 2021. Go ahead, Rachel. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you all so much. It's been an incredible two days, and we are just so grateful for the robust conversation and the generosity that not only our facilitators but our attendees have brought. If you are streaming live with us, you are also welcome to comment on the live stream and we will be circling back to see what questions may be coming up for you because the PAL summit is not just about a flash in the pan moment. It's about connecting us all together so that these conversations can continue to make change throughout the year. And I would love to introduce the session as ask me anything, which Timania and I are here to just engage with either whatever has come up throughout the summit that you're like oh I have additional questions, or we have not touched on yet or it's just on your mind and your heart, or maybe it's on your task list or in your organizational workspace and you, you want to engage so to prepare the space, I would love to pass it to Timania for our landing knowledge minutes and welcome. Hello, I'm the money Garza I am the PAL National Director of Community and Justice initiatives, and I'm also the chief rep for Philadelphia. Welcome to you from the land of the Lenape people whose historical territory includes the places colonially known as Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Long Island and the Lower Hudson Valley. For more than 10,000 years the Lenape people have been stewards of these lands, as well as the river of human beings or the Delaware River. In the past 250 years, many of the Lenape people were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands and dispersed throughout the country. So some families remain. These families continue the traditions of their ancestors to this day. The violence that removed the Lenape from their homeland is a powerful part of the history of Pennsylvania, and we acknowledge that in this moment, and that we work and live on these very lands. This is the story of our entire country. We encourage you to learn about the lands where you live and work and the history of the people who live there before colonization. Many who still live there today, though they are often starved of the very resources they protected for so long, including access to housing, sustainable food practices, safety, clean water and the land where they once lived with their families. This information was provided in part by www.Lenape-nation.org. Thank you. Thank you so much to my name. We acknowledge and receive that commitment to identify this land. I'd like to share community agreements in the space. My name is Rachel Spencer Hewitt. I am the director of programming and resources here at PAL. And our agreements are as a session participant, you commit with us to welcome all caregiving responsibilities and realities in the background or foreground of any meetups, phone calls, and exchanges, and embrace your life in our pursuit of productive and supportive practices. As a session participant, you commit with us to creating a transgender and non-binary affirming space. All language that includes but is not limited to mother, parent, dad, caregiver etc. applies to any individual who identifies with that term. As a session participant, you commit with PAL to creating spaces rooted in justice and anti-racism in our structures, practices, policies, principles, and producing. As a session participant, you commit with us to creating safe and supportive spaces for disability access and inclusion and all access needs present in the space. Welcome everyone. I would also like to share some safety agreements in terms of what it means to engage in virtual space with each other. And so I want to ensure that everyone feels taken care of. That includes all of our participants and folks watching online. I want to prioritize safety over civility. So if at any point in this session you feel unsafe, please speak up for your own safety using your voice, the chat, or even private messaging myself or any of our colleagues. If that feels most supportive, whether it's something as obvious as Zoom bombing or aggressions that may be micro to the outside but are not micro to your experience, we will honor your experience and engage immediately. So please interrupt the meeting if it means your safety because that's our priority today. Okay, welcome. Thank you all so much for joining us in the morning of our final day is when I lift up our upcoming sessions no more 10 out of 12 and the five day rehearsal week is coming up next we get to talk with representatives from design action Clint Ramos the 10 out of 12 and from no more 10 out of 12 is the extraordinary collective that is really just taking this mission and driving it into the hearts of organizations with Lindsay Jones, and then also one of my great advisors and I consider mentor Patricia McGregor, director as who has been not using the 10 out of 12 for an extended period of time for award winning productions and utilizing five day work weeks and we get to talk to them at 1130 today. And then join us at one o'clock to speak with Karen Alivo on advocacy and centering humanity for a final day, and it just makes me excited for next year. Oh, so in this session. I didn't ask me ask us anything a UA. Feel free to say what you would love to build on for for the next year. So I'd like to invite our session participants and anyone online to to drop into the chat. If you would like us to talk about a to money and I will always have something to share in so I'm going to let the space live for to give folks time and to money to share anything. Oh, and thank you to our true business interpreters today, one and Valerie. Yes, thank you so much for being here to create this access. Yeah, so we'll let you populate the space. And as that comes in into money any thoughts on your mind this morning. This morning from what we've discussed. I mean so many facts so many thoughts about how much, how much less invisible my labor feels even today than it did three days ago, and how extraordinary all the people who have been able to join us have been. And how many great solutions I've taken away even as a facilitator just taking in. You know, we're all, we're all such incredible world builders as parents and theater artists and, and just all of the joy and struggle and beauty and wisdom that comes with that I'm, I'm overwhelmed. I have to completely agree, completely agree. Adriana what's on your mind after these days. These days. I have some thoughts that came up for me was a conversation that we had yesterday about that pending question to money about teenagers. And how the, just, you know how, how are teenagers being taken care of right especially during this time in the last year and a half with all the changes you know you think that teenagers are oh you know they're done they don't need any any caregiving we don't there's there's no focus needed they're already on to adulthood. But just how we brought up also how that change right going into in life and on screen had has affected a lot of people right including teenagers and I didn't mention that I know, I know several teenagers who thrived on screen and then now going back to being live it's been a challenge for them. And just like all the other things that may come up right when you're in that time of when you're questioning things and just so many things come up for you and how to support that age group. And then something else is, we, we were able to probably not in the main sessions but in the smaller sessions, we did talk a lot about other types of care. I think it's important to, to talk about that to hear publicly and openly, because normally, when one is experiencing caregiving other other types of caregiving, you do feel very isolated and alone and you feel that other people are not there with you, not to support you or that understand what you're what you're going through because it's a very private thing and it's not just about what you're going through because there's other people involved. And I think the more not that you have to say any specific details but just to voice it or just me voicing it out into the space. I'm just saying that there, there are other people who are experiencing what you're experiencing and it's important to talk about it, even if it's in just affinity spaces because you do need that support and as a caregiver, you need to be taking care of yourself. And, and, and sometimes we forget to do that. Something that I've been thinking about. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Lisa. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, and if we're saying all that I really feel heard from last night. The bar. Conversation about other types of support. And I want to say, you know, I told this story to somebody to say the day ago to say the day and I'm going to tell it now I went to one of the TCG conferences, a few years ago. It was like a pre-conference on GDI. I was there representing a black theater. So I was, you know, not really the target of the, of the workshop. Because, you know, I'm not black indigenous or person of color. But I went to represent this black theater. And so we broke out into sessions. And I wasn't really sure, you know, what it was going to be like. Because I knew that they had done a lot of EDI work, TCG does a ton of EDI work. We had a breakout session and the question was what is your issue. That's a broad question. And we went around the table and when it got to me, I just started crying. At that moment, I was struggling so much like, do I get to work because I have to take care of this really high maintenance disabled child. It was a question I was asking myself, but I wasn't talking to anybody else about it. And I said just because I have this, you know, big responsibility doesn't mean I don't have something to offer. Am I the only one who sees that? That was about, I don't know, maybe six years ago. And I really feel like we've come so far. And this whole summit has just validated, you know, something that I've kept in my, my own heart for all these years. My daughter is 16, so it's, you know, it's literally years that I've been struggling with this. And I just want to say thank you. So much. Please say it. You're, it's just been a pleasure getting to know you over these few days and I'm still looking forward to more. I also want to lift up for continued conversation our Pal-Chifrep in Milwaukee. Shout out to Jamie Lynn Gray doing amazing things with the Milwaukee Theater Alliance, who's our host organization is also gathering parents and for anyone listening to this on the stream, gathering parents, either with disabilities or with children with disabilities to create more affinity spaces throughout next year. So we would love to invite you to that space and continue this visibility, just increasing it so that it starts to feel like full on support. And I just love to challenge any organizations hearing the generosity of Lisa sharing her personal story that to remember that's a gift that you've been given, and not an application that an individual needs to pass on to you to understand this is this is why this conversation matters is because there are folks who need access who are carrying the responsibility of taking care of someone in their family. With these disabilities that are complex. And so when they ask for simple solutions that feel complex to you. I think that we all need to have that empathy and compassion to realize, oh, what I'm taking on is not at the same skills where this individual is carrying on their own. How can we surround them as a, as a community. And Lisa, I just hope you find so much more of that support. Absolutely so much more. And to that I would like to to borrow just a little bit more without any names attached from yesterday's affinity space was I think some two things that I thought were really interesting came up that one was the cultural norms outside of the United States and how often elder care and care for the young is simply a community obligation, like it's something everyone's responsible for. It, you know, it's something that we all carry together as in, if not an obligation responsibility and honor. And so I we were talking last night about maybe how do we disrupt spaces like spaces in the United States that are so often created to exclude that and disrupt them and make, you know, radically include those practices, because many of us, you know, we're talking about either having lived outside the United States or being, you know, culturally related to places outside the United States and just how kind of appalling it is here how we, we pretend the labor to care for those two groups either doesn't exist, or it's an inconvenience somehow, not like it's part of our everyday so I was I was telling a story how I have a huge family, my father's one of five and my mother's one of eight. And when I walk into a family gathering, someone just hands me a baby and I've got that baby in my head and I'm changing their diaper and I'm feeding them and, and obviously this is a family member I know who this baby, you know, they're not stranger babies were not, but you know, just your baby, yes, because I have I have family members who have families of two or three or four or five or six and some with disabilities and some with and how, you know, we have been in my family and in my culture raised that that is part of your responsibility to the family to the culture that recognizing the potential of the little ones and what we owe to our elders by caring for them. And you know, and when you when you make food you get up and without thinking about it you serve the elders first to make sure they're comfortable you make sure they have water or their oxygen tank or they have space to sit down for their wheelchair whatever it is. It is just part of eating or part of the gathering or part of being in a space of someone and so how you know how can we bring that here with us, instead of having to leave it at the door and feel like it's strange, rather place. I loved that thought and that question. And that sort of that we were all having this dissonance of like yes where I'm from to like that's just how it is. And then I think another thing that came up last night that I think was was was powerful was speaking specifically about elder care about people with disabilities. It becomes so overwhelming often because you're navigating the medical system you're navigating sometimes, you know, different cultures or different languages and barriers there, and how a it's not a system where you're supposed to succeed, like they want you to be as quiet and passive as possible so they don't want you to complain or ask questions or, but also just a complex feelings that go with that, the rage the anger the fear, the overwhelm of having to navigate all these technological spaces especially in COVID, where things are online or things are on text or things and technologies maybe that elders aren't exposed to or comfortable with so just the fact that there has been guilt or shame surrounding that like, of course I have to help of course this is who I am of course this is part of it but just how incredibly overwhelming it is and in human the amount of stress that is on one body and one person, and how feeling then again angry or frustrated is part of like, feeling any of those feelings that are not positive. You don't have a space to speak about that you don't have a space to feel affirmed in that. And that's why I think the affinity spaces are so wonderful and so important, but they need to exist in more places so that we can feel affirmed and less lonely because the challenges of caring for the disabled telling caring for the elderly killing caring for the elderly disabled all of those kinds are so big and affect everything in your life, every single second of your life so that was something I had not awesome got the chance to talk about. And as someone who had a parent who was disabled and continue to care for my elders it's it's against something that I have, I never feel comfortable talking about and I share those feelings. And just