[Frances Nwajei]: Hi everybody, here we are for our June 2023 Commission on Persons with Disabilities meeting. I'm Frances, over to you Linda.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: I'm Linda Brayden, I'm the Vice Chair, and I've been on the commission for a couple of years and I'm I work mainly in digital accessibility. And I'll pop it over to Gabby.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm Gabby. I've been on the commission for a few years now. And my pronouns are she, her, hers. And I'm studying disability law. And I will pass it over to Marcia.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Hi, I'm Marcia Kirsten. I've been on the commission for About two and a half years, I guess. This is my last official meeting. I want to tell you all how much I love you and hope that we can keep in touch. I will see through what I've committed to for this fair, as whatever you want to call me. Thank you so much. I do not I do not leave products in the middle. Ever.
[Frances Nwajei]: Over to you.
[Susan Bibbins]: Hi, I'm Susan. I am. I have my pronouns are she hers, hers, and I've been on the commission for I don't know how long, but many years. I have a disability and I'm the parent of two kids who are adults who have disabilities also. And I worked as a teacher of special needs kids. kids with disabilities and as a teacher of caregivers in families with special needs kids. And that's me.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Sue. Joe?
[MCM00001818_SPEAKER_06]: I am Joe Casey, lifelong resident of Medford. I've been on the board for six months, and I have a disabled son, and I'm just here to do the best I can.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you, Joe. Yvette?
[Evangelista]: Hello. My name is Yvette Wilkes. I am a Medford resident, and I'm very proud to be on the Disability Commission to help those that need my help.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Thank you.
[Frances Nwajei]: Linda, over to you. Do you have the agenda? Do you want me to go ahead and facilitate?
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I've got the agenda all up here. It looks like the next thing on the agenda is the 2023 meeting notes, the minutes. And I'm wondering, I was actually looking to see if there was a link to the minutes. I'm not sure if I missed them, or... I think that you didn't attach them. I think I see them, yeah. So did everyone get a chance to read them or do we need some time? I'm actually still having trouble finding them. I don't see them in an attachment in the email. I'm gonna see if they were sent previously. It looks like they might've been sent around on the 26th. Okay.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Did you find them, Linda? I can forward it.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it looks like they were sent around on May 26th. That looks like you sent them there. Did everyone else find them?
[Frances Nwajei]: Did everybody get a chance to read them? Or do you want to table the approval so that you can have some time to read them? And then that means that we'd have to bring them up in September.
[Evangelista]: Anyone I'd like to ask is it. Is it possible to make a request that we have like, 10 minutes to read through the minutes so that we don't have to table it until next month? I mean, until September.
[Frances Nwajei]: I would say it might be possible, but I don't, I can't say that everybody can digest it within 10 minutes. So I think it will access it within 10 minutes. So I think that to be fair, we would probably want to move on so that people don't feel compelled.
[Evangelista]: I didn't know if I was the only one. Okay. Thank you, Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right, so what I'll do is I'll make sure I send them out again and probably do it as a link, like an attachment, but I'll make a note that we'll need to review them in September. So someone will have to make a motion.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Can I make a motion to table the minutes?
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: And then we'll need a second. Looks like Yvette is seconding. I'll second it. OK. So all in favor of tabling the minutes until September, tabling, reviewing, and approving the minutes until September, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? No opposed, any abstaining? Votes, no abstain, so it's unanimous.
[Frances Nwajei]: Frances always abstains from everything. Frances can't vote.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: And then it looks like the next thing that we've got is feedback regarding open meeting law presentation from you, Frances.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, I was just interested in finding out what your thoughts were on the open meeting law presentation, if you found it helpful, if you had a chance to review the slides decks that Janelle sent, and if you would find future, not speakers, I would say content related, something that really affects the work that we do, helpful. I'm thinking like in the future, the long run.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I thought it was really helpful. Oh, sorry. Yvette, raise your hand.
[Evangelista]: Go ahead, Gabby. Go ahead. Sure.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Thank you. I was just going to say that some of the things that I remember learning about in the trainings when I first joined as a commissioner, I forgot about. So things like having the meeting minutes turned around quickly to make them publicly available is something that I don't think that I was on the ball with before. But now that I know that it needs to be quick, So I thought it was really helpful to have it as a reminder. I found it informative.
[Frances Nwajei]: Thank you. I'm so glad that we did it because it's recorded and I feel like, you know, if I get a question, I can go back to that recording and it's not, you know, my own interpretation. It's actually, you know, the attorney whose area of specialty that is saying this is what you're required to do by the law.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I think Yvette has a hand up too.
[Evangelista]: Yeah. Yes, I found the session very informative. I would vote for any type of regular content updates and I don't know if this is too outlandish, but even some role-playing because I even made a mistake this week. You know, I thought I was being open, but I was being too open, but just kind of those refreshers are just kind of helpful. So, but thank you very much for it. It was great.
[Frances Nwajei]: Wonderful. So what I will do is I will, I know that I send stuff out that comes through the MOD, which can sometimes be hard if people are working or have other plans. But, you know, whilst the commission is on hiatus, I will look for other content related as it relates to the work of the commission, right, through the ordinance to start lining up. for the upcoming year so that I can hopefully share that with you. And if you ever have any ideas, just send me an email. If there's something that you want to hear about, send me an email.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, Marsha, did you have something to say?
[Marcia Kirssen]: I have a concern that I'd like to share with you and pass it on to you guys to figure out. I find it hard to imagine how a group can effectively function without better communication. And maybe some of you other brilliant people will have ideas, because I have zipped on that. in the past done things between meetings, and this makes it much more difficult. And so I think that problem should be investigated, and possibly there's some solutions out there, I hope, because otherwise nothing's going to get done.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's a good point, Marsha. It was my understanding that things could get done in between meetings, but that we would need to schedule a time with Francis to post it as an open meeting.
[Frances Nwajei]: Am I misunderstanding it? If you are breaking into subcommittees and you're going to end up voting on things and have quorums, you have to understand that those subcommittees are essentially I need to follow the open meeting law, but work has been getting done since the time that we had the last meeting. You know, but there's just no need for 1 commissioner to see all the other commissioners. whether it's a follow-up or not. It needs to be, if you remember what Chanel said, it needs to go to Tom as the chair and myself, because when you do that, you're basically opening up for conversation, but it doesn't prevent the group from necessarily functioning because we're not all working on the same things.
