Community Relations Board - Regular Meeting

Okay, I'll call this meeting to order. And Janice, if you want to call the roll.

Yes, Chair. Chair Clark?

Here.

Vice Chair Cates? Here. Board Member Henderson? Here. Board Member Agamow? Here. Chair, you have a quorum.

Okay, thank you. And here's our agenda. And if you have anything new, we'll add it on a few times. And something I'm going to try to do is we'll fix the agenda for the next meeting before we leave, so we are on the same page. Okay, and Commissioner Gerardo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have much in the way of a prepared liaison report. I wanted to apologize. I missed, I think, the board's last meeting because of a calendar confusion. I was going off of one page on the website that had a 6 p.m. meeting, but I think it has been switched to 4, and I just need to do a better job with my emails, so I apologize for that. And I will have later some information about Item 6E. I am a former member of that Miami Beach debate team, and I've been in touch with the coach recently, so I can offer some news. Otherwise, yeah, I just want to say that I was really happy as a liaison to this board and just as a resident with our Padletopia event, yet another really sweet community building event that I was really happy to see and to be part of. I don't know if there are any questions about any recent commission items. I'm happy to take questions.

Okay, thank you. And I see we don't have any public here, so we'll move on to approval of the minutes. Anybody have any change or additions or deletions? And would someone make a motion to approve the minutes as recorded?

Make a motion to approve the minutes as recorded.

Thank you, and a second?

I'll second.

And all those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, motion passes. Discussion. So let's go to 6A, Hatsala.

Frank? I don't know. I've asked the manager multiple times, but he hasn't given me an answer. Okay. He's not coming to the meeting. So I think maybe the best thing is whoever came up with the item, that maybe they can just email him. Who are you talking about? The town manager.

I emailed him last week, and he didn't respond. About Hatsala? A few things. Okay. Actually, three things. And I told him that if I didn't hear from him, I would see him here today, and he didn't respond. So I guess check that.

I'm going to text Anna, because she's not there, to see if he can jump in. Let's review.

What did we want again with them?

Just to promote the, I think it was just to promote the service a little bit more so folks are more aware of it because they're so local and they may be able to respond quicker.

Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

I think we talked about also with it to put into some kind of, whether it's on our website or some way, resources for any kind of emergent thing that may come up. I actually was talking to Gail, one of our neighbors in Surfside, who works with the Children's Believement Center, And they would love to partner with us in any way, do anything they can. Because we don't realize it, but in this community, people lose a parent. And it's not just for children who lose parents. There's so many different things they cover that we don't realize. But I think they could be a huge resource for our children and for our community in general. And I'm sure there are a million other. resources for Surfside that we could tap into. I don't know, we can come up as a group of maybe the best way to put that together.

I can tell you that because I'm not managing the website anymore, I'm just focusing on tourism. But when I was, I can tell you that there's, I think, a couple of pages, one in human resources and one in the police department section that has some resources. And maybe those could be revamped or maybe focused. Maybe we could share those and you can let us know what you think is missing. Just to be careful, I used to get tons of emails And some of this is kind of strange, for example, from like addiction centers. Like every addiction center will reach out and be like, list us for our, like, you know. And even like an addiction center in the UK. And I'd be like, well, I don't think our residents are going to come to our website to look for, you know, rehab centers in the UK. But, you know, it just opens it up a little bit. But I think if you all can define what it is you'd like to.

Nonprofits and more localized and things where they really just want to help the community. They don't want to profit off of. of our trauma, so we can talk about, I personally don't use the website as much as maybe I should. I go onto it to watch the meetings remotely and things like that, but I don't know, you guys could maybe, Chairman, is that the best way?

It's on that site, the same site that you go on for the agenda and everything. Yeah, it's on the same site.

Yeah, so, I mean, I'd have to see if I can find it now, but I know that within police there's a page. Actually, I don't know if this connects to any other.

Another idea, sorry. Do the chairman. So, another thought, and we have so many things on our plate, so maybe this is down the line. Maybe we do some kind of resource fair. That's always for me how I get really great information if it's a college resource fair or something else. So maybe there's something for the community that's fun with food and we have different community things that can help us so people can really learn that you don't have to be Jewish. You don't have to use all the different resources that are at their fingertips that they don't even know they can use?

I think that was what Elgie was trying to do with Mark's team, was to see if it was okay for us to report about it on our site.

What was the hesitation? What was the question? Well, I think when we had the original discussion...

I think he said something like that, you know, there are... I don't know if it's that they're for... I guess that they're non-profits. I don't know. That we're just promoting private...

Yeah, that's what Mark was supposed to get back to Frank on.

Yeah, about Hatsala more specifically, but I think for a non-profit, I think that should be okay. Is it a non-profit, Yaki?

They're all volunteers also. Okay. Everybody that's a responder is a volunteer. I think maybe the higher-ups could be getting paid, but I'm not sure.

And is there any bill? Like is there a bill from the ambulance? No. What about the regular ambulance?

They own it. They own it. So they just do it as a community service and it gets funded usually through donations.

Okay. What about the regular ambulance and the fire department that all come? They bill. They bill? Okay.

If you don't have insurance, they bill you directly.

So if you wanted to do something like a resource fair... in a particular time.

I mean, so much.

Let's brainstorm what groups we would invite to this first, I think, at the next meeting. Sure.

You know, actually, on the same topic, I'm sure you guys know, I'm sure you know, there's a truck that I see, a van, or like a mini SUV that drives around that says, like, I don't remember what it was, like community relations or something like that. Not community relations.

Community servicing?

Yeah, community servicing. Yeah, exactly. Community servicing. What does that do? What is it? I just hate driving around. I don't think it does anything. But I'm just curious what it does. It sounds great.

But I just didn't... No, is it?

It's an extra. I mean, one of the things... You may know the org chart a little better than I do. I believe they're sort of under the police department. They do think... Okay, yeah. Like, for example, you know, they deliver agendas to commissioners. But they do, you know, there are certain, you know, tasks.

I'm saying, what do they do for the community, I'm saying?

I think sometimes, like, you know, like, police stuff's overcome. They have to close the street. They'll help with street closures. Yeah, also direct traffic. Parking. Parking, stuff like that.

The reason I was asking is because I thought it was a great idea. I mean, it sounds, like, amazing. But, like, um... We had a dispute with one of our neighbors. Our neighbors came yelling at us, could we park in front of his house? So we're like, you know, the police officer said we could park here and he just went ballistic. And so he started cursing me out. And then my kids came in. I started throwing things at them. I'm like, this is really bad. So I was like, don't do anything. Just call the police. I was like, I don't want to call the police because I don't want to bother them with something so trivial. It seemed like such a small thing. And I'm like, it's not like he did anything criminal or anything. He just has some anger issues or whatever. So I was like, maybe we can resolve this. But my wife was like, no, just call them because it escalates and there's going to be a bigger problem. So I was like, all right, maybe I'll just talk to them. I called up I felt like an idiot calling because like I said I didn't want to bother them and I'm sure they have other things to do and they were hesitant because when the person who answered the phone was like well let me see if we go out for that and then she like and then she came back on she goes we'll send an officer out now obviously the officer was busy and you could tell he was kind of frustrated also but he's like very nice like yeah you know what he shouldn't have done that and I'll speak to him and he went over and spoke to him It kind of got a little bit calm for like a day or two, and then he started up again. So I was like, I don't want to deal with this. But the reality is, is I thought that that's what that... liaison. I mean, that's the community would have done. They would have went over and, you know, had, like, spoken to a neighbor, like, hey, you know. It could sound like they're, like, you know. But that's not what they do. But that's not what they do. No.

They're just support staff.

Yeah, they're just support for the kind of, like, you know.

No, I was just curious about that.

