 Hey, how's it going? Good. How are you? Not too bad. Has anybody else joined? Um, yeah, some of our members are in the audience. So I'm going to promote them to panelists. That's something that they have to click to accept. Um, but it will be, it'll allow them to speak. I just got promoted. That's awesome. Yeah. I put in my email address. I put, I wasn't sure which one I gave you guys. So I put in one and it said, you know, I fries to be here. And I put in the other one. Brought me in, but I guess it brought me in as a. Observer. Gotcha. I'll have to double check. Yeah. And you really don't want me commenting. Anyway. Thanks for inviting me in. No problem. Everybody get a chance to get out and enjoy this beautiful day. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, actually we discovered beautiful downtown Florence. Oh yeah. Went to a diner there in the middle of Florence and then. Cindy went to an appointment there. So. Nice. Pretty excited. There's a place called the pie bar. So I guess it's just all pies or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I actually haven't been there. I need to make it there. Cause this is definitely pie season. Yeah. Yeah. Hi, how are you? How are you doing? Very well. Thank you. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Mark. Hi, Christina. I like zoom calls because it's kind of like romper room. Romper stumper, bumper boo. It's worse than a tennis tournament for me because it isn't like I could just go back and forth with my eyes. I could just go back and forth with my eyes. Yeah. I don't know why, but the, your faces appear in different squares at different times. I don't know why that is. I'm sure there's some logic to it, but it's lost on me. Does it happen to do with when we're talking or. Yeah. It's voice activated. Yeah. So let's all talk at once and see what happens. Yeah. I don't know why, but your faces appear in different squares at different times. I don't know why that is. I'm sure there's some logic to it, but it's lost on me. So let's all talk at once and see what happens. Yeah. I did not hear that anybody couldn't make it. Did you hear from anyone, Haley? I did not. I did. Jacqueline is coming a little late. She has another meeting and she will be joining us a little late today. Okay. Great. Thank you for letting us know that Christina. I'm sorry, everyone. You know, good evening, good early evening. Hello. I'm coming from one thing right into the next. I just finished work. So I'm like trying to regroup and get myself nacho chips. Hopefully that'll do the trick. I can hear what you're saying though. I can hear what you're saying. Good. Good, good, good. Do we wait a couple more minutes, Haley, or are you thinking? You can't, I mean, there is a quorum. So if you wanted to, you could certainly start. And we can just, you know, let others come in as, as they will. Okay. Well, out of respect for everybody's time, I think I will get started. So I'm going to call to order the meeting of the council on aging the October meeting. And pursuant to governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order. Suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law chapter 30 a section 18. This meeting of the council on aging is being conducted via remote participation. This meeting is also being recorded. I'm going to take roll call now. Christina. Christina. Present. I'm present. Awesome. Dawn. I'm being afraid out. Yep. I'm here. Sarah. Here. Mark. Here. Dennis. Here. Terry. Chad. First up is our public comment. The public comment. Residents are welcome to express their views up to three minutes. The board will not engage in dialogue on the matter. During the public comment period. Recognize members of the public with Haley's assistance. And when called on, please identify yourselves by stating your full name. Okay. So we have two people in the audience. One of whom is our state rep. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us. And if anyone wants to make a comment, all you have to do is click raise your hand. And then I think you had that letter, right? That you received gene. Maybe we could start by reading that. Sure. Sure. I difficulty printing it. So I'm going to try to read it off my phone. So my apologies. If I stumble here. This is from Karen DeSantis. I volunteered at the Amherst senior. Center as a receptionist for a year and thoroughly enjoyed meeting and helping seniors on my watch. Both my grown daughters recently had COVID, which had given me time to pause in. As to my involvement with the public. I recently wrote Haley. That I've decided. To leave an important part of my life as volunteer at the Amherst senior center. Not only because of medical reasons, but because I've not felt safe. There. This has been coming to a point at which I needed to make a decision. The recent outside fires around the building. As well as questionable people arriving here. One incident recently needed our police action. And my children not wanting me to stay. Has been paramount. Including too many vagrants hanging around the parking lot to enter our building. There are many issues the senior center faces. And it's a disgrace to Amherst. When we are surrounded by many new well staff centers to choose from. For example, Hadley is trying to deal with the influx from both Amherst and Northampton. I realize there are many financial improvements needed in Amherst. But come on. Thank you for your consideration. Karen DeSantis. Anyone. From the public. Because after the public. Because after the public. Our general public. If. We all have comments. We will. Can then contribute. Are there any hands? Hayley. I don't see any hands. And I was going to make a suggestion that. We promote Mindy. To speak as the council is kind of talking about their own concerns regarding the bank center and the issues that they have. So if the group is amenable to that. Nods. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to do that. Wonderful. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Hi. Hi everybody. I'm really glad to be here. I'm sitting in my car. So I'm. I'm glad I'm not. I went to the bank center forgetting that it was virtual. So I'm glad to be here. Sorry. No, no, that's totally on me. It's like, oh, what a dumb thing that I did. But I'm really glad to be here with all of you and to hear all, you know, whatever your concerns are. And I told Hayley. That I was going to try and make council and aging meetings more frequently because. I'm not feeling like I'm getting enough information on a regular basis. But I went to the bank center forgetting that it was virtual. So I'm outside the bank center in my vehicle. So I'm not feeling like I'm getting enough information on a regular basis about your needs and your concerns. And so I'm all ears and that letter is concerning. And I'm looking forward to hearing your discussion of. A response to it. And how I can be helpful or supportive. Well, thank you for joining us, Mindy. I will say is both a member of the council on aging and volunteer at the senior center for the past. For the past year and a half. I have a fair amount of feedback to, to offer you. Number one, I think under the ad just stating the obvious, our facility is inadequate. We don't have sufficient space in because we're very, we have serious space limitations. It really hampers Hayley and staff and their ability to do creative programs. There are lots of things we would love to do, but we don't have a kitchen. We don't have a gym. We don't have an art studio among a host of other things. And when as a senior in town, when I look on either side of us, you know, Hadley's got a beautiful new facility North Hampton is a beautiful new facility. And you look at the variety of space they have. There's so many wonderful things for seniors. And it's just, it's a very sad state of affairs that in our town, our senior center, we don't even have a building to ourselves. We're sharing that facility with numerous other departments. And it's sad and it's frustrating, especially when you consider where the fastest growing population in town. And I well appreciate there are, are many facilities issues in our town, but it's, it's time that we take this seriously and start working toward the future to expand, expand the space and expand the offerings for seniors. Cause there's lots of people that I think would be very interested and would really benefit from programs that the senior center could offer, but they're not coming because we're not able to offer them. Additionally, I would just say clearly the bank center was not designed as a senior center. So it's lacking in many things that seniors really need. You know, lighting isn't great. Security is poor. I mean, really we should just have one main entrance so we can kind of monitor who's coming in the building. That certainly is not the case. We had, and I'm sure Haley is a prize to the recent incidents with fires and some people who had some mental health