We call the August 11th, I thought it was the 10th, the August 11th meeting of the River Cultural Council to order at 5:10 p.m. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, we'll begin with the roll call of
our members that are present. Lark here. Haimey here. Debbie here. and Joe Heitz um is on his way and I am Rocky Graziano also present. Um
absent from today's meeting, Samantha Harrington. So the first thing that we're going to do prior to going into uh our meeting is um to accept the minutes from our meeting which was held on July 7th, 2025. All members of the council
did receive the um the minutes prior to uh or right after the meeting. Um so I would just need a motion on the floor to accept our minutes from the last meeting. Um I put forward a motion to accept the meeting from minutes from the meeting of
July 7th. Excellent. So we have Debbie is uh put forth a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Lark has um seconded. All in favor? I motion passes. accept the meeting minutes. Thank you. All right, so uh
team, everyone has our agenda. Um I want to go over a couple of logistical things and then save the conversation pieces for when Joe gets here around communication plan and attendance at events. I know those are things that are really passionate. So we might go a little out
of order, but the agenda for today, we're going to review the cycle dates and updated guidelines. Um there is a training for all local cultural council members on August 20th. Um 6 pm I believe it is right um 6 pm meeting that
you have to register prior to from um either the web the information that was sent to us from the cultural council uh from mass cultural council or you can do it right from the website. So please be sure to do that. I believe there will also be a recording so if you can't go on we can look at that afterwards. The
um updated guidelines were also attached to that email as well. So if you wanted to review them prior uh to to have more discussion when you're on the call that is something that you can do as well. Um so we'll talk through the dates, some
highlights of the guidelines. Um we'll discuss a communication plan which I hope will be an open discussion for us to brainstorm some ideas as to how we want to approach the cycle going forward. Um, something that has come up a couple of times in the past year amongst ourselves in public as well as
some side conversations to be completely transparent is our presence and u attendance at events. So I'd like to throw around a discussion where we as a team determine what does that look like for us as a group and how do we want to approach that so we can support the members or sorry the uh projects that we
have granted funds to. Um, every member of the committee also needs to update their individual profile on the Mass Cultural Council website. Pretty simple. When we get to that meeting agenda item, I'll talk through what that looks like. I then want to
confirm that everyone is available or can be available for the meetings that we have in the fall. In particular, we should be looking around our October, November dates, December, when we get into the grant decisions because that will be uh something that will be pretty important. and then any new business
that anybody has that they want to bring up um is what I think we'll cover in the next 46 minutes. So, let's start off with the updated psych cycle and guidelines. So,
I'm going through this again. Um I'm looking right at the camera because I can't help myself. I'm sorry. Uh but also just looking straight out just so that everyone out there in River TV land knows that you can come to the council meetings. They will be posted. We'll go over the times for those. We'd love to
have you here. If you have questions about the grant process or anything, we'd like to hear from you. So, please start to look at the uh the calendar on river.org and join us because we'd love to hear from the from the committee from the community that we are supporting. Um so, we'll go over what those dates are
coming up. uh feel free to come in and take advantage of our budding expertise. Um and just whatever we can do to help support you through this process as we are all pretty passionate about seeing more groups, more applications this
cycle um so that we can have a really tough time when it comes to determining who will be awarded those funds. So, and I do apologize to all of you out there in TV land. I am getting over a voice thing. So, that's where we're at.
Um, I do want to go over the dates that we have available here um on the flyer that I distributed to the rest of the council. So, major dates, applications for the grant cycle open on September 20 uh sorry, September 20th, September 2nd,
2025. Um there will be an info session online sponsored by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. It's a webinar. So if you are a budding grant writer and you want to put forth a project and you want some additional
tips, tricks, you want to ask questions, please feel free to attend that session. We will uh make sure that we promote it on our Instagram page. Uh we're going to start to use that a little bit more going forward. So it's Rever Cultural Council um at Instagram.
