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Sister City 2012/01/23CITY OF ANAHEIM COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Shannon Buhrmaster, James Dinwiddie, Ann Gallaugher, Lisa Gin, Russell Lahodny, Laurie Leonard, Linda Newby, John Nguyen, Brian O'Neal, Kyndell Paine, Anna Piercy, Pat Pina, Kyoko Smith, Jennifer Vaughn, Virginia Zlaket COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: GUESTS PRESENT: None. .Michael Bruckner, City Manager's Office Lori Bartnikowski, City Manager's Office Dr. Anthony Aljamie David Bracey Agenda Postin: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission. Agenda was posted at 3:00 p.m. on January 20, 2012 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 No. VII. Public Comment. 1, CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission (ASC.C) was called to order at 4:07 p.m. on Monday, January 28, 2012 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7 th Floor, Anaheim, California. [I. SWEARING IN OF NEW COMMISSIONERS Chairman Nguyen and the Commission members gave a warm welcome to the newly - appointed Commissioners: Ann Gallaugher and Jennifer Vaughn. Michael Bruckner administered the Oath of Office to Ann Gallaugher and Jennifer Vaughn. 11I. APPROVAL, OF MINUTES — November 28.2011 MOTION Commissioner Newby offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 13 -0, Abstained: Gallaugher, Vaughn, Anaheim Sister City Commission January 23, 2012 Page 2 Absent: None; No vacant scats) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the minutes as presented. IV. TREASURER'S REPORT There has been no cash flow activity and the month end balance remains at $6876.94. V. AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS Commissioner Lahodny reported that plans are in full swing for a trip to Spain in May 2012, Commissioner Newby reported that the trip has been proposed to Mayor Tait and he will get back to the commission, Commissioner Lahodny presented the finalized letterhead and envelopes to the commission. Ile is also working on an article about Commissioner Newby's trip to Spain that will be featured in the Anaheim Chamber newspaper. Commissioner Gin asked what dates are on the table for pending the trip to Spain. Commissioner Newby stated that the Memorial Day weekend of May 24 thru 29 are the tentative dates for the trip. Commissioner Buhrmaster reported that the Marketing /Fundraising Subcommittee has been covering many items: 0 The current marketing effort with regards to PayPal has been approved for the ASCC website. The committee is currently working on writing a "thank you letter" that will. be utilized for donation. contributors. A discussion regarding press releases and news releases; currently working on a post press release regarding the trip Commissioner Newby recently took to Spain. ® Planning to follow up with Commissioner Lahodny in regards to the ASCC sponsor packet and brochure. ® Planning for an article in the City of Anaheim Magazine to obtain some recognition for the Commission in the upcoming spring edition of the City magazine. ® There are still bios needed from a few of the commissioners. a On February 21 at 9:00 a.m., a discussion of website updates and fundraising plans will be held. If interested, please attend or send an email with ideas. Anaheim Sister City Commission January 23, 2012 Page 3 Commissioner Gin announced that the 201.2 cycle for the next grant application that comes from Sister Cities International and Japan Foundation is due March 1 and recipients will be notified by April 1. Commissioner Gin recently participated on a conference call and gleaned the following information: ® It's an opportunity to be awarded $7600 that would be utilized to send four delegates from Anaheim (commissioners, local residents, local business owners, etc.) to Mito. Could be written on a number of different angles. Commissioner Gin requested that they brainstorm on which angle to target. A few ideas would possibly be business development or, youth and young professional development. They would really like to see the connection between Anaheim and Mito (not just the sister city and government) but specifically other businesses. Possibly art, such as the Anaheim. Pallet or Anaheim Beautiful. One or two commissioners and also reps from those specific businesses for 10 days. Funds only cover travel and food. Accommodations would be either taken care of by the commission or home stays. a Travel has to be completed by December 1, 2012. Commissioner Gin offered the opportunity to brainstormn on ideas and details as soon as possible, and Chairman Nguyen stated that they will meet today, immediately following the ASSC meeting. Commissioner Zlaket commented on the funds available for the Mito exchange students that may come over here this year. Since no students will. be sent to Mito this year, commissioner Zlaket contacted the students to update them, and also invite them to be part of the committee for the exchange students that will be coining this year from Mito. At this point, Amanda Doss, who is