Call to order the Sister Cities Commission meeting for Monday, October 6th. Roll call. Uh Ellie Sweeny's not here, so I'll be the secretary tonight. I'll start with uh we've got uh Ryan Filson. I'm here.
Okay. Tony Bernick, Dick Seab, both Jay Mhopi, Larry Mack, Carolyn Smith, Ron Wendinger, Samuel Koops. Perfect. Thank you. Um, has everybody reviewed uh the
minutes, the approval of the minutes um for September 8th? Madam Chair, I believe they reflect the activities of the commission that day. I'll move the minutes. Second. All those in favor? I
I opposed. Pass. Our financial reports are in there. Um and it looks like um everything has pretty much the same. We did get um for July broadstand $54 in
tip and August was $51 and the broadstand earnings for July were 16150 and I believe the August ones have been delivered but not posted.
Okay. And so that was our income. Um, we did pay out um $444.67 and I believe that is for the expense for the award um rep reps
reception and the plaque and then the um canopy expense. We um purchased a canopy for use at the broadstand and then the car rental was included that for Samuel. So that was a total of $44467.
It leaves us with a balance of 8,106.89. Are there any questions on the um general fund and the special projects funds? If not, I look for a motion. I'll deliver a motion. I'll second that.
All those in favor? I opposed. Yes. Okay. And then um we'll go um Martha has under 4.1. Martha had a conflict for um tonight's meeting
and we'll not be able to update the commission and I need approval to postpone her date till November. Is there any discussion? If not, I look for a motion. Oh, go ahead. I'll offer a motion to approve. I'll second.
All those in favor? I opposed. Pass. And then um on our cultural exchange program, the outbound again, she submitted um her third and final letter
with photos um to be published in the journal. And Lisa included that in our minutes. printed them all out. They're in there. Okay. Um along with pictures that she um showed. Um she was at Williamsburg for a
Saturday Night Fever. She posted a picture with Anukica at where Anukica works at the concrete um cement factory. And uh so um that should be in the paper. has I haven't seen the paper so I'll have to put
I think some I don't know if the pictures are in but there's an article in there because I cut the article out it it's in the kiosk and I put the picture I copied the pictures and I put them in the kiosk that's all changed finished and then um our inbound is Samuel and
his dates are September 2nd through the 24th and he's working of course at shelves and there was a um calendar of events that was included they're keeping him quite busy um with speaking engagements.
Um I understand you had a fun time at the parade on Saturday. Yeah, it was really good. And then on Wednesday, um this week, you're going to speak to the Saratoma Club. Yeah. And then on Thursday, the Lions. Exactly. Okay. And then they're going to give
we're going to give you a break until September 19th. Um you're going to speak with the German um speaking club. Exactly. And then um the Rotary again on the 28th of October and then at the Optimus on the 11th. And are you going to be attending October Fest this
weekend out at Shells? Yes, I will be there for probably both days. Okay. All right. Do you have an official role? You got to work or not yet. Okay. Not yet. Okay. How many mugs have you been practicing
with? I still need to practice that. Okay. Okay. Stein holding ready. Yeah, exactly. They told me I should take participate. So, well, for sure. We'll we'll treat train you. Yeah, he'll train you. Done 14. So,
okay. Think I can handle that much. All right. And then Samuel, would you like to give us an update on your participation in October festive um October Fest events and the alma monster?
Exactly. It's a small presentation uh about the Minster. What you mean meant that? I think he'll help you. I'm set up. Just keep going with the presentation. I
got you. Okay. So, it's only a There we go. There we go. Thank you. Y All right. Uh it's a small presentation about the Minster uh construction, architecture, and some fun facts. Uh I
try to answer every question, but I don't know everything. It's just too much. Okay. the MMA minster here in the picture located in central M right on the Danube. Uh it's a beautiful minster.
Um and it's by now the world's largest church tower with 161.53 m or 176.65 65 yards and since it's the largest church tower since
130 years now um soon the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona Spain will have the highest church tower with 172.5 m or 188.64 yards. Um, originally the church was built as a
Catholic church, but then in the 1600s the inhabitants of M voted to be Protestant. So now it's a Protestant church. The foundation stone was laid in 1377 and uh consecrated in 1405. So it took
some years to have the base building. uh it got passed in 1543. That was the time when the inhabitants of M voted uh to change the religion and it got completed in 1890.
