ORDER-2021-82 : Appointment of Lauren Grymek to the Commission on Women for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February 2024.

Transcript (~10 min @ 4:52)

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▶ 4:44 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes, yes, yes. And now we can move to order 2021 dash 82 appointment offline and pay back to the commission of woman for a 3 years term. Set term to expire on the last day of February 2024.

▶ 5:00 Robb Stewart: Madam chair, I'd like to make a motion at this time to suspend the rules in the event that is here to speak to us.

▶ 5:12 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, we have a motion to suspend the rule made by counselor. So I seconded by a president.

▶ 5:20 Speaker 1: Chair Zimaldi? Yes. Vice Chair Migliorelli? Yes. Councillor Eccles? Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Thomas? Yes. President Sinella? Yes. I'll make them panelists now. Thank you.

▶ 5:45 Speaker 3: Good evening everybody. Madam Chair, if I may?

▶ 5:51 Paul Brodeur: Yes. Good evening to all the members of the committee. I want to thank you very much Madam Chair for recognizing the life and accomplishments of Tony Gilardi. He was a terrific individual that did a ton of many facets of the community. And he really will be missed. So I appreciate that recognition. Folks should also know another grim milestone is we've come to the point we have half a million COVID deaths in the United States. I bring it up just so folks will know that Governor Baker has ordered flags to be flown at half-mast through sundown on Friday, so folks see the flags at half-mast. That is why. Thank you for your indulgence in that matter. On to happier news, so I'm delighted to be here before you to reintroduce you, I suppose, to someone that you already know and already know very well, and that is Lauren Grimmick. You know her as the, as the executive director of the Melrose Chamber of Commerce. You may know that she is leaving that position at the end of February. Perhaps she will talk to you about her new position because it dovetails nicely with her potential service on the Melrose Commission on Women. I know you've all had a chance to get to know her through events, but I also do highly recommend that you take a look at her resume, if you haven't had a chance to already, because it is quite frankly remarkable. Honors graduate of Stonehill and her procedure MBA at Simmons and has done incredible work for Stonehill, in the seaport and certainly for the last three or so years for our community here in Melrose, and has really supported the business community in addition to her other volunteer activities. I can't think of a better person to join the commission to help continue its work, to expand its presence, and I commend her nomination to you. With that, I will turn things over to her. Thank you very much.

▶ 8:10 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Mayor. And I think we have Ms. Grymack.

▶ 8:20 Speaker 2: Hi, everybody. Hi, thank you for joining us.

▶ 8:23 Speaker 4: Thank you very much. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you all for your service, of course, to our community. When Mayor Broder approached me about this opportunity, I was pretty excited. Um, as you just saw from my resume, and as you all know, I'm leaving the chamber as of March 1st to take on a new role with the Massachusetts women's forum. So, it's both timely in the sense that I'm here to stay connected to my community that I love so much. And I think that this next professional move also aligns really well with the commission on women and its mission and what it's trying to do. But what you don't see on my resume is that I'm also, in addition to being an awesome resident that's super connected and into the fabric of the community, a working mother of two young children, a daughter with healthy but aging parents and sort of part of that sandwich generation that I think a lot of, in particular, female caretakers understand. And I think we've all seen, especially over the last year, that the issues facing women, the economy, leadership, safety, caring for others, has really been just heightened with the pandemic because all of these things, if they weren't already at the forefront of what we all do, especially as women, that they are certainly now. And so I think that joining the commission at this time, at this pivotal time for what's happening on a greater scale is really exciting. And I would love to work with the fellow commissioners to bring these issues to light and help women in Melrose and beyond and young girls kind of tackle issues that are of importance to them and things that are of value to them. So I thank you for this opportunity to serve my community alongside of all of you.

▶ 10:18 Maya Jamaleddine: thank you um when we learned about your um you moving to another into a new chapter i kind of knew and expected that this is not the end of um you serving our community more you always find ways to serve and your passion is definitely the one thing that that shows in every single thing you did for Merrill. So thank you so much. I would like, I have the next one, President Sinaloa would like to speak.

▶ 10:57 Christopher Cinella: Thank you. Where do I begin? I've had the opportunity to work with Lauren for past five years. So I just wanna say congratulations and thank you for your volunteerism and staying connected. Great, great choice. Mayor Broder, you will be missed at the chamber, but I wish you all the best in your next chapter.

▶ 11:25 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you, Councillor Sinella. Next is Councillor Stewart.

▶ 11:30 Robb Stewart: Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Mayor Broder for your kind words and recognition and Ms. Grimeck, thanks for coming before us to give us a little bit of an overview of your excitement. I'm thrilled to see that you are stepping into this role. I think it is a great commission. It's couldn't be led by someone or participated by someone that isn't more, as you said, in the fabric of the community. So real thrilled to see you on board. Fully support this with no hesitation whatsoever. I look forward to seeing you take this next step and good luck.

▶ 12:14 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you very much. Okay. Next is vice chair.

▶ 12:18 Leila Migliorelli: Thank you. Thank you so much for your service in the chamber of commerce. You know, you've done so much for small businesses and I know that I've heard from many owners who felt like you really held it together for them through this pandemic and COVID crisis. And I know when I saw the announcement that you were leaving, I was kind of like, job job, like, oh, no, what a huge loss. But, you know, seeing this application for the women's commission come pretty much right upon the heels of that made like, soften the blow a little bit. So, I'm excited for this and wholeheartedly support your nomination.

▶ 12:54 Speaker 4: Thank you very much. Thanks for your support.

▶ 12:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Okay, we have counselor echoes.

▶ 13:01 Jack Eccles: Thanks for for stepping up. I, I think everyone's pretty much said it already, but, but we really appreciate it. And, um, I support this as well.

▶ 13:13 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you. Okay. And last, but not least.

▶ 13:17 Cory Thomas: Thank you madam chair welcome. Mr. mayor. I couldn't be the only 1 that did not weigh in. Thank you very much for the community. I'm sure you're going to bring the same amount of commitment and energy to your new position with the council on women, but also to the notice community. So, thanks once again, for all you do for the community and best of luck in both of you, hopefully new future endeavors.

▶ 13:42 Maya Jamaleddine: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone. I wanted to. To say, I know that we have great commissioners on the commission on women, and I'm sure you have many of them and you'll enjoy working with them looking forward to hearing. What's your next step? And I'm sure you'll leave a great impact. Wherever you go, so thank you so much. And I would like to move a motion.

▶ 14:10 Speaker 5: Motion to recommend to the full board.

▶ 14:14 Maya Jamaleddine: Check it out. Okay. We have a motion made by presidents and all that seconded by, uh, counselor.

▶ 14:21 Speaker 1: I don't care. Yeah. Yes, counselor. Yes. Counselor Stewart yes, sir. Thomas. Yes. President.

▶ 14:35 Maya Jamaleddine: Yes, unanimous great. Thank you so much and looking forward to hear from you.