 It's called to order at 640. Our second item of business is public comment, seeing none. But I will ask Rob, any interest? It sounds like Chris has been a public commenter in the past and I don't know. Maybe the next board meeting would be wise to have him describe progress as will be in June by then, right? Yeah, yep. I can have him come to me if you happen to do that, I'm sure. Looking at an approval, third agenda items of the minutes, I'm talking as a type, so thank you. I think it was just an amendment, didn't you? Say again? You had an amendment that Mike DeVille was not present. Yeah, that's one to start, but if everyone can either, if they did get a chance to print out paper or open Rob's virtual packet and check out the minutes of February 23rd, 2021, the last time we met, and please read for content and typos as well, I guess. Does everyone have that available to them at their fingertips? We could all just take a minute. We're having it now. Great. It looks like it's about a page and a half. I did find one mistake. We're gonna have to expunge Mike DeVille. He was not present. And then I'm just gonna go quiet and do a close read if everyone else wants to. We can come back in, oh, let's say three minutes, four minutes, and pow wow and see what fixes we need to make if any. Appreciate it. Rob, those are from you, right? Cause I've got your updated financial reports. The minutes or the financial reports? I know the minutes. The minutes are from Carlos. I'm sorry. They would have been mailed from me, yes. CJ, it's a previous email. He sent the financials later. Yeah, so the would have been from Friday. Nice. It's a packet of, I think four items. And I think Michael pointed out that I added the minutes twice. Got it. Okay, thanks. How are people doing with the minutes? I meant them. Yeah, I read them. They seem real clean. Yeah. I think John Block has spelled C-H. That might be- B-L-O-C-H is correct. So beyond Mike Doyle being listed as president when he wasn't and the spelling on John Block's name, I don't see any other fixes people see. One moment. The only correction I would make is there's a section towards the end about content questions show created by CJ. And the show is actually created by Northeast Comanche Tribe Inc. and a consortium. So I would suggest that the word created should be changed to sponsored. Yep, that works. That makes it simple. Yep, great. Any other corrections? Did we just, was last, was February the meeting when we discussed the white paper that had been issued? I forget by whom, but Rob, you sent it around. Yeah, that would have been the one. The taxation- Yeah, the report from the legislative committee or the legislative wasn't the committee but it was from the consultant. I know there wasn't any action items regarding that report, but is that something, Mike and Rob, that you consider worthy of mention because I remember being kind of impressed by it, but I also only read the first 30-something pages. I mean, it was in the executive director's report. Carlos didn't see the conversation rise to a level where he thought it was minuteable and I respect his decision there. Okay. I've got these three corrections, deleting Mike D's presence, spelling on John Block and change created to sponsored under new business. Well, the only question I have on John Block is that there's not really an, we have a note about John Block on broadband about, let me go back to open it again, sorry. My concern is, sorry, okay, hang on. Let me do a search again. When I was reading it just now is, was there a note that John will be unable to continue due to his health? There was a call from John about that and he had that he needed to step down. So I think that needs to be, and if I recall, that came up. Yeah. So I think that fact. Should be reflected in the minutes. Yeah, I think that's why it came up as old news. You're right. There probably needs to be a more of a sentence there. John Block has reported he will no longer be able to, that kind of thing, huh? To serve due to health issues. Yeah, because it leaves a very important position open. Yeah. This is going to be, yeah. Go ahead, CJ. I didn't mean to cut you off, but agreed. Yeah. So that would be the minute change, but under old business, that's a pretty critical area. So we can actually revisit that discussion under old business tonight. Yes. But in terms of now, are these minutes an accurate reflection? And you're right. That is not an accurate reflection. We got to get some verbiage there. Oh, yep. Reports he will not be able to serve on. And then that will capture, thank you. That will capture. And it's, you know, regretfully will be unable to serve due to health reasons. It's in other words, just to let people know that this isn't a, you know, why? So that it's not a, Okay. Any other items to amend before we feel comfortable approving these minutes from February. And if not, I'll entertain a motion to approve if that feels complete. Yeah, I would move to approve the minutes. Motion to approve Sue. As amended. Yeah. Thank you. Is there a second? I can second. Thank you. Okay. All of those in favor of approving the February 23rd, 2021 minutes as amended. Please indicate by saying aye. Aye. Aye. And opposed. So that is a unanimous. Excellent. Thank you. We are getting through our business and we are entering our fourth agenda item, which Rob's tucked in. Annual meeting. Rob, I will hand the floor over to you. I think traditionally it's a late May affair. Yeah. So I think here we are in late April. You know, it's interesting as I was preparing the packet for this board meeting, I wondered if we really are at the end of our Zoom meetings and conceivably our next general board meeting, which would be in June, could conceivably be in person here at the space. And I'm not sure where people are with their vaccinations, but I know that I got my shot and I'm fully vaccinated and that there are things happening at the state level so we're to lift gatherings. So, but I began to think about the annual meeting, which is typically May and we have put on hold sort of an open house annual meeting because of the pandemic, we wanted to show off our new facilities. I'm not sure we'll be ready by May. So I kind of wondered if we wanted to postpone or schedule it for later, maybe in July or something like that where we could have some nice weather, maybe could some cook some stuff, even get like a little grill or something going on outside and plan an event along that line. Or do you feel it would be better to try to do something at the end of May, which I assume would probably be virtual. I just was curious as to what your thoughts were on that. Well, I'd vote for waiting till July so that we get to the governor's recommendation for opening after July 4th. Yeah, another issue is our election of officers is tied to the annual meeting and we just barely did that. And it feels like it was in fall because we had that we didn't do it any scurried virtual annual meeting. And you did put on a nice presentation but it did make us I think it was October at that point. So for just that technical reason, it might make sense to you know, not nudge it all the way back to the fall again but find a happy medium between May and October. Maybe. Yeah, that's what I was thinking somewhere around that July. Cause you know, the governor has said that we hope that we'll be back to whatever normal is by the 4th of July. So we see something. What about dovetailing it a little with the summer camp? Okay. So the summer camp is that creates activity already. Well, that would, I mean dovetail meaning can you expand on what you mean by dovetail? The week of or maybe spill over or maybe the board meets with the campers or some, you know, it seems like if we're talking about a summer thing and we're already looking like a pretty successful signup season, looks like it's a go. I don't know if, you know, the governor I hate it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tangent a