- you know, gone in and, you know, and it's ended. And so that's sort of, yes, no, I haven't done that.
- And then a follow-up would be, what would you bring to the commission that's unique, that you think
- it might be lacking, or just the arts community in general, you know, what you could add? So wouldn't
- we be sure we choose, should we do a coin flip or something?
- Should we go first with Becca? Sure. Let's start with Becca. And then we will switch for different answers.
- Be fair. Okay. No, I have not yet. I've been wanting to sit on council meeting or the commission meetings.
- But I have read some of the meeting notes, the documentation on the council meetings, documentation,
- and also the strategic agenda, the public art plan.
- for the council. I am a lifelong Bloomingtonian, so I've lived here my entire life. So to answer the
- second part of the question, I wanted to sort of give back to the community. So I'm going to school
- for arts administration now. I've also gotten my background in studio art. And so now that I'm sort
- of getting a little bit older and getting my degree in arts administration, I'm wanting to sort of give
- back to my community in this way, in a meaningful way that matters to me.
- since I am a lifelong resident of Bloomington. And so to me, that means sitting into these meetings
- and being on the arts commission, where I feel like I'll be able to make a difference in my own community.
- And so part of that also was sort of working in projects that I think matter to me in sort of grant
- making. And so I have sat, so second part of that, to piggyback off that,
- been a grant reviewer for the NEA, and I've been a grant reviewer for the Indiana Arts Commission as
- well. So I have some background in sort of grant reviewing. But I'd like, again, just want to get back
- to my own community in a meaningful manner, and also work on public art. So in a way, that's a little
- bit different for that. And so work on this big one that's actually happening.
- that I know is being built with the convention center that I drive by every day, actually every evening.
- So to me, that would be very meaningful for me to actually have involvement in that, in the way that's,
- you know, giving back to my community in the arts, in an arts way, where I'm actually working towards
- something bigger than myself. So, and what I'm working for, so. Well, thank you. Austin?
- I guess I sort of first question. No, I have not been on the Council meetings or anything like that.
- This is all purely from folks who have been directly involved just kind of reaching out to me and just
- saying, I think you would be into this. I think you should really go for it. And, and then so I guess
- my reason for doing it is kind of more of a it's more like a
- You see if this is a good fit, really. But I moved here about 13, 14 years ago. I'd like to consider
- myself now a lifer. And I came here, as most people do, to go to the school and see what's going on.
- But I came for music engineering. And it was really silly of me, because I didn't even apply to it.
- And I didn't know what the process was. I was like, I just want to do music engineering. It's like,
- did you get accepted? And I'm like, no.
- I did, I'm just gonna go to it, but that didn't happen at all. And so I ended up interning at a studio
- and I was there at Russian studio and through it I realized that I actually don't like music engineering
- at all, but I do like music and so through that
- passion for music and art, I still was able to carve a way through Bloomington to where I work at secretly
- now. And throughout those years, I've met people that are like minded who, you know, kind of take the
- path less taken, you know, where it's like, you know, a lot of people have this formal education and
- things like that. And that's really awesome. But then there's a lot of people who just
- Like art and the city still reaches out to help them and it's helped me like I've been a recipient of
- one of the arts grants and it's been awesome and so I feel like that would be my niche in the committee
- if you know if chosen where it's like I'm looking out in the you know
- for Bloomington, where it's like, there's all kinds of folks around here who might not be a part of
- the main establishment, but still need to be looked after in the same way to curate that kind of, that
- different perspective. So ultimately that would be my goal, where it's like to work, you know, obviously
- with the university, to work with any organization that we can, but also just keeping an extra eye out
- for the kind of, for the little guy in that way, which is, they're very much,
- as part of Bloomington as Bloomington has made me. Thank you. Where'd you come from, by the way? Northwest
- Indiana in Dr. Ten. Okay. Well, I have a question. It is a little bit of a sensitive nature. I'm sorry
- to spring this on you guys. As of yesterday, our director of public art is no longer employed at the
- city. So, I'm sorry to spring it on you. No, I read the email today from the ESD director.
- How do you all feel about operating in moments of transition and how can you help provide the Bloomington
- Arts Commission with a moment of stability that it really might need right now? We'll start with Austin,
- yes. All right, so like I said, now a Bloomington lifer who lives right on the city square, actually.
- Since I don't really know anything that's going on, I'd definitely like to, all right,
- Okay, I'm not going anywhere. So as far as there's that immediate physical stability, but I've been
- employed at Secretly for eight years. I haven't jumped ship or been looking for other things. So it's
- like when I decide to be a part of something, I'm in it for the most part. And that's about all I got.
- As I'm taking it all in, I'm eager to find out what were the issues of the past that we can work towards
- in the future.
- To me, it seems like fresh learning. Becca? Yeah, I actually would agree with what Austin says. So I've
- worked in not just in the arts, well, working towards my art degree or working towards in the art scene
- here, even at IU, or trying to work towards being in the arts commission here in Bloomington and just
- giving back to my community.
- But even prior to that, and just my background before coming into IU, I've worked under considerable
- amounts of stress, working in public safety, working for the Indiana State Police, and just moments
- of uncertainty and unclarity. And I think just piggybacking off of what actually Austin said, and just
- sitting down and sort of realizing what needs to happen and what
- what were the issues that sort of led to this and what needs to happen moving forward and how can we
- all come together and what, you know, how can we all move forward together for the commission, for the
- art scene, and as a community, I think is what really would need to happen for the arts commission.
