Senior Advisory Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey, everyone. We're gonna get started so we can all quiet down. I'm calling this meeting to order on January 13 at 06:03PM. We're gonna start with roll call like we always do. Please say your first and last name. Malia Martin.

My tail's coming. Oh, Julie.

Julie's on her way. So just Sam. Okay.

So our next order of business is to excuse Sam who will be absent from this meeting. Can somebody please make a motion to excuse him? Samarth's direction.

Motion to excuse Samarth's direction today.

Can somebody please second? Second. All in favor, aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Motion carries. Alright. Our first order of business is looking at the meeting minutes from our last meeting, December 9. So you can pull them up on your phone or if need a copy, we have copies, and just see if you can catch any mistakes. No.

Sorry, Drew. Oh, okay. Drew. I have one amendment

for the sister cities exchange program. When you when you

go, I mean, you'll say.

Okay. Does anybody have anything to amend?

For the commissioner report for sister cities, I believe it says that the students are coming on January 25, but they're coming on January 24. Oh, and my name is spelled wrong. Yeah.

Yes, sir. There is so many

oh, there's one? Yeah. We're done. Sorry.

Does anybody have any other catches?

Was that your correction?

So our first Tonight,

you need to. Will

somebody please make a motion to amend the mistake that the Of the corrections. For the corrections for the meeting's last name on the commissioner's report and the date that the exchange students will be coming. I make

a motion to amend the mistakes made to the commission's report.

Will somebody second? I second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Motion carries. Can we please have a motion to approve the amended minutes for December 9? A motion to approve the amended for December 9. Do we have a second?

Two seconds? Sure. Hey. You guys gotta speak up because it's recording.

All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed say nay. Motion carries. Then our next order of business are public presentations. Does anybody have a public presentation? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to our general business, which is giving updates to our 2025, 2026 work plan where all three committees will share out what they have done since our last meeting. I can start off for civic engagement. We made tremendous progress in finalizing the new resident welcome package.

Package. We created a flyer that has a QR code that we are hoping to get up on a few of Santa Clara's websites and then also print flyers and hang them up in different just just areas around the city. And then we are starting to move on to our Narcan demo, which we will be partnering with the library and Q Corner for that. So those are our updates. Would another committee like to share?

For community building, we decided that on January 16, 08:30PM, we wanted to go out to the Kids Rock event start our interviews with the public there because there were gonna be kids and their parents there. And we also decided that we wanted our hackathon to be on March 21 from 8AM to 8PM, and we wanted to, like, set that date in stone today during our meeting. We wanna continue working on the layout of the hackathon, confirming the schedule, sending out our flyer that we already have and advertisement blurbs to different schools companies to look

for sponsors. What day was the hackathon?

March 21. At what time? 8AM to 8PM.

And where is it at?

Here. Teen center? Yeah. Does anyone wanna add anything to the community?

And does anybody wanna add anything to civic engagement?

I was gonna speak on behalf of Youth Empowerment. Recently, we have done the final details on our project for what we do with the library card. Recently, we finished writing our script and doing our research within those sources. I was able to get in touch with the lady who is currently helping out in place of carrying these meds, which is on maternity leave. And I was able to get in contact with the teen library leaders who have decided

to help have reached out

to us, and we're talking about collaborating on those potential projects. They really helped us out with their script, and we collaborated on now we will be helping promote the team library team car design competition. And now today, we are working on finalizing the details to be able to fill the project sometime within the next week or

two. This is Lorena. She is a librarian.

Okay. So she could help her out. And

does anybody wanna add on to that report? K. Next, our committees will set up times to meet. I will start off with civic engagement. We will meet at 06:35PM. Community building can be

at 06:30

And the engagement at 06:25PM?

06:25. Okay.

Will somebody please make a motion to approve the committee meeting times times of 06:35PM, 06:30PM, and 06:25PM. I make a

motion to approve the committee meetings for six ninety five, 06:30, and 06:25 respectively.

Was somebody second? Second. That was a. You guys gonna sneak up

the. Yes.

We'll now move on to staff reports. Do any staff have a report? Yes. Okay.

Hello, everybody. My name is Lorena. I'm with the librarians at Central Park Library. I'm here in lieu of Karen, who's currently on the. There are a couple of things I wanted to mention about the library. First, we need to

thank you, Julie, for working

with Rachel on the video for the library, how to use the library. Again, promoting the team library card design contest that you could help us out by coordinating your schools. We do have a flyer for everything we're gonna be talking about today, so I'll be sending that to Gail, and Gail can then push it out to you guys. We're also talking about a really big event, which is a whole citywide event that we'll be hosting on April 19, and that is called stem cell. Essentially, it's going to be this huge event at the convention center.

