Youth Council - Regular Meeting

good afternoon everybody i will go ahead and start the meeting today is wednesday february 4th 2026 it's 5 38 p.m and i will go ahead and call roll council member butori council member chavez council member epstein council member o'malley and council council member pack here There is quarter for tonight. As first business on the agenda, there is no vice chair or chair, so you guys will have to choose in between yourselves who would you like to chair for today's meeting. So somebody will have to make a motion, nominate somebody, and then vote.

Motion to nominate, I sit back.

Okay. Is there a second to that motion? I second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Question carries. Chair? Okay, yes.

Okay. Okay, thank you everyone for coming. Appreciate it. Okay, so first of all, I have to approve the minutes in the last meeting, right?

Somebody has to make a motion to approve them. You cannot make motions for today, just so you know.

Yeah. So I would look favorably upon a motion to approve the minutes.

A motion to approve the minutes. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. I have another question. Sorry, what was the iPad password? 9293. Thank you. Chair, you skip an item, you skip item number two, agenda and order of business.

Yeah.

Before we start, I'd like to motion to add an item regarding the native garden volunteering opportunity. Sorry. That's okay, you can make a motion. motion to add an item regarding the native garden volunteering opportunity i would greatly appreciate if you could add it first so um since i i make a very quick statement do you guys mind if you come in 5a and then everything else gets moved one letter down that's fine with me yeah what is the name of the item again i apologize native garden volunteering and that will be added as item 5a correct

Make the motion. Who seconded the motion? You cannot second motions. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Chair, I believe we have public comment. Or are you guys part of the agenda? They're part of the agenda? Yeah.

They were 5A. They were agenda 5A. Yeah.

Okay, perfect. Then you can go ahead and start with 5A. Okay. Okay, so would that mean that you would be the new 5A? Okay, so if you want to speak.

Thank you, members of the Youth Council, and also I apologize to the group here for 5B. Thank you for accommodating my odd schedule. I spoke with board member, oh yeah, 9148 Froud Avenue. I wanted to follow up with the item that we talked about last month. Ivy Hernandez is now working for the town. She does about five hours a month of gardening, but it makes a huge difference. And you can see already the benefits of her work at the garden on 92nd and Bay Drive. She is open to doing a volunteer gardening event. And I spoke with a board member, Vittori, just to run it by her service club or her ecology club at Mass to see if it worked. Ms. Hernandez is proposing the morning of March 8th, which is a Sunday. And I wanted to see if the Youth Council was interested in supporting this event. I'm curious to hear what the report from MAST was. And if it is, then I'll go back to the manager and I'll put in an order or ask him to put in an order for equipment and stuff for that event.

Okay, the president of the club agreed, the vice president agreed, the sponsor agreed, everybody's on board with it, but there are a few questions regarding the time. The morning, we just need an exact time as we got closer to the date. Approximately how many volunteers are needed, because the club does consist of, if I'm not mistaken, 50 people, and I assume that's a little too much for the garden, so I just need an estimate on about how many are needed. how many hours are going to be given, because that's what the members are fueled by, unfortunately, how long you think the event is going to be, and how the hours from Surfside will be given to the volunteers. I'll send these to you later, so you don't have to memorize them, but that's just an overall.

Yeah, these are good questions. I think I can't answer them for Ms. Hernandez, but I know from the times I've seen her working there, she tends to come in the sort of mid-morning, 10 or 11. So that should be a time that works for high school students who like to sleep in. I can only speculate about the other questions, but I would think it would probably be a maximum of two hours. If we also do the plant giveaway, at that event, then we could also use a little help with that. And I think there would be a kind of educational component to it so that I don't know if all 50 members would really come. I doubt that. What do you think would be a turnout?

Realistically, the ones who are going to be the most involved are most, it's going to be the juniors and the seniors and maybe some of the overeager freshmen. So I'd say an approximate is maybe 20 people at most.

I think we can accommodate that. And I think there will be a kind of educational component, too. And then there are tasks like harvesting seeds and making cuttings that are never essential. But if we have the people power, We can do it. I know that board member Garcia's not here today, but she had mentioned the possibility of bringing it up with the Beach High Ecology Club. And I don't know if there's any members of that group here. But I think we can do multiple events. She comes every month at least once. So hopefully this can be a semi-regular thing. And so it's good to have one group that's on board. And we can do more in the future. We can open it up as needed. But I think it would be a nice thing to get started. I believe I talked about this a little earlier.

So she comes once a month for Approximately, or twice a month, but it's about five hours total. Well, first of all, I fully support this event. It sounds awesome. It sounds great. In the future, I feel like it would be really good to make this a regular thing, especially if you have a base of volunteers. Would it be possible to arrange with her maybe a date once a month that she can come and aid in her cleaning of the garden? It reduces her work and it provides volunteers.

I love that idea, yeah. I'll mention that. Okay.

Yeah. For the inaugural one, you said we're closing the date of March 8th. Is that correct? Yeah. Because we were thinking of also having another event on that date as well. Oh, really? We're in between that date and March 15th. So if you were to have it on that date, we haven't decided on a final date yet. She can't do the 15th.

I know that. And then she also... proposed later dates, but I think earlier in March is better. So if that's not too big a change for you guys, I would appreciate that.

Yeah, no, I don't think so. We haven't finalized the date yet, so I think that should be fine. Is that the helmet safety event? It would be the college preparation series, the field fair event. We're thinking about doing it in the next issue. Okay, great.

Awesome, yeah, thank you. So I don't know if there's... Madam Clerk, is there a need for a motion on this, or?

I believe you can make a motion if you would like, since there's no date that's specific to March 8th.

Oh, it was for March 8th? Yeah. So, yeah, if you want to make a motion.

Is there a motion for what?

To do this on March 8th? To approve? To support it?

Is there a motion to approve the date for March 8th?

I second.

Who seconded it?

Thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Thank you all. I wish I could stay longer.

Okay, so on to item 5B, which is the Mentoring Miracles and Town of Surfside Career Day partnership proposal. So I know we have a lot of you guys in here today. So I can hand it off to you guys if you guys would kind of like to talk about what you're looking to do and how we can help or help to assist you.

Okay, hi, so. Do they have to state your name and address?

