City of Columbia, Missouri

Meeting Minutes - Final

Youth Advisory Council

701 E. Broadway

Columbia, MO. 65201

Conference Room

1A/1B

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

6:00 PM

Regular

I. CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m

12 -

Present:

Excused:

Alex Hiles, John Yu, Grace Harris, Ahlam Alamin, Harvey Munter, Aanya Shetty,

Mira Tosh, Eleanor Schierding, Xi Kang, Kai Kuroki, Laya Anand and Ellie Brooks

4 - Emily Crumbliss, Jacquelyn Sample, Aryan Debnath and Blair Townsend

II. INTRODUCTIONS

Everyone who was present introduced themselves, including staff liaison Lacey Salazar,

Earl Kraus Assistant City Counselor, and Stacey Weidemann Assistant to the City

Manager.

III. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Motion to approve the agenda made by Aanya Shetty, seconded by Grace Harris;

motion carried.

IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Motion to approve the May 13, 2025 minutes made by Ahlam Alamin, seconded

by Harvey Munter; motion carried.

DRAFT Meeting Minutes May 13, 2025

Attachments: YAC Draft Meeting Minutes - May 13, 2025

V. OLD BUSINESS

Youth Summit Discussion Recap

Recap of Youth Summit, if the Youth Advisory Council decided to do another Youth

Summit it would be better to have a space that is more open and welcoming to attract

more visitors, increased foot traffic and availability for more booths. Ideally this could be

an outdoor space or a larger and open space with more windows. It was mentioned that

there wasn’t a huge turnout, which could’ve been attributed to having the event in the

basement of the Armory. Some vendors that ended up coming to last year's Youth

Summit were League of Women Voters, the Fire Department and more.

For fundraising and broadcasting the event should happen sooner than it did last year.

Grace H. suggested having a table at the Earth Day Festival, which could possibly

replace the Youth Summit event if it was agreed upon.

Harvey M. mentioned that events should be directly related to the youth.

Ahlam A. asked how we could connect YAC to the Earth Day Festival, and Eleanor S.

mentioned that YAC has focus areas, and last year sustainability was one of them which

would connect with Earth Day.

Council Annual Report Discussion

Members were confused about the intent and direction of the Annual Report. They

discussed this report being an item to help and guide future YAC members. With this in

mind it was discussed to have this report made for the upcoming year and complete by

May 2026.

VI. NEW BUSINESS

Overview of Sunshine Law

Attachments: Public Meetings and Sunshine Law Overview Presentation

Election of Officers

Motion to elect Grace Harris for Chair made by Ahlam Alamin, seconded by

Casey Kang; motion carried.

Motion to elect Ahlam Alamin for Vice Chair made by Mira Tosh, seconded by

Laya Anand ; motion carried.

Motion to elect Aanya Shetty for Secretary made by Grace Harris, seconded by

Eleanor Schierding; motion carried.

Three Areas of Focus

After some discussion, the Youth Advisory Council members discussed that their three

focus areas would be Sustainability, Wellness, and Youth Safety/Security.

Grace Harris made a motion to approve these three areas of focus, seconded by

Harvey Munter. Motion carried unanimously.

VII. REPORTS

VIII. GENERAL COMMENTS BY PUBLIC, MEMBERS AND STAFF

One member of the public Eric D. from Mizzou joined. He is from KC and attended public

meetings and saw this on the calendar and thought he would stop by. He thought the

Sunshine Presentation was very informative.

Discussed that at the next meeting they will talk about the Youth Summit Planning and

what that looks like for this year, three areas of focus and how we can break that up into

working groups, as well as the Youth Advisory Council’s Mission Statement.

Stacey Weidemann mentioned that we could have staff from our three areas of focus

come out and talk about these subjects as well to help provide guidance on how youth

are impacted in these areas.

IX. NEXT MEETING DATE

October 14, 2025

X. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 6:49pm. Motion to adjourn the meeting was made

by Laya Anand, seconded by Kai Kuroki; motion carried.

Members of the public may attend any open meeting. For requests for accommodations related to

disability, please call 573.874.CITY (2489) or email CITY@CoMo.gov. In order to assist staff in making

the appropriate arrangements for your accommodation, please make your request as far in advance of

the posted meeting date as possible.

USB DRIVES PROHIBITED: A speaker who desires to display a presentation must upload the

presentation, in advance, to the city network using an upload portal. To upload your files and learn

more, visit CoMo.gov/upload.