The Inclusive Community Task Force convened for the first time Thursday night and outlined the information they want to seek to make life in the city of Ames better for everyone.

“This task force is by no means a cross section of this community,” said Ames Mayor Ann Campbell. “We asked people who have expertise in certain areas concerning a multicultural population.”

There are 15 people on the task force, with professions including pastor, juvenile detention officer, student, principal, councilor and Youth and Shelter Services officer. The force was created as a reaction to the City Council meeting on Nov. 27, where about 300 people gathered to witness a meeting about the changing cultural environment of the city.

This task force was created to “identify and support existing programs in the Ames community which foster greater understanding within the entire community,” according to the task force’s mission statement.

The overall goal is to deliver a report to the community and City Council by April 30 that details the task force’s findings and recommendations.

Also present at the meeting was Ames City Manager Steve Schainker.

“I’m here to make sure they’re off to a good start, then we’ll let them go,” he said.

Schainker said the task force reports to the whole community, not just the city government.

“A lot of it is asking questions, and we wanted to make sure that the members had access to other groups of people they could talk to,” he said.

After a brief introduction of the members, they split into groups and discussed their situation for an hour. Linda Butler, task force member and pastor at Collegiate United Methodist Church, 2622 Lincoln Way, has only lived in Ames since March and told the group what she thought of living in Ames so far.

“It kind of feels like 1968 instead of 2008. Assimilation is not our goal here. Assimilation is becoming all the same,” she said.

Cheryl Inyang, task force member and family resource counselor at Meeker Elementary School, questioned the very nature of the group.

“I don’t see a clearly defined problem we have to solve. There are other groups that have a mission statement nearly quoted verbatim to ours. We should combine all these groups instead of making another splinter group,” she said.

Barbara Woods, co-chairwoman of the task force and special projects manager for ISU Extension, responded with a statement about the nature of inclusively.

“We need to find people who are saying, ‘I’m not comfortable living here,’ and bring them in and ask why. Black and white, rich and poor are just underlying factors here, not the main issue,” she said.

This task force is not the first group of its kind to develop in Ames, and it has a short timeline in which to examine the community. But hopes are high that key issues in the lives of citizens can be pinpointed and steps can be taken to lessen their impact.

“They’re not involved at a policy-making level. They’re more about what we, as a community, can do to make Ames more inviting,” Campbell said.