 where you talk. Yeah, I wasn't sure Jen as soon as you left it like cut out. So I didn't know if you were the meeting ended and then everybody was still here miraculously. I didn't realize I was hosting anything so I'm gonna go ahead and you know she might have made it so that like I don't have any co-host abilities. Okay, so um. All right, yeah it doesn't look like you do but. Yeah, I don't you are the host you must I don't know. It's where I didn't hit me. Okay, I'm gonna wait again so if I close and something happens Hayley just email me right back again okay. We know what to do. All right. See ya. All right. No, it worked. No issues this time. That's good. Okay, we're all still here? Yes. Okay, I'm gonna mute my microphone. Okay, it's my turn for I guess tech difficulties today something's in the water. Thanks for saving us. Wow, I'll say that was amazing. I was freaking out. I was quick to type that email. So yeah so but anyway on a lighter note the senior center is back open. I've been really enjoying connecting some folks are taking the time to come walk over spend the afternoon hanging out. I've been fixing a cup of tea just about every day now for one senior in particular who I really have enjoyed chatting with and that's so refreshing for me to to be able to see. And so right now we're working on our new newsletter distribution and I hinted at more programs. I'll talk a little bit about those so you should all hopefully know we've got the open house on Wednesday the 11th of May. Big events 15 vendors we're working with Crest they're actually going to be the ones who are helping us pay for the catering for that event. Live music we'll have at least three different baskets to raffle off for seniors in attendance. So should be really fun day and starting tomorrow I'll start getting the media involved. I got the number for side becker we'll reach out to him the Gazette the Indy just about anyone I can get my hands on to cover that event. Following that we're going to be bringing back a number of programs legal advice with Ed Smith we'll be offering that one so on the second Tuesday of every month we will once again offer a blood pressure clinic weekly at the senior center. We have a number of things coming we'll be offering the senior ID card clinics through the PVTA so that's if you need to renew your senior ID get your picture taken you don't have to go to Holyoke you can come right to the senior center and then we'll offer a special second clinic for that which will include a travel trainer so if you're a new person never used public transit before you'll be able to get like a you know a little guide a walkthrough of your first time. Some other new programs we will be offering 30 minute Reiki sessions once a week starting in May I'm working with um its name is Bob Nelson he's a Reiki master he's currently working in Northampton but we've pulled him over to Amherst to do a clinic for us we will be offering a number of ways for seniors to get involved with their town council with the town manager we'll have office hours at the bank center I already have districts two three and four lined up but more will follow Medicare programs aging in place I'll take a tour of Fenway Park and then I'm also very excited we're going to have a whole week of self-care events so we will offer like a manicure clinic chair massage Reiki ice cream social mindfulness workshop so and that's not even the full list of what we're doing but it's a lot so I don't want to take up too much time but I'm really excited that people will have a nice smattering of different types of topics that hopefully will pique their interest and then of course the the downside to that is as we're adding new programs we're quickly running out of space you know it becomes a problem right if we have two events going on in one day well then that's a lot less space that we have to work with so it's becoming a little tricky to navigate and to find the right layout for each room but we will make do with what we can does anyone have any questions on the programs that we have coming up I have a question about the open house you had requested that members of the council be present at the open house and I want to make sure that everybody knows about it and will try to be present will there be a table for the council or if you have a special thing in mind for members of the council I was hoping that the council depending on how many of you are in attendance I would love to have you stationed at the greeter desk you can be kind of like the first stop for people coming in the door but then also walking around you know asking people if they know about senior programs introducing yourselves you know I really want us to be kind of very vocal and how we approach people and reminding them to please come check us out and see what we have to offer you know by that point we'll have gotten we'll have closed the surveys for the agent dementia friendly project so we can let people know that we'll be working on you know getting their responses together combing through the data and trying to come up with an action plan we can also promote the listening sessions that will be happening later on in May can you give me the date again it's Wednesday May 11th from 1 to 3 p.m but if you can come sooner than one to help set up that would be very much appreciated any other questions okay do you have anything more to say the agent dementia friendly project last week we had over 700 responses which is the best out of any town that they have worked with so I'm quite pleased with that and I am sure that by the 30th of April we will have more responses hopefully 800 or more the outreach efforts continue I will be tabling some events at the Amherst farmers markets to promote you know the the project that we're doing and then also the listening sessions so if you don't know the first session will be May 20th the 4th Monday I think it's the 24th that topic will be housing and then we'll move into social participation in June transportation in July and public safety in August so we have a really nice array of topics to to cover with folks and we want to hear their feedback I was able to get some of the early responses from PVPC and I was so impressed with the thoroughness and the detail that people are talking about that their needs in Amherst a lot of folks are being very explicit about