The info session is on the 9th as we said and then the application deadline is October 16th of 2025. So all materials need to be supported and submitted through the portal. Uh council members, are there any questions or anything that you would like to elaborate on and any of those items with
just the rough um outline of what the next couple events are? Good. The only thing I would like to add is that keep in mind that we there is a diversity office here. So if you do have questions, you can come talk to the diversity office um here in the
basement. Um so if you have questions um you could also do that as well. But I strongly suggest the webinar um as stated by our chair. Good. Good. We're get we're still getting used to like how official we have to be. I'm like, uh, thankfully we get to practice it
without a whole bunch of people in front of us, right? So, so when so when we're sold out, it'll be it'll be great. Um, so team, um, the training, I think we're all signed up for the training on the 20th. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Um, which will be really helpful. We've been we we've been getting a lot of support from our from uh our liaison, Greg, as well. So he did point out that that would be a really good opportunity for us to get some additional learning for ourselves. Um before we move through
um the other items, let's talk through updating our individual profiles on the Mass Cultural Council site. So when you go into So first, I know I've done it. H I know you've done it. Debbie L, you haven't. So I can walk you through that afterwards just to show you what it looks like.
Okay. Um it's pretty simple. All it is is just making sure we have the right updated phone number, your email address. I think is correct in there. Um, and we'll make sure that Joe has it so that I can submit. I have a report that has to be submitted on by August 26th, which we've already agreed to our guidelines and our
priorities at the last meeting. So, those are already in there saved in draft mode. I'm just going to submit once everybody updates their profile so that I can put in the right information into the into the system. Okay. Thank you. Okay. All right. We're just barreling through this, aren't we? All right. So now what
I what I think will be more of a discussion and we could start it and when Joe comes I'm sure he'll have some perspective here. So I did share um way out there in TV land um I shared a draft of the flyer with the council members here. So the purpose of the flyer is to
um advertise within different spaces for um new grants writers or new projects, new people that maybe haven't been aware that we even exist or that we have this opportunity. Um, so we do we had a flyer that was distributed to the team. Um, I know I
can't show it on the screen. I'll figure out how to do that next time. It's really pretty. It's the right colors. um but it's pointing out the application dates, the QR code to the application uh the grant portal itself and then some highlevel um priorities and focuses for
people in the community to understand that this really is open to anybody that has any type of arts, humanity, humanities or cultural interest or project that they want to submit forward. On the flyer, it does state the typical grant award as being a minimum
of $250. And that is that is the minimum um going to around $2,000. That amount can vary. So, I don't want people out there that are listening to this, hopefully we have lots of people listening, that think that the max is $2,000. That's not what it is, but the average amount of what generally gets
granted across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seems to be around that. So, um, any feedback, comments, thoughts on the flyer. I'm going to be quiet now while I listen. I thought it was catching. You know, it it caught my attention. You
know, it's a it's a beautiful flyer. Um, we just have to get it out there, I guess, on the different social platforms. Um, I've had a lot of success using
uh using Facebook advertising and um this was before Instagram came out for my real estate business and I got a lot of things. I I received a lot of hits just from advertising things on Facebook. So maybe that's one outlet. I I I don't know if that's still as
effective since I haven't been doing it lately, but I did get a lot of business real estate wise advertising like things on Facebook. So that might be an outlet. Um I think we have to see if we have any budget. I know we we can take a a small percentage. So Joe, we're just we're
just talking through the flying palms plan. We wanted you to we did all the boring stuff at the beginning about just the overview of the dates and things. Um so I see we we do have an operational budget. So we might be able to put forth some money on the Facebook ad. So I can take that as a Debbie if you want to
make a note there. I'm I'm happy to ask um if we can do that because I can just get reimbursed afterwards. It's not a big deal. Um because they're usually pretty cheap. You can do like a $20 run exactly with it and go with it. Um Thank you. So that might be something that we can do. I think that's a that's that's a great idea because it will focus on
people that have certain buzzwords probably um that that are similar in the ad. So we can take a look at that. Um so I think that that's a great idea. AR as I know Haime you were trying to chime into was there any other feedback that you had on the flyer before we move into more discussion around the comm's plan
only u I don't know if this is a motion or not but just uh requesting that we translate it into a few other languages uh for the flyer I think we should be able to do that if we can't we'll see if our my good friend and assistant Chachi PT can and then the other part about
translation the other part about translation is uh keeping in mind to everybody that's out there in TV land right you like what I said it's TV land Uh, I'm copying that one. Um, that um it's it's posted on the agenda on the website with the cultural console. If you do want to request translation when
you want to participate, just got to do it 48 hours in advance. There are Spanish interpreters as well um by emailing translation.org. Just want to mention that. Thank you. Thank you for that note. Any other thoughts on the flyer before
we go into a more robust discussion about the coming communication plan? I thought the flyer looked great. I was thinking of um sending a copy to all the principles of the school in the in the city and then they can pass it on to the community PTA, you know, whoever would
take care of it so that everyone, you know, that didn't know about it because it's generally a few schools are aware of it that everyone would have a chance maybe even the senior center if there's a project, you know, that would that's a great idea. I I I keep getting confused with having my microphone on.
