Residents Council Meeting Zoom Discussion

by Bob Buddemeier and Joni Johnson

On January 19, Residents Council President Gary Crites and Vice President Gini Armstrong introduced an innovation: a Zoom discussion group as a follow-up to the Residents Council meeting on the 18^th.  A dozen residents talked for an hour about RVM and residents Council issues of mutual interest, ending with a consensus that it had been very worthwhile, plus a commitment from the officers to make it a monthly event.

The first topic to come up was the Plaza dining area renovations. An issue that attracted general agreement involved management of walkers and wheelchairs – there were concerns about the use of “walker garages” with servers as valet parking attendants.  Would there be enough servers to avoid delays in either food service or walker parking?  Would there be enough pedestrian space to avoid congestion as diners, servers, and walkers moved about?  How would wheelchairs and scooters fit into the mix?  The consensus was that these questions needed to be addressed from actual experience, by getting enough residents and servers to actually simulate the process and look for possible problems.  Gini and Gary will talk to Stan about the wheelchairs, and those participants at the meeting with walker issues agreed to inform Stan, Eric, and the DSAC of this need, and to participate in tests to identify potential problems.

Discussion then moved on to issues regarding institutional support of resident needs.  The opinion was expressed that, although we are fortunate to have some very caring and supportive staff members and executives, this seems to be a matter of good fortune rather than policy or organizational structure on the part of RVM or PRS.  There was general agreement that there needed to be more reliable ways to meet resident needs such as in cases of illness, or death of a partner.  Some central and reliably available source of sympathetic information and assistance is needed to make sure that RVM is a consistently caring community. It was agreed that Gini and Gary would help form a small committee to look into existing policies and organization at other communities and to suggest how we might implement a more meaningful approach here.

Participants also brought up the need for supportive assistance in terms of integration of new residents.  Currently, newcomers are somewhat on their own and fairly isolated, not having the chance to meet people on campus as typical in pre-Covid days.  The Ambassador program seems to have temporarily died during Covid, although it is being considered again. A new online Newcomers group has been formed to help RVM newcomers meet one another during the Pandemic.  This new group, started by one of our own newly arrived residents, has already had one Zoom meeting and a second one is planned for February.  If you are interested, please contact Asifa Kanji at asifakanji@gmail.com.