HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-03-27.pdfPage 1 of 6
Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission
Town of Dryden
March 27, 2013
Members Present: JoEllen Bailey, Tracy Kurtz, Jeff Humphrey, Steve Meyer, Vicki Wilkins, and
Stephanie Mulinos, (Sharon Todd was absent)
Town Recreation Director: Melissa Bianconi
Town Board Liaisons: Linda Levine and Steve Stelick, Jr (not present)
DCDS Liaison: position open
County Youth Services Representative: Kris Bennet (not present)
Guests: Andrew Pierce, Steve Riester, Robert Vera and David Hall
Chairwoman V. Wilkins opened the meeting at 7:00 PM
1. Reading of the Commission’s meeting minutes:
A motion to approve the minutes of the last regular meeting of March 4, 2013 was made by S.
Meyer and seconded by J. Bailey. The motion was unanimously approved.
2. Recognition of guests and community communications:
Steve Riester and Robert Vera (Cornell program), David Hall (Dryden Youth Services), and
Andrew Pierce (Assistant Recreation Director)
S. Riester and R. Vera have put together a logic model; they met with A. Pierce a couple weeks
ago to get the model started. A copy of the model is attached with the minutes.
S. Mulinos asked who the “youth sports staff” on the chart represents; S. Riester said that was
town staff members.
S. Riester said that the purpose of logic model is to help the youth sport program focus in on what
they want to evaluate.
M. Bianconi said that when she met with the students and their instructor (Margaret), the question
that came up was “what is it that we are trying to evaluate?” Are we looking at the kids, parents,
our staff, the coaches? What are we really trying to understand or learn? Is there a way to include
input from the participants?
J. Bailey said that one outcome that would be hard to evaluate or even observe is a change in
confidence.
S. Mulinos asked about elected officials being added to the list of “input”? They are the ones that
often make the decisions about funding.
J. Humphrey suggested that we add communication. The coaches communicates with the team,
other teams, the school, the Recreation department communicates with the school, teams,
coaches, etc. He also recommended adding an evaluation of the coaches.
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V. Wilkins – one of the things that sticks out is the “taxpayers are satisfied” midterm outcome? It
appears a bit out of place…. S. Riester said that category encompasses the town. Does the whole
town have a good perception of the programs even if their children are not involved?
D. Hall asked who would be filling out the survey? S. Riester responded that is a reason for their
attendance (at the DRYC meeting) tonight. Is it for the coaches, the recreation department, the
parents, etc.?
M. Bianconi said that part of the reason she reached out and asked for help was to be able to share
this information with the participant’s families. A. Pierce agreed that the coaches, participants and
families are the primary focus but other members of the community are being impacted.
S. Mulinos said that there are also the families that have the proper age children but are not
participating.
M. Bianconi asked if we should be looking at different tools for different groups? At the end of a
program have the kids fill out an assessment or the parents or before the season, etc.? What we
need to decide now is what we want these guys (Cornell students) to help us with. We have 3 or 4
different groups that we need to create an assessment for and we need to determine which one is
the priority while we have the support of this class.
S. Mulinos asked how much longer they are able to participate? And how is this going to be
implemented? Electric, paper, etc?
S. Riester said those questions are part of why they are at the meeting tonight. How do you want
to do it and who are we trying to target, trying to refine that.
J. Bailey believes the key is getting information from the participants and their families.
S. Meyer said that since the Recreation Department has been spending money on athletic trainers
so maybe we should look at their feedback about safety, both physical and emotional (J. Bailey).
For inputs, we added participants, elected officials, and health and safety staff; for activities we
added communication and coach evaluation and to outputs we added safety. Long-term outcome
is credibility for the program but the short term goal is the season was safe.
Everyone was agreed that participants and participant families should be the primary focus.
Netway is an on-line tool that creates the logic models, and a pathway to broad questions we
should be asking. It is also a place where different groups can load their assessments and other
people can check out our plan, our evaluation and comment on it or even use it.
On April 24 the two Cornell students are coming back to show the group what they have come up
with. They will also work with the group to determine when the best time was to attempt the
survey.
S. Meyer asked about the training our coaches receive and whether they are all trained through
the SUNY Youth Sports Institute. J. Humphrey and A. Pierce answered that most of the coaches
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for Dryden Recreation have been participated in that program. It includes a 3 hour seminar as
well as on-line assessment. The program is not sport specific, it deals with youth sports. It is more
about interaction between parents, kids, other teams, being a good sportsman, showing respect for
peers and adults, etc.
A. Pierce said that the first youth program to have sports specific training will probably be youth
football and the Dryden recreation football coaches will go through the USA Football
certification which tends to leads to safety and tackling certifications.
March 29, 2013 at 2:30 - M. Bianconi, A. Pierce and the Cornell students agreed to meet to
further discuss the assessment process.
3. David Hall – Dryden Youth Services:
David Hall has been doing programs in Dryden for kids for 15 years and has expanded to try to
reach more kids.
Primitive Pursuits is a program through which kids are able to learn nature skills; it is one of the
most popular programs. He has had to divide the program into two 6 week courses rather than a
one 12 week program due to the number of people that have been interested in participation. He
holds the young folks to a high level of personal responsibility and he feels that many of the
participants have learned more than they could have anyplace else.
Monday Makers – young people come and decide then what they are going to do. They tend to
like to be outside or cook and sometimes they just get in the van and go to a place they have not
been to yet. Sometimes they plan ahead but either way, the kids have to get together, work
together and plan together.
He has encouraged the kids to share their talents with the others. One girl wasn’t physically active
but Dave was able to get her to come around; she was a cake decorator and ended up teaching a
few courses that the other kids got into. He used to have stilt walkers too. It is a great way to
engage young people.
