 So, so welcome everybody here. I am going to pull up the agenda right now. Thank you, Matt. Okay. Okay. First of all, they're going through the procedure at the meat at the beginning. Matt Cain is on for notes correct minutes. I first would like to approve the minutes from. March. April minutes. Approve the April minutes. Are there any questions about the April minutes. Clarifications. That was Sanjay was the only one that was not here for that one. Correct. He can vote anyway, though. Yes. I moved to accept the minutes of our April meeting. Excellent. Moved and seconded. Moving into program reports for, for May. We have to vote for going to move. Moving seconded vote, all in favor. Moving into program reports. The three things that we have put on the agenda here are you sports aquatics and fine time. End of season expanding programming basically this. This was introduced at the beginning of the month because we were moving into. We're winding down for the end of the season here. We're looking at. We're looking at. Is in sort of an exchange and this moves into the aquatics also we have. Picked up. Right now we're looking at. At acquiring the. The recreation swimming program. Which is one of the biggest. Acquisition since we last met. We've been working on the tritons group. We've picked up the recreation program. We're offering a competitive. Program of. Of youth and up to high school age. They're two different levels where we're offering a program that. Has. Swimmers from. From some of them are, are new to the program, but we have about 20 pro 20 swimmers that are right now. Signed up for recreational swimming under our aquatics program. And we're hoping that it's the beginning of a long. Relationship. Their, their program goals are very much similar to ours in terms of getting people active and getting people to. Do so without the. Without the pressures of some of the things I think there was some frustration from the swimmers and I think certainly. Frustrations from the, from the instructors about, about what the, the. The process was with the, with that, with the private program that was also cohabitating the pool here. We've managed to work a schedule out and we've managed to work a. We've managed to get the fee structure out and we've managed to work. Instructive basically bringing the instructors on to the rec program. So. In the long time, in the long-term goals of ours of. Providing a larger, more robust, more, more. Thoughtfully active feeder program. This, this is, this fits into some of the things that we're looking at doing. It is every much a. Sort of a trial basis right now, much like. Well, much like the cross has been for us this year and also Sanchez with baseball. You know, we are, we're exploring the ability to turn recreation into a, not just providing program that has these sports, but also turn it into a wholesale feeder program for the, for the high schools and for the region. So, you know, we're hoping that obviously that all these programs that are out for us, we are in the process of looking at how we're providing the services and how the, how we can connect in with the high school and the high school programs also, but that is a major part of where we are right now. Questions on youth sports and moving into the aquatics. So, so just so I understand. So that's part of the Triton's program and they're going to continue managing the more competitive. They have splintered off the tritons. Essentially, this is like soccer. If you're familiar with youth soccer. The tritons ran as a, as a private group. The difference is they didn't run registrations through us, but the tritons have basically in a nutshell had two wings. They had a group that was, that was encouraged and moved forward and the, and the national training programs and, and basically upper end. Yeah. So they're keeping that. They're keeping that. That is still passing off. So they're going to train somewhere else. And this is, they're still the tritons still have. We still work with the tritons in terms of space, not work with them. Yeah. Try and still use the same space that we work with. And they have a chance now to, in their own interest, they have a chance to do aggressive development the way that they feel that they, that they can. The other group, the recreational swimming part that, the part that. The part that splintered off from them was looking for a home. And because their values, because their direction, because their interests align with ours. They ask us if we get interested and we, and we are right now trying to make that work for the spring, fall. I mean, for the spring, summer seasons, that's where we are right now. We would like to be able to extend it into the fall, winter, also Sarah. As there been, or is there likely to be any conflict in. Just managing access to the pool. And if there is, is it the case that direct programs have priority over private programs? It was, we explored the, all of those overlaps in terms of, we didn't want to, we didn't want to pull kids out of our program. We didn't want to, either both in swimming and also one of the most important things that we established was that they're not, they're not seeking ownership of, of participants. If we have kids that want to end up playing field hockey, or if we have kids that want to end up playing soccer, if we want to have kids, it's not a year long commitment for kids to, to not do other right programming in terms of scheduling. It does not conflict with, with ours. It is, when I say it's situated under our aquatics, Katie Brown right now is the coordinator that it, that it, that it, that it is basically the supervisor of it. It is nestled underneath our aquatics program. And so it's, it has to go through scheduling with us. They aren't an independent program inside of our program. That is, that's, that's elbowing for room inside of our programming. I think that, you know, certainly in the first week or two of our operating, it's, but we haven't run into any head to head conflicts, but. We're talking about the same thing. In terms of scheduling, but yeah, but about the tritons that are continuing as tritons. No, they've, they've left, they, the individual swimmers are not with the tritons anymore. And we're not using, we're not, we're not using the tritons anymore. And in terms of space in the, in the pool, we have our own space, but are the tritons using the middle school pool? Or do they? Yes, they are. And is there any conflict about time for that? Okay. No. Thank you. Not a problem. Sanjay. Thanks, Ray. This is partly about swimming, but partly about youth sports more generally. And I think that's one of the things that I want, I want us to be kind of aware of as an organization. One thing that I've detected in my now, like eight months as president of Amherst baseball is that there is a segment of the population parents who use the word rec sports as a derogatory term. And you're I'm sure aware of this from your life in sports and basketball. And. I think your vocabulary of feeder programs. Is not a matter of deciding to use the word. Or to use your language to build up your own space. And exactly what we want to be doing. But this doesn't exactly sound like that. That this sounds like the tritons. Basically, cut a bunch of kids. And now, and this is, these are my words. These are not Ray or it's words from recording. I know, Sanjewar. These words not raise words. But that's what it, it sounds like to me or alternatively, and maybe more charitably, expensive and higher intensity version of youth swimming that the tritons are often. It sounds to me, oh go ahead you had more. I know that that was point one but go ahead I'm all for conversation, interrupt me and talk. It sounds to me and I probably have several conversations with you know with our program or with our swimming instructors that will get into you know a personal conversation about about the whole you know what went on with their split. I specifically told them I don't need to know those in details right now. My sense is that it's the second part of that that there are people who are frustrated. There was a mutual sort of parting of ways but there are people who are frustrated inside that program and they sought something else and so in terms of this