Veterans Advisory Council - Regular Meeting

Bring us to order. Is it blinking? And yes, we're on the air. Perfect. All right, call to order.

Let's start off with a Pledge of Allegiance, please. All right. We have to establish a quorum. We cannot establish a quorum at this time because we need one more voting member. So we will hopefully continue.

But this will not be an official meeting until we have a quorum. Does that make sense? All right. So I will not establish a quorum just yet. We can't approve the agenda because we don't have a quorum. But let's go over old business with the previous meeting's minutes. Quorum. Sweet. We have a quorum. Fantastic.

One minute.

One minute late. That's what I expect from an officer.

It's fine.

Do

I have a

motion to establish a quorum?

I make a motion to establish a quorum.

There you go. Moved well, actually, we don't need a motion for that. But we do we have established a quorum. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda that was posted by the front door? If anybody needs a copy, it's over there. Please definitely sign in so we get class credit for all participation.

I move to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. Second.

Fantastic. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion about the agenda?

On old business I'm sorry. The award proposal. Awards proposal.

Any other discussion? Going once? Going twice? Sold. I mean, approved. Actually, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. I need to start over. Let's start with the pledge

No, of the you got it. Thank you. No, I'm just kidding.

Any opposed? Fantastic.

Motion for approval of the agenda has been approved. Old business, approval of the previous meeting's minutes, those were sent out by Mikayla. And we also do we have copies over there? If not, that's fine. Those are on our website if people need to pull those down. Do I have a motion to approve the previous meeting's minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve.

I couldn't hear you.

Your mic's off. Oh, jeez. I

make a motion to approve.

You don't need a yell? I second it.

Any discussion? The previous meeting's minutes are always fantastic.

All

those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? So moved again. Awesome. We're moving right along to my favorite part of the meeting where I get to talk for five minutes straight. Don't worry. It'll be quick this time. Not really. Actually, wanted to use this time to talk about the Department of Veterans Affairs published an interim final rule yesterday. This is actually important. Definitely hear me out.

Do some research on your own. Previously, court rulings required that the VA to rate a veteran's disability based on their baseline severity, essentially how they would function without medication. Effective yesterday, the seventeenth, the VA will now rate veterans based on their functional impairment while using medication or treatment. If a veteran's symptoms are well controlled by medication, their disability rating may now be lower than it would have been last week. You may say the VA claims that this is actually a court mandated baseline.

There was a bunch of different court cases in the past that made the VA set this as their baseline. The VA is saying that those are hypothetical, and they created this massive backlog of 350,000 claims that are currently on the VA's table right now that threaten the system's stability. I'd argue there's maybe another reason there. Twenty year war could be one of the reasons. I believe our council's mission is to ensure that no wrong door for veterans is out there seeking help.

I think this rule creates a dangerous wrong door as it forces veterans to choose between effective medical treatments and the compensation that they've earned. If a veteran in Frederick takes their meds and feels better, the VA may now use that improvement as a reason to lower their rating. We can't have a system that penalizes veterans for following doctor's orders. This is an interim final rule. While it's effective now, it's in a sixty day public comment period.

Ends April 20. I encourage every veteran or family member to submit public comments. You can go to regulations.gov and reference VA twenty twenty six VBA-sixty seven-one and share how this could affect your day to day life or your family members' day to day life. Definitely do not stop treatments. Just because it could affect what comes into your bank account shouldn't be a reason that you stop getting treatment.

But I definitely urge all veterans to work with their doctor to document any side effects that are coming from these medications. And if you have a pending claim that's currently out there, work with your claims assistant, whether or not it's a VSO, somebody at the state or county or wherever, and make sure that you're discussing any potential functional loss that you're seeing. I wrote all that literally today because the thing came out yesterday. It's important that veterans realize that this literally changed yesterday. We don't know a lot about it other than that.

Go ahead. So it should not affect existing claims. It would be for future claims, and it was been teased for some time now that this was what was coming. It's like the idea that the sleep apnea was going to go down to zero effectively with the use of CPAP machines. It would be more so that you could still get rated. It would just you'd have to have symptoms with medications. So I super echo your sentiment. Do not stop taking medication. It is important for you to do so. And you hit the nail on the head there, which was document the secondary conditions from the medications, because those are all things that can be claimed as well.

So it's not ideal, obviously, but there are still ways around it. It shouldn't be too scary for people. I just don't want to scare people

Sure. About Yeah.

I'm fine with scaring. I'm kidding. I'm not fine with scaring. I just I would like people to know what's going on. I don't know if it's a lighter note or a sadder note or a happier note. Mikayla, our staff liaison, is moving on to different pastures. And so I want to thank Mikayla for the years of service that you've given to our organization. Thank you.

Can I make a motion to deny her request?

So moved. Yeah.

There's no discussion.

Let's jump into presentations. It's the VA, yeah.

Yeah, the VA just made that one pass that.

Set it up for tall people, and we are neither. Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for inviting Transit Services of Frederick County to join you this evening. My name is Jamie McKay, and I am the Deputy Director here at Transit Services of Frederick County, joined by my colleague.

I'm Mary Dennis. I'm the Communications Manager for Transit. So we are going to do our best

to share a microphone and get very tall, but on the off chance that you miss something that we say, please raise your hand or speak up, we'd be happy to repeat it. We do not have a formal presentation. Our thought was to have more conversation about the types of services that we provide, and the ways that we support veterans and our enlisted community members. Who here knows how much it costs to ride transit in Frederick County? This gentleman right up front.

Zero.

It is free to ride. Please raise your hand if you did not know that. Welcome, and I am excited. We have been fare free since March 2020. Can anyone tell me what may have happened in that general time frame?

