Recreation Commission – March 4, 2014

Meeting called to order at 6:05 p.m.

• Bocce:
  • Contacted with F. Hurst to again act as commissioner
  • possibly expanding to 2 nights as needed, same location ,Wilmer Park
  • Expecting increased enrollment
  • Suggested adding college teams, but season will continue after semester ends
  • Starting mid April, running until mid-June with extra weeks pre-scheduled for raindates and playoffs
  • S. Harding suggest advertising as soon as 2 weeks from now
• Family Game Night
  • Family game night eded quietly 2 weeks ago
  • Attendance varied significantly as many as 30 people as few as 2
  • Weather and winter closings certainly affected attendance, best nights were when the program was heavily advertised with social media
  • The Feb First Friday build your own game night partnering with KCPL went well, drawing about 15 people, but otherwise the last month was only 2 people attending
  • S. Harding suggested that next year we focus on just one month rather than over the whole winter, “February Family Nights”
  • KCPL very happy with parnership
• S. Harding
  • Paddleball Court
    • Reports that Washington College is interested in divesting itself of its Paddleball Court located behind the cemetery
    • B. Arrowood said that in a meeting with Joe Holt mentioned this over a year ago.  College is interested in moving this very soon.
    • S. Harding suggested contacting Michael Jensen of Unity Nursery, who ran the paddleball league
• B. Troup
  • Website
    • said that the CRC needs to be recognized on the Town Web site, perhaps with its own tab Directory for meeting minutes, info and facilities
    • This would add to the validating of the CRC as a formal part of Town gov’t
    • B Arrowood told the group that the Town was in the process of revamping its site and we would make sure that recreation will be prominently featured in the new design.  At present, the CRC Facebook page has 197 likes and uses this as its primary source for getting word out about events
• Jen Hicks
  • Colonial Christmas
    • Jen attended the meeting with Mayor Cerino and about 25 other stakeholders on 2/24
    • Good input and ideas were generated and Mayor hopes to make this an economic engine for downtown and tourism
    • CRC was asked what it would do and if it is interested in doing something kid oriented, like games or crafts
    • CRC members voted to be involved in some capacity, but in lieu of the fact that we are a commission of just seven, at best, and not an organization with membership and outside funds for support and will be organizing the fall fest only a few months before we would not commit to specifics at this time
    • B. Arrowood stated that the CRC is meant as a commission (not committee) for ideas of others to come thru and we will help the Town decide what it can and should do for programs and facilities.  Not a club or organization to run programs.  Weill we want to be a part of this process as we feel it is a great idea, the CRC should either be running the event or helping others get involved.
• B. Arrowood
  • Baseball fields at KCMS
    • Bill Arrowood reviewed the draft MOU to the Town and addressed some of their questions and discussed the need for fund raising, asking each CRC member to bring in a minimum of 10 sponsorships (at any level).  Fundraising cannot begin until we are approved by the Town and the Board of Education, but hopes that it can begin as soon as possible.
• Homework
  • Please bring any budget ideas and year long plans to the next meeting.  The Town’s annual budget is pending and we hop to request better working funds for improvement, staffing and new facilities annually.
  • Would like to firm up the calendar for the rest of the year for planning purposes as soon as possible.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.