Veterans Advisory Council - Regular Meeting

Veterans Advisory Council meeting on December 17 here at Winchester Hall. Let's go ahead and call to order. Let's go ahead for the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, and with liberty and justice for all. Perfect.

Do we have a quorum? We have one, two, three, four, five members here. Fantastic. We do have a quorum. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda that was posted outside?

I move. Oh, keep going.

I was just saying all of us have in front of us.

I move.

Oh, sorry. Wait. I have a correction. Oh, okay. We need to nominate the exec new executive committee under new business. I move that

we accept last last month's meeting minutes with the amendment made.

Second. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Any discussion? Any discussion?

She said last month's meeting minutes but she made agenda.

We're doing the approval of agenda.

Sorry. I'm failing.

It's all

good I totally heard approval of agenda as well

I heard approval of agenda

and I was really confused

let's start over okay

I'll just read I'll amend my whatever Motion. My motion to accept the agenda with the amendments made for this meetings.

Second her amended motion. Any

other discussion? Any other discussion? Any other discussion? With Melissa. Hearing no discussion, all those in favor say

aye. Aye.

Aye. Any opposed? Fantastic.

I'm ready for the minutes.

Under old business approval of previous meetings minutes.

I move that we approve last month's meeting minutes.

Do you have a motion? I second that too. We also have a second.

Okay. Again.

Any discussion?

Are we sure this time?

Do

we need legal?

Do we need legal?

Oh gosh. I believe last month's minutes were fantastic as usual. Thank you very much for writing those. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? So moved. The minutes are approved. Guys are drooping now. Yeah.

We're halfway done. Don't stop this train. We let's go right into chair comments. So I I am very excited with the direction that I am seeing organizations in Frederick County go when taking care of veterans. A couple of months ago, there was some angst, some concerns.

I think Frederick County weathered that incredibly well. I think we've got a lot of organizations involved in taking care of veterans. As I've said in the past, I think a lot of us are putting in a 110%. We don't think we can put in anymore. Once again, I ask, please put in that extra 10%. Yes. It's gonna go to a 120%, maybe more than the engines can handle per Scotty, but, we'll continue to do it. And I think all the organizations here in Frederick County are are doing that and and doing it incredibly well. I'm very excited to to see what happens for veterans in Frederick County for 2026. That is my comments.

Alright. We're going to presentations. Rebecca. This is

the fastest meeting I have ever This is how

this is how veterans organizations and

veterans in general Go. Efficiency.

Would you like me to stand?

Yes, please. Yes. You will have to talk into that microphone there.

Oh, I do.

So the people at home can hear us.

Okay.

We actually have the largest number of streamers ever tuned in today. I just got a note. Bigger than TikTok. I just got a note that we had 10,000,000 subscribers. I'm joking. Okay. She freaked out a little bit.

I did.

It's only us. It's only us. Just

Well, you all are so kind to have me back. And really, I'm probably not the best person to have here tonight, but with limited staff I would send. But I'm gonna try to do a good job. And Jade's in the room, so he's got a little bit of knowledge about this as well too. So we're here to talk about global crisis.

If you wanna go to the next slide. So when we talk about crisis services in Frederick County, we are really, really fortunate that we have this continuum of care in our community. And it's because of the stakeholders and our community leaders and our government that have supported this along the way as well as our local behavioral health department. And MHA is a big piece of this because we now operate three of those pieces on the continuum. And we think about it to have someone to call, which is the twenty four hour call center at MHA where we answer 988211 as well as the Frederick County hotline.

That is a service available 247. We answer 211 from Carroll County, all of Western Maryland, as well as 988. So that's important for our Western County, Western Maryland partners out there in Garrett and Allegheny County to know. The next piece that we've just recently added is someone to respond. That's our mobile crisis piece.

And then somewhere to go is our walk in crisis care center, is located over on Montevu Lane next to the health department. And walk in was designed, as I've talked, I think, to this organization before, to keep folks out of the emergency department. We want people to be able to be seen for their mental health, for their mental health crisis, not have to be traumatized by sitting in the emergency department. And we want those folks that need that emergency medical care to be able to receive that. And so walk in has been able to open twenty four hours, again, with the support of the county.

And we know that almost 30% of our clients that come to us said, I would have gone to the emergency department had MHA not been here. So we're really excited to be able to add mobile crisis to that continuum of care. And that's all the other continuums, and that's another conversation for another day and maybe with the health department and hospital, etcetera. So what is mobile crisis? Next slide.

So mobile crisis is a service that has been operated in our community by Shepherd Pratt. They made the decision last year or so many months ago that it didn't fit their business model anymore, and they wanted to stop providing that service. It was something that MHA has been wanting to do for a long time. So we put the bid in, and with the county support, we were awarded the bid. And the hope was we would start it by December 31, January 1 with the new year, and we were able to get it up off the ground.

December 9 was when we started providing that service with the support of many of those Shepherd Pratt employees that have come over to MHA. So we're really excited to have that continuum of care. So what is mobile crisis? Mobile crisis provides immediate face to face care where you are. So it's different than going to walk in where you're seen by somebody. It's different than picking up the phone. You're gonna have somebody to respond to you, whether that's in your home, in your organization, in your business, in the park. We are going to respond to you within the county, and we are gonna come to you, to offer free service. This is no cost. It's funded by the county.

There is some billing opportunities with Medicaid and Medicare. Those are crisis, fees that we can eventually bill for, but the county is supporting this through a large grant. And we are arriving on the scene to help you if you're dealing with an emotional, crisis, a mental health crisis, a relationship crisis, substance use, or if you're having suicidal ideation, we can respond to any of that. Next slide. And please stop me if there's any questions.

