Hey, guys, welcome to a new ITTT's live stream. And my name is Lisa. If you don't know me yet, I'm a TEFL and TESOL expert at ITTT. And I also teach English online as a non-native ESL teacher. So I'm super glad to welcome you at today's session. And it's going to be devoted to the very first online ESL class. I hope, yeah, my name is Lisa, not Linda, but it's okay. Hi, Mikey. I hope I pronounced your name correctly. So today's session is going to be devoted to everything related to the very first lesson with your online students. So I'm going to share five main points you have to remember before planning your very first lesson. So hopefully it's going to be useful. I believe that if you're a new teacher, yeah, it's going to be really valuable. So stay tuned. And let me just change my screen a little bit and move on. So I'm glad guys that you're joining me. Thanks for coming. If you are new here, let me know where you're tuning in from. I'm currently located in Russia. So I'm based in the Ural region of Russia, which is really far from Moscow or St. Petersburg, but this region is also really interesting. So if you're curious about teaching in Russia as well, it's a great place to investigate. Yeah, hi guys. Thanks for tuning in. I can see several new faces and also some old comers. And just a quick reminder, these live streams are provided by ITTT. We are a Teflon and TESOL provider. We are presented on various social media. So if you like YouTube, for example, just stay tuned, check out our channel. We share a lot of great stuff there. And if you feel like spending time on Instagram or Pinterest, maybe we also share content on those social media as well. So just keep in touch. And I also want to draw your attention to this, what's going on. Yeah, so I also want to talk a little bit so I also want to draw your attention to this QR code or to this link, let me share the link via the chat box really quick. So if you feel like you want to learn a little bit more about teaching and specifically about online teaching, for example, we've got really interesting courses at ITTT and this is a really nice chance to get this special offer. So if you sign up using this QR code or a link from the chat box, you will get a 30% discount, which is actually the highest discount we give. And it's a special offer which we share during the live streams only. So yeah, just check out our courses and feel free to ask any questions if you have. And let's now start today's presentation. So as I've mentioned before, we are going to spend some time talking about the very first online ESL class and what to include in that particular class. And to begin with, I wanna mention that the first class actually includes some preparation. It actually requires some preparation. And before you actually go live with your new student, I recommend taking some time and spending that time on research. So it is always better to send a placement test and a kind of a questionnaire to your new students and check out their level, check out their use of English probably and see if they have any gaps which you will be able to point out later on during the actual lesson. So my recommendation is send out a placement test and a kind of a questionnaire to your students before you actually start teaching them. It is very helpful in terms of creating a general course and picking out some specific materials like course books and so on. So here on this slide, you can see this placement test highlighted. So I actually placed a link right here to the placement test I usually use. I usually send to my students. And right after this live stream, I'm going to share this presentation with you on my Facebook group. So if you need it, just let me know via the chat box. And what else? So right after you sent the placement test, it is also helpful to ask a couple of questions related to their interests, related to their lifestyles, because if you don't know anything about the person, it is actually pretty challenging to create something interesting and engaging. And the very first lesson might be daunting and boring for students and for you as well. So it is always better to ask what interests they have and to think of some possible ways how to use those interests in order to organize your first lesson. And not actually just the first lesson, but the whole course as well. Because if you consider their interests and needs, you can craft the whole course, specifically for the student or for the group. Okay, and let's move on to the second point that you have to consider when you plan the first class with your online ESL students. So just based on the previous slide, based on the previous information, you would probably think of a speaking assessment. So when it comes to placement tests, they are usually very subjective and they are not that informative. You want to make sure you have enough information related to your student's abilities. So that is why it is important to organize a kind of a speaking assessment. And it is actually possible only when you have this face-to-face communication. The way I usually organize speaking assessments is either a small talk or a kind of a game, like get to know each other game. And it works mostly for teenagers or younger students. With adults, you would probably choose the first idea of a small talk because people usually feel stressed to share their ideas and share what they think with complete strangers. So small talks or this kind of game might be really helpful. And basically get to know each other games are also helpful for older students as well. Some people can't open up easy, so games might be helpful as well. But just bear in mind that this type of assessment also should be based on the placement test and on their interests. So for example, if you see that your student's grammar is at the A2 level, for example, you can't ask them questions that include some higher level grammar because it's going to be too difficult for them. And at the same time, if you see that your students are interested in music or sports, it is not logical to offer them some topics related to, I don't know, science or something like that. So make sure you consider their interests and their placement tests when you organize speaking assessments. And then let's move on to the third point which is also connected to the previous two points. So when you have already assessed their level and then you've assessed their speaking abilities, it is important to give some feedback on their overall results because students have already done a lot of things related to English lessons and they want to get some initial feedback from you as a teacher. So here I should say that the very first thing you should do is to praise. You want to say something good instead of highlighting their mistakes, for example. Sometimes teachers are really picky and they see only some blank spaces like some blank spaces, but students want to feel motivated and want to feel inspired. And the only way to inspire them is actually to say what areas they are good at. So that is why always praise your students, always say that they've done such a great job that they have accomplished so many things already and they are actually brilliant. People like to hear good things about themselves and this is the best way to motivate students as well. Only after this praise all part, you would probably move on to explaining some things, some areas they should work on and they should improve. And you should also give reasons why, like for example, sometimes it looks like students have a pretty high level of grammar or use of English, but when it comes to speaking, they start mixing up, they start making stupid mistakes and so on. So in such cases, you want to explain, you want to give reasons why they have to work on, for example, A2 grammar instead of B1 grammar. So this is the best approach to explain what areas should be improved. So if you guys have any questions related to the first three points of today's presentation, let me know, you can use the chat box and let me just quickly check out the chat box. Yeah, so Bakawa asks about signing up for the ITTT courses if I'm not mistaken. So the thing is, we share this QR code, let me show it right here. In the top right corner of your screen, you can see the QR code or you can use the link from the chat box. If you want to sign up for any of ITTT courses, it's a great chance to get this 30% discount today. So it's a special incentive from ITTT, we share it during our live streams. So if you have this need, you can do so. If you don't need it, no problem, no strings attached. So just ignore it. Yeah, and let me see, Leturk asks for a template, for a feedback template. I actually don't have such a template, but it's a great idea for me. So I have this Facebook group. Unfortunately, I'm not that active on the group yet, but I can create this template for you and share on my Facebook group. So just stay tuned, I'll note it down and I'll try my best to create this one. But basically the feedback is pretty simple. So if you want your student, your new student or your potential student, stay with you, be patient, be friendly, say good things to them on the first place and then move on to the second part where you explain what areas should be improved. They actually don't want to hear that they are failures or they have some problems. People are usually very intimidated by such information. So it is always better to say more things about something good and then to say what should be improved. Yeah, so this is pretty much. So this is the strategy I use when I communicate with my students or with my potential clients. Yeah, that's it. But it's a great idea. So I'll try my best to create a feedback template. Okay, so let's move on to the fourth point, which is also pretty important. So the first lesson isn't actual teaching. So you wouldn't probably start with present simple or present continuous and so on. You wouldn't start teaching some specific points related to English. The first lesson in my opinion, especially if you work online, the first lesson is related to building up some relationship, some initial relationship and setting up some communication ways. So that is why after all of those previous assessments, you can move on to the course outline and explain how you are going to teach those students. It can be a pretty short explanation of some points related to those areas of improvement. And then you would probably explain what resources you are going to use, show a course book, for example, if you have already thought of any. And then it is also a great idea to set up some goals together with your students.  That is why, what if you ask them like, what do you expect from this course? What goals do you want to achieve? What will help you to see that you have this progress in English? So basically the fourth step is devoted to some organizational things. To the milestones you have to achieve, to the milestones you have to take and so on. So make sure you take some time during the first lesson when you explain all these details. And it's actually really helpful in those cases when you work with two clients at the same time.  