Minutes of the December 14, 2009 Staying Put Board Meeting
A meeting of the Staying Put Board took place on Monday, Dec 14, 2009 at 4:30PM
at the New Canaan Library. Tom Ferguson called the meeting to order and welcomed
Tom Turrentine onto the Board.
Jane Nyce gave her operations report. SP has had almost One Thousand service requests
this year, three times the number in 2008. NB: because of the SP volunteer drivers
(who exude charm and warmth) more seniors feel secure enough to give up their licenses.
Board members were asked to thank Kay Luff for her terrific letter to the Advertiser,
which was great publicity explaining how much help SP was during her recent surgery and
ensuing physical therapy. The SP Newsletter was mailed out Dec 14th by bulk mailing.
The New Canaan Community Foundation has given SP a grant for Jane and Donna to attend
the Aging in Place conference in DC next fall. Fundraising from the fall appeal has raised
over $85K with 58% of the donors being first-time donors to SP. This is considered to be a
direct result of all the personal notes written by the Board.
Membership renewal notices were sent to 150 households the week of December 7th, and we
already have 5 new members this month, with 56 renewals. The renewal number is a key measure
of our success. Brochures to encourage membership were distributed by Meals-on-Wheels with
each food delivery in November, and brochures were distributed at the New Canaan Sewing Group
sale at St. Mark's in December. Jane will give her "pep talk" to the Senior Men's Club on
January 8 and another one to the New Canaan Sewing Group later in January. The Membership
Committee will hold meetings at Cobbler's Green in January and at Orchard Hills in February
to encourage people to join SP. Please encourage anyone who lives in these condos to attend
the informational meetings. Jane reminded us that it is thanks to Ellie O'Neill and her one-on-one
approach that SP met the goal of 200 members in 2009. People join SP because of word of mouth more
than for any other reason. It is time for an updated brochure with new pictures and new testimonials;
we will wait until after the Board retreat on Jan 30th to be certain the mission statement is up-to-date.
Please refer to Jane's report for a list of upcoming events and please remember to bring 12
cookies to the Congdons if you're attending their December 20th carol sing and cookie exchange.
The holiday lunch at Judy Bentley's has over 30 people signed up. The Annual SP Birthday Frolic
is on Jan 10th at St. Mark's, and will have some kind of musical entertainment from either the
High School or the Middle School. Board members are also threatening to perform a skit. It should
be noted that this is a party, not the annual business meeting which is held in May. Bill Sessions
has volunteered to be the Master of Ceremonies again.
Jim Hollyday continues to lead the volunteer drivers, who take SP members to everything from hair
appointments to medical tests in neighboring towns. The number of requests for rides continues to increase.
Each SP volunteer driver develops a personal relationship with the passenger, and this is one of the
important aspects of SP. Molly dePatie continues to fill almost every time slot in the office with a volunteer.
Barbara Johansen and Jane held two sessions in December to train volunteers how to tend the SP office while
Jane and Donna are out on visits. There were 22 trainees in all, but SP still has another 10 or 12 who will
do the training next time it is offered. Katch Cerow and the Mailing Committee have helped with mailings
whenever the office has advance notice. There will be a coffee to thank all the volunteers on Friday,
December 18th at 10 AM at Lyn Chivvis' home. Each volunteer will be given an angel ornament, because
that's what they are: angels! We hope they will bring their angels to the Birthday Frolic where we expect
to give out many more angels to those who couldn't make it this Friday.
David Brown reminded the Board that anywhere Jane goes, her positive vibes draws people to her.
She and Donna have the versatility to enjoy the entire diverse group of members at SP. Each member
is fortunate to have contact with these two gifted women.
Much publicity is planned for January: articles include the One Thousand requests, the January 10
Birthday party, the January 13 program at the Historical Society and the two new SP Board members
(Lois Sandberg and Tom Turrentine). Tanis Erdmann reported that the website gets approximately 10K
hits a month, but only about 45% are authenticated users, mostly from the US but over 500 hits come
from all over the world, including Romania, Russia, Australia, Germany, South Korea, and even Kenya!
The average visit lasts 3 minutes and the top pages viewed are about the Board members, the upcoming
events, our services, testimonials and the Newsletter.
The Board will have its retreat on Jan 30 at St. Luke's School from 9:30 to 4:00 PM. Rogers Harper
and Lee Barnes will lead the retreat. Please be advised that there will be advance assignments - as in,
"HOMEWORK" -for this retreat. Many thanks to Annie Cohen for getting St. Luke's for this important day.
Respectfully submitted,
Lyn Chivvis, Secretary to the Board
Call us at
203-966-7762