So who is mobile crisis? So mobile crisis is typically operated with two providers. Both of them are behavioral health specialists, either clinicians, licensed clinical social workers, mental health professionals, counselors, or therapists that have a mental behavioral health background. Peer support specialist, somebody who is a peer recovery specialist who is actively in recovery, life experience, and able to support somebody who's, working with dealing with substance use, and navigators. Navigators are folks that come in at the end of the visit or session, and they're making sure that you're getting connected to those resources that were provided for you, that your safety plan is in place and that there doesn't need to be any adjustment.

And then I threw Howie who is the Frederick Police canine comfort dog. So he's a part of the team for the crisis response team. So next slide. So why mobile? Well, we wanna be able to provide these services in the least restrictive environment. Right? We don't want someone to necessarily have to go to the hospital. If we can deescalate a situation, if we can provide support where they are, we wanna be able to do that. There's lots of conversation about law enforcement and mental health and their inability to deescalate situations, and that's where mobile comes in. I will say, as you all probably know, our our local, law enforcement providers are very good at dealing with mental health.

Our staff go out into the academy and teach crisis intervention training with them. We have a really good relationship, and and they really do a good job. We are fortunate, again, in Frederick County to have that resource to make sure that our law enforcement officers are well trained. Mobile crisis, when they come to the scene, they offer stabilization. They deescalate any crisis that might be taking place. They create safety plans. That's our number one priority. We wanna make sure that individual is not a safety risk to themselves or to others, and so we're gonna create that safety plan. If we can't or if we feel there's a concern, that's when an emergency petition could come into play and they could be taken to the hospital by first responders. We create connections to ongoing resources.

They might be on the scene for a short period of time, but we wanna make sure that that continuum of care has taken place so they'll get connected to additional therapists, counselors, mental health providers, medication if need be, etcetera. And then we wanna offer often alternate, give an alternative to not have law enforcement involved if we don't need to or hospitalization. Again, our goal is to keep people where they are, get them the support they need, and get them on a way to on the path to healing. Next slide. So there's two programs that, really three programs.

So there's mobile crisis services that are operated by the Mental Health Association. Within that program, we operate with the Frederick Police Department's Crisis Response Team, CRT. So that was something that chief Lando, started once he arrived here in Frederick, and that's a co response. So that provides a behavioral health, provider as well as a law enforcement officer and a first responder, either an EMT or paramedic. That is operated dispatched through 911.

So if somebody calls 91 and is in the city limits and they need immediate support, they will send the crisis response team and Howie, that canine dog, usually goes along as well. And that operates between Monday and Friday, 1PM to 9PM. Outside of those hours, then you would get the mobile, response team from MHA, which is located at Jefferson Street. We are currently building and strengthening a relationship with the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. We are currently doing ride alongs with them, so a behavioral health specialist will go along for a ride.

We can provide assistance on calls. They can contact us directly if they need support. It's a less established program than the Frederick City program, but we're hopeful with the relationship that we're building through the CIT program that we're able to get and maybe create a more solid program because we know crisis doesn't just happen in the city, it's out in the county. Next slide. That's Howie.

How do you access mobile crisis? So you access it through the Frederick County hotline, which is answered by the MHA call center. That's 662-2255. If you end up calling 211 or 988 in the county, you will also get be able to access mobile crisis because MHA answers all of those lines. But that's the number we wanna put out into the community.

If you need to access mobile crisis, call the (301) 662-2255 number. And then we have navigators who follow-up with the individuals and families after a response to someone. And they like I said earlier, they will check-in, make sure you're getting connected to resources, making sure there's no need to assist the, safety plan. And if there's any additional resources needed, we'll make sure that they're getting connected to that. Next slide. I think that's it. We had a ribbon cutting yesterday. The chamber came out. The elected officials, we had county representatives. Brad Young was there.

Mayor O'Connor was there, and we were able to officially kick off the services. Any questions? Jay, you want anything to include? No.

You did a

great job.

Thank you.

So, I mean, just I'll just say this. MHA is we're very excited that a lot of this crisis services are housed now within MHA and the call center can dispatch directly to to mobile crisis. And you're you know, you've got the crisis stabilization center, and you're moving into the second phase of of construction for the stabilization center, which is really exciting stuff. And I don't know how much you guys know about crisis services, but I will tell you this. We are way ahead of the curve in Frederick County.

Way ahead.

Most places do not have this level of crisis services available. So I think it's really important that we continue to spread the word because I think mobile crisis can be used even more if we promote it a little better. And, yeah, I think it's a great thing.

Wanted to sort of piggyback on that exact point. I think this is amazing. Hey. Congratulations on getting that. I think it's obviously needed. So I know we were we had to heard Shepherd Friat was going out, and I'm glad that it it went to an organization as dedicated as you all are. It seeming to be but if people don't know about these resources, they're not gonna be able to access it. So sort of piggybacking on Jay, I would welcome you to come out to the Frederick County CVEB and talk. Love it. Come out to the the VFWs, go out to Legion, speak at our post meetings, under and explain exactly what it is that you do so that we can be force multipliers, right, for each other and and ensure that because that's a huge resource.

Come over to the veteran services center. Yeah. Goodwill would love to have somebody there and and even if you I know you said you do things mobilely too. Mhmm. Even having a pop up, there sort of just sit there and and because we have a a bunch of different organizations that do that currently. I know Stephen A. Cohen does out there too and we have Martinsburg Vet Center. So I think that there's a great opportunity there for you to again get that word out because this is an amazing program that you have and we should utilize it.

Yes.

Really.

Well, and we'd be happy to because we it's crazy to us how many people are like, I had no idea. But I often equate it to hospice. Right? We don't want to know about end of life until it's upon us. Right? We don't want to talk about dying. We don't want to talk about end of life. I think the same is true for a crisis. We don't want to talk about it. And so that's where the advocacy comes into play. And you all as leaders among the veterans really become our advocates in helping us spread the word. But I would we would love to go out to the veteran center, and we're happy. We have staff that can come out, and we can do even more conversation about this. So if you know of a place we need to be, let me know, and we're happy to send people out and have a conversation. We did create, and I will leave these with you.