So in this case you have two different audiences, you know, two different clients. Parents wants to know some specific details like what their children are going to learn, how fast, how to measure their progress and so on. And students from their side, they just want to be motivated. So setting up goals can be helpful for both children and parents. And another way to organize this step is to create some, you know, some board or something related to the way they measure their achievements, they may measure their progress and so on. And let's move on to the last point. It's the most important point probably for you as business people. So the first class should be devoted to terms and conditions as well. Usually teachers feel really stressed to talk about money, to talk about different situations like cancellations or delays and so on. But you don't have to be intimidated by those things because they are still important and it's just a part of this learning process as well. So I strongly recommend you discussing things related to schedule, payment, cancellation and everything related to these routines. So it is important specifically for you. You want to make sure you work effectively. You want to make sure you provide those high quality services. And this is actually the only way to build this strong profile for you as a teacher. So make sure you discuss those things from the very beginning. In other way, I would recommend creating, you know, and something like an agreement. It is important as well, but it depends on the country you work for. It depends on the location you work in. For example, in Russia, I have this agreement and I send it to my students or to their parents before the very first class. They read everything and then they either agree to sign it up or they disagree and then we don't work at all. What I include in that agreement is the payment process, schedule, all conditions related to cancellations and delays of our lessons and stuff like that. You can actually use this agreement to point out that you are allowed to increase or decrease your payment, for example. Yeah, and stuff like that. So it's just some legal things. It's this legal site of your relationship, but it is very valuable and it actually motivates students to work better because it is not like this simple communication, it is something related to legal issues as well. So they feel more responsible. So I recommend doing it as well, but it's up to you. And one more thing to mention, it is subjected to some specific areas and you should probably get some consultation from an accountant or a lawyer if you want to make sure that you follow all the directions of your country. So that's probably it. These are all the five points that should be considered when you plan your lessons, when you schedule the first class with your potential client. If you have any questions related to this topic or to Tefl in general, feel free to ask because this is where we start the Q&A session. I would really appreciate if you give me some feedback related to today's topic. I actually wanted to make it valuable for you. So let me know if you could benefit from these ideas. I'll really appreciate that. And one more time, this is the QR code which gives you this 30% discount of any ITTT courses. And by the way, if you haven't taught online yet, we've got a really nice online teaching course. So if you want to learn different strategies and approaches related to online teaching, just check it out. It might be helpful to you as a new online teacher. But generally speaking, Tefl certification is really valuable for all teachers in general. So make sure you check it out. And now let me see the questions from the chat box. So great question, Glenn. Of course, there are a lot of opportunities to teach college students and adults. It is just up to you who to find, who to teach and so on. So you can basically find whatever students you need online. It just depends on the way you promote your services. For example, if you work for a teaching company or for a teaching platform like Preply or Italki, you can limit your audience. You can narrow down your audience by stating that in your profile. So if you want to teach children only, you can write it down and explain that you work with this audience. If you target students or adults, you can also make like, you can also state it in your profile. If you find students on social media, it's almost the same strategy, but all those marketing things are on you. You have to be realistic in this point because nobody is better, no one is better in understanding your audience and your clients, okay? So ITTT is not a teaching platform. If you have already been table certified, it's fine. You can just create your account on a teaching platform and state all your credentials and experience, what else? You can also try to promote your services on social media like Instagram or Facebook, why not? It's a great way to find clients and students. So just make sure you create a nice profile and you target some specific audience because I usually see that many teachers offer like general English classes and work with any possible students. But from my point of view, it's not logical because you as a person understand that you are more likely to work better with adults but not with children. So it's important to narrow down your audience. Yeah, why not? You can start teaching online without any further certifications. The reason I point out our TEFL courses is that if you haven't been TEFL certified or if you haven't got some specific experience, it might be helpful because everything changes so fast and there are different qualities which are necessary for English teachers and you can just build on your resume this way. But if you have experience, it's totally fine. You can just move on and continue what you have already been doing. All right, do you guys have any further questions related to today's topic? Let me know. By the way, I have something weird with my voice. I don't know why. I hope that it sounds normal to you but I feel like it's difficult to talk right now. Probably that's because of the weather. We have a really severe smoke in here because of the forest fires. Here, it's my friendly invitation to my Facebook group. So I have a Facebook group for English teachers and English learners. So non-native ESL teachers are usually English learners themselves. So feel free to join in my small community. I will try my best to be active and helpful there as well. And right after the session, I'm going to share this presentation on the Facebook group. And as Latak mentioned, asked, I'm going to create this feedback template. So I hope you will find it useful. Just feel free to join in. I will be happy to communicate with you and by the way, this group is a teaching community. So if you have any questions or, I don't know, issues related to teaching in general, you can actually ask other people on the group for their recommendations or for a piece of advice. Feel free to do so. Yeah, that's probably it. If you don't have any further questions related to today's topic, I hope that you found it useful and I hope to see you next week. So next week is going to be at the beginning of September and it's a really tough time for all teachers and students. I'm actually going to take one week break from teaching in the beginning of September because students usually don't know anything about their schedule and it takes some time to get the whole understanding of the way they are going to work in the school year. So yeah, if you have the same situation, let me know. If you have any questions related to today's topic, feel free to ask. You can ask me on Facebook group or you can message me on Facebook as well. I try to be helpful on the chat as well. So stay tuned. See you next week. I hope that today's session was valuable. So thanks a lot for joining in and see you soon.


Good morning and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual, as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Kelly Crocker, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors.  This would be a great time to silence your cell phones as I invite you into a few moments of silence. For contemplation, meditation, prayer, as we settle in and come fully into this time and place together. And I invite you to rise in all the ways we do for our opening hymn, number 121. This is the hour, the time has come, mindful of our responsibilities as leaders of this faith and guardians of this living tradition.  Please join in the chalice lighting as printed in your order of service, as together we say, we seek their presence, love, and support in this place at this hour. We kindle this flame to light their path and call them near as we undertake this sacred work. I invite you to turn and greet your neighbors. It can come forward. I have a story to share this morning. I'm looking for some young people to join me. I get heart. Oh, you made it.  This has been weird weather, I think. Oh, here comes some more. Come on down. We're so glad everyone's here today.  I have a story called Drawn Together. I wonder, raise your hand if you like to draw. Anyone out there? Some of you? Oh, good. Do any of you have grandparents or some of us? Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. This book is about someone who likes to draw with their grandparent. On my last question, do any of you speak or read the language called Thai? No. Okay. Well, there's some Thai in this book, so we'll just have to do our best with that. So it starts like this. Oh, I forgot to tell you. This is a hard book because there's not very many words in it. Has lots of pictures, so we're going to have to read the pictures together. And we see a car and someone with a backpack getting out of the car and going up to a door with a doorbell. And what happens? Does someone answer the door? And who do you think that is? Maybe it's grandpa. Yeah.  And what do you think is happening here? I think the kid is having a hot dog and french fries and maybe a little salad. And the grandpa is going to eat with some chopsticks, with some ramen noodles and some hard-boiled eggs. And they're sitting across from each other, and the kid says, so, what's new, grandpa? And then what's the grandpa say? We don't know because it's in Thai. But the fine print at the beginning of the book says, he's saying, what's new? What's new with you? And they don't know what to say to each other, so they just keep eating. Then after dinner or lunch or whatever they're having, they go to watch TV. And there's a guy on TV who says, dragon. And grandpa in Thai says, would you like to watch something else? And the kid says, can we watch something else? But they don't know that. They're asking the same thing of each other, and so they give each other side eyes. And so then the kid decides to get up from watching TV. And what does the kid do? What's this? Paper and colors, markers, yes. And the grandpa's like, what? And look what the kid's drawing, like this famous superhero, and the grandpa's really excited now. So grandpa goes out to go get something, and grandpa's like, what's going on? Grandpa comes back with a sketchbook. Right when I gave up on talking, he says, my grandfather surprised me by revealing a world beyond words. And in a flash, we see each other for the first time. All the things we could never say come pouring out. And we build a new world that even words can't describe. But just when we're closer than ever, that old distance comes roaring back. Okay, here's some more pictures we have to read. So the grandpa is grabbing for the wand, is making beautiful pictures. And the grand kid grabs the paintbrush and says, this time I'm not afraid, because I know that together we can make our way across. So I don't know if you see this detail, but there's a little dragon in this bridge that they built together. So they turn that roaring