##VIDEO ID:gd6Hg7fyTLU## e e e e e e e e e e I believe we are I wish someone else would wander in but uh uh good evening this is the sister cities Commission of new W meeting on Monday October 7th at 5:15 p.m. first order of business is to look around the room and record who is here do have somebody who would like to be acting secretary this evening I can do so if you want okay okay roll call we've got Jane M hulky here Carolyn Marty Smith John borick Larry Mack dick SE Booth Tom schmidtz Brian philson okay and guest Dennis W I was advised earlier that uh mayor backer is unable to attend this evening okay our first order of business is a reasonably important one un fortunately last month's meeting was cancelled due to the uh passing of Keith rolloff our chair and we must replace him we also uh have to replace our secretary who resigned from the board so are there any nominations or better yet any volunteers to be chair of this commission I am currently Vice chair and would prefer to remain same Thomas would you do it I mean if as long as we get to keep you before when is the city council when is that thing the L would be start of next year right so okay so then I I'd like to nominate Tom schmidtz for president is it president chair chairman of the board I I will second that you can opt out you got to be able to do the work if you if you accept so any discussion yeah rebuttal Commissioners and uh Vice chair um I think I would be willing to give it a shot if no one else wants it but I would not want to step in front of anyone else who desires the position are there any other nominations are there any other nominations third call are there any other nominations the chair would accept a uh motion to I'll make that move to to cease nominations second and cast a unanimous ballot all in favor say I I I we' have cast the unanimous ballot and we now have a new chair would you like to switch uh I could if you would prefer that otherwise we're happy with you carrying on Vice chair I carry on a lot but I I if since you weren't uh expected to prepare for chairing tonight I will be happy to finish the process I I'll be prepared to chair next meeting okay and I had prepared for you to do it tonight anyway Dex so I'd rather have you just continue on today cuz a lot of preparation went into this so and you're ready to throw in appropriate barbs as always okay do we have a volunteer who wishes to take over the job of secretary I have a suggestion I I wrote all of you last week about Ellie Sweeney possibly joining the board she's certainly amenable and bright and motivated so maybe we could defer that I I don't know if she would do it but I think she'd be excellent at doing it and I don't know can we do that for today if Larry's willing to take notes for today so she is unaware I mean that you thought she she knows that I've she knows that I put her up for Yes we talked about it a lot I wouldn't I wouldn't have put her name in if the rest of the story I had a conversation email wise with Kathleen and she has uh spoken with and got Ellie say that she is willing to do it so now the process is uh Ellie's name will be brought to the city council for appointment and should the city council follow through we'll see her at the next meeting so uh under the circumstances I guess uh we wish to uh table the the election of the secretary to the next meeting absolutely that works for me does thats for me yes so do you need a motion on that motion table the election of the secretary until our November 4th meeting I will second that any further discussion all in favor say I I I we have tabled the election of the secretary you've had an opportunity to review the minutes of the August sister cities Commission meeting are there any uh changes that you feel are appropriate if not let's approve the minutes as distributed I would move approval of the uh August 5th 2024 sister cities commission meeting minutes second that any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose same sign motion carries as I indicated at the beginning of this uh meeting we did not have a meeting in September uh we did however gather as a group and U acknowledged Keith's passing and also at the same time said fairwell to our sister City's training let's talk financials for a moment please uh the first fund we have to consider is our special fund you have the numbers in front of you we currently have a special projects fund of 8,300 $69 any questions on the report U Mr chair I think you're one ahead I think you miss onee I'll follow up and go back and get the general fund okay so we can do them both together as far as a motion and then I direct you to the general fund which has $1,560 remaining for this fiscal year the expenditures or the activity in the accounts are listed they don't need to be enumerated in this particular meeting are there any questions I have a question do you know that anybody pick up our last check for the um BR stand uh it has been received yes okay uh it's I didn't see it on there I didn't see it posted okay well that goes to the general f fund and it it had not posted last week but it is uh for $198 and 72 cents and it okay will show up next month okay well you're very good it's a detail we got to hang on to okay a motion to approve the financials is in order I'll make that motion approve the financials and I will second it J with