Acton Rec Committee Sets Dec. 6 Tree Lighting, Weighs Adult Programs

[0:00] Speaker A (unidentified): You guys don't have to listen to me drone on and on and on. We may wait until next month when we've got our other two members as well, so that we can get everyone's thoughts and opinions on that. But putting it out there in terms of updates or topics for today, we've got an update on soccer, competition cheer, basketball cheer, the why swim lessons, snack shack scheduling, tree lighting, and then I wanted to throw out an idea that was posed to me for something for this winter for adults if the schedule allows, or maybe in the spring, but we'll get to that. Anything that you guys want to add before we move forward? [0:44] Speaker B (unidentified): Nothing to add, just might have questions. Yeah, of course. Ask away. So in terms of the [0:51] Speaker A (unidentified): soccer update, I know that you guys have seen some of the social media posts and things of that nature. We still have a six-week schedule. We are starting a week later than we historically have. We are still in line with all the other rec teams that we play with. We are extending the season one week to make sure that we have that full six weeks. Coaches are great and all set up. I did order some new soccer balls because the ones that we have are a little, a little worn, so those actually should have been in today, hopefully, if not tomorrow. So we'll get those pumped up and ready to go. We had eight new coaches this year sign up for soccer. Karen and her husband included. So it was a great turnout. Lots of folks for the littler ages. So hopefully we'll see them move their way up as well. And obviously, a good handful of repeat coaches as well. So thank them for volunteering as always, and hopefully that their experience for the new ones is good that [1:50] Speaker C (unidentified): they'll want to come back and do it again. [1:53] Speaker A (unidentified): In terms of games, the game schedule went out this week. The U-10 team, I'm waiting to get dates back. I followed up with Wakefield and Massabesic multiple times. I actually just got an email in the parking lot tonight from Massabesic, so we will get two more games for them with Massabesic, either home or travel depending on field availability. So we'll get that up so everyone should have a minimum of five games for the season, if not a little bit more. So yeah, that's, that is my soccer update. The uniforms went out as well. I did notice that we have quite a few missing, so I did like a really deep dive audit of the numbers that we have missing in sizes and stuff. So I'll order some more of those as well, hopefully, so that we can be fully stocked and get rid of some of the torn, the worn out ones that we've had over the years. So just do some replacements. I've already called the company that we've used that has the exact same ones. It's actually cheaper than it was when we did it. I think it was a $24 a jersey back in the day when they first got them, and now they're only $20 a jersey. So score. So more to come on that. Any questions on [3:08] Speaker B (unidentified): soccer before I jump to snapchat? So they return the jerseys, and how often do you have missing ones? [3:16] Speaker A (unidentified): Oh gosh, we have missing ones every single year. Yeah, so we do keep track of which ones are assigned to who. Our follow-up to get them back leaves something to be desired, so something to keep an eye on for the future. I have everything right now in a spreadsheet. What you will learn about me is how much I really love spreadsheets. That's good. So I have a whole list of everything, so potentially at the end of the season we can talk about the best way to [3:46] Speaker B (unidentified): collect those back and where would obviously. So like it helps because it was Carl's team that there was like one or two jerseys left by the picnic bench plus somebody's water bottle, but say like there's a bunch of teams and it's not your team and a coach finds it. Would we contact you? [4:07] Speaker A (unidentified): Yes, I have the number of who it would have been assigned to. I will say one thing that I have noticed is that kids like to swap jerseys because they like the other number better. That's fun. So I can only do so much when it comes to that stuff. And if it happens, it happens. It's no big deal as long as we get it back. What we have done also in the past is in order to get your pictures, you need to turn in your jersey, but not everyone gets pictures. So that works part of the time, but not, it's not foolproof, but we'll have to come up with a good protocol for tracking these down. Yeah, but it is time for upgrades regardless because some of them are getting a little bit warm. Okay, that material is very sensitive to if you catch it on like the tiniest little piece of velcro, it's going to tear because it's nice. Yeah, so I went through a handful of those and just stashed those aside so they're not in use at the moment, and then track those down and Put the numbers down and whatever for the order. Any other questions for soccer? We do have some home games coming up, and with that I would love to see the Snapchat up and running. We've got our new percolators too, our big coffee pots that we got last year, so we can have good hot coffee. I know there's still plenty of cups and things like that are in the Snapchat, so we'll want to do another inventory quickly about, let's fall backwards in this thing, what else we want and things like that, so I will put in a request for some goodies to put in there. What I would like to ask of you guys is some, I can give you a list of the parents who volunteered on the registration forms to work the concession stand. I would love to have some one of you reach out to them and ask for a schedule, even if it's just an hour, you know, off the kids games, so coming out earlier or whatnot. The other thing with that is I would like to have one of us present in the snack shop with them, or at least someone who's volunteered with us before, just so that we have some sort of checks and balance. It shouldn't just ever be one individual in there, it should be two. That's just my own preference, it's, I think it's just a safety in numbers sort of thing, reduces of liabilities slightly. So it was, there anyone that wants to take that on, reaching out to the parents? I don't [6:40] Speaker B (unidentified): mind doing it, I'm just wondering if it's gonna, because does that one team need me to coach? Because if they do, then I can't be in two places at once. That's okay [6:51] Speaker A (unidentified): whenever there's a conflict, that we've got five other people that we can work [6:54] Speaker B (unidentified): workaround. Yeah. So I can help with the snack check. I could definitely do the follow-up and [7:01] Speaker A (unidentified): then as we set up a schedule, I will