think about what message(s) we
want to deliver, what modes are available if 100% remote, and which groups
within the town we can partner to make this happen
c. Kyung commented about the stories shared as part of the recent Racial
Justice events and potentially including them as examples of'Reading's
current reality'. He also raised ideas to educate the town about HRAC's move
to the new human rights commissions being advised by the ad hoc
committee.
5. Video Series w/ Library
a. Prior to resigning from HRAC, Lori had made initial connections with library
Director. Josh suggested we continue investigating that thread with the
library for ways to keep that effort going forward. No additional comments or
timelines discussed.
6. HRAC community calendar- Kerri updates on what's happened in June and coming in
Aug
a. Women's Right to Vote: 19t' Amendment- Aug 18th
b. Woman's Equality Day- Aug 26th
7. Motion to approve July minutes: Kerri makes motion to approve the minutes, Kyung
2nds, passes 4-0 (Kyung, Kerri, Josh, Jordan)
8. Additional Items
a. Quick comments on Ad Hoc committee timeline. See public record of minutes
for specific details.
9. Establish date for next meeting
a. Sept moving back to regular 1�'Thursday of each month
b. Confirmed it will be 9/3 @7 PM most as a Zoom meeting (dial in TBD)
10. Motion to adjourn: Josh, Kyung 2nd. Passes 3-0. Meeting adjourned at 7:49 PM [Kerri
had to leave at 7:36 PM]
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