the second further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I oppos same sign promotion carries all right let's talk the hos Trini Exchange program it has been completed for the year successfully with uh both uh inbound and outbound people uh successfully journeying and having a grand experience Monica arrived home Sunday night she sent me a text so she's home she did some traveling up the did she get caught in Helen at all oh you don't think we weren't nervous um yeah we had her text every day and one day she didn't text us and we were really really nervous but yeah she did she made it all the way a little bit in Savannah um she dealt with a bit of the weather otherwise yeah she um made it all the way back up to New York and is now back in Germany so I'll see you in a couple weeks so very good uh was a a nice function that we had on the 16th of September to say goodbye she uh reflected on her numerous activities with Park and wreck and an overall very positive experience at least that's my impression thank you uh Jane for being one of the host Families Our outbound person uh Miss Howard completed her her letter to uh the journal and it was posted so we got a description of her experiences as well so our challenge is to come up with appropriate uh possibilities for the 2025 exchange and when are we going to push our advertising campaign folks just a thought Mr chair maybe we look at November come up with our plan and then solicit in December and everybody can think about it you know well give it some thought I know that we have done advertising on all types of media and I believe we now have a video that uh Gary kemi worked on that we can I isn't that on the city website I I would have to go online and look yeah I don't know okay that's not my bailey book would you consider doing that for next meeting so that we can uh when we advertise we can direct people to the website I do believe it is there okay U Mr chair can we get a motion here we got five .3 here for get this for Lisa to get the um well I can just I'll offer motion to approve the payment to Concordia Lanes for hanah's farewell reception in the moment of 19872 I'll second that okay any discussion all in favor say I I I same sign motion carries thank you for catching y I'm just trying to oh yeah keep it in order actually if I got to do the minutes it it helps yes it really helps okay we've got a little bit of old business to touch base on in years past though we haven't done it this year we have had a a German language Camp during one of the summer months for a a onewe experience for the Youth of the community to participate in um there certainly is interest among the Commissioners to do that again but our well the big key is to come up with a an instructor who is willing to handle the action for a week I did speak with Beth sharf and she uh has a very full schedule already set for next summer she is willing to uh confer with anyone who wishes to run the German language camp and make suggestions on activities and the like so uh she'll be a valuable resource but beyond that that's as much as I know Mr chairman Tom and I both talked to enginger am I saying his name right that yes and he when I talked to him I don't you talk to him I think after me he seemed very positive about it but he was already booked for the summer by the time I got back from Arizona not not this this last summer okay so if we talk to so it's for a week and how much money do we give and how many hours a day do do we know all this uh in the past it's been a morning experience in some of the cases there was a lunch included right we did that right and I don't know what uh Staten we have offered to the professor for that week but I think we should get our uh have a discussion on it even now and uh does anybody remember what we paid I don't remember I don't either I I'm sure Lisa would probably know or is it a possibility you could go ask him if he's interested come back come back and say what do you think you need to run the program and then if we get the meals so we can maybe work on a budget the meals were separate I know we PID it was Kurt vitm vitm Housen that did the teaching but I don't know what we I don't know what we paid him but and then somebody gave me extra money to do the lunches and the final party that we had and we did it at the college but he worked at the college so maybe that wouldn't be an option either we should first have a teacher and we should first know how much money to pay him and I don't have any idea I'm glad to call him again or Tom are you well I'll I'll interject uh thank you Commissioners and vice chair I would say that we need to put a framework together we need a document a piece of paper with bullets and words and you know potential details and I think the actual program design or the details of the program is dependent upon the instructor so uh I think first of all we need to prepare a document or have a document maybe we already have one that says this is what the day camp could possibly look like in the very various different options um and then you know ultimately I think we would defer to the um instructor as to what the details are I mean I don't even know what age groups we're talking about or grade levels or any of that sort of stuff and they were they were elementary school that's all that I they weren't high school kids 