So took over 500 years to complete this church and um when it got passed everything was completed except all of the towers. So
after 1543 um they only built the towers. We have three towers. That's the main one in the picture right now. And the small ones on the side were
missing two at that point. All right. We have several um builders. First the whole style of the church is called Gothic architecture. Um, it's very heavily influenced by Romanesque architecture. Um, it's not it
doesn't have a lot of gold inside, not a lot of bling. Uh, it's very basic and um, it's made out of sand stone, so it's not the best stone for building because it
doesn't last for a long time. you have to do a lot of repairs over the years and we have several builders. Um the first one was Henrik Parlor. He was the main architect of the
minster. He also um was the architecture of the holy crossminster and the first head builder was Urish Enzingan. The pictures are also in so the first picture is Hri Palo that's in
the church. The second one is Enzingan that's also in the church. And then in 1477 we have the next bigger architect called Matios Bllinger. um he
took over and made several structural changes because um the weight of the roof wouldn't got didn't have enough support from the arches in the church. So um he took over and changed all the
arches and uh also did changes to the main tower, the big one. And Bulkart Engelird also started in 1477 was the second bigger master builder uh who reinforced
all of the foundation and tackled the structural damage already done in 170 or 140 years. You can climb up the tower. Uh, it's a long walk. Uh, you have 768 steps until
you reach the top platform at 143 m or 156 y. But when you get up, it's a wonderful view. You uh can see over Bavaria and Ben Woodenber. And when you have a really
good clear sky, you can also see the Alps. And it's always worth an experience going up there. I can only recommend it. All right. Sorry. On the left side, you see the choir that was built originally
in the 1500s. Um, they was built by Eric Sirlin. And there are also a lot of stained glass and sculptures um by Hans Mulchure. He was born in the 1400s and
uh Hans Mulch is also very famous because he did a lot of altars in several churches all over Germany. And these they got renovated of course the picture the pictures but a lot of it
is still the original glass dated back uh to the 15 or 1400s. That's quite amazing. And when the sun is shining into those windows it's beautiful. All right got bombed uh in 1944.
very heavy. Uh the min mostly survived luckily but the entire entire town west of the minster and north of the minster were completely destroyed and almost all other buildings at the town square or directly in front of the
minster got also completely eradicated and 80% of our medieval buildings in the city center also got destroyed. So we lost a lot of architecture and history during that time and even a 500 kilo uh
bomb dropped into the minster into the choir but it didn't explode luckily. So the minster survived except most of the windows were destroyed by the bombs here. Some fun facts. We have a small
Lego minster in the church. Uh it's taller than the Cologne Cathedral which is probably way more famous than the minster. When I talk with people about well I'm from M. They don't know but they mostly know the
colonial cathedral. Um Albert Einstein climbed the tower in 1923. He went up there because he was born in M. I don't know if a lot of people know that Albert Einstein was German at one
point. Uh the construction time was 513 years. That was a long time. And on the roof we have a small sparrow called the Moshbats. Um, and it's like the the emblem of M.
So yeah, nowadays the cultural role of the MA minster, uh, it's holding still over 1,000 services and events annually. Uh, we have a lot of organ concerts. We still have church services. We have a
lot of classical music concerts. And as far as I know, even art exhibitions sometimes. And the being in the church and just listening to the music is wonderful. You don't have sound like this in
um theaters or something like that. The sound of a church is always way more impressive, I would say. And there are still ongoing restorations uh to the towers mostly because they are out of sandstone.
I've never seen the towers without construction to be honest. I only know them under construction because they're the decorations are mostly falling apart or when we have heavy winds or thunderstorms the sometimes
stuff breaks uh from the decorations. So in summary, the Alma Ma is a Gothic masterpiece. So is the Cologne Cathedral, by the way, is also built in Gothic architecture style and it's a symbol of our civic pride and endurance that
Yeah. for the long building time. Thank you. Very nice, Samuel. Thank you very much, Samuel. Thank you. Very nice. Thank you for sharing. [Music] We'll move on to um old business um
update the relate um update relating to photos etc for the chaos. I turned those in today um the bills and Caroline updated them correctly um and they're all um done and we're going to add Samuel when we get pictures. Oh, no. I
have I don't have them from the parade and that's so I need to get a parade shot because it looks cute with the waving and Yeah. All right. I'm working on it. I I didn't get it. All right. Um any other old business? If not, let's
move on to new. Um we're opening the application period for the 2026 um cultural exchange program to um it'll start November 15th through December 31st. um and we approved that time frame in 29 2019 to allow for additional
reviews of applicants and um schedule interviews. So um the previous used to be January 31st um she has done the flyer u and mailed it to colleges and social and done
social media. She has included in our packet that we got today um pictures of like the brochures and of the colleges that she sent it to and along with the press release that um is
going out for the um cultural exchange program. So um it's getting started and uh we'll be moving forward with that. Does she contact the radio at all? Get it on there as well.
I don't know. Did she know anything? No. No. We definitely can do an interview or whatever if somebody wants to come in and talk. Well, why don't you have Samuel come in and then he can tell you about his experiences. Well, we've had him. We've done him. We've had him on a podcast. He was all
over the world on a podcast. We had him on the radio already. Nice. He's he was suggesting maybe some type of variety show he'd like to host, too. So juggling juggling some hidden talents that you can share.
But so that wouldn't be a bad idea, Larry, to uh before you head out to maybe come in and talk again and maybe kind of, you know, do a plug for the program. So before you leave, we got to set something up. Okay. Yeah, we can do that.
