Minutes 10-09-00 MINUTES OF SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HELD IN
SENI~OR CENTER, 1021 SOUTH FEDERAL HIGHWAY, BOYNTON BEACH,
FLORIDA, ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2000 AT 3:00 P.M.
PRESENT
Betty Collins, Chair
Olive Field
Jeanne Hasty
Denise Chain berlain
ABSENT
Amelia Benell
Elizabeth Jenkins
Bernice Joyce
Christine Wilson
Carolyn Sims, Recreation Supervisor
ALSO PRESENT
Shirley Jaskiewicz, former Commissioner
Peggy Stranahan, former member Senior
Advisory Board
Betty Thomas, Chair of Recreation and
Parks Board
1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG AND MOMENT OF SILENT
PRAYER
Chair Betty Collins called the meeting to order at 3:00 P.M. and led the Pledge of
Allegiance to the Flag, followed by a moment of silent prayer for the seniors of the City.
Chair Collins acknowledged the visitors and welcomed them to the meeting.
2. AGENDA APPROVAL
Motion
Ms. Field made a motion to approve the agenda as written. Ms. Hasty seconded the
motion that carried unanimously,
3. MINUTES APPROVAL OF 9/11/00 MEETING
Motion
Ms. Field made a motion to approve the minutes of the 9/11/00 meeting as written.
Hasty seconded the motion that carried unanimously.
3. CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS
MS.
Organizing the Senior Volunteers
Chair Collins mentioned that she had gotten a letter from a disgruntled person pertaining.
to the lack of organization of the senior volunteers. Some people had come to do a job
and had been told that other people were supposed to do it and instances like this. She
sa'd there were two sides to every story and that she had a productive meeting with
Meeting Minutes
Senior Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida
October 9, 2000
Wally Majors, Acting Recreation Director on the subject of organization of the senior
volunteers.
Chair Collins emphasized the importance of organizing the senior volunteers and
distributed a'set of proposed bylaws for a group she wanted to form for the purpose of
organizing the sen~or volunteers. She stated that a task force had been set up to
consider the best way to organize all the volunteers, not just the senior center volunteers
in general. They would all belong to RSVP. The task force met twice to discuss
guidelines for the project. They suggested the name of the "Senior Volunteers of the
City of Boynton Beach" with a purpose of organizing exclusively for senior volunteers
willing to assist with the City's functions, activities and programs. The membership of
the group would be open to all interested citizens 55 years of age or older, who had an
interest in serving as a volunteer in the City of Boynton Beach. A meeting would be
held monthly at the discretion of the officers. Special meetings would be called to
prepare for special events. The City group in search of help would only have to come to
one group, not to the community at large. The notice of other than regular meetings
would be done by telephone calls and would be displayed in the Senior Center. Chair
Collins said the officers would need to be' appointed based on people who were willing
and able to do the job and then elected in successive years.
Ms. Hasty asked if there wasn't already a specific person paid by the city to organize the
volunteers, for GALA for example? Chair Collins said the Recreation Department
organized and ran GALA. Instead of putting in any paperwork for seniors to volunteer
they would come to our group which would be the core of seniors and they would say
"We need 50 volunteers todo "X". The person taking that information would say "What
do you want them to do?" The largest volunteer group in the City is the seniors. Ms.
Hasty said it sounded like a filtering system and wondered if this wasn't Mr. Steven's job
already? Chair Collins said yeS bUt his job spanned a lot more than just Boynton Beach.
When a person volunteers as RSVP you can say I only want to work at Bethesda.
Suppose an assisted living facility calls and says we are having a function, do you have
someone who can help us? We are talking only about having volunteers for the City of
Boynton Beach functions. This does not mean that the volunteers would only work at
the Senior Center. If someone says they would like to work at the Senior.Center, Herb
shouldn't be the one to schedule people. He makes sure that every senior that is in this
City gets the insurance, which is his number one priority. The Federal Government funds
this effort. Palm Beach County is. number one for volunteers. That is how the funds
come. Our Board is an advisory board so we need to make a suggestion to the City
Commission that we organize the seniors.
At Bethesda Hospital for example, Chair Collins said, there is a paid Director of
Volunteers. Every volunteer who works there knows exactly what to do and when and
where to do it. In our case, if the organization got a call the president would follow the
guidelines. Chair Collins said that senior volunteers had been hurt in the past through
lack of organization. Some of them failed because they were not trained properly.
Some of them signed up to volunteer and were never called.
Ms. Hasty questioned the method by which the new volunteer group would be formed?
Chair Collins said the City would advertise for senior volunteers through its water bills.