7 to 12 yeah I I only I just jumped in at the end and I ran the food part and I'm more than willing to do more but as far as the setup I it must have all been set up before I got involved in it that was a long I would also suggest we talk to the teachers in town to find out what ages they currently have programs for because we I think we really want to you know gear our program to be somewhat compatible with the existing programs and I don't know maybe 7-year-old is too young to start this I don't know I don't know either but uh I think we need you know one or two people you know a subcommittee to to put this thing together and and and maybe it maybe it is already get I mean it maybe already exists from before I don't know that somebody who works with Lisa maybe would want to check on that okay okay I will uh consider the opportunity to approach Lisa and go into the archives and see what was done in the past and I believe the past was two or three years ago oh longer than that I would say about five exactly I was on I was on the commission before and I've been off a couple years so I'd say at least five at least five and I would also interject that what was done in the past does not have to necessarily be What's Done in the future but we it gives a model giv us something to go with exactly well thank you Vice chair for okay I will uh try to put something together to bring to the next meeting and um have a suggestion on uh some parameters sttip and wise part for the uh uh Professor whoever that chooses turns out to be as well as some Act activities I do know it was a onewe program I do know that there was a small uh charge uh suggested from the parents of the student I think when they have a financial commitment to it it gets the people to the program if it's just free and they can blow off well I don't have anything invested not going to make sure that my child attends it I think you got to have some skin in the game so I do think there should be a registration charge I would agree I would agree okay well there some ideas at least to start with then thank you let's see what else we want to do okay I'm not familiar with the park and wreck punch card that we had for our uh inbound trainee but it certainly was an activity opportunity a pass for them to use the facilities here in town uh during their Leisure Hours do you feel that uh we this is something we should deal with now or wait until we've got an inbound person to uh help entertain um I'll interject Vice chair and Commissioners um I would like to see this as a line item in the budget or a sub line item in the budget I think it's very appropriate to offer our inbound participant opportunities including recreational and fitness opportunities so I would think that we should annually when we have inbounds participants uh fund their um attendance at the recreation center which also I think includes the Civic Center if they'd like to ice skate or slap the hockey puck around so I would make a motion to um authorize um one or more Punch Cards in 2025 depending upon the inbound participants interest I will second I think it's a great idea and keep them interested and that way they can explore the options within our community well I think it can be added to the budget we know that we uh need to do a a rental vehicle we know that we have fixed a uh a gift for the host families uh this should be the next in line of the expenses along with other things that we might entail so uh I think it's appropriate all in favor say I I I I oppos same sign motion carries as I indicated earlier we have a guest Dennis W with us Denny uh there's a better looking chair up here could you explain who he is thank you thank you for many years I have been wanting to acquire a symbol of our sister city that goes back more than just 150 some years there is a symbol in the city hall Rous in M of a carving that was done by uh natives 40 3,000 years ago found in a cave on the danu river and it is incredible that humans at that time already had tools to be able to carve a mammoth tusk to look like a lion man which is a copy what I'm giving to the city of that uh symbol that is in the uh City Hall in in om it's incredible that they had the ability at that time to carb uh something as as beautiful as that Lion Man symbolizes and so it is my gift to the city uh but I wanted to I thought it more appropriate to uh pass it through the sister stage committees first because of his importance well thank you Mr B uh questions about the uh historical artifact here or the copy thereof from uh other Commissioners got some questions for Denny so we get a little better feel uh what is this material what kind of material is this made out of that you're pres to us as far as I know it's as close to the original material even it came out of Hamburg out of a special uh company there that tries to copy any of the old stuff and so my cousins just came here over the weekend from home and they brought it for me it's only $370 nice very nice very nice so I'm donating that to the city and hopefully they will they find a adequate proper place to display it in the city hall maybe with our other sister cities uh memorabilia well folks uh one of you please make a motion to accept this uh gift on behalf of the sister cities commission and uh I would uh request that our liaison person Mr Mack uh offer it to the city