merger because our ideals are similar and because it does fit our long-term perspective. I think that it's I think that our being a landing spot there is important. The feeder program part of it at the beginning of this. I want you know recording here and I think many of my conversations about long-term goals for our sports programs that feeder program is a major piece of it. I know that there is that Wreck has sort of a little bit of a bite in terms of the way people say yeah well there is competitive sports and then there's Wreck sports. Wreck sports is where you don't get cut and Wreck sports is where you just go and have fun and you don't care about landing and that's not that's not what we're thinking about here. We're thinking about finding a way to as a service to the town and to the schools and everything else to build and create a similar model across sports that gives people a chance to be at their best when the lights come on. In our second year one of the goals that we've already started to talk about that Jose and I have talked about Jose Allen and I have talked about is basically starting to look at ways to not just offer programming but to also think about doing things like building an academic model for students about doing things like mental health mental health programs inside that we start introducing kids to ideas of diet and mental health issues that at younger ages might help them become better athletes in the future building a program that doesn't just collect money and registration and put them in jerseys but also starts looking at what it means to be a competitive athlete. Our vision for the program is to eventually be more than just the pejorative Wreck sports is to be something that has people thinking I can get something out of this that is productive and wholesale as opposed to just being consumers. Thanks and so this the second comment I wanted to make is more related to finances and again just my opinion but if we have a private youth sports organization and again I'm not speaking specifically about the Amherst Tritons I'm speaking generally about youth sports even though it's swimming that has brought this to the table if we have a youth sports organization that is not meeting the needs of all members of the community and is perhaps specifically not meeting the needs of members of the community with fewer financial resources or less and I'll put this in air quotes commitment right then I would argue that Amherst Wreck and the town should impose a greater financial burden on that organization and the families and participants that have remained with it you know to maybe be more quantitative the Tritons should cover the costs of the Wreck program that you are now running for them and again I'm using the Tritons only as an example because that's the subject sport on the table right now but I mean that comment with regard to all youth sports and again that's just my personal view of the situation where does that in conversation here where does that align with baseball in particular we can we can have that offline also but how does that how does that overlap with the baseball discussion well so my I'll be very brief because I don't want to get too parochial here my answer to that would be that the baseball program that we're running well did not make cuts and is welcoming with full financial aid supported by the private organization is welcoming any child in the age eligible range that wants to participate in this sport I mean we're we're in the process this is going to be does this come up here maybe it does for me it does we're talking about doing some registry we're taking over registration which will have us involved with facilities and doing field registrations but that doesn't take care of the pools that that we we're intentionally not assuming the responsibility of scheduling the indoor facilities and scheduling is a major part of that picking up the cost that I think you're referring to their center yeah I think yeah I know whatever pool whatever pool time costs yeah yeah I think maybe more concisely and broadly my my we're an advisory commission right so my advice is that Amherst rec should not be taking on an additional financial burden thereby freeing a private non-profit but private organization from a financial burden that they would otherwise be carrying I think maybe that's the way I should be expressing I hear you that's that's an angle that I haven't it's been a it's been a really quick process to get this started because the season was right upon us so that actually is an angle I hadn't really been thinking about and I will take that under advisement as we move forward I might I don't I don't know if I agree with that I mean if it's just decided you know what we're not we're only going to offer the competitive the most competitive that's what we're going to do goodbye everybody else we might start you know increase the the swim program under the rec umbrella because we want to serve those kids and we wouldn't somehow feel it was would we that it was the Triton's responsibility to I think I think the question is uh was it are the Tritons making were the Tritons losing money on that program and is that the reason they gave it away that's not clear but that's a possibility but that's not necessarily the reason how how I think that when I say a splintering and the Triton's it's not my business I don't I don't purport to to know I don't I know a very limited angle in terms of I've talked more to consumers about it than I have about our own people who are coming over to us now from them but uh but you know their mission I think they had a an identity moment a moment where they had to figure out what they were trying to do what their mission was how they're going to serve that I don't know that they're you know when when I say that that Sanchez point I would like to uh sort of follow up with that I I uh I don't know what the nature of the Triton's relationship with town is and should be and if and if they if they owe something to us I'm not that hasn't even been a part of my conversation uh in finding a way to to to uh to to provide what I think we should be able to provide here for the people who are not satisfied with this private organization um I think that I I think that if it turns out that that there's something that we should be doing more I think I would be interested in doing that I figured youth sports would be the biggest part of that of that uh of that program report piece because of the swimming the rec swimming program um are there any other questions about that I you certainly can reach out to me if you have any uh or or observations that you would like to share um the rest of the sports programs right now particularly lacrosse is the one that we have had the most uh numbers in across boys and girls I am coaching girls uh third and fourth grade now officially um which is hadn't which is kind of taking a bunch of my time out of this schedule I I've been waiting in the wings this whole time and I'm happy to be doing it because it's a whole lot of fun um and I'm joking with Jose that I that he's my boss now because I he hired me as a coach um I in third and fourth grade we I think I think the it's been pretty positive we had I think I mentioned to the last commission meeting that we had UMass's uh women's program that was uh stepping in to coach well they're really really good and they got caught in there in their postseason run and they had to step back so I was more than happy to step in and coach a little bit we have two games on our belt we're wrapping that up the boys are coming towards their conclusion here at the end of their school year also um many might have been going let me ask Sanjay if there are any updates on baseball yeah very quickly we had we continue to have 13 Amherst public school students participating 11 of those are at the middle school we have one sixth grader and one ninth grader um because of age sort of age bands not agreeing with school age bands um and then we have one Hadley child and one uh Northampton child and uh they're having a great season they're three and one or four four and one I think um and all indications are that it's a smashing success and that rumors of baseball's demise have been greatly