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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Sister City Committee - 11/05/2007 • 12131; Sister City Steering Committee ���1 �' Orientation for new members at 5:30 p.m. W Regular Meeting at 6:30 p.m. co / Monday, November 5, 2007 C/ ;,�.',r r 'Y8 City Hall, 1201 Leopard, 6th floor conference room MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS ABSENT STAFF Drue Combs H. Moretzsohn Ann Jaime - AE Chris Kailas Timothy Dowling Willie Perez Jonathan Lancaster-A Chris Semtner Randy Farrar Sharon Phillips Javier Morin - A Almira Flores Flicka Rahn Ellen Murry - A Farley Frazier Sukhbir Singh Drew Reining - R Rose Gunji Brandi Williams Alfonso Trujano Jr.-A Westi Horn Danny Williams Geor.e Kolf CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Sister City Steering Committee was called to order by General Chair, Heather Moretzsohn at around 6:30 p.m. II. ROLL CALL: Chris Kailas called roll. A quorum was met with 15 members present. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Randy Farrar moved to approve the minutes as written and Farley Frazier seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as written. III. TREASURER'S REPORT: Chris Kailas reported that the only change in the General Fund was an expense of $173.60 for freight charges to mail promotional materials to Agen, France for an event to promote tourism, including to their Sister Cities. That left a balance of $16,917.17. The PALS Fund did not change. The balance is still $2,598.89. IV. DISCUSSION ITEMS: A. DISCUSSION AND ACTION to recap the Committee's goals from last year's retreat. Copies of the goals from the 2006 Retreat were included in the packet. General Chair Heather Moretzsohn opened the discussion with a history of what lead to the retreat last year. She noted that many members of the current Sister City Steering Committee are new and they were not there last year. She asked the Committee if they think it's time to have another retreat to review and update the goals and objectives. Randy Farrar moved to use the same facilitator, Ms. Bobbi Reed, sometime in January. The motion was seconded by Drue Combs. The discussion noted that the student interviews are in January and Randy Farrar amended his motion to say that the Steering Committee hold a retreat sometime in either January or February. Drue Combs seconded the amendment. The motion passed. It was noted that the date and location would be announced at the next meeting. B. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on changing the meeting start time. Ms. Moretzsohn explained that we misunderstood Mr. Singh's request to reconsider the meeting time. He had hoped to set the meeting time earlier. The Committee was asked to consider a variety of times. Go back to 6 p.m., stay at 6:30 p.m.; go to 5:45 p.m. or go to 5:30 p.m. The old time got 3 votes, 6:30 p.m. go no votes; 5:45 p.m. got 10 votes; 5:30 got 3 votes. Drue Combs moved the Committee meet at 5:45 p.m. from now on. Westi Horn seconded the motion. The motion passed and the new time will begin with the December 3, 2007 meeting. C. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on starting a pen pal program. General Chair Heather Moretzsohn began the discussion saying that her daughter's school is very interested in doing a pen pal program to encourage the development of SCANNEDSpanish Language skills. They would like the students, to write half their letter in English and half in Spanish. Sharon Phillips questioned if the school and our Sister Cities really need us involved. It was explained that this is a good program for Sister Cities; it shows involvement in education and it's not expensive. Also, starting with this one school will be easy because they are interested. The contact in Playa del Carmen, Mr. Henry Boldo has a daughter the same age as Ms. Moretzsohn's daughter. Mr. Danny Williams and Mr. Sukhbir Singh expressed an interest in working on the program. Ms. Moretzsohn appointed Mr. Williams to head the new Committee. No further action was taken. D. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on recommendation for a new committee member to replace Drew Reining who resigned due to health reasons. Ms. Reining resigned because she needed more bed rest. Ms. Moretzsohn suggested the Committee might want to recommend two, one and a back up. Packets with a number of prospects were handed out and candidates were discussed. Flicka Rahn noted that Dr. Melissa Melendez came forth to help with the music exchange with Toledo, Spain because she is fluent in Spanish and a musician. Ms. Rahn moved to nominate Dr. Melendez and Drue Combs seconded the motion. George Kopf said Dr. Melendez is an exceptional person. The motion passed unanimously. E. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on job responsibilities and new committee members for the Activities Committee. Members looked over the new Job Responsibilities sheet to be sure committee appointments were correct. Ms. Moretzsohn asked for volunteers to work on the Activities Committee. Danny Williams and Farley Frazier volunteered. Danny Williams was appointed Chair of the committee. F. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on Sister City Display at the Corpus Christi International Airport. Ms. Moretzsohn opened the discussion with concerns about a poster and map for the display as had been discussed for some time. Ms. Kailas explained that Santos Villarreal, the Marketing Staff for the City's Parks and Recreation Dept. has given us a draft for the informational poster at the airport. The Committee members looked over the draft and had some suggested changes. Both Drue Combs and Flicka Rahn will e-mail their suggestions to Chris Kailas tomorrow. Ms. Kailas will forward those changes to Ms. Villarreal and get an updated draft copy to the Publicity Committee when it's ready. It was noted that a map probably would not be coming from the source that had previously volunteered a GSI map. Tim Dowling offered to check with a student he knows who might be able to do that map this coming summer. Ms. Moretzsohn asked Ms. Brandi Williams to contact Amy Gazin at the airport concerning placing the students' poster boards on easels. Ms. Williams reported that she had check prices at Michael's for