jump on it. >> Hello everyone. Um, >> we have our we have our sillies out. Okay, I'll tell you all about it in just a second. Um before we begin our uh cultural council meeting today on April
9th, 2026, let's start with 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. All right, the time is 6:05. I call this meeting to order. Um, we do have a visitor on Zoom, Greg Torales from the Mass Cultural Council,
who u we will be speaking with after we get through our couple of agenda items. Is that cool, Greg? Can we get through a couple things for I like I'm I'm looking at the Zoom screen and looking up there. We have a lot of tech going on in the room. Um, so team, before we uh dive into the meeting, um, I just need a
motion to accept the minutes from our meeting last month. Do I have a motion? >> Yes. Motion. >> Motion. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> Meeting minutes passed from our meeting
on March >> 9th. 9th. >> Yeah. >> I get rusty. I I feel so out of practice with this every single time we do it. It just feels so unnatural for me. Um, so a couple of things I want to go over before we we bring Greg in to talk uh
through the last cycle. We did get three reports from some of the projects that were completed. Thank you so much for getting them in. Like the council said the last meeting, we love hearing about what you're doing. We love seeing your photos. The bottleneck in posting your images on social media is me. I'm going
to relieve that this weekend. I have some uncle time on Saturday night where I'll be putting kids to bed and then I will have a couple hours to actually do this. So, so I will schedule those posts to go out as soon as I can. Um, but thank you so much. So, I do just want to share with our our audience out there
and then with the council uh the three projects that submitted these reports. Again, we love seeing them. We love hearing about what what you did uh so that next year if you reapply, we can we can look at some of the data from the year before. So, one project that we were all very excited about was the Lion King Jr. that happened at the Hills
School Drama Club. They had 580 people in attendance, of which 150 were children. Um, again, there was a cast of 60 fourth and fifth graders who put on the production, included two soldout shows. Great job, y'all. Um, and then they had a morning performance for the
second and third graders that was held during the school day free of charge. So, on top of performing, they learned about teamwork, personal responsibility, and how to stage a very complex production on stage. um they had no other formal sponsors but
us. So that was great. That was a great investment on the behalf of the the team. Um they do not post the any of the event or social media handles outside of school probably because of the kids. So um I will post a recap and take a look and see if there's anything that's
appropriate uh to post with permission of course because we are these are school age children. But very good job y'all. Round of applause on that. That's really fantastic. Second project that submitted a report
um was a dance journey through Latin America. Again, this was done at the Hill School. 630 people attended the event of which 527 were were children. Yay. Priority check.
Um so thanks to us uh the Hill School meaning us the River Cultural Council. um hosted the event at the hosted Veronica Robels and her mariachi on Wednesday, April 1st for an all school assembly. The event celebrated vibrant
music and dance traditions of Latin American countries reflecting the diverse backgrounds of our school community. Veronica along with her dancers and mariachi band provided a joyful and memorable experience for the entire school. The costumes, music, and dynamic dances brought the rich and
diverse cultures of Latin America to life for the students. beautiful music and dynamic Oh, I already said that part. Opportunities like this are so important as they provide both windows and doors for the student population. Um, other than us, the Hills School PTO
did provide some sponsorship. So, thank you. And they will send us some event photos to post. So, again, thank you so much for the report. Congratulations on a fabulous event. And we received something from the Susan B. from Anthony Middle School, grade 8,
who went to see The Outsiders Musical. They went to see it last night and submitted their report already. High five >> for being on time, like really quickly with their report. Um, 40 people attended the event, 33 were student,
school age, uh, children. Um, so they went to see The Outsiders the Musical. This was their first time attending a professional uh, production or for at least the majority. Um because the outsiders I know it's my favorite summer reading book. I don't know about the rest of y'all here. We all we all like I
mean it's been around for it's touched so many generations. Um during co I bought all the old summer reading books because you know we were all locked up and I read all the old books that I read as a kid as an adult and the outsider still holds up. So, uh, because it is such a cornerstone of all curriculum,
especially middle school, um, it was one of the favorite books of the of the students. Um, and it was something that helped them get invested in in both reading and the the diverse production. So, other than us, there was no other sponsor and they did provide photos. So,
again, congratulations. Thank you. Glad to see the money go to good work. Um, so now I'm going to skip ahead. Haime, if you don't mind, I think we'll have Greg. We'll we'll have our part with Greg first and then we can talk about the event. So, now for um the
council. Oh, we didn't do roll call, y'all. I am like told you the day was this was a day. Rocky grass. So, Greg, before we go, we're going to do roll call. I'm going all out of order today, but I did I was able to remember the pledge of allegiance. So, that's always a good start to the meeting. All right.
