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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutesCity of Oshkosh Community Development Department Senior Services Division Oshkosh Seniors Center 200 N. Campbell Rd. Oshkosh, WI 54902 Mark Ziemer (920) 232 -5300 (920) 232 -5307 FAX Director, Senior Services CENTER BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE OSHKOSH SENIORS CENTER MEETING NOVEMBER 30, 2009 PRESENT: Claude Benedict, Don Christman, Bob Cornell, Ellen Hofeldt, Judy Pierson, Ralph Nielsen, John Hauser, Barb Goldthwaite, Don Wolter, Judy Troudt, Toni Anand, Dale Sonnenberg. Donna Pipkorn EXCUSED: Dennis Penney STAFF: Mark Ziemer, Director of Senior Services, Gerry Haverty, Office Assistant, and Jason Hubbard, UWO student intern Meeting was called to order by Ralph Nielsen at 1 pm. President Nielsen called for approval of the October 26, 2009 minutes. There was a motion by Bob Cornell for approval of the October minutes. It was seconded by Judy Troudt. The motion was then carried. CORRESPONDENCE: • None to report. FACILITIES COMMITTEE: • Don Wolter said they are still waiting for the city electrical department to put in a light at the flag pole. • Mark reported that Laurin Hoffman, our maintenance person is scheduled to return back to the Seniors Center the middle or last part of December. • Don reported that they reviewed some major maintenance items. He went on to say that he and Dick Kempinger had done a full building evaluation four years ago. • Don said the he had volunteered to get some interior design help. • Mark said that he has found one building evaluation and will make contact with Don. FUND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE: • Judy reported that the committee had a great meeting. Dale had a speaker Eileen Connolly - Keesler come to the meeting. • Dale said he had talked to Partners in Recognition located in Ohio. This company had done work for Bethel Home, Humane Society and the YMCA to mention a few things that they have done in the Oshkosh area for recognition of donations. • Dale has also talked to a couple of local venders. • Dale did go on to mention that there is a charge for their services. They do come and work with your organization on a design or idea that fits our wishes. • Oshkosh Trophy did the work on the recognition wall at the Seniors Center. • Dale was asked a question if Eileen was very receptive about the Endowment Fund. She talked about the Friends Endowment. Dale did not have an exact amount of what is in the Friends Endowment at this time. Donna Pipkorn would have more information on that amount. He went on say that Eileen would be willing to help us put a pamphlet together for people who may want to bequeath money to the Seniors Center. • Don Wolter said that he got at least nine different agencies asking for money, none were from the Seniors Center. He questioned how we can get money when no one knows we need it. • Dale said that we need to lay out a pamphlet of different plans that lets people have a chance to either give to the Seniors Center, Endowment Fund or other ways they would like us to use the money they are giving. We need to educate people, starting with this committee. • Don Wolter said that most people think because we are part of the city that we do not need funds. People need to realize that we need donations to keep up our programs and projects. • Bob Cornell said that he had asked many questions on different ways to get funding for the Seniors Center and Eileen had some great ideas. • Mark informed the board that we did a mailing last year. Some board members said they did not get a letter for a donation. Mark continued to say that we have made out a new mailing list which would include all the boards and persons from other mailing lists. • Donna Pipkorn suggested that both the Friends of the Seniors Center and the Seniors Center Donation letter should not go out at the same time. GOVERANCE COMMITTEE: • Bob Cornell reported that they had met on the second Monday in November. • Bob said that the evaluation questions were put back on their agenda. • The forms will be given out in the spring of the year. • The committee decided not to have a meeting in December. The next meeting will be held January 12, 2010. COMMITTEE ON AGING: • Claude Benedict said that they were going to have a speaker. Mary Kay Rathe was going to be the guest speaker. She is the Senior Connection person at the South Facility. • Winnebago Commission on Aging had their last meeting last week. The county has come up with a new agency called ADRC (Aging & Disabilities Resource Center) which will have some of the same board members but there will be new board members. • CWAG (Coalition for Wisconsin Aging Groups) has a new director. • Claude talked about a new program called Gatekeeper. The committee is trying to get more information on this group. • 211 is a information line that people can call to get information. This is a state wide help line. FRIENDS: • Donna Pipkorn reported that they were not going send out there fund raiser notice so there would not be two donation appeals at the same time. • Donna went to report the foundation money is starting to come back. $216,000.00 at this time. This year they are going to take money out of the fund. This would be 4 %. She did not think that the money in the fund was for programs. • She thought that someone was going to the Fond du Lac Senior Center for information. She reported that Fond du Lac has 2,000 members and city of Fond du Lac only pays the directors and assistant directors' salary The December Newsletter has a full page for people to fill out and send in their money to be a friend • The tours are not filling up very well. She said maybe people just do not have the money to spend on trips. • She reported that the candy and chips that they sell out at the Friends desk is bringing in a nice amount of money. • Mark went on to comment that he had met with Tom Spanbauer after he had talked to the Fond du Lac Senior Center. The friends pay for 4 or 5 part time staff to help run the day to day programs and operations. These people are hired by the Friends. • Mark talked about the master plan. If city budgets run the about the same at 0% increase. The City of Oshkosh will not be happy if we need to have more staff to run the programs for the increasing amount of seniors. We may need more help from the Friends. • Donna said that when she had been to the Fond du Lac center is not as nice as our center is. • Bob Cornell asked Donna about the Winnebago Tours if they are a part of the Friends. Donna responded that the tours are not separate from1 the Friends. Tours have their own meetings. At these meetings they decide what trips they are going to take. The tours needed more insurance at one time and that is how they became part of the Friends. The tours do give the Friends money once a year. They do keep about $6,000.00 for operating cash. • Bob asked how the schedule and days for the trips were made. He was upset that they had booked a trip for a Sunday. • The tours will have to start