##VIDEO ID:W4KVegLLOG0## I'm here to call the cultural Council to order um if you all could just join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all we're just going to do a quick roll call here um Savannah Carlson here Rocky Graziano here Lonnie Stevens I'm here so a couple of the items for our agenda tonight we're going to introduce some new members that are here um we'll review our budget for this fiscal year here we're going to discuss some goals and priorities that have already been inputed into the mass cultural Council website we'll review some pending proposals um discuss some new ideas and then move forward with the October meeting um with our pending October meeting um so our new members uh Savannah Carlson is one of them hi I am Savannah Carlson um and I am an Arts enthusiast as we have a great background in the Arts I currently run a Shakespeare company out in conquered Massachusetts and I'm very passionate about serving arts and education to the underprivileged thanks Savannah and Rocky Graziano my name is Rocky Graziano I was recently elected to be part of the the council I'm very excited as a lifelong greater suff County uh residents East Boston r winup r now I um have been really passionate about bringing arts and programming to people from the community that I grew up in um I was a Shakespeare actor so we have to talk about that my my my claimed to fame was being in a show at Pedro Pascal but we'll get over that later um by day I work as uh as the head of Learning and Development for a tech company I am also a very active board member for the Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Foundation and when I'm not busy doing that I'm doing production for drag brunches and I'm hosting trivia around the world so this is it this is me thank you guys so much um we're just going to do a quick review of the budget for this year um so for this fiscal year we were we were allocated $42,882 um and then for the goals and priorities none of them have changed um I'm just going to take a moment to read all of them uh priorities will be given to proposals from R residents um proposals that benefit underserved populations in lesser herd groups that involve rever youth including at risk youth um that are regarding local history and serve our local community promote local environmental issues involv new art forms or Humanities programs that would be beneficial to the community and are also from new applicants um just to add to that too I do want to just say that this year we will be prioritizing new applicants um and also new projects or future projects rather than events that have already happened for a clarification uh lady when we say prioritizing new projects we're prioritizing ones that are accepted correct so if somebody has applied in the past that hasn't gotten it but gets it now would we consider that new yes okay uh in the past we've allowed applicants to submit receipts uh for reimbursement from past cultural events and we've paid them out but as Laney said we're going to prioritize new events um and some guidelines that we have um our applicants must live in r or be sponsored by an organization in R projects must be completed in rev they must be about r or benefit rev residents applicants must document how the grant funds will be used the application must include a project timeline as well as a detailed budget um if equipment or Capital Improvements are part are part of a grant proposal the grant must demonstrate a cultural purpose be for a one-time or or special need that should be clearly justified by some longer term public benefit um just to talk a little bit more about that I think last year we had somebody that was doing um like sewing classes and they were keeping those sewing machines for a longer period of time um so that would be an example of having that equipment applicants should be aware that our C our Council makes reimbursement grants and they will not have the funding immediately after being approved this should be considered when planning the project timeline projects must be completed within one funding cycle unless a demonstrated need is presented to the council for a one-year extension all programs must be held in locations that are accessible to those with disabilities funding of Grants is contingent on both availability of sufficient funds in relative to the benefit of the community field trip applications must include a statement that the project is not already fully funded by the school funds must not be used used to substitute or replace existing publicly funded programs funds are not to be used as a sole means of support for programs of a continuing nature applicants may not be discriminated against the basis of including but not limited to say race sex religion Creed color national origin disability or age all advertisements brochures must include a statement that the activity in program is supported by a grant from rier cultural Council a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts cultural Council and an ability to fulfill guidelines may result in disapproval is there anything that you guys want to add to the priorities maybe can we just clarify what the funding cycle is and the terms of that whether it's a calendar year cycle or if they do have 18 months so from my understanding there are 18 months um where the fiscal year normally ends um so this fiscal year ended June of 2024 it opens in September the application um and then I think that they have the full calendar year from when we decide which is around January so they should have it done by December um I think it is the full 18 months though when we take into consideration that it start that the fiscal year starts in June okay yeah good question all right um and then just some pending proposals um so we just have our Excel spreadsheet up a couple proposals that we're still waiting to hear back from um so in total this past fiscal year we've had we had 26 applicants um currently currently there's about one two three four five there's about 10 um that have either not been completed or we haven't received full paperwork from and what is the process for reaching out to those individuals that owe us paperwork um so we have actually reached out to a lot of those applicants that have not completed their projects yet we reached out back in um the June July timeline because the fiscal year ended in June I think that a lot of people were kind of in the swing of things there's a couple um grants on here or applicants on here that I know are completing their projects in the fall which makes total sense um a couple people have reached out to us and let the us know that um they still needed to get some form of paperwork to us whether that was invoices whether that was their W9 Form or whether that was just um assistance completing the reimb reimbursement form paper um we will follow up with those 10 or so appli that we need to um and if you do need an extension feel free to reach out to us based on what we