Community Relations Board - Regular Meeting

I'm sorry to say it like everybody else. Regev Specter.

And what is it again that's going to be displayed?

Thank you. I think we have the money. Does anyone else disagree that money was spent?

Sure. That sounds like a pretty good plan. Okay. I'll make a motion to approve 300. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. And?

The professor's from Texas, and everything's bigger in Texas.

I did check with the family. They do already have a brick there. Did they confirm that they didn't?

I did talk to the family. And there is one? Yeah, I texted his brother. He said yes.

That I know, but... Let me just look at what I got from Zoya. Hurry up. One second. I have to go back. Oh yeah, I said, does she have a brick at the community center? Yes, she does. I don't know if there's another place for bricks? Or another?

We are planning to do a... We have different community organizations come in that can be resources for our community that people may not know are out there. And they can set up tables and they can talk about what they do and how they can be of assistance, give out literature, phone numbers.

Yeah, non-profits, exactly. Children's bereavement group.

Elderly care? Elderly care, exactly. So there's no, are they paid vendors?

No, I don't think any of them will be paid vendors at all. I think the idea is just to have it be, they come for free. I did something like this at Beach High, it was mental and physical wellness. There were some at this one that had the ability to, you know, they were therapists who came in that you could eventually, I guess, pay to see, but it was not, no one paid to be there and no one got paid to be there. Yeah, exactly. And I think this, we can, if you have any ideas, we're kind of collecting right now who you think would be a good resource for the community.

Jewish Family Services, where they provide free counseling, therapy. When I'm thinking elder care, it would be the paid vendors like assisted living facilities, things like that, where children of aging parents can consult with somebody right there, book a tour, that kind of thing. Then it starts a whole other financial spreadsheet. Alzheimer's Association would be good. So, yeah, through the Federation, the Jewish Family Services, they do general therapy and also specifically Holocaust survivors, which are dwindling, but they provide housekeeping and counseling and visits.

Great. Yeah, all of these. So we want to figure out when we're going to do it and then compile the list of who we want to invite and take it from there, I guess. Yeah.

Since this is kind of your field, do you, I mean, it's adjacent. I'm happy to offer my services, too. Yeah. But if you want to. Yeah. If you want to just coordinate with the, since you talked to tomorrow.

Is there a date set for it? No, maybe we have a date. Okay.

phone numbers, contacts we have that we think would be good for the event, then you can come by.

Yes, I've contacted Children's Bereavement and a few other possible ones. I don't know how big we want to make it. We only have so much space, so we have to be a little bit smaller. And this is, where is it? I think we talked about it at the community center.

Well, we originally, the last meeting, talking about doing it in December, coordinating with the gun violence people, but they did not want to do that, so now we have to kind of start again with the dates.

We did it last year in February because it was Chinese New Year, so we could do February, we could do January. Okay.

Are we still allowed to do white parties? Diddy? No relation, absolutely no relation.

That would be good. George Washington. Yeah. Yeah, the 22nd, unless we find out it's not available at the community center.

I think it would be maybe a nice thing to have the the dog lending library and maybe a lending library where people, if they're sitting there with their dog, they could grab a book to read, I don't know, could do both.

Yeah, so you have a cover and some sides and then like an enclosure so you can close it. Look at that little butterfly garden. Does anybody go there?

And for the dogs, they just put some balls and sticks. There's no room for like a dog... Yeah. Well, you could probably leave a note in there. Like, I have a whole bunch of stuff at my house. Call me. Come and get it. So there's a bulletin board attached to the bookcase or something. Yeah.

And also maybe a bulletin board on the side of the pet library. We have one here. But there should be more around the community. Yeah.

I actually think we should wait a little bit. I don't know why, but I just feel like let's hear what they, you know, we can maybe... Since it seems like it's in the infancy, I feel like I could be wrong, but maybe it's a little jumping the gun.

