 Okay. There we go. Agenda, we are looking at, we did not meet the front month of February. We were going to, of course, postpone and meet at the end of the month. I appreciate everybody being flexible enough to postpone that February meeting. Basically, we just canceled the February meeting and we're doing this. We're getting back on the early month meeting. So we're going at the start of March. I'm assuming we'll do this at the end of the meeting just to make sure we're on the same page that we can talk about when the next meeting date is, but I'm assuming that this can satisfy March and we can just get into April. We don't have to make up for February if we don't need to. If there is information, if there are, if there's a cause to meet again in March, then certainly we can make that happen also, but I think that we should be able to schedule the next one out for April. We'll deal with that at the time in the meeting. Welcome everybody. The, I guess we can start by, by confirming March minutes or I'm sorry to pick out who's going to be doing March minutes. Matt has March minutes. Appreciate it, Matt. I'm sorry, motion for Matt to do the minutes. I don't think he's volunteered to do them all and we're totally on board with that. I don't have anybody in public attendance right now. And so I do have a space at the beginning for public comments. I will also leave one at the end just in case just for my own sake and for you guys to say in particular, I'm going to get the, I'm going to get the publication for the meetings a little bit earlier. That's what has people not coming into comment publicly on what we're doing. But if there are people that are dying to, to comment at rec commission meetings, then I will make sure that those, those are posted at least a week in advance. Sarah. I would say in the time I've been on the committee, we've rarely had public comment has been in. So, okay. That's, that's what, that's why I figured. And so, you know, just in case I'll try and get you again, probably also just to get you all that word. I know it was a little bit choppy in terms of are we meeting today? Are we not getting today? But if there are public members that sit there and wait for a week and say, huh, all right. Yeah, I guess I do have something that I want to say. I would love to invite them if you know, people who are looking to try and publicly comment that we can do that. But Friday does not give them a whole lot of time to decide that they're going to be here on Monday. We had a chance to obviously arrange ahead of time. Monday's open, we can clear some space. Well, I'll make a note for myself to make sure that those are published a little bit earlier. We can vote now for the approval of the January minutes. We had a chance to look at the January members. I know they were a while ago. I did get a chance to review them. Again, not, not really recently, but I think I reviewed them right before our last right before the, the postpone meeting last week and approval. Well, I had, I had sent some changes to Matt a while ago. So assuming so long ago, I'd forgotten, but I checked my email. So hopefully as a refresher, I don't have it. I don't have it up right now. I could try and find it. I could pull it up and try and share that screen right now. If anybody would like me to remember January minutes was the preparation, the energy we had for the January. Yeah, the energy we had for the January meeting. If you remember, this is going to be a major part of my first section here. Major part is going to be my, my pound of flesh for the first part is the Winterfest. The Winterfest was a big part of that, that January meeting. And that would be a segue into the program reports for me if, if necessary, but we talked about budget. We talked about the position for the budget and COVID restrictions and we talked about Winterfest. So if there are no corrections for the minutes, we can move into the program reports. Okay. So, I'm probably supposed to send these to Marion for her to publish on the town website. Yeah, I'll do that soon. That sounds like it would be appropriate. I'm not sure if you wanted me to attach the, the program report that you sent that you presented to Paul Bachman or not attach that to the minutes. Oh, yeah, I did. Remember what I put in there. Maybe not. I'll look at that. Okay. I don't remember the reason why I hesitate. I don't know for sure that that was, I don't think that I have anything there that I wouldn't be appropriate to send to the, it wasn't a discussion with Paul so I don't need his, his feedback but I don't think there's anything in there that's not for the public. And if I share it with you all at the meeting obviously it is public windows open here. This one never shared on two screens. So. So, three focuses for our program reports. One of them it misses straight from our agenda here one of them is winter fast. I would like to start by apologizing to you I like I know, you know, I knew that there was going to be some resistance to our correct to our changes to winter fast schedule I didn't know it was going to be near unanimous that last session and I did feel bad about that. I've already moved to the point where, where, where it was hard for us to go back and try and argue to change it and change it back. Omicron did pause us, I talked to Paul on two separate occasions about it specifically saying, here's what I could have done with this have been something that could have done something differently we talked about that a little bit. But if I had to do that over again so you all, so you all hear this if I had to do that over again. It's not that I would not have have still made the move to support the staff and say we want to, we want to modify and, and, and, and, make it quieter make it make it less, less public less, less crowd centered, but I definitely would have involved you all earlier in that process, as opposed to telling you this is what we were designed to do. And I should have reached out and told you that we were having that conversation so that, so that I don't have to tell you what's going on, as opposed to, as opposed to pulling you in and saying this is what we're thinking about doing so that same conversation we had, could have been had with the folks that we were making the decisions with. At that point it was, it would have been really really hard, I think they were still saying that we don't want to, we don't want to take on the risk, we don't want to take on the risk and have it. It would fall apart. But, but at that point, it was late enough that I couldn't have pushed through with that. Anyways, if I had to do that over again I take recognition and put into it when it was brought to my attention in the first place. My first thought as the director was how can I support my staff that says we don't want to do this this is, and staff that's not trying to get out of anything, because they really like this is their, their whole mission this is, so that they put a lot of energy into this. They expressed concern and wanted to know if I would be okay with them, trying to pull and modify it and I said absolutely how can I support that. And there is that piece of the public which you all represent that that should have also gone into that that process. This was a little bit of a fist I'd be honest it was a little bit of a fist. The. I thought the, I got a chance to walk through the ice sculptures and stuff to drive through ice sculptures on a 50 degree day or whatever it was like 40 degrees that day and so it wasn't ideal obviously there was very little snow on the ground around it. And so it just, I certainly didn't feel like winter fest along those lines. The craft work was beautiful it was I did see some other people going down there to check it out, but it just didn't have a festival sort of feel to it. We could have, we could have been planning for the weather was probably a bigger concern for us than coven, and that it was just too warm to do winter stuff. And of the cherry hill the cardboard rays would have been a dud also because of weather. But we could like, certainly that doesn't that doesn't prohibit us from finding some other way of making that work. Outreach and our, our collaboration with the bed in the chamber. I think that they are, they certainly put a considerable amount of effort into making what they could make out of that work. But I would be a really, really poor height man if I came to you and told you hey winterfest was great this is what it's all about. This is the community getting a chance to look down as they drive as they drive from town to town and say oh hey there's something