 Calling us to order at 635. Yeah, welcome everyone. This evening we've got a little bit of business to attend to. And first up is public comment. And we have none. We have none all of our guests have reserved slots on the agenda. So public doesn't have to talk before meeting. Welcome to. We're moving already to our third agenda item. We'll get this. The approval of the minutes of December 21. This says 2020. That's gotta be I found the first correction. Yeah, I corrected that also. He already caught a beautiful. And I just posted a correction into the chat window. John's last name is called block BLO CH not BLO CK. Alrighty, good catch. It sounds like people have already done a scan at least. But maybe just give it a minute of further scanning before we call the question on approval of the minutes. Two items noted. This was the story right before the holidays. We had a meeting that we managed to get a form for. Look at that. So it would be John block with an H studio. And that is actually happens twice, but it's a single fix. When we, when we bless the studio. Yeah, we're looking forward to finally having an open house. The date and John blocks spelling our. Fixes to the, the minutes, any other, any other. Fixes to no. Grammatical content spelling any and all. But that may be it. I could also entertain a motion to accept. I'll move. Accept the minutes. Incorrect. Dave has moved that we accept the minutes. As corrected. And if there's a second. We'll have a motion on the table. Or it's a discussion item and we're still scanning for hours. She said she'd make it remotely. They may just be. Just a. A compliment to Mike, the body. Not part of the meeting, but my great job in getting us coordinated ahead of time and the reminders, much appreciated. Thank you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I hope I wasn't pest like, but yes. We're seeking a quorum on email. I know a lot of people are much more text. Responsive. So. I think it's terrific. I also appreciate you're giving us a chance to re-scan the minutes. Much appreciated also just. Appropriate to be part of a meeting, but just take it. It's really working well. So. Yeah. I think it's great. I think it's great. I think it has so moved that we approved them. To approve the minutes as amended. And we're looking for a second. Second. I thank you, CJ. CJ second state's motion. All those in favor. Of approving. The December 21st, 2021 minutes. Are we ready for a second? Thank you. Please. Mr. Correction. Please. So indicate by saying I. Opposed would be me. All right. That's unanimous. Set of the. Minutes. Of December of last year. Check. Item four is new board members. And. determined a process that we, David was your idea for for me to just pick up the phone and I have a conversation with both Chad last name thank you. Irvin. Irvin and Rachel. Me. Thank you. They both are, I think we just kind of got extremely lucky. They both have the kind of strengths we've been looking for. Rachel's director of the library of Waterbury in that town has been, you know, a boom town culturally and it's in our catchment area and we have just, we haven't had a Waterbury member since, oh my goodness, it might have been, you know, the Obama years. So, and you just, you just ask really great questions about the direction and challenges that public access media is facing. So, yay. And then Chad is already, as someone who is a filmmaker and speaking to people in public television where you are, that looks like a really great lead for a grant. I mean, you've got your ear in places that we really are psyched, could really use ears. So, and that reminds me, Rob, is that action, you feel like that that grandly was actionable for maybe a month ago, three weeks ago, you sort of bounce that to us on email. I can't remember which one it was. It was, it was a grant helping non, so that nonprofits could tell their stories, but potentially Orca could be a helper of storytellers. The Arts Council, yeah. Thank you. Since then, I've actually was bringing up community media as a resource in a meeting with Molly Gray and some people with the legislature, I think it was last week, so I was trying to remember if I told you about that. Okay, okay. So, I'm sorry, I was just trying to get the link through, Sue was just saying that she lost a decision. Got it, got it. Can you just, just that chat has already shared up some potential grants money. Yeah, the Arts Council, I don't know if that, you know, I'm a lead or Chris, Chris, for ridiculous, I'm sorry. Okay, I checked in to see what he just done anything with that, but I don't have anything to report on that. Okay. And then in terms of process, we would need a motion to welcome Chad and Rachel to the board. There may be folks who are not at the last board meeting who may have questions or just, I don't know if you guys want to kind of spit out your resume or process wise. I would say the floor is open if people want to ask questions. I would love to hear more about your discussion with the chair or just what draws you and what's part of your vision for ORCA if people have the time and welcome. Thanks for being willing to serve with us. That's it, thank you. That's a really nice framing. Yeah, okay, started. So, I'm Rachel Muse. I'm the director of the Waterbury Public Library where I've been for about six months. Prior to that I was a manager at Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, but for years I've worked at Vermont State Archives in Middlesex and I actually live here in Montpelier right down the road on College Street and served on the board of the Kellogg-Covered Library for about nine years. And I will tell you when Rob first approached me about this, I was a little bit thinking, what does that have to do with libraries? That's a little bit battling, but I was very curious and intrigued right away. And I jumped on the ORCA website and immediately read the mission statement. I said, oh, this is all about information access. This is about public information getting into the hands of the people who need it. That's exactly what libraries are about. This is actually a really, really logical partnership. And Rob and I have also been talking about some work that could be done in Waterbury getting cameras and editing equipment into the hands of the public there, giving them some training and getting them out there in Waterbury recording some potentially really interesting things. So that's where I come from. I will admit I'm still learning. I had a great conversation with Mike about ORCA and especially sort of the future and some of the challenges that face this type of media, and that only made me a little bit more intrigued and curious to see what I could do to help out. Rachel, our board is needed and used for a long time. It's very nice to have you a board. I turn on the question I have. Does the Waterbury library still have all the stuff that got underwater in the last flood and is it all dried out yet? What we have is it because of the last flood and a beautiful new building that was built in 2016. So if you haven't been to the library, it's gorgeous. You don't have to wait. No, thank goodness. We have a new and actually much of the library collection was on the upper floors and wasn't damaged in the flood. Yeah, it really was. But the building itself took a hit and that's why we have the new building now. I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Further questions or conversation for Rachel? Ms. Muse, I should say. Chad, you may have the floor. Thanks, Rachel. Thank you. Reintroduce yourself to some of us and some of us who are meeting for the first time. My name is Chad Irvin. I live here in Montpelier. I have a video production company with my wife here in town called Welthold Films. And I've been working in filmmaking and television for about 20 years. So that's what I know lots about. We since struggling to meet other people who make television and film here have started an organization called the Vermont Production Collective to network and organize people in television and film and graphic design production work in the state and have been making a lot of progress on that. And so that sort of around my work with that is what led me to work in that part of one of the things that I envision is creating pathways for people to get from the point where you're graduating or interested in learning about television, video production work to a more professional level for one thing. And another thing is that I feel like the community media provides a great resource for for teaching opportunities like they're doing at Media Factory and also potentially providing resources for people who are production making things in the community. The resources like the studio but also the edit suites and stuff like that that I think are really underutilized. I'm trying to think that's the main thrust of it. My strong focus is around selfishly maybe for for film and video people like developing more community and I feel like this sort of hub is exactly the sort of thing that can has existing resources that should be built around and utilized here in Central Vermont and with the other community media outposts around the state. So Chad where did you and your wife get your start in the whole production of film and film and documentary society? Well that was a while ago. I mean the very very start I was delivering videotapes and writing scripts on the side down in Miami and they said you know I think the producer got sick and he said hey Jack can you write a script about football and I said sure I can