01/23/2020 Sister Cities Advisory Board Meeting Minutes January 23, 2020
City of Clearwater
Main Library- Council Chambers
100 N. Osceola Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33755
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Meeting Minutes
Thursday, January 23, 2020
4:00 PM
Main Library - Council Chambers
Sister Cities Advisory Board
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City of Clearwater
Sister Cities Advisory Board Meeting Minutes January 23, 2020
Roll Call
Present 6 - Chair Michael Ballard, Vice Chair Pamela Gene Benton, Board
Member Candace Hays, Board Member Hoyt Hamilton, Board
Member Sallie Parks, and Board Member Lucas Geraldi-Smith
Also Present— Christopher Hubbard — Cultural Affairs Coordinator, Patricia O.
Sullivan - Board Reporter
1. Call To Order
The Chair called the meeting to order at 4:15 p.m. at the Main Library.
To provide continuity for research, items are in agenda order although not necessarily
discussed in that order.
2. Approval of Minutes
2.1 Approve the November 7, 2019 Sister Cities Advisory Board meeting minutes.
Member Parks moved to approve minutes of the November 7, 2019
Sister Cities Advisory Board Special meeting as submitted in written
summation. The motion was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
3. Citizens to be Heard Regarding Items Not on the Agenda: None.
4. New Business Items
4.1 Review the 2020 Sister Cities Cultural Exchange student roster.
Cultural Affairs Coordinator Christopher Hubbard said of the many
qualified applicants interviewed for the 2020 Sister Cities Cultural Exchange
visit to Nagano, the committee chose 4 students to participate.
4.2 Discuss potential program expansion for Nagano and Bourges Sister Cities programs.
City staff is seeking discussion on ways to expand program offerings for the
City's Sister Cities program partnerships with Nagano, Japan and Bourges,
France.
Mr. Hubbard said recommendations included educational, cultural, fine arts,
music, culinary arts, and sustainability programming. The Honorary French
Consul visited City offices and reported residents grew a large amount of
produce in Bourges'city center on a series of island gardens in the canals.
Support was expressed for expanded programming with comments that
chefs teaching at PTEC (Pinellas Technical College) and the Dunedin
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City of Clearwater
Sister Cities Advisory Board Meeting Minutes January 23, 2020
Cultural Center would welcome opportunities to showcase their skills. It
was suggested that students could intern at Monin and other French
companies and travel to Bourges to improve their French language skills.
Mr. Hubbard said Monin had expressed interest in representing the local
business community on the Sister Cities Board.
4.3 Election of Officers
Member Hamilton moved to reappoint Michael Ballard as Chair and
Pam Benton as Vice Chair. The motion was duly seconded and carried
unanimously.
5. Old Business Items
5.1 Review an update on the repeal of Sister Cities relationships with Kalamaria, Greece and
Wyong, NSW, Australia.
On November 7, 2019, the Sister Cities Advisory Board unanimously
voted to repeal the City's inactive Sister Cities relationships with Kalamaria,
Greece and Wyong, NSW, Australia. City staff sent notice to each city
informing them of the City of Clearwater's intent to repeal the relationship.
Mr. Hubbard said the City had no response to its initiation of the process
to repeal these Sister Cities relationships.
5.2 Review a report of the High School Exchange from Nagano for December 6-14, 2019.
Mr. Hubbard said High School exchange students from Nagano had a nice,
well organized visit which focused on education and did not include time at
Disney World. He requested members to encourage all interested home stay
families to complete applications as staff had trouble finding home stay
families for some students.
6. Director's Report
6.1 Clearwater Sister Cities Inc. President's report
Board Member/CSCI President Hays said CSCI (Clearwater Sister Cities,
Inc.) had participated in the Festival of Trees. She said CSCI's annual
membership social was scheduled for January 26, 2020. She said
interviews of 31 applicants for this year's Young Ambassador trip begin
tomorrow. She said CSCI was excited about new opportunities with the new
Sister Cities relationship with Bourges. She suggested the Young
Ambassadors and High School Cultural Exchange alternate their annual
trips to Japan and France so that one group travels to each country each year.
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City of Clearwater
Sister Cities Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes January 23, 2020
It was suggested CSCI may attract new members interested in France.
Mr. Hubbard said a fine arts appraiser was assessing the value of City
artifacts from Japan for insurance before they are moved to the Clearwater
Historical Society Museum and Cultural Center. Staff will provide
information re donations to Nagano City following Typhoon Hagibis.
As the City had received no requests from Nagano for its annual Lantern
Festival, it was indicated this year's festival may have been cancelled.
7. Board Members to be Heard
Member Parks suggested opening student orientation sessions to
residents interested in Japanese culture.
To familiarize Clearwater residents with Sister Cities programs, Member
Benton recommended scheduling presentations by teachers returning from
Japan and inviting CSCI members and the public to attend.
8. Adjourn
Attest:
The meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.
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Chair - Sister Cities Advisory Board
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City of Clearwater