##VIDEO ID:xsgumDwerZA## so let's uh call this meeting of the Eastern Essex District Department of vetan Services to order uh it is 6:30 uh September 25th 2024 I'd like to call the meeting to order and I'd like to thank everyone for their attendance and the first order of business we have is Citizens I do not think we will have any so we will move on to our second item is review and approval of minutes so I think all we have tonight is the Open session from our last cor which was relatively um which was was is you have it under your agenda under your oh it's under my agend okay quite for paying attention so it's it's uh not really it's very it was the lead in Linda to get into executive session uh last meeting so I'll make a motion to approve the Open Session minutes of July 17th I have a second a second all in favor hi and with a question can we I haven't looked at the website can we just look and see where we're at with minut approvals and posting that's what I was going to we have a few that we have to post I know so there's a few catch up and clean up and then just procedurally on minutes and uh Linda was kind enough to uh uh educate me on this we have executive uh session minutes to approve however we need an executive session in our next session to approve those I will just tack that on to the next agenda um again uh if there are comments we will make those corrected in executive session so and those don't get we can approve those but we don't release them so they won't get posted and the question that came up relative to minutes is um and we finding a best practice where in your towns to Executive session minutes um live um you know uh you know my thought was perhaps they go up to HR in a folder um but where where where would be a good place for them we are have executive session thenes in our town right A lot of them probably aren't released they're approved but not released so we should all have those in our I'll find out what we do upstairs I don't think there's a paper cop right right probably online I think once they get approved they become public record no no you have to vote to release them as well five 10 years down the road Poli no but I I'll tell you because we're going through that up here we have years of of that been approved but they they we have to vote to release them and we may not have been on our boards those ises happen right um but there's certain kinds of there's certain topics in minutes that won't ever get released disciplinary action disciplinary action or sense salary negotiation personel things those might not ever get so so maybe as as homework we all look into what our respective towns do with executive session minutes and find a Best practice um and usually let me just add usually we would check with Town Council in our case to see what is right for release so do you have to approve before we post that's my question so do you approve for release no we approve the minutes corre but they stay confidential no so I'm saying on our minutes here yeah so do I post like do you have to approve those men postings they should be yeah have to approve before they get posted but ex do we have a policy on whether if we approve executive session Mets is our policy not to post them unless we vote to approve at all never till five or 10 years later well unless situation is is over with like if for instance town of West new it parcel of land right the negotiations for buying that land stay in executive session until the land is purchased and it's you know town meeting votes to approve and it's all done then my understanding is like his contract for example let's just talk about his contract well the contract we voted an open session to approve right but the strategy sessions that we talked about in executive session those will never Beed because that no I guess so say your last Town official say you have a new you know game War coming in you know for him to look at the last three strategies and negotiations on how they treat the game organ um it's very material so that tends my understanding process when that guy just slipped in the door and was sitting in the back yeah same Curr voting on a contract that's done open S right no but we would but the contract itself though that that that would be negotiating it exective but the ACT no but the never thought about all this so we do not have u i I did look into it we don't have a policy but perhaps the best as a board we should have best practice based upon what each of our towns well it's open meeting law stuff right it's all available in the open meeting law and I will also check in with Mr for [Music] his I don't know previous to my being on the board several years ago there might be minutes the executive sessiones if they no I don't think dou the only yeah I think you know getting back to like the military going onic it seems ridiculous that we have 10 years of hard copy of executive session minutes that have never been released you would think there'd be some kind of electronic Vault or folder that we could put those in not sure I'm not sure the board back you might I don't remember executive sessions except for contract negoti that's the only thing I remember I that's the meeting l so that's the the minutes minutes were more Bey than they typically are but we will work on Executive session to get rid of the last executive session and um we'll come up with the best practice for way to please uh the next item is um financials you give us of how we're doing Financial well I'm going to start with the fiscal year end so um you have two sets of financials there some are fisal 24 which are the ones that end on June 30th 2024 and I'll start with the profit and loss um we knew that we were going to have a big profit because we had a lot of unexpended lines so the um profit for the year it was 74,000 um $285.83 no I'm sorry 7455 a57 so that's basically um that one and if we look at the balance sheet and go to the second page you'll see that same number and then you also see that the retained earnings uh which is our prior your surpluses of 73,000 17482 if you add those up uh right now we will have a surface of 47,7 3339 so yeah at some point you know the big the board may want to talk about you know um do they want to what do they want to do with that you they want to make some investments in the office I know last year um the office bought some computers and some other technology um but you know I think that's something for for a future meeting but G as high as 170 and then we return some to the town I think it was that high well so I just got I just got work laptop like that last year yeah Karen what do we typically do like when we have refunded money to how much what was the best practice for how much to keep well 50,000 50,000 is kind of like the buffer that we had kept um but you know I I don't think we want to return everything because no I was exping what we done right right because you