going on over there. And it just didn't feel like what I know winterfest is and I apologize about that. Ray is there is, is there a reason why they didn't have that we still have a winterfest committee that constituted from people from those different organizations that were in on that conversation but there was also some other people from outside. I don't know, I can, I can ask about that the winterfest committee this year was basically myself, Nikki and right and that's not you know you guys have a lot to do other than that. So, you know I think it's it was a shame to waste that up, you know you don't want people to get involved in something else that I've always done winterfest, because then next year they'll be onto their other project so. But I would bring that up next time you guys start talking about it and just see if you can you know gather, and it was always gathered by wreck. So it was always started there but then we had people from the chamber with people from the bed you know we had other people come into it. I have yourself probably but do I have people who have served on that here, who've operated with you weren't on it. I was, you were okay. And use of house to have when did the committee start talking about winterfest I imagine it was like in October but. Oh gosh yeah we talked about it, you know I remember a couple times talking like at the golf course or something you know on the deck, you know, so yeah it was usually early enough that we would start reviewing what happened here before you know what I mean we got a lot of sponsorships we got a lot of money in for that from that so it's. We can blame go for this year but I think if you want to bring in some more money out of it you know I think it was a good fundraiser. Originally it started with the chamber and LSEC doing it together. And then at one point the chamber said okay you take it you keep the proceeds from it. But then we kept you know there was a good group that just kept doing a year after year. Hopefully they're good notes somewhere. I would imagine something and raise office. You know he's still ramping up so well. We'll leave you know. You know this being my first time through I like the commissions that I see are sort of. I'm careful not to allow anybody to know this way it's always been when it's like been two weeks two years since they did it I don't assume that the way that we did it this year is the way it's always been done and the way that it. It's supposed to be done or anything there I know that. You know, that's that's a collection of forces I love sitting in the room with of sort of community programming forces with the with the three or four people that I'd sit with and about three meetings. Those those meetings, you know, if it wasn't for our pulling back, then there was a, there was a sense that it was going to be a number one community engaging number two there would be a lot of opportunities for us to create a little bit of revenue to to invite some contributions we could turn it into a financial event, not the purpose, but we could turn it into places where we could, we could create a little bit of revenue that it was going to be family fund there were a lot of different community members that had been approached and brought into it. I don't think we're in there. But I mean, if we have a, if we have that Winterfest committee that has more members of the public they're involved, other than, other than they're being able to tell they see speak as you all spoke at our meeting in January, instead of being, being able to have more, more voices that say oh well how about we just scale back how about we do this how can we, can we work with the health department can we work with so and so what have we exhausted all of our opportunities and other, other than having somebody that can for those, I, I don't know if, if a larger commission would have necessarily generated more possibilities for that, for that event, because I thought, I thought the possibilities were, were substantial for what they've been putting together for the three events. That is notable that we, that we, you know, it's, it's a small group of, of people who, who are making the decisions there for, for looking down the line, it would have been. I mean, I don't know. You know, I can do the crystal ball and say what would have happened if we didn't. And now, now do we have a fizzle in a different, in a different light, in a different way. It's not back too much. I mean, it's still, it's, it's still a pandemic and everything was super uncertain, but, you know, God willing, it's going to be different next year. You know, so I would hope that we plan for kind of back back to normal or a new normal, but be ready to scale back if epsilon shows up or something. So I am, that's the wrong one to share. Document, document. Yes. We haven't, you're not sharing. I know, I just share screen, sharing that one, that one, that one, director's notes. See if I can boost this. Okay, so the structural, the structural pieces, this is also goes into the, into the category of of program, program news. This was, this is my report to town manager and you all this is, this is again that shared communication that I met with Paul last week. Right now, and I can, I can sum this up, I can put this, share this with you all at the end here. Both of my program directors, both my existing program directors right now, Marion and Jose are in the process of working on a few structural structural issues with, with both of them with Marion and the operations we're looking at fee structures and subsidies. And it's been a lot of time looking at how, how to streamline the subsidies and make it so that, so that it's easier for our department to provide the resources to, to make after school in particular but to make all of our programming a little bit easier, easier access for folks we do give out a substantial amount of subsidies to, to people are using it we're going to try and quantify that and make sure that that's known by the city and by the town council just how much we're putting into this, but because so much of it is sort of moving where we have this money that we're trying to find we have people were advocating inside of our programs for people who may need some assistance to, to apply for assistance, we're working with and and the after school program we're working with the family center at the schools. And so fee structures and subsidies is one, one piece that we're trying to, we're trying to build as we go along, the structure which makes it easy for us to, to, to make our programs accessible. We're looking at redesigned marketing strategy for rec programs. The, our marketing team I don't know if you guys have noticed I'm sure you have our, our seasonal pamphlet has been reduced to a tri fold. That basically moves people into our website, it's a QR code that moves people onto our website, so that we don't have to. I don't want to say waste because I know that it's kind of popular to look at that, at that, at that brochure I know there's some sort of interest in seeing that publication come to your mail for a lot of people that that publication comes to the mail. But, you know, people who are really interested in rec basketball, and the two pages that cover rec basketball are also consuming all of this paper that we're sending out for programs that don't affect them. A lot of this registration information that we can certainly move eyes online we have those. We still have central spaces for that registration information we are trying to guide people into the office if we can. We have basically short blast for our different spring programs, and the guide, the guide points into registration on online. And so we're doing some more, we're also doing some other things to try and try and limit the cost of, and the burden of putting those together, and also invite more traffic into places where where it's more inviting more interactive maybe. We're going to do more narrative. One of the things that we've really been pushing for that I've been really pushing for is more narrative publication about our programs. This is our experience in the program this is what we've done these are things that your first coach sort of things more more things that have people actually thinking about the experience they have as opposed to just where I send my money where I do this there's there's something to be said about having very easy information so just give me this the site where I can, I can, I can sign my up. But we also want to try and make this into a little bit of checking in on the people in your neighborhood sort of thing