all righty I can see that we have a quorum so I'd entertain a motion to open the meeting move so move whatever so I'll take Chuck's motion and first and second there we go roll call of our members we'll start over with you presid sus Chuck pres yes sorry John Ferrar present Damon present CH present Chris how present Jerry de present Josephine Antico present Cindy carer and the introduction of others we have in the audience our esteemed representative from the select board Mr Bill de thank you uh I would like to move on to reviewing of the January 22nd meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve those or edit them go ahead motion to approve approve second all those in favor I I abstain I abstain too all right February 26th meeting minutes I would entertain a motion so moved second all those in favor hi I I all right review of attended events and I know that Josephine has something she would like to share so we'll start down with you oh uh the meeting I attended I uh I attended the uh traveling chef and it was delicious fantastic what did you guys have we had sort of like a Chinese food uh we had we had chicken and beef over rice and it was it was really good fantastic I ate too much it's always dangerous um yeah I attended um I think the travel shf but was I wanted to bring out was this the uh St Patrick's Day luncheon was really well attended there was a waiting list and I wish Janine were here because she's a godsent she really is she caters she brings me me she always she's a big volunteer for us at the Peta Hall events she she did a great job well thank you for attending and thank you for and I'm the floor sweep yeah Jerry also helps don't helping with clean up and that floor gets bigger and bigger every time but you can't fit any more people say I heard very good um feedback by my neighbors who went but the only complaint was that the music is always too loud and it's hard to talk to one another always complaints I did uh watercolor painting so that's been great and finished up the four- week series and hopefully they're doing another one in May and I'll be signing up again so great so that's a new watercolor class we're doing with Peggy poppy so it's a like Chris said it's a four-week session um you pay for all four she brings all the supplies and it's been great it's been a lot of fun Janine they are usually of Janine's office and she'll say oh I'm going to just close my door cuz you know they'll be talking whatever nobody talks everyone's so focused on focused on our painting Yep they're very quiet so but I do think everyone who's um attended has really enjoyed it very much I think most of them gave checks on the on the way out of the last class so for the next time for the next time that's good very good sign and with me I attended one of the blood pressure clinics again played Maron uh I went to the iPhone class which was very nice and HED to attend another one that's it I wish I could get my mom to do that um I've been able to drop into a few things but I don't attend many of the events I have had a number of uh meetings cynthy and I have met a couple of times I've met with Tracy about the ongoing progress with space needs assessment and that's about what I have done well that sounds like a lot uh I attended just the one which was the P the hall event and I would I would concur the about the music oh my goodness it's a lovely music and they wonderfully talented but it is just it's a it's a Ricochet Hall the walls and the ceiling don't permit any absorption whatsoever and it is hard to have a conversation people repeating themselves and they're 2 feet away but it was a a special special enjoy enjoyed it immensely it was well done and the volunteers of course terrific and you're right lady Cunningham is always uh got a right hand up to help Y no events but I stopped in a couple times just to check in downstairs so very good yeah fortunately I haven't been able to attend any of the events so well I'll get you in just a second I just want to thank everyone for attending things and remind everyone that it's great for us to attend but it's also great to encourage other people so you know especially when you hear the director's report if you think of anyone that would like something write it down cuz often I forget things but reaching out to our community to let them know that there are cool things happen happening it's part of how we get people to attend and increase the numbers uh Mr Deo you would like to I'd like to speak as a citizen a citizen go ahead I'll even use the podium oh you would go I need the support um um I wanted to talk about St Patrick's Day event Not only was it an awesome event but I think a high point for me was there were at least is Tina a member of the friends yes there was six people from the friends of the Newber Council on Aging who participated in that event okay um and they got some notoriety this copy of Chris and Helen on the front page of the paper I think there was electronic paper I think and then you like some good pictures of of other people as well so it was well attended and I think Chris already said that they actually had a container for for contribution donations rather and I think they collected more than 250 more than 253 I think I think it was 235 235 which was and and I think you lucky to have this group of people who join the friends because they injected a lot of adrenaline and and energy level into this group um they're intent on fundraising and uh some good things are going to happen and uh just another testimony to the Council on Aging we got this personal card from um Dave Dave Perez Connie and Lucy and Jim's uh brother and um it it was like uh he's thanking me and Jerry but it's really the Council on aent I want to thank you for welcoming Lucy Helen and Jim to your Open Arms my family is blessed to call you people friends looking forward to seeing your friendly faces at the Council on Aging