lack of space at the senior center not feeling like the town is taking the time to listen to what they need and they're making that very clear and I'm so encouraged by that and hope to you know we'll have an opportunity to share that once we're finished collecting the surveys yeah so I would say when when the gathering sessions for the topics come out that I think that's really important that we let our friends and colleagues know that their voices can be heard and what they say at these meetings it's all going to be recorded and it's very important if you have concerns about anything that you speak up and absolutely speak up so okay any other questions from others thank you I think Norma must have gotten lost because she was going to give a report on the nutrition Dorothy has a question so I'm gonna allow her to talk oh hi I'm getting ready to send out my panogram because we're having a district meeting on the 24th and Earl will be our speaker but in my panogram I would like to include some senior news and I was taking notes but I couldn't take it them fast enough oh sure send me an email with dates that way get disseminated to at least a lot of people in district three okay yes which Jennifer Calvin I share so that would be really helpful you could do it and anything else you want to throw in there because we really I you know you've been talking to me and I certainly understand that you've got to get more space and I guess the first thing to think about at this point is either other buildings or rooms in the area that can be made available to the senior center but you know there's so many things we're doing at once it's kind of like chaos from our end just you know keep keep the pressure up okay that's really important that you keep the pressure up because as you know seniors are very well behaved group okay and yes have been too well behaved just so it's time to as they say act up you know and I think great dancers all the way sounds like you're getting ready to so I can hear from you Dorothy thank you so much councilor something a question back the other way sure um district four has put out this agent dementia friendly survey on their e lists I'm kind of doing the BIPOC outreach I'm wondering if you could put the survey it's a online survey I wonder if you could put the survey on this newsletter you're sending I should I should and I have to tell you I'm a little bit weak on links but I will I'll include it I'll include that okay one of us one of us will send it to your counselor email at the town hall okay great because you're right that does belong in this this mailing that I'm going to do and thank you also as I said our district meeting is in the Jones library of Sunday the 24th between two and four thirty any flyers or any handouts that you have we're going to have a table with material so that's a good place to disseminate stuff too and just let me know and I'll pick up or you know get it from town hall or get it from you or whatever we can arrange it my front porch just leave stuff in an envelope on my front porch and I can add it out at the meeting okay good thank you so much that was okay great thank you and christine you had a question was it of Dorothy yes I'm not of Dorothy um for Hailey um it wasn't a question but it was it's a question and it's also um a little detail um you had asked me to find someone willing to do the testimony for our cdbg application and we have a senior who lives in Amherst that is ready and willing and able and she's a very articulate and she stays involved in community events oh good yeah I would love to speak with you have we have we submitted or are we still working on it the rfp has not even been released yet so we have ample time to get this together and to have this person provide some testimony which I think will really bolster our application thank you for bringing that up that was one of the things on the agenda that I wanted to get information about does and is there anything further you need to add about the cdbg grant I don't have any updates just because we don't yet know what the application is going to look like so it's hard to say you know what kind of questions are they going to ask how much can we apply for what's the deadline um but we certainly are going the transportation route we want to see if you know a van salary for the driver all of those things okay perfect okay thank you all right I see Norma is back and Norma are are you um can you hear me Norma she may not be back yet um while she's getting adjusted there's something that I would like to say um your name's not here I know are we here you Norma oh you can hear me yeah we can hear you but I can't find my video okay what you want to go ahead and give your nutrition report okay Bob's trying to get me back on because like I did part of it but I okay uh this is the uh report from the march meeting of the nutrition council which meets every other month and it was late this month because um the cook finally had a chance to take some vacation and so it didn't coincide with your meeting last month there wouldn't have been any report um but Riley is the main chef and the meals are prepared at um the Walter Selville house in Northampton and they do over um well at least 600 meals a day and it's been as much as 800 with the pandemic and they're still doing the um meals on wheels of course but they also are continuing the grab and go um at least for the time being and I think that's up to the office of elder affairs and one other organization um to um decide when they're going to do away if they're going to do away with that um so one of the new things that um they have instituted is um called the global table can you all still hear me yes we're still working and so what the people's from Washington house in westfield which is probably the largest um group of congregate meals um wanted to have some ethnic dishes and so they started out with they had beef goulash and french milk meat pie and um and then we'll give feedback and and change it of course if people don't like it but it's been very well accepted and um some new recent recipes in the last month are veggie chili, Caesar salad, rosy chickpeas and turkey tarot, tetrazini and the chickpeas were a problem with Hatfield I guess because they were burnt and they're supposed to be like chips and I guess that's like me making tail chips I