After a dramatic final round of an East Coast Bullbars Australian Championship, Rally Victoria has thrown it up. We've got our podium place-getters here, Brennan Rees and Rhiannon Gelsamino, fantastic job. Third, tough, I know it's not the championship you wanted but you're on the podium, it's still a fantastic event. Yeah still a podium, it feels nice now. We're a bit disappointed this morning when we got the puncture but Scott and Dale have done a great job all year. My team's done fantastic work to keep this car out there and to Rhiannon it's a birthday today, I wanted to give her that win as a present. Couldn't happen but we'll take third.  I think you'd know from within the car, the maturities come, the experiences come, there's big things ahead to you guys. Yeah look it's been a good year, like Brennan said we're proud of our team, they've worked really hard, the car's been a lot more reliable and and look Scott and Dale have done a great job this year and they should be really proud to be where they're standing. Yeah and Brennan, run her up on the championship there's nothing to sleaze of that, you've got a great team behind you, a couple of rally wins, plenty of stage victory so you will look back on this season to go, you know we've got a great job. Yeah that's right, we learned a lot this year, we worked as a team every round you go to, you need to try and improve and we did that all the time. We started off the year well and I think we've finished pretty good as well. You certainly did guys, congratulations, we'll see you on the podium, we're going to cross straight over now to our second place yetters, team sits in Australia, what a fantastic job. Tony Sullins and Julia Barkley, this is probably the best round for you for the year. Yeah this is the one that I thought we had the least chance of doing any anything at and yeah who'd have known. Julia this has been getting better and better for you guys and Tony seemed to have a pep in his step, what did you do different this round that you might not have done in other previous events you think? I don't know if you did anything differently, we just had a perfect rally I think which is completely different from the last one. You had such a bad run at rally, it seemed like every time you turn around you're losing wheels having problems this is the contrast isn't it? It is a complete contrast, I'm actually quite happy with that. And if you kick Julia happy everybody's happy in the car and the team aren't they? He got it right yeah we didn't like I didn't have a moment all weekend really yeah the car's brilliant. Smallest was it all congratulations on the second and a great way to finish the season well done but we have our winners of the round and our 2014 East Coast Bullwaste champion Scott Pettadar Mosquit congratulations, unbelievable mate you've done it after so many years. Thanks Dean I look great to win our home rally obviously and win the championship here is pretty special obviously a lot of family and friends and a lot of people that helped me out over a long period of time so you know we had obviously the one really big eye on the championship but this bloke over here is pretty competitive he said you know I actually think we can win the rally here so you know we managed tyres really well and the guy from Morgenshaw did a fantastic job so terrific. Like you said Scott you've done a fantastic job. No you're a former champion and like you said nearly a decade ago it's a completely different feel yeah you're a works team there Scotty you've known for a long time you're a big part of this championship I think as well Scotty you said that. Yeah I had to wear glasses now I'm getting older so look it's been fantastic. We had to upspeck our car we now got the same dampers and all those Brendos got and learned a lot of lessons from the other cars so the team's done a good job to get us up to spec with all the other cars in the championship and what that's done is given us a car that's been able to to have us comfortable in it and we can push to the limits of what we can do so it's been yeah very very rewarding here. Scotty what a huge day just a touch back on it local rally family you've got people in your crew that have been with you your entire career I remember the young whippersnapper Peter that ran as a Victorian champion you've been so close once so many rallies mate it's finally there well and you have a huge weight off your shoulders. Yeah there's been there's some really tough people over there with a lot of tears and and going for tissues so yeah I mean there's people over there that have been rallying for 20, 22, 23 years that have been a big part of my career and it's fantastic it's great.


You never know what type of fight we're going to, so we've got to be prepared in all aspects, in all climbing plays. We have to be prepared and build that confidence in those Marines that they're able to accomplish that mission without fear. The Rockin' Rains, they do an excellent job in training everybody who goes there. They get to get familiar with how to climb a mountain with the ropes, and having confidence in grasping that rope and the different techniques that are being taught by the Rockin' Rains on how to climb the ropes. Working with the Rockin' Marines, they're my brothers. We help each other no matter what. Every time we come out here, they always help us out, anything that we need. They're willing to help us train their way, and then we, in return, advise and help them as well. For us at Combat Logistics Regiment 3, we don't get this opportunity to do it, and this is one of the first times that we're able to do it, and those Marines took advantage of it. Our mindset is combat. It's Marine 1st, Rifleman 2nd, MOS 3rd at the moment. So right now we have to be ready to engage the enemy at moments' notice. If we get the call, I think we're going to be ready.


I have a special guest here. Yeah, she's in her PJs already. I'm about to get in my PJs, but I wanted to do a quick vlog. Well, I say quick, but then it's gonna be really long. I said that all the time. I'm sorry, you guys. But we have been out adventuring today. We went to Mall of America. It was so loud in there. The only clip that I took is probably something you saw before this. And that was like Legoland. It was so loud in there that I could literally not hear myself think. And it was a Saturday, I'm all of America. So what do you expect? But Olivia is here. We did a little bit of back to school shopping and Olivia's been watching my channel for a while. So I think she wants to get into YouTube at some point too. So I think she's gonna do a haul for you guys and show you guys what she got from back to school. So without further ado, take it away, Olivia. She's organizing all the things, you guys. She's organizing all the things. All right, so here's all the things. Well, some of them were hidden. Yes. So like I got these from the binders from my Nards because, well, they were really cheap. Yeah. So, and then I got the folders from the Nards and the tab dividers. Ooh. This personal folder I got from Target because I actually accidentally forgot to get one of my Nards. So that happened. We forgot a couple of things today. I got my sketchbook that we got today. I really like it because it's, of course, pink. Of course. Her favorite color is pink and I have learned that her favorite animal is what? Flamingo. Flamingo. Color pencils, these are like the changes on there. Like what, 50 cents? Yeah, those ones are 50 cents at Target, the up and up brand. They're really nice because, well, they're 50 cents and you use them all in one year. Right. So these are for my locker. They're extra magnets because I decor my locker. What brand are those ones? They're five star. Or else, yeah. Good closet. All right. Well, this is just all like my mask stuff. Everything you need, like, I'll take it out. I have a calculator. Well, yours is a calculator. Protractor? Protractor. It's been a long time since I used one of those. It's too late. Well, it's not actually like the sun's still up but I'm tired. And then we just got this extra thing. It's a- Cool. It's really just different shapes and then there's a different protractor and a half protractor. You had to pay for it and you needed a year for seven bucks. It was bogus, but it's sad. Oh, well. And then there's like, oh yeah, you only can use it this one year. It was really fun. All right. So for science, we had to have, I didn't know that we could actually find this. It's graph paper, which was kind of nice to find. I like graph paper, so now I know where you can get it. I got two things of line paper for math and science. I got these Yobi, this Yobi folder from Target. They both sell them. And then I got my two other folders that I'm gonna actually use this for this class. Or, and then this one has a folder and a notebook. They're just easier to carry around because your class is in there and then you have everything inside of it. That's kinda nice. Yeah. I mess up a lot. It's really true, but that's why I use like correction pens and different things. I accidentally didn't know that there was correction pens and thought this might be more helpful than the like stick drawing things. I agree. Dry erase markers, I already took one out, put it in my pencil pouch.  That was nice. I got, so these are index cards. I will write down different subjects and I use them for like flash cards for practicing before tests. They're really easy to use and then you just take your study guide and write it down and practice. I got this wet ones. Like they're kinda like Clorox wipes, but they're travel slides I guess. In band, we have really sticky music stands, so to wipe those down before my stuff gets scrubbed. And then I got tissues for, cause you have to bring them to your homeline teacher. And then I ordered this off of Amazon. It's on a pencil pouch. And it actually has a lot of space in it cause I really liked it, so that's my pencil pouch. And is that the haul? Yeah. You did a good job. I could have done better, I'm excited. You're good, you're good, I like it, I like it. Woohoo! Future YouTube person right here. Yeah. That was pressure, jeez Emily. So now she's feeling the pressure, that's okay. But she's been watching me comment back to people and she's like, wow, commenting takes a lot of time. Like, yep, you gotta read them all and go through everything. She's like, wow, that's a lot of work. I'm like, well, this part isn't actually the work, but yes, kind of. It's like, wait till I start to edit this footage and show her, she's gonna be like mind blown. She's gonna be like, ah, I gotta leave and go home now, thanks, bye. But tonight we are going to have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup because this little lady over here wanted tomato soup. I didn't have any, but we were at Target anyways getting a plethora of things. So I got tomato soup and we're gonna have tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches and just hang out and we're gonna watch some Netflix tonight. And I don't know what, but it's gonna be Olivia's choice because the things that I would watch are probably not age appropriate, right? 11 year old. Yeah, 11 year old appropriate. Oops, I'm pretty sure I've been starting to watch Ozark or Ozarks or something. And I'm pretty sure that that's not appropriate, but yeah, she's been watching Carrie Diaries, which I've never seen, so I have no idea. It's a after sequel of Sex and the City. Yeah, it's like a Sex and the City thing, but anyways. Okay, well we're gonna sign off for right this moment but I will check in in a little bit. So it is almost the time and I got my guest room all set up for the evening at least. I got this new blanket from the Nordstrom sale. I'll go over the details of what it actually is in a new Nordstrom video coming up very soon. But got all of the white sheets on and then I have my blanket from Target on there too. I talked to Olivia and she wanted this blanket as well, just in case for the evening. And then I've just got some other random stuff over there that doesn't need to be dealt with. So anyway, I'm gonna close out the vlog here. We'll say hello to Doyle. I don't want Doyle on the blankets because Olivia gets a little bit of an itchy eyeball from the Doyle dog, even though she loves him. But you know, I just don't want him up on the bed. Already had to launder that stuff a couple of times. But anyway, I am gonna say goodbye. Thank you guys so much for watching. I appreciate it and I will see you guys in the next vlog. You gonna say goodbye to your friends, Doyle? All right, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye.