These are our new crisis cards, and we can get more if you need them. It has everything that we're doing. So it has the Frederick County hotline phone number on the back. It has the walk in information. We know that transit eighty will take you right to walk in, which is nice to know. Not on Sundays, but hopefully one day that'll come in the county. It has mobile crisis, how to access it, and it also has our community resource guide, which is located on the homepage of our website. There's a QR code here that you can scan. It has everything available in the county. It's a live database.

It has housing, substance use, mental health, food pantry, etcetera. So this becomes something you can put in your back pocket and have with you. But, hopefully, if we can get these out into the community, people will have them in their time of need and not like who do I call, where do I go. So thank you for

that. Absolutely.

Jay had mentioned too that having mobile and our call center together, they are actually housed in the same space within our building. The beauty of that is they begin to support each other because we think about who's taking care of the caregivers. I'm sure it's same for soldiers. Right? Who's they're taking care of everybody. Who's taking care of them? So having them housed in the same space, they're able to get support after a difficult call and also talk through things. Is mobile the best resource that somebody needs right now or do they need something else? So it's a great partnership within our own program for those folks to communicate with each other.

If you have any spare that you can share These are all yours.

You can

share that here. But if you want, again, at the Veterans Services Center or partner there, we can actually get

you I'd be happy. Up on there that's gonna new flyers, and I have this as a PDF, and I can send it to Mikayla that she can send out to everybody.

We can put it on the

Yeah. The other thing is is do you have a contact there that would be best? Okay.

Yeah. Chris, I'll get you my contact information. We

can Okay.

We can

talk afterwards.

That'd be great. Yeah.

Can I mention the MRSS?

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's an aspect of mobile crisis that's funded through a specific set of money that comes from the state. It's called MRSS, and it's specifically for for youth, for kids. But you know, oftentimes when there's crisis in a family unit and it involves a kid, yes, that crisis happens and you deescalate things, but it doesn't always just resolve the problems, especially when you're talking about kids. And so MRSS is specifically suited for bringing the crisis folks back on a consistent basis for up to eight weeks after the initial crisis. So it's not like we just came out one time and now everything's good and everybody's okay.

It's ongoing support by the mobile crisis team for up to eight weeks for the whole family and making sure that all those connections get made and everybody's connected to supports and that everything maintains without the kid having to leave the home and go into like either the ED or a residential treatment center or something like that.

And that is part of the grant. We just haven't gotten that in place yet, but that is a part of what we'll be doing.

So that's again, that's underutilized. It's a great resource.

Absolutely. Well, and I'm assuming that you should talk with SHIP too, right? Because they're obviously dealing with children. They're you know, I mean, that's that's great. Yeah.

Get And we have a great partnership with them too. I mean, they're a bit aware of all of our resources. So yeah. Making sure I think I think what we are now learning is this understanding of what mobile is. And again, we talk about people are like, I'm not having suicidal ideation. I don't need you. But we want people to use us when they're down here, when they're beginning to feel anxious, when they're starting to think about things. And so encouraging people, call us now, use us now, visit us now, before it escalates to a point where it's it's too late. That's awesome. Yeah.

So who's doing that plan that you talked about? There's a behavioral or not a behavioral plan, but

crisis continuum? Plan?

Oh, yeah.

Who's doing that?

The staff that's coming to the scene. That's part of their job.

So it's collaborative? Correct.

Yeah. And that safety planning is making sure they don't have access to weapons, making sure that they have supports in place, making sure that they don't have a plan. And people say, well, what are they saying to you? These guys are highly, highly trained. They spend a lot of time doing role playing within their training, to understand what questions to ask, how to how to listen to what's being said. They're very good at what they do.

Does that data ever get into the nine one one center?

That data?

Like, safety plan. So when an officer responds to a call at that location, that the officer already knows that there's, history, I guess, can say. Just curious.

Yeah. And and law enforcement's involved, but not always. Right? I mean, Okay. If it's I thought it was a team It's triaged.

It is Sometimes.

Yeah. Sometimes it is. It is. And, you know, if they go out and need us, then they call us. And if we go out and need them, but it's not always, unless it's the crisis response card. If that if that call comes in through the 911 then it is law enforcement. Okay. 1 to 9, Monday through Friday. Any

other

questions? Fantastic. Thank you.

Thank you

for coming. Sure.

Moving right along. Public comment. This is a opportunity for the public to make their comment about anything that's going on in Frederick County pertaining to veterans. If you're if you're here to you're here to talk about the data center that's down the hall. Unless

you wanna talk how it affects veterans. I mean that that's a different story.

Yeah. Any public comment? No? Any

open up the vendor registration, when we come back from the holidays on January 9, the sixth of the ninth. For home vacation. Sixth is a Monday. Yes. So the sixth. Sorry.

The sixth. Ninth is a Thursday.

Yes. It'll be the sixth. And we're also going to launch the nomination forms for the Quilts of Valor. So we're gonna do Quilts of Valor again this year, and they're actually, offering us 10 quilts this year. Last year, we did six.

This year, they're offering us 10. So, we're gonna launch that at the same time as registration. So, hopefully, we'll get that going, early and hopefully get that out to the public and, you know, get it spread far and wide and get lots of, you know, nominations. So I've been working closely with Katie, who is our marketing and communications director, and she is very excited to make some reels and, you know, little videos. And so we're hoping to work with video services to make some little, like, short videos for registration instructions for vendors and exhibitors, and then also a little PSA on the quilts of valor, like, why why to nominate, how to nominate, stuff like that.

So she can put that on social media. We can put it on our website. We can email that out and stuff like that. So, hopefully, you know, with with her communication skills, we can get that out, you know, to everybody. So that's kind of what's going on with that.

