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Minutes 06-28-01MINUTES OF THE ADVISORY BOARD ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH MEETING HELD IN COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ON THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2001 AT 7:00 P.M. Present Shanna St. John, Chairperson Sherri Claude, Asst. to Stephen Waldman, Vice Chair Recreation Director Evelyn Geathers Carlos Masso Mary Morera Lori Wilkinson Willie Wilson, Alternate Absent Spencer Calder Dorothy Davis Hattie Miller Phyllis Stern, Alternate I. Call to Order Chair St. John called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. I1. Moment of Silent Prayer- Pledge of Allegiance Chair St. John asked members to observe a moment of silent prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by Vice Chair Waldman. II1. Approval of Minutes of May 24, 2001 Motion Ms. Wilkinson moved to approve the minutes of the May 24, 2001 meeting, seconded by Ms. Morera, and unanimously carried. IV. Announcements/Presentations/Correspondence A. Welcome New Members Chair St. John welcomed two of the three new members to the board and asked that they say a few words about themselves. Meeting MinuteS Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 28,2001 Mrs. Willie Wilson read in the paper that this board needed another member, so she applied. She was born and raised in Boynton Beach and wanted to start giving something back to the community. Mr. Carlos Masso stated that he was a student at Atlantic Community High School, going into his senior year. He recently moved to Boynton Beach and wanted to help the community. Ms. Claude announced that she had done a press release for the Awards Banquet and the Bob Borovy award and believed that the Post was doing a story about it. She had also written thank you letters to all the sponsors. The 4th of July celebration will be at Boat Club Park with the festivities beginning at 6 p.m. and fireWorks at 9 p.m. There will be food and beverage vendors, a Color Guard march, entertainment by "8 track", and free water activities for all ages. Ms. Claude highly recommended the band Straight Shooter, specializing in country tunes, who would be performing at the TNT concert at the beach on July 20. V. New Business A, Election of Officers Motion Vice Chair Waldman moved to nominate Shanna St. John as Chairperson. Ms. Morera seconded the motion. Ms. Wilkinson asked Chair St. John if she would be willing to continue in the position and Chair St. John said that she would, but that she thought this would be the last year. The vote was unanimous, Chair St. John abstaining. Ms. St. John accepted the position with thanks. Motion Ms. Morera moved to nominate Stephen Waldman as Vice Chairman. Ms. Geathers seconded the motion. Mr. Waldman agreed to continue in the position. The vote was unanimous, Mr. Waldman abstaining. Chair St. John asked Vice Chair Waldman to take on the task of calling the board members the day before each meeting to remind them of the meeting and he accepted. Meeting Minutes ' Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 28,2001 B. Other Chair St. John advised of an offer from Commissioner Fisher to purchase t-shirts for all the advisory board members. Chair St. John distributed a list to the board members, asking that they put their t-shirt size on it. The Board was appreciative of this gesture on Commissioner Fisher's part. VI. Old Business A= 4th Annual Youth/Adult Doubles Bowling Tournament - Sunday, July 15, 2-5 p.m. Vice Chair Waldman distributed fliers for this event to the board members. He advised that shoe rental would be free for youth bowlers. There will be three divisions Bumper, Junior, and Senior. Each youth/adult team pays $20 to bowl, $11 of which comes back to the Advisory Board on Children & Youth for youth projects. There will be trophies and certificates of participation for all. Registration begins at 1:00 p.m. at the AMF Lanes on Boynton Beach Boulevard. The Board was going to try to get a donation for the cake from Sams or Publix. The event was publicized in a postcard Ms. Claude had posted at all the City's recreation centers and the library. B. Volunteer Project at Rolling Green The Board wanted to do a beautification project at Rolling Green Elementary School, including painting a mural on the side of the restroom building. Chair St. John was trying to reach the principal of Rolling Green to get approval for the project. The project was expected to last two days, one for preparation and one for the actual improvements, and the Board decided on November 10 and 17, pending approval from Rolling Green and the School Board. The Board will do this in conjunction with the Boy Scouts and members of the Youth Volunteer Bank. Vice Chair Waldman explained the volunteer projects to the new Board members, mentioning the butterfly garden at the Art Center, the painting of the American Legion Post 164, and the Nickelodeon Big Help project. Chair St. John explained that the volunteer projects had arisen from the need to provide opportunities for the Youth Volunteer Bank participants to make a contribution to the community. Commissioner