Hello and welcome back to The Average, I'm Steph, I'm The Average Artist. Welcome, welcome. Today we have a little package to unwrap. I guess you've seen the thumbnail of the title, that's where you clicked here, so let's just get to unwrapping. I haven't actually seen what's inside yet, but I'm very excited. This comes from a little Etsy store, which I will link down below. But I was just intrigued by it because it looked really, really fascinating and you know me, I love art supplies that are just like unique and interesting, so here we go. Take my own reality free to Carlo, very nice, I like that. It's kind of a cool little free print you get. It says, hi Stephanie, thank you so much for your order and for supporting my small business, best regards Will, PSF, I had a little extra gift for you in your parcel. That's so nice, where? And like I've ordered this and I haven't said anything about like a YouTube channel or anything, so you know what I mean, like you'd think maybe because I have a YouTube channel that they might give me something extra, but no. So it comes in this like beautiful little case. Oh my God, look how cute, look how cute that is.  And he's given me this beautiful little brush holder as well for free, that's so nice and it's really nicely glossed, that's so varnished is the word I need to say. Here is the thing I bought it for, this tiny little matchbox, paint box thingamajig watercolor set, so let's open it up. Oh so sweet, oh it's so sweet that I don't want to open the packaging, but we have to because we want to use it. Yeah, I'll link this down below, obviously I bought this with my own money, no ad or anything, so you know, these are my own sports and so far I think it's pretty freaking sweet. Look how cute, can you see that, and it even has like its own like matchbox design, so Lillian May studio, that's so sweet and it tells you the different colors on the back, so I've got ultra green, blue, color yellow, but under, and azirian, I've already said that right, azirian crimson, and here they are, look how sweet they are, it's got like a little indented, I don't know if you can see that, but the little indented Lillian May branding there, it's really sweet, oh I'm like oh it's so cute, I can't believe it, so nice.  I have decided to paint, obviously a scene of a photograph that I took from my window, I don't know why, just feel like it, you know, just feel like painting my cat on the window, I'll put the photo up here now of what I want to paint, it's not going to be exactly like that, I want to take a horrible gate away, I think that's just going to look horrible, and maybe put some like trees and leaves in there instead, I don't know, or maybe just faded background, not sure yet, haven't got to that stage, all I've got to say on the matter, I'll see you in a second. Coffee is the nectar of the gods, I'm not even joking, like it actually helps me work, I've got my paintbrushes here on this lovely stand that I got given for free, very nice, thank you again, if you watch this, oh I can't wait to put my little paints on this little palette and a little tiny painting, so cute, okay, I feel like I have to be so careful with it, I'm so clumsy, so you know, look how cute they are, I can't get over how cute, okay, so I want to do something, I want to do an underpainting of like this burnt umber, but like really really light, because I think it's good and it just has like an, you know, it gives the vibe of the whole painting if you do it like that, except this top bit where the trees are going to be, because I want that like really light blue up there, a little bit of light in England sometimes, so we're going to take advantage of that light and actually put it in the painting and not just pretend that dark and gray, because it's not always, as you can see from the photo, actually in the photo, yes it is still dark and gray, it's just light, I don't know what else to tell you, but yeah, I just want to paint like a soft underlight, underlight, so everything that shines through will have like this consistent brown light, I guess, yeah, brown is the color I've decided to do this with, but it doesn't matter, usually I would do like a pink or something, but we're going for we're going for uniqueness, okay, we're going for different today, and that's that, okay, I don't want any questions about my process at this time, thank you, I'll be taking no questions, goodbye. Very nice, after a little hair drying action, you can see that the paint has smoothed down and created some nice textures within the painting, oh yeah, okay let's use the little little palette I guess, oh so cute and innocent, sweet, okay I just want to, I keep saying okay, ignore that, ignore the okay, I really want to just, you know, just, we talked about wonky lines last time and everybody, everybody was like yeah I love your wonkiness, and I'm like what, excuse me, I mean I know I said it, but I could say it, I'm joking, but yeah I've got wonky lines guys and it's just the way it is, also if this is the window, and I said that that was the open space where the light is, I've left way too little space, but baby steps for me, okay, baby steps, I'm just just imagining that this is the window now, okay, it is very brown, I will give you that, and I, you are probably thinking Steph, why is it brown, and I would tell you I'm not sure it's just happening that way, and here comes a little cat to kind of fuss about, he's keep walking, keep walking, don't drink the paint water, I'm just smocking up where the shapes are, and I hope that it makes sense visually, found anything, I'm gonna make the window a lot smaller just because I can, you know what I can, because if you take a picture, what did I say like that, if you take a picture for inspiration, you can make it your own right, so there's a little cat here right, there's a little pesto here, it's very cute in a little, basically what I have here is like a fluffy infinity scarf if you remember those, and she lies in it on the windowsill when the heat is on and it's so cute, because she's like actually finally warm, because she's a cat from Spain, we've got her in Spain, and um she's used to the heat, and now it's like no, no, no, you live in England now, so welcome to the pain of the cold, so anytime she can get her hands on some heat, I guess all cats are like that right, all cats are like uh heat please, so yeah she's snuggled up in an infinity scarf, which is very cute, so you know what, take that, and I know why I'm extra awkward today, if you noticed that, it was like Steph, what is happening, I can tell you, I've got like some, I've got a plant here, which is actually a fake plant, I killed the real plant, and then I stuck this fake plant in there instead, because I thought that made sense, and it does kind of make sense to do that, because if you can't keep a plant alive, then you shouldn't be allowed, so many cats I guess, but we'll move on from that point, I'm just, yeah I'm blocking out the shapes of where everything is, this is probably not how you should paint with watercolours, but it is just what it is, and I usually, I like watercolours, but I guess I like gouache better, so I will probably be using a white gouache as well to help me out here, but these colours are really nice, really pigmented, the story of this is that I just went on Etsy, and I was like hmm, I wonder if they have any cute art supplies on Etsy, and yes they do, obviously yes, helping a small business, and I think yeah, as a person who sort of has, sort of has a small business, I say sort of, I sell my comics and prints and stuff, so it's like I get it, you know what I mean, like you guys probably get it as well to be fair, it's just, it's nice, it's nice to support small business there, I've said it, I've said it, what are you gonna do? I think you probably agree, so probably nothing, and yeah this painting you're probably like what is going on here, and I would agree with you, I would agree with you, that's what I'm gonna say about that, anyway so what happened was I saw this little matchbox set, and I was like that is so cute, and yeah so far it's going really well, I'm really liking these, I'm liking the way they're drying, layering, it's very cute, I wonder what their process is for making like these paints, and I think there's something special about knowing that it comes from a small business, you know, I absolutely adore this little palette, I'm just gonna like draw the dark sections of Pesto, the dark, the dark side, she's just like peeking out, and then the infinity scarf that I've never worn by the way, it is literally just, well I have worn it back in the day, but it's just like so soft, I think she likes it, so it's very cute, it's very tootin' cute, hmm I'm gonna stop speaking because tootin' tootin' is not something that I should have said, I was very awed, does anybody else go like a little bit mad when they're painting, where is that white gouache, he's sneaky bug, where did it go, found it, yeah so it's just a normal tempura, white gouache, gouache, yes, so just blocking out everything at the moment, as usual, I like to block, nearly said the s-word, stuff out, that's the s-word I meant to say, continuing with detail, I've really not done a good job on where everything is in this painting, but I don't really mind that, you know like I said before, I'm taking, I'm not taking this painting, this, what am I trying to say, I'm not taking this reference, I'm not taking this reference, thank you, literally, even though maybe I should be, but I'm not, okay, I just want to paint and have fun, this