Okay, tonight is uh June 24th uh 1926 2026 uh and we're here at 53 starting our meeting for Commission on Senior Living.

And um so tonight we've got I want to just do a little bit of review and sort of an update on all the things that we've been working for and toward.

And so uh I'm gonna get started by just saying at our last meeting, which was not a public meeting, we had a conference for our members of our senior commission, and we came up with um some of our priorities for um the AARP uh plan for um action plan to submit to um AARP.

We were welcome, welcoming our speaker that did the commission, and that was uh Phil Anderson who conducted our our uh meeting.

And I also want to recognize um Dave Sanders, who's in our our um audience, and Dave, you'll you'll know why Dave is here in just a little bit when we talk about our conference for the fall.

Some of you might have met Dave last year because he sort of took over for me when I was unable to go to the conference, and he also covered a lot of the registration, which he's been assigned to do that again this year, and so we're welcoming Dave, and we'll be talking to David a little bit later as well.

So I thought we would get started with number one.

I think I'm gonna talk, I'll do the the uh fun things first and the easy things first, and then we'll get into our action plan and go through some of that.

What I'd like to accomplish tonight is that we get that action plan sort of in uh a little bit in final form so that we can get it signed by the the mayor and get it submitted.

My goal at our our conference was to have it approved by this time, but we're it's it's much bigger project than we thought, and so we'll but it's it's on its way.

It has already been handed to the uh marketing department with the city, and they are working on putting that into a form in which it will be a booklet form, it will have our application, it will have our results of our survey, and it will also have our action plan.

Um and it will be in booklet form, it will be full of pictures and um illustrations.

So it's gonna be a I think you're gonna be pleased with the report when it comes out.

I think it'll be really thorough, and I think it will be a document that can be used throughout our in our commission as well as other um committees here in the city.

And I also think that it will be something that we'll use as we go through this whole process.

Um and as um John is not with us tonight, but he's on transportation, and he's already accomplished a lot of things with transportation.

Uh so as we finish projects and things get completed, we can also put that in our plan of action, and at the end of our three-year evaluation period, we will just be able to submit that to ARP and keep right on moving.

As well as when uh there's we have new members, or when we have new committees, or those kind of things, we can just keep moving.

So Phil, I was I'm gonna sort of let you after our our conference, Phil and I met several times to try to formalize our report.

Um do you have any opening comments, Phil, that you'd like to make?

Well, yes.

Uh and thanks for the opportunity to uh be a part of this planning process.

Um I think the thing that button on the microphone is there.

Right here?

That one.

Okay.

Um of the theme things that we had to look at with the AARP framework.

Um is it treats communications and information as a separate sector of the community.

And that just from uh from a uh from my experience, that doesn't work because every thing that we do requires communications and information.

And so it becomes more of a hub rather than a sector of the community.

And so whether it's housing or transportation or whatever it may be, those are community sectors.

And uh so we're looking at how we attack the communication and information, but it's gonna stand it doesn't stand alone, it stands in the middle.

It it can connects everything together, and that's a little bit different approach than the way AARP does.

And we think we can we think it will be more effective for how we're trying to do that, because we can have the greatest programs, the greatest sectors, we can have everything happening, and if nobody knows, it doesn't matter.

And so that's we're we're fashioning the report.

So as you go through, as we go through and you look at the very uh ex sectors, we kind of set we set that aside and said we'll we'll handle communications and information, but not yet.

It'll get there at the end, but um we're looking at a little bit different approach because we think it it will work better for our community here because we have so much stuff.

The question is how do we communicate it and keep people informed?

Okay, okay.

Yeah, and I think we we changed some of the um titles a little bit just to be a little more clarified.

And if you look at the report that I sent you, um we took each let me let me start by saying the the areas that we identified in our conference or in our retreat was housing, health services, education, transportation, communication, and outdoor.

And so what we what um Phil and I tried to do was to narrow in on those, and there's still a little bit more of work that we need with education and probably health services, because those were a little bit I've still got to develop those a little more, but we tried to include our top our priorities and some of those other things that will be later on, we're at the toward the back, and we're left blank a little bit so because we're gonna fill those, those are our priorities.

