Community Power Committee Minutes 08.16.2023

 

Chairman Ari Levine called the meeting to order at 5:44 PM.

Present were FCPC Jim Tovey, Susannah Jonas, Kevin Pobst, and Ari Levine joined at the Town Offices and Ben Pollak and Jim Pietrovito participated by Zoom.

Ari reported that Harrisville CPC shared their document files with the Francestown Committee and that they are available for review by all members of the FCPC.

Ari reported that Kevin Pobst completed and distributed to FCPC members for feedback a draft of an article for the Francestown News and for a Press Release to the MLT.  Kevin reported that he had received feedback and suggestions from all members of the FCPC and that he had incorporated most of the suggestions and produced a second draft that was distributed as well.  The deadline for the Francestown News is 8-20-23.

Ben Pollak reported on how he has made documents available to FCPC members. [Ben, please suggest details]

Ben reported that he is pursuing, through the Town Administrator, ways the committee can set up an email account under the town’s domain so that input from and communication with the FCPC can take place. He also reported [Ben, please suggest detail].  Ari commented that Jamie (TA) is willing to provide the committee with a page on the town’s webpage.

Later in the meeting, Ben announced that the committee had an email account with the address of FrancestownCPC@gmail.com

Ari opened a discussion about the FCPC’s “calendar” for the months from September to March, placing tasks and events in a timeline. The tasks and events included the following:

A copy of the survey used by Harrisville was shared with the FCPC members.

1.1 Survey Content – FCPC meeting on September 6, 5:30 PM at Town Offices.

The FCPC will meet on September 6 to agree on the content of a survey which will be publicized and distributed to the community.

1.2 Survey Logistics

Ben suggested setting up a Survey Monkey site to solicit responses. If necessary, given the percentage of responses, the FCPC could then follow up with in-person surveying.  If a door-to-door pitch for survey participation is necessary, it can be done in late October, early November.

Ben observed that the survey could spur input to the committee (beyond responses to the specific questions on the survey) as well as promoting volunteers to come forward.

Ari suggested that the date to push out the survey should be mid-September.  The tentative plan would be to send a letter or post card announcing the survey and providing instructions to all addresses on the Town’s mailing list.

Other publicity could include an article in the October Francestown News, an press release/article in the MLT, posting on the Town website, posting on the community Facebook pages, posters up at key locations, flyers distributed at OMH and Town Hall events and the Farmer’s Market, mass emails pushed out to Town email list, reports to BOS (which will show up in in the BOS minutes),  flyers at the Village Store, etc.

Articles in November and December could report the survey results. Results can be posted on the Town (Committee’s page) website.  

Jim Tovey and Ari volunteered to draft a Warrant Article for March.

The EAP should be prepared in conjunction with the Warrant Article; Ari, Jim, and Ben volunteered to work together to develop the EAP. Other towns’ EAPs are available as a template.
 

It was suggested that meetings with the New Hampshire Community Power Coalition (NHCPC) and Standard Power (SP) be scheduled, along the lines of a Request for Proposal session.

These could be scheduled for November and December and could serve as public information sessions as part of FCPC’s effort to engage the public.  

Sue suggests that following the survey, and during the finalization of the EAP, that the committee should convene open public meetings to receive live input and discussion with interested citizens of Francestown. Kevin supported this idea and cited the examples of the 1995 Master Plan public engagement process and the 2005 Town Meeting vote on the Conservation Bond.

These public engagement meetings could feature vendor (NHCPC & SP) presentations (see above) – both for publicity purposes as well as fact gathering and deliberation. 

 

With this provisional calendarization of tasks and events in place, Ari concluded the meeting at 6:35.  The members present agreed that the next meeting of the FCPC would be September 5, 5:30 PM in person or by Zoom.