Cultural Affairs Committee
12-15-11
5:00PM
Mayor’s Office
Those in attendance- Osvaldo Rosado, Delois Lindsey, William Battle, Ryan J Bingham, Tim Waldron, Brian Mattiello, Sander Stotland, Michael Maniago, Maria Gonzalez, Joanne Creedon, Delores Ramirez
Osvaldo Rosado opened the meeting at 5:08PM
The group immediately started discussing how the Action Item Table was going to be used to keep track of the various projects that the committee has started. Examples of action areas discussed were “School Aged” projects such as the need to inform students and parents about the value of education and college as well as the process to receive financial aid awards and grants. “Workplace” projects surrounding members of our working community, and “Community Wide” projects that include census data collection and analysis, were two other action areas that area covered by the new Action Item Table.
There was much discussion on the Financial Aid and College topic. Members of the committee felt it was important to get more information from our schools on programs that focus on Financial Aid. It was stated that it is critically important to get the parents involved.
Joanne Creedon discussed the Financial Aid Night at the Torrington High School, mentioning that their needs to be more parents present. She said there were as few as 20-30 families.
Bill Battle volunteered to gather data from Sallie Mae on Financial Aid.
It was discussed that the Cultural Affairs Committee should find ways to partner with existing events and programs to help get more people to attend and help make them more successful.
Sander Stotland said that he would help organize events for Back to School using his connections with the Torrington Titans.
The next topic discussed was dates and times of meetings. It was decided that the meetings will be held on the 2nd Monday at 5pm starting in March.
There was discussion of getting involved in a Martin Luther King day event, possibly at Torrington High School.
Workplace action items discussed were possibly doing a survey amongst local businesses, Tim Waldron was going to collect information from the NW Chamber of Commerce on Minority owned businesses.
There was a brief discussion of bringing back a Heritage Day Celebration.
Meeting was adjourned at 6:10 PM
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