RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETINGS
November 21, 2005
Present: Noah Eckhouse, John Dumont, Ingrid Neri, Jane Tatlock, Susie Collins (minutes), Cathy Long, Stacey Mulroy and Dan Pereira
Minutes: Minutes from 10/24/05 were reviewed and accepted.
Finances: Dan reports that enrollment across the board in a slow decline. Noah asked if this is true with other rec. departments in our area The general fund shows we are slightly ahead of where we were last year but this is misleading because there is a continued reduction in income. We just have reduced our offerings. Stacey put together a chart that shows where our reductions are and we will try to use this to continue to track trends. John suggested that we put more effort into advertising and to develop our relationship with the editor at the Lincoln Journal to keep ourselves in the public eye. The committee then discussed various ways of advertising to kids using e-mail or community TV. Noah suggested we set up a sub-committee to look into it.
Budget: Dan submitted a budget to the FinCom and the Selectmen for next year that shows a 2% growth and a preferred 3.9% version that includes added money for staff overtime and field/ playground maintenance. John added that even if we do get the budget increase we should add mandatory maintenance fees for all users of our facilities.
Facilities: Dan hired the Byrnes brothers to rake under the swings at the red playground but the chippings are sparse. John suggested we ask Jackie Lenth if there is any maintenance funds left over for playgrounds. Brooks, Paddock and Codman Fields have been slice-seeded. And the tennis courts have been closed for the season.
Programming: We were to have a presentation concerning youth wrestling this evening but it didn’t happen because of a communication snafu. We will reschedule for December. The recreation department is just being asked to do publicity not run the program.
Winter Carnival: Dan sent the letter out to community groups inviting them to participate in our carnival. Format will remain pretty much the same with perhaps the addition of a middle school dance. Ingrid will start calling coffeehouse participants.
Other Issues: Stacey is changing the brochure to a larger, more dynamic format.
Next Meetings: Dec. 19, Jan. 23, Feb. 27, Mar. 20, Apr. 24, May 15, & June 19.
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