write a script about anything and I think it's like 22 years old and they said all right here you go and so then I started directing and producing and learned to edit and to learn to edit got connected with PBS in Boston and made national programming for PBS and film fests and stuff like that for the last 10 years or so. I have one related question does Claudie at the big picture show plan to have the documentary festival this the what which one what is that Claudie that runs the big picture show and is married to Drecky? I don't know I didn't know that the for a while I had every year a documentary big picture show I'll have to connect with them I always talk to you with the Vermont BDIF with Orly there about their plans for the May Here Fest in April which is scheduled to go go go. Further questions or conversation for Chad? Was for a nice great intro I love your accidental tourist approach to becoming a filmmaker very cool our script writer. Do you do you think as part of the board you might be able to help make some of everybody's talents available like what I'm wondering is and forgive me this perhaps should be under new business but maybe at our open house one thing we could do if the board is willing because this is not necessarily part of a board's job description is to say here's what we do and we will have like you know we would be willing to make our skills available on you know on a preparatory basis maybe we schedule a regular thing to the public and then maybe they are not the least bit interested but maybe they say yeah we'd love to do that like you're you know how to write scripts I know how to fly airplanes and you know other people have other skills you know would so I guess this is for the open house discussion but I had a similar thought under they might be new or old business but I like I like how you think in CJ in terms of our potential board members we would need a motion I imagine by the cleanest is two separate motions for two separate people and there's some conversation people would like to further have before that happens wonderful but just I do hope we're headed to an action item and as a as a board chair I can't actually move at all so moved for both so I make two motions moved to accept I appreciate that you can do two in one motion so those are two separate motions forwarded as one piece well done CJ in the interest of efficiency anyone a second on the ratification of a pair of excellent board members I'll second thank you Rachel Miss Feldman and with a motion and a second on the table any further discussion and then I'll call the question if not all those in favor of welcoming Chad and Rachel to the orca board meeting as of this moment I do believe you have some voting privileges uh indicate by saying aye aye and they don't have voting privileges yet but they will in a moment right thank you yes seeking to come back to the future and opposed would be nay and that sounds like unanimous consent congratulations and thank you for you know this is a volunteer job there is pizza but we've just we've just strengthened our board immensely so thank you so much okay congratulations thank you you're here I hope they weren't holding off on pizza before they got ratified that will move us to item five um Ed Jones presentation sorry I didn't catch your name I'm Michael but thanks for your patience and uh I don't know Rob if you want to do introductions yeah a quick uh brief introduction just to the board new partner yep um you will have in the packet I gave you the budget from last year which gave you a sense of where annual budget is but one of the things that we is not in there is on our what would be considered a balance sheet would be and when we get to financial report I'll do I will talk about how much we have in our account so at the bank but we also have an account with Ed Jones that is our reserve funds which has been growing over the years uh and through the good work of our treasurer who is not here tonight Mike Doyle who uh really did sort of envision the idea of being able to put some of this money in reserve and have it make money for us uh and it's come to a lot of help and in fact it's gotten um bigger uh and so um when uh Mark who is with us tonight uh took over at Ed Jones I got the chance to meet with him on regular basis we've probably been on a handful of meetings and he's taken me through some of the the uh nomenclature some of the different terms of how to understand uh finances and our portfolio and we did talk about the fact that it would be great to have him come and introduce himself to the board uh and talk about some of the things that we've been talking about in our meetings so Mark and I apologize I don't I've forgotten your last name Mark so if you wanted to say introduction it's Gwin thank you so it's all yours Mark G Y N N G W I N N if anyone's writing it down um hang on yeah so first uh does anyone have questions at all where are you no uh at the moment I'm in Montpelier just behind the college um and my office is on stone cutters down there between Sarducci's and the co-op but I'm at home right now because it's so late um that's that's pretty much it home and work that's it so as for what the purpose of the money is how you guys can use it I don't speak to any of that but what I can help you with is um what is it invested in and then once you can help me identify what the purpose of it is then I can help give you recommendations on how much risk versus reward there should be in there so for anybody who knows nothing at all I'll go very quickly think of in terms of things think of things in terms of stocks versus bonds and stocks are the gas that make the thing go and grow and bonds are the safety equipment to keep the thing on the road when things go twisty and sideways right right now your portfolio is roughly a 50 50 um now Michael and I met and talk and I know Michael had a lot of history and love with this with this account um and he was not very interested or not too concerned with what you were investing in it was mostly about the performance and watching the thing grow and um after speaking with him and after speaking with Rob um I wondered if the board makeup now might be different than it was when this thing was created over 10 or 12 or however many years ago um and if if what the money is doing while you're not using it might be something that is important to you and if it's not then it's fine it's an easier job to just look at well we need so much stock and out of those stocks so much of this type so much of that type and same thing with bonds and then let's just watch it grow um but the questions that I have some questions for you as a board if I may and you don't have to have answers for them now I'm just going to throw the questions out there but um one of the things that Rob and I had talked about was is there an interest in greening up and cleaning up the contents of your portfolio um if there is you know how do we do that and what are the potential costs I can tell you that if we're weighing green up and cleanup versus performance and return you need not give up one for the other you can have both of those things if they're both important um and then you know if we wanted to do that I have some thoughts about divestment versus engagement and what is how you feel about how things are versus what the impact is and you're not one person so it's going to be I'm sure there'll be some discussion as to what does the board care about if anything and then you know in terms of the the purpose of the money everything that we do at Edward Jones is not around piles of money and watching them grow it's about investing to a purpose managing risk and reward to get to a goal and so knowing what that goal is is important for my job of being able to to sort of guide and recommend for you um does that serve well as a decent introduction all right so Mark there uh CJ has posted a question in the chat I don't know if you have opened the chat capacity but if you want to you can see which the question that she's put in there okay hold on okay so um in terms of inflation I mean I think that how uh transitory the this inflation is depends largely on the color of the news that you watch and follow it it is as high as it's been since I think the last time it was this high was during Reagan's second year or third year um and but but I don't think that our view is not that inflation is running away and that we are expecting to see the sort of stagflation of what we saw in the 70s there are too many other sort of unique circumstances surrounding why inflation is this high a lot of it has to do with um uh supply chain issues obviously the pandemic obviously there was very low inflation in previous years and massive growth because of stimulus money being put into the economy and now that the stimulus money is drying up and we're sort of returning back to more normal things um we're seeing I mean the inflation numbers you see now are not based off of a 10-year trend they're compared directly to 12 months ago so we're coming off of very low numbers to very high numbers um I'd like to say we've we've seen the worst of it but honestly I have no idea if I could tell you then I would have a different job um I'd be working for Jerome Powell or somebody like that I don't know um in terms of what you can expect from your portfolio I mean I think that Joan says in a 50-50 portfolio something like four and a half to six and a half percent is a reasonable expectation what I could tell you is that since January 1st of 2009 the portfolio that you have has