That's all just a good resource. We could do, for instance, like, I'm on another... like free mammograms. We could get into bigger things or we could start small and just, you know.

Gun violence prevention. Right.

We could have just a real resource to kind of

Like across the street?

Either at the park, if it's bigger, or at the community center.

Okay, so let's, for the next meeting, just come up with, each of us try to come up with a couple organizations that could help the community in case of some, I think that was one of our purpose in the preamble, if something happens. You know, that death by gunshot, you know. Who do we call right away to get in there? Fire? Have the police there for things like you? Oh yeah, okay. So let's put that on for next and then we'll, and so we'll rely on, try to come up with some organizations that we would like to approach. Um, even like, you know, that, who we donated the extra clothing to.

Yep, in fact.

Yeah, both of them, you know, that, Lotus and Camillus, uh, if you have things, you know, what's the one for the diapers and the unwed mothers?

Um, Lotus? I think Lotus does a lot of stuff.

So if we just had a table, you know, and, um, so people would... Okay, going back to Frank, where on the... Oh, I think the manager will pop in soon.

Okay, but where on here? I have to find it because right now I'm not exactly sure where that page is, so I don't want to waste everyone's time. But when I find it, I can send out the link so you all can take a look.

All right, so I'll put the community website and the resource there for the next meeting. How's that? Okay. And... If you want to talk to my wife about different groups. I'd love to. Okay.

I think it would also be good that whenever we do do this event, we do have a little bit of, we still have some money left in the budget, so maybe creating... little magnets that you can have everything that you need right on here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. If you have any, if you see an item, you know, a little magnet or something that you think works, just, you know, please flag it and we can, we can look at it. Yeah.

That's very good. Okay. All right. So keep that in mind for next meeting. I think we've already just talked about 6RB too, you're trying to find it, is that? Which one is that? That's CRB updates webpage.

No, so that was different. That was just a landing page for your activities, which I built, and I think it's included in the memo packet there, but it's just basically a landing page like we have for the, you know, the Memorial Committee and the Youth Council has a page. So if you don't see it there, it's in the town.

Oh, I see it. Yeah, it's very nice.

And it's just every time, you know, you have an activity or an update, we'll post a little. So you'll do that automatically when we schedule something? Yeah.

Oh, good, good.

Thank you. Sure.

Oh, I like that photo.

And we could put, Joanna, and we could put all those resources there too.

Yeah, I mean, maybe it makes more sense if they live within that page because once you dilute too much, then the audience starts skipping around too much. So we could help centralize it there, like community resources vetted by the CRP or something like that.

Okay. And then say there's a date coming up. Does it go to the head of the queue and pops up first or something?

I have to build it and give it the right order.

Say when we do the luncheon, that would pop up automatically? Yes, it'll be included there.

I may feature it in some other places. Something like the luncheon, no, because it's not like we're inviting her. It just depends. For the debates. Yeah, for the debates and stuff, we would put everything there, but probably also maybe do a banner for it. We'll put it on other places as well. Okay.

And then who automatically puts it on next door and then email? Me.

I'll put more stuff on there. If I can't, then Cindy will. So it's just automatic? Yeah. Whenever we have something to promote or share, I'll make sure that it's communicated.

Thank you.

Perfect. Yeah.

Okay, next is recognition for public looks and poems. I just need a second, I left my water in the living room.

I pushed something by accident and it's updating.

It's updating, yeah. You'll have to wait until it updates. I don't know what happened, I just put the thing and it's like... Yeah, it'll be a few edits.

There's a paper agenda for now. Oh, sweet. That will be very appreciated.

Here's the agenda packet so you can see the actual images and attachments for each item for now until the I-5.

And I want you to walk. I'll take one. Okay. Oh, thank you. There you go.

Okay, so recognition for public support. Frank. Thank you. Yeah, so we asked, I think you guys decided on Flanagan's the one meeting I was in here, and then, yeah, I think the Public Works team is up for it.

Did we pick a date yet?

No, that we have not.

or when are you around joanna so yeah it's a great question um i have federal jury duty so i'm coming back right now uh july 25th or so and i'm gonna be here for a few weeks and if i'm not picked for the jury then i'll have a lot of free time um and then i'm gonna go back again to the end of the

Like that last... End of summer is maybe better? Yeah.

I mean, if we want to pick a date, I know my exact thing in my head, but if you guys also know your schedules, like what's your... I know we'd all love to be a part of it.

I'm gone for three weeks starting the 24th of August.

Okay.

So you can do the beginning.

Let's do the beginning of August.

And then July... I can only do, well don't base it around me, I have a couple things. I can do the beginning of the week of the 13th and the F of the 28th, which I.

So I'm kind of good with that, but the only thing that I have on my calendar that's really pressing is I'm going to be away July 9th through the 17th, and then after that I'm pretty open. So August is good, or end of July.

My internship ends here.

There's an 18th of July. Are you here? I'm not.

I get back towards the end of July. Again, if I end up getting actually called for the jury, then I will not be here. But I'm going to just guess that I won't be. Maybe if we want to do it in that beginning of August. Maybe we should. So beginning of August, if that's good for everybody.

So there's August 1st, Friday, and then the first week of August, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

How about for you, Frank?

Um, anytime first few weeks of August is good. Do you think maybe on a Friday so they're more like relaxed? Yeah. You don't have to have Flanagan's and come back to work the next day.

What's the first Friday in August? What's that?

That's the first. That's the first, yeah.

Is that too early? I think that's good.

I think that's great. Should you have a rain date?

Just given the season. Isn't it back by the garage?

The following Friday?

Is there any place to eat back there? Yeah, I think they can set something up. I think they've set something up in the past. But I think it's kind of covered.

Because if we order, finding us might not like that we cancel it.

We have also, I mean for the holiday lunch we use the big room in the community center and that is nice.

I have to check with Parks in case they have something going on in there but that could be option A.

And then do you guys want me, I have negotiated things with them before where they've given us for teacher appreciation things like coins for drinks and whatever. Do I want to see if we want to... I mean, someone else can do it, but if you want me to... Yeah, no, I mean, if you have experience. Yeah, sometimes they'll give us free stuff, gift certificates for them on top of it. Yeah. And how many people did we think, just so I can...

I had...

that it was like i remember 24. yeah i took a photo of the order list i have it somewhere why don't i say 30 and then yeah it'll if it's less it's less here it is 24. yeah 24. okay and then um okay so i'll tell them 24 and then but i mean you guys maybe have something to watch that's true and the other question where we i think we talked about this last in my memory I'm sorry, through the chair. Are we asking them ahead of time what they want, or are we doing it catered in a different way? Yes.

My understanding was that it was, you know, choose what you want. Yeah, okay. And I think they know that. Okay, great. I think they already selected.

Okay, perfect. Oh, even better. Okay. And then do you guys think that the following Friday is a landing date? If we're going to do it inside, we don't need a rebate?

Yeah, right. If we do it inside the community center, we don't need the rain day. And we may not, even if we do it in the back, I have to check on the set outside. Most likely we can just do the first.

Perfect.

It might be too hot outside now.

Well, that's why I think option A inside the community center would be better. Because I think everyone will be more comfortable. You can sit with them and we won't be sweating to death. Love it. Okay.

I'll just confirm with Parks that it's okay to use.

Did we already approve the money? Yes, yeah. I mean it's basically just whatever it totals to.

It's going to be like $400 or $500. Something like that.

Do we need like tablecloth snapkins and things like that?

I mean the community center has that if we can do it there. So I think that, you know, they do the senior brunch and we can help decorate it a little bit.

Right.

You know, it'd be cool. I'm just randomly thinking that maybe because a lot of them work with Randy so much, maybe we can have Randy do a little thank you video also. I don't know.

Yeah, that's great.

It came to mind, but I don't know if it's a good idea.