Yeah, so before you start, just state your name and address.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Hi, my name is Zlata Kogyasheva, 16699 Collins Avenue. I am vice president of Mentoring Miracles, and who we are as Mentoring Miracles is we are a youth-led nonprofit organization that helps to expand access to real life, real world opportunities for foster youth. Because we believe that a child's circumstances don't define their futures, so we are looking to provide them with exposure and different experiences that their outcomes could possibly change. And we do this through hands-on career days, and so far we have been really successful in our career days that we've already posted so far at the Miami International Airport. and we do have upcoming career days at the Port of Miami and the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewage Department. And at those career days, we connect foster youth to different professionals and workplaces to help them imagine and prepare for their future, and they get exposed to such real-life experiences. Our ability to plan and coordinate these events is made possible through our partnerships with these major institutions like the airport, and it has so far been amazing for these kids. They have been exposed to such amazing career opportunities, and without them, they wouldn't have otherwise explored their options for their future careers. And aside from these career days, we also prepared the foster youth with different internship programs that will help them learn and prepare for their futures once they leave the foster care system because obviously they're not going to have much help once they leave. They're basically left on their own. And with these internship programs, it helps them find jobs for a successful adulthood. And along with these educational learning experiences, we also provide these kids with fun days where we take them out for a day, have them have fun. One time we took them to Desertland Park. They were on trampolines and went go-karting. And we don't only do this to entertain the kids and make sure they have fun. We also do this to improve their social and communication skills because those are very vital for the future. And they're going to need this once they leave the foster care home and once they go and pursue a career. And the reason why we are doing all this for this foster youth is because the statistics are kind of against us right now. 4% of foster kids only earn a college degree. and over 50% of them face homelessness or incarceration after they leave the foster home. 25% of them don't graduate high school and 50% of them develop dependency or addiction to substances. So at Mentoring Miracles, we are working to reduce these statistics heavily and make sure that these kids have a future because again, like we said before, their circumstances do not define who they can become in the future.

You can go ahead and use it with the mouse. My name and my address. I'm Rafael Casitas.

I'm 1541 Pecola Avenue.

And I'm here to talk to you a little bit more about what we're actually trying to do and partner with you guys. So essentially what we're proposing is a NASA career day. So we would take these foster youth and we would essentially do a one day trip fully sponsored by the town of Surfside to NASA where they would be exposed to real world high tech STEM jobs. Most of these kids, they come from places where they've never been really exposed to all the opportunities that they have in the future. And essentially, by bringing them to NASA, we're not only introducing them to new STEM jobs, we're also introducing them to the biggest STEM opportunity that they have here in Florida. So, for example, we would have not only speakers speak to them, they would also get a full tour of NASA. They'd see all the jobs and opportunities that they have, such as in aerospace, engineering, just technician jobs there in general. And we chose NASA specifically because we want them to truly know the scope of what they can achieve. And even if they don't really want to pursue something STEM related, just showing them the expanse of what this world has to offer to them will be greatly beneficial for the future.

OK, so essentially why are we here? Oh, sorry.

Is this my name and my address?

Yes, name and address are right here. I'm Crystal Dominguez 9133 Carlisle Avenue. So essentially, why are we here? Why are we talking to you guys? So we do, since this NASA career day will be expensive, we don't have that money. So we are proposing that the town of Surfside sponsors this event. And we do need to bring up this idea to the town's commission. However, we think that they are more likely to say yes to us if we have your support and your advocacy. I mean, why is this a youth-led organization? You guys are the youth council. Also, I mean, what would this benefit towards you guys? What benefits would this have for you? Obviously, this is a huge civic leadership engagement activity as well. Just to make a lasting impression, it would be a good flagship project for you guys. Also, we do have partnerships with Channel 10. They were at our last Career Day event and we have gone in contact with them and they have agreed to go to this NASA Career Day and not only to a story on the community itself, but a story on the youth council. So you guys would gain recognition, media presence, you guys would appear on the news, explain what you guys do, how you help Surfside, what the youth council does in itself. So this would benefit the community, the youth council board itself, and Surfside. Let's go down to channel 10, or here today. So why are we asking Surfside to sponsor this event? Essentially, Surfside is our home. Most of the board on Mentoring Miracles lives, studies, is raised in Surfside. Myself, my sister, Jonah, and Victoria, who couldn't be here today. Yes, that is essentially why we're asking Surfside. Again, it's a homegrown nonprofit, and we know that Surfside wants the resources to help us and to make this a successful event. And you guys will be coming to the NASA Career Day with us. Again, you'll be appearing on media coverage as well, and it would just be a great opportunity for everyone involved.

Hi, my name is Marina Dominguez, 9133 Pinal Avenue. So, what we're asking the Youth Council is to endorse the NASA Career Day Sponsorship to advocate for the proposal to explore the town of Surfside and serve as a youth representative supporting the initiative. What we're asking the town of Surfside to consider is transportation to and from NASA for 60 people, admission or program fees with a special price for Metric Miracles, which is $25 per person, meals and materials for participating youth, and media coverage. Mentoring Miracles will be the ones who will manage the logistics, coordination, and programming. What we will bring is full event and planning coordination, foster youth outreach and logistics, curriculum and activity design, day of facilitation and follow-up impact recap, active social media, and television coverage.

Hi. 9133 Carlyle Avenue, Lucero Avenida. Most of us, we know each other. By any chance, have you seen our Instagram? Let me check. We would love for you to see it, please, because it's very important for us for you to see what we have done for these children that they are growing up with us, and they have this unique opportunity. We have taken them to the biggest entities in Miami. as I said, International Airport with all the CEOs. Port of Miami is our next one. Water and Sewer of Miami-Dade. And for sure, of course, if you support us, we are going to take them to NASA. So please, if you have a chance, we would love, of course, that you participate with us. Go with us. Enjoy with us. Let's grow together and let's help together. Thank you.

So one specific thing we would be asking for you guys if you do agree to supporting us and being our advocates, when we do go, say this idea to the commission. We would like a representative or somebody to be there planning with us, speaking to the town with us as well. Of course, this is if you guys agree to participate and to be our advocates and basically kind of our sponsors because this time of suicide is more likely to say yes if it comes from the Youth Council itself. So that's all I wanted to close with.

