##VIDEO ID:TyhThy8s9LI## I'm going to call the cultural Council to begin um if you all could stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance with me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America into the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Savannah Carlson here Rocky grao here uh Samantha Harrington is not in Joe Heitz here and I'm Lonnie Stevens um a couple topics that we have for discussion today we're just going to review the number of fiscal year 24 projects that have been completed as of right now I think that it stands that only two have not been completed there's a couple that were still working on paperwork um there were 30 projects total so that means the 28 have already been completed um we're going to do a quick discussion on the fiscal year 25 grant proposals those came in today so those applications were due yesterday um Rocky's going to discuss his R Beach proposal with our funding there are some changes to the CASL system that we'll go ahead and discuss and then we'll open it up to the public if you also log on to the mass cultural Council website then I think that you can save a Excel file there um while we're getting that queued up just some lower level things uh as of right now I think that we have 31 applicants uh and so far we've seen a request for 1,00 8 excuse me $189,000 and sorry $189,200 um I don't know how deep we want to go into each individual thing or if there's just any observations that you all have noticed so far taking a look at it um we do have some repeat applicants from last year which is great to see see I'm glad that they're they have used their money from last year well um uh there are also many R city of R departments looking for extra grant money and funding as well as R schools just uh reminder I think we had 30 35 last year so we're down just like by four proposals this year mhm I think that there were only 30 and I could be wrong though I think that we only had 30 last year oh you know what then we had 30 yeses that's why so you're right yep it was 35 mhm um there are some uh applicants with a very large significant uh Grant application fee request in here so this will proved to be a um very in-depth search for us to determine where the money is going uh did did we announce how much money that we were actually granted yet um I believe that we did announce that it's around $44,000 um we will have more money given the fact that there are some encumbered funds I don't think that we have those financials quite yet I think that that comes out a little bit later on okay there are a few that seem to not be necessarily associated with Riv do anybody pick up on that so yes maybe we could eliminate some of those first before we go into the more detailed ones um are there any that are listed here that are not affiliated with r that anybody is passionate about that maybe we should discuss or should we make them motion to um remove those from consideration um before we remove anything from consideration I'd like us to go through every application in depth because they are listed in line items as to what the funding would be applied to um I would rather push them to the bottom of the priority list in terms of allocation rather than just nixing them right way and the other thing is that every single Grant organization or applying for Grant has the right to apply to as many councils as possible um because some of their programming may may overlap in their scope um something else that I've noticed is this year we don't have as many things online uh a lot of these events seem to be FL which is nice I know that we did mention a priority on those and as we said there is a lot more from um organizations in rever themselves which is I think um largely kind of propelled by Steve on the cultural he's uh he's sat in on the uh cultural committee meeting he is not here today but he sits on other mayoral um committees uh that do cultural events within the city um that could use some funding um further down the line or have put in for funding or didn't know how to put in for funding in the past so those great decisions do need to be made by January um because they just came out I think we just wanted to introduce some of those applicants um but not really go through each single one we'll probably say that for another meeting um just because it's getting a little bit late uh can we go ahead and move on to the Rivier uh Miss Rivier Beach proposal absolutely so Council people out there in R TV Land um proposing that we bring back the Miss r Beach and we will have a Mr division as well competition this uh spring summer um the purpose of this would be to Grant a young person ages 16 to 21 $1,000 I'm proposing so two winners at $1,000 each we might need to flush out some more funding potentially for runners up um and that ,000 would be used for personal development um so I use the term scholarship but that sometimes gets dicey because people assume that just means academic expenses uh but that also could be application fees for people going to college it could be personal development courses say someone is going to be certified as a personal trainer yoga yoga instructor Etc so anything that is meant for someone to develop a skill set of theirs Savannah if they want to go to the Shakespeare in uh lenux right they can go and sign up for a weekend intensive with that money anything that they want to use that is a de developmental opportunity so what we would look at and terms of the competition have it at a venue like Riv high school or I would really like it if we did it outside at the Band Stand uh maybe during one of our many events that are coming up um and the competitors would compete in a talent portion two minutes anything of their choice you don't have to be talented just have to find something entertaining to do um they would uh Model A a formal wear and outfit that they think is special to them it can be whatever it is that they that they find that to be and they will ask a uh they'll have a short onstage interview where they'll be asked to introduce themselves to the crowd and then answer a very simple question around um their