know the office is changing it seems like the structure is changing and you know there may be some Investments that that people want to make in in the office and I mean I think given the current budget situations in our towns you know to ask for more money um it's going to be a hard sell so and then um if you want to take a quick look at the budget versus actuals um you'll see for example office equipment we overspent that budget by you know $3,330 but that was something we discussed at the meeting and said you know buy some technology um we had increased uh Tony's hours so you'll see that line um but you most of the stuff that is surpluses so that's basically the way we finished 2024 and you know 2025 you know we're about three months in through the year and we have a couple of towns that still need to pay us their assessments and uh we got reach out to switch they have they Kevin yeah they're getting an issue right now everyone's getting an issue um sorry the Aging summary so so basically you know we should collect those in and you know we're we're about um three months into the fiscal year and you know we are everything seems like it's pretty much you know within budget um the uh the insurance uh came in a little bit more than last year so that's just something that we'll have bu no not health insurance um it's office Insurance yeah right yeah that was that was fun which which is to help me understand what that ensures just the equipment and comp okay so it's work so and you know we we're we're three months in we've got plenty of money left okay so do you want to maybe put on our next agenda we Tess what to do with that G I have some some ideas in my okay but yes we can talk about this to monitor it after the next financial and then talk about um some of Steve's ideas and way to go with it does that make sense that's it anything else so you feel we're in good Financial stad uh good reporting good tracking oh absolutely everything's going well financially yes good you hear every yeah okay um Chairman's report will be brief um uh had a number of uh just administrative and different uh I'll tell you administratively I think things are flowing we're doing a warrant system on a monthly basis ad hoc sometimes flowing through the expenses which I see seem very reasonable uh seems like the system and the mechanics of the day-to-day routine is falling in place and on the other side and I I'll also open this up to everyone else I'm getting very positive feedback from uh the veterans in my my community uh accessibility knowledge good uh good feedback across the board um to that end I'll I'll ask any other feed Fe back that people would like to add from their talents you know we had a great breakfast September he didn't cook it though good break down everything we had a couple of new older vet they came which is which is good we're getting some that like never came to anything that there a long time and they finally show up so it's been really good again Steve has a great Puro with all our all the folks in the town hall so they all come down it's very nice it was it was it was a great job so was free food of course yeah you if we have we should come really really good the whole town comes after after all the veterans leave comes down and we all have breakfast together kind of fun an army and a Navy It Is by by by the child hall right fun yeah they all come down so it it actually been really good so we and it's actually working out better than the actual sitting there for the hour waiting for people to come in because it gets a lot of publicity it's in you know the newsletters it's on it's it's everywhere so folks now kind of know to come and now that the food's so good they're all which is fine it was brutal sitting I mean somebody not good the feedback that we got from everybody was so what did you change to just just to the breakfast created breakfast to get veter in the you got have the breakfast there anyway I'm already yeah no no just the ladies that do it from the um from the Aging group there they all they cook yeah they cook everything and it's a nice spread so so works out well the time it's a good time for everybody to get there it's not too early it's not late the day so it's worked out much better they all prefer to do it that way so we're going to keep doing it that way you're sure to Thanksgiving dinner also oh that's nice for anyone that wanted to come but we especially let the veterans um oh it's actually on Thanksgiving you have Big R 4,000 people to come to my house say with this inflation and what it's done to food prices as well as meal out um I think that that the attractiveness of a free breakfast is exponentially different than it was five years ago four years ago before the pandemic so I have that company sponsoring thanksgiv turkeys this year again and Chris they did we had like 50 last year no no turkey tossing no turkey and oil um Steve the next item on the the agenda is the vso report so let me turn it over to you and give us some uh give us some feedback yeah first uh on the agenda is obviously the hero Act pass that's huge news um so the really big thing that's going to change for towns is the tax abidance for the property tax so hip switch I know already has on October 22nd so we all have to adopt it meeting warrant for October 22nd um so yeah and not only do we have that we have another warrant article addressing um senior um tax exemptions too so it's going to be it's going to be the veterans one and seniors too so all your respective chalenge I mean you guys have to approve this um the Massachusetts laid out the foundation for it and they it's just you guys have to approve both CLA did it just is it just they just go to double by so going double and then the other Clause is going to tie with the cost of living so it'll it'll adjust with cost of living every year after they it's not either right the finance director yeah um so yeah that that's huge um the only thing the hero um the license plates thing kind of fell off the hero act a lot of people don't know that the free license plate um kind of fell off but there is a supplemental budget um bill in there for that it's sitting in the house me right now so that's uh age 5049 so that's going to replace um cuz right now it's a $50 license place beef to get your army decal or your veteran decal license plate so that's going to get waves um and then they're going to creating obviously the women veteran license play in Massachusetts too which is nice um so yeah big things with the hero act chapter 115 they change so now National Guard and reservice are eligible for chapter 115 even they don't have active duty time um they challenged the eligibility to you only have to live in Massachusetts for one day now to be eligible um for chapter benefits um so yeah there's a lot in there something you brought up a long time back which one was that about the um the residential requirement oh