these the people who, who do our, our, you know, it's called kids art the kids art and the science programs these are kids that do this, and give a chance to sort of, you know, mode the experience part of this. The thing that I looked at when I first took over was beautiful brochures, but it, but it, it didn't tell me about the experience it told me how to get in, it didn't really tell me about the experience. So we're trying to cover some of that. Our physical office is basically we're doing a little bit of remodeling here and putting our program directors in the front and we're trying to create storage spaces here but that's, that's more about our workflow that it is about the With Jose we're looking at two major issues here. We're looking at Cherry Hill membership and revenue. Yusuf was involved in a group that we brought in of Cherry Hill regulars, if you will, that we wanted to try and, as we're preparing for a rapidly upcoming golf season. We're going to review how we can, how we can best capture the fact that we did have a wonderful year at Cherry Hill. It's one place where we saw unprecedented success. Over the course of this last year last couple years and we're trying to find a way to maintain that and to also basically let this be maybe even momentum for the golf course. And also set up a structure that won't be obtrusive in terms of being able to use that momentum and generate more revenue. We want to do that unobtrusively. We want to do that in a way that certainly the town can support us. The town will feel supported by the revenue we create on something that could, if done well, could be a revenue creator for us. We've been looking at that we have. And I haven't told you this but we're, we're going over to talk with John on Wednesday, and basically have the, the, we should be ironing a couple kinks out here but we're going to be going over that, that a season plan here at that point. There are a few things I think will be will be pretty attractive, I hope will be as attractive for people who are in, in that golf world as it is for me who's just sort of getting my feet but. And then also, this is a, go ahead Sarah. Sorry, I'm just afraid. I'll forget this you said you wanted to you're hoping to make some aspect of the, I don't know maybe the membership experience or something untrue. Yeah, what do you mean, we're trying to make changes that will be unobtrusive to the things that we think have been that that that I would say could be described as special about being a member cherry hill. We want to make changes that are going to be unobtrusive, yet, give us a chance to make, make money there is a chance to gather more members, give us a chance to, to keep some momentum going as it is certainly. Cherry Hill is not something that is necessarily stable in terms of being part of our world forever. There's a lot of questions about about what it is and what are what our relationship with the golf courses. I love the fact that we run a golf course I love the fact that I'm in a position basically say I run a golf course. So that would have been a laugh. But I, I know that there, there are some questions in town hall there's questions in the public there, and it's not invented all of a sudden now I know they've been going on since well before I was here. What our relationship should be as a, as a town with cherry hill and with golf courses in general. Matt. Yeah, I think there's probably an opportunity in the next few years to with Hickory Ridge closing to capture some of that traffic. And I'm not sure but there might be other golf courses in the area that also closed I'm not sure. We're doing a little bit of comparison. I mean we're in a different situation and a lot of the places we try and compare ourselves to because we are municipal and there are a lot of those. So I'm just saying I'm just saying people who used to play golf at every ridge they're not all of a sudden going to stop playing golf. No, no, but I think, you know, we need one of the things that we've been looking at is different ways to engage people because I think we've lost a lot of people that were members at Hickory that have already gone some other places. We're trying to figure out ways to add value to a golfer you know whether it's a seasoned golfer or just you know the casual once in a while kind of golfer so that's that's the kind of things that we need to add this this season otherwise. I don't think we can capture a lot of these people. The view of a membership is what we is is basically the the the focal point of my budget submission for golf that we wanted to try and spend this this year really evaluating how to add value to the membership there. Yeah, I don't know much about golf. I don't know if that works but is there is there possibilities to do like. If you're a member here you get a certain number of rounds at such and such other course and vice versa. Other courses because we can't, we can't extend outside of our own. I mean, if you do a deal with Mill Valley or something. I've seen that in Canada a lot. And I think we just, I think we need to step up to the table first we need to bring up our game. I see more approaching something I mean improve the improve the. Yeah, I mean horses gorgeous staff we have the courses. The problem is we're still viewed as this little place you know this little thing with a shack because it was used to be run out of a shack years ago. So, until we bring our game up a little bit more it's going to be hard to have those conversations but I've actually thought about that because my brother in law plays in Canada. You know they have the score, you know you can get points from different places you go and then you earn like around somewhere. You know there's all these different things you can do and kind of encourages people to go to different courses and and get involved more. Yeah, so maybe the problem is a perception thing what you're saying is the actual experience of doing a round is is really good but when you pull up to the parking lot or you drive by you're like, what is that right. Well and that's that have that dirt parking lot with big holes in it doesn't doesn't project quality so I wonder if there's been any thought given to paving it is paving it striping it making it like the there I can answer that and say yes there has been thought it is, I believe right now a secondary thought we've talked about it as capital, as capital requests in the past I know that's on our, it's on my my longer year window of capital requests. It wasn't something that was was an immediate concern because there's some, some equipment issues that I know cherry hill needs there's some, some other things that are sort of more important right now they've done temporary fixes on that parking lot in the past, which we're going to try and see if we can, especially after the, the, the ice and the saw here that imagine that that parking lot is probably horrible right now I haven't been there in a month. Imagine the parking lot is probably horrible right now and you're right. Yeah, we, we do want to make it physically inviting like you're not going to break yourself, and you're, and your car by coming in over coming over here. That makes it a little bit more costly. What Matt just described is, I think, you know, Matt was in the right in the right place with that because I think, you know, but that was the core of what my first conversation with us if it was about with the, the golf course was, how can we, it's an experience sort of thing how can we get. How can we add something to the, to the, to the experience of people that go there. We, we membership is important for us because it's, it's secure money, it's secure revenue for us. The reality is that it's not the, we don't make as much money off of membership as we make off others, but because of our relationship with people provide us with secure money. We want to make sure that those folks are, are, are, are read it well, we want to make sure that we're giving them something to, to make the value that membership worthwhile. In comparison, like there's, it's too hard to do when I brought up comparisons, it's too hard to do functional comparisons with a lot of other courses because our relationship is different, our budget is different. Our, our clientele is different. There's a lot of things that make us different from some of the places we compare to, but at the same time. There are places, there's, there, there are ways that, that we have, I think advantages for Amherst residents to come in golf at Sherry Hill and we went trying to hold on to those there are ways that we need to be more responsive