All right, I think we're ready to get started. Hello everyone. Welcome to the first parks and recreation meeting. This is our organizational meeting. Happy to have you all here. Um, our first agenda item number one is going to be roll call of the members. So, like I said, when I call your name, just hit that button on
your little screen and when it turns red, your mic is on. And when it's not, it's off. Um, so roll call starting with Jacqueline Damiano >> here. >> Lily Martinez >> here, >> Shannon Bianke >> here,
>> Natalyia Ardana is absent, Nicholas Gobin >> here, >> and Wilson Koreah >> here. >> And then we have Adriana Boreello here, >> here. >> And she is filling in for Michael Hinosa, who will be our official exeicio.
Um, all right. Moving on to agenda item number two is introductions and brief discussions. Um, so I did just want to preface by saying, you know, I'm here for everyone to help kind of get you guys off the ground for your first meeting, um, and bounce ideas off of and, um, I can kind of walk you through
all the steps of, you know, how to how to run one of these meetings. Um, so if you guys just wanted to go down the line maybe and just give a brief introduction of your name, what you do, why you wanted to be on this board, and you know, maybe what you're hoping to to help accomplish.
So, I'm Jaclyn Damiano, Jackie for short. Um, I'll answer to either or. I am a Head Start program director um in Beverly. I wanted to get on this because I thought it was a great thing. I go to a lot of the events with my kids. Um,
and it sounded like something I wanted to get involved in to kind of share some ideas and meet some great people. >> My name is Wilson Korea. Um, um um I have uh I'm a coach. Uh actually I should be coaching some of the kids
actually your brotherly. So I'm looking forward for this department because of the involvement that I have in different sports, soccer, uh basketball, you name it. So I think sports is very important in the growth of kids. So for me that's very important. So I'm I'm very grateful
to be here. Whoever came up with the idea creating this department, I'm I think it's a great idea and I'm looking forward for working with all of you and and making better with this program. How's it going y'all? I'm Nick Goain. Um I am a five-year resident here in
Ravier. Uh seven in total in uh in Massachusetts. Prior to that I was in Canada. Currently working at State Street um in global security where I uh handle a lot of overseas travel and weather delays.
We're uh outside of work I referee professional inclusia ice hockey. I've been involved in the grassroots and uh grassroots both in the US and Canada for almost 10 years now. Uh seconding the comment before me, sports is a huge
development tool and has helped a lot of people um you know from youth all the way to retirement leagues and it's something I really want to contribute to. >> My name is Liliana Martinez. I am a resident. I am a member of the youth and
I have a passion for sports and I've been part of the parks and recreation programs my whole life. >> My name is Adriana Boreello. I'm the administrative assistant to the director of parks and recreation. Um the director of parks and recreation is Michael Hinosa who will be the ex officio. Um re
the Riviera Parks and Recreation Department serves the residents of Riviera by planning, maintaining, and managing the city's parks, recreational facilities, and community programs. We maintain public parks and open spaces, including playgrounds, athletic
facilities, and courts. We provide recreational programs from toddlers to adults, summer camps, and seasonal activities. We operate the community center which runs nighttime activities for youth and teens in a safe and welcoming environment. We manage the
aquatics down in the community center located at the Garfield School that includes um swimming lessons, open swim and other water activities. And we also support health and wellness initiatives through programs that serve at the HS Health and Wellness Center located at
321 Charter Street promoting an active lifestyle. We also host community events including citywide celebrations, family events, and special program throughout the year. Our department enhances the quality of life in Rivier by providing
inclusive spaces, engaging programs, and opportunities that bring the community together while promoting health, wellness, and recreation for all ages. And we're happy to be a part of this board, and we look forward to the collaboration. Uh my name is Shannon Bianke and um I am
a I guess 10-month or uh working on a one-year I'm a newbie to revere basically. Um my background is in uh professional sports and law. Um [clears throat] the short story on that is I was a professional caddy for a good
11 years or 12 years or so. um had a child and she became my my main focus. Um so I I turned to uh law. I was I got my parallegal certificate. I served the town of Nant uh for a good 10 years or
so uh in between the open space committee and the planning board. So my background was in land use law, zoning, things like that. Um, and when we moved to Brevier, I made another career change back to the golf industry. I'm now in
outside operations for Nem uh, Golf Club. And, um, just wanted to pursue something that really genuinely made me happy. And, you know, I'm a big advoc advocate for open space uh, and passive