email you the list. All right. Anything, any other questions about snack check? Pretty straightforward. All right. Moving right along to basketball, registration will open next week with the plan to start the first week in December. Like we had last year, that timing worked out really well with just being right after the Thanksgiving break and kicking everything off, and that lined up with all the teams that we played against as well, so we'll do that. So we'll get, you know, a solid month or so of registration numbers in there. We'll obviously be seeking more coaches. There is a handful of folks that were coaching last year, their kids aged out, so we'll have to find some replacements for them. Hopefully we'll have plenty kind of Continue that sign up. Last year we had a handful of new folks last year too, so I'm hoping that they'll come back and continue to work their way up. Last year I did have Meg help with scheduling the games. Is that something that anyone wants to tackle this year? [8:18] Speaker D (unidentified): I'm going to try. What about this delegation? [8:25] Speaker B (unidentified): And is there going to be like a close for Christmas break? Because like it's hard to get anybody to show up. [8:32] Speaker A (unidentified): Kind of that week. Yeah, so like the rule is if the excuse me if the school is closed then there's there's nothing for us. So if there's a snow day, if there's a schedule break, or anything like that, we typically follow the school schedule. Okay, break. [8:54] Speaker C (unidentified): On the 23rd I think, the 20 [8:58] Speaker A (unidentified): seconds they're lost. And with that, just so you're aware too, with basketball we have a mix of home and away games. The home games we have ref and we one of us is usually there to help keep score with the scoreboard. I don't know if they fix the scoreboard. I have to ask Mr. Lobbs. It's very entertaining. It's a lot. It's a lot of fun. It's very intense. It's so loud. It's so loud. I plug my ear. It startles me every time even though I'm there watching the clock count down. And our basketball cheer girls, our team, not always just girls, will cheer at halftime during the home games too. And so we've got usually two different basketball cheer teams, one with the little littles and then one with the bigger girls. And say the littles will cheer at the younger kids games and then and then the older girls will share at the older kids teams. But yeah, so that'll start and we'll look at the ball rolling with that. I do want to get some help at some point going through the basketball uniforms to do the same thing that I just did for soccer, because I know we're missing some there, and there's plenty of those that are ready to be retired. Yeah, I'm tired of stuff. Beautiful. We'll have to plan for a day to do that. Big funsies. [10:33] Speaker B (unidentified): There's a lot, too. But we can do that. That would be great. It's a pretty satisfying one, because task completed. It is. Yes. [10:45] Speaker A (unidentified): Checklist done. Time. Anything for basketball? Any questions on basketball? [10:54] Speaker B (unidentified): So does the pre-k kindergarten, do they [10:56] Speaker A (unidentified): have, do they have away games too? They do not. We don't do games at that age level. They're just like skills. Just learning how to dribble the ball and walk. And usually, depending on the size too, we do try to do some with the first and second graders, but I found that a lot of other areas don't do games at those levels either. [11:21] Speaker B (unidentified): So what age is it usually in middle school? [11:22] Speaker A (unidentified): Third and fourth, they'll start games. Which is exactly why Charlie won't do it this year because he is not into games. [11:29] Speaker C (unidentified): Oh shoot, can't he just play with the first and second graders? [11:33] Speaker A (unidentified): He would love to, but he's way better than them. [11:36] Speaker E (unidentified): How many sets will we be playing? [11:40] Speaker A (unidentified): Won't be enough to talk him into it. I can try, but I don't think it'll work. [11:44] Speaker C (unidentified): Could he be a benched? Supporter? He just doesn't like if someone [11:53] Speaker A (unidentified): comes up and takes the ball he's like okay here you go it's just not aggressive at all. Oh this video is gonna come back and bite me his senior year. [12:04] Speaker B (unidentified): Make sure you save it. Save it forever. [12:08] Speaker E (unidentified): I remember last year you were gonna try and get small hoops. [12:13] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah yep I want to get six-foot hoops I had asked actually I just reached back out to her Danielle from Burwick smash she has the ones that I really would like to get I already talked to Mr. Lops too and we can store them in the side shed the side closet in the gym but I was just we Danielle was supposed to get me a link to the specific brand and making whatever of it what it was so that we can get those so that the littles can actually reach the hoops the hoops in the gym only go down to eight feet and for someone in pre-k the chances of them hitting it are extensions so they have these basically regular basketball hoops that we can get we can either get the ones that are meant for outside and that are weighted and then just wheel them in when we're done or there's the ones that Danielle had, so I'm waiting for her to get those. [13:10] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh yeah, they do make hoop extensions, but maybe those are obnoxious. [13:15] Speaker A (unidentified): I don't know if they'd be, if they'd work with the ones in the school too, we'd have to talk to them about it. [13:19] Speaker C (unidentified): Yeah, they include me. You look chaotic actually. [13:24] Speaker A (unidentified): No, pass. But yes, so I will continue to work on that and the hoop and those so that our littles can actually feel like they're the feeling of getting a basket. Yeah anything else for basketball moving [13:41] Speaker B (unidentified): right along cheer cop cheer [13:45] Speaker A (unidentified): Registrations went out and they are open coach Nicole is requesting to do a mandatory assessment of the registrants this year so she can appropriately place them on either the rising stars or shining stars team based on experience versus age if there are children that go through the assessment and it is determined by the coaches that they maybe aren't quite ready for comp they'll be recommended to go to basketball cheer so they still get the opportunities for the experience and the exposure Just without the comp itself, I feel like that's probably mostly going to apply to the little littles as they are coming up into things, but we'll see how that goes. Those are scheduled for next week with registration ending next week as well, and