dragon into a bridge. Now after years of searching for the right words, we find ourselves happily speechless. So there's something about drawing together that they really enjoy. Let's see what happens after they hug. It looks like probably mom came to pick up the kid, and they're all hugging goodbye. And the kid has the paintbrush and grandpa is waving with the marker. That's an interesting story. It might not make a lot of sense. It's about drawing, and it's about connecting with people who might be kind of different from us. So I'm going to ask you to think about connecting with people in your RE class, different generations, and different interests. And while you go to your RE classes, we're going to sing you out. We're going to sing hymn number 148, let freedom span both east and west. We'll see you all later. Bruises are a celebrated part. It's not uncommon for players to take pictures of their biggest, most colorful shaped bruises. Bruises that go deep into your tissue and come out in amazing blues, purples, and blacks that eventually fade to greens, browns, and yellows. A few of my teammates even had bruises that never went away. They would get worse and worse. Sometimes these most sensitive bruises were invisible, lacking the loud color of bruises that would heal as if the skin itself had resigned itself to injury. When I first heard about the experience of microaggressions, I immediately related them to bruises in roller derby. Darryl Wings-Sue, who has studied microaggressions for a decade, defines them as the everyday, verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. A person from any marginalized group can be the target of microaggression. People of color experience them from white people. People of color experience them from men. People who are transgender experience them from cisgender people. People who are disabled experience them from the non-disabled. What's common to all microaggressions is that their experience is invalidating, dehumanizing, and demeaning. When a white woman clutches her purse as a black or Latino man approaches her, the hidden message being sent is that the black or Latino man and others like him are criminals. When an Asian American raised in the U.S. is complimented for speaking good English, the hidden message is, you are not a true American.  When a female physician wearing a stethoscope is mistaken as a nurse, the hidden message is that women should occupy nurturing in that decision making roles, or that women are less capable than men.  When the outfit worn by a TV reality show mom is described as classless and trashy, the hidden message is that lower class people are tasteless and unsophisticated. These are all microaggressions. There are many, many more. They all say, you do not belong, and the effect builds up over time. Someone who regularly experiences microaggressions becomes more and more aware of them. The bruise gets bigger and more sensitive until even the slightest touch is experienced as excruciatingly painful. Those who experience microaggressions suffer biologically, emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally. May we choose to face the difficult truth that we are each sometimes unwitting perpetrators that cause pain to another, and may humility, love, and understanding allow us to be part of the healing process whenever possible. February in Wisconsin, especially February with weather like what we have had recently, can be hard to love. And yet I still try to find things to love about it. On February 14, I love thinking about love and the trust and transformation that are integral parts of intimate romantic partnerships. Throughout this month of black history, I love thinking about the love and the trust and transformation that has nurtured people of African descent to survive and thrive despite the cards being stacked against them. Lately, I have loved soaking up the wisdom from books that have recently won awards. And then sharing the love, trust, and transformation I have gleaned from those books with others. As some of you know, before I started seminary, I had spent over a dozen years as a librarian working in the field of children's books and young adult literature. The love for books is something I bring with me into the ministry, and I'm excited to be able to share this love with you. I also love getting the chance to work with young people. I love getting the chance to work with people of all ages, actually, and you may have seen that with me and the kids down here. The other weekend I got to work with the ninth graders. I hung out with them in their coming of age class, and I actually shared with them a little bit about my journey into ministry, but also I shared with them some picture books. In those classes, I invited the people to buddy up and read one of the many award-winning books I had brought in, including Drawing Together. And then I asked them to consider two questions. What in this book reminded you of Unitarian Universalist Principles? Or what in this book reminds you of something that happens here at First Unitarian Society? What I love about sharing quality books with people of all ages is that we have the opportunity to slow down long enough to reflect on what matters most. And so I invite you to think about that message for all ages book, Drawing Together. What resonated for you? What spoke to your values? We have two main characters, though they each have superhero alter egos. They come from two different generations and are bridging two distinct cultures. What in this book reminds you of our Unitarian Universalist Principles? And what in this book reminds you of something that happens here at First Unitarian Society? For me, there were several points in this book that took my breath away. The first was when the two characters see each other for the first time. Has that ever happened to you where you feel like you have been seen for exactly the person you are? It's a kind of scary experience. Being seen for exactly the persons we are, that means that we're seen for all of us. All my gifts, strengths, and talents, as well as my quirks, my insecurities, my shortcoming. I feel vulnerable when someone sees me wholly for who I am. And it also feels like a deep, deep blessing to be seen and to still be welcomed, accepted, and loved. Relatively recently, I felt especially seen when I was undergoing a summer-long internship as a hospital chaplain. My small group of four fellow chaplains and I would spend a good deal of time reflecting on our experiences with patients, but also reflecting on our reactions to the reflections of our experiences with patients. Of course, my reaction was unique to my own makeup, my composition as a human being, whether we measured it by the enneagram or the Myers-Briggs, the birth order, or any other number of factors.  We had to know ourselves honestly and completely, and my colleagues helped hold up the mirror so I could see myself clearly. It felt vulnerable, and it was a gift, and it required deep trust in one another. Deep trust is also what I pick up as I reflect on the beginning of this book in which grandchild and grandfather see each other for the first time. There are three aspects in particular that I notice about these characters. The first is the characters are uniquely themselves, not replicas of one another. They have distinct styles, one with bold colors, the other with intricate line details, one with markers and wands as a medium, the other with brush and ink. Both are bold and courageous, using different tools for making their mark on the world. Not better or worse from each other, just different. They are authentically themselves. That requires trust. The second aspect I notice as I reflect on this book is that they are collaborative partners. One does not seem to be more in charge than the other. They are working together, but not with one character telling the other what to do and how to do it. You don't see the grandfather criticizing, but this is how we've always done it. You don't see the grandchild demanding that the grandfather speak in English. I see mutual respect and admiration. They are collaborators that requires trust. And third, they are using non-traditional methods to connect with one another. Watching didn't work. Breaking bread together didn't work. Watching TV together didn't work. Eventually they hit on something that did work. Their shared interest in art-making. Indeed, as the text says, they built a new world that even words cannot describe. Through drawing and painting, they tap into their creative powers together. That requires trust. This has important implications for our lives as well. For each of these three aspects, authenticity, collaboration, and creativity, trust is an important ingredient. It takes trust to show our true colors, sharing our authentic selves. It takes trust to share leadership and to collaborate with respect. It takes trust to try new and creative ways of building a new world. And truth be told, we are in desperate need of a new world. We must go beyond trust to transformation. The essay on roller derby bruises and microaggressions by Reverend Cooley reminds us that there are injuries, both seen and unseen, in this broken and hurting world. Our unitarian universalist principles call us to both bear witness to the reality of this world and to take action to make it better, to engage in transformation. Like what Alyssa read today, the essay by Reverend Cooley also includes the following. If we believe in the inherent worth and dignity of each person, and if we believe in the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part, then we must put in the effort to face our own failings. We must put in the effort to face our own failings. The drawn-together picture book shows us what that looks like when we face our own failings. Author Lay writes, just when we're closer than ever, that old distance comes roaring back. Here we see a gulf, an old distance, a chasm that represents our failings. Most times when we have fallen short or missed the mark, the gulf is so wide, so menacing, and feels so insurmountable. Has this ever happened to you? Suddenly an old distance is separating you from the people you want to be with, or from the places you want to go. This indeed is frustrating, overwhelming, debilitating, maybe scary, and saddening too. After all the work we've done, we are back to that experience of separation. Reverend Cooley gives a name to this particular kind of separation. She calls it microaggressions. They are hostile, derogatory, and negative. They target people based solely on their marginalized group membership. They are experiences that are invalidating, dehumanizing, and demeaning. Ouch, indeed. I don't know about you, but I certainly have experienced those moments where suddenly that gulf is seen again and my spirits sink. In my life, when I feel all the ways that racism and white supremacy culture have limited me and kept me in a box, and I feel all the violence that has been done to the bodies and souls and livelihoods of people of color and indigenous folks, I definitely feel that old distance. It shows up, out of the blue, unannounced and uninvited. It shows up when I misunderstand a comment on my Facebook feed. You see, Bev and I were trying to sell our car a while back, and so I posted a photo of it on Facebook. One of my friends, who is an African-American man, commented on my post saying, call me sister, and then giving a phone number. I personally did not remember him having a biological sister, but I suppose