North Yarmouth EDSC picks new chair, sets business directory plan

[7:13] Speaker A (unidentified): Lost order pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic all [7:37] Speaker B (unidentified): Right so we've got our old business and let's start with the June minutes which I was not there so I'm gonna need to not vote on this but anybody have any notes [Speaker A (unidentified): All righty,] On paper, number one abstaining, and then next, new chair, yay, so anybody have thoughts? I know we, Mo had talked about maybe coming back and being chair, she's let me know that she's got too much on her plate to rejoin, so with that in mind, let's [9:05] Speaker A (unidentified): Chat. I watched the meeting that we had in June, which was quite lively, and I'll share more of what I took from reviewing the video, but in regards to our discussion on chair, I had mentioned that I wouldn't want to be chair because I'm chair of the budget committee. For a person to be chair of two committees in town, and I noted that Julia mentioned that she would be pleased to be vice chair in that June meeting but I didn't hear anything from Grace for a reason why she wouldn't be chair I don't [9:54] Speaker C (unidentified): know that I'm able to do that right now I'm on a big the interior design committee in Portland and with two little kids I don't know that 's the right opportunity for me at the moment but happy to stay involved and continue as secretary as well so [10:10] Speaker A (unidentified): You [10:15] Speaker B (unidentified): You write the agenda and you make sure that goes in a week beforehand you chat with the you know you connect with the select board liaison and we're gonna talk more about that actually in this meeting because that's changing a little bit and any communication with the town manager [10:34] Speaker A (unidentified): That needs to be had. Okay, so you're the contact to the town manager. The chairperson is the contact to the town manager So it's agendas contact with town manager any escalation to the liaison if you Help or in writing the meetings. Well, you did an excellent job of the journey Julie why don't you put your mic on I [11:09] Speaker D (unidentified): Would be glad to give it a shot You know just so we can you know, it's not anything that I think it's important for us to get caught up in you know, we should just get it done and Go from there for [11:24] Speaker B (unidentified): Me to be back up. I can be vice chair That's fine [11:28] Speaker D (unidentified): Okay, as long as I have somebody to like check in with like am I doing this right or have I got this and you know? I think I probably could manage this Okay, [11:44] Speaker A (unidentified): I make a motion that Julia be chair for this next year second discussion all righty all in favor Julia chair all right yay do we switch now you could yeah you know you have to switch physically you could just handle the meeting [12:08] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay, you run this meeting here. I'm going to give you the gavel. You come in at the [12:12] Speaker A (unidentified): end. All right, I'll make a motion that Eliza act as vice chair for this year. Is that what we talked about? Is that good? Sure. I will second that. All in favor? All in favor? All [12:30] Speaker B (unidentified): righty. Cool beans. [12:32] Speaker D (unidentified): Approve the minutes. We've got a new chair. Where are we now? [12:38] Speaker A (unidentified): Could I give an update on our June meeting? I'd love that. That so in watching the video and what I focused on was the list, the directory list. We ended up calling it a directory and I'll run through all of this, but there's certainly some open questions here. One of the things that we talked about is what is the purpose of the directory list, and that might frame the future direction of it. So we need to define what the purpose is, how do we get it to the town website, how do we get it put on the town website. There was discussion of the old website and new website and the new website now has been rolled out. It was rolled out August 31st, so the new website is up and running. We had a discussion about public information used to create the directory should be fine to post, it would seem. Then there was discussion about do we need to get permission. And I think if we were going to list phone numbers, we thought that might be a bridge too far without permission. But the comprehensive plan listed businesses with their name, address, and type of business, and that is already out there. We wanted to provide a mechanism for how a business could be added to the list and may have to reach out to like Cumberland how their form works. We talked about starting with some businesses, at least start the list, let's start a published list. Whether we need permissions, you know, depending on what data we include could be determined, but the goal