Hi, Hayley. Can you hear me? I didn't have the microphone down. Ah, OK. That'll do it. How you doing? Not too bad. We had a nice turnout today for the cafe. We had a performer who does like 60s folk bands. And so I think there were like 25 people there. And they, yeah, he did a lot of Beatles, which was a big hit. Nice. Really good. Hello. I guess I'm a morning springtime fan. I know a beautiful time of year. And a gorgeous day. I know Karen can't make it. Okay. I'm trying to think, did Christina's. Let me check my email really quick. I think Jackie said she has to be right at 630. Yes, Jacqueline does. And she did say that she'll be logging on soon. And I don't see anything from Christina about missing today. Okay. Maybe I'm thinking about the dinner that she couldn't make that. What is, what is quorum for this meeting? What must we hit? Oh my God. Hold on. Let me count. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we would need the seven of us. So that'd be four for, yeah. Good math, Chad. There you go. Oh, thank God for those fingers. Yeah. Quorum is a simple majority, right? That's what it would be. Yeah. Okay. I think you're muted Chad. Manly maroon today. Oh, there we go. Okay. Is everybody. The boys wearing maroon. Oh, I didn't know we were supposed to coordinate outfits. You don't have on black. You can't, you can't tell because I'm dark. Black lavender. There you go. There's black is the Bruins game though. So black is also appropriate. Black and gold.  Yeah. They win. They win. They're going to the cup. Oh, really? This is a big game. Yeah. Hopefully they fare better than the Celtics. Let's see. I thought I saw Christina pop on, but I'm not. Is she with us? Not yet. I just have to five of us right now. Well, they might be a few minutes late. So I don't know if you want to. Give them a couple more minutes or not. Wait to 505. Do you want to do whatever the simple majority one. About 504. Okay. Very timely. Christina, welcome. Hi, Christina. Good. Nice to see you. I got to get my glasses. I can't see.  All right. You know what? It's because I'm on a phone. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to get on my laptop, because that is the most stable connection in this home. And. Just that I was trying not to get up because. I have a kitty who insists on. Sleeping in between. My legs. On my recliner. She's 10 months old and she thinks I'm her mother. She is. She is. So I am going to. Take her. Take her. Put her down.  And I'll see you guys in a minute when I get up and get my laptop. I love cats. I know I'm a cat. I'm a cat lady. Anybody know any good jokes. Off the top of my head. Me neither. I need to have the. We should have. We should have. We should have. We should have. We should have. Grab bag to take home with neat things in it to grow. Yes. Julie did a great job. Nice meal. That was so cute. And everything really did go very, very well at that. Dinner. And thank you for who put those little bags together. That was something. Julia. It's such an awesome job. I love it. I love it. Seeds everywhere. So that's great. Thank you. Thank you. It was a. Very nice. Lovely job. Lots of nice touches. The music. Gifts. Yeah. Wonderful. Very well done. Thank you very much. You know, any senior center worth its salt has to throw a good party. That that is a requirement. And we do it. Pretty top notch here. Yep. It is nice. Yeah. Yeah. Next year I'd like to see each staff member assigned a table. And that we would go to each table. Oh, I think this year I'll sit with Haley. Oh, next year. I think I'll sit with that. That's possible. Although I will say in our defense, it's really hard to sit and eat when you're. Throwing the event. Like, I know I, I don't really eat when I do stuff like that. I wait till later. But, but yeah, it would be nice to mix it up. We didn't want to do a sign seating this time because that can kind of be, you know, people want to mingle. Mm-hmm. But. Hi, Jacqueline. Hi. Hi, Norma. Hi. Hi. How are you? Good. How are you doing? Okay. Hi. We haven't started yet. We have one member who was switching. I don't know what she was on, but she was switching to her laptop. So as soon as Christina comes back, we will get this meeting started. Well, I just got back from a meeting in Amherst. Oh, did you? Yeah. I feel I should. Get off video and then just beyond when.  Okay. Yeah, that's fine. I'll, um, Oh, let me see if I know how to do that. Sounds like you have tech help there. I can do that. All a matter of knowing how. Yeah, I'll do it for you, Norma. All right. Well, I can just click off the video. Can't I? Yep. Yeah, you could. Okay. Christina is back. Can you hear us, Christina? Oh, yes, I can. This is, this is my better connection. Awesome. All right. So we will call the counseling on age and meeting to order. Hello there. Good evening, everyone. Hello everyone. The next meeting is pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 orders, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law chapter 30 a section 18. This meeting of the council on aging is being conducted via remote participation. The meeting is also being recorded. So let's take roll call and. I don't think it's actually being recorded. It is. Yep. Right in the corner. I've got a red dot on my recording. Jacqueline. I'm here. Dennis. Right here. Christina. Here. Ann. I haven't seen her log on. Oh yeah. I haven't seen her either. Maybe she'll be by later. Okay. And Karen is out. Okay. Public comment. Are there any members of the. Public. That would like to express their views up to three minutes. Is there anyone joining us Haley? There are. We have a few people in the audience, whether or not they have questions or comments. I don't know. But all they have to do is raise their hand. Okay. Since I can't see that, I will be counting on your eyes to guide me here. I don't see anything yet going once. Going twice. I think we can. Probably proceed. Okay. I have a question. Is this Ann's last meeting? No. When is Ann's term up next month? No, June. Okay. June end of the fiscal year. Okay. Okay. Well, welcome again, everyone. Happy we could. Get together. There's been lots of things going on at the senior center. Haley and staff have been quite busy. So without further ado, maybe you want to give us. Yes. I do. I have to give you an IOU. I will give you full figures for two months in May. It just was. Not something we really had time for because like you said, we had our open house on May. April 3rd had about a hundred or so people in attendance. Which is great, which is more than last year. The town manager came and people from the town council came. So that's always nice when they, when they show up to support us and we had, you know, members of the council, several people from the friends group. So I think that went really well. We definitely had some people interested and we send them up for a few times, which is about as good as it gets really for us. And people loved the DJ. I heard very good things about Lenny. And good reviews about the food. And I, you know, as long as everyone leaves happy, I'm pretty happy. And I would consider that event. I set on a very successful two years running now. Yep.  Right. Yeah. We had about 40 or so volunteers. So that's the majority of our volunteers. Some people weren't able to attend. And then on top of the 40, there was another 15 or so staff involved. You know, we had to help serving. Again, Paul Backelman showed up and Lynn Griezmann from the town council showed up. So I was really happy to see both of them. And the volunteers, I have heard nothing but positive feedback. They really liked the gifts, which again, Julia did a great job. It's very thoughtful. All the little plantings and things like that. You know, I worked really hard with her and with Rachel, our intern to do as much like a real restaurant service as possible. You know, the dinner was buffet style, but we cleared plates. We refilled water. We did plate a dessert. We had that open hour in the beginning with the pianist. So people could just mingle and talk. And, you know, from what I hear, it was really great for them just to get to talk and chat and get to know each other a little bit better. While not having to volunteer. So they did feel a little pampered, which is what we were aiming for. This year we had the support of the mass service alliance with a grant from them to do this dinner and some other events. We're going to be trading some volunteers on CPR and doing a volunteer fair in May. You know, but I absolutely want to make this a regular occurrence, even if we don't have grant funding to do it. You know, it's certainly something that they all deserve for their, their countless hours and their effort. The senior, not senior shuttle, Silver shuttle will be launching May 1st. So the newsletter should be getting back to us late this week. If anyone doesn't know how we do the process, there's holding and taping and everything else, but we actually splurged a little. We got the copier company Amherst copy to do the whole bundle. So even though we're getting it a little bit late in the month, it will go out as is that, you know, the same day we pick them up, we're going to bring them right to the post office. So people should still expect to get their senior spirit newsletter. The first couple days of May, you know, assuming we get them in by Friday. So I'm very happy that that's on track too, because to have to do two major events and the newsletter would have been a tremendous undertaking. You know, something that really would have been a lot of that time and need a lot of support for. But to get back to the shuttle. So that's going to be launching. Rob has already taken a couple of people on test rides. You know, we've made sure the van is functioning and cleaned up and still working on getting the sighting done, but that'll happen soon. And so he's working Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And so the van will run Monday, Wednesday and Friday until we get some additional funding to either extend his hours or hire another part-time driver. But it still is a good option for people. And we're especially trying to get folks to the center.  