We are, thank you, Dave. No problem, we're good to go. Good, okay. We are convening this public meeting of the Massachusetts Gaining Commission and because we're holding this meeting virtually, take a roll call. Good morning, Commissioner Bryan. Good morning, I am here. Good morning, Commissioner Hill. Morning, I'm here. Good morning, Commissioner Skinner. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioner Mayard. Good morning. Well, it's been an early Monday morning to start our business, a public meeting number 143, it's April 24th, and we're gonna get started. We first had some minutes that everybody had a chance to review them. Okay, Commissioner Hill. Yes, Madam Chair, I would move that the commission approved the minutes from the March 29th, 2023 agenda-setting meeting that are included in the commissioner's packet subject to any necessary corrections for typographical errors or other non-material matters. Second. Thank you. Okay, any edits or comments? Okay, Commissioner Bryan. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Commissioner Skinner. Aye. Commissioner Mayard. Aye. And I vote yes, so five, zero. All right. I wanna thank Grace, she's put together a format so that we know about our upcoming meetings, which is really helpful, including the adjudicatory hearings, just a reminder for tomorrow night, right? That we will be holding a public hearing in Everett, and I know that we'll turn to tomorrow next. I wanna also just send my appreciation to everyone for their flexibility. We needed to roll over today's meeting to tomorrow and that worked out nicely. So thank you. So for tomorrow, Grace, do you wanna walk us through the agenda? Do you have that handy? Let me one second. And yeah, since it's supposed to be tonight, I'm sorry, it's not in this packet. That's okay, it should be pretty much outlined, Karen, for your administrative update. So we'll have a minute from November 16th of 2022. We'll then go into sports wagering where we have an approval of house rules for fanatics and approval of certificate of operations for better and an NFL draft event catalog report. Then we will have the executive director annual review and setting of compensation. And from there, we'll go into a series of regulations. Would you like me to go through each regulation, Chair? Sure, thank you. So we have 205CMR 138 uniform standards of accounting procedures and internal controls, 205CMR 238 uniform standards of accounting procedures and internal controls for sports wagering, 205CMR 247 uniform standards of sports wagering, 205CMR 248 sports wagering account management and 205CMR 256.04051 sports wagering. Very advertising. Is everybody all set then with tomorrow's agenda? No need for an last minute amendment in any case, all right? Okay, with that, then I'll turn to Joe and Mills is on as well and Dave and Grace for tomorrow evening. I know that we have a couple of our commissioners who will participate remotely, but it also will be a live hearing. Mills, do you and Joe, do you wanna explain it? Sure, so we have a public hearing scheduled for six to eight PM tomorrow. We'll be over at the Everett City Hall in the city council chambers. Mills has been working with the IT folks over there to work his magic to get this to be a, our commissioners to be able to patch in remotely, but just as far as the agenda, I did ask Jackie to be there and to give us a brief presentation on the project just so people are aware of what is going on. And then essentially I would set the stage a little bit on where we are and then open it up for public comment. We have asked folks to register with us ahead of time. Through our, you know, the MGC comments, email. I'll check with Grace and others after this and see if we've gotten anybody yet. That went out late last week, that request for folks. So I think that's basically, yeah, I guess it Mills, any status on sort of technology and where we are on that? No, just to say that the team at Everett City Hall has been very helpful and they don't foresee any problems with any remote collaboration from commissioners. So thankful to the team there. So it's just some logistics in terms of parking. Yeah, I was going to ask that. But the commissioners have a direction. Maybe Grace, you can help us with that, coordinate where we would park. There is a lot right behind the city hall. It does tend to look pretty good. They used to, way back when free COVID when we would go to Everett for public safety meetings and I asked this park because I think I can make the live meeting tomorrow night. They used to range in advance and they would cone off parking for the commissioners so that you would be able to pull in and park right behind city hall. So I don't know if we can make sure that happens so that we all have a place to pull in and park. Because it will be a few team members too who will be going so. Yeah, they used to do that for us as a courtesy. That would be really helpful. Yeah, I'll check with you. And we should plan on being there like quarter of six and Mr. Maynard is in his homeland. He'll be appearing virtually. And I want to make that as easy as possible Mills. And so we can connect on that line. If it needs to be a telephone set up in the middle of the room I'm fine. The team in Everett is, I think I'm making them worry. They don't have any, they don't foresee any issues. They're equipped and ready to go. Perfect, thank you. But commissioner Maynard points out an important fact is that we have and participated by phone only remotely before COVID and that does work as well. So thank you for that reminder, Jordan. All right. We will be getting Mills and Grace and I will be getting over there about five o'clock tomorrow just to make sure everything is good to go. Okay, Grace, do we have a timing for tomorrow's meeting? Any sense? Tomorrow's meeting begins at 10 a.m. and hopefully you should be wrapped up by midday by around 1.30. Excellent. All right. So then we, yeah. So on the upcoming meeting schedule that Grace included in our notes, the adjudicatory hearing for PSI was postponed. That's what freed us up for tomorrow and allows us to go forward with what was scheduled initially for today. Just a reminder today, everyone. Crystal, do you wanna remind folks after today's agenda-setting meeting what we have scheduled? Sure. We're looking forward to a bit of a marketing training from ASG, a consultant marketing agency. We've asked to come and give us a really great overview on some particular questions and areas of interest for the MGC. So we have about two hours of that. That's the training. It's virtual. And Todd, just as a reminder, it is an official training. Can commissioners ask questions or should we hold on questions? Well, you can't deliberate, which means you can't ask questions that express an opinion about a particular topic. So if you do ask questions, you just need to be careful. Okay. So we can ask questions generally around marketing and but not specific to our work is what you're saying, but it matters before us. Right, exactly. Okay. Any questions on that commissioners for today and tomorrow? Two busy, interesting days. Okay. The next on our list is May 4th. Who's gonna say it? I anticipate it'll be Jordan. Thank you. All right. So May 4th is proving to be a busy day. Karen, administrative update. Yes, I don't have anything in particular for that day, but if any commissioners want any updates from any of the team members in the divisions, I'd be happy to coordinate that. All right. And then we'll have Bennett's. I'll set with that commissioner. Hill, I see you nodding. Yeah. Mark. Good morning. Good morning. We are set for that. This is the public safety report for Everett and surrounding communities covering the period actually pre COVID all the way to current looking at crimes, collisions and calls for service. That has been, has gone through our research review committee for a couple of rounds and it's been shared and received feedback from all the local police agencies. So we are set to have Noah Fritz present that to the commission next week. Okay. You have guests. Yes. It's justice research associates. That's right. I can make sure to get the name of the presenter to, do we get that to now? To Grace. To Grace. To Grace and always CC Trudy and then the title, that'd be great. Thank you. They're likely Grace, when we have a guest speaker like that to try to get them up front unless they want to go later in the day. Nope, they're up front. They requested that already as well. Okay, excellent. Thank you. We have then our budget review. I know that the division leaders and department leaders are meeting with, with Karen and Derek and I'm presuming Commissioner Skinner in her role as treasurer to go over budget. And last year we started to sit down together and talk about our, our budget, something that hadn't been done. I don't think at least in recent past. So Derek and Grace, you've been working on it. I presume with Karen and Commissioner Skinner are we gonna be all set on that? Yeah, we should be all set. And I'll be reaching out to all the commissioners to have an opportunity to go over that individually ahead of time as well. Excellent. Okay. We'll be doing our best Jedi mind tricks on you, Chair. Say again. We'll be doing our best Jedi mind tricks on you on the fourth. There we go. Well, I didn't quite hear you, but if Jordan says, there we go, then I'm all, I'm all set too. Okay. All right. Derek, I thought you caught her in a, I don't know what he's talking about moment right there with the Star Wars reference. May 4th. That's what it was. Jedi mind tricks. Thank you. Grace, you would do it first on that guy. Thank you. Thank you. And I didn't find here. So they got the connection. Thank you. Alrighty. Then we're moving on. Oh, fanatics. It's Bruce here. And Ulsterle, are you on crystal covering for? I don't know where Director Ben is at the moment, but for the May 4th meeting, we do, I have had several requests from the US integrity to bring forth the proposals for the six new events that will be ready prior to that meeting if we could schedule it for that meeting. So that's, Secretary Wells, you're coordinating that. It's a long meeting. Anyway, we do have a firm stop like quarter of three because GPAC follows that meeting. We do have fanatics for the certificate of operations, if that's what you were asking. Okay, that will be ready. All right. So that will be ready. Right now that's scheduled. They're ready the last now, but it seems still on. Ulsterle, you were asking about the other event requests, getting that back on the agenda. Is that correct? Except for the mayor and we rolled over the others and there's like four or five, right, Sturrell? Yeah, there's six. So I have a question about event catalog additions. The regulation, I think says any person can make a request. And so it's still just really reminded all of us. I think I had in my mind that the US integrity brought these forth. And that's actually the monitor. I'm wondering, does that reg reflect statutory requirements or does it maybe reflect other jurisdiction approaches? Because I'm wondering about the generality of that reg where anyone can bring this forward. Yeah, I think it's actually the latter. I don't believe it's in the statute. I'd have to double check that. I think we crafted that if I'm not mistaken. But yes, we have discovered and handling these matters now that it can be an interesting dynamic if it's someone other than an operator that asks for an event to be added where we don't even know if an operator would actually offer the particular way.  