goals and Visions for U the city of Rivier um this would be open to anyone that lives or works or Goes to School in the city of Rivier um and I think we would obviously have to flush out a more detailed plan but that is the synopsis of I think what I wanted to discuss today before we we dove in depth um once again for purposes of the record I am on the board of directors of the Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Foundation this will not be affiliated with that so it is therefore not an ethical conflict so I'll pose it for any questions from the team do you have a ballpark as to the total expenses of a program like this not just the $2,000 in scholarship expenses cuz I'm I'm thinking about uh other logistics as well for each proposed location at the high school we'd have to consider janitorial Fe janitorial fees things like that and then at the Bandon we'd also have to consider DCR police um Port aties right set up for like all of the um attendees to right what I was hoping to do to avoid some of the expenses would be to piggyback it off something like say sand castle Festival if we could do it during that because there is a lot of programming that goes on during the day there's already a stage set up there's already Ace relas presents there already are some of those logistical items so if we were to go into that deep I think we could get it could get really costly but in the past when I've run uh similar programs of this size it's usually come around I would say 5K would probably be what we could do it for um without without factoring in some of those costs um to give you context We Run The Miss Massachusetts or we have run the Miss Massachusetts team competition at a high school in um Fall River and those costs generally are under $5,000 and that includes Janitorial AV and all that so I think we that would probably be um it's well below $5,000 so okay and um when it comes to applicants is there an application process is it anyone shows up and can participate uh and I asked that for time sake how long is this type of event if we are piggybacking on some another event or we're going to propose it I think what we would do I what I would propose is we would we would launch when we when we're ready to do this we would start promoting it at the beginning of the year um maybe we say we take the first 10 Miss contestants the first 10 Mr contestants so a total of 20 um that would be something we could probably do in well under two hours again it's not a lot of you know that we're asking them to do a very simple talent and then change it to one outfit they're not being asked to in terms of a production um it it wouldn't be that much I think you know we would have to really leverage some of the local schools dance or um other C cultural programs we have within the city so that would be a great opportunity for us as the council to get out there and meet some of these individuals that maybe we don't know maybe we do um to try to encourage some of their of their students teachers or people that are involved to be part of it I think the real goal other than giving money away I think that's that's a good one um is also uh the development of the two individuals well all people that participate but the two individuals that win we can leverage them throughout the year that will give them exposure not only to us the council and other members of other councils and politicians within Rivier but we can also have them meet the community so it's not just a monetary prize it's also giving them a a development so I would I would propose I'd say two hours depend if we had 20 contestants if we had less than that we could probably do it a lot shorter but looking at what the programming is in some of these events that are in the city there is sometimes a little bit of open space so I was hoping we would wiggle in get that so that we wouldn't have to pay a lot of the fees that you mentioned and built into the the two hours uh is is there other entertainment as the contestants are changing into absolutely okay and we could leverage again some of those same um groups that have been participating at these events so it wouldn't just be an event that is just for the contestants it would really be a a community event thank you you're welcome so then I look at my proposal I'm like for the pageant person I left out a lot of stuff I was like this is just your little nugget before I have my full PowerPoint presentation with everything right um I like Logistics you do know this is why this is why we're teams right so I I think we can um if we were to do it again I think that that the the the real resource a I love pageants I think that that's clear just for those people out there but I think it's also great to have a positive role model from the community for um our young people and our adults to see and to help get put hands on the community and get get their get what we do out there because that could be a big part of of what their their year is like hey why don't you apply for a grant and then next year we could sit here and have a hundred of these another interesting concept that fires off of this I I like this because it it hearkens to the old days of Riv Beach basically when it was an amusement Pier or destination uh thing but I was also was interested possibly in doing a senior category um a senior category in which um old age facilities too could have their Mr and Mrs Riv Beach or miss senior and Senior that they speak to a different era different time period um That Could lack in or or could elucidate on you know that said the history it's not just where the future is but it's also the history that we're as a cultural committee that we're embracing I think that's a great idea um I have we I've done similar program programs like that I think maybe we would adjust that to be more accessible so maybe it would be more of a modeling outfit in a conversation because I think we're thinking about people that are um you know our our our wonderful elderly population there might be some other you know logistical issues that might prevent people from being able to perform but we could maybe make that optional but yes