I interviewed a volunteer, and, hopefully, if all goes well and they're approved and everything, I'll have a volunteer to help me with registration this year. It's, somebody actually, an active duty person who's on terminal leave at the moment, so they have a lot of admin experience. And so, yeah, like I said, if all goes well and they're approved to volunteer through the county, they're gonna help me with the vendor registration. And they're a young person who knows a lot about computers, so and excel spreadsheets and all that kind of good stuff. So, hopefully, that

will work out.

So as we're ending the calendar year and looking forward to 2026, I would appreciate all of your ideas for meeting topics and speakers and things like that and any off-site meetings that you would like to have. So if anybody has any ideas, please feel free to share or email them to me so we can start building our calendar.

Our staff epidemiologist is finishing She looks every year at suicide data and updates our presentation. So if you would like to have them come and do a presentation about suicide data, and we can drill down and give you information about male female and different demographics, veteran status, that sort of thing. We could do that if you all are interested.

Great. Alright. Subcommittee report. I think we we briefly went over the Veterans Appreciation Day. What other subcommittees do we have? We have the subcommittee on legislative meet and greets.

Yeah. The whole survey thing.

What are what happened with the with the end state of that back and forth with the county and the survey we wanted to send out?

I did not send a reply to them. So, yeah, if we would if you'd like me to send a reply, we need to crack that.

I'm happy to send the one I sent out just and put it on me saying this is why we wanna send out this survey. Unless you wanna use his.

I don't think you wanna use mine.

Yeah. I mean, we would need to sort of come up with some language together as a council, and then I would probably need to run that up the chain through the division just, you know

I guess I'm confused. Why do we need to run, just if we're asking, like, community, for feedback? What why is it that we are getting pushed back for for the survey?

Their response was that they didn't think that it I think it was the way it was worded was they didn't think it was

In our purview.

Yeah. Like, it wasn't the best use of our time

that The impression that I got from that, and I could be wrong, was it appeared that they were looking at the email and survey as, like, us adjusting this year's legislative priorities that were already presented. And I really think it just needs to be presented to them that this is us gathering information for next year and follow on year legislative priorities that we would present to the county. It's not to change what we've already presented. It's purely to say, we don't know what we don't know, and we need to get this information from folks. Yeah.

That's not

how I interpreted what they said. And I could be completely wrong, but the way I interpreted what they said was that they were saying, you know, we don't want each individual, you know, committee slash council reaching out to the county that has to go through us, we don't think your thing is important enough. That's that was sort of how I took it. Now I again ways I took it. I could be completely wrong.

I'll just throw my 2 cents in on that. I think my perception was closer to yours, but not that it wasn't about importance. I think it was about the county wants to have a cohesive way of reaching out and gathering data not to your point not having each sub each county council reaching out on their own

sure

I think the county wants to have a cohesive way of seeking data but that was just me reading the same email that you read so

take forever these count I can understand that perspective it it got a plan that light it does it does make sense The good news is we have other ways to gather the information. Can liaison with the other veterans organizations in the county and maybe not necessarily send a survey out, but get out to these organizations stating this is the information we're looking for. Please provide your thoughts. What are is that maybe a better approach than survey through the county? But

also maybe even follow-up with the email and say, hey, I understand your point. And so how do we get the questions that we would like to have incorporated into your cohesive way of gathering data from county?

On the timeline, we need to have it answered.

And make sure that you all get your questions asked.

Well, and I think too, and I can't remember verbatim what was stated in each of the emails, but in the sense of stressing that it's to help us create a strategic plan. Like Mhmm. You know? And in order to do that, we need to have some understanding of where there are gaps or where there's a overabundance of services services or organizations that exist. And so and how can we make sure that those gaps are filled for our veterans?

So I agree. I think the email should be responded to, and I think it needs to be responded to when they, say, okay. If your solution is that you wanna own this process and that we respect that, but how can we then work together to obtain the information that we need to set our strategic plan so that we can put forward good legislative proposals to support veterans and federal accounting

to your point Garth I mean like that's only one data point you know and if you guys are interested in seeking the assistance of other veteran service organizations to gather data.

And that's what I'm thinking and that's what I'm thinking. Why what's preventing us from reaching out to the veteran service organizations that have hundreds of veterans in there or thousands of veterans in there, you know, database and get the feedback directly from them? Yeah. Right? I mean

Which database are you using? What service are you using to collect this data?

Garth's email inbox. What are we talking about? Garth's email inbox and then an Excel sheet somewhere.

Yeah. And I think that's where it becomes tricky more is work.

Yeah. People

who are in multiple organizations and get the survey

You can like can you can leverage I'll you out, man.

Well, I think if we say, how can we work together then to accomplish this goal, it then helps put the onus on them to help us find a solution to get the information. Does that make sense?

It makes sense. It's just the timing of getting them. So if they weren't in this in the very beginning, like human relations commission or the planning commission or whatever the all the other commissions who need to have access to data, then you have to figure out what their metrics are that they're trying to measure and they're not gonna be the same as ours. And I I don't I don't see that

as It really comes down to how it's presented to them. You know, we're we're talking we've got five months of of lead time. Knowing what I know of veteran service organizations, that is plenty of time if we present, you know, this is the information we're looking to gather. Can you get that out to your membership? We will get that back in the next two to three months.

Which won't be quicker than what we're gonna get from the county as well. Right? I mean, if we're if we're gonna do a response to the county, then we have to wait for their response to our response, which may or may not be favorable anyway. Right? And at that point, we're just burning daylight. The idea is for us to have at least an idea of legislative initiatives prior to the appreciation day so that the politicians that we're inviting, they have a little bit of a head start on what it is that we're gonna ask them. Right? We don't want we're not trying to to catch them off guard. We want them to have educated full responses to these initiatives that we're asking for. So, I mean, we could still do the response, but not wait for just that and keep moving forward.

And I'm happy to lean into, man. If you if you need help trying to get it out to the other organizations, then we'll just do it together and then we'll you hold us responsible to get stuff back to you by a certain time.