to lift up a couple of things I heard in there. One for those who are just joining us or who don't know last night's affinity spaces on other care, including elder care, disability care. Parenting care that's not talked about as frequently or centered as frequently. And so a lot of the conversation that's been contributed today is stemming from that beautiful space. So I would turn in to money for holding that space. And also, so many, you and I talk about this all the time in regards like how should house structure itself like how should we create communities but this idea of, we cannot dismantle white supremacy without addressing the, the hyper isolation or compartmentalization of the emotional connection. This idea of that is so part of an oppressive system is to separate elders and, and, and youth from the mainstream which is this bizarre 1015 year span of folks that we, we can, we forced to stay like idealized and perfect. How do we, how do we integrate know it's this entire life cycle of care that once we're able to take care of that in our organizations, we've really torn the productive years yeah thank you. We've really, that's when we've really started to dismantle the oppressive structures because we're cared for, for our life cycles. We offer into the space, Leila. Call in organizations to say they are committed to EDI and may not recognize caregiver access as part of that. Yes, that is the message that is the message of the summit. We said at the opening session and we've been saying for a while to often pal will hear explicitly, we don't have time to take care of caregivers, we're working on anti racism. And our responses always you cannot separate the two. And to money you started to address that a little bit but we'll go in. I'd like to go in a little bit deeper there and then it is an honor to be in a caregiving position it values are critical you are I'm so glad that you've experienced that we said. And then, yeah, regarding the productive years Aaron shares, what ages even are those I feel like no matter where you are you're somehow outside the mainstream age. That is such a great point. Right, we say sometimes, I'm like, Oh, that like you've arrived or established enough. That's not a place that's a carrot. It's the thing you're supposed to chase so that you stay in the system. It's like being the right age is what your sister chase to stay in the system. It's not an actual place. It's the thing they just keep in front of you until you burn out collapse on the side of the road, or find a space is like, take the carrot off the stick you get to eat it for your own sustenance and let's live here with each other. I love that runaway metaphor. I'd love to chat a bit more about the other EDI calling into mania and the conversation of recognizing caregiver access as part of EDI integrated in. Right, so I, I in other work I do EDI consultation with theaters. And I think so often. Because dismantling a system is difficult and is overwhelming and often you have to admit you have been complicit in a system that has done great harm. So it's very attractive to pick one thing and to be like we're going to get awesome at this one thing. And then you don't have to worry about all these other things. In reality, all of the other things are connected, especially caregiving and I quote often when I do compassion training with power when I do my EDI work, someone like me who I've been working in theater for 20 years I have a degree in theater. I've been directing and producing for all that time. I've been the president of board. I will make $0.55 on the dollar for what a white man will make for doing the exactly same work. So I basically will have to have two jobs to have the lifestyle, maybe that that someone who is white and cis and hetero and male has just waking up in the morning. And so with that even just that one metric in mind. I have to work twice as hard for daycare I have to work twice as hard for food I have to work twice as hard for medical care. If those two jobs even provided maybe I need a third job for that. So, I can't do any of that without caregiving, obviously. And, and then there's access to caregiving that is high quality that is in the neighborhood where I live that is, you know, providing education. And if you have a multi ethnic child, then we'll honor their, their multi ethnic existence in a way that is not harmful. It's a way that isn't also filled with white supremacy and so it's. Yes, there's absolutely no way to take them apart and you can only address EDI issues and you can only address the issues of anti racism. If you are looking hard at who has access who can even get into your space. And that always casting question like well we looked there just were no Mexican actors or we looked that were no black actors that we looked like first of all, where are you looking like you're, you know you're looking the same places you've always looked, but to. If you are not a space where people can thrive people will not come. So if you want people to come, you know, it's, and this is the thing too of where we find a problematic theater and suddenly we have a person, you know, someone from the bike park community who has been from a community historically marginalized and we say you're going to come in and fix everything. But if the environment has not been recreated and dismantled to ensure they will thrive. They're just going to be a sacrifice on the altar of performative change, and then we'll go right back to where we were. So absolutely, if we're going to make that change and we're going to invite people in that have not been represented in the past. We have to address the violence and the micro aggressions and the lack of access that has been inherent in making sure that only certain people succeed in this, you know, in this environment forever, since it was first created. And that's a lot of work and that's hard, but that is how we're going to get there. If we want the people on the boards and on the, you know, in the directing seated and the acting seat and in the production chairs and on the staff. We have to get them there first, and then we have to support them once in there and give them agency and give them trust and give them authority. And all of that comes from looking at all the ways we have done harm in the past, which is hard, which is incredibly hard. But I think so often when I see it sort of sussed out into two different categories. That's what the game is like I'm and that's a very perfectionist white supremacist attitude I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to be the best at, you know, it's an also it's an ongoing process you don't do it for a year. You don't write one plan and then you're like, we fixed racism, we're good now. You know, I mean, like you have to, it's an ongoing commitment to challenging yourself every single time. Every single thought every single casting notice every single, you know, every time you put out a job listing and you're still like, Oh, you know, pay deterrent upon experience and all of that nonsense like radical transparency radical representation radical breaking away of the things that have kept certain people safe and other people out. 100% can I just say that what I need to get as a tattoo is the way you put. Like a sacrifice on the altar of performative change. Can I just live in the space please because I almost like fell out of my chair. Thank you for that reality. I will be saying that forever and crediting you and if we could all take that phrase with us into spaces from now on and let folks know in regards to we have a pleasure to work with someone who is speaking the truth. Absolutely. 