scheduled for the may coa meeting and nancy is here welcome nancy so seeing that chris is not able to make it let's go right into the elder human
services i don't i just have one copy sorry i'll make more i got to remember to make copies um psc had a great u march um as you can see our numbers were um our numbers were up there which was really
good um so we had a really fantastic march um which was really nice um as you can see on the second page um the two weight lists for march is we had a lunch and learn with five we had st patrick's day lunch with 19 so those are
the two that i could see um with weight lists for march um uh we have many um i encourage everyone to take a look at the april pleasantries we have a lot of great events in april going on so take a look at the
pleasantries um a lot of coming up a couple things um this this wednesday april 16th we have ted rinstein from the boston chronicle coming back for a presentation at the
psc starting at 6 pm this wednesday um i want to say thank you for to anna for getting that this program set up and having mr einstein return for a second presentation so that's pretty exciting um we have a great uh we had a great
intergenerational irish step dancing event back on march 13th at koolage middle school um over 80 people attended between ehs and recreation so very well attended good performance everyone uh seemed really happy um and uh i want to
say thank you to recreation for their help and um you know it's always nice to run some intergenerational events so thank you to wreck and anna was there i was there um jenna was there um so it was a good event um what was the event
again sorry it was the irish step dancing dance um intergenerational so that went really well um you know as you can see numbers again um we're well over 3,000 duplicated
interactions per month we had 30 uh 3,40011 duplicated in march so uh great month um couple things coming up we had um actually i'm just jumping around here um psc uh annual health fair will be
held on tuesday may 20th from 10:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m um olivia's been doing really well getting this organized um and we have well over 20 vendors there if you have time it's always a good event i always encourage folks to stop
by even if it's for 10 minutes um it's nice we have vendors upstairs downstairs a good chance to talk to a lot of folks um get information and whatnot so even if it's for five minutes you know i encourage people to stop by um so that's
tuesday may 20th um st patrick's day lunch in march um sold out in less than three hours wow so our big events sell out quickly so it was a nice event um property tax workoff
program we have officially exactly 10 applications um so we are moving forward um you know we have 10 spots and we have 10 applications so which is really exciting we had a lot more applications out we just haven't
um you know we got 10 back some people took applications they didn't really want to share their tax return information so you know that kind of but this is this is good we're really excited to go from we had one last year we're going to 10 this year um you know
we're going to see how it goes and you know see what we can do better each year so we're excited for that so thank to janet for their work on that are they all um working at the pleasant street center oh all over yep so uh months ago
last year actually janet reached out to all the departments in the town um um we have some placements at some uh schools so um we have a couple schools kellum's one of them i think maybe barrows um interested in some volunteers dpw is
interested in some volunteers so more um specifically the um compost on monday mornings they're looking for some people to sit down there and kind of check stickers and whatnot so um there will be one at the um psc um um there'll be
lauria town clerk will have a couple so kind of scattered around that's great really good the application date end it ended um but at that you know we we have a lot of good you know there's a lot of
time um they won't start until july 1st so it kind of was convenient um you know we had the date but then we were a little flexible on it just so we can make sure people could get applications in do we want i know chris has a select
board meeting yes you want to do chris and then i'll resume fashionably [Laughter] early 39 yeah see it worked out um yeah
at the last thanks karen um at the last select board meeting we put on the town warrant the new kilum school/recal thing to be voted on from the town um i know karen you had some questions
regarding if town meeting says no is it still going to the vote it is still going to the vote regardless of what happens for either one so town meeting says no to both still going to the vote they say yes to vote they still go in the vote so that is the question was why
is it going to town meeting so the scenario that transpired at least with the kllum portion is um and we checked with c town council to do it this way is that in order for kllum to keep progressing forward
um we wanted to put it to the vote and have it scheduled and then therefore we gave the um the architect etc funding to carry him up until the vote
that would happen and then continue so we're not going to lose so essentially the long and short of it is we saved close to $400,000 doing it this way it might not be in the spirit of town meeting however anyone wants to play this out but for me $400,000 trumps
whatever if we were dealing with 20 $30,000 some negligible amount of money then you know i understand the the feeling that someone might think that their vote isn't important but tom
me can still change stuff i knew maybe on the kill thing not so much senior center possibly but they still have an impact on what goes to the voters because there's no finite number on either project so um until approved by
town meeting correct yeah okay but the long and short we save 400 grand because of it and i will do that any day of the week so any other questions on this scenario or i had heard that if there is a no but
the voters say yeah if town meeting says no but the voters say yes that then actually goes back to town meeting they get a second correct to reconsider again what they've learned about yeah so i'm not going to have a vote in that scenario i understand but yes i i i know
192 people are elected to represent the precincts etc but on something like this like how i mentioned previously that i put it up to the town might vote regardless of my own personal beliefs i still put it to the town because it was the right thing to do in my opinion i'm