exaggerated the last question on sports I need to ask in Sanjay you'll be I will be speaking to you directly about this but anybody that has any sense of of advice or direction and this be thinking about it for us because this is another thing that Jose has been bringing to my attention is what should the relationship be with between our rec department and middle school age kids kids at the regional medals at the middle school um should their relationship be with us or should we be pushing should we be be pushing them and pushing the school department into into assuming those for the school district for the regional school district that's been sort of an existential question that we at the end of the season we've been looking at Sanjay and baseball are right in the middle of it our boys lacrosse program which is in middle which are middle schoolers are also right in the middle of that so um the question is whether or not we should be we should be in our feeder in our looks to do feeder programs should we be doing that work for the middle schools if they have that connection to that but to the to the regional school already um like I like having more programs but again if it's if it's assuming a cost and we can't provide the same services that they would be able to get under the schools then the question is should we be beefing up our ability to give middle school baseball more or should we be trying to encourage the school district the school department to pick that up and and make that theirs Karen go in um I kind of feel like part of our mission is to catch everyone who's falling through the other cracks I don't know if that's true or not but I feel like might mean this all might mean that we need to communicate better with the programs themselves maybe with the families and find out where there are gaps um and be there for them because if we end up being a recreation department that's excluding kids even without knowing it then we're not really doing our job I want more I also don't want to end up being well wreck it's it's wreck can take care of that because we don't want sure I want as many opportunities to to um educate and provide opportunities I want as many of those opportunities I can I also don't want to spend all of our resources uh in a thousand different directions if we don't have to is is there some communication piece here though that we're missing with the organizations with the organizations meaning the the the high school teams as theaters all the other programs yeah um I think I think we should be we should be more connected with those programs certainly um and and that's I think probably step one of of our attempts to build is like I don't know what to call it our feeder program capital F capital P of building a wreck department feeder program I think that's number one is to involve and and bring in those high school programs and the and the high school athletic department athletic director and the athletic staff over there I think that's one of the main things that we have to do in terms of finding need Sanjay I think frisbee has always worked really well in that way so frisbee and maybe especially volleyball I think volleyball has done a really nice job also and sort of building a program underneath that we've done a bunch of those two programs have both they've done clinics through us they've done they've they've done registration for programs through us and and their coaches have worked closely with our with our with our staff and and a bunch of different ways I think those are the frisbee is a I think a fair model for us I so I do think you're right Carolyn and Ray that that the conversation has to happen with the public schools athletic director and the principals and the superintendent right because I think the public schools need to need to be more clear about what their intentions are regarding middle school athletics it it I think it seems very haphazard at this point and again I'm not speaking solely about I mean I'm interested in baseball right but it's not just baseball it's Nordic skiing it's even volleyball it's soccer you know there are many sports for which the um the treatments seems haphazard from looking I'm looking at the spring registration information you know and at the schools and they offer girls lacrosse starting at grade seven but boys only at grade nine you know boys same thing for tennis girls tennis starts in grade seven so I can I can say I don't know what it is for tennis but for lacrosse I know that they were that we originally were with we had the idea of offering girls at seventh grade uh with us but the high school because of numbers the high school had to pull all seventh and eighth graders up to the high school to play jv to feel the jv team so so in terms of nope that's the reason why they don't offer seventh eighth grade girls lacrosse so that might be different next year I mean it's like they'll take they'll take it if they want need it but at some point my little army of fourth graders are going to be seventh graders and and they'll be they will be robust they will be they will be numerous ready to go ready to go yeah I think I think the middle school sports programs is very much not really that much of a focus like there's certain things that they do and then there's other things they don't and it's just based on what they need and what coaches they have that have stepped up to that um and I don't know that they put a whole lot of effort into filling the slate of middle school sports no that's true Matt and and again my examples come from my own experience right but I can say that you know you can go down the list and we just did go down yeah part of the list and it's just it's just random it's it's random and in fact in in in a sport with which I'm familiar an offer was made to the school district to provide a roster and coaching if the schools would support a middle school team in that sport and the answer was no yeah so again to to put aside my parochial interests for a moment I know ray you're you use the word more that is the critical word right we want we want as a town as a school district as a rec department to providing to be providing more opportunities for athletic participation um the thing that I would hope we could do is if some sports wind up under the public schools and some wind up under rec is that rec can try to provide an equivalent access right so from my experience effectively running a middle school program this year right the things that we as a private organization cannot provide our timing and transportation we cannot what we're hearing with you know we cannot offer practices immediately after school because we rely on volunteer coaches and we cannot provide transportation or we choose not to make the substantial financial investment in providing transportation right and that's what the schools have to do and in fact the schools have you know acknowledged that effectively we're running their program and it would cost them a lot more to run the program right um so if rec is going to be trying to run feeder if we wanted to be an open and accessible set of programs across all sports across all three seasons those two questions of timing and transportation are absolutely critical we're hearing similar things with boys lacrosse who of course is under us this this season boys lacrosse at the middle school level they're they're coming to us is different than you're coming to us the baseball and that they were with the schools last year and so they had the school umbrella last year which had and I think the other piece that's attached to that in addition to the two fighters that you mentioned is also field care is also they have dpw dpw is contracted to to uh maintain their fields whereas with us we maintain the fields and that's a notable difference for them to move from the school's umbrella to our umbrella and so two different approaches baseball and lacrosse that we've picked up this year and how that works into into like what you all get in that process what you all are provided the resources you have transportation of courses neutral across the two um we you know that's it's it's a it's a similar sort of question that we have to ask about okay if we're providing those opportunities for the middle