So that was great. We could pick them up, bring them to the center. They got their feet taken care of. And, you know, that was a really great experience. And that's what we're aiming for is just, you know, this is not going to replace any particular mode of transportation, but it will augment, give you a couple more options, particularly if you want to attend a program. This will be for you. We are also launching two new caregiver focused programs. Helen will be leading a stress management for caregivers and the caregiver support group in May, the dates of which are in the senior, this current edition of the senior spirit. And, you know, as we all know, it's, it can be very burdensome to take care of someone that is a 24 seven, 365 job. And, you know, we want to make sure that if people need support, they know where to get it. What else. We did our, we did our monthly e newsletter. And that has been pretty good. You know, keeping really busy with programs at the center, you know, I'm seeing a lot more people just coming in and hanging out, which is wonderful. So I like the progress of where we're headed and going into, you know, June and July, we'll have our community safety day program over at mill river rack will bring together the district attorney's office, the sheriff's department, the fire department, police department and the crest department to promote public safety to people. That'll be a lot of fun. It was last year. Almost 300 people came. So we can get a little bit more than that. I'd be very happy. And then July 4th will be happening Saturday, July 1st. I'm the volunteer coordinator for July 4th. So if anyone wants to give up a beautiful Saturday and get a behind the scenes peak at how, how they make the magic happen. You can shoot me an email or maybe you know, someone who might want to do that. And that's all I can think of for right now, but that feels like a lot. So. Yeah. I have a couple of questions. Yeah. You mentioned the van is going to be Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Is that all day? It'll be about nine to three. So, you know, obviously, if somebody maybe needs to get someplace at like a 45, we'll have a little bit of wiggle room, but I don't want to promise too much words. You know, we haven't operated a transit program in many years. So we don't want to, you know, we don't want to make it work. We don't want to make it work. We don't want to do so. We want to kind of. Set the expectations manageable. You know, but if people need to get to the senior center, they need help getting to a medical appointment. They should. Please give us the call. And if we can make it work, we definitely will. Awesome. And then my other question was the, um, you launched the, I don't know, I'm going to call it spirit light. The online version. Yes. How did that go? And how many? I don't know. I don't know. We're some that we. Couldn't really tell what the letters are, but that happens when you're going off at the paper. So I think what we are probably going to do is just print some versions around the center and, you know, explain to people, just leave you leave us through email. We'll add you to the list. Cause I think that'll make it a lot more streamlined. And I'm trying to work out a way where it's easier to get it on the town website. Cause some of the issues that, you know, are going to get confirmed for it and not everyone knows that. So, but we have our own list. We can send it independently of that. So people should just let us know. Yes. Then myself or send senior center at Amherst MA.gov. And we'll get you on the list. Okay. Great. Cause that, I have to say, I, I did do the sign up online. It took me a couple of tries. It was, I wasn't even certain at the end if I was successful. So. Yeah. So if in doubt, just let us know. And we'll definitely, we can just manually add you. Yeah. Yeah. Terry. So will they mail it to you or email it to you? The light. Yeah. It's just email. It's a way to get a snapshot of everything big. That's happening at the center that month. Cause you know, sometimes when you, when you go to the center, when you read the April May edition, maybe you sign up for programs in April, but by the time may comes around, you've, you've lost your newsletter or you forgot which one you wanted to do. Something happened. So this will be a way to kind of just remind you of what we've got going on. Okay. Great. And I just want to. Echo. Haley's. Thanks for the folks who were able to come out. To the open house and help us out. Really appreciate it.  I think it is really important that we are. Engaged invisible at all the, the senior activity. So certainly appreciate those of you who are able to, to attend. It makes a huge difference. And I think sends a message to our community about. You know, how much we care and what we're involved with. So yeah, and big ideas for the future Dennis with regards to your pictures. I want to make sure you are hard at work shooting those. And I, I want. I want to be able to see them because I think seeing pictures of all the variety of events is going to make is really going to help us make connections with others and really. Advertising publicize our various activities. So yeah. So I have to post his pictures from the dinner up on Facebook. And I honestly want that if they're taking more videos, we should also be doing some videos at the senior center. So. Plant that seed. So does that mean it would be on something like a. Tick tock or. Oh my gosh. No. Not my preferred social media, but it would be nice to have videos that we could like put on YouTube or you can post videos to Facebook. You know, just something more like a picture only tells so many words, right? But you kind of get a little bit more of a fleshed out idea with a video. Okay. We'll, we'll do all. I'll figure out how to do that with my camera. Yeah. It won't be videotaping me. I'll tell you that. Chad, do you have your hand up? No. Nope.  On my screen, but maybe it's my computer. Strange. Does anyone else see it? Wow. Yeah. There it is. All right. Whatever. Nope. Okay. All right. Very good. Does anyone else have any other questions? No. So we're going to move on to old business. And if you would indulge me, I want to reorder what we tackle. So I want to start with the resilience center. Previous meeting. We identified the resilience center as our short-term goal. And I know, and Chad had done a lot of work on this and sent out some of their information, their research to all of you and asked you to review that and think about what questions you would want answers to with regards to how seniors would kind of navigate, negotiate resilience center. And so heard back from some folks and did compile those questions. And Haley, can you do a shared screen? Okay. I feel like we're going super high tech here. We are. Here and screen, but hopefully Haley does. Here we are. Okay. So here. I wanted everybody to be able to see the questions that we, we have thus far. And certainly if anybody has any additional questions, we can add them, but these are questions that we wanted to ask the town. So these are not in any particular order. And I'm just going to read them in case anybody has any questions. They're not in particular order. And I'm just going to read them in case anybody has difficulty reading the print. What town buildings. Generator that could be used as a temporary warming or cooling shelter. Are there buildings at Amherst, meaning college Hampshire college and UMass in addition to Mullins that could be used. I think there's no internet. I think that people can be accommodated at each of these respective locations. What is the emergency communication system? How will information be shared if phone lines are down and there's no internet. I think they're kind of standard emergency is the reverse. Is it. They shoot out the message. This is your town manager. There's a, you know, water pipe break or whatever the heck it is. So how will information get, get shared to folks. What arrangements have been made to offer emergency preparedness information in languages other than English. I think, you know, we know this is. Really important for people to be prepared and to have given information. What are they thought to in the event of an emergency? What are they to do? What are the resources? Where can they go? But we need to make sure that people who don't know English are also receiving that same information. And how would that happen? Does the town have a list of seniors. In their addresses. And I'm just wondering, Hailey, do you. Do you know the answer to that? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So yes, in effect, we do have some list of where older folks are living. But that's only if they are a registered voter. Otherwise it's, you know, it's really hard to capture. People if, you know, if they're not. Engage with the town in some way. And when it comes to knowing seniors that are living alone, well, that's really tough. I mean, we know of some, you know, we know of some of the things that we do. You know, after the pandemic, it would need a lot of fixing. But even once you fix it, the reality is that information is going to be constantly changing. You know, I might be living alone now, but maybe in five years times, two years times, I'm moving to assisted living. So it's. I think that might be one of the things where it's just not. Possible to really have a fully accurate picture because of the variables are involved in that. Mm hmm. Okay. And then does the town know, you know, if a senior is disabled, who they are and where they live. The town gets the in the police department and the fire department in conjunction have a list of like older adults who have dementia or, you know, some other, you know, kind of something that people want to keep track of. So people can register with them, but short of that, you know, we know some folks, but we're not going to know everybody, you know, the people that we would most need to target are the people who are the hardest to interact with because they're the folks who are maybe like living by themselves and maybe they're not getting a lot of personal contact, you know, and somebody like that can easily fall through the cracks.  They're not, they don't come to the senior center.  They don't keep touch with their neighbors. So, you know, we know some, but when I, when I read this, sometimes I think, is the intention of asking these questions going to be, we want an answer where we get a full yes. We know who all the disabled seniors are or, you know, then I wouldn't feel comfortable saying yes to that. Well, I will just speak for myself. I don't expect that we're going to get a hundred percent, but I'm just thinking about if somebody, for example, is in a wheelchair and there's an emergency. To me, it would behoove the town to know that.  So, I mean, I feel like there's a good faith, you know, effort that should be made. Same thing, you know, to me, and again, I be interested in hearing what the rest of you think of this. I think trying to get a list of where, what seniors live alone would be an important thing for us to do. I well appreciate, we'll never get a hundred percent. But to me, that's a vulnerable population, whether it's for socialization or in the event of an emergency. I mean, I could think of a whole host of reasons why it would make sense to know where these folks live. So if we don't already have that, I think that would be important for us to try to make happen. And I don't know if it would be the senior center that would take the lead or not. But what did the rest of you think about that? It sounds, I like the idea. It sounds like the senior center and, and associated organizations such as the COA and the friends could also could do its, our best as far as publicizing the need to accumulate that data. But after that, I think that the people would be most interested on an emergency kind of a basis would be, it would be the police and the fire departments. After that, the information could also be available to, to the senior center itself. But I think our role would be one primarily of publicity. That's my thought. I think I, unless somebody else has a thought, I just have two other things logistical that we should consider when we do this. And the first is not everyone who is vulnerable will want to be on this list. And I, we probably already know that, but it's worth repeating that some people are just going to say, nope, no, thank you. And the other thing is when we're talking about specifically people's health conditions, we have to consider HIPAA. We have to consider if we accumulate this list, if we have access to it, where do we keep it, how secure is it? You know, so I agree it is really helpful to know that. I think one of the best ways we can know that is to get people to come to the senior center and have those personal connections with us so that we can say, oh, you know, like we do, like we often have done with the, there's a few people in the center who this person usually comes every day or they come every Wednesday and we don't see them and then we can say, oh, let me, let me do a wellness check. Let me call them.  