The NEKCOA Hosts Its Annual Meeting

The NEK Council on Aging held a virtual Annual Meeting on November 29th via Zoom. The meeting was open to the public and attended by an estimated 72 people.

The meeting began with a welcome from the Council’s Executive Director, Meg Burmeister and an address from Board President, Anne Steinberg. A new slate of Board of Directors officers was nominated and approved. The officers are Susan Gordon, President; Anne Steinberg, Vice President, Kathy Hemmens, Treasurer; and Kris Lance, Secretary. Hank Cheney of St. Johnsbury was nominated and approved as a new member of the Board of Directors.

A video encompassing testimonials from NEKCOA staff was presented describing opportunities and challenges experienced over the past year. Staff commented on how the pandemic has brought the community and the team at the NEKCOA closer by increasing partnerships due to the inability to meet in person.

“There was an increase in collaboration with our community partners as we came together to meet the significant demands caused by the pandemic,” said Meg Burmeister. Services to manage nutrition and food insecurity, medical care, case management, social isolation, and the vaccine continue to be a priority. The demands of the pandemic forced us out of our individual service silos and created valuable partnerships.”

Guest speakers Laura Jane Ward and Kunal Parikh from Trualta provided an overview of the new e-learning platform to support caregivers which is available 24/7 via any browser or digital device. This new service, open to the public with no charge, can be found at nekcoa.trualta.com.