Greenfield Parks & Recreation Committee
Meeting Minutes
9/17/08
7:00 p.m.
Present were:
Conrad Dumas-Chairman
Molly Anfuso
Neal Brown
Lee LeBlanc
Aaron Kullgren
Jarvis Adams
Melissa Champagne
Lisa Hall
Absent were:
Dorene Adams
MaryAnn Grant
David Buchanan
Laurie Weeks
Meeting was called to order at 7:11 p.m.
The full group currently on the committee as reported to Conrad is:
Conrad Dumas
Molly Anfuso
Neal Brown
Lee LeBlanc
Laurie Weeks
Dorene Adams
MaryAnn Grant
Lisa Hall
Melissa Champagne
Aaron Kullgren
We would like to establish a schedule where we can commit and get here on time and end on time. Conrad would like Molly to take the minutes and then we can finalize at the end of the meetings so that the minutes can be posted right away.
As a result of a meeting between Parks & Recreation director, BOS, and other community members, Conrad stepped forward to take a volunteer roll for a new Parks and Recreation Committee. He met with the BOS last week and was appointed chairman of the committee. He has strong feelings of support for the Recreation Dept., which provides the community with spirit and other things that other depts. cannot give. He was one of the initial BOS that was involved in the initial hiring of the P & R Director.
One of the tasks of the committee is to provide insight as to the job description of the director. The idea is to review the description a provide community insight as to what the community members want to see.
Conrad asked for thoughts on why people are here: Neal thought the main function of the committee was involving a limited task. Organization of the dept and if it seemed sensible to continue, then going forth.
Melissa sees that improvement of the department can be helpful. She thinks that a mission statement is a good idea with 9/17/2008 9:35 PMa focus on why we are really here.
Lee LeBlanc would like to see Park and Recreation separated. She mentioned the Oak Park Committee is now doing Blue B Que and that’s it.
Aaron K mentioned that Oak Park’s function is to raise capital funding for the development of Oak Park. The Parks & Recreation’s job is to maintain the park.
Conrad indicated that he would like everyone to have an open mind on having open discussions about the dept.
Mowing is taken care of by Ground Keeper through the bidding process.
Neal asked if the lifetime of the committee of Oak Park is now gone, or is there still a need.
Jarvis indicated that the charter that was set up was for development of capitol items.
Oak Park Committee is looking for new members and they report to the BOS. Lisa stated that she is now on the committee and would like to get things going again. Raising money for playground is now on the burner. People asked at the blue -b-que where the money is going. Conrad asked if the money that was made at the Oak Park Blue-B-Que was going to be for playground. Lisa is not sure.
Conrad asked if the BOS is working separately with reference to the Parks and Recreation Director job description. Aaron said BOS would really like this committee to be the voice of the town and what they would like to see. It is changing, as is the population of Greenfield. Aaron does not want to bias anyone into the job description. This committee, in his vision, is to see what the committee can come up with.
Conrad indicated that meeting is a challenge. He would like to schedule 2 meetings out.
Next meeting discussion:
Neal asked how frequent we should be meeting. Conrad thought we should meet as least two times in the next month. Conrad thought that if we had two meetings to get organized and start digging in would allow us to report to the BOS.
Next two meetings decided:
Tuesday, September 23rd and Tuesday, October 7th. 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at the Town Offices.
Conrad handed out appointment paperwork.
Aaron recommended that anyone who has other people that would be interested in joining this committee should be invited.
Conrad handed out the job description for the Parks & Recreation Director.
Aaron made a suggestion that we come up with a mission first. Conrad indicated that we are an extension of the BOS, to be a bridge between the dept. and the BOS. Lisa asked what is expected of this committee.
Aaron indicated his vision for the committee is:
Job description
On-going matter that requires attention (Park vs Rec) Activities
Once beyond job description, this committee becomes a support group for the dept that is an extension of it.
Neal’s idea:
To be an advisory committee with ideas of what the town wants.
Conrad also sees this as an advisory.
Advise, support, communication, customer satisfaction were words that were talked about.
Molly was asked what her thoughts were.
Aaron asked the question, what should the director be doing? Lisa indicated that she liked that idea of brainstorming on what the Greenfield Director should be doing.
She also asked if it would be helpful to get other town job descriptions. She is wondering how other towns do things. Copies of programming and activities from other towns might be helpful. Aaron stated that the town already has copies of the job descriptions that they can give the committee.
Conrad would like everyone to jot down ideas about a mission and ideas about the job description of the director.
Lisa asked about Parks & Recreation and the duties. She was wondering how this position got into grounds keeping, etc. Lisa said that many people think that all Molly does is programming. She said that they don’t realize everything that she does.
Neal motioned to accept the minutes as written. All is favor. Minutes accepted as read.
Meeting adjourned at 8:16 p.m.
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