##VIDEO ID:mYNYkugJxr0## watch TV watching Miss many weeks and months okay good afternoon everybody good afternoon everyone for our board meeting of January the 6th at 2:00 in the afternoon at the guarden senior center U before you call to order uh one of the things I've been missed in reminding you of and I apologize is just to make the announcement that any person can make a video a reporing of an open session of any meeting May transmit the meeting through any medium subject reasonable requirements of the chair as to the number placement and operation equipment used so as not to interfere conduct of the meeting any person intending to make such recording shall notify the chair forth with all documents reference or used during the meeting are to be submitted and duplicate to the chair pursuing to the open meeting of public records law all documents shall become part of the official record of the meeting we all we forget to read that and I don't know why I was up the other night yeah I don't so all right did everybody read over the minutes that Mike printed out and gave us over the weekend material graciously created by our secretary Kathy I have a motion on the minut motion I'll make a motion accept the minutes second okay uh any discussion all in favor any oppos okay so thank you our next thing on the list is the person [Music] report um if your packet might distributed the financial report as of December 31 2024 the first account uh up is the general fund the general fund there no not many changes just the ordinary expenses in and out and everything looks proper are there any questions at all on the on the general fund that's on page one of your financial report any questions on the general fund and just for those who are watching the video later our budget is 27,000 we've spent 999,000 today there's 118,000 left in the funding from the general fund for General operating expenses and and that's the funding that is given to us by the city of gardener or the uh Senior Center okay the next I item on that page is the gift fund um the beginning balance in the gift fund was $79,000 $25.90 uh the own we received income of $3,000 in December and that was a donation from a a fund and so at the moment with the with the addition of 3,000 we have $87,200 74 in the gift fund uh 25,000 of that is a earmark aside for painting when we get down to our new building painting will be done partially paid for by the Council on Aging are there any other questions on the GI and just in case if you're listening and that doesn't make sense from an addition perspective our starting balance was 9 2593 in December we took in $3,300 of income but through the year so far year to date is 9,524 we spent $1,500 oh yes I made a mistake I said 3,000 I guess I got to get new glass it is 3300 thank you Mike okay all right and we'll Turn the Page now to the uh revolving fund uh there were uh a few expenditures in December not too many a lot of them were related to Christmas activities uh lunches and and um other things uh we the balance in the revolving fund at the moment is 45,8 5996 and 511 $511 125 is reserved for trips and excursions we don't have an invoice on that yet so our actual money that we can spend is $ 4,348 71 are there any questions on the revolving fund I expect that $511 to be more than $511 at the end of the day we have numerous activities that had transportation we just don't have the B from that but as of December 31 that was held in es 511 plus he's going to have aition he's he's saving saving for meres okay are there any questions at all on the revolving fund any questions at all okay we'll move right along here to our FY 24 State Grant and there were a few expenditures in December most of them were to pay the instructors for the various various fitness programs and um and gifts and at the moment uh we started out with a beginning balance in the grant of 64,8 $10.84 to date we have spent $ [Music] 25,39 and8 so in our FY 23 State Grant we have a balance of $ 39,6 7176 and um that we have no deadline date on when we have to spend it but um it's it's all there is there any any question on the FY 24 State Grant anything Mike any just just to give perspective of the $5,700 spent in December on the state Grant uh 3,400 was instructors and entertainment and then an additional 1,800 for our software Solutions so $5,200 for month of the 5700 were for contracted did um any long-term expenses as opposed to simple expenses the uh flower gardens for example are very small expans or and looking at white dog that the printing cost so um I think that's really important for you know that the vast majority of this money is going to pay for um no exp Clos out no we don't have to report that anymore the vast majority is to pay for the instructors for classes and art and different things last call that's not oh yes Mike I forgot that's things that are still outstanding right Mike those are contracted HS so those are expenses that we are under contract for but have not yet incurred so instructor the blank for for example we do a contract act and a PO for the entire year that expires on 6:30 at the end of fiscal year which be 25 we anticipate and it it actually kind of goes pretty well we've spent $2,700 in the first 6 months of the fiscal year 25 we have $2,800 left in that contract we'll probably exceed that by the way but that makes if you kind of look at it it should be about 5050 um so we're we're doing pretty pretty good and we earmark that