 human services, and we drove down here together from Burlington today. So that was normal to have a lot of women in the administration, at least in Vermont. And I just gave them the chance, and they each did excellent work, and their resumes may have been slightly different from the men who had held those positions. But I think I looked at the resumes differently. I saw the potential. Often when people are appointed or hired, the criteria is like the person who held the job before. And for example, women may not have built up a resume because they spent 10 years raising children, but in doing volunteer work, those experiences might be very useful if you hold a job in any job to have a sense of the community and have other talents. So that was exciting. And I would say each one of the women I appointed have succeeded. And then when Dick Snelling followed me, he kept those positions, and other governors have since felt sort of a silent pressure to not go backwards anywhere. Well, thank you very much. Thank you so much for being at the table there for about 10 minutes to sign any books that you might wish. Thank you. You've been a great audience. And I hope you do because it's a phenomenal book. And speaking on a very personal note, I just turned 80. So I really appreciate what she's been saying. It's funny, you know? There's something about that magic number eight that makes you rethink about everything. And my rethinking isn't anywhere near as elegant as Madden Cunitz, but it's an important milestone. So I appreciate very much her discussion about not only the book, but the feelings that go into the book. But at this point, well, it was a little while ago. But I would like you all to multitask because we are limited in time. And I want to introduce Rich Fiesta. Rich is the executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans. And I haven't really talked about the Alliance for Retired Americans. And I really need to simply because that's the primary reason we're here. We want to make a difference and we want to make that difference for seniors. And as Madeline said, we are one of the, not one of, we are the biggest voting block in the United States. And in Vermont in particular, which is known as an aging state. And we have needs. And a lot of those needs are not being addressed very well. And we feel that we need to have the power. And that's what this conference is all about, fueling senior power. And that applies to both Congress as well as the state legislature. So with that, let me talk about Rich for a minute. Why don't we let people get through because there's just going to be too much noise. You think so? Yeah, let's do a lot of 10 minutes. Well, Rich is willing to give a little bit of his time. Oh. But lots of his time. But he's come all the way from Washington to talk to us. So I want to make sure he gets a chance. But I do want to say that he became executive director in, I wrote it down. 2013. 2013, yes. And we are growing. There are, we've just established new chapters in several states across the nation. And we are totally, well, I hate to say this, but kind of middle class people. We are not the wealthy. We somehow are not very middle class sometimes. And this is an organization that really seeks to support the people who need government assistance and need government reassurance because they're still trying to attack social security after all of these years. And that is most of our lifeline. So, okay, I'll get off. I wanted to let you know that the Vermont Alliance for Retired Americans has a small collection of books on labor in honor of our first president, Chet Briggs. And it's at the Aldrich Library in Barrie. And Karen has brought the books, some of the books, so that you can see what's available there. Chet was our inspiration for getting the ARA started originally. And this is, I think I told you, the 15th anniversary of our founding. So take a look. We'll add to the collection as things go along. And it's a great resource and it can be obtained if you're really interested in labor books through interlibrary loan if you don't live in the Barrie, Monterey area. So, and now let's hear from Richard. Actually works, thanks. And great to be back again. I think we were really honored to have the governor here and just the great service she gave to the state of Vermont. And then after dealing with that, and Vermont is a big diverse state. And then how would you like to be appointed ambassador to a country that has four official languages? Which is what she then had to go through. And the Principality of Liechtenstein I read as well. But just, I mean, for me just a great honor. And I know in Vermont everybody knows everybody. You know, you see Bernie at the grocery store and, you know, things like that. And I do like coming up when we can as well. It's great to get to hear Bernie with that crisp New England accent. Always, always enjoy that as well. Just for like, remember Orson Bean back in the game show guy from Vermont back in the 60s and Bernie kind of like. Anyway, what I want to talk about today is what's up. There are important national legislative bills that Congress is going to consider soon on prescription drugs. A lot of seniors issues coming along. So just talk about that because between now and the end of the year, both federal and I know a number of other issues are going to be coming up. Jane said, as you know, the Alliance was founded by the AFL-CIO back in 2001 to be a, and thank you again, Governor. To be, you know, an active force for retirees and retiree programs, not only on retiree issues, but other things that we care and lobby about like minimum wage, the right to bargain collectively, for example, as well. We now have about four and a half million chapters. A number of, in the labor movement, a number of unions care about their retirees and organize their retirees that then fold in to us. Bruce, who came from the machinists, they have an active retiree program around the country. A number of others do auto workers, steel workers, machinists, teachers, postal workers. Quite a number have their own as well. And state workers too. Yes, state workers. And in a lot of states like here, I was just in Kentucky a few weeks ago, that if the state workers are an independent union, they are here, quite a number of states actually, but they still join us and are backbone on a lot of issues around the country. Vermont's a great example of that. President is Robert Roach, who for many years was the Secretary International, Secretary Treasurer of the Machinists. He came out of the transportation industry, airlines, so for a number of years, remember all those bankruptcies in the airline industry in the 90s and 2000s, so he has become quite an expert in pension and retirement issues because of his work there. And our Secretary Treasurer, Joe Peters, who came from the auto workers, again, an industry that had a lot of retiree issues on healthcare, pensions and the like as well. I'd like this to be a map of the Electoral College next year, one in here for good, of all these blue states. But it's actually where we have chapters. We just started a Kentucky chapter this year, next Saturday, unfortunately. I can't be back in Vermont. I'm going to be in Topeka, Kansas, and we're going to start the Kansas Alliance for Retired Americans chapter. So no maple syrup. There are no trees to turn colors. It's flat and they don't have craft beer. Barbecue. They got barbecue. Barbecue. So that's right. Kansas City barbecue. I'll have to bring a Vermont beer with me as well. So we're growing there. Obviously some states weren't as union dense as they call it as others, but we're kind of infilling as we go along as well. And you know, we are advocates. We keep score. We have an annual congressional voting record where we keep 10 U.S. House and 10 Senate votes every year. It's easy coming here because everybody gets 100 for Vermont, all three of your members. It's easy in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Other states, not so much, but it's a good thing. Members of Congress use it in their tweeting and their websites. They'll use it in their campaigns. We have a newsletter anybody can sign up for called the Friday Alert by email. How many here kind of get it or do get it? Good. Now, Bruce, we're trying to get you back on to it as well, but it's a good what's up, not only in Washington, but also what's up going around in our states as well because a lot of senior advocacy issues happen in state capitals, meals on wheels, the senior centers, Medicaid, for example. It's just as important to be active in the state as with the federal level. Spanish language, most of our fact sheets are in Spanish on the website. We do have a website as well. We do, as bills come up, if you're, we'll ask you to send a pass-through letter to your member of Congress, for example, to vote for or sometimes against a piece of legislation. So, you know, that's our activism as well. Just hear some general photos of us around both D.C. and around the country. We like to take good pictures of seniors. We're for expanding social security. It's a press conference. He was right off camera and had to leave, but Senator Sanders was there. He has a bill to expand social security, for example. Our Connecticut president next door, Betty Marafino on the left, came down and testified on social security because her congressman's now, because elections matter, the chairman of the Social Security subcommittee. And if we don't like certain members of Congress, this guy tell us from South