Meeting Participants (Committee Members noted with a *)
Sabine Aronowsky*
Michelle de la Uz*
George Fiala
Reg Flowers*
Katia Kelly*
Ariel Krasnow*
Eric McClure*
John McGetrick*
Lizzie Olesker*
Terri Thomson (National Grid)
Maria Pagano*
Maryann Young*
Summary
Next Meeting Date/Time:
The group agreed to meet again on either Friday October 4th at 8:30 AM at the Fifth Avenue Committee offices. The agenda for the meeting will include discussion about the process for posting materials to the web site in addition to other agenda items.
Discussion of Survey Results
Ariel provided a summary of the outreach survey results. The survey provided some insights into what the committee should be doing and how CAG members share information. The Outreach Committee agreed that it has the responsibility to disseminate (via emails, the web and other mechanisms) information generated by the CAG and by EPA related to the cleanup of the canal. Members of the CAG are free to disseminate whatever information they want to the members of their own organizations and share information through their own distribution lists.
The survey also revealed members’ thoughts about what information members felt was important to provide, including timely and updated calendar information (e.g., meeting schedules, outreach events, etc.) and short fact sheets related to the cleanup that either have already been approved by EPA or are developed based on approved information. Responses reinforced the need to have a comprehensive and up-to-date website.
There were a total of 22 members who completed the survey (of the 56 CAG members). Many of the people who responded to the survey indicated that they have distribution lists of about 500 people. This means the CAG has the potential to reach out to a lot of people through its network of members.
- ACTION: Ariel will send out a list of who answered the survey.
Updating the CAG Website
Ariel noted that Natalie Loney (EPA) had provided her with a list of materials that might be helpful to post to the CAG website. Other information the group agreed should be posted includes Bette Stoltz’ post cards and CAG resolutions. Much of this information is being stored in an online Drop Box ready to be posted. Other items that the group mentioned included:
- Timeline of the cleanup process
- One-pager on PRAP (a link to the PRAP already exists, so this may not be necessary)
- One pager on the ROD when it comes out
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). EPA already has some on their web site. The committee could just review these and pick out the most relevant ones or just link to EPA’s document.
The group agreed to hold a web training meeting on Friday September 13th at 8:30 AM at the Fifth Avenue Committee offices. During this meeting, interested committee members (and others) will be shown how to post materials to the CAG web site to create a pool of people that could post materials in the future. This will help ensure that the process of disseminating information can proceed if one or two members are not available. Josh Skaller will lead this training.
Participants reiterated the need to keep the CAG website focused on only CAG and cleanup related information. It is ok to provide links to sites for other groups (e.g., the groups that are represented on the CAG), but the content of the site needed to maintain a narrow focus (i.e., CAG information only).
- ACTION: Ariel will find the list of materials that Natalie provided and others are encouraged to round up other materials they feel should be posted and bring them to a web training meeting.
- ACTION: Pat Tallarico will make sure an announcement about the web training meeting is shared with the full CAG membership list to make sure others are aware and can participate if interested.
- ACTION: Michelle and Sabine will try to work with Josh to get the log-in information for the site.
The group also agreed to make an announcement at the next CAG meeting about the updates to the web site and then potentially demonstrate the site at the October meeting.
Email Lists
The facilitation team has been getting email lists set up to distribute through a program called Constant Contact. This program allows them to distribute emails to large lists of people. They have set up the list for the full CAG and are working on the broader, 500-person list. Maryann also indicated that the membership list that the facilitation team is using may not be the most current.
- ACTION: Maryann will resend the contact lists to Pat and Doug to confirm they have the latest.
- ACTION: Pat will check with Doug to make sure that Maryann and Terri Thomas are included on the CAG mailing list.
The ROD Announcement
The group discussed the fact that the next full CAG meeting will be the last one before the ROD is released and agreed to contact Natalie to ask her to provide some advanced notice of the ROD publication so that the Outreach Committee could be prepared to post information and announcements about its release.
- ACTION: Michelle will send a note to Natalie to request information about the release of the ROD.
There will also likely be public meetings after the ROD is announced. The group agreed to provide EPA with some guidance about where to hold these meetings. Specifically, the group passed a resolution to suggest that EPA hold meetings in at least four locations – Red Hook, Carroll Gardens, Wykoff Houses, and Park Slope. At least two of the meetings should be bilingual (English and Spanish). If there were any controversial points in the ROD that would impact a particular community, EPA should consider having more than one meeting in that community. In Red Hook, EPA should choose a location that will maximize participation or choose two different locations that will draw different types of residents.
- ACTION: Michelle will pass the guidance on the public meetings to Natalie.
CAG Membership Applications
Applications for CAG membership go to the Administrative Committee for review and approval. These applications are supposed to be submitted online through the gowanuscagop@gmail.com, which is monitored daily by the Administrative Committee. The group is confirming that the mailbox is functioning properly to ensure that applications submitted through the mailbox are being received. In addition, the committee agreed that there should be a process for providing and processing hard-copy applications. The group agreed there should be applications and related information (e.g., charter information, responsibilities of CAG members, etc.) at EPA site repositories and at full CAG meetings. These applications should also have physical addresses where applicants can send hard copies. The Admin Committee should determine how they want to manage this process.
- ACTION: Ariel and Katia will share the suggestion of hard copy applications with the Administrative Committee at their meeting on September 10th.
CAG Spokesperson
One of the topics discussed at the full CAG meeting in August was the idea of having a CAG spokesperson. This person would serve as a “face” for the CAG at some events and provide a point of contact for people seeking information about the CAG. This topic will be addressed by the Administrative Committee at their meeting on September 10th.
Facilitation “Committee”
Another topic from the full CAG meeting was the request to have a representative from each of the Committees become part of a Facilitation “Committee” primarily to help the facilitation team in crafting the full CAG meeting agendas and in relaying information from the Committees to the full group. This person could be the same or different from the person who coordinates or facilitates the actual meetings. The group agreed that Sabine will play this role for the Outreach Committee.