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Minutes 04-27-06 MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE ADVISORY BOARD ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH HELD IN COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2006 AT 7:00 P.M. Present: Stephen Waldman, Chair Mary Morera, Vice Chair Hattie Miller Loretta Wilkinson Robert Chiste, Voting Student Sherri Claude, Assistant to the Director of the Recreation & Parks Department Absent: Lawrence Rubin Christine Hogenkamp, Voting Student I. Call to Order Chair Waldman called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. II. Pledge of Allegiance!Moment of Silent Reflection Chair Waldman led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, followed by a moment of silent reflection. III. Approval of Minutes of March 16, 2006 There were no additions, corrections, or deletions from the minutes. Motion Vice Chair Morera moved to approve the minutes of March 16, 2006. Ms. Miller seconded the motion that passed 5-0. IV. Approval of Agenda Chair Waldman added an item under New Business, (C) Grant Monies. Motion Ms. Miller moved to approve the agenda as amended. Vice Chair Morera seconded the motion that passed 5-0. V. Announcements! Presentations! Correspondence Chair Waldman announced an Art and Jazz concert at the Children's Museum on Sunday, April 30 from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. featuring jazz guitarist Nestor Torres. Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida April 27, 2006 VI. Public Audience David Katz, 67 Midwood Lane, Boynton Beach, declared his son had brought home an application for the Youth Volunteer Bank, which stated the board reserved the right to weight the volunteer hours worked. He felt any time a volunteer put in hours it was important, regardless of where it was. He asked the board to consider eliminating that wording this year or at least, the following year. A discussion ensued. The language at issue was: "The City of Boynton Beach and Advisory Board on Children & Youth reserves the right to weight hours based on type of service and organizations volunteered at, in order to encourage and reward diversity in volunteer service." Mr. Katz commented that his son had volunteered hundreds of hours to an organization that saves dogs and cats and this should be no less important than the youth who volunteers to teach children at risk to read. He felt having a policy of diversity in volunteer activities was pointing youth in the wrong direction. Colleges look for community service hours that show consistency and dedication, not a little here and a little there. Chair Waldman mentioned the board had, historically, awarded double hours for beautification projects. Mr. Katz responded that not everyone might be available during the days and times of beautification projects. He did not feel that beautification hours should have more weight than any other hours. Various versions of the language were discussed. The board did not believe it had to be changed at this meeting. One example of possible wording was, "The City and Advisory Board on Children & Youth will periodically give double hours for City-sponsored projects." The language about encouraging and rewarding diversity in volunteer service would remain. Chair Waldman indicated the board would discuss this and delete the wording pertaining to weighting. The consensus was they wanted to encourage volunteerism of all kinds. They had concerns, though, about monetary awards based solely on the number of hours, because one individual might claim working in his father's business was volunteering and that was not something that would be allowed, for example. In any event, it was too late for this year because all the hours had been submitted and the forms had been widely distributed with the current language. Motion Vice Chair Morera moved to delete from the Youth Volunteer Bank Hours Verification form, item 5, the words "reserves the right to weight hours based on type of service and organizations volunteered at." Ms. Miller seconded the motion that passed 5-0. VII. Old Business A. Tennis Carnival, April 8, 2006 2 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida April 27, 2006 Chair Waldman reported the Tennis Carnival had been a great success. Ms. Claude had gotten a considerable amount of positive feedback from the attendees. Several children were given racquets. Ms. Phyllis Stern and Ms. Jane Swotes gave a very generous donation to the Advisory Board on Children & Youth. Chair Waldman thought this donation could be used as the board saw fit, but one board member questioned the intentions of the donors, saying they might have meant for the money to only go towards the tennis carnival. Ms. Claude will determine the donors' intentions. Ms. Claude shared some pictures of the tennis carnival with the board. A discussion ensued about having another tennis event at the City Tennis Center, which could host even more children. By consensus, the board directed Ms. Claude to invite the City's tennis pro, Bob Howell, to come speak to the board about this. B. Teen Center Vice Chair Morera reported the schools had not responded to the letter sent by the board pertaining to the surveys for interest in a teen center. The letter had said the board members would get back with the schools, but when the calls were made, no one knew what they were talking about, having thrown out the letters. Feedback from the schools indicated it would be better to write them a letter saying, "If you are interested in something like what we are proposing, please give us a telephone call back with how many surveys you would like to receive, and we will come to your school to talk to you." Atlantic High School was willing to distribute the survey but stated most of the kids going to Atlantic High School live in Delray Beach. The new student member, Robert Chiste, felt a teen center was something that might be a good idea in the summer, but that most kids were very busy with schoolwork during the school year. Ms. Wilkinson suggested the survey could be published in the high school newspapers with a request to return the survey. Ms. Claude suggested having an event that was advertised in the school newspapers, on school marquees, flyers, and so forth in advance to see whether kids would respond to a call to brainstorm about a teen center. The board's intent was to get a core group of kids who would work for it rather than having the adults assume it was a good thing. Vice Chair Morera felt the letter should be reworded so an adult had to give the writer feedback. Or, they could pitch it at student-run groups instead of trying to go through the principals and guidance offices. Or, they could say to the schools, "We're going to drop off these forms. Please put us in contact with the adviser to the Key Club or student government representatives." Ms. Wilkinson felt it was the kind of thing where if built, people would come to it. Chair Waldman said it would have to have monetary support from the City. Ms. Wilkinson mentioned the planned Boundless Park on Congress, thinking the teen center could have a part of that, perhaps hold teen concerts there once a month. That could start teenagers wanting to be involved. The consensus was to table this item for an undetermined period. 