Mount Pleasant Youth Council

MOUNT PLEASANT YOUTH COUNCIL MEETING Thursday, May 2, 2024 5:00 PM Mount Pleasant Municipal Complex Council Chambers 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES 1. Call to Order Ms. Griffin called the meeting to order at 5:01 p.m. Eli Barker, Rose Dillon, Porter Yount, Layla Giddens, Evan Nussbaum, Mia Weis, Jackson Naylor, Rowan Rucker, Lane Yarbrough and Addie Utsey were all present. Mr. McLawhorn stated Ms. Howard would be arriving a little later. 2. Public Comments [None] 3. Approval of the minutes from the April 11, 2024 meeting Ms. Griffin moved to approve the minutes, seconded by Ms. Utsey. All present voted in favor. 4. Housekeeping items Ms. Griffin stated she, Ms. Dillon and Ms. Giddens are overseeing the final quarterly service project which would be a toiletry drive for the Homeless Hope Foundation. She asked the other Youth Council members to put collection boxes in their schools and they would schedule a packing party later in the month if they received enough donations. Mr. McLawhorn stated any Youth Council Members that would like to serve next year would need to reapply and the application would be posted on the website soon. He stated the number of Youth Council Members would likely be reduced to nine. 5. Finalization of website content Ms. Griffin said she, Ms. Giddens, Ms. Howard and Mr. LaFontaine met on Monday to go over the presentation. She said they decided they wanted this month to be an advertising month, and asked for  connections to be made so discussions could be held over the summer. She asked Ms. Yarbrough to make a flyer for everyone to put in the schools, as well as post on Instagram. She said a special meeting had been discussed for next month, and asked if that would be happening. Mr. McLawhorn said Ms. Howard would be here shortly and asked to move to the next item on the agenda until she arrives. 6. Discussion and possible action to add attendance requirements for service projects to Youth Council By-laws Ms. Griffin said we need to discuss the attendance policy for service projects. Ms. Yarbrough said she thought attendance should be required for more than half of the projects. Mr. McLawhorn said staff had discussed reducing the number of service projects from four to three, so a good attendance requirement would be two. Ms. Dillon said for next year if we set one end-goal project to work on throughout the year, then the first two meetings can be spent breaking into groups for the entire year. Mr. McLawhorn said one of the items staff had discussed was to break the Youth Council Members into actual committees next year. He said staff is trying to put together something for everyone returning next year so at the first meeting, ideas of what is important that Youth Council wants to focus on can be shared. Ms. Dillon asked Mr. McLawhorn if he and Ms. Howard would be returning next year and Mr. McLawhorn responded in the affirmative. She asked if they would be the permanent staff members and Mr. McLawhorn said he was unsure, but they would be returning. Ms. Griffin asked if the committees would be for the priority project or the service projects as well. Mr. McLawhorn said he was thinking committees would be a good idea for the service project because with the priority project everyone needs to be involved. Ms. Barrett said she thought for the priority project, Youth Council should have committees as well, based on the project, so that the Page 2 of 6 committees can work on separate aspects, then bring it all back together to the group. Ms. Griffin said she agreed. Ms. Dillon asked if the committees will be in general enough categories so that the tasks for the final project can be divided up among the same categories. Ms. Barrett said they would not be set standing committees like Council has in place, but the committees would be based on what the project entailed. Ms. Griffin said it does not sound like the bylaws would need to be changed right now, and Mr. McLawhorn agreed because they would need to be voted on at the beginning of the next session. He said if anyone had any changes they would like to make, they could be sent to him and Ms. Howard before the next session starts so they can be incorporated into the bylaws, and a vote held by the new Youth Council. Ms. Griffin said anyone who had not been to a Town Council meeting would need to go to the next meeting on May 14. Ms. Dillon said an effort should be made to go to the required Council meeting early in the year. Mr. McLawhorn said it would be good to put a deadline on the attendance. Ms. Griffin asked when the chair and vice chair were elected. Mr. McLawhorn said he thought it was the second meeting but believes it should be done at the first meeting so that things can start moving, rather than having a two-month delay. (Ms. Howard arrived.) Mr. McLawhorn said one of the things staff discussed during their meeting was about the lack of social media posts, so maybe for the next session, someone should oversee social media. Mr. Nussbaum suggested posting an update every week. Ms. Dillon said she was at the State House a few weeks ago and they often recognize sports teams and said she thought it would be fantastic to visit as they are constantly talking about schools. Page 3 of 6 Mr. McLawhorn