HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-01-11 Council on Aging Minutes4
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Board - Committee - Commission - Council:
Council on Aging
Date: 2016 -01 -11
Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center
Address: 49 Pleasant Street
Purpose:
Attendees: Members - Present:
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Arts and Crafts Room
Session: General Session
RECEIVED
TOWN CLERK
READING. MASS.
IN MAR 15 P 1: 261
Thomas Procopio, Sally Hoyt, Jolyn Ek, Margaret Havey, Marilyn Shapleigh,
Kevin Walsh, John Parsons, Brian Snell, Pooja Parsons (Associate Member),
Jane Burns (Admin)
Members - Not Present:
Sandy Shaffer, Steve Oston, Cara Leonard(Associate Member)
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marilyn Shapleigh
Topics of Discussion:
Call to Order: 6:32 by Thomas Procopio
Acceptance of December Minutes: Approved.
Elder Services December Report (Admin): Presented. Report accepted.
Financial December Report (Admin): Presented and accepted.
Old Business:
Christmas Meal Delivery Review: Everyone was very pleased with the meal delivery. Brian
Snell asked whether It would It be appropriate to invite a meal recipient home for Christmas
dinner upon learning that the individual would otherwise be alone on the holiday. lane
Burns explained that there is no formal policy on this but pointed out the fact that one
"arm" of the Senior Center's purpose is to provide social contact. Consequently, a more
fruitful approach to the situation might be to invite those who are isolated to meet at the
Senior Center for lunch or an activity, where the opportunity to also meet others would be
created. She also cautioned about the potential for "volunteer creep ", a "once you start,
you can't stop" situation which can end up over- burdening volunteers. The Friendly Visitor
program, for example, has had to struggle with Issues where it has been very difficult to
draw a line to define the scope of services & support which can be sustained. Jane Burns
agreed to get clarification on this issue from the town, but also encouraged the Council to
consider establishing guidelines on this.
Survey Review: The initial summary of findings prepared by the MAPC requires further
clarification and analysis. For example, the finding that 70% responded that they had never
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attended programs at the Pleasant St. Center seemed "wrong" in light of the fact that a high
proportion of the surveys were filled out at/returned to the Center. The wording of the
question will be reviewed... it Is possible that lunches are not being viewed as a "program ".
A number of graphs are insufficiently labeled. Correlations need to be established between
• findings, and so forth.
Transportation was identified as a very important service (the highest). Pleasantries and
Hospital to Home were rated as very important too.
Jane Burns will email Council members a color version so that the graphs can be more
readily Interpreted.
The raw data are available. Marilyn Shapleigh offered to help try to Interpret the results by
analyzing the raw data.
Boston North Regional Coordinating Council: No meeting in January/February. The next
meeting should result in information on transportation options across the area on the north
shore served by Mystic Valley.
Senior Energy Update: The lunch & learn was held by Reading MLD. The climate
committee Is starting to put parameters around the financial qualifications for the program.
New Business:
Budget Meeting January 12, 2016: The Public Services budget will be presented to the
Board of Selectmen. Level funding is proposed except for the fact that software licensing is
moved to 1T and an allocation was added to cover the new Senior Center touch screen
monitor. The town manager requested statistics on services and staffing. Graphs included
® in this month's Council packet were discussed among Elder /Social services staff and led to
the conclusion that marketing via flyers increases participation. A new property tax worker
will be coming in to help Sharon Thomas with the Center and free up time to focus on
marketing.
Senior Prom with Young Woman's League: Jane Burns met with the Young Women's
League and they want to do a senior prom. The Women's League will handle fund raising,
organizing, staffing. May 12`h is a tentative date. On Facebook they will do a prom
challenge, challenging their members to post one of their old prom pictures, donate $10 to
the fund, and nominate 3 friends to do the same (much like the ice bucket challenge). Or
participants can opt out of posting a prom picture and pay $15 or $20. Different venues
have been discussed for 100 people, with live music, photographer, dinner, dancing, etc.
Next Council Meeting Time: A proposal was made to meet at 6:00 next meeting instead of
6:30. All attendees agreed.
Adjourned at 8:05.
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