Carolina, although it's his phyllis, I will change that back. The TH is my editing is not so good. So sometimes we'll tell folks, you know, you're not on our side. And we do hero and zero off of our voting record. There's our Florida people. There's a congresswoman from Florida named Frederica Wilson. She was a state senator. She has a very important subcommittee now since the Democrats took the house back. She has the jurisdiction over most federal labor laws, the National Labor Relations Act. But she's known for wearing hats. So somehow our Florida people got a baker to bake a cake like one of her hats. So that pink object is actually a cake. And there she is in one of her hats. So as you know, every year we celebrate the anniversary of Medicare on July 30, the anniversary of Social Security on June, or excuse me, August 14. They're two weeks apart, so we'll do cakes. You'd go visit your office of your local congressman or senator, or we'll go to the Social Security Administration and say thank you, because the front line member is there. Yes, Jane. Oh, is that right? Well, you're younger than Social Security because 2020 will be the 85th anniversary of Social Security and the 55th anniversary of Medicare. And it's an election year, so we're going to plan and do a lot there. So good to know August 14 is going to be easy to remember now in Vermont as well. And then we help the people who are part of us, Union. We are the labor movements organization. We just had a number of retirees around the country out on UAW picket lines, for example. We had San Francisco retired teachers going up to Stockton, California to work a picket line, for example. Last year, it didn't get a lot of national publicity, but the state of Missouri voted down by statewide referendum right to work by a two-to-one margin. Yeah. And we were very active in that as well. That was a year ago in August. So, you know, we're out there. We're being active, having meetings not only as the Alliance, but with our participating groups as well. So what I want to talk a little more about for the rest of my time here is on just our issues on retirement. No question Americans, regardless of party, think the U.S. is in a retirement crisis, that there's not enough money for people to have a decent quality of life in retirement. And the recent polling this year by a group, National Institute for Retirement Security, that does very good work, especially in the public sector and public sector retirements, as well as private, did a poll. And it doesn't matter. People do believe that there is a retirement crisis here. Four out of five households have less than one year's income saved. And half of people in the pre-retary years, 45 to 54, have nothing saved as well. And if you're 55 to 65, getting closer to retirement and Social Security and Medicare, again, very little saved because real wages in this country for working people, adjusted for inflation, have not gone up since the 1980s. They've been flat, but healthcare has gone up, the highest inflation part of our economy. Cost of living out of everything else has gone up, but wages have not gone up. So all this productivity, think back to 1980 where there are no computers and no web and all of this, all the gains from that productivity have gone to the very, very top in our society because we have a tax system and other structures in our economy that have rewarded that, but the folks who are out working have not gotten a better deal. And also economists say it's also due to the decline of people who are in a labor union or who have collective bargaining in their workplace to bargain for better wages and benefits and retirement as well. And we're seeing it with what's happening now in the economy. Social Security, because fewer people have pensions, fewer people have savings, becomes even more important in retirement. And where it may have been about half of your retirement income, now 75% of people rely on it for the majority of their income. And in the bottom 25% of people are making under $10,000 or under $20,000. That's that red part of the graph. Social Security is a huge part of your retirement income. And our Social Security system is good, but it's not going to sustain you. Vermont is above average, about one out of four people receive Social Security either through retirement or you lost a spouse or a parent or you're disabled. That's higher than the national average by about 5%. The typical Vermont retiree is just getting under $15,000 a year in Social Security. Anyone here can live just on $15,000 a year? Of course not. And that's why we talk about why we need to expand it. As you probably saw about two, three weeks ago, the COLA for next year came out. 1.6%. And of course that keeps right up with healthcare inflation, right? Drugs are only going, insulin's only got up 1.6%, right? Or any kind of healthcare as well. So we're going to talk in a second about how we need to expand Social Security. But Social Security in Vermont is bringing in almost 7% of the state's income through the year. $2.2 billion come into Vermont every year. And as we know, that money gets spent. That's not stuffed in the mattress or given to a hedge fund or something like that. It is a very important part of the economy. And that's what we keep trying to tell members of Congress and the like who want to privatize it or cut benefits. We can't afford it. We hear that a lot. It is very important and especially when we had the economic downturn. Social Security was coming in every month and was sort of a counterweight when the economy goes down as well. In Medicare in Vermont, just under 150,000 Vermonters are on it. And there's not, it looks like a lot of Medicare Advantage plan to uptake in Wisconsin that 90% of the population are just on regular traditional Part A, Part B, fee for service, see your own doctor as well. Which means then, if you want the drug, you have to go get the Part D program as well. It just shows the way the insurance industry has worked since these private insurance plans have come into Medicare. They don't care about small states. They want New York or California where they can have lots of people in plans as well. And there are issues in the Medicare Advantage plans on coverage and the like there, especially in a nursing home because he was just dealing with a friend who, his father was in Florida and they had a Medicare Advantage plan and could not find the skilled nursing facility in a nursing home to take him because the reimbursement rate under that Medicare Advantage plan was too low. And so he's trying to wait, so it's open season, to get him back into regular Medicare as well. So you have to be very, very careful on choosing Medicare versus Medicare Advantage every year as well. Vermont and the Affordable Care Act, there are very important 74,000 people pre-Medicare have at least one or more pre-existing conditions and had the ACA been repealed. Remember it was Senator McCain and the one thumbs down that kept it alive. Pre-existing conditions would not have been covered anymore and that really hurts people who are pre-Medicare over 50 but not yet ready at 65 for it as well. That's something we have to watch as well. So that's kind of what Medicare and Social Security bring in Vermont and I want to talk at the end here about what's up legislatively and on the map over the next coming months as well. It starts with drug care and drug prices as well. Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world and that hasn't happened by accident. We don't negotiate for our programs like our competitors do in Europe and right here in Canada's. Anyone here either gone to Canada or know someone who's gone to Canada to buy a prescription drug? Just a few miles away, right? Exactly. Early in our years at the Alliance, we did that from Maine to Washington State. We sent people into Canada, came back, had a press conference. Senator Sanders is very important. Brown from Ohio when he was a congressman was very helpful with us as well. It hasn't changed and that's 15 plus years ago. In Canada you can walk into a pharmacy and buy insulin over the counter for what, 10 to 20 percent of the cost in the U.S., for example. And other things. There was another drug that's used in breast cancer called tamoxifen and because the brand name company can cut these side deals with the generics to keep it off market or at a higher price, it's 90 percent cheaper in Canada, for example, than it is in the United States. Just criminal. And it's affecting not only personally but all of our public programs like Medicaid, Medicare, the CHIP insurance programs as well. And all of us as taxpayers, some way or the other, are feeling that. If you're negotiating with the state government on your VSEA plans, for example, or in the private sector, we all feel it some way or the other. So, in the last 12 months, AARP did some polling this past year. This is seniors. 