Recreation & Parks Advisory Board

Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks Meeting September 14, 2022 MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF THE ADVISORY BOARD OF RECREATION AND PARKS FALLS CHURCH COMMUNITY CENTER, KENNETH R. BURNETT BUILDING, 223 TTLE FALLS STREET, FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA 22046 Virtual Meeting: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup- join/19%3ameeting_NDg3NmJmY2EtNzcxOS00YTBmLWE5NjEtN2Q0NjlkNGU1NWQ3%40thread. v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2273ba5b04-4ace-4ae3-a6b2- 65cbc403418b%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2288dcaad5-f9e7-4ed3-b8c9-1d3cd1ec8369%22%7d NOTICE: This virtual meeting of the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks (RPAB) was held pursuant to and in compliance with the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Section 2.2-3708.2 and state and local legislation adopted to allow for continued government operation during the COVID-19 declared emergency. All participating members of the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks were present at this meeting through electronic means. All members of the public may view this video of this meeting on the City’s website at http://www.fallschurchva.gov/webcasts. 1) Call To Order & Roll Call Danny Schlitt opened the meeting by welcoming all participants and introducing new student member Anand Colby. He also noted that Leslie Rye is planning to step down from RPAB, but has offered to continue serving until a new member joins. Members present were Charley O’Hara, Liz Weatherly, Jenna Schroeder, Leslie Rye, Kathleen Tysse (School Board), Melissa Teates (Planning Commission). City Council Liaison Caroline Lian and student representative Anand Colby was also present. Recreation & Parks staff present were Danny Schlitt, Director, and Jessica Hilgendorf, Senior Administrative Assistant. Letty Hardi, City Council member, and several members of the public, also attended. 2) Receipt of Public Petitions and Board Member Petitions Liz and Danny expressed thanks to Leslie for her many years of service on the Board, and all her contributions to the City and schools. 3) Minutes for Approval Leslie moved to approve the minutes of the June 1, 2022 meeting, seconded by Jenna. The minutes were approved by five votes, with Melissa Teates abstaining. 4) Recreation & Parks Director’s Report A) Meetings This will probably be the last all-virtual meeting of the RPAB. New rules will apply for virtual participation when we return to in-person meetings. B) Programs In the summer Jimmy Ruby stepped up to staff the Camp & Teen Program, enabling us to offer 198 camps (including extended care), with 1,660 unique household registrations and a total of 4,692 registrations. Summer Fun had 275 registrations, with 751 extended care registrations. The early-release program with the schools starts today. Clean Week shut-down was followed by the opening of the new Senior Center registration program, which signed up 170 members in its first week. Tracey Browand, Senior Center Specialist, also works with the Senior Olympics, for which we hosted Scrabble, Duplicate Bridge and Canasta. Marymount will be providing more programming for Seniors this fall, and two high school students will be assisting with Senior Center activities through a school program. C) Special Events Special events continue this season, with the Falls Church Festival this weekend, which has 13 sponsors, 13 restaurants, 60 vendors and the return of the beer garden. Good weather and attendance are anticipated. A series of three Sunset Cinemas begins on September 23. D) Parks EDA is working on new “parklets”. The first was Mr. Brown’s park; further small projects are anticipated. E) Staff Senior Administrative Assistant Jessica Hilgendorf, who has done a great job for us, will be leaving the City at the end of this week. 5) New Business A) Election of Officers The Board voted unanimously for Charley to continue as Chair, and for Jenna to become Vice-Chair. B) Review of new transgender statement for all recreation programing The Recreation & Parks department has historically allowed people to participate in activities regardless of gender. Further to a request from City Council, staff prepared the following draft statement for use in our communications. The language was developed using similar statements from adjacent jurisdictions, and is generally consistent with their policies: For any program, event or activity, run by the City of Falls Church Recreation and Parks Department that are segregated by gender, the Recreation and Parks Department encourages registrants to enroll and participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity. Non-binary participants are encouraged to participate where they feel most comfortable. Staff propose that a further note will be added as deemed necessary to the brochure, athletic parents handbook, and other communications used by our department that states that the decision by all registrants to participate within the gender they currently identify with is a decision made by the department and that questioning the decision while the program is actively being conducted will not be tolerated. Staff will be able to use the existing Code of Conduct to support implementation of this policy. After comments and discussion, Jenna proposed a motion to support the statement and its proposed use. The motion was seconded by Liz Weatherly and approved by 6-0 votes. Danny will send the proposed language to the City Manager, Human Resources department and City Attorney. 6) Old Business A) Park Master Plans and implementation, review of comments for Fellows Park Master Plan Draft The Master Plan development and approval process was reviewed. Comments from the City Council’s Boards and Commissions, and from the public, were discussed. An in-person public comment supported community gardening. Charley noted that many of the comments echoed input we have received before, and some were not suitable for incorporation in a Master Plan. One significant new comment was to note the presence of a well on the property. Charley offered to work the comments into a new draft Plan. The revised draft will be presented to RPAB for review at our next meeting and finalized ready for presentation to City Council in November. 7) Other business Charley welcomed Melissa back to RPAB. He also welcomed Anand and gave him the opportunity to introduce himself. He thanked Leslie for her long service, and encouraged Board members to assist in recruiting new members to maintain a voting quorum. He also thanked Jessica for her work. 8) Adjournment Leslie moved to adjourn the meeting; Jenna seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned by unanimous vote. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability call (703)248-5027.