I mean they came here they were welcomed by the Council on Aging and now they're giving back in terms of that freedom on that family on on the friends and that's that's uh that's that's that's terrific you uh it's it's it's really going to be good for you thank you for the opportunity if I could just piggy back on that one of the major things that they do at these events is they get up and explain who the friends are what they do which was missing before at these gatherings of people so I think it a lot of people were saying oh I didn't even know there was a friends group um or I didn't know we could donate money like that so getting the word out is a big part of uh not just doing the fundraising but explaining who they are and what they do the paper certainly helped with that as well so we're appreciative of them coming excellent a good two sets of minutes yes we did both thank you for checking okay uh director's report okay so my first topic was obviously the same Patrick's Day Parade uh St Patrick's Day Parade the St Patrick's Day party um so I do want to mention specifically the volunteers who help so Dennis krai who is um a volunteer with us on the van so he will go with aotto to any shopping trips he will be the person leaving the van to take people's um groceries and whatnot every time we have an event at Peta Hall he's the one who's there with us setting up tables and chairs and helping us serve so we appreciate Dennis Tina Kennedy um like Bill said she is a member of the friends but she's also she usually calls Bingo for us at the Council on Aging but any of these petall events she's there same with chanine Cunningham Jerry Deo um Helen and Jim carrian again friends but they uh offered to help us with setup we didn't need help with setup but they stayed to help with cleanup and uh Janette Isabella who is also on the friends was helping us with cleanup so we appreciate all of our volunteers years um this is also something that I will address at our next meeting with the ad hoc committee about our space needs having a major event like this away from home home being downstairs is a ton of work um I've said it before I'll say it again we pack everything from salt and pepper shakers to sugar packets to tablecloths to everything um we pack it all up in our cars we drive it over we unload it we have the event we pack everything back up in the cars we come back here we unload it put things away it's a it's a huge strain we appreciate petah hall because we couldn't do these events without this but we are also starting to outgrow Peta Hall so I had initially 15 people on the wait list for this event um we ended up having eight tables with seven people at a table the morning of the event I had four people bail out so we started with the weight list and four people uh filled those four spots technically I could probably fit more people I could stuff more people at a table I could stuff more tables in I have to be aware of people who use uh rolling Walkers if anyone were to have a wheelchair serving um I need space for entertainment so there is um I'm sure the capacity itself of pahal is greater than what we are using but in order for us to have the program run efficiently and safely for everybody I want to make sure people can get around tables to the bathroom things like that so we are it is starting to Crunch for us um as John mentioned the Acoustics in that room it's tough we we feel like at these events it's nice to have live music I don't want to just have you know a CD playing in the background but it is a challenge so we'll have to work on perhaps putting a stop to the music during the meal um but it is kind of nice to have background music was kind of the thought okay so upcoming programs today is tax day downstairs um I was just informed by the woman who's running that program through the ARP tax aid program that this will be the last year that they will do it here as a site they are under the gun in terms of Licensing with the tax software I guess so she suggested that I reach out to the new rep report director and see if they can do a Newberry day I don't know if they'll do that um we had I think 16 spots here they were all filled um which was up from last year I think we had 12 spots last year y um I think we had 14 and 12 C used last year okay that might have been it so but it was an increase from last year but now they're not going to be able to do an offsite location so I will work with um I will work with um new report to see if that's something we can do however any of the Overflow people who have called here when we haven't had any spots left we refer them to the Newport Council and aging or Georgetown uh those are two locations that do this throughout taxis and it's not just one day for them so um in the past we've had issues with Newber Port turning Newberry people away saying it's just for Newberry and that's uh just for new report and that's not the case um so it's just a matter of working with them to try and coordinate I don't again I don't know if they'll give us our own specific day but I can I can try but it's too bad because it was nice to be able to offer that here um other upcoming programs we have is our foot our next Foot Clinic is March 27th from 9 to1 reservations are required for that we've done that twice so far it's very popular um so Barbara mman is a registered nurse who's also a medical pedicurist so it's not like a podiatrist it's almost like what you go to in between podiatrist um Gordon College Center for balance they have a physical therapist coming on Wednesday March 20th that's this Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. um we've had them come before we will work with Andrew who's the physical therapist to actually schedule a day to have um like a balance assessment done we we'll work with him on that he used to do that prior to covid at the council and aging and then it kind of went by the way and it