I mean, if we want to do other things, if we want to give them a gift or something small, a token, we do have money. I think we talked about maybe planning to donate that, tokens, or a gift card if they... won't or the way we can also we have eight thousand dollars left these people work so hard for us like i feel like if we won't like maybe we do some kind of gift card or and raffle raffles are also if you get a limited number of gifts that's kind of you know it's fun if they say they'll give us five dollars we can match or i'll tell them we want to do five dollars can you match it and do five so we can at least give them ten and be able to like they can You know, I don't know, something like that. If we have an idea.

I think we should spend a little more. I think we should get to make $25. Yeah? Minimum. I mean, I think $5 or $10. You can't really get a sandwich for that.

Yeah. Yeah, I think $25 is a good idea.

$25 is a good idea. Yeah. Even if we have to pay for it on our budget, I think it's worth it. Because we're not going to... I think we approved, I think, like $700 last time or something. So we have a spread.

I'm going to see what Flanagan's will do, and then we'll do whatever it is to get to $25, too.

Do we need to approve it? Do you have cards?

I mean, maybe you can say that you can approve up to $600 if you want to do... Is there going to be enough for us if we sit down with an eight?

We'll make it work. Why don't we say up to $700 or something and then if we need to do less. We have a lot of money right now.

Are they all kosher? Nobody eats kosher there?

I don't think so. I think, how many of the gift cards do you want to give away? If there's 24 employees, you want to give like a third, or is that too much?

Meaning, no, I think all of them. Everybody gets. Yeah. Oh, yeah, so it's fine. I like that. Everybody gets. Okay, I like it. I like that.

That's even better. What time are we looking at?

I am.

Probably like lunches time, but I'll check with them to see whatever. Do they have like staggered lunches, or do they all work the same?

No, they... I'm not sure, but Fran said that if we want to do it in one seating, that they can arrange it anywhere. So I think that's always, you know, give them a bit of a heads up. Excuse me, I can take that. You can take over.

Okay, great. Okay, anything else on the Public Works?

No, I'll just check with Tim, and I'll, you know, in case we don't meet again, I'll send you an email update, and, you know, we can go from there.

I'm excited for that. Okay, on to 6D, Recap of Community Clothing Swap and Your Sale at Palo Alto Zumbia. So, I think it went really well for our first annual I think we should do it again. We got requests to do it again. People couldn't go. We said, I hope we're going to do it again. I think we can make it even better and even more organized next time. Lotus House was thrilled. We basically packed up all the stuff that was not taken and we put it into storage at the community center. I'm sorry, at the 96th Street Park. And then I met the representative the next day. from Lotus House and they picked everything up and they were really happy. We do have to, I told them we're gonna have a little check for them. Yeah, like a $70 check.

We had some issues with Eventbrite depositing the money into our account, but we sorted that out. So Chris told me that I can just put in a check request for $70. Okay, perfect. So when it's ready, I'll... I'll hold it and we can talk about it if we want to.

They were thrilled to get it and I think we can grow it. We can do things like strollers. We can get into whatever we want to get into. We could do two a year or one year it's just kids clothes and kids things and then adults the next time. So we could really break it up. You were there, you were there. Anyone have anything that they want to add to it? Hi Mark, how are you?

Good, how are you? Good, doing great. Well, one quick note, yeah, I agree. It was just, as I said in my liaison report, I thought it was a lovely event, the Battletopia clothing swap. I think a sign, I remember thinking that would be a really, actually, it would be a nice investment because People didn't always know that it was free as opposed to the flea market booths. And their faces would light up. It's sort of like the word free really does something on the human mind that we should take full advantage of. So if we can get that word printed on a nice sign, I think that would be a really good boost to the event next time.

I had planned to do even like... women's dresses, like laminate signs. I just ran out of time that week, but I think more signage would definitely make it run even smoother. But it was, I think, a great event in general, and we got great feedback. Anything else on that?

It was very nice. It was like the one section was all about our stuff, and then the other was really nice.

Yeah, my 21-year-old got to get rid of all of his his hoarder tenancy stuff of all of, he's a collector, not a hoarder, collector. So that was good. Records and yeah.

And I remember feeling too that it, you know, it brought out new people that I had not met before, you know, so that, you know, I think it's a nice thing about this board's work that the different events do kind of connect with different people. You know, there are other series of events in town that we see the same faces, but this felt like a different mix and that was, that was nice.

Is Patrotopia a yearly event?

Yes, it's come and gone the last few years a little bit, so I'm not sure they'll want it again. It's your most likely, but you can always tag on to something else.

So it is, but the park construction is what caused the lack of continuity in the past few years. saw this year, but the weather and the rabbis passing impacted this for sure.

Okay, anything else on that? Okay, six Cs. Do we want town managers here?

Did you have something? I understand there was an inquiry.

Yes, I think you should also listen to six Cs. It's an interesting one. But yeah, just to follow up on the Hatzalah discussion, if it's okay to promote it more readily on our communications channel.

Yes, so on Hatzalah, I actually met the director at the Surfside 90 event that occurred at the park. And were you there? Maybe you saw there was a presence of Hatzalah for that event. And we're supposed to have a follow-up conversation. And I have some ideas that I'd like to suggest to Hazala, but I haven't had that conversation yet. But I think, you know, obviously they're a valuable asset to the town, and we want to include them more. And I think once I have that conversation with him, we should be able to accomplish that.

that would come to our committee to promote it, or you would?

Depending on the nature of the conversation with the director, it may or may not need to come back to you. Okay. So let me have that conversation, and then I'll return.

Through the chair. Yes. We did speak, we talked about also maybe having a resource kind of fair where we have different community nonprofit organizations that could help people in our community that we don't even know they exist, or... A lot of people don't know what's for them, and we were thinking they would be a great sort of centerpiece for it and then do other organizations if we think that would be useful.

Oh, that's useful. Okay. All right, I'll put you down. Like a resource fair type of thing?

Yeah, exactly. And then May had a good idea maybe to have a magnet made with different phone numbers of different organizations that could be utilized for issues that pop up.

to incorporate it on the website too? Is that a good idea?

Put it on the website too, but also for people who don't typically go onto the website or don't have easy access to computers, just on their fridge, these are the different things you can call if you run into this issue.

Who is the director of a solo?

his name I have it I have it in some kind of uh Apple check yeah I'm just curious I don't know I don't know who it is are you in on this well there's a local gentleman who lives here but he's not the director there's a guy named Roy I think it is yeah I know him I know him but he's not he's just a volunteer yeah yeah yeah but he was there when I met the uh he's a great guy he's a really good guy I gotta find it I gotta find the name Let me get that to you.

Yeah, that's fine. I can ask him. I can ask him. I was just curious. I didn't know there was one local, that's all.

I think he lives in Aventura.

All right, I'll put you down for next month if you know anything you're invited to share.

His name is Breitman, R-O-I-T-M-A-N. Andre Reutemann.

I've heard of him, yeah. I mean, I know Rowe. He's new to town, probably passed like three years, maybe.

That's the gentleman that lives on 93rd Street? Yeah. Yes, the corner house. Yeah. By the park. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and he always volunteers, and I see him all the time running around from like broken arms, broken things. He will fall, slip and fall accidents, whatever. But he's a great level-headed guy, this guy.

Who was the one you mentioned, Mark?

Roitman, R-O-I-T-M-A-N. Andre, A-N-D-R-E. You might have met Roy also. You might have met him.

I was with Moises that day.

Yeah.

All right, so if you know anything, I'll put you on for the agenda next month if you know anything. Sure. That would be great. Okay, thank you for helping with that. Okay, anything else you wanted to share with us?

All kinds of things I could share with you. Tell me what you want to know.

I think I'll stick to ours. Okay, let's go to the debate.