little but I know that, I know the state is throwing out all kinds of summer, you know, recovery fund money for kids that have been in isolation. And I don't know if work has tapped into or looking into how to be tapped into that but it's a fairly broad money, money, kids anything you want to do with kids this summer that's structured and educational. Please take our money. Yeah, we are, we are certainly aware of it. And I think Christopher is looking into it. Thank you. What's the end of the summer camp? When does it, when is it? Yeah, when does it end? It's the weekends in August. So four weekends in August. Might buy us even more time too. I liked the idea of dovetailing it with the summer camp. I think it would be a really successful meeting to do that. And furthermore, if we could dovetail it with the end of summer camp and have the participants showcase presentations that would probably increase attendance and community engagement and showcase some of the work and the content that these kids are able to create. That's a really nice thought. That puts us towards the end of August then. And then we just... I also just favor any, yeah. The other thing is it seems to me that given the divisions that have happened due to the fact that people have been getting these very tunneled information streams, anything that we do that fosters in-person, face-to-face amongst our citizens is a benefit to our community and culture. Sure. Could we have the business of the summer of the annual meeting take place around the beginning of the summer camp and then have the open house dovetail with the end of the summer camp? We'll end it. Yeah. That's a nice thought. We're getting some good thoughts here. Well, I mean, we could do it as an annual meeting and then we just do some sort of event at the end of the summer camp where the board is invited and make it an open house where we try to get people there. I'm sure the families. Hey, just curious as to who joined us on the iPhone? It's me, Carlos. Finally got you. Carlos, sorry. No, Carlos. Carlos, hello. Hey, it's Vermont and Wi-Fi. That's all I can say. I picked up minute duty, so no problem there. We're on our fourth agenda item, which is the annual meeting and so far we're floating some ideas like do we do it in July? Do we dovetail it with the summer camp in August? We could bookend the business of the annual meeting the beginning of the summer camp and have a sort of more open house-flavored wrap-up with showcasing the students' work. I think a number of really good ideas can be taken around. What sounds great for me is, I would say dovetail it with the camp at the end of the camp so that way you have the camp screening and you have the annual meeting. Yeah, okay, it sounds like we're getting some momentum, Rob. Any concerns and then it also sounds like were you trying to take the pulse of the board and see who was vaccinated? Was that also part of your nefarious agenda? I've got two fighters. I'm good too. I'm a Johnson and Johnson here. Name your corporation, everybody. One and done in two weeks. I have two fighters. That may be, Mike, you're questionable, Mike. I don't know. I got it in March before the blood clotting started. So conceivable we all could have been meeting here today. And, Rob, that question seems to be tucked in. Is our June regular board meeting, you seem to be saying, hey, let's have it live. I got pizza money. Yeah, I'm just, are we there yet? And I think that I've been trying to follow the state's guidelines for gatherings. And I think fully vaccinated, if we're all fully vaccinated, we could do it. So I am not, I'm on a drug called disulfiram for Lyme disease, which synergistically competes with the spike protein as in phase two trials for treatment. But it's also a preventative. But I have a reaction to all and sundry. So I talked with my doctor and we had a discussion about whether it was advisable given that I just had my latest drug reaction. So that doesn't end up in the minutes, I hope. But if we're gonna make vaccination a prerequisite for meeting, then I should probably be housebound for medical reasons for the rest of my life. Well, would, I guess it does your doctor see any problems with you attending or going out, or how are you handling that as far as in the middle of the pandemic? In the middle of the pandemic, the doctors don't see me at particular risk. Lyme disease patients don't seem to be having any trouble whatsoever. It's interesting, like for whatever reason, I called my Lyme doctor because I was gonna bring my aunt, sorry to be off topic, but I was gonna bring my very elderly aunt home. And I called the hospital and the doctors and because my family was like, you're gonna get COVID and die. And I'm like, look, the person who's gonna get anything would be on chain. So they said, nope, we don't see you at particular risk. I mean, you guys know me. I don't have any of the risk characteristics of the people who tend to have problems with the virus. Would you be comfortable coming to, it looks like it'd be June 22nd, regular board meeting in person, or I mean, we can have a hybrid one if you want to stay on the screen. Oh gosh, no, I'm not the least worried about it. I just wasn't sure. I see your question was more, do you all feel comfortable going out and becoming possibly exposed? And the answer from my perspective is yes. For personal family reasons, I had a pretty extensive consultation with the Vermont Department of Health, my own personal physician, the people treating Lyme disease, et cetera, et cetera, to say, my family's freaking out. Do you guys see me as at particular risk if I bring my aunt home from a nursing home that's got COVID exposure? And they were like, no, get your aunt home. She's safer with you. So I'm fine. Great. I'm not the least worried. Are all those windows open or a table outside? Yeah. Are you asking about the facility here? Yeah, just continuing the conversation about our next board meeting. I know we're talking under annual meeting. It seemed to you presented as a package. So just pursuing it. Yeah. I think that we have the air circulation here. We have all the things protocols in place. So I think it's entirely doable. And it would be. There's no particular things about the pandemic here that MFA is requiring of us as their tenant. Good question. Good. Think of, no. It sounds like we're tentatively leaning towards an in-person board meeting on June 22nd and an annual meeting that is kind of a wrap around with the summer camp. Sounds good to me. Might actually get some press. Yep. Okay. And I don't. I mean, were you hoping for a motion or you're just getting- What I was hoping was that I'm not planning an annual meeting at the end of May. Yeah, the clarity of that is achieved. Yeah. And two of your board members have both suggested that we consider combining the annual meeting with the presentations from the campers. So that would combine the annual meeting and the open house, which of course is- And then there was an alternate suggestion to do- I don't know that I would want to, how much business we have for the annual meeting. And I don't think we typically have a lot of business except maybe have some reports available for people. It's more of an open house. Yeah. I mean, I think the minutes say we've got to elect officers before or- I think it's directly after. Directly after? And that might be at the next meeting, but I can check on that. Okay. I think I've captured all that in the minutes. Yeah, now that I think of it, I don't think that there's any real business that we would bore the kids with. It would more be like we get there and we can see what they've done and get some press around it or something like that and get a little- Yeah. And maybe we all say a word or two about the importance of access to creating culture. Great. But we don't, yeah, right, we don't torture them with the budget. If you're not looking for a motion to do so, I think we could just move on to our fifth agenda