yes yeah yeah yeah yeah that was for the tax exemption yeah yeah for that calendar year and everything you have to go back to your other town for the to file for the baitman and I just said hell that I didn't care yeah forget it um so number two Purple Heart towns um so three towns were already approved um prior to me coming to my position now um I know IP switch has theirs on coming up on October oober 7 oh my god um so yes I'm going to go to and present you know just the meaning of and the history behind the Purple Heart um and you know what it means to be a Purple Heart Community hopefully we can get some new ideas on how your respective towns can um be a purple heart um so yeah we have whip switch Essex and Rowley I believe you brought that to Y so we just got to get the Proclamation signed I've already spoken to the purple Art Trail commissioner once there are proclamations assigned I send them over to them was there the Proclamation signed yeah it's on the wall yeah oh it was signed so I need a copy of that Oh I thought you got it I no so yeah I need a copy of that so I AR true um so who's the other CH Essex Ry and okay and we have y so we have the signs already made up we have three of each which that would have been the hardest part I believe cuz that would have been budg and everything too that's they're already made up that's um so yeah we we found like a new donations too like lots of people wanted to donate to pay for those signs so you don't have to P you don't have to pull it out of your local Town budget or anything so I spoke at your ceremony when I was still at sub yeah so I'm just throwing that out there because it's it's a good way to fund the fund the signs yes I don't know Karen had them sitting back there um next thing we have our fall conference coming up on October 21st to the 23rd in lemona um secretary Santiago um of the Lost services will be there he has encouraged all assistants to come as well since they're focused on chapter 115 because there's going to be just a huge seminar on all the new changes so my belief is oh well we don't have this in the budget for Tony to come I don't I don't think so I think we need that to be approved um it's only going to be $700 for the two nights for both of us it needs to be a group at the board level Steve right yeah so um we have to book that soon um but yeah that was not in the budget because coming conference was not in the budget um yeah but think that would be a problem considering when is the conference it's October 21st 2 right and um that sounds like an item that could not be reasonbly anticipated in the open meeting while posting why don't we hit that in item 8 as a formal discussion Tony's participation in the uh next uh uh what What's the correct topic uh what's the correct name of the the Massachusetts veteran service officer Association conference so what I went to in some meeting yeah believe all that conference all right so why don't we hit that in item eight but that sounds like a good thing to it's GNA be great networking but professional develop yeah it's office coverage while you're so I already did speak to B but because he's not going to be going he doesn't like those comes he's yeah so he's going to he already said that he will um cover all uh chapter well all chapter 115s will be handled already all warrants checks will be out if anyone needs V claims fil but what about somebody here answering the phones or you know that was going to be another I might be able I'll chat yeah but usually I mean what other Vos have done I know leave note on saying we're away on a conference and Wednesday can we leave um your Beverly uh contact number on the door we can post on our Facebook all that just so people know maybe even update the the voicemail type it both ways yeah know it's my other question so you guys are both out like that for two or three days will the phone forward to so it'll take a voicemail and when we get back we call them all back so the answer to that is no but doesn't our voicemail refer you to a crisis center and maybe we add that in addition oh that's just for the VA you know somebody had a urgent issue that didn't require the be a crisis center right can we add on contact is Beverly oh yeah no I can put that leave that in the voicemail yeah well don't you check your voicemail you know like get lunch and at the end of the day would have the conferences yeah so there's something that you know urgently need yeah usually me I'm telling you hasn't beenzy yeah right yeah I that's been a priority of the board for years that we want to make sure that there's some oh believe everyone's called back in in a timely manner and but like I said other vsos they've gone away on conferences before they've left them know just saying we're on the conference and we'll get back to you soon sure actually that's I what I think is a really good question is is like all the other like new report and is all the Vos going to be there so that everyone is chooses to be in this Massachusetts veteran so not all vsos pay their dues and they're not a part of it so some vsos think it's not worth the time I'm not going to call people but so they yeah I'm confident that if you check your voicemail with something urgent you'll either back or you'll have Beverly the whole time I've been there no one complaint okay um all right so our next we have new fers for chapter 115 benefits for our office great with our contact information emails all that explains what chapter 115 is has the law tells you who's eligible has the benefits that are available connected with it um medical benefits other services your barial expenses tells you how to apply Conta your local govern Service Officer tells you what documentation you need to bring your appointment um so yeah it has a lot of great pass this around we're going to be leaving those at the town halls and other key places and also tomorrow I'm going to the Raleigh Open House Council on Aging so I'll bring thereon so um we'll be bringing bringing these to all of our you know yeah um so that's great material I hate going to especially the VA you can't trust them to get you materials uh handouts to you know your place you're going to to you know inform people so we decided to make our own flyer and ni very handsome product all right so budget I think we're going to talk about more of that and item s yeah so okay I'll do that tomorrow um we odonnal have a great relationship with oon from home um Tony odonnell I know was cre redhead like me guy so they actually sponsored a veteran appreciation um trip to the battle Cove and Fall River tomorrow in the Vietnam um memorial wall and Fall River they created a replica of the traveling Vietnam memorial wall that's down there so they have two buses one bus leaving from their danis Funeral Home one from Salem loading up all the veterans we got Harry's to sponsor lunch um Harry supermarket in Beverly um to sponsor box lunches