Okay, thank you. Thank you so much for the proposal. I think it's a really interesting idea. But before we move on, I just want to open up. Do you guys have any questions for them or about the idea as you're reading it? Do you guys have anything that comes to mind?

I have one question. What if you, like, you go there and back, right?

Yeah, it'd be the same thing. Yeah, so we'd start early in the morning, probably get back a little later. But yeah, it'd be one day, like a one-day extension.

And, um... Are you asking for funding from Surfside or the media?

From Surfside. And then for when we do ask funding for Surfside, we ask that you guys come and help present us and ask a spot.

I have two questions. My first question is, what do you guys mean by the town of Surfside sponsoring media coverage?

Oh, we know that they have an Instagram, and it's obviously, since we just started, ours is kind of on the smaller side, so we would just like it for them to publish videos. I know you guys have posted on the Instagram as well, so it would be a huge help for you guys as well, so that's why we do coverage, mostly social media.

I have three questions. Okay. Another question. Do you have an estimation of the cost? I know the whole 25 to 60 people, but for transportation and the meals and materials themselves,

For transportation, we know that the town of Surfside has a bus already that takes kids to move here, but also that wouldn't have any additional cost. So that's what we were thinking of using if the town of Surfside agrees. The meals, we are trying to talk with NASA to see if they can provide meals. We just put it in there for now in case, like, that doesn't go our way. For the meals, we don't have any cost to get them to say we could have NASA provide it for us. But yeah, I know the admission tickets would be $25 per person. Usually it's $85, but since we're a nonprofit, they agree to reduce it to $25.

And my final question. As youth council, this is an amazing idea. I would really like it and I would really like to support it, but you're asking the town of Surfside, correct? So do you guys know what would be in it for the town? Because I see the benefits for the youth council, but if you're trying to pitch this to the town itself, what benefits are for the town or the commission and so on and so forth?

Yes. Again, this is like a homegrown nonprofit, so it may be exposing certain side to just leadership opportunities and exposure, especially. Chandleton, again, would be doing a story on the youth council, but it would also be mentioning the town of Surfside itself. So it would just be a town that shows advocacy, that shows engagement, community impact.

They're going to every event that we have, they're coming with us to cover the news. So it's amazing for the community, and we're part of the community. I mean, we want to make a team with you.

Just a little, not necessarily a pitch to the pitch, but if you're going to try to base it off of coverage for Surfside, I know we have a sister cities thing going on where we have a little cities in South America and Israel, if I'm not mistaken, and so on and so forth. You guys could try to come at it from an approach like, oh, we have our sister cities, but do we have big brothers in town? Or something where it shows that suicide itself is mentoring these kids, and it's an ongoing thing, and it's not just a one-time thing. Something like that. Thank you. That's all. Any more questions?

So for this kind of proposal example, the budget you guys have is strictly for you guys. If you want to manage it, it's up to your discretion. If they make a proposal, it would obviously be a recommendation. If you guys agree or disagree, I would have to run it by the town manager. But there are other details that need to be put in place. Are you guys trying to transport kids from the town of Surfside as well to this NASA?

It depends on how many kids can we ride in the bus of Surfside because we don't know certainly. So if we are planning to go around 60 people between the kids, between the takers, and us right more or less i mean 60 there are more but so how many are in your group uh our group is like 25 we are trying to get no yeah you're trying to get more positive than us because we are prioritizing them because they need the most so we are going to be like maybe 40 but We want to get all together the foster kids in just one bus, is the reason why we are asking for the sponsorship of the bus, because us, like parents, we can take the kids in our own cars.

So with that, all those children would need either the parent or guardian to sign a waiver through the town as well. We would need all of them to do the same. Obviously, we can't send our youth council by themselves, so we would have to obviously send a supervisor for them. So at this point right now, it's not in the budget. I don't know how you guys want to explore that option, but it's not in the budget. It's not feasible. I can make a recommendation if you guys... do want to explore this, obviously it's up to your discretion.

Actually, we were told that they are going to, we are going to expose them to this deal and they are going to recommend us with the board so they can give us the sponsorship or the money for... No, I understand, but once, since it's going through the Youth Council and once the recommendation does come through, it's probably going to get pulled from their budget.

So it's obviously up to them. BECAUSE WE MET A FEW MONTHS AGO WHEN THEY DIDN'T HAVE A BUDGET. WE WENT BACK, WE FUNDED SOME STUFF, WE SPOKE WITH THE ACCOUNTANT, AND THEN WE CAME BACK LAST MONTH AND WE SHOWED THEM THAT THEY'RE COVERED NOW FOR JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH. I KNOW THEY HAD A FEW IDEAS THAT THEY WANTED TO DO. THEY HAVE THEIR OWN ACTIVITIES THEY WANTED TO DO. THAT'S WHY WE SUPPORTED THEM AND WE HELPED THEM BECAUSE IT WAS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE SUMMER, BUT THAT'S NOT HERE OR THERE, BUT NOW THEY HAVE IT. Obviously, being this NASA trip, obviously it would first be a recommendation to see what the manager says.

So I just want to make sure I understand correctly. So if we were to recommend it, the cost for the trip would have to come out of our budget. But let's say that, like, we didn't directly recommend it and then they went now to the commission instead, could it then, like, independently, could it then come out of the, would it then come out of the commission's budget if the commission thinks it's a viable idea? That would be something that the agenda... You can recommend it.

As a council, you can recommend it to...

the commission so we can recommend this to the commission so you can recommend it for the manager to consider this to be put for the commission because feasibly we can't take it out of our budget that's just not possible but i we do really love the idea and we would possibly we would like to make a recommendation just hopefully

We can work together to get the budget. I mean, being honest, we can get a lot of sponsors for money. We want to work with you, with our town, with SORTSA, and with your council. I mean, we can work together for the budget. This is not a main reason for us to be here.

The best thing you can do is do the recommendation and I can speak to the manager on your behalf. Okay.

But I mean I think overall we think it's a really interesting idea and we definitely want to help. I think we all think it's a good initiative.