44 percent delayed filling a prescription. That's almost half because they couldn't afford it. A quarter didn't fill it at all. I mean, you just hear stories from pharmacists saying, you know, pushing the bag back. You can't afford it. Or even as bad, taking less medication than prescribed. And that is very bad and can have bad health consequences as well. So these are real, real everyday issues that we're seeing. They found that about 20, almost one in five remonters on this poll not stop taking a drug because of cost, for example. So what we're hoping to get done by the end of the year, and this is where elections have consequences, is HR3. In the House of Representatives, it's passed out of all the appropriate committees. And Speaker Pelosi's office said this last week it will be on the House floor after the Thanksgiving recess in December. So we'll get revved up. We'll do emails asking you. Again, it's easy here to tell Peter Welsh to go vote for HR3 because I think he's a co-sponsor already. Politicians like to hear. They like to be comforted. So it's free just to push the button, send a letter. He'll probably send you a letter back by email as well. But this is the first time that we have the ability since Part D was passed that said thou shalt not negotiate to HHS in 2003 to start allowing Medicare to negotiate. And HR3 also will apply it to the private sector as well, to private sector drugs that people in private health care plans get as well, that would be state plans or private industry plans as well there. Because if they don't, then there's a very high excise tax put on the companies as well for their drugs. So they're going to start with the 250 highest drugs. I mean, the HHS has never done this before, so they have to gear up. And frankly, at least for the next year, we have folks at HHS who are not on our side on a lot of this too. The person who runs Medicare and Medicaid ran those programs in Indiana for then Governor Pence. And she is no friend of anything that we've been for. There have been lawsuits trying to stop changes in regulations and the like there. Good news too is HR3 will cap anybody's drug prices at $2,000 a year. If you're on Part D and you go into the donut hole, you're paying a lot. You've already spent well over $2,500. And if you come out of the donut hole, you're still paying 5% on the catastrophic. So if you're on Medicare, this is a maximum cost reduction to you as well. There's a Senate bill that Senator Grassley from Iowa is on. Not as good as this because you will probably be seeing now because the president's tweeting the Grassley bill is better and these people don't know what they're doing in the house. No negotiation and the cap in the Senate bill is $3,100. It's 33% higher. So HR3 better for all of us and at least we'll get it out of the house this year. So that's one thing we're going to be working on over the next six weeks. Hopefully next month. Expanding Social Security. We've been talking about it for years. We've changed the debate. Groups like the Alliance and other Social Security advocates because even in the Obama administration, the so-called smart people were saying, you know, we have to cut Social Security in order to save it and change the COLA to even a lower COLA than we have now. The conversations changed. There's one bill in by Congresswoman Linda Sanchez from California. We like it the best. It raises the payroll cap, which this year is $132,000, without taxing and raising the FICA on working people. We just take the cap over 10 years and eliminate it. And then we have more money coming into the trust funds. The better CPI that's based on what seniors in the elderly spend their money on, which starts with health care, the highest part of inflation in our economy. Surviving spouses, widows, widowers will get a higher benefit as well. And then the minimum benefit for people who had lower incomes in their working life. There's a guaranteed minimum. That will go up as well. So we're talking about it. I don't think they're going to do anything on it this year, because I'm going to talk about the WEP bill in a second. But we can. There is momentum at some point for expanding Social Security. Trade and NAFTA. This is another thing we could be facing in the coming months. The new negotiated NAFTA, or it's called USMCA, we just call it NAFTA 2.0, when Canada, the US, and Mexico actually locks in more monopoly protections for the drug industry. Surprise. Especially in the new type of drugs called biologic, biologically based. They are not very much of the drug market, less than 5%, but they're the largest cost. And they're evolving and coming on the market every year. So our patent law will be extended in all three countries, or the three other, two other countries, would be as well. So it gives the manufacturers more monopoly, less time for generics as well. So the drug industry got, I mean it looks like Trump is copying off the Mexican president. The president is there. He's like, how do you spell my name? And Trudeau is looking like, I want to get out of here. But that's something we have to watch. We understand there are people because of agriculture and other things that want to get this on the floor, but Speaker Pelosi says it's not happening until this gets fixed and quite a number of labor protections and environmental protections need to be changed too. But that's something we're watching just like HR3. This doesn't apply so much to Vermont, but it applies to most every other New England state that a number of state and local governments have never been in the social security system. When it was founded and created, states had the option, not the private sector, but states had the option of whether or not to participate in social security. And a number did not and still do not today. So they have their own separate state-based pension systems outside of social security. Well, a gift from the Reagan administration in the 80s said that if you have a state-based pension outside of social security and you had enough credits that you worked in the private sector that you got social security credits, they look at what your social security would be in your state pension and then through a formula, they cut your social security benefits even though you worked in the private sector and got them. And sometimes it can be a very dramatic up to a third of what your social security benefit would have been. And it's very important in Massachusetts and Connecticut and Rhode Island and Maine, for example. So the new chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which oversees social security and Medicare trade, for example, is Richard Neal from Springfield, Massachusetts. And he's now the chair, so he can decide, I want to fix the web. So he just in October put in a bill that would, if you're retired and you're a victim of what's called the windfall elimination provision, after the bill passage, you will get another $150 a month, $1,800 a year just added on to your social security benefit to make up. For some people, it's not enough that they're losing, and there's some cases that are people losing between $2,500 and $3,000 a month between a husband and wife on it as well. Then he changes the formula on this thing to bring it down so it is not as harsh as it is now. It's not a complete repeal and it gets very technical, but he definitely wants to get this bill out of his committee and onto the House floor at least by the end of the year. And there are about 2,400 people in Vermont that are affected by that. My guess is they work somewhere else and then retired here in Vermont, because if you're, right, Vermont state employers or a state employee, you're paying in the social security, right, the VSEA people, for example. But other states, in Illinois, for example, the state employees are not covered by social security, but the city of Chicago is. So it's the same thing in California. It's a real hodgepodge all around the country, and there are somewhere about 5 million-plus people who are now retired affected by this as well. So it's a technical issue. It's obviously unfair, so hopefully we can get that fixed on its way as well. Another thing, private pensions, what are called multi-employer pensions. If you're in the construction industry or a lot of transportation industry, you don't have a pension like if you work for the Ford Motor Company, you get the Ford pension. Let's say we're an electrical worker in the construction industry, because if you're an electrical worker, you work 6 months for this company and maybe a year for that company. So all the employers in that industry fund a common pension. That's why it's called multi-employer. And a lot of them, because unionization is down, are in some trouble in terms of being able to meet their future needs as well. So some have collapsed. There's the very large one. The central states, one of the Teamsters Union, since the trucking industry has mostly gone non-union over the last 30 years or so. So there's a plan to allow a loan program to help these struggling funds as well. There's a separate loan for the United Mine Workers. That may run on another track as well. But it's, again, a technical issue but affects a lot of our members nationwide. So hopefully we may see some action on that. And I just mentioned the mine workers. I don't think there were a lot of coal mines in Vermont. But there are retired mine workers in every state, believe it or not. And hopefully we'll see some action on that in the coming months as well. The Butch Lewis Act is the multi-employer. It's out of the house. And again, it's in that graveyard of the Senate right now. But hopefully we can get some action on it as well. So in closing, two things we think coming up, we have to be watchful about. HR3 prescription drugs. And we'll probably be very active over the next month or six weeks. And then unclear is the NAFTA USMCA, which has some bad prescription drug monopoly provisions, short term. Looking towards next year, election year, get out the vote. As well will be very important to us as well. So I'd say just sign up for our Friday alert as well. We also are on Facebook. How many people on Facebook here? Yeah. Seniors are the fastest