Oh, woah, okay, excellent. So, what we discovered, what originally started out as more of a mechanism to mitigate safety instances, helped people ride the bus. It's crazy to think that the 1.5 fare was such a significant barrier for our low income residents, our families, our older adults, our people with disabilities, and, you guessed it, our veterans. We've continued to remain fare free through the support of federal funding, which is drawing to a close, and will be hopefully replaced by local funds to allow people throughout our county to continue to access medical services, education, and fun stuff. You can ride the bus to fun stuff, too, believe it or not.

So, I wanted to tell you a little bit about where our bus travels, and Mary's going to tell you a little bit about how you can learn more and try it yourself. Here in Frederick County, we have various fixed routes, buses that travel on the same route throughout the day. We have 15 of those, some serving the city of Frederick and Walkersville, as well as Ballinger Creek, some going to places like Emmitsburg and Thurmont, Brunswick and Jefferson, and Point Of Rocks and Spring Ridge. And remind me how much it costs to ride any of those? Oh, I love this participation, this is excellent.

We also have a specialized transportation option for people with disabilities or older adults. A classified disability can be physical, emotional, or could be something as simple as someone in recovery. So I encourage you to learn more about our Transit Plus service. This is an origin to destination, curb to curb assisted paratransit service for people whose disability or age prevents them from riding our fixed route. So this is especially relevant for our older population and veterans.

Please let us know if you have any questions about eligibility or how to sign up. We do have some information with us today. Finally, we have a taxi access program to supplement our paratransit because we do not operate twenty four seven. For example, we stop running paratransit around five p. M. Each day, so the Taxi Access Program is subsidized by Frederick County, and allows people an additional option travel around the county. So this is another way that we can help support people coming to or from the things that they need to live a fulfilling life. Now, I'm throwing a lot at you. What if you wanted to learn how to ride the bus? Who here has ever ridden one of our buses?

Yeah, yeah, okay. I mean, it can't just be me. We had almost 930,000 trips provided last year. That is equivalent to every resident of the city of Frederick traveling 10 times. It's not too shabby for little old Frederick County. We are hoping to hit a million rides this We need your help to do so, so I encourage you, maybe tonight, let's go out and take a ride. Or maybe tomorrow, I don't know, Saturday looks like it's gonna be nice out at 60 degrees, we have options. So Mary, if I wanted to travel on the bus, and learn a little bit more about the options available to me, what would I do?

You would contact me. So if what she said sounds intimidating, most people see the buses and they're like, I have no idea what to do, have no idea how to read a schedule, you contact me and either myself or one of our staff will go ride with you. So if you have a certain location you want to go to, I don't know if people still go to the mall, if you want to go to the mall, we'll pick a route that goes to the mall. If you don't have a specific location, we'll just randomly pick a route. We'll go with you as many times as you want till you feel confident. It can be individuals. It can be groups. It can be anyone who wants to learn how to ride.

And I see a question. No, sir, you have to actually memorize all of the routes. In case that does sound intimidating, travel training is an option, but we do use things like Google Maps. So, one of the things that people ask is, does transit have an app? No, we use everybody else's, because they're better at it than are. Google Maps allows you to provide travel, driving directions, as well as transit, biking, and walking directions. So I encourage you, when you're not on camera, to go ahead and open up Google Maps on your phone, and try to plan a transit trip. Okay. Well, I can always show you afterwards. Okay.

Yes, sir.

I'm a veteran, and I need a ride to the VA clinic for Dutrix. We can help

with that. That's an excellent question. So, one of the questions we receive often is, transit can't go on post. We most certainly can. A majority of our drivers are ex military, ex fire, ex police. We have a really cool crew of folks, and many of them continue to travel onto the Fort, so they retain their credentials and ensure that they can bring people like yourself to and from appointments. So you would apply for transit plus, you would be eligible. I'm assuming you're not eligible on age, which is 60 or older. Come on, guys. I was waiting for a little bit of a reaction.

Reaction. Thank you. It's been a long day. Anyway, so we will schedule a trip with you, and you can do that whether you're using your phone to call us, or you can go online to a portal that's available 20 fourseven, and you can select at your leisure. So our folks would come and pick you up perhaps here and then transport you to Fort Detrick. After your appointment, they would go on to post and come pick you up and bring you back. It's pretty straightforward.

How many days does one have to alert the transit plus system in order to get that ride?

That's a great question. So we have a lot of folks in Frederick County. I don't know if you guys have seen the building that's happening here and there. The demand on our services more than ever before, especially because it's free. We open up the scheduling portal two weeks or fourteen days in advance so that you have time, especially if you know that you have an appointment, to schedule in advance. Because we're booked so quickly, we do encourage you to do it sooner than later. But in the instance that we can't provide you a transit plus trip, that's where our taxi access program comes in to supplement as an additional option. Somebody ask Mary a question. Come on. Here we go.

For Mary or you, anybody who can answer it. So what about wheelchair accessibility transportation? What does that look like?

So all of our buses, whether it's transit plus or fixed route, have either a ramp or a lift. That's for anyone can ask to use it. And that's for mobility devices, strollers. Yeah.

Okay. Excellent.

I don't expect you to have specific data on hand or in mind. But in general, free to ride as of 2020,

Mhmm.

How did that impact the number of rides that you provided every year?

Oh, you are putting me on the spot. But luckily, I do have some numbers. So in FY twenty one, which encompasses when we went fare free, we had 371,000 rides. At the conclusion of FY twenty five, we had 928,000.

So steady progression.

It has been leaps and bounds. So one of the things I ask is that if you are so moved during the budget cycle, I encourage you to reach out to your elected officials here in Frederick County and show your support for transit. We continue to grow as a county. We continue to have older adults and people with disabilities and veterans who have more specialized transportation needs, and all of that costs money.

So, actually have the breakdown in veterans using the services?

We have a rough estimate, and a lot of it is based off of where they're traveling and the information that they provide us. So, oftentimes, people will self disclose, but you certainly do not have to.