Okay, well, I think it's all of us, sort of. We're trying to put together a debate. I think May was definitely getting involved with, I gave you, I think, Max's I know we all have, and you have a relationship with the coach. We all have sort of, we have to decide before we start talking to these people how we see this working and what we do. we want the structure to be. I know in my mind, I have what I think would be a great structure, but I would love to hear it from you guys.

May I ask what the nature of the debate is you're talking about? Yes, it's a great question.

So our thought is, part of what we want to do as our group is to encourage healthy discussion in a way that doesn't have to erupt into what it sometimes does on next door, in person, at the community, at the board meetings, whatever. Commission needs. We believe that we can talk about difficult things, things that affect our community, in a way that is constructive and factual and gets to a place that we don't have to all agree. So the idea of a debate is, I don't know if you, being a lawyer, if you were on the debate team, I figured you were. You know, you sometimes get the opposite point of what you believe. So my thought is we have people volunteer from the community, and we put them into two teams, and we give each, we... Either we decide the topics or the commissioners and the mayor decide the topics. However we decide to structure it, they then will debate the topics. We maybe have three, four, five, whatever, how many topics you want. And we have people there in the audience. We have judges. We have coaches. We invest in our kids and we have the debate team there coaching or judging, however. Because they are going to show these adults also how to do this properly and I think it could be a really fun event and also constructive.

What about the youth committee? Do you want to bring them in?

We talked about bringing them in for sure. And I think it's really just to show that we can talk about things like big houses, but do it in a way where You may be talking on the side of, I believe in bigger houses, but you don't believe that, but it's okay. You can show that it's about it.

Interesting exercise.

Yeah.

It occurs to me there are lots of small-sized topics that don't... Because the house topic is a flashpoint. But there's lots of small debates that kind of don't necessarily divide the community in a predictable way, but they still have two interesting sides.

But it should be, I think, tied to the community, because really... Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Like, should there be a bathroom at the potluck? That's another one. You know, something like that. How about one-way streets? That's another one. Sure, yeah. Sidewalks. Sidewalks. Exactly.

Things that don't necessarily... Yeah. That's just one that is our next... We were thinking maybe also tie into the next door issue that...

I hate to do anything tied to next door because next door, you don't know who you're talking to a lot of times. There are real people on next door, as we know, but then there's a lot of others. And it's hard to engage with next door. I agree. So I like the concept. I like the idea. I would not suggest waiting to get topics from the commission as a whole because you may be waiting a while.

We can come up with a topic. We're in the community and we are aware of the topics and we can discuss together. So I agree with that. And when I say tie to Nextdoor, we're not going to actually engage with Nextdoor, but just sort of I guess, show the people who may be in the room or watching otherwise how you can be on next door and communicate in a way that is not so vitriolic. And I agree that half the time it's not real people, so you don't even know.

And they may not necessarily want to engage in a way that you

articulating here so for the people who have been on the debate team do you get the topic a month before or do you have to sign up to be on it or what do you do it depends on the format there's impromptu there's these impromptu rounds now too that I think that could be our next one extemporaneous

But I do think this could make a very nice service project for somebody on the team. I was thinking, one of the things I want to, I spoke with the coach about a different alumni-related matter just this week, and he said they're going to the national championships next week, but he said to call him after the 21st. so i could get his opinion on format but you know my thinking is you know there's i'm sure some student is going to be the silver knight nominee and speech and maybe they need a project and this is this is kind of a cool thing so i would think there's opportunities there to get good input from them.

When does a debate team start at the high school? Like a new year right away? Like choir or band? Yeah. Is it a club or is it a class?

It's a class. A class and a club.

At least when I was there.

Yeah.

And the varsity members will be like arriving in the fall ready to go. Yeah.

Becky's son is going to that national thing and I will, I know he didn't So, but I can, you know, talk to him. He'll definitely want to be involved. I think we did structure it a little bit in our call from the last meeting that maybe we had had Isaac Carter come in and maybe be the moderator. We would then have the actual debate team members come in and be the coaches. So maybe the captains or whoever it is that they decide, two seniors maybe. And I guess the bigger question would be how do we reach out to the community to find out who is going to be on these teams.

So we can aid in that regard through the communication channels that we have to, you know, obviously promote it, invite participation, and as far as a venue to hold it, you can use the chambers. It could be videotaped. It could then be pushed out later. I love it.

I think we spoke about also the agenda, whatever. We had a few things that we brought up, but I thought about it even more. One of the things that was controversial, but it wasn't like a cited controversial, was like the undergrounding. I think what happened with the undergrounding, you know, it was approved. Well, I'm saying controversial, but it really wasn't. But it still is. But it's timely. It's coming up very quickly. Right. So like that's something that could be. But also we could look at things that have been in the past. Mm-hmm. like, agendas and controversial things that have been in the past, so it doesn't really affect anything moving forward, but to see how people had, like, those things going, like, you know, debates.

I can help you with ideas there.

Yeah, things that, I mean, they don't have to be that far away, but yeah, something like in the past ten years, five years, or whatever. You're not saying I'm old, are you? And when you said historic, I'm thinking, oh my God. Well, I can give you 25 years. I'm only thinking. But for instance, that type of scenario, I know that I had certain views on it, and I have friends, so it's not like a two-sided thing. there's plenty of friends that I have that I'm very good friends with that literally half of them are for it and half of them are not for it. So it's not like, you know, and so, you know, there's a lot of things like now that it's changed and they're talking about like the budget for the cost was a lot higher and I see it on the next, I saw it on the next one also and there's a lot of like fighting going on about it. But like I have my own view also on it, you know, but it's nothing crazy. It's just, you know, just trying to sort it out and trying to figure it out. But I was listening to other people's perspective and everybody had great points. It's just how do you debate it? And now I'm like having second thoughts. Was my thing really right? Or maybe it's wrong. Or maybe I didn't see that. You know what I mean? So it's like really weird because you're just like, well, maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe this person's right, or maybe that's... But you see the different sides. It doesn't have to be an argument that people get upset with each other over. It's just that, well, this is why it affects me and why I don't want it, and this is why it affects me and I do want it. You know what I mean? So it's kind of like those types of things. So when you listen to the people speak, especially on the Nextdoor app, it does get hostile a lot, and it doesn't need to be. So that's pretty much, you know, that's pretty much what I thought. That specific topic wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like an equal divide.

So budget-wise, and we can discuss it, but I'm just going through in my head, I think we'll probably have to pay Isaac a little bit, but it's not much. I think we paid him $500 for his time.

Through the chair, I just wanted to mention that I learned that Rachel Turgaman, Eli's sister, was a member of the county's board. She is like a coach of like speaking and emotional intelligence, something like that. So she may be a good resource. Okay, that'd be great. Potentially. Yeah. Just for you all to know. And she's local-ish.

Does she live here? Yeah, she lives in Turgaman.

She's very engaging right now.

Oh, Eli's sister. Okay, great. Yeah. I think we talked about before maybe having prizes. There's going to be a winner, there's going to be a loser. Maybe we still get the loser something, the team something small, and then the winning team something bigger, I don't know, we can talk about that. And then I think we should have refreshments after, just to get people excited about it.

So maybe a little bit of food, I don't know, just to get people to come out. Yeah, always food. Yeah, if you, I don't know, maybe something, but I think that that will... You know, you want a little bit of a crowd.

The way that I looked at our budget, like I was thinking about it, we got granted $10,000, and I'm not really certain we're going to even do 10 events in a year. So if you divide it up, that would be $1,000 an event. And if you do eight, that could give you another $2,000. We've been pretty stingy so far. That's what I'm saying. So we do have money to spend still, and it's going to deplete in the next couple months. So I think we could do something like that also. What happens if we don't spend it all? Where does the money go?

back to the coffers.

Right, so we don't want that to happen. You want to cater with Thomas Keller?

