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Home My WebLink About~Master - Ames Human Relations Commission Minutes 3/26/2026MINUTES AMES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION Conference Room 235 City Hall, 515 Clark Avenue March 26, 2026 Call to Order Chair Annabella Marquez called the meeting of the Ames Human Relations Commission (AHRC) to order at 5:35 p.m. In attendance were Commissioners Pablo Suarez Beltran, Zhengyuan Zhu, Shawn Kenny, and Sarah Nolin and Engagement Coordinator Casandra Eames. Commissioner Chunhui Chen was absent. Public Forum None. ISU Student Government – Multicultural Festival 2026 Lauren Neal, ISU Student Government Senator, Vice Chair of ISU SG local affairs community Multicultural festival as a joint effort between ISU and the City of Ames -hoping to host it on Main Street to get students out into the community and important to partner with local orgs for the benefit of international students (connecting them for between breaks) -working with Casandra -working with the Alliance -original plan was late this spring but that was too late to get funding for this spring so the next set of leaders will carry it forward next (school) year -work with commission? -new date would be Spring 2027 to give new leaders time to plan and the university has a lot of programming already for the fall – nice to have something in the spring as an anchoring event -reached out to clubs /orgs Indian Student Association and Vietnamese Student Association, have a form ready to send out to more orgs (had to get authorization to send out the survey – just got it) -every org they have contacted has shown some interest -hoping to make it low cost to student orgs Pablo: problems with getting funding for multicultural events/ Lauren: ISU student gov doesn’t have a problem with cultural stuff – we can fund the individual club – no issue with student clubs Student $ =/= university dollars (fewer limitations) most student orgs just get $ from SG or dues Casandra: it would be helpful for us to know who you have contacted so we don’t duplicate your efforts – information sharing would be helpful. Also let me know who the new point of contact will be Casandra: what is the vision? Lauren: similar to farmers’ market layout – student orgs and local groups with little stations. Food, still exploring how that will work Vanessa: state requirements, we have contact with their inspector to give training Lauren: we want student orgs to be able to share things about their org or culture to connect with people – learning opportunity and marketing/awareness Lauren: performing arts we are interested in – want to leave it up to the orgs to see what is most representative of their org/culture Minimum of how many to make this happen? 15-20 orgs would be success (at least 15 student orgs, local orgs would also help) Could also do bandshell Dr. Zhu – how does student government work – lauren explained Lauren – a number of people on the committee who are bought in will still be on the committee, and several graduating members will still attend meetings to help and we will include this in our transition documentation They want connections to the broader Ames community Bella shouted out the NAACP (and Vanessa shared about Juneteenth) Dr. Zhu is connected to Ames Chinese Association and Central Iowa Shawn asked more about funding, they met with Travis, Discover Ames grants Shawn – school multicultural nights Lauren will pass on all the contact info to the new positions and to Casandra Pablo: timeline? Lauren – people will be appointed in April/May and then nothing will happen over the summer so when they come back in August things will get moving Funding in Feb/March is annual allocations but there is also a special events budget so that funding is another option Fair Housing Month Housing Coordinator Vanessa Baker-Latimer April is Fair Housing Month. Central Iowa Board of Realtors wants to host a Fair Housing Panel on Paril 22 at 9am light breakfast, registration. 1 hour panel. Location TBD. Vanessa volunteered someone from the commission to be on the panel. Vanessa will be getting questions so we know what it’s about. She assumes you will have a chance to share what your org does and then we can figure out some answers. Great opportunity for the commission to be represented. They have a couple people on the panel already, someone from AEDC, someone from Iowa Board of Realtors, and maybe two others – Sara Van Meeteren from Inspections, new Director of The Bridge Home – Ashley from CISS. Vanessa said not sure if they want nonprofits or not. Vanessa will share more info as it becomes available and she is confident we won’t let her down. Beth gets back this coming week so Vanessa will get more info and then we can decide which of us will do it Pablo – would we come up with answers as a group and express opinions of the commission as a whole or stating individual opinions Shawn – the movie about redlining and discussion afterward – that’s what they did Your thoughts/personal experiences (informed by your position/experience on the commission) Shawn – sharing perspective story experiences – that made Pablo feel better Vanessa: you don’t have to have the answers but you can help people get connected to find the answers Proclamation at April 14 City Council meeting Juneteenth – planned for June 13 (week before actual Juneteenth since there are a lot of events happening the next weekend – not big enough to compete with Des Moines so we do it on the off week) Approval of Minutes Moved by Marquez, seconded by Suarez Beltran, to approve the January 10 and 22, 2026, minutes. Vote on Motion: 5-0. Motion carried unanimously. Budget Update Eames reviewed the budget report. Kate Mitchell Multicultural Night Review Shawn they were locked out because they got there too early lol and they didn’t need setup help so they chatted. Great event – excellent food, presentations, performances (singing, dancing), sarah noted that our photo was on facebook, Bella will put pictures on teams Not a good event for giving out t-shirts - discussed how to give them out in a controlled manner, Jeramy suggested a raffle, pablo noted we could give it out when we have speaking time – do it for AAPI Dr. Zhu will check on a date. really bad bill banning h1b visas in higher ed – Chinese community is working hard to fight it. it already passed the house and a senate subcommittee. It made it past the second funnel. Really bad. IPR has a segment on it. Dr. Zhu talked with a reporter on Monday Some private groups are pushing similar laws across different many states Selection of A Home for Everyone Award Recipient Moved by Kenny, seconded by Nolin, to select Martha’s House of Hope as the recipient of the 2026 A Home for Everyone Award. Vote on Motion: 5-0. Motion carried unanimously. 2025 Annual Report Casandra did get the 2024 data – she will put it in Teams We will have to submit a new request for the 2025 data Pablo – can we request records of discrimination at ISU in each year since they handle their own stuff internally (so we have a better picture of the actual discrimination that is happening in our community) Pablo: We want more data (same reason we want the data from IOCR) Pablo: I’m just saying that maybe our numbers are deflated based on our relationship with the university Public Records Requests - University Marketing and Communications Pablo moves that Bella fills out a records request as Chair of AHRC Motion failed for lack of a second Upcoming Events Marquez volunteered to be the point person for the next Quarterly Meet & Greet -Saturday, Clouds will host for free 10:30am-12:30pm -Bella sent an email last week -Bella will be there, Pablo will go Commissioner Announcements Eames – former Commissioner Marty Martinez passed away on Sunday. He had a stroke and recovered and was doing well – zoomed in to a meeting once and Casandra saw him out and about and he looked great. This was in January. Heart attack this time. Visitation is April 9, service is April 10 **ACTION ITME send out Marty’s visitation Jeramy is leaving – new job in Michigan Casandra: coloring book v2? Pablo – I have been thinking about it – images are done and they need to do text and make activities – still in the works Casandra: is AHRC interested in getting trained on so you have the support to be more knowledgeable in your role (Anita mentioned this at the annual report presentation) - Please think about that if there are things to learn more about (do we want to be active in the educating piece – to do that, you need to know about what you are educating about) Next Meeting: April 23, 2026 Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 7:26 pm.