So, do you stay within the county limits, or if

We certainly do.

Okay. I didn't know if you traveled to Carroll County or if in fact you had to go to Baltimore to the VA.

I believe that the health department does have a medical assistance transportation program that assists with out of county. And I do want to recognize that the Maryland Transit Administration travels to Montgomery County as well as DC, whether you're using the Mark train or the commuter bus. So those are additional options. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Come on. I could cite the data. I'm ready.

And I know that this is outside of Frederick County, but do any of those services go to the Martinsburg VA, which is the VA that we use who are veterans in Frederick's County?

I believe that would be a better question for our colleagues who are operating the medical assistance transportation out of the health department because they are not constrained by the county boundaries as we are.

What precludes you from jumping the county boundaries then for, like, going to Montgomery County or Carroll?

That's a great question. So you want to answer this one, or do you want me to talk policy? I'm here for it. The way that the structure of locally operated transit systems is established within the state of Maryland primarily restricts us to operating within the county where we receive funding. So there is the statewide transit administration, which does intercity and potentially interstate to places like Martinsburg. However, we are restricted to operating within Frederick County.

And when do your funds run out for the zero fare?

Certainly. So we are using our CARES funding, disbursed in f y twenty one, and these will conclude on June. Alright. So, the county council has put forth a bill to support the inclusion of recordation tax reallocation to provide for the local match component, which would cover the cost of fares here for our transit system.

So you don't have any intention of going back to a fee schedule?

No, ma'am. We have even removed the fare boxes from our vehicles. Oh, okay. Certainly a strong statement to make, but it is one that we are sticking by.

Okay. Good.

Are you gonna press the gavel?

Any other questions?

Yes, sir.

Certain organizations here in Fairfield County do have vans or shuttles that assist veterans. And I'm thinking, well, why is there a need for Partners in Care, Platoon twenty two, even though they can't find drivers? Bob, can you turn on the microphone? Oh, is it on?

That's the question.

Okay. Is that better? Yeah. Okay. So my question is, I know Partners in Care has a van. They need drivers too, and and Platoon twenty two, has a shuttle, but they are having trouble finding drivers. If they had drivers, why would there be a need for those organizations to provide transportation for veterans if the system is working for veterans to go outside the county, let's say? And I don't know if that's if that's the best question, but anyway, that's kind of where I'm heading.

Yeah. I think you began to answer it for yourself as you thought it out loud. We cannot travel outside of the county. Other nonprofits that provide that can fill that need and address that gap that we are unable to provide, whether it's to the Martinsburg VA or to a hospital of their choice, perhaps in Gettysburg or in Carroll County. We're also restricted by the amount of funds, which is why I did make the ask for those who are so moved to encourage our elected officials to focus on public transportation so that we can better meet those needs.

Fantastic. I appreciate everybody's input there. Thank you so much for coming to talk to us about it. Love learning something every day, and I learned that we have

Free buses.

Free buses. I did not know that. That's awesome.

We'll see you out of travel training.

Yes, absolutely.

I'm sorry. I do have one more question. I know you advertise on the outside of the bus, but do you advertise on the inside of the bus, too?

Yes, we do and on our shelters.

I was thinking about Veterans Appreciation Day or something inside the bus.

Oh, yeah.

One last question, please.

I will note go ahead.

Oh, we did actually do an ad last year for Veterans Appreciation on the outside of our bus.

Yeah. And we do have the ability to highlight things such as Veterans Day on the head sign or destination sign of our vehicles, which tells a passenger where we're traveling, but also bears messages such as my favorite from Veterans Day last year. Our service salutes their service.

It would have been nice to see a 200 birthday Marine Corps on there. That would have been great.

Now, interesting though, we certainly are branch agnostic. At least my grandfather, who served in Korea in the Army, would be very mad at me if I didn't mention that. But we are planning a special surprise for

We are wrapping a full bus for America February. I have not designed it yet, but it's going to be very

cool. Are

you guys a five zero one(three) or are you under the government umbrella?

Are proudly a division of Frederick County government.

Okay. Do you have a phone number for that medical health assistance transportation that you mentioned earlier?

I can get that for him.

Thank you. I was going to say I know that it is available, and I imagine someone is better suited to answer it than me. So we will ensure as a committee that we provide that to the minutes. Okay? Okay. Thank you,

sir. Thank you.

I'll make sure I email it to everyone as well.

Thank you.

That'd be helpful. Thanks.

Any more questions? We can do this all day. I'm just

Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like this is Way to go. Quite the conversation. Thank you.

You are relieved. Thank you.

I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you all. Thank you for everything you

do. We

do have some leave behind materials that we'll place over here with the sign in sheet, which we will remember to sign in as we leave.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'll go ahead and open us up for public comment now. Anybody that has any public related comments?

Good evening, and thank you for allowing me to speak briefly. My name is Darrell Baughman. I am a veteran, and I wanted to announce that there is a seminar that's going to take place next Thursday. The advertisement is out, I'll leave some of this information here. But I'm working with Doctor.

Ariel Jordan, who is a professional therapist for mental health concerns. And I myself am a certified AI consultant. So we're joining partnership to present solutions for our veterans because we're losing twenty two veterans per day to suicide. Now, we believe that number is higher, but that's what they're saying. The times that these veterans need support is mostly in the evenings when you have those episodes, at night when you have those episodes, and there's not a therapist around.

What do you do? Because the key is to get to that next day, and then to get to that next day. So we have some software applications we're going to be training the veterans on. Hands on, not just talking to them about this stuff. Walking them through the process of how to log in, set up an account, work through these software applications to find support during those hours where they can't have a therapist talking to them.

And these applications have been approved by VA, so it's not like we're giving them something that hasn't met the requirements. And with Doctor. Ariel understanding all the different therapy processes and requirements and regulations, make sure that we're giving them the correct information that's going to help them and not hurt them. And I think it's important that we do this for our veterans. I mean, people talk all the time about saluting our veterans.