that she could probably indeed use a reliable car. It turns out he didn't make a typo. Rather, the mistake was mine. I had thought that he had meant to type my, as in call, my sister. Instead, he was using a term of endearment for me, as in call me, comma, sister, and I had not picked up on it. In that moment, that old distance, that cultural gap, came roaring back. It's a small example, but one that fills me with disappointment, nonetheless. Now that grand kid and grandfather, they give me hope in times like this. They find ways to transform their world, to bridge that old distance. As we talked about with the kids during the message for all ages, each character had to take on the tool of the other. So the grandfather picks up the wand, while the grandchild gets the paintbrush. As they actively fight that roar of that old distance in new and creative ways, the text reads, this time I'm not afraid, because I know that together, we can make our way across. I know together, we can make our way across. Here, again, we see their authentic selves working collaboratively in new and creative ways, using new tools in this instance. To me, this speaks of the ongoing work of bridging cultural gaps. We have to engage in the work again and again. It will never be completed. It's lifelong work. Reverend Cooley gives us some specific ways that together we can build bridges. She writes, it means learning about how we may cause harm to people, even unintentionally, and then working to make it right. It means using techniques, such as oops and ouch, when we have aired. It means recognizing that the impact of our words on others matters more than our intent. It means listening to the stories of others with humility and an open mind and heart. This, she writes, requires constant effort and does not come easy. And as with so much other work of this nature, we will break each other's hearts and fail over and over again. But if we let it, this is what will allow us to grow. Did you hear that? This constant effort, this work that breaks our hearts again and again, this has the potential to allow us to grow, to be transformed. At my seminary, we are acutely aware of the tenacity, that roar of the systemic nature of the dominant culture that privileges whiteness in such a variety of ways. In an effort to take steps to address this roar, both bearing witness to the brokenness and stepping into the trust required for transformation, my seminary has organized optional affinity group gatherings based on racial identity. So for example, when I was in Chicago last month for my weeks of face-to-face classes, I spent some time, some of my spare time, facilitating groups for white identified students who are interested in deepening our anti-racist identities, behaviors, and relationships. The gatherings required us to step into trust so that we could more honestly step towards transformation. Twice a week for three weeks we gathered, tentative at first, not sure how much we could really trust each other and how much we should share. Thankfully, that trust grew over time. And some of us are still communicating back from our homes scattered across the U.S., sharing both our heartbreaks as well as our micro-actions and micro-successes. It is like we are practicing building bridges. We are practicing the transformation of ourselves, which ultimately is a part of the transformation of our world. Like the characters in this book, my fellow seminarians and I are finding that transformation requires persistence, courage, and collaboration. It requires using new tools, growing trust, and building transformative bridges. This is ongoing healing work, and this is the work that will change ourselves and our world. Thankfully, we don't have to do this work alone, for we are here today, together, both trusting and transforming. As you see on the front of your order of service, the Reverend Mark Morrison Reid writes, the central task of the religious community is to unveil the bonds that bind each to all. There is a connectedness, a relationship discovered amid the particulars of our own lives and the lives of others. Once felt, it inspires us to act for justice. He's speaking of trust within a religious community and the transformation that can happen in our justice making. And then he continues, it is the church that assures us that we are not struggling for justice on our own, but as members of a larger community. The religious community is essential, for alone our vision is too narrow to see all that must be seen and our strength is too limited to do all that must be done. Together our vision widens and our strength is renewed. In the week ahead, may you see signs and symbols of trust and transformation popping up in your life wherever you look. May you remember how to tap into your authentic self as vulnerable as that feels at times. May you engage in collaborative leadership filled with respect and appreciation. May you collectively pick up new tools that will help you to creatively build a new world. Trust and transformation are possible my friends and we get to practice them together. Blessed be an amen. Each week we have an opportunity to transform our world by the giving of our financial gifts. Today's outreach offering is going to the Journey Mental Health Center whose mission is to improve people's lives by pioneering and sustaining effective services to treat mental health and substance abuse disorders. I invite you to give as generously as you are able. We appreciate the generosity of time and talent of all those who helped our service this morning. Our greeter was Patty Whitty, our ushers Allison Mix, John Mix, Pamela McMullen and Tom Dolmage. Our lay minister is Dorrit Bergen. In the kitchen making coffee, Jeannie Hills and Trudy Carlson. And if you have any questions or would like more information about First Unitarian or our programs, Karen Rose Gredler will be at our welcome table which is directly across from the kitchen and she would love to speak with you. We have a couple of announcements. The members of the interim ministry transition team will be available after the service in the commons. They welcome your questions and your conversations. And also during our coffee hour, a representative of the UUs for justice in the Middle East will be petitioning in support of our First Amendment right of free speech for human rights in Palestine. And finally, our free to believe class will be selling cookie jars after services today to raise money for our partner church program. Through this program, we support the education and the music program of our partner church village in Najoyta. This is the student's faith in action project for the year. So they will be out there in the commons and they hope to see you at their table. On the fourth weekend of the month, First Unitarian Society shares our joys and sorrows by lighting candles with one another. If you came here today carrying a sorrow so heavy that you need the help of this community to bear its weight, or if you bring a joy, that is simply too great to not be expressed. Now is the time for you to speak. The sharing of joys and sorrows is our time in the spirit of acceptance and support to share with one another some special event or circumstance that has affected your life or the life of a loved one in recent days or weeks. Anyone who wishes is invited to come up front, light a candle, and using the microphone provided by Dorot, briefly share with us your message. You may also come forward to wordlessly light a candle and return to your seat. Or if you're unable to come forward to light a candle, just raise your hand and we'll light a candle for you and bring you the microphone. I now open the floor for the sharing of our joys and sorrows. I light this candle for my uncle Si Olson, my one of my mother's last two living brothers. Growing up, he was a very important figure in my life and that family was, we spent a lot of time together. And he was with me the day that my father died. And so I light this candle hoping he'll have good health, but knowing that it's probably his days are numbered. I'm lighting a candle for my cousin Gary who died very suddenly Sunday night of sepsis, even behind his parents and his wife and three teenage kids. And we're, our family's all thinking of them. I'm lighting this candle for my 11 year old son, Joss. Some of you have followed this, some of you have not, but he's autistic. And last spring he had to go up north to be actually at a facility for about 30 days because he was in emotional distress and was a danger to himself and others. And I'm happy to report that this semester at Schenke Elementary, he increased his GPA by 0.5 or more which got him a Gap Achievement Award. The people at Schenke have been amazing to him. The community here has been amazing to him. And I think I wanted to share that joy that he had this major accomplishment and it's due to the, not just his own willpower and efforts but to the support of the community around him. So thank you all for helping him on this journey. I've never used this before. I recently. Closer, okay. I recently lost a son to cancer. And our family was hoping to have a memorial service that would really show what he had meant to us with the loving care and the times, everything they did for us in this church made this a glorious memorial service that everyone admired and I will never, ever forget all the time and effort they put in to satisfy our wish for our son. Thanks very much, Glenna.  I want to light a candle for a colleague of mine and a close friend who got some bad news recently about her health. Being a transplant in Madison, like 90% of us seem to be, Monica is kind of was, kind of my mom away from mom here in town. And she's in my thoughts. I love her very much. I'm gonna be sitting in the surgical waiting room tomorrow morning over at UW. A good friend of mine has to have a heart procedure that carries a certain amount of risk. So I'm gonna ask for good thoughts for her for tomorrow morning. Sorry, I have a cold. I just wanted to light a candle for my very good friend, Ellis Avery, who just died this past week at age 46 from a very rare form of cancer. She's a wonderful author. And I urge you to look up her novels. And she was just a bright, wonderful spirit. So I just wanted to light a candle for her. I'd like to talk about a joy. And that's the International Festival. As you were putting this up, I was thinking about it. There were people of all different ways of speaking in different countries that they've come from. And we got together for dance and music and food. And if you missed it this year, don't miss it next year because it's just a wonderful time for everybody to get together and to be one. Did I say it's free? Well, I one last candle for all those joys and sorrows that are still residing in the depths of our hearts. Together, let us sing our closing hymn, number 95. There is more love somewhere. I invite you to stand in body and or spirit. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are not perfect, but we are perfectly fitted for this day. We are not without fault, but we can be honest to face our past as we chart a new future. We are the ones we have been waiting for. May we be bold and courageous to chart that new future. May we have faith in a future that is not known. We are the ones we have been waiting for. As we extinguish our chalice, we know that the love of community and the fire of commitment remain in our hearts until we meet again. I invite you to be seated for one last gift of music.