returned an average annual return of sorry Rob and Rachel are the only authorized people on this account am I free to just speak openly about the contents okay um uh you've seen an average annual return of seven percent which this month uh was the first time we we got to an inflation number like that so over the long term I don't think that that inflationary number is going to matter your your portfolio is going to keep up with an outpace inflation during most times inflation historically has not been this high it's been an average of about three percent for roughly the past hundred some odd years so sometimes it spikes up high and sometimes it's crazy low does that answer your question to some extent it does um this is CJ but the extraordinary circumstances of a global shutdown of the global economy um and then the supply chain shortages that resulted from companies trying to manage a genuine shutdown seem substantial I am getting reports uh because I am because one of my other things is I support a large group of people trying to maintain aircraft the uh the shortage situation seems to be getting worse not better um and just for an example uh trucks airplanes everything wanting a filter is currently starting to get backed up behind the fact that most of the filter makers started making masks so the this combination of this enormous increase in the money supply without any apparent actual just sort of like here we need to create a lot of money because we're going to do a lot of investing and you know in in making vaccines and things like that and making sure they get out to everybody uh combined with this um so this big increase in the money supply and then this huge stopping of um of the normal production of materials it's I just it's it's really created an extraordinary situation um I think that the portfolio is done well under mikes and your uh and and robs governance but it's just a new situation that really I think we're just going to require some careful thinking and I'd be interested in your views sure I'm I'm going to give you what may seem like an oversimplistic answer but when inflation runs away what are we talking about we're talking about prices at the grocery store are going high prices of gas at the pumps going high coca-cola everything that you buy is is is more expensive so out of the portfolio that you have 50 percent of it is invested in companies like and it's all mutual funds so you own hundreds of companies right no no single no individual stocks but you own plenty of coca-cola and johnson and johnson and bowing airbus mcdonalds nike proctor and gamble etc so as the price of soap goes up you're going to feel that as a consumer but proctor and gamble is also going to raise their prices to keep up coca-cola will raise their prices etc so by investing in those companies I mean you can be sure that those companies are going to make money um if mcdonalds and coca-cola proctor proctor and gamble were to collapse then well not to be too glib about it I think we would have far bigger problems than the value of our portfolios we'd all be worried about our neighbors coming to steal our heating oil um you know I mean it would not to hyperboleize but it would be a sort of more dire situation more to the point of what we should do um I think that with a 50-50 portfolio that's fairly conservative already it's neither aggressive nor conservative and over the long term over five years and 10 years and 20 years all of this will be a historical blip so trying to readjust dramatically in the short term for the news that's coming out now or what we think may happen in the coming months when we try to guess we guess wrong as often as we guess right and I'm talking about we the human animal so the better strategy is to um invest for a low with a long term focus with a purpose in mind and know that even if the market is turns down horribly in 2022 that that's part of the that's part of the plan that's part of the 10-year focus in any 10-year period history will say that the markets are up six of those 10 years down three of the 10 and flat one of those so as long as we remain invested through the bad times and through the good times then over the long term we come out ahead every time and we we saw our portfolio bounce right back from the great recession of 0789 um you know pretty markedly actually um mark I'd like to get back to your original um the original conversation you were um forwarding have you done an analysis of just how much of our portfolio is quote unquote dirty or fossil fuel um tied and and if we wanted to move into a greener portfolio what percentage of parts we'd be needing to move how much just how much surgery would that entail have you done any of that sure so what what I haven't done is I can't tell you of your total portfolio how much of it is invested in fossil fuels for example but I can tell you of the funds that you have individually we can we can identify how much fossil fuel is in there how much prison industrial complex or um uh civilian firearms military weapons tobacco etc so that is one part of the process for me the process that I use is that first I want to see do these do these things perform well if they don't perform well then it sort of doesn't matter how clean they are sort of for some people it may but as I said I don't think you have to choose one or the other so the second part of the process is to identify what's it what it's invested in and then and I can I'm happy to to share some of share my screen and show you a little bit of that if you'd like um but then how much you want to do I'm not I don't have a proposal for you now because I'm not sure what it is you guys do or don't care about right for example if you if you as a group or as an organization care deeply about fossil fuel exposure and not at all about military weapons then I'm going to go and build a proposal based off of your values and those are the consensus values as well and we we would be at the very beginning of that conversation sure so my hope today was to just start get you started on that conversation regardless of what your answer is I don't really have an agenda uh with you other than to help you make sure your investments are in line with your values as an organization okay whatever those values are that's up to you um but if you'd like I will show you something yeah yeah definitely good so I've pasted into the chat fossil free funds.org it is a non-profit third party they're not beholden to any of the mutual fund companies or any of the investment houses or anything like that and you can from your statement you can take any of those funds that you're invested in plug them in there I will tell you if it's a bond fund it's probably not going to show up they just don't show up well in these tools because bond funds are typically invested heavily in treasury bonds and things like that it's they're harder to evaluate in that way but it will show you a lot and then you guys can discuss that I think that's a great idea amazing these are common ethical bins in terms of firearms and prison industrial and fossil fuels and that's kind of them those are the common bins in terms of ethical um investing yes so go ahead yeah so what you'll find in that site is just a way for you to determine your exposure to those particular risk factors right it's by no means saying that that's all that there is um I will say that the gender equality metric while very a very important issue is a problematic metric because it relies so much on self reporting everyone has amazing memos and policies in place to prevent this kind of nonsense but everybody sucks on transparency and accountability right the others are straight up math and you'll see if you have more than nine percent invested in fossil fuels or fossil burning utilities then you get an f right so that they're very objective in that way I would I would urge you if you see a grade you don't like if you see an a or a b it just means very little exposure to that sector if you see a grade you don't like click on it and it will take you it'll dig down into it and it'll tell you what companies are they and why and so sometimes you're going to see oh you're going to see for prison industrial complex and you go and you look at why and it's because well that fund has amazon and microsoft in it so if you're unwilling to own amazon and microsoft it's going to be very hard to build a portfolio that cooks it's possible for sure it's just a lot more work so you go explore and let me know what's important to you and then i'll go to work for that thanks yep right the question for you partly because i posted the chat window a request to look at human rights and to me that includes the gender equality category what you said was extremely helpful about the lack of transparency and accountability goes right to the point are there any but it is an issue that i think is is relevant again i'm sensitive to the fact that i just had somebody who's in a you know kind of a protected class talk to me about having tried to present to a different board a pattern of of issues and this is a company that's been around since 1973 and the board cheered at the person and then sent to investigate one of the people that cheered um is there now this is a a non-stock a charitable company and so it's not reporting it's not wouldn't be part of our our portfolio but is there um any metric that we is aboard if we decide that this is something relevant to us that we is is there anybody or you know looking at some kind of a metric to to look at that kind of thing are they