to do to people who do use and who do give us that secure money of memberships and, and support, support them as they support us. And so our being creative is trying to find ways to make it someplace where people want to be golf golf is basically golf is, I don't want to, I don't want to reduce it that much but golf is golf. You go out and play golf you play golf but but it comes down to if I'm going to be putting money into it will be spending this much time in here. I want to make sure the place I, I'm going to spend time that I want to spend time there that there's some reason that draws me in. And that's where we're trying to be creative about making it so that it's worth your while financially. It's also worth your while. In terms of being an experience that that that that means something. But that structure is something I knew would be an issue for us and we've been sort of stuck trying to try to figure out where it's going to be but I think we've, we've made headway to come up with a structure that that makes sense. And so we'll probably be posting that on Wednesday probably posting the rates and we'll be talking about opening here as soon as we get the okay from from grounds folks as soon as we can I'm hoping that the weather obviously gives us a chance to get an early season and golfers are already itching because we've had a couple of thoughts now and it just feels like it's coming. Nothing like a golfer with a sense of thought coming. And so I'm going to go out and walk the course here Wednesday also just to it'll probably be a mess but I'm going to go out and walk the course also just to say that I did. The other thing that we've been working on in sports is feeder programs I, I, I'm a little bit behind where I wanted to be so just say that we're working with the schools to try and develop feeder programs both of these have been a source of a little bit of anxiety and stress for me because it's not easy to just say hey let's do a cherry hill. Let's do cherry hill membership and everybody says okay that's going to be fine we just do this and it'll be fine. So we'll work it out. Same thing for the feeder programs. Sometimes we're like we're trying to generate interest and people like no I'm not interested. We're trying to work with the school systems and their, their hiccups and those relationships also but we're trying to build programs that will feed the high school sports there's some high school sports, especially in the girls area. There's some high school sports that are struggling right now for numbers and, and in a town where rec spends so much their time feeding those high school we have so many rec programs here. It becomes really important that we're connected with the high school and that we are putting people in place where they can move to the high school and be empowered to try things and do things and so we're trying to capture kids early and we're trying to build inviting feeder programs. We are starting up a lacrosse program, a middle school lacrosse program, basically a feeder lacrosse program that goodness I hope works because there was a lot of energy early and now it's, it's, it's feels like it's starting to starting to sort of yawn. What the season looks like, but we're starting a lacrosse program, the girls program has struggled mightily for numbers here recently the boys are struggling a little bit as, as there's a lot of things that are pulling them in different directions as, as middle schools. I think with Sanjay on the, on the baseball situation which is, I think an area of need for the high schools. We have, I think we have a, we have a role in rec to be able to help support, you know, kids going to high school prepared to see if they're good or not prepared to put their best foot forward when they get to the high school and can compete to keep that program alive and keep baseball softball going in a direction that's that that that helps. We're trying to examine the health of our feeder programs and, and work with the schools to make those a little bit better and so that's a big project for myself and Jose, largely Jose. The last piece, go ahead. Yes, if I could comment on the feeder programs a little bit obviously I have a parochial interest in one of them right the baseball that you and I have been talking about. But just publicly as part of the commission. I think I want to emphasize the importance of that piece of a recreational athletics program to the town and community that these seventh and eighth, seventh and eighth grade is there is the donut hole in athletics. And lots of kids are lost to being active during those years. It's quite unfortunate that the school district has not seen fit to take that on as part of their responsibility to their students. That's a mild way of putting what I actually feel about the situation. And I think it's unfortunate that this is winding up on your desk. The brutal truth is that Amherst rec is the next best capable option in terms of providing those opportunities to these kids. And those are kids from the boys and girls. You know, for those are boys and girls, those are rich kids and poor kids those are kids with single moms and no moms and two dads and I mean, it is everyone right. And there is no entity that is so the only entity better equipped to do this than Amherst rec is the school district because of their direct ability to reach children right from across the demographics of town and provide support such as crossing and paid coaching and fee waivers. So, but in the absence of the school district, which is the case, the school district is absent essentially from from this demographic from this age group. Amherst rec is the one to do it. And so, you know, you have my support, not just with regards to baseball. I mean, I think that this is an issue that is important to me as a as a citizen of Amherst right far beyond the particular sport that I happen to be directly involved in the tough part about it. Awesome. And thank you for saying that the tough part about that little hole that you describe as being that seventh eighth grade year mentioned with baseball and I think that's true in a bunch of the sports also accept volleyball volleyball is volleyball is good. No, so actually, can I say something about volleyball. So volleyball is good, except that from what I've heard anecdotally there were 35 middle schoolers who wanted to play and only 17 spots on the team. So, that's actually another. I mean I hate to be at this direct about it but it's another failure of the schools, in terms of providing an opportunity for those girls, those girls right to participate in a sport that they clearly love and are interested in so that's right. Okay, that makes sense. There was a tremendous amount of interest more than double the number of spots that they they managed to maintain interest and and driving kids in a way that like I always say that cuts are horrible. You know, making making team cuts is horrible for programs, but it does, you know, if you have a whole, a whole district and a whole like your, if you're, you know, what's called a co curricular goals are lined up to try and get kids into positions where you want to participate and be involved, then, where they people have landing spots to go to go to some other place or they have a chance to feel like they're like they they have a place even if they don't make this this this volleyball this select volleyball team I think that I think that cuts allow a program like volleyball to be as successful as popular in the man as it is but it's a failure the system if we don't have we have kids to try and do that and there isn't a sense that you go here or you there's we build another team here, almost a recreational sort of standpoint if we don't have some place for them to go, maybe even again, especially with girls because I think anecdotally, when girls get cut from sports, they'd stop playing they don't go play pick up I don't know how much that sociologically plays plays out here in Amherst or, or what have you but I think I think that it's, it's, it's, you know, one of the reasons why we encourage girls teams frequently to keep larger teams and would be comfortable is because girls stop playing if you if they don't make the soccer team if they don't make the softball team if they don't, whatever they don't go out and to the park and go and play pickup, if they get cut from the basketball team. The, I think that the, that whole in the seventh eighth grade level is doubly hard to deal with. When you look at the fact that that's the same time where there's a hole in you all with with with kids. That's the same