Well, the one that is in my mind, the one that's at the cave near my house, especially It's collars, it's balls, it's anything that's dog related. So I think it can be really something substantial-ish. I don't know if we want to concentrate more on that than the lending library because it seems like something that we already have one in town that maybe it's a little overdoing it if we tell them two demands we have, or not demands, but two requests we have. Maybe we want to just really concentrate on it and we can talk about whether we would say we would fund it if that's part of our request. M

So it's really just a, looks almost like a dog house, the one I'm just thinking of in my mind that I know, and then it just has a door with a latch and you open it up and you put in the collar and you put in the toys and whatever else and, you know, we can sort of If something is in there that's gross, we can get rid of it. It's sort of self-sustained.

Organically. What about, not that everybody wants to get another WhatsApp chat, but doing a dog park, a suicide dog park chat group? for people that have stuff and it's like, please come and take, you know, and my garage is full of stuff and come and take it. Maybe that can help alleviate bringing it, physically bringing it there.

Yeah, people might have kennels or crates or things.

And is it exclusive to dogs or cats too?

No, it's a good idea actually. Cats can be a pet too. Pet lending.

That's a different topic. It would have to be one of us. Rita wants to be the person. She would do all the communicating.

Yes. You want to first recap it? Yes, I'll recap Rita. brought this to the group. I think it's something that would be beneficial to our town. Most people have limited storage. Most people live in garages. It would be a lending sort of library of things, like let's say a pasta maker, a sewing machine, garden tools, whatever it is that you don't necessarily use every day, but you would like to use every once in a while. We've Talked about a few different places we could put it. I did talk to the vice mayor and she thought it might be a great idea when we do take over the house that we are renti

I mean, I love the idea. It cuts down on our personal visits to Home Depot, but if you're borrowing somebody's leaf blower, and it breaks, then what?

So it's really not going to be a person, it's going to be the towns, and we would have a sort of contract that, you know, if it's not misused, and it just breaks, if you can tell it's not, then it's just part of our cross of doing business. If something's been misused, obviously, or lost, then we would have to come up with some kind of penalty, or charge sort of like a library book. So, I think that's, I've done a little bit of research, but I can do more research. A lot of other municipalities are doing this, and we'll find out what they do. And so, it's a contract too, so people have to be r

Another option could be something that you don't really need. Instead of putting it on offer up, I'm just thinking of a personal thing. We have some kind of saw thing that my son left in the garage and we're dying to get it out. And it's like a $200 thing. And that's something I would gladly, you know, this is my contribution, use it in good health. If it comes back, comes back. If it doesn't, that's fine.

I have so many things. My 10% tent. Exactly.

I think we would have maybe Frank help us put into the Gazette something like we're starting this thing if you have useful items like maybe get some examples and then we can be a little bit selective too. But if it's useful I know I've mentioned it at book club people are like I have a toss machine I would love to you know so things like that I don't think we're going to have to buy everything because I think there will be things that for sure people and we can we can together come up with a list of things we would love to do and I think you're right like garden stuff I can't say how many time

That's great, but I mean, that's how long Kushner's going to be there.

We don't know. We could start small if we wanted to just try it out with like five things, possibly at the 96th Street Park or something we could do. Are all of those sheds in the park full?

We don't know when it's going to be open.

Part of me thinks we should maybe see if we can get it started in a small way somewhere, and then once the building is available, then we pitch that we want a whole wall and we can expand it, but just to see how it works and work out the kink. Sure.

I think a lot of it will depend on if it's somewhere where there is actual staff or not. And if, you know, without staff, I think it's just completely honor system. Maybe there's a camera. And it's basically, it's like a notebook almost. And you do a little paperwork and you sign and you write what you're taking out. And then it's... That's just very honor system because I'm assuming they're not going to have a staffing placement.

Yeah, I mean, through the chair, my son worked that tennis center for years in high school, and there's really not a lot to do. He did a lot of homework, so it might be a good thing to start.

