 All right. I did hear that Dennis Vandal isn't able to come tonight to the meeting. He has a previous engagement and Karen Helfer also sent me a message saying that she had to be attending some special thing for the graduation. So she won't be at the meeting. So two people will be missing. Okay. Is your sound okay, Terry? Yeah. Can you hear me? We can. So let's hope it stays that way. Hi, Chad. I know. I called them and they checked on it, but no, we had a fun to start that night. So I think that's why I lost it, but I'm not sure. Okay. Well, I'm sure Christina will be here and Meena was planning to attend. So that would be good. And our quorum is we'll be met when they arrive. Yeah. And when I left the head, they senior center this afternoon, one of the thermometers said 87. Oh, come on. I'll bet you thought you were in Miami. It's not that hot here. I think our thermometer says 76. Oh, okay. Okay. But it feels really nice. So it feels good to have the door open. Yes. Exactly. I don't know what just happened. Nothing. I just heard beeps, but I disappeared. Oh, you're there for us. Yeah, I can. You can see me. Yep. Yeah, but nice, bright, yellow sweater on. Oops. She just Yeah, now we lost her. Oh, great. Hey, great. She comes back. There you are. You came back and we did lose you for a minute. I was the open house yesterday. Oh, so much fun. Yeah, I was going to talk about that a little bit. Terry, I missed you. I saw that you had signed up to comment. I looked for you, but I didn't see you next year. Yeah, because I have breathing issues, and there was going to be too many people. I just didn't want to chance it. Oh, okay. And there were a lot of people. Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll mention a little bit about it because I think, well, of course, I did see Chad and Christina there too. So that was really nice. Okay. And Greg was there. We saw him. And Greg was there. Yeah, the dog. That was great. Yeah. So if you want to say something about it, Hayley, go ahead. Sure. Oh, I would love to. I was going to talk about this on the director's update. So we had about 65 to 70 people, which was a wonderful attendance. Wow. You know, I think only 35 people had RCP. So to get more was excellent. We had really nice coverage from the Gazette Amherst Media, WWLP stopped by even and they took some fantastic shots. I heard just really high praise from everybody in attendance. The band was great. The food was good. So a shout out to Cress and Earl Miller for picking up that tab. And we had lots of wonderful donors, great volunteer team. They made it look effortless. It was perfect. It really was. It was so much fun. People really had a good time and they had good energy. They were happy and positive. It was really the band was just right because it kind of you could hear it when you were in any of the rooms, but it wasn't dominating. It was just right. Really nice. Oh, good. So. So have I decided we need one every year? Yes, definitely do. I think that'll be a good move. And we got some good program ideas. People want dance classes. They want ping pong. They want a pool table, movies, musical events. So some really fantastic suggestions by people. So you got input right there on site. That's good. That's good. Chad, did you have someone you wanted to add? Yeah. I wanted to see the open house have a specific purpose, such as accomplish, you know, either the board or yourself giving a presentation about accomplishments this year, future direction, a type of lecture, whether it be 10 minute or whatever at some point to engage the citizens of the town in the senior center more than just a celebration. For instance, I didn't know what to do there, but I was tapped on the shoulder to give a tour. Obviously, I did what this board is interested in, which is say that the space has been shrinking, et cetera, et cetera. Ideas about a senior center, you know, some of the programs are on grounds and so on. But I did that by going floor to floor and pointing out where the exercise equipment was going to go and those little things. So anyway, I think it would be great if we had it if it was once a year, twice a year, whatever. This is what's been happening, some type of presentation. Only 10 minutes or whatever. I think I see that as a good suggestion. I think you would have to say open house from one to three with a special presentation at two o'clock. Let's say. Yeah, we could do that. I'd also I think when we do it again, we should have our own table for the council. And we should have some, you know, some volunteers who are able to give those tours. And, you know, because that kind of makes it more of the open house feel where you want to showcase all that we have to offer. So that's a great suggestion. Good night. Okay. And to be backing you, Chad, I'm thinking that maybe some special day or holiday in order to continue to get more support for the new place that we we know is imminent. Yeah. Yeah. And use that to get the word out rather than relying wholly on the media. We need the media, but to do it in conjunction with the media, I think would be a good idea. Isn't this senior month? That sounds good to me. I think it is senior month. So I wouldn't have it further down in the schedule. I'd have it as an opening. I'd have it at the beginning at the front end where oh, okay, we could gather the people, get their attention, kick off the open house that way where they would have we would have their listening gears, so to speak. That's a good idea. Yeah. Okay, let me call the meeting to order. We'll talk more about the open house as we as we go on. We do have a quorum. So pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, this meeting of the Council on Aging is being conducted via remote participation. And the meeting is being recorded. I'll do a roll call officially. Greg Baskham. You're on mute. Unmute, Greg, so we make sure your sound is okay. Unmute. Here. I can't hear him. He did, but we still don't hear him. Great. Can you hear us? He's on mute. Put your hand up if you can hear us. Okay, okay. Okay, he's here. Oh, perfect. Okay. Thank you. Chad is here. He put his hand up. I'm here on Helfer. Mila Montemure. Christina Sharbi. Terry Carr. Here. Jacqueline Smith Crooks. Here. And Dennis Vamble. Okay. Anyone in the public would like to make a comment at this time? You have three minutes. If so, raise your hand. Okay. No comment. Let's move on. We got started with talking about the open house and here he is first on the agenda. So if we want to finish that conversation, let's do so now. Sure. So yeah, so just a recap for anybody who hadn't heard about 65 to 70 people, which was a fantastic turnout. We had beautiful weather, lovely band, food provided for by the Crest Department. We've got some really great ideas on programs that we can do in the future, some of which we can actually enact quicker than others. I think one person had asked for exercise machines. Well, that won't happen within the next six months or so, but certainly dance classes can take place now. We really, I think did a fantastic job of getting the word out. You know, we had, again, fantastic media presence by the Gazette, Amherst Media, WWLP. We were lucky enough to have Mindy Dom and many of our town counselors and the town manager in attendance. So I think we did a good job of kind of showing people that we are here. We're open and reminding them of all the different programs and services we have to offer. This will definitely become an annual event. And I think we can have a stronger see-away and friends present. I'd like to see a bit more from the Friends of the Amherst Senior Center. So I don't know