legitimately committed to you know creating a friendly workplace where there's an equal opportunity situation where there's a real chance to just try to to get stuff improved so that's an excellent question and i'm going to give you a very disappointing answer of no there is no there is no industry-wide standard that holds everybody to the same criteria and that's it's a problem in the industry it is improving has been improving for 30 years all I can say is if you're going to live in America and pay taxes and use the US dollar then in some way you are a contributor to whatever problem it is that you perceive so all we can try to do is be better be better than we were before work in the right direction this is my personal philosophy now i'm sort of giving you we're never going to be perfect so all we can try to do is work in the correct direction and try to be better I will say there is there are there's a lot of talk about the effectiveness of divesting saying I'm not going to invest in this company because they are bad and engaging so there are in fact mutual fund companies because you can say well I'm not going to invest in in any oil companies because that's like you saying I'm not going to use single-use plastic and that's terrific but as one person you have a very small impact we have to have everybody doing that for it to be truly meaningful right and still somebody out there is going to make single-use plastic sorry I'm going to get in a soapbox please knock me off whenever you need me to but so so in divesting in that way has a small impact but we feel very good about our choices perhaps more meaningful way to affect real change is by proxy voting because every one of these public companies has shareholder resolutions and shareholder meetings and so unless you are going to pay attention to every vote that comes up and go and actively vote and have billions of dollars where your vote means something it's going to be very difficult so by there's a collective power however in using mutual fund companies that you know are going to vote in line with your values and there are a few of them but these companies very often have excellent performers they are engagement focused so they have a mission that is to say we may invest in this company that is doing harm because they have a hope of being pulled in the right direction so we're going to buy that we're going to vote that and we're going to steer that company in the right direction that may be a way to have greater impact so after you guys decide what is and isn't important to you I'll come back to you with ways that we can either avoid companies we don't like or use fund companies that we know are going to be in line with what we're trying to do and then we will put together something that allows us to be a little bit better than we were before and move in the right direction how does that sound that's great thank you just that quick question mark thinks how fast could cheap things change so for instance watching the post just put out an amazing study of mental health people in prisons today I think you're yesterday and if we wanted to divest from the prison industrial complex how long would it take us to move out of that you know and emphasize the other ones that we believe in assuming that we knew where we wanted to go to if I had that lined up for you right now two days okay thanks Carlos is that an old hand up or is that a hand up a fresh hand up on your icon there no that that was before that was an accident thanks thank you mark I was just thinking about our mission as a media company community media I you know I don't I don't know if there are if our investment strategy could somehow you know we could put our money on what I quote the good guys in the media world or if there are any metrics in I guess information technology just our wheelhouse in terms of ethics it's not one I've heard of so I'll just throw that at you so what I will tell you is that in the world of what's called ESG investing that's environmental social and governance conscious investing not all companies are evaluated by the same criteria for example a bank I mean they could they could run calculations and computers and run funds all over the place they're never going to create nearly the amount of carbon emissions that Ford Motor Company creates in a month right just by nature of the product that Ford creates the process it takes to manufacture etc so you can't really evaluate those two in the same way however Ford Motor Company may have a lot less risk exposure to things like data breaches and privacy concerns with client information so you know the Bank of America is going to be uh evaluated much more heavily on those social considerations than on environmental considerations they're both going to be evaluated on governance which is the the makeup of the board that is gender equality that is racial equity just representation in general so sorry that doesn't really answer your question except that your companies that are in your wheelhouse would be evaluated compared to other companies in that wheelhouse if that makes sense yeah thanks Mark I just had a question I think we're getting ready to wrap up here okay just so you know we typically take these meetings and do turn them around and put them on our actress channel and on our YouTube channel I don't know if you have any guidance do you feel that there was anything in tonight's conversation that should not be public or if there's uh um the only thing that might be problematic from a compliance standpoint is um me good follow up um final questions for Mark or just and to thank you no sues up um before you go could you tell us about your uh Broadway career so you've done your research I'm sure I was uh I was in the King and I from 1997 to 1998 at the Neil Simon theater um it was my first big gig right out of college I learned a lot it was terrific it uh I mean lots of memories but it did not have nearly the impact on my formation as an artist and a person as many smaller downtown gritty weird productions that I was in got your hair off for that performance say again got your hair off to be the King ironically I had cut it off for a different show years before and the King in that production had hair and they wanted me to grow it back and that's what I learned that not all of my hair was gonna grow back so they let me keep it bald in spite of the facts but that was the Yield Renner look sorry about the interesting question yeah well Susan that was great yeah that was the year I faced my own mortality and very appropriate given that we are a media company and committed to community media so delighted to have you as our new investment guide yeah well great very very interesting discussion I learned a lot I'd be happy to come back anytime I appreciate the opportunity to serve and thank you for the time today may I ask an inappropriate question because really this is a board decision but hypothetically if we do end up uh when we talk about new business in our or old business in our meeting if we do end up making the skills of the board and the parts of work and media available do you have any interest if the board agrees that if we do that because your discussion strikes me as information that is not available to all Vermonters and they might very much like having the opportunity to learn from you there would be a lot of compliance hoops to jump through but I'd be happy to serve in whatever way is helpful to the community thank you okay thank you more thanks for making the time mark my pleasure uh I'm gonna jump out now yeah yeah and we'll we'll make some time perhaps even next board meeting to chew on some of those sort of ethics bins and see if we've got consensus on uh we may go in 20 different directions who knows but thank you for laying out a way to think about the issues sure and Rob does that again me if you have any other questions call me anytime appreciate it thanks so much good night everybody good night thank you go ahead Carlos um I made a note Rob for you here in the presentation to see what you want to do with that editing out to edit out the parts that need to be edited out or if you're gonna edit the whole thing out I don't know okay thank you okay okay yep that'll roll us into the financial reports uh Mike Doyle our treasurer is not here tonight so um Rob will um give us the financial reports and then um roll into the executive directors report so Rob you've got a sustained holding of the floor here thank you for that that sounds daunting uh oh you're a pro come on uh just uh so typically Mike would give the balance uh of what we have in the accounts at the bank we uh hold our accounts at community national bank here uh and we have four accounts one of them is tied to the PayPal account which currently has three thousand dollars uh three thousand forty nine dollars fifty four cents which is up because of that most of that money came from the um camp Mr. Red this summer so we you know there is the ability to transfer that into other accounts I haven't done anything it's just been sitting there our checking account currently has uh eight thousand nine hundred and sixty six dollars and seven cents this is our general operating uh day-to-day operations checking accounts so I periodically keep it around that five to fifteen thousand dollars as in replenish it as needed for expenses for the operation you have a savings eight thousand nine hundred sixty six and seven cents yeah you got it got it so the savings account is where we which is different than the reserve that mark was talking about