Because I get kind of worried when we start accumulating lists like that of like, you know, you don't want that to fall into the wrong hands. And I certainly don't feel like I, you know, I would rather leave that to emergency management. I think they have the, the in-house equipment to deal with that. Yeah, we don't need to know it. It's for the cops and the fire guys. Yeah, primarily. Yeah. Well, I didn't. So my intent was not that we would have the list. We would be curate. To get on the list and sign up so that. Others in town who need to know would have it. Yeah, we can publicize definitely. Yeah, I think that would be a really good thing to advertise at community safety day. If there are some COA members who want to be there and we can, you know, we have file of life at the senior center. That's another really good thing everybody should have on their fridge.   Yes, I agree. I agree. Absolutely. Yeah, it's primarily information that really should be in the hands of police and fire. And Haley, I think you're right about being very, very careful about the availability of that kind of, that kind of information that police and fire should probably be just about the only ones who really have it. And Chad, do you have your hand up? Yeah, I don't see on the agenda how much time we have for this item. I've got lots of comments if we have more time. If not, that's all right too. It's five thirty three. So we've got a little less than an hour. So I don't know how much Jean, if you, if you have more we want on this or if we want to pivot, we can always come back to this too and maybe invite the fire chief again now that we have some really pointed questions that might be that might be a good way to move forward. I'd like to keep it on old business and massages ourselves. I don't want to have town officials come. Okay. But that's just me. Chad, do you have other questions you want added to the list or feedback on the questions that are currently sitting there? Let's see. How can I word it? I don't remember us passing a vote, having a motion or discussing that we should put this on. Our agenda is one of the, you know, working. One of the points of our work together could have just bypassed me. I don't know. So that was basically why I was asking, you know, how much time was allotted on the agenda for it. To me, well, I'd like to make a correction and, and I have not been working on it. We work together on future planning for the organization. I think that's, that's what we were tasked with by the board. I did educate her on, she had an idea and a concern and I, I named it as a resilience center and educated her about it. It's, it's not really my issue. One thing that I do see on this document is a very bad idea. And that's to go to the Mullen center or other, the Mullen center, such as happened after Katrina at the Houston Astrodome, people were very, very injured there. And that's not a way that you can planfully take care of people. It's a way that you unthinkingly in emergency need, need your reaction and do things. So I wouldn't support, you know, those, those kind of things. I think that's the other aspect that won't be our decision in the event of urgency. Well, I don't have to support it if I don't agree with it. The other part I was thinking was. Since I didn't see it. Since I didn't see us come to a consensus emotion and all that. I don't know if this applies to other people beside the elders, the homeless, the disabled and so on. So, you know, that would be a concern of mine. I don't know if it's just about the elders. We are on aging and that is, we were looking at this from the lens of seniors. So an emergency impacts the entire town, but that's not within our purview. We were just trying to. Yeah. Thanks for the list of questions that we had in terms of how an emergency might impact seniors and what information would be useful. Thank you. Gina, I want to let you know Christina has her hand up. And I would like to remind people that the agenda doesn't items don't need to be, there needs to be no motion. You know, the chair and I will make the agenda and we solicit feedback, but none of that has to come to a vote. So. Thank you. Christina. Sorry. Yes. The point I made. Is that we should look for places within our town and not. Go to the Mullen center and places outside of. Our town. And because we may not be talking about. I didn't really ask. The questions. The way that you saw. Was helpful on Chad. But I mentioned exactly that. That we should look for places within our town and not. And because we may not be talking about. Thousands of people. And the Mullen center, if it's available. The first group of people that are going to want to go there. If they're students in town. They're going to want to fill it up with whoever is nearby. And so we should always begin by looking for places within our own town. And I think the issue we were having is. That. That we need to ask is. Will any of the structures existing structures in our. Region. Right here. Have the capacity. To. To have power. You know, extra power. Back up power. If the power went out and that was the biggest issue. That was the biggest issue. That was the biggest issue. That was the biggest issue. And the resilience center is a place that people can go to. They can stay warm. They can be safe. They're volunteers to help them. And, and basically that's what I see it as. You know, I don't know if that's your vision. But that's basically what I see it as. That, you know, we take care of our own and our own community. I absolutely agree with that. Yeah. I, I tend. Based on my experience and being a sort of a blow in for only being here for 20 years or so. I tend to. See that the town has is sort of divided into a north side and a south side. And one of the things I'm not necessarily advocating for. Voting for the new school. But apparently the, the, the new school is capable. Virtually existing off grid. Because of its, its. Carbon footprint and, and. Power generating capabilities and that sort of thing. And based on what I've seen of those plans. It looks like it would be really terrific emergency. A terrific emergency. Center. My attitude about those places. Is that they should be capable of offering. I mean, food and shelter. And I think the only thing that you would really need to add to that new school. Would be some cuts. And you'd be ready to go. For at least at least the south side of town. And the other side of the north side. I don't know what building already exists. I don't know what building. I don't know. I don't know what building. I don't know that to offer that, but what you'd need to, you need to look at. At a place. That could stand up. In the event. Of a serious power outage. Or and to offer. Heating or, or cooling. And a kitchen. Which that are most automatically puts it into the realm of a house.  And as long as it's officially designated. As a, as a, as a, as a, as a center. Then you know that you. In case of an emergency. You've got a choice depending on where you're living. Of either the north or the south side. So that's, that's where I'm at. And I. I think it is important for us to bear in mind. We're not the decision makers. You know, in the event of an emergency. Town officials are going to be directing and guiding us. So. What I was hoping we could do is gather information. So we would know if, you know. There was an emergency on the north side. Where's the closest place people could get moved or asked to, you know, go to, but we don't. I mean, we all know in an emergency, you know, there's some things we can do. But if, if people have to go to a center, it isn't like we have the keys and we can unlock the doors to town hall or whatever, you know, others are going to be sort of guiding us and, and doing the prep work on that. So this, this list of questions is more for our kind of education and peace of mind, if you will, but we're certainly not the ones making the decisions or, or directing people there. Yeah. But if what I'm saying is that if we, if we voice our concerns and ask the questions. Then we can also raise enough issues to get people to, you know, make decisions and ask the questions. Then we can also raise enough issues to get them thinking in the direction that we would probably like them to go. And I agree. Is that your hand Christina? Sorry, maybe I didn't think it was Christina. Was, and then Jackie also wanted to say something, but I was going to say that, but Dennis took the word out of my mouth is there's nothing wrong, even if we're not the decision makers, there's nothing wrong with community engagement as a council participation and making suggestions to the powers that are going to make the decision. Yep. We can make, we can make suggestions. We can say, this is our vision. We don't know what you have in store or plan and we don't know how the emergency is going to pan out. But what we envision is a place where people can go, they can stay warm and they can be safe. Yep. Until this emergency is over. And that's basically what we do have as a citizen, the right to participate in our government and let them know what we think. Absolutely. Jacqueline. Thank you. And I would, I would ditto what you're saying. I think we should approach it. Knowing that we're entitled to it and letting the powers that be know that this is a recommendation that we're making. And we would so approve if we could work together to. Make sure that we have a place in case the need arises. Yep. Absolutely. I think something like this should have been already in place. Yep. Yes. They shouldn't have to leave it to us to think about this. That's just my, that's my, just my spin on it. With the science of this town. And all the students, they should have thought of this 10 years ago. At least 10. Yeah. I'm giving them a little slack. Well, as I go tonight, as I said in a previous meeting, I'm old enough to remember the days of being threatened by, by the Soviet Union and nuclear holocaust. And I think that's what we're looking at. Back then there was an entire thing called the civil defense. Yep. And that's pretty much what we're, what we're looking at here, except that we're looking more in terms of natural disasters rather than, you know, nuclear holocaust.  