if people have any questions about that day or any other comments. You mentioned that we were on WWLP. Was there, did they? I haven't seen it yet. I've been checking their website, but they did interview us and they took some really fantastic shots in Room 101 and of the music. So I would think maybe today or tomorrow that'll be airing. Is that the 822 station? I don't get cable. But that is our more local network. Okay. All right. Well, if you get that program, if you get it. Oh yeah, that's going up on Facebook as soon as I get the link. So I'll email everybody. Perfect. Okay. Very good. Yeah, I have to say it was a very happy event. People were really having a good time. They were and which is exactly what we wanted to see. And people were surprised at some of the new programs. I signed one woman up to get her nails done on May 25th. So people were excited that we're offering different sorts of programs now. And how about the raffle tickets? Did you find, did people win? We did. Yep. We, people won. We made a series of calls today. Yeah, we didn't have as many tickets as I would have thought, but, you know, it was just a fun thing for people to do to make it a little icing on the cake. Yeah. I thought it was fun. And people were anxious to fill them out and the drawings. So that was fun. Yeah. So other things on my agenda. So I did a couple report searches in my Senior Center. Found out that in April, 2022, we served about 965 seniors. So that's a combination of people attending a class or picking up medical loan equipment, or just even walking in and getting some information or referral to a program. Now I have to do some number crunches kind of looking before the pandemic to get a real sense of what the comparison is. But I can tell you that about, we're serving about 30 people a day. And we had a, we had a meeting in Hadley this afternoon and where I learned that the Hadley Senior Center serves 75 people a day. And many of those people are Amherst residents. So to me, that's pretty striking. You know, we definitely want to be doing better. We want to be doing more outreach. And one thing I would really like to see us do is to form a subcommittee for outreach for senior outreach and kind of talk about how can we get people engaged? How can we get them interested, you know, clamoring to come to the Senior Center and to get those services that they need? Uh-huh. Yeah, I'm quite surprised that it's only 30 people per day. Yeah. But on the other hand, they had a Senior Center. Hmm. They had a pretty strong following because of their new building. Yes. I think that up their numbers and then COVID probably didn't hurt them as much as it did us. That would be my intuition as well. And I can certainly, I'd like to do some Senior Center tours, maybe talk with the directors about attendance numbers and look at any trends that we can kind of see happening. I've talked to Hayley Wood before about, you know, what are the programs that seniors there are most interested in. And it really comes down to more recreational things, you know, arts programs, music, exercise. So those are what's captivating folks right now. We did have one art program not too long ago. How was that? How was that? We, every seat was packed. That was phenomenal. I heard very good feedback about the instructor. So she's going to come back. She's going to do a series of that. And then actually starting in July, well, June and July, we're going to do more arts and crafts type workshops. So we'll have ceramics classes, we'll do macramé, we'll do tie-dye t-shirts. So that'll greatly expand come this summer. And I think, and Chad has a question. Oh, yeah. Well, I've actually worked at three of the local Senior Centers under the, I don't know what they call it now, SCSEMP program. But anyway, the one with the biggest draw that I noticed, and it's a, it's a heavy lift is South Hadley. And one of the few that do not receive Highland Valley meals in a steamer pan, they actually make their own meals. There's a kitchen there, and they cook and that sort of thing. And that is heavily attended simply because of the meal. And the meal is good enough that it pulls in people from the community, not just seniors who come to the Senior Center, use the Senior Center, et cetera. But people actually come off the street to drive up their park there and go in because of the food. In my ideal Senior Center, the 21st century, that's one piece. At some point, I may write down these ideas and present them to you or ask to get on the agenda or whatever. But of all the Senior Centers I've traveled to around in this area, that one has the biggest attendance. And that's why. But, you know, there's two chefs that are paid in there and three volunteers. They pack together the food that goes out to Meals on Wheels. It's a pretty efficient operation. But that's, that's a program. And not not a small one, but it does have them. Oh, no, absolutely. I agree. And, you know, in Bernadsten, whenever we would do a home cooked meal, we could easily serve 90 to 100 people. Whereas on our traditional congregate lunch, that might be 35, 40 at the most. So people want home cooked. They don't really want the cafeteria style dining experience. Right. Okay, thanks for that. Yeah. I also want to mention another program that was very successful, the Hearing Loss, Living with Hearing Loss program. There were about 14 people in attendance, which I think was almost the minute of what we could accommodate. And there were four students that gave a presentation. They were excellent. Very clear, very knowledgeable. It seemed to me like they were ready to go out in the field and practice. And the audience was very engaged. A lot of good questions were answered. And I'm hoping that we can repeat that program again, because I think it would be popular. Yes, and actually, we will be. We're going to be doing, this is from Florence. There's an organization in Florence that has their own audiology department. And we're going to have them come in, not only to do a presentation, but they'll also be providing hearing aid cleaning once a quarter. So that, but that won't start until July. But that's certainly something that I really wanted to get CS have at the senior center. Yeah, very good. What occurs to me also, I have, I have visited some time ago, the senior center in Springfield. And when we talk about diversity, I know that it's going to be very different because it's an urban center because the population is the demographics are different. However, I think that, or I should say at the same time, I think that some insight could be gained from visiting and picking up some pointers there as well. Oh, yeah. Yep. So I would love to go there. I also really want to see the Holyoke senior center, not only for their building, but to kind of get a sense out of these larger places operate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And several people have suggested to me that South Hamby senior center. So we definitely have to make that a visit. I wonder if Jacqueline be willing to write down just not even sentences, but full of good points about what what you saw there that may just pick up now. That's something you'd be willing to do to it's been a while. So I I'll try to be fair. I did not take a tour I visited because there was an event and had a very, very brief visit. But I would be willing to team with somebody and we go down for a more serious visit. Well, I was thinking I don't want to lose what you saw. If you're willing to put down, I don't know just full of good points or something that we could hang on to whether it's not entered into any record or anything, but