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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-01-12-CCPAC-minTown of Lexington Lexington Community Center Program Advisory Committee Nancy Shepard, Chairman Nancy Adler Alessandro Alessandrini Daniel Palant Lisah Rhodes Archana Singhal John Zhu Tel: (781) 698-4870 Fax: (781) 862-2747 Lexington Community Center Program Advisory Committee Minutes of Meeting January 12, 2017 A meeting of the Community Center Program Advisory Committee was held on Thursday, January 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the Lexington Community Center, 39 Marrett Road, Lexington. Meeting Attendees: Members - Nancy Adler, Dan Palant, Nancy Shepard (Chair), Lisah Rhodes, Archana Singhal, John Zhu. Ex -Officio Member Attendees: Sheila Butts (Community Center Director), Karen Simmons (Director of Recreation & Community Programs) Unable to attend: Alessandro Alessandrini, Charlotte Rodgers (Director of Human Services) The meeting was called to order at 7: l Opm. 1. Minutes of December 15, 2016 The minutes from the December meeting were reviewed and unanimously accepted. 2. Liaison Reports and Discussion of Programming • Dan Palant suggested we consider expanding the CPR training that is currently offered. He mentioned that Seattle has a community program that has resulted in training half the residents in CPR. We discussed possible funding for expanded training. It was suggested that it would be helpful to have a staff person that was certified to offer the training. The Community Endowment of Lexington (CEL) or the Dana Home Foundation (DHF) might be a possible source of funding. • Sandro was unable to attend, but sent along some suggestions. He reports that there is a lot of support for the Parent Academy. It will be held for the 3rd year in March. For the second time, it will be at the Community Center (CC). He also suggested that World Languages could be taught by community members, possibly as an afterschool or intergenerational program. Sheila Butts reported that a Clarke teacher is volunteering to teach basic Mandarin to CC staff. Lisah Rhodes showed the committee the Town website had a drop down menu that enables the website to be accessed in many languages. Sheila Butts reported that there is a senior Indian group that meets at the CC. The LexEats program has a Mandarin translator. 2 Another idea is physical and digital art courses- another possible intergenerational program. We discussed "Learning about Lexington". We need to be careful not to duplicate what other groups offer. Could we have someone from the National Park come and speak at the CC? • Nancy Shepard, Sheila Butts and Tom Romano met with Megan Sharkey from Communities United on December 28th. Two programs are now planned. Movement Mania which will take place on March 4- this program will also be presented at Cary Library on January 28th. Starting in March, a 10 week Raising a Reader program will be offered. Archana and John said they could post information about these programs on their list serves. We can look at adding a link on the Help Around Town to the LCC web page: https://www.helparoundtown.com/bulletin-board?page=1 • Nancy Shepard talked to Cristina Burwell, the new director at the Munroe Center. They might be a possible partner for programming • Nancy Adler reported that the Friends of the Council on Aging is willing to fund programs through a grant. There is an info packet at the front desk at CC about how to make program suggestions. 3. Programming at Pelham Property • The plans for the Pelham Property are moving forward. Karen met with Pat Goddard on 1/12/17 to discuss Community Center and other Recreation and Community Program uses as well as programming. The current plan is for the Gym, Cafeteria and Commercial Kitchen areas will be for Municipal use. There will be ongoing discussions on how programming at the CC can expand to utilize these spaces. 4. Community Center Director's Report • Sheila gave an update on some of the programs happening at the CC. o The middle school tubing trip to Nashoba was cancelled due to lack of snow and warm weather. o Open enrollment for programs has started. 73 people (20 new) have signed up for the Forever Fit program, which is funded by the Dana Home Foundation. o Communities United programs for preschoolers will start in March. (see above) o The Human Services Committee is interested in having a joint meeting with our committee to discuss programming o Karen's replacement, Melissa Battite will start on January 31st There will be an 8 day overlap before Karen retires. o Saturdays at the CC are very busy. Word of mouth seems to be an effective way to increase attendance. There have been a lot of college students coming because they are home on break. o A member of the committee asked about expanding our hours. Sheila explained that the current operation needs to support itself through revenue before expanding hours. Next Steps for Committee Members: o Continue to reach out to your constituencies for program ideas. o Dan Palant is going to contact Seattle to get more information on how their CPR Training program works. o If you are unable to attend a meeting, please send an email to Nancy at nshep12@verizon.net or text her at 781-718-8577. A quorum for our meetings is 4 committee members and we had just 4 members for the December meeting. 3 • The next Community Center Program Advisory Committee meeting will be held on February 16th at 7pm. • Meeting adjourned at 8:50.