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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Sister City Committee - 12/07/2009 oister City Steering Committee RECEIVE® Monday, Dec 7, 2009, 6 p.m. Residence of Westi Horn 7637 Rocksprings Drive FEB 1 0 2010 Corpus Christi, TX 78413 CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE MEMBERS PRESENT I MEMBERS ABSENT STAFF Yoshiko Boulan Dora Hidalgo Mary Babbili Laura Gonzales Jorge Brenner Michele Hammock Randy Farrar Drue Combs Westi Horn Phyllis Roseman Maria Couret John Rocha Melody Cooper Donald Russell Tim Dowling Kate Rodriguez Almira Flores Samantha Sandate Elizabeth Garza Alan Thornburg Rose Gunjii Brandi Williams CALL TO ORDER: The regular meeting of the Sister City Steering Committee was called to order by General Chair Brandi Williams at 6:08 pm. II. ROLL CALL: Laura Gonzales called roll. A quorum was met with 18 of 21 members present. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Corrections: Under VI. A. add "per ticket" to 1000 to $1200. Under VI. H. Add an "i" to Westi Horn's name and change "they money" to "the money. Under VII. L. Change "Vera Cruz" to Veracruz. Under VII. M. Change "There were" to "They were". Donald Russell moved to approve the minutes as corrected. The motion was seconded by Melody Cooper. 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. Alan Thornburg asked if the General Fund was an interest bearing account. Laura explained that it was not an interest bearing account, but would check into why it is not or if it is, what account the interest goes into. Alan also asked if Sister City was receiving frequent flyer miles for the tickets purchased for the student exchange. It was explained that the tickets are in the student's name and not the City of Corpus Christi, so we would not receive frequent flyer miles. Melody Cooper 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 letter to Mayor Adame. Brandi sent a letter to the Mayor asking to be placed under the Mayor's office. As of yet, we have not received any information from the Mayor's office. Laura stated she received an email from Michele Thomas stating that the Mayor received the letter and is discussing this issue, but we have not received an answer as of yet. Melody suggested following up with the Mayor's office. The better fit for Sister City could possibly be the Arts and Cultural Committee, but, we could receive even less money under this committee. Brandi suggested Drue help her send a follow up letter and Drue suggested a possible meeting with the Mayor. B. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on someone volunteering to rewrite the bylaws. Drue asked why they needed to be rewritten. Donald stated that at the last meeting, Randy noticed that the bylaws posted with the City Secretary did not reflect the latest rewrite. SCANNED Drue combs motioneu Lo table this item until the January Meeting. Michele Hammock seconded the motion. The motion was passed. C. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on requiring that it be mandatory for all youth exchange participants to pass the test on the history of Corpus Christi before being allowed to participate in the exchange. The packets have already been sent out to the students for the 2010 exchange and there was no mention of passing a test in order to be a part of the exchange. We could possibly give the test this year but not making it mandatory, then add it to the packets for next year. There have been students in the past that have no knowledge of the City of Corpus Christi. The test covers industry, city council, etc. Maria Couret moved that the students take the test, but not be mandatory this year and add it to the packet next year. Melody Cooper seconded the motion. The motion passed. D. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on whether or not to keep the Pen Pal Committee. It was discussed several months back to start a pen pal committee with Middle School or Elementary School students, but nothing came of the discussion. Michele Hammock asked if she could pursue the pen pal committee. She is an administrator at a Middle School and she would like to see if the teachers at her school would be interested. The students would pen pal with our Sister Cities. Michele Hammock moved to look into starting the pen pal committee. Rose Gunjii seconded the motion. The motion passed. E. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on whether or not to keep the Essay Committee. Heather Moretzsohn originally was the chair on this committee and was interested in having students write essays about their cities. The students here and the students abroad would have a common theme and write about that. Drue Combs moved to remove this committee. Michele Hammock seconded the motion. The motion passed. F. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on how many students to send to France. Maria received an email from her counterpart in France and they are starting to plan how many students they will be sending to Corpus Christi. They would like to know how many students we will be sending to France. Donald Russell moved to establish two agenda items on January's agenda. First agenda item is a report from the Chairperson from each of the various Sister City committees on the number of students, if any, that their city is willing to accept. Second agenda item is once we have heard from these committees we move to allocate the student's among those cities. Drue Combs seconded the motion. The motion passed. G. DISCUSSION AND ACTION on sending students to Monterrey. The decision should be made prior to student selection/announcement. This was discussed on the above Discussion and Action. VII COMMITTEE REPORTS: A. Publicity Committee —The website is ready and online and she would appreciate any comments or concerns. Maria spoke with the Mayor and the Sister City link will be added under the Mayors website B. Curriculum/Training Committee — John would like for the training to be held in April. C. Selection Committee — Michele passed a list for members to sign up for the selection interviews for the 2010 Exchange students. Members can sign up to interview male or female students. The interviews are on January 9, at 9:00 am at the Galvan House in Heritage Park. The interviewers will meet at 8:00am for breakfast. Lunch will also be served. 10 interviewers are needed (5 male/5female) D. Fundraising Committee — Dora asked for volunteers to help with this committee. It takes a large group of people to get fundraising going. Kate Rodriguez, Yoshiko Boulan, and Elizabeth Garza volunteered to help Dora with this committee. r " E. Art Competition Committee — Rose no longer wants to Chair this committee. Samantha Sandate will be the new chairperson on this committee. Information about the art competition has not been sent out for this year's competition. The information should have been sent out at the beginning of the year. Chris Kailas will volunteer to help Laura and Samantha get the letters to the school's principals and art teachers. F. International Cultural Festival/EXPO — Sister City is continuously working with Del Mar and Texas A&M — CC Cultural Festival/EXPO. April 23 & 24 — EXPO in Laredo G. Yokosuka, Japan — No Report. H. Agen, France — No Report I. Keelung, Taiwan — No Report J. Monterrey, Mexico —Almira sent an email and has not received any correspondence. An agenda item will be added to next month's meeting regarding whether we will send students to Mexico. K. Toledo, Spain — Donald Russell and Maria Jaramillo have volunteered to be on this committee. L. Veracruz, Mexico — Jorge emailed them regarding the exchange for the tourism internship and they have not returned the email. He is going to try to meet with them. M. Playa del Carmen — Playa del Carmen is very interested in the exchange. They had basic questions about the exchange. How many students? The ages of the students? Do their families come with them? Almira gave them basic information about the exchange and what it entails. N. New Sister City-Evaluation Committee — Maria suggested putting information about how to become a Sister City on the web site so that other cities could get information from there. Israel — No Report India— No Report O. Activities Committee — No Report. P. Essay Contest—Tabled Q. Pen Pal Committee — Michele Hammock will pursue this project and it will be discussed at January's meeting. Yoshiko Boulan would like to be added this committee. VIII. IDENTIFY ITEMS TO BE PLACED ON NEXT AGENDA— A. Discussion and Action on response from Mayor regarding letter sent asking Sister City to be realigned under the Mayor's protocol staff. B. Discussion and Action 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. C. Discussion and Action on carwash fundraiser and other fundraising for 2010. D. Discussion and Action on rewriting the bylaws of the Sister City committee. E. Discussion and Action on sending students to the Sister Cities in Mexico. F. 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. IX. GENERAL CHAIR'S REPORT: A. The Chairs from each of the exchange cities need to inform their counterparts of our new mayor. If you need a letter, Laura has one that can be updated and sent. X. ADJOURNMENT: Elizabeth Garza moved to adjourn and Melody Cooper seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 pm. Laura Gonzales, Sister City Recording Secretary Cultural Services Division Parks & Recreation Department