Well, how about we help them to get to another day? Help them to get to the support they need to continue on, to find a way to deal with this horrible situation. I have a son who has PTSD, who served in the army as well. And when I mentioned to him, he was excited. He said, I've never heard anything like this. And there are definitely late night hours where you deal with these episodes, and there's no one there. And not only can the veterans use this application, but their family members who are there to support them can also use these applications to help them to get through their periods of trauma. So, I'm excited. We only have seats for up to 30 veterans. We're halfway filled.

So if you know some veterans who could benefit, or maybe veteran family members who could benefit, please spread the word. I'm hoping this is not the last time we do this, because a lot of our veterans could use this service. And I'm glad that we're able to join together to give them a quality solution, one that's been vetted properly. And so, thank you for your time. Yes.

So, real quick, where is the event happening, time wise, logistics? And then, how do veterans sign up?

Male Yes. So, it's going to be at the Veterans Support Center.

The Service Center. Service Center, sorry.

And it's next Thursday from four to six p. M. We try to make it towards the end of the day, so if they have work, they can hopefully get over there for this. And what else do I wanna say? How they sign up. We have a QR code on the flyer. You know, you take your phone and you take a picture and it takes you to the link. Or you can go to event gosh, what is it called?

Eventbrite?

Eventbrite? Eventbrite, yes, I'm sorry. See, two minute rounds going off around my head, too. But EventBrite, yes, they can go to EventBrite and look up the seminar and it'll pop up there as Excellent,

yeah, just for anybody who's watching and they don't have the access of the QR code.

Absolutely, absolutely. Any other questions? And thank you for including the flyer on your site. That was very helpful. Thank you all.

Yeah, actually, I'm sorry, I do. Are you willing to talk about what the AI portion of this deals with on that aspect or are you

just So there's several apps. We want to give them general knowledge like ChatGPT, because it can help with all other processes that they deal with in life, right?

I use that mainly.

Most people, if you don't have ChatGPT, you should either get that or Claude or Gemini or something like that. Get familiar with AI. It's here, and it's not going away. And we need to make sure our veterans are benefiting from these applications. But there's also an app that's a PTSD coach, and they can go to that app, and that's the one that gives them all types of support services. But we want to help them navigate that app so they understand, you know, if you're looking for this, this is where you find it, and so forth. Make it easy for them. So when they leave, they'll be able to go into these applications and find what they need to find to help them through the situations.

I was just curious. Was all right, it's on. I was just reading about how some people, like high school kids, were using ChatGPT to talk about mental health issues. And they didn't know how to navigate, like you said. And they're coming up with answers that were not the most productive means. And I was curious how that was working for is this the first time you're doing this?

Is this It's the first time. Yes.

Okay.

And as far as we know, no one else has done this. And I've talked to several veterans who've been out for a while who were thrilled find that this is a capability that they can have in the privacy of their own home, because not all veterans can get out and go and find a therapist and sit in front them. So they can take this app in their own home on their own device and deal with their situation. So yeah, it should change lives.

I just worry about certain age groups that are not going to use this app, and that might be

Yeah. So this particular app, the one that deals with PTSD and mental health issues, you have to sign up and you have to say that you are a certain age and that you, you know, have a situation.

Oh, okay.

And you want help. Yeah. And last thing I want to say about that is not all apps are good for every situation. So using ChatGPT for mental health issues is not the best option. It'll give you some answers, but it hasn't been set for that type of service, whereas in PTSD Coach has.

Sorry.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that everyone remembers that there are 20 fourseven options in Frederick County for people that are in crisis. Those include the 988 call center through the Mental Health Association, mobile crisis services that will come to your doorstep 20 fourseven, and a crisis walk in center if you're able to get there yourself. So I'm always for more resources. But I just want to make sure that we don't neglect the idea that there are resources that are with a qualified crisis service staff, including clinicians and peer recovery specialists in Frederick County 20 fourseven for us.

And that's great because this is not the only solution. It works with all the other solutions, give them just another option. So thank you for sharing that. And I was not aware that they had door to door 24 by seven. So I'll make sure we mention that at our seminar.

I will say that I'm more apt to use an app because I don't I would feel like a burden to somebody else, and I don't want that. Like, I want to be able to use it anytime, and I don't want to feel like a burden to somebody else. So that would be more beneficial to me than 98.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And if I could just piggyback off of this, this is personal. I have known Darryl for years and years and years. He is a Frederick icon. So whatever he does is golden. So I just want you to know that I just support Darryl. And any way I can, I will? When he told me he was doing this, I was just so ecstatic. Because as Jay said and Darryl, that there are many resources out there and not one size fits all. And this is just another way that people can get help. So thank you, Darryl. Thank

you. Anybody else? Yes, sir.

A few announcements, but then to help Daryl. Daryl, your information is located on the veteran services website with the registration. So anybody who hits their calendar can pop into your facility and register. To answer Garth's question, yes, this is AI. There is a per in person session called reboot that is now in its third iteration.

They have they had 12 the first time, 18 the second, and now they're up to 25 individuals in the class. And let's just say this addresses the needs of the more senior individuals in this service who are much more familiar with talking to people in person as opposed to navigating on a computer. And this will not be the last one, again, held through the auspices of the Veterans Service Center. Okay. A few announcements.

On the February 28, the Veterans Service officers sponsored by the state of Maryland will be moving their location from the Veterans Service Center into the DMV. This is part of the statewide movement to place the veteran service officers in the DMV in each county so the veterans know that no matter what county they're in, can go to the DMV and receive the services. Apparently, it was not negotiable. I discussed this with the secretary of veterans affairs and military families when he attended the Veterans Service Center approximately a month ago. And no.

