Sister Cities Commission — Naperville, IL
Date: 2024-08-14

400 S. Eagle Street
 City of Naperville Naperville, IL 60540



 Meeting Agenda

 Sister Cities Commission

Wednesday, August 14, 2024 6:30 PM NEU




A. CALL TO ORDER:

B. ROLL CALL:

C. PUBLIC FORUM:

D. OLD BUSINESS:

E. REPORTS:
 24-0956 Recognize Chairman Fuhrer and Commissioner Lowe to honor their
 distinguished service on the Sister Cities Commission
 24-0937 Approve the Sister Cities Commission meeting minutes of May 8, 2024

 24-0924 Approve the roles and responsibilities of the Naperville Sister Cities
 Commission and Naperville Sister Cities Foundation and review
 effectiveness in one year.

 24-0927 Receive the annual report template

 24-0948 Receive the Sister Cities calendar items of past and present events

 24-0957 Discuss inviting a Slovakian group to perform at the Naperville Community
 Concert Center

F. NEW BUSINESS:

G. ADJOURNMENT:
 Any individual with a disability requesting a reasonable accommodation in order to
 participate in a public meeting should contact the Communications Department at least
 48 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting. The Communications Department can
 be reached in person at 400 S. Eagle Street, Naperville, IL., via telephone at
 630-420-6707 or 630-305-5205 (TDD) or via e-mail at info@naperville.il.us. Every effort
 will be made to allow for meeting participation.




City of Naperville Page 1 Printed on 8/12/2024

City of Naperville

 400 S. Eagle Street
 Naperville, IL 60540




Meeting Minutes - Final

 Wednesday, August 14, 2024

 6:30 PM



 NEU



Sister Cities Commission
Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024


A. CALL TO ORDER:

 Chairman Fuhrer called the meeting to order at 6:32 p.m.

B. ROLL CALL:

 Commissioners Neelam and Wang arrived after the roll call vote. Wang arriving
 at 6:32 p.m. and Saboo at 6:42 p.m.
 Present 10 - Tony Chamberlain, Becky Rudolph, Allison Longenbaugh, Yugin Wang, Neelam
 Saboo, Daniel Bukowski, Ganesh Kar, Lance Fuhrer, James Alan Lowe, and Arun
 Mani

C. PUBLIC FORUM:

 Commissioner Lowe asked if there were any Speakers under Public Forum.
 There being 1 speaker, Lauren Reyes-Yu was invited to address the
 Commission. Below is a summary of Ms. Reyes-Yu's comments.

 Speaker:
 Lauren Reyes -Yu addressed the commission stating that she is a resident of
 Naperville and grew up here and is interested in getting involved in local
 government. She saw that there was an upcoming vacancy and is here to
 observe the meeting.



D. OLD BUSINESS:

E. REPORTS:

 Recognize Chairman Fuhrer and Commissioner Lowe to honor their distinguished
 service on the Sister Cities Commission
 Councilwoman Allison Longenbaugh presented Commissioners Fuhrer and
 Lowe with a letter and certificate to honor their distinguished service on the
 Sister Cities Commission.

 Chairman Lowe addressed the Commission about some of the proud work and
 challenges over the years. He discussed building relationships with our current
 Sister Cities and thanked Commissioner Lowe for his work over the years. This
 past year, the effort has been to leave the Commission in a good place and
 making sure that the Commission and the Foundation can co-exist and work
 together.

 Commissioner Lowe thanked the Commissioner Fuhrer for his work and
 service over the years. He goes on to say that he is proud to be a part of the
 process that the Commission is making and he is happy that the Hispanic
 Festival is where it is today. Another success is that he served on the
 Commission when Cancun became a Sister City. He hopes the Commission
 can build on those relationships.


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Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024

 Marcie Schatz thanked both Commissioners for their time and effort over the
 years. She further states that both of them have busy schedules, but they
 continued to put in the time to serve the Commission.

 Commissioner Mani addressed the Commission to talk about the work that has
 been done while he has served on the Sister Cities Commission. He was
 thankful to everyone for spearheading the charge to keep Sister Cities and
 thanked both Commissioners for their work over the years.


 Approve the Sister Cities Commission meeting minutes of May 8, 2024
 This Report was passed.


 Approve the roles and responsibilities of the Naperville Sister Cities Commission and
 Naperville Sister Cities Foundation and review effectiveness in one year.
 Marcie talked about the roles and responsibilities and met with the Foundation in
 order to have some clarity and they discussed special events so you will see
 some bullet points on that.

