Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission Subcommittee Minutes Meeting January 25, 2021 Zoom Members Present: Joan Clarke, Daman Irby, Amanda Folsom, Nana Ghartey, Michael Grinnell, Kate Kogge, Stella Mattioli, Neeley Minton, Dave Norris, Elizabeth Smiley, Adrienne Ward Non-members Present: Kyna Thomas, Brian Wheeler, Lachen Parks Call to Order: Co-Chair Daman Irby called the meeting to order at approximately 4:37 p.m. Outreach and Communications Committee (4:30 - 5:15): Participants: Adrienne Ward Stella Mattioli Michael Grinnell Lachen Parks * Brian Wheeler * Kyna Thomas * Discussion about boundaries between City social media accounts and CSCC social media accounts: Lachen explained that she/her office can take our content (press releases, announcements, blurbs, etc.) and get it out to their many outlets; she can also help us with strategies re social media for CSCC; given that it takes dedicated effort to build up audiences, we can work together to use City strengths, resources to help promote CSCC programs, initiatives and grow our social media presence. We agreed on these areas of responsibility: Stella: Facebook updates Adrienne: Instagram updates Michael: Web site, Twitter updates We discussed a mode for making sure that content is represented simultaneously on all the media. Agreed that whenever one of us has info to communicate, s/he will be in touch with the other two to make sure that the same or corresponding content gets out on the others’ sites. We will try for monthly content updates. For the moment, possible content is limited due to Covid restrictions on activities, but areas we can put out information and updates on include the Grants/Projects, interesting news from our Sister Cities, etc. ● For Grants and Projects, once the grant recipients have been chosen, we will create a new 2020-2021 Grants web page (within our website) and a corresponding announcement on Facebook; simultaneously we will issue a press release making sure it features the link to both webpage and to FB announcement; we’ll include these links in all other social media announcements. [Adrienne asked about the press release used to announce last year’s grant winners - so Outreach can refer to it when writing this year’s press release - she will ask Amanda]. Press release should also be sent to Brian Wheeler and Lachen Parks for inclusion on the city pages and for distribution to local media outlets (NBC 29, etc.) We will ask Grants Subcommittee to request that grant recipients (old and new) keep us informed on any developments related to their projects - next phases, related collaborations, spin-off events - for example, Stacey Evans’s art exhibition at 2nd Street Gallery, etc. - so that we can continue to feature those projects and their impact on our social media sites. The objective is to publicize both the value of our CSCC Grants Program and the work, accomplishments of the awardees. ● For information on our Sister Cities, we will ask that the reps provide us content (info, images) 1x/month. This content can cover anything, including news and updates on the cities, interesting developments, human interest stories, etc. Our CSCC website: ● Michael updated/spruced up the site and latest draft can be seen here: ● New release candidate for the web page https://www.cvillesistercities.org/?siteRevision=128 - added new pages for the 2018-2019 Grants and Projects and the 2019-2020 Grants and Projects ● the CSCC website has means to get news right away to local outlets - see upper right link “In the News” Huehue Friendship City Committee (5:15 - 6:00): Participants: Dave Norris Kate Kogge ● Plan to prepare letter from new City Manager to write to leadership in Huehue ● Reach out to Kelly and Jordan - update on any new elections in Huehue ● Big question: Who “owns” this partnership? Is it CSCC or Ixtatan Foundation? Let’s reach out. “Assignments” for the days/weeks ahead: - Know for certain who the mayor of Huehue is before drafting a letter. - Reach out to Ixtatan Foundation and ask about working towards this partnership with us (already an established group) - Draft letter for incoming City Manager to sign - Collect information about Charlottesville for Huehue Education Committee (6:00 - 6:45): Participants: Elizabeth Neeley Daman Kate ● Still working on connecting with counterparts in France - Elizabeth is working on it! ● Reach out to folks who do exchanges - what’s going on in school settings? CHS educators in particular ● ISS Downlink - waiting to hear back from NASA. Include a variety of students and think of ways to consider language barriers. ● Festival of Cultures - think of ways to connect here and think of virtual alternatives ● Grant opportunities - community ideas are really fabulous. ● Stacey Evans - one of the art collaborations was between art students at CHS and students at a school in Besancon. Is there a way to create follow-up? Thinking of virtual connections for the year ahead. ● Huehue partnership - reach out to Spanish teachers. Offer PD points for something like that...invite teachers from Huehue to participate, too. Could be an event at the end of the summer. Offer grant program as an option for teachers to jump into something a little bigger. CHS did a program with Spanish II around Guatemala - two of the teachers are still there. ● Finance Committee (6:45 - 7:30): ● Discuss allocation of funds - decision made in April. Hard to create a budget proposal until then. ● Website fees - Stacey Evans (do we host her, or not)? Could create a site dedicated to grant programs. ● Looking like we’d be able to fund four projects this year. ● Outstanding Funds is actually $8500 - changed in budget Meeting adjourned at 7:21 p.m.