I was trying to, I didn't know I had that Lord my hand. Do you have something? Yes. I, I, I, I so agree with, with. What has been said. And I think it is very important that. That seniors not be considered as an afterthought consideration. I think that we should be. And, and, and I think the town should be entitled to have us be. At the forefront. Yep. And in all honesty involved in the planning. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any other questions you think should be added. To this list. I, I don't think it's the best. What is the outcome? What do we want to do with it? What, what, what's the goal here? What, what are we talking about? What's the action? Are there any dates? I don't know. I think that's a nice little discussion. The next step I think Chad is when we feel like we've identified all the questions that we would like to. Get the answers to or find out where things are at. I think. Probably the most efficient and I defer to others. Um, I think we need to. To invite, um, folks to come back and respond to the questions we could certainly, whether it's the chief of police or I don't know, is he the primary emergency manager for the town? I don't even know who the. Uh, Tim Nelson, the fire chief is, the chief. Um, I mean, I thought that this was a really great little chat. And I'm really pleased that we're thinking so proactively. Um, I think we need to ask how many people does the Mullen center hold? Um, you know, some of these, we can definitely get the answers to come back and discuss. And I think it would be appropriate to loop in. The town staff who are responsible for implementing these plans. You know, there are special accommodations that need to happen. Um, and we just, I'm sure that they have, they are really phenomenal. I love working with all of them, but. Um, and I'm hearing it would be good to, to bring them back in front of their conversation. How about if we get the answer, these questions to them so they can research them and get back to us. We could do that too. You don't want to put them on the spot. No, no, gotcha questions. Yeah. No, I think that makes sense because maybe there is something on here. They don't have the answer to, and they can quickly. Get cracking. Right. And then then we can have them come back and tell us the answers to these questions and.  Maybe they have the answers to most of them, which would be the best case scenario. And when you case, you know. They should share it. They should. And we'll make them. That's right. Okay. Do you need me to keep sharing the questions? Nope. We're good. I'm good. Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. We will plan to send those questions along to. I guess him and other town people. Yeah, I think Tim is the best person to start with. Okay. And he's great to work with. So. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. I'm going to. Again, continue to mix up the order. Okay. We have a proposal on agent vacancy recruitment strategies. And I'm intentionally moving agent dementia to later. Because we've got. A followup with them. So. Last time we talked about the fact that we currently have a vacancy. We project having more and then also distant future. So we're going to review that. And we'll do that. And then we'll do that. And then we'll get back to the. One idea that came out of last. Our last meeting was. Noma's husband sent it out to the retired faculty. Re tired. My college faculty, I think a retired. Yes. I think it was you. Yup. And so that was awesome. That. We need to keep thinking about how we can spread the word. And certainly, I'm going to call it the old fashioned, talk it up amongst your friends is always one strategy. But I'm just wondering, do folks have any other ideas? Or I guess maybe how did you find out about it? Maybe there's something else that comes to mind for folks. Terry? I was a volunteer. I am a volunteer at the Amherst Senior Center. And Rosemary came and talked to me. Because they needed a secretary. So I was doing the secretary for almost a year as a volunteer basis. And then she asked me if I wanted to join the council in aging. And then she left. So we have a lot of flyers at the senior center. Why couldn't we put up one about the council on aging? A little bit about what we do, what we're looking for, what's the term length and stuff like that. Yeah. I wonder, could we, Julia does a volunteer times. I think it's a monthly. Yes. I wonder, would we be two years if we requested to be to the volunteer position? We can do that. If anyone has time, I think it's Friday, May 12. We're going to do a volunteer fair, hopefully on the common. So we could certainly set up a table. And if there's a couple of council members who want to talk to the public about what we do and why we're awesome, that would be great. So we can do the fair. We can do the volunteer times if someone wants to make a flyer or something intended to me. I'll post it up all around the building. The one thing I kind of wanted to put a plant, a little seed in people's minds. It's like maybe to think about like what kind of like professional history we might want for someone during the council, like if we are looking for someone, maybe with a social work background or someone who has actually worked in gerontology, it might be good to kind of consider what kind of strengths we're looking for, you know, particularly since we're trying to, you know, plan for the future, you know, what are the, what are the things that we really want in a person? Hey, you put that on the flyer or Julia could add the newsletter. Yeah. You know, do we have history on previous councils? Haley, in terms of, I don't know if they collected that kind of information. I would have to look at the, at the sheet that Angela sent me to be sure, but I think on the community participation form that you all filled out, I think it does have you list your, your profession. I don't know if anybody remembers doing that, but I think it does list that. Yeah. Okay.  I mean, that makes sense to have, you know, an audiologist. Oh, and that's great. If we could have like a direct tie to one of the colleges, that would, I think, really help us strategically. Yes, I agree. Because it's your foot in the door there and there's all kinds of other resources there. So, okay. Okay. Well, continue to ponder. And if you have any awesome ideas, please shoot them to Haley because we want to try to get the best possible people to join us. Excellent. All right. Agent Dementia, friendly report. So, oh, isn't she cute? Oh. She's perfect. She said she wants to join the council. Oh, does she?  We can watch the fur fly then. Yeah. All right, I'll cease and desist with my bad puns. Agent friendly Dementia report. So a while back, Becky came and did her presentation. And we got through part of it. We didn't get through all of it. And so, we, at the last meeting, talked about going through the remainder of the report and drafting any questions or comments folks had. I don't know if everybody had an opportunity to do that. I heard from a couple of people with comments. But I realized when I went back and read one time, I said send it to me. And another time, it was supposed to go to you, Haley. So I apologize. I never connected with you. So I don't know that we've got a complete list if you did. I don't have any list, so that's fine. Haley's OK. But the good news is Becky's going to be coming in the future. So I'm assuming there's still time. Oh, yeah. She is going to be coming. So we have, I think there were two sections that we didn't get to. And then she also has created a draft, which I'll send out to you, hopefully tomorrow, of the action steps that they're recommending that we would take to become more Agent Dementia friendly. So we can review that. She can talk about the sections. She can go over the action steps. Maybe we can identify a couple that we could think we think we can accomplish in the immediate. And then we can, it was really beneficial to have a pretty lengthy Q&A. So I would say we probably want to devote more time to that than we did the first go around. OK, OK, awesome. So was everybody able to open the Agent Dementia friendly? I know a couple of folks emailed me that they couldn't. And then I asked Haley to send it out. I think you sent it out in two different versions, I think. So I'm hoping. Yes. Successful with that. No, I couldn't. I couldn't open either of them. Really? I'll have to maybe take another look then. Because I needed page 40 to the end. Starting at page 40 to the end is what is going to work. OK. Check the link. I can't do any sort of conversion. I have no help on this. So Haley, hopefully you can do your wizardry. I'll take a look at it. Hopefully it's an easy fix. OK. So more to go on that. If you are successful in opening it, if you want to take another look and see if any other questions or comments come to mind. But certainly there'll be another opportunity to engage with Becky, which is tremendous. Anybody have any questions or comments about that? OK. I'm going to move us on to new business, which is new member orientation. Since we are going to be, God willing, successful in our recruitment efforts and getting new members, to me that logical step is looking at their orientation. Although I think all of us had some kind of orientation to the council, I'm not sure. I think it could be enhanced. And so wanted to chat with you about what you think would be good to do to welcome new members, to make them feel comfortable, to help them hit the ground running. Obviously there's the notebook with the do's and don'ts and the whys and the wherefores. A couple of ideas I had would be to have a welcome meeting. I don't know if it would be with the entire council or just a few members. Sometimes when I've joined a group, I've been given a buddy. Somebody that's your go-to person when they're talking about something in the meeting, it's like, what the heck is she? What does that mean?   Yeah. I think getting a tour of the Bang Center so you can see where the senior center is located what the space looks like and meeting the staff would be really good. Because I think we really want to make sure our new members are really engaged and have an appreciation when, particularly when Hailey's rattling off the report to know the setting where this stuff is happening and some of the inherent challenges that they face in offering programs and not so terrific building, I think, is really important. So those were a few thoughts I had. Any feedback? You think it's a good idea? Any other ideas about what we can do to help our new members feel welcome and get them oriented? I remember having three members, just a Jacqueline and the other two officers that recently, last year, they left. I met with them and had a rose marriage. Right. It was like an orientation, ask questions, answer questions. And it was short. And I think that's how we did it. And I'm assuming you found that helpful, Christina. Yeah, I did. Yeah. Good, good, good, good. Jacqueline, do you have your hand up? I can't. No, no, but I was thinking, I guess I'm fast forwarding and anticipating the most positive outcome, but the school wouldn't be up the safe space would not be available necessarily when new members come, but plan at some point in time, if they are not familiar with the space resilience center, that they would be given information about it. Chad, is that your hand? You're muted. The committee is another thing we don't have. Remember your experience of becoming the board president. I'm sorry, I think I missed the beginning of what you said. Another thing we would need is a nominating committee. We could double up. I think we have to have that, though. I think we could just do that by vote. Yeah, sure, good. We could do that as a double up duty for anybody who does onboarding of new members. I just want to add that committees are losing board members. It's a more recent phenomena. It's not just the council on aging. And because board members move on, and then they, depending on what their goals are, and there aren't enough of us to be forming little committees, you can break up into twos to do things, but how useful is it when we're not a full board? We should have more people on this board. So we really need to focus on recruiting rather than nominating and breaking up into small groups that would take another great deal of energy and effort to accomplish. I think we need to focus on recruiting and being what Hailey said at places where we can talk to people. I remember a year ago I spoke to different people when I went to the open house.  