Next Scheduled Meeting of this Committee:
Date: TBD (weeknight, second week of April)
Location: TBD
Agenda: Continue conversations about organizational changes, begin development of Communications/Outreach strategy to document standard procedures, confirm meeting schedule, prepare for May Superfund orientation and preceding outreach
Summary from March 27th 2015 Conference Call:
Agenda of March 27th Meeting:
8:30 – 8:40 AM: Welcome and Introductions
- Provide opportunity to hear from new members
8:40 – 8:55 AM: Finalize Outreach Materials for Upcoming Events
- Discuss feedback received at the Full CAG meeting on materials that will be used at the March 31st NFIP meeting in Red Hook
- Plan for printing and distribution of materials
- Follow up on outreach to CAG members who are Red Hook residents to engage them in the process
8:55 – 9:05 AM: Finalize Letter to DEP and DEC Regarding Douglass/Thomas Green Park Remediation and Retention Tank Siting
- Make any final changes to letters based on feedback at CAG meeting and develop plan for submitting
9:05 – 9:20 AM: Begin Planning for Superfund Orientation Meeting Before May Full CAG Meeting
- Review purpose of meeting
- Identify topics and potential speakers
- Reserve space
9:20 – 9:55 AM: Discuss Organizational Follow-up Items from Full CAG Meeting
- Facilitation Team Representative – Who will it be?
- Administrative lead – Review responsibilities and identify a person
- Help with scheduling/securing space
- Prepare summaries
- Record attendance
- Developing agenda?
- Time keeping/facilitation?
- Facilitation Strategy – What do we think our facilitation needs are moving forward?
- Continue outside support?
- Internal facilitation lead?
- Regular meeting times – What will they be?
- Recommend alternating between evening times and morning times (e.g., Thursday after CAG meeting at 6:30 PM one month then Friday after CAG meeting at 8:30 AM another month)
- Committee membership review (see attachment)
- Discuss development of communications plan (Due at May CAG meeting)
- “The CAG Outreach Committee will develop a Communications and External Relations Plan which they shall review as necessary and that will include, but not limited to, methods for 1) responding to press inquiries, 2) disseminating information, 3) responding to speaker/presenter requests, 4) developing and updating printed and on-line materials. The CAG Communications and External Relations Plan and any changes will be subject to approval by the full CAG . . .”
9:55 – 10:00 AM Updates and Announcements
Meeting Participants, March 27, 2015
Sabine Aronowski*
Michelle de la Uz*
Stefan Doering*
Rafael Gomez Luna*
Katia Kelly*
Ariel Krasnow*
Eric McClure*
Rita Miller*
Lizzie Olesker*
Terri Thomson (Nat’l Grid)
Recap of the Full CAG Meeting
The group discussed what happened at the full CAG meeting. Significant actions or agreements from that meeting included:
Reviewed and made some minor revisions to the draft letters to DEP and DEC inviting them to discuss the Douglass/Thomas Green Park Remediation and Retention Tank Siting. Agreed that these letters should be sent when revised.
Briefly discussed and suggested changes to the Archeology Committee’s note about sites of concern related to the remediation of the 1st Street Basin.
Discussed and agreed on the following organizational/strategic changes:
- Establish a facilitation team. Specific activities may be different from what is in the Charter, but the concept is the same. Each Committee should identify a representative for that team in April.
- Identify a person to make presentations or read statements on behalf of the CAG based on approved content.
- Adopt recommendations for the committees, which included having regular meeting dates, taking over administrative functions, developing a facilitation strategy, etc.
- Have the Outreach Committee develop an outreach strategy by the May meeting.
Finalizing Outreach Materials
There is a meeting in Red Hook on March 31 to discuss flood maps and flood insurance. A revised draft outreach document was developed and circulated to the Outreach Committee for review. The group discussed this draft and identified the following changes:
- Simplify the content to entice people to come. In particular, eliminate a lot of the details about the workings of the CAG (e.g., developing a charter).