I think that would be a great idea I was we can so in the past um again for the record uh I was uh invol I've won the East Boston um it was the East Boston Columbus Day pageant it is no longer that uh but it had divisions from Tiny or little all the way up to miss so if we wanted to get that make that a goal for down the line that we make this even more accessible I think that would be a good goal but I think to your point um having this Division and also having a senior division probably wouldn't be that much of a reach um even if we did um the senior program at one of the senior centers which um some of my title holders have done all over the state so um my Miss Massachusetts and Miss massachusett team have gone to several um around may there's usually a bunch of proms that happen at a lot of senior centers and they go and they help facilitate a program similar to that so we could if it doesn't if it if it can't be on stage for whatever reason I think we could find a way to make it make it happen and then utilize them during the production as well so I think what I was looking for was a little bit of a go-ahead that we were interested so that I could then come back with a much more detailed um plan that will include all those Logistics so I'm going to go ahead and make a motion um to go to sponsor this so the cultural Council would be sponsoring this with the funds that were allocated um we can put 5% away I believe for a for one of our own events this would be the event that we would be sponsoring so I'll go ahead and motion that if anyone wants a second one I second the motion to reserve our 5% of 2025 grants towards this cultural Council program Savannah we're going to be talking about logistics looks like yay yay um also for the people who have showed up just so you know we took a brief look at the Excel spreadsheet we we're not going to go through each individual Project tonight um the last thing that we have on our agenda is just the changes to the CASL system I'm just going to pull up the email just to um just to speak a little bit more on that um so from the mass cultural Council they just let us know that they've updated their contract and payment process um they're preparing the contract materials for our cultural Council in our allocation um and we just need to provide a couple more documents the way that it stands right now I'm going to go ahead um that being said I think we can go ahead and open it up to the public if you guys are okay with that unless there's anything else you want to add um the big thing that I had on agenda could be uh tabled to the next meeting too is just said promoting promoting ourselves within the community and tying into the community at large like I said the big it's it's great to have a small amount of uh proposals but every um Community uh like said I I don't think that everybody in R knows who we are what we are um and we discuss it last year you know most events that happen that are sponsored by the mass cultural um committee have that on their Banner some some place placed on that um so the the the first one that we're sponsoring it will have that on the banner but also expanding our social media presence um and social media presence is not recreating a a wheel it's it is a proven fact that the more postings you have the more comments you have um the more public you become the more um feedback you'll be be getting um so it's important that we do get feedback and we're just not a adjunct kind of committee that um that that operates apart from the community we are part of the community um and we're interested in meeting greeting and as Rocky said getting out there in the community and being present um at their events seeing what events we've sponsored um so that is a big thing of expanding our media um social media presence um and it's it's to kind of like I said nothing new it's what other social um councils do is just say when the grants are what events we've sponsored who's gotten one and even some pictures from um events and we'd like to hear from you uh type things would it be possible I'm I'm assuming there's an Instagram page I haven't looked so that's on me bad Rocky um I know in some other organizations both professional and um private that especially around intern time like around summertime that there are a lot of we can tap people on the shoulders like students that may want to manage a social media account um that because that's becoming a real career now where people can go into being an influencer so perhaps to your point to increase that we might be able to find a resource that could help help us with that um and set clear guidelines we can manage the page obviously but you know there are a lot of of people young and old whatever age they are that really want to get into that type of marketing and it is a very an it's a very important skill to have if you're going to promote an event so maybe that's something that we could do and that would also get us another uh person that might be interested and in seeing what we're all about I think last year when we discussed this something that we talked about was maybe putting up some flyers within the school um as a rever public school employee I can't do that um but if somebody's interested in making that flyer and putting it up I'd be happy to chat with the principal about it I can make the flyer absolutely um and then yes we do have an Instagram we do have a Facebook it's not super updated at the time of course I don't have the Facebook password I think that that there's another council member that was on it previously that might haveen um but the Instagram I do most young people only use Instagram anyway so if we were to have a good presence on Instagram I think that that would be a a great starting point I think the other thing is too to to your point Rocky is that for a lot of councils and I think for a lot of organizations they just have one person doing social media um I think before on the cultural Council we had a secretary we had a chair we had a co-chair and I think that maybe that's a position that we have even with within the council um we could have another person doing