Good evening, everybody.

Today is uh Monday, November 10th.

This is the regular meeting of the recreation advisory board.

Not first included 12 call role.

Chairman Simon.

Present.

Vice Chair Sanchez.

Councilman Vargas.

Dana Lafayette present.

Kenneth Phillips is absent.

We have four present and one absent.

We have a forum.

Thank you.

I also want to acknowledge obviously our colleagues who we do all of our work with in the recreation department.

We have Director Holly, um, assisting director on the mem.

Always get this last name wrong, but on your on your mum.

On your map, yeah, you're right on right there.

I did.

And um, and Jackie Polyus, who is uh the senior member of the department, also uh director of the uh Zoo Low Reparation Center.

So we are always uh excited to have you guys with us and look forward to a great conversation.

Um so we wanted to talk about today the agenda items that we have and talked spend some time talking about uh winter basketball leagues.

I know they weren't kind of mixed right now of uh registration, so want to get an update on that.

Obviously, you know, we as a board, I think have talked about it for a long time about uh you know things that are put in place at online registration and whatnot.

So sorry to get an update on where things are at right now for uh winter basketball leagues.

Um, and then uh one time for the discussion.

This is a topic that we said that we would come back to at least once a year or so to talk about the department's communication goals and what we're doing as a department um to get the word out there about the work that's going on in our recreation centers.

Um so uh without further ado, I think this can be a uh one of our uh more on time meetings.

Um, but uh but uh further ado, I will turn it over to Director Holly, and I believe we have a presentation on um these items.

Yes, as we do there, we'll do it on ahead.

We can start now okay, all right.

No worries before we get here on others wanna uh again welcome director Holly.

This is his second evening with us first in a formal capacity, I believe, right?

The council had second of the form, second formal, yeah.

Right, or really the fifth we since you've had some uh a little more time on the ground, but it's like going to do last myself.

Um well director, thank you for hitting the ground running for the main thing.

We appreciate that.

Um I'll just say for my uh communications, you know, director Holly, I'm not rejected.

Uh pretty regularly, same sort of communication I have with director Grace and uh Ben Press about how you hit the ground running and forward to hearing more about uh about some of these items that we're talking about today.

Absolutely.

I'll uh just to give some the fact before we get into uh an update on the on the weather basketball registration.

I will say we are a little bit behind given the fact that I just have come on board.

Um it was kind of a way for me to get on board and get uh into our role before we started the registration and so forth.

However, registration is open and um definitely very robust already, but um I'll let Jackie uh share some updates all over the chat everything there was I think at this point we are doing pretty well.

Um still early um considering registration and final rosters have to be in um in the last week of December.

So as far as uh teens and uh participation, uh I can just read also in the statute of the Legally in the boys tenant under division.

We have commitments from uh hand right centers, boys 12 of you, 10 right centers, boys 14 you late rank centers, girls tenure, which is instructional, seven recent girls 12 year five, girls 145.

So right now we have a total of 46 teams committed to the league, which is a pretty good number, especially at this point in November, and considering we opened it up on October 13th.

So I think we're doing we're doing pretty well in a short period of time.

This director Holly became the direct on 22nd, ready.

Ready?

So uh a little bit of further breakdown.

I know you have it in front of you.

There are 29 boys' teams and 17 girls' teams overall.

Um, which I think is is really a good number, especially at this point.

Um, just to reiterate that.

We also have a good number of allows.

Uh when you say teams, Jackie, are you so these are folks who are actually currently signed up right now?

Signed up, and each director made the commitment to put a team in that division.

So the director made a commitment to do it.

We don't necessarily have the sign-ups in place to do it yet.

We have the general interest.

Right.

The teams are not necessarily made up, but they do have to your point the general interest and enough to make the team.

Okay.

Yeah.

So I mean, I think it's a pretty good commitment at this stage right now.

Um, we can only get more up until the um the end of the registration to the end of December.

The lead starts the first week of January, that's to be a certain cutoff day, especially with the paperwork.

But I think we're doing really well up to this point.

Also, we have a really good number of volunteers, and then we can see the distribution.

22 at this point already.

So I think we're doing pretty well.

They are and we also have 10 team sponsorships who made commitments to um their centers, et cetera.

So the numbers to me um look really good, especially at this time.

Um, and you know, just from my own past experience, I think we're doing really well.

Um, obviously, the ultimate goal is to have every right center have every team.

Um hopefully we can reach that at some point, but I think we're really on our way for full participation at this point.

Yeah, um, so a couple of things that kind of popped out to me a little bit.

Um, I noticed that Rollins will have zero and zero for boys and girls teams.

They do.

So Rollins right now is trying to get coaches and commitments for coaches.

That was her main concern at this point.

They did participate in several excuse me, in several divisions last year, but their director is currently recruiting coaches, and at this point, she didn't want to make food.

She will have uh teams, she just doesn't know which divisions at this point, and obviously, without a coach to make a commitment, she didn't want to give us committed numbers at this point, but she will be okay.

Yeah, well, director Holly, you can keep us posted on that because obviously we can be helpful helping to recruit coaches if it's needed.

You know, we can very much do that.

I think we can leave Rolla um Nasha to deal with that overall.

We will help around too as well.

Yeah, uh to five coaches.

Okay.

And um just the other zeros, obviously, mostly with the girls' teams, uh, with Jocelyn and Kennedy.

Um, you know, we've talked a lot about making sure that our that our girls' programming is equally on par with our with our boys' programming.

So you know, I know we still have a little bit of time to kind of work this out, but what is the plan to start to you know fill in some of those areas where some girls' teams might be needed?

Yeah, and I know both directors are actively recruiting uh more participation.

I know they've had um a little bit of a challenge at this point because of the relocation because of the uncertainty of JOSM.

So um they're both actively working towards that.

We've had conversations with them.

And again, to director Holly's point, if they need assistance, which they've reached out to us somewhat at this point, if they do need assistance at some point, we'll we'll absolutely um go full throttle if they have the million week.

If they see that they're struggling to the point where they're not going to participate, we will definitely help them as a as a department.

No, so my goal is to have 100% participation as far as uh the young ladies playing, um young ladies in sports, uh empowering them as something that's very important to me.