for all the veterans we have a lot of our veterans in our community signed up for which is awesome um so yeah this is going to be the sleep tomorrow so how how where was that advertised oh we put on our Facebook and onbook page and you yep you to call an RSP to be on the bus all so I'll make a personal note that's probably one of my first uh military memories going with my dad and my cousin to Battleship code so it's a really special place and then full service 20 years later uh when I was at Station Newport we do a lot of our realising ceremonies right on the um USS Massachusetts so it's really really a if you haven't been it's a wonderful place to go so little Navy slang to it though my dad used to be on the board of directors for the ball oh really wow no that's great it's a great place unfortunately I won't be there because I have work so but a lot of our yes we have veterans from our so that's going to be a great time tomorrow for for that um if we wanted to go into the video series I don't know if you've all seen on on our Facebook page we created I did I was hoping you were going to talk about so we created one test video of just the P act and you quick information so we're not going to board people with 5 10 minute long videos we're going to give you the NS of the information of what you need and you know eligibility criteria all of that um so we want to get people to actually watch the video and not like oh this is 10 minutes long I'm not going to watch it so we have about two and a half three minute long videos that we um you we created the our new one that we haven't posted yet I think we're going to play right now oh super where did these live have on our Facebook page right now yeah also on the district website you can't put those on that's the problem with that YouTube you a YouTube video now like weting off Facebook um the way it's all planned out is pretty modular so there's like a 510 second intro then all the meat and then an outro that explains who to talk to um for the YouTube portion we are going to just remove all the intros and outros and then put everything together and then have a good 15minute video um but for this this is just by the way you look good on TV it's not the best speakers but no this is awesome we'll add more Graphics um and then the intro outro part and then this is essentially the this is a finished Pro right it's just a few more Graphics really is that Blen that's right there no I know but good you can be doing that at home with a blue screen that's what I'm just curious that gives me I don't work from home but it's just a three minute video that explains the we have a series of videos already scripted out out we know what we're going to do we just have to it's going to break down each section of the her so it's not just all one long we're going to break down you know chapter 115 changes all that so yeah we don't have up in the back Facebook yeah not that one our Packa one is we that's fan up all right well guys this in my in my mind just to speak to that that that is the you know there are many tentacles of the electronic non older generation of of veterans what what they're looking for the new age and that's just so Dynamic and so so on point yeah so I mean not a lot ofos are doing this do you think that you will ultimately share these with like the local cable TV stations so we already spoken with I um but they wanted kind of go so the same um the way they wanted it was um to have it as like slash videos in between like little commercials and they also were suggesting that we do like a 15 minute one every month that's in a schedule slot so same with YouTube where once we're done with all of them then we can put them together and then give them a good 15 minute re package four together and get your 15 for them are so I wonder if be and her team could help put that 15 minute one together do you know what I'm saying yeah yes yeah no we we've already spoken with them but we want to get a lot together before we can I would say take that would be yeah that would be what Peg money's for which we only we happen to have over a million dollars of Peg money so but it was actually good because I got a call from a guy today it was like oh I saw a pack that video and he was like oh like I served in Vietnam so I set up an appointment with sure yeah I mean it is kind of already working obviously we so our next obviously yeah we'll go more into the budget uh discussions for number well it's also got an earthiness uh realness to it you know that's just very compelling for a lot of vets personality personal and even if the vet doesn't see it maybe so but we'll talk more about our marketing situation sure all right so I'm going my report electronic Outreach initiative that was pretty much that um yeah that's fantastic great Joby here that's guy here thank you all right so number seven yeah so uh okay so uh great so um discussion and timel um guys first of all Steve thank you for that Tony thank you for that work I know I'm covering sort of five and six but again that's exactly to point one of the key initiatives this board all agreed to was we have to service the existing paper uh veteran uh crowd but again the growing wedge is this new group and middle group that likes electronic communication method so so that's exactly to point as I said during the presentation um the next item on the agenda is discussion and time and framework of the next vsl review and evaluation again we just finished up sort of the stub but I just thought it was worth two minutes of discussion to talk about the rough framework leading up to his um the next evaluation um and the sense of where we're starting was as if this was Karen's evaluation just to go back to our last PSO you know we would basically start gearing things up after the next uh meeting uh we'd all get sort of an input sheet with a goal of having a final evaluation SL review done by say May 15th May 20th of this year but again I didn't want to act in a vacuum I wanted to make sure that met with everyone's sort of standards and criteria um if people didn't like the last normal evaluation process not this step one um just to get input from the the board and make sure that a normalized process of what we've been doing uh is is to par so I'll open it up to discussion on that so we'll we'll start is what you're saying we'll start talking about it more more deeply at our de meeting right right and then somewhere around March we'll start the actual process right because now you'll be on a fiscal year right to to te up right so yeah and part of this is the materials which we use for the stuff the input sheet the numbers the ratings um you know again it's speak now forever pce did people like that was that input uh schedule which has thanks to Linda's hard work has come light years over the last three or four years I feel like streamline from my point you honestly I me I love but again it will be