Orleans Group Coordinator’s Report
Our group has been meeting now for almost two years. We have been meeting regularly every Thursday – rain, shine or snow. The number of attendees has been as high as 25 although the number of regular attendees is somewhat smaller.
Regular features of our meetings have been Tea, chit-chat, socializing and Yoga. Every last Thursday of the month, we have a pot-luck lunch, which is sometimes held as a picnic when the weather is nice. We also have frequent visits by health experts who advise us on various aspects of healthy ageing, nutrition, etc. We also have some talented people who enliven the meetings with their singing, poetry, jokes, etc.
Last Thursday (April 11, 2015), we spent a good deal of our time discussing how we can reach out to more people and increase the attendance at our meetings so that we can serve our senior community even better. Several suggestions were made, and I would like to share them with you all. Please do give us your feedback. I would especially look forward to any suggestions from our women members as we may not be fully reflecting their needs and concerns. The following are some of the suggestions that were made last week:
- In addition to our monthly pot-luck, we should try to have a catered lunch every second Thursday. For this, it would be necessary to have a contribution of $5-7 for each participant. We can also invite friends and families of members on these occasions.
- Once a month, we should celebrate with cakes and candles the birthday(s) of all those whose birthday falls in that particular month. We could also invite the families of those whose birthday is being celebrated.
- At least once every month, we should have one of our richly endowed members to speak on a topic of general interest — social, historical, cultural or current events.
- We can have a library of books and music where people can exchange books and music with each other. We can keep them in a bin to be kept under the tables where we keep our stuff now.
- It was suggested that we should endeavour to be more environment-friendly and bring our own plates for our pot-luck meetings. Amrit Khosla offered to bring plates for those who cannot bring their own as long as they are rinsed before returning.
- It was also suggested that we should have information on the next of kin for everyone in our records in case of emergency.
Please review these suggestions and give us your feedback. Thank you.
Nand Tandan
P.S. Next Thursday’s (25th of April) meeting will be held in the room diagonally across from our regular room as the regular room is unavailable on that day.