school kids is there something that the schools are we doing the school as a service that that that that means something more than us just filling those cracks us us providing opportunities for kids who are who don't have the opportunities provided for them yeah but I think there's there's another factor which is also like in high school sports you know there's established sports leagues in each sport it's pretty consistent across sports but when you get to middle school sports like um for example there's a middle school track and field team but there's not that many middle schools that have a track and field team right and I don't know the the but the basketball the baseball team what teams are they playing against are they playing against school teams or are they playing against club teams the team that we're operating yeah so we're playing in a non-school-based league right but for example frontier has a middle school team and they're only 15 minutes away so I don't I haven't researched their so you feel you feel it doesn't even if even if they're not playing in a school-based team it's fine if they were a middle school team could just play in that because in in soccer I don't think I don't know that there's middle school soccer leagues there's the more like club leagues in middle school aged kids yep I personally and again not just about baseball right but about you middle school sports in general I don't really care if it's a school-based team or a recreation department-based team as long as the money timing and transportation are substantially equivalent right and as long as they have somebody to play yeah right so for our baseball league this year we were able to find people to play find teams to play through a non-school-based league it's run actually all of the teams we play are actually run through rec departments in other towns we're sort of like 20 run for the rec department for this year right um but there's at least one example of a local high school or local middle school that is able to find competition at the middle school level but I mean I haven't done extensive research to know how much availability there is in terms of school-based my sense is that a lot of middle school there aren't a lot of middle school uh teams teams that play for the middle schools across the different at least the field sports the ball sports field sports um my sense is that a lot of them are run through through rec departments through town rec departments um Amherst is a little bit unique because the high school athletic department is also the athletic department for the middle school so it technically is the regional school districts athletic program some of the questions that we're asking and some of the questions that maybe we're we're preparing to ask you know the answers may come maybe maybe straightforward and reasonable I haven't had the conversation with Victoria I haven't had the conversation with Mike Morris I mean we are starting to talk about doing cooperation uh the three of us have have sat down to talk about doing some cooperative youth sports building initiatives to start doing some towards you seeing how schools combine how school dishes combine recreational and school department sports so I know that they've been asking the same questions they've been they've been asking the same direction of the same questions but as we as we ask more sorry as we ask more of those questions and we're you know I think they've they've presented themselves to be pretty strong partners for us I think we can we can uh you know I that my my hope is that we're moving in the direction of of cooperation and I don't know if cooperation has been the best word to describe how we've been operating for a little while um I just realized I'm wearing a Northampton soccer shirt in my travel I apologize to you and everybody who's watching at home where's that hat where's that hat I gave I'm telling you I am work I'm wearing a wound underneath this is this is this is my new life here so I thought there would have been more of that here uh so if there are no questions if there are no other questions be happy to spend more time on the jock stuff that's uh that's that's fun for me if there are no other questions about youth scores I can tell you that uh aquatics uh the and Karen I know you had reached out about the schedule we are are vastly underpaid under served uh aquatics director Katie Brown has has just finished her school stuff in the last couple weeks and that's why we I mean one of the big reasons why we haven't had that schedule up is because we've been trying to double double check those but the required schedule should be up online if it's I think that the plan was to have it up on Friday yes not today good excellent um got it and so and so in terms of lessons in terms of in terms of open swim schedules on and and the opening of the outdoor pools that should be up splash pads were just open this weekend but there's a little bit of a problem at broth park uh and silver this could be shut down for another week um but DPW actually reached out to me on Thursday and said it's going to be hot this weekend and we're we should be ready to open the splash pad so let's get those get those up and running um uh I don't know because it's been a while since we met but I I don't know if we had the the uh if I mentioned to you all the the collaboration with the senior center um we are right now working on the details of it but we have a cooperative event planned with the senior center which is movies by the pool side pool side movies we're going to try and show jaws and we're going to try and show cocoon um which I'm really really excited about but um we're we're going to the original plan was to try and get war memorial because of there are a bunch of different reasons number one because it has wi-fi and we have a wi-fi um we have a we have a internet projector an internet-based projector that we thought would have to work there but I think we're going to try and get it at we at least explore the opportunity to bring it out to mill facilities are better out there uh to run it but we're going to you know basically invite invite people to come out and watch a movie sit pool so I'm going to try and illuminate the pool so that we can we'll have lifeguards on duty and just people can basically watch it from the pool um pretty uh pretty uh I don't know which if if Hailey or myself are I don't know who's the most excited about offering this to our constituents but this is uh this is a pretty fun uh venture here will people be able to bring their floating you know chairs and soops and we thought about having to be treading water for you might even put like little shark fins on on like on like like like refreshment trays and send them around the pool if we want if we can we're thinking about it's not it's it's not a uh it's not a a a charge event but if we want to you know if we want to try and reserve spaces on the pool we might end up trying to do that um again we'll have we will have lifeguards on duty we'll have like you know there's more space at the mill pool to uh sort of have people be able to get up and move around on the outside if they want to it has to be after dark right right yes it's gonna be fun yes it will have to be after dark I would I would I would also have fun if we couldn't do it after dark but yes where it's gonna be after dark it's definitely gonna be after dark if it's that if it happens at war the plan is to have the the uh inflatable screen on the basketball court and looking down on the pool either spot we'd like to try and set it up so that if people wanted to basically uh you know you know pull up and sit in their cars and watch it from outside uh from outside the gate they could we want to try and make it so people can basically do an old old school drive in yeah um but but we we still have to do some test runs of it and that would be in the summer months I believe it's right towards the end of summer camp um I know because Nicky's the one that's helping us out with the with putting together the the projection and it's happening right at the end of her her camp her camp time um so uh uh it was towards the quiet prime time uh that I guess that was my link in for aquatics I was thinking of it when