The programs that state the limit is eleven participants, they are determined by the space in the
van.
Teen Challenge Group is an in school program with the potential of 67 kids every day. The
program has allowed him to observe the kids while they are at lunch – who sits alone, who isn’t
interacting, who is at risk, etc. This is a great social tool because it gives the kids the opportunity
to interact and teaches them how to deal with situations without pressure. They can back off or
they can take a break.
Dryden Youth Services is offering employment for 4 students this summer. One person will work
with Dave, one at the café and two at the library. They will work 80 hours over the summer. The
applicants have to be 14 years or older and will go through the “whole” experience: application,
interviews, etc.
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M. Bianconi asked if we can create a list of kids that are available for odd jobs over the summer?
What is the legality of such a list? Kiwanis has tried it before – did it work out?
V. Wilkins asked if D. Hall has done anything with community helpers? Small area cleanups?
Ithaca College has a spring clean up day when the students show up in grungy clothes and clean
up around the campus.
Dryden Community Grants Recommendations – CommonGrantreport.Com:
The list and the purpose of approved grant applicants is attached. The members of the
Commission can go on-line to Commongrantreport.com to view the applications.
The grant applicants that were not approved:
TC3 is offering a day camp and asked for $10,000. The camp can be self supporting since
it can charge an admittance fee and it would not be Dryden specific.
An individual asked for $10,000 for a Youth Development Leadership program but most
of the money would go to pay the instructors.
Neptune Hose Fire Company community outreach wanted to get funds for materials
(pencils, stickers, etc) that can be handed out at the open house.
A couple other applicants were turned down including a couple for Ellis Hollow.
The applicants that were turned down were given feedback to improve their requests.
M. Bianconi and V. Wilkins expressed their appreciation of the on-line grant program. The
subcommittee was able to see all the information that the applicants were providing including
websites and budgets. It is an easy program to use and M. Bianconi feels that the Commission
will get more comfortable with the system as they continue to use it.
M. Bianconi stated that the DRYC still has $1,038.00 remaining which could be used to provide
mini grants or they could leave it there.
T. Kurtz asked whether the Recreation Department could use the money to hire summer help. M.
Bianconi said that they had tried hiring part time help before but it didn’t work out well. Most of
the time was spent supervising the help and not moving forward with projects.
The approved grants were all fully funded with the exception of the sales tax.
S. Mulinos offered the following resolution:
Whereas the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission appointed a Grant Request Review
subcommittee to review and assess applications for Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission grant
awards; and
Whereas the subcommittee has determined the programs and grant applications that most closely reflect
the mission and goals of the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission; and
Whereas the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission has accepted the recommendations from the
subcommittee; now therefore, let it be
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Resolved that the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission recommend to the Dryden Town Board that
they approve the funding per the subcommittee recommendations.
S. Meyer seconded the motion, resolution was unanimously approved. The recommendations will be
presented to the Town Board on the 18th of April.
Complete/Submissions of DRYC applications:
Chairwoman Wilkins asked for the Commission members’ applications (they have to renew their
applications now that the Youth Commission and the Recreation Commission have merged). J.
Humphrey and S. Todd have emailed their applications.
Subcommittee Assignments:
The Youth Commission grants: At this point the Youth Commission funds are primarily
supporting Cooperative Extension. Some of the money goes to summer camps but not a lot.
The money comes from the County so until that budget is passed, the Youth Commission would
not know how much they are going to have to distribute. K. Bennet is not in attendance tonight
but she can help next meeting.
DRYC Operating Guidelines: A committee has not yet been formed but they will create the rules
about things that were not put into the local law like attendance, method of cancelling meetings,
etc.
DCS relations Subcommittee – In order to deal with the lack of cooperation from the school: J.
Humphrey, A. Pierce and S. Mulinos volunteered to serve on this subcommittee.
The next school board meeting is April 8th which will be too soon to have a letter ready. The
Commission is shooting for the first May board meeting. To get on the agenda, the Board needs
to be notified the Monday before the actual meeting. For example: Shellie Walker needs to be
notified by May 6th to be on the May 13th agenda.
A. Pierce made the comment that over the past three years the school has been “closed” even
though nothing was going on. The Recreation Department used to have access to the Master
Facility schedule at the School but they no longer have that option. S. Mulinos pointed out that
the School doesn’t seem to want to be cooperative and available. V. Wilkins reminded the
Commission that the facilities are not always clean and supplies are not always available. S.
Mulinos added that the school charges fees to use any of their space. Residents in the Town are
surprised when A. Pierce tells them that despite their school taxes, etc., the Dryden Recreation
Department still has to pay usage fees.
S. Meyer asked if the School Board even knows that the Dryden Recreation and Youth
Commission exists; and what the Commission is, what we do?
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M. Bianconi said that maybe the Commission members need to start going to the School Board
meetings, find out more about the people on the Board, participate more so they know who we
are.
S. Meyer asked that the letter to the school or in the presentation be prefaced by an explanation of
who we are and what we do. There was some discussion about whether the School Board even
knows about the problems with facility usage.
Old Business:
M. Bianconi said the local Law creating the DRYC was passed by the Town Board without
discussion at the last meeting. At the next Town Board meeting, the members will grant the
DRYC members their appointments. The merger of the two groups went very smoothly and
everyone is very pleased with the smoothness. V. Wilkins and S. Mulinos both commented on the
fact that the members of the two groups came together very well and the fact that they did it
themselves, without outside guidance or pressure, is additionally wonderful.
There being no further business, S. Meyer motioned to adjourn at 8.25 PM. J. Humphrey
seconded the motion, all approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Erin A. Bieber
Deputy Town Clerk