you spoke up for some reason, I think you have some pictures in your mind. I'd love to have access to them. To be fair, I need to revisit because it's been more than several years ago, right? And in fact, I think it was a grand opening. Okay, we're naming it for the representative who died here recently. I went to the old one. So yeah, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the friends of the Emmer senior center has been are planning to visit several senior centers in the area and gather statistics and information. Yeah, that's and I didn't do that. Yeah, I'm wondering if our council members would be interested in joining them. Yeah, they do that. So I don't know when when that happens. Yeah. I'm more interested in getting impressions from one of our members who's a person of color. I don't need to have statistics in that sort of thing. I'm just looking for what ease is comfort, what is exciting to enter a building about and that sort of thing. So I want if we ever do build a place I want ours to be like that. What was the program that you went to? Do you remember? It was it was a grand opening being named for Raymond Center. Say it again. Raymond. It was raised. Yeah, raised named for Ray. Who was Mr. Raymond? He was a representative from Springfield when I was in back when I was here in 78. And I don't know he continued to be a member of the center of the legislature. And he died a few months ago. It's still very active. Ray Jordan. Oh, it's called the Ray Jordan Center. Ray Jordan Center. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought it was the Raymond Center. Thank you. His name is Raymond Jordan. So you were you were close. You weren't too far off. And I was having I was having a moment that I've earned with my age. And his full name wasn't coming to me. Okay. Unless there's more to say about that topic. I wonder, Hey, Leigh, do you want to say something about the age to mentor friendly project and Chad, you may have something to add to please raise your hand if you do. Yeah, I can say that we've had over 830 surveys. I think it's, I think it might be even over 860 now. So quite a big outpouring of support for this project. Certainly we have done more completed surveys in other towns, which is fantastic. We're going to be gathering that data and, you know, looking at trends, doing our analysis in the coming weeks. And I do want to make a plug that on the second Saturday of each month, so that starting in May, so this Saturday, I'll be at the farmers market tabling to promote the listening sessions. So for folks who whether or not you've completed the survey, we want you in attendance, we want to hear directly, you know, straight from the horse's mouth, what are the things that are the most important to you about the following topics. So we have sessions on housing, social participation, transportation, public safety, and then we'll be doing a fifth session for Spanish speakers. And that'll encompass all of the topics. And that will be sometime in September that the date is hasn't been finalized yet. But I'm hoping that we'll have a pretty robust attendance. Our first meeting will be May 24 at 230. And that's actually on Zoom. But the subsequent listening sessions will all be in person at the Bain Center. So please tell all your friends. And I think it's very good to have the Spanish. There's a critical mass population. Well, it's on the outskirts of Amherst of Asian families and Asian communities. And I wonder if we might be able to delve into that as well. Do you have contacts? Indirectly. We have some surveys in Chinese and Korean. Okay. But not Thai? Nope. No Southeast Asian dialects. Okay. Okay. There is a way for them to fill it out though, if they get online is language appropriate surveys for them there. But they need to go to the library or get on a computer somewhere. I'll mention it to the person I had spoken to. She's an Anglo woman who had worked with the Peace Pagoda. I met her, I believe, on the Pilgrimage. Everyone counts. Elaine Kenseth-Able was her name at the time. Elaine Kenseth found her dad used to pastor the church in South Amherst, the congregational church in South Amherst. Do you have the URL for the survey? I can send it out. You can also go to the Engage Amherst page and just look at the Asian dementia-friendly community and then you'll see all the different survey links that we have. Is that something you're willing to do for this one person? To send the link, if I have their email, if someone can provide me with that. Yeah, I don't have it, but I can get it. I usually talk on the phone or in person. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I can definitely send them the link. Just let me know. Elaine, did you want to say anything about a letter writing campaign? Before we go on, I just wanted to add, I'm trying to interrupt, that I have secure, for those four who aren't familiar with the survey, it's simply a, the data that we will receive is just a listing of how many people answered what way on each individual question. There's survey research allows a much deeper dive to answer more probing questions. For instance, you could take question five and tabulate it with question six and it could answer, let's say the two questions were, do you feel that you're safe in Amherst? And let's say again, it's African American. We could put those two together and with the program, I'm going the long circle around, but I have secured somebody PhD level with SPSS, which is a statistical package for the social sciences that can do these statistical analysis to get to a little deeper question. My little thing about having the information, just as Jan Dizer did, I don't know, 15, 20 years ago, a survey that developed the seniors, COA strategic plan for the next two, three years. I think getting some data that really tells us what's going on in terms of needs, preferences, and wishes of the elderly in this town can really, if we got no money and we're only advocates, it's going to help us to say, well, what the heck do we advocate for? I'm somebody who goes by my own anecdotal information. It's not research-based. I think we ought to have a senior center and I feel very strongly about that. What does the population? I'm just like a select person for a town council. What do the people of this town want or need? That's what I want to fulfill. I think if we use this, we're going to be able to get a little deeper into that. A letter writing campaign. I think this kind of dovetails off of what Chad was just talking about. We really want to hear directly from people and amours, seniors and amours. What do you like about the senior center? What is not meeting your needs? How can we be better? We want something that we can take to the town council and say, this is what people are actually telling us. Someone may come by the senior center and make an offhand comment, but if we had a letter from a senior, that's something we can put up on a poster and stand on a street corner and say, people are advocating for this and we're not offering it and how can we do better. I would be very much interested if the council can draft a letter that we could put in the next newsletter and encourage people to start writing those and start reaching out directly to the senior center or to their counselor, but just really getting their voices out there. We want to be encouraging that as soon as possible. Is anybody here willing to take that on? I'm not clear on what it is. I mean, I know that you can have sandwich boards we call infographics that you can put up around and about with people smiling faces and their quotes and that sort of thing that stirs