growing group on Facebook. Because the kids are using stuff, you know. Tiktok, snap, this, that, whatever, Insta, whatever. But seniors to communicate with children and grandchildren are very active on Facebook. Which also means, as we've seen over the last three years, you can be manipulated on Facebook. And that nice sounding group really started in St. Petersburg, Russia. And, you know, not in Rutland, Vermont or someplace like that as well. So we are active on Facebook as well. So, again, great being here. And looking forward to the rest of the day. Thanks. Ah, yes, sure. That's a great, great idea. Another thing is like we're in Virginia now to organize a group called Labor Free Rights Now. That got the Equal Rights Amendment enforced out of committee for the first time. And it failed by one vote because Chuck Robb, LJ's son-in-law, didn't pass, didn't vote. So it failed for one vote. And now Virginia is talking about getting the ERA passed again. But I think we should couple with people that are trying to get the ERA passed. Because this is a, like, minimum wage, just increasing family incomes. When you look around the room, you can see women survive longer than men. So I think we should find out where the ERA still has not passed. And partner with whoever is trying to get it through the state legislature. Good idea. That's a great idea. Good, good idea. Yeah, they've already been articles since the Virginia legislature flipped on Tuesday that this may be one of the first things they take up in January. Then there's some constitutional legal issues. Because when ERA was first passed, they said you had to get the 38 states by 1982. But having that first, let's get the 38 states to do it. And that looks like that could happen very early next year. And then you can see what happens on fixing it down the road, too. That would be a great thing. Yeah. What's that? Oh, he was saying the Equal Rights Amendment, which came one state short. It was a state of passage back in the 70s and 80s. Now with the Virginia legislature flipping to Democratic, there's a likelihood it may pass it and then become the 38th state. Because I think Illinois was one that did it, that hadn't done it, and now we need one more. So that could happen and there have been articles already written in the media about it may be something that the new Virginia legislature takes up early next year. And then I mentioned this article also said the original ERA said it had to be ratified within seven years, which would have been 1982, and then did it turn into a pumpkin or not. So there may be some court issues about it. But the important thing is let's get the 38th state to pass it and then go from there. And that probably will happen sometime next year, earlier rather than later. Yes, our conventions, which is our highest governing body, have passed Medicare for All resolutions, or everybody being covered some way or the other. But as we're finding out, what does Medicare for All mean? Because we're also seeing that a lot of seniors, when they see the phrase Medicare for All, get very nervous because they think they're going to lose something. Now we're kind of informed here, but that's a political problem. But excuse me, I guess the new phrases Medicare for All who wanted could work too. Obamacare was more about coverage and because of the Supreme Court on Medicaid and now this administration cutting it back, we really didn't get the promise of coverage, because so now we have still coverage issues and cost issues on top of it. So we need a new president to fix this. New Senate. And the new Senate, yes. Yes. New Senate. Yes. Okay, thank you, Jane. That's always been great, yeah. We have to set up a table for the panel. Yeah. That was really helpful. Thank you. I'll be around all day. Okay. Let me talk while you're doing that. Basically what we wanted to do in this part of the program is that Rich would talk to the national issues, which he certainly did and very, very well, and that we would have local folks talk about what's happening here in Vermont that affects seniors. And the people who are going to be on this panel are very, very deeply involved with seniors. Representative Dan Noyes from LaMoya County works with the, wait a minute. The, he's, ah, here we go. He's on the Committee on Human Services in the legislature. He also works for a living with the Office of Aging out of Barry and he's the RSVP director for this area. So Dan knows about what's going on. And then going geographically, Rita Copeland is the director of the Twin Valley Senior Center, which is in East Montpelier, but it covers Plainfield, Marchfield, all over the place. Cabot, yeah. Rita's been director for how long? A long time. Twelve years, okay. And from going further north now, we have two wonderful people from Burlington. One is, because I'm looking at her, Cindy Zuck. Cindy has a very interesting background in that, in addition to working with seniors, she has a major background in the theater. So I expect a great presentation from you. No pressure though. No pressure, no pressure. And, yes she is in Cathedral Square in Burlington. But, and then Gail, Gail, I think I'm pronouncing your name wrong. Moro, okay. Or any other way you want. Well, she has been the director for the Heineberg Senior Center in Burlington for a long time, but now her primary activity is that she is the, where is it? I actually don't think that was right. Okay. Tell them, Gail. I don't know what to do, Gail. Coordinator of Senior Centers of Vermont, which is a local group in Vermont trying to get coordinated. But I'll let you guys talk about it. Yeah. Being very sweet. Can we stand up for a second to see how hard it is to stretch? Yeah. Go ahead, Van and I. Go ahead. Let me see. No, I don't think we can. Well, I don't understand. What I ask these women to present to us is whether these are providers. And since they work closely with providers at both in the city and in the country, I ask them to give us a good reason when we should really support the senior centers, support seniors, and then talk with our legislators. So this is a group of... Oh, sorry. I wonder if you could either turn up the PA or please take a minute to pass the microphone and talk into it, because it's really valuable information to get. But if you don't get it... So before we start, we have legislature, legislators here. And what is on our board that we need to hear from them? Can you hear me up there? I don't like the microphone. Okay. I want to thank you for inviting me here today. I am executive director of Twin Malle Senior Center in East Montoya, Vermont. I have been the director for about 12 years. When I took over as director, the center used to be at what they call the old schoolhouse in Marshfield, Vermont. And they were meeting three times a week having a meal with seniors that went there, which was probably between six and 12 seniors. And then they were outsourcing to do meals on wheels and paying $6 a meal to have the meals brought in by the bus driver when he brought people in and distributed by volunteer drivers. So after I became director, I said, why are we paying this money out when you're cooking here already? So it made the long story short. A couple of the volunteers who had been there a long time agreed with me. And so we took and started getting our own meals, cooking them from scratch right there and processing them for the volunteer drivers to take them out. Today the center runs the, we do about a thousand meals a week or more and we also feed the seniors at the center three days a week. We have to do a lot of fundraising. We're a non-profit and that's very difficult to do a lot of times when you don't have enough help to do it. The center mostly runs on volunteers daily pay staff or myself in a book. The rest of it is all done by volunteers. They're wonderful dedicated people. We cover six towns. We cover Cabot, Mushfield, Woodbury, East Montpellier, Plainfield, and Cabot, if I didn't say that. So we're in a very, very rural area. I haven't had an opportunity because I'm the only one working on the administrative part to get out into the communities to do outreach. What little bit I have done, I know that seniors are very stubborn and set in their ways like me. I sometimes succeed in getting them to come and try just once. To come have a meal and socialize and play bingo or go to the exercise classes. But there again, I have just learned a couple of months ago that my transportation, I have to cut it by three hours. We have a bus through council on aging contract that pays for transportation to different areas and I know they have a lot to cover because I think there's 18 senior centers if incorrect. And they also do local transportation in the city like project independence and things like that. I understand fully that they have to cut the time so that it can all be sheared. The problem is I think it stems down from the government funding for transportation for these areas. It needs to be increased if they don't have enough to go around because I think it's vitally important to furnish the transportation to bring these people out in the rural area who are people that live on the old homestead. They live by themselves in big farmhouses. They don't have family or their family are away. So it's important for their health to socialize and to get them out there. So I kind of feel like I'm in a place where if I go out there to bring more people in, I might not have the bus service to bring them in in the areas they go to. They also are sometimes called, do you know