So that's certainly we'll take a personal challenge to make sure that that's uh happens.

Yeah.

Oh, yes, thank you, new children.

Um, so the so all the teams that have um committed already, they have coaches like already said correct.

Yeah, they already have coaches.

I mean, we're we're always looking for coaches, and if anybody's listening out there, volunteers, especially.

Um, but they feel as though they're in a position to feel the team at this point.

So that's why they make the commitment for some are on their way, but they just want to give a full commitment at this point, if they don't want to rescind it, if they ultimately couldn't feel the team.

Um, I feel confident we are, and and actually the girls ten and under division, which is instructional.

There's seven, so there's more teams in the girls' tenant under division than then there are in the girls' 12 and 14U, which shows that eventually we'll get those aid groups to that point.

But it's a good start.

If anyone visited rounds last year for the girls 10 under instructional, it was phenomenal.

If they had the most fans, they had the most participation.

Um, they had the most fun.

I have to be honest, even in the loss, some of the girls were happy, you know, just to play and just to run around just you know, just to learn the game of basketball at that point.

Because at that point, it's strictly instructional.

Yeah, for most of them, it was the first time they're gonna call.

And if you notice when you were at several of the games, initially they were a little bit shy because you know, this fans and something new, but by the time the end of the season came, they were just levering every celebration that that was brought to them.

And we actually you know had a word ceremony at the end, um, just to keep keep their confidence and keep the interest for the next level.

Okay another quick question.

If there's players but not a coach, do you ever have a rec center employee like paid to actually coach the team?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay, and we encourage that also.

So there's a mix if you look.

Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have that staff, we just have volunteers because that's so I think that is a question that was asked, but we do have a good mix of employee staff members that are coaching as well, very talented staff members.

So there's a good mix, you know.

Obviously, you want to have a nice mix of staff members as well as coaches that are volunteers because you know, um, it just shows a commitment from the community.

Um, when you have a volunteer book to your question, Jennifer, we have some really good talented coaches who are committed on the staff.

Yep.

Um how do we like a team sponsorship work?

But is that handled like directly with the individual rec centers or how does that look over?

What's the what was it could commit the sponsorship?

So there is sponsorship forms on our dashboard like Tory.

Um, that once you're directed to the dashboard, if someone's interested, you can sponsor.

There's there's various sections on that.

You can sponsor a team, you can sponsor a program, you can sponsor the.

I'm sorry, is there everybody to pull that up on the screen?

I'll try which the way he sent the email to her at that on top of the credentials to sign in.

Oh, okay.

I'm sorry to interrupt that.

No, that's it'll pull up on the portal.

It'll be everybody to see.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

The what the website'll be on, yeah, right.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Is it directly to the two because you can post it if we've proved okay.

And the sponsorship levels right now are what?

Is it standard across the department?

So I was working on, I believe, last year.

I I believe it's anywhere, correct me if I'm wrong, they were anywhere from a dollar to unlimited, whatever you decide you would like to send in.

And you know, if you have a certain program that you're interested in and want to sponsor, there's a section for that too, uh, where the director can put that in.

You put the company name, the person's name, the amount, um, the um the program that the person's interested in sponsoring doesn't necessarily have to be basketball, they could be anything.

It could be an R program, yeah, whatever you can imagine that we do.

Um last year we have basketball, I think is an opportunity for us, though, because it is one of those sports that we really have teams fielded across the city.

Sure.

And so I think when people look at basketball and then sponsorships for basketball, it's one of those things like you know, their name goes up on a banner in their rec center or New Jersey or whatever it is for sponsorship.

It's one of those things that we can do kind of uniformly across the city, right and folks don't believe we don't have that opportunity.

Right, and to your point, I mean, sponsorship could be perpetual.

So every year, the sponsor um decides to redo the sponsorship.

And to your point, if there is a banner with the teams um with the business sponsor, aren't it?

Um, all they have to do is re-up and we don't have to buy that sponsor that um excuse me, that banner every year, it could just be a little continual sponsorship today, sign me up again.

Something like the golf tournament with the T-sign.

Um, we have those made already, which we're gonna sponsor again.

We also had a sponsor for the bowling league last year.

So um just one of those opportunities I think really where the you know the community can meet the center, where the needs are in yeah, that's my own personal experience last year with Kennedy, like going around talking to the businesses around the rec center and engaging them.

They were very happy to do a 250 or 500 or even in some cases $1,000, $1,500 sponsorships.

So um this is one of those opportunities I think really where the you know the community can meet the center absolute where the needs are and yeah that's my own personal experience last year with Kennedy like going around talking to the businesses around the rec center and engaging them they were very happy to do a 250 or 500 or even in some cases thousand dollar fifteen hundred dollar sponsorships and so you know one of our responsibilities here is a board is to advise you guys on on some of this stuff and what I would like to see my advice on it anyway is some uniformity and the way that that works so that the you know the rec center directors and the teams will in the rec centers have a package to say 250 dollars for this 500 for that a thousand dollars for this and there's a lot of local business owners I think we're just very willing and very ready to help um with the with the right outright i'm very happy to help out with that anyway that I can definitely but um you know we oftentimes we're talking about budgets and whatnot and while the the city and our city council you know uh puts you know significant resources towards these records we know that these the dollars for program is so important and especially in this department a dollar gets threshed a pretty long way so director I would say as we start to kind of evaluate these programs um just to really come up with like a uniform sponsor sponsorship package so it's just yeah yeah yeah something that's kind of uniform across the and and there's gonna be you know certain centers I think who have worked with sponsors for very long time where you know giving contributions for on annual basis for things that are even bigger than this but um with basketball in particular I think it's one of those programs where again it's uniform across the city and uh rides a good outcommunity I think for exposure with sponsors and for them to be even to to be in to be involved in their community recenter and the department I don't know if anybody else has thoughts on that that's kind of where I've always said a great community partnership kind of um you have to do is that yeah and that's and that's exactly it like I every other rec department I see sort of across the state you know they have the banners up of the community people who have sponsored for X amount of dollar whether it be the local auto body shop or the gas station or you know it's it's uh it's something that people really enjoy doing right it's the little leagues do it very well um they have the signage in the L field yeah definitely the legal do but I'll tell you I mean just I think every other rec department in the state has a version of what they offer for sponsorships and packages so I think again just some uniformity around that so it's not a question mark as to who's asking from this center for that or that it's a you know form that we have up on our site that you know that is specific towards you know this particular program um I mean outside you just last year alone and going around to small businesses and and my neighbor attending the rec center I think we raised like $6500 six five hundred sixty five hundred dollars or like seven thousand dollars around there so it's a good you know that that's and that money was used for things that it was needed within the center and so I think what you said before is is a powerful point which is people are waiting to be asked to help out and still so again if anybody's out there listening you can yeah we have that we have to have the infrastructure in order to be able to organized perspective we do we do have it on the dashboard for donations and no um is that a standard sort of package is that was what's on there so right now it's just uh it used as a form at that the moment I know we had we're kind of have to kind of get we'll show and kind of figure out what our plan is going forward for how we'll do how we'll asseminate kind of that donation and sponsorship forms but um but right now this is a form that I would share that with you guys as well after speakers you guys just have to look at that yeah and I would encourage you you know I put together a bunch of documents for Kennedy last year you can use that as a as a starting point I think those those packages were pretty well laid out and I think it's probably right they went range from like 250 dollars I think all the way up to like 2500 we had participants at each at each level so just so I think it's fully understood.