was to have a list to start from. And then it was noted the comp plan list from 2020, 2017, and I actually printed that out today and I brought it, and so I can hand that off to Grace, but it's readily available on the website. It's like I think it starts on page 21, and then that was it. And then sharing the list, which we already talked about, that Grace will now send that out, what we have, so that hopefully helps frame Our discussion on moving forward with the subcommittee, which was Andrew and Grace reaffirmed at the June meeting. So do [15:17] Speaker B (unidentified): we want to push for like But do we want to ask? The slack board to make this our charge for the year. Like do we want this to be our main? Output for the coming year or how are people feeling about that? [15:38] Speaker A (unidentified): I don't think we need a charge from the Select Board to move forward with that. I think it's within our purview and within our scope. And frankly, I think they would support it, you know. Yeah. I guess what I'm saying is like, if it was something controversial or something, but. Right. [15:58] Speaker B (unidentified): No, I guess I just mean like when we, well, this is coming up in a bit, but when we next speak to them, you know, presumably they'll want to know what we want to see for a charge this year. Do we want something in addition to this, or do we want to just focus on this? [16:17] Speaker A (unidentified): Brainstorming, we also are going to talk about reporting to the Select Board. They've asked for committee chairs to come report and give an update on what the committee is working on. That might be an opportunity to pre-flight the publishing of the list to the Select Board and say this is our intention, you know, and that would be a live interaction that they could give us feedback if they have any concerns about that, and then pursuing it with town office to get that put to the website, and maybe we could even have a draft at that point that we could [17:00] Speaker B (unidentified): hand off to them. Yeah, so actually jumping ahead, because this is also on the agenda, we have two schedules that the new Select Board chair has sent us for heading to Select Board meetings, and it doesn't have to be the chair necessarily, it can be whoever, like, we want to go in and chat with them. And I assume it can change from meeting to meeting, depending on availability and all of that. But so the schedule that they sent us, Schedule 1 dates are October 20th, December 15th, February 17th, and April 20th. And then Schedule 2 would be November 17th, January 18th, March 18th, or, sorry, January 19th, March 16th, and May 18th. And I'll send those dates again to, like, an email so that people have a hard copy. [18:09] Speaker A (unidentified): Can I repeat that back to you, Eliza? Mm-hmm. [Speaker B (unidentified): Yep. Sorry, 2-16.] 2-16 and 4-20. [18:21] Speaker B (unidentified): Yep, that's Schedule 1. That's Schedule 1. [18:23] Speaker A (unidentified): Schedule 2, you said 11-17. Yep. Yep. And 5-18? Yep. [18:39] Speaker B (unidentified): And so they want to know which schedule we would like to be on for that. my guess would be scheduled to just because I don't think I think we'd like to have one more of our meetings before we report to them does that sound good to everybody okay [19:02] Speaker D (unidentified): Make sense to have more information before we better sense of where we're going with stuff, so [19:11] Speaker B (unidentified): I will, in that case, I will let her, actually, Julia, you can let them know because you'll be doing that, and actually, I'll also forward this email to you now that we know who's going to be chair. [19:30] Speaker D (unidentified): Does that email have the dates in it? I didn't write it down. It does. [19:33] Speaker B (unidentified): And I'll send the dates to everyone, too. [19:37] Speaker D (unidentified): So you just email the select board, right? Just to let them know, you don't have to call them or track them down? [19:45] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah. Okay. No,, just email, you know, whoever. So our new... Who's the new chair? The new chair is Paul Whitmarsh, and then our new liaison is Molly, so you can, I would reach out to like both. I usually reach out to like the chair and then our liaison as well [20:08] Speaker A (unidentified): So Eliza, that email you got from the chair, it was only the select board chair or was it the whole select board? [20:15] Speaker B (unidentified): I don't know whether the whole select board was on the email. [20:21] Speaker A (unidentified): Oh, so if you forwarded that email to Julia, could reply to all with the EDSC's choice to start on the 11-17 cycle. Yes. [20:35] Speaker D (unidentified): I can figure out that technology. Yeah. [20:41] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay. So schedule two. And then do we want to... Yeah. [20:46] Speaker