on behalf of the commission it's going to be a chain of ownership here initially will it'll be a commission item but would appreciate that if you would uh consider doing that at the next council meeting I will do that I will present it to this to the city council and Dennis if you want to attend the next meeting you be welcome too if you want to speak or answer any questions on behalf of that also okay thank you we would be meeting uh uh in two weeks or excuse me it be not this week but the following week Tuesday so third Tuesday of the month the fth 15th I'd have to get my so the 15th so okay uh yes we have a motion we would like a motion to receive this artifact and have it I make a motion that we receive the lon man artifact from Denny Mora I'll second that and thank you yes any further discussion all in favor say I I I oppose say sign thank you very much Denny thank you thank you thanks Dennis yeah very nice uh Vice chair I think we uh we skipped over 8.2 I'm yep okay I've got it but uh so it's just just the oral report there read it please okay read it into the record all right so 8.2 is overlooked here a letter was mailed to the Friends of the sister cities Commission in August 6 2024 to update contact information or be removed from the group 14 individuals have returned the letter with contact information and eight individuals have not returned the letter a few have asked to be removed from the list so basically it's just a oral or report that uh Lisa and staff have tried to contact everybody because you know we've known that uh some of our events haven't been attended as well so okay that's been followed up 8.4 uh we have some thank you letters that have been sent out um there's a lot of people that participate in things that happened particularly with our sister City's uh trainee people so Jensen Motors who handled the uh rental vehicle po families uh received some chamber dollars and the new home park and wreck received a thank you note indicating our appreciation of their uh finding a nice job for our trainee okay the application process that we touched on earlier for outbound training starts November 15th uh we'll meet again uh well before that and make sure we get our advertising campaign put together as a in that uh meeting next month we will also go over our committee assignments we have of uh those who will handle the interview process and uh and things down Vice chair I have a a comment related to this item I see apparently this time frame was approved in 2019 um beginning you know it's 6 week time period beginning November mid November till the end of the year 6 week weeks um personally I'm kind of feeling that that's not enough time for um the word to get out and applications to get in and reviewed and so on um I'm wondering if uh if it works if it's worked fine in in the past and we leave it alone or if we should suggest opening that period to like November 1st to to have an 8-week window instead of a six- week window I I asked the Commissioners about past experience and and their thoughts related to that application window I would be supportive of that if you want to try it I mean then then in January look at their reviewing the applications and then trying to line up interviews for late January for February you know recommendation or just thought if we get candidates we see in the packet here um you know towards the end of well I guess is page 14 of 16 a nice um you know single page color page you know kind of promoting it and scanning the Q QR code does bring you directly to the hos page on the city website which includes a video and application and you know lots of information so you know and these dates it's already set December 3124 you know I would almost suggest that we authorize marketing you know to begin now or soon depending okay well the uh the challenges that we don't know what the marketing will in fact be if we wish to deal with putting that together now or give it some consideration for our first meeting in November which is quite early in November uh we can certainly initiate the process any uh interested party that would come forth because they heard about it from today's meeting uh could certainly get an application offline off the uh online experience and uh we'd be more than willing to look at in November I'm sure I see the final page in the packet is a list of uh quite a number of academic institutions in which the marketing goes to so you know I think just simply a letter or an email to these schools um sooner than later would help get the process starting and I wouldn't expect that to cost any money I don't know that it's a cost factor it's a case of Implement implementation I think Lisa sends those if I remember right she will mail the packets out to the respective schools and stuff well rather than doing it uh authorizing it in our first meeting in November uh what are your wishes should I think we can send that out anytime because quite honestly with the open application period a lot of these people are going to be home anyway and it's a holiday season if you're at college and things like that break a week into December you might be home already I think getting that out to the colleges that part I think I can see doing it as soon as possible you know and even if the open application period is this period at least get the information out there I think