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Sister City 2016/10/24CITY OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITY COMMISSION MINUTES October 24, 2016 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: GUESTS PRESENT: Anthony Al -Jamie, Paul Anderson, Taline Cole, Lori Dinwiddie, Jackie Filbeck, Yanni Guo, Matthew Hicks, Jerry O'Keefe, Brian O'Neal, Pepe Avila, Julia Erdkamp, Debbie Julian, Mark Lopez, Anna Piercy, Jeanne Tran Greg Garcia, City Manager's Office Erin Ryan, City Manager's Office Maggie Solorio, City Manager's Office David Bracey Agenda Posting A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted on Friday, October 21, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Vice Chair Anthony Al -Jamie explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item No. XIII. Public Comment. L CALL TO ORDER The meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission (ASCO) was called to order at 4:05 p.m. by Vice Chair Anthony Al -Jamie on Monday, October 24, 2016 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7th Floor, Anaheim, California. IL APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Commissioner Matthew Hicks offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Jerry O'Keefe AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 8-0; Absent: Pepe Avila, Julia Erdkamp, Debbie Julian, Mark Lopez, Anna Piercy, Jeanne Tran and Brian O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the minutes from the ASCC meeting held on September 26, 2016 as presented. ITEM NO. 04 Anaheim Sister City Commission October 24, 2016 Page 2 III. APPROVAL OF TREASURER'S REPORTS Erin Ryan noted the Treasurer's Report dated October 24, 2016 shows a balance of $8,901.07. She further stated that the Anaheim Community Foundation confirmed they were in receipt of the Mito funds. The wire transfer in the amount of $4,651.38 was received on August 1. In addition, each student gave $100 donation when they arrived. The student donations were used to pay the stipends for the host families. MOTION: Commissioner Lori Dinwiddie offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Paul Anderson AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 8-0; Absent: Pepe Avila, Julia Erdkamp, Debbie Julian, Mark Lopez, Anna Piercy, Jeanne Tran and Brian O'Neal) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the Treasurer's Report dated October 24, 2016 as presented. IV. AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE REVIEW & REPORTS a. Cultural/Government Exchanize Subcommittee Commissioner Lori Dinwiddie distributed the outbound student application and asked the Commission to review it. Her goal is to get the applications out in November. The applications have a submittal deadline of December 9. That will give the Commission a month to review them. Interviews and selection of students will take place in January. Greg noted the reason they are trying to get the student selection as early as possible, hopefully by February or early March, is to purchase the flight tickets and insurance for all the students early to save money. The Commission is hoping to get a lot of interest because the students that participated last year had a fabulous time and they are hoping the program will spread interested by word of mouth. Greg Garcia asked if there was an issue with the students having to pay $1,000. Commissioner Jackie Filbeck responded she did not see any issues with that. Everyone paid on time. She and Jeanne Tran had interaction with the parents and no one complained about the cost. They believe everyone was grateful they were able to give their kids a one -of -a -kind experience at that price. Erin Ryan gave Lori some corrections to the application including changing the number of students participating to six instead of four and two Anaheim Sister City Commission October 24, 2016 Page 3 chaperones with the understanding that the chaperones will stay at a hotel. Commissioner Dinwiddie will update the application and send it out. Discussion took place about the activities the Commission would like the students to partake in next year, including the possibility of spending a night in Tokyo. b. Marketing/Fundraising Subcommittee None. c. Economic Development Subcommittee Vice Chair Anthony Al -Jamie volunteered to be the Chair of the Economic Development Subcommittee and Commissioner Yanni Guo also volunteered to be part of this subcommittee in a support level. V. MITO DELEGATION RECAP Erin Ryan reported the delegation from Mito had a great experience during their visit to Anaheim. They visited Loara High School, went to Disneyland, watched the World of Color, toured Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the Anaheim Convention Center and ARTIC and were flattered with the venue chosen for the luncheon. They also appreciated the recognition at the City Council meeting. She's only heard positive things. Greg Garcia further noted that the City Council was very happy with the reception and the activities staff did with them. VI. SISTER CITY RESEARCH COMMITTEE FORMATION Greg Garcia reported staff placed this item on the agenda because staff was approached by the foreign minister from Sri Lanka expressing an interest in becoming partners with Anaheim and Commissioner Mark Lopez also mentioned there was a community in Ethiopia that was also interested. Staff thought it would make sense to establish an ad hoc committee to look at and research these communities to see if there is interest in this group to move forward in the process to establish a sister city relationship. Vice Chair Al -Jamie stated in other words, staff is looking for a committee to help the Commission form protocol for establishing a sister city relationship. Greg would like for the Committee to revisit the criteria they would like to see from potential sister cities in the future and that could also do the work in terms of researching those cities. Anaheim Sister City Commission October 24, 2016 Page 4 Vice Chair Al -Jamie asked if the Economic Development Committee could do that so that they would not have to form another committee. Greg agreed that would be fine. After further discussion, it was determined that the Economic Development Committee will take on that responsibility and structure some of the protocol which could be drawn from the information provided on the Sister Cities International website. VII. SISTER CITY SCHOOLS DISCUSSION Vice Chair Al -Jamie reported he spoke with Mito Mayor Yasushi Takahashi about sister schools and he loved the idea. However, Mito's elementary schools and junior high schools are governed by the city, but their high schools are prefectural public schools, which means the city has little to no involvement in those schools. Mayor Takahashi said it's fine for an Anaheim high school class to partner with one of their junior high school classes, but that they couldn't involve Mito high schools. Vice Chair Al -Jamie explained sister schools do all kinds of things, such as film a 6th grade science fair, send a video of the projects to their sister school, who then vote on which project is the best. Other schools may simply film messages to send their sister school. Thanks to social media, kids can communicate with peers all over the world. There is a lot that they can do and what Vice Chair Al -Jamie loves about sister schools is that it's inclusive. You don't have to have money to participate, everyone one in the class and/or school gets to participate. For Anaheim, it would make sense for the advance Japanese classes at Loara High school to participate. In Japan, English classes are taught from junior high on for six years. Greg Garcia asked what would the role of the Anaheim Sister City Commission be in a sister school program. Vice Chair Al -Jamie thought perhaps to contact some teachers locally and ask them if they are interested in participating. Another thought is to partner with a sister class instead of a sister school, so they only have to coordinate with a single teacher. The Commission would go to Mito's mayor and ask them. Greg Garcia thought it was probably easier to do it at an elementary to an elementary level and suggested finding a class within the elementary district. Vice Chair Al -Jamie added the way the system works is that starting in junior high, they study English as a subject as part of getting into college. In 5th and 6th grades, they play with the English language as they learn songs and they learn about the culture, so it's probably the perfect age because they could dedicate that class to the sister school relationship. Anaheim Sister City Commission October 24, 2016 Page 5 Commissioner Jackie Filbeck suggested bringing in the superintendent to define which school might be a good fit, then talk to the principal. She stated it would not be hard to find a class. Commissioner Filbeck is going to talk to Anaheim Elementary Superintendent Linda Wagner about the program and see if there is interest and report back to the Commission at the November meeting. VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT David Bracey reminded the Commission that on Saturday, November 5 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Anaheim University is going to hold the Sister Cities SoCal quarterly meeting at their learning center on Tustin and La Palma, 1081 North Tustin Avenue, 4118. There will be discussion regarding best practices for sister city programs and they will have people with a lot of experience in other sister city programs that will share their insights. IX. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None. X. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:25 p.m. to Monday, November 28, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. at the Anaheim City Hall, 7th Floor, City Manager's Office Large Conference Room.