I was thinking about aquatic stuff because I'm I'm thinking about opening the pools so uh lastly and okay we're 755 that's fair uh project updates uh I attached and collaborative projects on your on your uh this was my meeting with Paul Backelman uh earlier basically looking at what we're doing at the end of this fiscal year um the three projects I can share a screen I think here and I won't I know I won't have to do a lot with any of those can I share this for some reason it's not letting me share it's not letting me share I have the button okay you but but I don't think I have the document or my don't you do you not have the green share screen button I'm looking for it I just don't have I do have the share screen button but but it's not you see desktop cancel it didn't come on did it no do you want me to see do you want me to see if I can share yes please share screen oh disabled participants can't do it okay uh I'll make it quick uh I've already talked about the feeder programs there are three there are three categories that we're printed on here one is rec manual one is feeder programs one is field scheduling rec manual is not irrelevant for us but that is that's us working with collaborating with finance the finance department to sort of build a manual that allows us in recreation to know our operations to they would know and present our operations which is something that we didn't have a lot of our stress over the course of the of this year so far has been the fact that we've been trying to basically build the plane as we fly it we've we know with new people all over the place we have different components of our of our financial operations that are sitting down with finance to basically put in writing what what we do a lot of it's been point of sale up to this point a lot of it has been has been uh expectations of our staff expectations of of of our program directors that's been the sort of things that we've been trying to spell out for uh you know in case in case we have to go through another couple major transitions here in the next few months which I don't think we will because I love my job and my staff loves their work so we're all going to be around here um but the rec manual was one feeder programs I just mentioned I don't need to spend more time with that but feeder programs is basically as it's our long-term service vision uh we're looking at we're looking at the opportunity to build a feeder program and to think about what a feeder program capital f capital p should look like for the school and so we're early stage of collaboration with the schools like I said I've I've spoken to Mike Morris and the Victoria Stewart about about uh the first steps and and that exploration last piece which I mentioned before is field scheduling when a conversational stage of the collaboration with the schools and facilities about recreation taking over scheduling for the fields um you know there's been a load of confusion in the past about about who has priority access and the hierarchy of that access there's been a load of of issues and confusion about who's responsibility it is to do things as simple as take out the trash who's who's responsible for mowing who's responsible for grooming like dpw has been trampled by the by the various expectations of all the departments that they serve um and so one of the things that we're looking to try and try and do is we're trying to build a scheduling model that allows recreation to do that and to and to pick up that burden moving forward facilities I don't think you know they they have a ton of things that they have to do also I think I think that maintain the number of times that we've sent people maybe even some of you all I'm thinking about Sanjay in particular but the number of times that we sent people from our offices to facilities and they've come back to us and said no they said that we should talk to you is uh it's an unfortunate part of being in a bureaucracy that has so many different uh masters um and so this is one way for us to try and serve the public serve our departments and certainly serve the the uh people who use our programs um and it and it loops over in the future ideally it loops over as we start talking about the track project of the high school because that would also be something that that allows us to you know have have have a role in that process and to make that more efficient because we don't want to have that process come in and then and then to to again be looking at three or four different offices where you have to go to try and find out how to make something work Sarah do you mean that the vision is that rec schedules even schools fields the schools own fields all public fields is is all fields where we do programming where where there's cooperative programming basically not necessarily for the schools fields if there's no if if we don't have any use for it uh if there's nothing that we do with it then we don't need to I don't know that they would want to yield that to us as an outside group especially the regional schools the regional that would mean that would be involving people that are much bigger than the town here the town I have that when I say I think go ahead Matt I don't know that there's there's any single thing that is only used by the schools and no one else I don't think there is but um you I mean if it's one system if the idea is one system and then the schools have privileged access to that especially for these certain facilities I don't know what what space it would be that that we wouldn't touch when I say the track because the track is a regional it's a regional project I've I've mentioned one of my support letters and I've mentioned in a bunch of our public meetings is that a recreation department would be willing to take on that responsibility of scheduling that field knowing the hierarchy um and so that doesn't automatically come with our our scheduling town fields town fields for example the very basic the place where we need to clean it that we have a priority of cleaning up are those fields that potentially the school department bumps us from that we have access to there there's again Sanchez in the room and and with baseballs with with our moving into that that cooperative and moving into and taking baseball under recreation there are all sorts of different overlaps there where the field that you know we had to we had ironed out a bunch of those different pieces we're using school fields we have rec programming yeah and so having one program there having one right I'm sure there's there's plenty of organizations baseball soccer swimming programs that are using school facilities and town facilities and so that would be much better if there was one system for all of those and they don't have to separately deal with one system for the school facilities and a different system for the town facilities yeah so I would just I would support that if there's some if there's going to be some consolidation of scheduling should be all be ambitious yes okay very very ambitious and then okay and then if you have to give the school's priority access to that for their facilities yeah yeah then that's part of it this doesn't happen unless we are able to it doesn't happen unless we're able to acknowledge what that hierarchy is for school fields yeah I'm a I'm a varsity coach I I know how how you know varsity access to school to school facilities I know how that how that should be and I it's not our intention to ever sort of supersede that piece of it but you know and having that hierarchy and maintain that hierarchy in one place where we don't have to ask it also helps I think it helps our our serving those with DPW and understanding school department or DPW who you know to have a schedule of of of events that are happening their DPW DPW's biggest complaint has been over scheduling has been the fact that that there's not one central site for games where they can find out okay when do we mow these fields because schools use them rec uses them there's you know we rent them out to the public who when do we when when can we get over there and treat the fields and so having one site will also allow departments that serve the fields that that gives them a chance to to better serve the public and doing so and so