- So I actually would agree with what Austin said. You have another question, I think, in this one?
- Go ahead. Do you know if there's going to be a liaison? Because both Chas and Holly have left. I mean,
- I would hope that there would be somebody from ESD who would. Jane, Jane ran the Blendings and Arts
- Commission yesterday. Oh, right. They met last time. I forgot. Jane Coopersmith is the director of economic
- and sustainable development. She ran the meeting yesterday, which is actually where they announced that
- Holly and Chas were no longer. So she'll probably do it in the interim.
- I believe they're looking at Christina Alem as someone who might be able to supplement some of the work
- that Holly was doing, which I don't know if I was supposed to share, but I did. It's too late to take
- it back now. It was said yesterday on the meeting. Perfect. I'm the council liaison.
- to the Bloomington Arts Commission. So I would be the person that you guys could, you know, if there's
- anything arts related on the council side of things that you think that we could pursue, that I would
- be the person that you could come to about that. There are a couple of different subcommittees, including
- the Subcommittee on Public Art and like the Grants Subcommittee, which I know Austin, you said that
- you received one of those, which is great. And I guess I'm just wondering what commission or
- what subcommittee would you be interested in being on?
- what would you be interested in pursuing on that subcommittee? And we'll start with Becca. Yeah. Well,
- you know, so it's interesting. So I, I think I've thought about this question about which subcommittee
- I would have sat on. And I would normally being comfortable probably would have gone for like the grant
- committee just because like, okay, I did work with,
- you know, I did an internship for the Center for Rural Engagement and I worked with, you know, local
- communities, Southern communities, and I helped them sort of get grants for public art and that felt
- like amazing. And that felt very validating for, you know, communities to get grants for art and artists
- for public art. But since, and also since I've sat on, you know, review boards for, also for committees,
- That feels very natural for me, but I think I want to sort of like, get outside of my comfort zone and
- sit on, like, I think I would want to do the public art some committee sort of help oversee. If there's
- anything else that needs to be done with, like, the obviously the strategic plan for public art is,
- I think, is underway. But also, I think there's new. Probably new.
- directions that that might need to go or new ways that I could probably help spearhead that. I don't
- know if there's partners that need to happen at IU that I might be able to help bring in and be like
- a liaison for that, or just working with other community partners for that and just help spearhead that
- project. I think would be really exciting for me, but I'd love to sort of help set on. So yeah, the
- subcommittee for public art would be exciting, I think, and just different. Great, thank you.
- Uh, well, truthfully, I'm not familiar with all of the subcommittees. Sounds a little overwhelming just
- off the bat, but really it would be more, um, wherever the people that are already established here,
- I think would be a great fit for someone that, like myself, who's looking to enhance, um, I guess those,
- again, those unturned stones, uh, and just ultimately looking towards, um,
- Wherever I can help, I would say grants, but that's really because that's the only thing I can think
- of right now where you are overlooking like, all right, what is this project you need help with? I know
- you need it. I know you need the money, but does Bloomington need it? And then just kind of engaging
- like, does Bloomington need this as much as we want to help? But we'd also rather help someone that's
- like, we both fulfill what you want to do,
- and what we're trying to do ultimately as opposed to just throwing money out. But yeah, I guess just
- kind of going with the fine tooth comb and just ultimately picking the best one, like just really not
- just giving money out. I'm sure there's, I don't wanna say plenty, but I'm sure there's money, but like
- just really making sure that we're being as economical as possible and getting the most bang for buck,
- helping and
- spending. So I guess I'm pretty conservative in that way. It's just like I just want to really matter.
- So yeah, I guess in any kind of committee where something like that where it's like this person who
- really cares about the money and seeing them as opposed to just throwing it all out there. So I would
- say that. Thank you. So one of the duties of the arts commission members is to facilitate connections between
- City Bloomington staff, artists, artists groups, and so forth. And I wondered about your, both of your
- connectivity with artists in the community and sort of your circles. Do you feel well connected and
- can you give maybe a couple examples? Sure. Yeah, just throughout my time in Bloomington it's been so
- weird where it's like, you know,
- just make friends everywhere the oddest ways where whether it be hanging out a bar and you go there
- enough times that hey i know the owner and then they're like hey i'm looking for a dj tonight or something
- like which is actually how i became a dj is like you you do music i'm like dj is a completely different
- thing but i guess and now that's like actually a side job that i do i have a whole rig that just started from
- white lie that I told where I just played spy. You know, during that, or it's like, Hey, do you know
- a photographer? And it's like, I think I do. And then just kind of building that throughout the years.
- And especially through my job at work, we have to find, you know, like, Hey, we have an artist in town.
- Can you show them things like that? So it was just by naturally being in the town and the town.
- lending itself to me that you just build these connections. And so I would say that I know quite a bit
- of people that do all kinds of stuff and just that kind of natural relationship is, yeah. Good. Okay.
- Thank you. Yeah, pretty, pretty similar to Austin. I have some connections now working. So I have just,
- it's very low key, but part-time.