fake plant, oh right, it looks very fake from this angle because you can see where the plastic bits meet the edge of the the leaves, but I'm going to paint it as if it's a real plant here, because I like to pretend that I can keep a plant alive, and nature likes me, yeah, liking his paints, Pesto looks so small there, I think I've just completely messed up her proportions, so even though I said I want to take this reference, not like quite literally, I do want to paint her as cute as possible because she's such a cutie patootie, why have I said that, why have I said that again, I feel like I said that earlier and I was like, don't say that, what's wrong with me, all right, okay, let's get some, I'm going to block in some major colors now, I don't know if you can see that, but I'm really enjoying the way that these colors are sort of blending into each other in a really interesting way, and I think that's all down to the paints themselves and I think it's really pretty, what I like about this composition, if I can say it's a composition with like my whole chest, is that there's like a sort of darkness to the outside, a sort of like, you know, brown dense woods, and then the inside is all like warm and pink and friendly, and I kind of like that, like juxtaposition, and I really like the shadows as well in this picture because it just shows you like how cold it is, I guess, emulate that if I can, if I have the skill, my wonky skill, yeah okay guys, you said it, I agreed, fine, we should have figured out where these windows were before painting the outside, but you know, that's the way I am, don't want to hear it, okay, okay guys, I don't want to hear it, the internet's like well, should have listened to us in the comments before you made this mistake, you should have listened to what we were going to say, you should have foreseen, actually the comments have been quite nice recently, I don't know why I keep going on about the comments, I've had worse comments in my time, so thanks guys for keeping it real, for keeping it light and friendly, didn't get any cone head comments last time which is very interesting, it seemed like the cone head crew were letting that one go, you probably need to go back and watch my other video if you have no idea what I'm talking about, okay so I just want to do like a blue sky, it's a little bit blue, pinky, what am I saying, it's a little bit yellowy, probably wait for other stuff to dry, again that's my problem with watercolor, I just go in, what I'm going to do is a little bit of a, what am I going to do, a hair dryer action right now, so let's do that, honestly it's something so satisfying about watching um watercolors dry quickly under a hair dryer, uh you wouldn't know because I didn't show you, but just imagine that it was really cool, you like watching me, huh, like watching this channel, probably not, you're probably not really necessarily brown, they're kind of more grey but if I draw them in and then I can go, thanks, thanks, thanks for that, thank you Nocci, that's really helpful, can you just bog off, can everyone just go away and try to paint here, hello, just gotta push ahead because you know the ugly stage is ever present in sometimes even my paintings, right forever, the ugly stage is present, but it's fine because guess what, we're having fun, see it with me now, it's okay to make mistakes and have an ugly stage because sometimes it just happens that they really want to make a really dark, uh a bluey brown here because I really want the shadow to be like really deep because I feel like it's not deep enough, yeah could be helping, could be helping, oh no I mixed a bit of the white, the palette did just too small, how would this, how would it backfire on me, yeah yeah I can see it being a bit more of a wall now, it's making more sense, you know how Picasso had like the blue era, I'm having a brown era and I don't want to take any questions, thank you, so that's paint water, please my love, so I'm just going in with some like white gouache to just highlight some areas and I'll probably mix that a little bit more with the watercolors just to like hint at where the light is because I can never do that with watercolors, like keep the light in, I can do it a little bit but it's not as good as I want it to be so I'm just highlighting areas and I'm probably gonna go in over some of these with more like color to just uh define where those colors, I'm also going in with the white gouache here in like certain areas behind the trees where the light is sort of brighter, I guess it's where it's coming through the clouds a little bit but you can't really see the clouds because it's so misty but I really like just highlighting shapes within the piece, I think it looks nice so I'm gonna continue doing it, right we're sort of coming to the finalization stage and I just I really want to just do some darker shadows, probably darker than that in actually in the photo but I feel like it calls for it because I don't know it seems like a pretty gloomy photo and I want to emulate that, I think I have already but I think we could go gloomier, that makes sense, I would like to go gloomier, there's just lots of like dark shadows that I haven't really bought through as much as I could have so I'm just trying to do that a little bit to just gonna make it super dark because I think it's just like bits and bobs on my desk um yeah it looks like my desk here so I just want to make it like super dark and out of frame, you can't really tell what it is kind of thing but yeah totally loving these paints so far like I said I will link them down below if you're interested in looking at them or buying them, it's super reasonable price for handmade paints and come with this beautiful like obviously handmade palette holder so like I think that's really sweet and I think I've said the words sweet about 50,000 times in this video uh so just ignore that if it's possible to ignore that but yeah I think we're coming to like the final steps here because here is some slime some slime on windowsill, I'm gonna apologize for it, I've made like this dark shadow around pesto like really um blue, I don't regret that but it's it is showing sort of if that makes sense so I want to like really if I can bring out her details a little bit more to make it really obvious that she's a cat here and actually you can't really see her eye because it's like underneath this bit but I've moved her eye slightly up just so you could understand that that's her eye otherwise it would just look like what's that lump there, I don't know, I don't know can you see pesto here little cat here um hope so, really enjoyed this painting I think it's very nice I just want to do some shadow here, really enjoyed making this piece I think I'm gonna stop there uh probably could go on for a long time and keep going but we just did this quick painting to review these paints and I think they are absolutely beautiful they layer well they they're very nice I really like them and I think if you want to get some watercolours it would be nice to get it from a small business let's just peel off this tape even though it's all completely dry there is a hair here as well which why why okay it's staying there because I feel like if I smooth it it's gonna move the whole painting but yeah I'm gonna take this off now because I'm too impatient I have a problem guys and thank you for being here with me but like I said I feel like this painting is a really good practice piece I I obviously could spend hours longer on it and perfect every little detail on it and I feel like it would be a much better painting but it's just a practice and for review of these paints really nice really sweet sorry I made a mess of them that's tends to be what I do I will clean them up now but yeah what do you guys think did you enjoy watching me paint with this tiny little palette tiny little palette so small so cute it's fine what did I say about me being clumsy uh yeah little matchbox palette done thank you for watching please like and subscribe all that jazz and I'll see you hopefully if you don't unsubscribe next time bye


So, a lot of firsts, thank you. As Claudina mentioned, my name is Alicia Ramos. My talk is called Coding as a Privilege. So I work at Vox Media as a design director. I'm based in Washington, D.C. Raise your hand if you've seen any of our brands. These are, oh my gosh, yay. Okay, so I don't have to do too much explaining, but we are basically a media and tech company and we own eight brands currently. So before we get into it, I kinda wanted to lay out my two big assumptions about you, the audience. The first is that I'm assuming that you care about diversity in tech and the second is that I'm assuming that you're interested in doing something about it. So hopefully I'm right. Thank you. So today's talk, I'll be going over what diversity in tech looks like, where we're at today. Spoiler alert doesn't look too good. I'll go over my own personal story of how I got started in tech. The big so what, why should you care about all of this? And then lastly, some simple tips on how you can help. So this is the thesis of this talk. I believe that access to becoming an engineer should be wide and open to all, but today that's far from the case. And to start, I want to demonstrate this with a metaphor, of course, of swimming versus computer science. This is a photo of Simone Emanuel at this year's Olympics. Simone became the first African-American woman to win gold in swimming. In an interview, Simone told a reporter that the gold medal wasn't just for me. It's for a lot of