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06/05/2024 - Meeting Minutes MINUTES FOR THE Sister Cities ADVISORY BOARD Date:June 5th, 2024 Time: 5:OOPM-6:30PM Roll Call: The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were present: • Ross Chambless • Ricardo Becerra • Annie Quan • Ahimara Suarez • John Wilson • Stacee Adams Also Present: • Katherine Matheson (Staff) The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were absent: • Olga Efimova • Matilyn Mortensen • Sheri Sorenson • Nicole Pessetto Approval of the Minutes: Wilson motions to approve 4/3/24 minutes. Adams seconds. All are in favor of approval of minutes. Minutes are approved for June 5th, 2024 Staff Report: 1. Two new board members - Stacee Adams and Rose Kjesbo have joined the board. 2. Sister City Application from Nepal was received by staff. 3. Staff attended Sister Cities International Summit in San Antonio a. Youth organizations in San Antonio get kids involved in community service and they go on an international trip once they complete their service. b. San Antonio organizations know about their sister cities program and there is a lot of community buy in. c. San Antonio Sister Cities is funded by hotel tax d. Matheson will share summit website with board 4. Sister Cities Budget a. Sister City's budget has support from the Mayor's office b. Economic Development presents to the City Council on June 6th. 5. Presentation to Human Rights Commission a. Chambless and Matheson will be giving a presentation to Human Rights Commission about Sister Cities program Public Comment: Representative David Edgel of August Mission spoke about his organization. • August Mission has provided aid to Ukraine and has worked in Chernivtsi - Salt Lake's Sister City. • August Mission would like to support Salt Lake City's Sister Cities board. • August Mission is working on a delegation visit to Ukraine in late October. • Matheson shares that the Mayor will likely not be able to attend, but would like city involvement in this delegation visit. • Matheson shares that the August Mission was able to connect city staff with staff in Chernivsti. • Matheson is waiting to hear from city leadership on next steps with August Mission. Briefings by the Staff: a. Updates on Sister Cities: i. Chernivtsi, Ukraine: 1. Sorenson shares via Matheson that she is helping with a booth at 2024 Refuge Day. She is looking for any support the board can assist with. ii. Izhevsk, Russia: 1. No current updates iii. Keelung, Taiwan: 1. Quan is going to reach out to city staff in Taiwan. 2. Matheson will give Quan contacts. iv. Matsumoto,Japan: 1. Chambless shares that students will be visiting from Matsumoto,Japan. Chambless is leading this trip and has set the students up with host families and has created a week's worth of activities for them. 2. Chambless briefly touches on the Matsumoto trip with the Mayor's staff. a. This is taking place in early October. V. Trujillo, Peru: 1. Becerra continues to work on Peruvian historical artifacts projects and bringing those to Salt Lake. a. Beccerra is still looking for outside funding to cover expenses of making the project possible. 2. Becerra got three schools interested from Peru for a pen pal program with Salt Lake City students. a. Matheson is still waiting for more direction from city leadership. 3. Matheson suggests another subcommittee meeting to discuss Trujillo projects. vi. Torino, Italy: 1. Matheson shares that the mayor's staff is hopefully going to meet with Torino's staff at the Paris Olympics. Business: 1. Subcommittee has been meeting to create application process for sister cities a. This assessment would include a rubric system that can help the board sort and decide city application recommendations. i. This subcommittee will meet again in the next couple weeks. b. Matheson shares a plan to only accept applications for a certain period of the year to help the board manage all applications coming in. c. Adams asks when there will be an updated rubric and when will this application window be open. i. Chambless shares that this has not been decided yet and will be discussed at the next application subcommittee meeting. ii. Matheson shares that city director wants the board to start reviewing applications by February 2025 d. Discussion on if members of the public maybe allowed to join in a nonvoting capacity to city subcommittee meetings. i. Board decides to wait and discuss at a future meeting once Matheson discusses with city staff. e. Meeting schedule i. Chambless brings up the idea of a quarterly meeting or monthly meetings. ii. Board votes to do board meetings every other month and keep meetings at the same time. Adjournment: Wilson motions to adjourn. Chambless seconds. All are in favor of adjourning. There being no further business, the meeting as journed. Ross Chambless, Chairperson This document and the recording constitute the official minutes of the Economic Development Sister Cities Advisory Board meeting held on June 5th, 2024.