2019-03-20 Youth Commission MinutesYouth Commission Meeting Minutes 3/20/2019
Commission members present:
Alissa Berman
Caitlin Chung
Cole Albaugh
Emily Sanger
Nathanael Perdomo
Noah Duggan Erickson
Owen Lee
Sydney Pearson
Staff Present:
Casey Colley
Called meeting to order:
Casey called it at 6:05pm once the last few members showed up
Minutes Approval:
Motion to approve 3/6/19 meeting's minutes
Motion taken: Minutes approved
Email/Communication Check:
With our text group chat, people are using different operating systems (Apple vs. Android) so
we need to create an entirely new group chat. Owen will archive the past messages and email
them to Casey. Next meeting, we will set up a new means of communication.
We got some printed copies of our Emergency Contact & Photo Release Waivers, and Alissa
submitted hers.
For our emails, people should be checking them twice a week. Check your email on Tuesday
before the meeting and Thursday after it in order to hear/read any information important for
the meetings.
Noah also realized that the Chromebooks make you use the light version, so you can use
"User Agent Switcher for Chrome" in order to get the full version of the Outlook system.
Gun Violence Presentations:
Kaleb was not present to present information on local government gun laws.
Caitlin and Owen presented Federal and Washington State gun laws.
Link to Federal Gun Laws Presentation:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=lwHYT8Sxwl9uylre9MKjwCyKa_Tgh2zGfA6Gog8TbgvE
Link to Washington State Gun Laws Presentation: https:Hdocs.google.com/presentation/
d/1JJgXrGOERWKuCzOR5fmRcKCnRYFn7pPzTfMWSTBdF ms/edit?usp=sharing
Creating Measurable Goals:
We've been meeting as a commission for a while now, but we have no time -line for our goals
and nothing concrete written down. We need to focus on establishing the foundation of the
Commission so it can be successful for years to come.
We are hesitant to move quickly with our Gun Violence Summit because Reggie said that it
would take a year to plan something like this with an established relationship with the school
district, which we do not have. The Youth Commission only has representatives from three
schools, so before we do anything such as meeting with the Superintendent, we need to
create specific goals with questions that we, as a whole commission, want to ask them. We will
create a plan with attainable and measurable goals that we will pitch/present to Shannon and
Carrie.
Our summit plans fall under only 1 of our 5 prongs of Powers and Duties in the Youth
Commission Ordinance:
From the Ordinance: 10.55.040 Powers and Duties:
The duties of the Commission include but are not limited to:
1. Serve as an advocate for youth needs and improvement in youth policies, directly
engaging the community in the process;
2. Drafting policy proposals on topics of its choosing and presenting these proposals to the
Mayor and City Council;
3. Organizing forums of Edmonds youth to better educate the City about the opinions of
youth on civic issues affecting both their communities and the city at large;
4. Recognize accomplishments of children and youth and promote the value of youth in
our community; and
5. Providing an annual report to the City Council about the Commission's activities.
We have four other duties that we need to accomplish. We might want to research other topics
to include in our forum so that we can get more acceptance among conservative members of
the community and school boards; it is important that we are representing all youths of our
community.
For months 1-3, we want to have a lot of research about topics of interest and a survey to
distribute to the youths in our city to understand what issues are important to THEM. We, the
Youth Commission, represent the Edmonds Youth and need to capture what they want. If
we prepare a diverse 500 student pool from a mix of schools, it will be clear what people
want/need from the Youth Commission. We could also do a 400 person sample group of adults
who work with youth in our community.
We could also assign monthly homework based on important issues in the news currently; one
of our duties is to advise the city council. What is happening in the school district and boards?
How can we influence what happens there, and how does that affect us? How will we get the
word out to people for surveys?
At E.W., an email blast goes out and gets announced during Advisory. To do this, we need to
first get permission from the school district. Then we need to get approval from the school
principals in order to distribute. Emails could be a good way to send them. Lynnwood has a 25
minute advisory, Meadowdale has "Achievement Time," and the rest of the schools probably
also have something similar. Next meeting, we want lists of topics and questions so that the
information is accessible to students taking the surveys.
