Meeting minutes 3_14_24
In person at United Way of Mid Coast Maine
Attendees:
Doreen Fournier, Caroline Kurrus, Polly Shaw, Joel Merry, Phyllis Wolfe, Jess Irish, Barbara Reinertsen, Michele Melanson, Susan Ellis, Jim Peavey, Janet Persen, Karin Sadtler
Doreen welcomed us and reported on some of United Way’s programs:
• Midcoast Cash Tax Filing Program for which they had a pilot program last year in Bowdoinham. They plan to expand into other towns in the area. It is a free program for residents with an income < $64,000.
• Community Response program
• Youth and Mental Health (focused on Bath and Richmond)
• Allocation of funding for the homeless (in process)
• Recently hired a director for their homeless program.
• United Way’s Volunteers receive background checks.
• Training program to increase awareness of equity.
Karin and Jim reported on the volunteer transportation program:
• Deirdra submitted our application for the AARP 2024 challenge grant to develop marketing materials and a handbook for volunteer driver training. The budget includes hiring a person/intern for the development of the materials.
• Goal is to develop a process for driver recruitment, for example in this order: application, in person interview, and then as the last step the background check offered at no cost through Bath PD. The subcommittee met with Andrew Booth just before today’s meeting to discuss details and he continues to be very supportive. There may be other steps we need to take, such as out of state checks. More investigation will be done on that. PP has accepted the Bath PD background checks as sufficient.
• Georgetown Rides under the umbrella of People Plus (PP) totaled about 6,000 miles last year. PP accepted our offer of $1500 for 2024.
• AFCLK will continue under the umbrella of PP this year but because we are not in their catchment area, we are also looking at other options. Individual towns may start to offer this service independently from PP.
• Michele suggested that it might be a good idea to capture the quotes from drivers for the website and to use in our social media marketing.
• Doreen: We might be able in the future to advertise this volunteer driver opportunity through United Way (https://www.uwmcm.org/volunteer.html)
Jess and Barbara reported on the progress with the Rack card:
• The graphic design team at the high school did the layout for free.
• What is presented today is not the final draft. The high school is offering the printing for free. We will pay for the materials.
• The primary description of our group on the rack card will be: “We are a regionally active coalition of volunteers who are working to make our communities a place where people of all ages can thrive and age gracefully.”
• Paper and ink used has not been determined. There was feedback from the group regarding the color of the logo, card and spacing.
• The next step is to do a final revision and have it approved by the subcommittee. 500 copies of the rack cards will be printed. We had identified possible locations in the past: town halls, libraries, beauty salons, stores, etc. We may need to provide rack card holders for some of these places. Jim suggested that individuals and a maintenance plan to refill the holders with the rack cards may need to be developed.
Town Hall Forum – Regional Leadership Meeting 4/11 at 4pm:
• People were reminded to RSVP.
• Members have reached out to their communities.
• Karin suggested grouping and sending reminder emails to people with similar occupations.
• The co-chair met with Patricia Oh and Mary Lou Ciolfi to outline the agenda for the April 11th mtg.
• Suggested discussion questions might be: What are we doing well? What is not working well in our communities, what resources would help us to do better?
• Caroline spoke about the grant the Bath YMCA received for developing a healthy aging program.
Library Fundraiser: Spelling Bee is scheduled for May 10 at Maine Maritime Museum.
Michele encouraged more members to sign up for the team. So far, Jim and Susan have indicated an interest.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 Submitted by Janet Persen