So, roll call. Uh, Rocky Graziano, chair, >> Debbie West, >> Lord Logan, >> Joe Hayitz, >> hi Mendes, vice chair. >> It's a party. We're all here. All right,
so Greg, we're gonna uh now pivot to you. Welcome, Greg. >> Hey, everyone again. Thank you so much for having me. It's awesome to be here. Um, it's actually so we actually met sometime last year. I think it was actually in May. So, it's good to see that you're all um still with the
council and doing amazing things. Uh, as Rocky referenced earlier, what we're doing kind of this time of year is really checking in with all of the councils statewide. This is kind of like debrief season at at this point. Um, we
have a couple of interesting ideas on the table, big things that we want to go ahead and pilot for next year. Um, in the realm of regional convenings and and in some sense um virtual components to that. Uh but before we finalize anything, um I still want to go ahead
and check in with you all in River, see how things have been going with the 26 cycle and then see also if there are any ideas that you'd like to uh contribute to that which I could elaborate um uh a little bit more. But first off, yeah, I wanted to see if there was anything that
stood out to you all for the uh fiscal 26 cycle that you want to go ahead and relay and make sure that we could document. Um, especially anything in the realm of like pain points, challenges, things that could be improved, that sort of thing. Do you want does anyone have any
feedback or I can start? So, I think I think Greg the benefit of having done this the year before made this a little bit smoother for the team. um we got through the cycle, you know, we we actually have too many people to choose from, which is a good problem to
have. Um so I think on my end, the one thing that I would that could help um would be having some of the the flyers pre-transated if that's possible for some of the languages we were able to, you know, utilize um um a graphic
designer that I'm my cousin and then Haimey was able to translate it into Spanish. Um, so having because Rivier is so divor diverse, I'm not, you know, we would have to look for some of the other languages. I think Arabic would be something that's important. Um, potentially Mandarin. I don't know if
anybody else has any other languages that I think in the city uh are pretty pretty prominent. Uh, so maybe some some additional resourcing on that end would be the only thing, but that's a small thing. I think uh again the benefit of having done this the year before made it a lot smoother for me and then than and
and Joe, we've been here for a bit. So I think I think it really was was we had that we had that past experience which helped the rest of the team. So I'd like to hear from the rest of y'all for Greg. Um because for some of us majority it was our first time going through it. >> Um I thought it went very well. We had a
lot to choose from like you said and we had to turn down a lot and um but that was nice that we had an increase from what you had said the year before that we had to make those decisions and we could choose you know the best of the best projects. >> Yeah, for me being my first experience I
think it was um it was good. Everything was well well organized. The process is very organized. Um, I think, uh, it's I have no comparison because I wasn't here years prior, but yes, um, I'm happy that we were able to get a lot more
applicants. Um, and I think we assigned task in the right way. We were able to kind of support each other and be able to organize our process to be able to make those difficult decisions with so many applicants. So, um, and stay within budget. So, that was that was good. So,
good feedback from me. nothing specific to say about any changes other than what was stated by Rocky with with the language capacity for the flyers. That's it. >> And um this was also new for me and since I don't have anything to compare
it with, I thought it went very smoothly and that we had plenty of opportunity to thoroughly discuss each application and decide yay or nay or potential. And uh I thought it was a great process. as a senior member. Um this is my going
on my fourth year of the cultural committee. I think that this committee uh basically committed to meeting on a regular basis which is really um not just when the proposals all come in and then kind of try and get done at last minute and um
do it but kind of throughout the year where as needed. Um so we were able to take a break here, you know, here and there uh in a week, but to discuss also um the progress leading up to and the process
afterwards. That's why we're still meeting. It's not like just a commitment that you come in one, you know, one day or two two two meetings and it's over with. Um we've made a commitment to it. Um and I think that has made all um the difference. Um and we're also bringing a