Yeah, we do want to cater at Thomas. For a season. For a season. Now you sound like the federal government.

You don't have to spend it just because you have a budget.

No, I'm just saying we've been pretty stingy, I think. That's good.

That's good training. their high school students just give the same prize. We should absolutely.

No, they're not going to be high school students. We should also probably get something for our high school students who are volunteering. But they're going to be adults from the community.

But we should... Alright, so I wrote down like six things we have to watch for. And so the next meeting we'll devote a good portion of this to getting the structure and then limitations. Thank you, Mark. Thank you very much. Thank you. And so the first part would be how it works. And then we'll go to how we want to set up that day, and then the communications, how we want to publicize it to get our applicants who would be on it, and then come up with our title. So maybe that might be our whole meeting.

Through the chair, I think we should try to work out as much as we can. Do we want to just do first come, first serve? Or do we want to have them maybe give a writing sample or something like that?

Let's talk about that at the next meeting because I don't know how it would work.

I think we should also, each of us maybe, should come up with three different topics that we think, and then we can all discuss them, and see which ones we really like, so we can get that down first, so that when we do talk to our coaches, they can actually hear some ideas, so that they can also stick with us as well.

Is there any way to get... Who's the person you know?

Russell Rywell. He's the mighty priest. Oh, I know.

He goes to my temple. Would he come?

Like, could we put the meeting around him? You know, I could invite him. I think, you know, especially if it's in the summer, he might be free. I mean...

I personally think before we start, we should have an idea of what we're doing. We shouldn't bring him here to brainstorm. We should bring him here to tell him this is what we want to do, and he can tweak it. He can say, that's not going to work.

So not at this meeting, but following on this.

Unless we work out more now, I would say we have one more meeting, and then we invite him.

And I can just let him know in the meantime that we're the general conference.

What would Eli's sister then do for this?

Well, I don't know. I mean, maybe she could judge, coach. Yeah, maybe she could be.

We need a moderator, we need judges, and we need coaches. The coaches I think we talked about are going to be high school students. The moderators, I think should be people maybe from the community like Ms. Turgamon. Is that her name? Yeah, it's Rachel Turgamon.

What about any of us? Could we be it or would that be not in part?

I don't know if we're the right... people to do it, but I'm open to discussing that. Maybe we have...

I was one of the committee, you know, preambles that we would help in time of a community crisis. It might be a good... Generate a crisis and help?

Yeah, it might be a good training to just step back and see. One of the things that I just, up and up before I forget it, like in the college parliamentary debate style that I also did, when there would be like the final of a tournament, there would be There would be seven judges, but six of them would be individuals, and then there would be a floor vote. So the audience would, you know, if you want to vote for this side, go through that door. If you want to vote for this side, go through that door. And so the audience collectively got one vote, too. And that could be a way to sort of engage the people who are there. So we could, you know, that's a... Can I do it?

So maybe that's...

We have time now. I don't see too much else. We want to just talk about some ideas.

And in terms of timing, how about maybe like September if you do the other thing in October? I thought most schools need a chance.

I think we talked about October just because once the kids get back and once everybody gets back, we're going to need a minute to prepare.

No, October is better. I was just thinking before the festival.

I think October for the event and then August would be when we actually thought, like, Yeah, okay.

Yeah, we can start.

So we'll look at, you'll look at October dates, and then maybe the next meeting we'll solidify a date.

Yeah, we need a high holidays check. Yeah.

Yeah. High holidays, there's a lot of holidays around that time. Maybe, I think we talked about maybe a Sunday evening, is that... I don't know that a Sunday, like, Friday.

I'm just thinking for, like, teams and stuff. I don't know that Sunday, like, they will, like, maybe a Thursday.

Yeah, because they want to do their home.

Maybe a Thursday evening.

We'll look at some dates. We'll check the holidays.

All right. Very exciting.

All right. So I don't have any new business. I'm not saying that. We could spend a little time pushing this out.

Chair, new business was supposed to be chosen during item two, which was agenda order of business.

Which was what?

Which was agenda order of business. So there's no new business to be discussed for this agenda.

Oh, so we don't have it. There's nothing on here.

No.

So it has to be listed here, new business?

It needs to be chosen during the agenda order of business. There needs to be a motion to be added a new item, and then it's listed on new business, yes. Okay.

I didn't have it.

I didn't have it.

Okay. Can we plan the next meeting, the 17th?

July 17th. There was a typo, I apologize, but it's July 17th. I'll tell you I will not be there.

Yeah, I'll not be there either. I'll tell you I'm not going to be there. I'm actually coming back on the 17th, but I don't know what time. Let me see. 17th.

That would work for me. You're coming back. Let me see. It's always summer storms. Okay.

I'll be back until I'm 17. I'm coming back until I'm 17 in the morning. 17 is fine by me.

Sorry. Anyone else?

Dave is here.

You're here? I'm coming back.

No, I'm flying, but I'm coming back in the morning. What time is the meeting? 4? I just worry about summer storms.

Okay, so that one's on. And so far for the agenda, I have last talk about the Flanagan's event. Yes. And then really all I have is debate. Oh no, I have other things. I have the resource fair. Hatzalah report from Mark, the Flanagan's event, and then more on the debate. Okay, that's all. So unless anybody comes up with anything and sends it to Frank or Genesis. So that's my agenda, Frank. Okay.

And this goes until next March, correct? This coming March, this board? Yes, until March.

Okay, so everybody okay staying a few minutes? Yeah. So why don't we start with, tell us about how debate works. Is that okay?

Yeah, I'm good. You mean, sorry, for now? Yeah. Are we okay on staying a little bit? Yeah. There are lots of different formats, so the current members can probably advise us. I know they're doing, there's a new thing called World Schools format, which has been very popular, and it's what Miami Beach team is currently doing, and that's something I don't have direct experience with. But in general, you know, you have a set order of, you might have a team of two or three people, and you have a format where it's clear who speaks when, and you have a certain order of speeches. And most debates formats have been teams of two people, but But the World Schools format is 3 and 3, and that I think is a good public format. And so there'll be, you know, this team gives a, somebody gives a six-minute speech, then somebody else gives a six-minute speech. Maybe there's a cross-examination after each speech. Then they have little rebuttals. You know, there'll be a format like that, and we can tweak the format.

Is there a Robert's Rules of Order for this? No, usually it's... Do we pick the format, or do we write the format?

I think we... with the help of somebody who's currently in the activity, can come up with a format, which would probably be a modified form of one of your high school formats.

We don't have to adhere to the national standard for debate. We can do it any way we want. I think we should keep it in the general idea that if it's usually two people, we can do three. Whatever it is, we can tweak it to whatever it is that we want to do.

One of the things that distinguishes high school debate is you're rarely ever talking over somebody. you have a set amount of time to speak, and then you sit down. And then somebody else speaks, and they sit down, and you take notes. So the format already brings a discipline, right, that we don't even have.

So you would speak, but then Joanna could speak against you at that time, or does that all come together?

Well, I would have my six minutes, and then the other team, somebody is going to come and have their six minutes, during which they make their own points, and then they rebut the points you made. During that six minutes.

And David, just so you understand, if it's the three of you on a team and it's about undergrounding and Elgie believes that you should underground and you believe that you shouldn't. On the same team. On the same team. You don't get to each debate your own point. You are told this team. believes undergrounding is a good thing. I got that. So even if you don't agree, just so you understand, it's not going to be heated in some ways also because this is going to be very...

Right, now what does the other team do? The other team...

Same thing, but the other side.

And so...

But they went there. So while he's talking, nobody's talking, and while she's talking, nobody's talking. and then there's rebuttals, so then they can take whatever that he said before, and then maybe Gerardo would go. But I'm not really in it, right?