that would be important to do as soon as possible I agree so I'm hearing you uh Brian you're saying get it out to the colleges I think yeah I mean we're you know we're just about mid October by next week so get that out because you know we have a little break around Thanksgiving and that's when the application period opens but I mean they're home a lot of them that what first 10 days of December some of them depending some of them longer off very some of us like we went to school you know we only went three days in December anyway so but I think get them talking about it yeah I agree and it's also not just colleges as you can see on this list in the final page of the packet it includes our local high schools um y I don't see Minnesota state man on there maybe they don't have a a German program iog it's yeah they got Minnesota State University on here oh I miss that oh yes thank you yeah thank you uh councelor Mack yes good so I would uh make a motion to um ask City Administration to send out this notice to this list and any other I you know that might be added to this list um of educational institutions send that notice out by you know USPS mail or email or both uh as soon as um Administration here at City Hall is able to do so is there a second to that motion I will second it we've moved and seconded that uh we request uh City Administration to initiate the uh announcement process for the 20125 on zos training Exchange program all in favor I oos same sign motion carries I think the other advertising that would be more media directed can be discussed and initiated after the next meeting yes but this uh is a good kickoff to it I agree any other thoughts on the preparing the program for next year a couple of Vice chair a couple other comments I might make is that we try to have a system to expand our friends group and our network of friends I don't know what that is if it's a you know marketing campaign or you know media blitz but I think it's important that we try to get our commission's mission out to the public um extensively and um including some of our program such as the hos Exchange program um to even to the point of uh you know giving people an idea that host families next summer um will you know maybe an opportunity for citizens to get involved with our commission and our program well we've we're very open to having people be get on our mailing list as friends of the SST City's commission and since this is a uh an item excuse me the this commission meeting is broadcast we would like to make sure that the citizens of new Al know that we encourage their participation in the program and if you would like to get on our mailing list as uh and be advised of functions and uh Gatherings that we have with our uh sister City's training people or would like to help participate when we do uh fundraising uh Brands and other endeavors we would encourage you to contact any of the Commissioners or Lisa at City Administration and get on our mailing list but uh we don't want to stop short there and I think when we do advertise our uh training exchange opportunity we can put another paragraph in there about encouraging the citizens to uh take a greater interest in this the work of the commission and become more active with it I also have a sneaking suspicion that we are still short uh at least one commissioner and the opportunity to get on this board or other City commissions is uh right out there please make your interest known to Mayor backer and an appointment could be in order down the road Mr chair yes sir I've just uh I got an idea here is it maybe we could get a couple Commissioners and Brian or somebody from KJ could interview them and ask them questions you know like how did they enjoy hosting you know like Jane and Carolyn have had a lot of host experiences with and how they've networked and how that's gone and that might excite other people in the community that might be interested in futur hosting and then you know just it's a discussion you know and it keeps our you know name out there and Community Affairs or would you be able to set up a Community Affairs and anytime anytime so we get some we did something like that Brian do you remember Tom Tom Tom Edwards and I went on you're going back a little bit aren't you yeah well we can do that anytime I mean that's every year and we worked with the legion that we got a lot of interest with that we had a lot of friends from sister cities we used to have the a room full of people in when I worked the first time and then Co us to have the meal down there was it yeah we used to every Wednesday one Wednesday a month we serve food down there that's Commissioners and that was a really good way to make friends I thought but we don't have that anymore yes I would agree I I think um can you J in the community fairs or um you know any conversation like that would be perfect along with uh our local newspaper the journal and their uh um their feature page or article that happens weekly um I think those are two great ideas I would also support paid advertising in both those two venues also well maybe if we're talking other media like the journal maybe a lifestyle section of past hosts you you know here within our community that gets it out there spread yes that's what I was thinking of the life LIF section oh we have lots of pictures that would be good I think that's