Why don't you weigh in? Yeah, no. So I had the same question that you did. And if it's not statutory, I don't know how everyone else feels. I'd love to have a deeper conversation about why it's so broad because it does seem strange to me to put that authority to put something in front of us for adjudication that maybe our operators don't even want. Right, right. So, we're going forward. I don't know which we address first. If we address the reg, if we adjust, maybe we take care of these six and then talk about the reg. What do you think, commissioners? How would you like to approach this? I think that's a good approach, but I would just say to Commissioner O'Brien's concern that I would think the operators would weigh in if we were going to be having a meeting beforehand if they wanted to be able to offer something or not from a citizen who may want to offer something. Right. But that's a debate. I think we should do the six since we've already rolled them over and people are waiting for us to take action on them. But certainly a discussion that should take place soon thereafter. Right. Oh, if I couldn't, I've been working with Karen and Todd and Bruce and we have crafted a form and we have addressed some of the concerns that were coming up out of the first go-around. And we're hoping that a lot of the questions, I also emailed us integrity back with several of the questions that came up earlier. So I'm hoping that the form gets a better clarity for everyone on who's the governing body, if they've been informed, if the player's associated issue has been informed, if public comment had been out and other such concerns. So we could also tweak the form if it's decided that we want to try and change the regulation to assure maybe just operators or governing bodies or their hired provide or a hired service such as US integrity would be the only ones to present. That's up to, I guess, the commissioners decisions. So. I don't think it's a good point. The red probably doesn't reflect our desire to get public comment. So at the very least, maybe we would want to tweak the bag for that reason to, I mean, to incorporate that component. Grace, how does it look to add those six items in that not looking good, huh? No, I think we would need to either bump a handful of other item items or add this to a later date. What time are we starting that day? We're scheduled to start at 10. I think that we are unlikely to wrap by three as it is before the GPAC meeting. So even if we bumped it up, I'm not sure we would have time to add in that number of events. Dr. Leith, I'll give you one second. May 8th, we right now have the independent monitor has been rescheduled for that day. We could expand that to a more fulsome public meeting commissioners. I don't know how that day looks, Trudy, for all the commissioners. May 8th, and perhaps we could either roll over something from May 4th or just, or roll, maybe roll over this item sterl to give it that fulsome discussion that sounds like it may demand. And then there were a couple of executive session matters that I'd like to explore with Todd. Perhaps those could be tacked on too if that day is open for commissioners need. How's it looking, Trudy? And so May 8th is looking pretty, I mean, we have the independent monitoring in the morning, but after that it's pretty open. For all five of us? Yes. Okay. What do you think commissioners, does that sound like a good plan? Is that okay? I see, can you show you're good? Eileen, you're good? Okay, great. Thanks, George. All right. So, Grace, I think that's the plan. And we'll work on that now, Dr. Lightman. I just wanted to let you know that I know it's jumping ahead a little bit, but for planning purposes, Paul Umbrellos asked to take the request for S growing off on the May 4th, so that will open up some time. Oh, okay, good. Thank you. Yeah. That probably gives us a little bit breather for the GPAC, but thank you for hearing and you're reminding me, I do need to go back up to all the matters because we went from fanatics to that, the events. And so thank you for getting me back on. And I hear Crystal, that will be all set with fanatics, typical operation, and then, Eileen, you wanted to bring forth the succession of oppositions and positions. Are you all set for that and what you're planning on? Yeah, that's fine, we can keep it there. We can move it to the 8th if you're crunched for time, too. Maybe we'll keep it near the end of the agenda when we post. Right, and then we can put it over, right? Okay, and then, so Paul would like more time for number eight. Do you think the 8th is enough time or should we be thinking the 16th? Paul was actually asking if he could wait till the June 1st meeting. Oh, sorry, you find this, okay. All right. And then we have the bags, is that the complete list? I believe so, I think that's ready to go. And Joe, what have we got on for a community communication today? So we have just the workforce grants, which are very similar to what you've seen in the past. In fact, they're pretty close to identical. There's a couple of little tweets to them. But actually I will not be here for that meeting, so Mary and Lily will be taking the lead on that. Do you want to appear virtually from your sailing trip? I don't believe I will have any connection whatsoever. Mills can figure out a way for you. My phone might fall overboard. Satellite phones work very well, Joe. You're leaving your work in good hands, that's good. All righty. Anything else for make work that is time sensitive? All right, it's gonna be a full day. And then for GPAC, I know Mark will, you'll be hearing it, I think, Todd, you're gonna have a piece there, that Grace, is there anyone else? Commissures will have an invite, it's a public meeting. We just can't deliberate, and you can get back to listeners. We may ask sports wagering for a presentation, but we will discuss that with you all. Right, so Grace will be working with the chair surfer on the agenda. Excellent. Okay. So May 8th has added a few more things. Cheryl, thank you for working on that, to kind of standardize the approach, especially if we keep it general, then it could be a really active work, so it'll really help us, so thank you. Mark. What do you have? If we could add the vote for the FY24 research agenda, just to follow on the heels of the GPAC advice. For May 8th? Correct. Rather than wait for the state, that would be helpful, right? Yes, it would.  Is that the idea, Mark? Correct. All right. Anything else from May 8th? Todd? Oh, you're screen lit up. Sorry. Okay. Then we're turning to next. Looks like we have an adjudicatory hearing on the 9th for a qualifier. I don't know if Loretta or Heather. Loretta, do you? I think I do. Is that legal, or is that IEB? Is it this? I'm sorry, Todd, go ahead. No, please Loretta, I didn't realize you were here. Yeah, good morning. It's a casino qualifier. I believe you have the report already. Enforcement Council, Deandra Franks, was going to handle it on behalf of the IEB. I believe it's an MGM qualifier. So we have received that report, right? And who? Yes, Mr. Christ. Yes, Mr. Christ. And who's gonna be covering? Enforcement Council, Deandra Franks. Oh, great. Yeah. Questions on that? Yeah. I do have a question. Good morning, Director Lillios. I don't recall receiving that report. I'm just just wondering if we can search for it. Yeah, I just did a search. I can't find it. So if you can just isolate it, that would be helpful. I think it comes through the legal division, right, Todd? That's right. We'll make sure you get all of the exhibits as soon as possible. But yeah, that's right. It will come from us. Sometimes it comes directly from IEB, but that would be great, Todd. Thank you. Yep, it usually depends whether the IEB is a party to the matter or not. If they're not a party, sometimes they send you the documents directly. If they are a party, it would typically come through the legal department. Oh, okay. Thank you. And I'm sorry if I missed it. I just did a search, but I can't find it, so. I did a couple of searches also. Commissioner Skinner couldn't find it. I think it's probably still on route. May 10th, we've got an agenda study meeting. Is that a 10 o'clock start? Grace or? Yep. Okay, good. Yep, 10 o'clock. Okay. Then we've got another public meeting May 16th. Have an administrative update, Karen. Oh, nothing in particular at this point. Okay. And then I don't know if we have the date. Oh, there she is. Good morning, Judy. Good morning. For that day, May 16th, we are gonna have two sets, but they're short, I promise. One from, sorry, my window just decided to freeze up on me. One from November 29th, and one from December 1st. Right, thank you, Judy. And then next on the list, I've asked Grace to re-institute as a standing item on our agenda setting and legislative updates because it's an active time. Nia kind of took that off as a standing item once we've had the resolution before us. So I see it's right now, Commissioner Hill, Grace and Todd, and it should include Commissioner Maynard too, I believe, right? Commissioner Hill. Yes. Yeah, I touch with it, yeah. So, excellent. And we would like to bring one bill before the commission for discussion on that date if possible. So that would be May 16th. That timing still works for you, Brad. Yep. Okay, excellent. And a general update, maybe on everything that's kind of out there too, might be helpful just as a reminder for all the commissioners to hear at once. If there's anything in particular, I know there's a long list of racing bills, so maybe just generally. Yep. Sure, thanks. Any questions on that, commissioners? Those of us not involved? Okay. Great. Gonna have regulations at date, Todd. I don't see anything at the moment, but if we can get back to you at the next agenda setting meeting if there's anything that would be great. And you can coordinate with Grace too. Okay, if there's, especially if something needs to be rolled over from our earlier meetings. Okay. Jordan and Dr. Lightbaum. Many Chair, just quickly. This was also on the agenda for May 4th, and I think we jumped over it. So on May 4th is meant to be the, just the initial discussion and then bring back for a vote on the 16th. Well, did I jump over it? My apologies. Yes, I did. So this would be the initial discussion will be the Commissioner Maynard and Dr. Lightbaum. And Commissioner Hill. And Commissioner Hill. So the three of you will be dealing with the delegation of authority and then just giving us the lay of the land and then on the 16th will be the vote in the finalization of that document, which really hasn't been looked at for several years, right? Alex? Yeah, that's correct. I think it was actually almost 10 years. 