that's a conversational stage right now I've had a conversation with facilities about that and it's been a conversation about it and they seem open to the idea of of moving that to a central site that helps everybody it would not include like I said it would not include the swim pools and the gyms that's you know maybe if I as Sanjay says if maybe if I if I turn ambition into the into the the you know the the drum major here for us maybe I say I want to take I want to take the auditorium and I want to take the I was just being of outdoor facilities yeah I think the indoor facilities are the the possibility of some of two groups showing up at a pool both thinking they have it seems much slimmer than the possibility of two groups people showing up to a lacrosse field I think the possibility of two groups showing up to the basketball court thinking they both have it is pretty high wow well I know those but but that was entirely scheduled by the school district oh oh I got I just got the reference see again so that was centralized and that that isn't the only time but no I I know Matt I know I just I just got that reference well I would point out that of course those spaces are used for many things other than athletics also and I don't know the rec department would have to get deeply involved in the life of the school you know to know when they have assemblies and performance I am not opposed to getting involved in life of the school it doesn't it doesn't mean that other people don't have editor access right correct yeah the the one place the nexus of our life is when there's rain and and tennis comes inside or when or when there's rainouts and fields have to be have to be rescheduled and that sort of thing that's where that's where it gets dicey if it's just a spreadsheet that I can release on on the beginning of the season then that's that would be different than if there aren't moving targets as you move along and so it is a little bit of labor it is something that I've already talked to my staff about about where it gets housed in recreation if and when that happens but I think that's uh I think that that it is something I think we need to have happen the rail I'll reiterate something earlier that you know be be ambitious but be careful you know you're you're talking about over the course of the last hour in 10 minutes rec taking on quite a bit of new responsibility where's the where's the money coming from to support that additional burden right correct and so with programs you at least have registration fees but if you're going to take on the administrative burden of scheduling all of the fields in town it would be a great contribution to the functioning of the town don't get me wrong about that right but you should be prepared without with my and I would hope with the commission's support you should be prepared prepared to stand up to town hall and insist that you be provided resources in order to enable that administrative action noting for myself with exclamation points I appreciate it yes I I I hear you and that's well that that's I think that's well reasoned um I don't I when I say we're we're already working through the rec manual that's collaboration is underway early stage of collaboration with the foods with the schools for the feeder programs and of course conversational stage here I won't be committing to anything unless I know that we have the unless I won't over burden my staff with with something like this without knowing that that's taking them at least partially away from some of the things that we're already burdening them with in our department and so there there will be some things that we ask for in that process I would not pick up this many things without I like I didn't we didn't ask our staff to do the across when we bring bring the rec swimming we didn't ask our staff to to add to their burden we brought instructors in and put them into our into our operations I would not make those those moves if it if it meant increasing the burden on my staff and then the operational resources what you're talking about I think that that that is in that conversation someplace I think and sorry right I mean just presumably and again I'm pretty new to the commission right and it's a it's still a little bit strange with you acting as kind of the facto chair of the commission but presumably this commission can draft a letter right that explains that as an advisory commission we endorse Amherst rec taking on their responsibility but at the same time we recommend that the town through its budgetary process right and through the finance committee allocate resources that are needed to accomplish that goal we have no like power but it's a letter right right you have Sarah's hands up I'm going to go there that first I'm going to go there next I do want to say it that does lead to my my closing remarks here today that does sort of get into what I wanted to put on the table for you guys meeting into our what June meeting Sarah I was just going to note that we can have the minutes reflect you know the sense of the commission or we could take a formal vote to say that this is how we feel you know since we're already due minutes and yeah that's all is that a motion no I'm just saying we can I mean I'll I think right now right now it's a discussion phase we don't know what resources are required yet right but I think Sarah what you're getting at is that there are multiple ways in which we could make the opinion of the voice more formally known right and whether it would be unanimous or divided or whatever but there are ways that we can actually enter into a public record the recommendation or a piece of advice from the commission heard understood um the uh we're over the time that I had intended to be out of here uh the the commission the the agenda includes track and field renovation which I don't have new information other than the fact that it was cleared by the by the believe it's been officially cleared by the by the five by the four towns um but I know that the town of Amherst passed the past the resolution to do the track and field to to accept the track and field oh wait Sarah go town council had to had to take an action had to authorize I don't know had to authorize something simply so this exploration could move forward the town has not committed any money correct okay but the track people are going to or the regional school folks demonstrate going back to CPAC in two weeks with a revised proposal fundraising and then we will you know and they'll be asking again okay I think for the same amount but I don't know because I haven't seen um and that they they envision CPA funds from all the towns being part of the part of the plan understood and separate fundraising as well I think significant fundraising the tell me where where I'm wrong on this but but part of the place where they are here is that the the the the group that's proposing this has to come up with a with a detail like where we are for the fundraising has to has to raise a certain amount of the money by a certain date in order for the town to commit financing to it because well it's not the proponents it's they it's this regional school administration that is proposing the project but part of their plan is that the hurricane boosters volunteer group will take on this big fundraising effort and I've been told I mean this is third hand to me or fourth hand that that they're on board with that but but not until the CPAs have made a decision you know they're not going to start raising money if these other pieces are not in place but the goal is to I guess decide next January about whether there is enough money to enable the the rotation of the field no correct it was part of the big plan that's the big expensive plan or there isn't enough and it'll just be re reconstructed where it is now and so I wait I don't have a I don't have an official role in that my department doesn't have an official role inside of that process right now but of course it affects our lives moving forward we're also exploring you guys had a chance to look at the fitness court information I sent you the fitness court is right now we're in the we're still technically we've been approved of the grant to they've approved of the grant basically to apply to to