item, which is financial reports. Yep. Let's do it. So just to let you, I can give you the balances in the accounts right now. Currently we have $94.56 in the PayPal account, which is actually going to be going up because that's how people are paying for the camp. So we have some, right now, I mean, we have the PayPal and so I'm transferring it to that account now. So I'm surprised it's not there because I did that a couple of days ago, but currently in the PayPal account or the savings, it's a PayPal savings account. It's $94.56. In our checking account, we have 8,514.50. And in our savings, we are at 143, 389, and 97 cents. And then the reports that I got out to you, the most up-to-date ones went out this afternoon about two or three hours ago, let me pull those up. I've been working with the accountants trying to finalize the 2020 numbers. They are working hard and diligently trying to get our tax return done by the 15th of May this year, which will be good because it'll be the first time in many years, I think that we haven't filed for an extension. So we've just been on the phone with them, trying to make sure we have any questions. One of the couple of questions that I had for them, for instance, the new one that came out to doubt, I'm looking at the budgets versus actuals for 2020. I also gave you another one, which is the first quarter of 2021, but I'm gonna focus on last year. He was able to add in the capital gains, which is different than the one that went out yesterday. So we are still looking very good in the financials. The Ed Jones is doing very well. And I think the last statement I meant to, I think I meant to make it a protocol to include the latest Ed Jones for you guys, but I didn't do that this time, but it has gone up quite significantly again. So we're making some good money on the Ed Jones, I think to the tune of another $10 or $15,000 just the last month. But he has incorporated the capital gains now into the budget versus actuals. We do have quite a lot of uncategorized income, which is basically the COVID money that we got through the work from Van, the $16,838.50. Now, he did something on my capital expenses where he added in depreciation, which took me significantly over budget. And I asked him about that, and he seemed to think it was standard protocol, but I don't remember doing it in prior years. So I still have in my mind to ask him, how does that work? If the depreciation equipment is almost $15,000, do I need to include that in a budget or not? So I'll have more questions for him on that. It shows up as a loss? Yes, it shows up on a loss. So if you look at the capital, it's $6180 depreciation, $14,893. I understand that that's part of the tax return, but I've never seen it show up on this report. So I'm curious as to why it's showing up on this report. Like I said, because it just threw my numbers off for the capital and put us a $12,000 over. But generally, it's been a pretty light year where our numbers look pretty good, particularly around compensation, we saved quite a bit. And the final, I mean, he was able to move all the numbers out of that ask for my accountant. I had to go through and move that all into the proper accounts. And so it looks like we ended up about 42,000 dollars left less in compensation. And that's obviously due to the fact that we didn't have a lot of part-time people in for a couple of months. It was just the full-time staff working. So questions for Rob or anything more to highlight? So what's our total position looking like? I think in last month's financials, we saw a number of 255,000 earn change. What's our net difference? I'm sorry, so can you clarify that? CJ, what do you have? Sorry, so what's our difference with respect to last month overall or rather with respect to February, my bad? Our difference between, oh, that's something that Mike typically does. I don't, I'd have to, yeah, I don't have an answer for you on that one. You're looking for how much do we spend in March? Correct, February to present, yep. Yep, and that's, you're correct that Michael used to do that. And I don't have that for you, that difference and how much went out and so. Rob, we're meeting, what is it? Rob? Yes. Last Comcast check, when did show up and which way was it sending? Just leave them in the box. It showed up in the middle of February. So we are due for another one in the middle of May and it basically was down just like around 1%. I think that was in the February report, executive director reports. So we're nothing new since last board meeting. Nope, so we will see one in the middle of May and the fact that we're sitting with almost $150,000, over $150,000 in our accounts right now when another check coming up is decidedly different than 2018 where we had to go into reserve over the last month. So we're sitting fairly well. But yeah, I think what I would characterize is pretty flat from prior quarters on the check and I'd be interested to see what our first quarter 2021 check will show up. I'll just observe that that's an improvement over the anticipated loss of cable revenues. So that's good news, but I'm still wondering as I have in past times, this is a policy. Any news on the creation of a tap into streaming revenues for the Vans? So Vans has been working diligently on that with the report that came from the consultant and the work now has begun on trying to draft a bill for next session and lining up people. So they're trying to identify sympathetic legislators. I know that Randy Brock's name has been mentioned on us. Is Randy still a senator or is he out now? I forget. I believe he's back. He's back. And then there was a couple other names of legislators that they were talking about that I can't recall at the top of my head. But Vans has been doing a lot of work on that as well as the work on the broadband, or the COVID funds and the broadband money that might be coming into the state with the COVID, federal COVID money and the 10 year telecommunication plan. So a lot of that work has been happening in the VAN level, which I will add that the VAN meeting, annual meeting is taking place next Friday from 9.30 until 12. So if any of you wanted to join in on that call, I can certainly get the credentials to you and you're more than welcome to join. And there'll be- I actually appreciate that. That's a pretty important issue to me personally. Absolutely. Welcome Rachel. Yay. Rachel, hi. How are you? Hey, Rachel, welcome. Hello. We're in financials. We're humming along here. I was just saying, Rachel, that Vans spent doing a lot of work in the state house or with the legislators on possible use of broadband money, the 10 year telecommunication plan, and that VAN will be having its annual meeting next Friday and we'll be able to update more. A lot of the advocacy group at Vans have been working on this in particular or in Glen. So I don't know if you're much aware what's been going on in the state house, but I'm sure you are. Yes. And how it affects us. And I've been noticing that bill moving through and that money moving through. So that's good to note, definitely. Thank you. Yep. Yeah, that discussion was in response to a question for me regarding a tap into streaming revenues. And so it's kind of like interesting area from a policy standpoint. Do you just want to share the link generally to the board for that May 7th meeting? And would it be okay to pop in and out as we're locked from 9.30 to noon? I think popping in and out is perfectly fine. And I will send it out to the entire board. So that those of you who would like to join can certainly do that. Great. More questions, concerns on the budget and financials generally. If not, Rob, do you feel like okay, rolling right into executive director's report or we entertain a motion to get there? Entertainer move to accept financials. All right, CJ's doing it clean. She has moved to accept the financials and we're looking for a second. I'll second it. Thank you, Dave. Dave's saying all those in favor of approving