that I don't know if they could get paid for it that's my only thing well I think uh my is is looking at a lot of programs that have like course credit or Pro special projects for for managing programs like this so um that's why I thought you know students at first because I think that there are many colleges and or high schools that say Hey if you work on this particular project you get you get credit so that might be something worth exploring I don't I I'm not well as well versed on that but I've seen it happen in other places so we wouldn't have to pay them and then there's also civic duty um a lot of communions now or a lot of churches too is part of their communion rights just say participate in a project that either you propose or somebody else's proposed to help out the community at large it can be anything from painting a room to working in a soup kitchen but they're supposed to do a communitybased project as Civic um duty is I said it's it's not a punishment it's you know kind of part of them to be be involved and feel involved and I believe that uh you know the high school council they sent rep representatives to the council meeting and said we'd like to be become involved in different projects and the more that you involve tomorrow's leaders the more that they'll be involved tomorrow yeah I think that there might be opportunity for us to reach out to um their student Senate I think that those might be the people if that conversation's over is there anything else that we want to add um I think that we can go ahead and open it up to the public if anyone wants to come up and share anything all right we're going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting thank you all for watching before oh uh can we set expectations on reviewing the grants yeah so we should have it for the next meeting or what what would be the plan you're ready to bang that [Laughter] gavelin should we say that maybe we we focus on the first because it is quite a bit of reading and and for people to maybe we do the first 15 at the next one and then the next 15 at the December meeting would that be a fair or the next the rest of the the submissions I don't know how you all have done it in the past that's why I have I think in the past that we've normally just done it in one stretch okay but it is a lot to do it in one stretch so I think that that would be a really good idea so where we at we at 31 so why don't we say 1 to 15 we should all review and come in with our recommendations uh I yes uh I think for us to comb through 1 through 15 is something that we can do however we should it prior to coming to that meeting have looked through all of them because we don't want to yeah if we get through all 15 and 10 minutes we can keep going but let's let's set the plan that everything should be reviewed with the focus on 1 to 15 the first 15 applications and then we could proba if we don't get through the mall sure the next meeting in December we could we could do 17 through 31 or sorry 16 to 31 yes okay you can bang the gavl now nope not not yet we do have Steve marbo in the audience today I don't want to kind of put you on the spot um but there is a lot of cultural events that go on within the city uh for different cultural groups um and just we are a cultural committee so just how does the mayor off mayor's office plan cultural cultural events um for different cultures in the city if you could talk to that or so as far as cultural events uh are you talking public events private events public events so public events are usually through the Dei office or if there's an organ organization um in the city that wants to put on a flag raising they'll come to our office and we'll work with them but as far as cultural the the we really don't have uh the main one we have is we have a lot of them actually we have the multicol most of the nonprofits work in collaboration with the city I would say if that makes sense is there a timeline for that or anything because you let let's just kind of bring up a few like not really because usually the grants that uh so for instance most of the grants are these are reimbursement grants so anyone who apply if you're talking about departments I I think we heard a little bit about departments applying for Grants um I think they there's the that expectation that they're not going to be paid out until the event happens because it's based on a reimbursement so I would assume that nothing's time isn't of the essence that's what I was going to bring up to my council members um was that there are reimbursement grants on there from different city departments for different uh things and um like I said there we have the flag raisings it seems like there was another flag in um this this year a different cultural group ra raised the flag correct so a lot of that some of that would come out of the Dei Department diversity equity and inclusion department and then the flag racing then we had um Italian American celebration that just passed um recently so how how do the how do the two differs it just scope of so for instance say if you have um the lat latinx community of Massachusetts their organization they want to do say Six Flag raisings they'll come to our office and they've been doing it for the past five years and they want to sponsor it so they come to our office and basically they already have the flag they provide the speakers um as far as um food and entertainment um they usually get sponsored entertainment or they pay for it out of their organization or um if there's something specific if they ask us if we have the resources we can help and pay for it as well but we have limited resources so and uh the publicity for those events usually I find out about those events the day after as opposed to the day of so um well we can do is there's a ton of events uh in general uh we can definitely link you guys in if you want if that's a will of the council I can definitely do that I just wanted to check because I think we had discussed this before there is a calendar somewhere there is so if you go on Google and just type in R calendar events or if you go on r.org and type in um events it it will