Friends of the Community Path
-----------------------------
 
MEETING MINUTES: Meeting held June 19, 2001
 
AGENDA: Review action items, Coalition building,
Artbeat, Funding, Contacts. 
 
ATTENDEES: Joel Bennett, Lynn Weissman, Andy Oakland,
Bob Kindel, John Mann, Bob Sayre, Ron Newman,
Jessie Strickgold, Turil Cronburg, Arum Sannuti,
other? 
 
1. Greetings and introductions
 
2. Review action items: 
 - John Mann explained to us his conversation with
Pat Jehlen, the state rep. for most of Somerville. 
Due to the lateness in the budgeting schedule, John
and others agreed that we likely will not get funding
in this budget cycle.
 
 - Turil reported on her investigation into City of
Somerville procedures for getting approval to set up a
table to promote the Community Path. She indicated to
the city that we would propose dates and locations for
setting up tables and that the city aldermen, who meet
twice a month, would act(presumably approve) that
proposal. The group debated when the best times would
be for setting up a table (time of day and weekend v.
week day). To be discussed further next meeting.
 
3. Group name:
 - We also opened the issue of whether the group name
should be changed, though it seemed that everyone
generally supported "Friends of the Community Path."
 
4. Artbeat:
 - Joel reminded the group that we would have a table
set up for Somerville Art Beat on Saturday, July 21,
12:00-6:00 (set up 11:00,breakdown 6:00) and that
group members would be needed in 1-2 hour shifts (2-3
members per shift) to staff the booth. Objectives
would be:
- collect additional names and contact info
- expand the group 
- raise $ through donations and selling Rubel bike
maps 
- raise awareness and support of the issue 
 
Planned activities include:
 
 - supplying post cards that people can fill out and
draw on to show their support (also with an "art"
theme)
 - displaying a large map of the proposed path
 - sign up for people to get on our mailing list
 - collecting donations
 - distributing brochures
 - offering rides in Joel's canoe bike trailer?
 - advertising the group's website that we hope will
be in place
 - displaying a copy of the feasibility study for
people to review
 
5. Funding:
 - We then discussed the politics of generating the
funding needed for the path's design. This discussion
involved identifying various options and identifying
people who might have useful ideas and information as
to the best way of generating those funds. This
discussion evolved toward
various members of the group volunteering to establish
contacts at MBTA,
Mass Highway, and the Charter School. Others also
volunteered to contact "people who know people." 
 
6. Coalition building: 
 
We talked generally about building a coalition of
potential path users as well as within:
 - Business community 
 - Somerville police
 - Chamber of commerce
 - discussed attempting to get letters of support from
various community leaders/institutions.
 
7. DPW Letter:
 - Next, we discussed the idea of asking the Dept. of
Public Works to
remove the tracks between Cedar and Lowell Streets. 
 
8. Choose key roles/committees: 
 - We decided to postpone the designation of key
roles/committees
within the group until next month's meeting.
 
Action Items (by name order): 
 - Contact MBTA (Andy)
 - Donation box (Andy)
 - Sign for table (Andy)
 - Contact Mass Highway (John)
 - Map of proposed route (Joel)
 - Copies of feasibility study (Joel)
 - Friends path sign-up (Joel)
 - Friends path brochure (Lynn/text, Turil/graphics)
 - Web site (Kindra, Jessie, Turil)
 - Contact Charter School (Jessie)
 - Postcard (Jessie/text, Turil/graphics)
 - Draft letter DPW (Bob Sayre)
 
Next Meeting:
Tuesday, July 10th, 7:00PM 112 Belmont St.
 
 
Prepared by Robert Sayre
Edited by Joel Bennett