2013-02-25 Sister City Commission MinutesEdmonds Sister City Commission
Meeting Date: February 25, 2013 — Meeting Minutes
Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 7:OOpm. There were no guests for citizen input.
Attendance: Pos. 1 Michelle Van Tassell Pos. 2 Ray Olitt Pos. 3 Yoshitaka Inoue
Pos. 4 Marlene FFiepA Pos. 5 Kay Vreeland Pos. 6 Rita Bailey Ikeda
Pos. 7 lyoko Okano Pos. 8' edy McGen , ii Pos. 9 Joseph Fletcher
Pos. 10 Beth Fuhriman Pos. 11 Jill Van Berkom Pos. 12 Paul Anderson
Administration: Carolyn LaFave
Administration
Minutes: Printouts of the draft meeting minutes were reviewed by the group. No corrections were
offered during the meeting. Joseph agreed to provide corrected minutes to Carolyn as they are
completed.
Treasurer's report: Kody's report had no updates from the previous version. A report on the
expenses on the 201h Anniversary Delegation is sought by the group, but it was reported that $6000 is
available in the group's 100 Fund account for use on the 25th anniversary.
Chair's report: It was reported that the orientation meeting went well. The chair will follow up with
any of the delegation members who were not able to attend the meeting. This list will be provided by
Carolyn. It was noted that Carolyn's effort to provide a list of Japanese Dos and Don'ts was much
appreciated.
PR report:
1. The PR committee reported eleven local media articles published in the previous month. Matt
Cail of Super Charge Marketing donated a social media consultation and produced a QR code
which links to the Sister City Commission's Facebook Page. Kay will provide an image of the code
to all the Commissioners. The OR can go on business cards and is on the draft pamphlet. We
have 120 likes on Facebook.
2. We have been invited to speak at the Chamber Networking Breakfast on September 111h and to
the Friends of the Library on October 241h. Beth volunteered to speak at the Friends of the
Library event and Michelle will speak at the Chamber networking event.
3. Kay made a personal contact with the new principal of Edmonds-Woodway HS. She asks if the
group would support her meeting with the principal, along with Beth and our long-time liaison
at the high school, Geoff Bennett. The group agreed and also mentioned efforts to establish a
relationship with Meadowdale HS.
4. Kay reports that there are four flipbooks in English about the Sister Cities created by Hekinan.
She will distribute the links via email. She also reports that Jim Corbett's book of photos should
still be available on Blurb(.com) and that the Commission may have received a copy. Carolyn
said that she would look for the book among the material brought over from storage at the
Frances Anderson Center.
Staff report: Carolyn reports that lyoko is doing much of the correspondence with Hekinan. The AET
solicitation has gone out and is available publicly. There has been one inquiry about this position.
Official Correspondence: No correspondence was noted during the meeting.
Old Business
Mayor's Delegation to Hekinan: Hekinan is working on the itinerary. It was suggested scheduling a
debriefing meeting following the delegation's return to Edmonds. This meeting would serve many
purposes such as providing a venue for participants to provide feedback, place to gather future
volunteers, and possible generation of news or media stories. It was also suggested that a later venue
be schedule for public attendance. Further discussion of this event was tabled for a later meeting but
the date of April 25t" was tentatively given as the debriefing meeting date.
Review of Five Year Plan: The group collectively made revisions to the document. Updates were
reported by Beth and Michelle. The group moved to accept and accepted the changes to the document.
These changes will be reflected in an updated draft to be distributed via email.
AET: Application and press releases for the AET position have been distributed, however it was
emphasized that word of mouth is still an important tool to be used. As there was some delay getting
the application out, it was suggested that we extend the deadline for the AET application until April 8tn
This suggested was voted on and passed. Also, the press release will be targeted toward: University of
Washington/Western Washington — Ray; Seattle Pacific University/Bellevue College — Rita; Japanese
Teacher's Association — Yoshi.
Student Representative: One application has been received from a former student volunteer,
Michelle Rockstead. The group had no precedent for the acceptance process and after a brief
discussion, it was moved and accepted that the applicant be invited to join as the student
representative.
Review of Committees &Assignments: This topic was tabled until the next meeting.
New Business
25-Year Anniversary Planning: Rita called the group's attention to copies of the Hekinan Delegation
agenda that was used in 2008 and asked that others begin to generate ideas and think about what
activities can be planned and how they can be implemented.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:44pm