City of Salem
Youth Commission
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
6:00 pm
In Attendance: Peter Baglioni, Judi Goldenberg, Mary Margaret Fanning, James Labbe, Deb Amaral, Jose Avila, Jerry Curley, Tom Watkins
Public Attendance: Mike Sosnowski
Introduction
The group introduced themselves to new member Jose Avila of the Salem Juvenile Court. (Also, later in the evening, the group was introduced to Jerry Curley of the Salem Department of Social Services.) The meeting minutes from the group’s meeting on March 20, 2007 were reviewed and approved.
Voting of Officers
The group held formal votes and elected Deb Amaral as Chair of the Youth Commission and Mary Margaret Fanning as Vice Chair of the Youth Commission. Tom will continue in his role as the Commission’s Secretary.
Website
The group discussed the idea of having a webpage dedicated to the Youth Commission via the City of Salem’s official website, www.salem.com. It was discussed that this would be a good place to put the master calendar of youth events and programs that the group is currently working on. Tom said that he will work on creating a webpage for the group and linking the calendar once it is complete.
Mission Statement
The group reviewed a mission statement that was emailed to Tom from Ann Marie Tanzella, courtesy of James Lister. After review, the following version of the mission statement was formally approved by the group:
The Salem Youth Commission aims to coordinate and enrich the services and opportunities available to Salem Youth through community education, service coordination and advocacy.
Calendar
Deb believed it to be a good idea to have all session dates, league start and sign up dates as well as any big events provided on the master calendar that the group is working to create. Mary stated that it would be helpful to have individual links from the Youth Commission webpage to the online calendars of local youth organizations, such as the YMCA, schools, etc. Mike Sosnowski commented that he would like to see the events of the School Music Program also available on the calendar. It was agreed upon that the group would email Deb all session dates, league start up dates and special events from their respective organizations.
Outreach to New Members
Peter believed it would be beneficial to have a representative from the Schools present at future meetings of the Youth Commission. Peter said he would reach out to Mary Ann Manning, Principal of the Collins Middle School, to ask about having two student representatives from the Middle School. Tom said he would follow up with Principal Dave Angeramo and Diane McGrane of the High School to find out about two student representatives from the High School. Mike Sosnowski thought it would also be a good idea to have a representative present at these meetings from the Boy and Girl Scouts. Deb thought Steve Dibble would be a good representative on behalf of the scouts.
Summer Parks Program
Mike asked if the Youth Commission would be advocating to renew the Park Counselors Summer Program to the Park & Recreation Commission. Peter had stated that not all parks need park instructors but 5 or 6 probably do. Deb had stated that Mary Jane and Cabot Farm Park currently have Park Instructors (Cabot Farm Park Instructors are funded through a private effort from neighbors). Mike and other Commission members agreed that the cost of a Park Instructor is estimated at $2,000.
Deb had mentioned that Forest River Park does not have a Park Instructor but does have a lot of supervision at the Pool. She thought it a good idea to have food service programs implemented at parks such as Forest River and Mary Jane and asked what other parks may be a good fit for this. Peter said he could make an argument for park instructors at many different parks but stated that the issue is the actual need for them and the funding for them. James concurred that money is always an issue. Peter also stated that there is a large “trust” factor with kids – the City needs a place for these kids to go at least one night a week.
Mary inquired as to whether or not businesses may be able to provide money to fund the Park Instructors. Mike also wanted to ask the Mayor if such a program could be worked out as a Payment/Service In-Lieu of Tax (PILOT/SILOT) agreement, or if there was grant funding available for such a program. Peter would also like to get Doug Bollen’s idea of revamping the Park Instructor summer program. Deb made a motion to include this issue for further discussion on the agenda for next month’s meeting.
Child Safety Day
Deb stated that Ellen Talkowsky is researching a grant which would help out with Child Safety Day and that she would like to tie this event in to the City’s annual Heritage Days Event. Deb would like to have Ellen attend the Youth Commission’s next meeting to discuss this in more detail with the group.
Future Meetings
The group agreed to continue meeting on the third Tuesday of every month but decided to move the start time of their meeting from 6:00 pm to 5:30 pm. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 15th, at 5:30 pm in the 3rd Floor Conference Room of 120 Washington Street.
The Meeting adjourned at 7:15 pm
Meeting minutes recorded by Tom Watkins
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