issues. It is very disconcerting. And I, because I was working several days when we had some of these folks in and it's unnerving. You're not really sure are we going to be okay here or is this situation going to escalate and deteriorate. So I do want to just reiterate the need for cameras and improved security there. Additionally, I would just mention on bathrooms, we don't have things such as pull cords. We have people who, you know, have balance issues or, you know, their physical mobility is really impaired and we need those safety features in the facility. And I ask if you, you know, I obviously I agree not only with your observations because their observations and their facts, right? So everybody should be agreeing that there are no pull cords and there should be better lighting, et cetera. And I share as an Amherst resident, you know, sort of the frustration with seeing senior centers and surrounding towns and what Amherst seniors are able to enjoy despite great programming and a terrific staff and council in aging. Two years ago or maybe three years ago at this point, I happened to have occasion to go to a meeting in the Lovelove Senior Center and I was like, oh my gosh, another one with like, you know, yoga and I'm passing rooms where seniors are doing yoga, art, we're in this large room with a full size kitchen. Yeah, it's a stark comparison. So I'm wondering to what extent you brought this to council people in the town. You know, we have an election this year. So I'm wondering if you've engaged with maybe candidates around the needs of the council on aging and if you've given them an opportunity to directly respond to the council on what their opinions are. I'm just curious. I know if I was running for election right now in this year, I'd expect you to bring me in front of you and say, okay, so what are you going to do for seniors and Amherst? So I'm just wondering if you've engaged in any of that kind of education. We have. Haven't certainly hit all of the candidates, but I think for the folks that we've talked to thus far, there is certainly acknowledgement that our facilities are inadequate. And no sooner do they say that when they say, but we have these other projects on the capital campaign list and obviously the senior center isn't one of them. They don't seem as interested in trying to plan for the future. And one of the things that I keep saying is I know we have four buildings on the list right now, but they're going to start coming off. Right. They're going to start coming off in the next year or two, actually. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're in the works for the school and so I don't know if the town is fixated on just having four, but I really want the senior center to take that next slot because I appreciate it's not going to be tomorrow. We're talking about the future, but the future starts now. We need to start laying the groundwork. Yeah. People know that at the town that that's a, and is that, is that something that I don't even know the, forgive my ignorance on this. I'm not sure. Is that something that the council on aging needs to sort of vote on to say this is a priority and then you can do what you need to do to bring it as a council to the town and to the town council. I don't know that we, that you would have to vote since it's a priority, but I do know that as a group, you could take a vote to, you know, create a letter or, you know, this group has actually invited town councilors into the bank center for other occasions, like when they were doing the debt exclusion. We try to extend invitations for them to attend different programs and events, you know, that we're coordinating the specific event that talks about the inadequacy of the building. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And so you can point out the, I mean, it doesn't have to be a long one because you don't have a lot of space, which is part of the issue, but you can talk about, here's what we, here's the kinds of things we would like to do that we don't have the space for. And here's some of the problems and deficiencies with the existing space. I happen to agree. I think the senior center should ultimately be on the list. I've made that recommendation to the town council in terms of if they had additional, any ARPA funds to be able to do a project feasibility study. I'm also more than happy to sort of work with you in partnership if, to sort of see how I can be helpful with that. So it may be that, you know, there are a lot of competing demands in the town. And I want to respect the conversations and discussions that are going on with the, with the demands that are pulling on lots on government officials right now, but maybe there's a way that I can be helpful in identifying state resources to pursue at least some of this ground, the preparation kind of pieces. Because I think you're right. It's a future oriented goal. And I'm thrilled to hear you say, you know, we're not looking to knock anybody off the list. We just want to be on a list because I think there's been a lot of work to get that list formulated. And certainly we need a new fire station, you know, very badly. So public safety is like a major thrust of local government. But I think, you know, putting a senior center that has adequate space security and sort of possibilities is like an important piece based on a couple of things. One, what you had mentioned, that it's the fastest growing population in the area, but also because I, you know, as a community, we owe it to our seniors. So. Definitely. I know, but just want to point out that Jacqueline set her hand up. Yes, thank you. Sorry, I'm late. Something a last minute thing came up for me and I had to take care of it. One of the things that concerns me is yes, the building. And I guess I'm more mindful of that. When I wear the clergy collar and I see the impact that COVID has had on, on the names of what we're doing. And that, that quote, church concept is confined to the building. There are, I came onto the council because I thought it was senior services and I'm more conscious of that during COVID than I was before there was a change in focus. And while I think it's very, very important that there be a place, the senior center, there are seniors whose capacity, sometimes mental, sometimes physical disallow them from being in the building. And my concern is providing services that are made the center might be a conduit through which that information becomes known. But I think it's critical that the aging population be included. And I think the immobile and immobile for whatever reason, whether it be mental or physical, I think that they get lost in the shuffle. And I saw that early on in the COVID, during COVID at the beginning of COVID, there are seniors who are homebound. And I've had to deal with situations involving them putting on my pastoral cap and the seniors and their caregivers. I think that that's important that even as we look to the future, the seniors of today matter. Absolutely. You know, Jacqueline, I'm sorry, this is Mindy. You know, I think that on the one hand, Amherst has such a strong deep bench around senior services, right? We've got Haley and the folks at the bank center. We've got Amherst neighbors, which is a whole other level of senior services. We've got other kinds of programs in town that also serve seniors. And some of those seniors are homebound. Some of them are not and they're very mobile. Some of them are looking to be in community with other people. Some are looking not to be in community with other people. But I think you're right that we really have to kind of be mindful that we're talking about everybody. And, you know, the center, I think a senior center performs a very particular kind of role, right? And it becomes a center of a community for a population, for people who want to be in community. And it can also be the launching pad for services that go out to the home. So it's, it's not, I don't think it's, for me, it's not like an either or. I actually see it. Yeah, both and. Yeah. Yes, yes. Yes. And there are some things that are available. Through federal and state government. To be supportive of seniors who want to age or whose families. Like the idea of their aging in place. Yep. But for whatever reason, the advocacy that is needed. To have this. To have this town participate in the state funded programs or for whatever reasons that this, that this town chooses not to. Make those services. Or opportunities, I should say available to seniors. It is beyond me, but there are surrounding towns for instance. Seniors who need to make their houses. Accessible. And there are from what I've been able to find out there are resources available, but Amherst doesn't participate. And that kind of startled me a bit. Well, I can't comment on that, but I can say that. Word to be prioritized by Amherst or were to be that I have a, I would have a constituent who would come to me and require