different perspective to it. Uh whereas before um the perspective was one person would speak and every Yeah, I kind of agree with that. We have a lot of well-rounded opinions from different um
places in the community, different times um in our lives. So it really gets a very well-rounded um well meaningful committee. The last thing, Greg, I want to thank you all for sharing. One thing I do want
to point out, Greg, that I thought was really helpful was the um the template that you all had for scoring. That was a great resource that we did utilize prior to we made a little bit of a few adjustments. Um we did I think we added a I think budget was not on the template
that you all used, but we added it. So I think it was a 20 point cap on what you all had and ours was 25 if I'm not mistaken. So, I think we added just one section about that, but that was really, really helpful. It did help us right off the bat eliminate some of the projects that,
you know, collectively, I don't want to say, you know, we're not as, you know, highly favored. Um, as we say in pageant land, the cream rises to the top. And in that case, I think that that was really, really helpful for us to see just where everybody's mindset was. And um I'm sure
other councils do something different, but we the way that we did it, I thought that it it really it really made it the discussion a lot easier because we took off the table those projects that really scored below I think it was 60%, right? 60 because it was 100 points or whatever we had. It was so it was like 60% of the
points. So there were some projects that really which which basically meant that the council as a collective felt that there were stronger projects as a whole. um and having the very clear um pillars there and then adding the budget piece
because that really I think was something that we harped on Greg to be honest with you if you look back at that video of us of your board and want to watch 90 minutes of us talking um the one thing that I think I said a lot and I I know I heard it from some of y'all was that the budget wasn't really flushed out. It was like we're going to
do this event. We want $15,000 but nothing was listed right. So, um, for people out there watching, that's something that we're, this council prioritizes, right? So, even if you're only asking for $1,000, but the product's going to cost $20,000. Let us see where that money is going. Um,
because we had to be so nitpicky because Greg, we were 25% above the year before. And the dollar amount ask 25% more applications and the dollar amount the dollar amount ask was 100% more. So, we had $44,000 and we had $220,000 worth of
ask. So that is a good problem to have um when we're looking and being able to critically assess some of these projects. So now we'll let you talk. >> Awesome. Again, thank you all so much for that. That was really that was really great stuff. I appreciate that.
Um the the other thing that I wanted to mention is we are like I mentioned, we've been encouraged to bring back um regional convenings, which is something we used to do quite often uh preandemic uh era. So we've been getting a lot of um calls from LCC's to bring an
iteration of that back. So we are going to be put putting that in the fiscal 27 budget and in the interim we are thinking of what are kind of stepping stones that we could take um until we get to that point and starting now in fiscal 26. They so the idea on the table
is to perhaps host a series of virtual uh convenings on specific topics that we're getting feedback from LCC's about um that are of great interest to folks. So we've been kind of compiling a running list of what these hot topics
have have been. Um, and on that note, the question is, are there any topics that any of you would be interested in connecting with LCC members from other communities to discuss? >> I think there's two two things. You talk about the virtual world. When I think
about the virtual world, I think about all of Massachusetts, but I would like to see a localized thing whereas uh members of River Cultural Committee can meet with Winthre and Lynn and Salem and it's a voluntary basis just like any
other, you know, meeting, but discuss our kind of pitfalls and our successes and compare and contrast um and get ideas. That's how we succeeded kind of as a cultural committee is we saw some other things that have done in other communities that said, "Well, why can't
it be done in ours?" Um, that's kind of where some of the ideas um come from is seeing what other communities do and how they you utilize that same exact budget or in some cases a lower budget.