- do an advisory board position at the Eskenazi Museum of Art. And so I'm meeting, constantly meeting
- new artists there. I also know some of the people at the University Macala as well. And then also just
- in my personal life, I have some dancer friends and they have photographer. I'm a part-time, not part-time,
- but I'm sort of like a freelance photographer myself. So I sort of in the art scene myself and I just
- know a lot of people as well, sort of just like being
- around in the community. And so yeah, just having a lot of friends that sort of know friends that,
- you know, are in the sort of the art scene in the community. And then also just, you know, I know a
- lot of people at IU that work, you know, in the Center for Rural Engagement who are community partners,
- who know artists and other artists everywhere. So, so yeah, so I'm kind of well connected in the community
- with just a lot of different people.
- Dancers, photographers, just other artists. So, yeah. Okay, terrific. Anything else? Did you ask about
- obligations? You know, it's required. Yeah, I understand this commission is a two-year requirement,
- right? And it requires about five hours a month. Nothing wrong with giving more, of course. And it meets
- What does it be? Second Wednesday of every month. Yeah. Could you both commit to that? I mean, is it?
- Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's not a problem. Okay. You do have the option to do virtual meetings, but
- I believe there are some issues with quorum. So it's preferred that commissioners can come in person
- for the majority of the meetings, but it's all right if you need to be on Zoom.
- Yeah. Okay. Yeah. One more questions. Okay. You guys should hear in a couple of weeks. Thank you so
- much for your time and for your interest. Thank you so much. Yes. You should hear from us soon. Thanks.
- You'll definitely hear from us. Yes. Okay. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Yes. Bye, Becca. Bye,
- Becca. Bye. Bye. I'm so excited.
- Great to meet you, Austin. Great to meet you. Thank you for having me. It's nice to see somebody else
- from the 219 area. 219 all the time. That's me. That's me. Where are you from? Here. Oh, right on. Yeah.
- Mom lives in Hammond. I'm from Chester's Inn, LA of Chicago, and yeah. Oh, I feel like I was. Yeah.
- No, you're good. Yeah. No, no. All right. Take it easy, Austin. Bye. Have a good evening. So, Isabel's
- not here, but do you want to discuss a little bit?
- Do we have two making season one? There's two total. You all have one, and the maker's out. Oh, yeah,
- that's what I thought. Yeah, that's one. You're Lays, so you know best. What I like about Austin is
- he's got a lot of experience in sort of music and production and set design. It sounds like he came up
- from his own bootstraps kind of thing, as opposed to, I mean, clearly a formal education. But you didn't,
- you know what I'm saying? It's like, so many people that I know in the arts community know, many, but
- they're very, you know, obviously you go to school for it, you get masters. It's like a different journey.
- Yeah, it's a different journey. Now the good thing about Becca is, I mean, she's got the grant review,
- you know, and connections with, you know,
- Yes, which I thought was cool. Yeah. So it's a little tough here. What what's your view? I mean, we
- caught my attention that Austin was his resume and his experience with, you know, music and everything.
- And is that really represented on the on the arts commission? I mean, there are different baseball,
- visual arts,
- Performance arts, you know, maintaining, sculpting, stuff like that. But he's got, he's, he's really
- into the production and music scene. Yeah. I think that would be a different perspective. And the other
- thing is like, BAC is very, um, I don't think there are a lot of young people on it.
- which is okay, but like I would like to see some different faces. So I think that I'd be more, are you
- leaning towards Austin? Cause I'm leaning as well. I like Rebecca a lot. I don't know if the mayor has
- anyone in mind. I was just about to ask Julius, but it looks like he's at our office. So I will ask
- him tomorrow. I do know before how we left that
- She did recommend Austin an appointment. Oh, is that right? That's interesting. For those very reasons
- that you mentioned. Is that right? That's helpful. I tip toward Austin, but she's a really strong candidate
- too. We could provide a recommendation to the mayor that, especially for things like finding money.
- Everybody needs money, especially artists.
- especially artists. I also liked what he had to say about connecting Bloomington's need for different
- art pieces with where we're directing grants. I thought that was a really interesting point to bring
- up because he's right, we do have certain art projects proposed that are cool, but they're maybe not
- Bloomington or we already have something like it. That's right. Yeah.
- Um, well, I mean, we could, I mean, I, do you want to wait till, is this a book will come at four, fourth
- of the year? I don't know if she's gonna come at all. If she was even able to. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So
- we could do, do you want to wait for her? Or do you want to make a recommendation and just go with it?
- It's up to you. You'll get to make the motion. So whichever one you'd like, I will second if you make
- it. No, you know, I don't want to be visible. Uh, yeah, let's go ahead.
- Because we've got a lot of, I was looking, we do have a lot of boards and commissions to appoint,
- don't we? Overall. We thought through majority of them last week in your meeting. And so for your particular
- name, you guys are good. Now, remember, I just pulled up on board. There was the discussion last month
- about one of the persons who applied
- for reappointment that's currently on there. It was, I mean, so technically you could reappoint this
- individual. If you decide not to reappoint them, then you technically have to. Can you remind us of
- the context? Oh, she was recommended for not being reappointed. Yes. Yes. Simply because it seems like that
- This person gets a task and as they get a task, they don't follow through with it. And it's after so
- many different conversations, um, the tasks just seem to just fall through. Okay. Well, in that case,
- do you want to move to a point both? Yeah. Sounds good to me. What are the seats though? It is,
- it'll be five. And then right now the, um, Oh, Oh, one second.
