Veterans Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting

I think we're good. Okay.

All right. I officially call this meeting to order. If you'll please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance unto the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty all right thank you uh nicole roll call please sure uh mr mickelson here mr moore here mr suffolk here mr huge hughes sorry and mr burgess here all right all right uh did everybody get a chance to review the minutes from the last meeting yes yes yes okay do i have a motion to approve so moved Second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All right. Any citizens' comments? As we mentioned last time, we want to give a shout out to the citizens in the community. So I just want to say thank you to all those that may be watching us online. Thank you for your support to us. And if you know anybody that needs any support that is a veteran, please have them reach out to us. At the end of the day, that's what our main objective is, is to serve the veterans in our community. All right. Unfinished business. We discussed going to a biannual or every other month meeting.

Biannual is every six months. That's too far apart.

Correct. We're not going to do biannual, so it'll be every other. Okay.

By months, we would work?

Yes. Okay. So we'd be looking at February, April, June, August. October, and if we need to have one in December before Christmas, we could do it then, or we could do it after the first of the year, and then we just have two months that butt up like that, or we just make it five meetings a year.

Well, normally we have an organizational meeting at the beginning of each year, calendar year. And that's true. First Tuesday in January would be an appropriate time to do that.

That is very true.

So maybe we ought to use, unless it conflicts with Memorial and Veterans Day, a bi-monthly on starting in January might work better. You know, 1-3-5-7-9. Yeah, it would make sense to me.

If we were to start in January, then it would line up for November, and this should occur before Veterans Day. We may want to have a meeting close to the event anyway. That's what I was going to say, that if we miss the key dates that we need to talk about.

Just to add, you are always welcome to call a meeting. If in between your months you feel like you need to have a meeting, you're welcome to hold one. So that's never an issue. Perfect.

I mean, if we're going to make a standard of this, maybe starting off 135 in terms of meetings during those months, we'd be better off to do that. We don't have to call a special in January to organize.

Okay. So we're looking at January, March, May, July, September, and November?

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. will we all agree on yeah yes of course we're early enough in november we don't have to worry about thanksgiving correct correct i know um july typically most of the other committees in the city they take july off because there's a lot of vacations so that's one of those that we can adjust at that time as we go forward if we feel like we need to yep six months okay um Motion to approve? So moved. Second? Second. All right. All in favor? Aye. OK. We also discussed at the last meeting of adding two new members to the commission. Nicole or Vicky, do we have an update on that?

I cannot be with that one. So currently it is on, it's going to be on third reading at our next meeting.

Okay.

And at that point, council should vote on it. I didn't hear any opposition at the last meeting. So as soon as that's done, I will make sure to send you that legislation and let you know. And I know the mayor will probably reach out as well.

Okay. Sounds good. As far as the veterans friendly business update, I talked with the president of the Chamber of Commerce. She is just coming off of their annual golf outing. So she is now in a position where she's able to meet with us. So I'm going to get that scheduled here and hopefully by the end of this week I'll get a date that I can get that scheduled to meet with her. But as we had discussed in our prior meeting, this is something that we do need to get going and get moving because We're almost two years into talking about this at this point. But they are definitely on board in helping us. And when I talked to her, she seemed pretty eager. And if we can all try to get together, maybe do something in the evening where we can all get together to sit with her, run ideas together. And I told her we would like to be able to help them just as much as... They can help us vice versa. I said at the end of the day, we're just trying to grow the community, both business and community citizens to align with what the veterans in our community need. So she was definitely on board with that. Okay. Any new business?

Before we move on, I got a question there. If we're going to meet with her, is that going to be you with her one-on-one or you with the committee?

I would like to get to that.

A formal meeting or not?

I would like to do, it'll be an informal at first. Okay. But I would like as many of us that are able to attend.

There'll be one-on-one and informal?

Yes. Okay. Yes. I think that's a good way to do it. Yes. I agree with that. Anything else? No. Okay. Any new business? Vicki, do you have anything? What's the trick-or-treat you have on there?

I added that to the agenda. So last year you guys had a table at the trick-or-treat trail?

Yes.

And if you wanted to do that again this year, we can go ahead and get you signed up for that. I just wanted to verify that you wanted to do that.

Absolutely.

Yeah, definitely. All right, so I'll get you signed up for that.

Go ahead. Go ahead. All right.

So... told me this and I forgot, sorry. So every year we honor a veteran, take nominations for that, so if you guys could help promote that to whoever you interact with throughout your daily lives and maybe tonight when you go to Kittle's afterwards there is a nomination form. and a news release going out that'll be shared in e-newsletters and our city newsletter, which won't go out until September. The e-newsletter will push out in September. This, it's a little early for people to start thinking about Veterans Day, but we need to start really thinking about that. The other thing I brought up last time was we no longer have our MC. Mike, as you guys know, has left and went to another city. And we wish him well, but we no longer have our emcee. So we are looking for somebody to be an emcee. So any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well. If there's anybody you know that we can chat with to see if they may be the right fit. So any questions?

No, I don't have any. Do you guys? I think so. Are there any specific requirements that the city would have for the MC? Does it need to be somebody from the city or not too concerned with that?

