Community Relations Commission

1 Minutes of a Meeting of the 2 Community Relations Commission 3 Northbrook, IL 4 February 6, 2014 5 6 7 Present: Acting Chair, Chris Kosla; Members: Nafisa Choudhury, Bruce Doughty, Dale 8 Duda, Scott Gertz, Linda Goldsher, Chris Greulich, Safa Hamed, Mary Hansen, 9 Sue Huang, Alice Lonoff, Ron Mantegna, Dr. Rochelle Singer, and Nancy 10 Stoddard 11 12 Absent: Ray Wehr 13 14 Others: Liaison Jason Batalden, Robert Lozaro and Recording Secretary Julie Weldon 15 16 17 Call to Order 18 The meeting was called to order at 7:02 pm in the Civic Room, at the Northbrook Public Library 19 by Acting Chair Chris Kosla. 20 21 22 Introduction of New Members 23 Member Chris Kosla introduced new members Commissioner Safa Hamed and School District 24 28 Representative Chris Greulich. 25 26 27 Hear from Audience 28 There were no comments from the audience. 29 30 31 Approval of December 5, 2013 Minutes 32 Motion: (Scott Gertz – Bruce Doughty) Approve the December 5, 2013 Minutes of the 33 Community Relations Commission Meeting with the following amendments: 34  Change name of Marian Hansen to Mary Hansen 35  Under Sister City Project Update – line 4 change GBN students to GBN representatives 36  Under Black History Month Update – paragraph 2, line 3 should read… There is a wide 37 variety of presenters to choose from this year; the committee will be screening them. 38 The idea is for each to present their own personal story about their respective journeys 39 to their present day lives in the Chicago area. This is an educational program aimed at 40 making the black history program more current. The individual presenters’ stories will 41 form the foundation for the group discussions. 42  Also under Black History Month Update – 3rd paragraph should read… Member Singer 43 asked the commission for input as to how presenters can use social media to promote 44 their participation in the BHM celebration. It was concluded that presenters would be 45 asked to publicize their participation only within the context of the BHM program and not 46 as an individual personal appearance event. 47  Under Welcome section, 2nd paragraph, line 3 delete the word ‘Elementary’ and make 48 ‘Students’ singular 1 49  Under News from Schools – 1st bullet delete the word ‘get’. Should read…Seniors are 50 starting to send out their college applications… And on Page 4, 1st paragraph spell out 51 ‘High’ in Northbrook Jr. Hi and replace ‘alumni’ with ‘alumnus’ 52 – Carried. 53 54 55 Minutes of the December 5, 2013 Youth Forum Subcommittee 56 Motion: (Bruce Doughty – Rochelle Singer) Accept the minutes of the Youth Forum 57 Subcommittee – Carried. 58 59 60 Minutes of the Asian American Heritage Committee 61 Motion: (Rochelle Singer – Bruce Doughty) Accept the minutes of the Asian American Heritage 62 Committee with the following amendments: 63  3rd paragraph beginning with …A discussion centered on.. correct to read as follows: A 64 discussion centered on whether to charge food vendors and vendors who are selling 65 art/artifacts a table fee to help cover some of the event senses. There was a unanimous 66 agreement not to charge a table fee. 67 -Carried. 68 69 70 Minutes of the Welcome to Northbrook Subcommittee 71 Motion: (Bruce Doughty – Rochelle Singer) Approve the minutes of the Welcome to Northbrook 72 Subcommittee – Carried. 73 74 75 Black History Month 76 Budget - Member Singer presented the Commission with a proposed budget of $2,000 based 77 on an estimate of 100-150 people attending. Ms. Singer estimated $10 per person for food and 78 beverage, $200 for banners and $20 for certificates for the presenters. The food will be provided 79 by Buffalo Wings and the food committee recommended a variety of food items such as: wings, 80 pinwheel wraps, sliders, pans of potato wedges, chips and salsa, cheesecake and beverages. 81 There was discussion that this was not promoted as providing dinner and that the proposed 82 menu was too much food and would be too costly for the tax payers. And it was noted that last 83 year there was a lot of food was left over. The event begins at 6 pm and there is only a half hour 84 for eating. 85 86 Attendance is estimated about 30 middle school kids from Waukegan, 15 from the Niles West 87 Black American Club. The event is also being publicized at Northbrook High School. The 88 unknown is the traffic from the YMCA, but consensus was 100 people was a good estimate. 89 90 Based on the discussion the consensus was to cut the food budget in half to $5 per person and 91 to bring the estimated number of people down to 100. 92 93 Motion: (Rochelle Singer – Ron Mantegna) Approve a budget not to exceed $1000 – Carried. 94 95 Speakers - Sandy Frum, Village Board President has accepted the invitation to speak among 96 other presenters. 97 98 Publicity – The Publicity Committee presented the printed flyers that will be distributed to the 99 YMCA, Northbrook Library, all of the Northbrook schools and other locations. Members were 2 100 asked if they wanted any to distribute. Other publicity included the press releases, Web site, 101 Facebook page and Twitter feeds. The Northbrook Star published the speakers and Public 102 Service Announcements are running on NCPB each day. Banners have been set up at the exit 103 at the YMCA, and on the corner of the United Methodist Church. A Glenbrook North High 104 School Social Studies class is offering extra credit to students who attend. 105 106 Videotaping the Event –Howard Schultz requested Rochelle raise the issue of videotaping the 107 event. Howard has arranged for students from Glenbrook North High School to assist with the 108 taping and sound system. There was consensus that while there were benefits to doing this 109 including being able to use it for future promotions of Black History Month, there were concerns 110 about who would own the videotape, and liability of getting permission from the presenters. 