- Ah, remember there was the conversation. So technically you have two, but you wanted to interview those
- two to figure out if you wanted to replace the individual in this seat, because Gerard was highly recommended
- to be re-appointed. And he is chair. He's chair. Well, he's not chair anymore. Netta is the new chair.
- But he's chairing, I think, the grads committee.
- So that, and that is going to be a committee that needs stability. So I would say he should stay. Okay.
- So we should, we need to reappoint him. To C4. Yes. And, um, do you want to move to appoint Austin to
- C5? Uh, yes. Um, well, I didn't, yeah. Um, so we have to reappoint, um, what's his name? Gerard. Sorry.
- Is that his name, Gerard Penowick? Penowick, I see. And Penowick? Yes. OK. So I'll make a motion to
- reappoint Gerard Penowick to C2C4. Second. OK. And? Can I make the multiple motion? You could. You could.
- I'll do it on one fell swoop. OK. I'll move to appoint Austin White.
- Wait, I think, to seat C5. Okay. All right. And Zulek? Yes. And Rollo? Yes. Okay. And that's it there.
- And then at 430, we should be having three individuals in front of us for the commission on the status
- of children and youth. Yes. Well, we're waiting on that.
- You are recording. Hello. This is something that we're gonna talk about. Are you here for? I am. Hello,
- welcome in. I'm Andrea, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I'm Sydney. Nice to meet you. Hello.
- You guys ready for me? Come in. Hi, Kevin. Hello, Sydney. Hello. Jennifer. Yep. Sydney, Dave, and Dave.
- Andrea. Andrea, okay.
- I mean, if one other person joining us. Matthew. Okay. Well, we will get started, I guess, at 433.
- And the doors are open. Yeah. I have the thing on there that says the door open. Okay. I know what I'm painting.
- Yeah, the sculpture is being used and covered.
- for 30. Everyone ready? Yes. Great. Welcome everyone. I'm Council Member Sydney Zulek. This is Council
- Member Dave Rall. This is Deputy Clip Jennifer Crossley. Welcome. Thank you guys so much for your interest
- in the Commission on the Spets of Children and Youth. This is going to be a pretty low-key interview.
- We're going to ask a couple questions about interest, some topics, and then feasibility of commitment, and then
- In the next couple of weeks, you should expect to hear back from Deputy Clark Crossley with an answer
- one way or the other, you will hear regardless. So thanks for being here. Would you like to start or
- I can start? We'll go. Great to meet you. We have a third person. Yes. Not here. I haven't seen any
- emails. OK. Maybe they'll arrive. But in the meantime, curious to know whether either of both of you
- watch the commission, gone to a commission meeting, read minutes of the commission. That's one question.
- And then the second question is, what do you think you might bring to the commission that's unique or
- maybe even needed in your view that may not be there? I'll go.
- Yes, I did read through some of the minutes. I did some of that yesterday and some of that today. You're
- not super current up to date on your site, but sorry there. But I did read through it. I run the Banneker
- Community Center, probably now. So I'm pretty dialed in to youth stuff in general, running an afterschool
- program on behalf of the city, running a large summer camp on behalf of the city for the underserved.
- I'm dealing with a lot of different nonprofits. I'll work with that. It's very fun to look at them all.
- But for an idea of being a part of the after school environment. Like I know a lot of people. And.
- You know, I had a long history of with these work anyway from the. Critical sports, basketball, particularly
- running. I usually wait back when I was in high school even.
- I was, I worked for Monroe County Schools. I worked with large community schools. I worked for a nonprofit
- called Blue River Services, which was inside the schools down in Jackson County. And then obviously
- I have a ton of youth work at Banneker. So I feel pretty dialed in on what's going on. I feel like I
- can communicate with people. I kind of know the issues of the town a little bit. I mean, I always have
- all the answers to different things, but at least I might know
- all the players and all the people and have connections with different things and hopefully that kind
- of expertise and that kind of experience both in the classroom and in the nonprofit world and now with
- the city can help out. Well, you said a lot of what you would bring. Do you see anything particularly
- lacking? It's hard to tell until I dive in it and see there might be
- You can say just the community at large, not necessarily. Yeah. Yeah. I think there might be, um,
- I mean, there was lots of things. There's a disconnect in some ways between the university and the city
- and the town. That's for sure. And there's a lot of overlapping resources that don't, um, that are there,
- but no one knows. They don't, they don't communicate well enough and don't get utilized as well.
- were a little bit inefficient, I would say, in that regard. Also, there are a huge amount of nonprofits
- in this town who are doing tremendous, tremendous work, but they don't always know what each other are
- doing. And there's a lot of duplicated effort, a lot of issues that can be potentially solved if they
- just had a link to do that. Now I've been working to do that with Banneker. I've got Mayor Thompson
- to hold those.
- nonprofit town hall meetings and get ready to have our next one next month and we bring all the town
- halls together and we do it at Banneker and that's been a really good thing because we've got to be
- able to you know here's this person's problem this youth groups problem okay get the same problem so
- let's link that together and then this guy here can solve it and let's we want to do that to some degree
- but i think there's more of that to be done i also think there can be
- And I don't think this is necessarily the commission's fault or anybody's fault really, but the school
- system's not the greatest always in communication. There's a way to, they mean well. I'm not trying
- to talk derogatorily about them. I have a good relationship with the school system. I've talked about
- them quite often, especially with the Fairview people. But I think that there's ways that we should
- work better together to get to pool resources, to get things out there,
- to the kids and the families that need it. And they're not always as cooperative as they could be. And
- maybe there's a way to solve that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So I think that I could very much bring
- a good voice to the commission coming from a for the Boys and Girls Club. I'm a program director there.
