Providence Recreational Advisory Board-Monday, November 10, 2025-6:00 PM
Call to Order and Roll Call
The Recreation Advisory Board meeting was called to order, followed by a roll call of the board members to establish a quorum. The chairman also welcomed the recreation department staff and directors in attendance.
Winter Basketball Leagues Update
The board received a comprehensive update on the registration status, team commitments, and volunteer coach recruitment for the upcoming winter basketball leagues. Discussions also covered team sponsorships, online registration timelines, and policies to ensure all interested youth are accommodated on competitive teams.
Department Communication Goals and Strategy
The board discussed the recreation department's communication strategies, highlighting the growth of their monthly newsletter, website features, and social media presence. Members recommended merging email databases to expand outreach and suggested collaborating with city councilors and school districts to better promote programs.
Amendment to Agenda and Update on Meal Services
The board approved a motion to amend the agenda to receive an update on the department's expanded meal services program. Staff reported that meal services have doubled at recreation centers to support families affected by the federal government shutdown, after which the meeting was adjourned.
Speaker 0
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Good evening, everybody. Today is Monday, November 10. This is the regular meeting of the recreation advisory board. May I please vote on the role?
Speaker 1
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Chairman Simon.
Speaker 0
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Present.
Speaker 1
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Vice chair Sanchez. Present. Councilwoman Vargas. Present. Dana Lafayette.
Speaker 1
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Present. Kenneth Phillips is absent. We have four present and one absent. We have a forum.
Speaker 0
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Thank you. I also wanna acknowledge, obviously, our how we do all of our work with the recreation department. We have director Holly, assistant director. Always get this last name wrong, but on your on your mom.
Speaker 2
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On your mom. Yeah. You're right on. Right there. I did.
Speaker 2
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And
Speaker 0
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and Jack who is the senior member of the five and also director of the Zukalo Recreation Center. So we are always excited to have you guys with us, and we look forward to a great conversation. So we wanted to talk about today the agenda items that we have. We've talked spent some time talking about the wicker basket model. Know that we're in the kind of mix, right, of registration, so I wanna get an update on that.
Speaker 0
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Obviously, you know, we as a board, I think, had talked about it for a long time about, you know, things that are put in place, like online registration, whatnot. So I started to get an update on where things are at right now for winter basketball leagues.
Speaker 3
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And then I wanted to have
Speaker 0
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a further discussion. This is a topic that we said that we would come back to at least once a year or so to talk about the department's communication goals and what we're doing as a department to get their word out there about the work that's going on in our recreation centers. So without further ado, I think this can be a one of our more on time meetings. But but without further ado, I will turn it over to director Holly. And I believe we have a presentation on
Speaker 3
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on exams?
Speaker 4
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Yes. Yes. We do. Do you have it there, or we'll go ahead on for the handheld?
Speaker 5
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You can sign them.
Speaker 0
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Okay. Alright. No worries. Before we get here, just wanna, again, welcome director Holly. This is his second evening with us first in a formal capacity.
Speaker 0
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Right? The council had had So was a second Second. Second formal. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 0
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Yeah. But, really, the Since you've had some, I don't know more time on the ground. So there you go. Thank you for making the ground running. We appreciate that.
Speaker 0
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I'll just say for my communications, you know, director of Alex are not objective. Pretty regularly, same sort of communication I have with director Grace and Bennett and the press about how you hit the ground running and look forward to hearing more about about some of these items that we're talking about today.
Speaker 4
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Absolutely. I'll just to give some the fact before we get into an update on the on the weather basketball registration, I will say we are a little bit behind given the fact that I just have come on board. It was kind of a a way for me to get on board and get, I mean, into my role before we started the registration and so forth. However, registration is is open and, definitely very robust already, but I'll let Jackie share some updates over and have a chat over there. You're.
Speaker 3
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I think at this point, we are doing pretty well. It's still early, considering the registration and final rostens have to be in, in the last week of December. So as far as teams and participation, I I can just read also in the statute quickly. In the boys 10 and under division, we have commitments from 10 rec centers, boys 12 u, 10 rec centers, boys 14 u, eight rec centers, girls ten u, which is instructional, seven rec centers, girls twelve u, five, girls fourteen u, five. So right now, we have a total of 46 payments committed to the to the meeting, which is a pretty good number, especially at this point in November and considering we opened it up on October thirteenth, eleventh.
Speaker 3
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So I think we're doing we're doing pretty well in a short period of time. This director, became the director on September 22.
Speaker 0
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Right? Mhmm. So go over there for further breakdown. I know you have it in front
Speaker 3
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of you. There are 29 boys teams and 17 girls teams overall, which I think is is really is really a good number, especially at this point, just to reiterate that. We also have a good number of Let
Speaker 0
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me see. Let me say teams, Jackie, are you so these are folks who
Speaker 3
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are actually currently signed up right now? Signed up, and each director made the commitment to put a team in that division.