100%. Yes. We have a question in the spirit of AMA can I ask the trajectory of the pal organization pal as an organization. So glad you're growing as an order how do you sustain that growth with the stuff that's pulled in so many directions. That's a great question. And I also just want to preface it by saying in no way do we say that we've done anything or do anything perfectly, but it's actually in the method of care within those moments of of like learning growth and stretch of tolerating the discomfort of what we're discovering because so often we look at something we're like, okay, let's all acknowledge with each other that we're, we're making a new thing, we're doing a new thing. And so there's discomfort there to start off with. At the same time, there are some things that I think we have adopted that are very fantastically impactful to our growth in a healthy way. And I would actually like to invite Adriana and Tumania to speak to those first they're both national directors at pal. So to start off with one pal is a shared leadership organization. There's no head of pal. There are five of us on the national director team, and we each have our, our passion paths, like you should hear Adriana talk about digital platforms it's just, it's kind of a beautiful or, you know, like, garly talking about playwrights and and Tumania talking about gathering folks together and me talking about nerding out on research I mean we just each have our passion points and that's what helps. But the collaboration is that this is shared. No one person is responsible for moving forward so I'll say number one. The trajectory is to always continue in a shared leadership structure, forever and ever, and then I'll throw the ball to my, to my colleagues to share. What comes up for you how do you sustain that growth with the staff, and no one is on staff actually we provide stipends for folks for projects as well because we're still an all volunteer organization but we try to work with with care and financial that directly correlates to labor in that way that you're not just on a salary so now give your life blood but like, let's talk about this project, what can we budget for it and how can we fund raisins. If not how can then we let your time go and and take care of you, because you should prioritize yourself even though you're passionate about this. And that takes constant communication. We are, we are a nonprofit, we are a full nonprofit. You're able to make donations and that will go we pay all the speakers at the Pal Summit. We pay all our contributors we do not do unpaid internships. That doesn't mean we don't get tired, but that just means that like when we're tired, we get to say it out loud and say like, I need to, I need to be honest. Um, yeah to money and Adriana, and I will drop the link to donate in the chat theater comm slash donate and thank you to anyone who can give to support to money what do you think the trajectory of pal. I think this is honestly a question we talked about a lot. And we've talked about a time this year, because growing in coven is difficult but growing in coven if you're making your mission to be ethical and to grow differently. I think is an incredible challenge that as racists we don't always get right but we absolutely try to start it's baked into the, the very essence of who we are that it will be different like the per the per project which requires constant negotiating of like can you do this one can use how much will it cost of it. So it's an enormous amount of labor. Again releases you from that salary of like well now you're ours, you will do everything we say. We can load you up with more projects we can get preference to this person because they have this privilege like that doesn't exist and not that it never exists but like it is so much harder to do that to a person when they project like I don't have the capacity for that, or that's not within my passion, or I thought I could commit to that in January. And now that it's December. It hasn't been something I've been able to get to so I think there's a real consciousness about it. I think that we, we do have a lot of shared leadership structures we also have a steering committee and we also have a board and we also we have many many people who give their time to lead. So as Rachel was saying we're not not tired like we're working at talking this morning I'm like this is a little bit like running a marathon like I should have changed for this. Because in my in my pre baby days I used to, I used to run, and Rachel does to run marathons. So I think it's, yeah, it's, it's exhausting but there are so many of us and enough of us that we can check in and out and do the things we can do and not like I have to leave this session 11 because I have a family and that's fine we have enough people in the session that we can absorb that and that's fine. And it's not this like we're so professional how dare you are streaming this like why on earth wouldn't you get someone else to do, because because I'm a mom and I have mom stuff to do and this is about moms that's why you know this is about family caregiving and parents and so that is literally the skeleton of what we do. And I think we're constantly checking in, even right before, you know, sessions we're saying what about this who's going to do this does this make sense do we need to change this. And as we go through our work, I think every time we work with people and everyone on this calls a testament to this we're learning we're growing, because our experiences do not represent every single experience. But also, so many of us have multiple experiences are caring to people with disabilities and elders, and are from, you know, historically marginalized groups and our queer people and our people with disability so I think that also making sure that the people and leadership are at have represented as many viewpoints as possible. I think that's two and the thing that I think we see we're talking about this maybe last night I don't want to call any names that we were talking about the whole. Rachel who had said earlier that when someone miss it in another session when someone misses something for a nap or when someone does not meet a commitment because they were doing something else you celebrate that you're like yes that is that is the point that is the goal that is, and that's I just want to say like nothing gets done, obviously lots of things get done, but sometimes life picks for you, you don't get to pick when you're going to have a disruption or need to care give in the immediate. And I, and I have to say that's real I remember when the first time Rachel said that's me I kind of felt like this is a trick. I'm going to get thrown off of the team like, who's, you know, like who's who's taking secret notes that they're going to come back later like other jobs when they said no we love caregivers and then when I actually had to take off, because I was a geriatric mother at 35 and needed to, you know go to the hospital four times a week then suddenly it's like well, you know you're leaving a real hole here, it would it would be great if you could figure out a way to get that work done when you're not here maybe can stay until eight or nine o'clock at night whatever works for you. But that doesn't support it so I think that actually is true and exists. Like, there, there is nothing I've ever felt like I didn't get to that, and now I feel ashamed about it and this is one of the first faces I've ever felt like that. I'm going to call out to I've worked with some pateco theater and power street theater both in Philadelphia, that also creates spaces like that. But it is rare. And so the honest commitment to that. And what I would I also love about Rachel and the entire team of Diana, probably iris and all the power is, when you miss something when you superior when you drop out. It's never like why didn't you do the thing. It's like how can I support you to do the thing, or how can I take the thing from you, which I think is, again, I've really experienced that. And that whole, how can I be supportive, how can we support you we pass that on to the people we work with. And that's how we're disrupting. We're refusing to be part of that patriarchal white supremacist perfectionist professionalism shame culture that says I will make up the amount of work you have to do. I will not check in with you and you will do it at all personal cost. So, I think that's, that's the long answer to the short question for