[Marcia Kirssen]: You know, I think that if that... How does that happen between meeting without making you, you know, I was partly concerned about how much of a workload it might be on you to run the video every time there's a subcommittee.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, but I don't think that it's, I don't think that you can consider that part. I mean, we're talking about the law here and the law has to be respected. So my work, whether it's my workload or somebody else's workload, it can't be looked upon as that, right? If the law says like, you know, you need to do your 48 hour notice and you need to do this, then it is what it is. But not all subcommittees need to, you know, have like five members. If you're gonna have five members for a subcommittee, you might as well just, have an additional meeting. But what if you have three members? I'm sorry, I can't hear you.
[Marcia Kirssen]: What if you have three members?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, if you have three members, if your three members are a subcommittee, I think yourself and Yvette or Yvette, who were you? Yvette and Sue. So Yvette and other Sue are almost like a subcommittee of their own. They were working on, you know, like the logo design and stuff like that. They didn't need to email all the commissioners. I mean, so that that way it went on the agenda and was presented. So, it doesn't really have an impact in the ability to move forward.
[Marcia Kirssen]: If the subcommittee is less than a quorum, can it meet without. That's what I'm not, I guess that's the way to put it in a question. Does a subcommittee have to follow the open meeting law, say with three people or four people?
[Frances Nwajei]: If you're going to be voting on things, I would say yes, because you should not be voting on anything. I mean, really the way I see this is that if myself, I guess myself and Sue B, I guess we're sort of a subcommittee of our own that we didn't realize because we seem to be the two that attend this regional transportation. And we also, I also somehow ended up on the ADA Universal Safety, I don't even know the formal name of the group, right? And Sue was already on there. So in a strange way, we're almost like, you know, a subcommittee for accessibility. But we don't need to post, like we go to our meetings and we don't discuss or we don't, you know, take votes, you know, really our conversation is who's going to remember to share what, when we come to the bigger group?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Yeah, well, that's a different kind of question. I'm talking about a subcommittee, say a subcommittee to work on getting enough, you know, supplies for the fair, just as an example. And two people might not be enough, so maybe you'd want three.
[Frances Nwajei]: So this is what I would share and I think that when you use the term subcommittee think seriously about whether you're truly forming a subcommittee or whether we're possibly working. Right. So, you know, because a subcommittee is much more formal it's like something we shouldn't have a subcommittee makes sense right if you're going to be doing something for six months, right. But if it's about us planning a conference and you know, Francis and Joe are going to, you know, we've got 10 people that we're going to pull on the list. That's not really.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay, so, so call it a working group and have
[Frances Nwajei]: But what exactly is the purpose of the working group? Again, my personal opinion is that there is no way around the law. The law is the law, and I'm one of these, what you don't know, you don't know. But when you find out, then you have a responsibility to follow it through, right? But it doesn't prevent us from getting our work done. I got an email in between meetings because somebody had a question and wanted to know if they could reach out to the commissioner. It was things that they were both working on. I was like, yeah, sure. This doesn't concern me. Go ahead. The end. They're able to get their work done. If you view it as a barrier, then it will become a barrier. I'm asking for clarification. Yes. So again, I would say, I think this is, remember, Janelle also said that you can send her questions. Janelle is the legal expert. These are the types of questions that really should be going to the legal expert. I'm only giving you the layman's version and expectation for how we're moving forward. But if you want that, if you want to put that in an email, I can send it to her but I would not want the rest of the team or anybody watching to feel that we're now going to be hampered because we're actually not. I feel like we're moving quite fluidly. I mean, there was like some insane information on Braille cards that I received. I think it was at the beginning of June from Yvette. There was great information again that I received a couple of, I think it was last week from actually both Tom and yourself about a possible logo. So just because people are not in the same room or in the same space at the same time, doesn't mean that work isn't actively happening.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay, and then a report would come to the meeting. I'm sorry, I'm having... So that needs to get communicated to other commissioners at some point, to the whole commission in a public meeting.
[Frances Nwajei]: Which other commissioners?
[Marcia Kirssen]: If you have a working group, there needs to be some kind of way to connect it with the whole picture of the commission, it seems to me.
[Frances Nwajei]: I mean, I think it's an, I think it's going to occur on an as needed basis right this is really the first one that we've had in the. I don't know what in the past year and a half I mean I've not. I mean when I came on board it was basically just about, you know, sitting and having, you know, having meetings that's what I saw. So this is you know this is something that the commission is doing so it's the first time that it's really called for this style of breakout, and are we going to be perfect absolutely not right, but at least we'll have a foundation and then the next time we do this will be like, Oh my gosh, that was just too difficult. Get Janelle in here, let her break it down for us. We want to know one, two, and three, right? But we can't, you know, I can't get overly focused on the fact that we may not be able to move forward because that kind of like takes the air out of what everybody's doing. And again, if anybody has any questions, don't think you're bothering me. Think about all the times I email you on the weekends. Think about all the times that I find something because I'm able to read something and it's like ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. And sometimes I could have condensed that and sent you one email, right? Which probably would have been easier. So don't think of it as a bother if you have to send it to me. It will get to where it needs to get to, Sue B. comes a lot across a tremendous amount of like information and sometimes she has information with me that, you know, Sue feels that other commissioners could be interested in. Boom, I send out, you know. That's clear. That's more clear.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Thank you. I'm not the only confused person here. Otherwise, I wouldn't take your time.
[Frances Nwajei]: Welcome, Tom.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you. I'm glad I made it.
[Frances Nwajei]: You're just in time. Linda, you want to give Tom a quick recap about what we decided to do with the meeting minutes?
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we did welcome and introductions and we actually passed a motion to table, the review and approval of the main minutes until September to give folks more time to read and digest them. And then we were just wrapping up a conversation about the open meeting law presentation. We provided some feedback saying that it would be great to have more presentations like that, that kind of deal with the inner workings of the commission itself from time to time whenever we're able to get folks to join our meeting. And then we were about ready to move on. So we're just wrapping that up in this, you know, throw it out there to anyone else or Tom, if you have any feedback or anything else that people want to talk about the open meeting law presentation.
[Tom Hamel]: I don't think I have anything to add. I agree. I think it was very, it was really helpful and informative. And yeah, we have more, more of those presentations. So that's good, good feedback to have.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, yeah, I think the next. Next thing we have on the agenda is the resource fair planning conversation. Francis this item didn't have anything by itself or or was it like the topic and everything underneath it was like subtopics.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, I'm so sorry. So those were the subtopics and I cheated because I needed to make sure that I remembered to hit on these points. And as you can see, you and Tom are first, and I'm trying to search my email for the lovely idea for a t-shirt. So I'm cheating a little bit and I'm also pulling up the email that Yvette sent.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, yeah, I'm happy to kick it off with the one page document that Tom and I chatted about. So what we were chatting about was like coming up with like a post people could use to put on social media. So I came up with an image and Francis I had emailed you I wasn't sure if you got it about, or maybe has changed since there was a conversation about a logo but wanted to follow up on like whether or not we should use or could use if we were allowed to use the city of Medford seal for like in the image.