not going to block 3 years worth of work from either group with what they did this is a townwide decision it's not 192 some people might say it is in my opinion this uh kind of transcends that so yes if if the voters end up saying 9010 for both
projects we uh approve them and town meeting said no then they got town meeting got it wrong and usually everything irons itself out like that like i said the the town votes accordingly whatever is going to happen is going to happen it's my belief um
it's just put out there now for the town to make the decision so thanks we'll see okay you know lots of good buzz at least people are getting stuff out there um and that's all you can ask you're just gonna
give the information to the people and make their informed vote of whatever they want right and that's it that's all you can do you can't control who does what and whatever you know believe me i've tried doesn't work you know the only thing that works is 20,000 people
voting that's it so that's my update on that anything else you feel we need to know no so the the forum is happening what in two days on zoom only i think 16th okay
16th yep um so definitely there's going to be a lot of participation i think in that because that's like really the last chance for the public to weigh in on anything um and then may 13th 14th 13th all right 13th because today's the 14th
uh may 13th is is the vote for the town so that's that we won't have another select board meeting beyond tonight until the night of the vote which is kind of weird but you know well with town meeting and and april vacation next
week i don't typically schedule april vacation so and there's a reorg tonight yes yep yes sir 7 o'clock 7:05 thank you oh because of the election
right you do that okay first meeting after the election y and it's a special meeting tonight because um melissa and carlo were going to be away for the next meeting not even make it at all so it's as far as i know okay okie dokie
see you next door sounds good see you thanks chris yep thank you chris all right yeah discussion of course all right um all right um st patrick's day had a
filled up quickly property tax we had a great tax season with um arp that just wrapped up last wednesday was the last tax tax appointments um they did a fantastic job john sullivan who kind of supervises it again did a great job
volunteers were great um you know so thank you to all the volunteer um tax volunteers and john sullivan for that um and thank you to linda at the front desk for scheduling all the appointments on on that so um great tax season um we
continue to push online registration for programming through my active center um how's that working out it's going pretty going well a lot of people are using it which is really nice um it's starting to cut down on the number of phone calls um
and um you know people still have some questions here and there um but it's been a a pretty good pretty good roll out and we keep uh we'll continue to push it so we're excited about that did everybody sign up with it why did i did
you need your id your pass yeah you have to have your little swipe card if you're not in the system you got to sign up first and then you can sign up with my active center so we're closed next monday for uh patriots day um so pc
know we will be closed the last thing on the report here is now the 23rd i think everyone in the coa is our um volunteer appreciation breakfast um so thank you
for uh janet for getting that organized and the staff for helping out um so if you haven't seen janet made nice little invitations for the volunteers so should be a um nice little event wedding
invitation yeah um it'll be a buffet breakfast should be a nice um nice little morning so if you have a chance oh we uh love for you to come on down um you know but
thank you to you know all our volunteers we've uh you know it's been amazing what jan's been able to do over the past year and a halfish um you know we're we're you know it's really our volunteer program has
just blossomed and um you know we have you know with just this past month we had 57 uh did i read that right 57 i think and we had a lot of volunteers they came in 57 i have to see how many volunteers actually total um how many invitations
went out i was afraid you're going to ask me that i think about 70 going to guess about quite a few um i mean there's a lot of volunteers with the banks that kind of help out on some of our bigger events like lunch and learn and so forth um northshore bank
and um some of the other banks so there's i mean there's a lot of volunteers which is really nice so kudos to janet for getting that going so i'm really excited here that it that there's 10 applications for the property tax yes
and that they're used across the so maybe to see that kind of interest that they can expand it in the future and that's what we're hoping um you know it's nice that this year we got 10 we have 10 pin positions you know 10
applicants and we raised the the hourly rate so you know allocate who gets what positions um we'll do kind of some interviews so we'll kind of take uh take a look at what positions we have who who's applied and we'll try to match up the best we can so
um you know we'll kind of take a look at what their you know what their previous experience yeah what their experience is what they can do and try to match up so try to get a good fit but i know all the directors in town of all the departments they've been really excited even the
school department has been excited it's a good opportunity um you know you know if we can send especially like over to the schools or something you know if we can you know get some volunteers over you know it helps so which is great any
other questions on the report great so that's the report um budget we haven't um the trust funds we haven't touched trust funds i do need next month i will be putting on i need
to take out the uh patron uh patrons uh one of them whichever one is yours i think it's the patrons yeah they all start to blend together uh the patrons fund so next next month i'll request because we have to draw from that annually so i'll ask for probably
to cover like birthday lunch or something um just make sure we comply with what's written for that on the agenda so we can vote yep yeah so we will get that on can we take money from any of those funds and have some
newspaper subscriptions for the center yeah we'll get that done so we'll get that completed there for you rosemary so um but yeah trust funds are good arpa um i didn't get the numbers in i will have the numbers um remaining numbers for you
um jen and i just reviewed them over the just this past month we were kind of reviewing it a little bit um we're doing really well um most of our exercise programs and stuff um they have about another give or take 10 months um nine
