Minutes of the June 14, 2010 Staying Put Board Meeting
A meeting of the Board of Staying Put took place on Monday, June 14, 2010 at 4:30PM at the New Canaan Library.
Tom Ferguson thanked Judy Schurman for the great party on June 6 at her lovely home. Tom announced that Kit Devereaux and Lee Barnes are the new heads of the Membership Committee.
Donna Simone announced that SP has 4 new members, and she asked that we encourage them all to use SP's services. We now have 22 scholarship memberships, which is 10% of the 214 household memberships. Service requests were similar in number to past months. The June 27th Jazz 'Til Sunset party has 65 people who have sent in their checks, with 10 more who have signed up. This event can hold at least 150 people, so everyone should bring their friends.
John Engel will discuss with Events Committee heads the possibility of SP co-sponsoring the Rotary Club Lobsterfest. The Lobsterfest is held in September at the New Canaan Historical Society. Rotary Club has 45 members, 20 of whom are the target audience for SP. Approximately 900 meal tickets are sold at this event.
The beautiful new brochure will be sent to the printer as soon as a final picture is chosen for the last page. The SP office telephone number will be put in a prominent place on the back of the brochure. SP will order 2000 brochures, so there will be plenty to pass around. Tom and the Board thanked Arthur Congdon for his help with this project.
Upcoming events include the June 27th Jazz 'Til Sunset party and the Bluefish Baseball game on July 25th in partnership with the Senior Men's Club. Be sure to bring the kids to the baseball game. Of course there will be hot dogs and beer. SP will carpool to the baseball because the cost of a bus was $600. Bartenders for the June 27th Jazz event will be John Erdmann, Jim Nyce, Bob Witt, and Ro Ogden. Gatekeepers, to help people if necessary to the Erdmann's lawn, will be Tom Towers and Tom Turrentine.
The Development Committee has decided to use the challenge grant of $10,000 from FCCF in the 2010 October appeal. Two hundred more names have been added to the 1000 name database. New Canaan has 6000 households, which means that SP sends appeals to 1 in every 6 households. A capital campaign and a legacy campaign have yet to be launched.
Tanis Erdmann reported that publicity has been good this month, with the Healthy Aging article on "Keep Your Feet Fit" in the Advertiser, the News, Patch and an announcement on Channel 79. The June 23rd Health Fair event at the YMCA will also be in the papers this week. The Summer Newsletter has been sent out. Pete Stair, who manages the SP website, says that all those reported visits from Russia and Romania last less than 1 second and they are most likely either unidentified search engines or site hacker attempts. We are now using a new analysis engine, Google Analytics, which promises to give more accurate results. A new photo gallery will be put up soon on our website with recent pictures from 2010 in order to avoid duplications of older pictures in our Newsletters and brochure. Please send all photos to Tanis who is collecting them, and she will forward them to Pete who puts them on the website. Since permission is always asked before a picture is taken, no further permission is needed for these photos, but we do have written permission forms to use when deemed necessary, especially with a child in a picture. However, if anyone objects to a posted photo, it can be removed from the website immediately.
The bulk of the volunteer work is in giving rides to members. Eighty-four rides were given in May by Jim Hollyday and his platoon of drivers. Maureen Monroe has been a huge help in setting up rides for the upcoming month. Then Jim takes on setting up rides for the upcoming week. Donna takes the last minute requests herself unless one of the "on call" drivers is available that day. We still must have more volunteer drivers. Jim alone is giving well over 20 rides a month. Bob Witt reminded the Board that the office can also encourage members to use the GetABout. There is also a need for more help in the office from time to time. Men are welcome and even encouraged to volunteer for this fun and interesting job. Sandra Ross has agreed to start calling members to set up a list of neighbors and relatives to be called in an emergency, e.g., the March storm.
The Nominating Committee will meet Thursday, June 17th, and any suggestions should be sent to Tom Towers. There are two slots open now and two more coming open. Since terms are for three years, four to eight Board members are likely to shift off in a given year.
Other business: Tom Ferguson passed along an invitation from Jim Sweeney (whose wife Nadine received much help from SP) to Nadine's memorial service at St Mark's at 2pm June 19th.
Tom reported that the Housing and Health Options for Seniors Development Team has no detailed recommendations as of yet, but that it is clear that New Canaan is very deficient in Senior Housing options. Some communities are better and some are worse. Approximately 25% of the Town's elders leave after retirement. There are 6000 people in New Canaan between 45 and 60 years of age. SP might become a clearing house for seniors who move to New Canaan for better housing.
The meeting was adjourned at 6pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lyn Chivvis, Secretary to the Board of Staying Put
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