The first the ones that we identified at our conference were really the ones we're gonna focus on the most.

Those other ones will come along and be a part of that as we move through this process.

Um and what we try to do as well is to develop for each one of those areas.

We tried to develop subcategories so that everybody was filled following the same same yeah, the same uh format.

So and one of those were, and and I'll go through those, and those were the vision.

What does this group what that's the housing group see as their vision?

What I took the research findings strictly and word for word from the the survey results that we had so that they we knew what the research findings were, uh what the recommendations were from the reason from the report, and then what were our tactics, and this is one of the things that we'll be working on.

What are the tactics?

What are we gonna do to see if we can achieve that?

And sometimes you know, those are subcategories, and yet they have some more information that we need as to why we're zeroing in on that, and then um each each one of those sections, and then we had potential, I said a potential assessment partners, and that's gonna be our stakeholders.

What other people can we involve in this process so that we we get their input as well?

Because we got a lot of good resources in the committee, we are in the community, and we don't have them all on the committee, but we want their input.

So we have potential assessment partners, then we have the metrics and the outcomes, and that's gonna be how do we measure whether we're accomplishing what we want to accomplish, and then of course the last thing is communication, and that's a big one.

That's a big one.

That's what Phil was saying.

We're gonna have that sort of as a hub of all of those things.

How do we get the word out as to what we're doing with that?

Um so what I did was try to go through each one of those areas and try to at least begin to identify those five steps or four steps that we had.

Does that cover it?

I think is there questions?

Are there concerns or any suggestions as to how you think we could do this?

Or how we could improve this report.

Okay, so those um so we'll what I'm doing is continuing to work on this and getting it finalized.

I have a meeting with the mayor within two weeks so that I can present this report to her and get her input input as well.

Um it was my goal to get your input first, and if there's any additions that we need to consider, um be willing to do that.

So knowing that I will be meeting with her and get her approval or her suggestions, and then I'll probably come back at the next meeting and have a final approval from both the mayor and for us, and then we'll be pretty ready.

I think you're gonna be really um enthused about the format of how this booklet is going to come together.

And I think it's gonna be something that we can use for for years to come as well, and girl, and and develop on that.

Phil, do you have any um other comments from your work with us on the commission?

Uh a couple things.

Let me see if I can pull up an example.

Um of the things, one of the care areas that we talked about, and we haven't changed the title of this yet, but the recommendation is it's gonna be transportation and mobility, because it's because otherwise we get transportation includes infrastructure and all kinds of things that a city deal city or a or region deals with, and that's not what we're talking about.

We're talking about transportation as relates to seniors being able to navigate and live here, and so it's it's a lot about mobility and access.

And so we're that that'll be captured in the in the in the report.

Another one is come on.

Okay.

So another one is entrepreneur is work and entrepreneurship.

And that is not a category that uh AARP has.

Again, it's it's just maybe it's semantics, maybe it's not, but we looked at it and said what peep what people want to do in the civic space is it it may be uh volunteerism, but that's different than work and entrepreneurship.

And they don't clas they don't classific by entrepreneurship.

We're talking about people who are who are doing this for work to make money for sustainability, or they or they've got a building business they're building, and and that's there, and uh it can be it's about commerce and all those things, and we felt that it felt better that that whole civic side of volunteerism fits in some other categories, and so we retooled it to be about work and entrepreneurship.

Um it's okay.

So we changed this one into uh community engagement.

And community engagement, you can see there's lifelong learning.

That was a key part that we liked, um community service, civic participation, um, volunteering, all those kind of things are community engagement.

How do we step out and be involved?

And so we're agreeable grabbing some pieces and parts to make that fit a framework that we think works for us.

So there's a few pieces like that.

We left out outdoor living and amenities, we kind of left that alone.

Um when you have something that gets nationally recognized all the time, don't mess with that.

Find ways that we can take advantage of it, but we're not presenting it that way.