me. Yeah, so I think that's the really great thing about shared leadership, you know, because it really does take that stress and that pressure off of that one person, you know, there's so many people that feel passionate about different topics. And the great thing with pal is that you can be involved with as little or as much time as you have and and even five minutes here is appreciated and valued. And I think everyone does feel valued who ends up doing something with pal and and I, I love working with everyone with Timania with Rachel, because I never feel like Timania said that my life that I have to apologize for any life issues that that come up. It's always embraced and it's more of a how can I support you, which is, which is wonderful if that was like that everywhere. And I also love that that we're also different and we all have different different passions. You know, I come from a very different perspective than Rachel does and and Timania, and I will always, you know, talk passionately about elder care, or I'm really fascinated by different types of family building, you know, so I'm constantly researching third party interaction and advances in technology and what's being made possible for for for women who want to have children in their 40s, you know, or past 35, I'm, I'm very passionate about women being informed and educated about their fertility, and I was something that that I came into it a little bit later on in life and I wish I would have known a lot more in my earlier years, and there's, there's so many advances in technology and I feel like I always land in the experimental stage, you know, so I'm always like right there in the middle. But, but I think for, for any woman who is thinking about family building it's really important to know what's going on and what's possible and what's real, and how to look at data and and how to speak to other women about about things because the older you get also the more medical issues that we have as women and those are things that we also don't talk about. So I, I, I, I share that passion with with that with those different topics. And then I'm also really involved with the Latinx Latinx community and what are and what issues come up for us right with with our own families with you know within our own. And so that we have with our children with our extended family with our older members. How we have to translate a lot how we have to be health advocates for our family members, how we have to navigate these systems in the state that are really confusing. I mean, and English, you know, I speak English, and it's confusing for me at times so how how difficult is it for for people that English is not their first language. So, so as for so for pal. There are so many other conversations right that will pop up. And so what I see is the trajectory is for pal is it started off focusing on care give an artist that are care that are care that are parent artists that's how it started, and just look how much it's grown. You know it's just really widened to include like all these, all these perspectives and all these issues that we're all coming up with that we, we, we kind of were isolating in and kind of feeling like we were alone in and and now there's, there's an opportunity for everyone to really connect with those with each other, and to talk about the things that we're all experiencing. And I think also succession is really important, because like, you know, I'm, I'm getting tired, you know, and, and I might want to shift my focus, you know, eventually, or I might not have the capacity right to spend so much time advocating. And, but I feel, I feel good, because everybody that gets involved or as part of these conversations. That's one more like person out there, you know, supporting the cause. And so it's, it's really hard to let go, right, of that to be like, if I don't do this and who you know but it but but just the fact that you're here and you're listening and everything it just it's okay you can step back because there's other people there who will also be bringing these things up in their life and you know and in different spaces. So I feel okay right to be able to step back and and and like Rachel said you know we we we really try we we really make sure that everyone gets paid. It's really important. And anyone who's who's in the beginning, you know, learning, you know, they, they take away so much from the experience of any, any projects that we do, and then they get inspired and then they do their own things so it's definitely a domino effect. But yeah, a couple thoughts about that. And I can't believe these people are my friends. That's just a really and totally respected colleagues and professionals. Yes, thank you both. Just a huge yes and I believe that kind of the clarity that even I received. Hearing you all engage which again about shared leadership is that you're not left to the devices of your own mind to figure out solutions for an organization. In this phrase we're bringing to power this year's communal change. And like Adriana said, our advocates are tired, we're all tired. Never do we want power to be a space where we say, you're the one who's going to die on that hill. Congratulations, or who volunteers this tribute it's like, Whoa, number one, the people in your organization and this is something that we are, I think we're developing more facility to do better like to money said this is all an evolution and committed the people in your organization are actually the first mission of your organization. If you are really trying to seek out how to do things at the clean you're like okay for our audiences and we'll bring people in okay so you're going to have to burn 100 hours this week trying to develop that pitch deck on equitable work solutions. We have already failed the mission. If we're like, Okay, we got to figure out, you know, EDI work for next year, etc. And someone's child gets sick or there's COVID exposure at school and they have to drop out, and you actually spend that day figuring out how to engage with this person remotely while they have time to rest and be with their child, you've already accomplished the mission. And that's like the rapidity of going slowly that to money. Oh, Johanna introduced in our conversation on disability and care. And we'll have to go back to see who's quote it was but introduced at the, at the speed of consent or like group consent to work at the speed of group consent. I will admit, if anyone, you know, from like the like high end nonprofit world or like high end production world came into power there are certain things that may feel really slow. Like what do you mean you have to check in with your leadership team about that and they're not full time staff so we have to wait until you get to everyone and the emails going to come next week and not in the next 24 hours. What do you mean, but we have actually found that when we embrace the slowness of that speed of getting everyone on board in a way that feels supportive and to their own capacity. There's always this like switch that flips where it then it goes, and it goes forward, and we feel like, ah, okay, like training for a marathon is very slow, but the race itself is only one day. And I feel like so often we like preoccupy ourselves with like the product, the production, being like, okay, we got to get this out we got to get good. And I keep asking us this year because pal is is growing very quickly and we're getting all these like nonprofit growth recommendations and some of them very sound, wonderful, I believe in creating excellent structure but one, our board is still volunteer. We do not have a fiduciary board. And a big reason is because our advisory board our leader salt and field our directorship board or folks who are mentoring us in engaging with the community. And our donors are keeping us going. And if that means that our donation stay small than that's the size that we stay because we always want to be serving and engaging and learning from folks for whom these issues of oppressive workplaces caregiver realities