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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDEI Comm. 10/15/2024Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee Meeting Minutes A October 15, 2024 RECEIVED Present: TO;;,r Yiai CLERKS OFFIC Teresa Murphy, Brendan Roche (arrived at 6:28 pm), Taylor Palinski, James Owens, Rishi Pendyala, eth Collins, Jenifer Sellon, and Sally Fehervari, Nicole Burch, Dhruv Jain, Deputy Chief fV4kNWIJb4 apl (8:eSSensis and Kate j deLima, were present in meeting room 2 A/B at Town Hall. � A "SFIELD Also Present: Jocelyn LeMaire, Director of Human Resources MASSAC14USETTS Not Present: Kevin Dumas, Peter Lally, Joe Kaplan, Michael McCreless 1. Call Meeting to Order Ms. LeMaire called the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee meeting to order at 6:05 PM. 2. Discussion and Consideration to Approve the Meeting Minutes of August 20, 2024 Meeting Minutes Discussion: Revise second page, third paragraph, to say Ms. Murphy instead of Mr. Murphy. Revise adjournment motion to say Kaplan/Owens instead of Kaplan/Owns. Amend response to Mr. Kaplan's question regarding the use of gay/lesbian to reflect that recommended language will replace gay/lesbian with LGBTQ+. Motion: To approve meeting minutes of August 20, 2024 inclusive of discussed revisions. Vote Passes: 11:0 (Penesis, Murphy). 3. Discussion and Review of Communications from Town Departments Ms. LeMaire reminded the Committee of how she had previously reached out to all of the Town's departments to request samples of some of their communications. She added that the departments responded promptly with those samples, and that the samples were provided to the Committee via email and a printed binder. Mr. Penesis asked if there was a template that the departments use that would make updating any recommended language easier. Ms. LeMaire offered that the point the Committee is currently at is just a step before something like a template might be put in place. It is her hope that when the departments create their templates after receiving the Committee's recommendations, that they will be inclusive of the language that is recommended by this Committee. Ms. Sellonstarted by offering that it is helpful to some people that text not be double justified. In other words, it should only be left justified. Ms. deLima asked if there was a non -general option for "Ms." and "Mr. Jocelyn replied that some research would need to be done for that. The group began their review the samples provided by the Town's departments. Recommendations are as follows: a. Use "they" instead of he/she unless the pronoun has been confirmed as acceptable by the person referenced or the author is writing about themselves. Mr. Penesis commented that according to the State's constitution, when addressing a husband and wife in writing "No legal substitute can be used to replace the husband and wife." b. Change chairman to .Chair„ or Chairperson.„ c. Change His/her to Their. d. Nicole Birch asked if the Town Seal was being considered as it could be considered offensive. e. Chief Assessor should be reconsidered to be something similar to Primary Assessor. f. Town Seal should always be reprinted to be legible. Such as color should not be reproduced in black and white if it cannot be read. g. Pictures should be gender neutral and pictures should reflect things that everyone would associate with. For example, a picture of a house only represents a certain segment of the population. Ms. Selion suggested that bodies of work in their entirely should be considered as a whole. Meaning, one page could be representative of some people and other pages in the same body of work could represent other people, making the body of work in its entirety representative of everyone. h. Items should be clear and not photocopied to the point that they are illegible, and fonts should be readable. I. Caution overuse of italics. Mr. Penesis suggests that the Town should have a template and standard font so all communications are done in the same size/font to make communications as clear as possible. Brendan Roche arrived at 6:28 pm j. Use of the phrase "I am older" might be changed to "I am over 60 years of age;' k. All communications should be written toward a lower education level. I. All communications should state at the beginning that someone at Town Hail is available to assist should reading or understand assistance be needed. m. On Dear Property Owner letter, the "return it to us should be specified, n. Inclusion of QR codes could be coupled with the typical means of porting readers to another location. o. Color contrast must be taken into consideration and applied to reading materials. p. Are all newsletters produced in format that allows for visual impaired to use "readers?" q. Spell check should always be utilized r. Crowded pages are difficult to read. White spacing should be used so content is not overwhelming. s. Words and phone numbers should not be hyphenated. t. Be careful of cultural awareness "Indian" versus "Southeast Asia." u. Should staff be required to use pronouns in their email signatures? v. Are ALL CAPS an acceptable use? w. "Duties for the 14 Man crew" to "Duties for the crew." x. Hyperlinks should not be a different font that the rest of the communication. 4. Discussion of the Next Steps in the Audit Process as it Related to Mansfield Communication Practices Ms. LeMaire made the committee aware that she would send the examples discussed this evening to the DEI Consultant for review before the committee meets again. Her hope is to receive some feedback on these examples soon while the committee continues on reviewing and discussing the remaining examples. S. Establish Next Meeting Date The Committee established that possible dates for the next meeting will be Monday, November 01 or November 13". Ms. Griffin will follow up with the final date chosen based on room availability. 6. Any Items Not Known within 48 Hours There were no items. 7. Adjourn Motion: To adjourn the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commit t' f O t ber 15 2024 at 7 06 PM (Archer/Pen sis) Vote: 12:0 S Signature Date Minutes prepared by Nancy Griffin e ee mg o c o