Senior Leadership Northeast Minutes from November 17, 2009

The November 17, 2009 meeting of Senior Leadership Northeast was convened at the Colleyville Chamber of Commerce building at 9:00 AM by Chairman Ed Havran.

 There were nine (9) individuals present representing four (4) Northeast Tarrant County cities.

 Alison Venhiven, Director of Communications and Public Relations for the Chisholm Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross addressed their current activities including transportation.  The Chisholm Trail Chapter is one of seven Red Cross chapters in the nation that provide transportation for seniors and disabled persons.

             WHEELS is specifically funded by the Red Cross and provides transportation for medical and social needs.  Does receive some partial funding from agencies.

NETS covers seven cities (Bedford, Euless, Grapevine, Haltom City, Hurst, Keller and North Richland Hills) and receives funding from those cities.  NETS works in cooperation with The T and services are prioritized medical, work and then social.

MITS is The T’s Mobility Impaired Transportation Service and serves Fort Worth, Richland Hills and Blue Mound.  They contract with private companies and WHEELS to supplement the service.  They prioritize medical and the city has to be a member of The T to receive service.  It also can be hard to schedule your return trip.  You can call the Red Cross to schedule.

 They all try to pair the same drivers with the same clients.  The city decides the cost.  There is a definite need for a central dispatcher to coordinate.

 The Red Cross also performs Fire/Disaster Assessments-determines needs

People are on-call 24 hours/day (shifts).  They respond to 1-2 fires per day usually at night.  The academies support the fire teams, the Red Cross supports the families and emergency personnel (Disaster Action Team, Van Comfort Kits)

 The Services to the Armed Forces Program is offered by every chapter.  They work with the area bases and transfer messages from deployed personnel and pay the costs to get deployed personnel home for emergencies.  These communications are delivered around-the-clock, 365 days a year.

The Red Cross also conducts First Aid and preparedness classes, CPR, AED, babysitter training and pet first aid.  They also promote swimming safety and lifesaving.  They are chartered by the government to respond, but they are not a government agency and they receive no funding from the government.  They receive around 30% of their funding from the United Way with the rest from donors, gifts and events.  The Chisholm Trail Chapter covers 23 counties (not Dallas) and has 83 staff members and 900 volunteers.

 The November 3 election results were discussed.

 Rebecca Barksdale from Commissioner Fickes’ office gave a report and some early survey responses from the Empowering Seniors 2009 Conference and Expo.

 Suggestions for programs in 2010 were discussed.

 The Grand Re-Opening of the Southlake Senior Center will be on December 15.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:37 AM.  Next meeting will be December 15.

 Respectfully submitted,

 Rebecca Barksdale