Just need the single platform so it does the coalition.

Mean SurveyMonkey, right? Can we do something like that or is that not allowed?

So I don't know that we would wanna sign up to say, let's create a survey that we then send out because that's essentially what the county is saying that we shouldn't be

doing. Okay. Alright.

The information I think should be presented equally in the exact same format to the service organization saying, this is the this is what we're trying to accomplish. Bring us data back. However they end up doing that is on us to deconflict to then present.

But I don't see that any different than you're just doing one like broccoli and the other one's snail mail.

Well, here's here's the issue, Garth. Right now, we're not gonna get anything. So we either try something different or we go into May with absolutely nothing.

50% of something is better than a 100% of nothing.

Yeah. So then So we can take one of the VSOs to be the lead on that survey and then that won't and we just take the data.

So another means of collecting data is in person.

And That's time consuming. Yes.

Oh, yeah. That is time consuming. You won't get as many responses. I get that. But I'm just wondering, is there a mechanism to bring those voices to these meetings, whether it's by I mean, there's the ability to do public comment by calling on these meetings. Correct? Mhmm. So, I mean, if that's the case, you could have people submit written statements to be read. And that's a way that they could participate in these meetings. And if they're not, schedule wise, able to show up. And that way you are. You're getting you're collecting data through the meetings that you True. And that's that's what these meetings are for is for for those folks to have their voice listened to.

We can take that a step further we talked about potentially doing remote meetings right my suggestion it was going to be at our new business and talked to Patrick about this I wanted to invite VAC to have a meeting at the new VFW meeting, right? VFW location. That could be an opportunity. We get more of the members there, get responses from them at that moment, at least start compiling some data, getting some responses. Sample size will get bigger as we continue to do this. But if we can meet different locations and actually get people to participate, that's obviously key. Right? Then we can

We have access to Webex, so you do have the option to do a hybrid meeting if you choose. During COVID, of course, it was virtual. And then I believe previous board voted not to do hybrid, but I believe that's an option for you to do hybrid meetings if you'd like.

We've gotten way off into subcommittee. I wanna I I do wanna this is all fantastic input. Let's let's bring it back to this subcommittee report on the survey. It sounds like at a minimum, we need to send some sort of response, but I don't know that we need to wait for a response for us to reach out to the different veteran service organizations who have the exact people that we're looking to get this information from. Can we do both? Let's send the response.

Mhmm. And

So you just want I'm sorry to interrupt. Do you just want me to clarify to them what the purpose of the survey was gonna be for?

Is that

I'd say clarify to them the purpose of our survey and also clarify their response as to, like, why why can't we send out the survey? Is it because it needs to come from a unified Frederick County yearly survey type thing, which if if so

Mhmm.

Let's definitely get on that future one for this exact information.

Gotcha. Okay. And then ask the question, if that's not the case, how can we work together to gather that information on the legislative deadline that we have.

I think one of the things that's probably tripping that office up a little bit is the word legislative package. The original conversations were about information gathering so that we could make a decision on the legislative pieces, right? Not that we're going out and asking veteran A, B, and C, what is the give me your legislative agenda. We're trying to gather information on what's going on in the community. And I didn't get that from her response. I think her response, to your point, was really around a legislative package. We're trying to get the step before that.

Yeah. Okay.

Right? To figure out what is that, what can we action from that perspective. We're trying to information find, data mine. We're not, we're before the legislative package process.

But I do also think that there is, and I understand, because we've all worked in places that have sent out a million surveys, right? And so there is a protection of So that as I do I understand that, but I think it's clearly being done in other areas. So how can we make sure that we're on that train as well?

To your point there, maybe also clarify, can we just send the survey out to the people that have already signed up for the VAC newsletter? Because then we're already asking the the group of people that are already that care about our specific endeavor within Frederick County. Maybe it isn't a gigantic survey to everyone. It's purely just to the people that are already in our distro list.

I can't imagine they have strong feelings about us asking questions of our subscribers.

Yeah. Right. Okay.

All right.

Yeah. The concern I would have about that is that I think with the the subsets of of veterans that are gathering at the Coffee for Comrades, the, you know, platoon twenty two, and the VFW, it's a lot of the same people. And there are some demographics that are not showing up, some people that we're missing.

And that was

Well, actually I think that that's why we don't limit it to just those VSOs. But I mean, Frederick Health Hospice or Frederick Health, right? There's an entire subsect there. They have maybe different initiatives. Or we go to the mental health association they have a different vertical they're not getting those same people that are going to the VFW to the legion you know to the veteran services center you know they

subscribers then that's more likely

but I don't think anything should be only

yeah

right I think that that's just to include the right that is right

but we can send it out to other people that are not signed up and Right. Kill two birds with one stone. Sign people up and get the survey out.

Can you do it in person too? I mean, I think a multifaceted approach to gathering that information with the deadline for us to decide what are the trends from that data then to help inform what are what would be some of the ideas that we might bring forward for the legislative issues.

And and I think I I'm not gonna take this on a tangent. I promise. But I think it's something interesting to think about moving forward. Could we offer a survey on some iPads when we do the Veterans Appreciation Day? While that might not be used for this legislative package, we could start gathering information for the next year.

So Great idea.

Just a thought, but It's

QR code up there when we're talking. And we are not moving on until all of you scan this

QR code and out this

But I'm just that way, I mean, we're gathering a good idea. We have our population and It's a good idea. That way we can at least be ahead of the ball, you know.

Mhmm. No. You need well, they check-in. Again, like you said, if you get some iPads up that it's like, what are your top three initiatives? And we give them Yeah. 15 options they get to pick of a we can do broad and Yep. Narrow it down. They check-in. Okay. We're getting you your badge and all that stuff.

But I just think if we if we could get that in a routine as part of the Veterans Appreciation Day, then we won't be far behind each time we have to think about packages for the next year.