the grassroots of population up and towards a certain issue. I need to hear more about what the purpose is. It would be a letter written from the council on aging to the seniors in Amherst that would be featured in our next newsletter and it would be asking them to start writing letters, start being vocal about what it is that they want because they think they've all told us independently, we need a new senior center, we need more parking, we need better lighting, but we need that to be formalized. We need that in a letter to their counselors. I would very much like someone on the council to write that letter, give that to me by the end of May so that I can put that into our next newsletter and really start promoting this. Well, would you make it a little easier for them and have a sample letter? Would you have the counselors emails to send them to that sort of thing? We could certainly do that. Whoever on the council would like to step forward and do this task. I would definitely say some things that you can put into that letter would be reminding people that they're taxpayers and many people have lived in Amherst for 20 or more years. That's a lot of tax dollars that they've contributed to the town and it doesn't seem like they're getting a lot of benefit from that. Certainly that's worth reminding people. It's also worth reminding them, like you're saying Chad, who is your counselor to reach out to, kind of give them a frame of reference. What are you frustrated by? I would list a few things. Parking for sure is one. We know the lighting is not very good at the bank center so that can help jog their memory in terms of what to start writing about. And these letters that you asked would be requesting of people to write. Would you want them sent to the Gazette? I would like them sent to the senior center. That way I can make copies if we need to and I can just make sure that they're in a safe place and then we can distribute however we feel is necessary. Maybe we should all take a stab at writing a letter and send our letter for the newsletter to Haley and let her know and find what we all have to say. I think everyone here has offered some really great insights. So you don't definitely give me some ideas and like I said I would love to get that in as soon as possible. We've had a great presence with some letters to the editors. Let's keep that momentum going. Yeah. I thought the last letter that went in the paper asked some of those questions. What does the senior center mean to you? And if people write that and let us know that would be very helpful. Absolutely. You know like there was a call to action right in that that letter to the editor let's do another. I've you know people need several calls to action. You know it's really not sufficient to just say something one time so if we really repeat that we want this we want them to be engaged eventually people are going to take that ball and run with it. Okay. Well that's something that also could happen at a table like the farmers market is to get feedback from people. Yes. Definitely. Yes. Yes. Yes. Could be very helpful. I would love to do that as well. Yeah. Anything else on that topic? Not on the letter writing question. I think I'm going to be my regular contrarian self and say now we have three different strategic directions five whatever it might be that if there's some way that we can have a round table and organize it and say what are we going to put the little tiny bit of effort what is it nine people nine here and some on the friends what are we going to put our consolidated effort into you know organized fashion so that we might accomplish something just a thought just a straight thought it comes from my organization development and community development hat that you know we do this in a effective efficient way so that we have some power. There's another I'm sorry go ahead. I think that that will elicit the could elicit responses from people who might not respond to the written survey and it's a good way that in fact that's one of the things that Elaine and I had talked about when the right before the survey went out she said that it would probably be better to talk with the people and you'll get more because it's a very lengthy survey instrument and she was saying you're more inclined to get that verbal response and not to say that you know people who have been silenced for long periods of time may not be as quick on first attempt to put that information out but they just might surprise us and be bold enough to do what it is is necessary to be done for them to get what it is they desire. So that round table idea panel whatever you want to call it I think communities refer more to them as panels. No I meant us nine people what are we going to do? Oh okay okay but I also think that model could work for the community people. It's going to happen this summer in those five public sessions. Yes it will but you know I think it's worth keeping in mind that those sessions aren't really about they're about senior services but it's not really truly about the bank center you know maybe one thing we could look at is holding our own evening listening sessions for people who want to come and make comments about the bank center you know I'm certainly happy to do that on a weeknight you know if that that's what gets people in the door and really helps them to start thinking about you know oh geez you know this space isn't what I want and we again we're taxpayers we really deserve a little bit better treatment here. That's a good point I think that we could have our own listening session. And in fact we might have to do that and I'm I'm pretty sure that's what have they did is they gathered people and heard what what people wanted and needed. Exactly so I would really like to see like a multi-pronged approach right if we table at the farmers market if we encourage people to write letters if we have our own listening sessions then we've given them three different opportunities to make their voices heard we're making sure that they know we are committed to this so I'd like to see us do it all you know and I know that takes a lot of effort but I know there are volunteers in this group and the friends that we can pull in to make that happen. Do you think that can happen simultaneous with the listening sessions that we're doing with the ADF? I do I do think that I think there are enough people who if we give them the avenue they would come they come to both and especially if we do it in the evening I don't expect people to be able to come during a you know a work day maybe they they don't drive or they can't have a family member take them or whatever it might be I think if we do our own evening session people will come. Okay anything else on that topic? Haley you mentioned at one point that there might be a possibility for a van. There is there will be I actually just had a meeting with the PVTA this morning and we will be getting a van we're so thrilled you know it does have 100,000 miles on it but those vans are pretty well maintained so we'll have to you know work out a budget probably with the friends group on how we'll do the maintenance for that and then I'm going to work with the town manager I'd like to make some changes to my ARPA plans and hire somebody with like a CDL license you know instead of looking for the mini vans but it will come they're going to send me different models next week so we get a sense of what would be the best fit I'm thinking probably a 12 seat van you know it's a little easier to find drivers for a 12 seat versus a 14 seat van but we will have it and that's a wonderful thing we'll have to think about