a dance student with the Orange County High School of Performing Arts is very interested in assisting with the planning. III. S "rAFF REPORT Michael Bruckner reported that the PayPal option is now available on the ASCC website. Website changes have been made with the exception of minor formatting. Michael reminded the commissioners that he would like to snap photos to be posted on the website at the next meeting that will be posted on the website. Anaheim Sister City Commission January 23, 2012 Page 4 VIII. KAISER -JAPAN GRANT FUNDS This year is the 100 year anniversary since Japan. has donated cherry blossom trees to our nation's capitol in Washington D.C. and to commemorate the event they are having a ceremony at the Huntington Library in San Marino on January 29 from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. As part of the centennial celebration the Consulate General in Japan will be donating 1300 cherry trees, and they have offered the City of Anaheim up to 100 trees. A consideration for the Kaiser Japan. Grant Funds would be to create a memorial with the cherry trees here in Anaheim, and then donate funds to Mito so that they can also create a similar memorial to therefore have Sister City Memorial sites. Commissioners Pina and Piercy suggested accepting cherry trees and then requesting approval from the City to place them around the Mito Bridge in the Anaheim Shores area and also in. the Friendship Garden in front of Anaheim City Hall. VIII. COMMISSION MEETING DATE - 2012 Michael mentioned that the next cominission meeting in May falls on the Memorial Day holiday. lie asked the commissioners if they would life to reschedule the date or skip the meeting. The commissioners wanted to reschedule the meeting to May 21, MOTION Commissioner OlNeal offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Vaughn. AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 15 -0, Absent: None) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve to reschedule the meeting from May 28 to May 21, 2012. Michael reported that Mayor Tait has received a request from an Anaheim resident who does business in Rosarito Beach, Mexico. The resident has asked that the commission consider creating a sister city relationship with Rosarito, Mexico. Michael recommended that it be referred to the ASCC Executive Sub- committee to conduct a study to on the request. X. PUBLIC COMMENT Chairman Nguyen welcomed the two Commission meeting guests, David Bracey and Anthony Aljamie who are from Anaheim University Center located in Japan. David and Anthony both have had a long relationship with Japan and they have both lived in Japan for the past 20 years. Anahei.n Sister City Commission January 23, 2012 Page 5 Anaheim University is an online university www.,iiiahe -n.edu that was ranked #1 in Japan the years of 2008 and 2009 for an MBA program. The University has been in Japan for 15 years. The Nikkei business publication in Japan. (similar to the Wall Street Journal) ranked the University's business school faculty as the #1 faculty for all business programs being offered in Japan. They work with ministries of education and other universities teaching English to teachers of other languages. They have 10 world renowned linguists. Their main program is English Teacher Training and they do this all over the world for ministries of education and universities. The University was strongly supported by the Morita Family who arc the founders of Sony. The University is giving back $500,000 in scholarships this year, and they are starting in Mito. They are going to train Japanese teachers how to tcach English. This is what Anaheim University does and they are described as the Harvard of English language training for teachers. The 15 year center in Japan was closed in March . just prior to the earthquake /tsunaini. event. A lot of their students were multi- national (Americans living in Japan) while working for companies such as IBM. Most of them. left Japan after the earthquake. The focus now, is to give back. The University is giving $500,000 in scholarships and they are starting in Mito and going to work their way around the country training English teachers how to teach English, as it is a huge issue for them. The Anaheim University Center is now located at State College and Ball. Road, in Anaheim. Commissioner Zlaket suggested that it would be wonderful to have them as part of the Mito Student Exchange process this summer. Anthony already had some ideas and suggestions for the process, and he stated that he has also applied to be on the Anaheim Sister City Commission. XI. COMMISIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Gallaugher suggested that a good choice for Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province which is one of the richest areas in China, would be a good choice for an Anaheim Sister City. It is a resort city and has similar economic development as Anaheim. XIL ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:33 p.m. to February 27, 2012 at 4.00 p.m.. at the City of Anaheim, City Manager's Office.