 Commissioners can work with the Foundation on that and then if 2 different
 Commissioners want to work on Hispanic Fest planning. Our biggest concern
 is Open Meeting Acts Violations.

 Feel free to volunteer on things like the art fair, but planning meetings and
 organizing, there can only be 2 members involved at a time.

 City Commission communications are coming from the City and the foundation
 is the fundraising arm and this commission continues to grow and look at
 activities going forward would feed those ideas to the foundation. Let the
 Foundation know when there are events/things the commission would like to
 see happening in the community and we really needs some funding. Whether
 that is scholarships or trips back and forth between different sister cities, but
 really try to harness the conversation from this group and also feedback from
 the Foundation.




 A motion was made by Lowe, seconded by Saboo, approved. The motion carried
 by the following vote:

 Aye: 9- Chamberlain, Rudolph, Longenbaugh, Wang, Saboo, Bukowski, Kar, Fuhrer, Lowe,
 and Mani

 Receive the annual report template

 Marcie addressed the next item on the agenda which is to receive the annual
 report template that was created after at a discussion at a City Council meeting
 last year. There were several changes made to boards and commissions and
 as a result of the idea came about for every board or commission to submit an

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Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024

 annual report of some of their accomplishments, challenges, and upcoming
 work for the next year.

 The annual report will be on the next agenda for the Commission to review and
 we will be looking for your feedback. Reports from all of the boards and
 commissions will be compiled to presented to the City Council at the end of the
 year.

 This year our goal was reestablishment our connections with our Sister Cities
 and you have done a good job. Every year we want to look ahead on planning
 goals for the upcoming year.

 If you notice there are challenges that this group has faced, what are they and
 how can we help you get rid of those challenges.

 We are looking to approve this item at the next Sister Cities meeting in
 November.




 Receive the Sister Cities calendar items of past and present events

 Commissioner Rudolph would like to make some additions to the calendar
 adding January 16, 2025 at 10 pm to include Lectures at the Library. Suggested
 speakers are speakers are Laurie Donahue and Rosemary Wisnowski. She
 suggest keeping the focus on Sister Cities in Naperville.

 Another add to the calendar: Hispanic Craft September 9 - 13, 2024 - paper
 picado flags (penants). The City will take care of the marketing for the craft
 event at the Library in September.

 Marcie suggested having communications take care of the marketing around
 the work of the Commission.

 January is Nitra Month. Some suggestions include asking downtown
 businesses if they would like to highlight Nitra or the City could communicate
 Nitra month through a social media post.

 Councilwoman Longenbaugh asked about a Proclamation presentation for
 Nitra. Marcie stated that she would look into this.


 Marcie suggested that either the Commission (Nitra liaisons), Foundation or
 Katie Woods at the DNA could reach out the downtown businesses to see if
 there's an interest in promoting Nitra.




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Sister Cities Commission Meeting Minutes - Final August 14, 2024



 Discuss inviting a Slovakian group to perform at the Naperville Community Concert
 Center
 Commissioner Chamberlain reached out to a Slovakian group who will be
 performing in the nearby area in September 2024 to see if they are interested in
 performing in Naperville, bu their schedule is too tight.


F. NEW BUSINESS:

 Commissioners discussed the possibility of decommissioning ourselves with a
 Sister City if there is no longer a relationship with that City. Marcie responded
 that we have to make a connection and try to reestablish that connection and
 also make sure that the partnership is on both sides.

 Commissioners discussed their roles and Saboo and Bukowski will be liaisons
 to the Foundation.

 Commissioiners Butowski and Chamberlain are the liaisons for Nitra.
 Commissioners Kar and Saboo are the liaisons for the Foundation.

 Marcie stated that if you are the liaison between the Commission and the
 Foundation, you should not play a role on the Foundation as an Officer. She
 also stated that if you are a Sister City Commission and not the liaison, you
 should not attend a Foundation meeting due to the Open Meetings Act.




 Foundation and the Commission:
 Maybe the 2 new ones behind the relationship. Would Ganesh and Dan like to
 be that liaison for the Foundation

 If Commissioners have a report out for the next agenda, you must put some
 content behind it and send it to City Staff Liaisons. The goal is to provide the
 public with information behind the items that will be discussed at the meetings
 so that they can make a choice as to whether they would like to attend the
 meeting. It may be something they are interested in hearing more about.


G. ADJOURNMENT:

 Commissioners Chamberlain moved, seconded by Wang to adjourn the
 meeting at 7:32 p.m.




 /s/Rachel Pruneda
 Rachel Pruneda
 Assistant to the Mayor

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