Fisher donated $1,500 from his discretionary funds for the project. Chair St. John applied for a grant from the Audubon Society in the amount of $500. Mr. Masso asked to whom donations should be directed, and Chair St. John replied that she or anyone on the Board could accept them. Donations could be earmarked for specific projects or put into the General Fund. Chair st. John suggested a project of putting together an information package with an explanation of each of their programs so that when new members came on board, they could be made aware of the various projects. Staff was asked to locate a copy of a presentation made by Charlie Fisher to the Commissioners when he was still a member of the CYAB. 3 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 28,2001 Chair St. John asked the Board members to start promoting the activity, gathering names and phone numbers of interested persons, so when the project was ready, the Board could send out post cards advising of the start date. Ms. Wilkinson suggested letting the youth at Rolling Green School do the mural. Chair St. John said an adult needed to map things out and supervise. Mr. Masso suggested Jack Burgess, who had done the mural on the side of Salefish Realty, as a good candidate for this job. Mr. Masso offered to ask Mr. Burgess if he would be interested in participating. The youth could make a drawing of what they wanted on the mural. Vice Chair Waldman suggested making a presentation to the Rolling Green SAC Committee and that they might also wish to participate in the project. Motion Ms. Wilkinson moved that the Board would do the volunteer project at Rolling Green School on November 10 and November 17 if necessary. Vice Chair Waldman seconded the motion that carried unanimously. C. Youth Volunteer Bank Ms. Claude sent a postcard to the Youth Volunteer Bank members telling them about the recent Banquet and awards, and asking that they remember to report their hours as they volunteered. The postcard also advised of the bowling tournament, the hours and place of the regular board meeting with an invitation to attend, and names and contact numbers for City staff and the Board members. The postcard was placed on the bulletin boards at the Library and at all of the City's recreation centers. Chair St. John complimented Ms. Claude on both the content and timing of the postcards. Vice Chair Waldman thanked the three judges for the Bob Borovy award: Debbie Majors, Carolyn Sims, and Christina Milsted, the first award winner. The winner this year was Rebecca Wierenga. Chair St. John read a letter from Christina Milsted and asked that it be put in the record: "To whom it may concern, I would like to suggest the addition of a few items to the Bob Borovy application in the future. It would make it easier for the judges to compare nominees and assure nominees receive credit for all they do if the application specifically requests a list of community involvement (position and hours) and accolades. Most seniors are required to write a resume for college applications regardless and would not mind including it in the packet. Also, although academics are not considered for this award, I believe an acceptable transcript proves the ability to balance involvement with responsibility, a requirement for any good student citizen and should be requested. I believe these items will insure a more even consideration among the nominees." Vice Chair Waldman explained the genesis and history of the Bob Borovy Student Citizen of the Year award to the new members on the Board. In summary, the award honors graduating seniors who have made a major contribution to school, church, and 4 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 28,2001 community. It also honors the memory of a great man, renowned for his love of children and contributions to this community. The award, a $1,000 savings bond, is an ongoing one and has been given to two people thus far. The Board tries to get Emily Borovy as a judge each year and Vice Chair Waldman asked that she be given a standing invitation. Vice Chair Waldman asked for the status of the budget for this award so that fund raising could begin. Ms. Claude offered to provide a copy of the budget to the Clerk,s office, who would mail it with the meeting minutes. Ms. Wilkinson asked if special rules would be put in place since the two seniors on the Board were probably both eligible for the award themselves. Vice Chair Waldman explained they had solicited judges outside the Board for reasons of impartiality. Chair St. John explained that the Youth Volunteer Bank was a year-round program that culminated in May each year with a banquet. Youth in the community do community service such as cleaning up the beach, and volunteering at their church or school, and keep track of the hours they have spent. All ages up to 18 are involved. They turn in the number of hours three weeks before the banquet and the awards are given at the banquet. Chair St. John asked Ms. Claude for any ideas she might have on this event. Ms. Claude said they had talked in the past about making the program more active and generating more interest in it. The post