Hood Council Meeting: 2001

Hood Council Meeting
2001
Attendees: Fiona Kent, Carmela Herendez, Rebecca Wilsonoff, Johan Shazad, Julio Wilsonoff

Agenda
Food Expo
Spirit of the Community Award
Neighborhood Photos
Interest Groups vs Hobby Clubs
Hood Council President Photos
Municipal Merger


Fiona Kent calls the meeting to order and reads over the agenda. She then opens the floor.

"This year's Food Expo is going to be very well." Julio starts. "The Farmer's Market is undergoing slight renovations to prepare for the event. Residents will learn a lot of nutritional information about fresh produce and healthy juice recipes. The Greys will be handing out composting bins to visiting families in order to collect composting material. In exchange they are offering a discount on purchases from The Farmer's Market."

"The excitement around the Food Expo has been waning over the past simyears. Any suggestions on how to keep it relevant and improve attendance this simyear?"

"Better publicity. I found a sign that we could alter with information about the Food Expo, or simply ordering more paper signs for buildings."

"What else?"

"Expanding the Expo beyond the market's borders. With the new pavilion at Alisa Crawston Park, we can bring in some musical acts, hold a nightly fireworks show, heck we could even host some of the events in Apple Valley Metro. I even have some ideas on how to increase the profit from the event."

"Please continue."

"We could make the entrance to the expo and musical entertainment free. However, have plenty of food and drink for sale. In order to purchase food and drink, we would have guests buy tickets."

"What if we just made a large summer festival?" Carmela asked.

"Please explain."

"Well, instead of the Food Expo, a music festival and then an arts festival, we could combine and have one large festival for all events. We could change the name to the Apple Festival and we'd have a better chance of recruiting top talent and great publicity."

"The Apple Festival, I like it."

"The Apple Festival would be an art, food and music festival. Since it's the summer, we could even award the Spirit of the Community Award at the festival. We could definately have the other ideas that Julio presented, such as the fireworks show and food vendors. Since the festival is larger, we could charge vendors to set-up during the festival and entertain big name entertainment options."

"Sounds great. Please do some more research and present a detailed plan. Let's move on to the Spirit of the Community Awards. Carmela, please present your report."

"Wait." Rebecca interjected. "I just want to let the council know that we can't afford to give the award every simyear, so I propose we follow Lakeside Heights lead with thier Metro Business Award and give the award every four simyears."

"That's a little long of a time to promote community spirit, I'd perfer every simyear. Perhaps we can make the prize cheaper?" Johan suggested.

"The Spirit of the Community Award is based on the defunct SUN Awards. Good neighbor quality, nothing witchy or illegal. Simply to sims that represent the best of Apple Valley." Carmela interjected. "The defunct SUN awards typically offered a plaque and trophy. It would be fairly easy to order a custom plaque and offer §1,000 from the hood council. If we keep the prize minimal, then we'll be able to offer the award simyearly."

"I am sure that if we ask local businesses the owners will be willing to donate prizes as well."

Rebecca nodded. "The Toy Shoppe will gladly donate a §500 certificate for the award as well as a new video game system."

"Sounds great, how will voting work?"

"We'll open it up to SimNation to help us vote. Of course, the residents must nominate 4-6 sims for the award that promote community service and good old fashioned neighborliness. We'll interview the nominees and publish a special article detailing the nominees. We'll also feature the winner with an article in the paper."

"Sounds great. Let's move on to the issue of neighborhood photos. I think we should have some professional aerial photos of the hood and associated land taken for the website. We could even add notation as to street names and buildings. Any objections?" Fiona asked.

"As long as the photos are not during winter."

Fiona made a note of the excellant proposal. "Great, let's move on to the topic of interest groups vs hobby clubs. Johan, please explain your proposal."

"The number of sims enrolled in the local interest groups is very low, which is indicative of our rural nature. I propose that we ask hobby clubs such as Sports 2 U to associate with our interest groups and combine the enrollment. I've already spoken with the leaders at Peerless Park and the Garden Committee and they agreed to combine memberships. The Homemaker's Society will combine membership with Sue's Kitchen and the Historical Society will combine membership with Desirable Discourse. Combining memberships will mean that our interest groups have the opportunity to use the facilities of the hobby clubs and this will mean less maintence for our Archives/Technology Officer and thus a reduction in responsibilities and a possible reduction in salary expenses."

"Very concise, Johan. Any objections or concerns?"

"So we would be further reducing Li's salary?" Julio asked.

"That is a possibility."

"What about her family?"

"Reducing her responsibilities to the hood council will enable her to persue greater opportunities in her employment outside the hood council duties." Rebecca added.

"What are we trying to reduce her responsibilities to ultimately?"

"To managing the archives, making technological back-ups, and submitting the online paper."

"Any other questions? Finally I would like to discuss the photos of past hood council presidents. I spoke with Antonio Herendez and he promised us a great price for painting protraits of the past hood council presidents, including our TS1 ancestors. Any objections?"

"One suggestion," Rebecca spoke up. "We could also try to film a short informercial about Apple Valley. It could detail the history of the hood and why we're a great place to visit and live."

"Excellant idea! Let's move on to the final item on the agenda. The residents of Apple Valley Metro have submitted a proposal that Apple Valley would incorperate it to form a combined area called Apple County."

"What does this mean, exactly?"

"Basically it means that we would expand our jurisdiction to Apple Valley Metro and assume responsibility for the area, and the residents would then pay taxes to us. The hood council would need to be restructured into a county council as it would now serve two islands of land."

"This 'merger' would create the need for more services, correct?"

"Yes. We would eventually need to establish a school and clinic in Apple Valley Metro."

"Would the residents of Apple Valley Metro need to apply for immigration?"

"No, with the merger, the residents of Apple Valley Metro and Apple Valley would jointly be known as residents of Apple County. All the residents would be responsible for taxes, fees and fines as well as benefit from joint services."

"That's going to be a lot of work to prepare."

"Yes, therefore I propose that we send out details of the proposition to all residents of Apple Valley and Apple Valley Metro and call for a local vote. Any objections? Good, this meeting is over."