I'm not going to be in it. My personal opinion is, I think we can have more than three on a team. I think we decide how many, this is my opinion, and you can tell me if this doesn't make any sense to you. Let's say we decide on four questions. I think we have four people on a team. You guys all work. If you're the four on the team, you're all working together on that. But you are going to do undergrounding. You are going to do what color houses we're painting. Whatever it is. And so you're all working together on researching and finding the facts and making it make sense. But each person on the team is going to do it.

So we would write the format at the next meeting?

We would. And then there's a There was an idea, I think being tossed around, where the teams are assigned before the event and maybe they're working together with their coach. But you could also, I mean it depends how comfortable the participants are with it, I'm imagining you could do a kind of impromptu format where at the event they draw a topic or something, and then they go into separate rooms, and they prepare together, and then they come back, you know, 45 minutes later. That puts a little more pressure on it.

I feel like that also could be boring for the audience who's sitting there waiting.

Well, or maybe you have the beach high team do a demonstration round on one of their topics in the meantime.

Or, you know, there's some ways that we can... Or you have, like, a little... everybody goes out, has a little banquet with drinks and stuff during that time.

I sort of would like to be a model for the town, so when people come to the commission meeting, they know their facts. So I'd like to not have the impromptu. I'd like the research done first. That sounds good. Because I think that's what happens at these meetings. People just talk off the top of their heads, and then they have to be corrected, and then they don't like being corrected.

Yeah, and having the teams work together is also a nice kind of bonus.

It gives them a little... Do they work on their own, or would we facilitate that here? I think maybe with a coach.

I don't know.

Okay. So people can see us and know each other?

Yeah. And we give the debate team in general the ability to help in all different ways, not just the two coaches. We can give them community service hours, which all these kids really loved. And we talked about the youth council. Maybe they would help with organizing all of that with the kids. But I think that's a great way to get our kids and our community involved.

And then advertised, that would be Frank getting it all out too.

I think it's a great media story. I mean, not that we're doing it for the media story, but it really, I just think it's very heartwarming and I don't know, it's a great thing. So it could be a bigger article too. Like, you know, The Herald or somebody would cover it. I can imagine.

Some points we need to, I mean, if it's going to be in October, I know it sounds far off, but it's not. But we have to identify who we think the judges should be. I think we talked about Tuderman, and maybe there would be two more, so maybe three judges and two more people in the community that we think would be.

Would it be one more and then a four vote?

Or one more floor vote, or however. I think that would keep us super engaged. Meaning there's two judges, and then we also have everybody who's there to watch vote. Maybe they hold, we give them something, they hold up something, and then they're the third vote. That was Commissioner's idea.

That would be good. Place in the chamber. And food and water. And then prizes. And now. And Isaac Carter. Yes, Isaac Carter.

Also, if some of them aren't available, you can always ask them next day to come in with somebody else. So not like lost alternatives.

If they're not available. So you can have your three people and two alternatives right there. So they can also get something in front of them.

Just brainstorming here, maybe at the end, you know, if there's food or something, there's a 15-minute sort of, like, opportunity to say, yeah, any thoughts? What did we learn? You know, is there something we would do differently? You know, I don't know, just a... Recap. Yeah, recap over coffee, whatever. And I think Isaac would be really good for leading that part of the discussion.

That would be a really good idea. Could he say he can't do it at all? Would he have someone else?

If he can't do it, I think we could probably, I could ask him or we could come up with somebody else who's able to moderate something like this and think about, we can brainstorm on that.

And who are the community resources such as, like you said, Russ and what's Eli's sister's name again? Rachel? Rachel. Rachel. Who else in the community?

That's a great question. Who do we think would be a good judge? Someone who understands how debate is supposed to work. I mean, they don't have to be like a true debate professional. It could be someone who's maybe just experienced in it. We could even have... Do we have any reporters in there?

Somebody who works for news or in the community?

I don't know. I can think of people who would know people.

Do you have a parliamentarian for the commission or anything?

That's the thing. That's what the format gives you. in a way that liberates you from having to have anybody make any calls. And hopefully, you know, nobody will mistake.

If you don't have a lot of experience with it also, you might want to ask her.

Okay, we'll do that again.

Yeah, she's really good. And she might do it, I don't know if she'll do it or not, but yeah.

Okay. I mean, I think anybody who has any legal, like, I mean, even we could have a manager, we could have, I mean, there's a million people. I think we have to figure out the format also of how we're going to find our people, if it's going to be just first from first, or if we're going to actually ask them to. We want to make sure it's people who Do we want to ask them to give a one paragraph writing sample of the topic? Like we pick a topic and say it's a one paragraph writing sample.

What about, do we want people who are on a debate team?

I think we should have people who, just like regular people, who have no real experience in it, so it kind of shows that any of us can do the research and actually figure out the facts.

We'll come up with a questionnaire or an idea for one paragraph.

Here's another thought. Just to bring in the Orthodox community, maybe we ask one of the rabbis or something to be one of the judges. I don't know. I was just thinking we're always talking about being more inclusive of all the different communities. That's the thought.

We have no churches in Surfside, right? Not anymore. Oh, the one.

Yeah. That's another idea. We have maybe someone from...

They have a preacher, a reverend, or what is it?

Yeah, what denominations?

It's generally Protestant. It's sort of evangelical. I don't know for sure.

I don't know if that's something.

I can write my thing down. Just knock on the door. Just see availability. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. All right.

So I have like 11 things we want, but just... And maybe, you know, maybe it would be good to, you know, something maybe to think about for next time is just what's the profile of the participants you want? I mean, I think certainly, you know, elected officials, definitely not, you know. You want to try to get a mix of people who are really... new to this sort of thing in a way, yeah, sort of like, and if we, I don't know if there's a selection process, but I'll leave that in the committee's hands, but something to think about, you know.

I think there should be to get different perspectives and different, so, because if everyone is, you know, exactly, you know, my demographic, it's going to be boring. It's like we should have sort of every... Everybody represented young.

Yeah, new voices.

I feel like there's a lot of... Yeah, people who just moved here, people who have been here for many years. Yeah. I think that would be about it.

So I just saw here, debate format, opening statement, one minute. I don't think we're going to do the format of an official debate because that's going to

not be what we're doing. We're not having real debaters. I think we're going to do something that's in the debate idea, but it's going to work for amateur debaters in our town talking about town things. I just think it's going to be different.

The team members will have experts.

And how do you pick a winner?

The judges.

Okay, so like here's a template for judging it to political debate. This is a political debate scorecard. We can write our own. Who's going to do all that? That will be this committee. We come up with that.

Or the debate team of each side.

Yeah, they'll have ballot formats that, again, they'll be able to sort of tell you what they do and then they can modify it as needed. But there's a sort of standard ballot that might have different... And ask you to comment on different areas. And who's this person that will do that? Well, the coach, hopefully. The goal was to get maybe current Beach High students to be doing some service hours here. And ask them for their debate. Oh, yeah.

We're going to lean on them. They're going to kind of be the bosses and sort of tell us. It's going to be fun for them. And they'll get community service hours. A lot of them, this is what they want to do in college.

It's a real life thing.

Yeah, exactly.

And if the team is anything like it was when I was there, I mean, these kids, really, it's a huge part of their lives. They'll be like, they'll know what to do. They're pros.

We'll have them present to us before so we know what they're doing, what they learned.

Yes.

All right, so I wrote down.

And then date wise, I guess for the next meeting, you guys will figure it out.

Yeah, we'll look at the October dates and see what's available.

Did we know how many topics we're going to do? Is that three topics?

I think we should all just...

Three different, I'm saying how many teams?

Oh, I think we, yeah, how long, I don't think we should have any of them talk for that long. I don't, as much, I think maybe three minutes or something. Like, that's any, I don't know. I know traditional is longer, but maybe three minutes or so on a topic is probably. How many are we going to have? Maybe five minutes.