They would be invited to a meeting where the program would be explained. Cha~'r
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Meeting Minutes
Senior Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida
October 9, 2000
Collins said that this new group would be under the auspices of the Recreation
Department. Former Vice Mayor Shirley Jackiewicz suggested beginning with the
original list of volunteers. However, Chair Collins believed that they should start anew
since some of the original people had already left.
Chair Collins said the City wanted the senior volunteers organized and that she was
amazed that a City the size of Boynton Beach did not have a database of volunteers.
Also, volunteers need to be recognized for a job well done and this is made easier
through organization.
Ms. Carolyn Sims asked if they would work with Herb Stevens, the RSVP representative
at the Senior Center? Chair Collins said he represented the RSVP group and not the
City like the Senior Volunteers of the City of Boynton Beach. Every volunteer would
have to go through his office though. Ms. Sims said Mr. Stevens gives out
assignments as well. Chair Collins said he would be part of this and would work with
this group because he represents all seniors in this area, not just the ones working here
at the Center.
Ms. Field said that she picked her own hours and that she worked from 8:30 to 1:30 at
the front desk. Most of the people wanted to work in the mornings. Chair Collins said
people would have to be told, "This is what we need, if you want a different time and it is
not available, you will be put on a waiting list." Chair Collins said when somebody says,
"1 will be free every Thursday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m., that is all that person has to do and
they should feel good that they gave when they could. It was felt that it was important
that vo un.teers commit for specific days and times. Ms. Hasty said you might need to put
a limit and say you can only work three days because if someone worked four days they
would be taking away someone else's position and may overextend themselves. Chair
Collins said that you could try to satisfy everyone but that would never be done entirely.
Ms. Collins also said that it was important to find out what the people who could only
come in the afternoon wanted. Since there was not much programming in the afternoon
periods, perhaps that is when the sing-alongs could be done. Ms. Chamberlain stated
that there had been complaints from people who said there was nothing to do between
12:00 and 1:00 p.m. Chair Collins said the City was full of excellent educators and
business people and that there were many people who would like to show their slides!
We have people who have gone to elder hostels and have traveled.
Chair Collins thought it would be easier on the staff to have a group or person in charge
of senior volunteers because they have the one person or little group to go to. If
someone says someone was not working out, that would be hard for another volunteer
working with her to handle. Even in cases where some people weren't working out it
could be discussed in the group sensitively and in a caring manner.
Betty Thomas said that the majority of the city volunteers had been from the Recreation
Department and had been used for GALA, Black Awareness, family picnics, parades,
and the Easter egg hunt and the volunteer positions had been filled by staff. It would
probably save everybody a lot of grief to have a group dedicated to filling these jobs,
especially if there were some way to have a staff member in charge throughout the city.
Meeting Minutes
Senior Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida
October 9, 2000
Ms. Carolyn Sims said right now Wendy Hollien was in charge of the volunteers and
Chair Collins said she would be on the task force. She said that the volunteers
themselves would have to be part of the City and under the Recreation Department.
Chair Collins also said Wally Majors thought having the volunteers organized would be
easier rather than just having the volunteers for the senior center. Our group would
have a core of volunteers organized for anything the City wanted to do. It was
determined that Wendy Hollien was acting as the "Director" of volunteers for the City (but
not the Senior Center). Ms. Jaskiewicz said it could be patterned after Friends of the
Library. According to Ms. Hasty, Wendy Hollien's sole purpose was to organize the
volunteers and she wondered if she had some guidelines this group could follow? She
suggested asking Ms. Hollien to come to one of the meetings and say what the duties
should be for the people in the group. Chair Collins stated that the volunteers for City
functions were one thing but that the day-to-day goings on at the Senior Center were
another matter and had to be organized and have staff approval, etc Betty Thomas said
that the day-to-day things in the Library were organized. Ms. Sims said that now the
volunteers do know where they work and had been given a number to call if the could
not come in.
Chair Collins mentioned that, as Mr. Majors stated to her, they would be advising the
City Commission that we would like to see the senior volunteers organized. That is all
that we can do. The problem has to be addressed. She said it had not been her
intention to have it under Parks and Recreation. She wanted to have it under the City in
general.
Social Worker
Ms. Jaskiewicz asked if Mae Volen had indicated that it would have someone here in the
function of social worker? She asked if the Mae Volen social worker came to the
Boynton Beach Senior Center? Ms. Sims responded that they did not have one. Ms.
Chamberlain said staff said it was not in the contract that they provide a social worker.
The City could provide a social worker and that is the main thing we need here. The
group then discussed the social worker that was coming to the Senior Center and said
that Mr. Lulkin was calling him a caseworker. They believed the HMO was paying him
and staff is having him come in to speak. The group said that they didn't want a
salesman. They wanted a real social worker, funded by the federal Government. Ms.