said Youth Council Members went to the Municipal Association of South Carolina, but that was a focus on Youth Council as an application for an award. He said there would not be that opportunity this year. He said for next year we can look for opportunities to showcase your projects and priorities. Ms. Griffin said going back to Item 5 on the agenda, she asked if a special meeting would be held. Ms. Howard said technically the website is not complete because there is no content, so if we need to have the June meeting, we will, but she does not want it to be another month of waiting for something to happen. She asked for an update on content for the website. Ms. Griffin said she spoke with Academic Magnet and she said they were going to e-mail her with the results. Mr. Nussbaum said he had pie charts from the survey last year, and they did not want to send out another survey. Ms. Griffin said earlier in the meeting we discussed that this month should be about advertising and getting the topics down, but she asked if we should push through and get things completed. She said that would be a lot of work for everyone, such as getting topics in the next week, getting information in the next two to three weeks. She asked if we want to have the June meeting and be a little more relaxed again this month with exams coming up. Ms. Howard said the June 6th meeting would be the tenth meeting, so we will hold the meeting because the project is not complete. Ms. Griffin asked if she had the forms so that Ms. Howard could be added to the group chat and Ms. Howard responded in the affirmative. Ms. Griffin said that should be a priority for the second meeting next year, that all of the forms should be returned promptly. Mr. McLawhorn said he thought they should be turned in at the first meeting, as they are e-mailed to all of the members in advance. Ms. Howard asked if there is a plan in place for who is responsible for obtaining what content and what will be sent to her to add to the website within the month. Ms. Griffin said Academic Magnet will be sending information by the end of the month, and we have data from Porter Gaud, and that information would help finalize the topics. She said advertising would be completed this month, and once the topics Page 4 of 6 are finalized by the June meeting, then by July, website and content can be sent in, and she would like to have Mr. LaFontaine attend the June meeting to discuss what a credible website would be to be placed on our website. Ms. Howard said if June is going to be the last meeting, the project needs to be complete. She said she wants content sent to her this month so that she can start uploading it to the website so it can be complete by the June meeting. Mr. Nussbaum said we had discussed having a section with contact information, and asked if everyone would contact one licensed therapist in the area and ask if they would be agreeable to having their information placed on the website. Mr. McLawhorn said he did not know if that would be viewed as the Town approving of these therapists. Ms. Howard said when she, Ms. Giddens and Ms. Griffin met with Mr. LaFontaine, the idea was that Ms. Howard would be adding content to the website as a draft, and Mr. LaFontaine would review it and if there was something he did not want on the website, it would not be published. She asked the Youth Council Members to send as much content as possible. Ms. Griffin said she had talked with Academic Magnet and is getting the information from the fall survey, but there were no evident problems, so maybe we should just work with Porter Gaud’s information so we can send out the topic list soon so we know what kind of data to collect. Ms. Howard said send local resources that can be uploaded. Mr. McLawhorn said for the agenda for the next meeting, we would have public comments, approval of minutes, unveiling and close for the year. Ms. Griffin asked everyone to send three content items to Ms. Howard this month. Ms. Howard said they should look for any mental health resource in the Charleston area, such as websites, people, clinics. She said the main thing is we have no content to put on the website and suggested everyone find three resources in the area. Page 5 of 6  Mr. McLawhorn said they could start with the Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Center for Disease Control and Health and Human Services websites. Ms. Dillon said before personal contacts are submitted, permission should be obtained. Ms. Griffin said perhaps we should start with clinics. Ms. Dillon suggested getting permission to include information on the website in writing before submitting. Ms. Weis asked if we were to include resources from the Medical University of South Carolina, would we need to ask them for permission. Ms. Dillon said she is certain permission would need to be obtained. Mr. McLawhorn said if you explain to them what you are doing, they will probably put you in contact with someone who could authorize it. Ms. Howard said most of the major organizations have a communications officer, and that information would probably be located on their website. 7. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:34 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Christine Barrett Clerk of Council May 2, 2024 Page 6 of 6