Sister Cities

Idaho Falls Sister City Meeting Minutes Tuesday, February 20,2018 Members in Attendance: Carole Walters, Paul & Sheri Hansen, Cal & Cindy Ozaki, , Clarke Kido, Val Haddon, Jovita Cosens, Lisa Sehlke, Cheryl & Edward Zaladonis, Lynda Ulschmid, Guests/New Members: Litton Power, Mary Krupnik. Introductions: Members & Guest introduced themselves. Minutes: Approved as read. Treasurers Report: Balance as of 2/1/18 $5685.13. Business:  Clarke gave a brief history of the Friendship Garden. Clarke & Judy met with Greg Weitzel from Parks & Rec. for the 2018 plans for the garden. One issue that has come up is parking. The tenants for Key Bank building are using up 80% of the gardens parking on both sides. According to Edward the city has the easement rights on both sides. Greg is looking into it to see how we can share this space. Clarke reported that cameras have been installed and are being tested but is still in the development stage on how they work, who is monitoring them and the response.  Carole, Kevin, and Brad went to the February 5th City Council meeting to give a review on the 2017 exchange in Japan and the benefits of the Sister Cities Program. Kevin talked about Sakae and how they came to be here and what they are doing in our community. Brad gave a report on his visit as a first time visitor to Japan and the importance of city involvement. This presentation was beneficial since we have new council members that were not familiar with the program and Carole felt we got a good response. Carole gave out Sister City brochures to all the members in attendance.  We discussed promoting Sister Cities and suggestions were to use social media- Instagram, Facebook. We discussed the lack of media coverage, newspaper etc. Litton suggested that we take pictures and give the pictures and a press release of what we would like covered to the media and let them go from there. We could do this with the Post Register, Idaho Falls Magazine and any other publications we can think of. Mary Krupnik who in the past worked for the St. Louis Botanical Gardens suggested something they did was invite the media to an event we are doing, have them come early for a tea ceremony, luncheon, or special tour so they can talk with members and get information in advance of the event.  2018 Exchange: Dates were discussed. The Japanese do not want to come in July-too early to prepare, August-airfare is too high, September-busy at city office  so they would prefer October. Haruka indicated that Mayor Yamada wants to come but has a few business obligations in October, but may be available Oct. 4- 13 or 5-14, they will discuss and get back to us. Carole will get this information to them.  In checking dates Old Faithful Lodge closes Sept 30, Old Faithful Inn Closes Oct. 7, and Mammoth Inn Closes Oct. 13th. So we are limited to what we can do in the park and if we want to go. We could still go to West Yellowstone and do the Bear & Grizzly Discovery Center and IMAX.  The Japanese asked if we could pay for the interpreter’s rooms during the exchange. They are no longer getting help from the nuclear industry and it is getting difficult to get interpreters due to costs. They would also like the interpreters to stay at the hotel with the members who do not do homestays to help them.  Sheri read a list of ideas that were discussed during our November visit to Japan on what we could do when they came here and other suggestions were made tonight. Some of the ideas are: 1. New Fire Station Tour 2. Tour new Complex at Broadway and Memorial “The Broadway”. Brad gave a presentation at the City meeting in Japan on it and we thought they would like to see and tour it. 3. Humanitarian Center 4. Business Exchange 5. Jerky Factory in Shelley tour 6. Museum of Idaho 7. A hands on experience (we did cooking and making of rice straw festoon while we were in Japan). 8. Don Aslet Museum of Clean in Pocatello 9. Miles Willard 10. Premier Technology 11. Rush’s for cooking class 12. Heise 13. Bull Moose Lodge & Saloon and Melvin Brewery in Alpine. 14. Western event to include BBQ, horseback riding, etc. Shooting of guns was suggested but with the Japanese view on guns and the recent shootings we felt not a good idea for the group; but if people want to do it on their homestay weekend they could look into the possibility. 15. Cal said Jan Rogers with REDI is going to Tokyo, Japan with 5 others for a business exchange this spring and may want to participate on some type of exchange when they come here. 16. We have to find places for Welcome & Farewell receptions as well as lunches and dinners during the exchange. Some suggestions to look into is Waterfront Event Center (may be too inhibitive due to costs),  Pizza Pie café for a lunch, Chuck a Rama has a large room. North Hiway and Catered Your Way cater but we would need a facility. The Country Club was suggested. These are all ideas suggested which we can follow up on and get more at a future date. Put your thinking caps on.  VOTING FOR NEW OFFICERS FOR THE 2018-2020 term. The ballot was read for candidates running and there was a place for write-ins. Jim & Nancy Thorsen sent in an absentee ballot. Ballots were handed out and were collected by Clarke and Cheryl who tallied the ballots. New Officers are as follows.  President: Cindy Ozaki Vice President: Jerry Sehlke Sec/Historian: Lisa Sehlke Treasurer: Joan Fuhrman The next meeting is: Monday, March 19, 2018, at 7:00 pm in the City Council Chambers. Sheri Hansen Historian, Idaho Falls Sister Cities