Um it's those kinds of things that we're trying to make it so that the words are right, the uh direction is right, and um, and then we can put all the elements that you talked about, but each category in there.

So that's a little bit of the nuance that we've tried to capture that.

And I think we also um put in sustainability and emergency preparation because um you know there's a lot of things that are going on within the city, and I've had a lot of requests for older people who are having trouble with when the weather's really bad or tornadoes or um cold weather and what happens to our older people during that time.

So I think we sort of added that one, which was in addition to ARP because we felt like that was really a need, and we've got that fall prevention program through the fire department, so I think we added that one a little bit too so that we could include.

And so it became, you know, there were originally the AARP had nine eight domains.

We we added one, we took one away, but we added one in.

Yes.

Um the good perfect example is Cleveland.

Uh that's a one of the places that we looked at.

And Cleveland has Lake Erie, so they always have issues with the winter time.

And so we're saying, okay.

So what happens here?

And uh can people get around, can people do the are they stranded?

And so uh if we were in uh South Beach, that wouldn't be the issue, but here it is.

And so we are we're making and with Tor with the weather we've had, um what happens?

And we would need we need to be prepared for that kind of stuff.

So that's a domain we've added.

Yeah, and our seniors really want that.

I mean, they really requested that, and I think that's something that we ought to look at.

And even though ARP sets up some standards, they do give us the you know, they allow us to make some changes according to our city, and like I've said, I think Carmel is well ahead of a lot of areas that ARP has identified.

So we need to take it one step further and go forward.

So that's what we will we'll try to get this finished up, um, but I want you, and as as you look at this document and have any other suggestions, please feel free to, you know, I want your input as well.

Any anything that we've overlooked or forgotten and didn't get covered in our on our conference, let us know that you know we can add to this.

Um I think the uh and I think and we'll get the mayor's input too, but but it's coming along, and we'll get that done, we'll get that submitted, and I think we'll know something, you know, fairly fairly soon, hopefully.

Any other questions on our on that uh action plan?

I will say, and John isn't here tonight, I thought he was going to be back from vacation, but he's been on vacation, so maybe he's stuck someplace.

I'm not sure.

But um I'm gonna give you a short report because his is his was transportation.

Oh, and I know I I know what I wanted to say.

If any of you are interested in one particular area of this report and say I want to do more work, um, let me know, because I'll just give it to you and say go, you know, because um so if there's anything that you really find interesting that you'd like to do.

We're not gonna have I my target was to have it approved by ARP by 4th of July, but I don't think we're gonna make that.

Um the mayor's been on vacation as well, so it's been uh we've had a couple little things that have slowed us down, so it will be closer to fall.

But I think um Kate, didn't we have a sort of a date that we wanted the final report to be completed?

I think we talked about that.

The fall, early, early fall, early fall.

But we'll still be working on all these things as we go.

It's not like we're not gonna be working on each of these areas as we as we proceed.

And um Carol, the other thing is if it's really done right, it becomes a document that at every at every meeting.

It's like, oh, that's what we're gonna talk about.

And what's on what's driving the agenda?

There shouldn't be an agenda separate than this.

And so it becomes a loving living document to go, well, let's move that.

It's not a priority now.

It was, but it is, but it was, and then you find these other things that uh it's moving, we need to move that, and so it becomes the living uh living document to to for this uh for this advisory.

Well, I I think we can use it very on a daily basis and say this is what we're this is what we're trying to do, and this is what we've accomplished, and this is what we need to accomplish, and this is what we got to change, and something else comes up, we need to put that in its in its place.

So and if any of you have areas of those interests that you say, hey, I really want to get involved with this, like Anna has gotten really involved in housing, and so she's been um attending those meetings and so forth, and I attended the last meeting of the housing meeting and spoke to them about this, our project.

So I really want to see this committee get involved in a lot of different city or you know, city committees and city uh commissions and so forth.

So if there's interest that you have that you really want to get involved, please let me know.