I think it definitely is part of what the Youth Council is. It's a group of youth creating a difference in the world in the county. So I do think this is part of our ideals in a sort of way. We make a motion for recommendation.

Who seconds the motion? I second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. Yeah.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Also, I just wanted to add, since they asked if someone would like, for someone to go speak with them when they go speak with the commission, I would be glad to do that. Sorry, what do you mean? I'll take that. Okay.

Yeah, because I didn't want to... I'm just sharing with you guys so you guys have an idea. I don't want you guys to lose your funds for your next pending thing that you guys want to do.

If it comes to our funding, we won't go through with it, but morally, it seems like a good idea.

No, of course.

I'm just saying there are details that fall behind that they don't see, the larger picture. We can't just put you guys on the bus with them and just let you guys be. There's waivers that need to be in place. There's... tactical stuff. You can do this, yes, but there's steps that you have to follow. Do they even share a date on when they will try to target?

It's just because it's all minors. It becomes a little complicated. So I feel time to go to the town manager and look at the logistics and what can be done regarding budgeting and regarding waiver. He has to talk to the town attorney since we're making a waiver that's legal.

And then I'll try to propose it to him in a way that the youth council doesn't want to use their funds. They have their own planning.

The commission will have to approve that.

I know what those buses cost because we trip our seniors and there are no prices. The coach buses.

Yeah, but the contract is only for the school during school hours.

Well, you don't know. No, we, that's a different, that we use. You chart her up, and then we have the other. Okay. We have the. Yeah, I think it's a shame. No, George, you can share. We have that one. It's for the buses.

I was trying to explain to her that I doubt this is going to get carried through the council.

Unfortunately, they don't have enough funding. It's an amazing idea, honestly, but they need to come up with a plan that targets more Surfside. Maybe if they try to do a fundraising event within Surfside to get the funds to go to NASA, that would be able to carry you through.

I mean, one thing I was thinking is that, like, maybe if we, like, we wanted to, if there were things that got exposed in foster children and careers, we would maybe have this college preparation series career festival coming up, and State Street Park, I mean, we could combine them with that.

And then fundraising could happen.

and they wouldn't have to come out of Surfside's money, which I know they want to come out of. Can we fundraise through a Surfside event?

Is that allowed? If we haven't met.

I've never seen it. But why would we need to, oh, fundraise for the crib.

The Community Relations Board had done it through Pardotopia last year. They did the clothing swap during one of the events. Yeah, your mom. They did the clothing swap, and then they used that money, and they donated it to... I forgot for what organizations donated it, but they used it to donate. It was a non-profit. I don't remember the logistics. I will have to talk it over. I remember we had to talk to the town attorney at that time. But I don't know, I think they are non-profit, if I'm not mistaken. So I believe it could be possible, but we'll have to circle back and do some research.

And the meeting is, I think, March 15th. Yeah, March 15th. At this point, so that's kind of early. Time schedule.

Yeah. I mean, I didn't want to, I was thinking about proposing it right then and there, but I didn't want to do it, like, right then and there, because they came with such a large proposal, so I thought it would be kind of unnecessary. But who brought this agenda item? Like, whose agenda item was the Mentoring Miracles? This was Frank from Tourism. Okay. Yeah, because I was going to say, I mean, because, Jonah, if you know them, maybe you could contact them. I do. I am technically on the board.

So, I don't know. I think it's a good idea, just like full size, I don't know if we can do it, just logistically. To have them come to the... No, no, no, that I think is definitely... No, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, that would be a good idea. That would be a great idea.

Yeah. I was just talking about that. No, no, that's what I mean. I think if that's something that they might be open to, maybe that, like, it's because... We'll move on to this agenda item in a second, but the possible date for that would be coming up kind of soon. So if this is something that they would be interested in partnering with us, then I think we would probably have to contact them decently soon so they could also kind of get themselves organized for that. If I can call, I wouldn't be tonight. Okay.

Do you know if they started their own separate fundraiser, but they happened to be at the event? Would that have to go through the town if they happened to have a separate GoFundMe, but they were not exactly... Okay, here.

I'm trying to see if there could be fundraising for them, right?

And I understand that the fundraising would have to go through the town attorney, through the town, so on and so forth.

They're better off doing it separately. That's my point.

If they happen to be at the event, not partnered with us, not in relation to the town of Surfside, but they have their own little fundraising thing going on. Would that have to be like...

I think that's technically solicit. Yeah, possibly. It's definitely not going to be another. That's why I said they're separately working on that fundraising. It would be their best choice of avenue.

Also, I think probably, especially if that event is geared towards youth, they're probably not going to get donations anyway, I would say. So I don't know if it would be a viable opportunity. But the way I would think about it is, like Sophia, if you were to pitch it to her, is it's more of an opportunity, because she was talking about how they want to get even more service ideas involved with the organization. to kind of let, if the youth from Surfside had already come to this event, to kind of let them know that this organization exists, they'd want to be a part of it, kind of what they do.

Maybe we could set up like a table for different daily clubs. I don't know if they would have gotten fundraising on that, but I don't know how we would.

Well, no, this is more, I think we would like separate this from...

This is more of a collaboration in their like ideals of careers.

Yeah, this specific idea would be separated from this proposal, like... You know, that proposal is, we have a recommendation to the commission. This separate pitch to kind of collaborate on this event would be like, we liked your presentation about your organization. We also thought this might be an interesting idea for you guys to pursue as well, if you want to work with us on something else.

So, like, the idea of being, like, they come and sit at the table and, like, share about their organization without the kids and everything.

Yeah. Okay. Or if they would want to do it, that could be one option. Or if they would want to have the kids come and interact with the different people and clubs who are there too, that could also be an option. So whatever is better for them. Okay, so moving on to, I guess, I don't know if it would be 5C now, which you kind of already started talking about, but the college preparation series, the Find Your Field Fair. So I believe Vice Chair Garcia was kind of organizing this. But essentially, which we kind of discussed already a little bit, but the idea for this is to kind of have like an outdoor expo to help middle and high school students explore different careers through having different clubs from local high schools like Miami Beach High School and like Jonah I-PREP. So different schools to come and kind of exhibit what their club is and what the possible career could be. And then if the students are interested in that, kind of different opportunities or things that they could pursue. And we were thinking about having this at the 96th Street Park green space in the evening, around like 3.30, 5.30 in the afternoon. And the two dates that we were thinking for this would be March 8th or March 15th. And as we've already kind of talked about with Commissioner Bozegui, March 8th probably won't be an option. So March 15th.