that process um uh beginning uh probably more formally after our next meeting so so it sounds like a people are pleased with it now but that would be I gotta refresh my remember this the the the executive session meeting minutes was when we talked about his stub promotion kind of thing right right so that's that's a done deal that's done this is to get him on cycle in the next June 1 the evaluations they are they are they going to be released did you see them did you get them yeah he has a copy of them right right are they did did they get released to everyone no they get released because because and what we talked about is the summary sheet can be relas but um we felt as a board that to keep animous but I'm just wondering if even reacted if if they no are they going to be released or what what happens is and correct me if I mistake is we do the ex one of us collects all of the um forms from everybody we do the master sheet which includes everybody's comments right that's and the numerical ratings are average we give Steve the master with everybody's comments but everybody's individual reports along with that combined report are filed upstairs after the process and we there was a point brought up I don't remember who brought it up but if if um West Newbery makes a comment I don't I think you're you have a right to your own eval bubbling up but not to the you know to give uh some comfort to someone else you know another town what they have to say so the compromise we OB struct historically is the summary sheet of the points is is open to everyone but the um the comments you would only U be given your sort of write up and if I can tell you it's not really an issue they're all very again you were talking about process so I just had questions about process because we're going to be doing it again in May but that was the split between being transparent and showing how we got to a 4.7 in in job performance versus U respecting the ability to someone write uh you know write write something something up and give uh you know marks that are no confidential and the part that is public during the a regular open meeting would be like a summary you know you did a great job you know and can we work on this this and this and your overall score was right whatever so again that is open to discussion if if Dan if you if you want to but sometimes saying what we do is half the B I think I think the the process that we did for the intrum I like it sure I I I thought I thought it it went really well I do appreciate everybody's uh you know handling of it you know because all I did was my own you know assessment and I I I like the process and I think that we should kind of stick with so so with what we got and and just to paraphrase it will be you the um that process for the stub but brought on to the municipal cycle right right and for Tony as well Steve okay um so what I'm asking is they'll be on the same Stu yes right okay yes all right and that was the whole St evaluation process so I'm sorry but getting back to number seven we just decided that the next meeting we have we will set the timelines we'll start to get geared up for a normal timeline leading to a um end of the fiscal year evaluation which yeah you know probably they they've gone out in March February yeah I think we we s we sent them out we would meet in March we would send them out around that time we would have a a deadline to have them back right to whoever's going to collect them um by sometime in April and then I think we would have enough did we meet May last year it done or June June it was June it was so June just three months later so at our at our meeting in June we would make those yeah in fiscal year 2026 when does when do we get start with that February February yeah right and and and is there a deadline for those numbers going to the individual towns well because because I know that making phone calls they start making phone calls again I'm getting back to the process you know probably you know the beginning of February kind of thing because you know you don't want that's what I was thinking right you don't you don't want to um start the process too early in the year because that way you can't see okay well you know Bas it's one thing if you know the office has been running one way for you know the last five years but you know this year is kind of an experimentation so there's a balance between yeah the towns need the amounts and you know we got to see what's working and you know make sure we fund things properly I I just that like nuri's budget for 2026 can't get finalized until the state releases its funding allocation to each individual town and that is a specific date so that would that could be maybe a Target to look at or something I don't know yeah what is that date yeah yeah well I think I don't know I think it changes every year but but it's relatively late in the program because I know that I know that Tracy's are was like well we don't you know Triton you know Triton doesn't give us their budget the state doesn't give us the money and all that so I think as long as we are beating those prows I think we're in good shape so you know so will we start to hear those anticipated numbers like in December no I think probably early February is when we've done it um because as you know you're not going to get trens done numb till March but all those individual budgets and lines in your town meeting warrant have to be approved by you're selecting in your fincom right so you know they're trying to knock off their easy ones early and this is one of those easier ones right I I think what we have done after the last meeting is we we release a you know if there's a document that we're revising hey this is the evaluation form we use the last four years what do you think of it you know do you want to tweet anything you know uh but it's it's sort of a training wheel to get ready for that next we I don't want to discuss anything it's am I discussing something that's not we're discussing the process for uh that lead up to the next non Stu valuation and a bunch of implications right but we do have a Dan we do have another to move this eight gives is the basket for things no I just I'm just wondering what like the the when will the when will the budget discussion for 2020 be put on the agenda usually in February I'm G Forget by that we don't usually me February right it's March March no we usually well we usually meet in February to go through the budget with that one thing and then March you know well I guess it depends on how how controversial it is because if we meet in February and every everybody says okay Yep this is great you know we all agree with this let's vote on it and get it done usually the February is in L of the March we have the February meeting and don't meet in March right so for February we'll have the budget discussion we'll have the review procedure discussion right I mean we'll we'll