So it's not gonna be at the library again. It's citywide, and it's anything and everything stem. So if you all have any any fellow students or yourself are involved in some sort of stem team, please do let us know. Again, I'll send the flyer to Gail, but you can get in contact with our coordinator. Her name is Rachel Schmidt. And then she can get you set up with if you want to volunteer at the event and then promote any sort of STEM knowledge that you may have with the group. Also, to promote that in your schools, there are any STEM related groups in your schools that might wanna participate. It's a great opportunity to get your hours, graduation or their hours as well. Secondly, in the team volunteer I'm sorry. The team library card design contest, please promote that

with your colleagues as well.

And finally, we have a very big probably the library's biggest event of we do every two years is called Comic Con, and it's our mini Comic Con that we hold at the library. And it is not small, like, what welcomes up to 10,000 people every time that we do it. And it's so big that we can only do it every two years. But we are looking for volunteers for that as well as for our summer adventure. Over the summer, we have our reading challenge where we can use lots and lots of volunteers for all of those things.

We have a very busy year coming up 2026 in general for the entire city of Santa Clara. The library is no exception. So if you are interested in volunteering for that or you have friends or your fellow students that might want to join us, please do let us know. I'll also leave my contact information with Gail, so if you wanna reach out to us and volunteer for that. Thank you.

No worries. So how come would be

Yes. I can give you the dates for everything. So the the date for stem is April 19. And I think you're gonna expect time to put that one. One. Give Okay. A second. Fund, we don't have a flyer yet. We kind of delayed that one because our community loves, loves, loves it so much and then it comes with a few questions as well. So we try to wait till after summer for that one.

Stem zone is April 19 from ten to four at Santa Clara Convention Center, and Comic Con will be on October 10. And that would be you more than likely either ten to four or ten to five depending if you choose to extend it the full time. But, yeah, both of those things do require a lot of volunteering and commitment as well as summer adventure usually runs from June 1 to July 31, and we mostly need help with our events over the summer as well as price pickup later in August. So before everybody goes back to school, you can spare some time to help us out there. Any other questions?

One? Like this. Is it wait. Is there already a post?

We have a post. I don't think we posted it on our Instagram yet. Okay. But I will make a note of that for Rachel. And then maybe we can get you an image over what I put. You guys usually just recode whatever Recode? Yeah. I mean, can also put it on the story.

I'll make the post for it, but it doesn't have to be like a square. We can put it our story.

Okay. Sounds good. Okay. I'll send the flyer over to Gail tonight and then then Yeah.

So I forward all the information about the the card contest and everything like and you guys all sent it send out to your schools and that stuff. So we've been promoting that. Oh, that's great. Thank you. And then also to that Rachel reached out to us about the Martin Luther King event that you guys are having. I'm looking for readers. So I know that Neha and Uni Nina, you guys were interested and I forward it to Rachel, right, to to read to be part of that. So they're in connection with

both Rachel. Right? Yeah. Okay. I think I should have, like, a you guys need, like, a purchase contract. Have her business cards.

Yeah. So once you guys responded, then I forward that invitation. So you two responded. So they put there just to know that.

We're collecting are the people interested are collectively reading the

speech different parts or what exactly is the basic

I I believe so. I don't have a lot a lot of info on it. I haven't really been super involved, but I know that we were looking for

as many volunteers as possible

to read different parts of speech. That's how that works. But if you are interested in it, definitely reach out to Rachel directly. Her name is Rachel Schmidt. I can give you that information as well.

They She sent me once they respond, like, an invitation, and then I would forward it to Okay.

Great. So And that's next what's no. It's tomorrow. Tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. Tomorrow, you're right.

I I think as of yesterday, I think there's still a freeze. Open. So I could do that tonight.

Okay. Good? Any questions on that event or anything for the library? Okay. Thank you. So I have a couple of things. I know I can send you guys emails about YTRS scholarships, and this is something that you guys are all eligible to apply for. YTRS is

So our professional organization in the area, California Parks and Recreation Society, we are just in District 4. Within District 4, there's a subgroup of the Yucatan Recreation Services that some of you, I think, may have been a yak attack where commissioners, committee members from throughout the Bay Area get together every other year to a little state one day conference on topics that are pertaining to you being commissioners and hosting events and activities. Part of the conference registration goes to support a annual scholarship that is it's been a little while since I've been involved with that as far as the eligibility for it. I know what it used to be. High school seniors apparently, they haven't changed much.