burn them every time um so he said he would be around the next time they do that and supervise and try to work that out um and they've got some new kitchen updates with heaters and warmers to keep the food hot um to get to the to these places they're working at full tilt no one got COVID during the whole epidemic not that it's over but um knock on wood and they they really work well as a group they did hire two more drivers um to do the home delivered meals but they feel they're working at full capacity and now that some of the uh congregate sites are opening up um they um will you know be getting more help from Kelly who is the new nutritionist and she's uh young and enthusiastic but has had plenty of experience like 15 years experience in um in her nutrition work and um yeah the meeting didn't last very long it only lasted a little over half an hour so you can imagine they talk fast and accomplish a lot so okay well yeah so I will end there you don't need to know their pros and cons of each and thank you okay I wonder when we will open for congregate lunch yes I was going to ask that I don't know is that up to you Haley or we could yes I mean in essence we could certainly move more quickly on that than we have but I think for me it comes down to an inadequate kitchen space um and I think that there is also something to consider in that the pivot to congregate dining may actually lose us diners you know in my experience even before the pandemic congregate dining was not an immensely popular program it really depended on the people in the area the type of food um you know even the timing of when you actually serve the meal so I think that we can maintain a higher level of numbers by keeping the to-go format for now okay and I do think that there's a certain amount of people who are just not comfortable eating inside okay good I'll bring that back to them okay okay I can't get the video if you are ever on the lookout for a chef I have somebody I can I recommend highly Jamaican I'm not sure how arrangements are made through the center but this is a Jamaican chef who works part-time in New York City but he lives up here in this area and very much wants to come here full-time oh nice okay well thank you I will pass that along too yes okay thank you very much Norma you're welcome so I think we've lost a number of members here I don't know what happened to everyone that I think some of it I don't know but mine clicked off again a couple of times and I was faithful enough believing that I could reconnect that I actually did yeah that's great Jacqueline that was really excellent well Karen did say she had to leave she had dinner plans so she was a planned exit does anyone feel like we're playing Hollywood squares it certainly looks that way so we're just about through the agenda at any rate but I did want to say a few things about what's been going on with the friends of the emmer senior center I think you heard Hailey say what a challenge it is to arrange for all the activities in the limited rooms that we have now that we can't use the large pole room and we can't use room 101 for on Thursday afternoons and you know the dance classes and exercise classes are are used to using that large activity room so a few months ago at one of the friends meetings and I'm a member of the friends as well by the way we discussed the problem of the senior center space and then we also talked about the fact that we don't have much space and we don't have much staff and we also don't have good budget so some of us gathered information from seven other senior centers in the area Delta Town Greenfield Hadley Holyoke North Hampton Burnhamston and South Hadley and for each town we determined the number of adults over the age 60 the sizes of space in square footage the number of staff the senior center had the year the senior center was occupied in that building and the town budget for the senior center and I'll tell you the results were glaring emmer's screen uh rogue married to show how glaring that is oh actually I don't know if that will work okay I sent the I sent the form I can try sharing okay I sent the form to see if I can get that to work if it's on the desktop just go ahead the first thing to do is if it's on your desktop is to share screen and then you'll have to go over and click on it yeah okay this what is the document called this I have two senior centers in the area and I have letter to town here we go I got it okay there it is can you see it no it'll take a second oh I don't think it's gonna work yeah I'll pull it up which letter is it I it's the first one it's the senior centers in the area okay I got it here we go can you see okay oh good let me see that so well as I said it's glaring can you see that counselor Pam yes I can excellent and this was shared with the committee TSO town services outreach yeah I think that's what I was about to say that we sent them a letter to all town council members and our town my town counselor in district five responded and it was Charlene Balmill and she came and had a tour of the senior center and saw our space limitations she shared our concerns and she said that we could be put on the agenda for presentation and discussion not the problem at the town services outreach committee meeting in May yes we're working on that that was very good that Charlene took the tour on the town services committee you also have Anika Lopes and I believe she's very supportive at this time and Anna Devlin Gautier as well as Andy Steinberg so I think that we're really I think that we will be open to what you have to say okay thank you it's a challenge at this time because they don't want to hear okay yeah I just wanted to make you all aware of this issue of what the friends have that the friends have brought forward and I want to remind you that one of the purposes of the council on aging is to advocate for the needs of the aging population and those needs and services and programs can't be met without adequate space staff or budgetary support so with that in mind I encourage you all to when never hesitate to contact your town counselor about any concerns you may have regarding seniors the town council is not able to remedy a problem if it does not know if it doesn't exist and know about it so please if you don't know who your two town counselors are and there are two counselors for each of five