10 years. That's been revisited. And pre-Dr. Lightbaum. So this is good. Excellent. All right. Well, sorry about that. I missed it. All right. Okay. Then we're going to turn to Chief Delaney, who will be very well rested. So yeah, the Encore Broadway discussion, this is going to be sort of that issue of what exactly it is that we want to see in an application from Encore regarding the Easter Broadway expansion we will have heard on the public hearing this week. And then that next step is sort of getting together exactly what it is that we want from Encore to submit to us for a final review and decision on their outreach. And you and Todd and team will work out kind of the structure for that discussion, right? Yeah. And then we move on to the third part. Yeah, the third part will be the public meeting or potentially a series of public meetings, depending on how quickly or slowly things go. And to make that decision on, really it's the decision on whether to allow the expansion of the gaming establishment to this property across the street. And gentlemen, Todd, am I right that the structure for that discussion is that four factors or five factor analysis or is it a hybrid of some sort? I think it's kind of a hybrid because one of the factors, the four factor test was more or less to exclude something from the gaming establishment. In this case, where they're putting gaming across the street, it has to be part of the gaming establishment. But I think we're still using those factors to consider as part of it as well. Is that fair, Todd? Yeah, I think that's exactly right. This is slightly different than that, but it is part of the analysis, but you believe. Commissures, I don't know if you wanna just ask on process kind of questions as we're starting to... I'm looking down the road what it's gonna feel like. Commissioner... I just lost you. I couldn't hear your audio about part of that. It's doing the same thing that it's been doing. I don't know why. Okay, can you hear me now, commissioner? Yep. Yeah, for some reason it cuts out occasionally. I just thought that if you have any questions about the process going forward, if we start tomorrow and then those priorities description will come on the 16th and then we'll have that decision-making process. If there's anything you wanted to ask about, I just sort of have to have it in my head what it's gonna look like a bit. You might have more specific questions. Michelle Bryan? I may. Once we have the conversation, I can't think of one right now, but I may once we really dive into it. Yeah, yeah, so maybe that's kind of part of the 16th to sort of laying out a process for legal and Ujo and your team. Yeah. Anything else, commissioners on that? Okay. Then we've got the quarterly reports. So Plain Ridge is all set and on course so that they were all set. I did hear back from MGM a couple of their folks are not gonna be around on the 16th. So they have asked if we could defer that, they would appreciate that. So the next regular meeting isn't until June 1st, but I suppose we could put it off until then if that's okay with the question. Right, because we have, the 22nd is gonna be just strictly completing mitigation. We may end up, do we need to have another meeting in between commissioners? We may need that. I'm gonna turn to Karen. Can you just be thinking if there's anything that's gonna be coming out that would require another meeting between May 16th and June 1st that seems to be a pretty big spread? That will probably end up having something but they'll need notice. So at the very least, why don't we have them on for the June 1st unless that's just too long to offer. Well, no, I mean, it's, we're all getting close to this end of the second quarter by the time we're getting the first quarter report. So it's, but yeah, I mean, we can certainly do that. There's no deadline particularly.  Well, I can certainly do that.  So I could certainly do that. So I could check with them and see if they're available on that. Which one? That's paperwork for them. Okay. The 22nd? 22nd. Yep. Yeah, I'll check with them and see if that works. Okay. Excellent. And then it looks like we may have a lease update on that day and that would require an executive session. Karen, for some reason, we're not hearing you. Unless it's me. No, can't hear. Can't hear. I can see her. Well, Karen figures that out here. I do have something to add for the 16th. For the 16th? Yep. So the quarterly, third quarter budget update for the MGC. Tie in nicely with the licensees. So I can take MGMs 20 minutes, if that's all right with them. Well, I wondered when we were gonna get that on the list. So third quarter budget update. I can, we still can't hear you, Karen. She sent a message. Karen, it sounds crazy, but sometimes when that happens to me, if I turn my video off and turn it back on, it miraculously cures itself. That may or may not work. Reboot, reboot. Okay. So she's saying that keep the lease update and then we will just have the executive session, language for that. I think we're to that Marianne. All right. But how about now? Can you hear me now? There you are. Yes. Thank you. So the lease, is there any, and then we just added Derek's update for the third quarter budget update. Derek, your hand is still up, but that's just a let's left over, right? Or do you have another? Okay. And then Karen, is there anything else on the 16th? I'm looking here. I don't have anything. Yeah, I'm all set. I would just, Madam Chair, if I may, just amend what I said earlier. I realized I hadn't scrolled down the whole regulation list. There are a couple of regulations that I think might be ready for the 16th. So we'll get those over to Grace, but I just wanted to make sure we set some time aside and we'll confirm that at the next meeting. All right. Anything else from the team? Good morning, Bruce. Good morning. One thing that I wouldn't say will be reserved to under review, I'd like to address it, commissioners, is when we get requests for amendments to house rules, I think, Sterl, you had one, that was a really good idea. I can't remember if it was DraftKings or something. Was it an operator who came forward and it seemed to me to be, and I think I remarked publicly that it would be a best practice that we'd want all operators to adopt. So I'm wondering about how we standardized that process and whether we need to go back and consider that. Sterl and Bruce and Crystal, I don't know if you've thought about that, but I'm wondering if that's something like for the 16th or June 1st. Yeah. So I have thought of that where we, what you can do is we can always, just like the regulations, Karen can always say that they need to update their house rules and present it to the commission, to have them all if there's one operator that's doing something that we feel is great for all, that we can then request all others to change. We could write up something to where we could create a procedure for that. So Karen, I think if the sports wagering division and legal could work on that, I think that's a good plan going forward. Commissioners, did you want to weigh in? Can't remember what the update was if it was the rounding or if it was something else, but one, I think it wasn't the rounding, it was something else. It was something else, I just can't recall what it was and they had a good process. And I believe you're correct. I think it was DraftKings said something in their rules, but I can't recall what it was. Right, and it didn't pertain to a particular sport where I think the other changes were about a particular event. And it prompted me to say, oh, I think we might want to have all the numbers about it. So we might want to look retroactively and then have a process moving forward. If there's any thoughts on that, you recall that discussion, right? We've also developed the form, refined the form as to when people want to add a sport or something like that on the commission's advice as to getting input from the various agencies involved with it and so on. Yeah, so Bruce, Liam, I think we've added that topic in those outstanding six items to May. Eighth. Eight. Okay, great. All right, anything else from May 16th? Sterl, if May 16th is getting kind of busy anyway, maybe if we have another meeting, we can add the standardization of those house rules or to the opportunity first, okay? Yep, since we're speaking of that, just to let everyone know that I'm probably, the house rules always get refined by all the operators. And if they come in, if they like trickle in, do we want to also think of a procedure of what is urgent and what is not on how they could get in front of the commission a little quicker? I don't know. Oh, we're nimble. We'll do anything that they need us will accommodate that. I guess my only point was that it's a really good idea. Let's figure out how we, at the same time, we apply it across the board. Got it. I don't know if that requires a reg change or I'll leave it to you and the legal team work that out. Commissioner, I'm not hearing any objections. I think that will go forward on that. So let me get May 22nd, Joe? Yeah, we should be all set for that. I think actually Mary and Lily and I are meeting later today to go over all of our schedules and so on. I think that first meeting will be mostly transportation related, transportation planning and transportation construction. And then the subsequent one on the 28th will be public safety. Is it the 28th or is it the 30th? Let's see, one is it? Oh, excuse me, the 30th. 30th. Yeah, sorry. Okay, so May 30th will be the second and that's... Yeah, I think we'll be doing public safety primarily at that one. And then the other applications we're gonna try to fit those in at regular meetings rather than do separate meetings if time allows. Okay, all right. So then turning to, we're gonna have a agenda-study meeting on the 24th. May 30th will be the second day of the mitigation fund and then turn to June 1st, public meeting, administrative update, anything in particular to care? Did you have anything in particular to care? Yeah, I thought you heard me, no. All right. And meeting minutes, we'll have some. Oh, that's the plan, that is the plan. Thank you. Karen, I think Sterl has his hand up. Just one second, sorry. I was just taking care of my own notes. Sterl. So we do have house rules that have been submitted by Fandle that we need to fit into a meeting when we have a chance. They're very lengthy, but they are not full. It's a lot of clarity that removes a lot of language. Should we be looking at them on May 8th? I didn't know what the agenda or the time restraints were for that particular meeting. Otherwise, we've got May 16th, Grace, what do you think? I think May 16th should be okay since we're moving one of the quarterly reports and nothing else should be too, too lengthy if you can wait till the 16th, Sterl. I can. Okay. Karen? I'm sorry, I should have mentioned earlier was we have a 30 day update on the random application that we would need to schedule. As you may recall, we had the last matter was on for the 12th and we put that over and we indicated publicly that there would be an update publicly on the honor before the 30 day date. So 30 days from the 12th is May 12th. So we may wanna put something on honor before May 12th. So now we're looking at the eight and the 16th for two matters, Grace. We should meet that 30 days. How do you make for that? That would work. And that's the status report. And then for Sterl's house rules from, remind me which operator for Sterl. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Which operator for the house rules again, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry, Fandle. Fandle, thank you. So it's amendments. It is a lot of clarifications. And you're gonna look at those to see if there are any better clarifications that go across the board, right? I will. Thank you. So did you say, Grace, what you recommended? Seems like it's a long time till June 1st for them to get those amendments done. For Fandle's house rules, I think we can add it to the 16th. The 16th, I didn't quite hear you or thank you. Back to June 1st. We're gonna have racing regulations that day. That is still the active plan. They are a work in progress. There are a number of stakeholders. We haven't been able to share those with yet, which we certainly hope to do in the short term. So if we can keep that on June 1st, that'd be great. And we'll offer an update as soon as we can. So June 1st is all horse racing right now. We've got the racing regs, the application review, and that's the existing racing. That's right. And that goes hand in hand with the racing regulations themselves. So it's separate subject matters, but they're very similar. Right, they're connected. And then we have the ADW regs. And I know, I mean, you've been working with Todd on that too, or? That falls into this, I'm sorry, Commissioner O'Brien, I didn't mean to cut you up there. That falls into the same category. They're actively being put together. We do need to share those with the internal stakeholders. So hope to have them in good shape. So Commissioner O'Brien and others can have a look. So I guess we should probably figure out how solid that day is, because right now that's a full agenda. And it would clear up some good real estate that we didn't go for, but it is the season. So that'd be really helpful. I've got Mark, he's got his hand up. Yeah, hi. Just to break up the racing, if we could add the Encore Boston Farber Patreon and license plate survey report. Okay. And Derek? If we can add on June 1st, the 15th or the 19th, I don't, you know, it doesn't really matter which day is the FY24 budget initial review. And then we put it off a comment for two weeks and then we come back and do a secondary review. We usually do this around the 15th and then the 29th. However, we're adding the sports wagering budget in this year. So if it'd be helpful to put it on the 1st to give a little extra time in case the commissioners want to do some extra review, we will be ready for that. Let's put it on the 1st, right? Commissioners, that won't give plenty of time. All right, I see not enhanced. Anything else for the 1st team? We'll also have the request to ask our RHDF. That was pushed. Thank you. So a big horse racing day. Okay. And a big legal day. So thank you. Nothing else at this time. Joel, I might put a fact that you might have some spillover from the community mitigation grants, but we'll play that by ear as we go forward.  You know, we're trying to get wrapped up by, you know, early June, if we can, you know, so yeah, we'll play up by ear a little bit and see where we are. Okay. So nothing else on June 1st, we'll go for under review. Number one, we just addressed, right? I left. Yeah, that's still under review. Uncle or Broadway expansion, we're going to have the second. So the public hearing, it's kind of that's addressed. And then we've got the first, but we'll need to figure out the dates for the... Yeah, I think once we have that meeting on the 16th and talk about sort of what we want, I think that we're going to then, you know, request an application from Encore with, you know, the particular things that we're interested in and probably need to give them a little bit of time to pull that together.  And right now we've got the June 1, 15 and 29, as Derek just said. So we'll keep that in mind, Joe, too, but we might have separate sessions for it, if I get it. Yeah, I would guess that we wouldn't go any earlier than the middle of the month would be my, would be my guesstimate at this point. Okay. Compliance committee. That's still under review. Hopefully by June, I'll have more of a sense of when to bring it forward. Okay. We just took care of the patron license. Right, right. Yes, that's correct. Excellent. But now you've got the Springfield community driven research project. We are nearing the end of that with our research review committee and the researchers. I'm guessing sometime in June. I think safely to say sometime in June, but keep it under review. Okay. Mark, can you remind me what they're looking at in particular? I'm sorry, I'm forgetting. They're looking at housing impacts, primarily housing impacts, but also sort of a general sort of review from the local community around MGM Springfield, the two zip codes around MGM Springfield. Thank you. So this is on the House of Community Agreement compliance, number seven under review. We're looking at, I think Commissioner Skinner suggested that we put all three properties now, just an update, with respect to compliance on that. I'm in the process of scheduling these meetings with our licensees. You know, this is a, it's really more complex than just looking at the host community agreements. You know, those go in and around all of our other various sort of external compliance. So this could actually be a bit of a multi-step process with this. But so anyway, so still under review because I'm scheduling those meetings right now. Oh, the recognition for your donkey guilt, Dr. Leigh. Yeah, can we keep that under review still, please? Sure. And then the research agenda, we're pretty much a pig world. We all set the bat now, Mark. Yes, that's right. Okay. And then there won't be any outstanding investigative operations or... Well, we still have balleys. Balleys. Yeah, in there. And they aren't sure on their timeline. I'd heard from them last week. They're looking for a new server group. Yeah. Grace, your note was right. Balleys will be the only outstanding. So we'll keep that under review. Yes. Thank you. And then... Event catalog additions will keep that under review. And as we figure out our system, perhaps we'll, you know, maybe we'll make it a standing item on the agenda. We think it needs to be a regular item. Hopefully, yes. Hopefully, yes. Yes. Yes, ma'am. So Bruce, I'm not sure if you were with us yet when we discussed that but also would like to look at the regulation because right now the regulation might be tweaking. So that's associated with that. Great. Sorry, I missed the beginning. I was getting ready for fanatics meeting for tomorrow with them. No, no problem. Your team will update it. All right. Anything else for under review? I have a couple of items. Actually, I think it's only one item. And that's a, I think we need to revisit our mission statement now that there's an expansion of sports weight training. So stay tuned. I'm just gonna work with Cary to put together a little bit of an ad hoc group, working group to be able to come back with some recommendations. That can be quite a process. We don't want him to make it so time consuming that it's a burden, but it's really, I think a best practice to reexamine that mission statement. It's been 10 years, 11 years, right? And of course a lot has changed already. We can add that under review grace. Anything else commissioners? Yes, Cheryl. Sorry to be a pest. No, you're not a pest at all. Doing your job. I was just reviewing our last meeting notes and was the question that Bet MGM changed their language for to be active one week of the regular season to play at least one snap in the regular season, one in which you were thinking that that should be across the board or was it something else? I'll have to look at the notes. That could be one, but that I think that wasn't one I had in mind, but that could be one. Remember, that was the meeting though. Gotcha. I remember that one was sticking out to me that I really liked that change for them because that protected the consumer because a player could be active and then never step on the field. And that is unfair for someone who was wagering. So I didn't understand. I don't recall if that was it. I know that that was a topic of conversation and the mercy rule that was, that we found was brought in with, I didn't even know was updated into softball rules and the world baseball classic. I think I remember Commissioner Hill say. And we even got that clarifying statement from the constituent as well that Commissioner Hill sent out. Do you remember that was at the very top of the list, the first one? The very top was just when changing it from a penny to a dollar. The rounding. The rounding was Caesars at the top as well. Caesars just made a change from bonus bet update language, from bonus bet credit. And then they had three updates to their cycling volleyball and softball. Yeah, so that's not those two. Well, in any case, I think we all sort of saw that they're very individualized, but that's some of them, as you point out that snap might be exactly one that should be made across the board. So I think we just have to figure out that process for us commissioners so that we mark it up the right way on the agenda and decide if we're going to impose it across the board. I send out to all of the licensees when their rules have been accepted by you and changed and then for them to submit back their clean copies. I could also send to all licensees something that might have been changed at one and see if they respond by saying we would like to do that change or however you wanna try that process. And it may be a suggestion if it's not like something that's seen or if it's something urgent, we could definitely make the request by our regulation. There is language in there that you can always request an immediate change for them to send in. Well, I'm gonna make the suggestion again that the three of you in the sports wagering division work with legal and come up with a proposal and then commissioners will be able to react a little bit right now in terms of how we process and make sure that we're not slowing things down unnecessarily but also creating the best practices for Massachusetts. So Madam Chair, I did think of one other thing that I wanna put on the radar for us to talk about. A lot of the operators when we said you can't say risk-free. And so some of them have obviously been changing their language and at least one of them uses the phrasing, win or lose which kind of implies the same thing for me. But I know that that was something I had heard a couple of weeks ago. I just wanna put that on. Maybe it's even under review to get in the cycle coming up in terms of making sure we're checking some of the phrases that they're using. Do you wanna include that under legal for the regulation to revisit our reg on that and think about whether we need to expand it anyway? Well, yeah, so I think it's gonna be ever-evolving. So you take out risk-free. They obviously have to use another phrase. Some of them may come too close to the concept we didn't want them using. And so it is something I think we're gonna have to keep looking at. And that win or lose to me is something that's out there. So something we should be talking about. Commissioners reactions, because that's such an important part of our long discussions on the advertising reg. Maybe we revisit that language to see, does it require sort of our intent, right? Rather than quote, right. Well, I think the good news is that that discussion and with our other fellow regulators across country, it's really sparked a big, big conversation. So Crystal actually just pointed that out to me. She's heard guaranteed as another phrase they've been putting in when they take out risk-free. So that whole idea of do we do the intent we want rather than having to keep going back and amending a reg. Ron, can you add that to your list? I think an update, Nina, that would be great. All right. And thank you, Crystal. Crystal can probably give a lot of insights on that for us. Thank you. Anything else, commissioners? And thanks to Brad and Jordan for your work on the horse racing, really helpful. Nikisha, you'll be involved with presentation on the budget in your role as treasurer. All right, nothing else for under review? And I need a motion to adjourn. I mean, let's have a 15 minute break before we start marketing. Yeah. Move to adjourn. Thanks. Second. Thanks. Any concerns? All right, commissioner Brian. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Commissioner Skinner. Aye. Commissioner Maynard. Aye. I thought, yes, five, zero. Thank you. Thank you, the entire team, very helpful.


Hey everyone and welcome to the questioning podcast episode 3 where we look at how the process of questioning influences not only our own lives but also the lives of others in a positive way usually. And today I have a very special guest that I'm super excited about James Kavanaugh, entrepreneur and presenter. Yeah. Is that right word? Yeah. Perfect. I nailed it. Thanks for having me. I'm super excited as I said and very happy we're doing this. So there's a bunch of questions I want to ask but from what I know of your story the first big thing that or this is a really word but the first thing that kind of broke you through to all the people and the social media as far as I know it's with Snapchat. Yeah. Yeah. I got into Snapchat. I was all my friends were honest and I wasn't and I was like I'll give it a go and like I didn't really know how to use it or what to do like it was kind of a I seen people were kind of like YouTubeing or sorry using it as like a form of YouTubeing like documenting their day to day life and then I love the idea that everything expired after 24 hours and it was just you know everything disappeared and so I said I'll you know I'll give it a go and all I used to do was scare my boyfriend William I'd scare him around the house and jump out and people loved that because he gets really animated when he's scared and I just love scaring people so that's all I used to do and I remember like it was just it was people just loved it and I remember I sat up you know in Snapchat saying a Sunday by the following Sunday at like 10,000 followers 15,000 20,000 30,000 and this is just from scaring him so he always likes to remind me that he's the reason I can now do what I do and so but then besides the scaring stuff I was also just documenting my life I started to document me and William cooking at home and which led to us and starting a food business together because people were like oh we'd love to eat your food why don't you sell it on a food market and so we were almost being guided by this new path and by what our followers were telling us they wanted to see and what they wanted us to do so I definitely wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Zaptas well I would be alive that sounds really weird and but I would it wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now if it wasn't for Zaptas right it really opened up a lot of doors I from what I know of your story there was a moment because you were working like a proper good job public relations yeah and there obviously was a moment where you were like maybe it's time to let go of that and move to this direction which probably started as a hobby yeah how how was that transition um well I guess I was kind of I was working in pure advertising for like seven years at this stage six seven years and I was kind of becoming tired of it and I kind of wanted to do something new maybe a different career and just coincidentally at the same time I started to get a following on snapchat and because I was I had an audience brands then approached me and wanted to do ads and so I was starting to be offered the same amount of money that my job was paying me but for a lot less work so I was like hang on I can be like full-time me and the fact that I can kind of you know call my own hours and maybe work less means I can work more on like Corabini which is my food brand and it just freed up a lot of time you know I could do a couple of um like ads on my channel um but then that would free up a lot of time you know it would enable me to be able to set up my food brand and do that so that transition was weird it was weird for my parents as well because my parents were like what are you doing like leaving your job where you're like you know paid every month the same and you have security and you know you can you have a pension and I was like I'm leaving for Snapchat you know I have followers who will look after me they didn't understand it at all um so yeah that transition was weird just it was more weird because Snapchat was so new and no one had ever really left their well no one I knew anyway who ever left their full-time job for Snapchat following like everyone's heard of YouTubers and stuff but this Snapchat thing was weird so it was very uncertain I didn't know what was going to happen I kind of thought I would maybe like ride it out for a few months and then go back and work again in a 95 um but no I'm like four years later I'm still surviving not only surviving I presume but yeah that's kind of one of the questions I wanted to ask as well is I mentioned that one of the keywords for this podcast is questioning and I imagine there was that moment of you looking at your job and seeing so I don't as most people regular jobs I mean even that is quickly aside I know that any work is work it's like not easy it takes time and effort but still probably there was a moment where you looked and you're like if I can do something else why would I do this so so how did that questioning process look which make you eventually decide like I'm going to do it like was that process happening yeah how long I guess it happened as in when did I decide to leave my job and just like how did that process look so let's say there's someone who is in a similar position they're getting 80 fees yeah so so how is it was it a difficult process for you or how did it go it kind of I always say when people are like oh I want to leave my job I want to pursue this or I want to do that it's like it's weird it's like the universe just gives you a push and it's like there's not there's no like defining time or there's no like right time to do it you are just pushed like I was pushed out of us and into into into you know what I was doing I didn't really think about it for a long time or consider anything which is kind of how my life just goes anyway I kind of make rash decisions really quickly but it just it's weird it just felt right and I think I think that the great the best things come from like being put you're putting yourself in a vulnerable situation and being you know put in a scary situation which is no real job and you know for a while I was doing a bit of freelance pure work still because I was like trying to pay bills as well and but I find when you put yourself in a situation like that where you are vulnerable or it's a bit scary like help comes and like you attract jobs and it just comes to you in a weird way it's like um yeah I don't know if I wish you wash you but it's a bit like the universe is like helping you or something that's what I was about to say and that's my experience too in an interesting way and and I try to avoid how do you say kind of those very subtle realms or things which are hard to grasp but the kind of universe helping us I just can't get rid of it it's like it's like everything happens for a reason and like I was just in the right place at the right time like I set up snapchat as an accent like not really planned and so I believe and at the same time I was becoming sick of my job and then there was just this other door opened a really unusual door and I went in and it was great was there you mentioned your parents looking at your decision and saying like we don't understand what is this and I think we're getting to a point where if somebody says I'm a youtuber or an instagrammer say people are like okay I know what that is but especially a few years ago I think it was more to many people it was like what is this like is this a job are you serious yeah did you get a lot of that and how was it for you yeah I did and it was at this it was at the kind of there was a couple of other people like in in Ireland who were who were getting followers like big enough followers on Instagram and stuff that they were starting to do this full time starting to kind of just be themselves full time really and so there was kind of a little network of us who were all doing the same thing at the same time so it was kind of good to like be like are you still okay like are we all okay doing this together and so it was nice that there was like a community like that but yeah it was weird at the start because it was just so unusual and to explain to people and especially if you get in a taxi or something and the man is like what you do and you're like oh god I don't even know how to explain to myself what I do yeah I always lie oh I do I always say I work in advertising right because it's just yeah and then unless maybe it comes from the conversation I guess yeah exactly um because it is just a weird thing like I I you know I have a you know people who watch me every day and sometimes I do ads and that's how I make my money like it's just strange still to find it strange to grasp speaking of it I'm curious to ask because you're very well known especially in Ireland and I spent some time with your brother who's also known and so many times I stood there taking pictures for someone else of him with that person yeah and a few times we met that happened as well especially in the big event took us like so long to walk a short distance because everybody wants to stop and say hi yeah how does that feel to to have people to know me and I experienced that a little bit as well the thing is I do initially I started off with martial arts and only that part of community knows me yeah but I do get sometimes people approaching and they feel like they know me a hundred percent yeah I'm like well I guess I kind of know you