just so that you know what our available funds are for things outside of those contracted um obligations y thank you and we are halfway through the year now the fiscal the city's fiscal year December 31 6 months in 6 months to go yeah question okay well that's your second question so second question social media Penny like what is that we have a we've hired somebody for 10 hours a week just to help us um stay on track for our social media and expanding our social media so they're taking training helping us uh be trained on how to do more Dynamic content on our social media feeds as well as create a little bit better deliverable on the static Communications like the constant contact emails so 10 hours a week noten yeah no no her name is Penny it is yeah Lauren Penny y she's she's been great especially you know I hate to say it but with there much going on sometimes um it's really difficult to stay focused on on the task her being here we scheduled time and set time aside just to create our social media and Communications content if if I didn't have that we get done 5 days later and then it' be old right so we try to do things in real time I met this morning and she uh told me that she knows you for a very long time and I offered my condolence she she also jumps right in like right now there's a big law bunch of phone calls coming in I was working here Friday uh Thursday and she jumps right in answers questions and help schedule appointments so she just doesn't sit there doing social media she really part of the team oh any any other question on on uh State the state Grant 24 FY 24 no no it's in good shape and uh f 25 we have not started to use yet so we have 83,5 65 in that as a balance and then for the technology Grant I U will you can see the figures there but I will turn it over to Mike for further explanation because he keeps up with that more than I do so Mike yeah a really important consideration when we go back to the revolving fund there going to be some additional expenses you I the revolving front for the state Grant to support the technology Grant so um the reason for that is we built a cart a portable AV card that's going to allow us to do again Dynamic videoing real time of activities and programs and if you think of like the old way of doing it even as we do here at the Council on AG board meeting there's a single camera focused on the entire group well the the AV presentation cart we have created allows us to do multiple cameras from Dynamic angles it allows us to do remote control um operation of the cameras so we can pan and zoom focus in on the instructor focus in on the class and it gives us the integration we need for the zoom meeting board which is a uh online technology that people can access our programs and the whole reason we're doing that the whole reason for the technology Grant we spent a little bit more money than the budget and and that kind of makes sense because this is Uncharted Territory we didn't really know what it was going to look like or what we could do and have been pretty creative in that regard but it will allow folks that have Mobility or Transportation issues that can't come to the Center for those reasons they can't get a ride or maybe they're homebound um it really manifested itself during Co which is I think a great example of why we need this people that are home with the flu or the cold that really want to participate in activities like yoga or line dancing this will allow us to project live those programs in a dynamic way so that folks if they want to can participate in those activities I think an important thing also for you to know is this is a joint and collaborative Adventure even though the grant was for $83,000 half of those expenses are going to the templon seni center so all of the the technology the boards and stuff like that um we bought two so half of those expenses we've incurred today are for their app so really our our um share of that is only about 417 418 and the rest is 418 go to templon any questions on that it's kind of cool yes s you want to use the mic for me please on the uh where do the uh video trans transfer so it has actually it goes it's it's really complicated but the first place it goes is the cameras so the cameras can record that but the cameras are also integrated to zoom so they're broadcasting that live two cameras split screen to anybody who has the zoom link for that program okay so be broadcast basically to an iPad or yep yeah anybody that said home that that's signed into the Zoomer team meeting yep yep for the whole purpose of them being able to participate in that program in real time rather than watching a video or something like that I want to thank while I'm here while I'm talking about it it was part of my initial discussion but I'm going to just let you know that we have some great Partners in this uh program one being M Community College the media department at AR Collins has been a icon here for the last 3 months as we've been building this car and testing it and trying it and seeing what we need has really been a great sounding board um and is pretty intrigued at what we're putting together so anything we do including the documentation cost of the items and things like that he takes a copy of because I believe he's going to try to replicate that in another environment which would be kind of cool that gives us a lot of um gives us a lot of confidence that what we're doing is is good and Progressive and should last long