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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSenior Advisory Board - Minutes - 03/14/1990The meeting of 14, 1990 at the were: MEMBERS the Fort Collins Senior Advisory Board met March Parks Maintenance Center. Attending the meeting Ellen Connelly Kay Rios Pat Long Kathleen Jones Yetta Rollin Billie Higgins Yvonne Myers June Bergstrom-Vermey APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES ADVISORY Barb Schoenberger Jean Helburg Ann Azari GUESTS Marjorie McTaggert Stephanie Besser, RSVP The minutes for the meeting of February 14 were read. Billie's name was omitted even though she attended. With this correction, Yetta moved approval. The motion was seconded and the vote was unanimous. OLD BUSINESS A. List of questions, concerns and issues for new senior center -- Billie read the list of concerns and questions that she and Yvonne got from the American Baptist group. She and Yvonne will get back to them with the answers. Yvonne felt that it was helpful to let them know in advance that they were coming to the meeting so that they had time to formulate questions and suggestions. B. Time Line for Choices 95 - Jean said that the time line is pretty much the same as outlined in the original campaign brochure except that the senior center work is starting earlier than expected. C. Outreach reports 1. Kathleen and Kay attended the Interfaith Council and made a presentation to introduce them to the idea of the Senior Advisory Board and their purpose. Both felt that the meeting was worthwhile and that good contacts were made for future follow-up. ~ 2. Yvonnand Billie felt that their sit to American Baptist was worthwhile because it provided a forum for ques- tions and concerns from the seniors and offered suggestions for the senior center. They also contacted the Senior Bowlers but they were not interested in participating. D. February meeting evaluation -- Kay said that she felt the low turnout was because there was not the needed support from the Epic staff. She had trouble contacting someone who was in a position to help and when she finally got approval, the flyers were supposed to be distributed and posted. That, however, didn't appear to happen. The two previous public meetings were successful, she felt, because there was an "inside" contact person who got the people out: Barb at the Senior Center, and Kathleen at Oakbrook. Kay had just been in a meeting with the Mayor and other ex -charter review committee members. They had discussed the difficulty in getting people out to public meetings and so she didn't feel that this was a reflection on the Board, but more a statement on general public participation. Notices were sent to the papers (and did run) and to the radio stations. She believes that we will only get full houses when we can get captive audiences that are already there and can be prodded to come. Ellen agreed and felt that those situations would be better controlled if we would give the public a structure for giving input. She didn't feel that we should interrupt our business meeting, but should let them know when it is appropriate to ask questions and to give input. Billie restated her previous suggestion that we have a standing place on our agenda for public input. Jean said that Council has a place for citizen participa- tion and limits it to 20 minutes. She suggested that we add this to our agenda as well. Yvone felt that it should be at the beginning of each meeting so that attending public wouldn't feel "put off." Then the announcement could be made that we will continue our business meeting and they are free to stay if they choose. Billie moved to add a "Citizen Participation" time to each monthly agenda. Kay seconded and the vote was unanimous. *his could be titled "From the Floor.") E. Senior Resource Network - Billie said that she and Joe had collected a lot of information about how the networks is set up. Every senior organization is on a disk and anyone can go to the library in Denver and use it. She felt it was a wonderful asset for seniors. Kathleen gave two personal examples of why it is nice to know what is available. Jean said that regular updates are mandatory for this to be a working system. Billie felt that, because of this requirement, staff would be needed. Carrie from Choice is working on this same idea and Yvonne felt that we should work with her and with the Office on Aging. Yvonne will invite Carrie to make a presentation at the May 9th meeting. At that point the Board can better determine what role we can play in helping this work. F. Report on hiring of the architect for the senior center -- Kay Told the Board that 10 proposals were received. The rating sheets were turned in on the 13th and interviews of the top 3 or -2- 4 will be done on March 26th go to council in April Jean added4that the contract will G. Yetta atended a legislative meeting to provide testimony on the local program which uses seniors to provide before and after school care. This was to give them an idea of the validity of intergenerational latch -key programs. The local program was started on a $3000 grant and was based in one school. It is now in its third year and has spread to other schools. Parents pay on a sliding fee scale. H. Poudre Valley Hospital update - Ellen reported that PVH now has 900 members in its Aspen Club. If a senior is a member and admitted to the hospital, most of the admissions work is already done for them. Medicare counseling is now available through PVH. The hospital has also been accepted into the Robert Wood Johnson VA Geriatric Assessment Program. They are only one of four hospitals invited to paticipate in the training. Patients over 70 will receive screening from a nurse, dietician, pharmacist, etc. Ellen is very excited about the experience and she said that the training is invaluable for the hospital staff, she said, and it will help set up case management for the future. The hospital has also set up a program called "Generations" for senior patients that do not have any family members in the area. After a senior is discharged, he/she can be paired with a junior volunteer and his or her parent. They are committed to visiting the patient once a week to check on them. I. Boards and Commissions involvement solicitation -- Yvonne and Billie have been contacting these groups and have been suc- cessful in soliciting members for the "senior center input group." At the next meeting, Billie and Yvonne will advise Board members as to what they can do to help on this project. Yvonne also attended a meeting for the Commission on Disability and felt that many of their concerns would also be concerns that the Senior Advisory Board would be interested in. She offered to be our liason with this group so that we can work with them on certain issues like snow removal and the problems it causes for the handicapped. The Board agreed by consensus to have Yvonne represent them. NEW BUSINESS A. New West Fest - Kay asked the Board to consider what type of booth they would like to have at this event. It was general consensus that this would be an information booth. Billie also suggested having "Suggestion Boards" where people could write their comments and questions. The Library Park area was requested as a location. Kay will put in a request and reserve a spot for the Board. B. Fort Collins as a retirement community -- one of the visitors to the last meeting brought this up and Kay asked if the Board members were interested in pursuing the idea. She felt that they might draft a letter of support to the city's Economic Development Office. The Board expressed interest and Kay will -3- gather the fat and statistics and draft a letter to present at the Board's next meeting for their review. C. Senior Olympics,-- June said that the Colorado Senior Sports Development Council voted unanimously to have the Senior Olympics in Fort Collins this year. They will be held on July 26, 27, 28 and 29th at Colorado State University. Grand Junction has pledged $2000 and there is currently $6000 in the existing fund, but $40,000 will have to be raised before the events take place. The Senior Games Board will host the events and June will be organizing so she told the Board she would have to resign from the Advisory Board to dedicate her time to the Senior Olympics. Board members expressed their concern, but also said they under- stood her choice. D. The April meeting wll be held on the lath and will be at Poudre Valley Hospital in the Courtyard. Board members should be prepared to discuss the Old Town Master Drainage Plan. A presen- tation will be made at that time. E. May's open house meeting at the Senior Center -- Barb felt that we should plan for the meeting and asked what we would like to see on the agenda. Carrie from Choice will be asked to do a presentation on the progress of the senior networking system. Members felt that an update on the new senior center would also be appropriate. The citizen's input portion will be held at the beginning of the meeting and then the regular business meeting and the presentations will take place, with guests invited to stay and listen. F. Ann told the Board that she had just attended the Senior Employment Service luncheon. Susan Pedersen was honored as was on the of the employees in the program. The lunch was designed as a thank -you to all of the people who supported the program. G. Pat informed the group that YIPS will honor their volunteers on the 27th of April at the Lincoln Center. The governor is supposed to attend as is the CSU basketbal team. It is from 3 to 5:30 p.m. and the Board is invited. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m. Submitted by: 0 Ka Rios Recording Secretary -4-