it. And so it would require some advocacy. Municipally also. I'm here to help steer those resources to what the senior priorities are. So if it became a priority, but it was like, we just, you know. And a grant was written. I would really hope that. The town or the senior center, whoever's running the grant would loop me and the state senator in so that we could in fact. You know, express not only express our support for it, but try to secure those resources. Yeah. And I just want to say, you know, just for the record. We've done programs at the senior center on home loan modifications, which I think is one of the things that you may be talking about. You know, those are state grants where people can get money to modify, you know, for ramps or shower bars. Yeah. So yeah. So if people call the senior center, we can connect them to those resources and. We haven't done a program in maybe six months or more, but we have done them in the past so that people are aware of the options that are out there. I have to say, when you were speaking Jacqueline, it made me think about. People who can't get to the center and sometimes people can't get to the center because it isn't an easy facility to find. There are parking challenges depending on what time you choose to try to arrive at the center. And it brought up for me the silver shuttle, which is a fairly new program for us in the need to really expand that. It's I think an invaluable service to our seniors who, who either can't drive or shouldn't drive. To be able to transport them to the center or to doctors appointments or to the grocery store, wherever they need to go. And I think that's really important that we have the resources to be able to support. And I think that's really important. And I think that's really important to be able to, to be able to offer that to our seniors and to be able to expand that right now. It's just a part-time program. But I think the need is, is there to expand it. Yeah. We actually, I just did the math really quick. Mindy, we average 65 rides a month. For a three day a week. Part-time band service program. And I think that's really important to be able to understand what we're doing for the number of rides that we're doing. Were there about. And what about maybe even seven days, because I know before I came on to the Council. I encountered a number of seniors. There were programs for instance, at the university. And if they were held at night or on weekends, They couldn't attend because it wasn't during the, it was after quote, the witching hours during the week and off the, it was off the tablet at all on weekends. Yeah, we can, we can do tend to be a little harder and Jean Christina has our hand up Christina or you're muted. I want to say, I hope you're not waiting for a new building to have security. And what I see as a priority is for you to get right on the security, the cameras or whatever it is that you need to do in order for the seniors to not feel the way that that woman expressed herself. Excuse me, in that letter. We can't wait until we have a new building to make that a priority. No, you're absolutely right. And when we had, I don't know if people want me to say it now or later, but when we had the second fire, I made sure that I made everybody aware of that problem and they put up, they being the police department put up temporary cameras and that person since has been arrested and trespassed from the building. So that particular individual I don't want to say we taking care but if they come back there's there's steps we can take to ensure that they don't do that again. But I think I would much rather it not just be about one individual. But the fact that the that the seniors need to feel safe all seniors, regardless of what that safety issue entails. It could be a fire, it could be trespassers, whatever the issue is seniors need to feel safe. And there needs to be a comprehensive plan to make the seniors safe and to have the resources in that building. Yeah, I mean, well, let me just say one quick thing, Mark and Well, we're missing Mindy. She's gone in the audience. Oh, okay. Oh, there we go. Thank you. I got I got disconnected. Okay, but I'm back on came into my phone this time instead of my laptop. Yeah, all I was going to say is that that's where I really need the council's help and you know and certainly at the state level where if I had the ability and the resources to do all those things in a heartbeat I certainly would but I don't own the building the town does. There has to be some some more people rallying with me to say these are the things that need to happen. These are the concerns that we have. We're losing volunteers. We're losing participants. You know, I certainly am not shy about saying how I feel but I know that I need some help from from people in this on this committee. Mark, did you you had your hand up before. You're good. No, I was just telling you we were missing Mindy. Okay, can I can I jump in and ask a question. Is that all right. Yeah, yeah. Have you done like them or not you personally but engaged with anybody to do like the building both in terms of how participants involved here to feel but also like a safety like a public safety expert to go through and say you could use this you can use that like someone who's not necessarily considering the budget for the just like ideally what would make the place safer and there may be specific people in the community who can do that kind of thing. Yeah, place like somebody when they were developing their sense. So we have not done like a community focused one. But we I have invited the fire inspector and a member of the PD to do like an Alice active shooter walkthrough just to kind of identify what other weak security points. Unfortunately, when it comes to the building, you know, like we have a room where the entire thing is, or almost all of it is encased in glass. So, and there's no blinds or curtains for that room. So if somebody comes in, people are really out of luck in that space you know if somebody comes into the large activity room with the intent to cause harm. The exits are really, you know, you can maybe get to the exits, but depending on where you are. That may not be easy. Certainly with the back offices I have a staff person who they their office goes into our back room and into the hall. So if there was a threat on either side they're not in a position where they can really be safe unless they could make it into my office or into Helen's office. And that's the same for my admin assistant like they they don't have a lot of window access to get out of. So it seems to me like there's like different layers or different reasons for people to feel insecure right like what I'm hearing is and forgive me for reflecting this back but I'm trying to wrap my head around what could be the next steps that might ultimately lead to sort of a comprehensive review. But there seems to be like there's security around active shooter or violence, the security around fire, the security around personal safety which could be both fires outside the building but also full cords and back like it could be sort of macro and micro. And then there's like attitudes and feelings right like that volunteer like what would make people feel safe. And I'm just wondering if there's a way to sort of review each of these areas in one place like in one document to be able to say that as a roadmap for how we go about addressing the issues. The attitudes and issues in the real issues around security. Because I think maybe that's something that you know, I want you to think about, I can't promise obviously state money for but we can look and see if there are funds available for that kind of review and study. Okay. Yeah, because we don't even have spring clothes. No, the bank center has been grandfathered in so we don't actually have sprinklers. Are you kidding. No, I'm not. Right. I know. Yeah, I know. So I think like those kind of like putting that all in one document might be helpful and saying okay so what are we going to do about this. That's an excellent suggestion, Mindy. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know, I can start looking at the state level to see if they have. I don't know what they have grants available for this kind of thing, but I certainly can start looking. Yeah. Definitely appreciate it. Clearly the need is great. On every, every front when you start looking at bang so yeah, the seniors. Yeah. And you know, a more secure senior center brings out more senior. And so that's the, that's the whole idea, right? Yeah. Yeah. If we wanted to keep the population low, we wouldn't fix it, but we don't, we want to be available. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I've got my March in order for at least this. Thank you. Is anyone else have anything else they want to share with Mindy? No. Jacqueline, your hand is still up. I don't know. Sorry. Okay. All right. Just didn't want to miss anybody. Thank you. All right. Sure. I think the one thing that might be helpful while I'm looking in this direction. And I'm not sure how you go about doing it in your direction, but it might be identifying a person, a company and academic. I don't know who, who would be the person who might conduct such a study. I think I might be, because I don't tell you obviously have enough on your plate. And I think this is really something like you kind of need like a senior, an expert on elder affairs and also make sure. Definitely. I'm going to go around and see if anybody I know knows of anybody who might fit that definition, but you might want to start looking around and see maybe what other communities have done about it. Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining us Mindy. Really appreciate it. I haven't really done it. I haven't really done anything yet. I'm going to do something. Oh, I have lots of notes. So Mindy and I've got your name next to them. Thank you. But I also hope to make these meetings more frequently and when I can't because of business in Boston. I'm going to ask my staff person to do so. So clearly this is important. Wonderful. Well, we certainly welcome having you or your staff join us. I think that that's really valuable because there's no shortage for us to tackle. Well, and don't be shy about asking me for information, support or resources. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. I can't always say yes, but I won't know what you need unless you ask me. Thank you. Yeah. Excellent. Thanks very much. Thanks for letting me crash your meeting. Yeah. Anytime. Thanks for coming. All right. Next up is the director's update. Yes. So I sent around my little spreadsheet of activities. So for the month of September, things are still pretty average, I would say in terms of, you know, we had 20 service days, we had an average count of 25 people in the building. We served over 600 people in the course of the month through either book care clinics or a meals program or various different activities, social work services, information and referral. You know, as you can see, we do a lot of information and referrals. So when people have questions or they need support services, you know, we, I always like to be there their first call so that we can kind of triage. But we're, you know, we're doing a lot of social events to, you know, we have the cafe. We started doing drop in board games and card games, which is getting a little cult following and exercises, a perennial favorite. Like I said earlier, we're averaging 65 rides a month, which is tremendous, you know, particularly given that Rob only works three days a week. The biggest service calls that I can tell our medical appointments to Northampton, you know, that has pretty consistently won out as the biggest category of rides. But we're also doing a lot of grocery store trips and I'm really happy to see that people are using us for to and from the senior center. So just some, some at a glance figures. You know, so in terms of attendance, I think everything is going the way that we want it to. I do want to highlight some upcoming events. So we are going to take two trips in the silver shuttle. We're going to go to the meat art museum, and we're going to go to Yankee candle. So in November, we'll tour the meat art museum and then we'll go have lunch at the Smithsonian Chatterhouse and then Yankee candle. What more could you ask for around the holidays. So, again, these are going to be really limited in scope that bus only seats eight people. But for people who can't afford to take the bigger trips that the friends do this is a really great local alternative. You know, it gets people out of the house to get some connected. So I'm happy to do a few more trips. We're also going to be doing a our own version of a festival of lights, which means I'm going to get a lot of Christmas lights are not Christmas lights with lights. Holiday lights and just to make the senior center brighter, you know, we're always talking about it's really dark in there that's particularly true. Once it starts getting darker earlier. So I wanted to kind of light up people's day and so that will be Friday, December 1 will string up lights will have hot cocoa will put on a fake fire on YouTube. And so people can just join us at one o'clock to decorate a little bit. And we're also going to be doing one thing that might sound counterintuitive at first but I always like to do grief programs around the holiday. You know as much as it can be a joyous occasion it is still a time of loss for for many people so we are experimenting with dancing with joy and sorrow. So Madeline far who coordinates our belly dancing class. She's going to do a three day workshop on kind of expressing your grief through dance. And I and all the information in the newsletter I can't do her justice but you know she's really dedicated and she actually created this kind of special for us and she spent a lot of time thinking about it. And this this year I think probably as much as last year that that's very timely. Absolutely. There's a quick blurb about stop and shop so we were selected by the store leadership team at the Hadley stop and shop to be a part of their community bag program. So what that means is that during the month of November if you go to stop and shop and you buy their special community community bags, we get a dollar of every bag that's sold. Nothing that we have to really do in terms of work except for spread the word and hopefully people will go and buy a bag or two to go away for us to raise some money. I'm going to skip on my skip around on my director's report a little bit because just thinking about you know holidays and things being not always so pleasant or cheerful. I'm proposing that the co a sponsor clause for a cause. And so this is something that I did in Burnington. Well, it was there when I got there but I really enjoy the program. So essentially what this program will do is to target homebound, I lonely isolated or just any senior who we know needs some holiday cheer. The premise is really simple we're going to accept donations at the senior center, until a certain date, puzzle books, little lotions lip balm, cocoa, you know just small things and preferably individually wrapped. And then we'll pack gift bags, and that'll be kind of a communal event so again dates are in the senior spirit. So as a group will pack up bags and then we'll be recruiting volunteers to take a list of names and deliver those bags to people. I had the occasion to deliver a bag before I left my last job and it was really heartwarming. You know the the person invited me in we ended up having tea we talked for like 45 minutes, and it really meant a lot to him that somebody thought of him around the holidays because his wife had passed and he lived by himself and there wasn't anybody in his life he could go to. So I would be really proud of this council could sponsor the same type of program. And you know people want to contact your local bank contact if you have a friends group if you have. If you're still working and you have some colleagues you know just any way that we can get these small trinkets to make bags, and then you can join us to pack the bags if you'd like and then I can tell you that they'll be delivered that we could be 18th of December. So if anyone wants to sign up to take a couple names. You know that would all be appreciated. And so that. So that's that any questions on that program. I have a question. Yeah, I love this idea. Okay, but I'm wondering if you have a do you have a list of the kinds of items you want folks to buy and contribute to like the inventory for these gifts that I'm thinking that this is something that I can at least post in my newsletter I posted on social media. But I'd like to give people an idea of what sort of things are necessary or desired. You know what I mean. Yes, yep, I've got a list and I have a flyer for the event. So I can we can blast that around. Terrific pleasing no to me and find me up. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Any other questions on that program. I think it's a great idea. And I really like the idea I, when I substituted for the meal. Delivering some meals a month or so ago, I even just that delivering the meals to people was, and I brought my grandkids with me and whatever and it was really a good opportunity to see for them also to see how you know other people live and whatever, but everybody was great. I can only imagine. Sign me up for the delivery thing. Excellent. Thank you. And Terry, you have your hand up. I just have a question on the community bag day. I mean the bag program. Yeah, how much of the bags and what's in them. Is it just like a stop and shop bag or. Yeah, it's just an empty tow bag. I think, I think they're 250. Yeah, it's a stop and shop community program. Yeah, I think there you'll be by the checkout counter. Okay, great. Thanks. All right, and let me see. So we have a couple big. Well, first I'm going to talk about the title three again. So we were lucky enough to be the recipient of a title three grant for our memory cafe. We've been awarded $4,000 from Highland Valley elder services, which will be used with administrative costs, promotional costs and food and entertainment expenses. So this is really fantastic because this program is probably one of the biggest expenditures that we have at the senior center. So having the ability to offset some of the costs is going to be tremendous. You know, there is reporting and monitoring required with this grant, but I think it's also a way for us to get some recognition for what we're doing. I've talked about this before, but it is one of our most well attended programs. And it's certainly in terms of participants are most diverse program. It really brings in people from all walks of life, just to come and chat and have coffee and enjoy a group activity. So I'm really pleased that we got this award. I'm always pleased when we can augment our budget. But I'm particularly happy with this one because it was their most competitive grant year and I quite a number of organizations apply, but we were lucky enough to be accepted questions. Big changes are coming to the senior center. In terms of staffing, we have a new admin assistant Diana Wheeler who has so lovely for anyone who's interacted with her, you know that that's true. And I'm really glad to have her and have her part of the team. You know, she's doing a tremendous job and she comes up with a lot of experience and certainly a lot of town of Amherst experience. And she's working really well with the seniors who come to the center. And then for every loss, I mean for every gain, there is a loss and Helen McMillan will be retiring at the end of December. So her last day will be the 31st. And I'm going to start looking for, you know, a new program coordinator slash social worker as soon as possible. So with the hope that we can get some overlap between the two of them. You know, Helen has been with the senior center for for many, many years and has made really just really helped a lot of people in the community and our particular older adults from, you know, fuel assistance applications to advocating for additional Medicare, you know, coverage and just really being there for the people who need her. So we'll, we will definitely miss her. And, you know, I'll probably enough at the next meeting what our plans are to kind of recognize her for her many years of service. Other changes include the meal program so as you all know we do a meals on wheels and we also do grab and go meals. Since the loss of our program coordinator, Donna Hancock in mid July, Julia, our volunteer and outreach coordinator has been filling in to oversee the entire distribution of that program. Since I started in Amherst, it has been the one program that really kind of dominates every day. Sometimes when we have three volunteers who call out to deliver meals and it's all hands on deck, all of my staff have to go out and deliver meals we kind of all work for this program and it leaves us with less time to do the main functions of our job. So we, Highland Valley has come in and they are supervising that program. So they are responsible for everything they do all the meals all the reporting all the billing all the scheduling. So we no longer have to be caught up with those administrative tasks. And that's that no, no, the service disruptions, many of our volunteers have transitioned over to working with Highland Valley so anyone who wanted to volunteer still was able to do that. You know, and it really has just ended up helping, you know, all of us get back to our core function our core job functions. And and it's in line with what other senior centers are doing we were really the standalone in terms of operating the program entirely ourselves and like I said it was not a day went by when something wasn't a miss or we didn't have to pitch in to help because somebody had called out that day. That was good. We are also making big changes with our newsletter. So in an effort to be more environmentally friendly and offset our overhead costs, we are going to be pivoting to primarily email based distribution. And that's going to happen as early as January and February. So this will be our final printed mass mailing our final 3400 newsletter distribution. Go around. So, I don't want people to be alarmed. Hard copies will still be available at the senior center. It will be posted on the town website you can subscribe, or you can just view the newsletter archive and for those people who can't or aren't comfortable with the computer they can call us and request a paper copy. But you know we we are spending on average. Maybe $5000 per distribution. So, for those of you who can do mental math times that by six, and that's a lot of money. And it's, it's money that every dollar that the friends pay for that is a dollar we can't do programs with, because there's just not enough funds to go around. So it's a difficult decision but ultimately financially speaking it is the smartest course of action that we could possibly take. And again, you know where we are making efforts to make sure that people are still connected with us some way or another. Christina give your hand up. Yeah, when I first started, that's the first thing that I said was it. But nobody listens. You know, I even did a demo of the online version. I went step by step showing the group Jacqueline was in that meeting. How did North Hampton Center has adopted a digital copy. And as you said, you can always get a paper copy if if you're the the person that needs it. But it's two years later and now it's happening and that's a lot of money that could have been saved, but no one listened no one listens. No, it's sorry. Yeah, but but we got there in the end. So that that is a good thing because like you said it's just, you know, it's a needless expense really. So that's meals newsletter staffing. So that brings us to our building security so we've been talking about it a lot. And I did send some pictures around three weeks ago or something. So we did have a little rash of fires we had an individual who was cooking in front of the bank center. It happened on a Sunday and then it happened again on a Wednesday so that was two within only a few short days. We did have a whole team of investigators come in on the second day and, like I said that particular individual has been trespassed from the building, but it doesn't really solve the larger issue and if you go to the bank center you'll still see a little crack out front. But I did want to do my due diligence and let this council know that that is happening. You know certainly there were issues with security but well before I stepped foot anywhere near the building. And I'm hoping that you know like like we talked about with Mindy and you know being a little bit more aggressive with our town counselors and seeking some state support. That will hopefully get us where we need to be and make people feel a lot more comfortable at the bank center. Any other questions. How about the email collection going Haley. It's really slow. So, we shall see. The thing to know too is that if we really felt like a significant dip in terms of newsletter distribution we still have the capacity to do a mass mailing. You know we could send a newsletter to everybody 16 older in town and say hey did you know, and it would still be more cost effective because it could just be like a one page distribution. So that's something where even if we don't have the outcome we want the first time. And I'm not terribly worried because it's going to be July, not July January and February, which are our slowest months anyway. So if we don't get it and it's slow, we do have the ability in the spring like say when we do our open house to say hey did you know that we're here and you can catch up on all of our activities by doing X Y and Z. So we can mitigate that if we need to. I also wanted to say this before I forgot, Mindy is going to be at the senior center for lunch and conversation with us on Tuesday, November 14 that noon. So she is going to come in and she wants to hear from people. Everything senior center. So anyone is welcome to join us for lunch. What it will what the lunch will be is yet to be determined. But we will be having it on Tuesday the 14th that noon. That's all I had to say. Okay. Thank you. Yes. All right. Oh, Terry has her hand up. Terry. I have a question about the programs. Position. Is it a program supervisor program director. What is it? We have an activities coordinator when it's online. Yes, because the, the other one hasn't been posted yet. So that is a part time position. It's someone that's going to be responsible for scheduling activities for overseeing activities. You know, we need a lot of help with the scheduling. It takes a lot of effort to be looking at, you know, what