the financial reports, please introduce by saying aye. Aye. And opposed, it would be a nay. Okay, that's unanimous. Okay, Rob, you're gonna change hats now. All right. Executive director's report. I will apologize for my numbers in the agenda. And you just noticed that they go one, two, three, four. Yeah, I'm cleaning it up in the minutes. Don't worry. All right. So just in general staffing, we are beginning to contemplate coming out of this pandemic. As I said, I am now fully vaccinated. Jin will be as of Saturday. And I said that that actually means that you and I don't have to wear masks when we're together in the morning. Zach got his first shot today. Many of our part-time staff people are fully vaccinated. And we believe that very soon, we're gonna start sending camera operators out. So we are looking for additional part-time people to help support that. So I've been working on that, getting the word out for call for part-time people. I am, as I mentioned in my report, I am hoping to boost some of the rates that we've been paying the part-time people. We've been at this range from 11 to 15 for basically 10 years. So I wanna be able to boost up some people who have been doing some good work and get them a little bit more money. So we are looking at that $13 to $16 per hour range as a potential. I mentioned the Van Maating, which we just talked about. The video camp has been going really well. Christopher's been doing some really good work. We've touched with other people who are crafting curriculum and administratively. I have been working on such things as background checks, waivers, talking to the insurance company, trying to get that all in place. We tapped into some friends of mine who work in the industry. One of them is Jen Ferrara, who works at RITN. And Jen happened to actually start Wide Angle Youth Media, which is out of Baltimore. So she sat with us as well as Susan, who's the current director of Wide Angle in Baltimore and took us through some of the things. Susan is a little bit more on the administrative side. Jen's more on the curriculum side. So Susan was helping me with what sort of things can we or can we not do? For instance, do not get in a car with them. You can't drive them somewhere, can't have more than you can ever have an adult alone with one of the kids. Background checks, getting all the stuff set up for that. It sounds, I mean, this sounds great, Rob. I mean, from what I'm hearing, sounds like you have everything in check. And that's important to have those administrative pieces in place before we go ahead with this so that we're not doing anything kind of crazy, I think that's great. Yep. And then Christopher got really pretty jazzed about the curriculum and the ideas. So we're talking about four weekends in August with two groups, an older group and a younger group. And they're gonna meet, each group will meet for two hours on both days of the weekend. So the older group will meet from 10 until 12. And this is just an example and I'm not sure what the exact times are. And then the other group will meet for two hours in the afternoon for two days. But that has come down to be four hours times four weekends is 16 hours. So we have to be really pretty succinct with the curriculum and both Susan and Jen were very helpful in trying to let us understand how you can develop a curriculum that's gonna be beneficial for them to the kids in particular. So I think Christopher told me the older group is now filled up. We're gonna go with 10 in each group and we just have some slots for the younger kids that we're still working to fill. We're doing some promotional stuff. It's been in seven days. We're talking to other people that are doing camps trying to learn from their knowledge. As I said, he is talking about taking some of the other access centers. So we're still looking at the structure of it. It's a project of Orca media is what we're sort of calling its house within Orca media. We're paying him. He's not a subcontractor. He's actually an employee while he's doing it. We figured that was the best way to do it. I think that's about it. We'll be using green. We've talked to the college about access to the green and we may have to rent one of the classrooms just in case it does rain and like that. So we won't take them very far. I think we've said, let's not go into savings pasture. We don't want to take them very far but it's pretty exciting to be able to do this. Christopher's been doing a lot of great work on it and I'm very appreciative of the time and I'm appreciative of the board support for this. So we will be looking at additional. We did get money from National Life. I think we got a commitment from Sun Common to contribute. And as I mentioned before, we are looking at some of the money that's coming from Washington as well in support of the kids structured programs. So, Robert, your taxes are due on, I think you said May 15th, I think it's May 17th. Yep, it might be because it's, yeah. Does that mean the money that's donated for an August event is in the taxes that are paid? No, we're on the calendar year. So the tax return will only reflect 2020, not the any donations that have happened so far. Okay, thank you. Robert, a question, so would you just mention, the last thing you mentioned was that you're looking into the federal response to support youth in alternate programs, right? Yep. That sounds great. How is that coming along? I'll have to check with Christopher. We meet every Wednesday, every other Wednesday now at this point. So I'll check with him to see what he's come up with, but I don't have any. Because I do know that we're gonna put some money into this and Vermont should have some money to spend there. Yes, yeah. I think one of the governor's press conference, maybe two or three Fridays ago, it just highlighted this sort of summer recovery. I think it was last Friday. What's that? I thought it was last Friday, if I recall. Oh, is it that recent? Yeah. So the dust still settling there. And we covered that, did we not? We get them twice a week, every week for the last year plus. So I have another question. So this is all in theory. So let's suppose that you receive money for the federal government to go ahead and do this in terms of access, students access to the program. How are you gonna take students in? Let's say you have a bunch of people, bunch of kids who wanna take the program or you don't have enough spaces. Are you asking, would we expand the camp or? Well, exactly. Well, yeah, I'm thinking that, if the federal government is gonna give money, then they're probably gonna have stipulations in terms of accepting trade demographics and all that other stuff, right? So I don't know, I'm just thinking that we should plan ahead for this, right? So I have got the 10 right now. We have 10 in the older group and I'm a few in the younger group. Okay. Okay. So the potential if money comes raining from the sky, could we hire and expand, do 15? Well, we could run another session. It is on weekends. So even if it's during school, we could conceivably do something in September or October. What are the age ranges for the different sections? I think the younger ones are like 12 to 15 and then 16 to 19. Okay. Are there any, I was gonna ask, are there any things happening in the building that we're in that conflict with something that we're doing in the building ourselves? No, we're not open on weekends right now. So they have full access to the facilities for the weekend. That's why we scheduled it for the weekend. Okay, thank you. Actually, just a general, more general follow up to the same type of question. Is there life on campus? Are you, is it a ghost town? Do you see the bridge? Do you see the college people? I know they're- We're seeing life. I mean, the winter, you know, obviously we're coming out of the winter. So we're getting to see more and more life. They're out, the groundskeepers are doing the landscaping. I haven't seen any students. So I haven't