So, um, it sounds like Joe, is there any Did you I know did you see the flyer that we had? I know you have you brought something into to show us. I I had brought a flyer last year just for other cultural uh councils what they do with it and
where it's left. Um, and they typically put it in places where they're displayed. So, they do a art show in the city hall. So, they have the flyer in city hall just so you can take a few of them there. and they have it in the library which is a public space. Um you know because that's available for
everything and that's where a lot of our programming takes place is the library too. Um but it's to target like you said the the places where we typically have programming for people who may not know about it. So we may have one copy or
something that goes out to the principal but the teachers themselves don't know about it. So, it's kind of just kind of top down discerning all the knowledge. The same thing like Facebook, you have one follower, you just got to make sure that that follower is the one who's going to be passing it on to
those 25 or 500 or whatever that are going to need that information. Um, question. I think that we might be able to get a blast out to everyone with a river email address, right? Because we get them now that we have the River email. So maybe we can we can put together some messaging um because there
are some tools that are available to us through the from the mass cultural council that we can maybe um you know reward words smmith a bit but I think Joe you're on to something too. It it would be great to get it to the principles, the schools, the libraries, the places, but what are we doing about the people in case that message is not
cascaded? So, we should be able maybe we can ask about that and see if we can do like a city of, you know, a blast um just an email blast on top of the social media outreach that we plan to do. There is also the director of like arts
and humanities at the high school. I could send her a copy too, you know, that she can pass it along to her staff that does, you know, theater, different performances and, you know, she can get it out as well. Yeah. I was going to also mention the community leaison's office here at the
city of Riviera so I can talk to Maddie and and get get it out there through the community leaison's office. Um there is a resource day coming up on September 5th which is right at the beginning of the cycle when the applications open and it's actually right here behind city hall and I participate as part of my
agency but I'll be there anyway. So I'll talk to Maddie and we can send that out for the community leazison's office to have a copy as well. So at this event haime is we could we can have a presence there where people could ask questions too. That's what I was hoping I was going to bring it up as part of our
communications. Um, I'll be there anyway. If I get someone else to cover my table, I'll spend time at the community leance office as well. Um, I spent some time at the Rio Farmers Market too because we have a table there through my agency. So, I'll talk I'll talk to the community's office about it too.
Excellent. So, I will unfortunately be out of state though on September 5th or I would have loved to have joined. Um, is there anybody other other member of the council if Jaime is able to get a table or someplace where we could provide
flyers, resources, and ask questions? Anyone else from the council that's maybe available that could be us could assist with that? No, you'll be able. What time is the event? What time is the event? Do you know? Oh, please. Your call is important to us. Farmers
12 to 2. Is it at the farmers market? No, this is the Riviera Resource Day which right here behind city hall. 12 to two and that's re September 5th. It's a Friday. Okay.