Statewide initiative, that's what's gonna happen. On the March 28 at 3PM at Baker Park, there is a Vietnam War remembrance being hosted by the Vietnam Veterans of America chapter. Beginning in April, on the third Friday of the month, the big blue van from Martinsburg will be at the Veterans Service Center, from approximately 08:00 to 12:00, each third Friday of the month. They're trying to get that big piece of equipment out on the road. That will fill in a little bit of the gap of the lack of veteran service officers there.

Fred,

is there an address yet for the DMV location for the home for the VSOs?

Well

It's the MVA. It's

the MVA. The

It's the MVA in Frederick Okay.

Yes. Okay. So I don't have that address memorized.

No, that's Okay.

I didn't realize

it was MBA. You said DMV. Precisely. Precisely. Precisely. Airport Drive.

That's the Yeah, right. Right.

No. Oh,

Okay. And the reason for that is because it's under the umbrella of the D?

JAMES All MVAs already have, if I can piggyback in here, Fred. So the MVAs already house in 11 different MVAs throughout the state. They already have the Veterans Services Office. It's a state agency. So it is just talking to Secretary Rothstein. It's just it just is congruent with the plans that Governor Westmore wants. He wants veteran access at all MBAs. So that's why they're relocating there

as well. Why are they doing this?

Honestly, I think that's something that you'd have to ask the secretary Rothstein and or governor Moore. You know, I think what they are saying is just because continuity, they have it's a it's a it's a state office already. They are state officers. They can sort of be in there. But I know we've heard some pushback from veterans because they, on a good day, don't want to go to an MBA. So why do they want to go to an MBA when they have to talk about some potentially triggering moments? So there are still service officers out in the community, and there are also remote as well. So there's still some other options for it.

So it's an independent service?

Yes. Okay.

So I'm curious. Could they still hold the office at the MBA but still have hours at the VSC?

My understanding is no because they're so booked with their hours. As it sits, they're they only have so many hours that they can do, and Dave and Patrice do a tremendous job. They they're they're pretty booked as it is. So we are still working with other VSOs. I know the Veterans Service Center reached out to Wood Warrior Project.

We're looking at maybe bringing in some people from DAV and potentially other county positions sort of like Mikayla had been doing in the past. The county has offered a space at the veteran services center at no charge. So if we can get somebody to fill those very large shoes that Mikaela is leaving, then we'll get them back in there as well.

Just for a little bit of a background, if you remember, we had the veteran service officer in the courthouse. And there were problems with parking, parking with access, trying to get through the security. And then once you did all that, to find the specific When they moved them to the Veterans Service Center, what we did was open the floodgates of the Nile, if you will. And the one person who was adequately handling the veterans' claims in the courthouse was now mobbed. So the second counselor was brought into the Veterans Service Center.

That speaks to the hours and the accessibility and the wait time necessary for the veterans to get services. So yes, it's a statewide effort. It's a state owned location. There's no lease problems. There's no computer access problems. There's no parking problems. And it's I'm a veteran. I need help. I'll go to the DMV in the county, and there's the veteran service officer. So that was some of the reasons that secretary Rothstein articulated to me when I said, you know, we had a real good thing going here.

He said, yes. But it works for Frederick County. It might not work somewhere else, and that's part of the reason why they're making the shift.

Any other public comment? Going once, twice, in the back. I'm just kidding. Staff

report, please.

Okay. So as has been mentioned, I am leaving. This is my last meeting. Sad to leave. It's been an honor serving as your staff liaison.

And you guys do exceptional work. And I know you're going to continue to make such a big impact in the county for veterans. Joy, my supervisor, will be coordinating the council for you. So update on Veterans Appreciation Day, which is coming up Saturday, May 2, from 9AM to 12PM. It's going to be at Frederick Health Village.

We are still on hold, unfortunately, with registration. We are waiting on a contract with the venue. So hopefully, that will be finalized. We're hoping hopefully this week or next week, and then it'll be, you know

Ready to go.

Yeah. So everything will hopefully move very quickly. And with the amazing team that we have at Division of Aging, everybody has stepped up. Like, the whole entire division is going to be taking on different roles so I think everything's proceeding smoothly I am organizing and documenting everything that I can and we've got people in place to take on all the different various aspects. So everything seems to be

So, Mikayla, this is not going to be your baby? This is you're passing it to Joy? Okay.

Yes.

Okay. Are you going to come to Veterans Appreciation Day, Makayla? I'm going put you on the spot.

You know, I'm not sure. I'm really not sure because

I'll answer that. Yes, she is.

Why take it? I might have to come in disguise if I do. So we'll see.

I also have a question. Somebody asked me for a flyer. I couldn't find a flyer you have sent. I saw the save the date. Right. Is that all we have? So far. So we did actually just get

a flyer put together this week. So hopefully Okay.

You'll make sure that that goes out, be cut to the back. So

I Yes. Can And I apologize. Unfortunately, things have been delayed this time around. So we're just going to have to move as quickly as we can with everything. Okay. Because we've got like, what, three months now? So we're just going to have to

We're waiting for the contract. So until that has been ratified through the county and with the venue, we've been put on hold. We have a lot of things just waiting that we can't open, as Fred said, the floodgates, and let things happen. So the coin has been designed. Things have been designed.

They're just sitting and waiting for that opportunity. And once that happens, then that information will be released. The application for vendors is completed. Again, it's just we just can't open all that up yet. As soon as that occurs, I will make sure that you guys are aware and then start pushing that information out.

Yeah, we've worked with video services. They are putting together some video reels that can go out on social media and on FCGTV. And actually, we collaborated with HR and at the MVA or DMV or whatever we're calling it, they're going to be running a little ad for us and I will definitely get with transit before I leave and see about doing another bus ad, so that'll be cool. And I'm meeting with Frederick News Post and WFMD Monday, Tuesday, so hopefully we'll get the same marketing grants we got in the past.

