Resident Services Board - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Can everyone hear me?

Yes, Vice Mayor.

Good afternoon, Vice Mayor. It's Jessica Polanco.

Good afternoon. It looks like we're missing a quorum still. We've got, I see Faraheem, Francois. We're missing Lydia, Jose.

Lydia will not show up.

I'm sorry?

Lydia will not be here.

Oh, okay. She'll not show up. Okay, got it.

Yeah. So we are missing only Jose.

Hi, everyone. It looks like we do not have quorum. So maybe we'll give it about two more minutes. And then hopefully we get one more person. If not... Our vice chair and our chair are not here this evening with us. So we'll just give it a couple minutes.

I'll give Jose a call.

Vice Mayor, this is Frank. Can you hear me? Frank, we can hear you. If you're around tomorrow and you stop by, I've got a document you've got to sign for the bank as one of the signers.

Frank, sorry, I lost you there for a second. What was the last part?

No, I'm saying if you're coming by tomorrow, see me because I've got a document you need to sign for the bank because you're one of the signers.

Yeah, no problem.

Okay. But don't make a special trip if you're coming by. I'll catch you one day or another. It's not an emergency.

Okay. Sounds good.

All right. Thanks.

Yeah, I should be able to make it tomorrow.

All right. Good.

Okay, it looks like we don't have quorum. I think if everyone's okay, we'll just meet again in, looks like September's our next meeting.

Jose just pinged me. He said he is going to join. Let's maybe give it one more minute.

Recording in progress.

Sorry, everybody. I got held up on a call and a little late. My apologies.

No worries. Welcome.

All right. I think we have quorum, I believe, now that I have joined. Yes. We can get going?

We do.

All right, let's get it kicked off at 641. Is Lydia on? No, she's not joining. So I'll do the driving tonight. And I may need some help from is on the agenda items for tonight. Let me see if I can pull them up. But I'll go ahead and call the meeting to order at 641. Let's do a quick roll call. Who's present? Farahim?

Yes.

Francois? You there, Francois? You on mute? I'm going to assume Francois is here, but I do probably need verbal verification. Francois, if you're there, coming off mute would be great. sorry about that I'm yeah present okay great thank you Francois so with that we have quorum and then I see some other names on the phone Esther yes yes I'm here okay I don't think we've met before Esther yeah she's from the dance studio we'll talk about it okay cool and then Kelsey as well

Hi there. Yes, I'm a resident on Treasure Island.

Okay, great. Thank you for joining us. Then we have all the usual suspects on as well. So let me see if I can pull up the agenda real quick. So I have it. Give me one second. Does anyone have, I'm having trouble finding it in my email here, the agenda. Oh, wait, here it is. This may be it. Wait one second.

Agenda.

All right, I think this is it for Tuesday, July 1st. I'll share my screen and we'll get started in one second. All right, so call to order, roll call is done. Do we need to run through the previous board meeting minutes, which looks like we're done back on 6-3. Let's click on those. These are the previous board meeting minutes from our June 3rd meeting. Do we want to wave and move on here and just proceed with the meeting? I mean, quick updates for those who weren't on the last call. It was one of our longest calls we've had. We had tech council stuff that came up with Kevin and Phillip. We had Xavier Rios on from the South, from Senior AI presenting an AI class also. Indira was on with her Ancient Wisdom and Stoicism course. And then we also had Yareldi from the Miami Beach Community Gardening and Susana on to talk about the gardening program. So it was an action-packed meeting, last meeting. If there's no questions here, we can move on. Do I get a motion to, or I don't know if we need a motion. Do we need, can we just move on? I'll take that as yes. So let's get into the agenda for today. So first up, old business was then Independence Day event. I think we covered that. Tech Council. For today, new business. Looks like 4A, discussion on the dance in the park event with special guest presentation. Farahim, is that you?

Well, yes, it is Esther. She will talk about the proposal we have for the Dance in the Park.

Awesome. I think we love to hear, you know, I think it's always welcome to hear about dancing. So the floor is yours, Esther.

Thank you very much. So we're actually nearby. We're in Little Haiti. We're... a dance center that focuses on a healthy lifestyle and different dances and experience for adults. It's not a kids' studio. We don't have any kids, so we focus on all different types of movement. We have hip-hop, we have Afrobeats, we have ballroom dancing, Latin dancing, salsa, bachata, merengue. And the idea with Farah that he approached us, he actually came to a class at our studio, would be to do like a night in the park where we would do perhaps different styles of dance. I'm not really sure yet the demographic, but if it was partner dancing, you know, we could do like a... start with a dance class like a mixer like an icebreaker and then do a little social where people can dance together that would be kind of guided by the instructor or we could do something like afrobeats which people like a lot which is just a really high energy um fun class but it's it's really nice because it really brings people together and it's something that people of all ages can do and it it kind of just brings the community together i mean we have a really

amazing energy in the studio and whenever we do any outside events like that's usually what what the feedback is that we get um so i'd be happy to answer any questions about it from anyone my first question esther is do you have any video footage of farahim dancing we can we can you know share we will come to the park you will see me dancing there That was my first question. And then Esther, where did you say you guys are located?

