See, I come look at you, man. Nice to see you. We're going to keep the [Music] romance, but luckily it was [Music] Makes you look snobby. Show me yours. Oh yeah. Is that what
you're supposed to say? Show me yours. Yes. Show me yours. Full ready to start our meeting on aging. 22 I have announcement. Any person may make video or audio recording to our open sessions of the meeting for
may transmit the meeting throughout any medium subject to reasonable requirement of the chair as the asking the number placement and operation of equipments used so not to interfere with the conduct of the meeting. Any person intending to make such recording shall
notify the chair forth with all documents referenced or used during the meeting are to be submitted and duplicate to the chair pursuant to the open meeting and public records law. All documents shall become part of the official record of the meeting. Anybody
recording anything besides us? Okay, very good. Okay, we have the call to order and uh everybody read the minutes today from last one. There's a large things that went on. Last one.
Just a little side note. Um please note that the minutes that are in your packet handed out today are the correct version. The initial draft that was sent out included a member who wasn't here that's been changed and corrected. So, um, it should now reflect appropriately
who was in attendance. So, may I have a motion on the minutes? I make a motion. Okay. Second. Speak into my call. I make Now, we went through the instructions very beginning. Anyone?
I make a motion for the minutes. Okay. Second. a second. I'm going to just make a note that um there has been no second. Kathy, uh yeah, because you're the one who presents it, you should second. Oh,
okay. Somebody else has I second. Okay, very good. I just have a correction on page one down under three, treasures report. My name is misspelled. It is. It should be an I instead of a Y,
right? Okay. Otherwise, okay. Okay. Otherwise, I'll second the motion. Motion second by the turn next to the treasury report. Nope. Motion was made. Second. Oh, excuse me. Any
discussions? All in favor? Any opposed? So, voted. All right. Now, Terry, it's your turn. Oh, I don't get mad if you talk too loud. Okay. You all have a copy of the budget
report. It was in your packet and this is as of May 31, 2025. We'll write down almost to the wire. We'll have one more for June and June is already in June. So now we Okay,
the top on page one. That's all good. The general fund pretty much that will be all balanced out and closed out and pretty much it's it's gone. Uh you can see that he's Mike
has allowed for the salaries and different things under that column contract purchase orders. So by the time June is at the end that should be all gone. Yeah, it's going to certainly the the um the salary report and you can see in for this particular report we
separated out what would be considered salaries, what would be considered operating on the salary side of this uh financial report. We should be zeroing out at for sure at the end. Um and part of that's because of a offset to the outreach coordinator salary. So whatever
that balance is is what we offset and then on the off side and and then on the bottom are the maintenance repairs and uh what we spend in May is listed in that May 25 column
12,5 I mean 18,57601 and we do have some contracts that Mike has already uh contracted for and they come to 20,000 uh 93824
and that's actually the total of the salaries and the operating this year that and again that's a forecast that's really important to note that you're going to see those numbers change um at the end of June 30th but this is just for purpose of trying to figure out okay where do we stand do I need some
additional money for example we will energy and utilities were at 16399 through May 30th um which actually is it shows at 16399. In the last week, we've spent another about $1,000. We're
at $17,000, which is uh you know, $3,2500 more than our budget. A uh order has been submitted to the city council for consideration to appropriate another $3,500 primarily to offset the utility expense. And that's happening across the
board, departments all across the city. They're seeing an unusually high energy and utilities line item. So they're supplementing it with this year with um the additional appropriation from free cash that's expected to be voted on tonight I believe. So uh there's been no
indication of any opposition to that. So I 100% presume that the $3,500 will be added and I added it to this year to this budget of the $3500. So that's what's what's keeping us in the lack on
the operating side of the general operating fund. And I'm sure that all of us in our own home uh this month of May, we use more energy than we usually did other years. And even as of yesterday, I was using
more energy, too. So, it's not unusual to see that energy bill going up because it's it's happening all over even in our personal homes or apartments. Okay. So any questions at all on the top part of page one on the
under the salaries or the maintenance? No. And most current projections show that we will be just about break even on the general operating fund with that additional 5500. And then down below that is the gift fund and we're in good shape there.
91,9113. We did not receive any gifts in May. Nobody thought of us but But um through the year we received 14,21520. So that was very good. That was very good. So people do think of us
just not in any questions at all on page one. Paul just a refresher on the gift fund and how that money can be used. So people are not clear on that. Oh, it has
to be voted on by the by by us all of us and it has to be something that can be used in the well right at the moment used in the new building something that can be used for you know the membership the old
people right now we do have at least 20 I think 25,000 of that money is set it's still in we've committed to it it's committed for painting for painting down there. And we did buy some electrical
things for the sound system. So, those would be in there. And then, who knows, you know, when we get in there, we might want to do some decorating, things like that. And it should go for things that the people can see. The painting,
they'll be able to see uh the the sound system. They'll be able to hear uh things like that. That's what it should be used for. But anything that that which comes out of that fund has to be voted by the co and and the best way to
describe that is a long-term use not short-term supplies or things like that. So fixtures, equipment, things like that makes sense. Reshold improvements make sense. It is up to this board and this is the only fund that you have 100% control of. The general operating fund of course comes from the mayor and the
city council. They determine budget allocations, but the expenses from that are are entirely at my discretion as long as I stay within those budget line items. We also have the revolving fund which is coming up in the next part report which generally supports programs
and services. It's not generally allowed to be used for improvements. That's why the gift fund is so important to us. And then the grants and the grants used to have a very ownorous uh set of parameters. it's now uh any expense that
would be considered appropriate by the council on aging. That was not the case up until two years ago. Um so we had very deliberate, very specific categories that we could uh spend from under that uh that fund.
Mike, would you like to mention something that is going to be coming to us? I don't know whether it will go in the gift fund or the from the cultural council. It'll be part of my report. Okay. Part of your report. You'll hear a good something good.
Okay. On to page two. Now, the revolving fund uh is three pages long. For those who take two, [Music] three, and as we look at this, this is an anomaly, too. Um the reason it's so
long is we went to landscape version because we wanted to do the projections on what we expected the uh last month of expenses to be and also to start to reclassify expenses. And it's an end of the year activity we
do exercise we do every single year to reclass expenses to make sure that we can zero out our grant account or other accounts. transition expenses, say from a revolving account to an appropriate operating account to zero that out. Uh it's not something unique or new, but we
do it every year. And it's a very cumbersome and involved process. And so I know Terry was going to tell you this, but I'm going to tell you ahead of time. All of these purple lines that you see across, there's actually there's there's information under that purple line. Uh
and it's really meant to allow me to start to manage some of these expenses. So they are for my purposes they are numbers that will help me track what we're allowed to transfer but they have no impact today May 31st on the bottom
line they will have impact and you'll see all those purple lines disappear on June 30th to show um you know and document to you what transfers occurred so that you can track and trace the the financial reports and I think that last
month we had a lot of discussion about the colors and things like that. I think it's important for you to be able to have a paper trail month to month to month of how expenses go. And if all of a sudden the expense disappeared from the revolving fund, you ought to know that that expense disappeared because of
a journal entry or a transfer reclassification of that expense to another fund and similarly demonstrate that in the in the other fund report that that those expenses were transferred in. That's what those purple line items do. just so that you know they're they're not there to just be
colorful. Um they they do have data in them, but I didn't want to convolute this report for your sake um until we have the only Well, you don't want the only one. I know I know it sometimes get confused.
Back to the the back to the revolution on page two. You can see they um up at the top was the beginning balance and the income and in May we received 1459. So a total of
79,83386 was in the revolving fund to spend and then you can see of the items that has been spent on. If anybody has a question on any of the mic, we have the backup. And in May 25,
um, we spent in May in May on page four, you can see that we spent 6,46956 out of the resolving fund. And that now is a balance of But we do have some purchase orders out
there too. 31,113 our purchase orders, right? Correct. Y and so 39,71382 is our cash in hand, our balance. And um and and the easy way to to determine how
that was calculated is you take the 79833 which was our available funds as of May 1st and you subtract the 40,1204 gives you the 3971382. Then if you subtract the POS
that are outstanding of 8600 that brings us to the 31,113. Any questions on tracking that? If we go to the beginning balance on page 27983386 minus the total expenses of 40,1204 gives us an available balance of
$39,71382 and we have encumbered or contracted $8,600 of POS that we just haven't spent yet. It's an accounts payable. That leaves 31,11382 of real cash available from the revolving fund.
And we can we can carry most of that balance forward, can't we? Mike, we we we can carry Well, tonight uh and that'll be part of my report as well. Tonight, the council is also voting on whether or not to increase the available carryover from
the revolving fund. uh as part of the revolving fund renewal. Under state law, the city council must renew all revolving funds at the beginning of the fiscal year. They're doing that now. At the very least, it'll be renewed at the $40,000 cap, but we're hoping that it's
going to be increased to the $60,000 carryover cap. That's particularly important because in that last purple line, you can see there's there's a number 10 34590. I told you it wasn't going to convoluted, but that was what I was kind of projecting to be um
transfers of expenses from the revolving fund to the state grant or from the Yeah, from the revolving fund to the state grant. If that and it's actually more than that. It's actually going to be closer to 17,000. So, if we use the $10,000 figure, that's going to give us an available balance of 50,000 unless
the PO is a 41459. It's really going to be closer to 17. So that 39,000 now goes to 56,000 and the available uh balance, you know, goes up by to
Yeah. All right. So you get that. So, you don't really have to consider that purple number, but I wanted to give it to you for your benefit of how important that change tonight is going to be to the council on aging because it could really result in about
$16,000 of funds that disappear into the general fund if it's not authorized at the higher level and we don't want that to happen. Okay. Now um just below that and this well we'll see it one more time is the
FY 2023 state grant but it is all zeroed out and uh starting next year we won't even see it on our reports. Oh and I forgot were there any questions at all on the revolving fund? Any questions about anything?
Okay. Then no. On to page five, which is the uh which is the 2024 state grant. And we did um we did we did spend some money out of that. On the first column you can see the year
to date what we have sent out and page six is also that on page six excuse me on page six you can see the column that starts about the third running down 200 that's where the funds the were paid in
May 2025 and then the next column over is the balance and then we do have some purchase orders outstanding and that would be the last column And at the moment, we're okay in that fight and we don't have to send it all by a certain date. So, we will we will be able to
balance our other accounts and carry some money forward and then we will be on to let's let let me just um so that you don't know the total monthly for the state grant 24 state grant was
$3,400 in March. I mean, sorry, in May. The vast majority of that again was instructor fees and salary stipens for our our social media person. Um those are actual operating type expenses. So
that leaves our balance of the 64,000 minus the 38,000 25,000. We also had $8,000 of salaries allocated to this grant. So that made our available balance of about 17,000.
Um, we're going to transfer some expenses. The actual transfer looks like, you know, when we were projected about 134 into this grant to zero it out. 13490. It It's important to note that 13490. Um, what you're not seeing is
we're going to be taking some of those outreach coordinator expenses out of the state grant and moving it to the operating. So, that increases our available balance to about 21,000. That's in purple. So, you're not really looking at that right now, but I'm going to tell you why it looks that way.
That's the 4,000 gives us 21,000 minus the contracts that were as of May projected. That number's been reduced substantially. It's really only going to be about 2,000 gives us um it should zero us out at the end of the the month.
So, the state grant will be closed out and the final adjustments are all going to be in that outreach coordinator line item to determine how much goes and how much uh stays the outreach coordinator salary in the state grant.
I'm on page seven of 10. Okay. He's giving you the total. So, our total actual expenses were 38,867. our monthly 341971. We have accounts payable expected of
8168. That's that's actual contracts, but those purchase orders are going to be reduced because we haven't spent that all of that balance. So, I have to adjust the purchase orders. That means our accounts payable is going to be reduced as of May 31st. You don't need
to know that. Um the 25 minus the 8 leaves us a balance of 17678. We're going to be putting some additional um expenses in there that should bring us down to the 13490 as of May 31st. But remember those are in purple and those are going to change.
They're definitely going to change. So is there any other question on that on the FY24 grant? A million questions. Most of them I can't answer. I always turn it over. This is this is an accounting nightmare and I got to
just I'll say at this point Terry has been unbelievably uh involved and uh you know very focused on where we're going. So each of these line item transfers we talked about in need at nauseium uh so that she
understands what they are. It is a lot of information for a board meeting, but if you ever want to just kind of come in and say, "I don't get it. Let me show you how that works." Um, from an accounting perspective, I want to show the the transactions on our PML from each account to each account. We've
never really done that before. We've just given you the bottom line. And people get confused like, "Hey, wait. Last month it was $3,000. This month you're showing $2250. Where did the other, you know, money go?" but we're showing it to you in the transactional uh summaries and it
gets it gets a little confusing. So, it should be confusing. And just for a reminder for anybody that doesn't remember, the city operates on a fiscal year from July 1 to June 30. So, that's
why we are now coming up to the end of of this fiscal year. And we've got to and Mike will be doing it all. got to get everything balanced, give back what money we have to, which we don't want to, and have what we need to go forward. So, he's doing a really good job. And
so, we're keeping heads above the water. But just so you know, it ends on and and we Mikey and I talked. So, we won't be having a meeting in July or August. So, you won't get your final report, financial report until the September
meeting. Then in September you will get a June 30 final report and then you will get July and August and and then we go forth from there. Right. Bring your accounting classes with you in September. Accounting accounting 101.
Okay. So that takes care of that. Great job. What money do we have to give back and why? So that the only money we have to give back is money from the operating fund. If we have a surplus in the operating fund at the end of the year that's considered um it goes back into
the general fund, right? So it was appropriated from the general fund has to go back to the general fund. Now, that being said, I want to make sure you all understand the caveat that if we carry a balance over 40,000 and the city council doesn't approve the increase,
then anything over 40,000 also goes to the general fund and that just gets lumped into the available free cash and pays bills either for FY25 or FY26. So that's that's why we kind of do this
this um you know accounting very very rigorous almost daily accounting function kind of make sure that we're putting the expenses into the correct account to limit the amount of funds that we would essentially lose it goes
back to the city so it's going to city services but moves from the senior center specific. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yes. Does that make sense to everyone else? Yeah. That took me a long time to learn. Okay. Thank you. And and if they don't approve the 40,000 above the 40,000 tonight, we will have a big
spending spree next month. No, this month. I mean, they're already in there. Yeah, we will be outspending. No, but we're hoping that it will, you know, just just saying. Okay. And now And now the page eight is the FY state grant,
FY25 state grant, which we haven't begun using yet. And uh I think that are we waiting on the FY26 grant? We're waiting on that. We're all going to look at it. And now I'm going to turn the technology grant over to Mike because except for
looking at the figures and knowing they balance I didn't get too involved. So Mike, just a quick comment. Um uh the FY26 state grant projections right now are going to be just under
$90,000. if the House has passed it, the Senate's debating it now. The governor is always has already indicated her um support of the increase. So, an increase us about $5,500 from last year. Be good,
but we don't know until we know until it's signed. Um everything's up in the air. And especially with the cuts from the federal side, the state's going to have to make that up somewhere. there's not not a possibility that they we could see some funding cuts. Don't
know until we know. State grant is closed. So, we actually ended all expenses on March 31st from the state grant. Did our final kind of adjustments and auditing of that account. Um, and you know, really really kind of did some cool things. As you know, and I
explained to you last month, we made some agreements for some change order line item change orders with the state to allow us to purchase some additional equipment uh in lie of paying the stipens and the instructor fees with the uh condition that we pledge and promise
to do that going on in the future, which makes sense, right? Because we have the Cricut and the Chromebooks here. It wouldn't make any sense to us to have all this equipment if we're not doing instruction time on the other side. So, our our hope is with the 2-year uh contracts we have with the cellular
service that we'll be able to maintain a minimum of two years of funding for instructors and teachers guidance. We we should also note that this expense is split between two senior centers. That that
$83,000 worth of equipment is actually less than 69,000 of equipment isn't just for gardening. about 35 30,000 32,000 is for Ger 32 34,000 is for Templeton. Everything we bought for ourselves we also bought for them. So they have the
same access to that tech with one exception and that was the wireless controller technology that we had to enhance here and we bought extenders for uh Templeton. So, at the end of the day, we spent $69,55429 from the grant, leaving a
balance of $15,36571 unspent that gets sent back to the state. So, to Cheryl's point, um, that's another thing that has to get turned over. We will not be able to carry forward that 15,000. Paul Crowley, turn on your mic, please.
Is that working? No. No. Is that working? Yeah, just pull the button up towards you. That should be on. Yeah, that should be on. Yep. [Music] Anyway,
on the Verizon subscription, yes. Is that still negotiable? No. Nope. The city contracted with Verizon for two years selling the service on the Chromebooks because they've got all these promotions out lowering cost. So
for us it's it's not like an individual subscription where they give you an incentive for 3 months and you get a $100 Visa gift card. We're government organization. We already get a pretty good discount on those Chromebook sales service. um which I was really u
relieved to see the work that our IT department did to research it and then enter into the contract for that. So um it's not negotiable. We were build for that. We were paid in advance uh to have that paid out on a monthly basis to Verizon.
Okay. Thank you. There's another question. I think that concludes our financial report. Make a motion to accept the financial report. Okay. Do we have a second on that? Okay.
Yes. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? Okay. No voted. Any oppose? No. Thank you. Next thing on our next thing on our list here for old business updates on the new
business from the prior meeting. We'll get that one back to uh yeah, there's no old business, so new business. Um lots lots of stuff. First of all, I just want to say thank you to the board. Um you know, I I find it I I
just really find it exciting and enriching to come to work every day with a board that's so compassionate, that's so involved. um you know really so supportive of our staff and what we do here not only verbally or through your
actions here but in the way that you participate and roll up your hands and get things done. I I am certain that we have now become the envy of a lot of uh similar organizations in the area. we're able to tell to the city councelor the
city council at our budget meeting last week um the numbers we have in terms of volunteers the numbers of hours that they've worked and the value that that's added to the city and for those of you who don't know we had just under 960 volunteers in
FY24 that did about 16,000 hours of volunteer work and has a uh value a very conservative value of just over 300 $00,000. But I want to make sure that you understand that some of those volunteers are lawyers, are financial
people, our doctors, nurses, pharmacists whose hourly rate is much higher than the $16 that we projected um to make that uh $300,000 figure. And that that that's overwhelming when you think about
it. And a large majority of that is the work that you do as board members. So, thank you. And I also want to thank a bunch of folks that have been working extra hard, extra hours, really enhancing our program. If you haven't met our meal site manager, Amy, downstairs, you know, two years ago when we kind of resurrected the congregate
meal program from the prepackaged stuff, we really had a vision of serving food that was that was creative. It was home-cooked. It was was awesome. And she has in every instance pulled uh every stop to to make that happen. And it
really is a delightful experience. The only negative I have is that there aren't a lot more seniors. Before CO, we'd have 40 to 50 seniors a day coming to this congregate meal and our numbers aren't quite there yet. Although at our veterans lunch in that day will hit 30
35. Um, and some of our other unique programs will get numbers up, but on a daily basis, uh, there's really no good reason to not come. And it's as much now for the food, no doubt it's for the food as it is for the companionship and the connectivity. Um, so really hoping that
folks who are watching this get the message that we would love for you to come and be part of that meal. It's inexpensive. We ask for either$2 to4 donation. Um, and that certainly is a value. I mean, I don't know anywhere in Gardener they can go and get a home
served cooked meal for four bucks. Yeah. and listening to the meals at downstairs here and and we will try to put them in the newsletter coming up. Um they've worked hard to make sure that those menus are prepared in advance so that we can promote them a little bit better and that's all on on me like just the
difficulty I have if you've noticed the newsletters we're chock full. We have to take content out in order to make our um standard number of pages that are allowed. So, that's been difficult and that's a great problem to have from my perspective because I got to tell you
when I first started we were having trouble finding content, putting in puzzles and crosswords and things like that that I certainly don't have the space for anymore. Want to thank Lisa and Liz Ellis. Uh Liz was here with me um and worked two days. We worked about
16 hours putting the Chromebooks, resetting them all, adding Google Manager, going through the updates, updating the Cricut machines and the Cricut Chromebooks or HP laptops. Um, really provided me a great deal more of insight and confidence as it relates to
Google Manager. So appreciative of them that Lisa, every Saturday, if you didn't know, every Saturday she's here doing the bread uh with our volunteers on a Monday nights, putting the snacks together for our dance party. Um, we're working on some lending agreements right now for the Chromebooks. So, everything
is ready for the Chromebooks to be deployed. Folks that are part of the technology program can now lend those out as soon as we have the final agreement agreement uh approved by the city solicitor. To that end, Paul and Anna Linquest on Monday nights just
doing a great job with our our dance group. If you weren't here a couple weeks ago, Lori Tarnucci, who's the chief compliance officer for GFA and Kevin Dunning from DA Early's office, were here doing protecting our seniors. It was a robust group of people, probably 60 folks in attendance for
that. Uh, in conjunction with the Golden Age Club, as a result, we're able to pick up a couple extra Golden Age Club members. It was just a really great marketing tool for us as well. Glenn Gregory who's doing our tech classes has you know has not taught this before
though very confident so he's been putting together the syllabus and working with folks just doing an exceptional job I've talked about Allison Shalopatus and the great work she does with our vets from our vet to vet cafe to our trips a remarkable person in of herself for the last I
don't know 15 years Diane Pellet's been working on our travel programs the last two years she's upped her game significantly. If you go out into the hallway now, we have 18 trips on our board today, right? So, um you know, we
used to maybe have a month in advance. We now have a full year, year and a half in advance of our trips and programs. Diane is also now joining us every other Friday to do office hours here to talk to folks about the trips and give them information, help them with any of the
paperwork they need for the trips, which is kind of cool. Um, we have exceptional volunteers at bingo that I just want to highlight because I feel like I don't give them enough credit, but every week come he hacker high water, Carol is there, Joan is there, and when one of our bingo callers isn't able to make it,
Frank steps up every week uh that we need him. So, we're just so um just so blessed in that regard. If you're not here during the week, you don't see him, I want to give a shout out to Scott Palmary. Scott was a volunteer. He came in and said, "Hey, I'm looking to do
some volunteer work." you have anything that I can help with? He was interested in doing facilities. He works a full-time job plus it seems some weeks. He is a dynamo uh exceptional volunteer start to finish. Never says no and does
things with uh unabbridged enthusiasm and positivity and we're so uh unbelievably blessed to have him. And Scott, I hope you're watching this and you know how thankful we are to you. We've had some major staffing changes in
a good way. Um Lauren Penny, we're increasing her hours. She's helping demand it to the lifeline program and she has been transitioned to a city staff member part-time. Um no benefits. Karen Oliver is working for us now. She's on the books, very part-time, a
few hours a week, um but has been volunteering with us for the last four years. They're doing admin and lifeline stuff. As you know, Anita's in the office. She's cut her hours back to eight hours, one day a week. And Ann, who does two part-time, two part days uh
for us, doing just general admin, answering the phones, booking people, updating uh my senior center, doing the outreach calls and things like that. We have a bunch of VIPs volunteers. Arena Landry is doing eight hours a week for us. Patty's doing six. Diane Pellet's
doing four hours. And Kathy O'Brien's doing a couple hours for us every week. Three hours. Yeah. as our our VIPs hours. Yeah. In addition to I want to make sure that every time we talk about this, it's always in addition to because they do way more than those hours. For those of you who don't know what the
VIPS program is, if you're a resident in the city garden, you can apply to the city for consideration of a,000 up to $1,000 taken off your taxes if you agree to do about 65 to 70 hours of volunteer work for a city department. if you can't
do it watching your kids or, you know, picking up trash on the side of the road, they work with DPW. Stan and Bob are two VIPs volunteers we have doing uh bread and other stuff. Again, we don't pay them. The city gives them a credit on their taxes uh for doing that. Ton
ton of stuff to just kind of go through real quick. Uh cricket, we've been struggling with cricket instructors. We just picked up two new instructors. So, we're now uh hopefully going to be able to have a sustainable program with some regularity uh with our two new instructors. The tea party was last
week. It was exceptional. Um we have our baskets with uh Paul just every single time filling the program up. Um a lot of interest and excitement about that. Our AP annual meeting is coming up in a week, two weeks from Wednesday. That
will usually have about 80 to 100 people. our patriotic sing along on July 2nd. Just a fun, frivolous time. It's just uh great people with uh Rainey and Ron who uh bring the instruments. Last year we had a whole group of ukulele
players come in, some drum players, tambourine, spoons, not only for the patriotic singong, but for the holiday singong. So, there's a little bit of a following on this and I hope that you come and have a little bit of fun with us. Maybe we'll do a cookout that day with some hamburgers and hot dogs. We're
still thinking about that, but I I have a feeling we're going to probably do it. Kate Tumi's office was here last week for the bread um and pastry raffle providing some information on the registry of probate. She's coming back on July 9th to do a whole day's worth of
programs for us. Summer outings coming up on July 23rd. If you haven't bought your tickets, get them now. They're going quick. Shredding event August 2nd and ukulele concert on September 3rd. We have our Medicare 101 sessions. And this is important for me to to tell you
about. We're here Monday nights for dance. We're here Tuesday nights for crafting and crocheting. We're here Wednesday nights for support group. And from now until November, we're doing six more evenings of Medicare 101 to try to hit the population of seniors that are
rolling into that 65 year age group that need some assistance discerning sometimes the very difficult path of Medicare. So those sessions are now planned and are already being promoted. In fact, there are boards all across the
com the com Massachusetts the city of gardener brought to you by lines and signs. Wouldn't that be ambitious all across the commonwealth? Uh lines designs have done a whole bunch of signs for us. Um we have our artisan residence program. If you haven't noticed, we have a a relatively new display. It's been
out for about a month by a local uh artist who does the uh the pencil drawings. And to enhance this this program, last week we had the Emmy award-winning artist Mark Kinsler in the building. He did a 1-hour workshop with
folks. There were 15 people plus me, but I didn't stay the whole time, so I can't count me. Um who did some pencil drawings with him. He was teaching them all the different techniques. It was kind of cool. We gave some of his books away. It was a really, really neat event to be able to do from my perspective to
have these folks at this level come in. Coming up, Battleship Cove on June 11th, Red Cross on August 6th. We have a Social Security birthday party on August 13th, 90th birthday for Social Security. Hope you join us for that. That'll be kind of fun. USS Constitution on
September 11th. Um, I told you about Travel Talk with Diane. And coming up in September, October, we have the Boston Tea Party Museum curators coming in to talk to us um on this 250th anniversary with the American Revolution,
recognizing the Tea Party's anniversary and the battles all across the Commonwealth that really fueled the fires of independence in this great and glorious country. Couple notes for you. We are closed July 19th or Junth. We'll close Independence Day July 4th. to get
into some a little bit of meat. Um the budget process. Last week we presented our budget to the uh welfare committee. I thought it was wellreceived. We had a long and enduring uh uh meeting that lasted three and a half hours. So I
think not to be braggadocious, but I think we have now moved ourselves into the annals of gardener history by being the longest running subcommittee meeting. Um uh but the the the council was really good. They asked some I think
very poant and um important questions. So that meeting uh now goes to tonight where the welfare committee will make the recommendations to the full committee. There'll be a a discussion and a vote I assume tonight. I plan on being at that meeting just to see. Also
on tonight's agenda is the revolving fund resolution that increases our cap as well as a order before the council to accept the donations that were received by the gardener senior center from January 1st to today. Um speaking of
that that did not make the list a baby grand piano was recently donated to the Gardener Senior Center. We'll be moving that down to Waterford Street to store it. Um uh but we have a baby brand. Um and we have to pay the cost of the
moving. At first I was like I'm not sure we can afford that but uh the quote we got from the piano moving guys was 500 bucks. So for $500 for a baby grand piano we're going to we're going to grab it and move it. Yeah. It's in great
shape. We also got a um a new used printer, a Xerox printer for the office. Our RICO has been showing its age, uh, jamming a lot. It's really difficult to do large production runs. This printer was used by community development and
planning. Declared surplus. We took it over. When we brought it here, it didn't turn on. Again, I was a little nervous about the cost, but I figured, let's see what it will cost us to get it running. The texts were here this morning. Spent an hour and a half, um, which is not a lot of time, mostly updating the
software, changing the hard drive. The thing works like a fine old machine. So for just under $400 um of servicing, they cleaned it, did all the things you need to do to get that up and running. We have a new copier which will really help our staff
immensely. We're rolling along on a friendly visitation program. You know, 5 years ago we started the outreach program. We connected to about 4,000 seniors in a year um making a whole bunch of calls which was only possible Again, I I think it's important to make
the connections. In our old phone system, we would never have been able to do that because it was a single line, single phone use system. Even though we had four extensions, it was still only one line going out. And it found out about that, put us on a VoIP system that
we now have six uh telephones that all have independent lines. And we were able to make that huge amount of calls in a very short period. Again, totally dependent on the volunteers we had in the office, but that was a whole bunch of seniors that hadn't had any
connectivity to us during CO that we were able to outreach to. Um, we are now extending that program to a friendly visitation program to identify folks that just might need someone to drop in on them, have a piece of pound cake and a cup of coffee, see how they're doing,
and bring that back to us to see if there are ways that we can improve the quality of life while they are either immobile because of transportation or physical issues or isolated because of their location to get them connected in other ways. Um, you heard Terry announce
a little bit earlier, we had some good news. We just found out we got a $5,300 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council through the Gardener Cultural Council. That'll let us pay for things like the concerts we do every year. Um, the ukulele, the mindful meditation, um,
Beth Helter is coming tomorrow night. Beth Helper is an award-winning author and uh, crafter, well well renown in that circle. So, she's coming here tomorrow night. I think we have 65 people. Um, we expect 80 tomorrow, which will be uh an
absolute explosion of folks that attend our Tuesday night events. We have our Sean Figin concerts, the Dan Carowak, Dennis Cormier, and uh Kevin Driscoll will be joining us this year with Puppets and Paul Revier. Should be interesting. Um, don't forget Harvey
Leonard is coming this year. Uh October 8th is a tentative date. So the forecast is for good weather with Harvey here. Um it'll be a Chamber of Commerce day. No rain. Anybody ever hear that term by the way? Chamber of Commerce Day. That means it's like a practically perfect summer
day. Not too hot, not too cold, bright blue skies commerce day. Mark Year has graciously agreed to come back and be the um the featured speaker at our volunteer recognition program and we're working on getting getting former Governor Charlie Baker in as as speaker
as well. So all of those things are up in the air. Uh Ron and I are working on the AP grant to give them a little bit of exposure, some publicity and marketing. We created a Medicare slick. There is a typo. This was our first attempt. Don't don't uh kill me for it.
If you're a great reader, you'll see it. If you're not, you won't. Um, but these are being distributed to every major employer in the greater gardener area, as well as certain doctor's offices and things like that, so that folks that are approaching the age of 65 know that they
can get free confidential counseling on their Medicare options here at the Gardener Senior Center. And every year we try to pick one or two programs that have been really important to our um service to the senior community and highlight them and maybe give them a
little bit of a of a acknowledgement. And this was our way to say thank you to the Shine Counselors and Integrity Medicare for the important work that they do of which we serve about 1,400 seniors um that we document through the
the Medicare counseling program here at the Garden. Couple other cool things. Uh last year we were a little late to the party and weren't able to get in, but we're able to get in this year on the Mount Wesley Community College theater at the Mount program book. So, we have a halfpage ad in that program book as well
as an electronic um bulletin board ad just to again show people that we're alive and well and here in the community for whatever they're looking to connect to where we can connect them. We have three cool handover Theater uh trips coming up. We'll get them to see the
Broadway musical six. Um that was the one that came in just before 7 if you're wondering and just it was like a year after five. That was six. Um, we're going to see the Boston Pops on December
5th, a holiday program. And on November 29th, we're going to see the Nutcracker. So, if you want to get in on any of those programs, you'll have to They're not in there. We haven't put them in there. No, because it's in December, Paul, and I didn't have space. I have to
wait till some stuff clears. December. And then the last uh couple things I want to let you know about is our lifeline program. You know, we started that over on um April 1st. We this month we're able to start to respond to folks
that are interested in giving that service. We've done five new installs in just the garden area. So that's where we're focused. We have 15 people to volunteer for Lifeline. Um we're still working out some of the kinks, but it has been pretty positive so far. not a lot of uh issues or problems for us. So,
that's been neat. We've done a lot of troubleshooting and service calls by a lot. Everything is um should be held in perspective. We're not overrun by it, but just some opportunities to get out into people's houses. I had to do I had to do a service call to somebody who was
charging wasn't working. And my normal service guy was on vacation. So, I went out there late on a Tuesday night, not begrudgingly, but just like it was late on a Tuesday night. best service call ever because she served me Italian sausages and meatballs. So for
the five minute service call, I was there for about an hour but had a delicious meal. So I want to thank uh folks for thinking of us. Um uh just I also wanted to tell you the city budget this year is about 227,000 which is not significantly more
than last year's. It's more but not significantly more. So it's a a moderate increase on most line items. we had to decrease our budget by 3%. So, um we'll see again how that goes. I'm feeling very positive about it. And then
the last two uh folks I just want to two things I want to mention, Signature Grounds, um who's given us a lot of stuff for the facility. They're they're hauling in our um our mulch that we do every year. I never know if it has
impact, but when the mailman stops you and asks you if you're going to plant flowers again this year because they looked so good last year, you know, it has impact. So, that was kind of cool. Um, then I want to thank John Boucher and his generosity and helping us at least transfer that. We save the
delivery charge when he does that. That's a hundred bucks that we can put into flowers. And of course, uh, Ann who does so much of the planting along with my staff, Burman and Nancy. There are two permanent full-time staff uh who just do everything I asked them to do.
Um and there's a lot if you haven't paid attention. Uh this past fall we're able to strip and repaint the ramp. We're working on the back uh metal uh platform in the fire escape to get that uh sealed again. This year we have a little bit of
welding to do on the back stairs off the auditorium and the handrail. Um, all of that stuff is in addition to stripping and waxing the floors that we did downstairs. We'll be moving that function up here and doing the lenolium
part of the upstairs um function in and common room. So, just a lot going on. I'm really excited about it. I hope you are too. I think I think we're doing some really good work. And again, but for your help and support in so many ways. And there isn't a single one of
you. Some of you more than others, but there isn't a single one of you here yet that I haven't called on really ask for favors um for your help, support, and guidance. Um I say some of them because I feel like there are a couple people I constantly go to um and and force them
to agree to do things that they might not otherwise be able to do. But it's a great energy. you know, talking about the CAC who is our partner and neighbor upstairs. Um, we we blend really well. There's a nice synergy. Um, we started this uh this process a long time ago
noting that when the CAC does well, the senior center does well and when the senior center does well, the CAC has done well. And I think that is really um has really come to fruition and is is real. So, thank you all for what you do for us. I appreciate it. And that ladies and
gentlemen take there's a lot any questions do I was just going to ask a question because when you're doing your outreach are we going to put her back to the system that we move to the different residences like the highrise but all house are we going to try that again
after Labor Day probably for the summer here we go after the summer's over and maybe before we get to a new place. Yeah. I mean, so the coffee and conversations, we really did try to schedule it twice a year, once in the spring, once in the fall. Um, and we hit
the three primary other senior residences uh or senior residences in the community. We certainly meet at Panol House, at Blanchard Street for um Hillside Gardens, and the high-rise, the housing authority highrise. We're also
invited to do a coffee hour up in Sapphire Park in one of the houses there. So, we might do that. Um, and we'll see whether or not that that works cuz we don't want to bring, you know, 40 people with mud and crappy shoes in people's houses. So, um, but it gives us
an opportunity to just hear from folks. It's coffee and conversations and people ask us some pretty interesting questions. Let's do Let's do that one. The first one in September, but it's still nice to have a go in Paul's deck. He'll do like a little barbecue for it.
Yeah. I got a new nice grill. work. All right, that works even better. I have one more question. Yes. Um I was wondering, can anybody come to a board meeting or do you have to be a member of the board? This is a public meeting. Yeah, it's a public meeting. Um the the
just so that you all know and understand, there are by the way some training requirements of this uh board that I was going to talk about in uh open discussion, but I'll say it now. So, um, new training just came out for open meetings and public information, public documentation, foyer, which is
freedom of information. Um, how we have to make certain things available and the time frame and what that process is in open meetings. An open meeting is not the same as a public hearing. An open meeting means that anybody can come and hear what we're talking about, but that
doesn't mean that they're allowed to participate. They have to be passive observers. They can take whatever information they want. Um and what information we have here. There's nothing to hide here. We share that regularly on our website. It's all, you know, available as public information.
Um and then public hearings. I don't it if a public hearing might, by the way, fall under the coffee and conversations open to anybody. They're able to say anything they want, ask any questions and things like that. But generally board meetings are not open hearings. We
don't allow for public discussion um from outside of the board. But anybody can come at any time. And I also want to just put a caveat up there. Anybody can come to our building at any time. We are not we are not exclusive. Um and we really don't have any issues with people
walking through and seeing the programs we have. And in fact, every time somebody comes in and talks about our programs, it's more publicity for us and it may allow for somebody who didn't know that program exists the opportunity to hear about it. So great question. Um you want to follow Did I answer that?
Yes, you did. All right. Good. Yeah. So anybody can come sorry uh when when they come they can't speak to us but it'd be good for them to come and see what we're doing and listen to what we have to say they can always come and reach any one of us after the meeting and tell us what they have for ideas to explain a little
bit better uh maybe some come up for an idea we'll bring up the following west meeting so it'd be good if we have some people on the outside to look for general public to do and this is open discussion time so you have something you want to bring up
if this is a good time to do it. It just occurred to me today um two months ago Ryan and I had go in front of the city council to be uh reconfirmed. Correct. Now that's just only for officers and no
ju just the opposite. So uh each of you are going to get a confirmation. No one understand at the time that Paul and Ron were brought before the appointments committee there were probably a 100 appointments 80 appointments before the committee and to try to do those all in
one day one night one week one month would be impossible. So the appointments committee looked at what were the essential ones that had to be done immediately and then we'll roll the rest of them over time. What happens with each and every one of you now because of
the new structure of this board uh voted by the city council last year, you all now are appointed by the mayor. That appointment is subject to the confirmation of the city council. So the city council holds has a subcommittee called the appointments committee and they'll bring people and they just talk
to you like what are your qualifications? Why do you want to be on the board? How long have you been on the board? What's your favorite? No, they don't actually but they'll they'll go through that discussion. I think that's important for them to know, you know, who's on the board and what perspective you bring to the board and why it's so
important for you to be on the board and also that's an opportunity for them to hear about the important work that this board does in guiding the process, programs, and services of the senior center. So, please don't take that lightly when asked. Um, you will be asked to attend that meeting. Um, you
don't have to go to the city council meeting confirming the recommendation of the appointment. No.