LEBANON SKATEPARKNEWSLETTERThis is where you can keep up-to date on the progress of this project. Know when meetings are scheduled; when special fundraisers are; and other important news. All compiled by Cricket Staggs. November NewsThank you all for taking what time you have to dedicate to this
project. We are just about finished wrapping up all the particulars of
forming this committee and forming the procedures for donations and
such.. It is time to get to work on the meat of our proposal. Our
committee is in need of a few things:
1. A set meeting place, the Library is only available IF it isn't
already booked. We currently have a meeting scheduled for the 19th of
this month (next week) and unfortunately the Library is already booked,
the entire place! Anyone that has a suggestion for where we could have
this meeting and/or any future meetings, please come forward with this
suggestion? For now I am not rescheduling the meeting, but I am going to switch the meeting place to the Jacket room at Hardees (and hope they don't kick us out).. Still at 6:30 pm..
2. A designated place for weekly skater/skatepark meetings during
the winter months. Right now the meeting times are set for 6 pm on
Tuesdays, but it gets dark at 5:30 and with no lights there's no one
out at the skate park at dark. These meetings aren't about the project
it's self as much as they are about increasing awareness and
participation of our committee amongst the skaters here in town. Until the next meeting (the 19th) the Tuesday meetings are cancelled. If anyone has a plausible suggestion for a place to have the skater meetings I would be happy to hear it.
3. Board members who show up. No polite way to say that I
suppose. We had 5 board members at the last meeting, and not much more
at the two before that. If these meeting times are inconvenient please
let me know and we will see if we can't work out a time that is
convenient for all of us, but we need your vote there to make these
decisions and press on with this project.
Updates:
We now have an email address for any questions: skateparklebanon@gmail.com
All board members have access to the email account, please contact Greg or I for the password.
Greg has posted in the meeting minutes that "motion made was that
only people who have attend a meeting and given their information to
the committee as a "donation taker" can take donations".. Everyone who
is on this email list has been to at least one meeting, so I am
attaching the donation sheet to this email for you to print.
Instructions for taking donations is very easy at this point:
1. Fill out form (if donator isn't comfortable with giving name,
address, etc then simply note the amount accepted and what form of
currency)
2. Bring form and donations to meetings to either myself, Greg
Boudonck or Tracy Brown. We can also be reached by email or by phone.
Please only ask for donations from people you know, for now. No
solicitations from strangers until we have had our first public
announced donation drive (should be happening very soon) and gotten
some public awareness and media attention.
Try and get check or money orders for donations rather than cash,
if at all possible. This will make everything easier to account for.
We will be making some decisions in the next few meetings about
what type of materials are best suited for this project as well as what
companies we should approach for donations in kind (concrete, lumber,
steel, etc), we need as many of you ther as possible to help us decide
on this.
This is all of the update for now, We will see you all on the 19th at Hardees in the Jacket room at 6:30 PM..... October 8thLast meeting was a bit informal, but we managed to cover updates
on projects as well as discussion on those particular topics. Micah
and LaDarrel have been looking up regulations for skate parks and have
basically (if I am understanding this right) come up with two distict
overall philosophies to rules and regulations:
1. All regulations possible including security on site, etc..
Almost always associated with membership, ID cards, Waivers, etc.. Most
often a privately ran enterprise, almost always (if privately owned)
operated by a local church on a not for profit basis. Any skate park
that is a municipal skate park and operates in this manner is almost
always a very large operation and is ran in conjunction with multiple
similar venues. Our research can (thus far) find no stand alone
municipal skate parks in towns similar to ours that are operated with
these types of regulations/fees/etc. (to this end I would specificaly
ask that Micah and LaDarrel and anyone else try and find me a municipal
skate park that fits this description.. i.e. In a town similar to our
size, a stand alone skate park/shop that operates in whole or part with
the restrictions/fees/membership criteria noted above and does so
sucessfully)
2. Relatively lax regulations, warning signs and security cameras
at best. Typically Municipal parks fit this description and are
owned/operated by the city/municipality. (to this end I ask the
researchers to find me a municipal skate park that fits this
description and provide us with their information for further research)
the idea was presented that we should, in the end, provide the
city with two proposals and incoorperate these concepts into each model
seperately. Keep this in mind as we move along with this project, and
feel free to present ideas or evidence to the contrary of what is
listed above (we stay open to suggestions as usual) If you would like
to give your input regarding this part of our study, please contact
Micah, LaDarrel, or any board member and let them know what you can do
to help.
We discussed the possibility of finding a permanent location for
these meetings and regimenting them to twice a month. (we currently
have one about every three weeks, but they aren't set in advance) As
mentioned in the update, Greg presented the idea of using his Church's
meeting hall area, this seemed to be a plausible idea. Anyone that has
other suggestions (looking for an spot in the downtown area, easily
recognizable and easy to get to. Remember we have people literally
riding their bikes and boards to this meeting, so an accessable
location is important. We don't need anything fancy, just
tables/chairs/lights, etc.. a warehouse that we could also skate in
would be great, but don't nobody get their hopes up on that one.. lol)
We will need to make a decision on this at the next meeting, if at all possible. Any input?