time when there's a hole in sort of that direction or order for kids and kids start doing the independent thing and so that's a really really susceptible time for kids to decide. I don't want to do sports at all I don't want to do anything at all I don't want to do so I just want to, that's a time where you can't just program them with, you know, go outside and play. That's a time where they need to be doing stuff. I would think that feeds right into the idea of a user. And it will get get to that later but that is in part to be an option right for. Yes, and I that's, I think you're finding that segue is. That's probably exactly what I should have been looking at when I'm when I should have been thinking about that when I put together this agenda yes that that does feed that idea of a user about what we want and I'm actually writing that note for myself right now also. I'm talking about segueing from that that little hole that we unfortunately have in the middle school age. I'm going to skip by I'll share this with you this was on the screen right now is operational goals. These are, these are things that I sort of targeted as being my, my, my, my own individual directors goals for this for this, you know, sort of 100 days is probably pretty I'm not a president but it feels like this is my first year here that I really want to try and tackle these issues as being the sorts of things that I can, I can hang my hat on. I spelled out communication system rec spaces because those two have been big for us, both of them have been part of my conversation well Sanjay certainly the communication system is scheduling we want to try and make it so that we have. We're introducing the to meet a challenge we're trying to introduce the software and order that will allow schools, DPW and ourselves and rec to make it a little bit easier for the Amherst baseball to find out what they're what how to get in how to get this for people who want to try to use mill river trying to try to try to use our facilities trying to schedule our facilities to maintain our facilities we're trying to make it so that our three departments who right now are pretty like I think we have a really good relationship right now between the three of us. We're cooperative we've been helpful is not that any one of us are trying to are trying to muscle anybody out but for structure say for scheduling sake. We're trying to find a way to make that centralized so the public can go to a single person it doesn't have to be everybody pointing each other and saying, Have you talked to them, have you talked to them, have you talked to them to be some part of that and bureaucracy of course. But, but we all have separate budgets, we all have separate separate sort of goals and marching orders we have separate relationships with the public we have separate. It's really, it can be really hard for people out there to use it but it's also really hard for us to figure out where our, where our lines are. So one of the things we're trying to work on here one of the things that we've been, we've been pursuing is a proposal that would allow us a structural model of communication. We're going to try and basically go in and reclaim recreation spaces reclaim is a is probably a little bit too much of a of a of a dramatic way of looking at it, and we want to do wreck. We want to we want rec spaces to be associated with rec in a way that invites people to come out there and do things either programmed or casual use. We want it to be a we want to be rec spaces when we try and do a little it's got a little bit of branding involved in it. But it is a, it's a way of looking at at this as being a place that isn't just that isn't just an open opportunity but it also has people saying that, you know, Kendrick Park is there, we have stuff going on that people can go and use rec spaces as recreation. I mean, for example, that wreck would offer yoga in the park. Yes, that would that would be the sort of thing. And it's, this is, you know, it's basically would be the idea that this yoga in the park, and underneath the banner of our of our of our of our rec, of our rec symbol or whatever. And make sure that make sure that this is rec spaces are doing this and it's not simply programming, but it also is programming with the rec department, so that we understand this that recreation spaces are a, it's a, it's a public utility. So we talked about the strategic, the strategic plan that we mentioned a couple meetings ago. Making sure that we are still on path and the strategic plan that was initiated before I got here feeder programs I just talked about a new center which we're moving into now. So, all right, we're not that far behind. So any questions about program reports I didn't do spring season program and we got, there's a few things that are up in the air still but are there any questions about any of the stuff that we looked at here about structural programs, our structure projects about my operational goals for as a director here. Well, it's not a question but I'm thinking back to to what you said about the brochure being maybe a waste in many cases because people are interested in just one thing or one they already know what they're interested in, and I'm thinking that in the past those brochures have been left in big piles in the libraries and in town hall. And now you have the trifolds or whatever but I wonder if, if Marian or others have thought about maybe having just cards that you know it's youth programs, another card for adult programs and I don't know or one just on swimming and people can just take pick up the card. You know it's like a piece of a brochure, but the answers I know that came up early I wish I knew exactly where it is right now but I know that we, we were talking about leaving stuff in the schools and leaving stuff in the in the kiosk at at graph and leaving stuff in the kiosk at at a mill. bilingual or multilingual or for QR code to get the Spanish version or something like that. My assumption is yes, but I don't know that that's a safe assumption. Have we done that in the past have we been it has that been something that we've had access in the past. Not that I know of. Okay, I think that could be huge. Yep, I agree. I will definitely look at that. So whether the town has got a grant for some, maybe it's translation services at meetings. I don't know but maybe there's an opportunity to get some translation help for web pages or program information youth center. I ignore Annabelle were available to come tonight. It was late that I talked to Annabelle. So she was surprised and I think she made me a little bit nervous about coming in. I don't know if you all know Annabelle mod and about mod is Mickey's assistant. Last I talked to you, I can stop the share here. The last I talked to the last I talked to you all, I had sort of mentioned that we were doing these field visits. I'm going to skip down to the field visits first since they're not here to present there. The first one I believe maybe had been done before I may have wrapped up that visit with Jose to the southern community center. That was my sporty field trip south end is based heavily around a bunch of money that was generated to build a beautiful basketball court that they generate a lot of revenue because they've become the center of western mass for like summer leagues and in school like fall leagues if they've become the center of a lot of that they get kids, they get teams up from Connecticut they run a you tournaments there. The basketball courts are the center of that whole piece they had originally put in the plans for pool the pool did not work out they said that's that was too much of a headache for them to try and deal with. They have some weight training stuff they have some fist that it basically is a gym that they run as a community center and feed the needs of the south end. Because one of one of the most impoverished areas, demographically in Springfield to bring kids in to do some work with schools. You know they're they're responding to people's needs but they use this, they use as their, as their jewel, the revenue producing possibilities of basketball court people coming in and just playing pick up kids coming in and playing in all all hours and getting kids in so they can build relationships that way that way is sort of a drop in they do have some schedule programs there also, but it. We had a chance to sit down with the director who both of us are familiar with through former interactions. But we had a chance to sit down with the director and talk about how, how they've built a relationship with the town with the with their