Yeah. I think you can collect that data in real time and still present it at the back.

Sure. Yeah.

I hope the

appreciation day.

Yeah. But then we don't give the

It might be a little messy.

The politicians a heads up,

though. Yeah.

Part of it was wanting to be able to invite the right politicians.

Right. Yeah. And director heads.

Yeah. And I think that that was one of the things I took out of their email was that they want us to be focused on only on Frederick County and not on.

But it's what our Frederick County politicians will take to Annapolis, though. That we're that's what like, I mean, the the purpose here is obviously still for Frederick County, but it's to hey. You know? Yeah. Hey. This is what Frederick County residents or veterans or are supporting or interested in.

Yeah. We just have to word it in a way that conveys that. Yeah. Mhmm. So that they're not thinking that we're this rogue organization that's going out and trying to save every

veteran. Every veteran in the

whole So

so let's get the email out, the our response.

And

then I think maybe in asking that question about the newsletter because those are, like, those are good actionable items that we can do with the response. Mhmm. And then

I'm gonna hold another subcommittee meeting just to talk about strategies of doing alternate way of getting it out.

Mhmm. Okay. I volunteered to contact the local VFW commander and

get him And the adjutant? Yeah.

The adjutant is better. Yeah. He's he's better So he can contact and get some stuff out.

Everybody got spitballs that we can throw at him.

But also like the local legion, the

Yeah, and

those two organizations have thousands of members that

They do.

We can get an instant response from.

I I do worry about the aging generations who don't use mobile QR codes and stuff and they probably want it.

Which is why I come into that meeting. I mean, if you go to a VFW meeting, we have 50 to 80 people there with, you know, you know. Right.

But I but I do think too. I think making, like, I think again, I'm not veering, but I also think too, if we can start advertising our meetings as open and come share what you feel are the priorities or what not what's missing because we don't want it to be like a complaint, Sasha, necessarily, but, like, come come help us understand, what you want us to take forward for you because we're the ones putting together some of this information from legislators before. So I think if we can get that information out to the population and examine how we hold our meetings, I think that could also bring in some different groups of populations as well.

I think the framework of both the questions in your email and the way that you're presenting this, the framework should be collecting data so that we can advise the county executive, not the other legislators. I heard that in the email too. The purpose of this council is to advise the county executive not to go to other legislators.

And I think we need to word it that way. We know that there are other ways that we can help veterans. But what we're supposed to do is get things across to the county executive. We can use that information in as many ways as we want. But we really do have to advise the county executive where to go with veterans programs.

And this out, did you get any feedback on the survey itself? Any changes or updates that need to be revised?

From who?

From people in the last meeting. Did anybody submit anything?

Oh, no. I I sent you an email.

Oh, did you? Yeah. Oh, okay. Sorry. I'll I'll look at Go. I'll look at that and get it back to you. Sorry. Alright.

I think it was straight to me.

It was a question worth maybe. Okay.

Why is it so long?

That's what his question was. I was gonna say the survey

itself is only like two pages. It's the description of the measurements and how we're gonna gather the data and stuff is what makes it longer. That's not going out to everybody.

Yeah. Okay. So I was like, that's that's gonna get people starry eyed.

Alright. Do we have marching orders on this? Mikaela, do you feel like you have enough information to provide the response?

We were all over

the place.

Or Yes.

Or Do you want a ghost email?

A ghost email? No. She's she's got

enough information.

Yeah.

Yeah. Ghost email, somebody else writes it. Somebody else writes it, and you send it. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Is that a military?

Yeah.

Yeah. It might be. But, yeah, we we in in the military, that happens a lot.

Like, if

If you wanna send me something, that might be helpful. Yeah. My

That makes sense. Yeah. I'm gonna send you

one of

Yeah. It would be helpful.

Little little less strongly worded than the

Do you want me to look at it too?

Send it to everybody. I like to send it.

You can send it to Makayla. Makayla can soften it up.

Yeah. So

I just I think the focus really needs to be on, like, how can we work together to get the information that we need to get to the county executive to help our Frederick County veterans? Like, it really is what the the language focus

Yeah. Say exactly that.

The vibe

needs to be.

Yeah. I think that's pretty much that only with a few more words.

Excellent. Was going for I

was going for less words.

I don't believe there's any other subcommittees. Let's get into new business.

Oh, you wanna start?

This is gonna be easier. Okay.

Mine was just gonna be that, I suggest, we, hold the next VAC meeting at the new VFW Building.

For January?

For January. Yep. Okay. If, if everybody's, in favor.

That's Hold on.

Is that

a motion? I'm

Wait. Were we

Well, hold on. She's gonna she's gonna tell me why we can't do it.

Okay. Yeah. I knew it was was next December that we were gonna break. For some reason, I thought maybe it was January.

So Twenty first. I have Just

ignore me. Yes. January 21.

Yes. So, I I make a motion that we hold, the next, back meeting at the VFW. I'm gonna make sure the, commander and the house committee approve.

I second that motion.

Motion and a second. Any discussion?

What's the address? Or can you send it out?

Yes. 5951 Old National Pike. There's big giant VFW sign on the side of the building now.

You're good. I just needed the Link Street so I can put it in my phone.

That's Patrick. It's Patrick Street.

K.

Any other discussion? Any other discussion? My discussion for it is we did used to do off sites. The biggest reason we stopped was there was not a lot of participation from the individual location. So we would do an off-site and almost sometimes it felt like us being there was a surprise to the actual people that ran the location. I'm excited about this one specifically because I am very confident it will not be a surprise to the VFW.

Yep. I think you're right.

Just saying.

Let's put it this way. If it is a surprise to the VFW

There's something wrong. Have a failure to communicate.

Any other discussion? This is his

first week.

I believe so. Any other discussion? All those in favor say

aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Fantastic. So moved. Any other new business?

That board nominations?