I'll see if I can do it. I'll just check my schedule at work. Thank you, Debbie. Debbie will see if she can join. All right. So, to recap, and Debbie, I'll send this to you, too. I'm just saying this for my own
um muscle memory. So, perhaps we can collaborate on a list of places people want to drop off flyers. So, it sounds like the flyer looks like we're going to move in that direction with that that we don't really have any many edits to that other than getting it translated. So,
I'll see what we can do about getting some printed um and make them I can either drop them off to people um locally because we have a little bit of time between now and September 2nd to do that so people can distribute them to their own um places they visit. Uh and then we'll
have the social media campaign. We will have a meeting in the middle of the cycle. So, that will be good to gauge at least where people are um in terms of application process. But whatever we do is is more than what we did before. So I think that we are stepping into the
right direction by having a plan by having a resource for people and and then I think pro trying to promote the webinar and the info session will be paramount because as we all know just getting on the system ourselves there are you know there's frustrations and
learning curves as people are going through and doing that and we don't want anybody to be taken back by the the process. So whatever resources and help we can provide I think would be better. Yes sir. I just thought of something when you mentioned the webinar. Is that something
we could add to the flyer too? I'll see if we can add the link there. I think the designer my cousin thought it was it was it was too busy with all the QR codes I wanted. So I'll see if I could do that. But what I can do is when we get when I get into the Instagram
later, I can set up a link tree and have a link to the to all the different things like you know what most so then people when they go to the Instagram and to be it's a generational thing, right? We know a lot of there's a there's a large generation that goes just to Instagram. So, by having everything in
one spot and then having the link tree on the Facebook page, we'll appeal to other people. And then we'll be able to with to appeal to our friends that go to more community-based in-person activities like the senior centers, the schools, the libraries. We'll also have
materials there for them, too. I can I can print them. I have a color printer at work. I could print out a big stack of them and then we can figure out will be printing out fires. Awesome. I think another place to target would be the porch fest. I think they're planning on the mayor's office planning to do a
second porch fest. They had date they had one last year. I don't have the date on that, but that's typically musicians would come out to that um or people interested in music. So that might be a place to target
musicians. We went Josh and I went last year. We really It was a really nice event for the first time. So I believe it was in October. So it would still be with I believe you're correct. I think they are planning. You said October. Let's make sure it's within our deadline. So that that is a good segue, Joe, into
the next thing that we wanted to talk about. And I know that you in particular have been very passionate about this attendance at attendance at events in particular events that we fund. Right. There are there are five of us now that are pretty engaged and want to be
active. I don't want to sit here and say that we're on a we all have to go to X, right? So, let's have a discussion like what do we what do we think our presence should be like if we are going to plan to go to events? Like should we have like our own little calendar where we
sort of sign up for the things there? There is no way that we're all going to be able No, no one person is going to be able to go to all events in the city. That's true. So let's just talk through like what what are what are people's recommendations, suggestions, ideas around because I think it is important
and I I've noticed that at events we get announced. You did I was announced and I wasn't even at the pride event yet and Steve Steph Steve was like Rocky from the Crowd Cultural Council and I was getting text messages from my friends saying you're late for your own party which I didn't even know that I was speaking or I would have been there on I
would have been there a little earlier. Uh so how do we want to go about it? because I do think naturally there are many of us here that do go to things because we like we're interested. So, let's talk through it. Go ahead. Shoot. Well,
I um I do like to attend a lot of things, especially since I just moved here. So, um and and I and like I was surprised when I went to the Asian celebration that they had and then Stephen pulled me up and had me talk. I'm like, "Oh, hi."