Have you secured your vendors?

Vendors?

Can't. That's part of the holdup. Okay.

Part of the yeah.

And have we done any kind of save the date with any of the elected officials?

They were sent the save the date.

Yes, they were. And we're in the process of working with what that is going to look like. We have met with a team from the VAC. And that's how we are actually running this in conjunction with our HR and workforce services to run, for lack of a better term, a mini job fair in conjunction with this event this year. So the event is continuing to grow.

It's just we're kind of on a pause right now until we can get the legal paperwork pushed through. So once we have that, then we'll be able to move forward. But we have a lot of people on board. We will actually be able to provide some transportation services from the parking lot to the door for folks this year who have mobility concerns. That has been a concern through our part of the Division of Aging.

So the Scott Key Center will be there to provide some of that assistance. So things are progressing. And they've increased in some areas. But we are just it's not like we haven't been planning or sitting around. We are just at this pause right now.

Do you have any gaps that the transit could fill?

Because of the way their funding works, it makes it a little bit more difficult for them to be able to do those things, and hence why Scott Key stepped up because they do work with people with disabilities and there's handicapping conditions. So they will be and they're part of our division. So they will be assisting with that, so that need for a shuttle service kind of thing moving back and forth. But yeah, I have a little bit case of the nerves. But I actually did this program way before Mikayla came on board back when we were running it out of 1440 Tawney Avenue.

So I'm not new to it. And I've done other programs in the community. So this is not something new to me. It's just right now on hold.

Yeah, you were the original Veterans Appreciation Day when it was at the senior center. Yeah. Yeah, before COVID. Joy it was Joy's baby.

Is there anyone we could pressure to try to get these decisions made quicker, like have concerned citizens call in? We can tell them, call this number right now and say, what's going on? No. All right. She's trying to be very politically correct here. Right.

It should be shortly.

All right. Good.

I was going to make a joke and pull up Danny's number. Yeah. Sorry. Any other staff reporting related things? I don't think so. Fantastic. Garth reminded me that I skipped old business.

Oh.

We did do the approval of previous meetings minutes. What other old business were you? Yes. Can you provide an update on your proposal for the David Kay Memorial Award?

Well, Danny and I met extensively over this. Not funny? All right. Well, you just got it right before here. Everybody else did. So I promised having a proposal for the Danny Kaye Memorial Award. I did it just as well as I did every other thing with the survey that didn't go anywhere. So I tried to research as much as I could about David Kaye. I knew of him. I didn't really know him as a person.

I've read some things that I found online about him and how he volunteered with the community and his background with the Hartley House too outside of veterans services. But he's been a very humble person throughout his pretty much entire life, from what I can read. I know that he an inaugural member of the Veterans Advisory Council. So basically, if you don't have this paper, I'll give it to you. They're up here where Bob's sitting.

Essentially put the proposal together. I put the grading or the scoring rubric, the timeframe of when to award it. So it would be on an annual basis. Basically, what we really want to do is be able to time it where we can award it during the Veterans Appreciation Day. So and whatever format that award looks like, which was not discussed last time or proposed this time, is just the criteria for being able to be nominated for this award was put together. So I'll let you look at that for a little bit here in case you have any questions.

Do you want to just give it to us to ruminate and come back with any questions the next go instead of sitting here reading it all right now?

Yeah, I mean, I was doing was proposing, putting out the proposal and the rubric, scoring rubric is next to it too. And same with the veteran, what do I call it?

Reflection essay.

Reflection essay for the veterans for students. What I try to do is I try to stay away from the politics of everything that might go on volunteering sometimes. But the outcomes of that volunteering and the benefits towards veterans themselves in the community are the outcomes is what I was focusing on. And that goes with the essay as well. Just trying to leave it nonpolitical.

So go ahead. When were you hoping for to enact this and have the first round of this go through? Like this year, this calendar year, or next calendar year? What were you thinking?

It would have been nice to have it start nominations start this year, but not be awarded this year. It would be awarded for the next Veterans Appreciation Day. So that way people could start counting that time and their volunteer efforts or whatever it is toward that award nomination. For the students, it would start in September. So they have a very short period of time because of school year, and then where it lies at the end portion of that.

I told Patrick that I engaged Ambets on a donation for the students, a monetary donation for three of the winners. So we're doing top three. Or my proposal is top three, excuse me. I can't say it's already done, but it's proposed for top three. And then hopefully there would be a state and local, or state and county, what do you call those, proclamations or So type they could use that for their resume on college. So when they go to apply for college, that looks good having that as their award recognition.

Is his wife still very involved in veterans? Because she should also be.

Yes, Marie is. She still comes out to the Veterans Services Center as well. I do think that she should be probably heavily involved here. If we wanted to use his name likeness, I think she should be probably talked to at the very least. She she would love this. Yeah. I think she would be really, really on board with this.

Somebody's going to have to do it. I don't know her.

Oh, yeah. We can help you out with that. Got got you there, Girth. Don't worry about it.

For the For the David K. Memorial Award, what is the award? Like, are you imagining a certificate? What are you imagining?

Like, something from the accounting executive. Something printed? Like a citation, yeah. Like Nan mentioned.

And then for the essay, something printed from the county executive and then something donated from a local

A monetary award because our Ambet said that they would do it annually. Okay. So they have no issues donating a certain amount towards that. It's like a scholarship, I guess. Our auxiliary puts together money for scholarships anyway, so this would just be in addition to what they already do. Except this has the citation that goes along with a nice write up.

That's a great idea.

Then would be would you have a scoring committee or an evaluation committee? It'd be like a three

person panel. That way you have a tiebreaker in case the scores are very even. Just have to figure out who would want to do that and read all those essays. I'm imagining a lot of essays coming in. Oh, Darryl left. The essay portion says that they can use AI, but it has to be their own words. It can be the idea generated from AI, but not the actual language of AI. So it'd still have to be their words, but it can be assisted however they do it for schools, really. I mean, you can take it out. You can leave it in. It doesn't matter.