Speaker 0
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So you've recommended commitment to do it. We don't necessarily have the sign ups in place to do it yet. We have
Speaker 3
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the general interest. Right. The teams are not necessarily made up, but they do have, to your point, the general interest and enough to make the team. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3
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So, I mean, I think it's a pretty good commitment at this stage right now. We can only get more up until the the end of the registration till the end of December. The lead starts the first week of January. There has to be a certain cutout day, especially with the paperwork. I think we're doing really well up to this point.
Speaker 3
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Also, we have a really good number of volunteers, and distribution, 22 at this point already. So I think we're doing pretty well there. And we also have 10 team sponsorships who made commitments to their centers, etcetera. So the numbers to me look really good, especially at this time. And, you know, just from my own past experience, I think we've known really well.
Speaker 3
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Obviously, the ultimate goal is to have everybody on the Hopefully, we can reach that at some point, but I think we're really on our way for full participation at this point.
Speaker 0
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Yeah. So a couple things that kinda popped out to me a little bit. I noticed that Rollins was at zero zero for boys and girls teams.
Speaker 3
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They do. So Rollins right now is trying to get coaches and commitments for coaches. That was her main concern at this point. They did participate in several, excuse me, in several divisions last year, but the director is currently recruiting coaches. And at this point, she didn't wanna make food.
Speaker 3
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She will have teams. She just doesn't know which divisions at this point. And, obviously, without a coach commitment, she didn't wanna give us committed numbers at this point, but she will be.
Speaker 0
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Okay. Alright. Well, director Holly, you can keep us posted on that because, obviously, we can be helpful in helping to recruit coaches. If it's needed, you know, we can very much do that. I think we can Right.
Speaker 4
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And we're not gonna leave Rala, Nasha to deal with
Speaker 0
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that at all. We will help around too as well, yeah, to find outfits. Okay. And, just the other zeros, obviously, most of which with the girls teams, with Jocelyn and and Kennedy. You know, we talked a lot about making sure that our that our girls programming is equally on par with our with our boys programming.
Speaker 0
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So just, you know, I know we still have a little bit of time to kind of work this out, but what is the plan to start to, you know, fill in some of those areas where some growth teams might might be needed?
Speaker 3
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Yeah. And I know both directors are actively recruiting more participation. I know they've had a little bit of a challenge at this point because of the relocation and because of the uncertainty of Jozann. So, Zipple is actively working towards that. We've had conversations with them.
Speaker 3
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And, again, to direct to Holland's point, if they need assistance, which they've reached out to us somewhat at this point, if they do need assistance at some point, we'll we'll absolutely, you know, go full throttle if they if they may need. If they see that they're struggling to the point where they're not gonna participate, we will definitely help them as of as of the problem.
Speaker 4
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And I would say my goal is to have a 100% participation as far as, the young ladies playing. Young ladies in sports, empowering them is something that's very important to me. So I certainly will take on a personal challenge to make sure that this happens. Yeah.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. Sure. Oh, yes. Thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 2
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What was the moment?
Speaker 0
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Oh, so the so all the teams that have, committed already, they have coaches, like, already set. Correct.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. They already have coaches. I mean, we're we're always looking for coaches. You know, if anybody's listening out there, volunteers, especially, but they feel as though they're in a position to field the team at this point. So that's why they make the commitment for some around their way, but they just didn't wanna give a full commitment at this point.
Speaker 3
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Or if they don't want to rescind it, if they ultimately couldn't fill the team. Well, I feel confident that we are. And and, actually, the girls 10 and under division, which is instructional, there's seven. So there's more teams than the girls 10 and under division than than there are in the girls 12 14 u, which shows that eventually we'll get those eight groups tied to that point, but it's a good start. If anyone visited rounds last year for the girls 10 under instructional, it was phenomenal.
Speaker 3
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They they had the most fans. They had the most participation. They had the most fun. I have to be honest. Even in the loss, some of the girls were happy, you know, just to play and just to run around and just, know, just to learn the game of basketball at that point because at that point, it's strictly instructional.
Speaker 3
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Yeah. But most of them, it was the first time they got on the call. And if you noticed when you were at several of the games, initially, they were a little bit shy because, you know, Liz fans and and somebody knew, but by the time the end of the season came, they were just loving every celebration that that was brought to them. And we actually, you know, had a I don't know what ceremony at the end, just to keep keep their confidence and keep their interest for the next level.
Speaker 6
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I I have a quick question. If there's players but not a coach, do you ever have a rec center employee, like, paid to actually coach the team? Yes. Absolutely. Okay.
Speaker 3
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And and we encourage that also. So there's a mix if you look. Oh, I'm sorry. We don't have that stat. We just have volunteers.