long time so art I thank you and also Shane Brown from G who's been great from the production side so Art's great from the technology side but actually creating you know a good way to capture Dynamic content change has been excellent at and providing us a lot of uh feedback and ideas on how to do this one so thank you to both of them all right it's on it should be on [Music] is is it's kind of an effect now so we we're we're definitely late uh in the game we are behind schedule on this and partly because as we've worked the technology and tried it out and found what hasn't worked it's taken us some time replace it the neat boards which were probably the most important part of the initial proposal were on a 4mon back order so we finally got those in we literally got them in within the last two weeks we're sitting in the closet so that Burman and I can put them together on the cards and I can hul over to Templeton so they can use that um so we're trying it out we're in process now of creating the proposal and the contract for our technology instructor and uh once that's on board we'll be offering it I was hoping January one um but now most likely f one and we're really working hard to get to that that B I think I've asked this before um how many Chromebooks did we get we we ordered and received 20 Chromebooks 10 of those Chromebooks will be part of a technology lending library for the garden senior center and 10 of those Chromebooks will be available through the Templeton lending library for seniors only um and and Chromebooks are really good to access the internet and internet Based Services they're not really good for things like word processing or spreadsheets you can do them but they're not the best tool for that but what we're trying to do is give people the tool to access the internet like be able to get on to zoom meetings maybe engage with the grandchildren or nephews and nieces or kids um been struggling a little bit or using the the technology at a very superficial level we're hoping to increase increase that usage a little bit and also to provide people who have not had access to technology the opportunity to use that technology so it'll be a kind of for beginners experience how are the decisions made between you and temp how does that work out we jointly created a grand application we jointly created the Grant application right y so for purchasing and so forth temples and said well we don't we don't want Chromebook so we only need one meat board whatever how come to again that that was part of the proposal so we sat down with Templeton we ironed out what we thought our needs were and you know made agreement so on the on the technology side with the exception of the production card because that production card is entirely guards paid for Gardener Senior Center money um the equipment is split evenly if they decide they don't want 10 Chromebooks they receive the 10 Chromebooks as part of a grant then they have to look at how they um get rid of that Surplus property and whether or not they would be in in violation of the terms of the grant that we don't know that they know that thank you I got a question these programs that we're going to be seeing through the zoom okay I know I'm going to be participating in that part um are they going to be kept um like a video like in a library or something or like say the yoga class comes on at 8:30 and I don't know 10 can I go back in and see what they did that day or no my my feeling is yes my feeling is that the the audio is being captured by part of the zoom meting that was part of our initial whether we'll be able to create a video on demand service so that people can go back and look at the you know today's yoga class that's an entirely different Beast to try to T it's really hard um just to give you an example I know how hard G's been working on video engent and that's their business um so they were able to just after several several years of talking about and trying to develop a VOD program it just rolled out if I don't know if we could do that where would we host it what would the server look like I'm not certain B Keef is going to love for me putting a lot of audio video content on the server because it takes up a lot of space but I think over time that's something that we're going to be thinking about doing and it certainly has been part of the discussions for our tech people okay if there's no further questions that ends the uh report on the financial report you have a motion on the report a motion we accept any discussion any discussion formal discussion okay all in favor any oppos the box then okay so voted all right thank you thank you secr Tre okay next thing on our list is going to be the um old business that they updates new business business okay new business director's report um all right so I'll try to to go along on this is easily understandable as possible the FY 2026 budget process is underway the draft budgets we received from the the mayor um we're creating our narrative now which talks about why we need certain expenses from the city um paid under the general fund some of the things you should be know you should know or be aware of I am proposing increases in the director's salary I'm proposing I don't know how likely it is that the mayor of city council will approve that but might as well put in the budget process and start the discussions going uh there'll be increases to salaries of Staff across the board of 3% we're proposing an increase in