because you know me yeah it's kind of an interesting dynamic so how's that for you being known and people feeling familiar to you and yeah you know the people it's um like what I do and I think being self-employed can be quite lonely even though I've a following and it's I still feel lonely at times like I'm on my own a lot of the time so when I go out and people stop me and stuff I kind of reminds me that there's people out there who watch me otherwise I'd kind of forget I think um but it's it's really nice you know that people are so I've never had a bad experience with someone it's always just been someone telling me like that they love watching my stuff and they I you know made them smile when they were feeling bad or whatever so that it's always just lovely people saying lovely things I don't know how you how yeah I don't ever get bothered by it it's it's always really lovely yeah actually now that you said it I I think I feel the same way like sometimes people are cautious like can I really say hi to you yeah absolutely it's taught yeah so and they're they're they're the ones that you know they enable me to do what I'm doing so yeah it's always so lovely to see them in real life and now that you said it too I did experience that as well where you mentioned that can become a bit lonely because I spent so much time in front of the camera especially during the last year when I travel so I not always I would be surrounded by people I know and when I came back to my country I realized I'm starting to miss like direct connections with people it feels like you're talking to the camera I'm connecting with people but it's different yeah it's uh it's nice to yeah have real connections totally yeah the real people is important too moving on one of the subjects is the food industry or I don't know whatever to call it it's a it's a whole scene I initially thought that it happened only much later the transition to putting your hands into the whole realm of food but it seems from what you're saying that that that was actually quite an early thing so can you tell a little bit about how did it happen so William he went to this cookery course called the Balimulu cookery course which is like kind of one of the best cookery skills in Europe and he had just finished again it's like the universe working in mysterious ways I was getting sick of my job I accidentally got a following he had just finished the Balimulu cookery course so he was cooking a lot at home so I was kind of filming scaring him but also filming us cooking so it was all working like together so because that was going on people were interested in in our food and wanted us to start a blog so we started sharing recipes online we started doing way more cooking stuff online then we started selling food at markets because people were like we'd like to actually eat your food then we were doing supper clubs and so we were doing like pop-up dinners and stuff and then from that it was kind of like we were doing market accidental market research because we got to know what people liked what people didn't like what people loved what people hated and then we decided we wanted to start a cafe so we haven't we haven't sat the cafe we're planning on doing it this year but we've been kind of for the past five years doing all of these events and these things and almost like practicing and getting ready to like open up and so it's it's like I said he had just finished the course so it was like very serendipitous and very like perfect timing and and then Penguin Ireland who actually published John's book as well approached me and William and said would you like to do a cookery book and so we were like oh yeah okay but that wouldn't have happened like if we hadn't built that following you know so early on and I think we would have been waiting years to get a you know a book deal and but that's the beauty of kind of all social media and and creating our own channels because you can you can kind of almost very fast build an audience if you've got something to say you know and so that's that's kind of how that happened and then we brought out the book which was a crazy it took a year to make and it was it was very surreal like we were doing or you know if two weeks of photo shoots and doing all these things that normally would take maybe 10 years to get up to the level to be able to do something like that so it's really like oh my god then we won best cookbook of the year which we were delighted about and it really didn't think we got on our first cookbook and it's not really helped and yeah it sold out kind of nearly everywhere so yeah it's a bit of mad five years but this year we hope to open up the cafe it's interesting for me because many conversations I have I noticed kind of a pattern that in the past one of the in the previous generations one of the dreams for many people was kind of the dreams which most people know what they would never go for but having a restaurant or a cafe these days especially when sometimes I do work with the kids in school like tops them and etc and these days it's all about becoming a youtuber and or the influencer but so you're kind of getting to experience both but looking at the current generation many are interested it's kind of like a dream to become for a youtuber or an instagrammer or or whatever for the younger generation but it's such a tricky question at the same time I guess it's difficult for them to imagine what it really is they just see the impact that the person has or or they feel a connection with them and I guess they want to be that person themselves but do you ever does ever someone come to you and say I want to be a social media person and what do you say to those people or yeah I do a lot of stuff in schools and someone comes say how do you become how do you get a following and it's like don't ask that question ask you know what am I passionate about what do I love doing do I love doing comedy sketches do I love you know making cool videos do I love doing makeup tutorials you know you need the passion first and then if you're really if you're good at it and you know have something to say then the following will come after that but you can't skip to the following bit first and you can't you know if people want to be famous or want to be well known what are you well known for so it's I always say to people find a passion and then if you're really good at it and blah blah blah then the following will just naturally come you know you can't there's no shortcuts I don't think you have to have something passionate about you have to be passionate about something I really liked also when you said and use the word vulnerability you mentioned it in a bit of a different context but would you say being allowing yourself to be vulnerable opening up through social media would you say that's a part of it or yeah I guess like you really are putting yourself out there to be talked about to be criticized to you know be trolled to be complimented be loved and so you kind of are look you're completely opening yourself up to people and I don't think you can really build you know like an online following if you are kind of if it's about yourself without kind of opening up your life and letting people in letting people see you mentioned what's known these days as haters and obviously I've been on the social media myself I know that it's inevitable it's unavoidable to to get someone who doesn't like you and I almost have a saying that if somebody hates you that means you're doing something wrong you know but what's your approach if somebody is showing negative emotions towards you like do you have like a specific way to deal with it or yeah and like I'd like to be like it never affects me but like you know I could get 100 nice things nice comments and then one is not nice and I'd come you know constantly the one but I just over time the time I spend being sad about something is getting smaller and smaller so like where something would bother me for hours you know maybe three years ago it just bothers me now for 10 minutes so it's like it's just something you get used to and you have to call I always think like in general we receive like 80% of love and goodness and then maybe 20% bad just as a ratio in my head that's applicable to me so it's like why pay any attention to the 20% concentrate on the 80% of love you receive from people and that goes for people who don't have a following it's like and they're just work or they're family or whatever you know we all have we all you know you know have altercations and work or you know fights with friends or something bad is said to us or you have an argument with someone online but like don't take don't pay too much attention to that 20% just look at the love you get I agree that's something I like to remind myself because as you said like especially when I'm tired on those days I tend to be more sensitive to the hating comments and as you said it gets easier and easier because you get used to it's like I've seen this negative comment a hundred times it's like it starts to become repetitive eventually yeah but there are days where I'm a bit more sensitive and I get caught of course yeah it's like I it's like anyone you know but then I keep reminding myself it's like if there's 10 things happen that are good there's a natural tendency to focus on the one thing which happened bad totally remember the good things yeah and also these people would never say anything to your face in real life it's just online so don't worry yeah try try I try not to care about it but sometimes it you know gets me especially if you're feeling hungover yeah one more thing I wanted to ask you about is probably I heard this over some conversations you and John gave together maybe you read a bit about in the book but what I overheard is that it seems like you had a kind of a I don't know what's the right term but let's say difficult teenage years yeah can you tell more about that yeah I got but I got really badly bullied in my first school and it was because I was gay and the there was a lot of homophobic people in my school the first school I went to and it really made me go inwards and it made me not want to be friends with people and it made me kind of hate school hated life because when you're that age and you're going to school if you're having a bad experience in school that's your whole life you go in at 9 a.m you leave a four and you those are the years you start building friendships and you kind of you sell these to start building an identity but when you're bullied you're suppressed and you're not able to do any of that so that was a rough few years and it took like a good few years to overcome that and become myself again and but I then was sent to boarding school and I was re I was accepted like straight away yeah and like I did I didn't um I made the decision not to hide who I was or hide my sexuality or anything like that when I went down like I remember someone was like are you gay I don't know what it is with teenagers and the obsession with like sexuality and like you know are you gay or whatever it's like what you wouldn't ask someone to be straight it's so like it's so