Should we do we need to solidify our virtual meeting? Do we need to, like, get that sit situated so that if we decide that we want to have a virtual meeting or a hybrid meeting that we can, like, do that? Like, what do what needs to happen in order for us to be able to do that? Well Like, if we are all cool with that, do we need to make a motion and pass so that that's set up?

I think probably the I think probably the way it would be is going forward, it would just be a hybrid meeting.

I I tech support and

all that stuff to set up that Webex and all?

So we we we already are like, we already have access to Webex.

So you would manage if somebody has a question virtually on your end?

Right. You'd have I've we've never used it. So When we start working it in Right.

Yeah. I'm just thinking, like, that way, for example, like, tonight, we could have been, hey. We're changing to virtual. Correct. And we already had everything set up. Or Yeah. If we get a giant snowstorm next

the summer.

Correct in saying that?

I don't know.

Like, we would be we would be hybrid.

Yeah. Just going forward, and then you just make sure you post everything publicly so folks could call in. Right. If it's virtual, you have your meeting info listed, thirty days in advance of your agenda right same with the phone number if you're in here since you all broadcast I think web ex is still the best way to do it right so that would be my suggestion

and we can still do that even off-site

Virtual or hybrid?

The well, the hybrid and the the Webex, basically, the Webex functioning. Because we just mentioned we're gonna do the next meeting in an off-site. So if we want that to also be a hybrid meeting, just making sure that we can facilitate that when we do these off-site meetings.

I think the best way to do that would offer a call in number, honestly, because Webex is through Frederick County. Yeah. So

there might be

network issues here in the building. Like, might just be better. And you could, like, phone a friend. If you have issues here, there'll be instructions to capture it in this room or the other locations in the room. Off-site, that would be the questionable item. Phone call would kind of cover up your bases. If you just did virtual and you all are in the room, maybe on your laptops, for example, that would still kind of check the boxes. So there's some workarounds if you really needed it. Yeah. As long as it's it's more the importance is more of the ability to call in and have that public piece and be compliant with the Open Meetings

Act. Gotcha.

So you rely on a VPN, and everybody just can't VPN into that Webex then?

I would say it probably depends on the capabilities of your off-site. Honestly, it's more my concern is more, like, always, like, the posting of the access. So it's equitable if anybody

Does it have to be that or could it be Zoom? We can create a Zoom meeting open or no? It has to for Teams or something?

Then we kind of get into, like, different other issues, like the security issues. Are you recording it? Is somebody coming in and recording it? It just gets a little bit messier and it's not as secure as other FCG stuff. So I

don't remember all I of

believe that the Frederick County government only supports IIT only supports Teams and and Yeah. Webex. Those are the only two platforms

Well, it's been I'm just saying if if there's enough yeah. Teams is pretty easy to do as well.

Would say that would be preferred, honestly. Yeah. For virtual, for sure, that's preferred by everybody. Teams.

It was Yeah.

Not I don't know if it was last January or the January before. Because of the weather, we were they were wanting to hold a virtual, but because we weren't set up for it, we weren't or we or there just wasn't enough time. Like, there's, like is there, like, a time limit? Like, if you're gonna cancel for weather and do it virtually, isn't there, like, a minimum amount of time to set that up?

I like to do, like, seven days in advance.

Yeah. Yeah.

Twenty four hours gets then it's like you're kicking into core issues. Right? Because folks won't catch it

or they won't do it. For this week or something like that.

So more best practice.

Get I'm that open.

It comes up, though, especially in the winter. So it's good that you guys are thinking about it.

Well, maybe if you guys wanna do it, maybe you start it in February or something. Unless you wanna have a call in function. I mean, we could I could try to find out all your options and come back to you in January.

Or Sounds fine. Yeah.

Yeah. That's probably Yeah.

I mean, offering it hybrid, you're only gonna get more participation than what

you have currently. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. But it does help members participate as well.

So Yeah.

It's just Because if they can't go and I I know mayor was over at the VSE today, and Yeah. They couldn't come here. So

Yeah. So there's a great example.

Yeah. Yeah. I think I think it was more personal preference of the previous board members.

I will say too, we always have to remember if the board of commission has to be televised because that kicks off the other needs. So that's something else to think about with the virtual option if that's still a requirement. I have not memorized that for you all, if that's, like, a certainty or not. But I know Webex is a lot easier for the video services guys.

To televise it?

Mhmm. That capability is, like, built in or that's how it started.

Oh, I didn't realize Teams was an option. I thought Webex you had to do Webex so that because of the public comment portion or something.

But Yeah. And it's like all the technicalities, like, if we post it and people can call in, then it satisfies that. If it's something that has to be televised, then we have to go off of those requirements because not every border commission is televised. So it's kinda just like once we drill down into the needs, then it kinda elevates what we have to use. So we still we have a lot of options, but it's just what the needs are. So

So the health department broadcast or not broadcast, but they do a Teams meeting every other Friday for the health and medical subcommittee meeting that I attend. So they are teams. I know that.

And it's televised?

Not televised, but it's it's open to the public, actually. Okay.

And they can open the Yeah. Mean, so

on another Hey. Hey.

On on another we we started a behavioral health advisory council, which is accounting council. And ours is gonna be completely virtual just on Teams.

Yeah. We can.

Okay. That's

good. Yeah. Let's just let's just have the I just I'm thinking, like, that way we have it in our back pocket and we know what we need to do Mhmm. To, like, move forward with whatever our decision is.

So do you want me to just come back to you in January with what the options are and then you vote on it in January?

Sure.

Okay.

Yeah. And that way it alleviates the whole, like, having to figure it out before the VFW meeting and all that too.

Sounds good. Okay. Alright. So in the past, the executive board has been the chair, the vice chair, and the previous chair. With the new bylaws, that is now changed to chair, vice chair, and secretary. So, we need to nominate a chair, a vice chair, and a secretary and vote on that, and then those people will start in January. So you can I believe you can nominate yourself or someone else can nominate you?

