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Home My WebLink About2007-12-04 Regular Meeting GRAPEVINE SENIOR CITIZENS ADVISORY BOARD MEETING AGENDA Tuesday, December 4, 2007 — 2:00 PM (iire Grapevine Senior Activities Center 421 Church Street Grapevine, TX 76051 817-410-8130 1. Call to Order 2. Welcome Guests 3. Consideration of minutes for October 2, 2007 meeting 4. Citizen Requests 5. New Business a. Housing Authority update — Marian Nicastro b. GRACE update— Pat Frosch c. Senior Activities Center update 6. To Do tor 7. Adjourn IF YOU PLAN TO ATTEND THIS PUBLIC MEETING AND YOU HAVE A DISABILITY THAT REQUIRES SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS AT THE MEETING, PLEASE CONTACT THE SENIOR ACTIVITIES CENTER AT 817-410-8130, AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS WILL BE MADE TO ASSIST YOUR NEEDS. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TEXAS GOVERNMENT CODE, CHAPTER 551.001 et seq, ACTS OF THE 1993 TEXAS LEGISLATURE, THE BOARD MEETING AGENDA, WAS PREPARED AND POSTED ON THIS, THE 30th OF November 2007 AT 4:30 PM. Kaye ayson, Director Grapevine Senior Activities Center GRAPEVINE SENIOR CITIZENS ADVISORY BOARD fie Minutes of December 4, 2007 Meeting Page 1 of 3 1. The Grapevine Senior Citizens Advisory Board met at 2 PM on December 4, 2007 at the Grapevine Senior Activities Center (SAC). The following members were present: Dick Guckel — Chairperson Tena Burrell —Co-Chairperson Paul Ernst Pat Frosch — Ex-officio, GRACE Dorothy Kritz— Ex-officio, Grapevine Senior Activities Center Pam Price, Acting Secretary R. Bruce Walters Others present: Kaye Grayson, SAC Director Chris Smith — Recreation Superintendent— Parks & Recreation Ted Ware —City Council Member Liaison Those Not Present Martie Chaplin — Secretary (11W Marian Nicastro— Ex-officio Housing Authority 2. Welcome guests Sandra Millett, SAC Employee 3. Consideration of minutes for October 2, 2007 meeting Minutes were approved without any changes. 4. Citizen Requests No citizen requests. 5 New Business a. Housing Authority update — No Report b. GRACE update— Pat Frosch (1) Christmas Cottage: The Cottage opened today, December 4th. This year 400 families will participate in the Christmas Cottage; in 2006 there were 360 families involved. Perhaps the increase in client numbers is indicative of the increase in expenses of fuel, milk, etc. as well as the numbers of people who have lost jobs or had hours cut back in their jobs. Today the lobby was filled with clients. Christmas distributions will take place on December 19 and 20. The Cottage will remain open through December 20th (2) Pat reported that 390 Thanksgiving baskets were prepared and delivered — an increase in number from last year. When asked, she said that this number included 100 senior citizens (25% of the clients) who received baskets. (r. (3) On December 15th the Women's Division of the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce will deliver Christmas baskets to senior citizens. Their Angel Tree requests are located on a tree in the Community Activity Center (CAC). (4) In discussing the SAC, Kaye said that many senior citizens come to the SAC to participate in the lunch program. It was mentioned that there had been some feedback to a case worker who distributed meals to seniors at their homes. One individual had commented that she felt discouraged that the activities she wanted to participate in at the SAC were too costly for her to become involved. A note from this discussion was that perhaps there is a misunderstanding by some seniors, and it might be feasible to establish some sort of mentoring program for those new to the area or that the SAC might have established seniors at the center offer help and support to them in their adjustment to the Center's programs. Even having GRACE employees relay to their clients a bit of what is offered for seniors at our SAC would be a good approach. Ways of helping establish a goodwill ambassador program were mentioned. (5) There will be several Diabetic Education Classes offered to the general public. One class is at GRACE; another at White's Chapel Methodist Church will be offered in January and later a class will be set up at the SAC. These classes will focus on ways to manage the disease and nutrition among other pertinent topics. It was stressed that one problem that is faced is getting the population needing such a class to become involved. c. Senior Activities Center update— Kaye Grayson (1) Kaye introduced Sandra Millett, a SAC employee, who is the instructor for the Center's Quilting Program that has been meeting each Wednesday for the past two Cpv years. There are four to twelve people who actively participate in this program. They range from inexperienced to very skilled quilters. The participants are currently working on a project to complete two quilts for a raffle that would benefit the SAC. The plan is to place the quilts on display at a public location in the city such as at City Hall during Main Street Days festival. The money collected from the raffle of these two quilts as well as from a silent auction for two other quilts will hopefully bring in $2000 that could be used to purchase four or more wheelchairs at $79-99 each to be used at the SAC for evacuation drills and other emergency situations. Another purchase would be three small portable sewing machines (purchased from Sewing World) for approximately $500 to be used at the Center by the quilting class. A storage unit will need to be purchased to store these items at the SAC. (2) Kaye mentioned that the winter computer class schedule has been printed up and will be available at the SAC as well as placed on the City's website. She commented that Grapevine citizens are given priority when scheduling the classes. Registration will be Monday, January 7th, with the first classes beginning Monday, January 14th. (3) On Wednesday, December 5th Zanda Hilger will present a program, "Eldercare and the Holidays: Balancing Priorities" at the Community ActivitiesCenter. Tena Burrell said that she will also be there to offer support for Zanda. (4) Returning to the issue brought up in Pat's report about the orientation of newcomers to the SAC, Kaye said that generally the staff takes them on a brief tour around the Center and answers their questions about programs the Center offers. They are given the SAC calendar, membership information, schedules for the computer classes, crafts, etc. During this discussion various ideas were brought up—touching base with these newcomers by telephoning them, encouraging them to eat in the Cry dining room, working to improve relationships between the more established Center participants and those who are new to make them feel welcome. The attendance count is reported on a quarterly basis; it was noted that attendance fluctuates due to (lw events such as vacations, weather, etc. (5) Chris had no report to share, but he and Ted Ware both commented that they saw an immediate need for purchasing the necessary wheelchairs for the Center—that Chris would talk to the Parks and Recreation Department about making this purchase an action item. He felt this situation could be managed within the department. Sandra said that she would send Chris information on the websites that she has researched on the wheelchairs. The Center wants lightweight, specialty chairs whose purpose would not be for daily use. They would need to be easily stored and in good working order. 6. To Do None 7. Adjourn Moved to adjourn, seconded and approved. The meeting was adjourned at 2:52 PM. Res ectfully submitted, it itrytJ /6112A-EA Pam Price for Martie Chaplin (1111r ' Minutes approved by the Board on jam. day of Com. ,c. Lex. € 2) 208 r Li