The Soval SV03 is a huge direct drive 3D printer and I think it's well worth the money. My name's Jim and this is the Edge of Tech. So when Soval contacted me and asked if I wanted to check out the SV03, I looked it up, I saw how big it was and I said absolutely I'm going to jump on that opportunity. So they sent it over and today we're going to check it out. It has a huge 350 by 350 by 400 build volume and includes a nice flat glass build surface. It has held on to prints when it's hot and let go when they're cold and that's exactly what it's supposed to do. While we're talking about how big the bed is, I need to break in for one second. Recently I saw Andrew Sink actually take a Prusa printer and put it on the bed of another printer he was reviewing and I thought that was really cool but this printer is actually bigger than the one he did. So I'm going to take the Soval SBO3, I'm going to pull the bed forward, I'm going to take this Ender 3 Max and set it right on the bed. The feet actually sit inside of the bed of the Soval SBO3, that's how big this build plate really is. This is pretty awesome. Andrew, the ball's in your court now. To keep that filament flowing, the SV03 has a direct drive hot end that's great for all types of filaments even flexible. You won't have to worry about running out of filament either as it comes with a stock filament run out sensor and to make prints on this printer even better and more consistent it comes with a stock BL touch for auto bed leveling. The included belt tensioners on the X and Y axises make it very easy to tighten and loosen those belts and it's a welcome upgrade that I would love to see on more printers. The SV03 comes with a silent board that uses TMC 2208 drivers and in my testing I found this to be a very quiet printer. In my experience with the printer I found the fans are the loudest part. It uses that standard screen that many of us have grown to love and it's super easy to upgrade because of that. The dual Z on this is a must and it's controlled by dual stepper motors to keep everything in line. And to top off the whole package, the SV03 comes with a 350 watt mean well power supply. This helps with fast heat up times and it's a proven power supply in the industry. So we're about to get into the test prints on the Soville SV03. But first, if you're liking this content, you're liking this video, please do me a huge favor, hit that like button now. So I've had very good luck with the Soville SV03 so far. As far as profiles go though, all I did was jump into Prusa Slicer. I took the original Soville SV01 profile that I had. I changed the bed size or the build volume, right? I added a G29 to the starting G code so it would do the bed leveling before every print and that is it. It is a bone stock SV01 profile with a different size build volume and the G29 for the BL Touch. So the first thing I printed was this cube off of the SD card. It turned out pretty good. This green is kind of hard to shoot, but you could see some layer lines in there. I'm guessing that was just the setup of the machine as we went. Overall, not too bad. The top looks great. Like I said, a little bit of lines around there, but not terrible. A great first print right off the SD card. The next thing that I printed was the ClockSpring 3D Recipical Vase at 100% size. It turned out great. The layers look good, but it actually kind of looks small on this printer, only printed at 100%. Then I went and grabbed a rainbow filament and I printed the ClockSpring 3D Torture Toaster. Now this is a version 1.1. There's a little revision stamp right in here. It does move up to about .3 there, so I just knocked that one out. .2 and .1, not loose on this one, but all the other ones did work. If I spin this around, the overhangs look pretty good until you get up in that 80 area there. A little, little dicey there, but other than that, they look really good. The toast does pop, so that's great. The gears work as intended, so that's awesome. That's the ClockSpring HotMakes Torture Toaster. Came out really good in a rainbow filament. All these prints are great. They came out awesome, but this thing is a big printer. I tell you what, when you have a big printer, you need to print big things with it. I grabbed the ClockSpring Vase, the Recipical Vase here. I scaled it up to 398 millimeters, which is just two millimeters short of what this can actually do. I grabbed this GreenGate 3D Purple Rain. It's a recycled PETG. I threw some glue stick on the bed, and I hit print, and let's see what happens. The result is this massive, gorgeous vase that came out great. I love the color, and the video does not do it justice. If I actually take the 100% vase and put it next to it, you can actually see how big this vase is. So I laid down the glue stick on the bed because I didn't want the PETG to stick to the glass bed. And that's a thing. You got to be careful with that, especially with glass beds. Well it did an amazing job, and I tell you what else did an amazing job, this GreenGate Purple Rain. Now this is a recycled PETG from GreenGate 3D, like I already said, but I was really impressed on how well it printed straight out of the packaging. Now if you're going to use this and you leave it out like this one's been out, you might want to dry it before you print, but straight out of the package I had no issues printing this giant 398mm Clarksbring reciprocal vase. So overall I'm very impressed with the Soval SV01. Out of the box it comes with some great features that I think should be on most 3D printers these days, especially in 2021. And for a price tag in the US of only $439, I think this is a steal if you're looking for a big 3D printer. So let me know in the comments below what you would do with a 3D printer this size if you don't already have one, and what you think of this one after seeing the video. I'm always interested what you guys have to say, just put it in the comments below and I'll check it out. Hey everybody, if you haven't already, hit that subscribe button right here and if you like the video, give me that thumbs up. Click that bell if you want to be notified anytime we go live or another great video comes out. You guys are awesome.


Good morning cyber traders. Welcome back on a brand new week here at cyber trading look good good to see you all back here nice and early. Let me tell you had a pretty good week a big week going on this week I don't know if you guys know that earnings weeks is coming out with the bank. Looking forward to see how those all going to turn out so we're going to the fourth quarter earnings right now. Which could be pretty good got a nice little run up right now in this a C O N. But I'm but I didn't see that much out there is usually around nine o'clock we'll get program trading kicking in the second time around and we'll go over that all right. But but big week also to we got these three that's going on this weekend. We have traders accounting coming on this weekend. We got the well through sixty five coming up next weekend. A lot of great speakers a lot of great training. Once again if you watch on social media on the top left hand corner just take that cue that take that QR code scan it come join our trading room will be here live all day long. And you just make sure you. You know give us a thumbs up ring the bell and subscribe to the channel all right guys. So let's go look around traders what's happening let's talk about what happened last week because we had a pretty good decent decent week. We have some really good examples hopefully some of you got to watch and review some of those events. But but a lot of it we're going to talk about was shown on that nasdaq book viewer on level three on level four you know it's amazing I was talking to so many students that joined us last week. And they'll keep saying the same thing and if you're watching the show on a recording whatever you're going to see the same thing when you start teaching you start showing you how you can follow the orders it just makes things so much easier. So regarding about what happened last week let's go over a couple of stocks. First of all I want to talk about RxRx. And let me change this two-day chart. So RxRx was a really nice moving stock last week. You could see it it was a late little starter right around here around 1130 was right around that $10 price range 1060 made a really nice move in the middle of the day and had a nice little push going into the close. You know you can see here at 330 had a nice move and all that's about three o'clock went from when about 1160 all the way to about $12 I mean it's not a big move but you know what 20 you know that what is that the 40 cents on a thousand shares was a really really good move thousand thousand shares $400 a year salary. I'll take that all day. Another one car Z. I mean Z car. It was another one we had last week it was a little bit more of an IPO meaning it's an initial public offering came out but took a little bit of a hit when it came out of the IPO but kind of built this support levels around 250 had a nice move going into the afternoon that was another nice one. What else we had here AAOI another nice little move nice little pitch of right there early in the morning went from 18 up to about 19. Oh by the way we get a nice little pop in acorn which we're gonna come back and check on just get on my level on my level three looks like the nine nine o'clock program trading kicked in. And then last but not least was Boyle. Boyle did pretty well but sticking a big hit this morning and it went all the way to about 36 nice little day trade. Looks like it gave away a lot of that movement from yesterday's down about $4 that really stinks but I know a lot of us I have it as a swing trade I own it right around 2026 I think it is so I'm doing more of a swing trade more of a long term you know and that's basically some of the stocks that are moving pretty nice that they're there. I know a lot of us also been looking at some of the you know what's going on with Bitcoin and a lot of the crypto stocks obviously been doing pretty well a lot of the mindings and a lot of the blockchains Mara had looks like having a pretty good move this morning coin actually had a little bit good move took a huge hit but looks like they're coming back also been very, very good swing trades also. So anyway that's the past let's focus on today right let's focus on this week so we got earnings we got