residents and, you know, certainly, you know their vision for sports programming there. And that's from us because they are, they are not municipal, they're not, they are not a program that is, it's funded by the town, they have, you know, they, they have certainly some, it's not like they're entirely independent, but they, they are not a municipal organization, they have the same budget restrictions that we would have. They were able to generate the ability to build their own space which we don't really have yet. The second trip which was, I believe, after our last meeting was the one with I went down to infield with Nikki and Annabelle. It does have municipal youth center, and I thought it was run out of the wreck department, it's not run out of the wreck department which explains why the wreck department was so confused when I kept on calling them to try and try and connect with the user director. It's not run by the wreck department but they have a separate separate department base which is their youth center. It had just moved like a month before our trip so they were just settling into a new space, which is a public space, it's like part of public building which I think they shared with social services. Their own wing of the building that physically feels like, like it's closer to what we would end up doing perhaps, and that we end up sharing some space someplace like it's basic our relationship with the schools right now and in the middle school, where they have this space that they can operate their offices out of and they can, they can bring kids in and they have their own separate sort of, sort of life in the same large building. It was fascinating for us, I know that Nikki and Annabelle were were were pumped by the idea of of running a drop in the center for kids come in here a lot of kids who are sort of doing a lot of different things and looking for those same things that that seventh eighth grade hall and the young high school halls that they're looking to come and hang out they're looking to have something. It's not a lot of heavy programming with it. They do some, they have some gardening, they have a little garden in the back, they have a kitchen where they do some cooking classes, they have a stage now which they said they haven't started yet but they're they're fascinating about what they could possibly do with a stage in there. The day that we got there they had just gotten some new pool tables which I didn't, I mean kids, I don't know what kids relationship with pool is now but you put pool tables in front of kids they all believe that they're, that they're, you know, sharks. They have a bunch of different opportunities we got into a very healthy conversation. I think I debated myself on this for a while about whether or not we would want to have a video game room in our youth center. Everything about me says no but that that is definitely a way to get kids in if you're like I don't like the idea of doing a video game room in a place where you try to say that come over here and be active and be social and be I haven't said I haven't told myself no one that but they they do have a bunch of they do a lot of sort of to call it a diverse they have some diversion work that goes on there. They have a lot of it's like, it's like, they rely heavily on kids believing that this is important for them so they, it's not like over police and it's not a whole bunch of adults saying go over here and do that and do so and so. So it there is a little bit of space because there's a small gym. It's the opposite end from south end that's small it's about the size of our elementary school gyms, where they say there's there's a number of kids that come in and will play there it's you can't do any like tournaments you can't do any real games in there but it's, but it's, you know, people can play a little bit of pickup in there it's big enough that you can do things. So there's activity there there's sort of an escape in there there's there's a bunch of books, and they do some do they have homework time there but they said people don't use it as much as we'd like them to do they have like study hall sort of things that they do. My outreach, my outreach folks were loving it they love the relationship that they had with the kids they love that they love we went while it was in session we went during the setup and then had a chance to watch it. So watch kids come in and use the space a little bit, you know, my outreach folks were saying that this is when I think about a use center this is what I think it looks like. Mars to practice through whatever, but there are elements of both. The hope is that my outreach ends up being a, that, you know, Nikki or somebody like Nikki would end up being a being elevated to a program director so I could, I could turn that that outreach into a major function we could empower them to go and extend recreation in ways that I took the job saying that's what I want to do. Those field trips were, were helpful that go ahead. So, how did the kids get there at infield to they just walk from the school. It's, it is close to school, there are some kids that walk. There are kids there is a bus line it's right on a bus line also. It's, it's like right on one of the major bus lines but their kids who walk over from school. And you think the largest demographic is that like seventh eighth grade demographic or we got there. They said that when we say large they're probably on a on a on any given day they might have about a dozen to two dozen kids that that sort of drop in and do stuff just for dropping stuff there isn't stuff plan they might have a dozen two dozen kids that show up. All right, what was the question. I was there. What was, what was your question. I lost how I was going to connect it. That's how they get there. How they get there was a near a school, right. The second. No, it was the second part of that. You said something after the after how do they get there. The, the, the seventh and eighth grade. So the seventh eighth grade, the kids that showed up there were seventh eighth ninth grade. They were basically young, like middle school high school age kids. So it's sort of that gap between they don't have like after school at elementary school, and they can't like drive or have a job. So what do they do. What do you do if you're not involved in anything. They've had kids with with major sort of like legal issues that that use the space. The woman we talked to has been running it for about. I think about 15 years, 15 to 20 years, and seems like she has a lot of energy and triplets, but she has a lot of energy. I think I think her triplets are 20 years old now. Yeah, question and, and a thought. So we're, we're boys and girls coming wasn't mostly anything was mostly boys, when we saw them showing up, but we asked that question they do have a bunch of girls that come in also. And did they interact or did they like girls need some space away from the boys or not or. Great question. I don't, I don't know we didn't really, we didn't stay long with with all the kids when they showed up like we wanted to give them their space we we met there was they're pulling the tarp off the pool tables and and talk to them a little bit as they were sitting down just to sort of chat before they started doing stuff. I don't know how, how thoroughly they, they interact with it's just natural if it's like the nature channel you sit there and watch them like this is different. What, what is he going to do next. My thought is, just to mention, in case it's not on your radar that the Amherst sixth graders will be moving to the middle school and just so that they're somebody's thinking about whether this is for them also or just how that works. You are my second master. I skipped by the feasibility study I'll mention that the very end but the thing after the field visits on the agenda was the impact of other town projects. So there are other major town projects that are also there. There are other major things that affect our use center directly one of them is the sixth graders move into the middle school. And the new sort of social experiment that that brings on in two years not next year but the year after that when the sixth graders come to the middle school, it's going to the ecosystem changes a little bit. And that would be the perfect time to start thinking about how we can support them in that process. I've pitched it already to Paul, I've already, we've already talked about this with with several members of, of like the proposal team. This, this makes it a, this makes the use center, timely, because it potentially could help shepherd in