Veterans Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Hereby call this meeting to order. Would everyone please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? Pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Could we please have the roll call?

Sure. Thank you. Mr. Mikkelsen? Here. Ms. Sedenski? Here. Mr. Suffolk? Here. Mr. Hughes? Here. And Mr. Purchase?

Here. Okay. Thank you very much. Did everybody get a chance to look over the minutes from last meeting? Yes. Any issues that anybody saw?

No.

No. Do we have a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved.

Yes. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Minutes are approved. I don't believe we have any citizen comments or unfinished business, but we do have some new business that unfortunately did not make the agenda because some of it came up after the agenda was made and some of it I just did not get a chance to email about, so I apologize. So first and foremost, I believe the somewhat distinguished Mr. Spate has something he'd like to discuss with the commission. You,

Mr. So your

ex Air Force is somewhat distinguished? Come on.

That's because he's Air Force. That's why it's somewhat. Oh, no. No, Navy's running this now.

Any other questions?

All right. Real quick, I just wanted to bring up an opportunity for this commission to get involved with as we had Mr. Moser in here at the last meeting, and he talked about basically, like, a coffee and conversation, that he hosts with, SAFE-twenty two. And I know there had been some talk amongst the commission of doing something similar here locally. Well, the Green Family YMCA is looking at doing some type of veteran program, and, they wanted to connect with the commission to see if you guys would be interested in possibly hosting your coffee and conversation at the Green Family YMCA.

And then, they would like to follow it up with a free yoga class for veterans. And I know some of you might be thinking, What's the benefit of that? But I will tell you what, at Yellow Ribbon events I've been to, even on most military installations nowadays, they offer a lot of yoga classes for veterans. They're finding benefits in it with PTSD, mobility issues, all kinds of health benefits coming from it. The YMCA would be willing to do this free of charge for veterans and do it in collaboration with the commission.

Commission. Personally, I think it's a great opportunity just to work with somebody here in the community. They want to be able to do something for our veteran community, and I think that if the two forces collide and you guys can, you know, I guess, market it for each other, and it seems like a really good opportunity. Ultimately, though, it's your guys' decision. If you're interested in it, we can put the pieces together and try to get it going. I think, you know, just in conversations with the YMCA, I think the weekend would probably be the best, just for scheduling purposes. But we can go from there.

Did they have an idea in mind of when they'd be looking to do it?

Probably, my guess would be like a standing reservation if it's like the second Saturday of every month, something like that. Okay,

so they're looking to let it be an ongoing thing, not just a one off. Okay. Yes. That was my question. I like that. Yeah.

So I mean, they have meeting rooms, places at the Y where you can host the coffee and conversation,

and then we

just say it starts at 08:00, yoga at nine, something like that. And they have a yoga instructor at the YMCA who's a veteran himself and has volunteered to lead the classes.

Perfect.

You know, if we're looking for exposure and getting out there, I think that would be a good one to to start out with anyway Agreed. And see how how it how it goes out because that's a that's obviously the problem we're having right now is is finding functions that we can work with. I think that's a good one.

Yeah. No. I agree. Who

who'd be funding it?

The YMCA would be providing the space. We could probably talk to them about the coffee and the instructors. So really, it wouldn't cost anything. It'd be cost neutral.

Well, wouldn't cost anything to the attendee, correct?

Correct.

What about to the commissioner of the city?

I don't believe there'd be any cost involved, other than coffee. If somebody wanted to bring in donuts, we could always figure that out.

Yeah. Well We could just take it out of our budget. Oh, we don't have one.

Therein lies That's the one of the things we need to talk about on our On our off-site off-site, yeah. We need to come up with budget. So we'll have that conversation offline.

All right.

I guess if you guys are in favor of this, if you want to take a vote on it, and then we can put the pieces together and try to get something on the calendar sooner rather than later. Do

we have a motion to move forward with planning? Move forward. Move forward. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Alright. Motion passes. We will move forward with that. I like that idea a lot. I think that'll be a good thing for exposure for us and the why. Usually question. Question

we're going have to address in an off-site is who's going to promote it. Yeah. And how does it get promoted? Yeah.

So that's the second new business is speaking of promotion and marketing. So that was one of the reasons the three of us really did not go to Summerfest. There were some other reasons, but one of them for marketing. I know we have to approach to get flyers and stuff done. Is there anything that we could do to get, like, a banner or something to put on the front of the table or something so people know what we are.

It is, I think, a little embarrassing. I mean, we're here because the mayor wants us here. Like, we get, like, no support for anything, and this is the mayor's request. We get no support for marketing. We see that in the quarterly newsletter for no support.

We have to beg for flyers, which I got hardly any flyers to pass out for the coffee thing, our first one. We need a banner for the table so we don't look embarrassing about what we are for the veterans to approach us instead of a blank table with a tablecloth. I mean, we're here at the mayor's request. Could we please get some support to get this going?