talked to them about any programs that if they're gonna do residential, but I don't imagine that'll happen until the fall. But certainly the regular staff, we do generally see folks across the bridge when it becomes time for publication. The cafe's still closed. No cafe, yeah. Okay. I'm only laughing because we're talking about students like they're migrating keys. Like I've seen some of them circling out on the green. You can eye out for the- They poop inside. So then- Thank you all for that. If there's no further questions about the video, okay, but as, you know, if you don't, if you think of things, certainly give me a shout or an email or drop a line or anything like that. Just a quick question. Where's the curricula or the description of the camp? I think it's being still being developed. You know, so he's trying to find- He's got a pretty healthy website already, doesn't he, Rob? He does. And there's a link on our site too. So if you go to our site, there's a link to it. Right. The reason I'm asking is that if I wanted to spread this around to people who don't know about it, I was wondering how to give them a description. I mean, if the older ones already filled out, filled up, they're responding to something. I think the younger ones 11 to 14. Is it? Right. So, but I mean- I would go to the website- Is it signing up just because they've been told it's a video camp or is there a description of them? It's called the Vermont Youth Documentary Lab. So I mean- Okay. There is the website you can go to and I can certainly put you in touch with Christopher for any additional information you may want, okay? Cool. So I have one more question. I just got a notice today that as usual, Barry is having a May Day celebration at the old labor hall. They have a filmmaker who's made a film on the famous Chicago Haymarket riot. And the filmmaker will be there. Is that something that we would cover and archive ourselves? Or would we wait to see whether the people that are sponsoring it would like us to or would accept us doing it? So typically we would wait for an organization to ask us to do it. Unless there might be some access producer who's already aware of it. For instance, I know that Jerome is planning on taking a camera for the May Day events that are happening in Montpelier this weekend. I don't know of anybody doing that particular event. I haven't, it hasn't come across my desk yet. But if you know the people that are involved and you wanna, and we have on our website, we point them to a request for coverage link that we have on the website for anybody who may want us to cover a particular event. Rob, go ahead. The reason I would do it is that some people wouldn't be able to still be able to make May Day in Barry. But if we had it and we had it archived, then they could see it a month later. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, absolutely. I can reach out and find out what's going on with that event, Dave. Thank you. Staying on the website, Rob, I'm on the mobile version of our website and I've looked under schools, youth, training, event. Not finding it? I'm not finding the link to Chris's. It's the Jumbotron at the top, where you switched to the scenes. Uh-huh. So let me just check and see. Oh, you put it on the, oh, no, that's education, government, media, public. There it is. Okay, it's a fourth scroll and I found it. But you're right, you probably should put it on a better link. What's that? Yeah, does it nest under anything? No, I was looking forward to it, Michael. Yep, that's a good point. I will make sure that that's nested under an appropriate menu as well. But we can get to it by going to vermontyouthdocumentarylab.com. I think if you Google that, I don't know if that's the exact URL, but if you Google Vermont Youth Documentary Lab, it'll come up. It's the exact URL. Is it the exact URL? Yeah. The thing itself sounds like a perfect thing to be in that silly insert in the Argus that has all of the ads for food and every other thing where they have an article about something going on locally, that's one time a week insert. So it sounds like that the course itself could try to get that insert closer to when the registration happens for it. Okay. Or on summer camp or anything else in the executive director's report. Go ahead. Please keep us posted about additional sessions. Yep, we'll do. And yes, it's vermontyouthdocumentarylab.com and Vermont is spelled out. I'll post a link to it in the chat window. Great, thank you. I could entertain a motion to accept the director's report, but I don't wanna be pushy. Is that the job of the chair to be pushy? Further discussion, question mark, or a motion? Cardinals, yes, motion to approve those to pass it. To approve the minutes. Second. Second, was that CJ? Yep, CJ, unless Rachel or somebody else wants to lend some diversity to the second thing, in which case I defer to somebody else. Okay, we'll keep rolling. Yeah, I've already typed. All those in favor of accepting the executive director's report, please indicate by saying aye. Aye. In oppose nay. And it's a unanimous acceptance of Rob's report to the board. Okay, we are on seventh item of old business. And as we were going over the minutes of the last board meeting, we definitely did stumble upon small business. I don't know, CJ, if you wanna pick up the ball there with Mr. Block's role. Yep, so just under old business, we have an agreement to cover broadband issues. John Block had accepted that role and then has had to resign for health reasons. I can fill part of that gap, but it seems to be a pretty critical area for the state, given its impact on small and rural business, particularly rural broadband's kind of critical. So I think we're looking for, I don't have a solution, but just wanted to note that as a forward going item, we probably need to actively recruit to fill that role. Were, did we hone in on a specific date to a specific EC fiber board meeting that we were going to cover? Is that, is that? These meetings happen monthly. They happen every Tuesday. And then there are cuts in other parts of the state that also are happening on a monthly basis. Paul Haskell and I actually worked with Giuliani to draft the legislation creating these. And as just an advisory to the board, the amount of interest that can either flow locally or flow out of the state's economy coming from the revenues of those network ranges in the over $100 million area per project. So it's got a significant financial impact that I think is probably under, not well understood. I think it's a critical area because of its presence and because of the amount of money that flows around. So I just texted Rob that I can pick up the part-time job of getting the cameras to the different CUD meetings in general. As long as they're not happening on Thursday nights when I'm moderating this big aviation meeting. And if the, if Orca feels that there's not a conflict or I can carry both roles, then I can easily run a camera in the EC fiber meetings. I think that's a great offer and I hope that we can accept it. And those would be remote. So Rob, you would give CJ the Zoom coordinates or? Well, actually, I think it's the other way around. If CJ's still on there, we'll get it and then we just capture it here. Yep. I will forward those. Do you have a history of being resistant to the idea or am I just... We have one inquiry to the former chair who, you know, I would characterize it as resistant. There may have been some resistance residual from Stephen Whitaker going to those meetings with the camera. So I think that was probably interpreted as antagonistic or something like that. I don't think that is Stevens, but it may have been interpreted by some of the people on the board as antagonistic. So I think they were reluctant. And then when I reached out to Irv, he had said that he didn't think my player was still in it, so he didn't see how it would apply. I had to remind him that we still serve Randolph and some of the other talents that