show up and they'll go in uh according to uh in chronological order of the day so and then just checking I know that some other City organizations they have a newsletter that gets sent out before do we have anything like that for um Dei or no we don't we're as of right now we're a two-person team doing trying to organize everything and our sole responsibility isn't just events we also deal with policies we deal with um working with other departments to deal with inclusivity so there's not it's not just a lot of people just think we handle flag raisings and cultural events but there's a lot more to the job it's more involved than people think um well thank you also for all the work that you do thank you and um I think you guys have some ideas I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you want to be out there in the community and promote a lot of cultural events and um I think one thing you guys should look into is uh working with the Human Rights Commission the public Arts commission um I think they can get you started uh even having a Galla to um honor recipients um anything like that I think you should do some kind of promotion in that sense to have uh maybe an annual Gala so that would that would definitely create a buzz do they have separate calendars or is that all in the inclusive uh so every all every event that is um every Department that has an event um usually the private events like even like say hym development site down by suffk Downs they're having um they have an event this weekend and uh for dogs like a a aqua Aquatics uh event tournament that's a private event but they can request they can submit an event PRI citizens can submit their event online and then someone would approve that and add it to the calendar obviously the reason for the approval is to make sure it's an appropriate event and it's not something obscene you know but as far as departments if the parks and requis uh having an event like they have bober coming up and they have fright night if the library is having an event uh and having a haunted uh like for Halloween I forgot what the the event is they'll submit it online and all the C on the calendar of events we show every event that is submitted but all the department heads are told to submit in an event so what what the rule of thumb is we usually submit the details of the event to 311 and then follow up with a calendar invite so Lonnie are our events on 311 are the ones the grant proposals that we have accepted for past year those ones aren't on 311 to my knowledge no um to my knowledge no they those aren't on 311 not all of them I think that the reason why I could be wrong but I think that the reason why is because not all of them are hosted in R um as I've gone back and forth in email exchanges sometimes a person proposes a certain date and then the venue falls through that happens a lot more than you'd think um I want I wonder if they can submit to 311 they might be able to do it themselves I don't know if we as the council can do that um a lot of the dates even that they've proposed in here they're just kind of General guidelines but also thinking about that that might be a good idea to do for our proposal for Miss and Mr Rivier Beach once we nail down those Logistics absolutely and then is there a list at City Hall or anything that we know of just public spaces that are available for any kind of assembly or or if you wanted to do a program what is available um you know so we mentioned DCR what it would take to those um locations to be available um we have a lot of buildings that are being built here you know do they have public spaces that are now available to the public to use or just residents within that building and if so do we anticipate more proposals from people in that residences just like suff Downs as as a the community so here in River we're lucky to have good neighbors um so for instance if you were looking to use a community room in one of the apartment buildings we sure we could we could talk to management and ask if they they'd be more than willing to help out hym they're usually always very helpful as well down bopic Downs even um a lot of local venues so and like said this suff Downs they're building green spaces too the availability of the green spaces it is only available to the buildings themselves or is it available like I said they're very very generous and very with helping out and providing space with us that they've been a good team uh team player with the city those are two factors space and time yeah but if you guys have something in the works and event feel free to reach out to our office we can help facilitate I don't think that currently there does stand a list of like like you said open venues or places but in the past when people have reached out I've tried to connect them with other council members or even with Steve himself um and then I think that that person or those people have gotten some sort they've gotten some sort of venue so don't get me wrong if you're renting out a ball room they're not going to give you it for free you know they can't gift a ballroom there there there's guidelines on ethics as well so no I'm just talking about in general like the Garfield School is set up as a community center or part part of it school is another school the school uh is so the gymnasium it's like are you talking about a community room after hours so there's so many different factors like the auditor we can talk about this all night long but there's so many different factors about venues so I think if you have something if someone has something recommend them that they call me or email me and I'll help facilitate that's the best I can do there's so many Whata ifs and so many hypotheticals that I'm just going to be going circles so well thank you Steve for your Insight I know that Steve's come up here a couple uh times already but I just want to open it up to the public if anyone wants to speak at this time and then is there anything else that we want to add tonight no ma'am all right so that being said I'm going to go ahead I'm going to bang the gavl this time um I'm going to adour the meeting thank you guys e