But I uh like like going to the sand festival when I went I took pictures and and video and then I posted them and you know tagged like River Beach and cultural council and and and tagged all that. So I'm thinking when we go to events at least do that. Now I love
anything related to theater and music. So um I'm happy to do those. Um I can do them on the weekends. I do plan to go back to work and when that happens I'll be doing I'll be working overnight so I won't be available during the week but I
can do the Saturday well Friday Saturday and Sunday things you know but definitely anything related to theater or dramatic reading anything related to music I'm happy to do that and and art you know like painting things like that
so I'm I'm definitely open for that I'm happy to attend as I'll you know if when I'm a you know if I'm available and you know it shouldn't be a problem. Okay. I'll be there. I already participate on several. So um it just have to make sure
not double dipping or anything but I'll make sure that I uh that I can attend. I go to the Riviera Farms farmers market and have a table. Maybe the days that I'm that I'm not at that table there for my other job I'll go as a council member to talk to people. Um, I'm also on the committee for the Shirley Multicultural
Festival that's coming up. So, I'll be there as well. So, there's several that I'm already involved in, so I'll be around and can support while I'm there. But, um, but yes, count me in. Excellent. And Joe, I know anything music, anything at the I think that the a big tiein is going to
be the high school because the high school has our biggest and most visible arts component in the city, meaning that they have their own arts f art art show with, you know, their whole Oh, cool. Um, but that's only open usually to the high
school community. They might put out a social media post and that they do have their dramatic, you know, their dramatics thing which is another component which we spoke of. Um I know that they were thinking about doing something in the parks you know some
so to approach the drama teachers too as being ahead you know key people in terms of these um grants or activities uh because what we also want to do is get the next generation uh we want succession here. We were talking about getting interns
um and young people involved in the arts and what a grant, you know, what a grant actually is um and how they could propose something that actually takes shape um or form. Um so the only way to get them
is to kind of go into their world. We can't expect them necessarily to come into our world. Um so knowing when those events are would be helpful. Just a question. Is there an out because when you mention outdoor maybe theater, is there a place in Ravier where they
can do like a small version of like in in New York and Central Park, they have the out there like Shakespeare in the park. Is there an outdoor performance area where because these high school kids were so incredibly talented when I went to see Greece, I was blown away.
So, if they put like say maybe they apply for a grant to do some kind of a theater thing, is there an outdoor space where they can do outdoor theater? Is there a location here? I mean, I think that the the beach is probably a good spot or maybe that new park that's by the beach. I think there
are options for that. I think it's there's a lot of passion around. I know we we've talked about we we did not we were not able to get an event off the ground. We are going to be able to do that. Um, spoiler alert out there, TV land, we don't have the total amount of what we're able to grant. Once that
information is available to us, we will publicize that. Um, but the council does um, get to take a certain percentage for our own event. So, that might be something for us to add as an agenda item next time, Debbie, like for us to talk through what is it that we want to do because if you're passionate about that, Lark, we could do that.
Love that. And we could if we can work together to do that. I think um you know Joe has expressed a lot of passion around doing some things for the senior center which could be in tandem. We could do an event that's outdoors and then also goes to some of the senior center. So perhaps that when we're together we're able the
next time we're able to maybe talk through what it is that we'd like to use with the percentage of money that we have available to us. Um which is a me keep me honest. What is it 10% we're allowed to take the 10? They have 5% for administrative
5% for administrative and there was a 20% for so we do get a living. So it ends up with 25% like it won't be it's not going to be a huge amount of money but it will be money that we could get something off the ground for our own project. So we will definitely add that to the agenda item for next time um as something to discuss
in more. And just to add like Rocky said is especially for something that we see is a miss and that we want to support we could utilize it for those purposes as a as a council. That's a good that's a great idea. Yeah. I mean I I 20 years ago I was on
stage at Commonwealth Shakespeare doing Hamlet with um someone that you all might have heard of Pedro Pascal. So obviously I would be really into us being doing something and Shakespeare is free. We don't have to pay for the rights for that. Go that direction. And it it doesn't have to be a fullout
production. It can be a monologue competition of of different uh different ethnicities and things, playwrights that people haven't heard of and just have the students come up with that. And this terrific have a a group of people just like the beauty contest but just
interpretations and stuff and that also preps them for art school, you know, back room if they're planning to go to college. brilliant idea because the National Forensics League which I was involved with in high school um which is dramatic interpretation extemporaneous
speech etc that's a big national thing and there are scholarships for that but if we can do something like that and get the kids I don't because I don't know if River High School is involved in national forensics they should be if they aren't but um I think that's a brilliant idea and that preps people not