rec recreation such as walking paths, just, you know, sitting out in the lawn somewhere. Um, and so my intention and hope is that I could possibly expand uh the footprint for parks and rack and river. There's very limited space, but
that's what I'm focused on. >> Awesome. Thank you everybody. Um, so now I just wanted to open it up for some brief discussions for you guys. Um, to maybe talk about your visions, any ideas you have um, to kind of get us off the ground running. Um, so just you know if
you wanted to have a conversation about how you envision this operating. So whether that be some ideas I had were do you want to take in parent intake for the parks and recck department. Um are you interested in writing like letters of support to the council for parks and recreation related agendas? Um helping
with event organizations or running some sort of donations or fundraisers um within our bounds? um just opening up the floor to conversation for you guys and any any ideas or things you want to talk about would be great. Um so maybe Adriana if you wanted to kick it off
with you know what could be helpful coming from your department. >> So one thing that we are always striving is to incorporate the public's opinions and intake of what they want to see more of. So, a lot of times when
we're at an event or we're hosting something, we're once the pictures go up on social media, we'll hear, "Oh, we didn't hear about it or we didn't know it was happening." So, sometimes um we struggle, I guess the best way to say it, of how we can get our information
out there because we try our social media, we try flying, going to talk to the schools, but there's still a lack of communication between us and the public. So, um, a couple weeks ago, we actually sent out a survey to the public and saying, "What's the best way? Like, we want to hear from you guys. What's the
best way of how we can get in contact with you?" And if you're not registering, but you're seeing our programs, like, why are you not registering? Is it cost? Is it um transportation stuff like that? So, we would love something along those ideas to help us
Um, I I focus more on play soccer. I hear a lot of complaints about um space and I know it's limited, right? I know we do great with basketball. I know Joanna and Parsons rec do a really good job with
the basketball. I would like something like that to be cop on on soccer, but I know the space is limited. So trying to find out how we can balance to better utilization of the space that is available and um provide those opportunities and how we can
integrate those residents that would like to play the sports but the always the major complaint is we don't have the space or or how can we have a local similar to what we do in basketball a local tournament where more kids can can do can play the sport. that
that's one of the things and one of the reasons why I'm I'm here. I would like to help with that and one of the things that I heard from the community. All right. If we have nothing further, obviously we have a lot of work to do. We're starting with a blank slate, so
totally fine. you know, I see moving forward um inviting members of the public, you know, to come up and speak, share their opinions, ideas, how they can work with this commission and also the rec department, um to just make it the best [clears throat] it could be. You know, you guys are going to be an advisory committee, not only to the
parks and rec center, but to the mayor's office and our team. So, it's really helpful to have you guys as kind of spearheading a lot of the improvement that we can see around our city, both in the parks, in our programming, in you know, making something new. It's all
it's all invited and it's all welcome and I think we have a really diverse set of backgrounds and skill sets here that are really gonna, you know, uplift our city and make things a lot better. So, I'm very happy to hear from all of you. Um, if any nobody else says anything further, we can move on. Oh, go ahead. I
>> I think it might be a really good idea for us to get kind of a list. I mean, I kind of created one on my phone, uh, but a list of all the different parks and wreck facilities that we have in River so that we might be able to when the spring comes, you know, go out and kind
of do a soft audit on them so we all could get to, you know, get familiar with with with the actual resources that we have. >> Yeah, I love that idea. Adriana, do you think that's something we can implement and work together on? >> Yeah, I can get that over to everybody.
>> Awesome. All right. If we have nothing further, I guess we can move on. Oh, go ahead. >> And I think that's that's very good. And also, I don't know if it's possible in addition to that, like the times where like the gyms are being used or how the
process work because the community what I heard is that they're not familiar with the rental process or the hours that is available for rental. And uh I I think in addition to what you mentioned, what is available and maybe include the times that residents can rent it out or what is available so they can have a
better use and and and take advantage of what we have. >> Yeah. >> I'll create like a policy and procedures for rentals in all of our recreational spaces and I'll send that over. >> Great. >> Yeah. Awesome. All right. Anything else?