Because also Ella, she's like reading this whole thing and she said she can't do March 8th. Right. So I think March 15th would be best. Yeah.

And I think we were also talking to Parks and Rec about what would have to happen in order to shut down the park for the green space.

And kind of how much advance notice do you need or what kind of program do you have on those dates? But yeah, I mean, I don't know. Also, I don't know how much. I mean, the thing is, because if we would want to do it, like, we'd probably have to move forward because it's decently soon. But also, I don't know how much, like, Chair LaCour, Vice Chair Precio would want us to, I mean, I don't know how much they'd want us to approve without them being here, you know?

March 15th is an available date. It is. It is, it is. It's available. The time frame is fine. The... Would you, you want the setup of, you want tables outside on the green space? Yeah. Like lined up, I don't know if like circular.

Yeah, that would be good. Like some kind of, yeah exactly, something people could walk through. And we have little, like they don't even necessarily need tents.

Because on the south side of the park where that wall is, the graffiti and stuff, that, it's kind of like a west face there, so I would say put it more towards the playground, lined up. I don't know if you guys have a... Do you guys have a host? Do you guys have... any particulars of who's coming, not already RSVP, who's going to be displaying, like a number of tables you'll need out there?

So the most, like the people that are coming to like have tables out there, they're mostly from Miami Beach High, their clubs, school clubs. Denise actually just said that this, one of the STEM and medical clubs just confirmed, Cecile DuPoyet, you guys probably don't know her, but she confirmed And I think we have, were people from Pinecrest coming?

Yeah, I think like our DECA, sort of like Entrepreneurship and Business Club, could come to exhibit as well. And then also, I believe, the Polyphi Club.

Yes, we have the Polyphi Club from Miami Beach High. They're confirmed to come. But it's mostly just from both of those schools. Those are the only people that are going to be there.

And also, well, you would prevent club, right? You guys would need to finalize a total number of how many... career fairs set up you want and then I can help you having the tables in place and then are you guys planning to feed anybody refreshments? We're thinking about offering similar to how we did crumbled cookies. In that case, I would suggest Only feed the ones that actually participate in the fair. Because, I mean, again, middle school and high school kids, they're going to go just to get food and then leave. So I would suggest maybe storing it on the second floor and then one of you guys manning it. In a way, maybe you could have... a card index and have each vendor stamp it. They come to their table to confirm it and then one of you guys can collect it. Or I don't know if you guys are going to participate in it as well.

A card vendor that each table has and once they come to the table and verify the stamp and then they can use that to go get pizza upstairs.

It's like for you guys to have confirmation that, okay, this child or this student is participating in our fair.

Have you guys tried to construct a flyer?

Not yet. So you could probably do that once you confirm all the attendees, construct a flyer, maybe you could give it to Cindy. She could maybe edit or word it in a more professional manner. And then that we could put as an e-blast in our town website to get traffic. Honestly, you guys would have to do promotion at your own school because I'm sure a lot of students don't look at the town website. But if parents do see it, they might want to bring their child. Are you guys going to make it strictly just for town and sub-site students? No, open to anyone. Okay, so you'll probably get more of a turn-on. Yeah, we're trying to get a lot of turn-on, hopefully. So in a way, you'll obviously hopefully get all the local schools, but if you do get one or two from out of the city, it would be great as well.

So I was also thinking about, I have a robotics club, so I'm kind of interviewing as another club. We do have the logistics and materials here on the second page. Essentially, they put 16 tables. They need how many tables? 16 tables. Just for them?

No, no, no, no, as the entirety of it. Yeah, yeah, the entirety of it.

We don't have that.

On the second page, the set up and equipment that we have estimated is 16 tables, 30 chairs, 4 tents, a speaker system, some table cloths, and a personalized sign, which we don't technically need, and then just pizza, drinks, and cookies, but not fancy cookies.

So the money for the food would come out of our budget, right?

Most of that stuff we have in-house, though, so I don't think it would be... The drinks, we have that. The pizza, obviously, we don't have that. We have two tables and two chairs. The tents are pretty standard. They're the white ones. Some of you have been to our events. They're just the regular standard white ones. The little ones we have. They have cloth and some metal.

Yeah, and we have to make sure we would handle the buying of the food, right? Of the refreshments.

No, no, no. We'll purchase it for you and then we deduct it from the from the budget you guys have, and then I could probably bring you what's left over, just so you guys can see what you're working with.

So you need an estimated number of attendees to buy the food, or you'll just buy based on what you think?

That's why I asked. If you guys have an RSVP, it'll be easier, because then you'll know if students are coming or not. But if you do it the day of, it's going to be, obviously, the ones that actually attend. Jonah create a little card index so they have to go around and then whoever the vendor is they can punch a hole in it or initially whatever you want or have a stamp I don't know what they want to use I'm saying that yeah they came to my favor okay okay okay yeah um

I would say, I would want to push this back, actually, but we can't, because the glare in February, this event is in March, and I feel, I don't know.

I mean, I think, well, I mean, I think Ella is definitely open to everything. I think Vice Chair Garcia and Chair Gora definitely think that. I mean, they wrote out the whole proposal, and Ella already confirmed with a good amount of clubs. So I think they would be fine with moving forward. I mean, the big thing was the date, making sure that the date is clear and if it's all good.

Yeah, and I let them know that we might approve it for March 15, and to me, that's fine.

Okay. Okay. So are we approving it for March 15? Yeah, does that work for everyone? One second.

Actually, the people from the qualified club, if I'm not mistaken, two of them have something speechy debate? On March 15th. On March 15th. And they wanted to move it to March 8th.

Uh-huh.

That was the whole debate, if I'm not mistaken. But then Ella affected the challenge. She was like, no, actually, that would not work for me. So I'm pretty sure March 15th is the day Vice-Chancellor Garcia would like to go for.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure March 15th. I think so. It says something.

Let me check right now what they said about that.