only just for the arts but just for everyday life too you and and and and and I think that's a great idea. I love that. Yeah. The only thing I would like to add along the lines of the use of that that that those amounts is is also thinking of us as a council having an event to
award the grantees like having an event to present the awards so that we there's more of our footprint of what what's being done at city hall. So I think that was another thing I wanted to add as far as that percentage goes. What's interesting too um and I'm sure it's going to happen tomorrow. Um it was
funny my mother like happened Steven saw too but we were in the paper from the last meeting we were on the front page of the paper so we are getting a little bit of advertisement by just being here today but I think to to Haime's point and uh everyone else is the more exposure we have that we exist hi we're
here we want to do work the more we're going to be able to to do that much more in the community um I agree with Haimey I would like to have some sort of we'll call it a recognition event whether we give them you know a piece of paper certificate. They, you know, hopefully we can get some of some of the the city
council or even the mayor to come and be just just because I think that goes a long way. Um, and that's a that's a that's a pretty pretty we could very easy feat for us to do. Um, so we can add those um as discussion points for the next meeting. Um,
I think we have a solid communication plan. Um, in terms of events, I'm looking at the calendar of what's coming up. there's a lot of meetings, right? It's summertime, things tend to be a little bit slower. Um perhaps as a takeaway for all of us, take a look at
the calendar for the next two months and when we come back, we can maybe say, "Okay, these are the events I really am passionate about that I want to go to." And we can just see if there's any duplication and and just have a little bit of a of a schedule. I again don't want to be like, "Oh, you have to go to three, you have to go to five, you have to go to whatever because I don't think
that that ever is going to work for anybody." But I think that it's people want to see us and they want to hear from us and the only way we're gonna get the word out is if we're there. Um, what neighborhoods are active? I mean, I know the Beach neighborhood is very active.
Beachmont is very active and the Shirley neighborhood is very active. I don't hear as much from the other neighborhoods um with neighborhood organizations or doing um activities in in the paper or anything like that. So, I mean, I'd be interested to find out
Yeah. what's going on in those neighborhoods if anybody knows about anything that goes on in those neighborhoods. Yeah. The majority to your point, Joe, like looking at the just I'm just looking at the river calendar, right? It's it's all the yard, the farmers, like you said, Beachmont, Suffach Downs,
um, River Beach area. Um, so if you're out there in TV land, you have events, let us know. Ping us. We would love to come. Um, come to the next meeting. Like, what? You like that, Rocky? come to the next meeting and come tell us. Come to the next meeting and tell us, right? We want to hear from you.
Um, I feel like we we are in a better place than I thought we were in terms of next steps. Um, I will take the actions around the flyer, seeing if I can get translation. Haimey, if I can't, you could you could
get me the translation. Send them my way. I'll do it. You'll do it. Do you want the f you want the file of the or do you want to get me the text and then he'll edit it? Whatever's easiest for you. I'll talk to him tomorrow. I'll text you. Um because if you send him the the height might be able to just put it in or he might have a program where you can
run it through. Um I know some of those programs are doing that now, but then we want someone to check it because you know the the the dialect is different. You can go to any part in Italy and it's going to be someone different that says a word different than you do. Um, I do some of those already at work, but
through city hall, I don't know if translation services they'll review it. I don't know how that works, but just FYI, I can help. Definitely. Excellent. Yeah, but the FL the flyers and what I like about the flyers, all we have to do is just change the dates next year. It looks like we could keep the same one. It's a pretty good stand. I like when it's
Well, I thought that there was going to be a template from the Mass Cultural Council that they said here, you got to use this and add in all your stuff, but there isn't. they have a lot of other really great resources. So, I am not complaining. Uh, but it gave us the creativity to come up with our own. So,
that was that was really really good. Um, meetings for the fall. I want to make sure we're all aligned because that and and I'm going to take the hit on that one. I had a vacation planned this week that I couldn't make on the 14th. Um, and because we're small
but mighty, I want to make sure everyone can be here. Uh, for the benefit of Joe who wasn't here when I said it, I have gotten permission that Lark can join us virtually. Same for you. So, if we have situations in advance where somebody needs to join virtually, we can we can do that. And if and if I have to be the
person that joins virtually, we'll figure it out. Haimey can also run the meeting as well. Um, so the next one that we do definitely Lark, you won't be with us. So, we'll get to test what that process looks like. So, for the rest of us that are here, um, they had asked me today to come a little bit earlier and
then I cancel them because you were coming in. So, uh, when I get all that information, I'll make sure it's scheduled and if everybody wants to be here so that we can learn what the process is to to click somebody in so if one of us has to do it that everyone knows. Okay. Um, but the dates that Debbie Debbie, do
you want to review the dates since my voice is getting horse? Thank you. Okay. We have the second Thursday of the month. So we have at six o'clock September 11th, October 9th, November 13th, and December 11th at this time.