In Three Months:
We want to send out a survey throughout the district and have a better -rounded and
representative body of knowledge for our forum.
In Six Months:
We want to have a good idea about what our forum will look like that is founded off of our
survey results. May need to send additional surveys if data is not showing clear trends.
In Nine Months:
Will know the topics and will start preparing a plan. Once complete, take our plan to Carrie and
Shannon, as well as the district. Get approval or feedback and change plan.
In Twelve Months:
If plan is approved, we want to select a space and start inviting speakers.
In 24 months:
Show time! Summit is here and all hands on deck.
What Is Success: What will it mean to be successful in the next two years of the commission?
Year 1:
• Plan summit —gather topic from surveying youth in Edmonds
• School connections
• Competitive and diverse applications process
• Be recognized as a resource
• Seen in community
3
• Get in local papers
• Established in community
• Focus on development not execution
• Not just on gun control; perhaps mental health?
• Better communication
• More homework
• Local issues focus
• Attendance at city council meetings
Year 2:
• Established in community
• Understanding our community's point of view
• Get consistent feedback from non -commission community members
• Have an event (summit?)
• Get publicized in newspapers, social media, etc.
• Continue not to go too big, and even though we want to work on the summit, it's
important to keep smaller projects in mind
• Perhaps participate in an event every month as the Youth Commission geared towards
youth; there's nothing to do at night in Edmonds
• Fostering newly established relationships with important community members
• Keep trying to get a more diverse group of people on the commission
• Send out survey after summit for feedback —then start brainstorming topics for bi-
annual summit
Using our time well: In the future, it could be good to look at the presentations in advance and
to read Casey's emails about current events so we can save time at our meetings and arrive
educated and ready to plan. We can also take time at home to look through for edits of
minutes, so that we can save time the meetings. We will also try to appoint Noah as our
"Official Editor" so we can have less minute editing necessary.
Students Saving Salmon:
It's not right to use Students Saving Salmon as a photo -op without first talking to the founder of
the groups in order to support him and follow him, using it as a platform, as opposed to barge
in and turn his event as a photo -op. Casey thinks we should get him to attend one of our
meetings to talk to him?
To have a meeting with Joe Scordino, we want to come up with carefully curated questions in
advance. We could either Skype call him, have him come in to a meeting, or best of all, select
4
representatives to have a meeting with him outside of our small amounts of group time. We
can't just show up and take over one of his events —that will receive negative reactions in our
community and the local experts in Edmonds such as Joe. Let figure out how to support and
partner with Joe Scordino so both our needs are met.
There is also an event on this Saturday, March 23, that we could see if we could attend. A flyer
was handed out in our meeting that was sent to Casey by Carrie. Shannon can send out a press
release once we have a plan.
Homework: DUE 04/17/2019
1. Email Casey with ideas about how to get information out to people so that everyone's
ideas can be accounted for. What communication method would work best for you?
Social media and group text is not an option ... are there apps, emails, other methods you
like. Why do you like them?
2. What local issues do you think are important to have as listed on our survey?
3. Our April 17th meeting will be led by the Puget Sound Regional Council.
They will be talking to us about goals going into 2050 for our Puget Sound area. To make
up for this meeting, we could schedule an extra meeting to work on our issues. Email
Casey with times you are available.
4. EMERGENCY CONTACTS AND PHOTO WAIVERS DUE APRIL 17T":
Make sure to print and fill out your Youth Commission Emergency Contact & Photo
Release Waiver (if you can't print it, ask for a copy from Casey, or scan it and send it to
her; if you can't give it to her in a meeting, you can bring it in advance to the front desk
of the Frances Anderson Center and ask them to put it in Casey's box).
Meeting Adjourned:
The meeting was adjourned at 7:30pm.