- I've been there since 2019. I started volunteering when I started at IU and from Indianapolis. But I've
- been here ever since and I've been at the Boys and Girls Club ever since. I've experienced a lot of
- needs just from directly being like working with the kids. But now that I'm a program director, I've
- been able to step into a role where I'm not just communicating with the kids. Now I get to hear about
- the needs from the kids, but as well as the families that involved.
- are involved. and so i would really love to just be able to provide a voice to the commission from that
- perspective. i think that is something that might be missing from the current commission. i did look
- up everyone that sits on the commission and i looked in like their linkedin profiles and stuff like
- that because i was curious like who's actively working with the youth in the committee.
- Community and I think that's something that I could provide and bring to the table. I'm not expecting
- to like come in guns blazing. I know action starts small, especially from like a city standpoint. There's
- a lot of You know,
- lot of red tape, there's a lot of like people you need to talk to before action can actually be implemented.
- and I'm a very patient person and I but I do follow through with action. and I think that's something
- that I've learned through my nonprofit work and something that because you know when I was 18 and I
- started at the boys and girls club, I did come in a little guns blazing and I was like expecting to
- you know fill a need for every single kid that I interacted with and
- know take action. as soon as someone told me something, i was like okay this kid's always hungry. how
- can we can you know connect them to community kitchen? like um i had that more like own approach that
- was like i said guns blazing. but now throughout my time at the club, i understand that that's
- not necessarily how action takes place. and now i understand there's a lot more that happens behind
- the scenes. there's a lot more conversations that need to occur. um
- And I think in general, I'm just really interested in, like I said, providing a voice from the parents
- that I interact with on a daily and connecting them to the resources that this commission seems to gather.
- And that was like what really piqued my interest in the first place was the work of promoting connections
- within the community and connecting the community to resources that exist.
- Um, because I see that as an current need for a lot of families here in Bloomington. Um, but yeah, short
- and sweet hopefully, but that's kind of what I hope to bring to the table. Thank you. Where were you
- at? I'm at the Lincoln street. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Okay. Sydney. No, what? Maybe.
- They actually are about to meet next week. So I think it's the third Tuesdays. Yeah, it's the third
- Tuesday. Okay, officially. Yes, third Tuesday starting at 5.30. Is that a time commitment that both
- of you are able to make? Yeah, so when I applied for this, I think it was like November, September maybe.
- I had started talking to my supervisor at the club and I was like, Hey, this is something I feel really
- passionate about, but I don't necessarily want to even like put my name in the ballot unless we think
- that this would work for the team. Um, so I did talk that through with my supervisor and we're willing
- to make it work. Um, cause it is, from my understanding, the meetings are once a month, correct? Okay.
- So then yeah, I should be able to make it work. Yeah. I don't see why I would have a problem that,
- you know, I can never guarantee what random
- park stuff is going to come up and they're going to, you know, hey, you have to go here and do this.
- But generally speaking, I don't see any reason why Tuesday at 5.30 would be a problem. Great.
- Thank you. My manicure is only five minutes from here. So it's not like that's hard to get here. Dave,
- do you have any other questions? Why don't we just ask them? You don't have to ask another question
- if you don't want to. Well, I've got a personal, I mean, it's a personal
- It's a personal topic that I, you know, I find what I read about kids, it's the wrong time since I was
- one. But social media has a big impact on it. Like when I was a kid, social media was not, I mean, right?
- It was just like your friends. A couple of years apart, right? Anyway, you know, is this concern?
- Do you find it's a concern among kids? Yeah, I think especially young, young girls. You know, there's
- like a self-esteem aspect to it. Yeah. Yeah. They go at each other and stuff like that. Boys trend to
- play games and stuff. It's not that it doesn't affect them, but it takes it sucks up time. Yeah. It's
- like they're always on their right. Yeah. It's definitely an attention issue. I would say. I this is
- sorry. I'm like this. I'm excited because this is one of the things that I personally am really passionate about.
- Because I have a background in psychology and neuroscience. That's what I studied at IU. Um, so in my
- free time, I like to read up on this and like research and stuff like that and like the attention deficit
- that this generation of kids is experiencing is.
- I think a huge need that needs to be talked about this is something that like I talk I bring to the
- table at the boys and girls club in our like big word meetings is like hey I think we really need to
- get ahead of the game and switch up our approach of how we work with kids just because that is a huge
- issue and not just social media there is that like self-esteem aspect or like the
- idea that they're only comfortable socializing behind the screen, I think is a huge issue. That's something
- that we try to tackle in our programming with kids is like community building, social emotional learning
- skills. Just because we tried really hard to make sure that we get kids in a spot where they feel comfortable
- just interacting with each other aside from the screens, you know. So that's a huge thing that I feel
- really passionate about. And I've seen the difference even
- Like I said, in 2019, I started volunteering at the club and even those kids that I started out working
- with their ability to like commit to an activity or stay at a table and like do a craft or even just
- have a conversation. If the staff is going over something like the attention difference that I see from
- those kids seven years ago to now, it's crazy. What a difference it like.