then practices will start promptly the week of the 13th. [14:46] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah, is that in anticipation because I know that program has grown phenomenally over the years? Is that to kind of help with that or just safety or kind of what [14:57] Speaker A (unidentified): the logic behind the safety piece of it? Yeah, and just the experience level of the girls, so the shining stars and rising, I might say this backwards and Nicole if you're watching I apologize, the rising stars is typically going to be those newer girls that don't have much experience or comfort level in the stunts and things of that nature where the rising stars are a little bit more equipped to handle those more challenging pieces, so it's it's a safety thing where they're you're just trying to make sure that the right girls are in the right place at the right time and get the best out of it, right? So you don't also don't want someone who's you know the smallest on the team, all right you're going to be a flyer and they're scared to death of it or something like that, so making sure they're with the right the right people too, so it'll be good. I think it's good, she's got this completely under wrap, so easiest program ever, she just tells me what she needs and I say okay then with that so basketball cheer, that will also go out at the same time as the basketball registrations and those practices are typically on Mondays. I don't know if she plans to change that at all, but those practices will begin later, she normally starts those in November for the basketball season so they get a little bit of practice before cheer up the deans and so does she have the support that she needs? Yes, yep, she's got her she's got a whole entourage of folks, she has a couple of high school girls too that are helping out to kind of keep the girls or the cheerleaders in line during practices and stuff, so she's the easiest program ever, she just runs with it. Anything, oh the one thing I did want to note is that we did note on the registration forms the cost for uniforms, we did up it this year for the comp cheer girls, so for your awareness the comp cheer team buys their uniforms their own uniforms every year, makes sense, and so Nicole takes care of all of that for them and the cost went up from 125 to 145 this year, so I mean they can wear them into the ground, yes. [17:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Yes, comp setting, so yeah. [17:11] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, so they just a slight increase, hopefully isn't too bad. If in the event that you hear or for anyone watching, if there is a girl who wants to do comp cheer, but the family is not able to pay the fee, we have neighbors helping neighbors, we have, you know, options in town that can help, so just reach out to the town hall with any questions or myself. [17:37] Speaker B (unidentified): And, I mean, obviously you don't want everybody to come with that, but will that be put on [17:42] Speaker A (unidentified): the Facebook page publicized? We don't normally publicize it in the sense where we post it all over Facebook. It's just one of those things that we just put out little reminders here and there. Like I said, for the most part people are pretty well aware of the stuff that we have offered in town, but it doesn't hurt to just if you hear somebody in the some mumblings or anything like that to say you know there's there's some stuff out there to help. Yeah but anything else for cheer sweet moving right along swim lessons with the Y I was brought out on one of the Facebook posts that folks weren't aware that we still offer discounted Y swim lessons so I did reach out to the Y to get a list of all the upcoming sessions and dates and the updated form so the discounted swim lessons for those of you that aren't aware we get to pay the member price versus the non-member price if you get the registration through the rec so that'll be coming soon as soon as they get the information back as soon as they get the form back to me anyway the updated form for this year and then we can start posting that on Facebook as well I [18:59] Speaker D (unidentified): think it would be good to consider getting in the habit of beginning out like the rec season to do just a quick post or something of what is offered I do know that we constantly have a lot of new families coming in who are whether it's they're just coming into the system because their kids are of age or they're moving into town I know a lot of us locals are very aware of the programs but you know as they're trying to find space and like give me connections I think just you know August hey these are things you don't have to the dates but just like we offer swim, we offered multiple levels of cheer, we offer just so people can then they can ask the questions come to the meeting. So I do think that's something that should be considered because I was on the committee when the individual who advocated and fought for the swim lessons and as I also did not realize that we still offered that. So even if just once a year, just a space that people can look at and see that or listing on the website. on the top of the top. I know someone who makes really good flyers. [20:04] Speaker B (unidentified): I agree with that because as I told Dan when we met, I was gonna bring my kids all the way back to Kennebunk for soccer. Oh no, don't do that. Yeah, that's a long drive. But that's what I'm used to. Yeah. That's what I know. So that's what I, you know, because I didn't know what to expect, so. [20:26] Speaker A (unidentified): Is there a place on our Facebook page and I'm clearly not a social media person where we can upload like a file to our page? I'm just wondering if we could something like that. I'm just wondering if there's a place where we could put something like here's what we [20:43] Speaker B (unidentified): offer what a lot of towns uses my rec that website yes that is on my list [20:48] Speaker A (unidentified): actually I have a demo scheduled for next week. I'd love to help make that happened because I love that website. Like I don't know if it's costly but it would be it's a big thing. So if you've ever looked at the Wakefield rec they use the my rec website so it would be a standalone site and it has payment options, it has registration options it [21:13] Speaker C (unidentified): has all the stuff and all the things I love my rec. That's what I was like so oh it's so easy. [21:19] Speaker A (unidentified): what do I do here? Yeah yes we are very old school. That has been on my bucket list for the rec since I joined two years ago. Hey well so now you've got a good community here you're checking up your [21:30] Speaker D (unidentified): bucket list I can still even my phrases maybe this could be long but for the Facebook page there should be an option if you create a file