weird to know um so yeah I remember someone asked me straight away and I was like normally I'd say no god no I'm not um but I said yeah I am and then I think once I self identified that and said that's what I was did nothing on me then right they're like oh okay you're gay yeah do you know there's nothing they can do then so then I found I became really happy and built loads of friends and la la la so yeah for the what for the first couple of years I was yeah it was terrible but it seems like it passed definitely yeah and in a way not that I can condone bullying but it I think it taught me a lot of things and it's made me I now don't stand for bullying and I try and like discourage it when I go to schools and things like that and I think it's toughened me a bit as well you know so I don't I don't um regret any in my past or whatever yeah it would have been nice to not get bullied but I think it may have added something to to who I am now you know I think I think all of these experiences make us who we are today yeah yeah I guess from what I know of yourself is it seems like it's one of your superpowers owning 100% of who you are how you are and I guess that applies to everyone but I like what you're saying that as soon as you started completely saying like it is like that like what's the big deal and yeah everybody goes along it is true the way you say superpower I think once someone is 100% themselves they are the best version of themselves and when they just are completely who they want to be there that's the time that they can do anything almost and that goes for anyone who's anything do you know what I mean like if you look at like I know someone like Conor McGregor like he's such an individual character like and he's 100% him and no one else and you know the same can be said for loads of actors and people like that and musicians and I think once you're once you own yourself you can do anything yeah that's okay to ask and obviously tell me if you can always cut and etc I'm just I'm interested to ask was it difficult for you to question and I know it's you just said yourself it's not a big deal anyway but I imagine that at that year in the teenage years it's maybe like so am I different or maybe it's like a regular question I don't know yeah but was that a difficult process for you to kind of discover yourself no I people are always like how did when did you know you were gay and it's kind of like when did you know you were straight do you know it's when I first started to be attracted to humans there were male so I denied it to myself for ages and thought it was a phase and you know because as like I think things are a bit different now but growing up like the word gay was used as an insult so it was you know if it's oh my god you're such a faggot you're so gay this is so gay we got homework today it's so gay so like when you hear something like that constantly being used in the negative why would you want to be that why would you associate want to associate with that so it's something I tried I thought I could change it I tried to make myself be attracted to girls but just didn't work and so yeah I guess when I when I first started to to be attracted to humans there were male humans so I knew straight away but I did try and suppress it and deny it I remember a good friend of mine I did like he was the first person a while ago but he was the first person who said that he's he's gay and I was like oh tell me more I was just interested to learn everything like because it was new to you yeah and I did ask that question he was like well I was like when did you first know and he's like he was looking at the paper and there was some swimmer apparently like a lot of guys live him yeah tom daly is this probably yeah and he looked at the picture and suddenly he goes like oh there's something there oh my age was he uh I think 14 or something oh right okay yeah can I ask you what was it for you or I think I was like Jesus I think I was like 12 or 13 like quite young um it's funny like gay people used to say like when they're going through like the Calvin Klein underwear they see like the torso and they're like hang on but like you know society where it it is very a heterosexual society so when you're when you're brought up you know from a very young age your aunties and uncles are like do you have a girlfriend do you you know so they're always so you're brought you're by that being pressured upon you the whole time you you constantly think you're wrong or why are different badly um so yeah it did take a while to to accept it but I knew I was yeah I remember that process was there in me as well when I actually it's it's interesting that the way it happened but some of the best friends or actually the most awesome people I had in my life started to turn out one of them is gay and another one is gay and I was like oh the best people are gay this is crazy obviously in a good way but uh but then when I started to feel like this is it's there's a lot of people that I don't know that are gay that are gay or maybe some are still questioning themselves I started to question myself and when I would talk to people initially there was what you said and that's actually the thing that happened with my the friend the first friend that we talked about that that I mentioned I he was visiting me and I was oh we're gonna go to a strip strip club I was making fun I was like oh we're gonna go to strip club and this and that and that and then one time I'm like so how's do you have a girlfriend and he's like probably he got frustrated that I keep talking about that he's like well it's difficult to have a girlfriend when you're gay and I know that that's when I started to question myself when I had that habit like like you said like most of people you're like hey so do you have a girlfriend and I suddenly realized that's in a way that's not a good question to ask yeah it's personal and some people just aren't comfortable like coming out or anything like that so yeah I think but but I mean like even that the fact that we already are seeing someone right it's better right that's don't automatically presume people are gay or hatches actually right yeah right so I keep reminding myself yeah I guess I got it actually became normal but but it's I realized it's just silly to just presume someone is into women yeah or vice versa but also like you know it's about context you didn't mean any harm yeah of course you're not you're not calling someone a faggot like you know like bullies would call it hot did call me in the past so you're not coming out from a bad place one of the questions is also about you mentioned you go to schools you meet children and are there do you get often reached out to by teenagers who are maybe struggling with the question then how's that a loss like I and it's kind of like I feel I don't feel like I'm equipped and often to like help someone and I feel a bit like oh I don't know like sometimes like 14 15 year olds girls and guys would mess with me saying I'm struggling with my sexual value my parents are like my parents suspect I'm gay and I don't think they're happy and you know I feel a bit of a bit of a weight when that one you know people mail me and I often I'm wondering am I giving the right advice or whatever but I just try and like I get back to anyone who asked me kind of questions like that and just try and help them as much as I can but I always say you know you need to kind of surround yourself with like nice people and try and look for the one friend even you know who you can talk to it's grand like messaging someone online and so I think a real-life connection and trying to like just identify a friend in your group who you could maybe talk to or tell how you're feeling or whatever even if it's about your mental health or your sexuality or whatever I think yeah so I always try and try and tell someone like that if they mess with me online it's like I give them a little advice maybe how to come out or how to deal with the come to terms with who they are but always try and like talk to a real-life person sounds like a good advice I guess when I look it seems like the world is changing in a good way at least that's my impression like even in movies and TV shows it's almost like I do think sometimes that maybe it's calculated like in every TV show these days there's and I love that it is there but it's like there's one single gay couple yeah it's cool but also I guess I presume they're just calculating and thinking like okay we'll get more audience or whatever yeah but part of me is also happy because it's not like oh look it's like this is something unusual it's but it's these days it's more like it's just part of the narrative it's becoming more and more there's nothing unusual about this yeah well it's representation that's what it is and I guess TV shows and stuff like that are just really reflecting actual society do you know when you're growing up like TV is so white it's so heterosexual it's like whereas that's not really society so I think it's it's more actually reflective of how we are as as the world today so do you personally feel that progression that it's there's no more is that questioning disappearing of so is this okay is this not okay or does that still come up quite often what is that also that guy sorry I mean like I think in the past you mentioned like gay would be a word yeah a negative word these days it seems more and more that it's like in the past or in the past or oh look they're holding hands yeah this is strange or used to be the same with even races in my country because it's small country post-soviet and when I was little if you would see a black person you're like oh look it's a black person they're not in a negative way but you're just like this is strange and now it's like who cares yeah it's normal there's nothing about it yeah is do you feel like the world is reaching that I think certain parts of the world are there's still certain parts of the world you can be killed if you're gay or you know put in prison but Ireland is very progressive it's becoming you know we had the marriage referendum and it won by like a landslide I think so it's it's a nice place to be I think as I was saying the certain parts of the world where you can be locked up if you're gay or and and it's the same with like women's rights and stuff like that there's so many parts of the world that are like almost regressing as well like if you there's certain laws being passed now in in in Donald Trump's America that you know it's winding back the clock and you know there's there now you know there's religious freedom acts that are is anything but religious freedom but that allows people just to discriminate against LGBT people or like hiring LGBT people so there's it's weird to see and like if you look at the Supreme Court in America that's all now Republican conservative type people and they're trying to wind they're trying to restrict say choices on women who want abortions they're they're trying to restrict all those choices so yeah it's it's funny to see certain parts of the world that have gotten so far another winding back and it's yeah so Ireland is quite progressive