Elder Watch has its eye on WASI

WASILLA — A few members of the Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. who formed a watchdog group known as Mat-Su Elder Watch were hopeful Monday that with the help of other members — and possibly WASI board members — they will give local seniors more of a voice at WASI. The group has spent countless hours in the last few weeks pouring over WASI bylaws and changes that had been made to them by the WASI board of directors and WASI Executive Director Sondra Kaplan without the consent of members.

“We are the revolution from without,” WASI member Anne Kilkenny said during an Elder Watch meeting attended by members Lois Wier and Elsie O’Bryan, referencing the current turmoil in Egypt. “This is our Tahrir Square. We’re the little people and Sondra Kaplan is Mubarak. She’s got her goons doing her dirty work.”

Mat-Su Elder Watch formed a couple of months ago after Kaplan instituted sudden changes at the senior center that included the termination of former programs manager Sheila Walker and the reduction of operating hours at the fitness center. The latest termination at the center of certified fitness instructor Karla Atwood and the temporary closure of Club50 Fitness only fueled the anger and frustration of members who’d felt Kaplan and the board had not listened to the concerns and desires of those who use the facility.

Now, after realizing that changes to last year’s WASI bylaws were made recently without the knowledge and consent of its members, Mat-Su Elder Watch is even more determined to make sure Kaplan and the board take them seriously.

“We’re smarter now than we were a few weeks ago,” Kilkenny said. “We’re ready to sit down with board Bylaws Committee Chair Katie Carney and make our case that many of the changes Kaplan made to the bylaws are invalid.”

The group is preparing to submit its own revisions of the bylaws to be voted on by members at the Feb. 22 membership meeting. It also would like to submit nominations to fill vacant board seats.

Kaplan, WASI Marketing Director Diana Straub and the board recently told members they welcome more help with tasks at the senior center and the board.

Board President Mary Sears submitted a letter to the editor to the Frontiersman in Sunday’s edition to let readers know that the Fitness Center reopened Feb. 1 for “open fitness.” She urges members volunteer their time at the center and invited the general public to come visit the center any time during operating hours.

Elder Watch hopes more members attend Thursday’s board meeting at 9 a.m. so they can become more informed about WASI business and the efforts to help them gain access and input.

Kilkenny, Wier and O’Bryan wonder why a member questionnaire they submitted for the latest WASI newsletter was not included, as promised by board member Stan Mitchell.

They said the survey asked members two questions:

• Do you feel like this is your senior center?

• How would you rate members of the WASI staff (on a 5-point scale)?

Kilkenny said that when 60 people at the last membership meeting completed the survey, 90 percent of them rated Kaplan as “poor” or “very poor.”

Mitchell told Kilkenny at that meeting that the survey wasn’t valid because it didn’t include enough members.

“When I asked if I could have a list of members so that we could make sure they all received it, Diana Straub said ‘no.’ That’s when Mitchell said we could have it printed in the next newsletter,” Kilkenny said. “That didn’t happen.”

Elder Watch also hopes to have WASI’s “vision statement” changed from “to help provide for the welfare, safety, comfort and interests of the senior population within the Matanuska-Susitna Valley” to “to serve the members in a respectful, responsible and helpful manner, and to enhance the lives of seniors in the Mat-Su Valley.”

The said they feel the current vision statement makes it sound like the seniors are helpless and overly dependent.

They also take issue with a sign hanging over the senior center door that says, “Over the hill and coasting,” calling it degrading.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.