I think that there's certain posts that you can since you have the page you can like pin it you can pin it so that could be a good one, but you have to look at the back by the link in the bio. Yeah, you could do that too. A few things. [21:53] Speaker B (unidentified): Yeah. You could put it in the details, right? Yeah. Yeah. [21:56] Speaker A (unidentified): We could also, we have a lot of options on the town rec page that we just don't do anything with. So there's a possibility we could put some stuff on there and just link from Facebook to that as well. [22:09] Speaker B (unidentified): And this is one of the reasons why I wanted to join with, I don't know what's available and then like what I can first like my passion is art and so like if I can offer that to the community but yeah like to me it's like okay everything's on the digital world and so we're not right but you know what I mean like so much is on the digital world for people even if you hate you know being on social media that could be a good thing using the town's page for people that are like I'm not a social media person yeah or even having a my ref page using other tools like that I think are great because there are plenty of people that are like I don't want to be on social media it's toxic for me or I just couldn't be bothered whatever reason so much noise yeah there's so much noise there's a million reasons why people don't want to be on social media and so but not having a website is like really hard yeah yes [23:20] Speaker A (unidentified): I think for now our best bet is to utilize the town page a little bit more and we can work with Dan on that so if you want to maybe create something that shows kind of a what we offer and we can update that we also have an option if we want to I know the right email is out there but there's an option to put similar to the selectmen, you know, who we are, who the committee members are, so people know who to reach out to. Our faces. This is a lot like being on camera. Being on camera is enough of my face right now. [23:57] Speaker B (unidentified): No, I get it. No, professional pictures are always the worst. And at work, we usually just use the, like, abbreviations for our name on teams because nobody wants their face. [24:10] Speaker A (unidentified): Just your initials. Yeah, that's true. I'm so glad you brought that up because I didn't even think to tell you guys that I did schedule a demo for next week with my rec with my rec well let us know I will definitely let you guys know how it goes I don't know that it will happen this year by any means but hopefully we can put it in the budget for next year yeah I don't know what the costs are in towns [24:35] Speaker C (unidentified): It wasn't? Okay, well that's good to know. [24:39] Speaker B (unidentified): Like so many towns use it. Yes. Like so many towns. [24:45] Speaker E (unidentified): We're the only ones. [24:47] Speaker A (unidentified): So I will certainly keep you guys posted. [24:50] Speaker E (unidentified): It would be so nice to post, sign up here. Use this link. [24:54] Speaker C (unidentified): Not this QR code that I have to create every single time. [24:57] Speaker E (unidentified): Or imagine like how to register. [24:59] Speaker B (unidentified): Yes, so I know you said you're not as familiar with my rec, but like a lot of them, you know how like the Y has their like flyer, kind of like this is what's gonna happen in the fall. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people, I don't know if you can create it with inside my rec, but a lot of my rec pages, I think you can create it within the website. A lot of my rec pages have this like this is what's coming up flyer in the website. [25:27] Speaker A (unidentified): site. He'll organize us so much better. So I will keep you posted. Yeah. [25:38] Speaker C (unidentified): Fingers crossed. It goes [25:39] Speaker A (unidentified): well. But for now we'll, we can utilize the town page. So thank you for bringing that up. I think that's a good idea. With that, anything else about, I mean, we started with some lessons and kind of do around to that conversation, but anything else with that? Of course, one wants one. Quick update before we go to the last topic. The sign is ready to be installed. It was supposed to be installed on Friday. I failed to get in touch with them Thursday afternoon because I was down in Boston for the day. But it sounds like I just need to go mark where we want it, and they're going to go install it for us. So we will officially have a Redfield sign, which is one of my big bucket items on my list. So pretty pumped for that. It's just going to look very similar to the park, the little Friendship Park sign that's down there, the town sign that's right down there. It's just going to have Action Recreation Field, the address, big posts, white sign. It's going to be great. [26:48] Speaker D (unidentified): That's amazing. That would be so nice. I know that was one of the biggest things when you first came in that you said you really wanted to see that. Yes. I'm really excited to see that. I can't wait to see it. I'm pumped. [26:59] Speaker A (unidentified): And then we, you know, if the people that bought the house right next door decides to move the white rocks, I don't have to use that as the landmark to buy the fields anymore. It's so funny when I was talking with one of the other rec directors about scheduling games and they're like, is the fields to buy the house with the white rocks? Yeah, sure is. It sure is. It's a landmark. Oh, it'll be, it'll be interesting if they decide to move, but at least we'll have [27:26] Speaker C (unidentified): have a sign, so you know, we'll have that. So modern, so modern. We're getting there, one thing at a time. [27:33] Speaker A (unidentified): Oh goodness, it's slow to be modern, so don't don't hurry. No, we are good, baby steps, very small baby steps. I just, oh my gosh, sidebar, what about Bob? Baby steps, baby steps out the door, Baby Steps Here. It's a funny movie. It's a great movie. The last thing that I wanted to talk about, so we did kickball in August, Thursday nights for adult kickball. The folks that participated loved it, raved about it, and wanted to continue going during the soccer season. Fortunately, the only day that was available didn't work for most of them due to other conflicting schedules and stuff. And they're welcome to continue to do pick up games if they want, it just won't be specific to the to their practice, just on their own. But that kind of brought up the idea of what else can we do, because it seemed like this was a big hit that, you know, we're doing stuff not just for the kids but for the adults in the community as well. So somebody had brought up volleyball and doing volleyball after the school's volleyball season, potentially using the gym at the school to do some adult