So like you know 250 gets you like a name on jersey 500 gets you a banner a thousand all the amount of tournament trophy right exactly yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I think you know having that information like in a very digestible way on the website would be easy at least for people like us like point people like hey this is something you can get for your contribution is how you business owners will start business owners go look at a blank form absolutely because they're gonna get full built and a part of the package could be somebody from the recenter that you sponsor like Jonathan exactly where it yeah exactly I heard this could be vintage soon it is able again good budget save that the purple going away really yeah wow yeah that's uh really building the lowerhead say those part all right so well maybe next meeting we can get an update on that particular piece and just see where you guys did on that um at the office season sound good yeah yeah we have a packet looking

Wow.

Yeah.

You can't rebuild a little overhead or something.

All right.

Well, maybe next meeting we get an update on that to do our piece and just see where you guys are live on that at the season.

Sound good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We have a packet.

We can you know say and have that in uh I can go online because it might be anyway supposed to be.

So now we're in your innovation, so we can have that, you know, local and the A, we call it the next and something.

Yeah, how we include this.

Yeah, by the way, the upside ABOU good.

It was good.

Good lighting, good signs.

Um do you want to keep on going around with the presentation check here?

Sure, there'll be up and thinning um registration.

Um, the online registration is has been on rec desk and it's currently active.

Um it did officially begin on October 13th, but um, you know, after having several conversations uh prior to this meeting next year, we are working for October 1st, and we want to keep that consistent, whereas every year and and um guardians and and participants know once October one hit, get ready to register for that.

It's a nice clean date um to start at.

Um, and if it falls on on a weekend, we it would still be open, we would still have it open uh depending on when it falls, but October 1st seems like the consensus where everyone says, okay, we're gonna get in basketball mine at this point.

And just on the timeline, um, I think I remember seeing that you guys put out this year for the first time, like uh registration date start from October 13th to November.

December December, yeah.

Yeah, and then games will be on X and by day.

I think it's like yes, that's that's correct.

And I and I think it's it's probably the third week.

I don't have the exact date, but it's like the third week of December, or maybe close to because again, we start after right after New Year's, but again, there's several uh pieces uh of paperwork that have to be turned in prior.

So sometimes that could be a little bit of a challenge.

Um however, we're working on that with all the directors and if they need help with that also.

Um, that's fine.

Um, we're here to help them, but for the most part, you do need a few extra weeks after November for the report card portion of it.

So some report cards at the schools are so different where some come out earlier before Thanksgiving, some come out after Thanksgiving, and you know the school you go to, etc.

So um we talked about this a little bit in the past, and I I thought under previous conversations we were gonna sort of revisit this, but the report part is important.

Why now?

Two reasons.

Um, you have to be passing all of your grades with the exception of one.

So a child could potentially have trouble in one class, one half is accepted, other than that, it's not, however, you're still eligible to play if you can get that grade up with some help for the next registration time or eligibility time, I should say.

So there is a safety net, but it does promote doing well in school.

The parents overwhelmingly uh happy about this rule, and they have thanked us immensely saying thank you so much because my child knows to play basketball, they have to be passing.

Um that's one secondarily, not necessarily secondarily, but also um it's for residency purposes, so you must be in province, right?

And to participate um in the league, and unless there's a special circumstance that has to be presented to the main office somewhat.

And how many people have we turned away due to grades in the past?

If we keep track of any of that information, uh I'm not I don't have a number for that, but personally I can tell you zero because every one of the kids unbelievably found a way to get their grades up because basketball was promised to be taken away.

And uh honestly, personally, I I interview them to ask them why you're not doing too well, whatever it is, can be conversation, and then ask them how or why did you get it up?

And the consensus 100% is because I wasn't gonna be able to play basketball.

So it does work.

I've had teachers call me.

There are a lot of right center directors that have good relationships with schools, and they'll work with the teachers and the teachers say, you know, thank you very much.

Or you know, and then it's not just necessary for rates, it's also behavioral as well.

So it's good to have a relationship with the with the schools throughout the city.

Um it's a good partnership that we have with teachers because we do share the same kids.

Um the right standards in the schools, obviously.

Um, but surprisingly, sometimes the kids will come back and they can't understand how we know their teacher.

So I went to school with them or we know them and they've been in contact with us.

Are they some teachers I have to say it don't they come and visit and they really support the kids at the end?

That's good.

Yeah, they really do.

So shout out to the to the teachers who come and visit and involve.

Can we just run through the um the timeline again?

So registration is from one to when the shift, yeah.

October 13th.

I don't have the end date.

Uh, I'm not I'm not sure if it actually has been established candidate because sometimes we give a little leeway too beyond that end date, um, just in case someone what happens around the Christmas time vacation, um, and everybody's minds are not really good to our getting paperwork in and around Christmas time.