months of funding um you know but you know uh it it all also depends upon like you know um if a class gets cancelled so we're trying to extend the funds as um you know we can extend them into next year
they have to be used up by next year um but you know we have about roughly 10 monthsish give or take um especially for to pay like the exercise instructors and stuff like that so we're trying to extend that we will have the town
meeting we go to vote for the revolving fund um for ehs revolving fund which also means it'll make it easier for us to start um once that goes through i you know nothing's 100% sure and until i
know it's 100% sure is when i start to then finally kind of you know okay let's take a look at things so um once that goes through and if it gets approved which you should um then we'll kind of i know jen and i will start talking about okay what in in the staff um you know
charging you know we're going to have to start charging again for some things when do you see that happening next year probably this year at some point but it won't be for everything that is going to happen do a gradual it's going to be a gradual it's not
going to be just a you know everything we're not going to go from zero to 100 no you know um we're going to gradually start getting money in the nice thing with our revolving fund is we don't have to put it back into the general fund um at the end of every fiscal year like
recreation so you know ours can carry over and we can keep using it so right probably the second half of this year we'll start um charging um you know we just got to we want to make sure we do it right you know um and there's a
couple there's different ways you can do it so we're just trying to make sure i'm going to you know which model would work best for us rosemary sorry rosemary you have your hand up oh okay once the funding is depleted for the different
instructors at the center will we go back to pay per class as you come in as we've done in the past well that's what we were just discussing um we're looking at different ways of doing it so that could be one of them where you pay for
class um you know so we're trying to figure out those details right now but we have some time um it's not like we have to you know we're not going to start doing it next month but like i said the second half of the year um you know maybe we look at maybe just a
yearly fee um or a monthly like a monthly um you know excuse me if you do if people pay for the month and then they go on vacation do they get rebated well that's these are things we have to figure out rosemary like i'm saying is
you know we don't have the details yet we're still looking at different models um please don't do the model that lynfield senior center has y if you don't pay on the first day or the first class you are banned for a whole month yeah we're not going to do that also
when you huh we're not we're not going to do that rosemary also when you pay ahead like that we're not getting yeah um yeah john um writing residents always get priority um with events so um you
know readying residents first and then if we have space we'll um allow folks from other towns to to come in i did have a question about that from a neighbor um because i guess stonem didn't get funding for the
concern so that's so what i'm asking everyone is stonem doesn't know what they're doing yet so i you know every day i hear about 10 people saying "oh they're closing the you know they're closing the library and
recreation and the senior center." um you know that is you know i've talked to the director at the senior center in stonem you know they're having some physical challenges um money challenges physical not physical but physical we
knew what you yes challenges um you know um they don't know what that quite looks like um you know they're probably going to you know i don't know um i i have a hard time believing they would i you
know close but i don't know the information i don't okay um yeah so i'm just what i'm cautioning everybody is just to be patient with like stonem as they u move forward um and i heard if it does happen it wouldn't be till july 1
anyways well that's the thing is their budget like ours goes until july 1 so that gives them a lot of time to you know figure that out um you know they you know they still have state you know um they'll still apply for the state
money that most senior centers get every year and they still have a you know the only thing i do know is the director there cut back their budget in the chronicle last week there was an article about stonehill possibly having another vote for the monies that they need are
we heading off topic yeah yeah we are a little bit so um but the concern was if stonem residents uh you know again what chris has always said is reading residents first but yes okay and anything else chris uh that's all on my
end all right one thing on just other models i'm not recommending it i just noticed it and it was eye opening with sandwich seems to charge quite a bit for like i call it skilled exercise classes like someone who's been trained to teach yoga those classes are not cheap there
but they have lots of other sort of your old sort of i don't know more typical long-term senior center stuff that's still free so it seems like they've targeted some things and not others i'm not recommending it i'm just saying it's a model that oh you know we're even
looking at you know the nice thing is if you do an exercise class a lot of participants get reimbured from their health insurance just like a gym membership we add this as an agenda item are you looking for coa input not yet but probably at some point yes okay all
right thank you okay and nora friends of reading senior 60 plus update all your work um you're welcome um today we had our first annual meeting um so we went through and we reelected board officers and we
nominated two more um we have a activity coming up may 31st it's called treasures in your attic fundraising where you can actually um bring items like i think it's three items per person to get assessed or you can just go and
be observer and learn there'll be a little lecture um and there'll be a small admission fee for that where is where are you holding the oh st agnes church um hall great so that's may 31st and uh we're going to be in the the
pleasantry next yes and we'll have flyers and we'll make sure you're aware um we're going to be at the health fair at the pleasant street center in may 20th and uh that that was about it