classes we got some great events going on make sure you register for all of them and but let's see what's going on for a day trade now we got this move right here on the AC on you could see it right here just had a nice little push right here and let me just bring up my level three which you call book viewer open screen bring this over here and we'll bring this right here OK so we got this right here we go so we got a couple of good moves you could see here we got to get the filters out so we got a couple of iceberg orders we got a couple of here looks like people are bidding it up around was that 633 634 not a lot and we got an iceberg order around 73700 right around 7 was a 720 so we're bringing up over here AC on oops I can't type on so I don't see the real resistance here on the intraday but I do see it on the long-term chart there's that resistance levels right around there so you can see some iceberg orders are there already I'm here looking at level four not really that much also kind of a messy actually so I know it's up 115% it's cheap I probably would give it a category three baby I probably won't give it a one this looks pretty volatile right now that's moving AC on but we're going to definitely have it on here listen you know I'm not a big fan on Mondays right Mondays gotta be careful come back from the weekend not a lot of news happened over the weekend Congress is coming back into order that's paid basically look at actually you know what there's a big iceberg order right now on Mara just want to bring this up and yeah right there you see that word right there a hundred thousand share bidder this is one order basically out there for about quarter million dollars is looking to be bought in Mara that looks pretty good right there yeah right there right that that's see a big support level right here guys fellow traders and you can't get better than that by the way the rich Josh take a screenshot of that's exactly what we need and love that's a great one right there beautiful so Mara look I've got a lot of support there definitely look on look at looking at a big buy right here you can't see him on level two yet because there are other orders ahead of him but right there at sixty five Mara right there great great great great example thanks for sharing that alright this stock it looks like a buy outside going anywhere with scratch that one SPEC was one I saw also a big order just showed up right now a couple of good nice iceberg orders on SPEC so you got a couple of them looks like they're on different exchanges right now but three twenty three three thirty we got some orders down here three twenty a little bit more may get changed the filters up we changed to five hundred take out some of those look some depth okay you see there's a lot more cells and buyers so it looks like it looks like we're having even though it's up a little big up sixty five percent doesn't look like I really want to it's not really moving too big and it's not too many buyers out there so might not consider it's going to probably continue to go higher it might be trending down from looking at the imbalance on on where the buyers and sellers are but you know what it is moving today we're going to keep an eye on it here's a very nice little cheap little stock another one start trending down the INC looks like it's gapped up pretty big might want to scratch that one out scratch scratch BLNK it's got good volume see what this one looks like not really I've only got a seventeen thousand shares seller out there at three ninety five that looks like a resistance levels but that's pretty far out of the way I'm not I will put this one on it I mean we traded the stock before remember we trade us back in November it did run from like two sixty all the way to about four fifty BLNK check your journals for students that you know been here back then you probably have it on your watch list beginning good losers going on this one's down about twenty four percent not really pretty K-O-L-D's going up because the opposite of Boyle so that's in the gainers you can see Boyle's on the losers I know everyone saw the big news on on B.A. what a terrible that's crazy story read about that my god that was horrible they just they grounded all their max jets and it's taking a big hit here down about nineteen percent B.A. well you know what I'm just curious because we might get some good iceberg waters on B.A. now not really it's it did come back this morning from two twenty seven went to three thirty three it's expensive we don't really we will really trade the stock right here but it isn't a news and it is going to affect other companies so airlines some airlines took some big hits on it I don't think Delta I think I'm did Delta take it on it no I think I was on the Laskin Airlines right I got nobody was sitting in that chair my god that was horrible but B.A. is obviously going to take a big hit and I don't know if it's going to you know with that news depending on how serious it could be this thought could really take a big hit so it might be a good option trade could be a good swing trade but we had to see what happens over the course of the day before we make that judgment all right any other stocks out there that I'm missing anyone here on social law anyone YouTube or Facebook or Twitter anyone in cyber group room Bill says there's a SPR took a big hit it did take a big hit and but it's coming back a little bit looks like it looks like it's bouncing off that that 25 I don't know if I see anything here on level three SPR not really no big orders out there and you got to also it's got a big spread bill bill you know we got to look at that GM checking that one out GM's doing crap nothing or you saying good morning we got to be careful to use our symbols out there all right sometimes it throws me off because when you breathe those abbreviations that's usually what they turn out to be a stock but anyway scary for the market opened up listen it's Monday don't get too crazy got a lot of classes going on this week it's a very very important time of the year in January to start getting ready for the new year so if we see something we'll say something not really a big list going on totally normal but you know what happens when 9 8 9 30 opens up people program trading kicks in more orders going to start showing up we should be getting some action going on usually we got to wait a little bit until that happens so so we'll see you all there all right guys good luck once again if you're watching on social media make sure you subscribe to the channel give us a thumbs up and ring that bell all right so you get our alerts and you always got that little qr corner top left hand corner just scan it with your phone would be happy to see you and make sure everybody's registered for the upcoming events very very important you got to learn before you could earn good luck everyone happy trading we'll be back here in 15 minutes when the market opens up and trades live all right we'll get ready to trade out of the open


Rick Thomas, who's an alum of Second City and a director and teacher talks about the need to fall into the crack in the game. So what is it? When you see that mistake, can you seize upon it? And we know from the history of various innovations like post-its, like slinkies, these things were all mistakes. They didn't start out being the thing that the person was trying to make. And you just discover at a certain point that you pivot. I guess Slack, right, is one of the most amazing things, which is like, you know what Slack is? It's a failed product. It was a failed product. And now it's an amazing product. But that took a reframe. And this is the thing, I don't know about you guys, but I certainly wish that when I was a younger person working, both in sort of my creative brain and my business brain, that I understood this idea of reframing that it is a, what a superpower that is.  What can I do with it? How do I have agency? My friend Scott Berry Kaufman introduced me to this concept of post-traumatic growth. So the idea that, look, we all go through incredible trauma and grief and problems, divorces, deaths, all those things. It's inevitable. But what if you take it in those moments and you look at post-traumatic growth, you're like, how can I grow out of this thing? How can I take this seemingly net negative and make it inform something positive in my life? When COVID hit, this was this moment for Second City. And this was a very turbulent time here. We went through a sale. So our longtime owners sold the place. We were getting just terrible press because any institution that had been around for 60 years was facing the fact that they're largely white owners and operators maybe didn't behave the best. We all got that. And I remember my friend who ran Exec Ed at an Ivy League school was now at a major soft drink company. I'll figure out, you can figure out which one it was. But she was like, hey, do you have any stuff that you could deliver on Zoom around resilience because my people are hurting? And my wife, Ann, who has worked at Second City two years longer than I have and she's a longtime educator and director here, I yelled downstairs, I'm like, what do you got? Resilience, exercise, what will work on Zoom? And she gave me one. This one is really good. I think your folks could use this very easily. It's not complicated. It's called wish. And what you do is you have everyone get a piece of paper and make three columns. In the first column, you write down a wish that you have that you're not gonna get granted anytime soon. So at that point, it was like, I wanna swim in salt water. I live in Chicago, that ain't happening. And in the second column, you write down the emotion you think you'd feel if you got that wish. And I wrote like, refreshed. And in the final column, you write down something you could do right now to experience that emotion. So if I wanted to be refreshed, I could put some water in my face. I could go for a run. I could work out. And the idea is like, we don't control what's happening to us, all the elements of a situation in the room. What we do control is our emotional response to it. That's a reframe.  You have the ability to see this thing in the way that you want to see it. So I could change it. It's not gonna improve. It's not gonna make things better, but it will give you the opportunity to have some measure of control in the world that you live in.