are other senior centers doing, who could we do, you know, how can we scale up this program or target a new demographic by doing a particular kind of program. So I really need help with that. And that's what the activities coordinator will be doing. Okay. What's Helen doing that job. She did it, but more focused on like the social service aspect. So she's overseeing like brown bag or caregiver support services. A lot of the referrals and certainly case management. But this is going to be more like, so when we do our memory cafe, instead of me coming in and having to make coffee and cut pastries and wipe down tables. This person would do all those things and then I can sit at my desk and plan out where do we want to be in six months. So that's, that's the key difference between her, the activity coordinator and Helen position. Okay. Okay, thank you. Okay. Moving on to old business, our calendar review. I don't know if you can bring it up on the screen. I don't know if I have the link anymore. Okay. Well, we're still in October and there was the the health fair. Oh yeah, that was really fun. That was a great day. We had about 65 people show up. We had 20 different providers. We even had a gentleman who created a wheelchair prototype, which is really fascinating. And it was something that you could operate off from the chair. And it had certain. I'm not the inventor. This is a really condensed version of what it was. It also had features for caregivers. Like there's no like back bar on a wheelchair. So you end up kind of hurting your back if you have to Dan the person up and pull the wheelchair for you. So he had put a bar in that you can put your foot on and safely raise the chair up or there's different accommodations you can make near the handles that would allow the person to like seat it in different positions and he even had things like it looked kind of like an outdoor lawn chair cover, but so that it would allow more breathing in the person's back, but they're not like getting all that like sticky plastic on them. So it was really cool. And like I said, there was a lot more to it, but that was amazing and we did have the cassette there and 22 news came. It was great to be in the paper. Get our stuff out there. But it was really nice and people had a good time. We were able to showcase some of the new promotional items that we purchased we were just distributing flashlights and little reflective whistles, which are really popular. We also put out Dennis's beautiful display board with all those wonderful pictures. It was fun. You know, I didn't, I always like more turnout, but I was really satisfied with the people who came and just people were like, Oh, I didn't know that they provided this service or that service though that's what all you really want. I did find me share my screen. So what we know you can all see this calendar. So what we have listed for November is is an ARP grant community challenge grant, which I'm going to invite the grant subcommittee to take a look at and next month we can talk in greater detail but assuming we could be successful with this. So what I saw last year, like a week before the deadline and the deadline for this I believe is in March. So I think it may be helpful for us to start thinking about what we might want and this also might segue nicely into our next thing which is going to be the age and dementia. So in the action plan, we were scheduled to pick a goal. One thing that I just want to throw out that I think would be useful for us to do and this is listed, although not under a particular month. So what it is to go either go visit another senior center local senior center to get ideas and meet with their council on aging so I would like to give you are interested in that if you would contact me directly and then we can coordinate something but I think that would be really valuable for us as we look to kind of identify the deficiencies in bangs and start creating our wish list for what we would like in the future so Can I make a suggestion. Absolutely. Let's start with Northampton and I say that because I regularly get together with Kim Park who's their director and I'm sure she will be very willing to have her COA and our COA have a little play dates together. And I would also throw out there that you know maybe if anyone is also a member of the friends group. That would be something that you could also do as well is meet other friends groups and see what they do and how they fundraise and so on and so forth. Very good. Excellent. Okay, wonderful. And so if anyone else is interested if you just want to shoot me an email. That would be great. I think that would be a really valuable activity for us. And then obviously December we've got lots going on. I'm very excited about the clause for a cause I think that's really going to be wonderful for folks as well as the other, the other in house programming. Yes, which I did add so I updated that and I added the service incentive grant which also is due in November. Excellent. All right. I want to. I am asking wanting to ask. I know that it's a catchy phrase clause for cause. We have some people in the community who are not celebrants of Christmas. And is there some way that that can be taken into consideration. It can be, you know, in terms of marketing this program, it is, it's catchy people will remember it'll stick in your head. You know, when I'm in a marketing class and like those things are really important that the emphasis is less on making it any specific holiday related it's more just gift giving which I think you could make the argument that it would be appropriate in that sense. But if other people have a different name. They need to let me know really soon because that's well actually it's already in the newsletter. But if we were to backtrack that's something that would have to be decided on like immediately because then I'd have to go in and change other promotional materials and you know we have to get the wording out. We want to be advertising this program come November so that we have at least a whole month to get donations. So it's time for me to like revamp my material so if the group wants to talk about that I would definitely encourage that we do it now so that I can make those changes and get things ready to promote. And I'm sharing my screen so I can't just yeah. If people are raising their hand I can't see it because I'm sharing my screen so you can just unmute yourself or Jean can tell. I see Christina with her hand up. Yeah. Can we can we pause for cause. Pause. Meaning stop what you're doing and support this cause. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure people would get the connection. But again I mean if there's more. Is there a way of using the word holiday instead. Holiday for a cause. I'm just trying thinking of my head that's all. How would you use it in the sentence. How about cause cause for a holiday. Reverse it. Just a thought. The marketing student and me is saying not as catchy. You know something like short and sweet but you know. All I can say is I've done this program in other communities. I think that if you put the emphasis on the title you're losing the fact that it's really about the seniors and making their lives better around the holidays. I mean the reality is that there is a holiday connotation because it's the holidays but the holidays also make people really lonely. You know it obviously it's my program so I'm going to bat for it but I really feel like it's. That shouldn't be the main thing that people connect on it really is like it like when I went to that person's house I wanted to cry. So much because he just what it meant to him was. If you know 45 minutes of my time was everything to this person it's it's not like. It's not about the clause part it's not about any of that it's about making somebody feel like in that 45 minutes. They have your full attention and that they're still a person and not forgotten about not collecting dust in some corner so I'm going to go to bat for pretty hard and. I think the pause the winter pause for a cause would still keep the the rhyming piece there. That actually sounds good. What about what about us for a cause. What about something like holiday happiness. You need the cause part. I like the cause I like the cause part I agree that cause should stay in it. And why not why shouldn't we pause for this great cause. You know, I agree with Hadley I agree with Haley though I don't I wouldn't know what that meant that wouldn't that doesn't. It rhymes it's catchy but I it would go past me be I don't know I wouldn't understand that I guess. And one of the one of the things I think the there's a spirit of the time which takes us outside of our realm. I'm an ordained Baptist preacher and even so I you know I think the there there are people, elderly people in the community. Who do not as I celebrate Christmas they do not celebrate Christmas. So there's a season there's there's