just became these seminars where he talks about the importance of balance and you know he's not selling the Gordon College program he's just trying to get people to understand um the importance of balance as we age what time is that 10:00 a.m. uh this Wednesday downstairs ping pong is Tuesdays and Thursdays we're changing the time it was 9 to one um really we're seeing the majority of people come between 10 and 12 so we will change that for April and May to to 10: to 12:00 at the Fieldhouse on Tuesdays and Thursdays game night is next Tuesday night March 26th from 4: to 6: um watercolor class with Bill Duke is Tuesday March 19th that's tomorrow exploring creativity in watercolor with Peggy poppy is what Chris was talking about um in the next newsletter there is an update on the dates that I just need to double check those with Kathy because I only had three dates in my calendar so I want to check that with her but there it will be a four uh a four class session traveling Chef is this Thursday um this Thursday's lunch is a ham and cheese omelette French toast sticks bacon roasted potatoes some fruit salad we always celebrate birthdays at the traveling shf as well um poetry Workshop will be coming in April one of our seniors here in town is a h retired college professor and she approached us about doing a poetry Workshop so that will be in the next newsletter we will be doing a volunt appreciation lunch uh I believe April 20th is the actual volunteer appreciation day but April is volunteer appreciation month um so we will be sending out invitations to all of our volunteers who help us whether it's people on our Council our neat drivers people who help us in the office same place we do it at starbur gley okay yep so look for that invitation uh we're doing a breakfast with the Chiefs on April 30th at 10:00 a.m. here at the Council on Aging the next week on May May 7th we're doing coffee with the cop at the new police department uh May 15th we are doing a CPR AED basic first aid class with Curtis Walton he is a Newbery firefighter in the EMS coordinator for the town this is not a certification class it's simply informational we did this last year we had a pretty good turnout um it's more or less to get people comfortable with the process um in the event that you're home with someone um if you're out and about um to be able to offer assistance if you're at the Council on Aging we have aeds we have them around at the Fieldhouse so just to know how to use a device like that it is very self-explain it talks to you you know tells you what to do but um as we all know when you're in a heightened situation it's kind of nice to just have Curtis's voice in your head telling you what to do so I've seen it and done it before yes I have uh our newsletter will be sent to the printer this week so um if anyone wants to help us fold and stuff and whatever we'll be looking to do that probably next week again our shine counselor is available year round to talk about options so please call us we can connect you with Max always in need of meet volunteers to help people uh get to medical appointments and then I do have a friends update but if you want me to wait on that for now uh well that is the next thing on the agenda okay so Joyce did you want to start with that the friends update did you want to talk about that at all CU you were at the last meeting I don't have any notes on sry um so as Bill H said there are several new members that have joined the Friends board so we're very appreciative of that the plan like I said is to have them speak at events to spread the word about who they are what they do um they did raise over the $230 at our St Patrick's Day party simply by getting up explaining who they are and saying if you'd like to donate we'll be in the back of the room and people mobbed them on their way out um they are working on several upcoming fundraisers they are discussing doing 50/50 Raffles at events they do have to get a permit for that from the state so they are going to discuss that at the next meeting um Helen was talking about putting baskets together to raffle off at different events a monthly drawing for participating in events so just because you showed up to the traveling Chef or the St Patrick's Day your um a ticket would be put in for um I believe the first one will be a gift card to Market Basket so just for attending events so like at Chris's yoga class any class any any event we have we have a um sign in sheet so they won't necessarily get a ticket we will put their name in um and then at the end of the month their name will be drawn and they'll win a $25 Market Basket gift card simply because they attended events nice and that will be donated by the friends uh they we're talking about a yard sale that is an extensive amount of work to put aard yard sale together so that's on hold until next year they just want to kind of get their feet wet um because they're a new group working together so that has been put on hold but they have all these other ideas that should be great and their meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month at 9:00 a.m. so there is a meeting this Wednesday the 20th at 9:00 a.m. if anyone wants to join they're welcome to come by they might be discussing adjusting the time a little bit um one person who's on the friend does attend a yoga class on Wednesdays so she would like to be able to participate in the friends group but also make the yoga class so they might bump it a half hour earlier we're working on that and we'll see where that goes and that's Wednesday 9:00 a.m. downstairs downstairs in the Council on aing all righty any new business from anyone all right we're looking to have the next meeting and on Monday 4:22 2024 is there a motion to approve that who Moved second all in favor I and I would entertain a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all righty seconded all those in favor I thank you everyone