So sometimes we extend it a little bit, but the first week of January we'll be starting uh the basketball league.

So I can get the finding the date.

I think it may be is it is is there a definite pend date or is that still open right now?

Still that's still open all.

So did we put out the schedule for games on XV and games will be if you attend Met Voice 10U Tuesdays and Saturdays, whatever it is.

Yep, that one was right here.

Um sorry about that.

No, no, no, no worries.

So that's the schedule right now.

We are going six days and eight.

And this doesn't include practice time.

So the practice time going on in addition to the game, yeah, as well.

Gee.

Yeah, the parents were faculty.

We'll talk about in the past, maybe sure we have that so people know if they're getting the situation.

We're playing ahead, yes.

Yeah, and just so everyone knows to be clear, the games start in January.

The last week is the first week of March, which culminates in the championship game.

And I was telling Jen, and everybody's happy about this, especially director Sean at Providence College.

I love that.

Um I love my home.

I mean, it's a great venue, they are very good to us.

If you can't pick a better venue to have to have great, it's a good partnership that we have with VC.

Um, and we don't have to spend too much time on this, but the center under construction, obviously.

So Kennedy, we know, um, is that easy to pop in?

Um Jocelyn's home gym is now is available while they're under well, that's a hopeful.

We're hoping that's available, but that one's kind of like function go right now.

So tentatively, um Joson gym will be available.

We have we're hoping, but if not, we have a plan to have uh them partner with several right centers for their games would be on the road.

And dig you look at definitely help, right?

Uh on the community center.

Great.

Good.

Um and then just to go back because obviously, you know, the online registration and you know, really reaching out to the broader community.

We could maybe dive into this a little bit on the communications piece of it, but how has the um the online registration link for basketball been sent out to like neighborhood organizations and community groups?

How are we getting the word out there?

Um yeah, I think I would just jump into that portion of it.

Um neighborhood groups, maybe community groups to answer your question directly.

Um, that hasn't necessarily been an approach that we've taken yet.

Um, definitely you know, willing to do that as necessary under Sean's direction there.

But one thing that we have done um is utilize our the school principles that we have with the Some of our shared buildings.

Um so the after school program that's out of that, Jocelyn.

Uh, we've been able to kind of share communications through um Paris Square, which is what we think we talked about that last week.

Yeah, um, and then also um at Kennedy being able to share um flyers within the school over at East of Happens as well.

So it's really dependent on the approval from the school side when we do that.

Um that's one measure that we have taken to really communicate.

Um, but in regards to neighborhood groups, I don't think we've taken that stuff yet.

Why haven't we like just establish um like a partnership with like central office I could busy just so we're not like missing different schools in terms of like distributing disinformation.

Yeah I can kind of jump on that as well.

We we actually have leveraged that using some of the communications um from the school district.

I think some of the things that we struggle with at times is uh the timeliness of when folks actually receive the information um because a lot of times our programs are already underway registration is completed by the time um information is disseminated.

Yeah um yeah I know a sort of transition of of leadership of the department but I will just say we you know it's it feels like we had this conversation even like last year about you know broader outreach to neighborhood groups and community groups and whatnot.

So Director Holly I would just encourage you as you kind of ease into month uh month two over here uh that we really do establish a better communication line with like the neighborhood groups um I know the mayor's office has a list of just the email addresses for the community group leaders that we should probably just be sending regular communication to have they all have email lists they have Facebook pages they have social media that they can share this information to I think it's really important because you know there are people and we say this I think at a lot of our meetings that live in the communities around the rec centers that have no idea what goes on or what we offer I think as a city in those neighborhoods and shame partial shame on them for not knowing their community better but we also need to do a better job of of communicating outward um and I know we're gonna dive into that but I think basketball really is one of those uh sports that that can that can help do that.

Um again it's one of the only sports or organized sort of across the city and can really engage the uh the people in the neighborhoods to to come in sign up find out more what the recreation requirements all about but also not have to sign a kid up at a basketball league in another city or town because they don't know that something exists is right probably around the corner from them which is what we found yeah quite a bit so um I hope we'll we'll talk about this a little bit more in the communication strategy I hope but you know I wouldn't really miss this opportunity over the next couple of weeks while we're still in registration season to push that information outward um even further through our community partners you guys add to that no I think parent square is the best research honestly because I get a push notification a few times a week I haven't seen anything come across about basketball okay um I know Principal Martin will be more than happy to shoot something out they're super receptive and I'm PC fan as well so um I agree if there's some way to get it from the top so the superintendent who also sends out messages on Parent Square could approve it at the whole district it seems like it would make sense yeah I know you're working to finish with the school the farm how about um the shadow school can we for the um school sorry you're asking if if my measure is so this is the way you'll finish you with this the the school department it's probably cool all the shadow school too um as of right now it's mainly the the current school districts and yeah the public schools but again I think we we will work to strengthen our relationship with the charter schools as well for all educational institutions.

I think like just to make it clear um for the record like any providence youth no matter like what have a school they go to can participate in the sleep right so we will cast the wider uh net to reach as many youths out there as possible yeah so I will say we've had several participants from Highlander achievement first Paul Coffee so it's not unprecedented we do get a lot you know a lot of participation from Paul Coffee and highly some yeah um and just before we move on to communications one other piece that I do want to talk about about basketball is the um sort of I know that you guys have worked on language around this but skills assessment um tryout sort of policy and how that will work this year that you guys all know the look benefits from on the not turning kids away um and so it's got a hand all about that policy things there so um thanks I have a question um there's an overflow registration the group will absolutely have an opportunity to play at another rec center um that that's not unprecedented either I think you want to add a conversation before where we've all very interactive with each other with the rec centers um

Um, and so it's one hand all about that policy things there.

So um, thanks to a question.

Um, if there's an overflow registration, the group will absolutely have an opportunity to play at another rec center.

Um that's not unprecedented either.

I think you know when I had a conversation before where we've all had interactive with each other with the rec centers.

Um if there is a team that is a little bit short of a certain age group, or there is a team that has an abundance of certain age group, they can be distributed or encouraged to go to another rec center.