pull this in we have to come up with a substantial amount of of the fundraising here and pick a site we've given them a couple of sites that that are operational one of them is is on the on the triangle at the end of the war at the street heading out onto Matoon Street and moving out of the high school past the track it's often a laugh that triangle moving on to the field which is basically a very public space for this fitness court we've looked at a couple of other sites also and we're still very much in the process of of asking the questions about where and if this is going to fit but I just I mean it's a I think it's a fantastic proposal it's a fantastic idea at the very least can you say Ray what the other sites are we looked at graph we've looked at at graph and perhaps mill but we're still like I have the the accelerating conversations come up this week about pickleball I just right before leaving town on Friday I went over and did a walk through with the pickleball group over at Hampshire College over at Hampshire College so I had a chance to look at that and so there are a bunch of products the reason why I think I think that I'm saying when and and if here right now is because is because there are a bunch of products that we're looking at here and we want to make sure that we don't get we don't get ourselves spent in a bunch of different places that make each of them a little bit less feasible but but it's uh go ahead center given the success of the Kendrick Park playground does Kendrick Park ever come up as a site for the adult playground we talked about we talked about Kendrick Park Kendrick Park was one of the places that we talked about I don't remember if it was one of the three we submitted Kendrick Park I think the space we're trying to find a space on that on that uh you know island that it would work if there is an interest in moving that up into the list I'm going to be talking with planning this week about potential sites so I'll at least I'll at least focus on that and and find out if it's feasible for us and them is there is there was a design for the whole park done about 10 or 11 years ago I don't know how wedded people are to it or we looked at we looked at up the like the basketball course over at war we looked at in that space but the but the collision with westward and westward and samson the renovation product of war moral pool that might make that a little bit more difficult to come by but but we looked we we did a walkthrough to take a look at the war memorial site to see if it would make sense right there next to the pool well there's a playground behind well there's a space beach like south of the war memorial correct yeah I'm I mean personally I would urge caution regarding war memorial it is it is not I think it is easy to think of it as a magnet site because of the pool but the reality is that the pool is only open for six weeks a year or something right of roughly that duration and the rest of the time it is not it is not a particularly appealing location frankly parking is difficult especially during the school day parking is the was one thing that we we came across in our walkthrough that we said it was going to be an issue yeah and yeah I mean I like downtown I think that you know I have friends who thought that the playground would be a disaster that no one would ever go to the playground and they were wrong one town has reached out to me uh last week uh reached out to me and said they loved what happened loved the playground at grove and what's to know about our process of making that happen and I said I said I I I love that playground the spray pad and everything that's over there I I I love it the first time I walked through there said you also want to take a look at Kendrick you probably haven't seen Kendrick you haven't seen it on your research here but take a look at it and they asked me a couple times about about that process now also and so I think it's a you know that certainly has become sort of a highlight of the downtown scene right now um so uh youth center has been tabled uh not tabled but we've sort of we're we're it's very much still alive right now uh but we're changing course a little bit where it was my department that was that was running the feasibility study now we're trying to do this cooperatively with a with a bunch of different stakeholders in town and so I'll have an update on the youth center at our next meeting I'm not I'll have an update on where we are for the youth center at the next meeting in terms of spending that grant money and also in terms of the direction of where that's where that's headed there's a lot of energy from the town council there's a lot of energy from from uh several several constituencies inside the town about about sort of where where uh that youth center what what we're going to use center and so that's going to basically uh sort of sort of move a little bit in terms of in terms of what its focus is in the feasibility study um so uh let me just say uh before I open for any other questions any new business or anything you want me to think about and and put in schedule for the next time for me to work on you can always reach out to me between now and the next meeting to to bring up any information bring up any any concerns that you have about uh what we should be doing where we should be going I do want to say that as we move into I basically move past the halfway of the first year I just looked at the calendars and it's not six months I've been here nine months now and so I do want to have you all start to think about ways that that uh our that our commission can can play a more active role or can do can do anything with with our without programming that that you feel would would make you all feel more useful more involved I I want to I want to make sure that I'm asking you all as I as I start looking at my my evaluation coming up towards the end of this year about what we're doing six months year year into the process I want to make sure that you all have a chance to you know think about what it is that the commission can be doing should be doing here and share that with me in whatever venues you you feel you feel comfortable when Sanjay mentioned earlier about you know it'll be great if we as a as a as a public commission we're able to make our voice heard if there's something that I can do to facilitate that voice in particular I think that's I wanted to make sure that I was I left the table that I want to do anything that that I can or should be doing to elevate your voice as the commission here and if I haven't been doing that I don't know nobody's told me that that I haven't been doing that but if there's something that I can or should be doing more to elevate the voice of the commission then please feel free to share that Sarah um will will we be having a June meeting and if we are will you be telling us about the independence day I mean if it's more than we the fireworks are already announced I don't know there's more if there's more to the July 4th um but if we're meeting next month we can hear about uh I will definitely have more for you next month right now I'm I don't have any specific details for you uh uh Nikki Belly and Noel Kramer and my staff are the ones that are putting that together and I actually have a meeting with them tomorrow basically as a tell me what tell me where we are with it make sure that no surprises uh and it seems like it's it's moving along pretty well uh where we are soliciting for the for the community contributions to that right now but in terms of the schedule in terms of the event itself I will have that information for you as a matter of fact I can even email that to you all before when it when it gets more information is posted online and when we have more than the bare bones as to what that event is I can get that to you all let you know most of the questions we've had over the course of last two weeks most of the questions we've had in the office have been around the aquatic schedule and around independence day uh independence day uh most of those questions have been from the surrounding towns have been from people from Amherst I mean from from Hadley people from Sunderland have been asking us about it so that's one that's going outside of our our