And Phil, again, I'm gonna thank you for all your work and um helping us get this completed and through the through the hard part here and organizing and helping me and so forth.

So I I thank you for that.

Well, you're welcome, and thank you.

And um okay, so um let's see here.

The next big agenda item is our fall conference, okay.

And that's I know this is July, but um it comes fast, does it not, Anna?

So I have had a great idea for our fall conference, and I have written a proposal.

I'm on it's unfortunate that I can't give you an exact um name some things for the conference in the fall because it's not been quite approved yet, and so it's not published, and I can't do that.

But the proposal is called an intergenerational connection conference, and so um I'd like to partner with someone.

That's what I can't tell you right now.

I was hoping to have an answer by today, but I was not able to do that.

But what I'd like to do is to focus on you know that's one of our goals that we really wanted, and I think we can do it, and I think if we've got a great idea, and if it goes off, it's gonna be fun, and it's gonna be exciting.

Um I was introduced, I read this book several couple years ago, and it's for you when I am gone, and it's about um it's about writing your legacy.

It was written by um Steve Leader, who is a rabbi, and I have been reading and listening to a lot of his stuff on uh he's got some um, he's got some podcasts and different things, and he's very, very good.

So I've reached out to him to be our main speaker.

The reason I like him is because he says that uh we can write our legacy, but really it's the way we live now, and then our young people need to know as they're growing and they're graduating from high school and college what they're gonna do with their life, and they are actually writing their legacy now.

And so my idea is to um, and I don't think any other city has done this.

I have not heard a lot of it.

There's a lot of research going on for intergenerational things right now.

So I'd really like to be able to uh have this conference in conjunction with a partner and really focus on intergenerational.

You know, we've talked about communications within you know, maybe our young people could teach us how to use our cell phones all the time.

So there's a lot of there's a lot of ideas with that.

Um that's why I brought Dave in.

Dave last year, and we're working with the city as to far as getting our marketing out early, and I think that last year we had 175 people attend our conference.

Um, and I think we will it with if we can get this going, I think we'll have more than that this year.

And I think it'll be very, very worthwhile.

Um October's gonna come up really, really fast.

So Dave is and uh Kate have been working on you know getting the registration, planning out some marketing for that event because we're gonna need to get that.

We need to get uh we did get some sponsorship last year.

I've already had someone, if my idea works out that's gonna help fund it, and so I'm we're well on our way, and I think it's gonna be it would be it'll be a great conference.

So if you have here's I've sort of divided it up into some categories.

I feel like I'm doing all the talking tonight.

I do have a question.

Yes.

I know you can't disclose uh the potential partner, but if it's intergenerational, do you plan to have different generations at the conference?

Absolutely.

It'll be um it'll be uh we're gonna have I'd like to have a lot of our young people.

Um I also had I got from um the the uh mayor, we met with let me see if I can find her name.

Her name is Sadie Cohen, and Sadie is running for I hope I say this, I think she's in the Miss Indiana pageant, but she has a she started an organization where she's using music music and dance for older people, and I would like to have someone like her, she will be involved in this as well.

Um and we can just we can have music, we can have I mean, but there's just unlimited things that we could have that to involve young people, it will be both young and old.

Yes, both.

Does that answer your question, Anna?

Okay.

So if you um I I've I sort of broke it down into some categories where I need some help, and Dave will take care of marketing and and um registration.

And last year that was a big problem because our older people, as we know, don't know how to use their phones for wool.

So that should run much easier this this year, and so he'll be helping, and since he's already got a system already in place, and he's all got all the names of everyone that has attended last year.

Who better to ha handle that then?

But I'd like Neoma would like to have you help them with that, okay?

And in marketing.

Um I would like I need some help in establishing our purpose for the uh conference, what we're gonna have, what's what our goal, what we're gonna, what we want to do.

I also would like someone to help with uh since we're partnering with someone, this may mean uh this may mean um contract with them.

I'm not sure yet.

So I'm thinking of someone that would help with that.

Uh marketing and registration.