the clothing allowance um right now for City department heads or Personnel that worked out outside there's a clothing allows provided with the exception of the senior center dep Works outside or does any kind of increment weather work they get a stien for that so I've asked the mayor to consider that this year and allow me to replace the two coats that I ripped moving stuff around and um which I'm happy to do but maybe getting something a little bit more uh appropriate for the work that that I do I am asking for an increase in overtime right now if you look at again at the financials we spent about 80% of our um overtime budget halfway through the year overtime we are experiencing so far this year for this half of the year is for our nighttime programs which we've added several if you aren't aware um and that takes coverage I cover many of the programs that are off hours but I can't cover them all um nor am I willing to be here every single night of the week so um the staff kind of shared that where possible we do some Flex hour um negotiations and allow them to take some time off and L off the work that they did at night or change their schedule so that's worked pretty good but we still need some some additional money and if we get any kind of a normal winter Gardener our overtime will be um absolutely depleted we have a required increase in the mail site manager for the contract memorandum of understanding we have with the folks that provide the food here our annual cost is about $133,000 um but the way that works in this budget it was split half from last year half from this year so we'll see in the 2026 budget the entirety of that $113,000 contract last year we're still working half of the year on on last year's numbers and then half of the Year this year's numbers and we're proposing an increase in our Pro tech line item which is really just our internet and cable access because the costs have gone up um our costs are about $3,300 a year real time our budget is 3,000 so we ask for the increase in that uh those are the really the only highlights right anything else we took a a 5% 3% reduction in some of the other line items last year we're just asking those to stay um stable and Status Quo so no changes in those there really isn't a lot of of um volatility in that City budget so I think we're going to be in good shape we'll see what those six uh changes look like during the process for those of you who don't know we'll go before the welfare committee with proposed budget the mayor will be viewed first he'll submit that to the council be referred to that committee our committee that has oversight on the Council on Aging welfare committee we'll go before the welfare committee and talk about our budget and um what was approved by the man what wasn't approved by man generally the chairman of the board uh joins me in that ask as the treasurer U for that meeting it's not required but it's nice to have voices of the board there as well and I it really I think speaks well for the activity and involvement of the Council on Aging I appreciate that um then once the welfare committee reviews it they'll make recommendation to the council for full review and need to gets voted up or down uh last year after the end of the process with welfare committee our budget was accepted and approved by the counc as it was presented with cuts so um just so let you know how that looked from a program perspective uh just had a whirlwind of activities from October to December it's nice to take a little bit of a break for about two weeks and then we're back um in the throws of chaos and confusion our christmasing along was absolutely remarkably well attended it was a great time we had about 75 people there the day of the event our one of our um performers our musical accompanyment called with Co and so um we thought oh man that's going to sink us made two calls and we had six additional musicians here so really um the people in this in this community in the senior center community are so unbelievably um responsive and kind and generous with their time our Christmas meals was once again uh at a record L we did about 380 meals total uh close to 400 actually because we had so much food left we made additional care packages for police and fire um EMS it was just a ton of food and we still have some that we froze which was great just to give you an idea we of the volume we cooked uh 30 25 lb turke 700 to 800 lb of meat uh that in order to transport it we put it in two huge coolers one white me one dark me um and it made distribution really easy and it kept it warm right because we are required to keep temperature on food was we had a ton of volunteers and I want to thank you know right from the get-go the Lions Club has been um a great supporter the rot Club a great supporter da early great supporter act fast and solutions great supporter they've all provided us not only money and funds but the real the real hero in this and they won't accept um that title are the Elks Club who every year um have made the Thanksgiving dinner for us right ride food they get a c of volunteers at the Elks to cook all that food and then our senior center volunteers come in and serve it um in both in eating and driveth through fashion they are really pretty remarkable and a few years ago when the Cris Co hit and we started changing our vendors and we ended up using three different vendors and trying to contain Cass I went to them would you consider doing the turkeys