>> I think Joe hit the nail on the head. I think outreach, seeing what other people do, sharing best practices around outreach. And then also, Greg, I don't know how this works, but if we continue to have the the ask that we're bringing
in RA increase, like how can we potentially get more funds? So whether that's by us trying to do outreach from in the community to get additional funds in or to work with the culture council, I think fundraising um would also be something or you know, however that process would look like would be something that I'd be interested in
seeing because if we continue to have this type level of interest where, you know, eventually we're going to start turning people off if we have to say no every year, right? And we only we only have what we have. So, so how other councils are um
maximizing what they have plus getting additional funds from other people would be really interesting to me. >> The other thing is the expansion of our communities in general. Uh River um has grown tenfold and I want to say that there's at least six, seven, eight
apartment buildings or complexes that have gone up in the last two, three years. Um, so if we have the exact same budget, how do we service all those more people? And if we have a big bigger budget, what can we expect? What kind of increases can we
expect? And I think that a lot of other cities and towns are going through same um kind of expansion as opposed to depletion. I can see Greg taking notes on my screen. Anyone else? >> Awesome. So again, if again, thank you all so much for that. That was actually
really great stuff. Some of that local fundraising, I will say, is probably the hottest topic uh that doesn't fall into the typical grant cycle. I personally am really excited to help convene um and spotlight a few LCC's that have been doing some really cool local fundraising
campaigns to just probably speak for maybe 10 or 15 minutes at one of these like virtual um um serieses to kind of start and facilitate the the remainder of discussion, see what other folks are doing. Um so we'll definitely keep you all posted. We're looking to launch something a piloted version of this in
either late uh April, so this month or even early May. So we'll we'll see how that goes. I'll keep you posted. If any any other topics come up in in your guys's conversation, feel free to uh let me know. This is going to be kind of an ongoing thing. Um it's going to be it iterative. We are going to continue to
shape it based upon feedback we keep getting from LCC's. Um so this is something we're going to evolve and kind of grow together. So again, it's an ongoing conversation. So feel free to let me know. Um that's all I actually had. Um, so for the remainder of your meeting, I'd like to stay on if
possible, just to learn to see what else you guys have coming up. Um, and while I'm here, if any other questions come up you that you have of me, feel free to to ask and I could I could be here. >> Thank you. I think one last thing would be if all LLC's could submit maybe one
proposal that they say, you know, stands out or they feel um was their best proposal and then, you know, as a state we showcase just some of those proposals, you know, a half a dozen, a dozen, whatever, whatever. Uh just to
show that we're making progress. Sometimes is progress seems isolated. Um, but so everybody can share together as a state the cultural achievements that we have made. >> I really love that idea, Joe, where we could say, "Hey, this was the one that
we really I think it would have been the Lion King for us." But the one that we all were like, "This is the this is the cream of the crop here." Uh, for whatever reason, I think that would be really nice, like almost like a little recap series or a yearbook or some sort. But thanks, Greg. I'm glad that you got
to see us say the pledge of allegiance correctly today because I think the last time I have to go back to the video for those of you out there I have to say it again because I go went from saying it every day as uh I don't know for however many years that we have to say it to now like I literally that I don't get
nervous very often and I have to say every single time we go live on that I do get nervous. That's one thing I think about. Um, all right. So, for context for Greg and to pick up the conversation as to where if anybody's watching from the last series like um we did allocate some administrative funds to potentially
have an event where we bring in the um the grant recipients um where we could uh spotlight a local business, give some business to them as well and have a reception of sorts or just some sort of recognition event where we um invite some of the dignitaries from the city uh present a certificate or so and have
some snackies and call it a day. Um, and we, you know, we had some action items, one of which, um, which I have not done yet. So, I'm going to be completely vulnerable. They hear and say that that I will collect from all of our grant recipients, um, once we have a, you
know, an idea of when we're going to do this. I think we're going to talk about that in a moment. Uh, what their headcount would be for an event. Uh where we picked off last time was that we were going to look at one of the local coffee shops that we uh and you know and I have visited at and other people have visited uh to see if they