they could, they could help, you know, our planning meets up specifically with their plan it could be the first major goal of the user that starts up. Well, I hope you also are talking to the school district, because we haven't got it's not clear this the middle school it's not that sixth grade will middle school well it's not certain to what degree there will be interaction what the ecosystem will leave the sixth graders want to be totally by themselves and not interact least for a couple years that I know what the proposal is that maybe we keep them so so we don't disturb things too much. We have like a sixth grade and a seventh eighth grade and let them slowly be integrated in. I say, I say yes, that that would be different than just throwing them all together. It's still as a disruption to the way that maybe it may still lead to having sixth graders say, look, I'm in a school and I really don't even know anybody it's just me sitting here in class. I need something to go. I think I think that that creates needs wherever however it happens, Matt. Well, the only thing that they would do is if they actually kept the seventh grade in the same the sixth grade in the same cohorts from the elementary schools. There's already at the middle school in the school day the seventh and eighth grade don't really interact with each other they're on opposite sides of the building. Really, I didn't know that physically. There's two sides of the building. You stay on the same side for both years. They may mingle at lunch, I believe. I suppose they mingle, yes. Yeah and there's some classes where seventh and eighth are together like wherever you are in French or math you might be. That says maybe not. I don't know. I don't know. This is me just responding right away. I don't know any of the fields that I'd say sort of background to it I don't know our our town politics or anything like that. It seems weird to me that you would have a school where you sort of separate them out and don't have active integration, but Well, I mean they're on the bus together, and they are in lunch together. So we will look and see if Issue really I'm just saying that I hope the sixth graders are part of the conversation. Sixth graders will be a big part of conversation to answer that question. Yes, the sixth graders will be a big part of that conversation. And their needs as they make a big structural switch. Other town projects, the town track, the track turf conversation is something that it's certainly if, if for no other reason, trying to try to make sure that there's space for a youth center while we're talking about that in the public landscape in the, in the, in the, in the budgetary landscape to be arguing those two compatible, but not connected but not overlapping missions. That's that, that, that track, that track plan also is speaking to some of these. There, there are other. Certainly there, there's, there's other things outside of us that we have to be aware of that we have to be oriented around we there's there's things that we are looking at as possibilities. That they're, they're, they're coinciding with other possibilities. You know, we're going to be advocating strong for this we, I know there's a lot of people that the grant that we have to research this is is substantial enough that I feel like we need to be, you know, sort of shaking the bushes with with some, different sorts of people to see what the, what the interests are but it does overlap at the same time as we're trying to reach out to all the, the BIPOC initiatives. In town here during this cycle are also something that, that feed directly into our youth center. This, this supports the towns. Towns commitment to, to, you know, creating equity and, and also addressing missing needs for BIPOC in the town as, as they're scheduling the town. Thanks to our obviously programming need in the rec department but the town has made that its mission during this, during the cycle Sarah go ahead. It just occurred to me I have no idea whether these the model the youth center model. Is there any charge. I mean you mentioned the basketball like if you want to use the basketball court, maybe have to pay but just this drop in center that you I mean they just any kid can come for any length of time do they have to enroll in it do they have to We will be looking, we will be looking at revenue we talked to and fit a little bit we look at ways to do revenue creation that isn't hey you need to. We need a membership to come into the club is that we don't want to make my ideal big to be that it's not a YMCA membership is yet to get in here you have. You got to give us $150 a year and if you want to get to the upstairs and you have to give us $200. It's not to be something that we continually are charging people for for admission, but we do want to offer some programming that would allow people to, to use a space. That's going to be a major issue when we look at the feasibility study is this feasible to to build and operate this and have the cost and a way that makes it effective for the community that we're trying to serve. The feasibility study and research plan. Good timing, the feasibility study and research. We just last week started in and sort of pushing forward in our and setting up our feasibility study. We're working with why set out a spring field that is that's doing some research is why s et is working with why set. We're working with Memphis and in town for another for a couple other in a couple other places, but they are sort of surveying what we have here and seeing if the money that we have is conducive to to to building a user about what we would need about the needs of the community are about what the operating costs would be. You know, believe how much time and energy it'll take do we have the the bandwidth to make work what we what I can toss lofty goals at them all we want to. But we've started a conversation about just how to how to test that and then how to invest in that. We did a walkthrough of our spaces. spoke to one of the directors and the person we're going to be working with closely who asked me, you know, I'd love to come by sit down and meet you can talk about youth center youth empowerment what does what does that mean. And also if you could give me a tour of your facilities and I said, well come on over here I will disappoint the heck out of you when I tell you what that our facilities are basically the school I will make sure that they don't have gym class but I'll walk you through all the places that we use. I'll walk you through the gems we had a chance to go and watch the after school program, and she was fascinated with that as being a possibility for us and saying you guys do an after school program. Have you thought about combining them. Yes, in our old model, our prime time after school was was in the house by the same program that our outreach was housed by their two wings of the same. program. And so yeah, we would, we'd be looking at doing our, our extracurricular work there. In terms of revenue in terms of creating revenue in terms of, in terms of allowing this to operate that's, that's where, that's where, you know, we get we have to flush that out and some research. The biggest, the biggest source is going to be kids, the biggest source is going to be doing some survey work, research with kids and finding out what they're, you know, what they'll be looking for, if we end up oh that's another one of the town projects I forgot is like the whole six grade thing is also the whole elementary school, the upcoming elementary school shuffle. Right, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not talking out of turn am I I couldn't decide. I never remember when I'm talking out of turn. I don't want to be on the newspaper. The building that's going to be good. Sarah, can you tell me, can you tell me what elementary school so I don't feel like I'm telling anything that that somebody told me like, don't tell anybody. Yeah, I don't have any inside information there. So what's under consideration is how to combine Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools. Although there'd be redistricting involved because there will not. The total district, yeah. The redistricting part is less of the issue for me, as it is that if they they combine those two elementary schools at a site determined at a site that's yet to be determined, maybe on the site of one of the two elementary schools where they knock it down build it back up. You know, that's that's that's the next big conversation of town that's that's one of the big conversations that's going on right now in town. Right, what's