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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOA 04/12/2005r 1: ( MANSFIELD COUNCIL ON AGING qts C,_ Board of Directors ` ' 1 P:.i € : 53 Minutes to Meeting 4/I2/05 ;(tEl c QTS Present: Sonia Walgreen, Donna Harrington, Mary Butler, Frank Nilson, Ed Sliney, Sr., Norma Smith, Ben Boynton, Gale Farrugia and Debra Surprenant. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Sonia Walgreen at 3:29 PM. Correspondence: The Correspondence File was circulated. Gale informed the Board that the File contained a memo from John D'Agostino about budget issues and a spending freeze. A motion was made by Ben to accept the Correspondence File as presented, and Norma offered a second. The motion passed by unanimous vote. Budgets, Warrants, Treasurer's Report and Minutes: The Board examined and discussed the Budgets to date, Warrants and Minutes from the March 8th meeting. Mary issued the Treasurer's Report. She informed the Board that the balance in the Gift Account stood at $3,655.97. Frank offered a motion to accept the Warrants, Budgets, Minutes and Treasurer's Report as presented, and Mary gave a 2nd. The motion passed by a unanimous vote. Director's Report: Transportation—Gale attended her first GATRA Board meeting on March 23rd. She found the meeting to be very interesting. She reported that there are legislative changes with the MBTA which will pass on assessments to cities and towns. It will be beneficial to the cities and towns to participate in a fixed route transportation system. Gale will keep the Board informed. E2WIore Newspaper -The Explore supplement in the Sun Chronicle is a monthly publication for senior citizens. Gale will be writing a feature article for Explore for the April issue. Her article will be about the NCOA conference. Donation— Gale reported that the COA was given a $100.00 donation from Mary McIntyre. Consortium Grant --Gale announced that the COA is a member of a consortium of 4 towns—Mansfield, Taunton, Norton and North Attleboro—just awarded a grant for paying for small home improvements. Incentive Grant Training The COA hosted an Incentive Grant training run by the Department of Elder Affairs. The program was very well attended by COA staff from all around the state. Several people were interested in taking tours of the COA, and were interested in finding out about the building. New ProVams—The Spring Tea will be held on Friday, April 15th; Steve Garneau will be presenting a workshop for people who have visual problems on visual assistive technologies on Wednesday, April 20th, Volunteer Day will be held on Thursday, April 21 st, the annual Library Book Sale will be on Friday, April 29th and Saturday April 30th, Elder Law Day will be held on Tuesday, May 3rd; the annual QMS Senior Dinner will be held on Thursday, May 5th at 5:30 PM; the next coffee hour with John D'Agostino will be held on Thursday, May 12th at 10:00 AM, all Board members are welcome to attend; COA Volunteer Appreciation, Friday, May 13th; Saturday, May 21st, Elk's Breakfast; Friends Spring Fling, Friday, June 3rd, Potluck at 6:00, dancing at A 7:00; SHINE program, Medicare Part D, June I3th (Gale explained Medicare Part D); Registry of Motor Vehicles Program, "Shifting Gears," June 27th, combined with Triad program, Yellow Alert (Gale explained the Yellow Alert Program). April, May and June will be very busy months. Assistant Director's Report: Statistics For March 2005, the COA logged in 580 telephone calls, and there were 880 people who signed in for programs. Willow Crossings—Gale and Debi met with the current administrative staff at the Village at Willow Crossings. Gale and Debi were invited for lunch to discuss the future of the joint programming with the Village. Debi gave a report about the Alzheimer's Support Group, and logistics of planning. PawSox—The annual PawSox trip is planned for Monday, July 25th. The GATRA van will take the participants. Other—Debi is working on having a staff person from HOME in Boston present a workshop on reverse mortgages. HOME is the state funded agency which counsels seniors interested in obtaining a reverse mortgage. The concern is that some mortgage companies and banks engage in predatory lending, and that seniors need to be educated about when a reverse mortgage is appropriate and which financial institutions are approved to lend reverse mortgages. Old Business: Slate of Officers—Donna presented the slate of officers for FY2006. The slate is Sonia Walgreen, President; Frank Nilson, Vice President; Mary Butler, Treasurer; and Donna Harrington, Secretary. With a motion from Frank, and a second from Ben, a vote was held. The motion passed by unanimous vote to accept the officers as presented. t. New Business: Incentive Grant—Gale announced that the Incentive Grant was reduced to $3,000. The consortium must spend the grant over 3 months. The grant is to provide more education to outreach staff. There will be workshops on hoarding and working with difficult clients. Mansfield is the lead agency for the educational piece of the grant. Volunteer Dav —Mansfield COA will hold the annual Volunteer Appreciation on Friday, May 1301 at 11:30 AM. This is the first big program since the negative newspaper article. All Board Members are invited. There was a discussion about criticism in the past about functions for seniors. Budget Reductions --Gale informed the Board that John D'Agostino has requested another budget 4% reduction from all departments for FY2006. Gale reported that the 4% reduction means $10,099 for the COA and $3,545 for Social Services. There was a discussion about elimination of programs and services and the '/z time outreach position vs. budget cuts. Housing Task Force: Donna reported that there was nothing new. BESI Report: Mary reported that the nutrition program will be coming in on budget by making a few changes. Also, a group of students from UMass Dartmouth is doing a management project to find ways of raising money or making savings for the nutrition program. Q & A: Nothing. Adjournment: Frank made a motion to adjourn, with a second from Mary. A vote was held, and the meeting adjourned by unanimous vote at 4:30 PM.