So if we get a lot of essays, which I imagine we probably will, we can do it in a multiple stage process where one or two people go through and just skim and eliminate the ones that are just not in the same caliber and then get it down to the top 20 or something.

You'd have to determine what the first level of grading rubric would be in order to dwindle that down to the more intensive one, though.

But that sort of thing, having one person skim I've been on a lot of different award committees. And we have one that is for the best paper in rotary wing aviation. And there are hundreds every year. We have certain search terms. And so there's one guy who goes through and skims all of those papers and gets it down to basically what he feels are the top six or seven you know and and then sends those out to to the committee and then the committee goes through them so when you when you get into the hundreds there's no way that a committee of three can go through and really do a justifiable job on large numbers.

If it's smaller numbers, then they can.

It all depends on how many you get. Then what I'd love to say we get 100, I don't think you're really going to get that many. But it would be really nice to have it. Initially, think you're going to be dealing with maybe 20 or 30 that will know about it. And then we'll have to grow from there and word-of-mouth.

Are you going to just do a

one and done? Or are you going to have tiers one,

two, first, second, third place?

I didn't really I was just thinking about top three. Oh, Okay. Not really trying to put a first place on or you mean best like and show and then another category and then another category?

If you do like your first place gets x amount of money towards something. The second

place second gets place gets 300.

Third place gets and the fourth place may be just an honorable mention. I don't know. I really

want to make it worth their while monetarily. I don't think anybody would do $100 But if they were like 5, 4, and three or something, that would help with something.

Are you looking at the top tier as being roughly about $500 That's

what our folks were talking about.

Sorry, last question. You thinking about partnering with FCPS to get their help in pushing the opportunity out or just completely separate from the schools?

No, we'd definitely have to partner with them to get it out. And I figured this commission would be a little bit easier to partner with Frederick County Public Schools since it's a government entity. That's the right word. Yeah, so I don't know who within Frederick County Public Schools, though. Do I have to go to like a school board meeting and tell them about it or just send it to the schools?

Sometimes they can just post a flyer. Like there's a

I don't know who has Frederick County I

can get you the name of the individual who'll be the lead on that from the Frederick County Public Schools. Each year they have a similar contest, if you will for the nominate the veteran employee for the school system and sometimes the nominations will run from five individuals. Nominated. There's a panel of eight individuals who review those and then select the one to be recognized. But they've got the format, and I'll get that name to Mikaela.

Again, it's a very structured program. They've been running it at least for the last five years or so. So you could, dovetail with that. And they honor the individuals on Veterans Day. They make the announcement of the, person who was selected to be the winner on the following school board meeting in December then.

Okay. Yeah. I would also reach out to the JROTC

at

TJ High School is where they do that.

Sea

cadets. They even have what's the Air Force one? The air yeah, Civil Air Patrol, they have that here too. And actually, I think I have all their contacts if it's still the same commanders

I'm not in any hurry to implement it I just want it to be implemented so whatever whatever process that takes would be fine with me

Garth I'll task you with the following. We'll get you in contact with Marguerite so we can get that whole connection made so she's involved. And then we'll figure out getting with the schools. And then lastly, give us time to review this and provide feedback at the next meeting.

Do you think that we could I know you probably want to just stay committed to the juniors and seniors of high school, but I know that there's a lot of great There is a lot of great students at FCC, too. And there is also a veteran department there. I don't know. I'm just since we're brainstorming, I just thought I'd just

throw

Or that you could do the top three as one being the community college level, one senior, and one junior. So that way it's a little even for them to compete against.

I think their writing skill is going to be very different, so I think categorizing them by grade level, in theory, could help it a more even playing

field I for was thinking of that as I was saying that. But I know there's a lot of FCC students that do have you know, they are children of veterans and just getting their perspective on life, you know, whatever.

Yeah, because it changes from high school to college.

Yeah.

I mean, that is a quick change of attitude too.

Again, just brainstorming. That's what I'm doing. Just throwing

helpful. It's a good idea.

I mean, this isn't finalized, so this is just easily editable.

Greg, can we get these electronic too? That way if we have

is it easier to receive feedback electronically for you?

Yeah. I'm that kind of person.

Yeah. Okay. So if we

get this copy, then we

could just track our changes and send them to you? Great.

Don't

typically do paper copies, but this is a one off.

I'm going to pick one out on the way out because I'm more a paper person.

Okay. Well, can keep this

one then. All

right.

We did kind of already go over the Veterans Appreciation Day. Were there any other subcommittee reports that we had? I'm not tracking any. All right.

What was the determination of the survey? I wanted to get clarification on

that. The most recent feedback that I got from Victoria Venerable is that how you pronounce it? Venable. Venable. Is She is happy to assist us with any of that type of communication that we're looking to do. We just need to include the county and do it as part of their overarching messaging, if that makes sense.

So how do we engage the other commissions or entities to figure out what they want to be on a survey so we can have a holistic survey?

What other commissions?

Remember, Ms. Venable said she wanted other agencies and stuff to have input into their survey because they didn't want to do a one off. They wanted to have

Not to speak for her, but I think what she was meaning by that was just as part of their yearly surveying that the county does.

Okay. So how do we get our stuff into the yearly survey that the county puts out? I

think it's just getting with her, getting stuff that we would like to have included into whatever

I'm happy to reach out to Victoria and see if she can give me a little bit more insight into what would need to be done as far as your survey questions and getting them included and how she is foreseeing that to occur.

Do you have the survey, the proposed survey?

I can get that from McKayla. I have seen it, but I can get that from McKayla.

Great. New business. What updates do we have on the virtual meeting format?