I would like to get um also a committee or someone involved with volunteers because I think we're gonna need some volunteers and some things that they could do, and that was one of the requests from our survey that they would like to be more involved in things.

So we need someone for um volunteer work.

Um and just maybe the the format, because I'm thinking we're gonna have a keynote speaker, we'll have breakout sessions where we can pair up with some younger people and have some discussions, have some demonstrations on things that they might do, that kind of thing.

Um then of course we always need a cleanup crew because we need to put I think if I got it if if this works out, we won't have to worry about that too much because it will be taken care of.

And then uh I think with evaluation of what are you you did evaluation, I think last year, and and summarize those findings.

So we'll have an evaluation.

So if any of you want to help me with that, you know, or I can assign, doesn't matter.

Sure.

What's the date again?

We're shooting for that's gonna help that's gonna depend with our partner as well, but we're we're thinking um October 16th or the 23rd, I think it was.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm happy to help with the purpose.

Purpose part of it.

Okay.

I'd be interested in purpose as well.

Okay.

And maybe the format.

Yeah, and some of these might I thought about you for the purpose and Dave, okay.

And Dave, I also thought about you with planning, the the actual day.

Okay, sure.

You know, okay.

And um marketing's gonna be a big big thing because we want to do it early.

Want to get pamphlets and things out, and um, and I'd like if you'd help me with contracts and any look all the legal stuff, and I think that seems kind of, you know, and possibly with the evaluation, and there may be some more committees that we need to do.

Hey Carol.

When you consider what you're trying to do with the plan, um the one thing that would that strikes me is how do you get young people to not on their term, not on our terms, but how the have the conversations with them on their terms.

That's a that's a critical thing because otherwise they feel like we're bringing people we're being preached to again.

Yeah.

So how do we, you know, are is there is there a group that you're thinking of, how to identify those young people?

Is it through the schools?

Is it through organizations?

What are you thinking?

I think when the organ when when I get a um when I get a yes from the organization, it's gonna be a natural, it's gonna be a natural combination of that.

So it's gonna be like where where we're gonna be meeting, how we're gonna be involved, lunch, all those kind of things.

It's gonna be a natural, we're together.

And then we're gonna have you know our subject matter.

We'll go back to them and say, what do you want?

Because uh I know my grandson just wrote a big his term paper on intergenerational uh kinds of things, and so those I found that those young people are interested in the elders.

And I think and if I can if we can get this worked the way it's supposed to, it'll be a natural kind of togetherness.

Do we know the location yet?

It'll be here in Carmel, right here in Carmel.

And uh parking will be very easy.

Parking is no problem.

Um the meal will be no problem.

Um there's classrooms.

See, there I just about gave it away, didn't I?

There's areas where we can have breakout sessions.

There are auditoriums, so we've got everything that we need.

We would not have to worry about the numbers because we got plenty of space.

Okay.

Are we do we charge for the conference?

We do not charge for the conference, and our seniors get free coffee and donuts in the morning and they get a free lunch.

Okay.

So do we have a budget for it?

Or is it all based on sponsorships?

So what I d what I have done, actually, Dave, I made money last year because we had some sponsorships and we did not spend all the money.

Okay.

Now it will depend on whether our speaker comes through and what his cost will be.

Last year we spent, we did not have to spend for for speakers because it was all city and people that you know were involved with the city, so that costs us really nothing.

Actually, last year we made a little money off of that, which we're saving for this year.

But um, and Jimmy John's always uh gave us um they gave us a free lunch, three sandwiches.

But if we get a large group, they're gonna probably not give us all of the sandwiches.

So and actually Dave made cookies every year for us that corresponded with our theme.

Last year it was city services, and he did fire trucks, he did um what else?

You had nurses, you had department has and then the year before that we wanted to have a healthy lunch, and so he made cookies in the shape of apples.

Very healthy cookies, very healthy cookies.

And Dave, you've you've committed to this year cookies, right?

I guess I did.

So uh so we have that, and then we usually have a little water and snacks in the afternoon.

So it for our seniors, um they love it.

Anna, I think last year you got a lot of comments, did you not?