wheelhouse here I will get that information to you ASAP any uh new business or closing comments Matt um any update on open commission positions um yes I spoke to Town Hall and they said that uh I told them we have my interest in trying to fill those ASAP we have four applicants in from from uh from before their Town Hall's concern is that the the ratio isn't great to fill the committees and so I'm I told them I'd spend a week trying to trying to encourage to fill two spots which we're trying to fill two spots right now the empty position and and I said and we're going to need a third what do you mean ratio ratio the ratio of four applicants for for two or three spots you want a larger pool we want a larger pool and so they said their their their general interest has always been to try and to try and be about four to one on those we may not get to four to one and I we had that conversation I said we may not we may not get to four to one in terms of filling those positions I think one of those four I have to talk to her because I saw a name I'm familiar with and she's a UMass student who lives in Long Meadow and so she just graduated so I don't know if she's even eligible I don't know if she may have just filled it out for uh for other purposes for for like she probably filled it out in October November or something I don't know exactly if she's if she's eligible or still interested or what have you but we have four applicants for for two or three positions and so I said I'd spend a week trying to beat the bushes a little bit and see if I can't drum up a little bit of uh interest among some people that now I've had a chance to to see and talk to some people in town I think that I might have a couple of of uh possibilities but we'll you know I will I'll turn the heat up on them and make sure that we're getting those positions filled even if it just means coming from a smaller pool Sarah can you invite people um to apply like through whatever emails you know just have it like a signature line you know oh you know in whatever I is your suggestion let me see if I'm if I'm hearing you right that I could send to basically uh uh we have program information that I could send it out to people basically do a all-town mailing and say if you're interested in like commission yeah or if you're confirming signups or anything by email I mean I don't know if there are any rules about this but you must I mean you have all these families I would think some of the parents some of the guardians might am I am I not in the right line of work if I'm sitting here saying I don't want to annoy people with mail this is mail they get anyway oh I see like I'm I'm thinking sitting like like it almost it almost feels like I'm spamming people and saying hey I got a great opportunity for you here existing you send out a confirmation of something by you know or or just the first meeting is you know whatever you must be I assume you're in communication with families pretty regularly I'm going to run that by town hall tomorrow I'm going to run by town hall that as a possibility of trying to drum up some interest and Carolyn alternatively could you put it on the website assuming that people are visiting that regularly right right um I assume so I don't know I don't know if there are any rules towards towards uh soliciting for a commission um my only caught I'm cautious only because because this just feels like one of those things that that because I don't know anything I didn't know until you all came into my life about what a commission does for people in my position uh I I don't know exactly that's the only rule for who can be on it um we have after school which I know I have a bunch of I like I can I can actually make it like a like a directors uh just a quick directors thank you at the end of the school year for for people in after school um and and mention to them thanks for the for the school year and any feedback uh any feedback for how to do prime time a little bit better and also if you are interested in and joining our rec commission they're open positions and please let us know and we're encouraged I can I can basically ask parents there to I would say that I don't know why we're a commission there are a few boards that are commissions and they sound very they sound a lot more important or something than so I don't know if the name is off putting or why we're a commission and why we're called commissioners instead of just committee people it's might be okay I'll buy uh maroon maroon top hats for everybody no I mean I uh if if they're looking for numbers if they're looking for a deeper pool then then I will ask town hall what you know is there any limit to how I build that pool is there any are there any restrictions to how I how I build a deeper pool there um because if there aren't then then soliciting through our through our our mail and registration would make sense if there aren't those sorts of those sort if there are no restrictions then then you know I'm sure that throwing it up on the website and and advertising on our website would make sense that doesn't doesn't feel like it has to be a conflict of of of of my civic responsibilities or anything but I don't want to find out on the fly Matt yeah I just have a point of clarification because I was typing and only half listening so the the movie evenings at the pool who are you working on with that with the the senior center that was with the senior center yes and we started talking about that a little while ago that's okay I was just a little confused because then you mentioned Nikki a belly so I was like oh I'm sorry it was a prime time Nikki a belly is the one that is that is putting together the movie we have an inflatable string that we're using there so she's gonna she's gonna be our it for the evening right cool all right that's it okay so next meeting next meeting it sounds like Mondays are a are a necessity for us for a variety of reasons I'm happy that Monday hasn't been Monday hasn't been a chore for people I was told that people don't like Monday meetings and I'm okay with them it is now late May it's the second to last Monday in May so I would say I would say in terms of space for ourselves to get to mid June at least as opposed to trying to turn over right away July 4th is the is the one is the one sort of item of of sort of timing concern for us that we don't want to get too close to July 4th before the meeting but I wouldn't have a problem if people asked for a later June meeting what gives us the 20th and the 27th and I'm not here on the 27th that's family 13th if you want to go that soon can we can we look at 13th or 20th or 13th or 20th work better for anybody the 13th the 13th is three weeks the 20th is four weeks so three weeks I think three weeks would be comfortable enough I think three weeks would give us enough time away from this meeting and it also brings us into the end of the school year yeah I'm going to be in DC on the 20th and six might be hard seven might might be okay I'm not sure what our schedule is for that day oh I thought we were looking at the 13th is that can we do the 13th the 13th is better for me I say a little iffy for me but I'd go for it anyway let's shoot for the 13th that gives us enough space away from today and it's enough space before July 4th so that we can we can make some things happen if we need to if there is any does does six work better for people or seven oh six o'clock okay oh I'm I'm sorry six o'clock works better for me uh I'm not speaking for anybody else here but six o'clock six o'clock works better for me seven o'clock I could definitely do seven o'clock if people want to do seven o'clock I'd vote for seven I mean I can do either I'd vote for seven later is easier for me seven o'clock is fine thank you so then let's uh oh you want to do a motion motion for next meeting I think we need a motion okay sounds good then let's set that's set for our calendars Monday June 13th seven o'clock p.m okay good okay and I will send agenda I will send you all update on July 4th and and if anybody has any updates or questions between now and then let me know right excellent thanks for being here tonight okay all right have a good one thanks right thanks for a good trip time yeah thanks bye everyone in it bye bye