where we're going to store it and park it but I think that's it's very much worth it you know if we have an evening listening session we can take 12 people in the van and drop them off and pick them up so that way people will have already made and I see Mindy has a question and she helped me with the van so I have to give her the floor for a minute thank you Haley you did it I just I just echoed it and I repeated support and encouragement to PPTA mostly based on our shared AMRA survival center experience knowing that they sometimes make these older used vans available instead of getting bus routes so maybe they would make one available and I know that you needed it because receiving a used older van is a lot cheaper than buying a brand new van according to the requirements so I just wanted to say bravo I'm so excited that it's happened and then it's come through and it also relieves sort of a need to raise money for that purpose so we can focus on other things which is great yeah it is congratulations thank you well thank you for the help thank you for your help yes I'm looking forward to seeing in an action let me know what other support that can be with PVTA or otherwise absolutely thank you no problem um the other update from PVTA is unfortunately it will not work for this fiscal but in FY24 we can work with them on applying for grants to do a dial-a-ride program so it's basically a version of microtransit so if you're not familiar with that someone would call the senior center we can schedule them a ride you know take them where they need to go and we can reimburse up to 50 of the cost to PVTA so it would be a really nice situation for us where we can then you know have a way to pay for half of the salary the maintenance the gas the insurance um on a van uh the deadline is coming up too quickly to really make a cohesive plan this fiscal year but again FY24 um they're they're very much willing to go in with us on that grant application excellent well good work very good they who is willing to go in the PVTA the Pioneer Valley Transit is there any way to get support from the town I mean you've you've um searched around and came up with the vehicle so if the town would help in the maintenance both of transportation and of the vehicle itself it's just a little the timing is not great we're right in the middle of budget season so they already have their numbers and I haven't had a chance to present this is how much of the costs on our end I think in Hadley it cost them about $15,000 a year so there's some some details to work out before I can go to the town and say you know we'd really like to include this in our next budget um so I still have to do some research but I think you know if we make a solid enough plan I do hope that the town will step in and help with some of those costs so that it's not entirely being funded by donations yeah soft we would call it even though you have a budget hearing coming up on you do but things are mostly set um so it's a little too late in the process to make such a large change um unfortunately for this fiscal year go ahead Chad yeah I um think I saw you at the Pioneer Valley age dementia friendly quarterly meeting yep I wonder if orange or whoever those folks are over there could provide the budget you know some estimates that you could present to the town because I can see it parked in the town garage I can see the town um mechanics maintain it uh we'd have to put gas and oil and different kinds of things like that in it but if you if um what did they call it mini something or the other uh microtransit microtransit could have some numbers for you they could um I know so Hadley has their own microtransit or dial-a-ride program through PVTS as does Northampton so we have some closer neighbors who could you know give us an estimate it it's a little hard to say you know with our large student population you know what would it look like for us um but yeah I plan to reach out to them and see what their costs are for that program okay moving on um I just want to mention that um if you recall I had sent a um letter to my town counselor Shavening and uh Balmille and she had responded and what she I expressed their need for better space better budget better um program so we could do better programming at the senior center and she um responded came and did a tour of the senior center saw what our needs were and uh we have since had a meeting with Dorothy Pam who also is on the town services outreach committee and she listened to our needs as well and is quite interested in helping us so on May 19th Hadley and myself will be on the agenda for the town services outreach committee and we will present in more detail what we feel we need from the town and uh and to improve our senior center services and that meeting will be at 6 30 p.m. I will send out a notice when it gets posted on the town website anybody can listen in and there probably is also space for public comment at the beginning of that meeting so if you're so interested I will send an announcement of when we are about to do that hey Lee did you want to add anything more that's pretty all encompassing uh we'll give a slideshow presentation you know looking at what are the service statistics for Amherst versus some of our neighbors that document that you sent around Rosemary is quite striking when you look at how much towns are paying per senior and what is the size of their space so we want to give them some numbers that are going to stick with them and actually I had some conversations with people at the open house some of the counselors Pat Rooney came along and introduced herself and uh Anika Lopes came and introduced herself and I think we have some support we know that Dorothy Pam is behind us we know that Sean and he is behind us and um there probably are others so uh it's it's looking good and we have just have to keep working at it next on the agenda I wanted to ask people if we had Jennifer Moystein come and give a presentation last month at our council on aging meeting on her diversity and inclusion workshop and I'm wondering if members of the board would be interested in scheduling um a workshop with her for a July meeting for instance uh it spoke chan um spoke Holly of the program when he attended it felt it was one of the better programs that he's been to on diversity and inclusion I think we could all benefit from such a workshop I'd like to know how people feel about that chat you have your hand up go ahead chat I think we've got a lot of work to do we're a new board we have a new director we don't have a strategic plan we've not done a lot of work together to get to know one another and see what our strengths and weaknesses are I'd like to not take up board meeting time with this I think it's highly needed and so on but I think you know the nine months or let's see winter plus it seems like a year and a half maybe that I've been hanging around we've had you know presentations and all sorts of things that really don't have to do with the work of the board setting policy forming teams getting subcommittees to work between meetings that's that's what I envision so I think we could benefit from that you know the I guess what is our team half of our team is white skin privilege so those folks could but that's my thoughts anyway okay I I agree I agree and I think that a one-time activity for all the work that needs to be done that is being called to be done I think it's more than a one-shot deal and the question is how do you incorporate it into the life and work of those who who spend time one way or the other connecting to the center and the council and I agree too as an African-American