111 There was also concern that there wasn’t enough time to research all of the implications in time 112 for this year’s event. 113 114 Consensus: Consider videotaping for next year after getting more information on cost, purpose, 115 approvals etc. and run it by legal counsel. 116 117 118 Asian Heritage Planning 119 The Asian Heritage event will be held Sunday, May 18. 120 121 Performers - Member Huang reported that there are 10 performers committed to the event and 122 they are still waiting on confirmation from a few others. The performances should cover about 123 one and half hours. 124 125 Activity Vendors - The lined up vendors include: origami, brush painting, Japanese flower 126 arranging, the Asian art of character writing, and a Martial Arts demonstration to be done in the 127 basement. The committee is looking into securing a travelogue film introducing various Asian 128 countries. Ms. Huang’s backup plan is to show a variety of videos that she has from China, 129 Taiwan, and other countries. These are professionally made and presented in English. 130 131 Food Vendors – Food vendors that have agreed to participant include Chinese, Russian, Indian, 132 and Thai restaurants. The committee is also trying to secure Vietnamese or Korean restaurant. 133 The YMCA will sell the bottled water. The food will be served about 12:30 pm and with the 134 program ending about 4:00 pm. 135 136 Budget – Quotes have been received for chairs and tables. Vendors from last year have come 137 in 30% lower. A full budget will be presented at the April meeting. 138 139 Prizes – The committee is working on soliciting some prizes to raffle off. It was suggested that 140 they ask the vendors to donate something to be raffled off. Food vendors could donate a gift 141 certificate. The Fire Department and the Police Department could put together a package 142 offering the winner the opportunity to visit the police station, ride in the car, etc. 143 144 Publicity – It was suggested that Robert Lozaro create a teaser promo to distribute at the 145 Black History event. 146 147 There was discussion on how to keep attendees until the end. In past years, people tended to 148 leave and the last performers were performing for a small group. It was agreed that there 149 needed to be less time between performances. A suggestion was made that a stage manager 3 150 would help to get the next performers lined up. It was also suggested that rather than raffle off 151 prizes in between acts to save the raffle until the end. 152 153 Consensus: Raffle off all of the prizes after the last performance and state that the winners 154 must be present to win. 155 156 157 Welcome to Northbrook 158 Motion: (Scott Gertz – Alice Lonoff) Approve $100 for a welcome to Northbrook Event – 159 Carried. 160 161 162 Northbrook Cares Update 163 An update will be made next month. 164 165 166 Sister Cities Update 167 Member Doughty reported that they are trying to set up a call with a Sister Cities Group in 168 Vermont to find out how they set up their program, what challenges they endured, what they did 169 and how it worked. They are trying to find other candidate cities in other parts of the world. 170 They will have a more detailed report in April. 171 172 173 2014 Calendar 174 Tabled until next month. 175 176 177 News from Clergy Association and Houses of Worship 178 The students at Glenbrook North High School are feeling the pressure to achieve high scores 179 and cheat. The school is currently addressing this issue. 180 181 Dr. Amy Levine, will be doing a screening April 3-4, at Northbrook United Methodist Church. 182 183 The village church will host La Caccina, a Chicago-based female vocal ensemble for a 184 Valentine’s Day event on February 14th at 7:30 pm. 185 186 187 News from Schools 188 Glenbrook North High School variety show is being held at the school tonight. Four hundred 189 students and 40 adults are participating. Athletics events are going on with standouts in hockey 190 191 The schools are having challenges with all of the closings due to weather. GBN has already had 192 two snow days taken care of. Exams will be shifted one day at the end of the school year to 193 make up the other days. District 28 will be going an extra 4 days. 194 195 Students at the high school are writing 10-15 minute plays. The ones that get selected will be 196 held at the school on February 25-26 and will be directed by the students. These plays sell out 197 and it is usually standing room only. 198 199 200 4 201 Old Business 202 There was no old business. 203 204 205 New Business 206 There was no new business. 207 208 209 Eyes and Ears on the Street 210  Jason Brown, figure skater made the Olympic team – skated in Northbrook and is from 211 Highland Park. Highland Park is dedicating February 7th to Jason. 212  The Northbrook United Methodist Church had a very successful Martin Luther King day 213 service. Last Friday they showed the documentary “Girl Rising”, 100 people attended. 214  Pets should be kept inside as there are a lot of coyotes in the area. 215  Caputo’s grocery is going in to the old Dominick’s location on Dundee and Sanders 216 Roads. They are known for fresh produce, variety of meats, and salads and will be a 217 competitor of Sunset and Mariano’s. 218  Four very enthusiastic GBN girls will be putting on a prom fashion show on April 6 to 219 raise money for Northbrook Citizens for Drug and Alcohol Awareness (NCDAA). 220  Open Communities is asking people to upload photos of the “Faces of the North Shore”. 221 222 223 Next Meeting 224 The next meeting will be held March 6, 2014. 225 226 227 Adjournment 228 Motion: (Scott Gertz – Dale Duda) Moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:40 pm – Carried. 229 5