Donations (and our ability to accept them) was discussed in detail. We have all come to an unofficial agreeance that:
1.Accountability of the funds is important, there must be a system
of accounting that is set in stone from the very first donation. To
that end, the following was submitted (through collaboration) as a
possible procedure:
the "donation form" will be emailed to you shortly, we will also
have copies of the form available at every meeting from here on out. One
important thing to note is that anyone who is taking individual
donations MUST first attend at least one meeting and provide their
contact information. This is being done to further prevent any
mishandling of funds, if there are any objections to this please let
myself of a committee member in on your concerns.
August 20th
Okay, let me just say first:
WOW! Can you people believe the turnout of people? The want, the
drive that people have to discuss this. There's allot of thoughts
whirling around in everyones heads right now, so I want to take a quick
minute to give you all a pep talk.
You are good enough, you are smart enough and Doggonit, people
like you! All of you! There will be hardships, there will be discord,
and this won't be a walk in the park. BUT: You can do this, if you
try.. I believe in every single one of you. Please feel free to do
the same.
There, I feel better now.
So, lots to update... Our first official meeting was tonight, here's the minutes:
We decided to make some changes to the Calendar , we are going to
have Skater Meeting nights on Tuesdays to try and accomodate for those
who have other obligations on Wednesday. So from now on, Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
We have decided that the best course of action in naming the
committee is to give it a name and mission statement that encompass
development of all youth. The idea is that we form this committee with
the intent to build a skatepark, but that we aren't going to stop
there. We want a better quality of life for all of the youth and this
committee can be the spark, the catalyst for that. The name that
seemed most fitting was Lebanon Youth Development Committee, and of
course Project One: Skatepark.
Though many who wanted to be there were unable to attend, we
needed to get a start on a committee proper (10 members) and decide on
some subcommittees. For anyone who is unfamiliar with how committees
and members, secretaries, treasurers, etc work, please look it up
before getting frustrated with the process or losing interest because
you don't understand. Being in a committee is about allowing everyone
their equal chance to speak, and that means you too. Even if you are
just sitting in the audience, take notes and when the chair approaches
the audience for questions, it's all you. If you are a committee
member, allow for one person on the floor at a time (I know, I was one
of the worst offenders tonight),
allow that person to say their piece, then request the opportunity for
rebuttal. Make it concise, make sense, and when you present a problem
try and present a plausible solution. Don't forget that most of us are
new to this, and we need to take special care to listen to the ones who
have been a part of beaurocratic stuff before (Like Andrea and John).
I am no exception.
We established The following:
SUB-COMMITTEES
We have opened the sub-committees to anyone that would like to be
involved. We have not decided on any assignments for these
subcommittees, so now is a perfect time to pick out which committee you
would mesh the best with and contact the head of that SC. Any who were
unable to attend tonight are still welcome to make themselves available to any subcommittee, please contact myself for their contact info.
We also decided that we need to go down to Osage Beach/Four
Seasons Skatepark, but we didn't decide on when. The purpose of this
visit will be to gather information about when, why, and how it was
built, how much it cost, what types of liabilities and requirements
they have, maintenance, schedules, etc... (all of this needs to be
compartmentalized into the different SC's, of course) Greg has spoken
with the Alderman there and they have offered to answer any questions
that our committee may
have regarding the build project there. We potentially have a bus, but
there is a question as to the liability of taking the younger skaters
without their parents. I would like you all to try and suggest a
solution for this. Here were the two that were mentioned:
1. Any youth under 18 would have to bring a parent or guardian
over 18. Period. this is what I suggested initially, but I feel it
would be hard to explain why. I know you youngsters are excited to get
to skate, but that isn't what our committees visits are supposed to be
about. I can see how that would be hard for any young person to
understand, but it is what it is. Please tell me if I am wrong, and
lets discuss it via emails until our next meeting. I feel it is very
important to avoid discouraging the younger group, but there are some
limitations that can't be avoided.
2. Parent has to bring their child to the meeting point (bus or
whatever) and sign a waiver. This doesn't seem like too bad of an
idea, but regardless of the waiver I would still feel pretty
responsible (as the Chair of this committee) and pretty bad if anything
happened on a group trip. Am I alone in this apprehension?
I am sure these are not the only options, but I think this needs
to be discussed further, and I don't see why we can't do that here, via
email. All of you that are under 18, discuss this with your parents
and have them call me if possible? (and of course email me your own
thoughts on the subject)
We have scheduled our next Committee meeting for 9/10/2009,
so there is plenty of time for us all to pitch ideas and thoughts back
and forth, build up interest amongst the community, and get the biggest
turnout as possible for this cause!
I am sure I missed a billion points of interest along the way, but
here's where we are so far. For only a week or two along, we have come
a long way, folks! I am proud of you, and I look forward to seeing
those faces I expected to see that couldn't make it, at our next
meeting. Til then, may your best days of yesterday be your worst days of tommorrow.
Sincerely,
Cricket Staggs, ChairmanAugust 13thAug 12th meeting went quite well. I counted somewhere around 30
people all together, and allot of you were non-skaters who are
concerned with our community. This is definitely a great thing.
Here's a few points we have worked out so far:
What can the community do?
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