woman who started doing quote diversity work back before 1978 and the work is mostly white centered and it's okay for that work to continue because to be quite honest there's a point at which there's an intersection but there's work to be done by each group of people and I'm not sure that that we are and this is just my opinion that we as a we are at the point of doing the we work I think that what you may not been saying directly but indirectly I was picking up there's work for white people to do with white people and the the whole tenor changes when you bring in underrepresented people I can't tell you what you need to do as a black person I can't tell you as a white person I say there's work to be done and I learned it a little bit the hard way it wasn't just the 30 years I I spent doing diversity work of one kind or another but my first year at UMass and my background was human relations with the with the ad emphasis on race relations I did my dissertation on that and and so I was used to becoming part of of any group that had to do with diversity and that first year that I was at UMass there was a weekend retreat and I signed up for it along with other members of our our division and I was quietly told highly insulted that this was a white exploration group and I said how can you do race relations without me there I was the only black person and and the woman said we don't want you to take responsibility for work that we need to do and I later understood it took me a while but I later understood what she was saying exactly we've both been hurt by racism yeah yeah yeah yeah and and black people have internalized some of the racist ideologies and that's where I see my work needing to be done you know and the dynamics change when we are sitting in that one space it's not like can we all just get along and we're at a point where we can get along we need to do work to create that space like the Venn diagram that overlaps I don't know if in math you might recall that but there's a point of intersection and at that point of intersection is where we do the deep work deeper work has been done before we get to that point so that it's not having somebody flog white people or gloss over something that affects white people a place where they can grow but a place where they can bring something to the table while black people have been working on their internalization of racism then we can be authentically who we are and no apologies but just being open to grow okay thank you for that you I think that it's true what Chad says also about the council we have many new members we don't know each other and we need strong leadership next month we get to start meeting in person that's right is that true in June I thought you said I thought that the the town council was holding off until July but I'll check with Angela tomorrow that would be nice if we could meet in person on June it would be great yeah I would definitely love to see people you know at the center together you know to everyone's point you can't really know how we work best as a team if we were so fragmented right and I think there are some people here who I don't even know Mila if I've met you in person yet so so how can we be an effective team right if I if I don't have that connection with you so that's a it's a really good point there's a lot of you know things to consider here as we move forward as a council okay welcome Mila thank you I'm sorry I'm late yeah what you're here every point if I could just take a second of our time to speak to Mila and that is that I did get the statistician the phd in social research and health at UMass has agreed to work with us on SPSS the statistical package for the social scientists so the only reason I want to bring you up to date with that is because you were one of three or four people who said gee you know some cross tabs here would be pretty nice so I want you to start thinking of some questions that you know we're going to get spreadsheets with just raw data question one five people said this question two 20 said that um start start maybe thinking of um questions we can submit to her um she's a South Korean and she's a phd at UMass okay with the rest of the grid they're talking about the each dementia friendly survey so um let's go back and actually Jacqueline that was a second to the next topic on that that's what I was thinking on the agenda about council on aging leadership yes uh we come before the council today with a matter of urgency and it's an urgency because it's about the leadership the ending leadership terms for the current co-leaders last year was it year before uh rosemary coffler pat rector and I started a new we employed a new approach to leadership in part because one of the things that our experiences have shown us is that people tend to shy away from either membership and definitely leadership when they feel that uh the burden of proof is going to be on one person so they're a lot more reluctant to volunteer and what we're looking for is somebody to volunteer so that there is not a gap in leadership when the terms of that both rosemary and I have pat had to move on uh because she literally relocated um and we found it a very helpful approach because each one of us brought special skills um and and and and we think that it benefits our coming together as uh try what did we call it rosemary a triumvir yes yes sort of a funny term that it works so much better because each one of us brought something very very special so during during the time of the co-leadership one member of our leadership team as I said I had to relocate and we think it's such a practical model as we enter into this next year uh the next council year when we will uh I we're we're I think I'm supposed to be leaving late spring early summer I really haven't kept up with it but um both of us are rotating off of the leadership team and would would invite and I don't want to say desperately so but that is the truth invite some uh at least a couple of people to volunteer and to know that you're you're volunteering to serve two at a time will certainly increase the likelihood that somebody will step for it so do I get an amen to that silence gives consent a no no no my silence is not consent I think it's a legalized way to have a closed meeting say that again chad um I've said it many times before it's never been entered in the minutes I I see it as a legalized way to have a closed meeting what what's a legalized way the triumvirate well I I the bylaws to me okay you go ahead a consolidation of power the opposite of what we were trying to do which was expand out include make it more inclusive get more people involved um it went in the opposite direction to me but again I'm I'm usually uh the contrary and so I hear what you're saying chat however when we talk about doing the planning for the meeting um meeting with Haley or the director of the center doing some of the grunt work um fortunately organized yeah I mean rosemary was uh a veteran at it I was very very new at the council let alone in a leadership position on the council and you know new people get picked quickly because the organization feels that they they don't know what they're in for but we're going to grab them right away while they're fresh and and it gives it gives a running chance to everybody and when you know that if you're doing other things which you'll find most often people who are doing the work that the members members of like the work that the members of the council are doing are doing other things too so it it shows that we have a little bit of of compassion and we're willing to share that energy with other people as well it