really just talking most of it was just discussing how to um arrange this fundraiser m that sounds exciting it's really that's a different yeah different and somebody has a neighbor actually from reading who's very well-versed in this kind of
thing excellent thank you and then the recal updates nancy um well we have the final forum uh wednesday the 16th at zoom and it's
basically um the same information that was presented on april the previous one and uh um so that's happening the recal website is
constantly being updated so people should go out and take a look at it on a regular basis they add more faqs they um have more uh recordings
uh published out there so it really is a a good source of information the town really did has done a great job on that um and [Music] um
recal that uh what let's see what else i i noticed that kllum did a that they did a permanent building committee did a video for kllum did they i that was i was
curious about that that someone today at the meeting played that and i was like where did that come from saw it an hour ago or two yeah um so pat tommpkins did it uh um i was going to follow up on
that and i it was a surprise to me to to see it um but well it seems like for one you do it for both yeah yeah it seems so and
that you would release them both at the same time yeah yeah so that's a phone worth asking to see you know we still have time to get that do that i wonder if jane was even aware of it oh does jenna know about this yeah oh jenna yes
yeah that's a good point jenna sorry can you ask the question one more time i was multitasking i was on my email you're allowed so we noticed that the permanent building committee um what's his name pat patins pat tom pkins
released or there was a video that was i i saw it on facebook i didn't watch it um and we were wondering about where that came from why wasn't one done for recal and then they could both be released at the same time do you know
anything about that is that the around reading video that came out with pat tomkins about kellum is that the one you're referring to around i don't i don't know was standing in front of the killllum building talking yep so that
was around reading with shawn and actually i was down with jane at simon's way last thursday and jane did the same exact interview with shawn for recal so her video coming out probably sometime this week he was editing it over the
weekend oh good thank you yeah no problem we did have a question about that so but it just seems like it would have been good to release both of them at the same time yeah i agree does it appear that there's favoritism i mean it should be like this
is yeah that they both should have been released at the same time so whoever made that decision can you relay that information to them yeah sure thanks thank you nancy yeah
um you know it's uh um uh it you know it's progressing along very well where uh the permanent building committee is uh the or the project is going into
design development and that's where things that are were either suggested or um needed to be looked at will be examined further um one of the
things that was on our list is we wanted to see one of the large rooms with a curtain a divider so that um chris would have an opportunity if he has a smaller group to have a space for two smaller
groups as opposed to sitting in a 1,000 square foot big room in just 10 people so you know things like that are going to happen um as we move forward and and i do have to say that the the uh tt&h
and bhna have been excellent and the town has been very uh [Music] um willing to listen to ideas and uh try to figure out where um either
corrections or improvements can be made so overall i think it was a pretty good process or it has been to date and it'll be really important once it's if once it's approved if it is to get the input yes continue the input yes and that's
when the final designs go into place thank you i want really quickly i just want to say um thank you for everyone and their effort with this it has been a long process and you know it is a tiring process it's
a lot of meetings um more than normal but i i don't think people get thanked enough i know jenna you know she's been working endlessly on you know everything with pbc and organizing things organized i
know marilyn and nancy um and jean it really is everyone um but i want to say thank you to everyone in their effort as we as we get closer to vote um you know some days you just kind
of you know you have really good days and you have other days that you just want to run outside and scream right you know going through this it's been an amazing process um and it's an very exciting process and i want to you know
at least for me as the ehs administrator i want to say thank you for everyone's effort um effort and support as we you know look at um hopefully a future building for older adults um and and the
public as well but thank you thank you thank you passes we need one big party in the gym agenda thank you all okay the next item on the agenda is volunteer appointment term
expiration discussion and i did have it open um the members so why do i do that so joan koko's expires this year we have ro um let's
see sally hoy mine expires and deborah small and we also have some vacancies and i know john you have reached out yes um we have a vacancy an associate vacancy and a
council on aging member vacancy and so john you've reached out but so then i guess it really those who are at the meeting it only applies to me so i won't even bother saying anything more you'll get a letter from me first yeah okay yep i was going
to announce it but nobody's here nobody here it doesn't matter so but i don't need to read information for myself okay and then town and family day in june um i think nancy did you bring
it to my attention i i did because i'm a contact yes name on there um and to tell you the truth i don't have a lot of information um the uh reading um friends
was also talking about about this today um the 14th june 143 so i wanted to discuss it to see if this is something that we want to do because it does take volunteers mhm so i wanted
to bring it out um you know well in advance actually two month it's two months from today um june 14th so is this something that we want to do are we what do what's the thinking what are we going to have to have uh to
for people to be attracted to the booth i know i know we end up with chairs and water and then last year we handed out those um pot holders um so that's something to discuss what's hand what will be handed out what will make people
stop at our booth well first of all discuss do we are we willing to volunteer to be there then we can discuss what we want to if we are willing to be there then we can discuss what we want to give out to make it