- social media and screens have just made an impact and the impact they have on kids. And like an idea
- that I would love to like bring maybe to this commission is I would love to like get parents talking
- about it a bit more. And I think it's a little too normalized in there, like from their viewpoint, like
- they're not seeing the impact that it's having on their kids because this is all they know as well,
- if that makes sense. And I would love to,
- find ways to connect them to, like, the research that's being done and show them, I guess, the effects
- of what putting a kid in front of a screen does, you know? Great. Can I? I'd like to say on that topic
- too, this is where maybe I could come in handy because there are people in town who will come in and
- talk to the children about things just like that. I had Middle Way House come and do a whole mental
- health program with my after school kids.
- The year before I had the psychology department committed to similar type of things. We went device
- free and our after school program just because of that. That's serving more old school with what we're
- trying to do there. I don't want the kids on their phones. I don't want the kids. I don't even have
- phones really, but they do.
- I don't want them on an iPad. I want them interacting and behaving and doing things and being active
- in that way. In terms of social media itself, not just a screen, but just the social media aspect itself,
- it's part of life, unfortunately. The kids probably of the age now and of the young age of her, remember,
- it didn't matter to us. Social media, the UNI was the gossip we heard on the back of the school bus.
- to her, you know, everybody's on their device, on their phone and interacting. We had, you know, I dealt
- with a lot of this last summer with our summer camp program where we had, do you remember when
- the 13-year-old girl or 14-year-old girl was found dead on the south side of town? Remember that?
- You knew? Last year? I think it was last year, last summer. There was a lot of
- That was a bannacher kid of our girl who'd come to summer camp the year before. And many of the campers
- had remembered her and friends with her and whatever. But there were, where I'm getting to is the social
- media aspect. That story blew up very, very quickly and was affecting a lot of the parents and a lot
- of the kids. And I had to deal with this wanting to do that, just as a story girl, just because of the
- prevalence of the social media aspects of it, the false
- stories that came out, the exaggerations, the untruths that came out there, I had to scramble, we had
- to bring in, we brought in a psychologist, child psychologist from Centerstone, I got the BPD involved
- with their social worker and they all came in and we had a big session with each group of kids and talked
- them through it and
- and sending stuff out to the parents and whatever, trying to handle that just because social media is
- an aspect of it that the kids and families have to deal with. And I think there's probably something
- to be said for teaching the kids how to use it themselves. We don't really go into that too much yet,
- but we may in the summer, but how to be a good quality user of it yourself, not just interpret what
- other people are doing, but use it themselves in a positive, constructive way.
- ways to go there and a lot of things to do. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of the direction the Boys
- and Girls Club is taking because I don't think, I don't see a sense of fighting it in terms of like
- trying to convince kids to not use it. I think it's more now we need a refocus of like, okay, this is
- the reality that we live in. How do we appropriately use it? We did that middle way program as well.
- And our third through fifth graders, we
- do like digital safety trainings, um, before they can use any technology at our clubs. Um, and that
- kind of walks them through like what's appropriate information to put online versus what's inappropriate.
- Um, and just like, I guess focusing more on like, maybe what can we do to prevent, you know, tragic
- things from happening. Um, because like I said, there's no sense in fighting it. They're going to use it.
- parents aren't going to just magically stop letting them have iPads or, you know, social media or anything.
- But that's why I kind of want to find a way to branch that communication, not just to the kids, but
- to the parents as well. Because at the end of the day, they're going to have the biggest impact on whether
- or not their kid uses something. Yeah, this is a parent school issue too. I mean, I mean, after school
- people like her and I can only do
- so much. They live with their parents. They're going to be able to do what their parents allow them
- to do. And too many of them use a screen as a babysitter to kind of occupy their kids. They don't have
- to do what they need to be doing. It affects older kids too. I mean, her and I mostly, not totally,
- but mostly work with elementary age kids, but high school kids too. I remember when I was coaching high
- school basketball, we had a
- Again, leaving the school, sent out an inappropriate picture to her boyfriend, who then in turn sent
- it to every single friend he had, who pretty soon was all over the school. And we had the state police
- and everybody else there. And I've got my players sent in there who have obviously seen it.
- And I'm like, can't have this, boys. And we had a long talk about being responsible and what's appropriate
- and what's not.
- Well, excellent responses. I'm glad you're on time. You're both on top of it. Yeah. But anyway,
- that's all. Cool. Thank you both so much for your time and for your interest. Yeah. As I said earlier,
- you should hear from Devin Clark-Crossley in the next few weeks. The reason that it takes so long is
- because we are an interview committee that makes a recommendation to counsel as a whole to make the
- appointment. And so you will hear when that is all finalized. And so that's just one spot.
- So there's two and so these guys here are responsible for the council appointments and so it looks like
- there is another spot for the mayor's office. I can't speak to what they might have in mind but they're
- just responding like right now council just has one spot. I don't want to take anyone's time but I just
- have a question
- All right, I was just curious how like current needs are assessed like how does this group collect community
- information or like, or, because I was just curious clay, it look over the minutes and like the agendas
- and stuff but there's not so there's not a lot of detailed information. I'm sure you guys are aware.
- But I was just curious like what that looks like or how do you get the voices. Where is that impact
- coming from type of thing.