wasn't meant to consolidate power that was because the bylaws were changed yeah yeah but that that was far from our intention I wasn't going to take on the leadership alone because I was pretty fresh um and there were things that I really felt well enough about that I would be part of the council and when they asked about the leadership I know there was still some gaps in what I did or did not do but it made it so much easier to say yes when I knew I was going to be I was not going to be learning in a vacuum about the organization or doing the work that in a vacuum but it made it so much easier to say yes and chat how would you see it going forward expanding the power rather than consolidating power I feel well I believe it came from a suggestion I had about the roles this is a very long conversation I think if you want to hear a lot about it we should put it on the agenda for some time um I don't have today's agenda in front of me so I don't know where we're at whether we have time to go over this but um I think it's a pretty long conversation I think it came from my saying that we could do anything we want as a board of course it has to be legal but we could do anything we want we could continue with the president and the treasurer or whatever those other roles were and we could change from meeting to meeting somebody is tired of facilitating the meeting you could pass it off to the secretary but you don't change the bylaws and the titles of the positions you have a team as opposed to one person speak the whole meeting um you know the side on the direction of the organization allow people to get on the agenda or not it's a lot there's a lot of things packed into this and I could talk about it for many hours but I don't know if this is a time or place yeah but Terry did you have a question are you muted Terry you're muted Terry you're muted okay go ahead are you Terry you're still muted yeah her screen froze yeah actually broken now okay there we go hi hi hi oh yeah you guys it's all fro you know you're a choppy chat along with that um somebody has to work with Hailey on making out the agenda each time and I couldn't hear anybody I could mine wasn't you guys are all frozen but I'm not oh yeah sometimes that happens can you hear us now anything Terry if you can hear us you might want to log off and then join the meeting again I'll try sending her an email I think it's very difficult is anybody else frozen it's you it's your connection it's just making us seem like we're frozen I'm not frozen anymore Jackie you should um log off and then rejoin the meeting Terry that'll probably fix your problem are you there Terry yeah in her location what do we got a half hour left there are just some well probably about 20 minutes it's just some technical things that just have to be dealt with and if nobody steps up to the plate to deal with those those organizational things and then it's not going to happen so pass them around don't over burden one person with that once you know what changes people is being involved doing action we can't change them change them by changing their thoughts their thoughts change by their actions it's the opposite of what most people think so if you give somebody an assignment or they volunteer for an assignment and if there's an expect expectation for each of us that we put in five hours a week or five hours a month or whatever it is you're going to spread you're asking me how to spread out I can hear Hailey but that's it that's how to do it so who makes the determination that it's your turn to to be in charge for the meeting we step up and all agree that we're going to be a facilitator or we we all say that we're going to take minutes or you know you put a two week or two month or two year expectation on a roll there's all sorts of ways to do it have you seen an organization work that way I do want to give Greg a chance to talk because he's had it end up for a little while oh I didn't see that oh Greg your hand blends into the background go ahead thank you um I'm not sure where we're going with this item are we going to vote to well first of all I want to thank everybody for all the hard work it seems that they've been he's been doing but that's one of the questions that I have about uh this style of leadership uh themes are being done I don't seem to be frozen but I guess things are being done and I'm not sure when and where and who are doing things uh I'm not sure of how uh deliberations is that decisions are being made outside of the committee meeting and whether if you have three individuals which we did have whether that was a violation of open meeting law that's why I call it closed meeting uh but I don't know what they were deciding so I don't know if they have a delivery uh you know what was going on during the meeting so uh that's all to say that I'm not sure what we're doing with this I just heard reelect another hailey and I'm not frozen but I'm frozen like in time okay so so that's my question is uh what is the outcome of this agenda item is that an election to vote uh and confirm the three person the two person uh we can't hear anything what what we're doing is putting out a call for action on the part of the members of the council because uh both rosemary and I know that we will be stepping down from the quote triumvirate leadership and we don't want things to just be um in suspension and wondering who's going to decide the agenda and items you know the items for the agenda really are generated from the larger group but we organize it make sure that the rosemary especially make sure that the reminder goes out to people and we're not just wondering who's going to do it who's going to step up to the plate I don't know that either one of us would have any strong I can't speak for rosemary I don't have any strong uh reservations about rotating leadership as as was described by Chad I I just sometimes in in an effort to do good we omit um acknowledging the shortcomings to those and human frailties tend to constitute the shortcomings when somebody says well it's my week I don't know you know um and that was that's easier that's easier enough for to be done when there are three people but especially when the time comes and so people assemble whether it's virtually or in person and we don't know what the agenda is going to be those are all really excellent points and if I can offer some perspective as someone who has worked with other councils and just as a director you know if we had a revolving door of who's doing the the agenda this week that that's really difficult for my end you know it's very helpful to have a consistent leadership team and that can change on perhaps like a yearly basis yeah but to have that frequent rotation that's hard for me to keep track of and there's so much to do at the senior center already that it would be a big task to have to keep a calendar of okay this week it's Chad or this week it's Jacqueline um and really the purpose of having a leadership team is just to work with the director on drafting the agenda and that's really it it's not um you know I don't want to make it seem more mysterious than it is but it's just me saying to Rosemary and Jacqueline I'm working on getting a PVTA bus for the senior center can we add that to the agenda item um you know that that's really what the leadership does and then they take the burden off of the director to create that meeting facilitate the meeting and get it posted on the town website you know so so that's just my thought you know I think we should have a little bit more consistency in our leadership and I would certainly benefit from that as a as a new director here you know I understand that too of course that's the way I've always functioned and I had worked well and I want to comment about your um what you said Greg and I see your hand is up again but um let me let me just say this first um a three three members in a leadership role is not a violation of open meeting law there is only a violation of open meeting law if you are having a discussion with more with with uh an a quorum of the members but setting setting the agenda to me is what we will talk about it's what the business of the organization is that's the agenda currently it's like getting on a train uh when you're into the when you have a board seat on this organization it's like getting on the first stop on a train you travel on on the train down the tracks and you can get out at any station you want um you can ride it to the end and get out at the end of your term it's not like a car where you can be a participant that drives that car where the people who are sitting in the car agree to go I don't know if that's a good analogy but that's the way it seems to me after I guess a year and a half of trying to get get on the agenda Greg do you want to go ahead with your comment I was just uh again wondering uh what was the purpose of the the the agenda item was it to we you know confirm or to re-establish the structure because we we limited we put a time limit on how long we try this structure and I don't know whether you're saying that we come to the end of that time limit and we need to decide whether we're going to do it again and stay with the same structure and vote on that or you know what we want with this discussion I I don't think we came with the intention of voting but to alerting the council that there will be no leadership quote unquote when both of us um I I I'm thinking that my my tenure expires um this summer I have to I have to confirm that June June 30 yeah yeah and so at least there's that would even that in and of itself will um be a change because we've got we will have gone from a three person team to a one person team and then when are you leaving rosemary my term ends on the June 30th I've been on the council for two terms okay so I will I will not be a member of the council any longer yeah yeah and certainly we didn't think about uh when we were talking about letting the members know so that they could be thinking about where we go from here in terms of who might step up to the plate to do uh that kind of agenda planning the meeting with hailey uh where you know where that comes into play not abandon abandon and and go away without giving you notice hindsight is 2020 it seemed like a issue that got kind of jammed through um it would have been great if um those three had uh rotating um time period so there was always an older person or two on the board I want a new person got elected on to it um I don't know if that's something to think about but am I making myself clear you don't reelect all three all at once all the time just one or two well it I hear what you're saying Chad um but I don't know that we had expected things to happen the way they're happening one um it was just the physical relocation and the other um I I don't know if we talked about the term before people serve and if there's a term limit I don't think we thought about that we just thought about stepping up to the plate and being able and and I'm not going to say you're you're you're you don't have a point um stepping up to the plate so that we can see the work that needs to be done be done okay and may I remind you that we did have a number of vacancies on the council for a number of months and those vacancies were recently filled we have four new members who have been on the council only a few months brand new members so it's very difficult to um ask them to be in a leadership role yeah yeah and and of course it's ideal if you have someone long-standing to work with a new member in a leadership position but we don't have that option the standing members that we have now are Chad Mila and Greg once Jacqueline and I leave so I don't think you're your um I don't know how that works into your thinking Chad but that's where we're at it's just a different leadership model that's all yeah yeah so that means that we have um June 30th we have until the next meeting to think about uh internally where where we go from here with this um and giving you advance notice by bringing it to the table and on the agenda we felt would be quite fitting and proper right okay and that's uh let's move on anything any other comments on this topic I just want to remind people oh hey Christina was working with you on the cdbg um application that has that come through yet no they haven't even released the rfp yet and I think initially we had talked about um doing a ban but since we're going to get one from pvta we won't necessarily need to apply for cdbg funding for that I would still like to see us apply you know I was um met a couple people at the open house yesterday who their spouses are in the early stages of dementia and we really don't have a lot of programs or activities for those people um so something like a memory cafe would be an excellent way of meeting that need so you know again I just have to see what the grant is requiring of us for the application process and then I plan to proceed with that that's a good idea and actually any one of us can also go to the engage amherst and enter what we would like to see that money spend for and one of my thoughts was to better equip our rooms for those with hearing issues yes that's another great great thought I I did enter that on there but it um doesn't hurt for others to do the same thing if they feel the need um yeah Chad do you have a question yeah just earmarked money for exercise equipment I don't know if fairly would say um we need you to carve us out some space uh it bangs for that I I just don't know how we could apply for that you know I where would they put the building space you know are we talking about renovating or remodeling I think if we if we are looking in that vein then we've we've kind of gone beyond what the cdg can fund um I can give the update that we are making steady progress on purchasing the town center contract to buy the exercise equipment from a vendor so we will be having that delivered to us um you know which was shipping delays it's hard to say now but we are on track to spend those funds by the end of the fiscal year and then the the challenge of course will be where do we store them and when can we implement them at the senior center great okay all right I would like to get approval for the minutes of the April 14th meeting every I hope everyone had a chance to look over them carefully and um if you have any questions or comments now is the time to say so otherwise I'd like um motion to approve the minutes can I make the motion a second can someone second I second it okay okay all in favor right raise your hand okay the minutes stand approved and uh Linda Terry apparently was not able to be here today talk about new programs but um we will bypass that for now our next meeting at this point is scheduled to be June 9th and it could also be June 16th if that is a better date for people any comment about that then we'll leave it at June 9th at 5 p.m but the meeting is adjourned six uh Chad yes go ahead oh bye okay I have a question though yes move the meeting because this was going to be a zoom meeting a meeting uh in person remember you were talking about June July yeah this is going to be a zoom meeting in June I don't know we'll have to let you know okay yeah okay definitely I I will send out any mail about that thank you all thank you bye