not clear to me is. I mean, I think it's the school committee that makes the decision about the site and to what extent they need to or should consider potential uses for that for the vacated proper property when I say this is an impact of other town projects, I call that a town project. Well, we might be involved in that other property for all we know. And so I, I, I don't know what I would think if I was a kid. Would you want to go to hollowed out former elementary school for you center is that is that inviting can we get rid of the school feel of it can we get rid of. Is that like I don't want to go to the, it's basically Wildwood I wouldn't want to go there and then play around if it's just like going to school I don't want to leave school and go to school is that is that a would be, will we be better off trying to find part of the, the, you know, part of the landscape over a hickory rich will be better off trying to find space at the old DPW project will be better off trying to find another space there, we have to find find a bus route we have to try and find there's a bunch of different things that that that will make it necessary for us to plan and think. Something like that, and feasibility study research, can we turn this space into something that would be able to operate that would be able to have it can't just generated out of nowhere and $500,000. The grant that we got to start it doesn't mean that that's the end of it but $500,000 you're not building a new building, you're not building a southern community center with $500,000 you, you won't build a parking lot $500,000. So, early stages still we don't need to have that that's not going to. That's not going to be a, a measure, a measure of this year for us about whether or not the Center is finalized or what have you but we do want to make headway into what what it looks like where we're heading with that. Stop talking for a second like you all think about think about butterflies or something. So, that is, that's, that's basically my agenda. Any questions on the use center comments observations. It's going to feedback. We hate you get rid of them. Okay, if there are any questions about any of those feel free to reach out to me they're in in your spaces and the things that brought you to the Commission the thing the parts of your lives that budget commission. There could be a number of different ways that, that a use center would, would speak to your histories. If you have anything even if it's not about like giving me an agenda item if there's anything that you, any observations about it that you see feel free to email me or give me a caller. What have you. Because right now, we're really just collecting as many of those those visions as possible. It's impossible for you to bump heads with our, with our purpose here because we don't even have a purpose on the ground. So then I will move into the last scheduled part of the agenda. There are any, any new commission business. Does anybody have any new commission business. Maybe a question rather than new business I believe we still have at least one open seat on the commission. Is that right. Just think about that also you have any update on that. I think we have three people put in, I think that's enough for us to get our, I think we have three applications I think it's enough for us to, to look at, look at interviews. I would like to. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Well I'll be rotating off at the end of June. I don't know if anyone else at the end of June. Yeah, I will be very sad. So we will have that will have two seats then by June to, to deal with so that that maybe even be part of how we do go through those interviews, if we know there's another seat opening up. I mentioned before people started to come on that I'll reach out to Victor again I know he's, he's he's incredibly busy but I will. I'll just base with him a little bit around the Asian dementia project that the, that the, that the senior center is, is guiding and pushing forward for the town and planning is doing. To fit his, his, his career interest to be a part of that. And so I do need to touch base with him a little bit about that as as move forward and I'll talk to him again about whether or not this still makes sense for him but I know his, his, his, his, it's not he's not blowing us off I know he is generally interested in doing recognition stuff. Yeah, and I don't know if this is my last year or if I have one more I can't remember. It's me you guys can say it's me. Everybody's jumping off the ship. No, that's my second time around. I'm joking. So at some point, I'll be coming off but I don't know when yet. I'm trying to look it up right now. I will try to. Oh, you're saying because it's the, it's the cycle. Right. Okay, got it. Yeah, they're three year terms and people can serve to ordinarily. I find a way to get as much out of you guys as I can. Victor and I both expire, so to speak at the end of June. Come up with a better term. Okay, well I will. I'll try and find a way to use both of you all between now and the time you leave. Can you say a word and it's not new business but about the spring program how that's shaping up and I'm interested and I know Carolyn always is in the aquatics because sometimes the pools available or it's not available or you know whatever so just. Can you say something about how that looks. Yes, I haven't had my update with aquatics. I wish I would have had that right now for that question. I was swung by to try and see if Katie was in for open swarm yesterday just to drop in and see and open swim was up for Sunday. I know open swim happens on Sundays. They are up there. The lessons are coming up in season. I mentioned I think last time about us cutting out the winter lessons and doing an abbreviated postponement that's coming up I believe in a couple weeks when when the spring seasons start. So we got lessons there we are still I mean it's still occupied by the tritons. We still do bump heads with the tritons from time to time in terms of scheduling purposes. There weren't a lot of people using the open swim when I came in yesterday. And so, I don't know, Carolyn maybe you can share with me whether or not that's that's a typical thing that their numbers are low for open swim. I really don't know so I can't share it with you. Sorry. Okay. I want to try and be more more involved so drop in and see the, I said for lessons a little bit in the fall but I'd like to be able to get in and see that a little bit. We are opening the pools of course we, Nikki's been getting yourself ready Nikki and Katie the choir director have been getting themselves ready for camp and for summer pool work we've been hiring our staff for the summer pools. So the summer pool season, I understand is a huge part of the of the rec summers. I notice that spring is still occupied by lessons and open swarms. Ray do you have dates is one second. I believe it's on our site. That's okay. I can look it up if it's on the site that's fine. I believe I do believe it's on the site, but I was hoping it was going to be in our trifold but it's not. I hope I was hoping there would be one of those things what we actually, this reminds me as I said earlier about the trifolds, the trifolds are actually. We keep dates out of there on purpose because they end up being wrong on the brochures that was one of the big complaints about the brochures is that people's calling a complaint say well you said it was going to be the registration is going to open in this time it didn't open at this time but we printed it. We gathered the information two months ago and so things change and so that's why they have the active QR code to try and log in and find that out. No off the top of my head. If it's not on the site, I'll check that here when I get off if it's not on the site, then I'll reach out to you let you know. Thanks. I guess that leaves us with with next setting the next meeting date showing up on my calendar for the fourth. Sounds good. April 4 Monday April 4 does that work for people. Yeah. Won't be playing basketball so whatever. Good. We will plan on April 4. If any, if anything comes up, like I said any, any information or any questions any, any commission business if you want to introduce please feel free to reach out. It'll be, I probably will be reaching out to Sanjay I'll be having a conversation with you very very soon and use a very very soon. About lingering stuff that from this past couple weeks. Anything that comes up for anybody feel free to reach out and I'll get it on the bulletin. That was good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.