And they have more club members too, right? Do we want to go around for a second and just list the amount of clubs that we're thinking per sector? Just so we have an idea?

Yeah, so in terms of STEM and healthcare, we would have the I-PREP pre-med club. Pinecrest also has a pre-med club, which I think Lucio was talking to, but they're not confirmed. If they fall through, I can do it?

Or if we want to have I-PREP, we can do it? I can. I think we should do iPrep. Yeah, iPrep would be good as long as they're kind of dysfunctional without me. That's fine. So I won't be able to do like... That's fine, I love it. So we have the iPrep pre-med. Do I have the second notes or something?

Well, there's, I think we wrote it down somewhere, I'm not sure where it is, but there's another girl from my school that has a med club, and we could ask for, and here it says three to five for organizations per field.

Yeah. But I don't really have three to five for arts and humanities. I don't think so. or politics law, which is kind of just law club. And then business and entrepreneurship.

And there's also, I think, Vice General Garcia was thinking about the philosophy of government. Wasn't she talking about that? I assume. But yeah, but also I wouldn't want to confirm the date necessarily if we don't have a lot of people confirm, which I'm assuming is your concern as well.

I just have a question of how large are these tents?

They're the regular standard 10 by 10? Not that big. They're not?

Yeah. No, my question is because if we're going to have three to five organizations per field and she wants to put each field in a... One tent? I don't think it's like that. No, I don't think necessarily we want the tables under the tents. It says four themed tents, so I know they're going to have tables, but will three to five...

I think it's... No, I don't think that's what she meant. I think she just wants to have the tents.

We just need tents for, like, supplies and things like that to hand out, but I think the tables themselves will not be covered. Okay. Just, like, arranged.

And also, on the group chat that we were communicating with the point by club, they said that they can do the 15th.

Okay.

And the March 8th would not be good for them.

For STEM and healthcare, we have robotic club. We have pre-med. Do you want two medicine? Possibly. Okay, so it's impossible to use medicine. Is there anything else in STEM and engineering? No. Okay, then arts and humanities, we have that philosophy. That's pretty much it.

Well, we can get national honors, national honor society. I have, my school has one.

So we could, yeah, we could do a National Honor Society.

And also, we don't just have to, like, talk to clubs. Like, if you know people that, like, are really passionate about a certain thing, they can go to the club.

Another thing we could do is, because we have some duplicate clubs, we could just combine them into one sector. So we have multiple representatives from multiple schools. So it doesn't have to be just a school-based. It's more about the career that the school focuses on. So you just combine them. So if you have two pre-med, and we have two people from each, and we have four people, eight of those people. So just, like, if we wanted to combine them. So I'd say we have, like, eight to ten clubs.

I think we have to confirm the clubs with, like, like to add later, because it also depends on their delivery.

I think now all we have to do is just reach out to Tom.

Okay, so I think March 15th, that's our date. We have the supplies, we have the food and funding for everything, and we have the time. And we also have a decent amount of clubs confirmed. So I think the next steps now would be to loop in, first of all, loop in Chair McCoy and Vice Chair Garcia. and then create a flyer that we can send out to communications. So I think probably Vice Chair Maciel already has some ideas for that. I mean, this is her kind of initiative. So have her kind of work with her to create that, and then ensure that we confirm all the clubs and then kind of make sure that each club has representatives and people who have written on that date, and then find a way to communicate that with the flyer with the local youth. So I think, and I think we can.

I think we can confirm the March 15 from 3.30 to 5.30.

The only thing we're setting down now is March 15 to 3.30 to 5.30, and everything else we can figure out along the way.

Yeah. I think our job right now is now we just have to make a list of who we're inviting to the event and then make sure they can come.

Logistically, this isn't going to take that much planning. All we have to do is to make it to clubs.

They have to bring material in. So who would want to work with, like, Vice Chair Garcia on that? I do.

I can talk to her and make the list, and then I'll help Rich out, because I go to Beach High, so it's pretty easy.

Okay. All right. Okay, I think that makes the most sense, because you guys go to the same school. And then I can work with Chair LaCour in terms of time for us.

Yeah. And if you guys know anyone else who has a passion in any of these fields, just let them know. They'd be interested in representing you. So we'll just do the motion to set the, to free up the park for that date and time.

Does that give us enough time to set up them? When we block our 3353rd, does that mean the entire event, including the set up, is between 3353rd and 530? No, no, no. Staff will be there.

Okay, so we can set up before and set about. We'll have the tables out for you and the chairs out for you an hour before you. And if you're the the ones that are actually going to be promoting or doing their um whatever business they are whatever critique for the preparation series if they want to come in here and put their materials out if they have their own supplies whatever they'll have access as well

I motion to approve the date and time of the . Okay, do I move?

Okay, I motion to approve the date for March 15, 3.30 to 5.30 p.m. at the 960. I second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

Okay, awesome. Okay, so on to item 5C. I know this is more Denise's kind of focus, I believe. But, I mean, essentially it was just kind of to recap the Snow Moon Soiree a little bit, and then the Youth Council involvement. I know Sophia Chavez, I know you were there. Joan, I know you were there. I was there, I wasn't volunteering, but I came to take a look. So yeah, I think it was a cool opportunity that I got to volunteer. I think it was a nice event. It was cold, but it was nice. It was fun. The theaters were a nice touch. Yeah, for sure.

And I liked the mermaid and the fossils.

Yeah, exactly. I was only there for the last two hours, but from what I could tell, there wasn't a lot of youth involvement.

Because it was 18 plus.

It was a go-to. Actually, yeah. Then why were we there? To volunteer. Oh, okay.

I didn't go to the launch out of there.

I was there on the Sunday launch.

How was that the way to go?

It was really nice. The sand sculpture was pretty cool. Yeah, definitely a success, besides the weather.

It was a success. Yes, I mean, I think that was a cool opportunity, so I'm sure Denise will bring more things to us, and Frank for the tourism board will bring more kind of opportunities to us as they arise, for sure. Like I know, you know, I think Padletopia, again, is maybe coming up.

I was at the Resort Tax Board meeting the other night, so yes, they did talk about Battletopia, and as you know, the Thursdays will be having one again in February and in March, so there are definitely opportunities for the Youth Council to help out. with the events that they have. And they did like the heaters so much that they approved that if it's cold again, to have heaters. Awesome.