Good evening everyone. Thanks for joining us. This evening we are holding the City of Santa Rosa's Community Advisory Board Grant Program Information Meeting. So I've been advised that you've already picked up your application so you may have that in front of you. And we'll be going over some of these topics and our staff will be presenting to us. So first I'd like to introduce myself. I am Leslie Graves. I am the Chair of the Community Advisory Board. And we meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month usually. There's a little asterisk there because in the month of May we will be meeting on the third Wednesday. So you can pick up that information on the City of Santa Rosa website. This evening we will be joined by our staff that is part of our liaison group for the Community Advisory Board. And we will have our Community Engagement Coordinator will be running the agenda. That will be Danielle Garduniel. Danielle is here. And we also will be joined by one of our Community Engagement Coordinator, AmeriCorps VISTAs, Montse, Salas. I'll be going over the little bit of the agenda right now. Just a little bit of a review and then we'll be going more in-depth during the meeting. So after this brief welcome we'll be reviewing the application that you may have in front of you now or that you picked up on the website. We'll be going over the evaluation criteria, the application process. We'll also have time for Q&A and that will conclude our meeting. So thank you again so much for joining us. Thank you for being interested in this process of applying for a Community Advisory Board grant and for all that you do within our community. At this time I'll be passing it over to Danielle. Thank you Leslie. Good afternoon or early evening everyone. I'm Danielle Garduniel, the Community Engagement Coordinator for the City of Santa Rosa. Thank you again for being here with us. As I mentioned in the chat box, if you do not have the application packet yet you can access that by going to www.srcity.org slash cabgrants. And I apologize it looks like I put in the cab website in the chat box. Just add grants to the end of that or you can still go to the cab website and access the application from there. We will be getting to Q&A after we go through the grant application packet. So I'll hold on to those questions. Feel free to put them in the chat or raise your hand once we get to the Q&A. And also just to let everybody know we did do a similar meeting yesterday held in Spanish for our Spanish language residents, our Spanish-speaking residents. And the recording for that particular meeting will be available shortly on the cab grant website. We're just trying to figure out how to get it uploaded as well as after this one is over we will also upload to the website as well. Alright, so jumping into the application, we'll start with what the community improvement grant program is. So the City of Santa Rosa Community Advisory Board, also known as the CAB, connects the government to residents so the public can have a voice in decisions that impact their lives and to build a stronger community. The CAB partners with the community to build connected, empowered and resilient neighborhoods through its community improvement grant program. So with the grant program, these are beautification projects that you can do in your neighborhood or in the Santa Rosa area that will benefit all Santa Rosans. Or it could be a capacity building type project that allows for a large number of let's say a neighborhood group or a community wide group to receive training on a certain leadership skill that will help with their community work. So how much are grants? Grants are available up to $2,500. What types of projects can be funded? The projects that can be funded must take place within the city limits of Santa Rosa. And again, they are either physical improvement projects such as a garden restoration project or installation of a community garden, a community mural. It could be the installation of a memorial plaque. And then as I mentioned before, it could also be a training that benefits a neighborhood group or a community group that's free and accessible to all group members that will then provide them with skills to then go out and do work in the community. Who can apply? Non-profits, neighborhood groups and or associations, homeowners associations, service clubs, community groups and or organizations and schools may apply to fund a project in Santa Rosa within the city limits. So those neighborhood and community groups, they don't have to be a formal neighborhood association or homeowners association. It can be an informal group. And we do also encourage those particular groups if they would like to partner with a nonprofit to go ahead and reach out to those nonprofits to do so. What are eligible expenses for the community improvement grant program? These include contractor fees, supplies, equipment rentals, permit and insurance fees or costs, other permits related to the project, food and group trainings. Ineligible expenses include cost incurred prior to the grant award, indirect costs, ongoing maintenance or and operational costs or overhead business expenses like rents, mortgage payments, property taxes, utilities or office supplies. Again, ongoing maintenance, upkeep, landscaping and repairs, fundraising, staff salaries, membership dues, new business startup money, individual training or education and travel expenses. So the community improvement grant program is a match program, a grant match program. So what does this mean? This means the applicants must have a one to one match of funds or in kind donations that match the requested grant amount. For example, the applicant, if the applicant is requesting a grant amount of $2,500, they must have matching funds or in kind donations of at least $2,500. There is no maximum amount of matching funds. So matching funds can either be donated cash, labor, materials or equipment or any combination that qualifies as matching funds. These include volunteer hours. So materials should be valued at market rate. Equipment should be based on actual rental rates and volunteer labor should be valued at $22.14 per hour per person. Now I'm going to cover the evaluation criteria. So the Community Advisory Board, after staff looks for eligible applications, receive the applications to review at a meeting that is open to the public, which we will notify the public when this meeting will be happening. The CAB, when they review the applications will look for the following areas. Community building, does the project support community building, strengthen neighborhoods, and or build relationships among residents? Project team, are volunteers and project partners a significant part of the project? Are there are there partnering organizations, individuals and or associations involved in the project? Now this is a pretty significant piece of the evaluation. The Community Improvement Grant Program is designed to support community building, social cohesion and relationships among neighborhoods. Community support, does your project have clear neighborhood and community support? If so, does the applicant demonstrate that support? So you do have to demonstrate this. This could be through letters of support. It can be through just signed, not so much a petition, but signed a list of neighbors that support the project and that would like to be involved. Also, what value does this project add to the community? The budget. Is the budget well thought out, reasonable and realistic? And also remember in the budget form, you do have to show those matching funds. And where those funds are coming from, whether they be volunteer hours, other grant funding sources, etc. Project reach. How many people in the community community will benefit from your project? Environmental consciousness. Does the project reflect environmental consciousness regarding materials, energy and conservation? And finally, accessibility.  The Community Improvement Grants can best serve the community by making each project funded through the Community Improvement Grant Program as broadly accessible as possible. This means by creating opportunities for people of all abilities and thinking expansively about how to be widely inclusive, welcoming and collaborative. All projects funded by the Community Improvement Grant Program need to meet these requirements. All right, so now I'll review the application process. So all applications submitted must include the application form, which is located on page eight of the application packet, project budget and matching funds sheet, which is located on page nine of the application packet, responses to grant application questions, no more than three double-sided pages, 12 point font, which are located on page 10 of the application packet. Grant applications must be received by the date listed in the table on page one of the application packet in order to be considered. This year, the CAB is going to be doing their program a little bit differently. Whereas in previous years, we had one deadline per year and that was it. This year, we will have three separate deadlines. The first deadline is June 30th. And then afterwards, the CAB will be reviewing those applications and selecting grantees at their July 2021 meeting. The next application deadline is September 30th. The CAB will then hold their selection, grant selection meeting in October 2021. And then finally, the third application period, all grants will be due by December 31st. And then the CAB will hold their selection meeting January 2022. Expect exceptions will not be made and late submissions will not be considered. Applications may be submitted via email, mail, or in person. This information can be found on page one and two of the application packet. Staff will review applications for eligibility and completeness. All eligible and complete applications will be distributed to the CAB for review. The Community Advisory Board votes on final approval or denial of all grants. All applicants will be notified in writing of their grant status after the CAB has voted. All right. So that concludes the application itself, the evaluation criteria and the application process. And now we will go ahead and open it up to question and answer with those who are in, who are participating in this meeting. So let us go ahead and see what we have here. Great. It looks like Leslie did post the link to the application packet. I don't see any questions so far. If you do have a question, please feel free to raise your hand and we will go ahead and unmute you. Danielle, I would love to just clarify those dates because I know you are lightning fast going over this information. It's so awesome. Danielle is such an asset to the city and to the Community Advisory Board and this grant process application process. So I know it's something new. Those of you that may have heard a little bit about the Community Improvement Grants in the past that for a couple of years, there was a neighborhood fest kind of component where neighborhoods were actually gathering an event and lots of different different people coming to that event in order to table. This year, that's not the case. COVID regulations and COVID restrictions are making it to where this is an improvement grant process. So there's no events required and also, which I think is fabulous, it's something that we're expanding the accessibility of the grant itself with it being a quarterly process. So if you're applying during this quarter, you make your application in by June 30, then you're eligible for those grants that are going to get decided in July of this year. But let's say that you have a great idea and you're just not able to get that idea off the ground, get all the information onto the application forms, get all the community support that you know that you can get. You can actually then just wait until the next quarter deadline and that next one being September 30 or you may even want to wait until the December 31 deadline. So those quarter deadlines being at the end of June at the end of September and then again at the end of December is really giving you the flexibility in order to get your grant application in when it is most appropriate for you and your neighborhood and the different organizations that you're going to be working with. So we will be actually awarding grants on a quarterly basis. So don't feel like you're getting left out and also don't ever feel like you're behind. You're right on time because there's going to be another quarterly process and application process that you can apply to. So I hope that that helps to clear it out and know that these are improvement grant projects. So whatever you might have heard in the past, go ahead, put that on a shelf. We might get back there after COVID is taken care of. But for now, we are doing community improvement grants. And so this application is what we need to look for. And this is what we need to fill out. So thank you. And also, if you're wondering like what what ideas are out there, what could I do using these funds? The community improvement grant website actually lists previous rantees and their projects on the site. So if you scroll down to the bottom, there