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COA 8-4-20Beverly Council on Aging Board of Director's Meeting Date: August 4, 2020 Place: Telephone Conference via Google Meet Members Present: Claire -Marie Hart, Robert Hobbs, Jessica Wistran, Cynthia Montalbano. Susan Feeney, Stephanie Tallo Staff Present: MaryAnn Holak, Samatha Kossow Meeting called to order: 2:33 pm Secretary's Report: Motion to accept the June 2020 minutes was made by Robert Hobbs, seconded by Susan Feeney. All in favor. Motion to accept the March 2020 minutes was made by Robert Hobbs, seconded by Cynthia Montalbano. All in favor. Director's Report: Building Concerns and Usage • A new dishwasher was purchased and installed in the kitchen • The Board of Health is providing information on how many staff people are allowed in the building in one time. They continue to use Senior Center programming space for staff in order to comply with social distancing. Administration and Finance • No July financial report yet — fiscal year 2021 has just begun. • We are still unsure of our FY 2021 state formula grant allocation. Programs and Events • Curbside Visits have been going well — we have had news coverage in the Salem News and the Beverly Citizen. • Senior of the Year ceremony will be held August 6th at City Hall • Community Garden has had a great summer — we have a farm stand on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the morning with produce from the garden. • There is a livestreamed concert series on BevCam on Thursdays this summer. • Gratitude Group is being run by our Social Worker, Amanda Kirk. She is also running a non- fiction book club at the end of this month. • We started today signing people up for Farmer's Market Coupons, we have 50 to distribute. This year instead of receiving the coupon booklet, people will receive a bag of produce from a local farmer equaling the value of the coupons. Personnel Updates • Elaine Heredeen officially retired on July 31St. There are currently two part time outreach coordinator positions open. • Transportation Coordinator position is also still open. • We have had a Montserrat College intern who has been going on our curbside visits. • We have an Endicott College intern who will be starting with us full time in September and a Social Work intern from Salem State who started with us in May and will be working through next year. Robert Hobbs made a motion to accept the director's report as written, Jessica Wistran seconded. All in favor. Committee Reports Grant Committee • The Grant Committee heard two applications for grants. Both were approved. Committee report accepted. Awards Committee • This Thursday, August 6 we will present the Senior of the Year award at City Hall. There will be a very small audience including the Senior of the Year's friends and family and local dignitaries. • Ledgewood is sponsoring 25 box lunches from Joes on a Roll. There will be no eating on -site. Committee report accepted. Unfinished Business • The Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal had a request to combine the two part time outreach worker positions into one full time outreach position. That was not approved for this year. MaryAnn and Bruce will discuss with Mayor Cahill again as soon as schedules allows. • All union staff got a 2.5% raise this year, and that will continue through FY 2021. • All staff who have been unable to work are still being paid — there have been no layoffs or furloughing of employees. • Beverly Main streets submitted an application to the AARP Challenge Grant to purchase 50 raised beds installed at the houses of seniors. We will hear if the application was accepted by mid- Aue-ust. New Business COVID -19 Response and Outcomes • Our focus areas have been social work, recognizing loneliness and isolation, food access, and continuation services via online programming and cable TV. • Contact By Type • Social Media: 38,995 • Newsletters: 14,005 • Robo - Calls: 7,547 • Phone Contact: 2,383 • In- Person Contact: 61 o The riskiest form of contact - in- person - has been used the most sparingly, only for the curbside visit program and the farm stand. We have been able to successfully utilize social media and newsletters to reach a large number of people, but have focused the majority of our efforts on individual points of contact • Calls by Subject • Social Work: 49.2% • General: 30.7% • Volunteering: 10.2% • Activities: 8.1 % • Transportation: 1.8% • The majority of phone calls during this period have been focused on connecting people to resources via social work and outreach. Most "General" calls have been friendly check - ins, asking about available services, hours of operation, or asking for City Hall. Announcements A slate of officers was not added to the agenda for today — it will be added to the next meeting's agenda. Meeting adjourned: 3:27 pm Next Board Meeting: September 2020 Respectfully Submitted, Samatha Kossow