- That's a good question for the staff liaison, probably. I don't think that either of us are liaisons
- to that. We have received reports at council. I have come and looked for it in the past, but I don't
- know the specifics of it. Like what's being used? Yes. Yeah. So can help you there. I do think that
- they try and listen into, and also,
- The staff liaison is also responsible for making sure all of these things are updated. Yeah. So if you
- looked online, which is a good thing that both of you all did, it hasn't been updated by staff liaison.
- So oopsies on the staff liaisons there. But I do believe and listening to some of the reports that they've
- given to council and just in general, it seems like they try to work in tandem with
- the other groups with students. I do know, I think they've done a lot with the Boys and Girls Club.
- I do, or not Boys and Girls Club. What's the whole community's corporation? MCCSC. I'm like, it's the
- big school corporation. At the end of the day, my brain is gone. No, no, no, no worries. And so they,
- you know, worked with them as well. And I also think that they,
- Um, yeah, I think that's the big thing because some of the things that they do, um, here as well is
- the, um, every, I think they do it with another commission. They'll also do things like the welcome
- back to school and they'll partner with the commission on status black males and we'll do like, um,
- and welcome back to school at Fairview. Every year they do that. So that's something that they do. Of
- course the staff liaisons and things like that would know more. I also highly encourage that you all
- go to the meeting and you can go hybrid as well Tuesday at 5.30 and to get a little bit more or inquire
- a little bit more too. I know that their staff liaison actually
- Um, is leaving the city. Oh, we got noticed that they are leaving the city. So I think director Moss,
- um, will, you know, be taken over for that too. Okay. Yeah. Great to meet you both. We'll be in touch. Yeah.
- Enjoy them. If you haven't read the anxious generation, have you read that book? You should really read
- it. It's like the whole screen social media thing is something you're interested in. So it's not like
- it's meant to be like basic level. I guess it's not for like, it wasn't written or like someone that
- already knows a lot about it. It's supposed to be a good like introductory into like research and data and
- people that are in that market, but just a recommendation. I appreciate that. I'm anxious. I am anxious
- too. With really good luck. It's worth everyone's read on it. Yeah. All right. Good to see you all.
- Good to see you. Have a good evening. Stay well. Nice meeting you guys. Nice meeting you. Have a great
- evening. Thanks. Thank you. We've got a few minutes here.
- You know. Very impressive, both of them. Definitely. And they have CC1 is the only. Correct. Our only.
- Yes. Option. Isabel said something about meeting with me. She said a young. Oh, young male. Yeah. Another
- male commissioner is or someone who is under 24. I wonder if she's talking about Lucas. Matthew Lucas.
- Matthew Luke is, um, another male commissioner or someone who was 24. He is, um, he withdrew his application
- today. Um, so got busy and see. Okay. Yeah. They could benefit from another male commissioner. Okay.
- Well, this one's real tough. Um, it says tough.
- Well, they're both, I think they're both excellent. I mean, he's certainly got threads and has done
- a lot. He's really engaged and, you know, basically had a lot. She seems to have a lot of energy. But
- he's employed by the city. He's what? Employed by the city. Yes, he is. So does that inherently present
- a conflict of interest? Yeah, it doesn't.
- You know, that's an interesting take because we do have a handful of city employees on boards
- and commissions, like a very minor amount. However, I think in his particular case, it's a little interesting
- because technically children and youth, and he works at the Medicare Center, that's kind of, that's
- A different situation. It's almost like, I know there are some staff members who might be on like, um,
- they're like, they're employed by the city, but they're on something that is completely different from
- their job. And so this particular one. Could present a conflict report to does your report.
- I think so, because it would be parks. Okay. Like.
- I would feel strange about having someone who works in the mayor's administration also be council's
- representative on a board. Yeah. I mean, if Kerry wants to appoint him. Yeah, I think that would make
- perfect sense. That would make sense. But I'm not sure that we should
- pick that to be our representative, just because I do think that like there will be times, there could
- be times where like our expectation is something completely different and his employment might get in
- the way. Yeah. So Banneker Center is run by Parks and Rec. Where does Kevin, what department is he working
- in? That would be Parks. He's works in Parks already. So he reports like probably directly to Tim Street. Yeah.
- So, yeah. We like boards and commissions to have some autonomy, right? Otherwise, and nothing nefarious,
- but just, you know, we'd like that kind of separation so we can have some independent thinking. I agree
- with you. I think that's problematic. So I kind of land on her in that. I guess I land on her too. What
- is her last name? Alvarez. Alvarez.
- See, that's open. Is it C1? One. You make a motion to agree all elders to council seat one. Commission
- for the status of children and youth. Second. Okay. And Rollo? Yes. And Zulik? Yes. Okay. And we can
- just say to maybe send
- something for the merits of the effect that we communicate with the mayor and to say, he's obviously
- very impressive. You're right. So, yeah. We're leaving it to your discretion. Yeah. And we usually do
- that between Julius and I to say, hey, we interviewed and then he'll do the same for us. Hey, if council
- has any vacancies, we interviewed this person. We thought they might be a great fit for it. So, yeah.
- So we can do that. We have one other thing to discuss.
- Justin Basil. What was your opinion of what happened when he kind of blew up at staff a few months ago?