have proposed will stay in budget correct yes so we'll definitely stay in budget um I'm not sure so the way that this the projects that all of these projects on this spreadsheet um these are ones that we've already accepted and that we already have the funds for um if they don't complete their project for whatever reason we'll still yeah we'll still be in budget if they do complete the project that won't impact us at all yeah thank you mhm and when the mass cultural Council of the state lets us know what we're allocated to hand out we go down to the pennies right to allocate all the money out um so in years past what ends up happening is if any of these projects aren't completed this money will go into our encumbered funds and then we can redistribute that money into the pot for future years um and then there were a couple new do you guys have any other questions I should ask no nope thank you um there were a couple new ideas that I'm going to pass this over to Rocky I know that he wanted to speak a little bit more about this um one of them was Miss Rivier Beach so full disclosure I am a board member of the Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Foundation which if we there would be two Avenues here that we could go in if Miss Rivier Beach were to be a preliminary to miss Massachusetts I would obviously need to abstain to be ethical uh give a quick little background uh Miss America is the oldest I think we all know what it is the oldest scholarship program for women in the United States it's actually the largest Giver of private Giver of scholarships to women in the world uh both in kind and scholarship so um if we were to hold a Miss Riv Beach which there has been history in the past going back to the 20s I have paperwork that I've collected that chose When Miss B they actually crowned Miss Boston on River Beach if you all want to look at that right back in the day when seeing someone in a swimsuit was a little a little racer than it is today uh but we all know that Rivier beach has been around for someone keep me honest here 28 years technically I think or 27 years it's been around for a while um and having a Miss Rivier Beach um with would be twofold one we could provide a scholarship which would allow a young woman who wins to advance her education um by allowing them to perform or requiring them to perform some sort of talent that would also fall in line with some of the um cultural aspects that we're willing to promote and the other piece of it that I think could be really valuable and I'm speaking from my experience as being a someone that's been involved um with Miss Massachusetts U or a pageant of that nature for the last 15 years um that will provide us with a young woman who could do appearances and be part of the community and better whatever it is that she wants to uh bring to the or to um the city uh it doesn't have to be affiliate with Miss Massachusetts if it's not and we just do it on our own which is perfectly something that we could do I'm confident in this team um I think that that could be a benefit to one visibility right a young woman from the community who has to live in R work in Rivier whatever it is um will be able to promote the city um would be nice to have someone as a extra set of hands to volunteer at some of the events that we have coming up so that's a little there has been precedent for it being done on the beach in the past um I was thinking if we were to do it we' do it maybe around sand sand sculpture Festival because then we have her the whole weekend you know to do that um and I think one of the things that everyone could probably agree to is that the last year two years or so the number of events that are happening along the beach has grown exponentially from the Winter Fest Festival to the pride festival that um I've gone to the last couple years uh there was an arts and culture Festival last week there's been a farm Ro market so we definitely could get some good visibility for a young lady within the org within the city I keep on saying organization um because I have to switch my mindset around that um who uh would be able to be part and then you know could get U I don't know what we would we would budget for that get a nice chunk of money that would go towards her college education or her student homs I wonder if that's something that we can speak to our representative about for scholarship if any of our encumbered funds could be rolled into a scholarship fund maybe that's something that we can ask if that's what we can do so as I'm thinking about it I think that the the way that it partially could be funded I don't know if it could fully be funded by it um depending on how much we have in the account it would be I think that we can set aside funds as a council for a project that we sponsor ourselves so that would be something in that nature um my guess is that it would be around $8,000 yeah but don't quote me on that number which is much more than you know I would say an average local competition in Massachusetts which is what goes to miss Massachusetts the average is probably $1,000 that the winner gets so I think that that's much more so if we had more that means we could give a bigger chunk and then the runners up and other people that participate could um also receive money but I don't think it would cost us that much money to put on yeah usually you can no you figure it out you find donations I'm sure we get the high school for free if we ask if we ask nicely or we did it outside you know at that it did it like sort of at the band stand or during some of the festivities I think we would already have set up for that so I don't think The Upfront cost to do it would be that expensive um I don't know if either of you would want to touch on any of these other ideas but we also had the art gallery and then art programming um I think what the art gallery was about was possibly like showing off some of the other projects that have been completed just to show off um or and then give other people in the community ideas of what people have used their funds for yes um as well as work with um I think it's Ward Ward one where which beach what Wards Beach it's near me yeah it's w one um W one with their new arts arts center that they're building in the old fire station it would be great if there could be collaboration between us um and that new center where we could bring in local artists and have a Arts F reever Arts focused Gallery um and then when it comes to Arts programming the council is really interested in becoming more involved in what the city is offering in terms of cultural programming I know this weekend there was a whole cultural festival and we would love to have more involvement with that next year and potentially get on the the Arts C calendar the cultural calendar um or the city of R's calendar so we can have more of collaboration well I think we could solve that pretty quickly right by just asking to be copied on some of these special events that