Do we have any nominations for chair?

Nominate Patrick Pearson?

Yes. For chair. Exactly.

Second vote.

Do we so we have one nomination for chair. Do we have any other nominations for chair? And also, for clarification, do we have to decide this today? Or is this like nominations and then we vote next month? Or is there a vote this month?

You can make a nomination to have it start whenever you would like. I would highly recommend you vote on it tonight so that it starts when you convene next. If I might throw in my teacups.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Make a recommendation if you want the current people in, just make that motion and then do the secretary separate or That's fine.

The members it doesn't matter if it's voting on the voting, right, to be on the board?

I think you have to be a voting member.

To be on the executive board? You have

to be voting think you have

be voting member.

Any other nominations for chair? I I do accept the nomination. Sure.

I feel like the back of momentum. Yeah.

Let's draw the jury.

Vote on that and then move to vice chair.

Because Lord knows he he we might vote you down after unanimously Yeah.

You should probably handle that. I I hand the gavel off to the vice chair to conduct a vote for the sole chair nomination. I

guess didn't want to vote concurrently with what

Well, we're just doing nominations because when

No. We're doing nominations on voting.

Yeah. Oh, okay.

We're just gonna do nomination because of voting for each thing.

Oh, gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha.

Okay. Yeah.

Select somewhere else.

So do

we need

to him leave the room?

Well, so here's here's what it is is the current exec board is Patrick, Girth, and myself. Mhmm. So you're saying you just want everybody to stay, but we can also vote individually. Is that what you're say is that what you're asking?

I'm sorry. I don't understand.

If you can like, you propose, like, everybody just stay where they are. Right. But what we're doing is going individually. Is that yeah.

For everybody's chair. For everybody at the same time? Is that what you're saying?

That's where I'm just making I'm just I'm just clarifying.

Saying to make a motion to keep the existing board the way it is. Is that what you're saying?

Yes. With the the title change for Alyssa

So you Alyssa

becoming the secretary.

I was like, nothing before this.

Oh, Gotcha. Gotcha.

Okay. But somebody else can do it. And that's why I'm saying that you know you are we voting for all three

or somebody wanna make that motion? I nominate

the or or or move that we nominate Patrick for for chair, Garth for vice chair, and Alyssa for secretary. Second.

Wow. Okay. All in

favor. Somebody else wants

to meet.

I totally

get it.

No. You you wanted to No.

It's it's fine. 5%.

Do you

accept the nomination? I

accept the nomination.

Birth. Nomination.

Do accept the nomination? Yes.

Do have any other any other nominations for anything?

Yep.

And we wanna nominate people who aren't here.

Yeah. You can nominate people that aren't here. No.

Mean, Bear's not gonna be happy. You missed this meeting.

I I nominate Pointer to be the the dog mascot of of the

We got way too many way too many motions going on.

Right? Right.

We have Alright. So the motion

on the floor is

For myself to be chair, Garth to be vice chair, and Alyssa to be secretary.

Mhmm. Okay.

I don't know that you can. You're not

I think you can.

I I can yourself. There's Makayla.

She's impartial.

I know. That's why I'm saying you can't piece it.

Alright. Alright. Alright. Alright.

Any other nominations for any of the other positions? Hearing no other nominations, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Alright. Pat. So moved. They can't vote for themselves. It's

Once again gets another shot next year.

Yes. Yeah. Great job.

Good.

Any other new business? It was hard. Tires.

I didn't

know. Ended

how we started.

It was better. Why is it complicated? Because people people change the rules.

Just go one by one and

it's just so much easier. I just was clarifying. Two people were saying different things. Yeah.

Yeah. I was ready

to go for efficiency then.

I was like Alright. Yeah. I'm looking. Anyway.

Any other new business? Any other new business? Fantastic. Any announcements?

Yes. Like a dove. Do you want to say something? Sure. We sorry.

Name, title, organization.

Ours.

I just wanted everyone to know

that we do have free online training, and we do offer CEUs. So there is the Bitly and the everything else. And if you need it, it's there.

Any chance you can make them CMEs?

A what?

It's a

For medical.

It's different CU, CME. It's for the medical side of it. Yeah. Alright. I'll make sure it is. Dot military cultural

Email that to everybody. We that's that that's through the team app. Right? Mhmm. That I don't know. I haven't checked this out yet. This is team app is through psych armor. This is virtual training. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

I did want to thank Bob for coming out as our new, Frederick, hospice representative. Thank you. Thank you. Happy to happy to have you on here and hanging out with us. I'm am I the only non official? Well, there's a there's a couple.

Bob, did you get your Alright, buddy.

Did you get your pen?

I I got one of these.

Yeah.

Saying You're leaving.

I just wanna say Makayla's doing an amazing job as a service officer here.

She's doing awesome. We got FHH together. Mentor.

Yeah. Well, she's doing great. Great. And we have four service officers now in Frederick County.

Oh, nice.

So That is fantastic. Getting an enrollment at FHH Or earlier? Was it Oh,

that's because I can't Yes. Did you

see me?

I walked right past you. I didn't wanna interrupt you.

I know that there was chat or about say hi,

but you were, like, right in the thick of talking to Oh.

That'd be great. Yes. Actually, was.

More service officer better. Well, great. Yeah. Service officer is great.

Yeah. Their their father actually just talked about that over.

Any other announcements? No? A motion to adjourn.

Motion to adjourn. I've Second.

Say you took over Sharon's spot. You'll be the first to

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. So moved. Our next meeting will be at the BMW Post 3285 at 5951 Old National Pike. You'll see a big giant sign that says VFW on the side of the building. Now you can't miss it.

We're we're gonna go verify that today.

We're gonna go check out that sign because it just went up today.

Yep. Yeah. It's back.

We're very,

very excited.

What's the building by? Adam 40.