Awesome. All right. We can move on to elections of the chairs. So, just so you guys know, I know it wasn't specified on the agenda, that's my bad, but we are going to have um a chair, a vice chair, and a secretary. So, the chair would kind of be the person maybe doing a little bit what I'm doing, kind of
moving the meeting along um and doing the speaking parts, reading off the agenda. Um the vice chair would kind of be either a fill in for that if the chair is absent or just an assistant with that. And then the secretary would be doing agendas and minutes and all of the the note tracking. So, if anyone
wants to volunteer or um elect someone else to be in one of those positions, that would be really helpful. I know we are missing Natalia as well. So, we don't necessarily have to vote on all those today if we're not comfortable to, but I would love to get maybe one, two, hopefully three of those. Um, so I'll
start with the chair. Does anyone want to volunteer or nominate someone else? >> If nobody else wants it, I'll take it. Awesome. [laughter] Um, I can do all in favor of Jacqueline.
All opposed. Okay, we have Jaclyn Damiano as our chair. Okay, next we can do we can do the vice chair who would like to either volunteer or nominate for us. >> Awesome. Thank you. Nicholas is going to be our vice chair and then our
secretary. Is anyone interested? All right. If not, we can hold on to that one for the next meeting, I'm happy to help kind of um move you guys along for that one as well. But if um Nick and Jacqueline want to help with the agenda and the um organization of the next one
as well, I'll kind of loop you guys into that just so we can get that off the ground. All right. And the last thing we have is number four, the organization of our regular meeting time. Um, Adriana, do you have any input on when would be the
most helpful for you guys? >> Yeah, so Michael um did want me to propose um by monthly meetings for a couple reasons, just to give us enough time to work on things like from one meeting to the next to be able to go out, gather ourselves, and come back
with something. He thinks that if we go any sooner, he just is afraid that with everybody's life outside of this, it might just be a little chaotic. So, um, bimonthly is what Michael's proposing. >> Awesome. Thank you. And is everybody else in agreement that a bimonthly
meeting, one night a week, like this type of schedule would be? >> All right. >> Yep. That sounds >> great. And then if you guys want to just discuss maybe when the best time of the week and time on the schedule would be, um, we would also have to work it out
with the clerk's office and just make sure that there's no other meetings overlapping. Um, so we can discuss that now or if you wanted to hold off, but is there any day day of the week that would work best for everybody for the majority? It also doesn't have to be the
same time every time. it can move around, but as long as we're staying with a bimonthly meeting once a once bimonthly, then we're all set. I'll say the only hang-up that I really have is a um like Thursdays and Fridays.
Uh generally speaking with hockey, summer will be fine, but during the winter we're uh I'm on the road those nights. Um, for parks and wreck, I agree Thursdays probably doesn't work only because movie nights come once the summer hits. So that will take all of
July and August. So that might just be a little bit challenging. But >> if everybody thinks this time works, we can just keep it at this time. >> Yeah. Do you want to just say we'll keep it at a bimonthly Thursday six o'clock for now and then if we need to make any
small adjust adjustments we can as a team. >> I'm sorry my schedule's all thrown off with a short week. Sorry. Wednesdays. >> All right. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Thank you guys. Um so that concludes the agenda items. I did want to open the floor if we have any members
of the audience who would like to come up and say anything. Uh my name is Paul Aenzio. Uh 245 Reservoir Avenue. I'm the ward 4 city council. Uh years ago I was a member of this commission and over the years as
people retired and moved away. The members were never replaced. So the commission kind of just fell off. And I've always been an advocate uh to restore this commission. Uh so several months ago I proposed a motion in front of the council and it was supported
unanimously by my colleagues uh to start this commission uh back up. We requested it of the mayor and the mayor was very supportive. So, I'm glad to see that it's come to fruition. And as Miss Boreelloo said, the parks and recreation department does a great job with all
their events, and they have a huge amount uh from toddlers to sports to senior citizen programs to events. And I think this commission can only make that whole process healthier by uh giving
suggestions, coming up with new ideas. Uh I think that makes the whole department uh healthier and I look forward to uh seeing good things come from this commission. Um, I I think it's
it's a and the main thing I think is the residents that are able to come up here and have some input and make suggestions what's working, what's not working, uh what what they feel uh they need and and it can and it'll be a great uh
collaboration between the department and um and this commission. So good luck and uh I look forward to uh attending meetings and uh participating. Thank you. >> Awesome. All right. I think with that if
we have no further comments, we can call this meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone and thank you members of our audience for being here. >> Thank you.