And whatever we've done in the past was um, let's say a particular recreation center A has an overflow.

We would invite recreation centers to come in, talk to the kids and sell your program.

I know one of them was Battestini, I can speak to that one.

Battestini was short a couple of years ago, um, 12 U basketball players, uh, they were asked to come in and do a small presentation uh with their uniforms and what they offer by the Steini, and they ended up having a full team.

They came and uh presented what they do, and one of the you know, one of the sticking points was there's free swim after basketball practice.

So that was they you they use their resource to encourage more participation, whereas to your other point, some of the kids that were in that position at that time had no idea that there was an indoor pool uh that they couldn't was accessible to them.

Yeah, I think that I guess I'm more like I have seen it out that I sent this to director of Hollyvice and try out language used, and I know that some recreation centers are holding skills assessments or tryouts or whatever it might be.

Um, and so despite like the overflow side of things, I'm more interested in if you have 30 kids show up, you have a process to do a skills assessment, you can only take 15.

Um how are we setting it up?

Like again, so we're not carrying folks away.

Is it or then is the the right director from the other center then coming to those skills assessments at the same time to look at some of these players, or what's that's what's the plan?

Well, yeah, well, so they are invited to come and see and uh take a look at everyone, but at that point, if they're at the position where they don't have enough, it's not really a skills assessment.

They're welcome to come and say, you know, we're when we're going to have you come and play at our right center.

Also, to your initial point, there's no child playing away ever.

So there's no cut process where you didn't make this team and you have to go home.

Absolutely not.

That's we don't we don't ever do that.

So there are several choices that that they uh that they can make.

You know, if you go to another rec center, you could stay at a rec center that you feel comfortable at, even though you're not on the on the actual roster.

Um, there are rec centers who will say will you maybe on the practice squad because you know it's because you're not at the point you're not getting ready, there could be someone where it's the absolute first time stepping up the court.

So some centers have practice squads, some centers have in the past two teams, if they had an over abundance to put into the league, um, and some have encouraged children to go to another rec center to close to their area, you know, hopefully close to their close to their residence.

And if not, we all the right center directors work together in that regard, you know.

So no child is cut and say you're going home and you don't have a place that can provide basketball.

Absolutely.

What's the um what's like the amount of of kids that can be on one guns or two?

50.

So the maximum you can carry is 15 on left.

So, like how many kids is like a recenter need to like have like two teams like at a at the same like or the same same age level.

No, it depends.

Um so what can be done depending on the right center, let's just give me a number 25.

That could be if the kids have not gone to another recenter, you could split that into you have a team of 12, you have a team of 13.

What the part that gets a little bit tricky is if you have 16 or 17, where you then you would have to split that team into uh eight and eight, and then if two kids don't show up for for a reason, which there are various reasons throughout the the winter sickness, vacation, uh just didn't make it through a game.

You run the chance of not having a full team at some point if you go with a lower, lower amount for team.

So an example, if team has eight, if four happen to not show up or five for whatever reason, and a lot we get a lot, you know, with winter colds, vacations during spring break and set up.

Now you're in the risk of not having a full team.

So it all depends from right center to right center.

Um again, there's 15 spots on each team.

And then once you have the final town, then you can determine which route we want to take.

We can't determine that at this point.

We have to wait until the last week, and then you make a decision at that point.

As do I split it into two teams?

Do I encourage them to go to another right center with a presentation?

Are they happy to be on a practice squad?

Because I'll I'll tell you this.

I've had a lot of parents say, I don't I don't mind.

And my child doesn't mind that they're on a practice ball squad, and they understand that you know their skills are not at this point yet because they just joined and they want to get acclimated, and then they're okay with that.

It all depends.

And you have to interview the parents and talk to the parents about the whole situation.

The key is the communication between the families, the coaches and kids, and the expectations.

So I'm not sure if that does.

Um, the only thing I just want to point out is that this is not, you know, Brandon says it's also our like it's a recreation league.

And so we obviously want to make sure we accommodate as the many kids that want to play in a competitive and recreation and uh team environment as we can.

So while I get what you're saying about the practice squad side of things, again, this is not all stars.

This is recreation league.

So we really should be providing kids to compete in a competitive environment.

I mean, as much as we possibly can.

Yeah, I mean, we all know it's the most competitive basketball league in the state by far.

As far as competitive, there's still a recreation league.

Right.

No, we understand that, but it's still on an individual basis where you have to communicate with the parents, the coaches, and all come to a conclusion as to which the best route for your child to take one where you don't know.

And again, after that, when you communicate with parents, the child and the coaches, everyone's on board for the most part.

Um, then you can make a decision as to which route that you know is best for the child, you know, at that point.

And again, some kind of a parent insists that a child play on a competitive team.

You guys accommodate that.

Well, a parent can insist that the child gets more playing time, even if they're on the team.

You can't always say if you say, look, they're gonna be on a practice team and they're just gonna be practicing internally at Super Low Recreation Center.

And a parent says, Well, I'd really like for my child to play on a team that's competing with other teams.

What's the response to it?

Oh, we'll do the best that we can to accommodate that, absolutely.

Yeah.

So again, within those options, you know, there were other right centers, there are other programs that uh uh are doing well that they may not even know about.

So we we encourage them to be on the team.

That's the first um choice, obviously.

And then once we go to that point, then we'll have to um figure out what the best route is with the parents with the right center directors and with the coaches.

Um, I haven't seen any parents, so to speak, say, I don't believe this is the right route.

I mean, people are realistic, you know, we encourage parents to come to the to the practices and the skills assessments.

Um, so at that point, a decision has to be made one way or another.

I mean, some parents are not happy with some of the playing time that goes to any league in the state.

Yeah, of course.

No, no, I totally get that.

My point is only that if a child wants to be in a competitive lead, and by competitive, I don't mean like the best of them, I mean like playing team sports.

Um we ought to be able to accommodate that and not just say you're on a practice squad that's going to be just a practicing at super low recreation center.

Were we able to say that?

Are we able to say that?

That we can put them on a competitive team if they wish to.

Well, yeah, that's our first route, put them on a competitive team.