and needs are still a central reality. That's how we're keeping ourselves accountable in our ear to the ground. Yeah, and thank you for that question so in terms of a long range plan, something that we've said this year is, we don't want to grow beyond our capacity for authenticity. What does that mean. And I know that everyone spent their summers like on strategic planning and things like that. Oh, Tumania thank you so much. Hang out in a few minutes we'll see you at the next session. And I think, like, for those my drops I'm going to be watching this back and writing them down so much love and yes drop out whenever you need. But in terms of growth. I mean, my, my challenge to folks is can you tolerate slower speeds. Can you tolerate smaller budgets. Can you tolerate smaller productions. Can you tolerate. Can you tolerate doing a strategic plan where we don't ask ourselves, what impact does the organization want to make, but we ask what is everyone's capacity this year. And grow the productions and the projects from the capacity of the folks in the room. What if someone's like, I really need to work three days a week in the office but two days at home, and you look at your strategic plan you're like, we're not going to meet our KPI goals if you do that. And instead of saying, so you need to come in the office we say, how can we adjust these goals. And what if the only KPI return you have is for the 520 50 people in that room, the depth of impact for the 50 people in that room. In my opinion, is more authentic of a mission than the 500 people will burning out the 50 to get to them. And, yeah, that's the great experiment of how actually, and what everyone on this call, and Galiya and iris, who is currently, who is currently on leave and so an integral part of this organization are committed to as a structure so that's our, that's our long term trajectory, we want to remain a community for folks together. Thank you to money. We want to work together. We will continue our child care grants because we believe in modeling financial support for caregivers. And we want to develop best practices in the workplace to center humanity, which is the theme of this summit. Yes. How might somebody from like I'm from California, but I think what you guys is all do is awesome and I would love to like help so how might somebody be a part of your organization. They are like super far away. Yeah, we have chapters all over the country actually what part of California, are you in Fresno California. You remind me we're Fresno is south middle central central fascinating okay so we have chapters in LA San Diego and Bay Area. Are you close to any of those are you like no I'm like central central area is like three hours. Like three hours, so I'm kind of in the middle but pal started virtually so when this pandemic happened we're like, yeah, okay. We're all tethered to our spaces before because of access so let's just keep going. This is a great opportunity for us to kind of demonstrate when someone writes pal we set up a call and we say the first thing, because we don't do like unpaid internships and we want to honor anyone who wants to get involved. We want to first ask you, what's the path of your passion, because we always want anything that you invest to be something that's returning to you in a fulfilling way so that's my question to you. I would love to answer your question by knowing, what are you passionate about, what do you love to do, and what resonates for you in these conversations. For me, I love talking so a little bit I'm a graduate student at Fresno State here in California, and I'm working on my thesis which I'm talking about performance being rhetorical so like, how does performance saying up comedy, theater, Broadway, film have conversations on social justice, and how can we use performance as a platform to talk about oppression. And so, I was doing research and I found our organization I was like wow I really love what you guys are doing. And so to hear all the conversations that you guys are having is like making me want to help as much as I can and step out more and like use my voice to talk for people that maybe don't have the same opportunities that I have. So what can I do to then help them, you know, so that's kind of where my passion lies. Yeah, there's brilliant and you're in grad school right now what where do you see your path going. And which by the way your thesis sounds amazing. I saw you in the chat the other day I was like, Oh, could I read that when you're done incredible. Great job. Where do you see your path going because we want to make sure that we're engaging you in the direction that feels supportive. Yeah, yeah, so I'm not 100% sure kind of down with the flow of like whatever happens. I know I want to teach. So I think to be able to like in my graduate program I'm talking about theater and I'm talking about how like I grew up in theater my whole life. It's kind of what I've done. And so I think theater has so much potential that people don't see. They see it just as entertainment, and I feel like there's so much more to performance than it could be. So I think I would like to be able to share how educational it can be and and so I'd like to my whole thing. I have a degree in anthropology and English and I want to take those and kind of mesh them together and if I can mesh that performance. So as far as like what I'm going to do with that. I'm not too sure 100% yet. But yeah, that sounds amazing. And I'm really, I really hope that first of all you see us as a community that you can come reconnect with and recharge that your purpose that you feel right now sounds incredible. And you deserve to engage in it. And then the next thing I would say is the two things that came up for me is one one of the things that we're really excited about doing this year is starting to engage this conversation earlier in folks lives like with graduate students with undergrad students so that this isn't a retroactive reality that we all get to engage in but to say you're in high school you're in middle school isn't drama club fun. Did you know that you all of these things that we're learning about our agency and our rights and consent and our bodies apply in theater as well. That includes if you want to have a family or if you don't want to have a family and your friend does reproductive rights and theater right like this connection of how do we start the conversation. And as early as possible to say, if anyone so that at the point where we get to say if anyone ever tells you you have to choose between a family and a career in the arts, you've had so many earlier conversations that get to give you that red flag saying no you're wrong. And then, and then have the resources to respond or support yourself so having having folks who want to help us engage those communities and even like facilitate those conversations they would be virtual, where we talk to, you know, graduate students and I think that'd be wonderful. And second, we, you know, how started my trajectory into pal started because I started blogging, I started writing about my experiences, and we are always looking for writers to write about the intersection of this reality of the impact that integrating justice into theater and security of support to theater can have. So that's wonderful as well. And what we can do is also set up another call so you can process this and then come back and say, I think that after I've worked through this, this is where I would love to participate. The answer is yes, we'd love to have you and let's talk about where that feels most fun for you to that sounds good. Thank you. And I think the fastest way that you know anyone listening on the call can help is to spread the word as well. Let folks know that these resources exist. Share the handbook. Share the, the local chapter communities every, every month on the third Thursday of every month we have an open affinity space for caregivers to just come in, zoom in, talk about anything on their heart so spreading the word there as well as wonderful and you have our email address to reach out. Well, we'll set up time. We'll connect with you for sure. Thank you so much. I'm so happy that you joined us. That's so exciting Shariana and then and and what's exciting too is because you, you know you're just there is an unknown for you right of what you really want to do and how you want to do these two things. And it'll be exciting to see like, oh, I didn't know that this job existed and and and and I really want to do this so the more that you do different projects and and find like what you love like you might you might find that I really love research but I don't love this part, you know, and that we can work together to see like how how we can use people's strengths right to to create something really cool it just and you reminded me I there is. I had someone who worked with me when we were doing a theater festival and she's also an anthropology major and is in in school right now. And she found that she had never. She never learned she never knew what drama trilogy was. And so that's something that we found that she's really excited about which is completely different than, you know, other stuff that she that she does so I've been able to bring her on in projects that that I've been doing and and it's really cool right to discover something where she can like merge two of her passions, so definitely excited that that you are excited to to work with pal. Yeah, sounds amazing amazing. We'll definitely find some local folks to my favorite things is, if anyone is ever in a city you're like you don't have a local chapter or something like that. What we love to do is also find a collaborative theaters or organizations who are doing good work and connect to there as well for sure. We've got about 20 minutes left on our a UA ask us anything. So feel free to shoot any questions into the chat. And I haven't checked online but if you are adding questions on the live stream we will circle back and check in. Just really quickly checking in to see if there's anybody who's posted question. No, but it but the stream is going great. Thank you all are here. I'm gonna have a question for you actually. In terms of can I say something really quickly. Yeah. Yes, before I forget so anyone who's watching who is not a mom yet, but is interested in in motherhood and is thinking about being a single mother by choice. I've, I've noticed that there's a lot of groups in Facebook and also pow has some affinity spaces for that as well to talk about that. But just to put that out there that you are not alone in in all the thinking or the process that you're going through right now. Obviously when you thought that your life was going to go a certain way and you're finding yourself at a certain age at a crossroads and there's decisions that need to be made. Because of a woman's fertility challenges. That thinking process and all of that there is a huge support going on right now that there wasn't before. And that's something that I have found really exciting, because I think that was a topic that wasn't discussed much before. And there's definitely so much more information out there and resources. So I also just wanted to just put that out there if anyone is watching and is in that in that journey right now to know that I'm here if you want to reach out and have any questions. There's also a lot of Facebook groups that help you have any questions and going through that thought process. And also, you know, pal has a lot of resources. So yeah, just wanted to put that out there. Love it. Thank you so much for that. Yes, we've even had had affinity spaces like she mentioned for IVF fertility those conversations. So if there's an affinity space that you don't see coming up on our calendar. Write us and ask about it because we wouldn't be very happy to find folks in our network who we know are passionate about those conversations and and make that space for you. Pal is a place where it's very much community generated for conversation. There is no happier New York on Monday. There was our first year. So I wonder if you saw an old notice. We are hoping to have a meetup with fiasco theater for our first pal cohort meetup in March for New York theaters. We're also working on a cohort meetup in New Jersey. I know that the chapter in LA has had an in person meetup in the chapter in Dallas so definitely check out your local chapters and we're happy to connect you with those chief reps so if you're looking for people in your in your proximity sphere to connect with we're happy to. That's a great question, Jenny. Super rad. Let's see. We're talking to folks about starting a development lab in Chicago for caregivers would love to know where else in the country I can look for models also looking for thoughts on site childcare versus reimbursements. Is the development lab for writers Jenny specifically or multidisciplinary or all or. I'm thinking, I'm thinking writers mainly but I'm also entertaining movement artists because I work with a lot of folks who are divisors and movement people. We're talking to a few folks about how we can get this going. And in particular, if it's best to have on site childcare like what that looks like for folks or if it's best to find funds to reimburse people for childcare. And I know it's different to right because when you have a baby, you, a lot of times you need the baby there and I want a space for that's welcome. And then when you have, you know, toddlers so so I just would love any, any and all funds. I love it. Awesome. Jenny lamb, I just want to shout out as a writer, everyone. Two mother's days ago, our first virtual streaming event was her play mother load. It's amazing. Do you want to just let folks know where they can read that play to. Yeah, you can go to it's not MPX or I'll drop my email in and you can email me and I can send it to you but yeah I'm always excited for folks to read it. Yes, do. It's an incredible piece and it was our absolute pleasure to stream it. I'm pulling up someone's name right now. Because I just want to shout out. All right. I have a friend. Let's see. All right, I cannot find your email but if you're listening and you're like Rachel I wrote you about an affinity space for writers or caregivers. I got your message thank you so much and I will be referring to so many emails. I used to say, right after we're done here at the summit, but now I have one to say, after the summit I'm going to rest for a few days, and then I'm going to start checking my email. And I actually like feel like breaking out into hives when I say that but like I'm tolerating my discomfort. I love that in the opening session you opened up about being a workaholic that's like so real so I have to, I'm making a commitment with all of you that I am probably not going to respond to your emails over the weekend and if I do because I felt inspired but I'm going to commit to starting Monday. But Jenny, we have been getting messages from folks who want to start creating spaces like this for play development. Just for writers or things like that. And the fast answer is it, it will be multiple points of access, like you're like your instincts are feeling so it will be stipends and like you can bring your baby etc. I would say that the, the most complex. Unless you have a community where folks have children of the similar ages, the more diversified the ages, the more complex on site childcare becomes, because then there's even the amount of like, Oh, my mom could keep them and so they stayed home and you've already paid for the baby certain best that ahead of time. So what I would say is to start off with developing that space which super awesome let's keep talking about how we can support you there is one start with the stipend idea and start with your first company, like really reach out to folks ahead of time. And we can help you like create a survey of how much do you think you will need. And then what you'll be doing is you'll be fundraising or gathering funding or investing in direct application. And then you can say we'd like to do reimbursements so that we can have receipts