volleyball, pick up games. What do you guys think about that? [28:51] Speaker E (unidentified): I think it's great idea. Alright. Especially if you don't have to worry about the other sports. [28:59] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, so we could easily coordinate with the school in terms of their schedule and do something for the spring. [29:05] Speaker B (unidentified): And this could be the spring you said? [29:07] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, wintertime is next to impossible just because of they have their basketball practices and games, then we have hours that are in there as well, so it's and cheer in between, cheers usually in the cafeteria, but they do utilize the gym sometimes as well when it's open, so it's just a it's a jam-packed schedule from a facility perspective in the winter, so spring will open up a little bit more, but I think that would be a lot of fun. [29:41] Speaker E (unidentified): Since you mentioned spring, are you gonna do clinics again for baseball? [29:47] Speaker A (unidentified): That is the plan. [29:49] Speaker E (unidentified): So would it be okay to share Sanford's program when their signup's open? Yep. [29:56] Speaker A (unidentified): I would preface that with we will do clinics. We will do a full season. If you're interested in a full season, here's this local program. The other thing that I do want to check, since you brought up baseball, and I totally skipped over the tree lighting, we'll have to circle back. Kind of an important one. [30:18] Speaker B (unidentified): So you said both baseball and just week clinics. [30:21] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, I can't talk in the rain at the same time. A couple years ago before I came on board as the rec director, we had kind of outsourced baseball to Samford. They have a larger program, obviously they have a lot more kids in Sanford and then we do here. And so last year or two years ago when I came in, we opted to do just a small clinic for, I think we did pre-K to, I think we opened it to all ages, but last year we limited it to pre-K to second I think is what we ended up doing. And it was always a good turnout, you know, we've got about 15 kids that show up and we do the clinics. It's basic foundation work, catching, throwing, hitting, you know, all that kind of stuff, just to keep them active and engaged in learning the sport without actually playing the full games. So that's been fairly well received. I do want to reach out because I did try to schedule some time last year with Mr. Lops but we didn't end up making it happen. He is the head coach for the Sanford Mainers and our gym teacher, so I would love to have him do just a one day clinic for a couple hours with the kids. I think the kids get a really big kick out of it, I know my son did, excuse me the Mainers summer camp this summer and he was there and he just thought it was so cool to see Mr. Waps outside of school, so I would like to try to do something like that again or at all, see if we can get him to pitch in a little bit there. But that is a few months down the road. Do you guys have [32:01] Speaker B (unidentified): a good amount of equipment? My house has softball, we have a lot of equipment, but if you have [32:08] Speaker A (unidentified): interest in softball I would not be opposed to doing a separate softball clinic, okay. [32:13] Speaker E (unidentified): No. I played softball. [32:20] Speaker B (unidentified): More, it's more of my mom's sport, but I played it for years. And my family had a softball game at my house in June. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, we did a family game. That's awesome. For years we used to do a family game with my extended family in Binniford and that was like our 4th of July. That's so fun. Yeah I think we should consider something like that. I think it would be fun. [32:54] Speaker A (unidentified): Anything else for that stuff before I go back to the tree lighting? [33:01] Speaker C (unidentified): I completely skipped over it. Alright. Tree lighting. [33:08] Speaker A (unidentified): So, for Karen, for your awareness, we partner with the church and we do a tree lighting usually the first weekend in December. And we have a Santa helper that takes a ride over from the fire station on a very well decorated side-by-side or trailer. And then he counts down and we light the tree and there's always snacks, cocoa, there's crafts and activities and things of that nature. There's free pictures with Santa that one of our local photographers Kate Nolentenum does. [33:45] Speaker B (unidentified): It's just a lot of fun. [33:48] Speaker A (unidentified): This year, I think, what did we pick? Was it a Friday or a Saturday or a Sunday? I think we wrote down the fourth and the sixth. Yeah, the only thing I found on the sixth [34:02] Speaker E (unidentified): is a Patriots game at 420. [34:07] Speaker D (unidentified): Priorities right, priorities. I don't know, but once a year [34:11] Speaker A (unidentified): so December 4th, 5th or 6th, 4th or 6th, 4th or 6th. Yeah, I think that's a Friday or Sunday, right, because we're avoiding a Saturday. [34:21] Speaker E (unidentified): Grammy Rose has their Saturday. [34:25] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh my goodness. [34:27] Speaker A (unidentified): Try not to do anything conflicting. Everyone needs their own thing. They don't need to take away or hinder anything. What are your thoughts as a newcomer doing a Friday night? [34:44] Speaker B (unidentified): And I personally end up scheduling myself for things on Friday and hit that like end of the week burnout. So Sunday sounds like a better idea to me. Sunday evening, I think that's a wonderful family kind of like, I don't know. I feel like Sunday is a more relaxed day for people. It just is in my house at least. Even with going to church in the morning, it's still like Sunday evening, or would it be Sunday morning [35:15] Speaker A (unidentified): we usually do it in the evening [35:16] Speaker B (unidentified): because you want to be able to see the lights [35:20] Speaker C (unidentified): Sunday evening just seems like a more relaxed time [35:24] Speaker E (unidentified): so I also thought that would be good too because Friday night would be a lot more traffic, people going home from work. Alright [35:35] Speaker A (unidentified): too, all right, it's settled, 12 6 is our tree lighting. One thing I would really like to incorporate this year and I was searching up some ideas, so for a trucker treat, PTG does a lot of games and stuff out in the yard. I want games for us too. I think it'd be a lot of fun if we did. I think I last year I built a like a witch hat ring toss game for trunk or tree. I think we could do a Santa hat one or an elf hat one. I think would be really cute, or there's just a bunch of other things that we could do that there's, you can't, you have to pick up the candy canes using the string with a hook on it sort of thing, like there's a few different ideas that we can do. I found another one that I thought was really fun and super simple and would be really easy for one of us to run is you get a lazy susan and put different colored gift bows on it and someone spins it, lands on a color, they pick up the corresponding cup and they get whatever price is under the cup. Could be a candy bar, it could be a dollar, it Could be, you know, a little trinket or whatever, but I thought that would be a lot of fun too. I think the kids would get a big kick out of that. 