is a list of two previous cycles, as well as actually there's three, the one from last year and then two prior to that. So take a look and see what those applicants did or are currently doing. Also another thing real quick and I see Sheila that you have your hand up. I'll get to you in just one moment that I wanted to let everyone know is that once the cab grants your award, you will have one year from that award date to complete your project. There are no extensions. And that is due to the fact that the council gives the cab money, but it also has the power to take that money away. So we want to make sure that you get your project done and get reimbursed for it. So now I'm going to go ahead and let me see Sheila. Alrighty, and then all right, if you go ahead and unmute your microphone, Sheila, you should be able to ask your question. I just wanted to put out that on my screen, it says the chat is disabled. Oh, OK. Thank you. I appreciate that. So let's see here. See if I can go ahead and get that working for everybody. Right. Hopefully. I think it's OK now. OK, perfect. Thank you. All right. With that chat enabled, that means that we might get some more questions here. I'll get folks a little time to get those keyed in and talk about one of the things that I noticed in previous grants application process is the completeness of the grant application. That's something to really hone in on. If you have questions, again, like I mentioned earlier, Daniela is such an asset here with the city and with this process of the Community Advisory Board grant program, you know, she's available to ask questions and has her email address that you can send her a question even after this presentation. So that completeness, I think another great reason why it is going to a quarterly system. If you're unable to complete all of the details of your application, it is best to get the application complete before turning it in because you don't want your application to be put to the side because it is incomplete. So and sometimes it's really simple questions. So if there is an onslaught of applications that come in to the Community Engagement Department, though they're not going to be able to chase every single empty space down. So better to get those applications complete. We do have a CAB meeting that's coming up actually next Wednesday on the 28th. And so that might be something that you that you want to come to and listen and see all the different CAB members that are there so that you know who are the people who are going to be looking at your application. I think one other thing that I wanted to go ahead and point out here as well. If you're looking for ideas for your project on page three and actually, no, it's just sorry, it's just page three of the application packet talks about more in detail what types of projects may be funded, including some focus areas. And so we always like it when the projects can be aligned with city council goals. So one of those goals happens to be fostering neighborhood partnerships and strengthening cultural assets. So again, I mentioned some ideas like a community garden, community clean up day, art projects, et cetera. The council also has some crisis response response priorities which include COVID-19 responsive recovery. So some ideas we had about that are food and our clothing distribution to some of our more vulnerable populations. Again, community garden or food pantry creations trying to get some food out to folks that might need it. Public safety priorities and reform. So really around public safety is all about disaster preparedness and getting ready for that next next crisis. If we ever have we should have it kind of used to those wildfires by now, unfortunately, but it's always a great thing to do if you want to do some disaster preparedness with your neighborhood school or community group. Organizational diversity, equity and inclusion is a big one for the council this year and for our staff here at the city. And this can be shown in so many different ways such as mural creations. We've had an applicant in the past create some really colorful crosswalks, street murals. Someone asked us about quilt making, yarn bombing, et cetera. Any any type of art project or again, like a training or some type of communities discussion around diversity, equity, inclusion. We would love to see that. And then finally, you know, we do get some applications having to do with homelessness. And we do request that those applications align with the city's goals and services for homelessness. So if you have any questions relating to that, you can either put them in the chat box or feel free to reach out to me directly as well. I'll go ahead and put my contact information in the chat box. Daniel, great information right there. I still see that we have a good number of participants here and I really would like to give you the time to ask your questions and make sure that we're not only giving you the time to ask your questions and get those answers right here, but this is being recorded. So as I mentioned in the chat earlier, this this presentation and meeting is being recorded so that it can be uploaded onto the website and of the city of Santa Rosa. And then it can be there for reference if you want to go back to it and find that little nugget of information in the meeting that you may have missed or even pass it on to someone in your group or another group that you're working with or another neighborhood that you know might be interested in the grant program. So this recording will remain available on the website. Go ahead. Oh, yep, we do have a question from Sheila. Go ahead. Go ahead and unmute yourself, Sheila. OK, we already had a preliminary planning meeting to come up with some possible projects. OK, we we are the West End neighborhood emergency prep arm. And we spend our time getting people ready for the next thing. But we realize that you can't build an integrated community unless you have a community base. Right. So a lot of our projects are related to building a stronger network within the community. And and they they're they're sort of off anything you've mentioned. So I'm not really sure if they fit, but we'll make them fit. They're all going to be COVID-19 appropriate whenever the timing is. That's critical. Yeah. But like one thing we want to do for children in the neighborhood is do a bike rally. And the intent is to have the kids decorate their helmets, have them make posters on bike safety, have the police come and do a short bicycle safety overview. And then we want to send the riders out to two parts of our neighborhood that we don't spend as much time in and ride through the streets. And of course, they'll all have adults with them and we have to have people on the sidewalks. We want to give a bike away and we want to have certificates for bike repairs to give away. Is that an appropriate event? Yes, it is. Absolutely. It's outdoor. And the likelihood. So I'm assuming you'll probably want to hold that some time, you know, in the summer or maybe even early fall. I from what I understand, the tier system that the state has will be lifted as of June 15th. However, the city still hasn't figured out, you know, its own processes for for events and what those will look like. But for a neighborhood, I think that's an excellent idea to have. You know, you'll be outside. I'm sure you'll have proper social distancing protocols, masks, etc. And I think the project that you have outlined sounds like it would fit really well with this grant program, including the bike giveaway. You can include that in your budget as well as the certificates. Just make sure to reach out to SRPD as early as possible to make make sure that they're available. And then I would also suggest including the Sonoma County and Bite Coalition in that particular event. That would be fantastic if you were able to partner with them and have them as part of your application packet, just to make it that much stronger. That's a great idea. I love it. Can I put one other out? Yes, absolutely. OK, we're going to do sidewalk music. OK, and we have a lot of young people and we're starting with the young people, but the group asked that this be extended to include adults as well. And what the concept is will be within COVID protocols, but we'll go in groups from house to house and listen to the kids play the piano, for example, through the windows and we would be outside and we'd go maybe five houses or six. And we can have a stage so there are small groups that go through. And then we'd give the musicians a certificate of appreciation and we'd end up with some place with drinks and maybe snacks. And that depends on where we are with COVID at that time. Does that sound like inappropriate? That that does. I would also maybe even suggest if you have room in your budget to maybe do some prizes for the kids. OK, rather than certificates. Yeah, you could do both certificates and prizes for them. I think that that's a great community building activity.  I guess not so much the judges, but really, you know, the ones that go, you know, door to door and listen and then hand out the prizes and such, I think that would be great. Yeah, I think that would be another excellent project. I'm thinking other people can do something like that, too. If it works for their neighborhood. Yeah. We have a third one we're working on. You want me to share it? Sure, go for it. I think this is great for people that are listening, that are trying to get ideas to you. Well, we're the West End emergency prep. And last year when we had that evacuation call, nobody could figure out where they were in terms of which neighborhood we were in our designation. So we are creating door hangers on those door hangers. We will have all that emergency information in one place. We'll have things like our designation Northwest three. It'll have which Santa Rosa Police Department beat we are in our contact. It will have all the alerts and emergency numbers and we will deliver them door to door. That's awesome. That sounds good, too. That sounds like another good one as well. OK, I won't take any more time. We have seven. We have seven. Those are great ideas. I like those. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for listening. Yeah, if anybody wants to know, happen to know that there is a national play music on the porch day. And that is on this year is on August 28th. So Sheila, you have you now are armed with that information. And it truly is a day. I think it last year it was August 20th.  I think it's beautiful to think of a piano out there as well playing through the window. So March 28th, 2021 is national play music on the porch day. All right. Are there any other questions or maybe even someone wants to share their project idea for others to hear? I see a bet. I see you're here. Thanks for joining us. All right. Well, if there are no other questions and no no other ideas that anyone would like to share, we will go ahead and wrap up the meeting again. Thank you so much for attending. And the the website for the CAB grant program is srcity.org slash CAB grants. We will again have the recording from this meeting up as soon as we can figure out how to do that. We will get there. And again, it will also be available in Spanish for our Spanish speaking community. And I will turn it over to Leslie. Do you have any final remarks? Just thank you, Dan. Now, thank you for all of your work to put this together in a very, very accessible, very efficient manner for us to share this information. Thank you for also being extremely accessible. I know your email address is right there in the chat so that people can get ahold of you with any questions that they have that are still remaining. And thanks to our participants again for doing all of the work that you do in your neighborhoods and in the community in order to bring about more cohesiveness and get folks more connected even in this time of COVID. So thank you so much for all thinking about applying for a grant. All right, you're welcome. And thank you to everybody again. We will we look forward to seeing all of your applications. And we hope you have a great evening. Bye bye tonight, everyone.


Like soldiers in a desperate battle, wildland plants and animals have to have a strategy for survival and victory. These grasses have survived the chomping and stomping of millions of buffalo and other grazing animals for thousands of years, mostly by lying low, spreading out, and being very frugal with water. Some of their companions prosper in arid conditions by wearing a thick waxy coat to hold the water in and by arming themselves with bayonets. Ouch! Having small leaves or leaves that drop off during dry periods is one strategy for living in arid environments. Shallow, widespreading roots help absorb water efficiently in dry places or shallow soils. This cactus has succulent water storage tissue under its waxy coat, and it doesn't lose any water from leaves because it has turned them into skin-piercing weapons. Yow! Wyoming is a tough place to live, but hundreds of beautiful plants and animal species have adapted to survive here. I'm Gene Gayde from the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service.