We're in Little Haiti. So the address is 250 Northeast 61st Street. So we're quite close from North Bay. My husband and I live on 78th Street right before the bridge as well. So we all are kind of local to the neighborhood.

Okay. I'm familiar as a dance dad of two daughters who just kind of wrapped up. They were going to Maddie's over there.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they're not too far off. We're actually in the Magic City District. You know how they're redoing that whole area and building high-rises and all of that. So we're right nestled in there, like right by the sign, right by the Magic City sign.

Okay. Yeah, I'm familiar. I think I've passed it a time or two. So that's great to know. And is there anything in particular that we want to maybe plan or is this more just to kind of let the residents know, do we want to maybe send something out to our residents of your dance studio or are we thinking about maybe setting up a dance workshop? What was your thoughts, Faraheem?

So the idea was offering dance class in the park, and either Sunday morning or Friday evening, we can offer different dance classes like every another month. We can rotate. So that's why we want to hire a studio.

I like it. Is there anything that we would particularly come out with? I know that I think the more specific we are sometimes is – So is the idea, Farahim, to kind of do what you did with your run club, get it out there on social media, post it on our Facebook or maybe our North Bay Village page and advertise it, get it on the calendar? And would we want to do something where we just lead with a salsa night or bachata night? Or what were the thoughts behind how we could do that?

Yeah, it is like we will, same, same principle, basically, we'll make a WhatsApp group, we'll share on the social media, like one month will be salsa, another month will be bachata, things like that.

I'm happy to help with the collaboration also with the studio, like with our, with our social media, if you want to do collaborations like that.

Okay. No, I think it's great because part of the initiative of this board, Esther, is to provide community services and thoughts and programs for the residents, but specifically focused around our youth and our elderly, our senior citizens, right? This is something I think both could embrace. Yeah. I love it. And I could probably brush up on my dance skills as well, so I may join one of these days. But that's a whole other topic. So I love it. I'll open it up to, I guess, Francois. Any thoughts from your side?

Yes, I think it's a good intergenerational type of activity. So I think the appeal to young people is important. But now you certainly need a minimum number of people, correct? Because I couldn't imagine two or three people dancing together. Well, I guess you could.

I mean, at the studio, we manage it because our instructors are quite experienced. I guess we could set a minimum number to like five. It doesn't have to be huge to make it still like really fun and community building. At the studio, we never cancel anything. So even if it's two people, we still run it because we want those two people to have an amazing time. But for an event like this, I guess we could set a minimum if you guys feel like it's smart. But I think five or four even is... it's still okay to run something.

And the park is an uneven surface, so of course it's grass that most people are on, or there's a little bit of a paved area. Is that okay? Is that a problem?

I think it's okay, just depending what we do. I have to go check it out, actually, just to see how big the paved area is, but I think we'd be okay with either. We would just pick things that are kind of just simple to do.

Okay, so I know that... I know that there's Zumba dancing there on some nights of the week, and that's Brazilian Zumba, the way I'm saying it. I don't know if it's correct, with a Z, Zumba.

Well, there's Zumba, which is the workout, and then there's Zouk, which is the Brazilian one. You might be referring to Zouk.

I probably am, yes, because I hear this music there.

So if they're managing that, then it would be totally fine. Yeah. And as for which styles, I can tell you which styles are bringing more people lately. Definitely salsa, definitely bachata. Afrobeats is actually a really big one. That's actually one of our biggest classes. And that one brings people from all ages. Hip hop is pretty good too. So those I would say are the top four that people ask for. Or we could do like a club Latin class where we mix salsa, bachata and merengue and kind of teach all different club styles.

I like it. But going back to which park were we thinking about doing that? Would it be Vogel? Vogel, yeah. Because there is that concrete area. Is that where they do the day? I haven't been to the classes we do now, Francois. Is that where they do it there?

Correct. That's a perfect sized area for a group of perhaps up to 20 people. So it's adequate. I mean, it's perfect. Yeah. Good.