this so this that's the portfolio in our general savings account we have a hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars six hundred and five and fifty two cents that's one fifty seven six oh five and fifty two cents Carlos got it and then our last one is that one that I established this summer for to hold money for the documentary youth lab that Christopher did and that currently has twenty four thousand dollars twenty four three hundred ninety and seventy six cents and I meant to add all that up to tell you how much we have in the bank right now but I did not do that but somewhere around 250 two hundred something plus um that is the balance and then I typically will go through the budget versus actual report which is when I compile out of our quick books account uh so this one is the one the fine well it's not final I said this in my uh report that there may be a few transactions to come in over the course of the next few weeks um but this is a pretty accurate representation of what happened last year uh in general I tend to be very conservative in our income and so that shows up in the fact that we got a little bit more money than I had budgeted for uh to the tune of sixty three thousand dollars over budget um some of that is capital gain so that's that capital gains at forty eight hundred that you see there uh it is just what's in the reserve so that's how much money we made over the course of the year on the at jones account so I typically don't look at that in my budget so I would take that away from sixty three thousand say and say that within our budget we probably came up with about uh it's about thirty thousand so about another thirty thousand dollars over uh what we had budgeted in 2021 and then on the expenses side um we did come in under uh for a lot of it uh and this has been been conservative uh the pandemic itself has uh cut into our expenses as far as personnel in that we have not had to send camera operators out to all our municipal leaders so we've been getting a lot of the stuff that are hybrids so every time we do a hybrid meeting we can be taken care of by staff here at the facilities uh and can actually be brought by sancton jen and get five meetings going once as opposed to having five people on the field so we did worry about I mean we did see some cost drops because of that one uh thing that did increase because of that is the unemployment taxes a number of our part-time staff camera operators did apply for uh unemployment insurance and as I understand it when you sign up for unemployment insurance you can either pick to pay a regular amount or you can say zero and then when unemployment comes up you pay the whole thing and that's what we did since we typically don't have unemployment we were at that we had chosen to do the zero and then we would pay it so even if people who are do sign up for unemployment we are paying that for them as well anyway so that's why you see a significant increase in the unemployment taxes that we pay of two hundred you know if the last row tells you what we're uh what percentage of the budget we are on that's why you see that two hundred and sixty one percent uh you know it's about twenty five hundred dollars uh over what we had budgeted in 2021 uh health insurance can be various I think that that was a significant drop in that uh some staff dropped uh family from it we do pay 80 percent of staff and family and some of our staff are single and some people have family so that conflux way we try to make our best guess uh hedge and express I guess went up a little bit I didn't really dig into you know it's not much it's four hundred forty dollars legally as we put it three thousand dollars in there we didn't have anything legal that we really dealt with in 2021 so that's why it's significantly less than what we budgeted subcontractors is what we generally pay we have one person who does uh local sports uh through his business uh central of Vermont sports his name is Carl Parton uh and I think that in looking at how we pay him um I did decide that the best way to consider him is as a subcontractor because he's really looking at how the um I think we forget several of our but would classify subcontractors people that would typically do work outside uh so I think um that's where I came up with looking at the criteria we came up with defining uh Carl as a subcontractor uh that may be you know that was a decision I made probably eight years ago that made needs that could be worked at I mean we are maybe sponsors of his work uh but that's where you'll see that that can be it so it's really that $1,900 is going towards Carl Parton and his local club for each other's sports um and so most of the other ones here are just about coming up at 100% you know they as I said I had to be conservative when I paid my budget uh and so they came in under so um workers comp was up a little bit outreach was a little bit higher so we I think that is probably mostly due to we now have access to the electronic programming guide this is a a site that we had for many years with the appeal company and getting access with half cable you can go to the program guide uh and they did not want us to have access to that uh largely due to the the fact that it was difficult in that um it's defined by their head ends which is the the hub of where other all the content comes in so HBO comes in and WCAX and us all come to the head end and then get that gets distributed out to the cable lines so each head end uh is sort of where they would look at the programming for particular ours is located in Berlin but we do share that head end with uh the access center up at Hardwick uh and I think even maybe more as well so the difficulty was that you couldn't separate at the time it was channel 15 16 and 17 so there were three different autonomous channel 15 so in the negotiations with the cable company we had to get to an agreement to say that we would take different numbers not channel numbers so uh we they put us up in the 1000s so now we are now channel 1035 1085 and 1095 uh Hardwick maybe uh 1080 uh and I forget what premium I'm accessing in Morrisville is but now since they are completely different now we can have the access to listings but we pay for those listings for each channel which is about a hundred five dollars per month per channel so that's about 300 to 350 per month to be able to send our listings to the company I forget uh forget the grace notes to leave the company the hands up most of the bigger cable companies but it was a hard fought battle we did want to be able to uh say that people are looking for us and particularly with ddr if somebody wanted to ddr the local city select orders uh city council meeting they are now able to do that in the that in Xfinity platform for people who do have cable at home so that was a big thing but it did bring up we had to pay for it and we had to move our channels how much time do you have to give them to have your schedule uh correct so I would check with jen on that but I think uh we are you know we had that was one of the problems with our access centers are typically scheduling just maybe a few days out of or maybe a week the grace note would uh appreciates I think looking at two or three weeks out so I think that's where about jen is is that she's about field starters scheduling and and uh we'll be out looking out two or three weeks the grace note has it's you know that you know in the negotiations they said if you did have a change you could get it to us maybe within a day or two to change something but they really do want to sort of populate that uh in a few weeks in advance so the world publishes this yeah that's a week in advance so argus wouldn't do this the argus uh you know we I'm sorry no no it's a it's a good the argus didn't have a block of tv and then they have the weekend thing uh and then we happen to notice that we were no longer in that and we've been paying for access to this company that's out of canada in this area so we dropped that and shifted to the great store because you know we think that uh more people could be looking at their uh their program back in there on their with their vote and pulling it from the supplement and there are certainly people that still do that okay thank you all right so see we got down to outreach and advertising educational development these are places that we did save some money to those sort of things so like conferences if we send the staff to conference uh and you know the registration for the conference would be under educational development travel expenses would also will be in there if they have fly somewhere or go somewhere um and because of covid that there haven't been those many conferences you know we do anticipate that this year there will be uh and I do have it on my notes from executive director to talk about some of the conferences that are happening and uh plans to attend uh but that's where we've had savings in 2021 um and mileage as well we do pay our staff and camera operators to go out into the field mileage at the irs full rate so uh you know that can mean money to them particularly people who may be driving as far south of rochester which is one of our furthest southern town and I think it's an hour a drive down so that could be a sizable piece of money when they actually total up their their mileage and stuff like that the youth documentary lab is also in there um and we did a report on that in december on I think on that for it came out to be a a good program that made some money mostly through the after school grant that Christopher