he's fiber does. He didn't realize that. So I didn't press it from there. And I think that, you know, really it is just a matter of if we can get the link from any of the board members and if CJ has them, we can just capture it. It is a meeting. I have a question and maybe it's because I'm naive and don't really understand what's going on with fiber in terms of fiber in Vermont, but Comcast has already started like setting cables in Montpivir, I think, right? And it's set to go off in the next few years. Is that correct, CJ? I don't have the answer to that, but the subject that we're trying to cover here is the general, my understanding is what we're trying to do is to cover a critical issue of broadband generally. And there are some very substantive efforts that probably were pioneered or led, well, there were grants all around the state. So various companies did this, but EC fiber was a little bit of a different type of effort and that 24 towns got together to try to build their own fiber optic network, which is something that's happening in rural areas all around the United States. Each state has different laws governing how money can be spent. And in Vermont, there were some particular legislation that came out of a problematic situation in Burlington that created some particular restrictions on Vermont spending and that you can't go after the grand lists. In other words, you as a taxpayer, we can't just say, all right, we're adding taxes for fiber into your tax, but Vermont does allow the revenues of the network to support building fiber networks. And so EC fiber was kind of the biggest initial effort in some legislation. And then EC fiber expressed a desire to become a municipality itself, kind of a super municipality. And now we have these super municipalities emerging all around Vermont to borrow money against the revenues of the network and use that to finance building broadband networks. Rachel may have a lot to add to that because you're Rachel, you're more current on the governor's stance and on the money situation. I can't speak to the governor's stance. I can say that for the Department of Corrections, we're looking for facilities that can accommodate any kind of internet signal whatsoever. Concrete is not conducive to that. That's not as much as I can get into politically. Okay, yeah. Well, there's also, I mean, the reason is because I've been having trouble here where I live, like it's impossible for me to get more than 10 megabits per second, it's crazy here. So I've been looking into all this and for us, that is not on horizon. I mean, I know Comcast started to do some things now, but they're like two or three years away for sure. And what's new and what I'm trying out right now is Skylink, which is the satellite, which has nothing to do with this, but that shows a lot of promise and it's pretty strong. I mean, it's starting to work right now with me. I'm just working with the hiccups of latency, but it's pretty darn good. Actually, Skylink ties right into it, Carlos. All of the possible ways to get broadband to rural areas are part of the rural broadband picture. And your report that Skylink is actually working in, that you've got some latency issues that you're trying to work out is right in there. Is Montpelier in its own fiber district? Isn't there a new- Montpelier is part of a different fiber district. It was initially part of EC fiber and then it became part of, Rob, what is the- Central Vermont, Central- Multiple towns, similar structure to EC, but not as far up and running as EC, is that right? Correct, that's right. Yep. So there may be some help on the way, Carlos. Yeah, Dave, go ahead. So you can keep an eye on some of these meetings and their agendas? Yes, I don't generally keep an eye on much other than EC fiber, but I could do that. It's something I would be willing to commit to taking on, although I will have to find out, I'll have to go find out when they're happening. But because these are municipalities, so just a quick background, Skylink is my understanding is it's a corporate effort and our right to, or the requirement for that to be open is probably non-existent other than what's publicly available, but all of these communications union districts, EC fiber is a TUD, a telecommunications union district, because it had actually had its own piece of legislation. But anyways, all of them are subject to public meeting law because of their status as municipalities. So you might know ahead of time what sort of a general agenda might be for one of those meetings. Correct. I will definitely know ahead of time as a board member for EC fiber. And my understanding is that because EC fiber is a municipality, its agendas are posted on its website ahead of time and the public is welcome to attend. Well, I would like, if you noticed something that was coming up that seemed to be important, if there was any weirdness about conflict of interest, you could also ask someone like Rob or Mike or somebody just to inquire to see whether we could either be a participant or make a statement or just connect with it afterward. You know, I think that it's a municipality, if you're a resident of one of the 23 towns, my understanding is that you are welcome to attend and have a absolute right to attend. If anybody who's got more, I've read the public meeting laws pretty in detail, but it was about a year and a half ago. So if anybody's got better information, please correct me. And just so you know, we have all of the central Vermont fiber meetings on Orca media. So I have a question. So and I'm sorry, why isn't this a centralized effort by the government itself, like the primary government instead of having these separate entities? I think there, I think some COVID money will be, you know, to dole out to these entities, but these were built pre COVID. So I think the state is just so we're not gonna, you know, run an overlay that ignores what's already on the ground. And I think Carlos, there are many people that would advocate for that position, but I think we're in a world where it's a partnership between private, I mean, I guess I'm not private if they're municipality districts or unit districts, but you know, the state may not have the desire or the capacity to be able to do some of this stuff that may have happened. Or it's just never come up. I mean, Carlos, you're right. It's very much a matter of general public interest, like hand us. Sue, yeah. Yeah, but I just wanted to say that CB Fiverr seems to be exploring partnership with Washington Electric Co-op. Oh, interesting, yeah. And a partnership that may be closer to, you know, being up and running, because of that, then previously thought. Well, that would give them some infrastructure. Yeah, so this is, I'm a little off topic, but because... Yeah, last word, we'll move. Yeah, a cooperative effort with something like Consolidated or Washington Electric is a huge cost savings and a big accelerator to any of these types of efforts, just speaking as a former executive and CTO and CIO for this type of effort. Hey, can I just add, Michael, that I would add that Vermont Access Network, this is on their radar. They are dealing with it. And Lauren Glenn has an eye on it, as well as Amy Schoenberg at Action Circles on behalf of Van. So we expect that to be a topic on the seventh. Yes. Okay, thank you. The other big thing that was noticed when we went over Approval of the Minutes is our radio initiative and where that stands and what the timeline needs to be. And can we, it seems like it's in a law. Can we afford this law? Yeah, so I'm following the guidance of the people who are radio people, which is Lou, who you met at the December meeting. Chris Gruen from GDR is involved. And then this woman, I forget her name. I remember her last name as protagonist, but she was very involved in the setup of the radio station at the media factory in Burlington. So we have been trying to schedule a meeting. Lou did drop some dates on us, but which gives us