3 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida April 27, 2006 C. Youth Volunteer Bank, Banquet May 20, 2006 Ms. Claude indicated the banquet would be held at the Senior Center this year. Invitations had been sent yesterday, including one to Ms. Emily Borovy. Only 20 students turned in hours in spite of receiving a letter and two postcards about this. The previous year, 40 applications were received. One of Ms. Claude's goals for the coming year was to try to increase participation and membership in this program. She noted participation had been dwindling over the last 5 years. There were 40 applications last year. Chair Waldman and Ms. Wilkinson announced they would not be able to attend the banquet this year. It was suggested that a sign be put on the door of the Civic Center, since the event had been held at that location for years. Ms. Claude hoped other board members would be able to lend a hand. D. Bob Borovy Award Ms. Claude indicated there was a winner. They only received two applications this year, compared to ten the previous year. She circulated the applications among the board members. The budget figure for the award shown on the agenda should have the $lK for the winner deducted. Vice Chair Morera commented Golfview Harbour gives out scholarships also, and they only had one applicant this year. Some felt the students were going for higher dollar scholarships and others felt every dollar counted. A comment was made that all too often, scholarships were not awarded due to lack of applications. Chair Waldman said in previous years, the board had decided that if there were three applicants, the runner-up would also get an award. Ms. Claude did not believe they ever had to give more than a first-place award, but this could be discussed at another meeting. E. Fundraising Ideas The board decided to table this item until the full board was present. F. Youth Expo Vice Chair Morera had attended this meeting, but was out of the room when it came up. It was suspended temporarily. G. Guest Speakers Ms. Claude asked if this agenda item referred to a discussion of getting some guest speakers or the guest speakers themselves. She suggested putting it all under Presentations and Announcements. Chair Waldman responded they were inviting the tennis pro and the Sister Cities representative. VIII. New Business A. Sister Cities 4 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida April 27, 2006 Chair Waldman declared the Chair of the board in charge of the Sister City program wanted to come to the board to make a presentation about the program and discuss how the Advisory Board on Children & Youth could get involved. Some ideas were pen pals, young artists in residence, and so forth. The board was in favor of hearing the presentation and Ms. Claude will issue an invitation. Chair Waldman commented Ms. Lena Rahming had asked the Sister City board to explore the idea of having another sister city, Eleuthera in the Bahamas. B. Combining Education and Children & Youth Advisory Boards Ms. Claude announced there was an agenda item on May 16 to discuss combining the Education Advisory Board and the Advisory Board on Children & Youth. There were only three members left on the Education Advisory Board and no applications had come in for some time. Those three members would be put into the three regular member slots on this board. Ms. Wilkinson asked what that meant for this board. Ms. Claude stated the plan was to change the mission of this board to include an education component to merge the two missions/purpose statements. Ms. Wilkinson understood the EAB was lacking members and that this was the catalyst behind this but personally, she felt combining the two boards would seriously dilute the effectiveness of each. She was not in favor of it and did not believe it would be good for the City. Although the EAB was having a lull right now, in the past the EAB had been very instrumental in doing things like getting a high school after 25 years of trying. The EAB was also not a board that took on beautification projects like Children & Youth. Her objection had nothing to do with personalities. This board was having a hard time now getting enough people to come to the banquet and to beautification activities. It could be there would be three more people to get behind the Children & Youth board's activities or it could work the other way - the Children & Youth board would have extra projects to do because it was part of the EAB. It was not clear whether there was any choice in the matter. Ms. Claude suggested if any member had a strong opinion about this, they could come to this meeting and express their thoughts. Chair Waldman commented if it happened, there would have to be new elections for Chair and Vice Chair. Ms. Claude indicated this would happen every year anyway, in May. C. Grant Monies Chair Waldman mentioned grant funds were available, one from the United States Congress, one from the Florida Governor's Points of Light program and one from the Nestle company. There was grant money and honors. Some programs provide both, others just one. This would be a good thing for seniors wanting to get into college - something positive for their record. He wanted to see if the board would be interested in having a subcommittee look into available grants and report back to the board on something the board could do right away. There were grants for elementary students, high school students, car repair for people who are disabled, 5 Meeting Minutes Advisory Board on Children & Youth Boynton Beach, Florida April 27, 2006 and things like that. He hoped the board could look into this and asked to have it put on the agenda for a future meeting. IX. Future Meeting Dates May 25, 2006 June 22, 2006 X. Adjournment It was moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned. The motion was adopted and the meeting was adjourned at 8: 15 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ~~~ ~'J Susan Collins Recording Secretary (050106) 6