[Frances Nwajei]: Um, I believe, did I misunderstand that I thought I responded saying yes you can definitely use the city of Medford seal. I'm not recalling the image. Do you, are you able to screen share, is that okay.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, I didn't, I don't have any, I don't have like an image that was sent. I didn't get anything with an image sent to me with the seal.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, do you need me to send you the seal? I thought you were gonna just like take it off something.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: No, what I had asked, yeah, I need the image file. I had asked to see if you could, would it be possible for you to send me the image?
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, so that will need to go to comms. How do you want me to word it? want me to ask for.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: I'm like an image file like either like a.j I can I can eat. I don't know if it's easier for you for if I email it to or like it would be a.jpg like JPEG file or a PNG file. Okay.
[Frances Nwajei]: All right, let me do that now so that I don't forget so we can get that out, but it would be fine because the commission and persons with disabilities is for the city of Medford right so it's under that umbrella so be fine.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: I know you had mentioned that there was maybe some discussion of a logo during this meeting, so I'm not sure how the timing would work with that. If we want to go forward with the seal for now and then still continue to work out the logo or where the logo is, if we should go with the logo route.
[Frances Nwajei]: So when we were talking at the last meeting, it had run into a person, I think, through the Boston Center for Independent Living. who could create and things of that nature. However, because of the timing in which to get, you know, you need proper coverings, I suggested let's just keep with what the city has for the other departments. However, it doesn't mean that you can't create something fun that goes on like your flyer and things of that nature. It just wouldn't be for the official, I can only call it table covering, I don't know what else to call it, conferencing materials.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, okay, thank you. And sorry, I see Yvette, I see your hand raised, which got What's I got?
[Evangelista]: So within the logo, I thought, I know we had mentioned Rashid, who works at the Boston Center for Independent Living, just to hear his feedback. But Susie K, was that the other young lady that I was working with? I thought she sent to us that was something that involved the ribbons. Yes. And that's the logo.
[Frances Nwajei]: That's what you want. That was the conversation using the city seal. And we mentioned persons with disabilities, and then using different ribbons that represent the different disabilities. So the ribbons you would buy individually so we would buy the ribbons with the, let's say, yeah, and then we could actually put them on.
[Evangelista]: Okay, I'm so off on that. I thought that these ribbons were part of a logo that she wanted to use. Yeah.
[Frances Nwajei]: No, you'd end up being, you'd end up with a really busy looking design, yeah.
[Evangelista]: Right, I just thought the different color ribbons, okay. So, okay. Yeah.
[Frances Nwajei]: There are ribbons that are associated with many, many different kinds of disabilities, especially those that aren't visible that people, you know, don't think it's a, it's a disability but has like a severe impact on people's quality of lives. Yes. But I felt, and I think this might be in the meeting minutes as well, I think that we would have liked some support from the person, did you say Marsha? Yes. To help, you know, to help design something, right? There's nothing greater than having somebody involved who lives, you know, who lives that life or, whatever you know not necessarily the logo but looking at like the flyering um the materials that we're going to use to like ship out to people and stuff okay so um i i'd like to ask a question based on that conversation that marcia initiated earlier so
[Evangelista]: At this moment, I have someone that I would like to speak with one other person in this conversation. So because that's just gonna be a working group, there's nothing major that has to be done. I just need to contact the individuals and say, hey, let's get together and let's talk, correct?
[Frances Nwajei]: But I think it depends on what you're talking about. I mean, first of all, Tom, as the chair, should always know what's going on. Because if it's within the parameters of the work that you're doing, like, you know, we can't just like form a working group just for forming a working group. But if it's about the stuff that you're doing, right, then, you know, I think that that's fine. But I would always say, you know, Tom is the chair, so out of respect, you know, he should always know what's going on. If you run into a situation where you don't have a professional Zoom, so after 40 minutes, it's gonna go away and you need me to set up the Zoom for you, that's fine as well. But the conversation should really stay within the actual parameters of the work that is being done and not straying into other areas. Okay. So I will ask about the image file for you, Linda. Okay.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: In the meantime, I can show what what I've come up with and kind of where I would put the image, just so you can kind of see it.
[Frances Nwajei]: I think I gave you sharing capabilities.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yep. OK, so I'm going to go ahead and share. So this is just a vertical image file of something very simple I designed that people could put. It would be meant for social media. So you could put it, depending on how you're using it, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, whatever social media you're using. You may have to crop it or whatever, but it's meant to be used as like an image that you upload there. And so it has information here, but then what you would need to do is you would need to then also post the text. So that if anyone can't access the image, then they will get the text version of it. So usually there's a place, regardless of what social media platform you're using, there's usually a place for you to post an image and words. I mean, I think except for Twitter, I think Twitter's just words. The two big ones that I'm familiar with are Instagram and Facebook. So those are the two that I can speak to that you would post an image and you can add words into like a caption or whatever. And they might have different capabilities. I'm not a 100% expert on this, but I have the text that I can send along as well. Let me just pull that up. I'm gonna stop sharing real quick so I can pull it up. so I can show you what I'm talking about. And I can share, it's a Google Doc, so I can easily send this to everyone. So I have this document that basically says like, hey, this is the text you can use. And so hopefully you can just copy and paste it. My hope is that the hyperlinks stay in place. I don't think Instagram, you just have to check the platform about what the platform allows. But that way you have the words, that you can post with the image so that people who either for whatever reason can't access the image, but they can have the text as well. And this is just something that you could individually put out there. And then I'm not sure, I think we had, I think, Tom, you had mentioned that there were like certain like Facebook groups as well.
[Tom Hamel]: So there's one, there's a Medford Disability Facebook group that I post a lot. Whenever I come across news that are applicable, I post there. There's other Facebook groups, which I like the Medford Moms Caregivers group. There's a bunch of city groups that I think it would make sense to, that we could post it in.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, then would it make sense for me, I'm just trying to think of like the easiest way to do this. Would it make sense for me to send an email out to the group with the link to the document or with not the link to the actual text?
[Frances Nwajei]: If you could send the email out right with the text and the document as an attachment.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, then I will do that.