I think that, back to Jared, your comment in our discussion last meeting about having a budget, if we can get city council to appropriate some monies for this commission, to perform some of these smaller things like a banner and to produce your own flyers and things like that if need be on the flyer part. I know we have a communications office that we need to maybe work a little bit more closely with, but I think having a budget definitely helps moving forward into '26 in in future years.

Yeah. Because we really have nothing right now. And like this last festival, what was it, last Friday, there was nothing. So, I mean, that's why we didn't go. There wasn't the Freedom Festival.

Me again, just wanna say the flyers, that was my fault. That was not on anybody else.

Okay. So we take you out and tarn feather you?

That works. Okay. Seems fair. Just a tar.

Yeah. There's no way to grow hair.

But we should have something.

Yeah. But I agree.

Mrs. Messner? Yes.

Sorry to bother you,

ma'am. Yes, sir.

Do would we need to legislate a fund, or is that something that can happen internally to at least establish the fund and then we would appropriate money accordingly?

So, I think there's probably various ways it could be handled. I don't think that they necessarily have to have their own fund. I know that each department has their own, you know, event funds and budgets and such, and depending on where so if if they're indeed gonna fall under, the parks domain or the service domain, They may already have a fund that they could take money out of for a budget for them, but that would definitely be a finance question. And then, you know, going forward, you can always I know that sometimes communications is a difficult group to kind of pin down when it comes to, like, marketing, flyers, things like that. I mean, you don't have to send that stuff out.

That's something we could do in house here. So if somebody was more in charge of that situation for this group, you know, and that could be their task, that's you always something we could probably talk about too in that same but finance would be a good start. Just kind of ask them, like, do we already have a fund or a budget we could work out of? I don't know that we have to make their own, but they may like that better, cleaner and

Yeah. Currently, way, any funds that are going to the commission are actually coming from the mayor's budget. So it could be something very simple since this is, you know, the mayor's commission, all of you appointed by mayor and council, just add an additional amount of money to the mayor's budget, which would be earmarked for the commission. Therefore, you don't have you don't necessarily have your own fund or your own account, but it's accounted for through the mayor's budget.

So how do we do that?

A line item or

Well, as as Ms. Messner had just said, it's it's just, you know, that is already set up. It's gonna be a line item within the 2026 operating budget. So whatever that amount would be, would it be 2,500, 5,000? I think that's something that this body would have to discuss and then come back to the city with a recommendation.

Okay.

Can I add one more thing?

Yes.

And like you just pointed out, so we have council appointed and there's mayor appointed. I mean, we can always probably put money in my budget as well as a council if that was something that would help matters. We already kind of have money for, like, events and things like that, public outreach. So, like, if this year we needed to find some money, I could probably help with that, honestly, but that's up to you guys. And

I think it probably may make sense to put the commission's line item into our budget just because of you and your position as being clerk and now, working with this commission. Seems like it would be a lot easier to do things that way.

Whatever we decide to do, though, and however we decide to do it, we have to keep it clean with the auditor.

Oh, absolutely. Okay.

And like you said, when we do the 2026, budget, that's a line item we would put straight in there, like, this is Veterans Advisory Commission money, and there it is to be used for marketing, meeting expenses, you know, things like that.

Makes sense. Yeah. Okay.

And then any fundraising that we do, events or anything, it'll go right

That's a tricky one. When it comes to fundraising money, that's a whole finance thing, and that might even, like they may not want your fundraising money. That might actually be something that you guys have to set aside your own accounts that you use for things that you feel passionate about and not even associate it with the city, honestly.

Okay. I'm just

If if if I could just add to that, to clarify, I think it depends on what you're fundraising for.

Well, true.

If you're fundraising Well,

we thought we for had to have our own budget, so that's where we were going to fundraise to raise money

I for our own apologize. I thought you were referring to, one way like the Veterans Memorial Park. That would be we have done fundraising for park projects.

Mean, we can. That would be,

those monies are received through the finance department. Okay.

Yeah. We thought we had to raise our own money for our own commission, so that's why we were going to fundraise. Oh.

No. No.

I Yeah. Had cardboard signs and everything.

He was going to dance on the street corner. We told him no.

I had to choose, So

I guess, I'll reach out to the finance director.

Mister Schmidt Is Shelley.

Shelley. Shelley. Shelley. Goodrich. Yes.

Awesome. Okay. And see if we can do something this year. If not, definitely next year in the 2026 budget.

Well, I

I think attaching it to council's budget might be a little easier personally than the mayor's. But

Well, if we wanted to get anything started this year, is there a mechanism by which a supplement can be added to the current budget?

I think I mean, depending on how much we're looking. I do have some

Well, we still have budget. Some events we're trying to do to run out this year. And just, like I said, just something to put on a table so they know who The banner would be easy. I could certainly

Who we are. People that, for sure. And so what I'll need from you all is if you have a logo. Do they have a logo?