High school juniors and seniors within the various counties that district four covers. Santa Clara County being one of them, so all of you juniors and seniors would be eligible with a minimum of 40 documented service hours and two letters of recommendation. So the oh, two scholarships of up to a thousand dollars each. When I was the one doing it, administering it, it was something that we were looking for the youth that were, you know, making that impact in the community. Very similar to your youth commission interviews as far as, you know, what are you involved with, what's the effect that it's had on you, what effect have you had on the community.

And it's a good if anything, it's a great opportunity for you to go through an application and interview. Okay? To kinda just get that in motion. And in the past, they would have two sets of interviews, one for students who were kind of more up on the peninsula, and then another one for the South Bay. So again, and they may do Zoom now. So it's something to consider. I would encourage all of you who are eligible to apply, and at the very best, you get some money, and we would keep track of how you spent it. We would just invite you to dinner, to our awards dinner for the district, hand you a check and say, good luck.

So did everyone get that email? Everyone got that? Okay. And also to the YTRS also, sponsors, a Yak attack. It's all the youth commission, all over the Peninsula. They have a conference. So this is something that, I sent to you guys. No one kinda responded, but if you we were interested as a group, then we can go to this event. So you guys can respond and figure that out.

It's a great opportunity for you all to network, meet your peers from throughout the Bay Area and so you get your good day.

Yeah. So next is the actually, the next term for youth commission applications will be available on Monday, February 9. And then there's a parent meeting for any newcomers that have any questions or anything like that. It's on Wednesday, February 25. Applications are due on March 5.

So for those of you that are undergrad, you are more than welcome and encouraged to apply back again to be for the next term. Applications are due on March 5. I will send that out to you guys before February 9 and get that in. Then interviews will be on Saturday, March 14 here at the Teen Center between nine and 04:00. So that's kind of like it's coming up again for the term.

Yeah. Sometimes it's Yeah. Depends on how many people are gonna be.

Mayha, it depends on your standing.

Yeah. And depends on And I'll say this commission, we have really good attendance versus other.

That's true.

So any questions on the next term application within dates and all that stuff, I'll send all that stuff out to you guys. They'll be prepared to turn in your application here.

That's a lot. Perfect. Alright. Seeing all the staff reports are done, we can move on to commissioner's reports. Do any commissioners have a report? May I help? So

and so I asked her, like, if there's, like, any problems that are, like, prevalent for youth who are on social security or who are who are benefits of social services, things like SNAP, and things like that. And so I asked the representative, and she was just like so some tips and some information that she would like for there to be more of out there is that

Thank you so much for that. Does anybody else have a report that they

need to? This is really repetitive, but this is the last call for anyone that's willing to host a family or host an Izumo exchange student. They're coming on the twenty fourth, and we still need three more And if you also go to Wilcox High School and you're interested in a student shadowing you, feel free to reach out to the sister cities club chapter at Wilcox. It'll be a super great opportunity for the ASU student as well as for you.

Thank you. Does do any oh, yeah.

What time does it start?

Six to eight. Six to eight.

True. For those who are not in high school or do not go to Santa Clara High School, what is BBO? So I'm glad

you asked that question. BBO is this basic it's just this one really basically, it was just a really, really fun way to engage the community, like, the two high schools together and compete for something in a friendly competition. And So the parks and recreation department, the team center used to sponsor that event. And we used to run that event between Santa Clara and Wilcox. And we used to have it at the gym.

And judges and then there's really a lot of good school spirit. Richard ran that whole thing in town. It's good. It's good event.

Can I add something to you or sister Sayyid? Going back to the Izumo exchange students coming back, if anyone is interested in attending the welcome party that we're gonna host for the Izumo students, it's gonna be on Saturday, January 24 from four to 6PM, and it's gonna be at the Country Inn and Suites Hotel in San Jose. If anyone's interested, I can send the address, but there are gonna be a few council members there, and also all the ISMO students and a bunch of Santa Clara students too.

Thank you. Are there any other additional Seeing none, it is now time to move on to adjourning our meeting. Our next youth commission meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 10 at 6PM. Can somebody please make a motion to adjourn this meeting at 06:35PM. Can somebody please second?

All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, say nay. Motion passes. The meeting is adjourned at 06:35PM.