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Sister City 2011/04/25CITE' OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITE' COMMISSION ' `, ' 3 April 2, 2011 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Joseph Aihara, Sandy Day, James Dinwiddie, Lisa Gin, Russell LaHodny, John D. Nguyen, Swati Patel, Kyoko Smith, Carolyn. Yellis COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Elaine Cali, Brian O'Neal, Anna Piercy, Virginia Zlaket, Laurie Leonard STAFF PRESENT: Greg Garcia, City Manager's Office Sjnny Larson -Cash, Community Services Michael Bruckner, City Manager's Office Lori Bartnikowski, City Manager's Office GUESTS PRESENT: Kathleen Roche - Tansey, Sister Cities International Agenda Posting: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted at 3:00 on April 22, at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Chairman Nguyen explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item III Public Comment. CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission was called to order at 4:08 p.m. on Monday, April 25, 2011 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd. 7 th Floor, Anaheim, California. 11. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Commissioner Aihara offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Gin AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 9 -0, Absent: Cali, O'Neal, Piercy, Zlaket, Leonard; one vacant seat) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the minutes from the March 28, 2011 Sister Commission meeting with the following changes: Commissioner Day pointed out a name correction under page four, Item V., paragraph eight that the name was incorrect and should have been Commissioner Dinwiddie in place of Commissioner LaHodny. Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 2 III. PUBLIC COMMENT Chairman Nguyen introduced Kathleen Roche- Tansey who is the State Coordinator for Sister Cities International of Washington. She was invited by Chairman Nguyen and she is here to be a resource and to share information with the commission from Washington. Kathleen then introduced her sister Eileen, who provided the transportation for Kathleen to the meeting today. IV. TREASURER'S REPORT Commissioner Patel reported that the current balance is $2985.21. This balance is pending a deposit for the reimbursement of tickets purchased for the Student Exchange Program that has been cancelled. After the credit transaction is complete, the account should be an estimated $8600.00. V. MAYOR TAIT MEETING REPORT Chainman Nguyen reported that he, Commissioner Day and Commissioner LaHodny met with Mayor Tait to give an update on the goals and efforts of the commission. Commissioner Day reported that Mayor Tait and the city embraced the commission's efforts to launch the letter writing campaign and that they even publicly supported it by announcing it at the City Council meeting. Additionally, it was displayed on the front page of the city website and there was an article in the O.C. Register. Letters and email have been sent from many cities resulting in an excess of a thousand letters. Mayor Tait is completely supportive of the commission's effort to explore other sister city relationships and the city will stand behind the commission's recommendations. He was very enthusiastic and grateful for all of the goals and efforts of the Anaheim Sister City Commission. VI, MITO LETTERSIFUNDRAISING UPDATE Commissioner Day reported on the many submissions by Anaheim school children of hand written letters, drawings and many more amazing submissions that can be viewed on www.anaheim,net Also she shared that Commissioner Aihara brought a beautifully wrapped jar of cranes donated by one of his students. Commissioner Day shared additional origami art of a panda and a dragon that have been donated to sell at the Taste of Anaheim event. The ultimate intention is that the commission will deliver the letters, cranes and all of the wonderful gifts to Mito Japan as soon as possible. Greg Garcia mentioned that they would like to get pictures of all of the cranes and gifts that have been submitted, and have them posted on the Anaheim Sister City website. Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 3 Commissioner Day had an idea of giving gifts to the children in Japan and she worked with the City Council Office who gathered a large box of City of Anaheim gifts that included Anaheim book bag/luggage tags, City of Anaheim pins, Anaheim "A" pencils and Anaheim paper pads. Commissioner Day has kindly volunteered to go to Mito to personally present the gifts to Japan. It will be a quick turnaround trip to just personally deliver the gifts. Further, Commissioner Day has a childhood friend who works for the Wall Street Journal and he lives in Tokyo. He has agreed to meet her at the airport and he will attend as a journalist and escort Commissioner Day to Mito to video and document the trip for the Commission. The event has been approved for submission on the Wall Street Journal blog. VII. MITO LETTER — HENRI SOUCY Chairman Nguyen gave an update on the status of the letter from Mito regarding Henri Soucy's position as Sister City liaison. He explained that Greg Garcia has been in contact with Mr. Wang Weiya, the General Manager of Mito City International Association. Greg explained to Wang that while we appreciate the close working relationship with Henri Soucy over the years, he wanted to clarify that Henri is no longer a sister city commissioner since his resignation from the commission last November. The Mayor and Council have appointed 15 sister city commissioners to oversee the relationship with Mito and all of the programs that exist between the two cities. For that reason, the city does not think that a separate liaison outside of the commission is appropriate. Therefore, the preference is that they communicate solely with the members of the sister city commission for all items related to Mito, including the student exchanges, delegation visits and other programs moving forward. Greg explained that the structure is best for the relationship between Mito and Anaheim, and that we are looking forward to working closely with Mito to strengthen and expand the sister city relationship. VIII. AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATES Commissioner Day gave an economic development update regarding the presentation package on the website. A meeting is scheduled in early May with the Visitors and Convention Bureau and Commssioner Cali will coordinate that meeting with the resort area officers. The commission is also looking for a partner that will match the crane donations and the hope is to have the commitment in place before May 12' so that the name of the company can be advertised at the Taste of Anaheim event. Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 4 Commissioner Yellis also suggested taking some of the packets with membership information to the Taste of Anaheim event to hand out. The sister city guest, Kathleen Roche - Tansey who is the South East California State Coordinator for Sister Cities International announced that there is a new grant that has become available called The Japan Foundation Center For Global Partnership. For three consecutive years, the grant will be offered in the amount of $8400.00 to support exchange and administration costs. It is for sister cities that already have established relationships, and they are striving to promote the enhancement of existing relations. The deadline for this grant application is June 15 th . Further, Kathleen announced that there will be a Grant Q & A webinar on May 5th at 2:00 p.m. eastern time and that if interested in participating, you must pre - register. Commissioner Gin offered to assist with the Grant writing, as this is her vocation. Commissioner Day reported on an email received about a lead for a possible sister city in China. The email of interest was from the Assistant Head of Foreign Affairs from a province in China. Commissioner LaHodny reported that he has been focusing on the kindness campaign. The Chamber of Commerce is planning to run a story on the crane campaign that will take place at the Taste of Anaheim event and they will be coordinating a photo shoot for branding purposes that will ultimately help in branding the commission.. The newsletter will be dispersed to contacts in the business community. In addition the committee is working to get a sister city logo on the front page of the newsletter that would include a link to the sister city websitc. They are also working on getting a sister city logo on the Visitors and Convention Bureau website. Commissioner Day asked Greg about getting a sister city link on the Anaheim home page. Greg explained that there is currently very limited space for logos and links on the home page. A discussion ensued on the many ways to get to the sister city website from the home page, such as simply typing "sister city" in the search box. Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 5 IX, FUNDRAISING AND SPONSORSHIPS Commissioner LaHodny reported on the upcoming Taste of Anaheim event on May 12"', from 5:30 -7:30 p.m. in which 5000 or more people are expected to attend. A booth has been allotted to the Sister City Commission by the Chamber to raise the awareness of the crane giveaway in honor of Japan. Further, the Chamber is currently working on coordinating with the Geisha House in connection with the efforts of the sister city booth. A discussion ensued on taking shifts to work in the booth at the event and also to have some of the exchange students work at the event. X. SISTER CITIES REGIONAL CONFERENCE Kathleen Roche - Tansey who is the State Coordinator for Sister Cities International of Washington reported that they will be hosting the first regional conference for sister cities on September 30"' and October I St, in Riverside at the Mission Inn Hotel. Riverside was selected because California has the largest number of sister city programs in the nation. There are 67 cities in southern California that are part of the sister cities international organization. This is a wonderful opportunity to network with the national program. It is a well designed program and Kathleen encouraged everyone to attend. Registration is $90 including meals, and the registration is currently open online at www.siste citics.or regional conferences Now is the time to make reservations if you wish to stay overnight at the Mission Inn Hotel, as it fills up fast. There is also a Hilton Hotel down the street. It is expected that delegates will be attending from Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. The theme is going to revolve around the Pacific Rim, because there are so many relationships already established there. Kathleen also reported that along with educational and cultural exchange programs, economic development programs are really needed and in the last 20 years there has been a lot of outreach in terms of economic development. There are many partnerships with the Chambers of Commerce and Visitor and Convention Bureaus. Consequently, many sister cities have discovered that choosing to be global is key. Another item of interest is that an annual event that has been done for many years in the various sister city programs, is to have an artist competition. This may be something that the Anaheim Sister City Commission may be interested in for the future. Kathleen also mentioned that the current interim director of Sister Cities International was called to speak before the house of appropriations committee on Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 6 Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. It went well and this gave recognition to sister cities. Kathleen announced that So Cal will be holding an annual membership meeting in May. So Cal is the organizing chapter of Sister Cities International, and for the 67 cities in southern California. An annual membership meeting is planned in Long Beach on Saturday, May 10' from 10:00 a.m, to 1:00 p.m. Kathleen encouraged and welcomes participation by all the commissioners. She requested that Chairman Nguyen send an email to the commissioners about the event with all of the details. Kathleen also discussed that facebook, twitter and youtube accounts would be a great asset for widening the network of the sister city commission. Chairman Nguyen thanked Kathleen for her attendance in input. Kathleen noted that she is always available and she handed out her business cards. XI. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS Commissioner Aihara asked if the commission will be getting official business cards, as he explained that when Commissioner Day goes to Mito to present the gifts, it is important that she have business cards that have her information in English on one side of the card and Japanese on the other side. Chairman Nguyen responded that the city does not have funds in the budget for this, however business cards may be purchased by using sister city funds or by personally paying for them. Further, Chairman Nguyen thanked Commissioner Day for utilizing her own time to travel to Mito to represent the city of Anaheim and the Sister City Commission. Chairman Nguyen mentioned that Sandy is going to Mito without assistance from the city budget or the commission budget, and that she will personally pay for the trip. XII. COMMISSIONER. COMMENTS Chairman Nguyen announced that Greg Garcia will be stepping aside from the regular meetings and he thanked Greg for all of his effort and input in setting up the commission. Anaheim Sister City Commission * * *, 2011 Page 7 Greg responded that the city is committed to staffing the commission and that Michael Bruckner will now be the new staff support for the commission. Greg stated that the commission can rely on city staff to continue to get things done and that he will still be available whenever needed. Greg thanked Sjany and her staff also for their continual and consistent support. He noted that she also will still be available when needed, however that Michael will be the main contact for the commission. Chain nan Nguyen thanked Greg and stated that he and the commission are sincerely grateful to him. X111. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:52 p.m. to May 23, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. at the City of Anaheim, City Manager's Office.