So if guys you want to go virtual you can do that webex is the format and you can do it from the comfort of your home or whatever location you choose. And it will still be televised and recorded and archived for anyone to view.

I think at least how I still understand this, maybe it's not necessarily virtual meeting format. Please correct me if I'm wrong based on our discussion last month. It's more of the folks that are watching online, if they had questions, how can they get that to us is what we're really looking for.

Yes. So the WebEx is set up for public comment. They can call in over the telephone. Or I believe it's like a virtual dial in type of thing.

Sure. Gotcha.

But can we still, I think what we were also looking to do is because we still wanted the option for people to come in, right, while still having that virtual option? Where is was that I thought that's where we sort of talked about it, where it has to be virtual, can we still meet here?

Yeah.

Like say three of us, five of us are here, or whoever wants to show up here, we have our laptops up. We're on WebEx, but we're still available. So in case Fred wants to come in here and he doesn't want to get on the computer, he can come in here. Right? I like seeing Fred. He's got good good ideas. So I don't want to see him in in person. Right? So what is that was that feasible still?

Well, the county has the policy that there's no hybrid. It's either virtual or in person.

Right. I remember that we got that stuck up on that last time, right? But if it's still just virtual, can we virtually still meet in person, right? I mean, like, what we're saying is nobody's to tell us. I guess we couldn't do it here maybe because there's obviously staffing here. But there's nothing to stop me and Jay and Patrick from meeting at the VFW and sitting there and saying, this is where our virtual meeting is going to be, but we will also be open to public comment. Right? I mean, there's no rules against that is basically what I'm saying. We'll still be on our virtual format. We'll all have our laptops on, but people can come and sit down in front of us and chat if they want to. Is there anything wrong with

considered still doing a hybrid of where you're virtual and having a regular public meeting. So I think I mean, we can try and clarify it again to see if we can get it even more crystal clear they're looking at. There aren't many and he just told us there aren't many commissions any longer doing a virtual format.

No, you guys are the last ones meeting in person.

Oh, everybody else

is You guys are the last ones not doing virtual.

Okay. I'm sorry. I got it backwards. You can see where I am. So I think a lot of people it's just because of access. And I know how even I am with my personal

Can I suggest maybe inviting Miranda Ducey to next month's meeting to discuss this with us in person so that you guys can directly say, here's what we want to do? Can we do that? And Miranda Ducey is the person that will say yes or no.

All right. Well, that's great. Yeah, I'd love to hear it from the horse mouth, so speak.

And I think the other problem that we are trying to solve is accessibility, right? Because this is only on TV. So I think not just being it virtual, right, because we're sort of virtual now, right, if you know what I mean. But I think it was having it in a more accessible format for the public as opposed to it just being on TV? I think like in the sense of kind of circling back to the original conversation that we had.

Right, so the WebEx format means that somebody could, during the public comment section, could have either virtually online or via phone could have called in, had their three minutes. They wouldn't have had to park downtown and come over here. So, that is the, I guess the benefit of the WebEx platform is it would have to be during the meeting time obviously, but you know they can do it virtually or via telephone.

So in my military experience one of the things that I learned is that every policy has an origin. Every regulation comes from somewhere. And I would love to hear why hybrid meetings are so evil. Like, I don't understand that because after I retired from the military, I am now a full time doctoral student. And I have a few classes that are asynchronous online and the rest of my classes are virtual or hybrid and we have people who are in person and we have people who are online and the classes go just fine it's it's not an issue.

We have some people that do each. It's like, I don't understand why Frederick County thinks that this is a horrible idea when I'm I've been doing it for years.

Let's ask her next meeting.

Yeah. Yeah.

There's most most meetings are hybrid now. I mean,

it's just

but we can ask her next meeting. I agree. I don't know why it's so taboo in in general, but maybe there is a reason that we don't know. And figure it out. I agree.

Poor Frederick County TV folks are listening to us talk about them. I can't do anything about it. I'm sorry, guys. Yeah. They're like, oh, I I got the answer. I got it.

Okay. So it sounds like call in.

Then they could call in.

What you guys are asking, what you would like is a hybrid meeting, so you wanna stay in the room downstairs where we normally meet, but all have your laptops and have the WebEx platform so that the folks at home can call in, but still have the meeting room?

It wouldn't even have to be everybody has their laptops out. It's just the primary thing, as I understand and you all correct me if I'm wrong people that are online ask questions, number one, so that the people online can ask questions. After that, we can't necessarily get five people here for a quorum. So the fifth person is that virtual component to make us a quorum.

Okay. All right.

And also, I'm not also sold on just having to meet here. I think the ability for us to go to other facilities and still be televised and still have open comments, I think that's also an attractive opportunity, right? Because we can go then to other facilities. We can go to different organizations, bring more attention there, but still be televised, still get public comment.

What

was that, a brewery? Well, you know, sometimes.

Any other thoughts before we move on? No? Great. Under new businesses bylaws, I don't necessarily

So I'm realizing I don't think I remembered to email everybody the red line bylaws, did I? I didn't, Okay.

These are the bylaws that removed me from chairman? Joking.

Okay, so the VAC bylaws that you guys the changes that you requested and they were voted in on by the county council there was some changes so maybe we need to defer this to next month so that I can email it to you so you have time to look at it and vote on it.

I agree.

Because I'm not actually even this might not even be the right thing. I'm not seeing the red line.

We have a motion to table this to next month. Apologize. I

don't actually think we need a motion. We'll just table it to next meeting. No worries. Any other new business that's not annotated? All right. Any announcements? Again, thank you for your excellent time with us. I already contacted your new place and told them you weren't coming. So see you next month. Just kidding. Any other announcements?

Motion to adjourn.

I have a motion to adjourn. Second.

Second. Thirds? Thirds.

All

those in favor, aye.

Aye. Aye.

See you next month.