something in the air that's electric. And if I could keep in mind what their, what their frame of reference is and and honor that and and engage and and stretch myself a little bit. It speaks to the idea of being in community. How about just a pause for a cause or the cause. But it's still, like Sarah said I mean you still wouldn't know like. Well I'm just, well I know. But like, when you're trying to design a program and you. From my perspective, we have done a really poor job as a as a senior center as a council and getting our name out in the to the community. We really have virtually no presence a program like this is something that people will latch on to is something that is immediately recognizable. It's something that you can promote people will get behind the idea. And even if you don't celebrate Christmas, you could still get a gift bag we would be more than happy to just help you feel better. But we need to be really strategic in the way that we start marketing ourselves because we don't have anything. We need to kind of set some things aside and think about the fact that we have no community presence. Something like this, you can put on a flyer you can post that on Instagram you can put that flyer up in your business. You can have a collection basket we can go to insurance companies and banks and say hey post a flyer for this program in your lobby, and people will contribute to that. That is a really great way to greatly expand our community reach. It gets us great publicity. Aside from being a really good program it also affords us the opportunity to go and promote that on in media on the television and radio. I think that we were talking about being strategic and we're talking about future plans. Part of that needs to be promoting ourselves in a much better and more streamlined way. I've been a director for many years now. I have a flair for marketing. I have a flair for selling things. I am really advocating that you keep this because it does what it's supposed to do, which is when you hear it, you know what you're signing up for. You have an idea of what it is. It's easily repeatable. It's easy to put a hashtag next to it and blast that all around Facebook and Instagram. Those are the kind of things that I think we need to consider more right now because we don't have anything else to fall back on we can get. We can do different things once we have a base, like a base of people who understand us and who follow us, but we don't have that right now so we need to be really careful and how we develop these programs so that we can meet that need. I will let it be, but that still, that speaks even more loudly to the reason that it would be important to consider people whose frame of reference whose cultural context is not my own. I disagree because it's a program for everybody. It's not a program that's being divisive. It's not reflective of that at all. It's a program with a really simple message is that we're giving a gift, which is what clause represents we're giving a gift for a particular reason to help people who are homebound and isolated. I have a question. If clause has a E behind it. I'm okay with it. Is that what I heard was Santa Claus. Yeah, I heard immediately, which probably provoked the reaction that you got from quite a few of us. And if it's a clause for pause with a E ending with a E, I'm okay with it. Let it be a clause. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. That's because it doesn't include everyone. Yeah, it doesn't when it's specifically Santa Claus. It really does not. And if you want maximum participation. Somebody who sees that is going to say, well, I'm not going to support that. You know, yeah, I'm of a different religion. I want to be all the religions. The people of various religions. Sort of bump up around that time of the year, as you said, everyone wants to give everyone wants to be charitable. It's the best part of December. In my view, is that everyone is peaceful, everyone becomes. Yeah, yeah. You know, I've been frail by the, you know, the idea that there's all these religions celebrating something special right around the same time. Yeah. Yeah. There's the Kwanzaa and it doesn't even have anything to do with Christmas, but everyone is putting something good out there some goodness out there. So if you want to get Santa Claus ending with the E, then let it be. But when you take away the E, then you're being only marketing to a specific group of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's hard. It's important to go outside of our frame of reference. And it's important to reach out outside of our frame of reference. If we're talking about a community, a diverse community. Yeah. Yeah. Some people will stop immediately. So I mean, maybe we just put it to a vote. I, like I said, I disagree. And I have experience with this that I think is really relevant. And I do want to say, because I have had people on this council say otherwise. I do put myself in other people's shoes. I think a lot about what it's like to be an older adult if in regard I think a lot about what it's like to be the African American man who's a Vietnam veteran who comes to the center and just wants to hang out and play cards. I see people in the wheelchairs who come every day to play puzzles. I think about the person whose legs are going to be amputated soon and what it must be like to him to go about life. I spend a lot of time thinking about that. And that's what makes me really good at my job. Something like this. You know, again, and I'm happy to defer to whatever the vote is, but I want to make sure that I say my piece. This is still something people would gravitate towards and still understand, you know, it's, you know, and the way that people do that is they're not looking at it right here on a screen. They're looking at it in terms of a flyer that has more information about the program that has pictures of older adults that we work with that. You understand the program when you come and you volunteer and you help us pack bags and you realize like wow, there's a lot of people in the community who need this kind of program. You know, I think sometimes the way that I hear from certain people is that like there's no regard paid towards that and there really is and I spend a lot of time trying to develop things that are good for everyone and trying to make people feel like the senior center is a place where they want to go. And since I've been here, we have some of the most diverse programs in terms of participant base, something like the memory cafe is a great example of that. You know, I have really strived to do that every day that I go to work. And when I come to you with these kind of ideas, it's because I have experience working with older adults and with marketing and with program development. And I'm telling you, it's a really good thing. And I just want to, I just want to say that because, like I said, they're not to be too pointed, but there have been numerous people who have said that to me on this board and I really want to be clear about my commitment to being inclusive. Well, I did not say that and I am not attacking your integrity as an employee, and as a person committed to the work you do because otherwise you wouldn't be doing this work. We're just going over a specific word and pointing out that that word was sort of like not inclusive if it, if, if someone did not believe in that word and people were just giving suggestions. That's all. I mean, and then what you do is entirely up to you. And if this board take a vote, so be it, whatever prevails prevails, I think it's an excellent program actually, you know, and no one's attacking your integrity in the work that you're doing. It's excellent. Yeah, and it wasn't meant just for for you. There have been some other comments made by some people who are not here that have contributed to that. So I could make a suggestion that we just make sure the whatever collateral materials really have don't have like Santa Claus jumping out of chimney or Christmas trees and stuff like that it's it's so that I'd be willing to go with it if that word was there but it wasn't was clearly not focused on Christmas. The imagery is just like gift bags, you know, presents. That's really the the center of the imagery that would be used on any promotional material. I had said my hand is up. Hey, I'm behind you on on this one. Primarily because I draw from my many years of experience of working in the newspaper business. One of the things that I had to do when I was working for the Worcestershire Telegram and Gazette as a staff photographer it was that I had to go to all kinds of ethnic festivals, all the time, every basically every summer. There was just a whole bunch of the whole city would just essentially erupt and all these different things Albanians Romanians are absolutely the Greek festival was a big deal, all this kind of stuff. Every single time I was greeted very, very warmly. I had