for us for Christmas I'll take care of everything else and without exception without um any kind of hesitation they said absolutely would do it and that takes time so for those folks that come in and cook for both those meals I'm so eternally grateful um they do it happily and uh with with great patience and understanding of the volunteers that come to work and I appreciate that but the other volunteers well first of all the businesses that help support the meal Williams Gardener ale housee Haywood Whitefield Commons 99 Restaurant Alliance Health in Baldwinville uh mock nutrition the Garder CAC all helped provide pieces of the full meal and the nice thing about that is we can go to different organization say all right we don't ask we don't need a heavy list but can you do a little list for us would you mind making a squash um or they and they do Ian they it for 350 people so uh six trays of food from every one of them come in garden that morning put together fabulous fresh salads for us with all the acents just a really nice day so between the sponsors the volunteers and um the folks that cook the meals and then lastly the people that partake it they're very grateful they come in and they're obviously the hearts are full of joy and appreciation and it's kind of really a neat thing if you haven't been able to volunteer in either one of those think about it next year um Thanksgiving is an all day event Christmas we do we used to do Christmas Eve we do now the day before Christmas Eve and it's a little bit more fun and F us so um unless it's Freez and cold like it was this year it was cold but we got a better group of people it's not the day before people at home so they can C two days earlier fire yep we get a a great group of volunteers and by the way Thanksgiving was cold and rainy so the volunteers that had to really work outside we said 310 3 uh 20 by 10 for 10 most people stayed under cover for those who weren't with joined by the end of the day and I'm so appreciative of them people like Jeremy and Ashton and Josh Cormier and um you know our staff that were there all day Thanksgiving and that's the other thing I hope you remember is our staff works all Thanksgiving day we get there at 6:30 in the morning we don't leave till 3:30 in the afternoon and so some folks question why we close the day after Thanksgiving and I mean the day after principles in the day after that which were two half days that was in partial payment for them working the Thanksgiving holiday oh and the day after which we also have up on Friday we go back to the Els and mop the floors and wash the the uh stoves and ovens and stuff like that so there is a price to pay but it's it's the minous when you consider the work that we do all right some things coming up if you didn't know we started Tai Chi this month um we actually started in December but for some reason I don't remember that first Friday we had a cancel so um they only got maybe one or two sessions in we're in full force now on January for taii vacation druming starts at the end of February which is just a um lap based platform drum has four sounds pretty good an instructor found out about that and called us and asked us and met with us if he to see if he could do that because he read it in the newsletter it was a little thing that said if you have an idea for a program or an interest give us a call we' love to explore it so I'm so grateful that people are reading and more importantly acting on the news letter messaging our ukulele group starts at the beginning of February um they were part of the group that responded to our Christmas inong it's kind of cool to have four ukulele players here art classes have really we went from just having a random class once every 3 months to monthly art U programs now people seem to love it there's a lot of gnome themes in this but you know there's no place like gnome and I I think there really NE I think they're very creative um and what ends up happening these people's creation are exceptional tax Aid tax Aid starts the first week in February it's going to cause it's really going to cause us to reach out to a lot of people so that they are able to take advantage of it we expect to do between 100 and 120 tax returns at the Garden senior center if we get a significant um interest and sign up which creates a a waiting list the tax Aid people are talking about doing a tax bizaar or blast um on a Saturday so we'll open up on a Saturday to do tax a if there is that kind of interest and generally there is but because of our aggressive volunteer recruiting we're able to get three additional tax a people um and as a result of that they're able now to go back to templon and offer tax a in templon and they're able to offer in Westminster this year again last year if you remember a lot of these places are close out because they simply didn't have repairs that goes back to my initial statement the gardeners uh folks that we engage with are so absolutely generous with their time and resources being a tax Aid preparer it's not hard but it's not easy there's a lot of uh training that goes into it that begins the first weekend of October and goes straight to the end of the year so thank them all for their um commitment into doing taxing Christmas cleanup is coming up for those of you who haven't been paying attention it took us about 3 weeks to fully decorate this center it's going to take us about 3 weeks to take it down um it really won't the taking down goes