got so interest expense website project capital expenditures we were a little bit low on that so I think you know in general we did a pretty good job on the on the budget so I don't know if you guys have any questions or budget questions financial questions Rob is fielding them after his presentation is Mike Doyle still in the front I'm gonna see if you're okay I talked to him today yeah he seems to be doing fine okay yeah I'm gonna make sure he just uh he asked that I call him the day beforehand so I can get a reminder okay I said I put it on my list that I would make sure to reach out to him to stay in place because we sort of had his evening plan all the way sounds good but he seems to be experiencing to talk to me last week he's looking with the historical he's trying to get some help applying to non-profit status 10-23 a couple times so I shared what I have all right other than actually I'm sure get an account and get a letter good to hear he's doing fine um more questions on the financials and or I could accept the motion I could receive a motion to accept these financial reports oh yeah I'll put that in the report about the one for the extra money just Rob so if we come in over on income by 63,000 and under on expenses by 37,000 that is uh that 100,000 adding those two numbers yeah but as I said I probably pulled 30,000 out of that is capital gains and that that would sort of be separate because we don't really deal with that the day-to-day operations so I would think I think it's more than 70,000 all right okay thank you okay so we can move on to the my report yeah I don't think we need to accept the financials as a separate especially since you're one entity okay is that fair everyone just roll right into the executive director's report seeing no objection Rob you continue to hold the floor so um I think we historically uh sorry I do think we historically move to accept the financials and so may as well stay with uh with president I'll also move CJ has moved to accept the financials is there a second I'll second thank you uh Rachel uh moved in second to to accept the financial reports please indicate by saying aye hi and a post thanks for keeping us clean CJ that's unanimous approval of the financials and now Rob you can pick up the executive director's report thank you so um as uh well most of you know Manuela you know some of this is for the new board members we get most of our funding from cable subscribers in the 14 pounds that we serve and we get that as a quarterly check from Comcast so that is our sort of measurement of just what we're seeing in fluctuation as far as cable subscribers go and we do I'm sure you as you I've heard us talk about we anticipate that cable revenue will start to decline as younger people come up who are not watching cable so we we keep a close eye on that check to see it it's been very flat for a number of years um although uh it was a slight increase from 2020 to 2021 and a lot of this came about because we're actually going to the state house and the legislature for an appropriation to help support the work that um the access centers do across the state the Vermont access network is the association of access centers across the state commonly referred to in van I do serve on board with directors of van and also on the advocacy committee which has been working van did enlist the services of a group called Action Circles which is whose director is Amy Schildenberger who is taking us through how the state house works and she's been a godsend and just sort of understanding the machinations and how to be able to promote an advocate for us so this is the first time I mean that we did uh ask for a legislative report which did require a hundred thousand dollar appropriation to hire a consultant to look at sustainability uh in in long-term senses of where money may be able to come from as cable revenue uh anticipates the decline so that was a something that was funded by the legislative this year we actually went to ask to support the effort program services of access centers across the state and we decided to go with the uh a three hundred thousand dollar asked in fiscal year 2022 which is an adjustment that they did would have to do so they look at the beginning of this legislative session they take a look at any budget adjustment that they may want to make in the 2022 fiscal year and in that budget adjustment we asked for three hundred thousand dollars which we got testimony in from many people in the van community and or was well represented uh at the first round with pat mcdonalds is a little producer here she has a so public vote for the month and I asked her she would testify we were looking for five or so people to be able to go to the public hearing that showed up and other people from the van community showed up uh and we've also been doing some relationship building with the legislature so you know we identify legislators key individuals in the legislature who are the appropriate committees and so and then identify which access center has a relationship with that person so I've been talking to Mary Hooper who is the rep for month failure as well as uh and come into the senator on the senate finance and just make sure they're aware of our ask seeing if they'll support it and it went very well when it actually got to committee the committee approved it without any debate at all they just said yes three hundred thousand dollars and it looks very good for us I had a meeting with the van board this meeting this morning I think there there's one little change that you know through it and it's like one little change in the in the in the language can throw it off so it's not done it's not a done deal yet but we do think that we're going to get three hundred thousand dollars and then we have to get into distribution so there's been a big discussion in the van community about um how to distribute this fairly um if we are going to the legislature asking for uh to help people who seeing decline there are there's a variance across the van community some are seeing a decline in their revenue some have not seen it decline I think as I said I thought we were very flat we actually saw an increase uh it was decided in the interest of simplicity to just split it equally amongst the the 24 access centers could just put that three hundred thousand dollars equally uh and this would help because that money is not as much is more important to the smaller centers so if they're getting which three hundred thousand divided by 24 came up to 12,500 from each access center so the smaller access centers that would mean a lot to them because it's a bigger percentage of their annual budget so we thought that that would be the sort of like you know distribution equally if they're not it's not proportional based on your budget it's just every access center gets it smaller centers will see a bigger piece so that's what the van board decided to do they are uh and just so you in the 2023 um just a budget which is now being done and which might testify to that as well so uh or was well represented again and uh we're hoping that that's asked will get in the 2023 budget of six hundred thousand dollars and we anticipate that you know as we get into these more appropriations for van and for the access centers coming up with a how do we distribute that in a way that represents uh the sort of the ideas of what we're talking about so that is a big discussion within the van community but we're going to see soon hopefully a check for 12,500 dollars. Did you have to go back to the appropriations committee and explain that's how you're going to do it? So in all of our conversations we're talking about this idea of bridge funding you know we we do anticipate that there'll have to be some sort of policy change in how the power of finance and that report that was done looked at the different way of doing that but we're that's a longer harder conversation so this is sort of bridge funding for the next three years we anticipated you know we'll ask for 300 this year 600 next year and it'll get to like a million I think it's in 2024. I just think by the fact that we did what you did and the way they emphasized it and the way that the smaller places could still benefit it wasn't because of Burlington you know and Rudlin first I think that's a good example to all the legislators and to the state so I think we should feature that that division yeah and the ability to work. I think that you know we're maybe a little ahead of the ground and if you wanted to jinx it by talking about this we haven't actually gotten it but yeah that's you know that's what I think that's going to be valid in part of the selling point and and that would be in I think in discussions with the department public service which is the one would actually we would invoice and or then it goes on our path and then we would get a job here. There might be some of the ones that are farthest out including far away from things like coverage and the internet might give a thank you note to ban and send that to their legislators yeah because they split the even money. I will certainly bring that to the after the video and see and make sure actually I think that's a great idea. So the 300 and the 600 are decisions that are made separately yes are they made well how much lag time should I take those two decisions? Well so we're hoping in the next few weeks the 300,000 will get decided the 600,000 probably we could go to the end of the next section. Other questions generally the executive director's report or stay home in on the state