[Tom Hamel]: Was there any any questions or anything on the Linda shared?
[Frances Nwajei]: But I think we should wait, because I know we have correct. Correct. We have to say it. I got tongue tied. And I know that that's almost two hours long. And that was why I was thinking maybe something a little bit shorter. I started thinking about. People. Sitting. And people needing to, you know, who may not be able to sit for long periods of time so that's why I put something else on that I wanted to have some conversation with.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay, yeah.
[Frances Nwajei]: But it's not ready. Yeah, but it's not ready to go out yet. I mean, I think that that looks great. I don't know if it was intentional, but you actually have the city blue on it.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that was very good. So yeah, you're right. It's not ready to go out, because where I was going to put the, here, let me bring it back up again. You're right, I totally spaced on that. Let me share my screen one more time, just so I can make sure we're all on the same page. So, my thought was putting the logo up here. I might have to adjust something. The city seal. I might have to adjust something still and rework, like move some things around once I get it. But I'm hoping that there's, you know, it depends on the image file I get as well. I'm hoping that there's, you know, enough white outline and I'll figure it out. But yes, there's still work that I need to do. Once I get the logo, or the I'm sorry, the city seal image that we'll be using there. So once I have that, just and finalize the the parts of the fair, then I will update this image. And and then when it's ready, I'll send it out.
[Frances Nwajei]: Linda, can you just take a note to add, you say 383 High Street. Don't forget to put Medford and then MA because we'll have people coming. You could have people coming from all over. Okay. Yep.
[Tom Hamel]: Sounds good. I was looking for feedback. Sorry, Gabby, you have your hand up. Go ahead.
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, that's okay. Um, I just wanted to make one suggestion I think it looks great. I think the colors and everything are awesome. I was just thinking I just learned recently through one of my friends, who's a special ed teacher, something with like the slanted font. the yellow is like with like people with learning disabilities and dyslexia and stuff. I think it's not always recommended to have like the fonts like I think I don't know she was telling me about like a training that she had and how flyers and whatnot should have like the straight font. I don't know if that's, that's just a suggestion, but everything else looks really great.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. I, I, I've heard something similar. I want to know, do you remember if it was specifically about like italics, like the font being, or was it the angle?
[Adam Hurtubise]: I can ask her to send me, she had like resources and I can share them with everyone. Cause it would be good for whatever we put out to like meet
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I would really like that. I'm definitely a, you know, WCAG or, you know, like, like web accessibility geek, but like doing it for like flyers and whatnot is like, it's completely different. It's like totally different. Yeah. I would love that. Yeah, thanks. I'll send it along.
[Frances Nwajei]: And if we did change it and made it, you know, kept the fob but made it straight, it would still look, you know, it would still look fun and it would give you more space. How is, how does everybody feel about what they've seen of the flyers so far, even though I just, I just love the language and I love the fact that we can get that email. We can just copy and paste and send it to the masses, you know. Ultimately that was my question.
[Tom Hamel]: Is there anything that we need to change in there before we send it out? And then, and then we can talk about when we actually want to send it out because we are what a little over three months away. Yeah.
[Frances Nwajei]: So it's too early to be honest with you to send it to send it out if we were to send it out this month, it would get forgotten. So I've got a little secret for you. So everybody ready. Nothing should go airborne. So I did my wrap up meeting with the Pride Planning Committee yesterday. And as you know, October is National Coming Out Day. And I know that initially when the idea was brought up by Melanie about doing a Pride Resource Fair, it appeared as though it could have been quite overwhelming. So, if we want to make this in October 11 is actually national coming out day. So if we want to bring some honor. to our LGBTQ plus members of the disability community. We do have the support of members of the pride planning committee who would help us with that end. And just, you know, coming off planning the city's pride events, it really wouldn't be a big lift. The disability pride flag is different though than the typical pride flag that is used. But that's not a worry because that's something that I can easily get. So I just wanted to share that.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I might be a little confused. What's the ask? Is the ask to reschedule?
[Frances Nwajei]: No, no, no, no, no. No, we don't have to reschedule anything. We can do everything one time. Just make sure that we create space, right? This event is on the 7th. National Coming Out Day is on the 11th. So as we're doing this disability resource fair, we could also create space for the LGBTQ population with disabilities by ensuring that there are vendors and support systems there and ensuring that we highlight that as being a safe space. Maybe you're already using one of the colors, two of the colors, believe it or not, you know, maybe slap on the disability pride logo on there so that when people get this, you know, they understand and you're.
[Tom Hamel]: It sounds like more than just like a resource table. Sounds like actually creating a space in in the book school.
[Frances Nwajei]: No, I'm sorry. When I say space, I do not mean space is in the physicality of it. I just mean it as a figure of speech. So when I say space, doing things like with intention, so like having the disability pride symbol on the flag is the way of showing respect and symbolizing welcome. I don't mean a physical space. You know, having resource materials which we could have on the resource table.
[Evangelista]: Just a question. So, this last scenario that we're just discussing, we're bringing that up based on that conversation we had with Melanie McLaughlin a while ago.
[Frances Nwajei]: I know that Melanie really wanted to do a disability pride fair. Right. And I know that you know I felt like also before we do a disability pride fair there needs to be a resource fair but if you remember our event was originally supposed to be in April. We moved it to October, and we just so happen to be doing it on October 7. I mean nothing really changes from the plans that are already happening. Absolutely nothing changes. You know, people with disabilities are not all heterosexual people. So they're already people within a marginalized group, within yet another marginalized group. So seizing the opportunity that October 11th is National Coming Out Day, and I think, I don't know if you've done a, I don't know if you've done a, you know, a conference before but this is the first one that I, you know, I'm seeing, it would be nice if we are that close to at least find different ways of showing that we respect, we're welcome, we honor. There is no left and if we need to look for resources, members of the Pride Planning Committee are more than happy to assist with that. So nothing has really changed. I'm just providing with education and awareness. More inclusive. Thank you, Sue, making it more inclusive.
[Evangelista]: So, um, if this was, so when Melanie was talking about pride, was it, was she talking about, uh, more of pride individuals with disability to have pride? Or were we talking about, you know, what you're talking about, the LGBTQ community. When we were talking about pride, I thought, you know, I thought she was talking about pride and being, you know, if you're disabled, there's a pride there. I didn't know that.