Yeah, for sure. So I mean, in terms of that, do you think the Reserved Tax Board would come to us if they need our help? Or should we reach out to them per event?

I guess both ways. If you feel like reaching out, that's great. Because then that saves some of the juggle of reaching out to you. because generally they will reach out to the council that they're looking for volunteers usually for giving out the tickets or usual things.

It's a pretty fun thing to give out the tickets and to socialize. But yeah, I do think the youth council should probably engage more.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's nice if you reach out. If you're interested and you reach out to Frank, then it's good.

Would someone want to pursue that, like kind of get in touch with Frank and the board to figure out future opportunities? Or do you think maybe Denise would be interested in that? Because you have to coordinate the previous one. I would need to.

I mean, I fall here pretty much every Thursday that we've had in the last two years. So I mean, I could probably talk to Frank a little bit. Okay, so do you want to? I can do that. Okay. I mean, it doesn't have to be super formal. Yeah, it's just like reaching out. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. And then you can help to coordinate with him to come here. Okay. Okay, cool. All right, so on to item 5D. So the youth sports tournaments. Pickleball. Yeah, so this is something we've been kind of floating since the beginning of the year. So I think the idea has kind of changed over time. But the base idea was that we would have kind of like a youth pickleball tournament. And it wouldn't necessarily just be for youth, it could be kind of a town-wide event at the tennis courts on 88th Street. And then it kind of evolved a little bit to include not just pickleball but possibly other sports like soccer to kind of have a series of tournaments or just times that people can come in and play these sports. So where do we stand on this? we want to pursue one of those sports in the next couple months like maybe aiming for something like late march or like maybe april or may

I think tennis, I really thought would be the easiest one to go with to get off the court in a day.

I don't think it would be two sports with two different playing fields on the same day.

No, it would be different things. Which sport would you be interested in pursuing in college?

I think the first one should be a more wide known, and then we can sector off into each sports, like pickleball.

Which I love, don't they?

Or if we could do tennis, and then you could go ball from the side and practice.

And I know we've brought this up before, but do we need waivers for that? No, right? We do.

For minors, yes.

Okay. And who do we speak to about that?

We have, Parks and Rec, we have waivers for youth. You can use those. But I would have to speak to the town attorney to see if it's possible to use those for that. Or maybe we would have to edit the wording a little bit. But we have a generic waiver that's pretty accurate.

How is that spread out? Is it by people?

You could do it through the app or we can print them out. Okay. We could have like a QR code, maybe like a registration desk where you register for the tournament. You could also sign a paper for your job. We would have to create it. We don't have it right now, but we would have to create it.

Or it could just be paper, just like, here you sign up, here you sign the waivers. For tournaments, papers are always the best because you never have, if you have a drop-in or somebody that just happens to see it and the resident sees it and wants to participate, at least it's already in place.

And also, do we want to do a lot of different age groups? Because I feel like that's harder. Oh, yeah. But we have to organize everyone by age group.

But we can't put teams in. We could do an adult sector. We could do a 7 to 11 or 7 to 12 and then 12 to 17 and 18 to whatever.

Seems like a general category.

How would we organize the plane and everything? I think there's Four courts, three courts. There's three tennis courts. Three tennis courts, three different date sectors.

So we would have eight, okay.

But what about the whole brackets? There's apps for that.

So we're thinking tennis, not pickleball, right?

Because we already have the existing tennis. Yes, because we have the existing tennis. That's fine. I think pickleball is good. We can just do that more in the future.

Start off strong. I mean, should it be a tournament or maybe should we make it a little less formal and make it more of like an open play session where just a bunch of people kind of show up and organize amongst themselves.

I think competition fosters participation. Yeah. Okay.

And didn't we, were we going to do like a gift card as like a $25 gift card?

It's coming out of your safe. Yeah.

Obviously you guys, I don't know if you passed by the tennis center, there's a lot of construction going on. So I don't know the time frame for that. That could be an issue. Also, secondly, this would need a notice well in advance because the residents do love participating right so they would need well advanced notes i wouldn't even say four weeks that's fine but i'm saying once it's finalized once you have your decision and all that So I have to be sure I'm contacting Ian and Cindy and make sure, like, hey, Cindy, we need to get this out. The tennis center, the council's doing, hosting something. Make sure our residents are aware. At the community center on 96th Street, I could share it to the parents. I could make sure the seniors know that they're all aware because they really do love participating in tennis, and we have programs, and we have recreational tennis, and even if we shut it down just for one day, they do let they do that, the vice mayor, no.

In your personal experience with all the Parks and Recreation, like tennis programs, do you think we would have a good turnout?

No, yes, of course. I'm just saying, just to cover the town, and cover our dignitaries, cover our directors, make sure it's it's laid out with enough time and it's it's planned correctly so then if i receive any notices or the town clerk the vice mayor might receive some messages she could say that this was well planned this was already advised we let all the residents know and we're you're all clear i'm just saying if you go that route 10 is special

And we also had soccer and volleyball as well.

I would just add to what Rudy said about the tennis centers. I just came from there, and I don't know if you're aware, we've moved the debris from Champlain over there. and it'll be there until it's ready for the memorial. So, you know, we're looking at several months. It is fenced off. It'll put a more permanent fence there, but it does limit the green space there in terms of, you know, for people to be able to gather.

Are the tennis courts themselves operational?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's just a green space next to it. I don't think we need that space.

It's just like a registration table in there. Yeah, you'd be able to do that.

Were we thinking of doing this on a weekend or a day?

I think weekend.

Like a Saturday?

I would say Sunday.

Sunday. Like evening? Afternoon?

It would either be morning or evening. I feel like morning. Like at 9 a.m. You think that would be too hot? That's too early. Like when I'm driving? Yeah. That's going to be peak. So as I was thinking like that, that would be super hot. I mean, we could do like a three...

three to eight well i mean how long do you expect three to six right exactly and i know uh i myself would not go to a tennis tournament until 8 p.m i forgot school the next day so if we could find a sunday morning that's i don't know I think Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon.