a lot quicker than the putting up so we have a couple dates scheduled in January if you're interested as board members you know people might be interested offering an hour or two of their time we have an upstairs uh puta away a day and a downstairs put away a day and we literally just put Tubs on all the tables and start packing stuff efficiently and effectively so that next year we don't have to rumage through pins to see uh what's going on our every month for the next three months starting in March we have a Valentine's program a St Patrick's program I'm sorry Valentine's in February St Patrick's in March Flag Day in June the outing in July um and then we start the craziness of the end of year September again so um please be mindful um of that going on what's that February is Valentine's Day of the Christmas uh you have to look at the calendar cuz I don't know I I usually put one with me I didn't bring it the January calendar has it um I don't know if it has it in the newsletter it has it for the staff so we're going to do an email last time now we have a new Walking group starting at the Garden senior center hopefully next Friday January 17th if all goes well we're meeting with uh City officials this Friday to walk through the walking group will be hosted at the Gardner City hallice auditor inside be an hour an hour and 15 class that will be uh run by am blank our front and fitness uh instructor so um Amy has asked and we have tried to accommodate the need that some folks have identified um last but not least if you're a gardener or not even a gardener but people like to take to our Gardens need some attention uh upstairs we had two young men come in on a Saturday while we were decorating and their only job was to clean the outsides of of the uh Tower Gardens and the inside as best they can so the tubs were cleaned and the outsides were cleaned but there's still the inner core probably not a lot of time but there are six of them so if you're interested and willing to help us out doing some of that clean we very much appreciate it uh that being said I want to make sure that I say at the end of this um update how very grateful I am to you as board members not only for your participation here at the meeting but your constant advice and feedback and communication with me you help make our programs better every single day every single day and I hope that you know you have impact you have influence you're important um and relevant for our seniors and they're so appreciative of that so thank you for the work you do and to all our volunteers who make work in here you know we hit amazing crushing numbers last year in volunteers um in volunteer hours I expect that to be the same for 2024 and 2025 again I just told you the Cadre people from the Lions Club and the Elks club and the um big Gard Senior Center who came to help us out just for the Christmas meals probably had 50 people at both events um and Thanksgiving was an all day Affair so there's a lot of time effort and energy that goes into these SM volunteers and then last but not least my staff who've really been responsive and adaptive to the chaos I love to throw on them um we are constantly changing directions and changing course and adding and amending and trying to fit things in and they do so with Grace and with patience and with understanding and with the the Deep um commitment to our philosophy and Mission to help seniors uh with events and services and programs in my remember connection and purpose folks connection and purpose we want to connect seniors to programs not certainly for the purpose of raising our numbers but to reduce isolation and loneliness in our community and you help us do that so thank thank you almost okay thank you Michael for that uh next thing on our list is the open discussion okay I just I just want to say if you or if you know someone who wants to have their taxes done please get on the phone and make an appointment they are filling up fast in the first day we filled up all the appointments for the first meeting February 4th and it goes on Beyond there and so appointments are on Tuesday only and it starts at 9 to 1 so if you know want to or know someone please get on the phone and get an appointment yeah they'll go quick we will definitely we'll definitely again today every day since we we announced we're getting a lot of um interest so they Point me go quick and we will absolutely fill all available appointments and every waiting list as we did last year that hasn't changed um coming yesterday we had to sign in there was an added feature to put in as a volunteer uh why um for statistical well you know so actually we we marked the attendance by the board here we're not the volunteer and technically you were all volunteers of the garden senior center it allows us to capture in a better way um gives a little bit more Integrity in the numbers that we're providing and provide more accurate numbers on people who are volunteering at the center and there are a lot of folks that we didn't create the volunteer option for and weren't capturing those numbers so I told you about the junus volunteer hours we did last year those were documented volunteer hours you were probably twice as many undocumented volunteer so if we can capture those better things like the Elks there's no way to capture that volunteer time but they're Volunteers Of The Gardener C Center so we have to go back and recreate it talking with their you know chairman how many people