DeIe a M) EMOrTN  Agenda & Meeting Minutes Community Relations Committee  September 9, 2022 - Charles Mack Citizens' Center  Meeting called to order at 6:08 PM  Chairperson's Welcome  Carissa welcomed everyone to the meeting, and opened the meeting up with a land acknowledgement for the indigenous territory our meeting was located on. She also gave an update to thet team composition that Chris Mendoza submitted his resignation due to time allotment issues on his behalf for the CRC. Jameka also introduced herselfto  the current team. 1. Roll Call  Present: Carissa Abraham, Justin Crews, Juliann Miller, Marc Kesten, Deb Popoliozio, Sunny Absent:J Johnnie Peterson, Paola Garcia, Heidi North, Tiffany Shelley (staffliaison)  Jordan, Ingrid Alexander, Jameka Haynes (guest)  Quorum present with 7 of10 CRC members in attendance.  2. Old Business  2.a Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes  Since there was a quorum during the September meeting, the August minutes were read aloud by Marc. Justin presented a motion to approve the minutes and Juliann  provided a second. The minutes were approved by the members.  2.b Status ofCharter. Approval Process  Carissa stated that the Town Clerk] provided feedback saying the charter does not need to be approved by the Board of Commissioners (BOC), but only reviewed. Justin and Juliann asked about thei importance of a charter and its content ifit does not need tol be approved by the BOC. We aski if other CACs need to have a charter. The CRC decided we    need more clarity on charter approval for the Town of Mooresville.  3. New Business  3.a Team Updates Communications:  Marc stated that there were issues with the. August Newsletter and Facebook post being published in time, but the issues have been rectified with the' Town. Carissa passed out the September Facebook post and Newsletter, and received positive comments, and a couple minor edits were needed. Marc stated Deb prepares the Facebook posts, and Marc has been writing the newsletters until he gets more. help after this planning session. It was also discussed that it may be a good idea to come up with a slogan to quickly describe the  CRC and what we do. Book Club:  Alison has stepped down from acting as organizer of the Book Club, due to outside priorities with family. Justin has taken over for now until another volunteer can step into that role. The September Book Club has zero attendees, most likely due tol low promotion. The October Book Club will be thel last one: for 2022, and will be in the September Newsletter and possibly October's. Justin stated to ask: forv volunteer help on social media, and that we: need tol better partner with thel library as well.  Multicultural Festival:  On 9/17/22, there is a multicultural festival in Harrisburg, NC. Carissa encourages the  CRC to visit ifj possible to get ideas for our multicultural festival.  3.b Strategic Planning Session Preparation CRC Background: Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce:  Jameka went over thel history of the Mayor's Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce. It started shortly after the George Floyd murder and with the Unity March in the Spring of 2020. Jameka reached out to Mayor. Atkins and march organizers to discuss how to build on the motivation of thel hundreds of people who attended the march. Noticed there was nothing about diversity and inclusion (D&I) on the town's website. In Summer of 2020, the' Town developed an internal strategy for D&I and updated their Vision statement with D&I language. Jameka and other leaders met with various groups around Mooresville (including the schooll board and Chief of Police) to advocate for why there needed to be a committee for D&I. Through these discussions, aj proposal was made to create a D&I taskforce to complement the internal D&I strategy. Mayor Atkins proposed that it be named the Mayor's Diversity & Inclusion Taskforce and the Board of Commissioners (BOC) approved of the taskforce in September 2020. All oft this work was done virtually    during the Covid-19 pandemic which struck in February 2020. Mayor. Atkins chose the name, and itl became official in September, 2020. It started with three recordings of one-on-one conversations with BOC members and Town leaders (Carissa will share the videos with the team). The taskforce and volunteers began meeting monthly in January 2021. The first in-person meeting took place in May 2021. Much oft the early work was figuring out processes and rules and who to ask and how to do the work they wanted to do. A book club and community conversations initiatives were. launched in the second halfof 2021. In early 2022, the Town unveiled new requirements to all committees, and proposed to transition the' Taskforce from a temporary team to aj permanent committee. The Diverse & United Pledge was launched in Spring 2022 and received a good response from a couple of community events where the D&ITaskforce promoted it. With the transition from a' Taskforce to a committee, Mayor Atkins proposed a name change for the new committee to better align with the' Town's vision, mission, values, and strategic plan. The changes went into effectJuly 1, 2022, with the name change and new committee members on the CRC. Jameka remains a committed volunteer though shei is now unable to serve as a committee member due to living outside ofl Mooresville city limits.  