HomeMy WebLinkAbout24.09.09 - Minutes, Diversity & Inclusion CommitteeDiversity & Inclusion Committee Meeting
Meeting Minutes
Commissioners Administrative Building – Room 1301
100 West Washington Street, Hagerstown, MD 21740
Monday, September 9, 2024 @ 7:00 p.m.
I. Call to Order - The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
II. Attending: Terence Ngwa (Chair), Angela Yamashita (vice-Chair), Eric
Schwartz, Fatima Sakarya, Allenia Washington; Hagerstown council
member Tiara Burnett
Absent: Commissioner John Barr (ex officio), Melissa Williams (ex officio
BOD), Jeanine Salifou (secretary), ZSun-nee Miller-Matema
III. Committee approved Agenda for meeting. The July (Hancock) and
August (Sharpsburg) Meeting minutes were not available for review and
approval. They will be reviewed at the next meeting.
IV. Old Business:
a. Listening Tours – discussed the past tours, and that, other than
Boonsboro, the others have not attracted interest from the local
community
b. Community Events – the upcoming “Washington Goes Purple” event
was discussed. Allenia, Fatima and Zsun-nee agreed to attend it on
behalf of the committee.
c. Data Request – Terence Ngwa will request demographic data
regarding applicants for jobs in Washington County from County
Clerk (Dawn Marcus).
V. New Business
● Strategize on best approach to serve the community – the idea of
creating a ‘survey’ to present to the community of Washington
County, to elicit opinions and attitudes about diversity in the county
and if the community is addressing the needs of diverse members of
the county. How to best create the survey, whether ‘professional’
social scientists should be enlisted for this effort (through the
Hagerstown Community College “HCC”) and what the aim should be
was discussed. Eric Schwartz agreed to see whether an HCC
department or group may be interested in creating a survey that
serves this purpose.
● Discuss DI report from 2020 – the need to create a new annual
report from scratch, when the 2020 report was never fully taken up
by the commissioners was discussed. Fatima Sakarya agreed to
revise the old draft, and update it with new findings through
November, with the aim of presenting it to the county commissioners
for inclusion in the County agenda in December.
● Collaboration with HCC – Eric Scwartz feels that the DEI initiative at
HCC would be very interested in collaborating with this Committee in
creating a panel discussion to be held at HCC. Committee agreed
this was a positive idea and that the month of October would be a
target time to hold this panel. The results of the panel discussion, if
held, could then be incorporated into the annual report. Eric
Schwartz will report back to the committee on this effort.
VII. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.