[Frances Nwajei]: I believe that Melanie was taught, I can't speak for Melanie I mean that might be something that we might want to email on, but I. felt that Melanie was talking about the LGBTQ plus community. And the reason that I say that is that when we, when Metfit had its first festival last year, it was something that Melanie mentioned that she would also have liked to have had a festival for, a pride festival for people with disabilities. but not, it did not come across as in pride, as in, you know, show your, celebrate your disability, not that kind of pride. That's where, right.
[Evangelista]: Thank you.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I had one more question on that. So you'd mentioned that we might be able to reach out to the planning committee, the pride planning committee, if we need any research. Were you thinking we should put like the debate, or maybe I have a couple of questions. Let me start with one. Do you think we should put the disability pride symbol on the, like add it to the social media image that I'm creating?
[Frances Nwajei]: I think that whatever we do, we should put as many symbols as possible that indicates that we are welcoming of all different. So I would say, I would say yes. Okay. When I talk about resources, I'm not asking the group to go out and get resources. There are already many resources that are that the Pride Planning Committee has gathered. So there was a resource table that nobody manned. GLAAD was not present, but the resources through those agencies and links were there. So that's what I meant when I said resources.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Actually, my questions were mainly focused on the image. I wanted to make sure that I was organizing the image. And also, if there was an image file that they already had, that the Planning Committee already had, or if
[Frances Nwajei]: The planning committee wouldn't have an image file because the image file is actually the Medford pride logo. So it wouldn't be for, yes.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Okay. So is there a separate disability pride logo or it's a pride? Okay. Okay. Okay. So could I get my hands on that? Would you be able, would it be possible? So it's not created by us.
[Frances Nwajei]: There's an official one, just like there's a rainbow flag.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you said it was an official Medford symbol.
[Frances Nwajei]: No, but there is a Medford pride logo that was created in copyrighted form for the city of Medford.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: So what symbol do you think we should use on the, I would go with the disability one. the disability pride symbol. So if I Google disability pride symbol, I should be able to find it. Okay, cool. Thank you. I appreciate that.
[Frances Nwajei]: I definitely, because the focus is on people with disabilities.
[Evangelista]: Sure. Okay. So what was just said was that Linda is going to use the disability logo that is the disability pride logo.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yes, just as a symbol, just as a symbol, just as a symbol on the flying to show that all are welcome, just as a symbol on the fly.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: In addition, my thoughts were in addition to the city of Medford seal, right, like city of Medford seal. And we talk about a disabilities fair. And I'm imagining that the city of Medford seal is like a placeholder for like when we have our own logo. So if we whenever we would have our own logo, and if we were to do something like this again, then you would want to swap out the city of Medford seal with whatever persons with disability commission logo we have to say, like, this is an official thing of our group. And then I'm imagining adding the disability pride symbol as an extra, like, inclusive note for those who have that insert intersectionality to know that they are also welcome.
[Frances Nwajei]: So I don't know if you, I don't know if I can access it. I'll try to see if I can access it. One of the flyers that was done last year, not this time around, but last year we did a skate mingle and dance party. It was geared mainly from, you know, like 12, 13, 14, that sort of age group, right. But on the flyer, we use symbols and icons to indicate that all are welcome. So, if you utilize a wheelchair for your ambulation, you are still welcome, just by looking at the flyer. So that's all we're doing. It is putting icons, adding icons to this flyer that cover all aspects of disability, because we are close to National Coming Out Month. We're not doing anything else. take it, shop it somewhere. And I don't know, Linda, you must have premonition because you're already using two of the colors. I see Yvette, your hand is still up. Tom wants to say something. And I see Susan, you want to say something. So let me go, Susan, Tom, Yvette. If we talk the talk, which is not Susan B, not Susan F. You can't see me this time though, right? Sue's talking. Go on Sue, sorry.
[Susan Bibbins]: If we talk the talk, which is the flyer, we got to walk the walk, which is having having resources for disabled LGBTQIA plus there. So that means resources in a rainbow of services there. And so that means contacting the someone needs to contact the pride planning committee.
[Frances Nwajei]: So that's, so that's what I said was that we met last night. And that is the part that they would be willing to offer help to remember they've, they've done this twice now. And it's really not that big a lift. It's one email and the resources come in.
[Susan Bibbins]: Okay. I would be willing to do that.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, you can definitely, I mean, if you want to, definitely you can partner with me on that. They're probably tired of hearing from me. We're on hiatus till September, but, you know, I can definitely share what we already have, which I think would be important. It would be the same. I don't know, I just feel like it would be very meaningful thing to do if especially given the time that the fair is scheduled.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah, that also means, you know, having a parking lot that is welcoming people.
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, so I was thinking about that. And I was, you know, I didn't say anything yet. I have to actually go back again and make sure I'm not confusing my schools. But I was actually thinking of just having DPW block off an extra section beyond because we're going to have, you know, there's a chance that we will have more people utilize the placards. So, you know, I would be okay, I mean, when the time comes, just having that whole front section and strip in the back and the rest of us can figure out our parking, right? Thinking the spot that slopes down for the vendors after they offload, but the whole front section and, you know, that strip in the back, that should just be accessible parking.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah, I don't think we ought to let the vendors park in the handicapped spaces permanently.
[Frances Nwajei]: No, no, no, they can pull up. I think they have two points of entries that they can pull up to the door, offload their stuff, but they gotta move their vehicle. But we can definitely cross that bridge. And I have to go back and take a look and make sure that I'm remembering the Brooks School and not confusing it with the Roberts.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah, and I think the parking lots only have like two or three on average, handicapped placard spots anyway. And I think for this, we're going to need more.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, for this weekend, you know, this week, we will definitely have more. It's the same conversation I had at the station yesterday when discussing National Night Out, right? Yes, according to the law, you know, the parking lots are, you know,
[Susan Bibbins]: Right.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right. But if we're saying national night out community event, right. I want a whole, a whole section because I think it just makes it easier that you know you calm your loop around, and that's your section. which is more than what the law requires.
[Susan Bibbins]: The law on average, yes, that's required, but this is not average and it's only for a night. I think that would be very good.
[Frances Nwajei]: So, you know, you and I can you can keep me on my toes about that you and I can definitely work on that together I can definitely share some, some resources with you and that can be, you know, the work that excellent that we do. Are you okay if I turn it over to Tom. Yes. All right. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: My, my, you were mentioning this earlier, Francis. So if we, I want to make sure that, well, you mentioned there are multiple ways that we can show that we're trying to be inclusive and that, and everyone is invited, right? And so one is putting on logos and we have one logo. It's not like we're going to add one logo on our flyer. I don't know if there are other ones that we need to add. And I am, I'm not sure what they would be. But it sounds like you might know some additional ones. I wanted to make sure that we identified those and got them over to Linda.