attractive to attend makes sense so what do we say well you first you have to find out is anyone willing exactly to volunteer before we can even decide because i felt last year and the year before it was just a few of the same
people from council on aging board that are there manning it and some of them are there all day setting up and i know i can't i can't be there all day i show up but the other thing too yeah i come people pop in but the other thing too is
what is our point in doing this and and how effective is it and are we willing to man the booth no i didn't want to interrupt it used to be when jane was doing it that she did not participate in it or encourage we
didn't go the net thing but it came down from jane with you know if we wanted to we could but her feeling was that that was more of a young family kind of an activity and didn't attract very many seniors some and grandparents yeah and
those young families have older family members so there was some indirect in contrast to the town fair that's in the fall in september when lots of older people did come down um so she used to opt out and no one argued with her over
it so and it's kind of been my experience but we're we're really out there dragging them in come remember you were we were really dry dra trying to drag them into for discussion now the only thing i could
change this a little bit is let's say the vote on may 13th and we get approved it could be a great time to you know discuss you know then we can you're not just looking
at it opens up that population for us a little bit so you know keep that in consideration council on aging booth where i think then that if it does pass and hopefully it will it
needs to be a community booth council on aging and wreck and elder services right services hasn't been on these things in a couple years i don't think either it's hard to staff going back and that's the same thing with here it's all the same people staffing john
you have a question yes i wonder is there any possibility if we do want to do this at all to partner with veterans there that question is really going to jenna more than anybody who partner with are you doing well i
feel like well we were wondering if you guys were doing the only other thing i think would be great because it could be an attraction where the friends of reading they can promote something for funds like do a raffle
basket and that draws people in council and aging cannot do that so if we worked together at the same booth attracting more right is that going to be something that you need to have your own booth on
because we can't be a part of a fundraiser does jenna have any comments on that jenna what are you thinking about with the partnering with veterans or with yeah i think that's a great idea will always goes to friends and family day
and to the fall street fair um i was at the fall street fair for probably like an hour or so um and yeah i agree that the older adults kind of populate that more but i think if it does pass it's a great opportunity like chris said and um
i can check my schedule out and i'm happy to be there and i'm sure i could get a staff member or two to to go down there too i think it'd be beneficial to have some staff along with some um board members so i think those are all great suggestions and and i could go down to
i'm happy to go down i don't know what that day looks like for me yet but i'm happy to go down um i think it might be wise if you guys do decide you know especially if like will's there and some other folks you know we really only need
like one coa member for per hour or so so we don't you know you could space it out a little bit so we're thinking an elder and human services booth and then so the veterans would be there elder affairs and the coa community service
community is there a community services booth in the has there been one in the past no usually there's individual booths for a council on aging uh recreation used to set up a booth down there um back in the
day now we just sponsor something and put our name on it um so basically i i think having the community services booth is actually a great idea it's something we've never done but i
think it's great and it'll cover all of us and we could get two tables and two tents so that way we can kind of spread out too and have enough chairs and places for and if we could um also include the friends so the friends are
are next to us at least so that we're kind of all together i was just thinking that the rec recreation might might be the key i i wonder if
um one year i was cleaning out my um toy chest and one year i had boxes of little cars and little trucks and all these kids yeah you got a lot of kids came in remember that and um you know and it was
mostly young parents but uh um that would be something that you know recreation uh they could have something drawing yeah maybe recreation could have something drawing people in but it is a
younger crowd um there's not many people looking for the types of services that are offered by elder and human services
um but people are more than happy to learn about it so maybe we can reconsider after the vote and see and potentially be part of a community services booth i think that good idea that'd be a great
way to do it see how the vote goes and then discuss isn't there a deadline of when you have to set up though sign up oh yeah yeah there is but i jenna can you help us with that yeah i'll reach out to
um i think lorraine barry is no longer the president of the lions club does anyone know who the president is oh i can ask sharon thomas tomorrow all right cool yeah just let me know who i should reach out to and i can shoot them an email and just say "hey um you know
we're going to sign up for a booth for friends and family day." great i think we can assume that staff or someone will be there even if it just will shows up too um we can secure the booth and just see who can go
sounds good thank you great okay we're ahead of schedule so the the next item on the agenda is new ideas brainstorming discussion oh good
i'm ready ready um a suggestion for our all of our future town elections having voted this this week was it this no last week uh it school is in
session it was very difficult finding a parking space so thinking of our town residents that are on the elderly side i think that's a deterrent that
they don't want to vote because driving i mean it was bad trying to find to the performing arts right yes so is there any way that our senior center can schedule
periodic times of the minivan leaving pleasant street site transporting up waiting for so long and taking them back like an ongoing shuttle yeah words every hour and a half every