Okay. Okay. And then um under 7.2, two, there was communication from Urus Mack, great granddaughter of an Jose Ponios requesting photos, documents, etc. of
her great-grandfather during his time with the sister cities program and to share with her grandmother. Um, and she included the stuff that she sent back. I don't know. There was a letter um from the mayor,
from Mr. Boiseman. um and some brochures are um pictures of our stuff that we have um going back to that. Um so that was all attached and then um um I don't
know if everybody read I read some of it. I didn't get a chance to read it all. So but she did follow up on that and send it all back. I think Yudi Yostast was a foreign exchange student the year before you, right? With John Shrek's class
because he used to talk about her. Yep. She uh stayed with the um lost the name um probably know it too. Jaden Watson, but that's that's her married name. Anyway, yeah, she was u in fact I hung out with her a bit.
I think that's how we ended up with all of this. She started here as a foreign exchange student for the year and at public and then somehow I I don't know the whole story but I know it came from the year before we graduated. So what year is this? 19
graduated the class of 63. 63. She was with the class of 63 and um yeah. Well, see that's interesting. I I've not seen anything like this before. Did we get her what she wanted or do we have what she wanted? Where are
the files? Have we I don't you know I just know what Lisa included in there. Oh, okay. I didn't look at that yet. Yeah. Um she said that she had sent forwarded everything back. So I'm sure if she doesn't get what she want and
hopefully she'll contact us and want more. Would the museum have any other records by chance? you know, going back thought um um An Ludwick came over in 1985 and we dedicated the M room and Hansios also
had made some visits and we might have documentation of that at the museum cuz she wants to say share it with her grandmother with UT. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if the yearbook from John's
class. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that might have something in it. It certainly would have her in it. Sure. You maybe have John take a picture of it. He I don't think he has his. I don't think he bought that. I still have the wallet a picture from her. She wrote her note on the back of it.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I could locate that. I can I can certainly ask I ask John about that because he does talk about her once I got into Sister Cities then he he wanted to talk about but he calls her he's got funny udy Udyast I think is how he can
barely say it I say it better maybe want to I'll follow up with Lisa and see if we want to send anything more or okay um follow up with more contact um going forward and then Um
7.3 is feedback from Terry Sweeney when picking up our intern at the airport. It's two pages. It's quite detailed. Um but he has some valid points. Okay. So, and I know um when I have the girls, I've always reached out to them
ahead of time, gotten their emails and re reached out to them and um sent a picture of me or and they've sent a picture of themselves. So that does help when you're at the airport, you know, trying to um pick somebody up. But there was a little confusion with the flight
that Samuel came in. He was going to come on Lucanta, but but it um was actually Discover Airlines. And so if Terry went and worked in the travel agency and put the pieces together, probably wouldn't have been at the right spot at the right time.
Yeah, Discovery Airlines is a daughter company for from Lufanza. So it it goes by both names and in Germany is it's always I think Lufanza um and then the daughter's name of the company. I don't know how it's in
America here. Well, there are there are you know several of them that other big airlines that have other little airlines underneath them. So um a photo exchange that's um probably a good idea. um knowing um if there's cell phone ways to
contact them so that if you miss your point, you know, there poor Samuel could be standing in one end of the airport and somebody could be on the other end of the airport and it would take a while for them to Terry did make the point that it would it was not in the cards for this one and
it may not be down the road either because uh the inbound person doesn't have a phone that's acclimated to America. You got to get a SIM card for that. And they usually don't do that in Germany. They do it when they're here. So phone contact in the airport's gonna
be email part of it prior to so that well the borf so you know what you're looking for or sometimes WhatsApp you know WhatsApp. I just know and a lot with my Yeah. my girl
a Yeah, I do too. Yeah. So, um just um a good thing to for us to think about when we um pick up our next one. And then some general things to think about when you pick them up. They've gone for a long time. Have water and and u ask them if they're hungry or
if they just want a rest or if they want a visit or if there's anything they need to do on the way home. Um um make sure you probably check with the host family to see if they're going to have depending on the flight when they come in, what time if they're going to have something planned for them to eat when they get back, things like that.
So, um it was very nice of Carrie to put this together and we'll use it going forward um hopefully to make it easier for others um when they go to the airport and pick up um our next individual that's coming. All right. I think it's a wonderful idea and use it
as a as a as a tool. Yeah. You know, and we can just because they don't always come in into the same airport. They don't always use the same airlines. they don't always, you know, and they come in at various different times depending on what they're connecting flights and stuff or
um coming into the states. So, yeah, it's not like going to pick somebody else up where you just wait outside and they come to you. Um but we want to make it a pleasant experience when they get here so that they're not just standing there wondering where they're going to
be going. All right. Um, if there is no further business, new business, um, the next meeting will be held on Monday, November 3rd at 5:15 in the chambers here. Um,
I look for a motion to adjurnn. So move. Second. All in favor? I motion carried.