[Frances Nwajei]: I think that for this event, I think that we definitely have the right logo. It's disability, right? So anything that is disability related is great. But I think putting the city seal, because you don't have your own formal logo yet, And then just the little disability pride symbol, that's it. We don't have to worry about, we don't have to break it down as other groups would need to break it down because we're already a disability resource. You don't have to worry about the inclusivity in the same manner that other groups would need to worry about the inclusivity.
[Evangelista]: So, Francis, could you give us an example of that? Because it is for me, it's like disability is disability. And so if we that's why I just wanted the clarification regarding what Melanie was thinking initially. Yeah, I just feel that if we're going. we're going to bring out the LGBTQT logo on disability. Are there other types of organizations that also have a disability component, right?
[Frances Nwajei]: Right. The only reason we're bringing the LGBTQ plus out is because we are having an event three days, four days before National Coming Out Day. And we already know that many people who have disabilities are looked upon as if they don't have emotions and as if they can't make decisions. And heaven forbid that they're interested in partners that look like them, then that's an even bigger problem. So it's really just a nod. It's a simple sign of respect to say, hey, we see you, that's it. sure and making sure that we just have on, you know, on the table that there is some resources so that should people, you know, should people, you know, want some resources they know who to reach out to and who knows like some of some vendors might actually choose to come that work, not just with people with disabilities but also with people with disabilities who are in intimate relationships.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, it's interesting. My thinking behind the question was to, I see that, I think we need to roll, I was thinking, oh, we need to role model this for other organizations. And so I, that's why I was like, oh, we should put other logos on there. But I hear what you're saying that it's implicit in what, in who we are and what we represent. But it's still, yeah, it still nags at me like, oh, maybe we should, role model for other places.
[Frances Nwajei]: So a big thing is that only put organizations on your fly when your organizations are sponsoring or actually actively working with you, right? So we wouldn't put, let's say Francis has an organization, Marsha has an organization, Yvette has an organization. We wouldn't just randomly put those names because that could give impression that, you know, Francis, Yvette and Marsha are sponsoring. the event, and that's really, you know, that's really not the case. We, you know, we can invite organizations depending on how much time there is, we can, you know, have a list of which organizations are going to be present. But think about the little symbol, the same as the city seal, it's a tiny little thing that goes somewhere on the flyer, and it will be meaningful to at least one person. And one person is one person more that feels that they have a space that they are welcome in.
[Evangelista]: I guess the heart, oh, I'm sorry, Marsha.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Go ahead, Marsha. Subject, so if you need to, because the meeting's getting over and it's something I've run into, in contacting organizations to have tables, They want to know the date and the time. And I want to be sure that the time is really clear with everybody before I tell them. And I'm sure everyone else is going to get that question if they haven't already. And a second one in regard to that is what happens if it rains? What happens to what? What happens to the tables if it rains?
[Frances Nwajei]: What happens to what tables?
[Marcia Kirssen]: The information tables that we're going to have?
[Frances Nwajei]: Yeah, those things come at the very end. I mean, we send DPW an event list and they set up for us. Excuse me.
[Marcia Kirssen]: We have a list from Tom about of events that he, of tables that we were planning to have from different organizations at the fair.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah. Marsha, I think the tables are going to be inside, right?
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay. Exactly what time are the tables going to be?
[Frances Nwajei]: They will already be there. So if the event is from 10 to two, right? Most vendors would probably want to arrive no later than nine, nine 15, depending on their setup. So if I'm a vendor that has like, not just like paper resources, but I have adaptive things and you know, I do a fancy setup. I might want to be there earlier. I think that at this point, it is just best to say that the event starts from 10 to 2, which is what we agreed on. We agreed on the date of Saturday, October 7th, and then we will get back to the vendors. Because DBW is not going to know how many tables to put out until we say, okay, we're going to meet X number of tables. And how long do you expect the vendors will stay until 2? Typically in most events, that's how it is, and I would prefer at this event that vendors do stay till two because this is a disabilities resource fair I can't have. somebody trying to carry their big, whatever, whatever, and, you know, knocking people down. Like if you're at the other end of, you know, of let's say wherever the setup is and you're trying to get to the door, like you have to be cognizant that we're gonna have people of multiple abilities. This is not, you can just come for one hour and that's it.
[Marcia Kirssen]: This is a- I was asking it not because of that, but because because the question arose and because you were planning a movie, which theoretically would draw.
[Frances Nwajei]: Vendors would have to be there from 10 to two. Movie or no movie, they have to be there from 10 to two.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Okay, all right, I want clarification. I told them, there are two of them, and they will decide if they can do that amount of time. That's important.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Marsha. I wanted to just reiterate Marsha's point that we do only have 20 minutes left. Are we planning on meeting? When is our next meeting?
[Frances Nwajei]: Our next meeting is in September. So I kind of want to push through this really quickly. I cannot wait.
[Tom Hamel]: So we only have one more meeting before the event. OK. Um, let me think. So they, we, we have a number of vendors to contact. Um, hopefully everybody knows who they need to contact and have the information, um, uh, 10 to two on the 7th, uh, to let them know. And then, um, when we finalize the replier, we'll, you know, we'll, we'll send that out. I'm trying to think of other, so let's see our other items on our list.
[Frances Nwajei]: So can you, Tom, can you hold off because if that's waiting for a response from me about the braille email responded to in you and Marcia said something about T shirts that I need to speak on quickly.
[Tom Hamel]: Okay, you want to go to that T shirt.
[Frances Nwajei]: So that I really, really love that idea. My concern is that it seems pricey and it's really not pricey but the limited amount of money that we have, I feel like if I get that now it's going to just like So I wanna see if we can wait, like have that be a next thing. We don't necessarily need to get it for this. Let's get all the other stuff. And then maybe if I even have office supply money in my own budget, use it for that, for the Braille business cards. So that's just my thought on it at this time. Marsha and Tom, you sent me, you sent me a logo, or I don't know what to call it, but hold on.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, a picture, a photo.
[Frances Nwajei]: So is everybody able to see this? Don't judge a disability by its visibility?
[Tom Hamel]: Yes.
[Frances Nwajei]: So Marsha and Tom had sent that around and felt that that might be good to use on T-shirts. So I wanted to open the discussion to you both and ask you, T-shirts for who?
[Tom Hamel]: I think we were talking about possibly having T-shirts available to the first however many people that come to the event.