No, I'm saying if we have a bunch of debates, we have, let's say, three of them total, three topics. And then we have two different teams for each topic. One against and one pro. Is that the way it works? Yeah. So three topics, so you would need two teams for each topic. So it would be six topics. I mean six teams.

No, two teams.

You're saying the same team debating the same things. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, that's interesting.

So like if it were the three of us against the three of you and maybe... you know, you and I would debate the first topic against each other, and then Genesis and Jerry would do the next one. Like, we would just sort of, you know, that's how I was thinking.

Oh, I was thinking more like, there's a topic, like, the way a lot of these team formats work, there's one resolution or something, and it would be like, you know, resolve that, you know, this house would build a bathroom at the tot lot. Silly topic, but maybe not. And then team A is in support of the proposition. The first speaker of team A gets up and gives, say, a five-minute speech. Then the first member of team B gives a five-minute speech. Then another member of team A gives a rebuttal. A member of team B gives a rebuttal. Member of QMA gives a rebuttal, member of QB gives a rebuttal, and then we're on the same topic because there's back and forth. And so they argue this, but in fact it's... Then it's even shorter than two minutes maybe each person.

I think if it's six minutes each person, we're going to lose...

audience well six and three are also like a good like six minute for the constructive speech three minute for the rebuttal and you know you get a little more more back and forth something like that lets you have continuity because that's also maybe one of the things you want to bring out is like how to take an issue carry it forward yeah respond to what they said and then have a you know I agree with I'm just I'm just gonna tell you this for one second

you are a debater and you spent your whole childhood into college debating. You're coming from an academic, we have to remember this is gonna be a room full of people. If it's 25 minutes about top-up bathroom, we're gonna lose people in the first five minutes. I agree with you that we can do that format, but I think that it's just really condensed. The first one's three minutes and the rebuttal's after a minute or something. Or else we're going to be talking about things for, I mean, if you just think of how long.

But then maybe we have multiple rounds then on multiple topics.

Oh, yeah, many topics.

I think three or four people, I think four people per team is good or more, but I think it should be, I don't think it should be too little. But the other thing that I was thinking is that the timing. If we say that this whole thing should take about an hour, like all of them, then we can divide it up into, I don't know, say 20 minutes each or maybe a five minute break each. So it's 15 minutes total for each, for each debate. Or is that not long enough? I think 20 minutes is fine. I don't know if it's too long. We might lose people. But we are. No, no, I'm saying for the whole thing. Oh, the whole thing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The whole topic. So one whole topic is debated on the side for 20 minutes, and then you go to the next one for 20 minutes, and the next one for 20 minutes.

Yeah, 20 minutes is fine, right?

20 minutes, or you can maybe take five-minute breaks in between or something like that. I'm sorry, but I have to get going. I'll let you guys hang around. It's not like an hour and a half. This way, it doesn't go to an hour and a half, which could be dreadful, you know, but... No, I'm saying just so we can keep it like around an hour, you know, that should be like our mindset. Then we can dissect what the timing is. Do you see what I'm saying? And then we can say, okay, well, this is the break time should be eight minutes or ten minutes or whatever it is in between. So once we dissect and in quarter, I mean, it's a thirds, right? 20, 20, and 20, right? Then we can say, well, how much break time do we have in between each or something like that?

Okay, I think that makes sense.

And then you can say, well, this person gets three, this person gets two.

I think three people on a team... and doing main person, you know, Saying yes or no for the proposition and the other two doing the rebuttals. That's, you know, if you do five minutes, five minutes, that's 10. And then two minutes, two minutes, that's 14. And then two minutes, two minutes, that's 18. So that's about 20 minutes. Right. So that could work.

I also don't think they're going to speak that long because there's sometimes a rebuttal to be like a sentence or two. You know what I mean?

Well, the idea, I think, Jerry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the idea is you really are supposed to use up the time. Yeah. It's not supposed to be two sentences. So I think whatever we tell them, your rebuttal should be two minutes. It's going to be two minutes. Oh, wow.

Or you're allowed to ask for more time. Oh, so you want to fill up, you're saying you should fill up the time. I don't think we want to fill up the time.

You're saying we should fill up the time. Yeah, because then it'll go further.

Then it'll go further. Because I get that commission. I've never been to one, so I don't know.

I think 20 minutes is the right amount per question. It's just in that we don't, we're not going to keep people here for, for two hours, listening to debates. And again, it's not a real debate. I mean, it's a debate, it's supposed to be fun. So I think five minutes each main point, yay or nay, and then two minutes per rebuttal would be about 20 minutes per topic. And I think that does feel about the right amount to listen to any one topic.

And how do we pick the community members to be on our unit of volunteers? We were talking about that.

What's your idea, anything?

I think we should put it out there, like, just so people know, and who wants to be on it, they can just register to be on it. Yeah, we'll put it on the website. I mean, we might not even get enough people. If we get enough people, then we can just divide it up.

We would have six people, I think, if we have two teams of three. With, like, one alternate. Oh, right, eight people.

So we only need eight people. Okay, so we can see. I mean, I don't know how you want to put it out there, but we could ask people.

In the Gazette and on the website.

Do you want to put it in the next one of these magazines? Like a tiny little excerpt somewhere over here saying, hey, we're looking for something like this size or something like that?

Yeah, because August is when we're going to start.

Something like this, like a quarter, not even a quarter, like a whatever, like a little snippet, like the same. We can make it fun if you want to debate. Yeah, if you're interested in debating some topics or whatever. The August community topics, whatever.

Because I just submitted my column for July. The deadlines are, they've moved them up because they're trying to get these out, you know, before the first of the month.

And we also don't need to know the topics yet.

October's pretty busy for me too, so on your next meeting when you pick the date, if you can just someone text me just to ask. I would love to be there.

So when is the next one, you said? Cindy Reyes will be the authoritative source on that. I'm saying the next deadline. The next deadline, yeah. Around now. Today was... today's the 12th, and today was our deadline. So we might need something that is more general, even if we haven't fully hashed out everything about the format, we can just say, look, we're... Who wants to talk to Frank?

Also, who would the volunteers reach out to?

we would put in the Gazette and on the website to, I guess, send an email to Frank or to... Or we can make Google Forms.

Yeah. Google Forms is easy.

I mean, the question I think we had, I think you kind of touched on it, is this just going to be first come, first serve? Or is this going to be that we choose people based on something, some criteria?

If it's too many people, we can just do a lottery and just pick out a half or something.

Yeah. I was thinking that too, but also we do want people who actually are committed to it.

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I was thinking that also.

You want them committed to it, and you also want them to be invested in.

You want them invested in the community. I mean, you don't want people just randomly just... Also, if you think that's a controversial topic, you want to get those people on also. So if you say controversial topics involving the community, that will get the interest of those people that actually are passionate about it or whatever.

But I think you want to right-size the topic. I mean... That's one thing that, from my experience as a high school debater, they never would have you debate abortion or anything that's really a flashpoint. The topics were always a little bit more abstract so that you could go through the intellectual exercise of thinking through both sides. If the topic is a flashpoint, Um, like for me, I don't know, uh, under grounding is some people are very worked up about it already. You know, it might be hard for them to. detached even a little bit. But that might be a good topic.

I'm not sure. But I'm just saying, like, getting a... You need balance.

Here's what's even crazier. There are people that wanted it, and there are people that didn't want it, and now there are people who wanted it, now really might not want it because of the price increase. Yeah. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. So it's so, like, different level now.

I think if it gets too esoteric or if it gets too far off of the... topics that we talk about on the streets and we debate, then it's not the point. We can all talk about if we think driveways should have a one-inch slope or not, then it's not going to get...

