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Sister City 2013/08/26 CITY OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITY COMMISSION MINUTES August 26, 2013 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Anthony Al-Jamie, James Dinwiddie, Jackie Filbeck, Debbie Juliani, Laurie Leonard, Russell Lahodny, Linda Newby, Kyndell Paine, Anna Piercy, Pat Pina COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Ann Gallagher, Mark Lopez, John Nguyen and Jennifer Vaughn STAFF PRESENT: Erin Wahlen, GUESTS PRESENT: Yuko Saito-Rodriguez Connor Traut Agenda Posting: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Vice Chairman Paine explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item No. VIII. Public Comment. I.CALL TO ORDER The meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission (ASCC) was called to order at 4:06 p.m. on Monday, August 26, 2013 at the Anaheim th City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7 Floor, Anaheim, California.  II.APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Commissioner Newby offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Pina AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 9-0; Absent: Ann Gallagher, Mark Lopez, John Nguyen and Jennifer Vaughn; Abstained: Anna Piercy) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the minutes from the ASCC Commission meeting held on July 22, 2013 as presented.  III. Commissioner Leonard reported that the current balance is $12,213.38. She indicated that thus far, the Commission has not received any funds from Mito and  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 2 that just over $6,400.00 in expenditures were incurred from the inbound Mito Student Exchange. MOTION: Commissioner Pina offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 10-0; Absent: Ann Gallagher, Mark Lopez, John Nguyen and Jennifer Vaughn) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the August 22s Report.  IV.ELECTION OF OFFICERS CHAIR, VICE CHAIR, TREASURER rd This item was continued to the September 23 Sister City Commission meeting. V.AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS Commissioner Juliani announced on behalf of the Marketing/Fundraising Ad Hoc Subcommittee that place holder date for a fundraising event. The date is Thursday, October Erin Wahlen is going to check Vice Chair Paine suggested that Commissioner Dinwiddie give Commissioner Juliani information on the book Passed that had recently been released. She added because the fund raising event is just days before Halloween it would be a fun tie in to have a book signing event and to have part of the sale proceeds go to the organization. Commissioner Lahodny reported on behalf of the Economic Development Ad Hoc Subcommittee that their next subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 18 at 4:00 p.m. At this meeting, they will do a recap of the Pudong trip and go over the presentation to see if there were any holes that need to be filled. Commissioner Lahodny also stated they plan to show the presentation to the rd Commission at the September 23 Sister City Commission meeting. VI.MITO STUDENT EXCHANGE RECAP Extensive discussion took place regarding the Mito Student Exchange visit. Commissioner Leonard reported the out-of-pocket expenditures, not including in- kind donations, totaled $7,948.27. There are a few items pending which are $185.76 for the Sayonara Dinner floral centerpieces and the teacher stipend of $1,500.00. Greg Garcia is going to return $503.91, the money that was left from the initial $1,000.00 of petty cash that he was initially given for miscellaneous expenses. The Anaheim City Council is going to cover the cost of the Welcome BBQ at $989.82 and the Rubya total donation of $1,154.578. The estimated contribution from Mito is $6,381.31. So the pending  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 3 transactions come out to $6,354.04. If you take what has been spent thus far $7,948.27 and deduct the $6,354.04 that is anticipated, the out pocket hard dollars are $1,594.23 to cover the trip. Commissioner Leonard explained in addition to the out of pocket expenses, there were in-kind donations which are very important to look at. The value of the tickets for bowling, Disneyland, the circus, the baseball game, Muzeo Exhibit, and the Nature Center and the initial shuttle transportation totaled over $7,300.00. The $7,300 in-kind donations and the $9,634.03 costs incurred, add up to $16,934.03. Commissioner Leonard further advised that roughly $17,000.00 were spent on the Mito Inbound Student Exchange and Mito has only contributed $6,300.00, so there is problem there that needs to be addressed. Commissioner Dinwiddie also noted that the donation from Mito this year is down $6,300.00 for a two-week visit. Discussion needs to take place with Mito, possibly suggesting not having as many students or to condense the trip to 5 week days. The expenditures were off balance because there were more students this year, the stay was longer and the contribution from Mito was less than it was last year. Following, Commissioner Dinwiddie went over the ideas and suggestions for better Ask Mito in advance the amount of money they will be contributing (this year the Commission was under the understanding that virtually it would be the same ) Better coordination of transportation Keep the two weekends open for host families Try to condense the stay to one week (two weeks is a lot of days to ask host families to drive kids back and forth) Give students a sheet every evening with information of the events for the next day, where they need to be dropped off and picked up and who to contact if there are any questions. Provide students with hanging name tags with staff contact information on the back  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 4 Commissioner Dinwiddie also reviewed the survey results that were filled out by the Mito Students. They were to give up to 5 stars for each event and they were also given the task of rating the activities from 1 to 18, 1 being the best thing and th 18 the worst. The Muzeo got 2 ½ stars and it was ranked 18 out the total count. Disneyland got 1, 4-star. The Angels baseball game Bon Fire were ranked very high. Overall the visit was good; the Commission just needs to figure out where they are at financially, where they need to be and what they can do to get more host families. Erin Wahlen indicated thank you letters will be sent to the host families and to all who provided in-kind donationss signature. It was decided that the letters would be sent out as soon as possible with Commissioner Dinwiddie also noted that the students are putting together a memory book and that it will be sent by Mito to all the host families and to the Commission. Erin announced the Anaheim Fall Magazine is going to feature a recap of the 2013 Mito Inbound Student Exchange. It will have photos and it will include some from 300 Anaheim because they graciously donated the lanes for bowling. They are hoping that the article will serve as a tool to get host families for next year. Commissioner Dinwiddie is going to update the recap document with the suggestions that were given at the meeting and also divide it into successes and opportunities