<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Update on Senior Center Board meeting June 29, 2012<div>Briefly, Occupy Mendocino was told that our rental fee for meeting at the Senior Center was increasing from $20 monthly to $100 monthly ($50/meeting), which we cannot afford. In order to get clarification, many of us attended their monthly board meeting last Friday. </div><div><br></div><div>The first agenda item was Audience Comments and several of us spoke. We said we came to give a face to Occupy Mendocino, that we're almost all seniors, and consider the Senior Center part of our community. We're a nonpartisan organization working to better the living conditions of all people, including seniors. We were there to clear the air and clarify the policy for renting spaces. </div><div><br></div><div>It became apparent that they don't have a consistent policy for renting spaces. Some groups are sponsored projects of the Senior Center (i.e., knitting group, exercise group), some pay according to the space they rent (i.e., by size), others like Soroptomists, Rotary, pay other fees. Occupy Mendocino doesn't fit into any of these categories and there's no consistency within Senior Center guidelines. Much of the renting of rooms is at the discretion of Charles Bush, director.</div><div><br></div><div>What came out were two issues: First, one lunch hour, someone asked people to sign a petition to make Fort Bragg a foreclosure prevention zone (a petition we generated at OM) and the Senior Center got negative feedback about "being political." The board also mentioned getting negative feedback in the past because someone wore a button with her name and had added something like "a proud member of the Presbyterian Church."</div><div><br></div><div>Although Bea Erickson, founder of the Senior Center, was an activist, the current Senior Center has changed the focus within the center, not wanting to anyone to be "uncomfortable" in any way. I always thought being "uncomfortable" was a good thing. It's good to have our comfortable patterns jiggled a bit. It seems that only basic care, food, transportation, and entertainment are encouraged.</div><div><br></div><div>Secondly, the Senior Center is around $40,000 in the hole financially and has been told to increase their income.</div><div><br></div><div>The board seemed to be of two minds: several members are progressive and support OM and other members are conservative and don't support OM. One board member said that they need to work out consistency regarding renting rooms and perhaps can come up with a dollar amount that can be subsidized by OM folks volunteering at the Center as the Center needs both more income and help.</div><div><br></div><div>Attending the meeting appeared to be helpful to both Board and OM members. </div><div><br></div><div>At the end of the 30-minute Audience Comments time most OM members left the meeting. Claire and Linda stayed for another hour of the meeting. At the end of his financial report, Charles Bush reported that a non-OM member had approached him, said he heard of the problem between the Center and OMers, and offered to pay the Center the going rate, for OM, for the next three months, until the matter was settled.</div><div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div style="font-size: 12px; ">Does anyone know where we will be meeting this coming Saturday?</div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; ">Onward,</div><div style="font-size: 12px; ">Linda</div></div></div><div><div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div style="font-size: 12px; "><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>