Okay. So we got the location. Uh, we've got the dance studio who's willing to do it. So that's great. Um, how do we want to proceed in terms of getting that out there? I'll open it up to any, anyone from, uh, from the, from the city in terms of how we want to approach to just Julie, Lily, vice mayor, any thoughts on, I have a question.

What, what's the cost per class?

Uh, let me pull up my proposal here. One second.

Do you provide the music as well?

Yeah, we can just bring a speaker with us. That's easy. We have a nice Bluetooth boombox. Here we go. So it's going to depend on the style. So we have to figure out first which ones we're going to do. If we go with a partner dance, it's nice to have a longer session. So you would do like a 45-minute class followed by a 45-minute dance social. So it would be an hour and a half. So that one would be a little bit more expensive. So depending on the date and time, it would be around $300 to $350 a session. Okay. Or if we do a solo group dance class, like an Afrobeats, you don't really do a dance party after that. You just do the one class. So that would be around 200 a session, depending on which day or time.

So the cost is by session, and it's not allocated by the amount of people that attend, correct?

Correct, correct. Because I'm just charging you for the instructor to go out there.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, so it's like 20 people show up for a salsa lesson, it's gonna be 300 bucks.

Yeah, correct.

Okay, good to know. That was something I did not think of on the cost, so that's good.

And if it's not salsa, like if it's a solo class and it's a shorter class because we don't do the social, then it would be the lower price. Or if we cut out the social party and do the shorter session, it would be the lower price as well. So we have some flexibility there.

So if we did like two a month, we're looking at 600 bucks.

About, yeah, something like that.

Okay, it's good to get a cost estimate.

And let's say if you were doing the shorter option, let's say it's between 400 and 600, depending on what you guys choose for the styles and the length of the class.

Okay. My screen, I share it?

Let me see. I see it.

Okay, so this is a proposal. I can send it to whomever needed. I actually sent it before to our group.

This is good. I mean, obviously, I think a lot of times when we have initiatives here, how we cover the cost is one thing. So I'm wondering if this is something where we advertise it but then we break it out like to the residents to like for them to to pay for it right that's my first idea uh without looking for funding which i know is already pretty tight on budget so I'm not sure if this is something that we would be able to fund in terms of, you know, doing like two classes per month, which is what I would see would probably be the most value instead of just doing one. So what are your thoughts, Farahim, on how we would fund this in terms of is there a way we could maybe you know, break it out per participant and say, look, here's the class. Here's what we're doing. Come Tuesday night at seven o'clock, whatever, six o'clock, it'll be $10 per person or something like that.

But then we'd have to- I can jump in here. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to say that, you know, I think that would be a little too complicated. What I could propose is I still have some of my funding available for this fiscal year. I'd be happy to sponsor maybe, you know, the first two classes, we could maybe start with one a month and try that and see if there is a traction and if, you know, the community finds value in it and we have enough participants and then, you know, reevaluate where we are after two classes.

Well, there you go. Well, that's good. Cause I was trying to see, I was going down that path and I knew when I did that, you'd probably jump in and say, no, I can fund this. So I was hoping that you'd say that. So that's good. I think. So what I'm hearing is we could, Vice Mayor Cook will sponsor the first two classes, see how it goes. And then from there on, if it's something that we see a lot of traction in, we can potentially see how we can fund other ones. So I think we've got a good start to this. Do we want to go ahead and move on?

I just have a question for, is it Esther or Kelsey?

Esther.

Esther, sorry. Okay. So because there are so many different dance styles and because the community is very diverse and we're not sure of the amount of interest in any particular one dance style, is it possible that you could throw in a complementary session?

Yeah.

I don't see why we can't do that. That complementary session would gain the interest, would measure the interest of the community in perhaps different dance styles. Yes. And then we could focus on perhaps one particular dance style over the other.

Well, what I was going to suggest when you said two, I don't mind doing the complimentary one anyway. But what I was going to suggest just popularity wise, if we were going to do something like that, like to do Latin night. So then we can do like a bunch of different Latin dances because we can do everything. We can do salsa, bachata, merengue, samba, but all under the Latin kind of umbrella. And then the other one, really, I think that would hit just because it hits everywhere we do it would be Afrobeats. I don't know why that one, so many people like it, but at any event that we've done or in any studio, like it just brings a lot of people. And then for the comp one, I guess we can do like a mixer. Like maybe we do a little of everything.

That's what I was thinking as an introductory one is a mixer and, you know, get a feel from the residents on what they like. And then we focus on that particular dance style for the following session.

Yeah. I mean... And just kind of thinking forward, I was thinking I could probably work out some sort of something where your residents get like a discount at the studio if they want to continue or do stuff like that.

