Burlington Mundialization Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:
Date:
Time:
-
Location:
Virtual

1.
Members Present:
 

Hassan Raza (Chair), Leanne Cecil, Rob Lyng, Anne Koopman, Brianna Jennings, Shadi Salehian, Eric Lim, Allan Dykstra, Joanna Sparrow, Allison Tan, Chris VanDooren, Aysha Rizwan, Brett Huttman, Alex Maveal

2.
Others Present:
 

Suzanne Gillies (Clerk)

3.
Member Regrets:
 

Marybeth Curtin, Ryan Martin, Councillor Nisan

4.
Declarations of Interest:
 

None.

5.
Approval of Minutes:
 

6.
Delegation(s):
 

None.

7.
Regular Items:
 

7.1
Chair update (Hassan)
 

Hassan has a couple of items that will be brought up for discussion under 'other business'.

7.2
Subcommittee updates:
 

a.
Apeldoorn (Anne)
 

Anne thanked everyone involved in making the Canada Netherlands Friendship Day virtual celebration videos.  The committee has received so many positive comments and the first video that was released has received more views then the committee could have ever expected.  Eric also thanked the team for the tremendous efforts to make the virtual celebration a huge success.  

b.
United Nations (Shadi)
 

Shadi provided the following updates:

  • at the subcommittee meeting (today) there was discussion reviewing what could be done during Covid
  • ideas included educational excerpts - what does the UN do? trying to reach younger people
  • the committee members would like to have more of an online presence and would like to have more information regarding hosting their own social media platforms - Hassan suggeted a meeting with Shadi, Chris and Suzanne to discuss this further 

c.
Itabashi (Rob)
 

Rob provided the following updates:

  • the virtual Sakura Festival kicked off today, excited to see all the videos released and promoted on the City's platforms, videos will will be released one a day for the next 5 days
  • artwork exchange will be displayed in City Hall, Leanne will drop off artwork from Frontenac Public School at City Hall to be included in the display
  • letters from MM Robinson High School were sent to Itabashi 
  • Brianna is going to explore the possibility of a Haiku poem writing virtual contest, possibly partnering with the library 

7.3
Website working group (Chris)
 

Chris provided the following updates:

  • there are still some outstanding questions regarding what can and cannot be done to update the website
  • a committee lead from each subcommittee is to provide feedback to Chris regarding web content, UN subcommittee - Shadi and students, Apeldoorn - Marybeth, Itabashi - Alex and Allan
  • can we look at what our Twin Cities have been producing and putting out and reuse it?  share their relevant content on our channels, for example the Canada Walk video from Apeldoorn
  • next steps will be to have a meeting with the subcommittee leads once we have clarity from the City on outstanding matters

8.
Other Business:
 

8.1
Leaving/retired members:
 

  • Hassan would like to recognize members leaving the committee and what can be done for long term members vs short term
  • Suzanne mentioned that traditionally a thank you certificate is provided to the leaving members that is signed by the Mayor, for longer term or multi term members a City souvenier can be gifted
  • Suzanne to follow up to ask if committee budget money can be spent on a gift
  • there was a suggestion that a Haiku be written to be included in the gift

8.2
New twinning relationships:
 

Hasson provided the following updates:

  • the committee started talking about how new relationships with other cities could be pursued as well as what new relationships could look like acknowledging there could be different types of partnerships, other levels or tiers
  • before Covid the committee was talking  about a Friendship partnership with Courseuller sur Mer in France, however this was put on hold, Hassan to follow up with Mayor Meed Ward on the status of this relationship and if the goal is still to create a level of partnership with them
  • Hassan would like to set up a working group to look at how the committee will intake a new partnership, create policy or structure to actively look for a next partner, criteria for onboarding a new partner city
  • Councillor Nisan was also going to look into what partnership programs the committee could take advantage of through FCM

9.
Adjournment:
 

Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:33 p.m.

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