people who came before me. So what exactly did she mean when she said this? Who was on her mind? Perhaps this image in these people were on her mind. This photo was taken in 1962 in South Carolina. It shows a public swimming pool that was closed by the city after four black males went swimming with their white companions, the ones that you see here. Their swim was a demonstration that became part of the civil rights movement efforts. With the passage of civil rights laws in the 1960s, public pools in the South like this one closed rather than integrate. Pools in the North were drained of government funding that once kept them well maintained. And so you had demonstrations like these that fought for desegregated swimming facilities. The history of swimming in the United States has led to generations of people of color, African-Americans in particular being denied access to safe and adequate swimming facilities, as well as swimming instruction. The history of swimming in the United States is simply put, one that's closely tied to racism and privilege. And the consequences of that are simply devastating. According to statistics released by the CDC, African-American children and teens are almost six times as likely to drown in a swimming pool. Today, 70% of black teenagers and 60% of Hispanic teenagers don't know how to swim. And if a parent doesn't know how to swim, it gets passed down too. There's only a 13% chance of their child learning how to swim. So why am I talking about swimming and a talk about coding and privilege? Well, in preparation for this talk, I read this really amazing book by Jane Margulis, who is a professor at UCLA, called Stuck in the Shallow End, Education, Race, and Computing. In it, she compares a history of swimming with that of computer science and its effects today on our society. She and her team conducted research at three separate schools in the Los Angeles area with varying degrees of resources, funding, and student population diversity. They spent time in computer science classrooms and among students trying to better understand why is there such a stark racial and socioeconomic gap in computer science education? And these are the three types of schools that they visited. And her findings showed a couple of things that all pointed to a very clear what she calls race gap in computer science education. Many classrooms were technology-rich but curriculum poor. They had all the technology, the computers, but the students weren't getting the instruction that they actually needed. Furthermore, only the wealthiest schools offered advanced CS courses. And on top of that, only a few students of color enrolled in them. Lastly, she uncovers dangerous belief systems that students had about themselves and the teachers had about their students and their abilities. And so from her findings, she compares swimming with computer science. They're both something that people of color don't do. They're both associated with a certain type of person. And historically, they also both began as a white-dominated activity. Margolis, she concludes that the race gap in computer science education denies students a wide range of occupational and educational futures. And I actually thought this was worth keeping in because it's such a strong statement. It's not just affecting their present but also their entire future. So Margolis' research was conducted in the early 2000s. But the picture, unfortunately, isn't any brighter today in both computer science education and what we do in the tech industry as a whole. Computer science is still missing from American education, as Brian mentioned earlier yesterday. By some estimates in the past year, 75% of schools do not offer a single computer science course. And as Margolis' research found, this lack of access is even worse for underrepresented communities. In 2015, only 22% of the students who took the AP computer science exam were girls and only 13% were African-American or Latino students. And here's a look at the data for the industry in which we all work in as a whole. And it's worth noting that these numbers became transparent only recently. The sample average across top tech companies was that 7% of employees were black and 5% were Hispanic. For women, it falls lower. Black women were at 3% and Hispanic women were at 2%. So why is there such a big gap, racial gap in tech? Well, Facebook would probably provide this answer. It's simply a pipeline problem, right? There's not enough talent out there. And to give you some background, Facebook's diversity numbers are also low. The percentage of black and Latino employees caps off at 4% and 2% respectively. When this data was released, Facebook's head of diversity responded with the fact that there simply isn't enough skilled talent in the pipeline. Our students just aren't getting the computer science education that they need. And there is truth to that statement as I went over earlier. Students aren't getting the computer science instruction that they need, but here's another statistic that's true. There are more minority students with engineering and tech degrees than there are jobs readily available to them. While blacks and Latinos earn nearly 18% of CS bachelor's degrees, they make up only 5% of the technical workforce at top tech companies. And so we can see that broadening computer science education is definitely necessary, but it's only one part of the equation. There are so many other factors at play here that are keeping people of color and the underprivileged from working in tech and becoming engineers. And so with that, I want to pause with you and share my personal story, because I've been technically writing code for eight years, but I didn't really consider myself a programmer until maybe two years ago. This is me when I was young. I'm the child of two first generation immigrant parents. My mother is from South Korea and my father is from the Dominican Republic. Growing up, we made ends meet. We were never in poverty, but I do remember I never really had as much as my peers growing up. However, I was lucky enough to have a computer in the house. This was my first computer. I got it in, I think, 1998 was the year. And this opened a whole new world for me. I first learned HTML through this website called Lisa Explains It All. I don't know if anybody else remembers that, all right? It was run by another girl just like me, and I love this site, and I would learn as much as I possibly could from it. I created websites about things that I was personally passionate about. I had many passions. Beanie Babies, Neopets, Sailor Moon, Dolls. It was great. These are real screenshots of sites I made in my teenage years. Well, the left one is my live journal. As you can tell, I really loved Lord of the Rings. Super obsessed. And because Brian shared with you his bad code from years ago, I'll share this little snippet with you. I had multiple style sheets, and then in the markup I just dumped this and had importance on every line, because why not? At around the end of high school, I stopped coding and designing because I never really considered it to be a serious or lucrative career path. This was just a hobby that I did on this side. And this graphic is a perception of what I had, and I'm sure my parents had, of what a career and design and code would look like. I didn't know anyone who did this successfully for a living. I had no idea programming was a thing, nevertheless, a thing that I could do. So I stopped coding, and I started spending time studying other things in school. Eventually, all that studying paid off, I guess, because I ended up getting a full-ride scholarship to Harvard, just across the river. But I still didn't know what I wanted to do in life when I got to college. So naturally, I graduated with two degrees in sociology and medieval history. Turns out those degrees aren't really the best for figuring out what you want to do in life, either. Eventually, I ended up taking a job that really wasn't meant for me. I worked at a consulting firm in New York and left after a year. And if you ever wondered what consulting is or what a consultant does, this is a pretty accurate depiction of that. So at this point, I was kind of at a low point. I had just left my job, didn't know what I was doing, was trying to figure out what it is I truly wanted to do. So after some brainstorming, I thought, hey, I used to make websites, and I really love that. I love design and code. And there's this new product design thing that I'm hearing about. Maybe I can do that. But after arriving at that conclusion, I felt a little stuck. I didn't know how to start or what the right path was. I knew I needed to level up in design and code, but coding bootcamps were way too expensive for me. The average cost for a bootcamp was $11,000. I was living in New York City, and attending a bootcamp would eat up all my savings and more. And so I researched as many free online materials as I could, and I'm sure this resonates with a lot of you, and I taught myself for a few months. After a few months of learning on my own and building a portfolio, which if you ever have questions about, I'm happy to answer. It was not easy. I did a round of interviews and was finally employed as a designer and a coder, what I always wanted to do. And then something really nice happened. This is a chart of my salary increase. When I went from consulting to front-end designer, the actual value is obviously not shown, but that's about a 60% increase in salary. 60%. And this was my reaction. It's supposed to play a video, but it's fine. This is my reaction. I asked myself, why didn't I know about this sooner? Right? My whole life changed. I was able to pay off my debt, my student loans. I took my family on a nice vacation, which we never did growing up. I finally felt comfortable financially. And my story is not the only one. The average salary of a tech worker is more than the median household income of a black and Latina family combined. This is significant when you consider the existing racial wealth gap in our country, which is huge. The average net worth of a white family is 15 times that of a black or Latina family. And so this kind of transition into tech can be transformational. The tech sector's high salaries and high demand for employment provide an opportunity for underrepresented communities to build generational wealth and can help close that massive wealth gap. And so the opportunity is huge. A little after I was employed, I asked myself, if it took me this long to figure out my path to coding, what must it be like for people who are less privileged than I am? Because after all, I didn't have the cushiest of childhoods. However, I had all these other privileges. I had a computer. I had an internet connection. I had supportive parents. I went to a good school. I had all of these things that made me feel very lucky. But what about others who aren't as fortunate as I was or as fortunate as maybe you were? And this is really central to why I'm giving this talk. For myself, coding has meant mobility and freedom. Part of me wants to give this gift to everyone, every student, every person who feels that they're stuck. Being a developer is a position of privilege, but privilege should not be the only path to becoming one. Thank you. As Jane Margolis put it in her book, computer science can break the cycle of inequality. The opportunity is huge, but there are many obstacles in the way for a whole subset of the population. You might be thinking, but wait, I learned to code for free, and so did you. All you need is a computer and an internet connection, right? This is a response I get quite often when I make the case that coding is a privilege. This person, who some of you may recognize, tweeted this out in response to my original essay on the topic. He thinks that it's just a matter of putting your rear in a chair and writing code. So I want to take a brief detour and talk about the difference between equity and equality, because there is a difference. It's not just a matter of sitting down and writing code. We must all have the same foundation first, but the reality is we're not all on an equal footing. Some of us enjoy some combination of racial privilege, socioeconomic privilege, male privilege, religious privilege. The list goes on. So while coding, free coding materials may have gotten you far as an individual, it's important to realize that there are many other factors at play here. So you might be wondering at this point, okay, so what? Why should I care? Why am I listening to you talk about diversity and access? I came here to learn about CSS, and I understand. Let me tell you why you should care. Understanding our own privilege ultimately means allowing for more diversity and more voices in the room. And this isn't just good for society. Increasing diversity also means better business results too. Mackenzie recently conducted a research study that found that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. It's a mouthful, but basically better business results if you have diversity. Who doesn't want that? Increasing diversity in tech is also the more realistic thing to do. Recent projections suggest that by 2040, non-whites will form the majority of the American population for the first time ever. Wouldn't you want a workforce that reflects the consumers you're trying to reach? And now let's look at the flip side of things. As Yvonne Hutchinson wrote for the MIT Tech Review, companies that lack diversity risk building products that exclude their customers. We're in danger of building products and services that are biased by design. There are just a couple of recent examples from the news, and I'll go through a couple of them. A recent HBS study found that Airbnb guests with African-American names were 16% less likely to find lodging. Snapchat has had a couple of stumbles recently when it came to releasing racially offensive filters, such as this questionable filter shown here that resembled yellow face. The app next door had rampant racial profiling in its crime and safety reports feature. Users of the app were reporting detailed descriptions of someone, including race, but failed to describe them doing something actually criminal. It's not a silver bullet, but I wonder how this bias may have been avoided or caught early on if these companies had diverse voices on its team able to call out this bias. On the flip side, with more diversity in tech, we can all help create better products that work for everyone. This is an amazing app created by my teammates at Vox Media called Toner. The problem that they identified was that some photo apps like Instagram tended to have filters that whitewash the skin tones of people with darker skin tones. They created Toner as an Instagram-like app that has filters that compliments their skin tones rather than brightening or whitening them. This is a really neat app that you can actually use today, by the way. Tristan Walker built Walker & Company to address the needs of people of color in a growing beauty and grooming market. He's found great success by addressing the specific needs of this very underserved market and has raised over $30 million in VC funding to tackle this problem. So as you can see, there are many benefits in increasing access to tech for all people. We end up creating better products that way that everyone can use. So now I want to share with you eight simple quick tips on how you personally can help make coding in a career in tech more accessible. Tip number one, support the computer science for all movement. As we've seen, computer science education is not open to all and there's a looming race and socioeconomic gap in our public school system. Two weeks ago, the White House announced the CS for all consortium initiative, which is a network of computer science education providers, schools, runners, researchers all working to support the mission of expanding access to computer science education.  Tip number two, this is my favorite because it's probably one of the most impactful things you can do as an individual is to find volunteer opportunities. This is a list of just some organizations that are doing the work. There are many out there and the number is growing. And I have a GitHub repo if you're interested in accessing the full list or if you want to add more to this list. You can do a lot of things for these groups. You can volunteer as an instructor. You can help define curriculum if you're interested in that. Or if one of these organizations doesn't exist yet in your area, which a lot of them are geographically very much geographically focused for now. Maybe you could help start one in your local city. Tip number three, if you're a woman, person of color, or a member of some other underrepresented group, making yourself visible as a role model and available as a mentor can go a long way. This can mean different things. If you don't feel comfortable being on platforms like Twitter, try starting small like visiting a classroom in your city to inspire students. Because as you know, the images that we see in media today that represent tech look like this. And they are pervasive in our culture. They exacerbate stereotypes about what tech is about and who belongs in tech. By making yourself a little more visible, you can help inspire others. Tip number four, grow your networks to include people from underrepresented backgrounds. And this is something that I think everyone can do if you have a Twitter account. These are some lists on Twitter that are pretty easy to follow. This one is called Women Who Code. It's a list compiled by John Riesig. This is seriously one of the most hilarious lists of people I follow. Only are the women so smart, so on top of their game, but they make really good jokes too. And that's what Twitter is for, right, jokes. DC Tech Ladies is a good one. I'm sure wherever you live, there are probably local lists of people to follow as well. Quick shout out to Women of Color in Tech Chat is a great community, providing more visibility and support for women of color in tech. And quick aside, growing our networks in this manner, by doing so, we expose people or we expose ourselves to people and communities we otherwise would not interact with. And this can lead to some really awesome effects in your hiring and recruitment. Many companies and employees look inside their own personal network of friends first when looking for job candidates because, you know, that makes sense, right? You trust these people. While this can work well in some cases, the flip side of this is that you're going to miss out on a whole pool of candidates out there who aren't in your network. So growing your network is a really great way to ensure that you're reaching a diverse, a diversity of communities and finding the best candidate. Tip number five, help create a safe and inclusive environment at work. It's not just a matter of getting people in the door. It's also keeping them there and making them feel safe and welcome and like they belong. This is an example from my own team, the product team at Vox Media. We recently released a code of conduct which you can see online and it's open sourced. As my