for improvement. He is also going to get boilerplate language from Sister City International on host family agreements and orientation material. Erin also suggested that when events are planned for next year that important that the entire Commission buy in on the events, so that they can have a Commissioner dedicated to be at least one event. Its important that they have a greater overall Commissioner involvement. VII.PUDONG TRIP UPDATE Vice Chair Paine reported that the trip to Pudong was amazing. They got a lot of hands-on experience. The meeting was very formal. They had the immense benefit of sitting with the Shanghai Disney Resort Government Relations team beforehand. The team interacts with the government officials weekly, if not daily,  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 5 so it was very beneficial for John, Mark and her to get a crash course on doing business in China. At the meeting, they had microphones, long ballroom tables and translators. The presentation was well received, even though they had to cut it because they did not take into consideration the length of time it took to translate the information back and forth. Presents were exchanged and well received. Staff is still learning about Pudong and how the City breaks down. The City of Anaheim is pursuing a relationship with one of the banks because Shanghai as a whole is too large. The region that the City is pursuing this relationship with has a tourism and resort zone much like Anaheim Resort Area. Within that resort very much like Anaheim looked like s a lot of farm area and fields. It will quickly develop and be thriving, like interested in learning about the transportation that Anaheim is currently building, the infrastructure and basically just finding ways to partner. The Shanghai Disney Resort is very supportive of this relationship and they have a EO Chairman Bob Iger speaks and checks in regularly with the President of China. a big business venture there and the first of its kind, while they built in Hong Kong this is the first China endeavor and they are very supportive of this because they figure anything that Anaheim can share as far as growing a resort area and bolstering a tourism industry is beneficial. I. They are excited about the story-telling component and the media attention that will be drawn by having the home of the very first Disney Park and the home of the newest and the biggest Disney Park, so they are excited about that promising relationship and about finding ways in which they can partner on a variety of things likes sports and hospitals. Pudong officials sent a gift back skyline. Chairman Nguyen will be presenting it to the City Council along with an update of the trip at an upcoming City Council meeting. She concluded by saying, overall the trip was very successful. As part of the next steps, Chairman Nguyen will be sending a thank you note to the highest ranking official complementing all the officials that they worked with and again extending an invitation for them to visit Anaheim. Mayor Tait sent a letter inviting them to come. Greg Garcia also followed up via email on behalf of the Chairman Nguyen will be reiterating that in his thank you  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 6 note. Staff expects that a delegation will visit Anaheim early next year just after the holidays to see the things that were described in the presentation. And also, it will be a great opportunity for their g ery greatly received, but they also brought a letter from Congressman Ed Royce who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee and that also carried great weight. China was very impressed. The next step after the thank you note is for them to come to Anaheim and then they will when they come to Anaheim, they will be signing an official Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) solidifying the friendship city and then building from there. Commissioner Newby stated on behalf of the Economic Development component, though she loves the Disney connection with Pudong, she would also like the hospitals, schools and other things to be represented as well. Because this relationship is much broader than that, we are showing all of what Anaheim has to offer. Vice Chair Paine agreed it definitely is and because there is big excitement about Disney there, when Chairman Nguyen drafts the thank you note they are going to include an invitation for hospital officials, educators and people from other areas of business. VIII.PUBLIC COMMENT Yuko Saito-Rodriguez stated she receive a fax from the Mayor of Mito, Mayor Takahashi. She indicated it share it with the Commission. It states: I want to thank you very much for helping make the Mito student ambassadors visit to your great city a success. On behalf of our students, I would like to express my deepest gratitude. Concerning making a plaque at Anaheim City Hall in honor of Dr. Hataya, who is the Honorary Mayor of Anaheim City and the President of the Mito City International Association, I want to tell you about the funding issues as follows. All the items of this plaque will be funded by the Mito Hataya Memorial Project Commission. I want to thank you very much again for your great help and I sincerely wish for further support and cooperation. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude  Anaheim Sister City Commission August 26, 2013 Page 7 again and wish for further development of Anaheim City and happiness of its people. Yuko further indicated she left a copy of the letter at the front reception desk for Mayor Tait. IX.COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Pina commented that the Sister City Commission website is looking great good. Vice Chair Paine took a moment to thank Erin Wahlen and Greg Garcia for all the last minute assistance in getting them ready for their trip to Pudong. The team at City Hall was amazing getting them what they needed and in the correct format and ultimately everything was wonderful and the officials were very pleased with all the documentation they had and it worked out beautifully. Commissioner Newby suggested that the Anaheim Sister City brochures should be updated. The letterhead was updated in preparation for the Pudong trip. Commissioner Newby also expressed it was really appropriate for the Commission to wear their name tags when they attended the events when the Mito students were here. It really helped them to see a name. Commissioner Dinwiddie suggested that for the future, the students should also be provided hanging name tags with contact information on the back. Commissioner Piercy agreed that is a very good idea. She stated if the students were given a name tag with whom to contact on the back with any questions or checking on schedules, the student would have that at all times and then the parents would be notified. When she did the people to people trips in the summertime, every kid had a nametag and every kid was given the phone number to put on the back of who to contact should they get lost. They wore the lanyard and the nametag and so that identified them. X.ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:27 p.m. to th Monday, September 23, 2013 at 4:00 p.m. at Anaheim City Hall, 7 Floor, Conference Room No. 2.