would be willing to host an event because there's a park outside right across the street so we could do something outdoors. Um so Jaime I'll let you talk a little bit because I know you you spoke to the owner of that establishment and then we can have a little bit of a chat. So Haimey take it away.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, during my conversation with the owner, this is um a coffee shop located on Sandler Square. They have um inside space probably fits about I'll say 20 people or so, but they have outside seating, too, if we do it in the summer. Um and again, it's right across
the street from Sandler Square, so we could do it there. Um they offer up the space. Right now, they're closed at 6:00, but they have a permit to be open till 10:00, so we could do it after in in the evening. um if we want to utilize the entire space. Um there'll be more details if we decide to go this route as
to whether they're going to close later in the summer so we could figure out the time. Uh but they're open to us utilizing the space. There will be no fee for the space. The only thing would be whatever we consume or the snacks or whatever we order from them um for food. That would be the only cost affiliated
with that. I know that was one of our uh needs based on what was left and available for us to use. So, um, so yeah, ready to go. Just waiting for us to get back to them if that's going to be the case and work on details as far
as time and date. I think additionally, we probably would have to get a permit for the park, if we're going to do something outdoors. Um, I think if we think about we we were having some discussion before the meeting started,
uh, potentially doing this, but we were thinking maybe July, end of June, July or later. Um perhaps we could look at some dates or we can reach out to I don't know. I'm going to volunteer you Debbie. Maybe we could reach out to um the mayor's admin and see what his
availability is. That might be a good starting point. Um because we would obviously like to have them. I mean I think it would be a good idea to do it like after six like on like a weekday because then it's like people especially in the summer weekends are there's so many there's so few weekends that everybody has and if we were to maybe do
it on a Tuesday or a Monday, you know, um at six o'clock that it still would be nice enough outside that people would do it. We wouldn't melt. Um and I think obviously with the administrative miles that we have left, we could we could definitely u give them some business and purchase some snacks and things. And if
we can get it simple program with the mayor, we invite these individuals. We have a certificate presentation. Certificates are easy enough to get printed. Um I have presentation folders, we can get them on Amazon. Um and then we could um and then the
press I think would be the next thing we would have to look at. But I'm sure after we think Patrick's schedule, the mayor schedule, excuse me, is the first priority. I I I personally think like after 4th of July would probably be ideal like a Monday or a Tuesday. I don't know. What
does the council think in terms of like what days people might be hanging around and be willing to come out >> and then that gives a majority of our grant recipients uh were schools, right? So they would be out of the school year
and they'll have some time to decompress after this extended school year thanks to mother nature. So um uh so I think that if we could look at and say Debbie post post see what his availability is and then when we have some dates then I'll send out a form to the grant recipients with the
date options maybe if we get like two or three from him. Um and then haime it seemed like there was a pretty open schedule right with them at >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> It's located on Sandler Square and it's right near Shirley A. It's on Sandlers.
It's uh Dehon Street, I think. Uh the address is 7 Dehon Street. Name is Choco Lafe. >> Okay. Thank you. >> It's delicious. >> So it is accessible by the river uh beach uh tea stop. Um and like I said,
it's it's kind of price accessibility is the other, you know, issue because we were looking and exploring um other uh possibilities. Um and one of them that was brought up at the last meeting was Amaya Amaya because that is right at the beach and that also has um public
parking lots over there. So it all depends on how much um how many people we were planning for. Um like you said, Chuck Latte has a limited amount, you know, 20 people. The park itself could probably
have uh 20, you know, 25 to 30, you know, comfortable. They have had other, you know, events there. So, it all depends on the the numbers that we're looking um to accom accommodate um and where those people are coming from.
>> The other option u I'm getting some messages from Steve. Hi, Steve. um is potentially the American Legion across the street. So, he'll get me some info on that and we can we can look at those. Uh but I think >> there's parking. Um I think it's less is it less tea acceptable accessible?