talk about it in December but we'll really be ramped up in February as far as when they'll go out when we want from back that right sure sure so again just wanted to be transparent about timeline shifting us from a stub to a regular process and again make sure that people um had input and had led smoothly on the runway to the next anything else on timeline for evaluation um item eight is items that could not reasonably be anticipated by the open meeting La posting deadline and um um Steve was kind of enough to highlight uh Tony's participation there is a timeline here in the next Massachusetts veteran services con conference which is coming up October 7 21st 23rd but we need to get some payments and some things in Ste we have to reserve our rooms because we have a room block so we get a discounted rate um obviously so that's nice um but yeah we have to book um so with two rooms for the two nights um it was like $730 I believe um so that wasn't anticipated in the budget so that's why I would like so I'll start the discussion I believe professional development is is crucial um and it sounds like that's a real good bang for your buck uh personally so uh but I'd like to open it up the rest of the board and see what see what the the board feels incidental costs yeah yeah I mean we the mileage um we we've already had covered um I mean the mile is it's already in if you take you have your travel line education line I based off Carriage last year obviously because I wanted to see ex what this year would take me so so is there money already in the budget for so there yeah so for education is um it's a, and there's 950 left yeah okay if we if we create more than they need for the Tre and there's money left off do we have like a free cash yes we have we have the retained earnings you know I was talking about right right how we had about 73 last year and um right so we go into to retain if it was if there was extra cor or lower retained earnings if we were little if it was if it was low then we would have to borrow from retained earnings we do so everything will be covered for you or would you like you credit card and get reimbursed or oh no we have the office credit card on there save receipts like I always do and submit receipts well usually at these things you know your launches are part of the conference not this one that was the summer was yeah there in the budget that were over that we could transfer from correct that's yeah that's we have can also um you know say okay well you know what we're going to transfer you know $1,000 from retained earnings into you know the travel line um we also need to do that um in Steve salary line because I believe the budgeted amount is not sufficient yeah right so um but those are things we can do I mean right right now you got $950 in the travel line that probably hold you for that and um you know the next um excuse me the next meeting we can figure out you you can say okay well let me think about this do you have another conference in the spring do you have other summer so you know there may be there may be things in your education line that you may say okay well you know it costs this is how much we've spent so far but really you know we need another $1,000 in the line and we also need to you know make transfer into the um into the uh excuse me the salary line and you know if we over transfer things um the all go to the retained earnings right but if we actually make a transfer from retained earnings to a particular line that helps for budgeting because then we don't have to remember yeah well you know we did this so I would recommend we do that at the next meeting right so so I guess the qualitative statement is is the board supportive in in a both uh Tony and Steve participating in this conference yes so I think there's your feedback Steve and and I guess uh Karen you're saying let's see where the numbers Trend uh get the expenses in and that may be a good way to transfer something but also get a good handle on uh that line item going forward for future projects right right so at our December meeting or whenever our next meeting is Steve and I will talk and we'll have that as part of the financial maybe that training should be 2,000 you know uh line that 2,000 or something some different number yeah exactly but if we didn't just the default case if we did nothing we would simply run it a negative and that would wash out in our retained earnings may not be there's 900 something in there right might might out um so also next we have the Veterans Day breakfast sponsored by well Bruce tar and Brad Hill host that breakfast and NWI they team up with the church they're asking for a $600 donation to help cover the cost of that breakfast so that is hip switch and rally residents um connected so it's not just one town there there's two towns that could be affected by this um I agree with with the $600 um to to respond to that I believe we still have some [Music] donations restricted donations yeah there's $1,000 in unrestricted building so I mean if we could help sponsor this breakfast for the Veterans Day for the rally I think that would be great must see for DG here as well because not here um the Council on Aging in um Georgia toown is also doing a th Day event they want to know if we can help cover cost of some postage of mailings to get um and it's actually Kristen she was the council director so she's doing the same thing they did n with the pictures of the veteran memorial wall yeah so she was just seeing if we could actually the cost of postage and so um and I think what Brad was talking about that is mostly towards the postage I think not for the actual food or breakfast I don't think [Music] so that is she gave me a number and number 600 but I think well no you told me like 1,200 first then you told me 600 so I'm going offine you don't but I think um see T covers you know his his share all it himself and I think this was the other part of it got told me he said 600 okay I was gonna say shouldn't they be giving money to us but I understand I personally support the use of those FS however I do have one footnote that if a veteran from one of our other member channels since it is I wanted to participate the I think all the towns is on that way any any breakfast any turn away agre but I just want to say you have a proof of residency you know so the um the invitations that they sent out or hand sent I think to switch in Ry veterans and I'll tell you it's it's normally a great attendance um I've been to we were at the last one you in years past it was up to like 140 people that attended and in recent years it's been closer to 100 but it's well attended it's a great event I don't know if you've been there but I know we had a good train yeah it's just a one it sounds like a wonderful event and it sounds like it falls squirely is you know it's like the the the guy spinning the plates you can't ignore the traditional Outreach reach