card idea was a start and she suggested that this be done monthly or quarterly. In the near future she was going to meet with the member of the Recreation staff who would eventually be in charge of all of the City's youth programs, Janice Phillips, and work with her to develop some simple ideas. She suggested the Board might want to consider having mini-projects on a regular basis such as two or three hour's duration so the youth could have more opportunities to volunteer. Perhaps there could be a get-to-know-one-another party and they could get extra credit hours for signing up a friend. Vice Chair Waldman noted that attendance had been down this year and that their contacts with the schools had been inconclusive. He said the Board needed to go to the schools and speak with the principals. They would speak about the Youth Volunteer Bank and ask the principal for a contact person for the program. They would also ask for an opportunity to speak to the youth. This all had to be done at the beginning of the year. Mr. Masso suggested that advertisement at the schools could be done through the morning announcements on the public address system and the school newsletter on a weekly basis, to keep it fresh in people's minds. Chair St. John asked Ms. Claude to provide a list of the area schools with their phone numbers to the Board at their next meeting. Ms. Morera suggested taking groups of five schools at a time and inviting them to the CYAB meetings to learn about the program. This would save much time on the part of the Board members who were pressed for time and found school visits difficult to fit into their schedules. Chair St. John thought that would be a good time to hand them the information packets about the Board's Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 281 2001 programs. The Board decided to ask the schools to send a representative if they were unable to attend the meeting. Chair St. John asked Ms~ Claude to send a note to the Education Advisory Board Chairman, Diana Tedtmann, requesting five minutes on the agenda of the annual Principal's Roundtable to discuss the Youth Volunteer Bank. She suggested that the entire Board attend and that they distribute an information packet to the principals explaining the various projects and programs of the CYAB. The Board discussed the idea of having a "back to school/bring a friend" party to generate interest in the Youth Volunteer Bank. D. Teen Center Chair St. John reported no significant progress on this item. She said she wanted to contact the people who had expressed an interest in working on the project to let them know that the issue was still alive and give them a status report on it. Chair St. John would be talking to the Recreation Director, Wally Majors, about doing this. E. Youth Expo Ms. Morera explained the Youth Expo program to the new Board members. She said this event was held every two years at the Boynton Beach Mail and that it was a showcase for all kinds of activities for children. The event takes place over a two-day period and has entertainment such as baton twirling, and karate, all performed by youth. There were contests for science, creating writing, art, and photography. The students from all schools in Boynton Beach can enter the contests. The artwork is displayed at the Boynton Beach Mall, where it is judged and awards given. There are information tables for displays for any organizations having anything to do with youth but no sales are allowed. The Board agreed that they would have to contact the schools for judges earlier than they had the previous year to solicit entries for the various contests. Since the Mall was undergoing renovations and the event was not until the following year, Chair St. John was to contact the mall and do some preliminary planning for the event. F. Other Youth Council The Board discussed ways of regenerating the Youth Council, which had once been so dynamic but had fallen by the wayside. Spencer Calder had wanted it to be held at the new Boynton Beach High School like a Key Club but open to students from other schools. The item was to be included on the agenda for the next meeting. Other Proposals 1) Ms. Geathers reported that a local tennis club wanted to present an idea to the Board pertaining to a tennis clinic for the local youth and the Board agreed to put 6 Meeting Minutes - Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida June 28, 2001 2) this on their agenda. Ms. Geathers thought it was a potential fund-raising opportunity for the Board. 3) Ms. Wilkinson reported that someone wanted to organize youth from the local churches into a youth council of some kind and wanted to present their idea to the Board. The Board agreed to put it on their agenda if approached. 4) Vice Chair Waldman believed that the Board should resume having open board forums and that he would like to see this on the agenda for the next meeting. VII, Next Meeting The next meeting will be on July 26, 2001. VIII. Adjournment There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting ~vas duly adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Susan Collins Recording Secretary (two tapes) (06/29/01)