Overview: Town of Mooresville Strategic Plan:  The team reviewed the Town's Strategic Plan together. Carissa explained that the Strategic Plan is described as a living, breathing document that's updated annually. There are retreats that the BOCand' Town leaders goes on twice a year to review thel budget and help inspire newi ideas to update their strategic plan for what's next for the' Town over the next 3-5-10) years out. One retreat is held in town and the otheri is usually spent visiting another Town fori inspiration. The goals ofthe Strategic Plan are generally expected to stay the same, with the objectives being updated annually. Carissa shared that Mayor Atkins believed the CRC would work well with other committees in relation to Goals 1, 4, and 6. Thei team will look into how we can work with other committees on these goals.  Visioning Exercise:  Sunny led thet team through a visioning exercise to better help brainstorm about what we want to see in Mooresville. The words to help us vision what we want Mooresville tol be were, "Safe," "Vibrant," "Diverse," "and' "Inclusion." These came from the' Town's current Vision statement: "A: safe, vibrant and diverse community thati is inclusive to all." Each CRC member put phrases up to respective key words to see what we all envision as results of CRC work in Mooresville. We also reviewed feedback submitted by volunteers and CRC  members who could not attend the session.  Draft 2022-23 CRC Goals:  Sunny captured all thei ideas for what kind of work and action the CRC hopes to do.    3.c Other  The CRC discussed Mooresville's Sesquicentennial Celebration for the Town's 150th anniversary ofits founding. Some oft the events caused concerns for the team, as they are not inclusive of all members oft the Mooresville community, such as the annual Christmas Parade, "Party Like it's 1873," and a John Moore look-alike contest. With 52.5% ofMooresvillel being religious per city data, it could be addressed with the Town that the name oft the parade could be a Holiday Parade, as any floats or persons identifying with Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or other faith communities would not necessarily be included in a Christian event. We discussed the great responsibility it would be tol begin a strategic conversation around this topic. Onei idea was to meet with the Staff Liaison to better understand what we can help change with this and what assumptions may require some clarification. We would like to begin by determining who is sponsoring and paying for the  Christmas Parade.  The CRC wants to bring things together SO we can be as effective as possible with the BOC. Onei idea for getting airtime with the BOCist to request to get on the BOC's agenda to share a report from the CRC's work at thei first BOC meeting of each month. Itis important for the CRC tol help educate the community on thej purpose, meaning, and context of] D&I initiatives, and especially sharing the value that any D&I initiative would add tot the community. Sharing examples of] how D&I initiatives have worked in other communities and the tangible impact they'vel had or could have will be more influential than simply requesting an ordinance for the sake of] having an ordinance. Initiatives need to connect to the Town's vision, mission, values, and strategic plan to be given serious consideration. This is something that needs tol be discussed more with the CRCi in future  meetings.  Discussion of thei idea ofl being strategic. Some members interpret that perspective as one that is slow and/or weak. Others see it as being intentional and deliberate. Carissa believes our different perspectives will help us balance and complement each other in this work which can make us more effective. We do need to  consider both the short and long-term impacts of our work.  Ingrid expressed her observation that there is a lot of pain in this community which needs to be addressed and healed. When some were tempted to feel like our efforts might be in vain, Ingrid reminded us that nothing is a waste of time ifit makes a  difference for even just one person.  Meetingadjourned at 8:53 PM