Somerville Pollinator Action Plan

Hi all,

If you're wondering why there has been no update for a few weeks, it's because we have reached the end of Phase 01! The committee developed a "Scope of Services" and City of Somerville staff are working hard behind the scenes to finalize the documents and publish the "Request for Proposals." Once it is live, consultant teams can apply! This is an exciting moment and we are all looking forward to seeing who is interested in doing this work.

More details to come, but for now, we wait. :)

Hello to all who have been following the work of the Pollinator Action Plan Advisory Committee!

July 24th will be the last meeting of Phase 01 and we will hold it IN PERSON at the Somerville Community Growing Center from 4:15-5:30pm. Some of us have never met except through Zoom, so this will be a great chance to have more casual conversations and to celebrate the work done up to this point. If you would like to join us there, please do! We'll spend some time going over next steps for the committee members, how the consultant hiring process will go, learning about the Growing Center, and getting to know each other. If you can't attend, don't worry! You can always share a thought or a question with us in the "Questions/Comments" tab here on this SomerVoice page.

In Phase 01, the committee met twice a month and spent their time:

• Learning about existing pollinator action plans;
• Learning about City policies and processes for hiring consultants;
• Learning about City processes and challenges for planting and maintaining habitat;
• Discussing the overarching goals of the Somerville Pollinator Action Plan;
• Developing the job description ("scope of work") for the consultant team who will write the Plan.

There were some great conversations, some good points raised, and a culture of collaboration fostered among the committee members.

Phase 02 will begin at the end of September (exact dates TBD) and the committee will shift to meeting once a month. They will make a recommendation to Mayor Katjana Ballantyne about which consultant team to hire and then will support them in developing the plan itself. Our committee members include scientists who conduct research on pollinators, community advocates with networks of passionate gardeners, City staff, among others. Together, they will help the consultant team gather the data they need, reach Somerville community members, and they will provide comments and feedback to the team as they develop proposals.

There is a lot to look forward to! We hope you will stay in touch and keep checking back for more information about opportunities to get involved during Phase 02. If you subscribe to "Stay Informed" on this SomerVoice page, we will email you when we pin down dates for committee meetings and public engagement events. Or when in doubt, you can contact us directly at spap@somervillema.gov.

Hope to see you soon!

Phase 01 of the committee's work is nearly complete! They have been working hard to define the consultant job description, or the "Scope of Work." This job description will be made public in the coming weeks and we'll be looking for qualified applicants who would like to develop the Pollinator Action Plan. The next phase of work will begin in the fall once we have received those applications. But to get there, they need to finish the "Scope of Work" first.

At the next meeting, you can expect them to spend some time in breakout rooms, discussing the draft document, and then we'll gather together to review their comments and their proposed edits. Please log on and listen in. We'd love to see you there.

As a reminder: We always welcome your feedback! Five minutes will be set aside at the end of the meeting for comment and you are always welcome to leave questions/ideas on this page. Thank you for being here!

Stay tuned for our next meeting on Monday, June 26th from 4-5:15pm!

The committee continues their work in small teams to refine the priorities and goals for the Pollinator Action Plan consultant team. Much of the session will take place in breakout groups to give them time to discuss, brainstorm, and build their arguments. Then they will present their ideas to each other. Join us!

Note that there is a new Zoom link for the next three meetings: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87467480669?pwd=UEc5eTAzRjRzZWVUc0JQbG1wMHZoQT09

ID: 874 6748 0669
Passcode: 398990
One tap mobile
+13052241968,,87467480669# US
+13092053325,,87467480669# US

As a reminder: We always welcome your feedback! Five minutes will be set aside at the end of the meeting for comment and you are always welcome to leave questions/ideas on this page.

Hello again!

Our next meeting is on Monday, June 5th from 4-5:15pm and you are invited to join us. The committee members continue to work through big questions about the goals of the Pollinator Action Plan. These conversations and decisions are key to framing how we eventually hire someone to write the Plan. At the next meeting, the committee members will spend most of their time in breakout rooms to move toward decisions about these key questions. If you'd like to see this process, log on and listen in.

We always welcome your feedback! Five minutes will be set aside at the end of the meeting for comment and you are always welcome to leave questions/ideas on this page.

The meeting link is always posted under the tab "Zoom Meeting Link". You can find us next Monday at the following meeting link:

Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88169073083?pwd=YlR2R2hwRnAydWVmTHA1YnBQeFN4QT09
ID: 881 6907 3083
Passcode: 172997
One tap mobile
+13052241968,,88169073083# US
+13092053325,,88169073083# US

Greetings!

Thanks for following our work. We're happy to you're here.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, May 22 from 4-5:15pm. We'll be talking through the #1 task of the committee's first phase of work: writing a "scope of work." When we begin to look for a consultant team to develop the Pollinator Action Plan, interested firms will refer to this document to understand the project goals and process. This document also helps us to define the most important elements of the Plan, the impact we want it to have, and it helps us to envision what makes a successful project. Some questions we'll discuss:

• What are the major goals of the Pollinator Action Plan?
• What does the consultant need to consider while developing the Plan?
• What materials do we need the consultant to develop?
• How do we measure the success of this Plan?
• ...among others

If you'd like to hear the committee talk through these ideas, come join us on Monday. Everyone is welcome to listen in and we'll take public comment at the end. If you can't attend but you'd like to leave us feedback or ask a question, please feel free to do so in the Questions/Comments tab.

Hope to see you there!

At our third meeting, we'll talk about the committee's tasks ahead, the process of hiring a consultant, and public engagement events. Come join us if you'd like to learn more about our goals and our operations!

If you can't attend, register to "Stay Informed" and we'll keep you updated about future meetings and opportunities to participate. You can always post in our "Questions/Comments" tab if you want to share an idea or question.

Photo courtesy of Nick Dorian/Tufts Pollinator Initiative

At the next meeting on April 24th, the SPAP committee will discuss pollinator action plans made by other towns, regions, and organizations. We'll be trying to understand what has been done, what went well, and what we would like to do differently. You can find PDFs for these existing project examples under "Documents" on the sidebar. Come join us to hear the conversation and to learn about what others have done.

We'll be thinking about these questions:

• How is the plan organized?
• Who participated in the making of the plan?
  • Was the public involved in any way?
    • If so, what role did they play?
• Who is it written for? Who do they expect will read it?
  • Do you think it’s legible to that audience? Why or why not?
• What kind of proposals are made?
  • A toolkit of parts?
  • Changes to a specific location?
  • Policy?
• How do they describe those proposals?
• Are those proposals convincing? Why or why not?
  • Imagine yourself in the shoes of different audience members:
    • …a constituent who loves pollinators
    • …a constituent who is unfamiliar with this issue
    • …a DPW worker
    • …a policy-maker

If you'd like to join us in this work, take a look at the plans! What do you think? Share your feedback with us under the "Questions/Comments" tab on this webpage.

We hope to see you on Monday!

Meeting Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88169073083?pwd=YlR2R2hwRnAydWVmTHA1YnBQeFN4QT09

ID: 881 6907 3083
Passcode: 172997
One tap mobile
+13052241968,,88169073083# US
+13092053325,,88169073083# US

You can register to listen in on the Introductory Meeting of the SPAP Advisory Committee at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1168000637375254106

This meeting will be held from 4-5:00 PM EDT and a recording will be posted to this page following the meeting.