A (unidentified): I'm not... I don't think this has to be anything graphically created. Yeah. And I think modeling it after the comprehensive plan list is all we really need to do. [21:01] Speaker B (unidentified): And I would hesitate to put up slides that have, you know, if we haven't decided definitively what we're doing with the, you know, to what extent everything will be public, we probably don't want to throw it up on the projector in a public meeting. So maybe a handout. [21:21] Speaker A (unidentified): Out, do we want to have, well, that's a good point, you don't want to share something publicly that you're asking can we share this publicly, we could give the materials to the select board in that case in a printed handout so the only they can see it, yeah, but I would like them to see what it is that we're [21:42] Speaker B (unidentified): Proposing to do, you know, so we can talk specifics, if we email them the file plus give a handout at the meeting, that seems like maybe it covers all the bases, yeah, yep, and we can nail that down at [21:57] Speaker A (unidentified): Our next meeting, great, so to just be repetitive, you feel the list is in a shape that we could possibly post it tomorrow, yes, perfect, so there's really no more work, yeah, that [22:25] Speaker C (unidentified): You and Andrew have to do on it, no, our last discussion was just on, you know, what are the opportunities for it, yep, again to be the dead horse maintaining [22:37] Speaker A (unidentified): It right, yeah, so maintaining it maybe would be a discussion either tonight or next month so that we have some recommendation, right? We don't want to just go to the select more say we don't know what we're gonna do about this, you know, we need to think about it, have a plan. It's gonna be a question, I'm sure. [Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, well.] That's a takeaway, yes, how was it going to be maintained, did we want to talk about what the purpose of the directory list is? I [23:22] Speaker C (unidentified): know part of the conversation last time was how relevant is it for a place that people will go to search for a certain thing, a tailor or what have you, which is certainly possible. At that point, it's more fodder for Google searches and AI crawls likely that it'll just pick up on that. I'm sure there'll be some things you can go and search, but it's not an exhaustive list, obviously, it's just whatever happens to be in the town, so that's certainly one thing, and any other, the other thing we talked about is creating a community almost like a networking [24:09] Speaker D (unidentified): community, right, that was, yeah, that was a big part of the conversation we had, right, back home, you know, is also putting out that we're here as a resource and that we're trying to kind of offer that support to local businesses, and I think that the dual [24:33] Speaker B (unidentified): purposes mesh pretty well with each other, and it, you know, for the networking part, it's also a jumping-off point for the EDSC to be able to reach out to business owners and be like, hey, we're gonna, you know, have this event or that event, or like, would anybody like, in the past we've talked about business mentorships, things like that, so it's a way for us to reach out to them and gauge interest in those things, maybe [25:11] Speaker A (unidentified): there's a little pie in the sky, but we had talked about we were gonna make the idea about highlighting a business for the month or something, and then we kind of shot it down because we can't show favoritism and that, but just thinking now, we could say in the month of December, we'd like to highlight carpentry businesses in North Yarmouth. So if, have a category. So if you're a carpentry business and would like to, you know, attend our next meeting or whatever we do with that, we could maybe approach it from that angle. Well, [25:55] Speaker D (unidentified): it doesn't single, like you said, it avoids the label of favoritism and, well, you only got that because you know so-and-so and, but it's a broader [26:03] Speaker A (unidentified): category, and it's an open invitation to all those types of businesses. I [26:16] Speaker D (unidentified): Would still like to think that at some point we might have a gathering, you know, to the businesses together, and maybe get some feedback from them, because I think the social thing, the aspect of pulling everybody together, it could be, I think a lot of people find that it's community building, yeah, you know, and I think it's going to be essential, you know, the community building, you know, the, I hope the business committee, the community is going to be somewhat represented and involved with the comprehensive plan, you know, those folks, I mean, it really is important. This is, this is a big deal coming up for us. [27:15] Speaker B (unidentified): I know I said the last