Community Relations Commission

CITY OF WHEATON COMMUNITY RELATIONS COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES – WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2018 I. Call to Order by Chairman Gail Forrest at 7:05 pm II. Roll Call: Present: Absent: Tony Asta Colleen Attwell Gail Forrest Erica Nelson Leslie Day Julie Kulovits Ronnie Gillis Shayne Moore Erik Miller Vickie Miller III. Citizens to be heard: None IV. Approval of Minutes: Leslie moved to approve the April minutes; Vickie seconded; Motion passed. V. Continuing Business: A. Finance: Erik reported on the balance which included the new fiscal year’s funds as well as the carryover. Our allocation of $500 for the Wheaton Fine Arts golf event was transferred by the City. The new fiscal year started May 1, 2018. The City will be switching to a calendar fiscal year on December 31, 2018. Gail presented a draft budget for review and comment and it was approved by the team. B. Communication: Shayne presented to Gail for review a synopsis for the Good Citizens event. After several suggestions and discussion of how the event unfolds, she will fine tune this and provide it to the Communication Department to prepare the leaflet for the Council Meeting and also use this information for any publicity and newspaper staff. Shayne put a lot of work into this task but will be unable to attend so that she can be at her son’s college graduation. ACTION: Moore to finalize brochure with Communications and get copies for meeting. C. Wheaton World Tour: Tony gave a summary of some of the ideas and thoughts on what the event will encompass: music, dance, ethnic foods vendors, non-profit booths, Japanese tea, henna art. He has contacted the Wheaton Park District and is in discussions to use Memorial Park for a Sunday in September. He will visit the Turkish Center Festival this weekend for additional ideas. Tony asked the commissioners to share any thoughts they have on what to include and would welcome their attendance at the subcommittee meeting. Gail reviewed the Project  Plan/Chart prepared for this event with Tony and asked that all the event chairpersons use this format and keep it current. This format will also be used to document in detail our project plans and processes going forward. ACTION: Asta to solidify date and locale with Park Department. ACTION: Asta and Nelson to conduct interim special meeting to refine detail and present project plan at June meeting, D. Good Citizens: Gail and Vickie reported on the activities for the Good Citizens event which involves the greeting of our honored award recipients, nominators and guests. Gail is going to have a couple of Welcome Banners made to hang in the Gamon Room and Colleen has ordered personalized plaques for the recipients. Gail reviewed the Project Plan/Chart prepared for this event to show the progress of the work completed and solicited volunteers for the open actions. ACTIONS: Forrest to finalize catering from Jewel, everyone to help with setup on 21st. E. Make a Difference Day: This project still does not have a Chair. Gail stated that time is of the essence to appoint a Chair and start ideating this event. F. Military Project: Gail told the commission that she discussed with the Mayor looking for a new, more local (Wheaton-based) opportunity to support the military/veteran community. She also informed exiting Commander Paul Moon that we would no longer be sponsoring Ft. Riley. He concurred and said he had notified the new leadership (Bessey) as well. Accordingly she has asked that the picture and any related documentation in City Hall be removed, and she notified Mayor Gresk that no one needs to attend the upcoming change in command ceremony. Additionally she is meeting with Paul Herbert at Cantigny in June to pursue Wheaton-based collaboration opportunities. G. Business Sponsorship: Leslie is still reviewing the materials for the previous endeavors and will be preparing a Project Plan/Chart for this as she develops a strategy for solicitation of support for our annual events. ACTION: Leslie to bring high level draft of plans to bring in $5K and ideas to June meeting. VI. New Business: A. Pertaining to the US Women’s Senior Golf Event, Tony asked if the commission was interested in taking on the project of a Children’s Golf Ball Hunt in Downtown Wheaton. After some discussion, Gail said that she attended the meeting about the upcoming event and was fully apprised of the amount of work it would require. The commissioners decided to decline because our commission has so many of our own projects to manage during this timeframe, without a full commission. B. Gail stated that she has been to our storage unit at Public Works and cleaned it out. She reminded everyone to use the project management tool going forward as the basis for project progress/issues discussions.  C. At next month’s meeting the annual Slate of Officers will be presented and voted on. VII. Adjournment: Ronnie moved and Shayne seconded a motion to adjourn at 8:15 p.m. The motion passes.