There's a Goldilocks issue. You want to get it controversial enough, but not the kind of thing... I thought the houses was a good one and the underground is a good one.

I think the houses is actually a good one because I think part of also the point of this is And maybe the flash points, I agree with you. The point is to also show how adults in our town can talk about really hard things that no one, in a positive, constructive way. If we talk about whether, you know, native plants should be in the park or not, it's not going to, you know, as much as I agree with you that, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I think we run the risk, I agree, of if it's too topical.

I don't remember what they were. I don't remember what they were. We had three or four of them last time. I think we talked about, I mean, and you know what I think, Jerry, I think if we, pick something like let's just say big houses but we phrase the question where it's actually a constructive way of phrasing it too i think there's a way to do it where it's not just like do you think we should have big houses i think it could be no the resolution should be right it should it should provide some structure it should be like uh it wouldn't be that or um right i mean i think uh

Maybe at the next meeting, we're going to each try to bring some... I have a little bit of experience. I can bring some example topics. They would tend to refine it just a little bit. I'm trying to think of what an example would be.

Wouldn't the moderators do that, or they wouldn't do that? No, you put it into the resolution to be debated.

I think we're going to lean on you as our president.

constitutional expert and law professional that you'll know the best way. If we come up with the topics that are interesting, you'll help us come up with the structure to make it not be too...

Right, so the resolution would be, you wouldn't just have a topic like big houses, it would be a proposition that the town should do specific things. And so then there's like a, a claim that, you know, and that, that already brings some structure to it. Cause like, um, if the topic was just defined as something like big houses and people start going in all sorts of directions that the resolution gives you already like a bit of structure and then and then you can kind of go from there and so there's like a sentence and then the sentence you want to kind of phrase it in a way that you know because big is open to interpretation you want to give you want to create the right

like we could do the understory or whatever, or something that's like a very specific thing, or I don't know.

I mean, it could literally be the ballot question. I mean, that could be the start. It could be like, hey, we propose that this is what it is, 3,200 square feet as the FAR or whatever. I don't even know the numbers. But I'm saying like whatever those numbers are, this is what it's going to change to, and that's it.

It is, but my one hesitation about that is that a lot of people Have I, you know, there are certain legal constraints as to what is even possible.

But that would be part of the information they would have to research to bring out.

Yeah.

But would it just be kind of like a null thing?

That's the thing. I think what a lot of people have in mind when they think about gating is something, I mean, again, I'm maybe veering off. Yeah, but it's something that isn't possible given the...

It would be like Belmede or wherever else where you can't actually stop someone from going in. It's just all it is is they're taking license plates.

Right, but then that needs to be in a way baked into the resolution so that people aren't...

They're going off to the bar towers.

Right, so there needs to be a little bit of drafting. In the... National Speech and Debate Association, there's always a wording committee that comes up with the wording. There's a bit of craft involved there. We can do that. We can do that also with the help of a program.

Basically, we have a general structure. We have a general idea of how we want it to go. The nuance stuff or the actual questions, how we're going to find the people or decide on the people.

All right, help me with the list. So I have, so I need someone, would you, are you around for a day or so? Could you call Frank and just tell him the idea for the blurb?

I'm going to email them right now.

Tell them what you... Tell them, because you seem to understand more than I do of what you really want here. And that way we can get it in by the deadline for the August. So that would be great. Okay. And then, so I have... The first thing is the debate, the team of how many alternates. So it'd be three people. Okay, well, I'm just going to list, and then next month we'll take notes. Okay. Because I don't see anybody writing anything down, and we all have to agree on everything so we understand if we're asked about it, and I'm still not sure about a ton of things here. Mm-hmm. Is that okay with everybody? Yes. Alright, so next time we'll talk about the teams, the topics, the format, how we pick the applicants, committed, vested, will be there. Do we need to talk about how do they get community service hours?

So if we recorded it? So that's really easy. When they say at their senior year, they come to... Somebody here, I don't know. You guys do it for the... Frank does it. Frank does it? Okay, Frank will do it. So we would just... Yes, he just writes a letter. Okay. They did 10 hours.

I think we have a formatted video.

Yeah.

So we would have to, okay, assign that. We would do that, yeah. What's the name of the student group here that helps a lot? What's that called? The Youth Council. Youth Council. So we would decide what they wanted to do or how we could use them. Frank is advertised, so after we have our meeting then we'll need another advertisement, like an email blast. Judges, we need judges. Locate the place, food, price it, make sure we have a moderator. Then the last part of the format would be the recap, final thoughts. Resources, so I have Russ, Rachel, Rita. Okay. And if we wanted to have somebody from the Casa Church or one of the Jewish synagogues as a moderator or a judge. Okay. Debate ideas, we definitely have to brainstorm that. And so my last thing that I put myself was Okay, say we pick the big houses, how do we get them that, how do we make a resource list of where they can find information and people to interview? Like, where are they going to go to get... We don't want them to go to Nextdoor for this information.

And we don't want... Public record stuff or... Is there... It's on the website.

We have all the resolutions and ordinances on our website. They can look at minutes, phone meetings. Everything is on our website.

That's on them. That would be on them. Yeah, that's not on us.

We're not going to... No, but we would put down, you know... No.

Nothing. I don't think so.

Maybe the coaches could help them. But hopefully they'll...

I don't think we would say go to CNN.

Could they interview Mark?

That's up to them. How resourceful are they? I don't know. I would like to see...

Okay, I crossed it off.

In my opinion. I don't think we want to micromanage how they're...

I think we probably want to...

Give them the resource of maybe where the minutes could be found.

And I think this should be, the way competitive debate usually works, you don't have visual aids or prompts. And I think that might be... a good rule to have? Can you talk about that? Because you're sort of just using the power of words and persuasion. You don't want somebody with a PowerPoint or a picture of a house. It's sort of like you get up there, you talk, you use your words. to make the case.

But we could educate them on where to look on the community resource page of where to find these things.

That would be just... Yeah, but I think having a rule that's something like no props, no visual aids, actually channels the skill that you're trying to promote. Absolutely. So they can't do anything?

The website where you can find the minutes is the same website that I gave you guys to find the agendas. So everything's in there.

Okay. I know. Okay. All right. So that'll be our, we'll just hammer everything out. Yeah. And can you just type up what we decide that night or how, or one of us do that?

I don't know what you mean by that.

I mean, for example, the format, that's going to be like this, this, this, this, this, this. Okay. I think that has to be written down. You want to do that?

That will be up to the board and Frank. I don't take part in any decisions that the board does.

Okay, that would be perfect. Yeah. And then we'd all agree that is perfect.

Once we have a date, I'll ask Isaac Carter, and then we can talk to Rachel Tugerman and debate. Right, so we'll put a sequence. I think we only need one extra judge because we are going to have three judges, but I think we determined that it's going to be the audience as the third judge. So we'll hammer all that out. I'd like to have an odd. Yeah, you have to have an odd in case.

Okay, but I want that all down in just our... format of how this whole thing is going to work from the start of getting prepared and then and uh every so i want to do that yeah okay i could try drafting like a little just a little memo with some options for the next meeting that would be great yeah just to make it concrete and we can that's what i want something concrete recording for this meeting is going to be available tomorrow so you'll be able to

think that i think that's a good start got us all the thinking yeah um chair may i have may i add one more thing regarding the youth council they're gonna be a brand new board start in august so i would advise that if you are going to ask them to participate i will communicate with the new board in august i wouldn't do it so we'll decide how we want them like they can pass out a program or they can do yeah i think they'll see people

the debate team because I think we'll have not only the two captains or whoever coaching, we can have the debate team as a resource and I think you can tell as well. So I think we're going to have a really good resource with our youth.

Alright, I think that'll be it. Is there a motion to adjourn?

I make a motion to adjourn.

Thank you everybody.

Thank you. Great meeting.