which I think this falls into the we actually had several of us selecting as the servers oh really P yeah it's really fun yeah so I'm ask the so 600 for the switch and then to help with postage for um Georgetown I was thinking maybe 150 to 100 for that okay and that budget item would be the unrestricted donation line item corre that can be used for any veteran heathered service technically it's not a line item it's not a budget item oh just just sits out there off the budget of the balance sheet yes so do we want a motion to approve I think that would be uh I actually have actually one more thing so we did approve the marketing on Facebook for our Facebook page um we just didn't really go into too much details of how much we want to spend so we're looking at it's going to be $500 a month to and you get to select your are area what area so it's not going to somewhere in Boston you know it's going to pop up on when someone's going our page is automatically going to pop up and be like hey like our page so we want to start track especially we have the videos now I think we want to start tracking how many people are starting to follow us is it worth paying the $500 a month so I guess for one for one month it's five like I said it's great you get to and it tracks how how many before you had it's going to give you all the data great graphs of just where your money's being spent I think it's a great investment can you get out at any time yes oh yeah it's monthly by month so no you yeah it's monthly um to pay for you jump off whenever um so you're not for anything is there a way to do that with like like to piggy back on each Town's we uh Facebook pages I know we have lunch pretty active through sharing shares our stuff all the time and I can stop doing that you know I I follow you guys okay and every time you make a post I should share it because then everyone that follows me sees the post you know which is which is I think part of the marketing thing that we're talking about but we wanted to set you know especially with all these videos that we're creating I think this is a great time to start doing it so that we can track now how many people are starting page people are you know and but like I said we have to Target what areas we want so we can specifically Target all six of our sure um and I think it's just going to get all the word out there with our videos with the you know our office is going to get lot more calls I believe for better um so we did you guys already did approve the $500 um what were you reasonably one month Steve or you already approved the flash months and so one of my questions would be how do we measure whether it's worth the $500 and that's what we'll we'll get the data when we start doing it so we'll be able to track how many are lights we have now followers we have now and then we'll be able to log in create or have graphs of where these target areas are being effectively most and if it's not worth it we're going to do so it tracks all the views too so like people who are viewing your page or all that we're going to have a lot of data to provide to you once we actually start and see we approved one month or what have we you appr one month for 500 and the first month was positive but we haven't tried yet so we want to get the videos first which we do so so when we put out all these videos it's going to start talking to people and it's going to be more information out there we didn't want to just put out there without some sort of substance essentially the way that it works is you get it a certain level of money per day so if it's $500 a month or spending $25 a day or however you decide at $25 a day during peak hours your rates go up you have to pay more to be to advertise people on like at noon it's less so it's uh rewarding you for uh spending money on off hours on top of that uh with the videos that that helps the returnal investment because if people are watching stuff that you know is interesting to them then you're telling Facebook like oh you don't like Facebook's whole thing is to get as many eyes on Facebook as long as possible so if you are giving information and people are accessing your page then they'll charge you less to make people look at your page so so yeah so with more videos and with more information that people are wanting than are $25 a day or you're spending a day we go well I do agree with Sher that let's you know we have to try some of these new but I don't you know three years from now Tony let's say you know you know I would like to set an evaluation period like six months from now three months from now we we comfortable three months and then we provide the data with everybody well it sounds like it would wind up being a line item in the budget well it would be for technology off S or yeah marketing we created a new marketing which we have 500 in that line now for this this is all brand new no Vos are doing this I mean this is going to be no but I mean $6,000 a year well that's why we're doing right now we're not going to keep this this isn't a forever thing we want to get likes we want people to travel to our page we want to asking how do we measure Facebook is great you know how do we decide in two or three three months that we have sufficient it'll tell us once we start up it creates report what are those specific responses do you want to see like 2,000 likes in a month or how do you we want to be able to distract it we we don't know any Dy so we we want to start somewhere to be able to see what yeah and I I totally know nothing about yeah yeah determine whether it's it's been fruitful enough to once we get the reports they do they'll send monthly reports like this is how much traffic you have this is how many people watch your videos Tony said as our as our price goes down from Facebook well the more information we put up there where do you look at status well no as soon as possible we have one video but we we have a bunch of videos um made but we are soon we Revisited in December if you got it up and running through a couple months just to get some idea where this is well we want to start it now to tr how it's going start it now can we check in in December oh yeah it's just yeah it won't be but you need you need three more months well we have data by that no you need that money appropriated now is that right well I mean to pay for month well we already have first month appr that we haven't done what's the ask is two more additional months to Bo approve $1,500 for you know Facebook marketing so it would be for the months of October November and December so by our December meeting we might have two months what but yeah you'll be able to yeah well this is a good forway into this electronic reach out uh to to connect with the younger generation again we have to try these things as you said Steve it's uh not a lot of folks are doing it so we can't say how's it going Beverly we have to you know Forge out ahead