SERCCOT Meeting Minutes

October 25,2016

Attendees:

Joanne Laferrara, GATRA; GloriaSaddler, Bristol Community College; Janet Richardi, So Co; Mary Ellen DeFrias, SRTA; Mary Basilone, GATRA; Angie Azevedo, SRPEDD; Sarah Alden, MRC Taunton; Melanie Ramos, Bristol Elder Services; Filomena Tripp, SECIL.

Meeting Minutes review from September:

  • September 2016 meeting minutes were reviewed and accepted by the group.

Welcome & Introductions:

  • Janet Richardi welcomed the group. She alsoreported that Julie Boren, former SERCCOT Chair, was promoted to director of the Southeastern Region at the MA Commission for the Blind and will no longer be able to serve on our committee but will appoint someone to take her place.

Wareham – New Bedford Connection Update:

  • Angie Azevedo said GATRA and SRTA are moving forward with the planning of the new Wareham to New Bedford Route. SRPEDD hasconducted the survey and is now compiling the results. Also, Isabel Graham, a GATRA rider, has interviewed50 ridersto gather information about which days and times that would work best for riders of this new service.
  • Angie Azevedo said that Frank Gay, GATRA’s Administrator, has not yet released a start date for the new service, but expects it to begin in the next month or so.

Ride Match Update:

  • Mary Basilone said the site is ready to launch but was delayed because they wanted to give the RTA partners a final chance to offer suggestions. One suggestion that came up was to break out the state-wide Transportation Provider List into separate regional lists. Then users wouldn’t have to cycle through the whole list to find providers that serve their region.
  • Mary Basilone said that they have created a new 8 ½” X 14” brochure as well as aRide Match magnet promotion for the launch. Each RTA will be responsible for printing costs. GATRA will also be sending out a press release that will go out to the local media outlets.
  • Melanie Ramos asked if they could also create an 8 ½ X 11 flyer that they could send out in mailings. Mary Basilone said she would create the flyer.

Design Thinking Update:

  • Angie Azevedo reported that Rachel Fichtenbaum was not successful in reaching the presenters from the conference where they learned about the ‘Design Thinking’ model.
  • Also, both Rachel Fichtenbaum and Aniko Laszlo where thinking of inviting the Design Thinking people to do a presentation for the Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) so we should wait to see what comes of that first.
  • Angie also brought up a concern about how we want to embark on the process. She was wondering if we should have a focus or some questions that we want to pose to our consumers.
  • Someone else said the process works best when people come from different backgrounds and experiences. This led into a discussion about the newly-formedAttleboro & Norton Social Responsibility Consortium that was started by the Director of the Attleboro YMCA. Angie Azevedo noted that this topic was on the agenda so she asked Janet to provide some context.

Social Responsibility Consortium:

  • The Social Responsibility Consortium was a spin off of a larger community impact consortium that came together to “improve the lives of all members of our community.” This Attleboro Y group decided that they would approach key community leaders and ask them to help withforming area-wide consortiums around Healthy Living and Social Responsibility.
  • Janet Richardi and Joanne Laferrara are both members of the Social Responsibility Consortium and explained that Transportation was identified as one of the critical issues. Specifically, evening transportation to employment and transportation for people with children in daycare.
  • The group leaders felt that if they could get the “big guns” involved in these issues then something might happen to improve transportation availability.
  • Gloria Saddlerwanted to know why BCC wasn’t included in these discussions. She said that issues surrounding transportation have always been a major concern for her students, especially those who need to get to other campuses for classes that are not available in Taunton. In fact, it is such a major problem that she is now building programming to make offerings available in Taunton so students don’t have to travel to Fall River or New Bedford.
  • Janet said she will ask again why BCC isn’t a part of the discussion and will keep Gloria posted.

Marketing Brochures Update:

  • Angie Azevedo presented a draft of the Medical Transportation Guide. She has grouped the services by region instead of town to eliminate a lot of duplication.
  • She will try to present a final draft at the next meeting.
  • There was a discussion about some towns that are not associated with either RTA but are within the Southeastern Region (Halifax, Plympton, Hanson, Norwell, Marion)
  • Melanie Ramos said she could share the Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) by Region map. That way people could begin their search for transportation by contacting one of these agencies.

Newsletter Update:

  • At this meeting it was agreed that we should do a year-end newsletter that would include a summary of SERCCOT efforts but also include updates on significant regional news such as the Ride Match launch, and new GATRA or SRTA services.
  • Mary Basilone will have the draft ready for the December meeting.
  • We will create the newsletter using GATRA’s Constant Contact account.

Other Business: Angie Azevedo suggested that we add “agency sharing” to the agenda so that we can learn what other groups are doing that might be of interest to our members.

Next Meetings:

  • Dec. 13, 2016 @ SRPEDD, 88 Broadway, Taunton, MA at 9:00 am.
  • Jan. 10, 2016 @ Coastline Elderly Services, 1646 Purchase Street, New Bedford, MA at 9:00 am.
  • Feb. 14, 2016 @ SRPEDD, 88 Broadway, Taunton, MA at 9:00 am.