So that's what I think we need to focus on. It's nice to have a full board and have this committee, that committee, that committee, but we don't have the power. We don't have the people power to do all of that. Right. Any other ideas with regards to what you think we should do at a new member orientation? It certainly sounds like that everybody's in agreement. We need to welcome folks. We'd have lunch at the senior center. That might be kind of fun. If you're doing like a tour of the building, they can stay for lunch. It would be nice to do. Yeah. OK. Awesome. And do you want to make a plug for the MCOA training before I forget to ask you? Well, yes, I'm happy to. I wasn't certain the signups had already passed or not. Well, I got a block. I got a block of I'll call it reservation to go. So. OK. Awesome. So we have an opportunity as a council to attend a mass council on aging. Training and it will give us an opportunity and feel free to correct me about anything that I may be saying because I don't know a whole lot about it. But I'm excited in that it. It's going to give us a chance to hear from the state about what other council on aging are doing and meet other people who are serving on the COAs. Yes, it does that. They also give you the background. You know, why were COAs created? What is the function? What can a COA do? What can a COA do? So it does kind of help you if you've never been on a committee before. If you've never been on a council on aging before, it gives you the whole background that you need and, you know, kind of talks about how it fits within the town. But but it really just gives you that basis of, you know, why were COAs created to help senior centers? So it's really helpful. And I'm still always does great presentations. And I think it's in. I wrote it down. It's on Wednesday, May 31st from 1 30 to 3 30 in Ludlow. So it's not too far. And that's where their home office is. Oh, East Hampton is one of their main office out here. But but yeah, it'd be really nice. And anyone who wants to go, it would be helpful if you just told me so I can confirm with MCOA how many seats they actually need. But it's really nice to do. And then you get to meet other board members too. So you can say to them, you know, what are the challenges your community is facing? What do you do for programs? You know, it's good to network. So I'm planning on going. I hope others will as well, because I think it could be really valuable. What's the date again? Wednesday, May 31st. So the last day of May, 1 30 to 3 30 in Ludlow. And we carpool Haley. We could do that. Yeah, we could take one of the senior center vans. Road trip to drive. Nobody wants to drive. Yeah, I'd like more information on that. OK, that sounds pretty good. I I kept thinking about the two day extravaganza down in Falmouth. Oh, that's actually like a four day extravaganza. Yeah, that's the annual conference. Yeah, that's the big McGill. Yeah, that's a big one. And then it oscillates between Falmouth and Danvers. And then today was the small and rural conference, which I had encouraged Alan, Julia to go to. So they got to meet some other COAs and learn some good stuff. So I would much rather do Ludlow for two or so hours. Then why? Relatively painless. Yeah. That's right. Although the Zoom things we did were really quite interesting, though. Yeah, they do a really good job. Yeah. So these are trainings that you offer every year. It's they usually have. It's been a while, I think, because of COVID. But and it used to be too that you could request it on demand. Like I hosted one in Bernardsen and we had neighboring COAs come and participate. So I don't know if they'll do that again. I hope so. But this at least is in person. Nice. Yes. Good, good, good. So it's on my calendar. Hopefully you all check your busy schedules. You can carve out a couple of hours and and join. Yeah. Yeah. Good. All right. Next up, I think is Norma with the Meals report. OK, let me promote to panelist. Click it there. OK. Are you there, Norma? There she is. There. Now you're good. All right. We should be able to hear you and see you. OK. Don't click here, Norma. I can hear you. Can you hear me? Yes. Excellent. So welcome. Thank you. This is a report from the March meeting. And I don't know. Just tell me if you get sick of hearing this, but this is what they talk about and I'm supposed to relay it. So Riley commented on a few items from the Nutrition Project Council report previously. And they were just preferences, I think, like someone wanted to have cabbage rolls actually rolled and not as a casserole and stuff the peppers and not just put them in a casserole bowl. So I think that they, you know, he'll look into this but said that it really depends when you're doing dinners for 700 people, you don't have time to stuff peppers and mushrooms or whatever. So that's one, one thing. And they complained that with Shepherd's Pie, they didn't get enough corn and corn has been kind of a commodity. At times, of course, in the summer, it's a good thing, but they don't have enough to put in the pie so that they will just give another some corn but an additional vegetable. And they did have some new meals, though. And one was chicken stew and pesto cream. We're new on the menus and Riley got positive and negative feedback. So he's going to check into that. They also made white pizza, minestrone soup and vegetarian chili, both seen in the best and the worst section. So we'll let you know how this turns out. Another comment was about only getting one piece of bread with some meals.  I don't want it.  But I think the misunderstanding was that if they say this is a sandwich, you do expect two pieces of bread. But if they don't say it's a sandwich, you may only get one. So, yeah. So the January survey was on meatloaf with tomato sauce. And a lot of them complained about this because they feel meatloaf is gravy and not lots of tomatoes. Well, this was in the Italian meatloaf, but it's so I guess they're going to go back to the the gravy one. It was a comment about fruit not being ripe. Well, in the middle of winter, you know, they get it ahead of time. And, you know, it doesn't even ripen up if you. Of course, the bananas get overripe, but, you know, some fruit like pears don't always ripen up right away. And so they probably shouldn't, you know, serve those then. Or wait at another week or whatever. Um, comment about not liking spinach, but overall meal meals are good. And so this is from. Riley's menu update, their new recipes, baked ziti, white pizza, pesto cream sauce and for March, they were going to be trying Irish soda bread and pumpkin bars. To celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Commodity updates. There's not a lot of commodity. Sometimes we have a lot in dried fruits like raisins or dates. And now they Kelly said that there will be getting some more meat available in 2023. So hopefully in the fall, we'll see more of that summer is coming and the farmers, local farmers are very generous in sharing, you know, some of their produce. Okay. And they have another van that they're using for to deliver meals. And that's up and running. And the April menu has some cold meals to go with the warmer weather. And that's when we're going to be looking to the farmers for vegetables and fruits. There's been kitchen annual inspections are done by Kelly and Riley. Kelly is a new nutritionist. Well, she's been there a year now. But there was also a surprise inspection from the Northampton Board of Health, and it went well. Only then one item was brought up that needed a repair. And that was a leaky sink that they had had already taken, you know, had just taken care of. And Kelly's doing the inspections for the dining sites. And then having a sit down meal with with the patrons and offering a lunch and learn little lecture as well. She puts information on the back of the menus, but not everybody turns them over to look at that. So this is a way to engage them a little more. And there is an opening for a home delivered meal driver that may have been resolved by now. So the next meeting is May 10th. And, you know, we do it every other month and they change from the first Wednesday to the second Wednesday so that more people could attend. Any questions? Do you have your thumbs up? Thank you for that. Oh, you're welcome. Nice job, Norma. Thank you, Norma. You're welcome. I do laugh when you talk about spinach. They're just like children. Oh, I know. That's right. They are, but, you know, that's what happens. You kind of regress a little there. We all have our favorite things and things we don't really care for. Yeah, no, that's right. Well, you know, they do very well. I think the meals are good. And when we get back to in-person meetings, Riley always tries them out on us. So that's fun. Oh, fun. Yeah. Do you like this cake today or do you like, you know, there was one thing about sandwiches and grilled cheese sandwiches and they didn't arrive very warm and, you know, there's nothing worse than a cold sandwich that should be hot. But anyway, well, I don't want to take your time. So good meeting. I could hear you, but I couldn't see you, which was fine.  