anyone that could take me to an act as appointment? Do you know anyone that could take me to get some groceries? So a lot of that is a big setback over in our area. But I think that the people that I have talked into coming and we're in the process, we need to expand our area. We have been renting for five years and a property that has four apartments plus the space that we rent. And it's come to the point that we need more space for our exercise rooms, for our dining area. And we do a lot of different classes like meditation and Tai Chi and also Brenda's from the center. Tai Chi, we offer art classes for a fee. We don't charge dues. And we haven't, I don't think they ever did at the center before I went there, but I've told my board of directors I can't do that because we have people, the older people, we're working to get them out of their home to social life, get exercise. They cannot on their social security pay an annual due and pay also to go to these classes. So we don't do it. That's why we do a lot of fundraising. It's part of it to make up that difference. But we're there to serve them. And they're my main concern. I don't think I have anything else. I think all senior centers have been through the same thing. Oh, he's smiling. I didn't make an enemy. No. You raised very good points. Oh, yeah. Have any questions? The expansion. I'm just beginning to work on it, Brenda. And oh my God, the government paperwork to get constructed is something else. And it's all new to me. But we are designing our expansion. And we're hoping within a couple of months, you know, to have it all together. And then we're going to go to RD World Development and see if we can get some loans to help us. And then I would very much in the spring like to start the expansion. Ah, yes, we do. There's two, three of us working on it. So, yeah. And you're one of our people that come. And I know you know how much we need the room. Our exercise space is just blown. So hopefully there's government. It saves a little money for us. Got that? Any other questions? Thank you very much. Whoops. Do you get any money from the communities that you serve? We do. We have a policy we don't charge. We asked if they could make a donation for $5 a meal. I have three drivers that go out in any weather. And if they cannot make a donation for the meals, it's all very confidential. And we still deliver meals because they need it. And there are people that can't afford to donate. We're there to serve them to help. The towns we do ask each year on town meeting. And the most that we get from towns, not all of them, we cover the six towns. We ask for $3,000. And then we have one town we ask a thousand because they're very small. But, and there again, and through Central Park Council on Aging, we contract with them for each meal that we do, age 60 and over. We get reimbursed $3.65. And it takes us at the cost of putting a meal together with the supplies you need, you know, the packaging and all that. And we do reimbursed some of the drivers like 58 cents a mile. Some of them donate it. But $3.65 when it costs you between $8 and $9 to prepare one meal is not a lot. So I'm happy to take up on that. As you know, I've been doing this forever. Started in 1981 with the Visiting Nurses Association. Then began working for the Area Agency on Aging in the Champlain Valley. Ran the senior centers in Burlington while I was Executive Director of Champlain Senior Center. We went to work trying to consolidate the senior centers that were in the Burlington area, which is where I met Gail and took a detour to run a theater company for 13 years. And now I'm back working with Cathedral Square Corporation on housing, which is its own crazy talk that we all need to have sometime about where all of these wonderful people are going to be living. Not in a box in the intervail, but we could talk about that another time. What I do want to say is it's a little, I'm going to say a little disheartening. I'm going to say a little disheartening. I'm trying to put a glow on it, but it's a little disheartening to be talking so much about things that we talked about almost 40 years ago. And part of that is because of Vermont is very unique. We have always embraced our uniqueness, but in some areas our uniqueness has been a challenge for us. I think back in the 80s, when I first started doing this work, the state felt that every single community had its right and authority and moral obligation to make sure that the seniors in their individual community were being served the way that individual community should provide for them. It's great that Vermont always has the feeling that the people within the community should help make decisions with everyone in the community about what to do. But what that inevitably did as time goes on is make all these little patches of senior centers and programs all over the state that do things in different ways and smaller ways, and it costs a fortune. And the state of Vermont has always been sort of loathe to bring all of the senior centers together and try to make a plan for what it can look like from a legislative look when people are, but within our community we're taking care of everybody. And again, there's 600,000 of us, we cannot pay the taxes that it takes for 600,000 of us to have roads and schools and firehouses and big, help all the seniors. We do need to have some sort of top-down management. So over the 40 years, there's been this sort of struggle between the legislators saying, they're doing fine, and us can do Vermonters going, yeah, we're doing fine, it's okay. But really, we're not doing fine. We're brave and strong, and we're making sure that we get people out of their farmhouses and into the senior centers at enormous cost. And it's also, what happens in Burlington compared to what happens in the middle of the state is like what happens in Canada versus what happens in Indonesia. It's two different situations. In Burlington, everything is much closer getting people to the services in Burlington is still incredibly expensive and challenging but not nearly the challenge that we have in rural areas to get people out. So there has been this huge gap of sort of help and management and fundraising on an overall, looking at Vermont from a full-state situation that still kind of exists. When I was about in the 80s, the state of Wyoming, which I will never compare us to Wyoming except in this one way, has a very similar population in a very large area and they finally voted to have statewide funding from the taxpayers for the senior centers in Wyoming. It made an enormous difference in the state of Wyoming for delivery service. So they have very similar challenges. So that's what I still see. Gail is still working on that struggle now so I'm going to let her talk a second. And then you can come back and ask me a question but I'll take the mic. I want everyone... I'm Gail Marl. I was the director of the Heineberg Senior Center for 18 years. Cindy Zook hired me and I learned and worked with Cindy for 10 years and it was great. So I was at the Heineberg for 18 years and I fundraised my little brains out and worked and worked and worked, created a vibrant center. However, it takes a toll because I was the only staff person at that center. I left there and I knew that there had to be a different way to keep senior centers vital and active and inclusive. So I applied for a grant from Gail which is the Department of Aging and Independent Living and they granted me some money to see if I could establish some sort of communication between senior center directors all across the state of Vermont. Because what happens is I worked my little brains out but I was all alone. I was all alone in my center working many hours and never having the time to look at best practices to engage myself with other senior center directors. So we're all these little pockets of centers all around the state and we're all doing great things and we're all alone. Which is in the state's best interest but not in our community's best interest. The one thing that I quote Cindy a lot in my lifetime but this is one thing that I have quoted probably the most. The great thing about the state of Vermont is we're independent and the bad thing about the state of Vermont is we're independent. And I thought I could do it all because you know I'm one of those Vermonters but in the end is it the best scenario? No, it is not. So myself with this grant from Gail and along with really good directors from around the state of Vermont formed an organization called VASCAM which stands for Vermont Association of Senior Centers and Meal Providers. And I worked that issue for about three years. We came together, we had conferences and then at some point you know the grant ran out like long ago and I'm still working my little tail off and I'm thinking I really do want to retire at some point. I've got four grandchildren that live right around me and I really do want to spend more time with them. So I tried to retire and you know how that well works. But VASCAM has gone on very well without me. We had support also from AARP I did want to mention that. But two or three or four people have kept it going on and they are now doing what VASCAM needs to do. They are advocating. They're going to the state legislature. They're talking about the need sustainable way to fund senior centers. Because this is the one statistic that really got me this past year and I keep saying it and I'm sorry if you've heard it a million times but it's one that we do need to hear. The negative health impacts of