some breathing room as far as the FCC and the licensing process. So we are due to have another meeting here. I think we're scheduled on the afternoon of the seventh when we're gonna be meeting again. But we haven't, Lou got involved in the mayoral race in Burlington. And so it has been a bit of a law for the past couple of months, but we... What's the FCC's deadline on getting these micro licenses? All right, let's see what she said. It didn't seem like it was terribly closely pending, but... So this is the latest email from Lou, which came in yesterday. Heads up, it looks like the FCC is dropping their mixed aid for full power and non-commercial filing this November. This means low power is definitely not until 2022. Got it. Now we're gonna schedule a meeting, yep. So we're scheduled to talk next Friday. Good. Would it make sense to have maybe Chris and Lou join us for a board meeting, or maybe closer to 2022? I think that would be entirely appropriate. I mean, that's what the goal is to get it on our radar, so. Okay, you'll meet with them well prior. Yep. All right, other old business? Rob, I gotta say it, staff of vows. Oh, they're... Half a year old, we're open to see him in December, so he can give you all raises. I am waiting, this morning I said, Zach, I need your signed evaluation back. I gave it to him and I need it back so I can get it to Michael. And I wanted to have it to you before this meeting, but he said he left it at home this morning. So if I get that back, it's going to you. All right, so we continue to be on hold evaluating you until you're completed evaluating your staff. One more signature and that's complete. Dave and Carlos have agreed to join the subcommittee of evaluating our executive directors. So for the minutes, Rob awaits one more signature to complete. Correct? Correct. Thank you. Other old business? Oh, actually a potential board member, Waterbury, any poking around there? You know, I've had it on my list of things to do to talk to Alma at the library, but I haven't gotten to it. So it's on my things. It's on my radar. I'm gonna get it in the minutes to... Yep. That's a fire question, Mark. On, Rob. And I think as far as old business, I think we still have is opening up those micro, our commedia micro sites, but that we're gonna wait off until the pandemic is over. I'm assuming. So there was some talk from the Kimball Library. Amy's been in touch with me and she is looking, she has some money and is looking to purchase. So she asked her some specs on a laptop. So I'm gonna get back to her with that. So it's in her mind and it's, I'm glad to see that. She apologized for not talking to me for a few months, but we're back online, at least opening up the discussion again. And as I said, I'll reach out to Alma in Waterbury. So I can bring that up with her as well. But we're thinking this is gonna be August or September. Yeah, I would say. The fall. Yep. Yep. All right. Rob, can you check and see how Mike is doing? I will. Okay. Yeah, we're fast and furious on the old business. Let's give Rob a to-do list to check on Mike D. Okay. We're getting it all. Any other old business or? What do we have under old business? Was that aviation content there? Or if not, I just texted Rob the link and it doesn't need to be in the minutes. Yep, I got it. Yep. It sounds like we've exhausted old business. Is there new business? I have one request. If this is, and this is maybe a prelim, could, would it be possible to, and forgive me. So is the entire board familiar with how content gets, how channels get created, how regular shows get created and financed here at Orca Media? Because I'm actually not completely up on that. Well, yes, you kind of, yes. I could chime in a little bit. Sometimes the way it works is the way that channels, you were talking about programs, right? Like how they're created. Yeah, like how does our business of community media get done? And the reason I ask is that if I'm not familiar, then maybe we could do a, and there are other board members that don't work at Orca that aren't familiar. Maybe it would make sense to do a quick presentation to the board and then do that again at our general meeting. Not just like, this is who we are. This is how it works. Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. That might be worth capturing and actually putting on the channel. Hey, member of the, That sounds great. Well, I mean, we could even produce a short video here at the staff and have them accessible to the board, yeah. Yeah. Some of us might fall over the head. I'm determined to a show. Is that what your next CJ? Just simple, just process. Yep. How does it work? Idea to show. Well, how does it work? Idea to show. I think through that. I think this video can be done like stick figures, like very simplified version of it. It could be a fun. Yeah, absolutely. I love this. If you could present it to the board next meeting and then turn it into a video for the general meeting. We can be your test run audience. Okay. You'll also inspire us to be able to reach out to other people because we'll have the knowledge to advocate for Orca and all the van. Okay. Thanks. We'll do. Great. Yeah, I'm capturing that as well. Any other new business? Do you need a motion or is it just, it'll happen? I'll take that as a direction from, you know, it's a good idea. Yeah, no, I think that's. Okay, perfect. I could do this for Rob under old new businesses. This is where we really load them up. Okay. I've captured that. Any other new business? I could use my authority to call a German at 751. I wouldn't even need a motion because I've checked Rob. I had one question. Oh, please go ahead. What, what, who was meeting to make amendments to the way that Montpelier is policed? Who was meeting? Yeah. Is there an organization that's meeting regularly to talk about the problems of policing in our capital city? I know we have some racial justice content that we're getting from one of our organization in Montpelier. And so that they probably would be, I'm sure that that would be a topic for them. But other than that, I'm not aware of anything that we're covering. I could certainly check with Jin. Well, it's such a raging issue nationally. Yeah. And so it seems like we are small and small as beautiful and we are pretty open-minded and open-minded as beautiful. It could be that we might be able to exercise some leadership in trying to see how police can do the job that they need to do without any of the overpowering weaponry or a lack of understanding of mental health, that it seems to exist in most police forces in the entire country. So that's a big long sentence, but it'd be really great if there is a group that's doing that that some of us would have a chance to actually either participate in or make some recommendations to. Well, I think, you know. Montpelier City Council is having routine discussions about these very issues. And if you go to the City of Montpelier's website, the first link you'll see is a newly adopted resolution condemning attacks and discrimination. So Montpelier City Council, which I believe we cover regularly. And I believe, Rachel, I also believe that the ACLU here in Montpelier is doing a lot also about this. And I could provide if we need contacts, I could provide Jen with some contacts from the ACLU from Montpelier. And we are certainly just done a search on our website for racial justice. There's a lot of stuff coming from the State House. I know it's an area that Jen is focused on when trying to get content from the State House. And we do have some content from a group called the Racial Justice Alliance, Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. The League of Women Voters have done a thing of racial bias of criminal justice. So we do have quite a little bit of content on there, but I'm not aware of a particular organization that's dealing with the policing in Montpelier. All right, it was just an issue. I just wanted to raise it, so thank you. Yep, sure. I got that