I think we're definitely I had my book club last night in my backyard and I can tell you that it is such a community building thing to be able to get together I think it should be encouraged to be very co-ed because I think book clubs tend to for some reason be mostly women I don't know why that's been the case but I think we can really have a great opportunity here to bring the community together for something that's so wonderful, just talking about books. And I believe if we want to try to partner with Books and Books, maybe they can get us something at a discount. We could purchase the book

We have a few authors who live here. Oh, yeah.

That would be great. There was one that was going to join the committee. What's his name? When Fred Glanson came to another. Oh, Camilo Dino. Yeah.

I think it's a great idea to have maybe Surfside authors, especially for the first few.

And we would do this at the community center or people's homes?

We'd love to say eventually we have that house. It's another great opportunity to do the book club there. But in the meantime, we could do it at the community center.

If it's not going to be a gym and it's going to be a heritage house, yes. What about planning it?

That would be cool because then we're supporting local businesses too.

I think we could start with researching if Books and Books wants to in some way partner with us and help us. Either we procure the books or we get a discount for people to get the books. And the other thing would just be to start deciding who the first author would be and when it's going to be.

Maybe I feel like we could do four weeks, but that can be six weeks to read a book.

And we can talk about the different authors. We have Camilo. And we have the woman that I blanked on her name. Ana Menendez. And we have... Who's the second one?

Is there... He wrote for Elvis and who else? I don't know. He wrote a lot of Elvis' songs. He lived on Irving. I want to say Byron. I lived on Irving.

I was good friends with his granddaughter. I think it's S-I-D Tepper. Warren Tepper. I mean, I knew the kid. Warren and Jackie and

So Anna, she has a collection of short stories. In Cuba, I was a German shepherd.

Yeah, I think that's, yeah. She has a lot, so... Maybe we start with her. She seems really well accomplished and something that we can... Yeah, accessible.

I mean, I know... Do you feel like her now? Sure. Mystery, mystery author, you show up in your head. So, one of my classmates is a Harvard professor and a writer. And he's on TV all the time. Thayne Rosenbaum. He's written many, many books. And one of them was How Sweet It Is about Miami in the 70s. That was Jackie Gleason's line. He might come down from New York. He's a friend of my friends. He's a good political analyst. He was our temple, speaking. Which one?

So I think until the house is ready, that's where I think we all envision it eventually for now. It would be probably in the fishbowl, I think. It's really just talking about... If the author can be there, that would be great.

Yeah, if the author's there, we'll let them sort of direct the way. Sometimes the back of the book has questions. We can have someone interviewing them, but yeah, if the author's not there, then we can just look up.

We can just have light refreshments before dinner.

Yes, and then be encouraged to read the book.

Didn't we just say that we were going to do the resource fair in January 11th? I had it as... No, resource fair will be February. That was our old date. Sorry. Let me take that out. I have an old date. All right, so let's maybe do it then, January 11th. January 11th. I'm just going to put book club.

And in the meantime, look for other authors.

That would be further down. Once we get this going, he would need a few months in advance.

I could talk to him about if he bundled it, if he's coming to visit anyway because he has friends here and stuff. Yeah. I mean, what is our budget as a committee? Do we have a budget? Frank? 10,000 a year. 10,000 a year, yeah. Uh-huh.

If you think it's a big draw, I mean, I know that a lot of people outside of Surfside will come to see him, because he did a book signing at Books and Books, and it was all Beach High reunion people.

Yeah, you'll see him on MSNBC and Fox News, and he's a commentator. He does a lot of political stuff. He's a professor at Harvard, and... or was a professor, and he runs a program at the, in New York, it's the Y, the big place, it's a place where they have all kinds of political discussion with big names and some celebrities, something, I think the Y,

Yeah. But I really like the idea, and it's something that... As an exercise for the kids, I think it's great.

I just feel like adults are more... Well, wasn't it open? It's going to be a combination. So the teenagers are kind of leading the way, and the adults are learning how to behave like teenagers. Yeah.

But I do think we should, right? I think so.

So question of the community relations board dates. So these are the dates for next year, 1 through 12. Do we stagger 3 o'clock and another time?

We stopped doing that. I believe we're just doing three, right?