the mayor has uh and then also offering our services as F I know there are three of us here but five extra sets of hands that could uh be present at those things and I think it's important to say because everyone has busy lives and schedules there doesn't have to be all of us the time but we could look at the calendar and say oh okay Rocky you're going to do this event Savannah you're going to do this event um and by spreading it out it a helps us be part of the community a little bit more um we always need more volunteers I'm sure and it also helps us maybe solicit or encourage people that we meet to sign up and apply for a grant so that we can start to focus some of the work that they're doing and these events seem to be very well attended I mean I walk the beach quite a bit and I see that people are getting out there I don't know if it's just people from r but it's they seem to uh want to go and and and attend these so we might as well take advantage of it um the last order of business that I think that we have are the ideas pending for the October meeting um I think that originally we have it scheduled for October 3rd uh and I think that the reason for that was because our financial report is due on the 16th um if you are watching and you happen to be applying for Grand um let me just double check on the date um but the applications will be due sometime in the next couple of weeks I just want to see if I can see that date on here right now um I will get back to that um but I do think that we have to move that October 3rd meeting that is currently on the calendar just to accommodate all of our members and hold Quorum um so please be on the lookout for that if you are looking at our calendar um are we going to open Forum after this October 1ad October 17th is the deadline for people to have their applicants applications in okay thank you um I think we can go ahead and move to open form yeah so um I just wanted to have an open conversation about the way in which our applicants are um in which they receive their funding uh currently we are reimbursement based meaning that approved applications they do fund their events upfront and then they submit receipts into the council in the city and they get reimbursed up to whatever they were approved for uh there is an option for a direct deposit where once approved the funds are directly given to the applic so then they can be more proactive in making sure that their event is launched um within the community so I would love to have a discussion about pros and cons of that and potentially motion to do a direct deposit so I think that we can do that starting next year um because the guidelines and the priorities were already submitted I think we would have to wait until the year after unfortunately um if we were to about any changes but I would still be willing to have that conversation I think you know the points that would be valid in terms of doing this is that not everyone has the money up front to put on an event uh and looking at our spreadsheet of some of the suggested budgets these are in the thousands of dollars like obviously $500,000 is probably attainable but some of the proposals we have here are much more than that yeah and uh I don't know about you all but I think there are a lot of people out there that probably don't have $7,800 that they could just throw at something and then expect to be reimbursed so having maybe some guidelines around maybe a dollar amount if it's over if it's an excess of this this is what the process is and just flushing out you know what the responsibilities are so if they go under budget what happens with the money I think with that those are sort of items unless there's already something with other groups that that is in place that we should consider um I don't don't think that it could be like if it's under a certain amount we do direct if if it's under a c or over a certain amount we can do reimbursement or vice versa it's just allinone yeah well either way I think if people take the effort to want to do something in the community I think that we have to trust that they intentions are good and that they're going to use the money for the right for the right causes and I mean that will require the council to do an audit and make sure that these events are happening and following up uh but I would ask then the applicants to share as much information when their events going to be launched whether it's on social with newsletters something that we can even share on our cultural Council social pages that would be great and a good way for us to cross check that things are getting done yeah I think that it makes the whole process too on um the city side a little bit easier to have direct grants in the future um so I think that that would be good and I think that would also lead to a more robust application from our applicants um I think that it would kind of force them to outline their budget a little bit more whether it's for us or whether it's just for them so is this something that we could motion for 2026 is that what you're saying 2026 applicants to 202 applicants for the 2026 year 2025 applicants for the 2026 year okay I'd like to motion that the cultural Council changes their allocations to direct deposit for the 2026 year I second I'll go ahead and third it so approved um I'm going to go ahead and open it up to the public if there's anything that anybody wants to share feel free to share it at this time Steve morido director of diversity equity and inclusion 281 Broadway Rivier um I just want to welcome Rocky and welcome the cultural Council back to the chambers after a long High I know you guys were meeting uh online after the pandemic and you're finally coming back to live television and I'm sure everyone's excited so just wanted to welcome you back and I know you guys going to do great things thank you Steve thank you um if that's all the orders of business I'm going to go ahead and oh should I make a proposal for in more well not right now but for the next meeting I can have some something that's more official okay a cost breakdown and like what I think a plan would look like just as a Next Step yeah I think that that would be great um also while we're here would you want to discuss does October 17th work for everyone just in case you all don't think we're rude we're checking our calendars if you're all of our fans watching from around the world yes that's fine I think it works fine for me as well I'm in yep it's in um I'm also free October 17th Savannah are you yes and I think that um that might be a good time to meet because that's after grants are in yes so we should assume that that would be part of that would be filtering through those um part of that could be filtering through those and then the other part could be um filtering through that idea that you had too okay perfect um are there any other orders of business that either of you have no no I'm going to go ahead and adjourn the meeting um thank you all for watching for