both natural and stained. The cost was $39.99 for the unstained and $69.99 for stained easels. The cost for 10 would be $399.99 or $699.99. She also said she is calling each of the students and parents and several said to e-mail the necessary release form (a copy of the new form was shared with the Committee) and others want the form and cover letter mailed to them. Ms. Williams will be sending those out very soon. Ms. Moretzsohn would like to see the Committee develop a nice publicity event announcing the newly selected 2008 Exchange Students and include the newly revealed display of the 2007 Students' poster boards. Drue Combs said it would be too quick for the Committee to throw event together for November or December due to the upcoming holidays. A short discussion followed concerning all the events planned for January and it was suggested we plan to hold the event in either January or February. George Kopf moved to purchase 10 unstained easels for the project. Sharon Phillips seconded the motion. The Motion passed. Rose Gunji offered to get the 40% off coupon and go to the store to buy them one at a time if necessary to save money. Drue Combs agreed. She also said we need a world map out there and suggested someone could go to Zadansky's Maps to purchase one. Someone else suggested we could also purchase a globe. Others were concerned that the globe could walk away and with everyone touching it, the color would ware off. Heather Moretzsohn will check on the price of the map. Farley Frazier suggested she ask Zadansky's to donate the map. He noted they are located on Kostoryz Road. G. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on venue for the December meeting. The meeting will be held on December 3, 2007. Ms. Moretzsohn said that Javier Morin offered his house located at 7326 Gold Ridge Road. It was moved and seconded to hold the next meeting there. The motion passed. Ms. Kailas said she would send a map with the next month's agenda and minutes. H. DISCUSSION AND ACTION concerning the donation and distribution of medical supplies. Ms. Kailas said she had received a call from the Committee's friend, Mr. John Tower. Mr. Tower said that his wife, Doctor Susan Tower with physical therapy at Spohn Hospital, had some wheelchairs to donate. Farley Frazier said that Spohn Hospital has two whole warehouses of materials from which they might donate. Ms. Kailas said she and Mr. Tower discussed getting a group of medical folks in the City together to discuss what kinds of thing would be available to donate or to do, perhaps for Playa del Carmen. Farley Frazier suggested that we might want to consider a medical donation for India too. He said we have a strong contingency of Indian and Mexican doctors in Corpus Christi. It was also noted that Spohn Hospital has a Sister hospital in Monterrey, Mexico. Names of local medical forks who have worked with Sister City in the past and who might be interested in this are Sue Dulaney, Patty Nuss, Ann Jaime and Almira Flores. Danny Williams reminded the group that both Spohn and the Driscoll Children's Hospital are non-profit agencies and may not be able to give donations. The item was tabled for further discussion at a later date due to the lateness of the evening. Sharon Phillips left at 7:55 p.m. V. COMMITTEE REPORTS: A. Fund Raising Committee, Ellen Murry: No report Farley Fraizer left at 7:56 p.m. B. Publicity Committee, Brandi Williams, Jonathan Lancaster, Danny Williams — Report given in Item F. C. EXPO Planning Committee — Heather Moretzsohn reported that she had lunch with Tim Dowling and Keith Arnold. She noted that there are some issues and some things need to change. D. Art Competition Committee, Rose Gunji and Sharon Phillips — Ms. Gunji reported that we are behind in getting out the notices due to the National Organization not getting us the information in a timely manner. Martha Free with CCISD needs to approve the packets going out to the Art Teachers. They need to send out a press release. E. Selection Committee, Randy Farrar and Brandi Williams — The packets will be delivered next week. Put on next month's agenda an item discussing and acting on recruitment of members to do student interviews. F. Agen, France, Ann Jaime — No report. G. Keelung, Taiwan, Tim Dowling — Dr. Peter Mensah gave Mr. Dowling their contact information. More discussion on Keelung at the next meeting. George Kolf left at 8:10 p.m. H. Monterrey, Mexico, Almira Flores and Guillermo "Willie" Perez — Once again members were asked about taking a trip to Monterrey, Mexico while the International Forum continues. It was suggested people could go during the Thanksgiving Holiday. People were asked to e-mail General Chair Heather Moretzsohn and she would facilitate the arrangements. I. Toledo, Spain, Flicka Rahn, Javier Morin and Ann Jaime — Ann got through to Maria Diaz. They are moving forward with the Music Exchange. She will give us a contact person's name for the choral exchange. Tim Smith is following up with the pianist from the Church of the Good Shepherd. We should hear back by next week. J. Veracruz, Mexico — No report. K. Yokosuka, Japan, Westi Horn and Drue Combs — City Council Member Melody Cooper is visiting Yokosuka as we meet. Ms. Cooper has never been to Yokosuka before. L. Curriculum/Training Committee, Sukhbir Singh and Brandi Williams — No report. M. Evaluation Committee, Ellen Murry and Ann Jaime — a. Playa del Carmen — The presentation to the City Council was postponed and will be set for a later date after we have received all the letters of support for this new sister city relationship. b. Bethinda, India — No report. N. Activities Committee, Westi Horn — No report. VII. HEARING FROM THE PUBLIC: No one from public present. VIII. GENERAL CHAIR'S REPORT, Heather Moretzsohn — No report VI. STAFF REPORT— No report. VII. CURRENT CONCERNS — None expressed. VIII. It was moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted to adjourn the meeting; it was 8:18 p.m. Chris Kailas, Sister City Recording Secretary Cultural Services Division Parks & Recreation Department The following guide explains the attendance code: AE —Absence Excused for those who were absent due to illness or Sister City Travel R— Resigned Examples of arrival or leaving times—arrival, 6:07 p.m.; or leaving, L7:00 p.m.