an excellent idea so maybe we have a whole lot of pictures we could add to that and talk to people like you or the Howards or maybe you do a live Sarah warka had kids maybe do a live interview to your Hans Yos Park you know and get Brian out there and look at the marketing there at the at the at the The Visitor kios things of that nature okay would a commissioner volunteer to contact the journal and get the ball ball rolling on that type of uh expose okay I I could do that Daniel on an article does he still work there that or did Danielson yeah or clay schul or clay clay would be the all right just call it say about the lifestyle section they'll put you in the right uh depart they will all right I will do that and I certainly have more than enough pictures that we could add to LIF because that's what lifestyle section is all about always pictures I think a lot of them you know they're always talking about looking for ideas would it be nice rather than just having an article when our our intern comes to have a lifestyle you think about the presentation they put on for us especially at their farewell that would probably make a good lifestyle agreed feature in the journal as well they always write letters I mean the letters go out in but I think a lot of people sit down on a weekend and look at that lifestyle section and we might be reaching some people we're not getting during the week I think to good point very good point I mean some of these students get quite a experiences from the T games to the Vikings game to to well an that one weekend my goodness it's funny she didn't fall over I mean they're they're moving 247 really so I mean they're they're cramming a lot in within their three months of course they're younger than we are yeah I would suggest that this uh media blitz at K&J and the journal um and elsewhere that we we hit it hard in the month of November you know um we're already it's it's a quiet month otherwise and it's before the the hubub of holidays yes and I also think that deadline or the uh H the hos Exchange program an application period and deadline is is very important and so I think this promotion should take place um as soon as possible and no later than you know the end of November I'll contact clay I will start with that and get us a place and I would look at personally I would promote uh the sister cities the intern program now so we go into fall hit the friends of flandre pro friends of flandre where's that coming from Friends of sister city that's boy there's a Time Warp but hit the the friends of sister cities probably I would go Fe uary March as we when we our busy time when we're doing more things I think as we get into the spring and summer of the year because that's when we're looking for volunteers rather than do that now and just do certain things don't do everything all together yeah okay yeah yeah I would agree conversely it would not be the well when we do our media blitz in November to get the word out to the community that we're looking for outbound trainees that still could be one uh yeah that that that's what I'd hit right now yeah do that one now but then do the uh expansion for uh the friends of in in the spring yeah I see your point well I will volunteer to work with Brian regarding a uh community of Affairs to talk about the uh sister City's training exchange get that out to the ears of the community Caroline if you would I will contact and I will let you know maybe not tomorrow but for sure we'll do it this week I will get it done this week you'll go after the journal I will any other discussion on sister cities at this juncture I think it would be good to have Ann Howard on somebody that went over to Germany that's you have somebody like that on rather than listening to us you might catch her at Christmas break because she's in college well you know we could well and we could do these over the phone via computer oh yeah that's true you want to reach out to her and line up a time or yeah that get some contact information to me that'd be good yeah I'd like to get her on newat too well once we'll get on the radio and then we'll talk about newat okay we did an interview with anuka earlier and that went really well I will write a note here for Lisa to get Brian contact him okay then I'll I'll step back on that one and see if that if it can't be hooked up in a reasonable amount of time I'll hit you in November after we'll talk about it at the I think quite honestly if we have Ann on from wherever she is and we have a commissioner come in that's fine just put a headset on you use you for some of the information because they're not going to know that but I think to really entice people you want to have somebody talking about the experience and then at the end you know we can give them some of the details I think it would be a good joint Endeavor okay we'll get you the contact information if you can get it set up then I'll be I'm reasonably flexible to agent or I go right through I go to your agent or who do I go to Yes uh Sharon will be happy to take care of an appointment I want to go I want to follow proper protocol all right good discussion our next meeting is November 4th in these Chambers at 5:15 we have some uh work to accomplish between now and then a motion to adjourn would be in order I move that we adjourn the meeting I second all in favor say I I I oppos