Minutes
Council On Aging · from the Town's website · 4 pages · 33 KB
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MEETING MINUTES WINTHROP COUNCIL ON AGING Date: Thursday, November 14, 2024 Time: 10:30 AM Location: Robert A. DeLeo Senior Center 35 Harvard Street, Winthrop, MA 02152 Present: Matt Rodes, Director, Council on Aging Kathy Driscoll Cynthia Huff Heather Martin Mary Vitale Absent: Alice Haskell, Chair Linda Cronin Call to order at 10:31 AM by Matt Rodes, Director, Winthrop Council on Aging I. Approval of Minutes A Motion to approve the Minutes of the October 10, 2024 meeting was made by Cynthia Huff and seconded by Heather Martin. Minutes were approved. II. Announcements There were no new announcements presented. III. Director ’ s Comments A. Matt Rodes reported that the Thanksgiving Luncheon held on November 13 was a great success. Attendees were very happy with the meal and the entertainment. Matt reported that next year we will plan to have the entertainment start an hour earlier. B. Matt Rodes reported that there are only two tickets left for our Holiday Party being held at the Elks on Sunday, December 8. We are capped at 100 attendees. The doors will open at 12:30. Our van will be running on that day. Currently there are five people who have signed up for the van. The deadline for signing up for the van for this event is December 4. C. Matt Rodes reported that we are planning to have a Valentine ’ s Day Pizza Party in February of 2025. Howie Connelly will be the entertainment. Matt also reported that we are planning to have a St. Patrick ’ s Day Party in March of 2025. The entertainment for this event will be Roger Tincknell; the meal has not yet been decided. Matt also indicated that we will be having a Mothers ’ Day Ice Cream Party in May of 2025; the entertainment for that event has not yet been decided. D. Matt Rodes reported that Capic will be at the Senior Center on December 19 to discuss fuel assistance to any interested persons. E. Matt Rodes reported that the Clear Team will be holding a Lunch and Learn session on December 11. F. Matt Rodes reported that we are still working on having a Tax Preparer at the Senior Center. Rose will be checking on this. G. Matt Rodes reported that there will be a talk on nutrition to be held on Thursday, December 19, during our in-house dining lunch session. He indicated that we may hold a few more of these informational sessions at later dates. H. Matt Rodes reported that National Grid will be holding a four-hour Energy Fair at the Senior Center on January 22, 2025, beginning at 10:00 AM. This event will be open to the public. I. Matt Rodes reported that Mystic Valley Elder Services will be holding an iPad training session in April of 2025. The session will be conducted once a week over a four-week period. The class will be limited to 20 attendees, and Mystic Valley will be providing an iPad to each attendee. The iPad will be limited to one per household. J. Matt Rodes reported that we are hoping to receive some Cultural Council Grant money to fund some activities. This year ’ s Hip-Hop Chair Yoga which was Grant-funded was a big hit, and we are hoping to have an R&B Line Dancing session. Matt indicated he would be meeting with the Cultural Council to discuss the possibility of applying for Grants directly for us, and we could use the Grant money to fund programs ourselves. K. Matt Rodes reported that he will be meeting today with Kirsten Kilburn of Bayada Health to discuss the Healthcare Fair we will be holding in the Spring of 2025. L. Matt Rodes reported that he met with Best of Times regarding a change in the sign-up for trips through Best of Times. It will be an online sign-up, and attendees will be able to pay by check or credit card and can pay monthly. Staff will be able to help attendees with the sign-up. Matt will be meeting with Best of Times on January 8, 2025, to discuss upcoming trips and to talk further about We Travel which is the name of their travel sign- up/payment system. Matt is also planning to talk with Cheryl Tobey of All Around New England. There are currently no changes for All Around New England regarding sign-up and payment, and payments must be made by check. M. With respect to our van ridership, Matt Rodes reported that we had 300 riders in October and over 2,200 riders this year to date. 1,500 of the rides were local Winthrop rides. Matt reported that to date, $2,300 has been spent of the $5,000 Grant awarded to us by the Winthrop Foundation. N. Matt Rodes reported that he has currently interviewed two candidates for the open position of Senior Center Assistant Director/Outreach Coordinator and will be interviewing a third candidate this afternoon. He is hoping to have the selected candidate begin the job in December. O. Matt Rodes reported that the Friends of the Winthrop Council on Aging Annual Mailing has gone out, and donations are already starting to come in. P. Regarding our plan to conduct a CPR Training Session, Cynthia Huff indicated she had spoken to a representative from a local health organization at the Town ’ s recent Health Fair in this regard. Matt reported he had spoken to the representative as well and has also spoken to our Health Department and is waiting to hear from them. Q. Matt Rodes reported that he has the contact information of a person who might be able to help us in our search for a Spanish teacher, and he will be contacting her soon. R. Matt Rodes reiterated that if we or anyone else has any ideas for potential new programs to add to our activities schedule to let him know as we still have some gaps in the weekly schedule that would be nice to fill. Matt reported that the Tap Dancing class is now having their weekly class at the Senior Center every Thursday at 10:30. The cost for the class is $5. There is some concern as to whether the dancing will adversely impact the floors, and Matt indicated they would be keeping an eye on that. He reported that there have been a few modifications to some of our program times in order to alleviate situations where one class is trying to begin as another one has just ended. S. Matt Rodes reported that we have had an intermittent issue with the lift on our van sometimes not working. He does not want to have to take the van out of circulation for repairs and indicated that they may schedule repair work for a Friday when the van is not in operation. T. Matt Rodes reported that there will be a tour of the 9-1-1 Center in Revere with the Winthrop Police on Tuesday, November 19. Participants will meet here at the Senior Center at 1:00 PM, and we will be able to fit eight people in our van and eight people in the Police Department van. Matt indicated there are still a few spots left for this trip. U. There was a brief discussion on perhaps having the Police and Fire Department BBQ in August of 2025 rather than in September. Matt will look into the possibility of having the Mystic Valley Elder Services annual BBQ in June of next year and the Police and Fire Department BBQ in August. IV. Adjournment There being no further business, a Motion to Adjourn was made by Cynthia Huff and seconded by Heather Martin. The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 AM. Our next meeting will be held on Thursday, December 12, 2024. Respectfully Submitted Kathy Driscoll, Secretary, Winthrop Council on Aging Adopted by the Board at the meeting of December 12, 2024 ___________________________________ Alice Haskell, Chair Winthrop Council on Aging