time I was actually withdrew that, just because the filming Lee busy season. Oh, I just figured it's more every single night. [27:43] Speaker D (unidentified): I need somebody to get a driver's license. That makes a big difference. [27:46] Speaker B (unidentified): I know. Anyway, sorry for sidetracking. [27:51] Speaker D (unidentified): Can we move on to the annual report, what we'd like to include in that? I've never written anything like that. I would need some help. And when is it due? [28:05] Speaker B (unidentified): So it is due Wednesday [Speaker D (unidentified): the 30th.] So Wednesday, yep. And it's really just a quick, like, here's what we did, could you get, take last [28:23] Speaker D (unidentified): year's, could you, that would be great, and I send that to the board of the select board and town manager, that goes to get an email request, I did, yes, and [28:56] Speaker B (unidentified): actually I just wanted to make sure that we discussed, like, was there anything in particular that everybody... [29:17] Speaker A (unidentified): Make sure you get in that Grace sends out the minutes really quick. [29:24] Speaker D (unidentified): Well, basically, I mean, we covered, there was a lot about all the research that Sadie did on other towns' comprehensive plans and the presentation to the select board, some of the wrap-up of the sidewalk stuff early last fall, and discussion we've had about the business community, the list and highlights, just [30:14] Speaker A (unidentified): what you'll do is fine, so you're gonna write it and then run it by Julia, yeah, and then submit it by the 30th to [30:35] Speaker B (unidentified): do the same, okay, so should we move on, yeah, I guess so, yes, early voting coming right up, that is, we'll [30:53] Speaker D (unidentified): go into the town office and you just fill out your ballot, okay, easy peasy, drop it off with them, so should we do a PSA about get out there and vote, yes, everybody roll, please. [31:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh, I just saw that the library moved Junk in the Trunk date is gonna be October 3rd. [31:19] Speaker D (unidentified): Saturday's supposed to be really awful weather, right? Yeah. [31:23] Speaker B (unidentified): As well as they're also doing a holiday, like Halloween costume and holiday decor swap, which sounds very exciting to me as like kind of a hoarder of holiday decor. So that looks really cool and when will that be that will be October 3rd? Okay, same day. Okay. Yep Then they're both 9 to noon. I believe I Also noticed and this was among a whole bunch of really cool teen programming. But when I was looking this up to find the date There's a refashion for teens coming up on Saturday where they like learn how to kind of upcycle their old stuff I thought that was so cool, and I just it reminded me that the library just has amazing teen programming For anyone out there that's listening Tough to do send them to the library They also put out the word that they need repairers for the repair fair Early people that are good with I believe it was knife sharpening and sewing and then And out here on October 17th, we've got Trunk or Treat coming up. Always a good time. [Speaker D (unidentified): That's always fun.] Fair, of course, begins the Cumberland Fair in a few days. And local, you know, nonprofit organizations and stuff. [33:19] Speaker D (unidentified): New businesses. Yes. I know about Big Boy Bread, but Good Hours. [33:24] Speaker B (unidentified): So Good Hours, a Cumberland mom is starting, like, social gatherings and like women particularly moms I think it's new bakery the Cumberland and should be rail fest yes trail fest coming up or trail coming up I'm guessing [34:41] Speaker D (unidentified): there's no public comment I have something to the [34:55] Speaker A (unidentified): the committee makeup that andrew was brought on as an alternate but my opinion is that if there's a vacant member position and you have an alternate the intention i think is the alternate moves to the full member position once one is open i [35:19] Speaker D (unidentified): thought that had come up at our june meeting knowing that sadie was leaving That somebody said something to Andrew and he was okay with that So that's something that we ought to check in with him about exactly. Okay. Yeah, but I think if he's inclined [35:36] Speaker A (unidentified): What we could do to expedite the process is to make a motion to move him to regular member. He keeps his term Checked his term. It's 2029 so he's got three years full three full years. He doesn't lose that by moving to a full position But he just becomes a full member and then the open position becomes then we'd have an open regular member and Okay, but certainly want his View of it before we make a motion on that. [36:15] Speaker D (unidentified): I will reach out to him Like to make a motion. I motion to adjourn Well done