Are there any known conflicts other than the ones like like with LARK? I know that we would have to be virtual for at least a September one. Are there any other known conflicts with those meetings that we need to work around? I have one conflict which is October 9th. I'll be out of the country, but um I can participate virtually if
necessary. I know October and November are going to be the busiest probably when we look really the scariest times for us, I'm sorry, the most fun times for us will be after October 16th. So um so when the grant applications close on October 16th, that's when our work
will really begin um in terms of of of uh reviewing and then moving forward with that process. So when we get to the October 9th meeting, one of the things that I will do during that is we will have gone through the guidelines. I recommended the training and I know some
of us have taken that the guidelines, the updated guidelines training is on August 20th. Joe, I don't know if you've got that link or not, but a lot of us are going to be on the webinar. We'll go over what the process is and we'll agree to how we're going to independently review. Remember, open meeting policy. We can't discuss it through email or
text ahead of time, but we certainly can come here prepared for what that meeting will look like in November. Depending on the number of grants that we have, we might need to add in an additional meeting. So, we'll we'll have a better idea, I think, by October like what we have. Uh but one of the things that's
been thrown out was like coming up with our own independent scoring system where everyone can go through and and then we can come and compare because if we have a lot of grants we may have to just go through everything like we did remember Joe and I did this last year we were in a different position where we were able
to award everybody but we went through it first pass like okay these are the projects we're going to move forward with and then these are the and then we we dealt with the money situation in the second meeting. So that's probably the approach we would take. Um because we do have to provide um I don't know the exact time frame on it. It is in the it
is in the guidelines for projects that are that we um we decide to not move forward with. We have to give them a little bit of a period where they could come to a meeting and then they could they could ask questions or provide further context. So all those templates and notes are available. I don't know if you've seen them in the toolkit because
you and I secretary. Yeah, we'll take a look at it. All those all those emails that we're going to have to deal with come out. We're really excited about it. Don't worry. Um, but we'll I want us all to kind of just be prepared, especially around the holidays. I think council chamber tends to be a little bit more open for us to get like if we needed to
go on a different day. Um, or we might want to consider making it's generally the first or second week in January and that's ultimately due because that's when the the budgets are all passed or have to be in by January like 14th.
Ideally, we'd like to pass or we try to pass. We got them done early last year by December because you want to kind of steer clear of the holidays because you get the holidays and you lose two weeks in between. So it seems like it's a long time but it's really condenses around the holiday
and we maybe want to might want to extend and I could talk with Ashley now. Is anybody in after us at seven? All right. Do you know off the top of your head? I don't know. some days. I might I might go ahead. I know nobody
wants to do this during the holidays. Hi, I'm everybody. Um, but I might go ahead and extend our December 11th two hours because that would be uh that's what we did last year. That is probably the one where we're going to have to make the most decisions right prior to
the the break before the holiday. So, let's tentatively put that and um Debbie, I'll take that as an action with Ashley when she's back from vacation to extend the December 11th to two hours. I'll probably do it on that five is hard, especially during the holidays.
So, probably maybe a six to eight situation on that day. Um Okay. Does that affect your I know you said you're going to nights. Will that really throw you off? No, that that's okay. As long as I leave like by 9:30. Do you have to be out of here before? Yeah, we'll be up by 8.
Oh. Oh, okay. Okay. We do. The building has to close. Oh, the building. I don't want to be like, "What's that? What's that TV show?" Are the kids locked in the museum? We're all locked in city hall. Okay.