ask? Well I do have some other things to talk about. Sure sure yeah. So other things to talk about other conferences that I was talking about so I do serve on the Alliance for Community Media which is the national advocacy group for access centers across the country and there are regional boards. I'm not on the national board but I am on the regional board which covers the six states in New England and New York and they are having their conference at the end of March in Providence or Highland. I know Michael wanted to go there but he's not unable to go. But you'll represent? I actually in the conference chair, committee chair so I am will be there and we are now having a regular conference. I have asked staff if any of them are, Christopher did say that he might be actually the one or something. So there might be some money that's going to go into that for that you know through we have it in the budget for some of those things. The national conference is will be held at the leaving person but this is the first year that we're going back to in person conferences. It's going to be in Chicago in the summer so that might be something that I would love to attend as well as maybe bringing my staff or a board member if there's a board member that might be interested in. And CJ's hands up. Thank you. Well two things. I have two questions and before that if you're interested and if it's a proper for a board member to attend the Providence regional meeting I'd be interested in going in schedule permits. So let me know. And then my second question is related to something we've discussed in the past which is using streaming revenues to support ORCA. Obviously we haven't seen the precipitous fall in revenues that we expected but we do think that they will be coming. Is there been any movement on that first of all? So that's a lot of that is the the policy discussion that I'm sort of talking about is that you know if we're going to change the regulatory structure and how access is funded obviously that looking at the streaming revenue which is where we're seeing the money move from from cable subscriber to people who subscribe to streaming services. Yeah it does you know there that's a big discussion that's happening on a local level as well as on a national level and there are regulators who all play into that including the federal government, the FCC, the local government and that was there are you know there is some talk about that there is a bill now I think in Massachusetts that is looking to take that on as well as Maine so we're all keeping an eye on what's happening individually at the states. There is some hope maybe on the federal level I think that we did see the president appoint new FCC commissioners who are we hopeful are their friends and stuff like that so. You mean not completely in the pocket of the large carriers? Oh I would say that you know I don't know that I have news other than it's constantly being talked about CJ. The state commission that was funded to look at different revenue streams was one of them like an entertainment tax that would would hit streaming? Yeah or would be broader than that or not as tailored? So I think the city of Chicago has effectively tried to move an entertainment tax and I believe this is a tax that from the days of traveling shows would be taxed when they came to town and they were able to move that to the idea of entertainment that's being delivered over streaming services so there has been some examples of as an entertainment tax you know whether or not that could fly. We you know in some of the work that you know the report that we had done the things that the department was really wary or cautious of some of the things it felt that some of it might be illegal within the statute that's public service but and they kept pushing us to like you put your your answer is to go to the legislature and that's really what we've been focused on for the last year. Meaning for specific finding money asks but we would rather see that as bridge funding to get us to a place where we're actually part of a revenue stream that's built in like the cable. And I think there's six or seven different sort of areas in terms of the ability of each of us. Yeah so Rob oh sorry go ahead. The reason I ask my question and keep bringing it up is because so part of my background as the old board members know but the new board members don't is I'm a former chief information officer for Verizon's global optical network and the former chief technology officer for cable and wireless data division which is a very old large multinational carrier as well as doing some startups and the the carriers and those that ride on that infrastructure and I did some policy work with the DOJ and the European Commission. Those carriers are really essential to issues of privacy and equal access and there is very little leverage for transparency and so there's a leverage point in the streaming question that for transparency so I think that streaming shares are coming but the the way that that is done will have a lot to do with how much transparency they engender or they they enable. So if part of my interest in this has been a lack of transparency and the the use or misuse of those media and so that that's my interest and the reason I keep bringing the question up when it comes up if it's possible to bring my background and skills to participate I'd be happy to do so maybe they can be useful it's kind of I just have some insight into how things work both technically and and and from a regulatory standpoint that might be useful. Thank you CJ keep that in mind for sure. I had a question about artists that have now into the third year of not having any place to get gigs no whether there's any federal unemployment money that are available for artists the arts councils try to support the artists whether or not they have gigs I'm just trying to reason I'm bringing it up is it may be something that we might want to try to do which would be offered for people that have lost most of their income to be able to say something and be interviewed and possibly show us what they what they can sing or what they can play it's a community service and to help them keep their alive their their their main existence alive rather than having to go off and you know carry tools to other people. Yeah I mean I think that we're slowly coming out of it I think that the venues for the performers are actually opening up but I do think that there is an opportunity for us to think about how we can support you know we had talked about maybe even doing something live from the studio here for the performance and stuff like that so I think that's I just like to keep that on a potential agenda. Dave you're reminding me when I testified to the joint budget committee I did mention that sort of the list of how work has been essential service during the pandemic is that we have assisted non-profits arts groups like Lost Nation continue to have an audience remotely when they could not you know access live people we've done some that so I like how you're thinking more items for your executive director. The last thing I would say that I have is just to let you know that we're going full bang bang bangers with the the programs for the summer so we'll get the advertising so trying to make sure that we have high exposure for the I believe that we have three programs listed for the summer which is an advanced documentary and introduction about commentary and then one is the business on producing here in the studio so. Two sessions 15 to 19 year olds at one session 11-14. And you you obviously submitted for the new grants to just announce this week. Yes because first I got calls I think on the schedule and I saw that he's on for that yeah okay because you should hopefully you're seeing it in social media if you're following our social media. Those those registrations are live. I'm supposed to reply to Chris's email just for the advanced documentary. Yeah I'll be all hands on. I'm sure he'll circle back around. I would say it's the conclusion of my executive director. More questions for Robert entertain the acceptance of that report. I move to accept the report. I accept and I second. Dave just moved so moved in. Carlos is seconded that we accept the executive director's report at eight o'clock on the nose so we're doing all right time wise. All those in favor of accepting the executive director's report please indicate by saying aye. Aye. And opposed would be nay. I hear silence. I hear unanimous acceptance of the executive director's report. That moves us to all business and I do have a couple of items but I will open the floor. People have all business items. I have no business question. Whole business question Dave what what do are we doing or what does the legislature need from us anything in terms of committee meetings or public meetings being carried debates. I mean is there anything that we do that we're kind of continuing to do or that they're asking of us our legislature. Yeah so all the time I mean we are cranking out the the the legislative coverage. So we're doing what they are expecting us to do and they're pleased with it as far as we can. Yeah and that's you know that there is some good relationship and good I think capital that's being built with the legislators because they often recognize old media as the one that is in there and they're going to be going back. I mean I know that the house committees are in person since it's going back so we're you know we're getting ready to send general readers back into the great thank you