'S cute, so I would like to do something like that. And would the games be in the church or in here? So we do our own thing here and the church actually does all of their own stuff up there, so we just partnered and do together, do everything together. They set up the main part of the church for the pictures and then they have a, they have a wonderful traffic pattern now where you go in for pictures from right here in the parking lot and then you go across through their hallway into their big room where they have snacks and drinks and crafts and everything set up and then you come out the back side and you come right back down here and do all the stuff in here. Last year, I do remember we were talking about this, there needs to be more signage outside about what's where, so making sure that people understand like, hey, here's what's inside here, 's what's up there, and just getting, just a poster with directions basically and what's going on, so we want to [37:47] Speaker B (unidentified): to make sure that we make that happen this year. Would it be too much competition with their crafts if I set up a Christmas card making table? Absolutely not. Okay, because I was thinking people could make a card for a family member, a veteran, or even someone that's elderly in like a, what's the one on the lodges, the lodges on there, so yeah, the lodges, they worked really well [38:18] Speaker A (unidentified): with my Girl Scout troop when we did something for them for Thanksgiving, so I can see if I still have their, director's contact information to see if there's anything that we can do cards and just donate some cards to folks that maybe don't have a lot of family. Yeah, I think that's a really sweet idea. We did that, in Girl Scouts as well. We did, it's called Hearts for Hospice and the girls made, just beautiful Valentine cards and then we sent them all up to, Beacon something, Beacon Health. I'm trying to blank on the name of it. They were actually featured in the Girl Scout magazine. That's so sweet. My daughter, Sarah, she put on, they were just like cutting out stuff and magazines and decorating and stuff and her said, get well soon. [39:16] Speaker E (unidentified): Oh, I love it. [39:17] Speaker A (unidentified): Say, I love you, but I'm not gonna send this to someone in the holidays. Oh, I still have that one, I saved that one. Any other ideas for the tree lighting? We stocked up on a lot of decorations last year, but we can certainly get some more that's in the budget. We did pre-packaged snacks last year and just basic drinks and stuff. We now have better coffee pots so we don't have to worry about using a Keurig like we did two years ago. But any other ideas on in terms of snacks and drinks and anything that we want to diversify on? And what would you like to see as someone coming in new? [39:59] Speaker B (unidentified): No, but you were talking about the Keurig and I was thinking about the farm that has those adorable highland cows. And I can tell you Akira, they did a wonderful thing that was such a great thing for the community. But yeah, Akira, the lines, it didn't work well. [40:17] Speaker C (unidentified): The lines formed quickly. [40:20] Speaker A (unidentified): Yes. No, we have two big coffee pots. [40:21] Speaker B (unidentified): They're fast for one cup. But when you get a line in. Not for 15. [40:26] Speaker A (unidentified): No, we have big, huge coffee pots now. So we use one for hot water for cocoa and one for coffee. [40:32] Speaker E (unidentified): One for cocoa, one for coffee. Yeah. [40:34] Speaker B (unidentified): And thinking of Christmas in general, for the tree lighting, there's already so many things that are already going on. [40:46] Speaker A (unidentified): It is a busy time of year, for sure. So the more we get this out there, the better it'll be. And we can start thinking of other ideas for activities and stuff. But I do think adding at least, I'd say at least two games and then two crafts will be enough. I know cookie decorating was a big hit, but it was also a giant mess. [41:07] Speaker B (unidentified): Sprinkles everywhere! It took a lot of time to set up. [41:10] Speaker A (unidentified): It took a lot of time to do everything. [41:13] Speaker E (unidentified): Last year you did the ornament? [41:16] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, we had a couple different ornament making stations. We had some coloring things. We had a Dear Santa coloring page that had a list on it where they could write their list. Like oriental trading kind of things or Hobby Lobby type of things. [41:29] Speaker B (unidentified): I'm a Dollar Tree girl. [41:33] Speaker A (unidentified): So we did have some of those basic ones as well so if there's anything I love the card making idea I have a mini Hobby Lobby at my house so if you need anything for that I probably have it if not we can buy it or we can get out [41:48] Speaker B (unidentified): folks donate it too. I have less than I used to have but I gotta see what's moved to the new house. [41:56] Speaker A (unidentified): We've got time. We got a month and a half or so before we really need to buckle down on it. But yeah, if there's anything else that you guys can think of in terms of activities, then let us know and we can incorporate some new stuff this year. [42:10] Speaker E (unidentified): Did you want a fire? I feel like you mentioned that also. There was one year that I came here [42:18] Speaker A (unidentified): with the kids years ago and there was a fire in the parking lot, but I don't know how I feel about it. I have very mixed feelings about it. I personally hate being cold. I like being warm. If I'm going to be out wandering around, I wouldn't mind hanging out by a fire, but at the same time, such a liability. But doesn't the fire department drive here? They sure do. They sure do. I mean, you can already be here. It's also one of my bigger concerns is, it tends to be a little bit of a because it's a safe place for the most part it becomes a little bit of a free-for-all in terms of just kids everywhere and I would just be concerned that you know them running around they're gonna trip and fall into something. I mean, we could take extra precautions and whatnot. It's