loneliness is the same as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. You take that in and you think about that for a minute. That's what we are doing if we do not provide opportunities for people of all ages but you know I'm concerned only about older adults because you know there I am here I am now. So I'm going to be selfish in saying that's what I'm concerned about. Senior centers provide an opportunity for people to take a good class to take an exercise program. And I do want to say I've been carrying around this document here it is called Vermont Senior Center Supporting Socialization Health and Well-Being for Older Vermonters. It was a survey that I started when I first went and started VASCAM and which DAO has now taken on and they do have an updated version so if you want to log on to DAO and really read about the survey because what it does is it tells you the advantages of centers what they're doing how many programs they're running but it also talks about what are the challenges of keeping senior centers afloat in the state of Vermont and it is really good. There's also a really good forward by Angela Smith-Jang who is the director of older adults as part of DAO. So I'd recommend if anybody wants more information about senior centers to log on to DAO and read the survey. So I will pass that on to you. Alright, thank you. Oh, sorry. VASCAM? State. The VASCAM? I think, are you asking if there is a goal to create this organization across the country? No, in Vermont. In Vermont, it is across the state of Vermont now. VASCAM is a part of anyone, any senior center in the state of Vermont can join in with the efforts of VASCAM. But Yeah, you know what? I don't know. Yeah, like I said, I tried to retire a few years ago. No, I don't know. I did go to their conference this fall and I believe there were about 20 senior center directors there. But, you know, that does not really tell you the true picture because you know how hard it is to read it? To get a day off to go to a conference? That's part of the problem. But any senior center is eligible to join VASCAM. And I would highly encourage senior centers to just join so that you are part of the group that says we're together. We're a network. But then if your senior center joins the VASCAM though, the volunteers have to get together and say, we need to give Rita a day off so she can go to the conference to learn. It's not enough to join. You have to get a group of people. You know, there's two women who are advocating in the legislature. They need to know the issues that are important to your senior center. And people like Rita, maybe she doesn't feel like she's in a silo but many do. This is so valuable for other directors to get together. Yes, they are. And Janna Clare is one of the women that have taken VASCAM and moved on. Absolutely. I'd just like to say that Janna could be here but she has childcare problems because she's a single mom. That's the other end of things. We're not talking about that today. We don't care about the kids. We don't care about the kids. That's somebody else's problem today. How Washington. But it's very true. She's very involved and she does have children but that has not stopped her from being very involved in the issues that affect older adults and senior senators across the state of Vermont. But the real point, we're certainly one of the few states that does not provide any funding directly for senior center. And you would be correct. And you would be correct. There are three states that provide no funding for senior center. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Vermont. How the hell did we get into those two states? And that's why we need to be organized and to use our power and visit our legislators. Speaking of our legislators. So, I'm Dan Noyce. I represent the towns of Wolcott, High Park, Johnson, and Belvedere. Does everyone know who their legislator is? Does everyone know? Because it's really important that you reach out to them and talk to them about that issue. The fact that we're only one of three states that don't support senior centers. So, one thing that you can when you reach out to them is to talk about the older Vermonters caucus. So, when I first was elected, we know that older Vermonters is the population that is the largest we're going to be the oldest state. We're also, it's the largest population in Vermont. And so, pardon me. And you vote. Sure. And so, one of the things that I did was I said, well, we have all of these caucuses. And what they are is a place for legislators to come together on a weekly basis to talk about the issues whatever their caucus is. There's a climate caucus. There's a rural Vermont caucus. There's a workers caucus. There's all these different ones. I said, well, why isn't there an older Vermonters caucus? So, I stood up and I said the older Vermonters caucus is going to meet tomorrow morning at eight o'clock in the morning. That's the problem. Eight o'clock in the morning. So, you raised a good point. It was a problem. And I struggled through finding a room. There was no rooms available in that state house at noon. So, before I left at the end of the last session, I reserved the Ethan Allen room for noon on every Thursday for the whole session to hold it at noon. And that way, we'll have more people coming there because that was one of the feedbacks that I got from my colleagues in the legislature was that I can't be there at eight o'clock in the morning or I've got other stuff going on at eight o'clock in the morning. So, now it's going to be at noon. So, we'll see if that changes it. And so, basically, I'll just run through some of the topics and then I want to touch on some of the things that were brought up here. But, like, we're starting out with Dr. Lamontia from UVM Medical UVM Center on Aging and he is going to kind of talk about, like, big picture stuff just like we heard about the impact of not having companionship. He's going to talk about, you know, access to transportation and how that affects people who want to age in place. And then Commissioner Monica Hutt is going to talk about the priorities of Dale. That'll be our second one. And then the Older Vermonters Act. And I'll talk about that because it's some legislation that Teresa Wood and I are introducing that's going to be taken up in the Human Service Committee in the second week. I just got a text from Representative Pugh, who's the chair. She's like, will the bill be ready because I want the second week? So that made my day. And then we're going to get into the budget because the Dale budget is going to is presented right about the second week. We'll hear from the governor on what their, his priorities are for the budget. And so we'll have an overview for the representatives on what does the Dale budget look like and, you know, that's a perfect point to bring up during that you know, during our discussions and once that budget comes out to really point out that this is one of three states that does not support funding to senior centers. Then we have wellness, prevention mental health and substance abuse and then town meeting break. And then after town meeting break is senior centers. And that's because I want you all to invite your legislators during town meeting break to come to your senior center. And then while they're there say, don't forget when you go back that following Thursday the Older Vermonters Caucus is going to be talking about senior centers and you should go and listen to, you know, how we're going to work together to come up with funding and for senior centers. So it's right after town meeting break that was put there for a reason. Then we have adult protective services workforce and not only workforce engaging older Vermonters in the workforce, but how are we going to have a workforce that is at nursing homes, PCAs, personal care attendants. So we're going to talk about both sides of that and then social isolation, nutrition meals on wheels, transportation and housing are kind of the round out of the topics in our that we'll be talking about. Now Rita talked about the fact that the access of funding for transportation, if you should talk to your legislator about making sure there's money there, it's under E&D, Elderly in Disabled Transportation. Really point out that's what this is called in the budget, it's the E&D money. You want that increased. And so one of the things that we also are going to be talking about is a cap and trade for transportation so we have, for electricity in Vermont, we have a efficiency Vermont and that's, we all pay money on our electrical bill to help with weatherization of our homes. There's going to be a push it's a nine state nine New England states well, there's not nine New England states but the northeast should be. We're going to take Delaware and Connecticut and so the nine states are all going to get together and try to have a cap and trade for transportation fuels and we'll be voting on that and this is a perfect opportunity to say that a portion of that funding should be mandated to the E&D program so that it's to basically reimburse transportation providers rates so that they can have fuel efficient vehicles and you know, if that money is going to be used for transportation this is a way to reduce our climate impact, our carbon usage in Vermont, transportation is the highest one and so that would be something that I would bring up with my ledge call me up and talk to me but I'm already thinking about this but you know, you should definitely bring that up as this is going to be some funding that's