and we get a wind of a public hearing. I know that we got something from the governor's office about a press conference tomorrow there wasn't a standard weekly one so we're streaming out a live press conference and I even forget what the topic is but they're beginning to recognize that as a resource I'm coming to ask. I'm glad. Thank you. Thanks. CJ is that an old hand up or a new one? It's an old hand up although I don't know drop that but I did post some comments and questions into the chat window and the purposes for timeliness maybe I could just request that we consider them next time. Thanks that's a good way to document it. Dave, myself and Rob met around personnel and that creates some old business for HR training looked into signed up for. I did not sign up. Okay so that I would say is you know we're due in the in the past to and to get in that going and also updating the policies and procedures inclusive of a compensation policy within that document which doesn't even have a line item I think it's from 2012 it's a glaring oversight and that's a that's a gotta do business. Thank you. Anything else come on that personnel committee that felt like yeah that's an action item? I should have taken notes. Those were the two I recall and actually yeah I'll toot a horn here it's old business so Randall has a winter fest it's about three years old and Carlos was involved in 2019 the first year that this thing was launched I'm sorry it's 2020 it's February 2020 before the world shut down a student from Carlos's film program captured it he had a drone it's beautiful footage he was three quarters edited and then in March his we all school shut down everything shut down I remember how it was so there is going to be a winter fest in two weeks in Randall mark your calendars 26 and Bryce the student is coming in Saturday to finally edit this two-year-old video I asked IT and they dug it up last year so I'm just thrilled Carlos your hard drive is here waiting for you the the footage is off the hard drive and it's it's going to actually two years in the making literally and I'll just turn that into um as CJ was mentioning earlier I kind of shepherd in this thing a lot I would call myself the executive producer there I would I would say hey board members and also staff the creative tools are at our hands we've talked a lot about staff about making creative works but if every board member just shepherd in a little project like one a year that would just I think it would enrich each individual and it would enrich Orca's offerings and um CJ some of what you said earlier overlaps with that so I just want to throw that out there um just a seed planting just general seed planting I don't we don't need to commit today but it was incredibly rewarding to see this winter fest video of you I just follow that question about the made here series they show up on public television all the time movies made here it sounds like what you're talking about a Randolph could become a new made here movie it gets on the general television yeah yeah it's actually working good we'll see I mean it's they're going to be short they're a little yeah a little like from a video yes so they're just a general pitch and any other old business um we'll bring up one quick thing I text and run privately we now have 90 as of Thursday night 98 of a educational and safety series on uh airplanes in the can Thursday nights will be a pilot who was flying who lost his engine and hard what we call hard IMC and had a safe landing but what happened to lead to that we have a pretty active and well respect a program with VTC in aviation education would there be interest in you guys had indicated some interest in carrying content is there interest in live streaming it on Thursday because this one will qualify for VTCs they're called wings and amt credit they're they're pilot and and maintenance credits but the second question is do we want to go ahead and move that content onto onto orca so I mean that is actually a decision for you to make CJ I mean it is your channel so if you'd like to play I think your first question is as to whether or not to stream it I'd be wary of that streaming it actually does require additional resources as far as stats we have to watch it and make sure it goes so we try to limit that to things that actually have a need as like a call in thing or something like that that or or people who uh I mean obviously some of the municipal beings who do live um you know if we're doing something streaming it live it would be because there's a reason to be to be able to engage the audience at a time while it's happening so yeah no my thought for streaming was really mainly because of the general interest and then the fact that given our educational mission and community mission that we might want to partner with the VTC program okay I'll take that offline I don't know if this is I will call this I'll call this new business because that one was down the agenda um perfect I would just like to hope that we can finally have an open house here and perhaps a spring or early summer um so just pick back pick tails pick backs pick you back on my new business which is that uh in the van board meeting this morning they were talking about having their first in-person annual meeting and we had planned down it in 2020 and having and posting it right so they are moving forward plans of us posting it here in May or May 6th so the scheduled May 2020 van meeting will now is finally rescheduled for May of 2022 yes that's kind of you picked your days like it's locked so the day is locked it's always the first Friday in May so and it's a day event so uh we reached out to the college today to talk about you know could we do it here or uh you know in the big room over across the way we set the tent out on the on the green how do they do they have a catering service that we could use because we do have to do lunch so the beginning is the planning is beginning the 6th looks like the first Friday in May to bring the belt yeah that's wonderful to hear it's a great idea I think how many people would come to fan everyone was represented so the numbers in the past years they have grown to about 70 people wow you know so I didn't think I so I you know I gave them a number 56 there's some that are coming so far we need to house them overnight no I don't think so they're pretty used to driving you know the ones that come from Venice in the driver and we're centrally located it's not like the last one we did get up to St. Alden so so I think it's beneficial that we're in the middle of the state we should check and see what we're up against on that weekend yeah yeah um you're actually reminding me this may be under type 3 but then new business but um it is looks like in Vermont it's going to be a very active election year with house and senate federally opening up and I just kind of thought what if work and bcfa partnered for candidate forums in that lovely that lovely space they have um it just seems like kind of a natural fit and an election year would be really something and I don't know if that's like if that's you know I got to talk to I don't know who my counterpart is at bcfa I don't know if a staff the staff comes like what would be the way in but I'm happy to knock on the right doors way and to use the to create that sort of like a co-partnership candidate forum for you know the senate see that's kind of well I don't think that bcfa or work and media has the sort of moderator in in them you know uh so we would probably look at some of the people that are doing like digger or make the time targets and then offer our streaming technical capacity and bcfa could offer the facilities you know the actual location okay so that would be uh you know where I would be so sort of meeting uh the a third partner of professional journalists people yeah yeah I guess yeah so you know it's so for you and it's early I know it's only February but it is we've got to get through the community stuff yeah so then I'm just mayor about there so Rob for your information on May 6 it's halfway between Mother's Day on Sunday and the National Day of Prayer on Thursday okay so I just wanted to let you know what you're up against that weekend all right appreciate it other new business I just say much appreciate you Rachel and uh yeah for joining us and hopefully you're not going to run around scared now right seeing us in action and speaking of joining us it looks like the we do every other month so we're looking at April 4th Tuesday would be the 26th at 6 30 if you can all mark your calendars April 26 6 30 um 4th Tuesday is the 26th thank you no I did say 4 and 6 in the same sense April 26 20 22 at 6 30 I'm sure there'll be a remote option still um Rob I don't it doesn't sound like there's a need for committee work in the off month in the March month but you know we stand at the ready I will if uh if ever that necessitates and uh if we're done with new business that means we're done with the agenda uh I don't know entertain a motion to uh adjourn let's do it democratically I could slam the hammer down but hey anyone want to how about one of the first and second second first and second come on motion to adjourn okay Rachel motion does anyone say Chad second look at that they're all pros how quick all those in favor of adjourning at 8 13 not too bad please indicate by saying hi hi and a post all right we have completed our good work here thank you for all your efforts uh this evening we got a lot accomplished uh thanks mark wherever you are that was you got a lot you got a lot done thanks