- Add a link to the website at the top of the page.
- Be clearer about what the CAG is, eliminate any existing discrepancies between how EPA might define a CAG broadly and how the Gowanus CAG defines itself.
- The group agreed to update the timeline, but was unable to make this change on Friday.
Ariel, Sabine, and Lizzie will revise the draft and work with Pat to send it out to the full CAG for final review by the end of the day on March 27th.
John McGettrick agreed to distribute the materials at the meeting on March 31. Once finalized, Sabine will coordinate with John to see if he needs assistance for printing.
Members should continue to reach out to CAG members who live in Red Hook to let them know about the planned outreach activities, if they have not already done so. Below is the list:
- John McGettrick will contact Lillie Marshall, Kim Tampakas (sp?), and George Fiala
- Sabine will contact Reg Flowers
- Maria will contact Victoria Hagman
- Ariel will contact Phaedra Thomas
Letters to DEP and DEC
Michelle incorporated the comments from the full CAG meeting. Sabine agreed to print and mail the letters.
Pat will provide emails for DEP and DEC that are included in the outreach lists.
The group also discussed the need for a CAG email address. Eric agreed to look into establishing one that could be used to transmit letters like these ones and to receive questions or responses.
Superfund/CAG Orientation Meeting in May
The group discussed their earlier decision to hold an orientation meeting before the full CAG meeting in May. This meeting would primarily talk about what Superfund is, provide some background and the current status of the Gowanus Superfund site, and discuss the CAG.
The Committee will need to identify a spokesperson (or people) to provide some remarks on behalf of the CAG. The Committee will also need to take care of the logistics for the meeting. It was agreed at the last Outreach meeting that the orientation and the full CAG meeting in May should be held at the Miccio Center. The group agreed that the orientation should start at 5:00.
General Outreach Items
The group agreed that it needs to reiterate that CAG members should be conveying information from the CAG to their constituents. This should be included in the outreach plan.
The website needs to be updated with notes from the full CAG meetings and the committee meetings, letters to elected officials and state agencies, resolutions, etc. The group discussed having an unpaid intern do this. This would require some sort of “sponsor” to direct the work of the intern.
- It was noted that the City of New York has established a new program to help get young people hired this summer. Terri will check to see if the CAG may be able to access young people through this program.
Organizational Changes
Full CAG Facilitation team representative
- Ariel, Sabine, Rafael and Stefan volunteered to serve on the Facilitation Team to represent the Outreach Committee. There were no objections. The group agreed that representatives on the facilitation team would likely rotate, but there was no schedule established.
Administrative lead (for the Committee)
- The group agreed that Facilitation Team representatives would cover these responsibilities. The group did agree that it would be helpful to have an outside notetaker to assist with developing meeting summaries.
Facilitation strategy
- Eric and Stefan volunteered to serve as facilitators for the group. There were no objections.
Establishing regular meetings
- The group agreed that it should meet the second week of the month to ensure that it has time to develop materials in advance of the full CAG meetings, which are usually held the fourth Tuesday of the month. The group agreed to alternate each month between meeting on the second Friday of the month at 8:30 AM at FAC and meeting on a weeknight during that second week on the alternating month. The group agreed that it would need to identify a space for the evening meetings. The following spaces were suggested as possibilities: Community Board 6, Brooklyn Main Public Library, Park Slope Civic Council, Miccio Center, Good Shepherd Services. Pat will request that members investigate and suggest possible meeting spaces for future meetings. Pat will also send a “general” Doodle poll to ask people which day of the week would be best for the evening meeting.
Membership review
- The list of committee members will be updated further and sent out for review.
Development of an outreach plan
- The group agreed to focus on developing an outreach plan as described in the Charter at the April meeting. It should incorporate the suggestion to have CAG members distribute information to their constituents. It should also include a process to distribute the minutes from the full CAG meetings to members before the next full meeting so that they can be reminded of what happened and approve the minutes at the meeting.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be a weeknight during the second week of April.