HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-07-11-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
( ^ Minutes of the Meeting of July 11, 1983
Present Steve Baran, Judy Zabin, Roberta Black; Howard Reynolds;
Guests, David Enman and Astrid Kasangian of Enablement
Committee; Jim Crain, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen
and Liaison to the Human Services Committee ; Eileen White,
former member of the Human Services Committee
Meeting with Jim Crain
Jim Crain saw no impediment to officially making the Enablement
Committee a subcommittee of the Human Services Committee with David
Enman, Chairman of the Enablement Committee emphasizing the intent
of that Committee to work in partnership with the Town Mr. Crain
saw no conflict of issue problem Should funds be voted on for
disabled activities, subcommittee members would desist from voting
should they be full members of the Human Services Committee.
Interviewing of candidates to the Human Services Committee to bring
its membership up to its full complement will be carried out by
the Selectmen with input from the Human Services Committee and will
be completed by Labor Day
There will be an effort made in the future to alert the Committee
when final decisions will be discussed on the part of the Selectmen
regarding appropriations recommendations of the Committee As to
better preparing the Town Meeting members on the issues behind
these recommendations, this issue should be discussed with that body.
Mr. Crain, however, recommended issuing a report at the beginning
of the year rather than at the time of Town Meeting in order to
obtain maximum exposure while making use of the Minuteman and other
media
Eileen White, speaking for the subcommittee on elderly, felt that
a message had been given to its members to "tread lightly" and
not ask too many questions or seek a departure from previous year' s
funding patterns Mr. Crain thought that this may well have been
a function of a lack of professional leadership of the Council on
Aging since a professional manager would be more accustomed to out-
side bodies asking que ,tions.
A letter will be sent to the Town Clerk informing her that the
Enablement Committee has been made an official subcommittee of the
Human Services Committee.
when asked for a reading on his impressions of the Human Services
Committee Mr. Crain commented that he fiewed favorably the
Committee ' s creativity, especially in locating new sources of
funding, and its ability to draw the line on funding decisions.
The public was more prepared to accept such an action from the
Selectmen when their action was backed by an advisory committee.
The Committee could be especially helpful to the Selectmen in
acting as an early warning mechanism since it had the potential of
being on the leading edge of new developments in the community
Human Services Committee, Meeting of July 11, 1983, page 2.
Minutes of the Meeting of June 27, 1983
Stan had suggested that the $1,000 be spent from Mystic Valley on
developing "performance" indicators, not "meaningful" indicators.
Contract with Mystic Valley
Steve Baran proposed that the $1,000 be devoted to MVMHC allocating
ten clinician Hays for consulting on forthcoming cable television
series being sponsored by the Human Services Committee on family
issues. Howard Reynolds felt that this use of monies, particularly
in a time of fiscal stringency and after the Committee had voted
against Mystic Valley funding, might be misunderstood by the public
and considered frivolous. It was decided instead to ask Mystic
Valley to persevere in its intent announced by Richard Weiss at the
last meeting of the Human Services Committee to operationalize goals
and objectives of that agency and tell the story of the services it
provides to Lexington residents Steve will draft a contract that 1
he will distribute for comments to Richard Weiss and members of the
mental health subcommittee.
Enablement Committee Report
The Access Study is proceeding with considerable participation by
volunteers. High school students under the leadership of Alan No-
vember will be getting credit for their participation during the
coming school year with the results of the Aceess Study first put
on word processor and then reproduced for mass circulation.
Minuteman Press may be approached for help with the latter or the
printing might be done directly by word processing. Steve Baran
thought the same approach might be used for data collection and
reproduction of a resource directory. In both instances the
computer would allow continual updating.
Allocations and Prioritizing
Steve hopes to have a United Fund representative (staff and/or
volunteer) come and speak with the Committee regarding the United
Fund methodology for prioritizing, evaluating, and recommending
funding.
Charitable Trusts
The Committee was informed that theTrustees of Public Trusts had
approved the recommendations of the Human Services Committee for
Cooperative Elder Services ($2, 500) and Choate/Symmes Hospital
($900) but had questions about Sing-Along-Chorus and the Home-
sharing Program It was agreed that it would be constructive to
meet with the Trustees at an early date.
Next Meeting The Trustees are not prepared to meet with the full
Human Services Committee, but they would like to meet with its
Chairman at 7 30 p.m. on August 15. The Human Services Committee,
therefore, will meet on August 15th at 8 p.m. in Room 01.