co-worker Mandy Brown wrote, we created this because we truly believe that a strong pipeline is worthless if it leads straight into the sewer. We wanted to not only create a safe and inclusive environment for our teammates, but also this is a really great way to show the world what your values are as a company too. We want to show that we're serious about diversity and inclusion and that we're not just talking the talk, but we're also walking the walk. One other quick tip I want to share with you in terms of interviewing is to reevaluate what cultural fit means in your interview process. Should your next hire really be someone that you want to grab a beer with or should they simply be someone who can bring unique value and skills to help make your company better? Just think about that. Tip number six, lend your visibility. Have you ever been asked to speak at a conference or a panel? Are the speakers there not diverse? One thing you can do is offer to step down and instead volunteer the name of someone else who may have less privilege than yourself and who would really appreciate that platform. So the next time you see a panel of all white men. Yeah, do that. Tip number seven, support others who are just starting out. When I was just starting out, I wanted to feel welcomed in the community and like I belonged. Also, I had no idea what I was doing. And I want to learn as much as possible from people with more experience. So quick shout out to this really great and diverse community called Code Newbies. That's filled with driven people who are just starting out. A lot of them often ask for mentorship or you can offer to hold office hours. It's a really wonderful community and it's very diverse. Last but not least, tip number eight, become aware of your own privilege and unconscious bias. Because guess what? Everyone in this room experiences unconscious bias, myself included. It's how our brains are wired to survive in the world. Our brains have to process millions of pieces of information every day and second. Luckily, our brains have evolved to the point where we can make split second decisions based on prior experience and knowledge. This is helpful for us when you have to remember facts like two plus two equals four, or that if you see a lion charging at you, you should probably run. Unluckily, our brains have also been conditioned with cultural stereotypes as well, regardless of whether or not you believe those stereotypes to be true. If you have some time, I really encourage you to take this test called the implicit association test, which you can go to implicit.harvard.edu. It tests your unconscious bias. It's a famous research project developed by researchers at a few universities. It's really interesting and the results might surprise you and there are a couple of different ones that you can take. But the most famous one is the race IAT test. Luckily, we all experience unconscious bias, but we can have some strategies to manage that unconscious bias. This is a really great white paper from a firm called Paradigm called Managing Unconscious Bias. And they offer some really great suggestions on how to deal with this. So some things that they mention are spending time with people from different backgrounds or exposing yourself to them and setting data-driven tools and processes, especially when it comes to things like hiring or promotions. Coding is a privilege. Having access to a career in tech is a privilege. I hope my talk has opened your eyes to the many ways in which underrepresented and under-resourced people base barriers to careers in tech, how you can help and why it matters. We must all become aware of and work together to remove the barriers so that we can create a world where everyone can enjoy equal opportunity and thrive. As Jane Margolis puts it in her book, providing access to computer science and careers in tech is a civil rights issue for the 21st century. And I can't agree more. The opportunity is huge. This work that we do, the products that we build, the CSS that we write, can be life-changing. It's on us to work together to make sure that no one, no community of people is stuck in the shallow end. I hope you agree too and can find some ways to help. Thank you. Such a great way to end this conference in such a necessary way. I actually had to bring this napkin because I started tearing up when you were talking and I'm probably going to cry up here because this is such an important issue. I just want to thank you for being so honest and true and telling your story. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Also really cool to learn that you are half Dominican. I am too. So when these tears go away, I might be able to ask some questions or have a dialogue because so much of what you said, I'm just like, yes, yes. So you touched a little bit on your code of conduct, which is a way that Vox has created something to make a safer and more inclusive space. But what other things are you and your team doing or is the company doing to increase your pipeline, not only diversify the pipeline, but keep people working at Vox longer? That is a great, great question. So one other thing, aside from the code of conduct that we've done is try to be transparent about our own diversity numbers. And that just kind of helps keep us accountable. So if you go to our site now under our career section, there's actually a diversity tab that shows you not just what our current diversity numbers are, but also the evolution of our numbers. So if you look at, I think it starts at like 2008, our numbers were really bad. They still are not super great, but it's really neat to see the bars going up and up and up. And internally, our leadership supports diversity, which is really important. A lot of companies don't have that. And I feel lucky to work at a place where our CEO and leadership actually take this seriously and mean it. And we've also hired people whose work, this is like their job to think about these issues because this is real work. It's a lot of work. It's hard work. So I'm really glad that Vox has been able to put money where their mouth is and hire the people who understand these issues best because it's very complex and it's really difficult. Absolutely. And to also be so transparent about it because I feel, I mean, I can, the company that I'm at right now, I can imagine it's so hard to be like, here we are at zero, right? And imagine that that doesn't look good. But I've heard from many underrepresented folks that even just that honesty and the showing and is what really compels them to be like, yeah, if you're gonna be honest about it, then I know I can come. Yeah. Even if your company is at zero, I think personally that you should make that transparent as long as you pair it with, we know that this is a problem. And we are going to do something about it. So be honest with yourself. That's great. Are there ways that even are at Vox or you when you're speaking with people like kindly call people out when they're saying things that perhaps aren't so inclusive or let's say, you know, for more white male hires came through your door and you're like, what do I do? Like, do you have any suggestions for that? So things that happen in the moment. So our code of conduct kind of lists out as an employee of the company here are the steps that you can take. Usually it comes down to like, if you don't feel comfortable approaching someone about a specific thing that they said, you can always talk to their manager about it and it will be dealt with in terms of hiring. If we hire four males, that's fine. But I think what matters is your process should be as diverse and inclusive as possible. If you're bringing people in to interview, make sure that you're like, if you have like a lunch date plan with that person, make sure that they're being exposed to a diversity of employees at the company so that on both sides they can see what they're getting into. On the other side of things, a diverse number of people can help that the candidate. So can you share a bit about Vox's hiring process and how it's been designed to help with diversity and inclusivity? It's changed so much. I don't know if I can talk about it officially because I'm no longer super involved at that level. But I can say about a year and a half ago, one tactic that we had was we started a spreadsheet of all these different diverse communities that our own employees were a part of. So like I'm a part of this group called DC FemTech or Hear Me Code and we each have our listservs. And so every time a hiring manager would put up a new job, they would be like, hey, like I saw in this spreadsheet that you're a member of this diverse community. Would you mind forwarding this job description out to this group of people? Which is great because before that we were just posting to the usual suspects and those usual suspects tend to have a very homogenous group of people looking at those job descriptions. So it helps to have, to like mobilize your own diverse employees in spreading the word to their own networks going back to the point about growing your networks. That's so crucial. Very, very interesting. Wow, well, I mean, I could keep going on and on and on and on with questions as you can tell us is something so near and dear to my heart. But I know that they want us to take a family photo. I mean, this is an incredible, first time speaking, first time speaking everyone. Thank you. Wow. I truly do hope that you are able to go out and continue to give this talk. Thank you so much. I will. Thank you so much for having me. You guys were great. Thank you.


