COA meeting Wednesday March 11, 2026
The meeting was called to order by Rachel at 3:00pm
Attendees: members Rachel, Diane, Kelle and Donna 
General Business: A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of February 11, 2026. 
Scheduled Future Activities:
Foot Clinics: Continue to go well- will continue this program with a $20 voluntary co-pay for those who can afford it. 
Walking Club - to continue indefinitely as long as weather permits. Only about 3-4 members continuing weekly. 1-1.5 Hour long from 10am-1130am. Continue to be advertised in Goal Post. Walkers have signed liability release forms. Walking club was offered as a free activity to the Heath COA
Bowling club- COA members passed a vote to allocate $1,500 from the budget to subsidize bowling for residents in the fall/winter/spring. There is about $450 left out of this budget and once it is run out then residents will have to fund themselves if they wish to continue. The Bowling was offered as a paid activity to the Heath COA.
Drop-in Coffee/Puzzle Hour: Will be every Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-12. Donna and Rachel periodically check the area and clean up and buy half and half for fridge. Folks have come in sporadically to work on puzzle and get a coffee but not necessarily during the allotted time period.
Third Thursday Coffee Morning March: Meg Ryan coming to speak about Alzheimer’s and dementia. Diane and Donna to bake.
Exercise Class with Deb and Rachel: To start Monday, April 6th and run all Mondays in April and May except holidays. From 1130-1230 and will incorporate cardio drumming, weights, stretching, yoga, finger yoga. Utilization of TV programming/classes. NO sign ups required. Will pay Deb $25/hour.   
Third Thursday Coffee Morning April: Happy hour at Rowe camp from 4-6 and Henry Dandeneau to lecture about deer. Rachel will shop and get chips/dip, crackers, fruit and/or vegi platter, Donna or Rachel to get sparkling N/A wine or seltzers. A flyer to be made and put around town. 
Third Thursday Coffee Morning May: Mystery food event (tasting or cooking demonstration)- Kelle to brainstorm ideas for this. 
Third Thursday Coffee Morning June: Medicare talk or TBD
July/August: Senior Picnics with/at park- dates TBD. 
Summer Social: July 11th at Park from 10-2. COA to host/organize a cake swap again. All members okay with not providing food vouchers this year (unless a senior is in need) and to spend money elsewhere.
Yoga and bone building with Kate Peppard: Kelle brought a proposal from Highland Yoga, Kate Peppard who’s contract with the Park will be no longer after June 2026. The proposal was to continue working with the Town (possibly through the COA) with 1 of 3 options
1)	Weekly classes via zoom- live- $60/week
2)	Monthly classes via zoom- live- $85/month
3)	Video recording- not live- $250 one time fee
Kelle will speak with other surrounding towns to see if they would be interested in splitting the cost with us if they would like to use the service. We will come back to this by May. 

Future Activities in the works (but getting close):
Magic Wings Butterfly Garden: organize a trip using carpool, but COA pay for entry fee for seniors. To organize for September or October! 
Grant from Lifepath: 
We need to develop some programming to use the television. BJ suggested showing the zoom broadcast of Kate Peppard’s yoga class, but the consensus seems to be that people have been doing it at home so much that they would not come out to do it in the fitness center. 
Road Scholar offers some online travel lectures, BJ will look into other programs that we might host during the week- this will be more of a fall/winter/spring activity.
Rockwell Museum Trip- post-poned
Mohawk State Forest- Post-poned
Potential future activities (but still being brainstormed)
•	Holiday Snacks (healthy)- demonstration how to make healthy snacks for the holidays. Putting together a small (easy) cookbook or folks to take home. 
•	Community Welcome Guide: idea brought forth to provide a guide to the area, services, maps, things to do etc for new seniors/residents in town. May be a multi-committee/board effort. Includes local food, shopping, fun/outdoor, handman, medical care, park maps. BJ will create a Google Doc to start adding ideas to this. 
•	Rowe “Village”- a spin-off of the ‘Village” that was set up in Shutesbury, Leverret and Wendell, providing free services /rides to seniors in town. Pre-reg/appointments would be required. Services include handman work, gardening, assistance with household chores, grocery shopping, rides/med rides etc. This is a very large undertaking requiring a lot of research- we will follow up on this at a later date. 
•	Paint and sip- Donna to look into this for the winter- may be a zoom event, possibly paid for in part by the cultural council. 
•	Positivity Speaker- ? Richie Davis who was a community journalist and author. GCC or Rowe Camp may have suggested speakers- will look into this at a future time. ?Cultural Council to pay for this with grant money. 
•	Pet talk- getting a local veterinarian/retired vet to come and chat about pet safety/health/ answer pet questions.  
•	Suggestion Box- It was discussed to put a suggestion box at the Town Hall entrance and in the Library for the seniors/community members to make suggestions of what activities they would like to see or topics they would like to get more information about.  
•	Check-in communities/Buddy system- Household groups of 3-4 would combine to make a ‘pod’ and check-in on each other at least weekly in whatever way suits them- Ie. Text, email, phone call, in-person, social media, etc. The COA would then do a matching process and create the ‘pods’ after sign up is complete. This is voluntary and people/households would be able to add themselves to the pods or discharge themselves as they desire. This will be tabled for the future due to lack of interest/confusion. 
•	Handy Person List: live Google doc still being added to, but there is enough contact details to get the list into the community. We are unsure of the logistics of putting this list out to the public- this is tabled for now.
Other Business/MISC:
Next meeting is Wednesday April 8th at 3pm.
Meeting adjourned at 4:00pm