paying Wisconsin taxes after the first of the year on their tours and meals. This is being handled by the Friends accountant. • Claude Benedict questioned again how many members belong to the Fond du Lac Senior Center and how much do they charge for a yearly dues? Mark responded they charge the same amount that we do. Mark also replied that he would like to talk to their director and get more information in the near future. • Donna said that you can pick up a newsletter at many places in Oshkosh, why would anyone pay to have it mailed. • Mark commented that he has used the word membership, it is not a membership it is being a friend to the Seniors Center. We need to get the word out about what we have at the center. • Bob Cornell went on to say we need to get everyone together. All the committees so we are working as a team and not independently of each other. • Bob wanted the date of the Friends of the Senior Center meeting was going to be held. He wished to attend the meeting and the date for that would be December 17 th DIRECTORS REPORT: • Mark reported that they are starting to do the H1 N1 flu shots in the schools. • Mark feels like it is more of a 50 -50 on doing both jobs. He has had to work with the higher administrators of Affinity, Thedacare, and Aurora in setting up the larger immunization centers. Your federal tax dollars are paying for these clinics. City Health Department will receive 100,000.00 to deliver these vaccines. • Mark is pleased that he has had this contact with these other agencies. This will help with the programs that Molly, Judy and Paula do here at the center. • Mark passed out a draft of the letter that we are mailing out at the end of the year for our Annual Appeal. • Linda Verwiel is taking over as Volunteer Coordinator to replace Julie Zuleger who resigned to take a full time position in Fond du Lac. Mark will be looking at filling the position of Marketing Coordinator which is 18 hours a week. • At half day conference at the Expo Center, attendance was down a little bit. That committee and the Committee on Aging are thinking of bringing back Living in The 2000's. This would be a full day conference October 5, 2010. Living in 2010 to be held at the convention center and hotel. This is whole day conference with speakers, break out sessions and food. Mark encouraged the committee to get involved with this conference. • Winnebago Caregivers Coalition Judy Ritchie and Mark put together a grant from GWAR (Greater Wisconsin Agency Resource) they received a grant for $5,000 for the conference and also there was $1,000.00 left from the half day conference that is going towards the conference. These funds could be applied to getting a great key note speaker. • There was another meeting for CHIP (Community Health Improvement Program). The program meetings have been held here. Paula and Mark are there to make a point about the doubling the amount of seniors. • Wisconsin Association of Senior Centers is where our accreditation is through. We need to go through our accreditation again 2010. Mark will be asking for help in the future to do this project. • Veterans Day Recognition was held at the North building. Men's group cooked a wonderful breakfast. We had the Y -NOTS from the Neenah YMCA came and sang. Some of the chorus members dressed in uniforms from all branches of the military. • Mark would like us to think about other ways to get people to come to the Seniors Center. • Ralph suggested that maybe we could video tape some of these events and play them on Senior Savvy. Mark would like to find someone to partner with to do the taping of these events. • Title Five Senior program. Ken Gams was hired through this program to work afternoons in the North Building doing maintenance. • Judy, Molly, and Mark had a good meeting with Janice from the Oshkosh Public Library to continue partnering with them with programs for older adults. Programs like Money Matters. Part was held here and part was held at the library. • Option for Independent Living. This is a not for profit program to make persons able to stay independent for a longer time. This program has been here at the center before to demonstrate what is available. We plan on bringing them back on a regular basis. There main office and demonstration facility is next to the Green Bay Technical School. Mark encouraged if you are in the Green Bay area to stop and take the tour of that facility. • Mark is still with Leadership Oshkosh. He shared that they had a government day with this group. They did a role play of the council meeting. Parts were assigned. • We have wireless computer connection in the South Building. Mark is working with FVTC to possibly get wireless connection in the North Building. Wireless capability will allow us use from our lap top. Take all the pictures download them and then we can set up a slide show. • Wii systems are up and running. There are many games that can be done with this system. A suggestion was made that maybe we could put something in the newsletter and set up times that people can come and learn how the system works. • Mark would like to have the committee keep thinking about the parades. We were in the 4 of July parade but missed the Christmas parade. Mark would like input on this idea. Really need a WOW factor. • Mark wanted to inform the board that he purchased an older van from the city. The cost was either one or two hundred dollars. This van was used by the meter maintenance person. This would be to haul large items. Insurance would be about $400.00. Ellen question who would be able to drive this vehicle. Mark said he was checking with the city on who may be able to drive the van. OLD BUSINESS: • None NEW BUSINESS: • No meeting in December. Dale question where the money that is donated is going to. He also questioned about the mailing list. Time would be well spent going over the mailing list. Cindy Glatz is compiling the list for the mailing. Should board members and other committee members be getting a newsletter mailed to them? Ellen commented that if a person becomes a board member or committee member that they were supposed to be a Friend. This was encouraged but not required. Donna reported that their recruitment for Friends is in this months Newsletter and all a person has to do is fill out the information mail it in or come to the Friends desk and pay the yearly donation to be a Friend. Mark said that there needs some work to be done on a Friends recruitment letter. Ellen questioned if all participants of the Seniors Center were on the mailing list? Mark suggested that in the future that a Friends Recruitment letter could go out with the city water bill. There will be no Fund Development meeting for the month of December. Mark went on to thank Jason Hubbard, who was our intern this semester from the UWO for all his help. CONTINUING EDUCATION: • January Mark will have the quarterly reports. ADJOURNMENT: Motion made to adjourn Claude Benedict and a second by Judy Troudt that the meeting be adjourned. Unanimous motion carried. Respectively Submitted Gerry Haverty Office Assistant