Hi everyone, it's MJ the fellow Actree and in this video I want to talk about a virtual summit that is happening on the 23rd to the 25th of June 2021 Now it's called the growth Actree and it's preparing Actrees for future growth and transformation And it is a hundred percent free to attend But I thought who better than to introduce this conference than the people behind it So I'm gonna be asking Mark and Suzanne to tell us a little bit more about the growth Actree And what are going to be some of the major themes in the summit this year? Hi Michael Good to see you. Hi Michael. Thanks for having us. Yeah, I know it's great to be here Michael And really appreciate you asking us to be on on your very famous YouTube channel So so much appreciated But yeah in terms of your question. So so yeah, this this growth Actree Event what's it all about? Well, it's a three-day event and it was it was busy born out of the idea that that Actree is now Need to embrace growth and transformation. Okay, so we're moving into this digital future And you know the world is changing. It's becoming more complex We're obviously relying a lot more on technology and you know along with that comes the need to develop new skills new techniques and Really importantly in our point of view is new ways of thinking as well So we need to grow as a profession But also I believe this is kind of a proactory belief I think as well and that we need to to grow as individuals as well Basically to make sure that we are future ready. So it's a growth is our overall theme for the event and We've kind of broken that down into different categories that whole idea of growth. So one of our main Categories is growth and the wider field. So for example actors that maybe want to learn more about Data science, of course, which is a big thing increasingly these days Also insured tech actors that want to get into insured tech or climate change We've got you know talks and that sort of growth in the wider fields there We've got lots of other categories as well. So yeah, so we have categories and for example Core actuarial skills. So we've talks on people skills for analytical thinkers and productivity communication writing and even sales skills for actuaries and So, yeah, we also put category on mindset and personal development where we have talks It's sort of dive deep into the mindset which is required for optimal personal and professional development In a changing world that we are facing So within this overarching theme of growth There are talks in lots of different categories with the aim of catering to a range of interests and learning needs I think it's it's a real holistic sort of conference looking at it from from lots of different angles really so These virtual summits are a great way for associate and fellow members to get CPD points But mark, I want to ask you if there's any benefit for the student members We know that their time is quite tight with exams So is the summit going to be beneficial to them? And if so, what are some of the speakers that you highly recommend that they go and check out? Yeah, that's a that's a good question Michael on you. You're totally right qualified actuaries associate actuaries can obviously benefit from CPD, you know, if you've got a developing need And that you've identified, you know, there's going to be sessions out there more than likely in this event That will will help to meet that that need and of course You can self certify for for CPD purposes But for actual trainees and university students, you're right. We're all busy The conference is free. You don't have to pay us anything But, you know, you still have to give up your time and of course times are most valuable resource So, you know, you should be very careful about what you give up your time for But we believe this summit is definitely worthy of giving up your time And it's it's extremely beneficial and our point of view for for trainee actuaries and students as well. So, you know, for example Just hear some of the reasons why I made that statement So there's a big focus on the moment at the moment about being more than just a technical actually, I guess You know that we need to go beyond Just our technical skills There's an increasing focus now in all these other sort of non technical skills That are really increasing in importance for for new actors entering the workforce and and training actuaries as well that want to basically progress in their career You know, we're talking about core skills. I hate the word soft skills I much prefer the word core skills, by the way But core skills such as our ability to adapt well And be able to learn very, very quickly You know, as the world is changing so quickly around us And we need to be able to adapt with that change And that's becoming increasingly important Also our social and emotional skills and just generally how we I guess how we deal with people and how we make good judgments Do we communicate effectively and, you know, even build our brand Which is there's a little bit of a scary thing these days But, you know, it's all around this idea of being future ready And the word, as we mentioned, it's changing so rapidly That I think we all need to be proactive and thinking about What skills do I need to develop now to make sure that I am future ready And obviously this conference can help students to be in a great position as well If you're if you're going for your first actual job or you're changing jobs You know, this is one way you can be proactive and develop your skills and your knowledge From some of the very best actors and business professionals from around the world For free in your own office or sitting up on your your your couch or whatever at home But, you know, they're giving away their insights for free So it's a great, great opportunity, I think Yeah, definitely. And like there are lots of talks that actual students will find Not only insightful but valuable There are a few in particular that we think will be particularly relevant And beneficial to students in the audience And these include, for example, Alex is talking about career tips How to transition from actual grad to CEO So that should be particularly interesting Also, Carlo is talking about the top six early career strategies for actuaries And I think definitely there's not only important lessons for career growth Within this summit, but there are also some key lessons for for life really We have Jawad's talk on rationality is overrated And that's particularly insightful in terms of key lessons for life As an actuary who has stepped out of a traditional role And we really do strongly feel that, you know, the students will particularly love The the diversity of the speakers and the real eclectic mix of topics on offer There really is so much choice, which ensures that there is something for everyone Yeah, absolutely. It's, yeah, what do we have? Is it 20? 20 talks in total? And yeah, so you obviously don't have to attend every single one People did last year, people did attend every single one, some of the hardcore people But yeah, we're all busy so you can pick and choose whatever one's, you know, paid the most a year, whether you're interested in data science and sugar tech Climate change or, you know, you just want the more sort of career type tips or whatever So it's kind of like the Netflix with this idea of calling it the Netflix of Actual education, which kind of you can dip into whatever whatever really picks your interest And we've made talks available for free as well for 24 hours So if you can't make the live version, the replay will be available for 24 hours You know, we do appreciate that, you know, the basically last year we had I think it was 67 countries, I think were represented So there's obviously people from different time zones and again, as you mentioned, people are studying and doing their day job as well So we want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to watch the talks So yeah, they're available for 24 hours, we're trying to be flexible But yeah, it's a great opportunity And finally, I want to know what motivated you to do this Because I know you started it last year and it was a big success And I was surprised to see, okay, we're doing it again So is this going to become an annual thing? Because I can imagine it requires quite a lot of work So yeah, tell us, what was the motivation behind this? Yeah, what motivated us to do this? No, I think we're asking Michael I actually thought about doing this, would you believe, four years ago Way before COVID, obviously I'd kind of been writing on proactory, which started out as a blog probably about four years ago So I've been writing about things like the need for actors to embrace technology Go with mindset and all that sort of stuff So it just kind of been blogging away there And I'd also been connecting with, or started connecting with All these sort of amazing actress and other business professionals Just all from around the world, mainly on LinkedIn Which is a fantastic place, if you're not on LinkedIn, really You should be just for the sake of connecting with great actress worldwide But I've been kind of developed my own learning and insights From lots of other actresses around me And I've kind of seen these virtual events Which were a thing, believe it or not, three or four years ago And a lot of people only think they came about just with COVID But they had been around even back then But I kind of thought this would be a great thing to do For the actual profession To try and bring all these insights together Into one place So all these kind of inspiring actresses Could come together on a global sort of basis And relay their insights and thoughts But then of course life got in the way The idea was kind of just kind of sitting there And kind of thinking about it But we never really acted on it And I guess to be honest as well There was probably a bit of fear You kind of mentioned there about the The amount of organization that goes into this And I think a lot of people just do not realize Just how much goes into this It's a serious, serious undertaking There's so many moving pieces And it's a big expense as well obviously But so we kind of parked the idea But then we just decided You know what, we just need to do this There's no perfect time And that's kind of a big lesson I see as well That generally life there's no perfect time For anything or rarely there is I know we just decided right, just go for it So last September obviously We had the Digital Actory Virtual Summit And that was obviously a phenomenally successful We had 4,257 global attendees 67 countries in total And we got great, great feedback So many personal messages after So many people gave testimonials So we kind of just really highlighted to us The need for actors out there to engage In this sort of ongoing learning In this sort of very entertaining format as well And via these sort of virtual summit events So yeah, that's where it kind of wiped from So yeah, will it be an annual event? And what do you think, Suzanne? Well, we would love that obviously Obviously it's just the two of us So yeah, there's a lot of time and organization That goes into this But we do love the process And we get to meet amazing people And interact with them And develop those connections So that's brilliant, we love that So yeah, I mean, hopefully There will