But if I can just say one quick thing, do people know about the Medical Reserve Corps? When you were talking about, you know, these shelters, because I'm a member of it. And I mean, they had it so well planned out so they might be someone to content. And I can talk to the person that I always get emails from. But and and we had an exercise at the Mullen Center. And of course, the students had to get in their credit. So they got the pick of whatever. And I couldn't even work as a practitioner because it was already filled. But they we stayed overnight. And I said, well, I don't really think I need to stay overnight. But I'll be back in the morning to help you clean up. And so they gave a meal and but they had cots there. They had a lot of cots and they also had made arrangements that people could bring their animals. They had to put them in a certain area. But, you know, I think it was well thought out and they would be very valuable to to talk to. I mean, I don't think they would be called in for if it was too hot. But, you know, if they couldn't get heat or whatever, they would do something different. That's a great thought. Because I think they were involved. Wasn't it the Medical Corps handled when the Medical Reserve Corps? Yeah, pandemic, it's a lot of things, giving shots and, you know, yeah, with the COVID chats and the flu shots and stuff. Yeah, yeah, a great resource for us, clearly. Norma, is that a statewide organization or or? Well, yes, they am rest. They used to be more separate, but they've taken in other towns. And I don't know if Northampton is part of that. But, you know, how they say you should have a travel bag ready to go with medicines for a certain amount of time or food or water, you know, it's a whole list of things. But I attended one in Northampton a couple of years ago and it was good because they gave you handouts and stuff. So, you know, we if people are interested, we might be able to do that, you know, I could write up what what they've suggest in a packet. So. But anyway, that's another issue. Yeah, that would be useful for us because we've mentioned a resilience bag, but we've never identified what should be in there. That's right. OK, that is something you have. I would definitely welcome getting that and sharing that out. Terry, did you have your hand up? Yeah, what is the Medical Reserve Corps and where is it located? Well, it's located in all our homes that you volunteer for this. And I mean, they want registered nurses. Of course, they want physicians, but, you know, they're. If you might be called on some disaster to go, I mean, I don't feel at my age, I can travel to Argentina right now, you know, but, you know, it's it's it's more for a disaster type thing, I think. Oh, OK, great. Thank you. It's a little like the Red Cross. OK, it's a volunteer. Red Cross people are paid and there's volunteers. Yeah, this one's all volunteers. What they did in Franklin County is they interviewed people after covid to be prepared for the next epidemic that comes along. Archived, I was they interviewed me as one person, but they archived all that information and it's going to be looked at and used research to build better programs later. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's great. Christina, do you have your hand up? Yeah, I'm on mute. It is a national program and then each state, Massachusetts has a chapter and and then there was a chapter that started in 2005 for the medical school of, you know, School of Nursing to have nursing students join all the other medical professionals to help out in an emergency. But but but Norma's right. It's it's individuals volunteering so that when the time arises, they all converge to to use their expertise to help people. But I'm wondering if there is a contact specifically a specific contact for West Western Mass. OK, I will try to find that out and let you know next time. Yeah, it's Lauren and Davis, but I think she's a volunteer, too. I don't know. But, you know, I've interacted with the police chief and and with Lauren, so I'll let you know. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. OK. Excellent. All right. On to minutes. So hopefully everybody's had a chance to look at the February 9th, 2023 minutes that Terry sent out. Anybody have any changes, additions, edits? I just had one one word change, Terry. Under it's under a new business. It said April twenty twenty three open meeting law lifted. I think it should say virtual. Yeah, like virtual provision or something to that effect. Yeah, so February. Yeah, where is it again? It was under listed under new business. Yeah, I guess so. April twenty three open meeting law. Yeah, and cross out open input virtual. Oh. So we said it was lifted, but we're still meeting virtually. So it was extended. So Governor Healy extended it, the provision that we can meet remotely. So I think right now, the message that I'm hearing from town hall is to keep things status quo. But I think they are looking at, you know, because, you know, it's easy for us to think, well, we can just go to the bank center, but there's a lot of committees in town, so they have to make a decision that's going to be beneficial to everybody and take into account everybody's needs. So I think at this point, we're just waiting to hear about if we can do maybe like a hybrid thing like in every other month, one month in person, one month virtual. So we'll just wait or I'll just wait to see what direction they go in. OK. Great. Anybody see anything else? Somebody want to make a motion to approve? Don't move. Someone make the corrections and send them out to everybody or just make the corrections. I think we can you can vote to accept them with that correction. OK. And then we don't need to have them sent out again. OK. Make sense. Does that work? OK. Is there a second? Is there a second? All in favor. Why? Any opposed? There you are. I'm in favor, but I didn't raise my hand quick enough. OK. Awesome. OK. We're good with February. Next up is March, Thursday, March 9th. Any again, changes, edits, additions? I've got Jacqueline, did you have your square lit up? But I didn't see a hand, so I wasn't sure. No. No. OK. All right. Under old, do you have it up, Terry? Yep. OK. Under old business. Short term goal setting, cross out. Yeah, or move it down because you've. Yeah, you can cross it out because it's mentioned. Yeah, he's identified recently, so it seemed a little bit redundant there. Right. OK. OK. And the first line expectations for meeting, I would say you could cross out. We should get instead review. We reviewed guidelines and then nicks the two weeks ahead of time. What section is that? It's under old business. OK. Save it again. So at the meeting, the expectations for the meeting, we reviewed guidelines. OK. Great. Was it anybody have anything else? OK. Someone want to make a motion? Don't move. Motion with the corrections, right? Corrections, yes. And second it. Can I do it? Sounds good to me, Terry. OK, all those in favor. My. Any opposed? So I'll make the corrections and I'll send them to Haley. Yep. OK. And then we'll post them online. OK. Awesome. I was asking. All right. Do we have is Dick with us, Haley? No, he said he wasn't feeling well. But I can say that and you can jump in any time, Dennis. We are actively soliciting donations. The friends are soliciting donations of scarves, pocketbook, jewelry, any type of accessory throughout the month of May. And then on Saturday, June 10th, we will be on the town Common selling our beautiful wares to the public to raise money for the Amherst Senior Center. So if you have something you want to contribute, you can drop it off at the Senior Center during our regular business hours. And then you can say hi to us at the farmer's market on Saturday, June 10th. Are these new items or no, they can be used. Yeah, just nothing. I mean, we would like it to be like in working condition, like no broken class or something like that. But it can be old. What does the farmer's market start? I think it already started, actually. OK. OK, this last Saturday was the first. And I was able to get permission from a gentleman, Dave. Yeah, Dave, I forgot his last name right now, but I can I just had his card a minute ago. But yeah, I ran into him there and I was able to secure permission. And so the friends will be ready to go on the 10th of June. OK, June. Now those items were scarves, bags and jewelry. Is that any kind of accessory? So like a wallet would be fine. Ties, you know, anything like that would be perfectly fine in or out of season. Oh, depending on your fashion sense, it's always the season. But we will take anything, anything nice, I should say. Yeah, anything nice. Yeah. OK, excellent. Do they do know did they how did or perhaps, you know, the answer, Dennis, how did they do with the mailing did? Oh, we did well, right, Dennis? We I think the last thing I know. But yeah, we've got a good honest response from from the people in town. Well, yeah, we did. And I think six thousand, I think it was about six thousand dollars. And one person wrote a thousand dollar check, which was pretty remarkable to me. That was, you know, and it was anonymous. So I really, you know, whoever that person was, thank you. Well, so that goes to support the scholarships for different classes. It goes to wellness scholarships, memory care programs, you know, the activities and services that we offer. They're all donation based, really, most of them. Now, last month, we got Department of elder affairs. What month are we in? February, February, we got sixty thousand dollars from Department of elder affairs or whatever they call it now. We got a formula fund grant. Yeah, twelve dollars per person, over fifty five, I think. Yeah, I think fifty five or sixty, but it's twelve dollars an elder. And that goes to every COA across the Commonwealth. It's the grant from the state determined based on the number of older adults who fill out the census. So if when people say, oh, the census, who can be bothered? It actually does affect the amount of money we get. If more people fill it out, we get more formula funds. And a lot of our formula funds goes towards funding a salary position. So while we do receive a pretty sizable donation based on our population, we don't actually get to use all of it. I think I don't want to give an exact number because I don't know it. But the majority of it goes to funding a paid position for the staff. Which ain't great if we got five and it can only pay one. Yeah, it makes it tough. Yes, it absolutely does make it tough. I mean, thankfully, we do get the other three full time positions paid through the town appropriated funds. But yeah, you know, when you think about what your your take home is from that fund, it. Yeah, you know, be be nice to have a little bit more. OK. Thank you, friends. Yeah, it's always good to have friends. Yes. All right. I don't have any topics. For number 10. Our next meeting is Thursday, the 11th. What was number 10? Number 10 is topics not reasonably anticipated by the thank you. Thank you. 48 hours in advance, and I didn't anticipate any. So we're moving to Wednesdays now, you're saying? No, no, it's a Wednesday. The 11th. Oh, the 11th. OK. Five o'clock. Yes. OK, very good. I move that we close. Second. OK, all those in favor. I thank you all so much. See you next month. Thank you. Take care of me next month. You'll be in good hands. Oh, what are we going to do? We got Dennis. Oh, they're going to be great. What's up, Dennis?