to turn food down. It was extraordinary and it was all based on what I what I learned on the remarkable diversity of our society. We live in a very, very heterogeneous place where inclusion should basically be all about the letting appreciating your neighbors. And that's why I'm sort of looking at this situation about when it comes to St. Patrick's Day, I wear a little green. I'm not Irish at all. And I would appreciate it if as far as Christmas is concerned, I you can't you just can't dodge it. It surrounds you. It's the biggest retail season of the entire year. So to do something kind in its name, I think is awesome. That's it. Thank you. Dennis, I don't disagree with you at all. About doing something, but all of the implications there are so many stories behind the story of experiences outside of the experiences that some of us have had. Okay. And I think it's a very creative push for something. But as I celebrate the holiday. I'm not into the materialism piece of it. Personally, but, but that is not why other people, some other people have a different perspective. And it just, it just hits me hard. I worked in an Appalachian community in teacher court a number of years ago. And there's so many different interpretations. I didn't have any idea that the experiences of the people that I was working with the students I was teaching the parents I was visiting. The experiences were what they were. And I had to back off and come on, not as the savior or the salvation to impose my way of doing into a situation and feel that they need it just to understand or appreciate. And it's not, it's not a criticism of you Haley, but it's that that shadow that many of us live in. And, and, and what I cited was one of the few experiences I had where I, I, I asked, aha, it was an aha moment. And making it real. I appreciate that it's not attacking but like you said I mean if you if you're aware that there are other experiences why can't this just be one of those flavors. And you are. The people who, who will be expected to absorb it and appreciate it. But don't you think we can mitigate that by demonstrating what it's really about. They may they may not get a year one but if it's something that we keep doing don't you think people would appreciate that that that's not what it's about it's about something that's a lot more deeper and more poignant. Right. I'm going to, I'm going to halt our discussion because the clock is ticking on us and we have other things that we have to get through in I for one have to leave at 630. So, I think this program is a wonderful thing for us to undertake. And I would out of respect for everybody's discussion would like us to vote so that we can come to a conclusion on this. So Haley can move ahead, and then we can, we can tackle our next item so just ask raise your hand if you are in support of calling the program. Now I can't remember what is clause for a cause. Right. Is that right Haley is that the clause for a cause. Okay, if you're in favor, put your hand up. All those opposed. I'm sorry I'm not seeing a full screen. Here, let me do this. Here we go. All right. So let's try this again put your hand up if you are in favor of clause for cause. Hand on the screen. Sorry. I'm doing this because I can't find it right now. I'm going to darkened room. All right. Okay. I think if I if I can count. I think it passed. Yeah, there was six hands up. That's what I thought. But I think we need an amendment. I heard the gentleman say that the poster he would not be opposed to it. If it was cause for clause, but it didn't have a Santa jumping down a chimney. And I heard Haley say that it was going to have images of seniors and bags of gifts. And that would make it more inclusive if they were brown people. And there were people in wheelchairs, et cetera, et cetera. So we need an amendment to say that we will do this if these things are included. Yeah. I agree. Anyway. Yeah, I was just going to say that it should be kind of matter of course for any of our, you know, advertisements for programs. So, yeah. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. All right. So hopefully everybody did their homework because our next item is the agent dementia friendly we were looking at the action plan. And we select a goal. We don't know given our time that we are going to be able to finish on this. So I'm wondering next month. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what I would ask though is could folks email their goal in because it would just help us get an idea if we have, if we're all over the map, which I think is a good chance we would be. There's some consensus around a particular topic that it looks like this great interest. We are, we are going to discuss it, but obviously we don't have the time this evening. So if you would either, I guess email me, I'll compile them in and share them out. Thank you. Whatever goal you selected. Okay. New business and this is timely. We need to elect officers. We need 12 months. His chair has come to a conclusion. I believe I'm allowed another 12 months, but. And Dennis is vice chair and we currently have a big opening for secretary so first want to throw it out is anybody want to nominate themselves for any one of these positions. Awesome, by the way. You can't lie to people. Terrible. Okay. All right. All right, I'd like to nominate Dennis to continue on his vice chair. Thank you. On second everybody in favor. I second that. Oh boy. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. I think we have a vice chair. Christina has a question. You have a question. I think she was voting. Oh, you. Okay. Okay. I will continue as chair unless somebody else would like to take the seat. I'm in favor of your nomination. Second. Yes. I recommend you. Oh, thanks. To be in the chair. Okay. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. All right. And we have any reports to be secretary. Okay. We're going on time for two months and then. Yeah, then I'll do it for two. Yep. And then we'll need another two. So that will be coming up, folks. So please volunteer. Otherwise. We will. I will be begging and that will be pretty. All right. Next up is the approval of minutes from September. Hopefully everybody had a chance to review those. Thank you, Dawn, for sending those out. Anybody have any changes or edits? I corrected a spelling error I found earlier. I picked with a C and then it should be PICK, but that's the only thing I corrected. So. It's a pretty good job. Yeah. My name at the bottom and steady. He left my name at the bottom of the page. I can correct that. Unless you've. I'll see. I'm sure if you want to give it to me, I'll take it. Submit it with that change in it. Thanks for noting that. Okay. Otherwise. My name is Lynn. Instead of that line. Okay. But they were the minutes where they, they. Pulled up memory very quickly. I just gave you the wrong name. That's all right. I don't have an H. You don't have an H. No, I got it. Okay. No, I got it. I'm a no H or no H, no H. I'll fix that. Do these things go somewhere by the way once because I marked it as a draft. Do I then finalize it and do they go in? Okay. Okay. So how do I do that? Do I send them? Yeah, you can just send me a word doc and I just put it on our letterhead and then put it up online. Okay. Now you were going to put dates where you have the double X's. Or numbers. I didn't correct those either. Okay. Correct. I will do that. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And we're excellent. We're old then spelling corrections. We good. Everybody in favor of approving the meeting. The. Yeah. Hi. the minutes till they're corrected. We can't approve the minutes till they're corrected. No, you can make a motion to accept them as amended and then he can make everything that we talked about and then that will be done. If you were to go rogue and then it didn't make additional edits, we would have to come back. Okay. So I move what Haley said. I accept the minutes in favor of the amended meeting minutes. Hi. Hi. Hi. Opposed? Okay. Wonderful. Alright. It's 632, Jean. I know, I know. Thank you. Our next meeting is not the second Thursday of November because it was Veterans Day. So it looks like it's the third Thursday, November 16th at five. Between now and then, I would ask that you email me if you're interested in going to visit the Northampton Senior Center and talk to their Council on Aging. And if you would email me the goal you selected for the Agent Dementia, I would greatly appreciate that. And in November, I think we'll probably be doing some updates with regards to our subcommittees as well. So we have a lot going on. So the next meeting will be the 16th of November? Yeah. Correct. Thank you. Correct. Is there a motion to adjourn? So, Don, I can make a motion to adjourn. Second. Second to add a motion. All in favor? Aye. Thank you all so much. Have a wonderful meeting. Thank you. Good night, everyone. Bye, everybody. Good night. It was a pleasure.