Well, most Saturdays we're locking off about 45% of our town residents. Yeah, because they can't play on Shabbat, which is, I think, a big thing.

I think it's now Friday night.

Yeah.

Okay, so there's, this is probably too soon, but I'm looking at the calendar, and there's, like, before spring break, there's March 28th, and then that whole week is spring break, so there wouldn't be school on the Monday, if that's a concern for something.

I feel like people traveling more. Well, that's too soon. Like, we have an event March 15th. Oh, that's true. Yeah, I don't think we can do that until close together. There's a holiday on May.

On the 25th of Monday.

Of May. Is it a national holiday, though? Memorial Day. So we can't do it. There's a Memorial Day ceremony, though. We have a ceremony. We can't do it.

We have to figure out where we're doing the ceremony.

Yeah.

It could always be a summer thing.

Yeah, that's true. I guess the question is, do you guys want to nail down a date within the next two months, or do you guys want to push it to the next? What I mean is, do you want to sign on a date right now for some kind of AMA, or do you want to kind of push it to the next meeting?

I think, yeah. But I feel like we should get something coming with this.

Get a couple dates and then further to the next meeting.

The Memorial Day ceremony, we're going to do it on the actual Memorial Day, that Monday? Yes.

It's always done on that day. Yeah.

That's true. I mean, you should look at that Sunday because that Monday is the school.

That's why I was in the... What day is that? It's in May 24th, 2019.

So there's no school in London? Yeah, I think that actually would work perfectly. There's no school on the Monday.

It won't overlap.

But I don't know the number of residents that'll be. There's on vacation. Out traveling.

Yeah. We could also do like, start start off the summer strong with like a sports event like what you're saying i was just because i think if we do it really early into summer then maybe people won't be traveling and then that will also be like an active way to start off your sports season of summer because i think that's the time but the thing is also i don't think are we like counseling

Yeah, we have to do that. We're in August. August, yeah. Yeah, I think so.

Okay.

Okay.

So maybe we'll target early June.

Yeah, so like maybe the week of June 8th to the 13th or the week of June 20th to the 20th. Sometime in between that. Yeah. Like the first two weeks. Yeah.

Okay, that's good though.

So the plan is we'll bring these dates to the next meeting and we'll loop in territory.

You guys should also talk to your friends at school and see if they're going to go on vacation.

Okay, awesome. Okay, so item 5e is the update on the Instagram account.

Yeah, so we had a meeting about three weeks ago, and the thing was we would have to have regular posts, and we don't really... We had to be visiting Lucia, me, and Sydney. It's usually three for the suicide account, but I think we need, she said we could do two and we split it. How long? Yeah, two, no, two per week. Okay. Yeah, so, her concern was when Lucia leaves, it would be too much for me to just do. And I talked to Jonah and said maybe he'd be interested and we'd see, I think we would have someone next term. It's just we have a meeting with her tomorrow.

She's sharing the password with you guys tomorrow. Oh, she is? Yeah, I spoke to her last night.

Okay. Sophia, are you the social media active?

Are you the guru? I talked to her too much. You said it was too much, right?

It depends, like I just, I don't know how well, I can try, but I don't know if I can be able to be like super active about it.

I can help out. I see what you're saying, we do, like this year we work on the flyers, so we have like a template basically for different things you post, and we will split it so maybe one person does one day and then Friday, so it would be one post per week basically. It won't be too long until you guys are ready.

And this is for the Instagram, the group one, not the, okay, not the general search side one? Uh-uh. Okay. So what else, what do we need to do to get that, like, confirm that we have, like... Just the Instagram.

Yeah, we're moving to Instagram. They're sending it out, too. I believe so.

Is there a maximum amount of people who are going to be on the account? or does that not matter yeah something they want to happen tomorrow right because i think it would help if we had like maybe three people yeah so that like two people can do it like whoever can do it will do it yeah yeah i think i think us three could be an option for that okay yeah i mean as long as there are people to divide the work yeah just make sure you have at least

We'll talk about . Yeah.

So yeah, just let us know about that, and we'll talk about that next.

OK. Cool. So also before we move on, I think at the end of the meeting, because you've been taking the notes over here, I think maybe you should quickly pull out like a quick summary that you can send to the WhatsApp chat. Just in general, if you don't mind making that. Just the important thanks from each agenda item, so you can send that to everyone so we're all on the same page. You can also just chat with your friend. Yeah, or that too.

I did it all on the Google Doc for that, by the way.

Yeah, or even if you just want to tell them it's on the doc, they can look either way. Do I have access to that? I don't know if I do.

Really? I haven't. I don't know.

Jack, you're on it.

I'm broken. J... Off the record. J-E-M-M-E-T... 18. How do you want that song?

18.

One eight.

um okay item number six new business the new business was the walk-on item but you guys were the mean of the agenda so there's nothing else all right okay um i would look favorably upon a motion to adjourn oh wait wait sorry 7a next meeting march 4th

Does that align with me?

I'm not sure if that works for me. I don't think I can do March 4th. That's a Wednesday. I don't think I can do that. March 4th would work for me. I mean, I just might not be able to come, but as long as that works for enough people to have a forum, I think that's okay. I mean, I'm not sure if that works for everyone else. Okay. This is just a question to you. How many absences do you have per year?

Three per year. So you guys have this February, so when are you traveling this late? If you weren't absent last week. So you have up to three this year until August. That's when you guys... If you do reapply and get reappointed, then it will be brand new again.

So did those start? Because I know, I think I missed one meeting this year. So does that count, or did it reset in January?

It reset in January. So per year, per calendar year, you get three absences. So you guys will get three absences all the way until August, which is when your term will be done. And then if you do apply again and get reappointed, then it will start again.

Got it.

I remember I was here last meeting, right?

I'm not sure.

You were. Yeah, I was here.

I wasn't here, and he was here. They were all here. Okay, great. So we all have the clean slate in terms of absences.

Yes. Per calendar year, it's three per calendar year.

So we're allotted in the last one. Okay. Okay, so March 4th works for everyone. And we can text that. Yeah. Okay. I would look favorably on a motion to adjourn. I second. No, no, you have the motion.

Okay, I motion to adjourn this meeting. I second.

All those in favor?

Aye.