something I can ask about, but I don't, I don't know, maybe in the future, maybe I don't know, we'll see. But either way, we'll have nice and warm in here. Yeah, crank the heat up, it'll [Speaker B (unidentified): be fine. We] could do. I'll reach out to Mariana Willett again to see if she's willing to sort of emcee everything for us again and get some of the girls for us to sing some carols. Yeah, she came last year and did that. I was really nice and see if we can get that again and go from there. Anything else on the tree? Alright. Do you want me to create an event? Yep. Right like tonight or tomorrow? Sure. Whenever you feel like it. Just to get the word out. Yep. So is the chorus part of the church or part of the school? It's the school. Oh part of the school. Yep. Yeah so that Mariana Ouellette is Mrs. Ouellette. She's the music teacher. Yeah. At the school. Yes. Yeah. Yep. So she was really excited to join in last year so. [44:17] Speaker D (unidentified): We'll be doing the same time frame as the previous year. [44:22] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, that worked well. We started at 4-7? Or 5-7? Or was it 5? I'm [44:31] Speaker E (unidentified): looking. There's pictures from last year. I don't know if there's a post. [44:37] Speaker A (unidentified): I would've posted something. Yeah, at some point. [44:40] Speaker E (unidentified): It's out there. Oh, you did an event last year. I did do an event. I'm going to check. You can find it. Yeah. Anything else? Do you still own your truck or chain? [44:59] Speaker A (unidentified): Oh, you can. I mean, I'm going to be there all day anyway. Does anybody feel like posting a rec trunk? I really, I have to. [45:09] Speaker B (unidentified): Some people are really good at those trunks, and I consider myself fairly creative, [45:16] Speaker E (unidentified): but that's overwhelming. [45:19] Speaker C (unidentified): I did, last year or the year before, [45:22] Speaker B (unidentified): make a monster out of an indoor one, but that's kind of what they already have at the places where you're depositing the candy. [45:30] Speaker A (unidentified): Oh yeah, the reverse way. Yes, I'm hoping ours, we're going to be doing that at some point. I know. Well, no, I just want them to be full so I don't, we don't have to worry about getting candy. So just, I'll do the same thing then. I know the Jen should put it up in front of here, plug for anyone that might be watching or watch later. The candy monsters for the PTG are out and they are hungry. Please feed them all the candy that is donated into those monsters. Go towards the PTG event for trunk or treat. It is handed out to all the trunks so the people that are spending all their time and energy doing this don't have to [46:16] Speaker B (unidentified): worry about having the candy in there. So we're there at the school, there's one [46:21] Speaker A (unidentified): one here, yep, the transfer station and the fire station, and those Facebook posts are all out there too that has them linked or listed as well. So just a friendly little plug for another group. All right, so no trunks in the wreck [46:44] Speaker E (unidentified): this year. Okay, I feel like it would be kind of a lot. [46:48] Speaker A (unidentified): Yes, it would be fun, maybe another time, but this year it just doesn't seem like it's in the cards. Is [46:57] Speaker B (unidentified): Is there, like, you mentioned neighbors, healthy neighbors, or things like that. Is there a rec, like, closet where people donate their old stuff? [47:10] Speaker A (unidentified): Yes, it's called The Shed, and it's the big white building at the rec field. And, yeah, we do have some things. We've got a handful of old skates from when they used to do an ice skating rink, which yes, I know everyone's gonna, anybody hears me say that, they're gonna ask about it. Definitely something to look into, but we need volunteers to help run it, and right now we just don't have that yet. So more to come. Where was it on the fields? So you just, yeah, but then it's a lot of maintenance [47:44] Speaker B (unidentified): between just keeping water up and ice up and then shoveling it. I thought I wanted one in my house one day. That was an [47:51] Speaker A (unidentified): an adventure. We had one last year, it was wonderful, but it was only because the ground flooded and froze with the first ice worm of the season, and then we just built on it. [48:01] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh, so you did tarp and level. Yeah, no, it gave me a lot of work. [48:06] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, no, definitely did not do that. We just kept putting water on the front of the lawn. It worked great. Yes, we do have some old cleats and shin guards. I guess we'd rather donate [48:18] Speaker B (unidentified): donate them to someone? Like we shop a lot at Play-D-Gun Sports. I'd rather just donate to someone than get my $2 back. Right now? Yeah. Yeah, so we do have a handful. One thing [48:31] Speaker A (unidentified): that we can do better is to make sure that we're advertising that when we're starting like registrations and stuff. If you need equipment, you can go check with us. We have a handful. And we could probably take it a step further and take inventory of what we have and just keep a writing list even if it's something as simple as a clipboard hanging on the wall when you walk into the shed and you can cross off the things that are whatever just something simple. I would love to put it in a spreadsheet, but then I have to maintain the spreadsheet. That's true, love hate relationship. So we could table that and kind of think about that for another time. Yeah, whatever you want to do. There's a little flower garden but in front of the with black hole is I noticed that I've been [49:35] Speaker E (unidentified): I've been walking down there for exercise and I noticed it. I never noticed it before. [49:40] Speaker A (unidentified): It's been there for like four years. [49:42] Speaker E (unidentified): I was like, is that a garden? It is. Is it okay to buy flowers for it? [49:50] Speaker A (unidentified): Let me check again in the morning. [49:55] Speaker B (unidentified): I think this is like a year project for me. But I would like to see some type of athletic activity, whether it's yoga, tai chi, walking, for adults in the January month. You know, that dark month, some type of way for adults to get together. I'm in the veterans community, and I tend to gravitate to that community. But just people in general that want to get together and do some type of light exercise. [50:36] Speaker A (unidentified): I have been floating around that idea since I came on as director. So I'm glad that you are in that mindset as well. Let's make it happen. We can do it. There's a couple different yoga studios nearby. We can reach out to see if there's any