so the VA was like the public affairs officer when I show there were like you know no veteran service officers doing this they like they you know they so so your ask is to try $500 a month for three months see how see how the data comes in and see how it's coming two additional months proves we already have one um so one more so this Facebook page you don't you don't have a Facebook page yet right oh all right you've like our stuff yes one of the statistics so this is advertise the stuff on that same Facebook so once we start putting all the videos and it's going to be like I said pack de there going to be hero act that's specifically designed for our state but also this is going to be the videos we're doing we're also saying contact your local veteran service offic so we're not just saying for our area I mean it could be for any veteran that has question so we're telling people you know contact your local veteran service officer but we're also labeling our six towns we're giving them our six towns and saying contact me directly here's my email address we have flash up my number flashes up but we also leaving it open to other veterans and other communities that need this information so yeah so you need a motion to approve for few more months so do we want to bundle all those things together or we want to break it into two uh okay I we probably could right so I would look for a motion for those uh those financial those three Financial items okay so I will move to approve please be please be kind to Cindy I've sorry got it written expending do you know the three right so expending $600 towards the ipswitch rally veterans breakfast to be held on Saturday November 2nd 150 for the Georgetown postage 150 to be expended for the Georgetown postage that and conference conference and and additional thousand yep for the Facebook market for the Facebook Market could you just say a total of 1500 yeah oh all right okay for a total of 1500b so I that motion I will second second I get a vote all in favor see the breakfast on 112 what what's the location time the church first church in N switch that's nice at meeting house scen and I will let everybody know the time was I'm okay are there any other items that um we didn't reasonably anticipate would like to be discussed yes two okay I have uh Bob breaker who we all know um so this is just to read the record this is from um Bruce talk dear Governor Healey I am writing to inform you that pursuant to my authority granted under Section 152 of chapter 178 of the acts of 2024 I am appointing Robert breaker of righ to the special commission to study develop proposals for ways to improve the quality of life of veterans in the Commonwealth so Bob um is now on that Council that's wonderful what a wonderful addition yeah he'll be U responsible to be part of preparing a report that will be due by December 31st so congratulations yeah had one and um the other thing is um our rally fight Department volunteer um Associates are going to have the second annual Road Race oh the we raised a lot of M I didn't it I volunteered at it um and that's going to be on November 9th if you know anyone that's interested it's a 5k they do one for the little kids it's like a mile you know ahead of time you guaranteed your bag of goodies do you want you can also register the same day not guarantee that you're going to get them sure could we put that also out on our Facebook page do youire I don't I don't but um I will get the fight Department to send it your sh on there it's a lot of fun anyone else in the cat yes yeah I I brought this up before and I don't know where it went but um the letter the achievement letter for we had a Triton student that gr away this past year Andrew Dy and he got accepted to not one but three of ourm wow and I I have I had the photo I went to to his graduation party and I got the photos right here this one was his acceptance in the Air Force Academy uh this one here is his acceptance to the United States Coast Guard Academy and this one right here is his acceptance to the United States Naval Academy which is the one that he accepted I know you said you saw his name go through Seth mt's office I I actually Adam go through my service Academy when I work at sus office so I know I know very well put this on a future agenda but I would like to request that we this board right or I think I I did that at the last meeting we brought it up and I think we did we vote on that to send him a letter I think we were G to dig up some details like address and right and I have all that now so anyway thank you any want to get so maybe the Practical step is if you work with Steve to get the letter drafted I think the board would would happily endorse that and we can get it individual or all a one sign and and he's I think we should all and you know we've done we've done the kind of you know he's at the Academy right now as a matter of fact but maybe like some break or something next year we could have him come in and do a little ceremony and in videotape or whatever you know I know his his mom would just just she'd do poot wheel but then you work with Steve and we'll get a letter drafted up and will I think everyone on the board would be happy to sign that yeah when we do that let's try to plan it Advance I'll see if I can get one of the meeting rooms upstairs should and there's there's something there's a nice little breaker for your for your video series um okay anything else yes oh yes Linda Veterans Day what's everybody doing committed so I know if switch is not having BL but we are having a ceremony like we've done the years's past if a warmal morial on South Main Street um I've actually been asked to speak at it select board so um that I know you won't be there this year um Bob stole me already he's like you did for that doesn't what are your TOS doing are youing parades or you doing we're not no we're not doing the parade we do our other parade you did your big parade yeah do Memorial Day par ma that's right Grand Marsh our to can only take one parade a year 111 [Music] 11 does not change right it's a Thursday it's a Thursday that's the she happens to be Monday right Christmas is a Wednesday I get your free meals yeah back got be like one of the major installations Lin just go to all the different places and eat so is that next we be December yes so let's the next item on the agenda is set the next date um traditionally there's a December meeting um Can people just look at calendars here 18th or I find we've historically a little earlier has been better no no I mean the 11th okay fourth I can do fourth or the 18th sounds like 18 is a week before Christmas right so so setting the next date uh T date for uh the district U meeting would be December 4th 20 24 which will be 24 will be long teeth 6:30 6:30 fol sixes for the and with that I look for a motion to adjourn second second all in favor I thank you all for your time and your attention