Absolutely.

Whether it's the center that they would uh that they trained up at, and most parents will say, Okay, so if this is this is another um if this is uh another of um aggregate for my child, another right center, because they don't have a full 15 uh contingent of children, but yeah, yeah, no, I totally get that.

But let's just say hypothetically, we came to a scenario where every team was full on 50, but you know, we still have 40 kids across the system that are not placed somewhere, and that one are you playing on a team sport, and they have the right grades, they have all the other qualifications.

What happens with those kids?

I mean at that team, then you you can have two teams that splits it.

Yeah, and you've yeah, you've witnessed that.

Yeah, I mean, it has it done.

You know, I'll give you an example about seven years ago.

About seven years ago, one team was split in two, and it will split according to town.

It wasn't like an AB, an A team and a B team.

You didn't want, of course, a B team and an A team that was split down in the middle.

The two teams from the same risk center by one game, misplaying each other in players.

So it has been done before.

Yeah.

At that point, again, with no player left.

Oh, if you decide that the best route is to split the team filter to US point as well, you can have two teams in the same division.

Okay.

So again, no player doesn't have a place to go.

And again, it again, it really is an individual basis.

We have some parents who say I'm good with practice because my child needs to practice.

And sometimes they may even say, I don't know if I want them to go in the court.

And it's like, let's get this under their belt.

Like the fear of getting on the court sometimes, you know.

Yeah.

And then some jump right on the club in the physical right after the first game.

It's all individual.

It depends on the child.

I mean, it's not our preference to turn anybody away.

So that's let's all be able to say basically that we're going to work tirelessly to place everybody on the team, but also be mindful of not diluting what province recreation basketball is all about.

Um it's probably the best in the whole state.

And there's a lot of individuals that have prospered and going off and province recreation basketball.

We gain scholarships, and some of them are playing professionally now too as well.

So we don't want to dilute that product too as well.

That's not going to call it diluted.

I would call it making sure that we provide the right opportunities for all of our kids.

Yes and no.

But yeah, if we're if yes and no, if um we want to make sure that it's a competitive league because competition is good.

Competition is good for strengthening our youth, but we're definitely very focused on ensuring that each individual has a place to play.

Um that's not going to be um loss.

We're going to definitely what you just said brings me to my next point, which was traveling teams because obviously project activation is province recreation to recreation.

But I do think that there are players we've talked about this who exhibit extraordinary talent.

And really, um, you know, what we have not done as a city is put our kids and province out, sort of the state spotlight.

Um, and I know that there are there's a number of different traveling team leagues that are out there.

Um, are there any plans for this year to feel any um travel teams?

That's something that we've been working with.

We're trying to work on that to create a travel team or either to partner with an existing travel team.

Um I guess a little tricky, but that is something that we're working on.

Um, but even we're focusing on that, who's to say the child would be disgruntled that they're not able to be on that team?

So that'd still be uh delicate balance at times with pleasing everybody, but that is something that we're looking to do is to partner with a travel team or to create our own is there a time frame plan looking to make a decision on next.

I think the weeks start up in November, if I'm correct, yes, but there's still an ability to play in the tournaments that want to go to the whole dynamics of how that works out, but there's a way that there can be still uh a travel team together.

Okay, um that is something we definitely would like to have as a yeah, and the traveling team for me is something I think that absolutely wants tryouts.

I mean, like when you look at like a traveling team or an all-star league or something like that, like that to me says we should have tryouts for this, you know, X day and X date, bringing 100 kids, and we're gonna be able to field 30 of them on two teams for the city of Province, and like that, like that would make sense to me.

Fair enough.

All right, and then on basketball before we run.

Well, except me for another great season of basketball here in the city.

It's always exciting when the season starts up.

So let's go on to communications.

Yeah, um, just to kind of jump in on that, actually, speaking about uh basketball season, that's kind of been one of our names to give you some of the newer things that we've been doing.

Um again, so some of our forms and how we can communicate our programs and new initiatives is obviously we have our social media presence that is fairly newer, our website, which is fairly newer.

But we've also been able to introduce a few things within that as well, like our monthly, our monthly newsletter, which folks can actually subscribe to on the website, where they receive information about what's going on in the department, updates on programming, and then also get to understand what's what's to come.

We also have a seasonal program preview that also gets shared within our departments.

We easily share that you know by handout at each location and on our HTVs as well.

And then so again, those are something that we've been able to kind of really leverage.

And I think the newsletter is something that's growing.

We're at about six, a little over 650 uh subscribers uh since we started that.

So we're now helping, hoping to continue to grow that.

Where do we start at?

What do we start at?

We start at zero.

Yeah, start at zero.

Yeah, this year.

This year.

Yeah, yeah.

Lucy has been really, really helpful and being able to create that content, um, you know, highlighting some staff, highlighting programs, updates on construction.

Obviously, that's kind of one of our biggest things at the moment, not to get into that conversation, but again, it's been very helpful to kind of provide updates on that information through those monthly newsletters and programming previews.

Yeah, on the on the newsletter, the email uh database that we have.

So if somebody signs up in rec desk for a league or for a program, does that email automatically go into our email newsletter distribution?

Um, no, because I as of right now, those are separate.

Um, as we again align, we should kind of get with Sean, kind of figure out what our membership package may look like, membership benefits may look like that could be something that we could add to um to the to the newsletter or bundle if you will.

But um at the moment, those two things are separate.

Um, folks will have to go on the website and then submit their email um to that submission box if you will, and then they get monthly reports or monthly newsletters about what's going on in recreation.

But if we wanted to merge the two database, just for an email list perspective, we theoretically have a whole database of rec desk that they could very easily pull the email addresses from add, and then we can just add sort of an opt-out at the end if people want to, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do you know how many email addresses during rec desk?

Um, so that's yeah, I I would I would I don't know, like I don't have that number off the top of my head, but I know um again, emails change, numbers change consistently.

So it's kind of a partnership with our direction of recreation staff to make sure that that's consistently being audited.

Um, just kind of looking at those numbers in there based on location.

Um but again, I don't want them in the top of my hand now.

Okay.