they have how many hours um here we don't have to do that we have a a vehicle to capture volunteer hours in the garden C Center just by clicking a little volunteer and adding your hours and so am I wrong have to um think that this would help us as far as great money state fund like that I think all statistics help whenever you're able to make a case for need and connection um that's a good thing so we have really expanded our ability to use my senior center and more productive ways or more I don't know efficient ways capturing volunteer hours is one of them another one is actually doing logs we talk on a daily basis probably to anywhere between 5 and 10 seniors in ass assistance and that assistance could be like a housing crisis it could be a heating fuel uh crisis it could be a a mental health subance crisis every single day well prior to last year we weren't real real good about logging those or keeping that documented and it's not hard to do it takes time and we have to be focused and remember to do it but allows us to look at all right of the folks we talk to providing those kind of referrals and case management tools what were the typ typ of problems they saw like what's really been rising as the most immediate need among our seniors so it's good to do that stuff and we getting better at being more accurate and documenting and we also tell people just from the signin perspective that we take the volunteer sign Vol signing in is important we don't share sign in information with anybody we don't say when you know Mike Ellis attended event when he didn't what he attends we only say that there were five people at an event but what it does do it it allows us to plan for any kind of you know maybe catastrophic event here for example we want to know there's a fire we want to know who was here and that they got out okay or um if we need to close and that's even a better example if if somebody regularly attends a meeting and signs in and there's a a closure weather Camp session I can call them cuz I know who they are I know their phone number and we can say we Clos this Thursday because of snow or because no heat they don't sign in often times and I will tell you this is 100% absolutely the truth for people who don't sign in they don't get the notices and they show up when the place is closed and then they're upset that they came out in a snowstorm to the senior center that's closed but we would have called them if they signed in um so it's that that double life sword um for them you know not for us cuz we really do work hard to make sure people get those kind of notices thank you for saying all that because brought it up this morning with one of the groups that was in have people make sure they signed in I told them for safety purposes as well knowing what how many people are coming years when they work on the budget they're working on now how many people use facility so we get more funding we are way under reported just like my staff will s out at a screen and they'll remind people and they estimate somewhere between 30 and 40% they sign in that's a lot of people were not capturing numbers so the software it's pretty much Universal with the senior center Massachusetts a lot of senior centers use it across the country but it's not Universal it's not M but I'm saying I I've bu a a handful of the senior senors in wer County and they do all have met software so I was thinking a lot of is it a state thing that it's private yeah we buy the software we manage and maintain it um we own the subscription State we're allowed to use formula grant to pay that cost but it's not built into the formula grant so there are many so so no one understand there are a lot of councils on Aging that don't operate senior service they just have an office in city homeall so you know they might provide some case management or referral services but they don't operate Senior Center but there's some kind of modality for coas that operate a senior center for captur uh utilization person so in other words it's not like sir or Alexa right some people yeah no around here I was I think most of the area guard Area Senior Center any other questions yours Paul okay with a couple girls I Tau with one lives in Westminster one lives in Templeton and they complimented this Senior Center on how many activities we how well attended it is they both went on and on and on well thank you yeah again that's a testament to Great volunteers great staff an awesome and involved board um I hope that never changes cuz it really is an electric environment people are typically excited um I think adding new programs affords us the opportunity to put people who are involved in the community of you because of you because you I've been teaching the Holding Center my class and they charge the every activity down there now you would think the holding which is a very AB Community you know n and J their residents to attend that the director was absolutely appalled to learning that you know our activities here are for the most part PR a minor donation you know so it's I'm like you know we we're doing it we're getting the people in you say we have to reach more but I don't think that charging for my particularly my workshop is going to lure me going oh I'm to spend this money and I'm not going to get anything out of it or you know it's not for me or whatever you know I just took a class in traditional Baskets at uh L that was $71 just for one night and that's that time was a great