I think that's great too because then it adds value to anyone who wants to go and go to the studio and a great way to advertise your business too. So we're happy to help. Sure, for sure.

Yeah, that all sounds good to me. We just need to get some dates together and then I have to talk to my staff and see who's available on all of that. But it sounds great.

Okay, so why don't we do this, and Farhim, you take the lead. I think the first thing we do is come up with the flyer or advertisement that has a snazzy title that says, come join us for a night in the park of dancing, sponsored by, and Esther, I forget. Dance Arts Miami. Dance Arts Miami, you know, with some information on there about what we're going to do that night. Come join us. Future dates and, you know, to be announced. But come join us for a night of dancing in the park. We get that out there and see what happens that first night. Right. And then and then what I'm hearing. Go ahead.

No, sorry. Go ahead.

No, I was going to say so. And then what I'm hearing is that, and I agree, is that probably to see if it sticks, we got to at least do three classes. So we have line of sight to three classes right now. So we do the complimentary session to kick us off, see how many folks we get, start rounding up some, you know, some people to see if they, you know, at that session, we can start looking at when we would do the other two dates that will be funded by Vice Mayor Cook. Does that sound like a good start for you?

Yeah, I'll just add in one more suggestion in that I think it'd be good to maybe delay this a little bit just because of the weather right now isn't great. A lot of people are out of town. So, you know, I don't I would actually I think it'd be better to maybe look at this in Q4 time frame. But that's, you know, up to you guys.

I agree. I'm in Q4 right now for me. But yeah, so I mean, you're thinking more like August, September, Vice Mayor?

That's better, when kids are back from school.

I agree. September may be a great month to do that, too.

Yeah, yeah. September, I think, is ideal.

It's cooler weather, less storms, less rain.

You think it would be? People are back in town by then, generally.

You're right, but I'm also thinking that kids going back to school that first month is kind of crazy. So I would say as long as we coincided with maybe a few weeks after their school, so maybe later September would probably be my suggestion. Yeah, that works. We can work on the dates. So Farahim, I would say let's nail down that first date in late September. Let's get a flyer that we can market. We have time. It's July now, so we have a couple months. And then I think on the next board meeting, you can come with the advertisement or the flyer that we're going to push out. And then we work with Vice Mayor Cook to get it out there and see if we can't make this first one a good one. Does that sound like a plan?

Yeah. I was thinking to make it like Sunday morning, 9 a.m., 10 a.m., because we have great turnout on the yoga Saturday morning. So I think weekend morning is a good time.

Okay, why don't you come with the proposal for the next meeting and the time, you know, the date. I think during the day, I'm trying to think. So you're thinking like a Sunday, Saturday morning?

No Saturday, Sunday morning. Like every Sunday morning, so three in a row. Okay.

I'm thinking too, like, you know, people go to church on Sunday. That may be something that

Well, Friday night we have available. Other days we are... Esther, when do you normally do them?

What time, day?

You know, it's such a good question. Friday nights are good outside of the studio, not in the studio. Like when we've done events out, they've been good. Our classes at the studio are Sunday morning, 11 a.m. is popular, but it's contemporary dancing. So I feel like a lot of the times it depends on the style.

um saturday morning friday night i think friday night would be good because it gives families in the village something another option to do than just you know go out to dinner or go to the movies or something take the family dancing so that's usually the night that you know my family when we you know we're always looking forward to fridays to go out and do something that night so i if i had my my opinion would be we do a friday night but i'll leave it to you farahim i think sundays would be tough for some some folks especially during the day if it's sunny out i think friday night as the sun's coming down something to do other than just go out and do other things like go to the mall or whatever you know with families could be a better option but i'll leave it to you and esther to To finalize those details.

Saturday morning could be really great also. Saturday is one of our busiest days at the studio. It seems to be when people want to take class.

Yeah, I would say either Friday night or Saturday morning as opposed to Sunday. But that's just my opinion. All right, so we'll leave it at that. Unless there's any other comments on this, we can move on. Esther, anything else from you?

No, I'm... I'm good. Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate that and look forward to seeing the details on the next board meeting.

Great.

Thank you so much for your time. So real quick, I'll go back because I forgot to go over old business. I'll go through that quickly. 3A and then we'll get down to 5A. But for the update on Independence Day event that's coming up, I think, Lily, that may be you. Any updates there?

No updates. We're just all set for our Independence Day celebration. We're going to have a water slide. We'll have the dunk tank, of course. We'll have free barbecue dinner and a live band. So it should be a great time, and I hope you all can make it.

I'll be there for sure.

Oh, great.