etc. But one of the points of access that came up this week was then also saying but if you need this money ahead of time, in order to, you know, pay the person in real time, indicate it here. So that you also know how much you need upfront and how much you can start to develop in that direction. And then I would say, and also the companion piece what we encourage folks is like great you're starting a caregiver fund, make sure that this, this is a cultural initiative the companion piece to that financial is saying, if you have babes in arms, or if you're sitting that we're happy to pay for cancels that day. Here's our plan for having kids in the room and I would just like created designated space in the space and when we did that huge shout out to women's in the theater festival who partnered with playmakers rep and our rally ambassador and chief reps. We did a reading of cried out. And in the rehearsal room, babies were welcome. It was, you know, very poignant, incredible. They did have larger studio space but quite honestly I've seen folks do this brilliantly. Oh shout out to Rivendell in Chicago, who I, in terms of models. They're like, they're a great, they're a great organization to engage with they have long been doing this character supported plan, but just some logistics, when you enter the rehearsal space, having a blanket or a designated corner that is for the children, even if it's let's say teenagers, there are seats set up in a table next to an outlet to plug in an iPad like those sorts of things where we also need to start thinking about this in terms of how do we make them feel like they belong in the space not that just you're welcome or including you because they're human beings to. So have a designated set space. And then have if we have buying from the community usually by creating that space you can even have on site mothers helpers, which are easier if it's in the same room as you it's not the same as like hiring a babysitter. We always invite someone from your community the parents trust, and then just for, you know, to bring the discomfort into the room of logistics and liability. We always recommend if you're just inviting someone from the community always have it be in the same space as the parents under the guardians responsibility, have that baked into your policy of just you know you are so responsible for your child but it's okay with this member of our community playing with them within your line of sight, and then no diaper changes or bathroom breaks without the guardian. And then what you commit to is, we will always break. We will always hold, it could be the most brilliant point in the scene. And if a potty break needs to happen we say hold, and then that guardian is able to patiently go. We all get to take a breath the guardian comes back gets to take a breath because they just like navigated hand washing and water everywhere, and they like re enter the space and we rejoin. It's, it feels my numbingly simple but it's a it's a totally radical rehearsal flow in that way. Yeah, it's super helpful. Thank you. Cool. And sounds really awesome. By the way, I'm excited for that. Thank you. Oh, my pleasure. Oh, favorite quote, regarding so pacing patients is a minor form of despair disguised as a virtue. That's fascinating. I haven't have to, I'm gonna have to mull it went over. Um, one of my favorite acting teachers Ron van Lu, and our alma mater, and I both went to the Yale School of Drama, but we did not overlap. We were overlapping the best point of our lives. We run Van Lu, one of the best quotes that are still carry with me throughout my life in our first year acting class was tolerate your discomfort. And I wanted to share into space that's very different than suppress the red flags. That's not the same thing. If there are red flags speak up use your voice or find a safe space but if the discomfort is the anxiety of not performing or not like meeting a deadline or not like having structured rehearsal room where like kids are interrupting if your discomfort is in being generous with someone else. I also invite you to tolerate that discomfort of the stress that may come from creating access. We want to be very clear that like, it's not that it doesn't come without worry, or without restructuring or without a stress of what if the show's not ready, you're allowed to have those feelings. We tolerate that discomfort of what if the show isn't going to look as good or isn't ready. And we remind ourselves in that tolerance of being kind to ourselves and the person that we're prioritizing over the show, we will reconnect with the path getting the show back on track better than collateral damage that person is going to be the recipient of my distress and I'm just going to prioritize the show then I think everything blows up in that moment so that's, that's, that's my takeaway in terms of like what patients brought up for me. And I see folks joining us. Adriana, do you have any final thoughts, I think we can probably break for a five unless you have the last question drop it in now. I'm checking to see if anyone had a question on on our Facebook page and then I was thinking about some, some things that we could bring up right as we close this session. And I thought it would be really great to maybe mention a couple of tips for fatigue and for self care that people have been bringing into the space, because there's have been some really great ones. I don't know if anyone wants to put some in the chat as well but some of them, some of the ones that I loved was. Was it that mentioned I think it was Lynneesh, who said that they have started to send out messages, even if they're not going, you know, out on vacation or anything but if they know that it's going to be a really hard schedule and they're going to get back to people on time, just automated messages, which have been really helpful. And then a question that I had asked is how do you. What do you do with when you do send out those messages, but people still try to push those boundaries and try to contact you, either on social media or via text, even though you've, you know you've clearly established that you are not available. And so something that we talked about is exactly that you just don't. Answer, which can be really hard for some of us right, especially when a text is like glaring at you and reclaiming your weekends, not scheduling meetings on certain days of the week, or scheduling certain breaks on your phone to make sure that you are taking those moments of silence or just stretching, stretching breaks, people have mentioned dancing. That just moving. Or just taking a walk, right going out into nature, which is something. And one thing that I really loved is if you're part of an organization, we have all these community agreements right when we have meetings and stuff. We don't have agreements within ourselves. And so what are those creating internal agreements for for yourselves within within the group. And I think that that's one of the things that I'm definitely going to take away because it's so important to have those internal agreements with each other. Awesome. Yes, and yes and thank you. Yeah, but we did have a session on fatigue and support and so much of what Adriana shared came out of that. I think that that's a session I'd love to see pop up again. I know we don't have to just have annual check ins on fatigue was checking with ourselves every day, our friends, as often as we can. Amazing. Perfect way to close out. Thank you all so much for your questions and for your support and your generosity and your willingness to talk about the complex and always to find things that I think are really going to make a difference. Adriana, do you want to help take us. I just want to thank everybody for joining us for this session here, and also who is watching or who will watch later on as a video on demand that we thank you for taking the time either now or later to watch the session. Now we're going to take a little break. We're going to take a couple minutes before we start the next session. So Mr. stop live stream.