COA meeting Wednesday December 10, 2025
The meeting was called to order by Rachel at 3:00pm
Attendees: members Rachel, Diane and Donna 
General Business: A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of November 12, 2025. 
Third Thursday Coffee Morning November: Was Wreath making with homemade wreaths from Carol Lively. At least 6 people who signed up did not attend. Was noted that it seemed less interactive and social then past years (perhaps due to location change to stone church), otherwise a good success. 
Third Thursday Coffee Morning December: No coffee morning- Senior luncheon instead was on December 5th from 12-2 at the Rowe camp. Camp served shepard’s pie, vegan shepard’s pie, salad and desserts. Cost was $25 per person. We had 40 people sign up in advance- only 26 people attended. (4 cancelled prior to event, 10 no-shows). 
•	Discussions had about potentially implementing a $10 refundable deposit for events that are costly to the COA (wreaths, luncheons, summer social meal). It was decided to hold off on deposit for now as it would add another layer of confusion for member (Donna) who would need to keep track of money, who paid, giving money back, etc. It was decided to let people know a ‘cancel by’ date and that the COA has to shell out for these events and to please be respectful of the funding.  
•	Discussions on how to encourage more socializing with unfamiliar people: Earlier ‘start time’ but hold off meal until a bit later (most socializing happened prior to meal), Conversation starting cards, giving everyone a number# and then for dessert need to move to a different table to mingle with other people. 
Dementia Journey Through Lifepath: BJ attended a Lifepath workshop last week on services and programs for families dealing with dementia. They offer an eight week program for caregivers and they said that they could do the program out in the community if we had enough interest. Discussion about if we could look at by pulling in people from Charlemont, Heath and Monroe, and maybe host it at the Congregational Church in Charlemont as a central location. Unclear about amount of interest- Rachel to contact Meg Ryan to gauge interest in other Hilltowns. Will revisit this idea. 

Members noted the activities in Heath (as below) and are willing to try to combine with Heath COA on a number of activities- we will keep the dialogue open. 
In Heath they do activities such as: 
Social Cafe- Saturday mornings drop in that is coordinated with the town library
Senior Room- has coffee, tea, puzzles, games
Brown Bag Lunch- 3rd Wednesday of each month, everyone brings their own lunches and one person from the COA brings a dessert to share. 
Needles Group- 1st and 3rd Monday of each month from 10-12, knitting and crocheting, bring your own lunch
Art Program- 1st and 3rd Monday of each month from 12-3
Men's Group- meet up on Fridays
Christmas Bizaar- December 6th this year
Heath COA meetings- 4th Thursday of the month from 130-3pm, 'Lyra' is the 'senior coordinator' (a stipend position) and is in charge of organizing the activities for seniors. 
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 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 at a previous meeting. Stefano has re-organized this for residents and it will be available on Wednesdays from 3-5pm. There has not been nearly as many attendees (possibly change in day from Thursday to Wednesday per scheduling at bowling alley(. It was suggested to offer this as an activity to the Heath COA and other local COA’s but the residents just pay the $15 fee themselves if not from Rowe.  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 will make sure things are set for Tuesdays and Rachel will make sure things are set for Wednesdays- Rachel will buy a few half and halfs to get us started- will advertise in goal post. Folks have come in sporadically to work on puzzle and get a coffee but not necessarily during the alotted time period.
Third Thursday Coffee Morning January: vision boards- Donna has sorted all items. Diane and Donna to bake for this event.
Third Thursday Coffee Morning February: Puzzles and games!
Third Thursday Coffee Morning March: Sip and paint? Donna to look into this- Or Kelle’s sister Mardi to do a craft?
Third Thursday Coffee Morning April: Meg Ryan to speak about Alzheimer’s and Dementia-CONFIRMED
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 next 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.
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- BJ will get in touch with Joanne Semanie to ask if able to add to town’s website.
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. 
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Other Business/MISC:
Next meeting is Wednesday January 14th at 3pm.
Meeting adjourned at 3:58pm