districts and if you don't know who what district you live in you can find out by calling the town clerk office at 259-3035 so please don't you know be afraid to speak up when something is a problem does anybody have questions about that oh you're saying that letter already went out the letter went out it went out about two weeks ago and they also got this form with the senior senators in the area and it also was published in the Amherst Indy online paper or online news well and Dennis do you have anything to add to that Dennis is actually on the friends of the senior center committee he's secretary of that committee so if you have anything you want to add the only thing that I could probably add to it is that we also going back to I think it was December that the member all the members of the friends and also some members of the COA at that time that we all got together and we met with Paul Backelman a very cordial meeting everything went was was very nice and we we let him know basically that was the beginning of our of our approach to the entire situation and also I with with rosemary's help I also sent a letter to Mr. Backelman explaining some of our concerns and looking for some answers and fortunately or not there's been no response to the letter at all that's pretty much where we stand however I I think very wisely I think the the attention for the friends and also now it looks like also for COA members has turned over to the town council where it really belongs and as rosemary said unless the town council members know of a problem they can't possibly fix it so so I think we're on the right track we just have to as as someone said we just have to start acting up yeah and I that's really important at this point I this is Jacqueline I applaud you for taking that step taking the initiative taking that action to make a difference and to rattle some to to make a little bit of noise or as you put it to act up start start to act up nicely and then do more intensely what needs to be done I applaud you I think it's important especially in the in the in the early stages to at least be polite I think it's terribly important to also for us to be willing to get our point across yes I agree with you wholeheartedly so thank you so much Jacqueline and Chad you have a question hey thank you you know I hear the nice be nice and all that it wasn't nice when they took those spaces away from us yeah we're not going to get anywhere right now there's six I'm going to be derogatory here there's six pigs at the trough already so we're you know we're the last little curly tail out of there we are discriminated against group I call them the big six I agree one of them is is age whether it be too young or too old that's right yes that's why I yelled out gray pants there I don't know if you remember them but they were a little more yes in people's faces so my thought is and I have a beautiful design that we focus a little bit on what it could be so at some point every time I try to get on the agenda that never happens but I don't know how I'd love to present you with with some ideas I have that would fit in with with our town so keep going brothers and sisters we're going to get that all right all right all right okay well I think that um let's see you had something you wanted to say about PVTA I think you said I tell you Jacqueline did you have something about PVTA that you wanted to I was told I use PVTA and the van and it proves to be very helpful sometimes sometimes it's more problematic than it is purposeful but they have I was told I guess a week or so ago that they've extended the hours so that people don't have to rush away from whatever it is they're doing four o'clock I think that he said it's either five or six I don't remember exactly but that's that's shifting and the the next thing I really hope to shift for is a recognition that there are seniors who do like having some level of mobility on weekends and there's no weekend transportation and they do offer weekend and transportation for people who are quote disabled in some other way but not for seniors who might be able relatively speaking so I think it's important I think it's important to recognize acknowledge and to respond that sounds terrific it's uh yeah so these weekend services are available to some people but you know to able-bodied seniors yeah exactly that's what I was told yes they asked if you have a disability I have not checked with them within the past week or so uh but I can do that since I am one of their frequent customers okay get as much information as you can and keep us posted yeah yeah that's great thanks Jacqueline yeah um I want to remind people that there is the living with hearing loss program on Wednesday April 20th oh sorry Linda I'm sorry I didn't see your home you're muted from you I just popped up you didn't miss anything I just went like that okay I was wondering if I could take two minutes to kind of catch up a little bit on where Amherst neighbors is and yes absolutely um okay yeah uh well I'm gonna put a different frame on it I thought it might be helpful also for people to know that Hailey Rosemary and I had what I thought was a really lovely conversation and meeting talking about who we are as a senior center in Amherst neighbors and where are commonalities and how do we distinguish for our residents and so people know best how to use us as well as uh as we're building both organizations are really building and developing for the future how can we work together to support each other and be clear still with our folks um about how to participate so it was a great I love the conversation took copious notes and um I'm actually going to draft an article for our newsletter and then I said I'd pass it along also you know if we need to edit it change it to put in the senior spirit and if you have thoughts about where else we might publish that uh you know we can do a little bit more with it too um but I thought it was a great start for our conversation and I'm sure you know we're all we're both evolving and changing so you know we just need to keep the conversation going so in that context uh in I see Amherst neighbors as um the umbrella for me for me is really what we call neighbor and neighbor connections it's about a social connection and in the spirit of supporting that we have assistance that we call services although we're