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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-02-11 Council on Aging MinutesCouncil on Aging February 11, 2002 Senior Center Reading, MA 01867 S, iSS. z~i 03 iUN' 2 P 12: S 2 Present: Dick Anderson, Barbara Powers, Joanne O'Brien, John O'Neill, Dottye Foxon, Betty Cronin, Edwina Kasper, Ray Cabot, Gay Williams, Pamela Brown (Director). Absent: Ed Merullo Betty Cronin called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. The minutes of January's meeting were approved (motion by Dick Anderson, second by Edwina Kapser). Pamela reviewed the Financial Report. We do not yet have the formula grant money but it is coming (consistent with prior experience). Pamela noted that current year donations to the COA (25/547 on finance report) will need to be reviewed - some may belong in Human Services (from the Adopt a Family program). She distributed copies of the December 2001 statement on the town's trust funds. The Board feels it would be helpful to see fiscal year to date information rather than one month status on a quarterly basis; Pamela will research with appropriate personnel. The report was approved following a motion by Joanne O'Brien and second by John O'Neill. Highlights of the Administrator's Retort for January were reviewed. Pamela commented that the staff would be making direct input to this report going forward as a tool for highlighting their particular areas of activity. She also mentioned that there is potential for arrangements with the Athletic Club - i.e. access for seniors; she will as well, explore possibilities at the Y. A motion to accept the report was made by Gay Williams, and seconded by Barbara Powers; approved. Regarding the Computer Room Training, Pamela reported that she has not yet hooked back up with the representative from the Perkins school - she has left messages but not yet had a return call. She has not heard back from TASC re: having volunteers from there teach a class or classes. Steve Oston has agreed to teach a second class in March - he would like to expand on the Excel class he taught earlier. The mentoring program is going along well. Dick Anderson suggested adding some count data to the monthly statistic sheet related to the computer room. As a spin off, we had some discussion about the STAR program - tracking senior participants, activities, etc. We will take this up as an agenda item another time. RE: Circuit Breaker legislation, we received an MVES insert in our package for the meeting. Further, there were articles about it in both the Chronicle and the Advocate. Dick reported that Mystic Valley's budget was level funded for home care, and there was a $5M cut in the case management budget. There are approximately 168 Reading open home case clients with Mystic Valley at present. We talked about the Burbank Trust and uses to make of the funds available to us. John O'Neill suggested that in terms of programs, we should see what the survey turns up so that we develop/expand/improve programming that seniors want. In the meantime, we will continue to support the Property Tax work program, and will consider spending money in areas that will increase the Center's visibility (in hopes that the contacts in advance of the survey would be helpful). These would include mailing the newsletter perhaps quarterly to