two hours on say till 3:00 or something of that nature because i i think it's important espec well for this election definitely but going forward we might get more resident
participation in the election vote or encourage them to do more mail-in voting oh yeah we we did mail in voting because david could never walk from a parking spot that's far so i i think it's something that oh i'm sorry rosemary go
ahead i forgot go ahead okay but i i think after being there and seeing i mean it was when i tell you to wait for a parking space and i don't think school hours yes and people get discouraged and
say forget it i'll come back and then they don't come back and even after school because the after school activities it's i but you're not limited to that one day to vote you can vote early here there's lots of options with that no no but i think it's
a service the way we have a service for mailin votes i think we should have a service for those that want to go to the polls now we do offer rides um we do offer rides we've never done a shuttle well so i know often right but maybe in
advance let them know promote it that this is what we're doing and then the other thing that i don't can i just tag on to that um talking about mail-in voting and registering um the board of registars actually
that's one of the things they're supposed to do is outreach and i wonder if they can do some kind of thing at the pleasant street center to get people to be aware um to be aware of the times and
how to go about doing it and how do you register and all the options available and my other thing is also being talking about elections and making people aware how do we go about
when we have people don't even know there's going to be another election coming up in may who is responsible to get in way in advance notice up on the board and comment on the town please send the light
i can comment on that i actually asked that last week in our communications meeting and went in and talked to laura jem and she said that the earliest that it can go up on the town hall um board outside would be two weeks before the election but we can start telling folks
in a flyer that there's a special election on may 13th now jenner is that something is it doable like if we did a flyer and had them on a table at the senior center to remind or let them be aware yep katie and josh are making a
flyer um i think probably today or tomorrow they've been kind of busy with the trash today but um they'll be making a flyer about the special election so we'll put that out at the center so all the communication's consistent because we have to be careful in what it
actually says okay thank you now what about an insert i mean the newsletters have already been compiled have they yeah there was some discussion about that today um we could potentially do an insert i
so i tried very cautious about it um about what's said and what's put in about the wording yeah the wording on the calendar did you put a at least that there's a special town election on may 13th on the calendar yeah as long as
town hall's okay with it um i got to figure it out um because you know like i said i i tread very i like my job any generally yeah that's okay as long as it's a
special election may 13th it it's it's fine yeah so we can do something we just have to word it correctly we'll take we'll figure it out i do try to announce please go vote when there's an election
so at groups at the center it's a lot of times i say you know just remember please go vote or go vote on whatever day but but i think right now if we could get a special election flyer like jenna said placed in some location at
the senior center and inserted in the newsletter i think that would be awesome and see if we could generate where it's only what three a month away approximately get a signup sheet or announce it that there will be
transportation provided from the senior center to the fieldhouse and back these certain time frames to help you with parking and is that possible that's a great idea parking was so impossible almost terrible see i
voted here ahead of time it's terrible so let jen and i will discuss it jen and i will discuss it and we'll figure something out um i think i like i said i i proceed with caution with this because i've already been blamed before about
you know voting and you know so i'm so jen and i will discuss it we'll figure something out okay i think it might also the shuttle concept i think it's a great idea yes the shuttle concept it's a social thing too you know
you might be thinking "yeah they don't need my vote." but you know your next door neighbor says "hey let's go." hand in hand you might be more like you might be getting someone that wouldn't go vote you might get that as well having a buddy increases well it's not
and regardless of what the voting topics are it's someone helping someone yes do there it's really an excellent idea and it seems like a service that we're providing and this is what yeah
and sorry recreation actually took the um elderly um or the older adult pole workers um we took the wreck van up early morning and late at night and we from the performing
arts down to the um fieldhouse and back laura reached out to us to do that with the rec band yeah that was appreciated because a lot of the volunteers are elderly right they're in the same position so so we're pretty much saying several trips during
the day yeah yes maybe that's also an option like we'll say oh like we'll have someone in the wreck van um at the top for anyone um who's having trouble parking and can't walk down will have that access to
the van down to the center so we can check with laura and um jane to see who if what's allowed um but it seems to be pretty kosher if you're doing it for everyone um and offering it
exactly jenna and you could say "okay so your your dance class or your exercise class if it's over a 10 sign up and we'll transport you up." and we can use the ehs van because i know it's easier for older adults to get in and out of than the wreck van i mean i want to
confirm one more time with jenna but i i know i talked to her about a month ago and since we do offer it at every election i think her response was that we could do it during this election but
i want to double check um well i don't think it's a matter of what the topics are on the voting ballot i just want to make sure if we're showing up with it's a service being offered yeah i just want to make sure when we show up with a big van that says elder and human services
had a vote that says four yeah but but i know i know i know so i mean who knows half of those people could you know vote yeah you don't know you don't know and that's their privacy what they want to do so