of the instructors that want to come to the town hall and do. We can do a couple of them. I know we've talked about doing it for seniors, doing chair yoga for seniors and stuff like that. [51:02] Speaker B (unidentified): And chair yoga isn't just for seniors if you've ever done it before. I've done chair yoga before. [51:10] Speaker C (unidentified): There's different levels of intensity. [51:13] Speaker E (unidentified): It can be, yeah. [51:14] Speaker B (unidentified): No, because I've done it with the VA when I was living in Utah, and I was like, you know, I still got something out of it. I was way more fit then. [51:23] Speaker A (unidentified): So, do you want to take that on and see if we can find an instructor that might be willing to come in January and figure out kind of a cadence that you think would be good and run with it and bring it back to us next month? [51:36] Speaker B (unidentified): Okay, and what, you know, so I would need to find out how much they charge, right, so that we would know how much to charge for the class or whatever. [51:48] Speaker A (unidentified): Yep, and find out how much. If it's not significant, we might even be able to, it might be, it within the budget to do it for free and just cover the cost as well, which might be helpful, but until we know more information, can't really decide on anything there. But whatever info you can get, whether it's a one-off or we do like we did with kickball once a week for the month or something [52:14] Speaker B (unidentified): something like that, whatever they might be interested in. I would do a tap at Ken's Roots Rec. They offer sessions every so often, and yeah, it was really fun. Nice. Stay [52:33] Speaker A (unidentified): waiting and we'll put some stuff too. Yeah, I look forward to hearing what you find on that. I think it would be great. I will be there. I love yoga. It's my favorite. Mainly because I don't have to physically exert myself. All right. For the third time now, anything [52:53] Speaker E (unidentified): else? Are you sure? One more thing. Okay. A reminder for people to pick up their pet [53:01] Speaker A (unidentified): to waste at the field. Yes, please, and stooped it up the other day. Oh, thank you. What's the issue? People are leaving, they're not cleaning up after their dogs. Is that something, is there signage there for that? I believe there is on the fence. I don't know if it's still bad. [53:23] Speaker D (unidentified): I know it doesn't make that big of a difference, but there are those people who. Ooh, they see your son, they're like, oh, I, yeah. Might make a little bit of a difference. That's good to be aware of. [53:34] Speaker A (unidentified): If you're gonna go there tomorrow, can you look for that? It should be, where I remember seeing it, is by the gate towards the shed, by the break in the fence right there. I've been there so many times, you would think that I don't know, but I don't remember. [53:51] Speaker E (unidentified): I'll check tomorrow. [53:56] Speaker B (unidentified): Oh, speaking of over there, 's some random piece of the kids playground that the kids aren't sure I couldn't figure out what it went to. It's like broken off of something. I can't [54:11] Speaker A (unidentified): stand. I cannot wait to get rid of them and put in a real legit playground someday. Yeah, but like it's this big yellow piece and I was like, I don't know [54:19] Speaker B (unidentified): What it goes to, because it like my kids kept putting it inside the house, these other boys kept taking it outside the house. It's kind of funny to watch. You didn't have no idea what it went to. All right, well, we'll figure it out. [54:33] Speaker A (unidentified): Send me a picture. Yeah, I'm sorry, one more thing with that. I did speak, I think I mentioned this last meeting, I did speak with Little Types Commercial and got and did a site walk with them a couple, quite a few weeks ago now, but did get a proposal from them for any legit 40 by 60 playground. So that is sort of like a big ticket item for down the road. The design looks, it's really great, it's all, it's mostly blue so it matches the school color, which is kind of cool. And the other thing that I still really need to look into is there is a grant program in the state of Maine that if you make the playground ADA compliant, they will cover a significant portion of the cost, up to 50% for the playground. Where would you be able to fit an ADA? It would be on the back side of the field where they just put the new parking lot in, where that woods is right there. That would need to be excavated and we would build it there is my plan, because that's the least swampy area and it just makes sense because it just for the ease of access from the parking lot as well versus anywhere else. But yeah, so more to come with that. I'll get some more information and then I think the selectmen want to kind of hear what I had thought of maybe sooner than later. [56:10] Speaker D (unidentified): I know we're starting to review, we just got at the last meeting, the compiled capital plan. I will say, the record's not on there, so I did point that out and say... I remember hearing that. I know. I was like, I know we had the rec director, so we will be starting to go over that now. Awesome. I expect that, since that was something that we had failed to get on the first ballot, I do think they'll probably ask you just for some more information if we get that chance to talk with you. [56:39] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, I've got most of it ready. [56:42] Speaker D (unidentified): And I'm very excited to see it. You're always so good with your presentations. You always have everything that we need. [56:49] Speaker A (unidentified): I try. Better to have it, not need it, than need it, not have it. It takes a degree. [56:53] Speaker B (unidentified): I love the idea of an ADA playground. [56:56] Speaker D (unidentified): Yeah, I do too. That sounds really nice. [56:57] Speaker A (unidentified): I really do. ADA is sort of like a passion project sort of thing for me because I work in human resources. And for one of my roles in my past life, I created an entire ADA process for the employee experience for a very large company. And so I got to know the law real well and the things that it can do for folks. And it was just, yeah, I think it's a wonderful thing. I got really excited when Goat Hill was, you know, accessible. And oh yeah, I've read that you can, yes, it's a wonderful little trail and the views that talk are really pretty. We did a hike this summer actually for the wreck, it was fun and lunch. And the picnic was great. It's probably something we'll do again next year. Yeah, that was also well received. We can catch you up off camera about all that stuff. All right, last time, anything else? All right, let's see, look at that, almost exactly an hour, 659.