Sims said she would check into it and if it wasn't right, they wouldn't have it. Betty
Thomas said when the Senior Center was drawn up they put in a place for a social
worker and asked what happened to that? Chair Collins said Mae Volen wanted to run
3t and we did not want that. They wanted this to be a satellite of Mae Volen. Chair
ollins said it had to be a City project.
Everyone agreed that getting a social worker was a primary goal of the Senior Center.
Funding and Grants
Ms. Jaskiewicz said it was disconcerting to her that they did not get enough money from
the Federal Government. She knew that there was a lot of money available. She said a
lot of lobbying was needed and that this Board needed to participate as well. Ms. Sims
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Meeting Minutes
Senior Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida
October 9, 2000
said she, Debbie Majors and staff had gone to the session and had made a presentation
and learned later that they had not received funding. Ms. Jaskiewicz said the Board
needed to go as a group, have signs, and make a lot of noise. Chair Collins spoke of
Mr. Majors' offer to give the Senior Advisory Board transportation to go to any lobbying
activities that may be required. The next date for funding is sometime in January 2001.
The Senior Center should have its request in by October and it should be sent to
Senator Ron Klein. Ms. Sims said she would check out the dates. Ms. Jaskiewicz said
this Center was serving all the seniors of the County and deserved a piece of the funding
p~e. Chair Collins said to get money you had to Drove the need and you had to have
your request in on time. Ms. Jaskiewicz said you had to make a need very compelling
and in this case it is the social needs of the City. She suggested using the proposals for
the future that were already prepared and saying that they could not do them because
the building was not finished.
The group discussed the fact that the Senior Center was not a multi-purpose center but
was more centered on recreation and that this hurt its funding opportunities. Ms.
Jaskiewicz said the other kinds of programs were what made ~ae Volen eligible for
funding. She suggested the group have Octavia Sherrod come in and outline the
funding possibilities available through her organization. Things have to be scheduled
regularly at this Center to show that they are serving more needs than .lust recreation.
By now we should be doing some of these other things.
Chair Collins said she hoped one day the Senior Center would have its own bus. Ms.
Jaskiewicz said her intention had been to have all the seniors together having lunch in
one place. Someone said the reason the seniors go to Boynton Bay on the Mae Volen
bus is that they don't have to pay the $1.00 on the "shopper hopper" bus to go home.
Ms. Jaskiewicz said she thought Mae Volen asked for a contribution for the bus also.
She said wanted to see the Senior Center have its own bus.
Chair Collins said she saw in the paperwork that the Area Agency on Agency handled
the Federal funds and that was needed. They also needed the gravy that came from the
legislative body. She said a mailing had to go out. Wally said Debbie Majors was doing
all of the work for the grants. She is the one that would have to be responsible. Carolyn
Sims said she would have Debbie Majors call Chair Collins. Ms. Sims said the focus of
the grant request was transportation and a handicapped van.
The board discussed the idea of donations from area businesses and how business
Usingd°nati°nSa "TreeC°Uldof Life".be recognized in the newspaper and in the Senior Center, perhaps
Ms. Hasty asked if somebody was writing up a program and she wondered if they were
going to get it in on time? She thought the group should work on getting their trip
together now. Chair Collins remembered organizing the renters at Boynton Terrace.
Tl~y called a television station because the landlord would not do anything. They stood
out there with signs and they got what they wanted. Ms. Chamberlain said they would
only have a chance if the grant were to be put in on time. It was reiterated that Chair
Collins would have to look over the proposal too to make sure it was inclusive. Chair
Collins agreed that organization needed to be done for the January legislative session.
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Meeting Minutes
Senior Advisory Board
Boynton Beach, Florida
October 9, 2000
She will also speak to Debbie Majors about it and call people. She affirmed that this
would be for the following year's session as it was already too late for this one.
Chair Collins said that what they have at Mae Volen is an executive director who is a
paid overseer. They have a Board of Directors who are big City people. If there were
anyone in the City who would take on the Senior Center and be its Director, it would then
come under the City. We need that paid person.
Ms. Chamberlain said Herb Stevens came up to her when they were having a line dance
class and he said it was ridiculous because he could not hear on the telephone. She
told him that it was her belief that the needs of the Senior Center came first. Everyone
agreed that she was correct but thought that the City Hall in the Mall would be a good
place for Herb and that he would be able to promote the Senior Center from that location
better than where he was now.
4. ADJOURNMENT
Motion
At 4:15 p.m. Olive Field made a motion to adjourn. Ms. Hasty seconded the motion that
was carried unanimously.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Collins --
Recording Secretary
(one tape)
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