okay so you'll let us know because we will not be meeting before then so what about insurance do you need extra insurance on the vehicle no it's already covered it's covered
yeah that's covered and so jenna you'll check on the um town common signage etc yep so the town common sign has already been made and laura and her team will be putting that out two weeks before the special
election and so then we could also put in an insert in the newsletter just special election for your information special election yep and katie and josh should should have that flyer any day now so it's good to just do the flyer
that katie and josh um on the communications and operations team already have made for townwide purposes to throw out on social media and whatever else to just put that exact insert into the pleasantries that seems to be the easiest and safest way to do
it there's actually a second electronic sign the town has as well um oh yeah that the police sign yeah that's what we're talking about is the police signs oh okay i i thought you were talking about the one that slides in and the
board the board yeah we mean the flashing police the flashing and the i would want to see both yes yeah okay i can email um the police about the the um light it
up sign that'd be great two of them sounds good great idea thank you and i'll put i'll put um you on the email as well karen i i usually do that in the past like if i we follow up on items chris and i will cc n we would cc nancy so if you don't
mind we'll do that please yes we'd like to know thanks all right other ideas i don't know how we would do it but i would like us to get some process in place to do
routine encouraging feedback from the senior population at large not just the ones that come to the pleasant street center but something that's you know question of the month i used to take an arthritis class and she had a well she'd have a she call it ride the bike you
were treading water essentially which gets pretty boring but you'd always have a question of the day you know like what's your favorite ice cream well what if we got something it's like a question of the month you know what activity would you might have liked to have done this month if you've had it in front of
you or were you meaning to do it and didn't some way to get people to start to tell us what's on their mind in the population at large not necessarily seniors are related i mean it could be some who knows what you know some new service the town might have to do with
transportation or something you know just some way to have not a scientific survey but just a general suggestion yeah so like a suggestion box but probably set up in an electronic manner that people were just aware and we published the results
that's been another really important part guess what 83% of the people agreed with you you know something like that and i i don't have specifics in mind but it feels like it's something we're always debating what do seniors want nobody knows and i would love us to get
something in place to start a regular dialogue so it's sort of like you know on the news at the call harriet or whatever you're having a problem you know something like that the people know could you insert a question in the pleasantries every month but that pretty
much goes to that group that's affiliated with the senior center and they're important we want to hear from them too but it's the other what 5,500 people i would love to know something more about them than we do right now and there really is not much except you know
the ad hoc conversation here or there that somebody grabbed my elbow and said "couldn't you do this?" i don't know how to do it but so yeah so what what would be the way that you reach out to those 5,000
the thing i'm thinking of is some kind of a standard survey monkey thing and they could go on it with their scanning it with their phone or something something like that but then you would need email addresses right no you just need to have the poster awareness of it
and the the qr code could you add a qr code to the postcard that i know you've been working on we could if we and then that qr code goes to a survey um that's a good idea and maybe maybe we could um get some input from katie and
katie and josh are what are they what's their role jenna director of operations and you mentioned the executive assistant and operations so they do communications because you
know i wonder how maybe they would have some ideas about how we can reach those who do not the 55 the 60 plus community that does not attend the senior center well you yeah that's a great idea they
actually just did that huge trash roll out and they got the door hangers and they sent those out to like 8 800 people i think in town um talking about the trash roll out and putting a number on there so maybe we can ask them you know how much that was and if we could use a
similar strategy to reach some of those older adults that we're not reaching well not so much the older adults but also i would say the younger set 50 and up just as a town involvement in a town
project to generate togetherness type of thing is everyone's off to why couldn't we put it into the reading light bill or the real estate or the excise tax here's a qr code what would you like to see
activity it could be on a refrigerator magnet or something like that too you just you know got an idea of something you want and you just take your phone and find out what the survey of the month is lots of ways i don't have it figured out but i would like us to try
to develop something like this because we always yeah we always come down to the oh if we only knew what they actually wanted and there's no data such a diverse group that's reality i mean 60 plus 60 to 105 that's quite a range but
chris can you think of anything like that you've um had experience with or other communities are doing no it's always you know i think pretty much your ideas are
spot on i you know it's always it's a challenge for a lot of towns to reach that you know you're going to be able to reach that 55 a part of that 5500 but it's going to be very hard to reach all that 5,500 so it won't be kind
of i think what would be wise is to think about how many of those you would like to try to reach it might be well to okay let's you know what's an obtainable goal um you know we have 55 roughly that
we're um not reaching um you know this can be an ongoing process can we reach an extra 500 to a thousand um could reach the mom yeah but to respond and i think that's what i'm saying is you know