trying to look for a different word for that because it conveys a different meaning when you're saying services as opposed to neighbor to neighbor support um but we do have a whole you know up for now I'll just call it a services component and programs you know which are also in the spirit of bringing people together and hopefully starting uh some connections that last beyond workshops and and services um so with that and the services have been very heavily transportation um and to answer that question the weekend we do not do weekend transportation either so that was a very interesting conversation you know part you were uh offering um or you know we do some doctor's appointments to groceries to friends if you want to go to visit a friend um uh you know anything that you know really builds connection um the other things we get called for in terms of the services component are like help with decluttering we do uh we'll take people for grocery shopping or we will run errands for them um we'll help with um it's the classic changing light bulbs you know that kind of thing but so it's small tasks that um essentially don't require a contractor and you don't want to pay for if you don't have to um so on the program side just to tell you what's going on in April um we did a program on the freedom riders with uh Gene Denton Thompson and um oh god Peter I forgot Peter's name but it's you know it's excellent really nicely attended everything is still on zoom for us except I mean the services we're doing in person but our programs are still on zoom um we have one coming up on um storytelling you know for grandparents to tell stories to their grandkids um and another category of programs we have um interest groups and Chad can add to this if you like but he's he was responsible for starting what we call a foodies group interest group we have book groups um you know and I'm right I think anything people generate themselves and say I have an interest you want a hiking group we'll make that happen if you want uh you know knitting we'll make it happen in some way but it it is intended to be member generated and member led eventually um so and then there's a coffee clutch once a month you know Monday morning coffee clutch and stuff so there are a variety of things happening I hope you'll pay attention to us and sign on to us too as well as the senior center and you know really any feedback you have from uh for us we want to hear and we want to be able to support the senior center and we want to be able to you know partner on things and uh and and any ideas you have to support that please do let me know yes I do excellent thank you you said yes I you do and I wasn't sure yet you know I don't see the senior center or Amherst neighbors uh doing any transportation nights weekends or holidays yeah yeah and we have whole lives just because we're over 55,000 full life thank you so in my gray pants they're kind of uh continuation I could say that both those organizations could join together and contract with somebody like Lyft or Uber with a certain amount of lives or transportation or however you want to call it per week month or year to provide that service uh the two organizations together could really have some support yes yeah thank you that's a very nice idea I think it's a real gift to have both organizations and and they're working together because it means expanding the kinds of services that and and and the number of or or amount of services that can be provided to the community because elders make a difference in this community too elders make a difference in this community too sure that's our philosophy oh can I do a little plug I'm sorry I forgot something I don't know if any of you saw it I had there was a letter to the editor yesterday in the gazette and I don't know if you saw the backstory in that which was about two weeks ago there was an article which I had written and it was you know printed in the gazette but here's the the wonder I wrote that article over two years ago and it was printed at the time it was on reframing aging and I recently brought that up is because it's in the spirit of the philosophy it's about the philosophy that older adults have plenty to contribute to the community what we're about is harnessing those resources and bringing them forward yes and so that's what the article was about but in it you know I did obviously I was promoting Amherst neighbors and we hadn't said that we weren't up and running yet so the article said we're in the planning stage I have no idea who submitted and said reprint it but there it was and so you know I won't go into all the details but I had you know communication with the editors about I don't know how this happened but thank you very much and write a letter to the editor is you know with a correction kind of essentially in an update on where we are so that was a letter that was published yesterday and in terms of where we are now so hope you take a look at it and thanks Linda and thanks for jumping in and I want to remind everybody that of course there aren't many of us left here but to join Amherst neighbors is there is no membership fee and there's every advantage and it's wonderful you get your newsletter regularly and it's just a wonderful organization thank you thank you Amherst neighbors dot org very good exactly okay and I was going to remind people that living with hearing last class on Wednesday April 20th from 1 to 2 and you do have to call the senior center if you want to join that group it's 259-3060 and and then lastly is the open house and unless anybody has other comments we will meet again oh we didn't do the minutes yeah I don't know if we still have a quorum left what's the whole chat is here one two three four we need one more Christina no we have five yeah yeah okay so um if you all had a chance to read the minutes if you have nothing further to add or correct um I'd like a motion to accept the minutes so move Dennis Vandal and a second yeah I second okay thanks and all in favor of the minutes as written please raise your hand hi okay and I okay thank you minutes stand approved and we will meet again on May 12th the day after the open house we'll get a resounding review of how that all went and I hope everybody has a good weekend thank you for me thank you you guys take care nice meeting you all we're adjourning as well bye bye goodbye