What about what we put on the vehicle?

I yeah. We can do that.

Okay. I still have some artwork, Nicole. I will send the artwork to you.

Okay. So that

would be easy enough. I can certainly order you banner.

There would No problem. Just change the verbiage on it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Just a little thing.

Yes. Thank you. Sure.

Thank you. Yeah.

And then next item, Bob Beasley from the American Legion called me over the weekend asking if we were planning on doing a table at the Veterans Benefits Fair at MAPS in October. I told him that was not something that we had discussed yet, but certainly something that we really needed to look very seriously and quickly at. He had actually offered that if we chose to go and get our own table, he would do what he could to finagle things to get us put next to each other. That way, he could, you know, use some of his contacts and, you know, outreach within the community to help introduce us to people that are coming to that resource fair and sort of help build support for our commission within the community and from other interested parties in the local area. Is that something that

That would give us broader exposure.

That would give us great exposure. Yep. And it'd also be a good chance for us to interface with more of the other veterans organizations. Correct.

And when the date is?

It is in October. He did not have the exact date on him, and I don't know if MAPS has put out the exact date yet. I believe it's usually the first or second weekend in October, though.

Okay. That works. That works. You should I hope. You'll be here? I hope. Okay. And if these weddings in October.

So and then that would obviously go into the funds question of, you know, we need to see if MAPS charges for those spots. I believe they do.

Yeah.

And we'll just need to talk with you guys then about See? Getting that taken care for

the table. So Which is what we need.

Yeah. And then yep. Perfect spot to showcase our banner. Exactly. But I I definitely see a lot of benefit in partnering with the local American Legion at that. I'm assuming everyone else on the commission is in agreement there. Absolutely. Okay. Alright. I will get more information from I think that I'll actually need to go through the BSC who hosts it about getting registered for that and what that will take, and then we'll we'll start communicating all that and take whatever steps we need to.

And, obviously, Justin and Mike will work with you guys once we have the information about getting registered for that. Perfect. That is everything I actually had for us for this evening. Does anybody else have any new business that they'd like to discuss?

The only thing I would ask the commission to begin, considering is possible nominees of veterans to recognize and to honor for the Veterans Day ceremony in November. We have August, September, October, meetings left. I know November feels like a year away, but it's closer than

You're not wrong. It's going to come up on us quick. Absolutely. And obviously, you know, we want it to be veterans from within green. Any other major criteria you want us looking at?

No. Think veteran, obviously, you know, any they're fewer and far between World War II guys, right? But, yeah, definitely green, veterans. Another, event Justin and I were talking before the meeting Friday, September 12, is a home football game against North Canton Hoover. That is also youth night. And, traditionally, correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Spade, that's also been the night of Salute the Troops around that nineeleven, date. So I believe Mr. Spade is going to reach out to Mr. Muse for more information.

Okay. Yeah. I know you guys had that had gotten brought up at the last meeting, but you weren't sure about a date. You just knew it's probably September. So we're thinking it is gonna be September 12?

I think that's the closest home game. So Okay. We're just gonna wait and see,

what

Mr. Muse says. Okay. We'll go from there. Perfect. As soon as I get a definite yes or no then.

So you're planning on supplementing our presence against something that they're already planning?

Well, yes and no. I guess the home games this year, I haven't really dove into the schedule yet, but they're sort of, I think, towards the end of the season. So we need to jump on one, if possible. And then the other one is the twenty second, which is the tailgating event.

In August. Right.

Yep. Which would be an option, but ideally, I think September 12. August 22? Yep.

We'd already talked. We wanted to get things together so that we could make sure we were at the community tailgate and set up for that one.

And it's August team.

Okay. Yep.

Mike, for your veteran, you're thinking for Veterans Day, do you have a good list yet from people who registered from our QR code?

Yes. Yeah. So I can get that list to the commission.

Appreciate it.

Just circling back, 09/12, September 12 is that game against Hoover. Then Green is on the road for the next two weeks and would not return again until October 3. And then the closest home game, again, to September 12 would be August 22. I think that's the community tailgate night.

Yes. But we can, I guess, leave it up to Mr? Muse and see

be perfectly looking at two home games in a row if we participated with tailgate and it Yeah. Was

I think there's a couple in between, but and

there'd be at least 12. Okay. One or two games in between that they'd be playing. Yeah. Okay.

Perfect. And then, Mike, you aren't here. Last month, we also talked about trying to set up a table and participate in the Trick or Treat Trail in October in the park, and they'll pass out candy there. So perfect. Any other new business?

That's what I had. No.

All good? Do I have a motion to adjourn? We'll stick around for a minute afterwards and get our next planning meeting

I figured motion to adjourn.

I second.

All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you everybody. Off the record. Yeah, we'll talk.