AMPUp Outreach Subcommittee Meeting - Aug 14th, 2025

Meeting held in the town hall annex. Materials were available from https://www.arlingtonma.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/37294/18.

Past Outreach Events

There was an outreach meeting for sustainability and environmental groups held on August 13th, to test the idea of broader interest group meetings. Over 30 people attended. We should consider replicating this idea with other comprehensive plan chapters.

There were around 15 sheets of easel paper attached to the wall, each devoted to a particular topic. The sheets were divided into two sections: challenges, and opportunities/actions. Attendees were given post it notes, where they could write comments and ideas and attach them to the relevant sheets. Afterwards, attendees were given five dots, and asked to place them on the actions they supported most. The event concluded with discussions of the most-supported ideas.

This approach may not work for every chapter, but it certainly would work or some. For example, there are a number of groups in town that are interested in transportation.

Committee members agree that it would be good to put together a few more of these events over the next month.

Rebecca and Sarah held at outreach event for residents of Winslow Towers. Approximately 15--17 people attended, and had a lot of feedback to offer. It was a successful event.

Ninigret Partners has been talking with the Chamber of Commerce and business owners in town.

Upcoming Outreach Events

There are likely to be two more public workshops where Stantec participates. The first will focus on plan goals and strategies (probably in October), and the second on implementation steps (probably in November).

Steve and Rebecca will try to organize a topic meeting for transportation.

Rebecca will speak with Marisa Lau about scheduling an event on Cultural resources.

Ann will be at the farmer's market on August 20 (weather permitting). Tristan and Rebecca plan to be at the farmer's market on August 27th. We can continue to table at the farmer's market through September and October.

Sarah will work on a September calendar, which will include a booth for Town Day. Stantec will be at the booth for a few hours.

Some of the topic groups have been better self-starters than others. Committee members discuss how to make this process more accessible. This would be a good topic for our next monthly meeting.

Committee members discuss the inclusion group, which never really got off the ground. Sarah offers to make introductions to DEI Director Ramsha Baluch. A number of town groups work with staff in the Health and Human Service Department. These include the Rainbow Commission and Disability Commission. Cheryl and Angelique will work on this.

Steve's employer was sent a planning survey from the Town of Lexington, and employees in his company were asked to fill it out. He suggests this as a way to reach people employed in the town. Arlington doesn't have many large employers, but it could be useful to survey town employees.

The current three-question (web) survey has gotten over 200 responses. Committee members suggest doing additional web surveys, and rotating questions to keep the project website fresh.

Stantec may need to reschedule when they meet with us in September and October. They'll still join us on Thursday, but it will be a different Thursday.

Open Forum

There were no speakers for tonight's open forum.

Meeting adjourned at approximately 7:30pm.