Today we're talking about Brad's latest book, which is a book on, really the way I think about it is, it's the book on the Declaration of Independence, but it's title is America's Revolutionary Mind, and I want to ask you about that in a minute, about the title. So yeah, let's start with that, actually. So first, how are you doing, Brad? I'm going on and on. I'm doing fine.  I'm in Clemson, South Carolina, and I think we're going to make this work. So, Brad, what do you mean by America's mind? That is, what does it mean to say America's Revolutionary Mind and to assign a mind and a silence to America? Yeah, so I got the idea for the title from a famous letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to Henry Lee in 1825, just before he died, in which he described the Declaration of Independence and its purpose as an expression of the American mind. And I think that's right. I think the Declaration is an expression of the American mind. It sums up the fundamental core moral and political principles on which this country was founded. But you'll note that I did not title the book The American Mind. It's America's Revolutionary Mind. So I was trying to be more intentional and focus on the ideas of the American Revolution per se. So, I mean, because if it were a book on the American mind, then it would have to be a book that takes up all kinds of issues about which I was not interested. It would have to take up issues and questions with regard to culture, American views on all kinds of issues, on marriage, on religion, on food, you name it. I wanted to limit the focus of the book to essentially both the causes and meaning of the American Revolution. So that's the American, America's Revolutionary Mind part of the title. Now, the second part of the title after the colon is a moral history of the American Revolution and the Declaration that defined it. So first, let's parse American Revolution and Declaration. So initially, when I began to write the book, the idea was to write a book just on the Declaration of Independence. That was the goal. The idea was to write a relatively short book on the moral political philosophy of the Declaration. But very quickly, maybe a month into the writing of the book, I read another famous letter this time from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in which Adams described the American Revolution not as the war, but rather as a revolution in the minds of the American people. And that revolution, he said, took place in the 15 years before shots were fired at Lexington and conquered in 1775. So that really, that was the tripwire, the intellectual tripwire for me when I realized that there was something much bigger, much deeper than what historians had previously told us about the American Revolution. It was a revolution in the minds of the American people. And that revolution was a moral revolution. And Adams equates that moral revolution with the Americans' understanding of the doctrine of individual rights. Now, let me add one other quotation that I read at almost the same time that I think really sums up what Adams is saying. And that was a quote that was something I read in a letter from Tom Payne to the Abbey Mebley in which Tom Payne said of the American Revolution that we see with new eyes, hear with new ears, and think new thoughts. So the idea is that there was a revolution of ideas. And Payne, likewise, in addition to Adams, says that this moral revolution was directly connected to the Americans' understanding of the nature of rights. So that was the moment when the book went from being something about just the declaration of independence to really being a book about the entire revolutionary period. And so what I do is I use the declaration of independence as a kind of ideological roadmap by which to understand the revolution as a whole. So the book, let me mention that what I do is I take the declarations for self-evident truths which can be summed up in one word each, equality, rights, consent, and revolution. And I devote two chapters to each of the self-evident truths. And then what I do is I provide a kind of intellectual history going back to the late 17th century, usually beginning with John Locke, and then trace how colonial Americans understood and transformed the ideas of the declaration, equality, rights, consent, and revolution. But most of the book though is focused on the 1760s and the 1770s during the so-called years of the imperial crisis. So it's a kind of comprehensive intellectual history of the revolution as a whole. So Tom reminds us, I didn't realize this, I don't know if you did, that today's Patriots Day. So yeah, I didn't know there was a Patriots Day and here it is today. And really, it's amazingly fitting because if you think about where we are today politically, and I don't wanna get too much into this, but really, we've got political parties that are basically both reverted to tribalism, both explicitly and certainly implicitly for decades now have rejected the very founding principles of this country. We're in the middle of this unbelievable mess which is this corona mess. But we're in this unbelievable political mess where both political parties have completely rejected these principles. So I can't think of a period in American history where this book is more important, would be more important than right now. When these ideas are being lost, these ideas are being forgotten, ideas are being forgotten even by the people who supposedly are trying to preserve them, conservatives. We've got now national conservatives and this kind of conservative and that kind of conservative. All I would sum up as anti-American conservatives because they've abandoned these ideas. And I think what Brad's book is doing is it's reminding us of these ideas and then digging deep into their origin and into their philosophical foundations to really help us lay a foundation for a new American revolution because nothing short of a new American revolution I've come to believe is going to save us from the continued decline of this country. So let's delve into this because I think this stuff is really, really, really important. And it's a chapter one, and I don't intend to go by chapter, but chapter one I think is really important because it lays kind of the intellectual foundations for everything else. Because the founding of America is kind of the crowning achievement and the enlightenment. And you have to understand the enlightenment and the foundation and the declaration. And what you do here is you lay down kind of the philosophical highlights and the essential characteristics of what the enlightenment is. So tell us about what are the ideas that at the heart and at the core of the enlightenment that then in a sense made real politically at least because I think in other aspects that made real earlier, but politically they made real with the founding of America. I'd say the key concept of the enlightenment is the idea of the laws of nature and the rights of nature. So in other words, it's a rediscovery of nature. Speaking metaphorically, it's the rediscovery of the book of nature which is now to be read through what 17th century philosophers called right reason. So it's both metaphysical and epistemological. The rediscovery of really both of the idea of nature that nature is governed by certain causal laws that can be discovered and understood by human reason. And the three principle philosophers, I'd say 17th century English enlightenment were Bacon, Newton and Locke. Bacon's, his Novum Organum which established the kind of intellectual or inductive mode of reasoning for reading and interpreting the book of nature. Newton's Principia Mathematica which laid out the scientific laws of nature and then two books by John Locke. The first was his ethic concerning human understanding which laid out a kind of empirical inductive mode of reasoning. It said that reason is efficacious, reason can understand relations of cause and effect not just in nature but also in human nature and in human action. And then along with the ethic concerning human understanding I would add the most famous book of the American Revolution which was Locke's Second Treatise of Government which established the idea of rights that the purpose of government was the protection of rights and it established kind of a limited form of government which had at its heart the idea of individual self-ownership and self-governance, right? So Locke's great contribution, intellectual contribution to the revolution I would say is the rediscovery of the individual. The individual who is self-owning and self-governing, self-reliant and is the master of his own life and of his future. But narrowing it down, I would say that the single most important thing that comes out of the Enlightenment for colonial American is the idea that the so-called laws of nature can actually be applied not just to nature out there, not just to planetary motion but it can also be applied to the human condition, to human life, to human nature. And so you get primarily, I would say, beginning with Locke and his ethic concerning human understanding an attempt to establish a demonstrative science of ethics which he said should be as certain as mathematics. So it's taking, in other words, the methodology, the modes of reasoning that Newton used and applied to discovering the scientific laws of nature to trying to discover certain moral laws and rights of nature. And I'd say that's the single most important contribution of the Enlightenment to the American Revolution which then as it's transported to America beginning in the 1730s and 1740s, Bacon, Newton and Locke are being taught in America's universities for the first time and take the case of John Adams, for instance. When Adams was an undergraduate at Harvard College, that's where he was first introduced to these great thinkers. And you can see Adams in his diary as a 20-year-old trying himself to apply Newton's methodology to discovering moral laws of nature. And he does it in three ways. First is extra-spection.  