HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-05-08 Council on Aging Minutes Town of Reading
Meeting Minutes
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Board - committee - commission - council: 2111 SEP 21 PM 5: 57
Council on Aging
Date: 2017-05-08 Time: 6:30 PM
Building: Pleasant Street Senior Center Location: Lounge Room
Address: 49 Pleasant Street
Purpose: Session: General Session
Attendees: Members - Present:
Joan Coco, Jolyn Ek, Sally Hoyt, John Parsons, Thomas Procopio, Sandy
Shaffer, Marilyn Shapleigh, George Wetmore, Jayna Stafford (Associate
Member), lane Burns (Admin)
Members - Not Present:
Brian Snell, Margaret Havey, Pooja Parsons (Associate Member), Kevin
Walsh (Associate Member)
Others Present:
Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Marilyn Shapleigh
Topics of Discussion:
Call to Order: 6:34 by Thomas Procopio.
Acceptance of Minutes from 4/2/2017: Accepted with the following addition on page 2--
"The needs assessment is scheduled to be delivered to the Selectman on lune 13"."
Elder Services April Report (Admin): Jane Burns presented the report. Mystic Valley is no
longer providing medical transportation and as a result medical requests (Reading
Response) are up. If Sanborn ceases offering medical transportation, there is the potential
for a big additional increase in requests; at this point Reading Response's capacity to handle
the additional volume is unknown. Accepted.
Financial April Report (Admin): Jane Burns presented the report. Accepted.
MVES Report(Brian Snell): MVES. Jane Burns reported that the MVES fund raiser at the
Stoneham Theater is coming up in June. MVES has added a Flyer about the meals programs
to their welcome bags to encourage participation. Ms. Burns also noted that a suggested
donation of$2 is requested for the lunches served at the Pleasant Street Center, but people
often do not have the correct change and the staff cannot make change. Another donation
method may be helpful.
Old Business:
Review of Volunteer Dinner: Everyone enjoyed the dinner. It was "the best ever".
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Alzheimer Friendly vs. Age Friendly Community Research: Marilyn Shapleigh summarized
the methodology of the World Health Organization's "Age-friendly Cities Guide" and shared
copies of WHO's "Checklist of Essential Features of Age-friendly Cities". lane Burns
discussed the "Dementia Friendly Toolkit" noting that the program is well organized and that
training is available for retailers and banks etc. She suggested that perhaps the COA could
take this program on in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce or Rotary Club or
others. For the COA's June meeting and continued discussion of the COA's mission, COA
members are asked to identify 5 items on the WHO checklist and 3 items on the Toolkit
timeline that they believe the COA could impact given the reality of time/budget constraints.
Community Forum Feedback: The 2 forums were very different in composition &feedback.
Preliminary findings indicate that Reading is experiencing significant elder population growth
and the current elder services staff is already at full capacity. LlMass will be presenting their
findings June 13`" at the Selectman's meeting (7:00 pm) and lune 19" (1:00 pm) in the
police station community room. The report will also be available electronically.
New Business:
Challenges (Transportation/Reservations/Seat Saving): Transportation is becoming more of
an issue because Sanborn is cutting back on van service. There are 74 units with little or no
transportation. The trust fund Board is meeting to discuss the possibility of adding Reading
Response and additional senior center bus support. The town will be monitoring the
demand and funding implications.
The reservations system is swamped. On call-in day people are lined up, the phone is
ringing non-stop, messages are waiting, etc. One idea is to eliminate a formal "call in day"
except for large events that we know will sell out (e.g., the dinner theater event or road
trips). For large events, there could be different call-in days for individual events. Calls for
reservations for other (lower volume) events would not need to be made on a specific day.
Seat saving at meals is a problem. It makes people feel unwelcome, and some have never
come back. On the other hand, people want to sit with their friends. It's a fine line to
manage, but we cannot condone what's been going on. Jane Burns suggested not seating
groups until their entire party has arrived, a practice that has successfully addressed this
problem in other communities. At big events a hostess will do the seating, reserving tables
for groups, but not allowing one person to be sitting at the table refusing others because
the seats are saved for friends. The hostess is yet to be found. The goal is to start with the
upcoming dinner theater event.
Presentation to Selectman: This year's presentation (June 13") will focus on the value of
the nurse advocate position, transportation, and some statistics on daily, weekly, monthly
and annual senior center usage. Jane Burns will do a dry run of the presentation at the
COA meeting on June 12`". The presentation will be in the June COA meeting packets;
members are asked to come prepared with feedback.
Upcoming Events: Laurie Stanton (regional housing coordinator) is doing a presentation on
May 24`" at 1:00 - "everything you want to know about affordable housing" - a big turnout
is expected. The Lions club dinner is sold out. The dinner theater is coming up.
Sandy Shaffer raised the Issue that other town newsletters include an "in memory of listing
of people who have passed since the last newsletter. Jane Burns explained that some other
item would have to be dropped to make room for the list most of the time.
Adjourned: by Thomas Procopio at 8:15. Motion by John Parsons. Seconded by Jolyn Ek.
All in favor.
Next COA Meeting: June 12, 2017 at 6:30.
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