I'll definitely be there. When is it again? It's the 3rd, right?

Yeah. This Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Okay. Somebody had told me, I ran into somebody like, yeah, it's during the day. I'm like, no, it's not. So, all right. I want to make sure. Awesome. You know, my question was going to be, we got the dunk tank.

Yes, yes. We have the dunk tank. Don't worry.

It will be a success just based on, you know, the water slide, the dunk. It sounds like it's going to be one of our best ever. So I'm looking forward to it. I'll be there. So cool. Thanks, Lily. Of course. On the Tech Council initiative from our last meeting, look, we got a lot of good feedback from residents. We recently had another event that was under the North Bay Villas Chamber of Commerce that we put together where I had folks approach me there about the Tech Council and things we're doing. So I have a meeting coming up with Kristen Manahan next week or I think in two weeks to kind of discuss the agenda. So I'm working with Phillip. to work on our first, say, five different agenda items that we'll be doing that we'll be doing in conjunction with North Bay Village Chamber. So more updates to come there. I'll probably have something on our next board meeting to talk about. Update on the gardening classes program. No update there. We have not had follow-up conversations with that team yet. I think, you know, for me, I think it was a little cost prohibitive on how we would fund that. So I'm working with the young lady who joined in the last call to see, you know, how we can maybe fund that. I'm looking into funding options there. So TBD there.

So on that matter too, Jose, I can just interrupt a little bit and say that I did contact the Agricultural Extension Office and I did register for a February class to become a master gardener myself to perhaps at one time, sometime in the future, to contribute because it is something I'm interested in at least.

Well, that's cool.

So maybe you can become one. I will pay the fee on my own and I will become a master gardener And my services are available to North Bay Village or any resident at a future date once I go through the program. May 2026, it's from February 2026 to May. And it's in Davie. So I have to attend classes all day Saturday. So I'm going to do that.

How long is the program?

And so February to May, what is it? It's every March, April, May, four months. Every Saturday.

Well, that's an interesting twist and I think a welcomed one because we have one of our own kind of leading the charge. That's great, Francois. I'll be curious to see updates on that and maybe something we can do. Maybe you can work in conjunction with, was it Seeds to Grow? I forgot the name of the organization.

Yes. Ready, set, grow.

Ready, set, grow, right? So, well, cool. So those are the updates there. And then no update on the Senior AI class, which is not on here anyway. So we can move on.

A big thank you to you, actually, too. I'm appreciative of you, Jose, I'm saying. So a big thank you to you.

Hey, maybe you could teach me a thing or two because my garden, I've got – you have to come over and I'll show you what I'm growing. I've got tons of stuff planted. And as much as I – like I downloaded the app on my phone that you can diagnose like what's going on if things aren't working well. And I've got some good stuff growing and not so good. So I may need your help, expertise, but you're – Anytime.

Anytime. My offer is open.

Awesome, thank you. Okay, let's move to 5A, which is the, I believe, discussion on new board liaison, Lily.

I can chime in. So with Leo's departure, there's a space for a liaison at community service, I'm sorry, community enhancement board. So I'm going to be taking over as the liaison for community enhancement board from here on out. So Lily will be your new liaison. Okay.

Congratulations, Lily.

Thanks. You guys are stuck with me now. Just me.

No, I'm just kidding. That's awesome. Well, it's good and bad. I mean, we hate losing you, Julie. So does that mean on the next board meeting you won't be on our board meetings anymore?

Correct.

Oh, no. Well, if I would have known that, we would have had a going away section here on that. I'm still here. You're still here with us, but just not on our, on the board. So sad to see you go and thank you for everything you've helped us with. So we appreciate that. Of course.

We'll put something together in September.

All right. Great. And so with that, I think that is the agenda for today. Let me just do a quick run through on the agenda. We've gone through everything. So it's a short meeting tonight. I'll open it up for any public comments. Going once, twice. Kelsey, anything?

No, just thank you for all of y'all's hard work.

Thank you for joining. We love when we have some of our residents join us. It doesn't happen too often, so we appreciate that. So, okay. Well, if there's nothing else, we can move to adjourn. Do I get a second to adjourn the meeting?

Second.

Okay, thank you. With that, we can adjourn the meeting at 7.13. And last question, when's our next board meeting? Is that going to be August? Are we having a board meeting in August?

We're skipping August and we're going to September.

Okay. Oh, well, for next meeting, September 2nd, right here on the agenda. So our next meeting is September 2nd, it looks like.

Yes.

Okay. Well, I'll see you guys in September. And thank you so much, everyone, for joining. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Jose, and everyone.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, everyone.

Thanks, y'all.