Recommendation from the advisory board, maybe we can merge those email databases together and have kind of 650 into like 3,000 very quickly.

Yeah, um, but yeah, I'll kind of keep going with some of the things that we looked at too.

Um, on our actual website, when you go to the home page, uh, we've been able to introduce kind of a program feature, if you will.

So again, basketball being our next biggest program coming up.

As soon as you get on that home page, you see um that basketball flyer.

You also see QR code that leads you to the program registration um or sorry, facilities, which is where you'll get in contact with the directors to sign up.

Um so that's been something that's been very helpful.

And I believe we we use that during the golf tournament as well.

So any, you know, we have a program, sorry, that home page program feature or high program highlight is something that's been very helpful to kind of draw some eyes um to anything that we're looking to highlight.

Um yep, that's up right now.

Yeah, that's up right now.

With a nice rotating ball graphic.

Shout out to Lucy.

Lucy's been very good about that.

Um, and honestly, even just on that page, I think you should see obviously a QR code.

But that but in those PR codes, those lead directly to our programs page, which you see on the website.

And then when you're in the programs page, you get to you get to see um instructional videos on how to sign up for membership.

Um, so it gives you a how-to video on how to do that.

And then when you kind of scroll down to the bottom of that page, there's a list of programs with filters options, so you can filter the program based on location or program type.

And the way that works for our system is directors when they create programs at the rec center level, um, they obviously follow all details about the program and instructors, paid ins, things of that nature.

But when they add a location to the program, um, and then they also make it publicly available for people to register, that automatically feeds to our program page on the website.

So there's a connection between rec desk and then what's available and what's and what's visible on our website.

Um again, that's been helpful as well.

Um again, I mentioned the school district communication.

Again, that's something that we're looking to kind of brief up and continue to strengthen.

Um, I know they've had some transition with leadership too.

So kind of allowing us our department and them to kind of realign and um use that platform to be able to communicate.

Um then again, social media out which you guys are familiar with our Instagram and Facebook pages, um, those are growing by the day.

So we'll utilize our pages as well as the mayor's pages to communicate wider um to communicate to wider regional programs, such as uh, for example, grab the uh groundwork at the CPF.

That's something that we want to actually make sure that that was broadly communicated.

Um so utilize the mayor's calendar or mayor's social media pages to be able to communicate that effectively.

Do you guys notice when the mayor shares something that the traffic to the website and the social media pages go up?

Oh, I'm sorry, yes, okay.

And are we um doing similar with city council members to be able to share some of our content?

Um, I know we've been able to share.

Um, so we have community court, and that's like the monthly basketball game with uh Michelle Peterson.

So we've been able to collaborate on on this on posts there.

Um, but definitely I think we're willing to kind of that up and grow that as well.

Yeah, I mean, I you know, even basketball is another purpose of basketball as the example or that counseling.

I'm not you know, I'm sure you have you have your social media pages, you have your email list that you send out to yeah.

I mean, I actually do it all on my own.

Um, like I I know like the rec uh Instagram page, um, you know, shared uh a turkey drive happening uh at Johnston uh drug center a couple weeks, and I saw the Protestant Council be so I reposted it and like on their story, but I think they're just doing it.

I don't know if you guys kind of want to just open up that line of communication can definitely help with and no certain community events like that, and when there is uh uh open timeline on registration, I think we can definitely push it out more on our pages as well.

Yeah, I think again, I think utilize utilizing all resources we have at our disposal to be able to communicate um is gonna be big.

I know the our our media presence, uh our website presence is is fairly fairly newer.

So you know, utilizing the council school district and really any community groups like you mentioned to be able to share our story, if you will, um is definitely something that I think could help out.

So I appreciate that.

No, I just want to say I think your guys' social media presence at least in the past year or so has been like phenomenal, or that's I think like very I mean, I don't know if that's just on my feed a lot, but I I always like seeing and I think it's very uh good content.

Definitely give you guys a few shot out and tag team with you know the other elected officials in the city uh as well to just get the reach out there even more.

I think it's you know an open for sure.

It's gone a long way for sure over the past like year, you guys don't break chocolate.

So um, and then just lastly again, I think I echoed this point earlier, but our reach TVs.

Um we have I think you see them the city hall when you walk around, but we have similar TVs at our rec centers that you kind of you have a rotating catalog of programs um that when families come in, parents walk in, they can kind of just see and get an overview of one what's going on department wide, but also they're controlled in a way that you can control the programming per center.

So if example Zucolo wants to post information about ZooGo specific programming in addition to recreational lab programming, they have that option as well.

And Lucy's been very helpful with that too.

Yeah, all right.

Any ideas or questions about communication from the department?

I guess Rector Holly, I'd ask you what are your name on finding.

So what's your I'm not gonna ask me for too much detail on what's your general vision for communication?

What do you want to see from the department?

What's been your evaluation of it so far?

I think we're at a good place.

However, let's see, growth in it in terms of being more interactive, uh, more innovative, whatever that may take on.

I don't know exactly what, but um, I think there's a way that we could drive even more content out there, uh getting a larger audience, uh, which larger audience is gonna help us get you more sponsorship, gonna help us get more youth coming into the centers.

Um probably need to also to tap into whatever uh communication resources they are out there with wrapped around each individual rec center too as well to see how to pump out the uh our message.

Um there's always room for improvements, so definitely like to see us get our message out to Stroker.

Any other thoughts on Katie, Sujana?

No, that's great.

I'm uh I'm happy that you have the days listed because that was my big feedback last time.

Is I didn't know what day my daughter would be playing basketball, so that's nice to say um for me because we have a screen of signing my recreation.

So I'm like if my people can look at the have any more asset to give information for the community.

That's all I want for communication advertisement.

Yeah, broad guy, I think you'll pendule because I want to pass around, there's only ask the bus thing.

Um like to see all food.

That's it.

So I'm like okay, use the more for lady information, but I will say the uh the reach TVs, especially not the receiving sorry that that sign you're speech speaking of specifically, and she's referring to like an actual guildboard sign on ADOC.

Um, they happen to be lucky to have that.

I don't think any of us is the only one that does, right?

Yeah, that's the only one that does have it.