going to be coming into the state should this bill pass and you know, maybe some of it should be directed towards the E&D program to provide that transportation the reimbursement rate for the meals you said it was $3 and 65 cents that's pretty crazy so McDonald's charges moving we're going to be supplementing with raccoons so there is some legislation that says that that I would love to see taken up that basically says under Medicaid that food is health and if we can use healthcare dollars to give more than $3 it's a bill that's in the human services committee it's looking at the Medicaid waiver so that's how the state partners with the federal government to get funding dollars it's to say that we should be using Medicaid dollars to fund those own meals programs so that is sitting on the wall in the human services committee representative Wood and I put that bill in I don't know the number but I can look it up when we're done and pull it up on my phone pretty quick if you pull up my profile under the Vermont legislature you scroll down the bottom it shows all the bills I've introduced it's in there that's an easy way to figure out where to find stuff is on that their website so one of the things that I'll just talk about is the older Vermonters Act so this is the bill that I talked about before and this I think once this is passed this is really going to help us kind of create the path towards funding for senior centers basically what it does is it's like the older Americans Act which is the federal legislation that provides money for that's where that $3 comes from thank you very much so this is kind of the framework for saying what older Vermonters should expect when they're aging in Vermont and if we can pass this older Vermonters Act then we can reference that when we say why are seniors why are we one of three states that's not funding senior centers why are our nutrition programs not being adequately funded and why aren't transportation why isn't that adequately funded so this is a bill that will be taken up the second week of the session we don't have a copy of it yet Teresa Wood and I met with the lawyers the ledge council up at the state house and we went through well I'll back up a little bit where the language for this bill came from was three years ago we put in a bill to create the older Vermonters working group and what it did was brought together people from all of the different agencies to provide services to all around so there was people from Vascant there was people from Meals on Wheels there was the council on aging home health there was all kinds of there's probably 30 people on this committee and over the course of the year we worked to create the older Vermonters report that said okay what should this legislation look like how do we work together how do these agencies work together to provide these services how do we you know how do we know people are better off what are we measuring so we took that report which is not actually it's not on the website because the department has the final say on what's in it but I have the draft so I took the draft report which I feel represents a lot of the really good work we did and that's what Teresa Wood and I brought to Ledge Council to draft this legislation obviously we want the department of Dale to be part of it we also want all of you and you know all of the agencies that provide services to older people to be part of saying yeah we need this what we don't want is someone saying no this is not good and if we the more people that reach out to their representatives and say this is an important piece of legislation that we want to see move forward that will create the framework so that how long have we been talking about this you said 40 years we don't want to talk about it anymore so you know I often feel that way sometimes while we're debating on the floor it's like I'm tired of talking let's just vote you know so anyways I'd be if anyone has any questions about some of this and I just have a one sheet it's my draft copy I'm still some of the dates may change as I try to line up presenters so I ran through kind of the topics of the older Vermonters Caucus for this session but that might not be the order it works out because I have specific people that I would like to present to legislators and if they're not available on these dates I might move some dates around so anyways is there a way or can we connect with you so that we can log on and find out the the final dates absolutely good pardon me you can I will find a place where I can post it I'll send it out to all the senior centers and maybe they can post it on the wall there so that if people want to participate I know that Ruby from Cove and I have been working on this so she's going to help me get the word out as well you know once I once we get into the legislature once January 7th I I'm trying to do my two jobs as you know I run RSVP and so sometimes things get lost I said give your info people can log on I'll find a place to put the final schedule but you'll know every Thursday at noon there will be a topic that we talk about at the legislature and you can make sure that that gets out to all of us who came to the conference I'll make sure what I wanted to say real quick while we're talking about this is I think it's a time now to think about the systems structure of how this stuff is occurring we've been doing this service here it's like a Rube Goldberg machine we've been doing it here here here here but now the Baby Boomer population is enormous the funding is being cut and one of the ways that we always receive senior center funding was through the five area agencies on aging and it is a burden to them to keep having to decide how much of this funding they can squirt through to the senior centers that's why I really want to see direct senior center funding from the legislator and not burdened because the area agencies on aging are doing a Herculean job doing so many services and every year we would talk to the heads of our how much can you give us well gosh Cindy I don't know we've got to do this I would love to see that taken off the plates and the burdens of the area agencies on aging who have so much to do and just figure out a way to fund us directly and then the other yay hooray and not they won't mind they will not think it's a problem they won't mind and then the other thing that I would really love to see while I'm here is the state and even the feds because we need to find a way to help nonprofit organizations advertise for people to do this work because part of the problem that we're really having in Vermont right now is even if we got money we don't have people to drive the buses they cannot keep bus drivers they cannot keep home health workers they cannot keep home makers and housekeepers they cannot fill these positions we have waiting lists of people that need these services Medicaid will give them money to do these services but there's no human bodies to do these services and I really think that that is a role that the state could play more I see all these commercials on TV going hey be an engineer be a study math and do this and I want to see those commercials and say come into human services there are great jobs in human services transportation, home making services Medicaid money I've got Medicaid money to pay people right now to help people do stuff big pay great benefits nobody to do the jobs and that I think is a huge impact on us aging here in the state of Vermont I'm getting very excited because it's so complicated I also think that the time has passed where we can promise people that 25 miles up a hill that we can send a bus to get them every day of the week it's just too expensive we need to figure out as a community how to embrace people to come to reach out for help and get other people to help financially sustainable in Vermont we can't send a bus up every 25 mile hill it's just too complicated then pay private drivers we have to figure it out that's around housing I'm interested in transportation and I run a support group at the Montpellier Senior Center elders together and one of our big topics we want to address is transportation Green Mountain Transit has come out with a plan that's going to have all these buses going without any drivers and they're going to be all have a wonderful system but they haven't come to anything is Green Mountain Transit working with you guys at all because their money is all to help people get to work back transportation to jobs to try to get cars off the road which is a great wonderful thing for the climate for the environment but they don't seem to have much interest in putting any money into transportation well the pie is small the pie is very small so yes we need more money for transportation but then still they are in Chittenden County where the transportation providers were at the table when we had the older Vermonters working group that helped draft the report that we used for the legislation as you know it's extremely difficult to do point to point transportation it's again that's another thing that we try to work one of my jobs is to work with the primary care physicians so that if someone's getting an appointment maybe I can get three people to go at the same time and the doctors can organize it because you know it's very difficult to say I have to pick up this person at one o'clock and take them to this health center and then this person at three o'clock to take them to this health center and that is just astoundingly expensive so how can we figure that out? yeah yeah they can't do