and it's a quite nice place to be if you are LGBT or whatever but yeah we had the marriage referendum won by landslide then we had the referendum for abortion that got passed and now women can choose what they want to do with their bodies so there's loads of things like that that's been happening that's really Ireland is such a tiny country but it's like a beacon of progression I think at the moment yeah it's a nice place to be yeah very happy UK is similar or UK is similar yeah yeah it will be they they they have free choice and then they have marriage equality yeah I know sorry I know that Ireland and UK I got into trouble sometimes when I compare the countries but there's so much similarities like there are yes I was just thinking also too I was in Leeds many times because my brother lived there it's not a known city but and also a friend of mine from Birmingham and he was speaking highly of that it's there's a lot of gay bars and everything so I was wondering whether it's similar that UK and Ireland are kind of progressive so that's cool yeah one of the things which I consider that like a harmful thought or that I bumped into is where people think it's a choice do you think that's that idea I mean is that do you think that's like a lack of education or yeah I think I think maybe it is a lack of education but it's like when I was younger why would I choose to be something that people hate you know I would if I could have chosen glad I didn't because I'm happy with who I am now but I would have chosen to be straight if I couldn't yeah with easier way easier why would you choose this like hard life so yeah yeah I yeah it's definitely a choice yeah of course but is there are there any stereotypes that you're you still get upset about where people like I guess that is kind of a stereotype an old stereotype like it's a choice which is silly it's not but are there any stereotypes that frustrate you or do you know I'm quite lucky in that I don't really come up against a lot of homophobia anymore or a lot of kind of people trying to say something bad about gay people so I don't really have any you know this isn't that noisy really it's nice yeah but I mean if you asked me and you know another gay guy and maybe Chechnya or certain parts of Russia where you know people are being killed over there for being gay at the moment it would be very different and but I'm just I'm very lucky I think to be here in Ireland yeah um last question out of that realm again I'm curious person yeah ask me anything thank you worldwide in the LBGTQ yeah we're the whole alphabet right I know ABCDEFG I keep like the world level are you being sometimes invited to represent some of it or do you connect with the worldwide scene of that movement or how is that yeah like I'd be asked sometimes to come to schools and do talks and and like that's where I really kind of can see change happening like schools now like are doing like projects on like LGBT you know they're doing LGBT inclusive week where they do projects on well-known gay people or activists or whatever would you say that's Ireland or even outside of Ireland I would say I like because you know online you can see what's happening in the in the world you can I kind of see certain parts of America are doing it or um there are you know definitely the UK is quite similar so they're they're doing it there as well but um from going to schools you really get a flavor of um of the of of what's going on at the acceptance levels as well as it's getting really high almost yes it's nice and and sometimes so you occasionally are invited to talk about that and yeah and and just I guess show that like there's other gays and they're fine and they're they're you know because I think maybe like a little first year seeing you know some like me 30 come into the school and do a talk it's kind of like oh there's life after being bullied you know I mean yeah yeah I think with any local beer whether racism or anything I like I used to kind of have this joke per se where any racist doesn't know personally any person of the other race yeah don't know anyone if they would know like even I almost I almost don't want to say on record but yeah of course so strange thing about my dad he would sometimes in the past he would make some racist jokes and I would be like the whole family me my brother and my mom would be like yeah why are you doing this but the thing is what I discovered was funny and interesting was that he wasn't really racist but he would he probably picked it up from the older generation exactly yeah but then but then sometimes he'd be like oh Louis Armstrong such a good singer like dad he's you know he's black like and you're like why would you go against but like oh no he's different I'm like what do you mean like how can he be different I know yeah and and eventually a funny point came where like for example his brother's daughter so my cousin it got married to a black person and then the more it went it just became harder and harder for him to make any racist jokes because it's like well he's surrounded by these people and he sees like there's nothing to really joke about so I guess that exposure is yeah a lot of it's just ignorance and it's people just you know homophobia and racism and all that it does stem from ignorance and and sometimes you know innocent ignorance as well and you know true you know so but luckily now as I said on tv there's more representation so people are being opened up to loads of different types of people so that's why it's important I think in in soap operas or movies or whatever to have you know gay people or trans people or people of color and as many different types of people so people can get used to it because they exist I remember years ago I lived in Switzerland and again it's like 10 years ago so it was still a bit of a different time and for me I just started traveling seeing other cultures races and and I saw small kids of various races growing together because it was like a beacon for a lot of different cultures coming in that particular city and and what it was interesting for me is to see that for them there was no difference for their whatever skin color it's like they didn't see a difference and I looked at thought that's so cool you know I wish I had that yeah growing up and then and then you're you don't question whether different races are different you question like why would anyone be weird out about someone being a different race yeah so yeah I think that yeah it is nice and slowly coming to a wrap up of everything so would you say the cafe is the next big thing for you and in your personal life in your career or is there anything else that you're excited about I think our brand Corabini is like the next big thing and that kind of encapsulates a lot of things I think like I'd like to have a cafe I'd like to also have a Corabini home where it's range and like a home range like candles and like okay and pots and pans and linens and stuff like that so I'd love it a kind of home where range and cat so noisy and and I'd like to have like some maybe products like Corabini food products sold in supermarkets so there's we have lots of ideas what we want to do with it but at the moment we're trying to look for like a premises so we can have a headquarters you know somewhere to operate from because at the moment it's just from our house or you know we do food demos or we don't we're a bit homeless at the moment in terms of our business you know we need somewhere to base ourselves so that's the next the next thing is finding a place and do you consider sometimes that that's kind of a okay actually two more questions yeah yeah yeah probably they're not too long yeah so one is five years ahead do you do that thing where you're like that's how I envision myself five years ahead or I wish I did that because I think it's helpful to do that but like five years ago I couldn't I couldn't have told you like the stuff I've gotten up to to know that right now but I think now that like because you know beforehand I was working for other companies I was working for you know I was working in different jobs and I felt like I was always working for someone else now I'm working for me and I feel like now I'm at a place where I can kind of actually plan my life I don't think you can kind of plan your life you know when you're in your early 20s but I feel like now I can actually maybe put a five year plan in place so you don't have that vision of five in five years I imagine myself doing this now I do in five years I imagine me having a cafe and I'd like to live down the country near the sea and I'd like to have chickens and like I have like a farmhouse that's my dream actually that reminds me of you went through that school of cooking balimelu so you went to the same school yeah right and how if we can quickly touch that such a yeah how is that because I think if this is for the record I think you're we spoke with your mother where she mentioned that you were not like necessarily into cooking before that like yeah like like you were it was like your thing where you're like oh this is completely no I was obsessed with food and eating and I knew what I knew the kind of business side of food but not necessarily the cooking so but I was like hang on I actually want to know how how the cooking side of stuff works so I went down and I fell in love with it and I almost like because what I was doing I was so busy before I went down with like jump around like hosting things presenting things I was working on a tv show Ireland's Got Talent I was doing loads of random stuff so it's been all over the place and then I went down it was three months in the middle of the countryside in the middle of nowhere and you just spent all day cooking and you're surrounded by a farm animals and it was like you just hear the birds you live in a little cottage for three months so it was almost like a a retreat you know it was like it was like I went on holiday for three months so it was gorgeous like did that inspire you to consider in five years be a little bit that's what I want yeah kind of give me a bit of a flavor for actually I don't want to live in a city I want to live in the country yeah and the very last question I think it's a nice question to ask anyone especially who has achieved some of their dreams and went down some some path so that question is if you would give advice to your younger self 10 15 years back what would that advice be from your adult self to your young self I would I would I wish I was myself sooner you know I'd tell myself to own you much sooner because I feel like I'd be even better now to know if I got to be myself from age 13 instead of having to wait till I was about 17 to be happy and to be myself so I would have just said fuck everyone who hates you and just be you like way quicker yeah and if anybody wants to find information about you in case they let's say that's the first time we're looking at and hearing you so where should you I'd say look on my Instagram that's where I put everything like I put stories up every single day and it's James Allen Kavana yeah well thank you so much great to talk to you yeah thank you