Um we utilize that obviously correctly for programs for ADL specifically, but also recreation programs seasonally as well.

So I think during the springtime you'll see the soccer one come up, and like now that it's basketball season, you see the basketball one.

That's probably why we see that one so frequently.

But I think you also see um there's like a there's a call call to action for coaches, and there's also uh after school programs that are shared um for the university as well.

So I think there's a little bit of combination of like that of sports, um, you know, volunteer requests and and and communication there, um, as well as some after school enrichment opportunities too.

So it's constantly rotating, but I think you know, we're willing to kind of share anything that's that's that's that's gonna help that save that department or so that recenter and this and maybe the department.

The only thing I'll add is um I had some communications, I think we fixed it, but where it said in order to sign up for basketball, visit your local recreation center.

But there is a QR code, I think, in the corner of that.

Maybe you can just add to that or click here type of thing, or something that's just more points to the online side of it as well.

Um yeah, I think that we've we talked about this a lot over the course of the past couple of years.

Um, but obviously we're looking in the digital world now.

Somebody shouldn't have to necessarily go physically into their recent.

We know there's paperwork and whatnot that's gonna need to be provided, but we should always do it online as well.

So we definitely want to push that out there.

And I think that's something we should get better at too with uh the sensibility of our communication, making sure that everything is right there at our hand nail devices.

Um we'll get it done.

Yeah, and then my only other thing is uh, you know, somebody spends time on the website sort of looking through things.

You know, we still in this, I think this is still a function of rec and what the boundaries are around rec desk.

But when you click on the programming, it's still very clunk.

It still leads to like that, you know, the master calendar of every recenter and every single program that's in there.

It's just not particularly user-friendly.

So director Holly, I would just I know we've been working on that for a while, and there's been a lot of conversation with rec desk about how we can potentially change the sort of interface on that, but um, you know, we've talked about this in the past, and director, I think I sent you this link before.

I I've looked at a lot of the recreation center, recreation department websites across the state.

The Johnson Recreation Department, I think has a very straightforward kind of layout on their website, and it's you go to it, it's a gun program, it's you know, sports, whatever it is, that's it's just it's user-friendly where I think our website still kind of goes to the just the laundry list of just events by every recenter, and by the time you kind of get through everything, you're kind of like I don't even know what this stuff is.

So um, I just you know, when we check in on this stuff periodically, that's one of the things the website's gonna go really long way, but that's still one of the items on the website that hasn't really been built.

Just look at it, work with our web designers to make sure it's uh something that's actually informative and not something that people just look at it because I know we're up here.

No, but it's good feedback that we'll look at the uh other than that.

I think uh I think that kind of concludes the official part of the agenda.

Umbody from the public in the room, but if there's any public comments, please feel free at this time.

I know this is some ghosts in these building.

Um recreation team, thank you guys again for all you do every day.

We appreciate you guys and know the thousands of thousands of life that you guys touch every day to our clerks.

Um, this is the first time you have not done a road in a while.

So uh you know, Sherry, you have not been a part of these meeting, but team and carissa have been a road show, and we have warriors at it.

So um, we're gonna start getting back out there again.

Uh but this is when we wanted to bring back in-house and sort of recalibrate a little bit, and uh maybe our next one will be out in the field again if our clerks uh are willing to apply us in those all right.

No, it's also very close to my house.

Actually, just Lisa Cockins was really close to it.

Go in there and see what's going on in space while the spirit is that not a bad idea, actually.

Yeah, you may be fortunate enough to meet.

So anyway, well, listen, um, I will not see any of you guys before Thanksgiving at this point.

I'm next week probably in December, so have a great holiday with your families.

Enjoy and um, oh well, the one thing I will say speaking of thanks to you, I know there's a lot of volunteer opportunities at the rec department at the main office, and in the variety of the rec center.

So for those who are listening at home, there are plenty of opportunities to donate turkeys to get involved at your rec center.

Um, I always like going to the one at the main office, so I'll be there again, helping you guys uh bagging stuff up and giving that good stuff.

I know that Sancha is one uh John on the 44th 30.

Yeah, it's from the 21st then the professional center.

So lots of third things being given away.

Um as we all know, our friends and neighbors uh across the city.

Um arguing with some of the negative attacks in the Washington DC shutdown.

And so if there ever was a time to get involved in your community and help people put a meal on the table, get involved to help out this month.

And that's stuff too.

We didn't talk about our involvement with the uh the bill service program that's been increased tremendously.

Uh I know it's got all set the uh could you give us a quick update on that example?

Is this is this off the agenda here?

Can we in the sphere of things?

You can you can vote for the quick update is we should amend the agenda to include it.

Yeah, I'll make a motion to uh amend the agenda to include an update on the meal services within our recreation file.

So we can all favor.

Oh thank you.

So just a quick update then in essence, all of our bill services has been double uh at each setter uh to try to alleviate the situation that a lot of our uh community is affected by.

Um, so something we take great ride in, and uh we are thankful that we're gonna have the opportunity to be at the forefront of this too.

So yeah, super thankful to the mayor and the administration and the council.

Where did those funds come from to be able to do that to expand it?

We would have to talk to uh was a C desco.

Is there a school department?

Parks parts, parts parks, yeah.

Okay, yeah, the meals are ordered from sleeping.

And is that in every rec center that we're providing snacks in the dinner now?

They go out everywhere.

Saturdays too as well.

They're also being provided shelf stable meals as well.

Yeah, right.

So they can actually take them home in a box when they're not publishing.

So that's fantastic.

And yeah, all going.

Yeah, it's a good point at the right time.

Yeah, for sure.

Was that planned prior to the the shutdown, or is this this spark?

So we we do them more narrowly.

No, I know that not the exciting increase.

Yeah, well, it's yeah, directly affected by the spent, yeah.

Yeah, or lack of those like more.

So it was a reaction.

Right as well, too.

That's great.

Thankful to the mayor to consult everybody who was doing that.

Um again, find the neighbor in need, help out, volunteer, get involved.

There was a time to do it, now's the time to do it.

Um thank you guys for your work.

I will have to handle the journal.

Yeah, in favor.

Meeting it's a journal.