that there's no money, no time and they can't find drivers what I've tried to there's a question over here what I've tried to do there's a question in terms of data collection on needs like needs for transportation energy needs things like that is there a way to solve the local select boards because I think people get more involved if they thought it was coming out of their local community like I had some harebrained scheme that like you know if we can survey how many seniors heat with wood and there's been so many trees felled by these storms we've had there's a lot of wood out there we could be harvested we could recruit the local Boy Scout troops and some local loggers that cut up wood delivered to the old cordwood going for $300 for elderly people who are still heat with wood so I think there's ways we can involve the select boards collecting data on who needs transportation what does this need to happen so the question was how do we collect data how do we involve local communities in finding out what the needs are if we can involve select boards and I would say that the senior centers are probably a good resource for doing some sort of data collection I know that Dale reaches out and tries to figure out what the current needs are through the council on aging and home health and the senior centers and then your point you also talked about home heating with wood in LaMoyle County we started the wood bank and we have volunteers that cuts and deliver firewood and we do do about 100 cord a year in LaMoyle and if somebody wants to start one of those programs in their own community I would be able to tell you how to do that what I also did I advertised and tried to recruit what I call periodic volunteers that will go and help stack wood that will take people to doctor's appointments and that calls for this service and I always referred them to the bus company it didn't work they seem to be more comfortable I think with people in their own communities and I had a good response and I keep a list I put it through front porch forum several times and in our newsletter I I'm finding that very difficult to recruit them the younger generation is busy I've tried I've tried and I do think transportation will need to fall more and more on the state because of liability too I've lost a lot of transportation volunteers because they don't want people in their cars they'll say Cindy I'll do anything for you but don't ask me to drive somebody because they're just terrified that if something if they had a fender bender or the person got sick and had a heart attack in their car they just don't want to do that they'll do anything else but please don't ask me to put someone in my car and that's happening more and more so transportation is falling and should fall more and more as a county city and state problem so the question was have we reached out to home yeah I mean I know the home share they've merged now with the home share for Washington County merged with Chittenden County they'd be way away for more people I'm getting a home share person but I've been an apartment in my house if I didn't and I wanted to do it and get some help bringing in space or something some people might have that safe and I don't know how to I would say home share would help you with that I think they have experts I'm all set but I'm thinking of other people that's probably something that they work on trying to figure out how to make it work within the structure of their home I have had them at the center doing a presentation you was talking about individuals not wanting to take people in their vehicles yes and in the past I've had drivers my question would be is there some way you could look into getting a special insurance for these people who drive that if they did have some kind of vendor vendor if something would happen they wouldn't have to depend on their own insurance company look ahead doesn't RSVP have that RSVP has supplemental insurance for the individual but not for the car so if you got hurt there is a small insurance program through RSVP but I think that's an interesting thought I think that's a very worthy solution to begin looking at I tried to run a volunteer ride program in LaMoyle County and I spent all my time raising money for an insurance company and that's why I ended it because I couldn't afford to come up with the money to pay the insurance on this van that I had put it on your state list I think United Way and Chippin County has a program too I don't know what they did the scheduling was really hard for just one person but yeah that's a good plot for the future we all run five background checks on our volunteers so there is a bill in Judiciary Committee to combine that all into one and it allows nonprofits to share as long as the volunteer says yes you can share my background check information with Meals on Wheels if you were a transportation if you were doing both or if you were signing up to do both it will have the ability for the agencies to share because Department of Human Services requires background checks on volunteers if you receive money from them any other questions? wrap it up behind you I'm Bob Atchinson I'm the energy coordinator in Plainfield and we're working with Council on Rural Development in a process called RANT, revitalizing all of Marshall and Plainfield but I just wanted to let you know on the subject of wood heating that there is a biomass incentive program through Efficiency Vermont it will cover wood chump wood stoves pellets stoves and also conversion from kerosene heater we found out from Energy Action Networks data that 40% of Marshall and Plainfield eat with wood which is kind of a surprising number to ask but anyway you can get your old clunker or wood stove from the 70s or 80s which is now considered old swapped out and if you're at a certain low income level you can get a change for free so take advantage of that as in addition in Marshall and Plainfield we've also negotiated with Stowe Works and Plague of Stowe Works and the hearth place on Burring and Piliar Road where they will give you a discount insult even if you're on a low income level so take advantage and I believe your senator in Washington County runs that third to a half and Senator Purchlick I think he runs that program and I just wanted to say Dan I did attend toward the end of the session last session your 8am meetings I kind of got there and it was very interesting I heard a lot about different programs throughout the state by the people who ran them which I really didn't know about and I thought I was fairly knowledgeable but obviously not so that is a great service that you've been doing and you do that on your own this is not something that's part of your legislative duties officially that is good to do it good to do it those seniors got to work yeah and I also want to say thank you to all three of you particular people you're simply one more link symbol of the incredible dedication and work that our senior center people do all over the state it is a level of love that's very clear but it would be nice if you had some more help and more my challenge to you is what can we do I'm talking about fueling senior power what can you do to get something done in this coming legislative season or around your local community or wherever it is but we have power and we need to learn how to use it so that is what the purpose will be whether it's in Washington or locally we can do it but we got to feel comfortable with it you got to know what you're talking about that's why these folks have all been here and we can get things done and I can tell you handwritten notes to a legislator go a long way those like email things I get hundreds of email things don't even bother just take a piece of paper and write whatever you're concerned about on a piece of paper and mail it mail it to them that makes a big impact letter to the editor absolutely handwritten notes are really effective and even you can mail them to the sergeant at arms office at the state house and they'll have a page bring it to your legislator just sending like a form email letter it's not even worth clicking on the mouse because I get so many of them can't even read them all okay short this is in the month of year in Rutland for that matter seven days for a month digger all those places wherever you are the bridge the bridge month of year bridge so these are hometown folks write the name and they will print you talk to the people attend the senior senate I'm sorry you need to talk to talk to the people I'll come to your staff I'll come to your staff we're going to get into them talk to the people in your local senior center and get them aware of all what we've been talking about here so but you don't bother it's really a unique situation where we have personal contacts with our reps and with the people who make the decisions and hey sorry then no it's good I want people to reach out I think it's a good thing I might not agree with you all the time but that's okay it would be weird if it is but it would be boring but anyway right now the process is lunch however you want to sit down you can raise your chairs and talk about what we've been talking about what do you do how can I do it so lunch is from 12 to 1 enjoy what happens after lunch Alliance for entire America is going to have our end of business meeting if you're a member please stay if you're not a member and you're just curious please stay too and then you can join no I just started but I really appreciate all of you being here thank you guys for listening to us paddle up there thank you