be a lot more from Proactory In the events case in the future, yeah Yeah, absolutely We'll see what happens What's the space? Sorry, the final thing I wanted to mention as well there That I didn't mention earlier was It's a great opportunity as well to network So we've got this social lines that's available So you can come in at any point And network and talk to actresses From all around the world Actual students Trainee activities Qualified activities, etc, etc So that's a great And a big part of this event as well Just that social lines that we have So we have these sort of virtual networking tables And also speed networking So you can talk one-to-one With actresses throughout the world There's a live events as well A couple of live events We've got a fireside chat with Don who's a great actor over here in the UK And then we've got a panel debate as well On the end of day one Actual versus machine So you're more than welcome to come in And ask questions And you can come up on stage as well Which should be fun So yeah, that's going to be good fun But yeah, hopefully we'll see you there On the live sessions as well, Michael And hopefully some of you guys over there That are watching this as well So yeah, we're looking forward to it Yeah, it's good to see you there Michael, thank you so much for having us Yeah, no, it's been great, Michael Thanks for getting in touch And having us on today I'll speak to you soon Thank you, Mark and Susan, for taking your time To answer these questions I know I'm definitely going to be registering So just come here, type in your email Click register And I think it's as simple as that So yeah, 23rd to the 25th of June 2021 I'll put a link in the description below And make sure you register for this awesome conference


We'll call the special meeting order. Debbie, would you call the roll, please? Bird. Here. Bonet. Here. Serta. Here. Graf. Here. Manny. Here. Montemayor. Here. Perez. Here. Peterson. Here. Rindflash. Rindflash, sorry. I did that all night the other night. Segali. Here. Stephan. Excuse. Van Akron. Here. Vanderweel. Here. Warner. Here. B-13. Kormspresent. Tonight, we have a presentation by the Great Lakes Company. You got the letter in your hand. Steve handed out.  So gentlemen, it's all yours who would like to come up and start speaking. No, we're not in close session. Yeah. We're not in close yet. Hello. My name is Michael Schroeder. I'm the general counselor for the Great Lakes Companies. And we're here this evening to request some changes related to the ownership of the units by purchaser of the condominium units. That's, I think in general terms that's what we're outlining our letter. I'm not really sure what we're supposed to talk about at this point. I know that you had, we're looking for some, just changes related to the ownership, restrictions on the ownership of the units. Okay. I guess getting to the explanation of why you're asking for these changes or as far as you can go and how much you can give us in the session. Okay. I'm John Emery. I'm the chief executive officer of the Great Lakes Companies. And in a nutshell, the request that has been put in front of you in writing is to modify some of the restrictions on the ownership of the units. Right now we have all those units reserved and sold. And we're expected to close them shortly. The effectively what we're asking for is a slight modification before we go to final contract on those units to comply with what are really kind of national requirements in the terms of the way they're used. Those condominium units are part of our resort project. Every single one of those condominium units will be in a rental pool. As of right now, those owners have all elected that to be in a rental pool. They're all paying occupancy taxes as the council is aware. That project, as it comes to closure, and we've done further review, is a very unique structure, by the way. That project, there's been no other project like that with those types of restrictions done that we could find in Wisconsin or even myself from out of the state of Wisconsin that we've looked at. The changes are to comply so that when all of these units are put into the rental pools that we comply with all, not just Wisconsin law, but all national requirements in terms of what we sold those condominiums for. In a nutshell, that's what it is. There's no impact. In fact, we are offering, we are ensuring that the occupancy taxes derived by those condominiums are even more certain now than they were back six months ago when the condominiums were started to be built. Really, the changes are to clarify certain of the residency restrictions in those condominiums before they go to final contract, which happens starting June 15th, July 1st, something like that. So here in about hopefully six weeks. Steve. Mr. Emery, it's a big good opportunity if Great Lakes would desire. You've got a couple minutes to perhaps give the council an update as to how the project is going and when you're planning on having your opening, if you wish. Absolutely, come on up, Tom. One of the things that, and Tom Sather, who's our director of development, giving up the other project, one of the things that these changes are being asked for is because now that the condominiums are almost ready to be built, we can really clarify exactly the residency restrictions on the condominiums going forward. When they were all conceived, if you go back six months ago before they were sold, we weren't sure how long or if, you know, how long it would take to build and sell all those condominiums. The fact that we've been able to get them all built and opened before the PGA, we're very pleased with what Tom will give you the update on that. And so this is kind of the final step, if you will, of making sure that those things close on time, that they're occupied on time, and start throwing off taxes effectively before the biggest defense that's going to have happened here in a long time to generate taxes happens. But let me have Tom update you on where the project stands. Yeah, most of you know me by now. I'm Tom Sather, director of development, and I'm sure most of you have seen the project drive by once in a while, but in a summary with the resort project, as everybody knows, we were fast-tracking as much as we could the whole way through this process to get it open for summer. And summer effectively starts June 15th. The first couple of weeks kids are out of school, it's a little slow. Starting the 15th, that's peak season for resorts here in Wisconsin. So we're trying to get that goal accomplished with the resort and then also, of course, have it open for the PGA this summer. And we've been shooting for July 15th for our opening date from day one, with the groundbreaking that we had, I believe, I'm sorry, June 15th. I believe early June last year, last week of May. So building, you know, a 200,000 square foot plus facility in a year is a heck of a task. And if you've driven by and seen all the trades out there, seen the guys working like crazy for last year, they've had a heck of a battle to fight. But we are right now projecting to have our grand opening on the 8th of June. It'll be about one week ahead of schedule. I think we're going to make it, you know, there's still a lot of work that has to be done. But it's finish work, you know, it's carpet, it's paint, it's moving furniture in, things like that. So from a production standpoint, on the convention center and the resort, it's going very well. Both are tracking right down to the last percent on budget. I mean, we're going to be right there.  No nasty surprises.  But we've been able to control things on the other end. So it really is tracking well. I think the best surprise for everybody is the condos. Because the big question mark, as you all know, was are they going to sell? Are there going to be any of them open for some? Are there going to be any open for the PGA? What's going to happen? Until we got in the sales process, which we couldn't start until, you know, last fall, no one knew. And the really, the biggest, most pleasant surprise so far in this project has been the excitement the marketplace has had for the condominiums. And they have sold much more quickly than anticipated. As you probably remember, we had to have the whole condo site divided into 16 individual parcels anticipating we'd build a building, sell a few units, later on build another building. Well, we were able to get enough pre-sales activity done to build them all at once, as you know. So we're on pace now to have the first eight units, eight buildings, which is actually 32 units scheduled to be delivered by mid-June. And then the last eight buildings by mid-July. So really, when the demand starts heating up, you know, for pre-PGA events, which is about the third week in July, all the resort units and all the condo units should be up and running. So that's really been a pleasant surprise for us. And as everybody can tell, they are just working like crazy out there. So we're very pleased with things are going along. If anybody has any questions, you can ask them to me now or you can always call me at the office. Thank you. Alderman Prez. Thank you, Your Honor. I take it when we go into executive closed session, we're going to discuss specifics. Yes. Thank you. That's what we need up for. Alderman Orner. Oh, excuse me. Before we do it. Michael, you have to call meeting. This is a joint meeting. Did you call? Okay. You don't have three from the... Four. Okay. Okay. Alderman Orner. On that, Your Honor, I'd move that we convene closed session under the provisions of section 19.851E of the Wisconsin Statutes for the purpose of negotiating and deliberating possible amendment of the development agreement with the Great Lakes Companies where competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. We have a motion before us. Any discussion on a motion? Aye. We'll call roll calls. Aye. Serta. Aye. Graf. Aye. Montemayor. Aye. Perez. Aye. Peterson. Aye. Rindvallis. Aye. Zagali. Aye. Vanakka. Aye. Vanderweel. Aye. Warner. Aye. And Burke.


It's Monday February 15th. It's like 8 30 or something. This is just another vlog another Johnny Q vlog Okay, so honestly, we were thinking about getting a corgi, but not this year not this soon I just made sense Hi, Kobe. Look at you.  Hi, Kobe Hey, buddy. I Hi Kobe the corgi Hey, buddy. He's he's uh, he likes to cuddle He likes to cuddle all the time.  So Here he is like that right there is one of his little hideouts that he likes Sometimes he'll sleep in there other times. He'll sleep around the house. He also loves the snow and it is Snowing outside. So maybe we'll go outside later.  He just likes to bite cuz he's playing Kobe you want to go outside Want to go outside? Want to go play in the snow? Kobe let me get your little chain. You can go play outside Go buddy, you like the snow Yeah, it's a little cold. It's cold. Come on here. Come on. Let's get it Maybe not All right, we decided it was too cold. So we're just gonna we're gonna stay in Good pup That's all he wants to do all day. He just he literally just He literally just wants to bite nibble and play and I'll just I'll play I'll play rough with him So there it is. That's Kobe the corgi Just a quick video on kobi and let me know what you guys want to see more of down below in the comments Thanks for watching. I'll catch you next time. Peace