[Frances Nwajei]: OK. So, because you would need to have a large number, right, they would be mixed sizes, that would end up eating up all. You'd need at least two or 300 because you don't really know who's going to come to the, or how many people. But how about something that's more affordable, right? How about taking that icon and maybe asking if it can be made into stickers or magnets, since you like that saying. That's something that can be done for much less.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: I like the... Go on, Susie. I like the idea of magnets. I think people like magnets. Stick them on your fridge, put the... whoever's artwork up. Stickers, I just feel like you see stickers everywhere at little booths and more of a kid thing. And I think if you did stickers, it would be both kids and adults. I also agree with you about the shirts because I just think the variety of sizes and the amount that you would have to do for that cost. And I just think it's too much, especially the first year we do this. Great.
[Frances Nwajei]: Now if we have sponsors, sponsors typically buy the t shirts, that would be different. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: Okay. Yes. Would the LGBTQT logo go on these t-shirts? That's one question. Two, is there a way to, okay, is there a way to maybe use that as a background so that way it's a big piece and maybe people can stand in front of it and take pictures and we have a hashtag?
[Frances Nwajei]: Love that idea. Love that idea. Somebody write that down. That's something that I can ask like the back screen, like the backdrop screen.
[Evangelista]: Right. But not as wide, but let somebody be able to stand next to it and we have our hashtag on there. That's exciting. But that was about it. If I think of the third one, I'll come back in.
[Frances Nwajei]: So that is that's definitely something that can be done right because those screens do roll up and the next year when you have another event you know we can bring it out again. Yeah.
[Evangelista]: Oh, Linda.
[MCM00001367_SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I was gonna say one thing to think about with the magnets versus stickers, which I actually see stickers all over the place. I think magnets are great for, like, you only see those inside your house, though. So, like, magnets are great if we wanna keep, you know, have something for someone to take, like, for support, like, inside your house. Stickers, I view, as something that, like, if you wanna advertise it to the outside world, So I don't know, maybe they serve different purposes and maybe we could get half and half. Yeah, we could do both.
[Frances Nwajei]: We don't have to do one or the other. I mean, we could do both. If it was getting t-shirts from members of the commission, I think that that's very different, right? I'll be like, Yvette, what size do you want? Linda, what size do you want? Tom, what size do you want? But when you're talking about getting them a swag to give out, Like that will just clear out the little monies that I snuck out from the archive for this.
[Evangelista]: So the last piece was maybe we just order like 15 t-shirts and let them be giveaways and put our information on it.
[Frances Nwajei]: I mean, you don't have to- I would love that, but it's like the monies Minimal. I agree with you. Like it's so minimal. I would much rather put the money towards the Braille business card, which speaks volumes. Then towards like one t-shirt with logo and everything is at least $10, 50 t-shirts, $500. That doesn't include shipping and handling. What you sent me was 438. You know, Archer?
[Marcia Kirssen]: This is just a quick thing. I found an earlier logo you sent me, Tom. I will send it now that I've located it. I don't know why. It was quite a while ago that I liked also that I didn't see in what you sent me the last time. So I'll send it to you and to Francis and then
[Frances Nwajei]: You can see it might be more complicated and maybe to that as well because she's, she might know just to just determine I and then if you want us to share you just write in the email. The other commissioners.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I think you should see it. I liked it, but, but any of them would do. I'm not objecting to the one that's up there.
[Frances Nwajei]: I wanna make sure that you guys remember that the commission does not have monies. These are our funds and once that we spend them, they go away. So that's why it's really important and it's really, really critical that even though they're a little, we use those little to make as much noise as possible. Getting that giant screen, I see that giant screen working in many ways. And if you're wondering what the monies are, we're talking about $2,000 max, you know, $60 each for two conference tables, $50 each for, you know, the folding chairs. I think what we have for what I refer to as swag is $8,000. So it's not like, oh, we're talking about thousands and thousands and thousands of though this is, this is one time we spend it, it's gone. And as much as much as I would love to ensure that, you know, we have a multitude of things I have to think about what is going to live on beyond this conference, what is Tom going to take when Tom is going to the Harvester Energy Festival. I just use that as an example, because we all met there last year. So I'm going to be speaking with the person I'm working with at 4imprint, but also somebody else at Superior. Because even the word, I found some nice, pens that have like writing things that have good grip. But I'm trying to get creative on how to write commission on persons with disabilities, because that's very long, you know, like human rights commission, right? What did I do? I slapped the city seal on one part of the pen and wrote human rights commission on the next and boom, there we go. And they were off. So these are things that I'm going to be, you know, working on and have been working on behind the scenes. I can't fundraise, Yvette, as a city employee. I cannot solicit for any, so you can't either. You cannot solicit for monies and funds because you're indirectly working on behalf of the city.
[Evangelista]: No, but as a commission, aren't we able? No.
[Frances Nwajei]: If you have questions, contact the State Ethics Committee. Okay. That was why I don't know if anybody remembers when I first started and I was asking do you have this you have that. I received donations for the first time from the pride for the pride planning committee and I had to go, it had to go before city council for acceptance. So, donations can be received donations can donations can only be received in. What's the words. No, no, I can't. No, I can't say yes I accept conditional. They can only be accepted conditionally because then they have to go before city council who accepts them conditional special terms. Yeah, it's called like so when, when they brought the check around, I accepted it, and it was conditional, then I had to send it up, then it had to go on the paper on the city council agenda and it had to be read and see the council had to decide if they were going to accept it or not.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, so we have about seven minutes left. I think we covered everything in the list for the fair. Should we move on to commissioner recruitment?
[Evangelista]: I'm sorry, Tom, I just want to know where your spreadsheet is that lists all of our tasks.
[Tom Hamel]: Yeah, I can, so it was in one of the minutes. What I can do is have, I'll send it to Gabby again so we can include it in this month's minutes.
[Frances Nwajei]: Okay, thank you. Can I make a suggestion that the information goes through email as attachments and not Google documents? Yep.
[Marcia Kirssen]: PDF file. Something that everyone has.
[Tom Hamel]: All right, so we have, do you want to talk about Commissioner Rubin-Francis?
[Frances Nwajei]: Just so you know, I will also be working on commissioner recruitment during the holiday. So what does that mean? Just making sure that press releases sent out, I think it was already done. I have to double check to make sure we were on it, but reviewing to see if there has been any new applicants in order to broaden the membership of the commission. So keep that in mind. Make sure you read the ordinance so that you understand what this commission is actually charged to do. Because that's the prescription. Go on, Susie.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: But if you could tell me, what is the youngest that somebody could be on the commission? Youngest age.
