City of Lawrence
Lawrence Sister Cities Advisory Board
May 8, 2013 minutes
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
Jon Josserand, Ken Albrecht, Dennis Christilles, Michael Kennedy, Mark Daly, Jon Niccum, Kelly Herndon, Ione Unruh, Curtis Barnhill, Billy Williams, Kathleen Hodge, |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
Brad Allen, Stacey VanHouten |
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STAFF LIAISON PRESENT: |
Cynthia Wagner |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
Dean Robert Walzel (KU School of Music), Kylie Smith (KU School of Music) |
Chair Josserand opened the regular monthly meeting in the city commission chambers at City Hall at 5:35 on May 8, 2013.
OFFICER REPORTS - Josserand
· Eutin intern Torbin Mothes provided Josserand flyers for the upcoming Eutin summer opera festival, which Josserand distributed to the board. A calendar was also distributed, which was created by two KU graphics interns last summer.
· Josserand made motion to approve the April minutes. The minutes were approved as corrected.
OFFICER REPORTS - Kennedy
· The friend’s chairs are asked to please email the minutes so that they can be included with the minutes.
BY-LAWS AND POLICIES COMMITTEE – Barnhill
· A revised draft of proposed amendments to the Sister Cities Advisory Board bylaws was distributed and discussed.
· A motion to accept the subcommittee’s changes to the by-laws was made by Hodge, and it was seconded by Daly. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously.
· Barnhill will put together a final electronic copy to be distributed
· Wagner will write a background memo and forward these to the city commission for consideration.
PRESENTATION BY DEAN ROBERT WALZEL REGARDING THE UPCOMING 25TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIONS
Dean Robert Walzel, of the KU School of Music, reviewed the experiences of his school and its participation in the last two years with the Eutin summer opera festival, the Eutiner Festpiele. The festival is a significant annual event in Eutin, and encourages tourism and promotes economic development in the community.
Walzel praised Lawrence for the “can do” attitude with regard to helping to make the Eutin summer music festival happen. He also praised Lawrence Sister Cities for the strong involvement in the Eutin relationship and summer music festival event.
Walzel said the 50% of the KU students participating in the Eutin summer music festival have studied the German language. It is the first opportunity for many of the KU students to travel outside of the U.S. A strong international cultural immersion experience is invaluable to these opera and music students for both personal and professional reasons. This experience provides KU students a unique opportunity to live and work with and among highly regarded working music professionals.
28 students from undergraduate to doctorate will be participating in 2013.
The professionals hired by the Eutin summer music festival asked several times last summer if the KU students were also professionals because of the professionalism demonstrated by the KU students. This experience is a very unique and special situation. No other university provides this type of international immersion experience in which the students will be working with professionals.
Dean Walzel has developed a proposal of making the 25th anniversary summer special to Eutin by having Lawrence businesses and individuals sponsor a performance as a gift to the City of Eutin. He is considering seeking funding from the City of Lawrence for approximately $10,000 to provide funding for this purpose. This would be on a one-time basis only. The idea would be to make it a matching grant basis, which would require funding from other sources to be available. Discussion ensued about a possible similar performance as a gift to the City of Lawrence, and how to possibly include Hiratsuka for a similar city gift.
Josserand asked for discussion and questions. He indicated that this idea is still in consideration phase, and that he would place this on the June agenda for further discussion and possible recommendation.
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM