2019-02-20 Youth Commission MinutesYouth Commission Meeting Minutes 2/20/2019
Commission Members Present:
Alissa Berman
Caitlin Chung
Caroline Wills
Cole Albaugh
Emily Sanger
Kaleb Nichols
Nathanael Perdomo
Noah Erickson
Owen Lee
Stephany Janssen
Sydney Pearson
Staff Present:
Shannon Burley
Called meeting to order at 6:07pm once the last few members showed up.
Minutes Approval:
Motion to approve 1/16/19 meetings minutes; there were several minor grammatical errors corrected.
All members were in agreeance to approve minutes.
Pictures of all commission members taken by Noah.
YMCA Environmental Symposium Announcement: a few members seemed interested.
General Brainstorm:
Stephany brought up a possibility of a recurring commission sponsored event where youth in Edmonds
can share their talents such as poetry reading or musical performances.
Briefly discussed the controversial statement made by the Diversity Commission and the Mayor. Talked
about snow storm closures such as the food bank, shelters, school, etc.
Salmon Work Plan:
Sometime in March there will be a Student Saving Salmon event that the commission will try to attend.
The commission needs to find a way to approach different schools in order to organize them and find a
date to have lots of teens working together.
The commission intends to speak to the instructor(s) of relevant clubs and activities at each school. The
commission's goals uniting schools around an issue and encouraging participation (helping salmon in
this case), take a stance on how the Youth Commission is committed to protecting our environment. In
six months the commission hopes to see increased participation from youths, more awareness to the
issue through social (and other forms of) media, and to take a stance on environmental protection.
We will try to get Carrie and Mr. Millette (instructor of Students Saving Salmon at Edmonds Woodway)
to come and speak at our next meeting.
We also want to try to partner with Key Clubs in order to work with them for the date of our event.
Gun Violence:
Students are greatly impacted by gun violence and it's an issue to take a stance on. We, the youth, are
directly affected and need to make a teen community so we can feel safe. The commission wants to
make a community forum so we can involve students and parents to help us know that we can do
something about this to make a safe community.
Objectives:
1. Impact on students
2. Create a safe community
3. Organize a public forum
4. Bipartisan issue
Forum: In order to determine what our success would look like, the commission hopes to talk to the
Kirkland expert Regi; it's also really important that we are informed by the youth community and able to
represent them.
• Ideally in late May to early June without sacrificing quality
• Target audience: increasing parent/teacher involvement is important but the commission has
strong intentions to include the students since that is the Youth Commissions role.
• Possibly more attainable to gather information on teen opinions and then having a symposium
to have a really impactful presentation for parents, teachers and administration.
• First we should have a lot of teenagers that we present to about statistics and facts involving
what makes up the shootings so their solutions could be more educated; then, we can have a
breakout session where groups come up their goals, then regroup and put together everyone's
ideas which we then present to the administration.
• Our initial symposium needs speakers for initial presentation and a certain number of students
from the different schools.
o We need to have outreach to the different schools; it's important to reach out to
specific coordinators and teachers at schools but it's even more important to have it
accessible to everyone.
o We could possibly send a small presentation to English teachers because everyone has
to take it every year
o Talk to Casey to discuss people from every school so we can bring in all Edmonds
residents
Out layout of our event:
1. Informational (speakers with statistics and personal stories so that it is engaging)
a. What speakers? Moms Demand Action and similar organizations, medical, make sure we
know they are good presenters, TED Talks/Surveys to know what people want and already
know.
b. Good to have a well-known speaker with great references and possible fame as well as a
student with an emotional story that is relatable and inspiring.
c. Get a list of speakers and narrow down to a list of 5-10
d. Talk about trends so people know main issues
e. Not too long
f. Ideally we'd have a projector for visual aids
Breakout groups to come up with a plan
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a. Put a youth commission member in each group to lead discussion
b. Have a clear goal about what we want from these groups
c. Make sure it's engaging, perhaps making a poster or something as a group or other visual
aids so it's involved.
d. Everyone makes a slide with their ideas in a conjoint PowerPoint.
Important that we understand current gun policy and legislation, have one or two specific people.
Our Plan:
1. Meet with people from Kirkland (Regi) who is associated with the forum Kirkland held
2. Determine intended outcome, details, etc. before we go to superintendent; some will be TBD
but the commission does not currently have enough
3. Mike Nelson should know before we reach out to superintendent
4. Where is it? (Frances Anderson Center, ECA) and talk Dave Earling (could we get students there
for free or discounted community transit)
5. How many people?
6. Meet with Superintendent (School sanctioned? School busses? Excused absence?)
7. Talk to administrators and coordinators from different schools
Homework:
Salmon
1. Stephany will talk to Mr. Millette
2. Noah will talk to Eco Club
3. Caroline will talk to Students Saving Salmon
4. Sydney will ask friend about Lynnwood Clubs
5. Stephany will email Carrie and talk to Mr. Millette to see if they can come in to talk about the
Edmonds marsh
Gun Violence:
1. Owen will understand state legislation surrounding guns
2. Caitlin will understand national legislation surrounding guns
3. Kaleb will understand local legislation surrounding guns
4. Each member should have three speakers that they think could be good (inspiration can be
drawn from March For out Lives)
5. Each member should write down one reason the Youth Commission should address each of
these issues
Next meeting in two weeks (3/6/19)
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