[Frances Nwajei]: There is no age that is listed I mean I have often wondered why we don't have any representation from the younger, right, not just not this commission in general, right, in general, but I would say that. I think the challenge can also be with having somebody that is younger, right? When school is in session, it can be difficult. My co-chair last year for the PRIDE planning committee was in middle school. However, my co-chair was, you know, through the, through permission of her parents. And when I spoke to her parents, I actually asked, is it okay if I communicate with her directly, right, she's my coach here, we got to get this thing going. This year my coach here was not able to do it because of the transition to high school. So I think that you have to have that balance. I mean, this really is a commitment. There are 10 meetings a year. Prior to my arriving, it was decided that the commission would be off July and August. It works well. I've not heard anybody complain, so I'm not inclined to make any changes. But the commitment has to be there to not only be at the meetings, but to be present And to be active and that means that sometimes you know you might be the one that takes one for the team and goes and you know sits at a three hour really seminar and comes back to report to the team, but it should always be so that we can enhance the community. So I would say 18 to 18 right because that makes sense. Thank you. Oh, other Sue has a question.
[Susan Bibbins]: Last couple of years ago, I tried to recruit from the high school and I got no takers.
[Frances Nwajei]: And maybe when we come back in September after a conference, we connect and we invite the person that runs the CCSR, is that right? And we can invite them as a guest to this, and we can say, listen, we're interested in having some students who would like to engage with our commission as part of civic responsibility. No. We can try. Sue, you look hopeful. I know, Sue. Yeah, I've tried, yeah.
[Evangelista]: I'm not going to add much, but is there a way to reach out to organizations that work with young people or parents or something? Because over here in Medford, do kids go to charter schools where they don't go to Medford High School?
[Frances Nwajei]: I don't know to be quite honest with you, but but I do know that it does not come through me. Everybody who is in anybody who's interested in being on a commission has to go to through the city website there's the set process that is used, and it is correct and it's that way. for many people. I have dropped hints in my conversation with organizations that support people with disabilities that are housed in Medford, you know, but that is about as far as we can go.
[Evangelista]: Oh, okay, I just said that only because you mentioned inviting the person from the Medford High School.
[Frances Nwajei]: Well, the CCSR is the Center for Citizen Responsibility, is that what it's called?
[Evangelista]: Oh, that's not the person, that's not the Medford High School program? Okay, okay. I think it's through Medford High School.
[Susan Bibbins]: Yeah, it's through Medford High.
[Frances Nwajei]: Right, that's the kind of stuff that they do.
[Tom Hamel]: All right. Corresponding some announcements. Do you have any, Frances?
[Frances Nwajei]: Updates? No updates or announcements. You know, of course, Commissioner Kirsten is retiring after many, many years of valuable contributions and I don't know how to thank you enough for all that you've done. I know that my relationship with you is a lot newer than others, but I, you know, I've enjoyed my time with you. I do miss our chats, Commissioner Kirsten and I. There are some times we just catch up at, you know, as I'm schlepping home at seven, eight o'clock at night. And it's nice to get, it's really nice to get the other lens. And I definitely, I definitely value that. These are all things that are in the back of my mind as I do my work.
[Tom Hamel]: So I thank you. Yes, I'll echo that, Marsha. I've enjoyed our conversations too. I hope they don't end. And actually, I wanted to thank you for your commitment to not only our commission, but I know you've had a long standing advocacy for the city of Medford. And I was with you before the city council. I know you've done that before. And I hope that you continue that work. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I don't need to be saying, I want to say that I, I, this means a whole lot to me. because part of my life has been giving back to the community in different ways. And as I become older, I feel like I'm officially disabled now, for sure. And I want to say two things, that I welcome any of you to stay connected with me. As many of you as want, there's always Zoom in my heart. Second of all, if you want to have a social gathering on my patio and you promise to do it all on your own, there is a patio big enough for all of you. And it can be arranged as long as I'm physically able to, or mentally able, I guess. That's another disability. So I am grateful and I have enjoyed almost everything I do. And Tom, yes, he won't get rid of me.
[Frances Nwajei]: I hope not, Marsha. You know, I mean, I still think about that question, is being a senior a disability? You know, it's just... Now I have data. I have data from the CDC.
[Marcia Kirssen]: 48, 38% of seniors are disabled.
[Frances Nwajei]: So, yes. And just knowing, you know, you sharing just like some of what you've gone through in your life as you know. Marsha, you've shared your age before with us. Is it okay if I say your age or do you prefer I don't say? Marsha's 82 years old. Right. Marsha is two times, plus two decades, plus two of the ADA. And, you know, where we are now and what Marsha has, you know, seen and experienced as an elder amongst our mass. And where we could be in the future is, the knowledge is invaluable and I, you know, and you know like Marsha always pushes you know Marsha has always felt that the standards for the ADA are too low and Marsha is right. I mean, you basically just have to not be able to fold a piece of post-it. But we needed something, right? We needed something to create the threshold and we can launch from it. And now I am happy to see so many other areas of what I consider to be the authentic selves of people being taken into consideration as a disability and being respected, but in a manner that enables them to live lives with quality. And because I have people like Marsha in my corner, I don't stop just there. I'm like, oh, I can't rest. I gotta keep jogging. Marsha's chasing me, you know? And I appreciate that. I appreciate that.
[Marcia Kirssen]: Well, I believe that you have to dream when you advocate. Think about Judy Neumann, Steve Grant. Something happens, it's never your dream. But if you don't dream and then do some part of it, then nothing happens.
[Tom Hamel]: Thank you, Marsha, and we all hope to see you in October.
[Marcia Kirssen]: I don't think I'll be able to be there because of my health issues from COVID, unless they magically go away. But I'll try to sit in in September in the meeting, and I'll try to keep my mouth shut. have any received the box. Yvette is going to work with me on photography and I hope something will come of it. There's no guarantee. And so she can be perfectly capable. Thank you.
[Tom Hamel]: Well, then we'll see you in September. So thank you again. And I guess we need a motion to adjourn.
[Frances Nwajei]: Oh, public participation, even though there's nobody on.
[Tom Hamel]: What's that? Oh, is there any public participation? You want me to say that? Is that what you're saying? Oh, okay. Any public participation? Nobody here. Okay. Now we can do the motion to adjourn. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Aye. Aye.
[Tom Hamel]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.
[MCM00001366_SPEAKER_06]: Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.