I did.

They really appreciated the opportunity and uh just having the conference because it focused on resources, and so many people are just not aware of all the opportunities that they have here in Carmel.

So it was really it was really good.

Everybody, everybody that and I think most of our evaluations came back very positive.

Um the registration process was a little difficult for some, but um, they really enjoy that day because and they get a free meal, and for them that's uh some of them it's a big deal to have you know a free sandwich for lunch.

And so um, so I think and and that's part of the reason I also wanted to have the parade.

I know it's not the most exciting thing to ride the float, but I want our I want our city to realize that we have seniors, and I found I actually found some balloons that say, what did it say, we love our seniors?

Yeah, so I thought that would be fun to have on the float.

So I and and that'll be an introduction to our conference then as well.

So yeah.

And what time is the parade?

It's in the morning, I think 10 45.

Okay.

Okay.

Maybe 11, something like that.

So I'd love to have as many of you that want to do that with us.

I don't know how to do that.

May I turn the screen off.

I don't know if you can't.

I don't know how you can screen off.

It's not you're not on the video.

It's just showing you the feed.

It's just showing for you.

You don't need it.

All right, so um I hope uh I'll tell you what happened will happen.

If I get the okay on all of this, I will send you an email so that you know that this is what we're gonna do.

But I'm very hopeful.

I hope we can do that.

Um and I think we'll have you know, we'll have a variety of opportunities to do different things that day.

It won't just be lecturing, it won't just be it'll be active hands-on kind of things.

Okay, the last thing would be I think um is the parade.

I've got uh I've got a truck and a trailer, and I've got all the decorations, not a whole lot, but a few decorations for the to make a float, and uh some balloons, and just we're just gonna get in the parade and just ride in the parade.

So if you can join us, great.

If you can't, that's okay too.

We'll just get whoever we can, and it's not that much to decorate, so I don't have to worry about that.

And hopefully it doesn't rain, you know.

And it's not a hundred and ten degrees.

Okay.

All right.

That's all the business that I think I oh I did want to.

Let's see.

I just wanted to mention as well that Phil and I met with a gentleman who has got a platform for communications.

Um that we're investigating, I guess.

And so it's something that we could use on, I think like on the city website that will put announcements and things that are happening and weather reports and all those kind of things.

So we've met with him one time and um working on that as well.

So when we're a little closer to making a decision, I'll have him come.

I would um offer as well.

The key thing is it's not designed, it's not a system that is designed to be housed only on the website of the community.

It is if if there's an organization who whoever that organization has, they own their information.

It's not the job of the city to say, oh, we'll take it and we'll share that.

No, it'll be shared, but it comes directly from the source.

And so is that so let's say uh somebody has a uh a facility and they normally have classes and they have a water break, and how do you how do we notify people?

That's not the city's job.

That's what this platform does.

Is it guess who?

If if it's uh my facility, and I'm telling him we don't have classes of the day, who puts that information on?

I do.

Where does it go?

Everywhere.

And so that's that's the that's the goal of the or that's the platform.

But we're gonna do a lot of desk uh discussion with it, and and they'll will involve a lot more people in some of those conversations.

I think that's where our um stakeholders come in a lot too, and who you know wants to be involved in that.

Um I want to give a special thanks to Kate as well.

Kate and I I don't know if all of you have met Kate from the mayor's office, but she's been such a great help to me.

Um so she's been designated as our our contact person and our person that attends our meetings and knows what we're doing, and so it's been so much easier to get things done in a timely manner, and um I'm so glad to have you join us.

Are there any um anything that any of you need to bring up tonight that I have not included?

No, Dave.

This is record time.

I get all these emails that say we only want to we don't want to be there that long, so you know I know I'm very cautious about and and concerned about each of your times, and I appreciate all of your um help with what we're trying to do, and I can always use volunteers, so if there's things uh you want to bring to my attention, make sure you do, and we'll we'll put you to work.

Okay.

If not, um the meeting is adjourned at 6 10, and we'll see you all the next time.