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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Sister City Committee - 01/04/2010 Oster City Steering Committee Monday, Jan. 4, 2010, 6 p.m. FEB 1 0 2010 6th floor Conference Room, City Hall 1201 Leopard St., Corpus Christi, TX CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS ABSENT STAFF Mary Babbili Michele Hammock Maria Couret Laura Gonzales Yoshiko Boulan Kate Rodriguez Melody Cooper Jorge Brenner Phyllis Roseman Westi Horn- , Drue Combs Donald Russell John Rocha Randy Farrar Samantha Sandate Tim Dowling Alan Thornburg Randy Farrar Brandi Williams Almira Flores Elizabeth Garza Rose Gunji CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Sister City Steering Committee was called to order by General Chair Brandi Williams at 6:00 pm. II. ROLL CALL: Laura Gonzales called roll. A quorum was met with 16 of 21 members present. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Corrections: VI. E. —Take the apostrophe of students. VII. C. Change "Michele will be passing around" to "Michele passed around". VII. E. Change "Rose no longer wants to be on" to "Rose no longer wants to chair this committee." Also, add "Chris Kailas will volunteer to help" Michele Hammock moved to approve the minutes as corrected. The motion was seconded by Donald Russell. The minutes were approved as corrected. IV. TREASURER'S REPORT: DISCUSSION ITEMS: Laura Gonzales reported that the General Fund balance is $ 18,000. PALS account is $6,879.92. Drue Combs moved to accept the Treasurer's Report and Michele Hammock seconded the motion. The Treasurer's report was accepted. V. PUBLIC COMMENT: none VI. DISCUSSION ITEMS: A. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on response from Mayor regarding letter sent asking Sister City to be realigned under the Mayor's protocol staff. Brandi and Drue will meet with the Mayor and speak with him about being realigned. Drue will call make the appointment after the January 12th City Council Meeting. Donald Russell moved that Drue Combs make an appointment with the Mayor to meet with him personally. Drue Combs seconded the motion. The motion passed B. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on purchasing breakfast and lunch for Student Selection Committee on January 9, 2010 using funds from Sister City PALS or General Fund. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for the 13 people who will be interviewing the students (includes Laura). Breakfast will be coffee, donuts, or muffins and lunch will be BBQ. The money will come from the General Fund and we will spend no more than $200. Randy moved to spend no more than $200 from the Sister City General Fund to purchase breakfast and lunch. Donald Russell seconded the motion. The motion passed. SCANNED C. DISCUSSION AND HaION on starting the Pen Pal Committee. Each countries co- chairs will need to.work with this committee to communicate with our Sister Cities regarding this project. Michele has sent information to teachers at Tuloso-Midway Elementary and Middle School. There are 5 teachers who are interested in doing this program. The program will start with Japan. D. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on carwash fundraising and other fundraising for 2010. The carwash fundraiser is a good way for the students to get to know one another. We will have the carwash again this year. Tim suggested selling tickets for the carwash. It would raise more money because people buy the tickets and not use them. Tim Dowling moved to sell tickets and to have each student sell at least ten tickets. Samantha Sandate seconded the motion. The motion passed. E. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on rewriting the bylaws of the Sister City Committee. Randy has already started to rewrite the bylaws and he is going to add the criteria to becoming a Sister City. Dora has the criteria and will send it to Tim by email. Dora and Russell also volunteered to help Randy with the rewriting of the by laws. Randy Farrar moved to appointment himself to rewrite the bylaws. Dora Hidalgo seconded the motion. The motion passed. F. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on sending students to the Sister Cities in Mexico. Playa del Carmen is interested in participating in the Student exchange this summer. They would like to know what the criteria is to have an exchange. Almira has been speaking to them and will let them know what is expected. Jorge was in Mexico for two weeks and the tourism is great right now. There should be no problems sending our students to Mexico this summer. We can send students to Mexico as long as there are no State Department Warnings. We can plan on sending the students and if something comes up, we can send those two students to other countries like we did last year. Drue Combs moved to send 1 female and 1 male to Playa del Carmen this summer. Almira Flores seconded the motion. The motion passed. G. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on reports from the Chairperson from each of the various Sister City committees on the number of students that their city is willing to accept. Japan —2, Taiwan—2, France—4, and Mexico—2. H. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on allocating the exchange students based on the number of students each city is willing to accept. Japan—2, Taiwan —2, France—4, and Mexico—2. I. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on where and what date we will announce the selected student's for the 2010 Student Exchange. The student interviews are being interviewed this coming Saturday. Michele and Randy will let the students that were selected know that day. They will be told what country they are going to on Feb. 1, at a reception following our regular monthly meeting. The reception will start at 7:00 and will be in the 6th Floor Conference Room. Alan moved to make the public announcement after Feb. 1st meeting with the students already being told that they were selected. Dora Hidalgo seconded the motion. The motion passed. VII COMMITTEE REPORTS: A. Publicity Committee—Liz will work with Laura to get a press release out and contact the media closer to Feb 1, to remind the media about the Student Exchange announements. B. Curriculum/Training Committee—No Report C. Selection Committee—Selection will be this Saturday, Jan 9. Please be at the Galvan House at 8:00 am. Student interviews will start at 9:00am D. Fundraising Committee— No Report E. Art Competition Committee—The information about the Art Competition has been sent to the local Middle and High School art teachers. F. International Cultural Festival/EXPO— No Report G. Yokosuka, Japan—Yokosuka will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary in 2012. H. Agen, France— France will take 4 students this summer 1. Keelung, Taiwan — Keelung will take 2 students this summer J. Monterrey, Mexico— No Report K. Toledo, Spain— Donald will get in touch with Javier and Flicka to get information about the Art Exchange. L. Veracruz, Mexico—Jorge was not able to meet with anyone while he was there but he is going to be put in touch with someone about the Tourism internship exchange. M. Playa del Carmen — Playa del Carmen is interested in the Exchange and wants more information about the criteria for the exchange N. New Sister City Evaluation Committee Israel—Do we want to pursue this one? India— Mary spoke about the Study Abroad Program. Sister City would work though Texas A&M and it wouldn't involve Sister Cities having to find host families or anything because it would go through the University. It would be under the umbrella of Sister City, O. Activities Committee—No Report P. Pen Pal Committee— VIII. IDENTIFY ITEMS TO BE PLACED ON NEXT AGENDA— IX. GENERAL CHAIR'S REPORT: X. ADJOURNMENT: Michele Hammock moved to adjourn and Liz Garza seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 pm. Laura Gonzales, Sister City Recording Secretary Cultural Services Division Parks & Recreation Department