I'm not going to be here in December on December 18th.

It wasn't yoga. It was a walk. Early morning walk.

Make a motion to discuss the beach walk. I'll second the motion.

Okay, read that. Let's talk about the beach walk first. Oh, beach walk, okay. So we did have one. It was very nice. A small group, but it was impactful because there was a guy that came. He didn't know anybody in town. He was super lonely and he was able to get out and meet people and that led him to go on the tour, the Surfside tour with the historian and get out more. Really interesting story, back end story. So I'm thinking about how to spin it, how to market it, how to engage people to make them really want, oh yeah, I really want to do this. This is so awesome. Come out and meet my neighb

What if it ends in coffee or something that we pay for?

Absolutely, that we don't pay for, because I will get it for free. Okay, even better. And that segues into another thing. There's an advisory board for downtown Surfside, which I was put on by Mark a few minutes before he exited, so I don't know if that's effective, but I want to get the vendors of... downtown together as a unit and to engage us so that we patronize them. I spend thousands of dollars a month on food in Surfside. And I think it's nice that we get a little bit of reciprocity from them to repatriate the patrons. So we could definitely, Grove already said they'll give us coffee. A

That's a great idea, yeah. But then we would probably skip the coffee, though.

Switch off every other month, early morning, evening.

Yeah. So, yeah, sunset sounds like a great idea, like at 5 o'clock.

I used to do this when my kids were little and I lived in Aventura. I would take them on the circle, around the circle, dinner, shower, knocked out. Let's knock your kids out. Yeah. Get them ready for bed. This is like a great pre-dinner walk with the kids. They're done with the homework. Bring your kids, bring your dog.

I don't remember. Yeah, I'm totally okay with that, doing WhatsApp, being an administrator. If we want a co-administrator, you guys can join in. Do we need the app at all? Can't we just say, just show up? Well, maybe it's a good idea to get an idea. Be the friend that brings a friend. I know.

I don't know. It's switched a bunch. Yeah, we had James in the last meeting. You came at the best part.

First, an accountability. I said I was going to come and I'm going to come. It's in my calendar. Not just like, we'll see. Oh, I forgot. Oh, I didn't write it down. We want it to be kind of like, you know, get some excitement behind it. And then if we have, you know, a low attendance, we have low attendance, but it would probably be lower without that. That's my thought.

Well, November's out, definitely, right? Because it's Thanksgiving. Hanukkah is the middle of December. Yeah, because people probably do, if we're going to do the evening, then you have candle lighting and all that. Does anybody know when Hanukkah starts? Yeah, 25th. No. December? No.

Let's see. It's Hanukkah starts on the night of the 14th, I believe.

Right. Should we start on a Sunday, on a Monday, on a weekday? What day is good for you?

I wonder if the 21st, maybe on a Sunday to start it. December 21st. And then in January we can try a morning one. December 21st. I think it's a great idea, whatever everybody's going to do. At 5 p.m.? And then we could do like a 9 o'clock also. And the fresh market is continuing all through the winter, Sunday, Saturday, Sunday? We could end there. Yeah, we could start at 89th Street and then walk down to the, oh, that's a great idea.

It's 6.30. I mean, do you want to start at 8? Yeah, let's do it. 8 a.m. Okay.

Yes, do that. Yeah, and do we have any swag, any Surfside swag, like a fanny pack or bottles? I have lots of fanny packs. Oh, I love those fanny packs. Oh, my God. When my guests come to stay with me, I give them a Surfside gift basket, and that's, like, That's the goats up there with candy, and they love it. Nice, yeah, I definitely have a lot, so I'll get you a nice set. And can we do little water bottles?

Yeah, we wouldn't want anyone getting hydrated.

Maybe people just bring their own water.

Yeah, anybody have a problem? I'm going to change my flight from Phoenix to be here. Wow. We can always pick another day. I just want to make you feel better. No, no. Sorry, I'll be back on the 19th.

No, no, I'm in the evening of the 17th, it's fine.

Starting next week. Thank you, everybody.