>> No. Right. >> They're probably going to drive. There's bus accessibility. I just want to make sure that we're, you know, for people that might Yeah, there's bus accessibility. Um okay. So, we have two options there. Uh because either way, Jaime, if we say we were to go to say the American Legion, we could still have
um the cafe cater. >> Yeah, that will be an option, too. >> That would be an op because I Yeah, I think we're going to I think we we're agreeing that we're going to utilize them because they've been they've been so open to that. Plus, their coffee is delicious. Um the the other thing is as
a cultural committee we want to kind of sample some of the wares of revere and showcase some of those at our you know events. We do endorse that um as do the farmers markets and other cultural events that are here uh to utilize the
merchants that are in the area. >> All right. So I think for next steps um thank you. Thank you for taking the volunte. Thank you. As you can see, like I I barely had time to, you know, walk in. I'm like, I definitely need definitely
need the help. Um, so that was the agenda for today. Um, I think we were we were discussing meetings prior to. So, I think Lark, you said you're going away from what date to what date? >> 15th of May. >> So, maybe Debbie, we could look at if
there's another date in May >> post when she when Yes. Um Lark, you had to put your microphone on. I think you were >> there. Uh yes, I'll I'll be back. Um
anywhere between May 15th and 17th somewhere around there. I'll be back. >> Perfect. So Debbie, maybe we'll look at that and see and we can vet that through email about moving the date uh to accommodate us meeting especially like like Joe said at the beginning prior to
the cameras going on. If we have an event coming up, we probably do need a little bit of time to plan that. >> Um, other than that, I mean, we I don't think we're quite ready for the grant cycle yet, but I mean, I can't believe we're going to be doing this again. Like, it's already Greg's For those of you the kids, Greg's nodding because I'm
sure we feeling it. Greg's feeling it. Um, that we we do have um, we have to do this all over again. But, you know what? I'm I'm really excited this year because I think that we our training rails are off now. we are we are flying down the road with with this and I truly hope
that we go up even more with our application count and that we have a bigger outreach and that we can see some really creative and exciting projects and I think the key um I think something that we can do better we did a good job of it but I always like to look at
something is providing more resources and opportunities for individuals to write better proposals so we'll definitely be looking at those resources Greg as they come out and how we can I think some councils also I think they host like grant writing sessions and that type of thing. So maybe that's
something that we think about for one of our summer meetings prior to postevent prior to the applications opening up us providing some whether it's a live session here or other resources that we'd look at that for maybe the August meeting prior to us
because remember we get we we just get to push everything out. We don't really have to make any decisions or anything at that point. So, I think providing those resources will be helpful. Um, so that some of the things that were non-starters for us won't be an issue,
like the budget not being detailed enough or not having the appropriate documentation. Um, grant writing is hard. It's not easy. And the co the council makes so many great resources available for people to utilize, but let's just make sure everyone knows where to find them.
>> Uh, the other thing is probably a followup on outreach. We did have a lot of good ideas um this year and we want to follow through with them uh this grant cycle um basically we said we'd like to still get some high school kids
involved in some way shape or form and I'm not going to drop that was brought up uh we'd like to do that uh tableabling was another issue uh which places we can table um farmers markets uh the sand castle contest uh in front
of Amaya when they have little, you know, cultural days, uh, there just little kind of tableabling things. So, we had the little flyer out and they said, "Would you like to do it? Do you have any ideas? Um, the deadline is coming up x amount of time." So, have a
little bit more tableabling, kind of continue to to um have outreach in the community um and follow up on some of the great ideas that we had this cycle. >> All right.
other business >> farmers markets uh start up on the 18th of April in front of Amaya. I bring that up because uh that Amaya area that's when it opens up. They have uh new bands that are playing there, high school bands, other bands. Um they have an
October cultural fest there. So that is one of the new cultural outlets that's springing up in uh Revier. If you did not catch it last year, you can catch it this year. It's there also kind of something to watch. Um and hopefully we
can be a part of that. Absolutely. All right. You all know I I count to three in my head. Greg, on behalf of the River Cultural Council, thank you so much for joining us today virtually. We're looking forward to more resources and uh those next steps with those um
connection opportunities. We look forward to that. Um if there is no other business, motion to Can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Got to use the microphone. Can I get a second? >> Can I get a second?
>> Second. All in favor? >> I >> I >> Good night everyone. Meeting adjourned at 6:38. Bye Greg.