- Well, he didn't blow up at staff. It was like Austin. Yeah, that was Matt. I thought, OK, I thought
- that was a different. Well, he's kind of going back and forth between staff right now.
- and you were privy to the emails where we're essentially basically just saying that when what has been
- expressed to legal or by legal is anytime that you know they are having any type of meeting with boards
- and commissions staff has to be present staff also has to run zooms those different types of things
- and so there is this maybe of this like mindset that maybe
- staff could potentially decide that they don't want to be available and then we'll try not to allow
- them to have the meeting. But I do know that they are trying to have like an eight hour retreat and
- to have staff be present, that's actually something that's unheard of. I've never in the four years
- that I've been here, I've ever heard anybody doing anything like that. To have staff not be present?
- Oh, to be there for an eight hour meeting, like retreat.
- Oh, well, here's my vehicle. I think that, so this whole thing arose because Matt was, um, had a proposal
- that will give money from ESD department through the commission, routed essentially to his sister who
- was running a project. And we, you know,
- it gets into obviously nepotism and all of that. So that was sort of the question that was being, I
- think there was an attorney that came and spoke about this and decided, look, we should just clear that
- completely. Now, by the time she came and made that, and actually I was nervous about it too. I talked
- to her about it as president of the council. I said, but we should just declare acts
- to say that this is not allowed. And just have a council and mayor, you know, a decision made to do
- that. Because it's, it doesn't, you know, just to avoid any ignorance, right? Might be a good project,
- sure. But it's just, it's too close. And because you got somebody who's advocating for it on the commission.
- Anyway, it never came to that actually.
- Carrie sent a lawyer, I can't remember her name, to the meeting. And she said, it's going to be the
- case that we're going to allow this. And so I'm sorry, but there are new conditions now. Justin was
- a little ticked because he wished that he had known earlier. Because we went through the whole process
- of evaluating the proposal and everything like that.
- It was Matt that really acted out and was raising his voice and kind of hostile toward Sean Ian. Okay.
- And I felt she handled it very professionally. She did not chop back or get her hackles up. She just
- kind of took it and carefully explained and the attorney did too. And Matt was, I thought looked terrible,
- but anyway. So we're not reappointing him.
- We decided not to appoint him. But my opinion is that Justin does good work. He's meticulous as a chair.
- He's very, very good at running meetings. He's appreciated by the commission. It used to be back in
- the day, and I'm an old timer, when boards and commissions would get together just socially. They would
- just get together and go play Frisbee and talk. And it wasn't a big deal.
- I'm getting a little block came in. I'm getting a little blowback from the like the Environmental Commission,
- who fell a bit shut out at the last our deliberation on the on the impervious surface question. Now,
- you know, Joey Scanlon explained that that it was kind of Yeah, you know, it was, it was, it was oversight,
- it was missed. And it wasn't
- It was because the liaison wasn't there at the time. And so it wasn't purposefully done or anything
- like that. But then when the environmental commission wanted to meet, their subcommittee, according
- to a member that I spoke to, could not meet as a subcommittee. They had to meet as a formal commission,
- and they had to post notice in order to make their decision made.
- It put a cooling effect on the commission because I actually thought more members might show up, but
- they were told by the attorney that only one member could show up. This is according to the person I
- talked to in the commission. Only one member could show up to read the memo and nobody else could speak
- on it, identifying themselves from the commission. I've never heard that before.
- I don't understand what policy is that would support that and that's something I wanted to explore.
- So that's my take on it. I think that we ought to discuss it as council and because I rely on boards
- and commissions to come and tell us things that I wouldn't ordinarily know, you know, I can't keep track of.
- Yeah. All the nuances that are happening in every domain of the city environment. They used to come
- to plant commission meetings and give a memo and I'm not sure that they're really invited to do that
- anymore. So I really want to find out like, you know, what's, what's changed and why. Yeah. Why that's
- the case. So that's one point of view. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Well,
- Keep an eye on it for sure. But thank you all for today. It's 5.04 and I know that everyone wants to
- go home. So I will go ahead if it's all right with y'all. One other thing though, cause I was trying
- to look as you all are, cause you all don't have a lot of appointments. You guys have done a really
- good job and making sure that you, so if you're deciding not to appoint Matt Austin for C3, you do have
- other applicants that are,
- available. And that kind of hammer man was someone that was suggested, right? Yeah. He actually just
- got reappointed. You all reappointed him. And so you have, okay. So you have Sarah Brinkman, Maria Arstead,
- Rebecca Payne.
- So those are only three. And I do believe maybe Julius might have interviewed Maria or Sarah. So I can
- also get with him to see what he thought about those individuals and then maybe kind of come back. Yeah,
- that sounds good. Sounds great. But other than that, that's it.
- And I think I'm going to try to get the appointment or these recommendations in the memo for council
- staff for the packet. Yep. Thank you. For next week. Thank you. So just, I forgot this. What did we
- decide to do about Rebecca from the arts commission applicant? We appointed Austin. We re-appointed her.
- And Rebecca was a good candidate. Are we going to recommend her to the mayor? Is that what we decided?
- Yeah. And so what I'll do is I'll just, I was trying to chat Julius to see if he had anything,
- but he's out. So he will be back tomorrow. So I'll get in contact with him to let him know that you
- all recommend Rebecca. Thank you. You're welcome. Awesome. Thank you so much. This meeting is adjourned.