class but they charge for every activity every uh you know you say that we have exceptional people here that rise to the occasion Paul and Ann are a great example learned to dance Lisa and I in preparation for being married took dance classes at mon Tech it cost us $360 for two of us for 6 weeks we charge $5 a night and that entire $5 and I think people who are listening need to know this too we take that entire $5 that we collect and we're pretty loose about it cuz some people just come for the first time and we talk about that um we put it into a party every four to five weeks we have a party here so it's there maybe pizza we've had you know we've had some pretty good food and just do dance night we been pretty well attended tonight I understand there are three new couples I heard about the learn to dance that are coming I'm kind of excited about that too that the word is getting out if you haven't come come to dance bring your spot make it a daytime come to if you have a significant other if you don't come and dance it's it's fun and I have two left feet and it's fun so um one any other open discussion decided on any uh outings no I'm not outings but uh like to B and that kind of thing yep yep I'm in the process now of finishing the arrangements with Allison for the veterans trips um and then for the general um Senior Center ARP trips we have a 12 month schedule now uh that's already out and put out which I'm really excited about and want to say thank you that Dyan tell for the great heavy lift she does they didn't do this before they would do a couple months ahead and you know I need time to be able to to Market it and I need time to be in the discipline of marketing it so she very graciously took on creating a year-long schedule of day trips and longterm trips and they're exciting they are unbelievably crazy we're getting a ton of calls about those as well so the veterans trips and then we're doing some of the day outings the the uh shopping trip had a lot of interest not a lot of participation but a lot of people wanted to go and it was really a timing day issue um we went to the Handover theater that was kind of a last minute decision and put that trip together it we had 12 tickets we sold 12 tickets we went to the to the uh show it was an exceptional show went to dinner at OK Conor's after just had a really good time it was a it was a lot of fun we'll do something like that again maybe Newport Playhouse in March and April we're looking at um um The Herb Farm yep yep so we'll do a couple of those but yeah we haven't announced it yet because we're not ready to and I'm certainly not going to hit Battleship Cove in the throws of February winter cuz I'm I'm I'm a cold any kind of a list of potential y yeah there I mean there's there's a always a list in the newsletter of the trips that we have going when we add the veterans trips those will all be posted as well and then the day trips that we do will go into the the trip trip we don't we can't put a lot of information in the news that about those trips so I can't put like price ing information or itinerary information or registration information because there isn't enough space but if you subscribe to our email newsletter you'll get the entire 36 page newsletter now we print 12 Pages just you know the the page that there 2,000 copies I distributed in the greater G between 2,000 of the 12 pages of full color but we distribute 1,00 newsletters by email that include all of that extra information I was telling the itinerary that and I would say probably 15 extra pages are strictly the trips oh you didn't mention how we going to have a Kentucky Derby this year in May we are having Kentucky Derby by gu I'm not horsing around I don't want to saddle any of you with the burden of doing this um but bur the burden yeah it's not really a stable GR no it isn't [Music] no but talking about the trips all that I don't know how many people know about it for the viewers if you ever want to know what's going on for trips come into the senior center we have a whole wall full across from Michael's office in the main lobby there's a whole list of all trips local and Far Away across the country around the world and that's fairly new um we didn't we didn't have that 3 years ago there was no real good place you might find a stack of Flyers somewhere but then we created a special um location for trips and it was small right outside the kitchenet not nearly big enough especially when Diane and her crew started putting that 12 month itinerary together for us we needed more space and we created that space for us so it's a really nice I think um place to to get the information on those on those bigger more robust trucks anything else to be discussed want to bring up any all right so everybody's favor we're going to Jour but before we do that I'm going to announce that our next meeting will be on February the 3rd at 2:00 in the afternoon and to totally uh confuse everybody so I would love yeah I'd love for you to consider moving that to the 10th if you'd be so kind um my wife and I have been invited to a celebration in Baltimore and we're hoping to go away that weekend so um if you okay if everybody's okay with the 10th VA Monday at 2:00 the 10 is that okay all right so we'll send out that that thank you all right can I have a uh motion to adjourn I make a motion to right thank you everyone and we'll see you back on February 10th all in favor you oppose okay [Music] so Allison shap she is the