in the minutes. More new business. I'm looking at a calendar. We are not having a late May annual meeting. We're hoping to wrap it around our summer camp, but our next board meeting, which we actually, yeah, if you joined us late, we are discussing having our June 22nd board meeting actually be in-person if people are comfortable with that. Pizza, yay, in-person, hooray. Humans. So we've got that date figured out for Tuesday in June. Correct, yes. I could, I'm gonna call it German at 755, unless anyone wants to get anything in under the wire. Day of the June date, well. Before you close the actual Zoom meeting, I wanna get something in after the wire, because it's not. Okay, I have typed the German at 755, but yes, we can keep the meeting, keep the meet open, but not be in our actual board meeting. Yep, that gives people the privilege to leave. Just everybody, I am just back from flying a small airplane across the United States. It was brought out for an autopilot approval project. So I landed at many places across the United States and just a kind of a quick note, the country is opening up in remarkably different ways, depending on where you are. Arizona is a completely different country and culture from Vermont, which is completely different from Missouri, which is completely different from Florida. And so I just wanted to make a quick observation that the country's really divided and has remarkably different views on the same topics. Like they're just getting completely different information, people, depending on what your little stream of information is, like who your friends are and how the internet is crafting your messages. So the more in-person we can get, the less divided we seem to end up being. Just because I've had the opportunity to do that, I just wanted to bring it in as a personal observation because most people who have been really, really social distanced haven't had the chance to see this. Well. Thanks for being our Amelia Earhart. But it's just, has anybody, it's I put it out there for discussion because I run an old brick and mortar organization and I actually called the head of a big online organization and I said, do we need to be in existence anymore? It's a lot of work to run this. And that person came back and said, yes, because when people who have met in person are online, they are so much more civil to each other. So we are a funny organization orcas. So I didn't want to put this in the minutes because I wanted to just be able to have a really frank discussion. But, and it's not on topic necessarily, but we're in a funny place. We are Orca media. We're the place where people come in person to create content that's online. It's just a food for thought, maybe for a future meeting. What can we do to foster community, which means bringing people together, whether they're fanatical gun nuts or radically anti-Second Amendment. If anybody saw Saturday Night Live's skit on let's go to Vermont by the Neo Confederates meeting and then the fabulous government, the fabulous Vermont response, both of which were hilarious, by the way. It's kind of like that. So that's all just kind of a no. I think for me, thank you. Thank you. I think this is great. I think it's great that you bring this to the light for us. And then I kind of agree with you on all this. Yeah, I think that that getting people together is, you know, are you looking at, I think you're expanding beyond our June meeting where we get you all back here to so you guys will stop fighting. But how can we do this, bring this to a wider community? I think is what you're trying to say, CJ, am I correct? I am, I'm looking at this desire to try to bring people together, not to discuss the issues where they differ, but simply to have them see each other and be like, Oh, I thought it was a monster, but it's actually looks like another human being like me, just to sort of start that exposure where we don't come together to discuss our differences, but rather simply to break bread, you know, sorry to be really old fashioned, but it seems to seems to pretty much come down that basic. Well, maybe we can do some events and even figure out how to- Content creation events. Content creation events. Yeah, I mean, we've talked to some of the leaders in the community as to how, you know, tap into some of the work that people are already doing. Yep. Yep. I don't know if we end up with just a roving reporter. Once we've got this presentation on how to create content, it might be fun to start taking, making a road show. Yeah. Okay. I don't know, just some thoughts, but I've started to hear a drumbeat of concern about how to start to undo some of the divisiveness that's naturally created by the fact that our information streams are being filtered just by the online bots that go, hey, Rob, you're really interested in like dogs and pizza. And so we're gonna send you information about dogs and pizza, but, and so, you know, so that means you end up in the dogs and pizza group, but you have nothing to do with the, you know, rhinoceros and sushi group. And so you have no common ground. Just a 30 seconds. I wanted to just tell a quick story in the line of what CJ is talking about. The news last night showed the space junk that was threatening the astronauts that were in the capsule so that they had to get their uniforms off and be prepared for potential collision. Turns out there was no space junk, even though they showed a picture of it on screen. It was a false alarm and a drill and it came across as, boy, that was a close call for our astronauts. So I'm just saying that transparency and truth could be the slogan for this particular orca. So my gosh, team. That's great. Y'all remember the Orson-Wills joke that everybody took seriously about the invasion of Martians back in the 30s? Yes. Well, I don't remember it. I don't know if there, but I've read a lot about it. It was fake news of the best kind. Yeah, one of the original fake news. And there's actually no way to tell. I mean, there is no way to tell these days whether it's real or not. There's actually a podcast that I listened to on Radio Lab where they talk about the war of the worlds and subsequent ones that were done. I think it was one in Buffalo that was done in the 70s and in Mexico in the 60s where radio stations were doing these same sort of things and it caused panics. Yeah. It was very interesting. I always assumed that we learned from Wells that, but it's actually been done fairly recently. Oh gosh, no. I mean, I have very close friends who are extremely rational and considered people, but their information streams are so different that to one of them, the election was definitely stolen. And to another, everything was copacetic. And there was nothing in the middle. And I just kept my mouth shut because I have no clue personally because I can't tell. And which is a little scary given that we live in a democracy where the most fundamental, you know, part of the, one of the most fundamental parts of the process is the involvement of citizenry to vote. Well, I think Orcas really well, you know, has served the state well through the pandemic with the governance press conferences and covering all the state house activity, as well as local. So, you know, we may be boring, but I think we're on the good side of that issue. And we just be wise to keep an eye on the, as we get more and more in-person activities going, you know, a lack of isolation is probably the cure for this sort of divided culture we live in. Yep, I think that's right. But we have a role to play in giving people, I'm saying, you know, kudos to staff that I think we've done a good job. And yeah. Oh yeah, here, here, Mike, you're absolutely right. And I agree. I second what you say. We'll pass it on to staff. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thanks, everybody. Yeah, we'll see y'all. Okay. Enjoy your spring. Take care, everyone. All right. Thank you. Have a good night. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.