what's a reasonable response number um and i think that's smart to think and then if you've exceed it great um and then you know that's probably what i would do is you know a qr code on the
postcard door hangers talk to um katie and joshua um and i think these are all great ideas but on top of that okay um if we get 300 responses
um you know 200 i think i think that needs to be discussed um so we can be kind of strategic about this okay let's let's say 200 let's see what our responses are let's see what people are
saying and then let's do it again i'm thinking the other side of that is that the more people that come in the more things will be sold out like you say there's a limited number of people who can go to each lunch each event the more people you have come to the center the more people will not be able to go to
those get discouraged right but i'm not thinking about using this as a way necessarily to advertise center activity it could be i'm looking it as a way to every month or every quarter it's just it's your way to speak up and say "hey i
had an idea." and it could be anything it could be we should change where the traffic lights are on the streets because i can't get across like that's on the u website yeah um do that or it could be something as simple do you have
any interests yes yes you know i don't think we necessarily need to promote the psc no no but but just trying okay what you're 50 to 65 or 67 right what's your interest exactly or what is it or what
you know is there a problem you're experiencing that you suddenly real you didn't anticipate coming in life you know just anything you know my fa my best friend moved away they went to florida i never knew i'd be so lonely you know who knows what we might get but if i think it's really important to have
a way that we publicize what we're learning each time i mean if we had specific question it could be just an open-ended tell us what's on your mind or if we had specific questions we wanted to ask and a question of the month be really important it could be in
a fun way you know 80% thought this believe it or not and you know 19% didn't you know it just it could become something people it needs a catchy title it needs good marketing it needs someone you know the reading report or whatever
um just a way to get people engaged with realizing they've got a voice and i think it's a really good way to find out about some of the diversity that people are pretty unaware of among the blob of 60 plus there's tremendous diversity and it's a way for that to start to express
itself i don't know it needs a you know would be really good as a student internship project they this would be great yeah and the other thing it could even be is get students involved find out what granny wants you interview her you know um they used to do that years
ago in the school really they used there was a project that the students would have to interview their elderly do you remember that and they would they would record them yes and that was they learned their history it
was a great program yeah i wonder if they still do it they may i don't know so yeah yeah i another way to get the information out too is manager minute does everybody yeah that's how manager minute that's good yeah that's an email that's another possibility a way of
getting the information out so can you come back with some specifics all right i will i'll brainstorm on this yeah i i think it would give us a lot to work with in going forward and probably particularly if the vote passes and we're going to have this mammoth
building with so much potential to do so much and with more people but even without it it it's it's it's a community connection i will give thought to a feedback all right add that too we'll
have that on the next agenda would you think that's enough time what by next month i think so i'll have something to say i mean i've had the answer but i'll yeah we'll let you spearhead this thank you okay i thought about it for a long time
something that i'm willing to take a stab at i didn't finish my story about the um the aerobics class but she would do while we were doing our treading water is she would just ask the question of whatever the day was but people got to really looking forward to it because
just a silly thing but you find out that somebody else loves something that you've never heard of things like that yeah um so anyway i think it it could be a fun thing that gets people to engage so i'll give it a stab okay thank you
any other thoughts all right well we have the schedule for the may coa meeting as our last item on the agenda um it's scheduled for may 13 oh that's
which is the second monday of the month which is when we typically hold our meetings and so and it might be better to hold it after the election what are you laughing at you got a funny text
no i was just thinking about the bike and spinning and oh oh so what do we think do we i'm actually we can't the the first monday i won't be here okay so um somebody else could run
the meeting may 13th is that a monday or tuesday tuesday may 12th i'm sorry may 12th would be is the date of the the meeting next oh the 13th i'm sorry the 13th is the election the 12th is the second monday of the month so it's the
day before the election yes that just to hold it then or do we want to be nice to have one after we can either celebrate or commiserate right well that's what the question was do we want to meet the night before or do we want to meet after the election once the decision has been
made i would say after the election yeah so we're okay with having it on the 19th 19th sounds good okay i'm thoughts rosemary karen john is everyone here yeah i'm here i'm
listening next so next coa meeting may 19th y that works okay john motion till june [Laughter]
you you caught on me what did you expect and expected we didn't finish the agenda oh yeah we did agenda items for next time like secretary a vote we could have that well i talked to chris about um seeing if somebody from town hall will
we're finally going to get support well we're going to see we'll be wonderful that would be really good yeah it's not like we have complicated meetings usually yeah the one of the attorneys was a killer took an entire would not do that
it took robert redford movie so we have we have a motion to adjourn is there a second second all right so i just need to pull up my list okay um karen pette vote to adjourn the meeting
second well yes do we have to have john say it again no no seconded do you do you approve do you are you ready to adjourn say yes yes rose
yes john yes john yes jean yes nancy yes marilyn yes karen yes yay meet a journ okay thank you thanks everyone thank you
thank you all baby