You know, I don't know at this point. Okay. I mean, ideally it would be somebody that's a community member. We're really looking for somebody that, you know, can, you know, is really well-spoken, can, you know, do a really nice job. So any, you know, just more people thinking about it, the better. Okay. So. Okay.

When do you need to make that selection by? November 10th right now.

I mean, probably September, October, early October. I'll start sweating bullets about the end of October if we're looking for somebody. I have a couple ideas. But I don't want to publicly say that at this point. I just want to see if we can, you know, who else we can, you know, maybe interested if there's somebody that, you know, they enjoy this kind of thing, then, you know, let's give them an opportunity. So, all right.

As far as selecting the nominee for Veterans Day for the speaker, Let's try and get something selected by October. That way we have a couple months to put something together and we don't have to stress going into November trying to figure out who it is. So if we have somebody the month ahead, we can get them selected, nominated, and possibly announced during the meeting in October.

Is this the same person that we're honoring? Is the honoree also the guest speaker, or are we looking for three different people then?

So you have an emcee, and then you'd have guest speaker.

Emcee and guest speaker, and the guest speaker is the honoree?

That is the honoree.

Okay. So we may have three names we're looking for. Yes. Okay. Yes.

It could be two.

It could be three. It could be three.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Discussing new business, we had an invite down to MAPS back in June and there are a lot more resources out there that myself personally, I didn't know. They are also interested in partnering with us. They have another outing on They have invited us to it. With that, they are trying to build a scope to work with teams to try to figure out how to advocate and get the voice out there for the veterans. In return, how do you get the veteran to them? One of the things that was discussed was We were talking about doing more of a one-on-one with veterans, not so much doing a resource but just trying to get veterans out of the house. Because at the end of the day, that's what we know is the hardest part. Once you get a veteran out of the house, they speak. But trying to get them out of the house is the hard part. So that was one of the areas that we focused on a lot. I encourage, if you have a chance to go, go, because it's pretty awesome what they're trying to build. What time is that? They currently did not have a time. The last meeting that they had was at 11. So I assume it'll be the same. They're supposed to send me an email by the end of the week to let me know. One of the things that was discussed with them is different resources that are available through the schools for both service members and the veterans. Rolling Thunder, I don't know if people realize this, because me personally, I didn't know this. They offer forms of health care. They offer scholarships. They offer lunches, dinners, anything that they can help families that are in need, both financial. So if we know anybody in the community, we can put them in touch with them as well. They were 100% advocates of coming down and being a part of us. And they also brought up the fact that they also offer scholarships through Stark State. So I thought that was kind of an interesting thing. Pegasus Farms is a free resource for both mental health. They have free military camps. They serve all people. Counties and the area and it's a free resource and they're in Hartville and they were another one that was talking about coming and doing. More along the lines with what we're trying to do. 1 of the things that was asked is. What is our purpose as a commission? How do we support the veterans in our community? How do we. reach out to our veterans? And then lastly, how do we honor our veterans? So these are things I know we have our mission statement on the website. These are things that I would like to also look at going forward and putting words to this and being able to present that out to them, maybe doing it in some sort of a brochure or a pamphlet. That way they know that we're committed to what we're trying to do and in return they're going to be committed to helping us in areas that we're not able to help because they know that the resources they have, the venues, they are adamant that they be a part of us. So I encourage everybody, if you're able to, August 20th, and it just doesn't have to be people here that are on the committee. It can be any veterans that are in the city that would like to be a part of it. It's open to anybody. I'll be there. August 20th.

We don't have a time.

Correct. I'll get the time, and I'll get it sent out. We may know tonight, I believe one of the resources is supposed to be at Kittle's tonight. We'll see. But there was a lot of information and as I start getting more information, I will present that in these meetings. That way we're able to start documenting this and sharing it and putting it out to the community as we learn. Anybody else have anything? Any other new business?

That meeting that day would be late today.

Typically, it's during lunchtime. Typically, they try to do it from 11 to 1.

Depending on how long that goes.

I just wanted to add, so you will see at our next meeting that our student reps for 2026 and 2027 will be starting. They'll be here from September to May. And we will have two students. We will have Emily Lesko. She was with us for part of the year last year and then her schedule kind of changed and she was unable to make it. And then we will also have Samantha Whitmer. So they will be at our next meeting and... Hopefully you have a good time, and we've been trying to encourage them to ask questions or at least you know maybe get involved during the meeting so Maybe we can help them get involved Yes, thank you Anything else no

No. Actually, I do have one quick question. So I know on the Veterans Advisory Commission page, on the city's page, we've got that our meetings are the first Tuesday of every month. Is there any way that we can also list that the rally point takes place immediately afterwards? It's on there. Is it on there? It's on there. You can see how often I look at that page then. Never mind. Ignore me. Yeah, it is on there.

It's also part of the e-newsletter too.

Perfect.

Yep.

We are looking at with the social hour after probably in September because they want to do it monthly. They want to do let me find the name of it. It is Paul's on the Patio at Kittle's and we're looking at doing that in September. I talked to the owner there and she was a 100% in support of welcoming different dogs, service dogs, whatever, trying to get a couple of different service dog trainers there. And that way, if somebody has questions about a service dog or they have one themselves, get them out there. But they were definitely adamant that they want to be there. So we're going to work on getting that going for September too. So I like that. All right, any last business? All right, motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye.