ellaner we'll talk to the nurse Huh she's a nurse Yeah she's been great Reminder before Ron starts the meeting if you speak please make sure you use the microphones but don't hold them too
close or no speakers [Music] Okay I got an announcement to make before we start the meeting Um any person may make video or audio recordings of an open session meeting or
may transmit the meeting through any medium subject to reasonable requirements of the chair and the and the me and the placement and the operation of equipment used so that not interfere with the conduct of the meeting Any person intending to make such a 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 uh and public records law All documents shall become part of the official record of the meeting And now I'm going to call
the meeting to order at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on the 7th of April So anybody read the minutes and do we have uh so there are two sets of minutes Um we have tabled for everyone I apologize that I'm including it in the
agenda It should have been but um at your discretion Mr Chair can we first consider I think the February 11th minutes and then go to the March 3rd minutes Very good Okay First set of minutes Anybody have any questions on
the minutes of February 11th and the only changes we made were to the attendance We had just carried over the attendance in January We forgot to change it Right All right And we need each one separately for the uh Okay So anybody want to make a motion on the
minutes of the February 11th i'll make a motion we accept the minutes of February 11th Okay Second I'll start Okay Very good Paul Stanley's first and uh Stanley first Paul second Okay very good Any discussion on
that any uh let's see any all in favor any opposed so voted All right Now we'll go to the next one for the month last month the March um March the 3rd mater Okay Anybody have any
uh questions on it i have a motion to accept the minutes and a motion to make I don't have a motion to accept Okay Second Second Okay Second it Very good Thank you Any
discussion all in favor i Okay Any oppose so voted Okay Very good They're all accepted Thank you Now we're going to have the treasures report So we'll give it to Terry
You all have a copy in your packet Terry you pull that a little closer Yeah I think Well you can't move away You always tell me I'm too close No I think you're good
today I think we reset these Fine You all have a copy of the Treasury report in your packet The first item on it is on page on the top of the page is the general
fund Uh there are many changes there Um just just a normal of changes Uh overtime as noted at the previous meeting overtime
is overtime is over the budget but that will be by the before the end of the fiscal year And other than that things are pretty normal Energy utilities was our biggest
item 4,000 44,000 Are there any questions on the general fund i just want to make a note so that you're all aware We will we will also be over budget based on projections on energy and utility significantly Our
cost this year went up in the last two years move on to about a $20,000 credit on our energy bill So um this year we're actually writing checks to cover utilities So um we'll be over
and and that's going to require us to go back to the council Any questions that's a question [Music] How does the um all the time get rectified you said it's going to get
rectified over time Oh all the time Over time You said it was going to get rectified There are two ways um we're allowed to do line item transfers between salary accounts and separately between our
administrative overhead accounts But you can't do it you can't mix the two So I can't make transfers for example for my overhead accounts into my salary accounts and vice versa But I believe we will have some money left over in the
salary accounts by the end of the year to allow us to cover the overtime And if not that account our on call standby account has not been touched So we'll do a line that transfer between of the of the budget amount from the on call
standby to the overtime and then whatever else we need from the salaries that's left over However there's not a lot of play by the way in the overhead account So this month alone it looks like we're probably going to eat up that entire $2,600
balance in utilities So we'll start running a deficit in that account And there really isn't a whole lot of places in this budget from uh repairs down for us to make that up So that hopefully won't require us to do it
but may require us to go back and ask for an amended budget supplemental and we're just talking really about April May June three months Okay Thank you
And I I was going to say force comes to worship we'll go back unbended asking for more money somehow Somehow Michael will make it come out right And energy and utilities obviously isn't frivolous spending We're not I mean it
is what it is We and over time too they know how stretched out we are and that we're trying to do the best with programs and things I'm sure that if we need a few hundred more I'm sure that if you beg they will give it to us
Okay So then the general one No other question on Okay Right below that is the gift fund and we did get a small donation in March $200 to add to the gift fund And so now the balance is
90,84601 And don't forget $25,000 is budgeted for painting which we hope will happen soon Other than that that's her gift That's that's the gift Okay on to the
next page Page two the revolving fund Not too many changes there In March only spent 3,99683 And are there any questions about any of the items on that on that
page there are two things I want to bring your attention to the grant um stipens So we put in a grant received the grant to pay uh just a a tright amount to the facilitators and various support groups to allow them either to
offset their cost or use that money for additional programming For example one of the support groups used that money to do a trip Um so they took it and applied it to transportation or admission fees and things like that Um so that's where that $2,400 is that's not really coming
out of program generated income from the senior center It was a a grant program generated income that was specifically earmarked for that um for that project If you remember last year we also received a significant amount of money
on this grant for our trips Um so trips and excursions The Woo Socks uh baseball game for veterans we covered 100% of the cost including the meals which is great So transportation admission meals ended up being
$25 a person I'm sorry that's not true It cost $50 a person with the meal Um and then the bus So that's what that was where that money came from So it didn't come out of our normal kind of program money And then the other thing I want to call your attention to is just this It's
not an error There's $152.64 um you know positive amount under Amazon That was a refund So it was something that we showed the expense last month but we got the refund this month And uh I didn't want to just offset it against
the expenses because then it would have made it look like oh gez we had a very small amount of expenses We still had the $400 in expenses but we had $152 of refunds as well Those only two really um kind of crazy things in this
The rest of it is pretty straightforward And for those of you who don't know we bought uh we bought about 55 pounds of corn beef uh or 55 pounds of corn beef were used at the St Patrick's Day event Um
but some of that was was provided to us It was a gift So you know we ended up you know spending a little bit of money but uh broke even on the St Patrick's Day event and we only charged $5 So it wasn't a bad deal at the end of the day And we're so grateful for the community
partners that helped make that event possible It was terrific Any questions any question at all yes what is Denise Hill denise Hill is our art class Okay Yep She does um the the
painting class Okay Yep Crafts Because it's nothing nothing Um so so the nothing nothing is because we're applying all of her expenses against the grant account So if you look at the grant account which is the next report you're going to see Denise Hill
and Director Hill show up there Yeah I I try to put it in where I think when we first did the budget we projected some expenses We didn't necessarily hit those expenses So we're able to put those against the brand account not the
logging Can I ask a question on the the how come there's $45 for the So that that was materials Um so she we she's by contract um she gets paid as an instructor but she also is reimbursed
for her materials We have to separate that when we pay it The reason we have to separate it is because if we don't at the end of the year she's going to get a $1099 for income even though it's reimburseable expenses And so we just
pay those expenses uh separately and we allocate $5 a person I have a question too on the sound AV equipment There's positive 189 Did we get refunded there
too uh that was that was just a line item transfer So the 189 um and that's probably what that 152 was actually true The 189 was sound equipment for the grant for the tech grant So we have the carts and the sound equipment and video
equipment on that cart when we first expensed it that that equipment wasn't specifically allowed in the grant It wasn't disallowed but we hadn't asked So we applied it towards the revolving fund cuz we had to pay the bill Then when we
got the change order from the grant we were able to just recclass that expense And in fact that's that 189 and 152 which was an Amazon expense was actually recolapsed to the tech Any other any question at all on
the uh wealthy fund if not we'll move on to page three which is our statement A lot of that is the payments to our instructors which we know always comes
out pretty consistent and I don't I don't see oh the tax4 same thing yeah we reclass $550 $515 from the state grant into the tech grant and just to show if people want to
follow it if they Turn to page five and six You'll see those two numbers The 51544 shows up as the reclass from GR from G8 rather It's like the sixth item down And the 34164 the
reclass from RA Just makes it easier for you to follow So you can actually see the numbers where they go and how they fall in the finance report And if you look partway down the street there there is instructor Hill That would be Stephanie That's what she would
receive for teaching her class The $180 And that's where her shows up is here Anybody else i have a question How come the line dancing instructor is not on here did
she get paid differently she does She she had a pre-existing kind of situation and there were a couple others that did too but felt it would be better When CO hit all of our classes were decimated right so we used to have it in
a in a situation where they would collect the donations and whatever they collected was their pay for the day that became less fair during CO when only 10 people or 11 people were coming to a a class that they would normally be paid $50 for So we changed that We said "Okay
we're going to contract with you at an hourly rate but any of the donations come back into our program funds." And technically that's how it's supposed to happen The donation should be coming to us so that you know legitimately we can show and declare the income and on the
other side show the expense Okay Any other question stan stand No he looked like he was going to have I don't have then we'll move on to the FY25 We haven't spent any money out of
that yet but we will And then the next the next one is the text one And I'm just going to turn that open right over to Mike because he handled that very well There
is not a lot to report on that So all of our expenses have been incurred um with the exception of $1,471 So we're under budget by about $1,500 which is great We will be returning that $1,500 to come Massachusetts um we don't get to keep
that But all of the equipment has been purchased All of the contracts have been signed We purchased the internet service for the Chromebooks We um just have a lot of equipment that's being installed at various locations which is great So
there's still some installation but we don't have installation costs included in that So as long as we've expended the money for the equipment we're good to go Um so just so that you know to make our technology better as we implement this we'll have the neat board um which is
like a television screen update that gives us 18 unique cameras in that board to to screen on people have owl cameras which is a centerpiece you use that for like a board meeting it will pick up audio and video better than say the handy cam and the uh external sound
system we'll have uh the AV cards the production cards which are mobile which allow us to do video production of dynamic events This wouldn't be considered a dynamic event This is a static meeting People aren't moving around We don't have a lot of
extemporaneous actions or instructions things like that But in the yoga class we do right So we've done u some speakers we put in over our production our internet production We have the Medicare 101 which we were able to zoom out to the to the worldwide web all that
kind of good stuff And this car gives us two cameras two high depth cameras One's focused on the presenter one's focused on the audience The Chromebooks all the Chromebooks are in We're just finishing them up uh finishing up installing Google Manager Uh but we've been using
them We had four classes recently We had four classes last summer Our class is pretty big this this time You I think 14 or 15 people in the class Ted are you taking the class you what yeah it's a great class Um and so
appreciative of the folks that have stepped up to help us with that Uh subscription we just talked about that It gives us it internet access on those Chromebooks for seniors that are borrowing the Chromebooks so they don't have to go out and buy internet Um they can use our Chromebooks and then make a determination whether or not this makes
sense for them to do uh at which case they turn the Chromebook back and they have to buy their own device and purchase their own internet service There's some additional equipment the wireless control access point switch that gives us a better signal from no matter where we are in the building or
buildings We get a better um internet access and then we can download and upload the videos better including the Zoom link the Zoom meetings We bought laptops to give us administrative ability to manage Zoom meetings and manage the cameras for each of the
production parts and then one each for the the um two senior centers to administer the program The tech trainers were eliminated So we took out the tech trainers moved that money to uh equipment because we were not able to
hire tech trainers and pay them uh before the end of the grant term which is March 31st It had to be spent So we just did a line item transfer They agreed to that Similarly the intern money that we had set aside to pay students we took that out moved it into equipment Um the tech trainer for
seniors which is our classes we took out uh with the exception of last summer cuz we had those four classes made six classes that's $300 Um and you know paid those out The Zoom subscriptions we have bought and
uh uh paid for So those are good that includes two Zoom is a weird thing You don't need to know We have two licenses for each of the facilities So that allows us to do meetings of up to 100 people but the Zoom board that neat board I was telling you about needs its
own license We had to purchase a license for each of the facilities Um and those were surprisingly more expensive So you can't use a manager license on a Zoom board Something I learned in this grant process So like I said we're all um you
know we spent the money down 1,400 bucks The final report draft was submitted We'll do the final final report by April 30th Um all of the accounting is done So uh really kind of happy with that And more importantly I'm happy about the the
possibilities You know we've already started testing and doing some very lowkey programming on the internet and allowing people to join us by Zoom We're really going to be able to ratchet that up now as we move into um full production A side note that this board
needs to know in order to get the uh change order moving the money from the interns and tech trainers I made a pledge that we would absolutely use money this year to pay trainers from our revolving fund or cran That's what our
revolving brand account is for So it it's not um you know it wasn't way out of uh out of the scope of possibility and in line with what we use that money for Now we pay instructors from those two We'll pay instructors and that was a a commitment I made just to make sure
that they know we are serious about continuing our technology programs Any questions about the tech plan i just wanted to say that instructor has been
And we've been lucky We've had u we've had two tech instructors Um and they've been just again really good flex We had three Kevin Spain I'm going to make it Ryan Spain Why don't you call him Kevin oh
please don't watch this Um I do I always call him officer Spain And then he introduced himself one day and now I can't remember his first name of the lifetime I was just going to call him officer when when I we had hired a tech person and the week before he was
supposed to start a new job that made it impossible for him to teach during the day Of course that's what our classes are So we were kind of I put out a note and I need some help and Ryan immediately responded back and said "I can do that I can teach a class for sure." You know I thought it did a great
job It was an awesome class He was really engaging people liked him It was kind of cool to see how adaptive law enforcement has become in our community Like they do more now than just give out parking tickets and arrest robbers right so they're they do a lot of social work
They're very much um into and do so well community engagement at so many levels and helping people feel you know feel better in their community Safe is u I think a much more broad term than it's ever been So I really applaud him and I
thank the lieutenant and the U administration there for allowing us the chief and deputy chief for allowing us to steal him for a couple hours while they taught uh while we taught our computer class Yeah I got a question This is probably
way too late of the question but as we're going over this I was wondering what I put in the minutes for the tech grant and I just noticed we haven't been putting anything in here for the tech grant Should we be um no I think that we
did some time ago Um and it's really just been an update So the tech grant is a tech grant You know today's closing thing would probably we have tech rank in here 2025 tech rent 2025 tech It's in um it's in the
March for sure And it's in the um No it's in both We we've been Yeah we've been absolutely reporting that So is it it's something else it's based on the way that I usually do it you know No that's exact
No it's exactly right So that would be that's the fifth item on uh treasures report in the February meeting So it's mine F technology grant and then in the in the March meeting it's just under the
uh third category of treasury report by yeah just looking for the format that I had to have a motion on the treasury Make a motion to accept the
president I accept Very good Thank you Can I have any discussions all in favor any opposed all good So voted Thank you
everyone Okay Next thing will be our uh fears leave just arrived tax and there is no old business We haven't been carrying anything over So um we talked a little bit about it in this um finance report but I just want to let you know
our FY2024 we actually ended in June on June 30th of 2024 the FY24 EO AI which is now the executive office of aging and independence uh report was ded So we had to get that uh done A lot of the numbers from the EO AI
report are derived from my senior center the software we have here and it really speaks to how important that software is on statistics However I'm going to tell you after spending literally a month on this report there are some serious
um you know lapses or deficiencies in the report For example the number of volunteer hours I sat with the staff and we went through program by program Um my senior center for example doesn't capture the Templeton Fish and Gun Club
volunteers who make the meals for us for our and the My Senior Center report doesn't capture the holiday volunteers we have who package prepare and hand out meals Um it doesn't capture the Lions
Club It doesn't capture the club members all of those things because inherently it's about signins and swipes and the president of the club does not normally come and spend time at the senior center although he should
Um it is so I just want to like there's a lot a lot of work that's involved in in driving those stats and I try really hard to make sure that whatever we put in the report is documented document in the sense like that somebody can go back and there's a paper trail on how we came
up with those numbers But based on those numbers and based on what was in my senior center and looking at the non-captured volunteers we did about 16,000 hours of volunteer work That's an enormous amount
And that that at $18 an hour $15 an hour came up to about $300 $350,000 of benefit But I want to make sure you understand that we had doctors volunteering here We had nurses volunteering here We have MAS that volunteer We normally get paid a lot
more than $15 an hour Um literally in the hundreds of dollars an hour uh range Uh we had financial planners volunteer here there's a associate cost We book that cost at minimum wage but the real
value of that exceeds enormously the estimated value that we put on it And I think that that's pretty remarkable for you all to know as board members that we look at the numbers We look at the finance numbers and we say "All right you know our budget this year
was $215,000 $217,000 With that $217,000 we leveraged all of this additional money So we leveraged $9,000 in gifts We
leveraged uh $73,000 in our revolving fund We leveraged uh you know the $80,000 in the tech grant So that's huge Plus we leveraged the many hundreds of thousands
dollars that came attached to that volunteer work And that kind of blew me away It's a great story and we're going to we're going to tell that story a lot and I hope that you'll join me I'll help you with the narrative but people need to know and understand that that that's impact That defines impact Uh I was
looking at with the staff this morning some of the statistics from the Google business profile and on Facebook Uh and that tells a huge story Some interesting stories by the way that something that has turned dramatically or changed dramatically is the number of clicks on
our Google business profile from mobile devices was about 60% this year 60% of people were accessing our our profile from their phones 5 years ago that we wouldn't have said that about a senior center
population We said "Oh maybe they're doing it from the desktops and the laptops They're certainly not doing it from the phones." if they use tech at all And that really underscores the need for us to have more technologydriven programs People will watch our programs on their phones and on their laptops and
computers And I think underscores again the real positive attributes of the technology grant we got Speaking of the technology grant we I think I told you I mentioned we started the the process of that report First draft is done The final report has to be in include the
narrative We couldn't finish that narrative till we had the EO AI report done to show the numbers of people that were impacted the hours that were impacted the costs that were associated with that Um but I think we hit all of our milestones Now I got to tell you I
when I did this grant I set the bar not low but um I set it in a way that I thought was achievable And as time went on I was becoming a little bit disappointed that maybe we were just going to hit the achievable
But in the last 8 weeks we have definitely driven that that number and participation rate up So now I feel like I feel good This is where I thought we'd be kind of 5 months ago Um but at least we got it in at the end of the grant period and and it's only going to get
better from here um marketing and communications We're doing some pretty unique things for uh marketing communications We're taking some of the most important programs or things that maybe people don't really know about us who at a younger age might find valuable
to access And let me just specifically point out Medicare right so Medicare for folks that are 63 years old they're not thinking about the senior center They may be thinking about retirement but they're not thinking about the senior center And I can't tell you how many folks I know that are going into that
65th year having never gotten any resources information or access to services before they had to choose the Medicare plan There were there were literally thousands of people in the in this city that have gotten on Medicare
that have never came to see a counselor So we're going to we we put together some some very simple marketing materials that we're going to put out to all of the major um employers in the city So as their folks start to kind of venture towards retirement or their
customers come in uh it'll be an easy access We'll see how that goes We have some additional ideas for the services we provide in terms of housing counseling nutrition counseling um financial counseling legal assistance for seniors That will probably be our
second piece when we're ready to do that And it's low cost We did 3,000 of these Medicare ones um simple cards that are um that we can put out in the community that I think are are really informative
I talked a little bit about the St Pats event It was fabulous We booked out I mean we we were begrudgingly adding people at the end of the day that we had forgot to include including some of our dignitaries Um we served over 120 meals
that day Uh great entertainment I thought it I thought it went really well I got to just send out a um quick thank you and note of gratitude to Cher City Church who again has been such a great partner for us in so many ways um the
CAC who honestly I've just come to to love and relish and really in many ways depend on that relationship They are a great partner of the Garden Senior Center Um a woman Denise Fitzgerald went in to get a um a dessert a special
dessert and nobody around Price Jer doesn't make any hand She heard I was looking for dessert She said "I'll make you a Guinness chocolate cake." And I said "You had me a Guinness." Uh and for those of you who attended it was
unbelievable It was so good Um and I don't know I just feel like uh like people care about what goes on here We want to make it better And that to me is it makes coming to work here every uh day great So we're wrapping up
on marketing and communications Um and the only other major thing I wanted to let you know about is uh a social club a fraternal organization veterans organization offered us um some equipment So I'd like to ask you to just think about and maybe today talk about
and even um if acceptable maybe make a recommendation that we um that we accept this But part of the donation are two um pool tables two commercial grade pool tables So the hard part about that is
they're ready now And the easy part about that is where they are the person has said we can meet them there a couple months So people that own the building said nice but that's not going to be forever We'll probably need to move them by the end of the summer Um which may be right
in line with where we hope to be uh by the end of the summer So that was kind of cool Uh I told him we'd take them I obviously wanted to run them by the board first and I said that's totally acceptable The other thing I'd like to ask is as I went through and and it's no surprise who the organization name is
but as I went through their their facility they had some pretty remarkable regalia and memorabilia including um a flag for their post that was pretty old Um and it it's it's nice it's framed and
they were lamenting about what they were going to do with this stuff Um some of it would be appropriate for the Garden Museum but some of it wouldn't but it holds meaning to them It holds value It has some some legacy um interest in it right so and I I
certainly feel that way I hate to throw that stuff away My wife will tell Um I'd like to be able to offer to them the opportunity to take some of that stuff and hang it in the hallways of the new garden center or in some of the rooms if you think that's appropriate And I I
think we can do that in a way that's tasteful and that gives kind of homage to those folks that were part of the VFW and um part of uh the military and leave their service as a little way to enhance the respect that we have So just thought
I'd pop that and see what you think Stand Uh actually I'd like to see you come here Uh because I'm a member of the BFW Some of
that are photographs of service members in the greater God community that have died They're listed by branch of service years that they uh of the year that they
passed They are about the size of that first picture on the left hand side And they are I think there's at least 10 maybe more Yeah it includes all of the washing
I I would like to as well And I think like we do in this room we can also kind of turn things over and if folks don't want them there 100% of the time we can do kind of seasonal presentations But there's a lot of wall space down there
And I think it would be a really cool thing to give back to a community that's given us so much uh here at the senior center So I I don't see any any objections or concerns about that Well I'm I'm thinking I think it's a great idea if I can get a chance to get some
of our veterans who don't come to the senior center Give them a chance to come and see what we have The other thing also I'm thinking we have the table downstairs where the dishes are call Yeah And I was going to say we have a special area at the new place to have that and have these things made for the
be all exposed at the same time on the wall around it a case that you could put it behind a glass case or something Oh absolutely Yeah Our plan is to bring the fallen soldier table with us um and have that as prominently displayed as it is here Um so so certainly that's true And
it's funny you say some of the you know maybe we'll get some of the DFW folks So as I went through I started they had some high anybody who's ever been to a pool hall they have like the high pool chairs right so they sit up there Oh
those are kind of cool Um yeah He goes "Well that one's cool That one's put these on That that'd be a nice addition to our pool I guess if you grant us the honor of at least considering giving those we'd love to take them." And the guy said "Well you got to take at least one
because so and so so and so and so and so go to the senior center every morning to play pool They're and this is the chair they use So we're going to have to dig that one." I thought that was kind of funny Um and I I thank the the members of the DFW who have advocated
for us We have four tables to have talked to other veterans organizations or organizations in the community but the fact that they thought enough about us to say this would be a great long-term donation uh from center Now this does not come without cost To be
clear um when we move the tables downstairs we got a quote It's going to cost us about $1,800 total $1,200 to move the table and reset it up and do all that stuff and then $600 to regg
green it to refelt it Right so we had to put new um cloth on And the recommendation from the three companies we talked to is if you're going to move the tables you're going to take that felt off Don't put the same felt back on Um we could get felt a lot cheaper We could probably get it for $300 a table a
better the best bet is the $600 a week Hopefully this is going to last us for 10 years for you know an extra $300 per table So we're going to have to move those tables and it's going to cost us about $1,800 each to move those and retell them along with the three we have
downstairs but we've already kind of budgeted that So um and that's where that expense is going to come from is probably a discussion for another time As for the tables you can get two from them for the BMW And I know you mentioned in the past that we have one of our tables now that we don't think
it's going to make the move because it's falling apart Yeah So that would be one way getting the extra Yep That's it That and our hope that we would get the three and buy a new one and have four So we're not going to be able to move this way I I am feeling more and more um
comfortable in saying one of those tables is just not going to make the move Um so we we're back to the fort which be great We need a new building for all these pool tables Can we use a little two building the
opposite We also just so that I don't know if you remember some time ago we have the two ping pong tables So um they're down there We had a a person who has committed to building us an outside small picnic pavilion Um and they're
going to cover all the costs when we move down there And we have uh a company that has said they'll buy the portable pickle ball mats and equipment for us if we put pickle ball courts in live All of
those discussions are way premature right now It's just too early to talk about Let's get in there get comfortable and see I mean there's just a lot of really cool stuff going on behind the scenes and so grateful again for the amount of support we're getting not just
by the community at large but from our elected officials who you know are really trying to make mountains move to get us into the city center Is there any progress there's a lot of progress If you've been down you've noticed new front doors new electrical
The the city in in I'm probably speaking out The city has committed um some money to Waterford Street School They're still waiting for the process to be finished So they got a good idea what that number was and they've kind of parsed out the
money that they have available to other capital improvement projects but it looks like about a million dollars could be coming to um the center improvements So that's good That's a that's a big chunk of what needs to be done So I'm kind of happy about that But yeah
there's been a lot of work done I'd love to take you down there but again we are it's too way too early for us to be doing site visits and walkthroughs Um plus there's work being still being done down there So um yeah it's it's moving
along I have a question to ask on the when you were talking at first I think the fiscal year 24 you were talking about volunteers Uh how are we going with the uh board are people really using the board that you sign in do the volunteer part yes they're doing better at it We
still don't capture a lot of volunteers And I would even say like this a fair group Um maybe there might be one or two of us that forgot to sign in as a volunteer today and may just swiped in When you're here doing work for the COA
we can count all that time as volunteer work So if you didn't do it on the way in please do it on the way out But a lot of the outside organizations we don't get and I think we're being under reported just looking at our numbers like so we did some random utilization
surveys and we're about 10% under almost almost across the board in those um events and programs we did with people signing in So things like AP and Golden Age and all those signs We have a night program So we do line dancing at night
We do support groups at night do some tech stuff at night Um all the systems are shut down so people don't sign in for any of those Our special events um most of the time like St Pat's event we probably have about 50% of people sign in for that But thankfully we track that
so we're able to say okay we know we had 120 people pay if 60 people did and we know there's 60 other people Um when the volunteers from like the city council come they don't swipe in like the next city councils the mayors say we're up here you know volunteering We don't
capture that volunteer Our bingo callers every Thursday we have a new bingo caller They spend 3 hours here at the Garden Senior Center They don't swipe in for their volunteer There's no really way to do that but to manage another 52 people who only here once a year right
so um there are some there are some some hurdles we're trying to overcome I think we're a lot better than we were 2 years ago Um and we'll be better next year than we are this year Any other
questions awesome Very good Thank you Michael to the board Um next thing on our list is open discussions Anybody has anything they want to bring up i I'm just cur I'm just curious Um Ron and I as you know had to go to city hall
last month to be reappointed Um I've been hit with this question a few times cuz I don't know how to answer it Is that is that part of the city charter i mean we're considered non-pay city employees but that's a provision or
amendment to the city charter for it is it is a provision of the city charter We are an official board of um the city of guard So you're all officials um that serve on this board So by virtue of that
you are appointed by the mayor to serve and once your appointment is made by the mayor the city council has the right to review that appointment and either approve or reject that appointment They do that through an appointments committee that does uh an interview with the appointee nominee and then makes a
recommendation of either up or down to the city council's role Right so yes the answer is yes Just so that you all understand it used to be rolling So those of you who've been on the board for a little bit you know that you were appointed at a specific point in time and it was a three-year appointment That
was that was all revised last year with the city charter revision So they tried to align all of the committees boards and task forces all into a very similar structure So and there were some boards
that had you know willy-nilly membership You could have some were three members some were five members some were seven members Um the COA board was seven members plus as many associate members as we wanted Um and some were 14 We are
now a board of up to 14 members They're all appointed and the provision And so by the way just so you all know it's good news and bad news the provision that used to state that you had to be a senior and a resident of Gardener was
eliminated as it was on on every other board It's now consistent across all boards So that allows me to legitimately bring folks in from who use our center from other communities into an appointed position on the board which is great Now
you may say "Well why did Ron and Paul and Paul so Ron Paul Paul um were brought in last month?" The reason for that is because of that change the mayor had to put
forth a slew of new appointees 100 And the appointment committee has a finite amount of time at every meeting They couldn't possibly have a 48 hour long meeting to go through and interview all these candidates So they they take him in
chunks Take this group and then the next group the next month And um we have a new chairman of the appointments committee who's doing a great job but he's still trying to learn his way So you will eventually all be getting that call that your appointment is up before
the appointments committee and you'll need to come in if you can and meet with them so they can talk to you about what your experience has been what your vision is um what you hope that your role here on the board is um what you think it is what it has been all that
kind of good stuff Um for associate members as well Yep Um and I believe there's no such thing as associate me There's associate members in our bylaws but not in the city of China anymore The associate members are gone I'm trying to remember
cuz we work on the bylaws Um so the assoc you know when I came in I was an associate member obviously Uh and then I became a voting member I mean I think that's what appointed member Appointed Um so like with Ron and I every 3 years
we could expect to go in front of the city council I I don't I don't know what that duration is anymore So the answer to that may be no Um what I would say is this is that it's all been refined for those people who are associate members of thought well either because of
geographics or because of age Um wouldn't normally in the past have been allowed to be a member of the board you are now right so I say you are allowed but remember that doesn't happen until the mayor sends forth your appointment
So um I gave him the list of all the board members and I believe that there's been no objections to that list who currently serve We didn't add anybody So I believe all of them will be appointed Now a great example of that is Julie
Mean from the Gardener CAC The CAC is a is a gardenerbased business and service organization Julie is not a gardener resident nor is she age eligible for gardener senior center services So if we looked at just the age eligibility and
the residency requirement under the old system she would have been allowed to be a voting member Let's do appointed member of the board Now she's able to be an appointed member of the board So she has as we have operated for the last two years all the same rights as anybody
else And again just so that folks don't get dismissed we have eliminated we eliminated it two years ago this idea that you know only board members could vote on something or have a say in something and associate members have brought to the table because they have experience and expertise and skills or
passion or maybe you know particular focus on seniors in our community that you all bring something to the table that's vitally important to us So there'd be no good reason to not have you as a voting member of the board and that's how we worked Ron embraced that
we need to go over it as chair that you know everybody here should be treated as equal So we do that So the new and the new thing was uh because they held us up because uh they were missing some papers or something Oh no that's that's new isn't it uh it's not really new No we've
been so for newly appointed members This this is what kind of surprised me If somebody were coming to the board for the first time we would do it by ask like okay why do you want them in what do they bring what's the relevant experience or skills that they're bringing to the table that would make them a good board member and so I always
had to make that case and often times people help me make that case And it might be the position you hold in the community organization that you represent It might be you know your long-term tenure and experience with the city of Garden being a lifelong res whatever that was We made that case for
you provided that to the mayor who may then have uh enhanced that and provided additional information to the board Um but I was surprised for people who were reappoint that they asked for that That's part of the new process So that
was new to me Um the mayor was taking care of that and as always he's very blunt about like oh you know um you know I need you to do this so that's how it's going to be Um which is good you know
then I get to know you a little better now And also the other distinction is that um we're going to have elections I guess next month right yeah For the main meeting right yep Um the board the city council doesn't really oversee any of
that and we can make anybody an officer based on our whatever the results of our elections are Correct Correct So that's not like that They don't have the city council for approval for their correct right Yep
They are So officers Oh god He became president He has got to go down to city council to do an oath Nope No I haven't done that because when we had that meeting we they didn't have something together or whatever So I I'm on the assumption we're going to get an interview next time they have a meeting
No no you were you were approved It went Yeah it went to the council from I actually saw the video uh on it about their discussion about us and they were so kind about you but they love you Um no We you know we both got
to reconfirm as mayor The city council's prerogative the city council prerogative is to to either affirm or reject the mayor's proposal or appointment to the board But the city council does not play
any part in the election of officers And the officers are the presiding folks uh over the meeting So the officers are the four the chair the vice chair the secretary and the clerk I mean and the treasurer I'm sorry they're actually
five So there's the president vice president or chair vice chair secretary treasurer and the CEO We have a CEO of this board Okay Every year we go through the same election Um and it in our bylaw
says that generally some seniors are direct So those are the two titles that go along with this condition but the council doesn't have any So does Paul going to go up to the city clerk city clerk and get sworn Yeah You need to you need to get sworn I think that's why you were on vacation It did It did It was
approved at the city council So you need to go get sworn Okay Okay That's right That's why we waited for it So we just go to the city clerk Go to city clerk and say yep My appointment was approved I need to be sworn in and then you fill out paper and sign What were you guys
talking i thought they told you at the appointment Sorry You weren't there No they just told us they went table and Monday for that Oh yeah You weren't there But they uh
the Monday meeting we were told we didn't have to reappear at that meeting Correct You didn't have to go back to the city right you didn't cuz that was already done at the appointment But they never told us about going to the city Yeah I think they said after the city council meeting and that appointment is confirmed you need to go get one So you
need to get do it I will I know your office I don't think my dog likes to speak anymore Okay Anything else on open discussions bye everybody
Okay Um looks like our next meeting will be scheduled for May the 5th at 2 o'clock in the afternoon in this nice big room And can I have somebody make a motion to uh adjourn i'll make a motion to adjurnn Okay Second I'll second Okay
Part of a second Very good Thank you everyone All in favor any opposed all right So