So, we're all good with the meetings as planned with that adjustment with to making that two hours. Great. Okay. So, at this time, any new business that we haven't discussed, I'll open the floor. It's like I'm doing my virtual calls at
work. I count to three. 1 1000. All right, team. So, if there's no um new business, next steps, just to recap for everybody, um I'll contact about the additional hour on December 11th. Um we will see about the translations for the flyer. I will get on both the Instagram
and Facebook account before the end of the week. Uh, well, I'm going to give myself till next week because I'm going away this weekend, so I might not get it done. Um, we'll get that done. So, we can do that. I'll see about the paid ads. Um, Debbie has volunteered to get some flyers for us so we can just maybe
in our group emails. Um, I do ask y'all now. I know it's confusing because we all have things going on. I was asked now to have a City of Rever email address. So, if we can email um myself, Haimey and Debbie have that. I believe the two of you can also get if you want an additional one. I don't know if you
do that. Um I can I can message um it and they can walk you through that if you'd rather that um than have your own um but I know we in this world of email. So we could take that offline. But if you could start bringing business and I'm going to do a better job of making sure that I email
you all specifically from that. I just have three Outlooks now on my phone. So it's like figuring out which outlook I'm looking at. The rever one is red. So I know red R. It's me. I'm starting to need like a map to figure out my phone. which which email am I using it? Um, so we'll we'll get
the minutes out to everybody. Um, we don't have to send them to Ashley. We only send them to ourselves so that everyone sees that. Um, we have the the notes on the flyer. I think we have a solid uh start to a communication plan. Um, and that's that. Um, I think that we
could keep up the momentum. We have a really I'm really confident in this team and what we're going to do. I think I look at my goal as as um the chair that you all elected um which was that this year we want to get through let's get through the the grants. Let's with the
goal of outreaching to more people and then when we're back in February after we award them, we can really sit down and say what do we want this to look like and and have an even bigger uh splash for 2027. I I'm excited about it.
The energy is great. Yeah, it was great. And we don't have a we don't have the first per push, I guess, would be in September with the flyers, but we definitely have an active push in October because there's the arts on the beach. I think that's the first two weeks of October usually is they're doing
something whatever. So, at least say still time to get your thing in. Uh the farmers market will be in its heyday because all the produce will be coming coming in. So right now you got a few little things coming in but it should be by October you'll have
the biggest you know biggest farmers market of the year and hime you have porch fest you know in o in October so you have like three arts related events in what what is arts on the beach they do like a they they have like a
show like it's like a um I don't want to call it like um they have tents on the beach or something I think it's like people are selling their it's it's almost like a craft like almost like a arts and craft fair where people have their they they're they're displaying and you can purchase them similar to what they had at um sand sand
sculpture. They had like a little under the you know you saw so you see all the little artists. I'm actually wearing somebody's bracelet that I bought. Okay. Thank you artist. Um but they have they have fine art there too. They have fine art and just different types of paintings. This is in October. It is in October.
Oh, I'm going to love that. Okay. I never knew about that. And then from a farmers market, if we wanted to have a table, is that something that we can request with them? That sounds uh Yeah, I can follow up with um with Sam. Yeah, because I could probably do one or two as towards the end of September and
October. I could probably camp out there. Yeah, a couple times maybe just as we get closer to the grants. I think the review for the farmers market is in the summer, but October we could we could I can see who manages that. When do they end the far? Do we know when the farmers market ends? I know we funded it. I don't but the
dates on top of re far I think it goes through September president yeah through September but you mentioned in October so that's why I got confused but the September 26th so we do have but to Joe's point we do have some time where we could get if grants open on you know
there's there's four Fridays that maybe we can get some presents there or even just to talk to people and say hey look you know and have some of the flyers. But I'll follow I'll follow up with Sam and and figure out about a table or we can go and spend time at the table with the community leazison's office.
Yeah, that's even that even works there. Yeah. Yeah. And then I don't know how far Amaya is going to do their Thursday arts and stuff. Twisted Fates is supposed to be opening in September. So I there'll be a young youthful presence
around that time. Excellent. And that's right. I can see that from my window. All right. So, um, we've covered everything on the agenda. I think this was very productive. Um, looking for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn.
Oh, sorry. We'll let you do the motion this time because Debbie got to do it last time. Motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? I I All right. Cultural council meeting. Let me get the exact time here. 553.
Adjourned at 5:53 p.m. All right.