And from that, you try to discover the underlying causes of certain forms of human action. And then from that, you can induce Adams argued as a 20-year-old, you can induce certain moral principles that will guide man towards a flourishing kind of life. And then from there, then it's a very short step to applying that methodology and the idea of a demonstrative science of ethics to the idea of rights. And that really is the first division between American colonials and British imperial officials in 1765 with the passage of the Stamp Act. So it's interesting. I mean, three of the four books you mentioned are really books in epistemology, right? And right, I mean, the way I always put it is the great achievement in Enlightenment, not me. I mean, Ayn Rand and others have put it is the, in a sense, the rediscovery of the efficacy of reason and the application of reason to discovery the laws of nature and the laws of man. And then it's application to morality is incomplete as maybe they applied it but they want the right path that it was in the right direction that they were trying to do it. So how do you get from there from you've got this idea of reason and you've got applying reason to morality how do you get from there to the declaration? All right, so that's a long story. That's a big question. About four. But make it short. Short version. Yeah, it's a big question. I have about 400 pages on that. On that question, yeah. So, what I would say is the crucial moment in the coming of the American Revolution was 1765 when the British Parliament passed the so-called Stamp Act which for the first time in colonial history imposed the tax on the Americans without any kind of representation hence the famous slogan no taxation without representation. This was a crucial turning point. Let me just put this in context because you have to understand that for the previous 40 years or so the British policy toward the American colonies was what they called salutary neglect. It was a kind of laissez-faire policy, a hands-off policy. And during those years from approximately 1720 let's say to the early 1760s the Americans were basically left alone to govern themselves without any British interference at all. But then in 1756, Britain engages in the so-called French and Indian War, the Seven Years War against France which they won. And in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris it's as though Great Britain woke up and remembered that they had these colonies and they tried to reassert both political and economic control over their colonies. And the laws that were passed during the 1760s the Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Declaratory and Townsend Acts where you might say it was an attempt by British imperial officials to superimpose the British deep state on American political life. So they shipped over hundreds, if not thousands of tax collectors and administrators and most importantly, they sent the British Navy and the British Army. So now all of a sudden in 1764, 1765 the Americans look around them and they see all kinds, they see an expanded British state in the colonies and then all of a sudden they're passing these laws. So I would say that as I mentioned the crucial moment was 1765 with the passage of the Stamp Act which caused the Americans to reconsider not just their relationship with Great Britain but the two most core principles that tied the colonies together with the mother country. And that was first their understanding of rights and secondly their understanding of the Constitution. So let's start with the Constitution. Up until 1765, virtually all colonial Americans were fans of the British Constitution. They called it repeatedly the greatest constitution in the history of the world. But they realized now with the passage of the Stamp Act that there was one major problem with the British Constitution which of course there is no, right? So somewhere here I've got my show your audience I've got my handy pocket Constitution with me, right? So I can pull this Constitution out of my breast or back pocket and if Britain passes the Stamp Act I can turn to the relevant passage in my Constitution and say, ah, here's why the Stamp Act is a violation of the Constitution. Now the problem of course is that they couldn't do that because there was no British Constitution as a written document. The British Constitution at the time was simply an assemblage, a collection of common and statutory laws and customs and the form of government of the British government at any moment in time which had always been evolving. So in other words, the British Constitution was always evolving. There was, in other words, there was no there there. And so with regard to the Stamp Act British Imperial officials argued that the Stamp Act was legal and therefore unconstitutional. All right, so it was legal. Yeah, it was legal and therefore constitutional. The Americans by contrast argued that the Stamp Act was unjust and therefore unconstitutional, right? So that raises the question why was the Stamp Act from the American perspective unjust? Well, it was unjust because it violated their rights and this takes us to the next major moral concept that's really at the heart and soul of the American Revolution and that's the idea of rights. So colonial Americans up until 1765 were advocates of the so-called rights of Englishmen, right? All Englishmen were proponents of the so-called rights of Englishmen and England was, after all, at that time the freest nation in the history of the world, right? And they gloried in their rights as Englishmen but then they came to understand that there's a problem and with that notion of the rights of Englishmen. The rights of Englishmen is a doctrine which says there are rights of a particular people at a particular place, at a particular time. And those rights are always changing and evolving. And in the same way that the Americans would come to look for the idea or develop the idea of a written constitution as fundamental law, they also came to ground that they wanted to ground their constitution on an idea of rights that would be permanent and unmovable, right? And that foundation, of course, was nature. So they were looking for rights that are grounded in the nature of man, rights that would be absolute, certain, permanent and universal. And that was the critical moment, in my view, or during the Imperial crisis. When the Americans developed this and really filled out this new idea of what at the time they called natural rights, the idea that there are rights of nature or rights of human nature. So let's, I wanna get into what they meant by rights and how they defined rights, but let's kind of follow your outline a little bit. And I wanna, there's always this question in my mind, this idea of self-evident truths, right? When you read it, you go, particularly in the world we live in today, none of this is self-evident, right? I mean, nobody gets it, nobody gets it, particularly now. What did they mean by self-evident? And what was the context for them to talk about self-evident truths in the context of the declaration? Right, so I develop this idea in a chapter devoted to the seven words that open the second sentence of the declaration, which are, we hold these truths to be self-evident, which I think are the most important, if not the most beautiful words in the American lexicon. So, but it's also the most, it's the most complex chapter of the entire book philosophically. And it was complex because at the time, there was a very philosophically technical understanding or definition of what self-evidence meant. And a self-evident truth was a truth where the proposition, it was a proposition whose subject and predicate necessarily related to one another without contradiction. It has to be perceptually self-evident. So examples would be up is not down, black is not white, in is not out, right? Something that's immediately perceptually obvious, self-evident to you. But here's the problem. If you think about it in the context of the declaration of independence, that doesn't quite hold, right? So the declaration after the opening clause, we hold these truths to be self-evident, then lays out four truths, which are said to be self-evident, right? That all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among which are the rights to the life of everybody in the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. And then the fourth truth, which let me just, for the sake of your audience, let me just, I haven't quite memorized it. It says that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form that the rest of them shall see most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Well, obviously, that fourth self-evident truth and the third self-evident truth are not self-evident. Well, but even the first one is not given slavery, it certainly is not self-evident. Well, it could be potentially self-evident if understood philosophically, right? If you just take the idea all men are created equal, right? You can interpret that in such a way that it kind of sort of comes close to being a self-evident truth. The second is much further away from the strict technical definition of self-evidentcy and the third and fourth clearly are not self-evident. So the question is this, I mean, the question that I really spent a lot of time thinking very hard about is, well, what did the founders mean by self-evident? Well, it's also important to understand and most scholars of the Declaration of Independence forget and don't, everybody focuses on self-evident. Nobody until my book, until the chapter in my book on self-evident truth has focused on the idea of truth, right? What did they mean, which I think is the much more important concept. What did they mean by truth? And it's important, particularly in the context of the world in which we live today because it is said, as you know, that we live in a post-truth society, right? The founders, the founding generation had a completely different understanding of what truth is. Truth denotes a relationship between an idea in the mind and an objective reality. And that meant that truths, they believed in the possibility of truths that was objective, absolute, certain, permanent and universal. That's the first thing to say, which means then that the principles that they are establishing in the Declaration of Independence are not principles that would have been true only for 1776, but not in 1876 or in 1776 or in 21st century America. They believe that their truths were true, period, right? All right, now, we hold these truths to be self-evident. I mean, if you just parse the words of the sentence, it's, this is a fascinating problem. Well, who is the we, right? Is it Thomas Jefferson and the other four committees, the other four committee members drafted the Declaration, including John Adams and Benjamin Franklin? Did it mean the Continental Congress which signed the Declaration? Did it mean all of the American people, right? So then you ask the question, well, how could these truths be self-evident to all people? And then what does it mean to hold these truths? Sorry, so I don't wanna go too far into the weeds on this, but here's my bottom line position. Is that the American revolutionaries expanded the original understanding and definition of what self-evidence was. And what they argued was you begin with a foundational, even self-evident truth from which then you can carry forward with that core idea deductively principles which naturally issue from the core fundamental truth. And so the four truths all work together logically, right? From equality to the revolution truth. They all, the second, third and fourth truths, yeah, follow logically from the first one. And I think what ultimately what Jefferson was saying in the Declaration, but he said, we hold these truths to be self-evident. I mean, I think those truths, self-evident truths were self-evident to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams before they became self-evident to ordinary everyday Americans. But once those truths had been discovered and stated as they are in the Declaration of Independence, then they can become self-evident to those who then read those truths. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of the stare, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist brought. Using the super chat, and I noticed yesterday when I appealed for support for the show, many of you stepped forward and actually supported the show for the first time. So I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing, then I appreciate your support. Those of you who don't yet support the show, please take this opportunity, go to uranbrookshow.com slash support or go to subscribestar.com uranbrookshow and make a kind of a monthly contribution to keep this going. I'm not sure when the next...