Military systems are growing in complexity and include more and more electronic components. Army researchers are on the hunt to mitigate the effects of that heat. Discovering thermal management solutions will help deliver efficient and effective tools for the soldier of tomorrow. Hi, I'm Dr. Phil Percanti, the Director of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Commands, Army Research Laboratory. Welcome to ARL, What We Learned Today. In this podcast, we have a conversation with Army scientists and engineers who are intimately involved in the discovery, innovation, and transition of science and technology that will modernize the United States Army. Today, we are going to talk with Dr. Lauren Bowler. Lauren leads the thermal and packaging research programs as part of the Advanced Power Electronics Group at our Adelphi Laboratory Center in Maryland. Lauren, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. It's really nice that you're here. I understand that you're working in thermal and packaging research. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Sure. So Army is moving into more electrified forces. In general, all of our systems are becoming more electrified. Our vehicles are becoming more electrified. Our weapons are becoming more electrified. And as part of that, you have to build the thermal and packaging solutions to be able to leverage these new technologies. So what does it mean to be electrified? Is that like going from an acoustic guitar to an electric guitar? It kind of is. But in weapons, for instance, we used to have weapons that were based on mechanical systems. And now we're moving into electric weapons, for instance, with directed energy weapons, as well as our vehicles. We're moving away from motors and into electric drivetrains. So what's happening in the commercial world is also happening in the military. We're moving into more electrified systems. So that means a lot of batteries on platforms, right? It does mean a lot of batteries on platforms. Does it mean a lot of heat, too? It does mean a lot of heat. So how do you get the heat out? So there's a number of ways to get the heat out. There's ways heat sinking. It's primarily, if it's a high power electronic system, you put a liquid cooled flow loop. So on vehicles, for instance, we have a water ethylene glycol, a 50-50 WAG loop, that cools most of our electronics that goes through the vehicle. So that's like antifreeze. And so we use that to cool most of our electronics in the high power range. You can also air cool, but at certain power densities, air cooling becomes unrealistic to think that you can cool it using air. But in general, every electronics are actually air cooled. At some point, that WAG loop does need to reject to the air cooled environment. So the way I think about it is you have to cool because you're generating heat. The heat is being generated by inefficiencies in something, either the electronics or some other part of the system, right? Yes. So do you think about this from a system perspective? So you have to, when you think about getting heat out, could you trade off, say, more efficient electronics? Yes. I think it has to be a combination. I think it has to be a systems of systems approach. When it comes down to it, the devices are the only actual functioning component. You have the devices and then after that you have your packaging and then your heat sink and then that when you have your entire flow loop and your radiator, and all of that is supporting technology to the devices. So more efficient devices can alleviate the amount of heat and the amount of system that you need designing for application, reducing overt design and designing for the application. It has to be a systems of systems approach. Whereas if you do something here to make your packaging more efficient or your thermal management more efficient, it can change the entire system. So, Lauren, how long have you been at ARL? I started at ARL in 2005. 2005 as a PhD? I was an undergrad and then I worked here during my master's and my PhD. So the Army paid you to go to school? Yes. So that is one of the really cool things about coming to work for the United States government and particularly the United States Army because we will pay for our staff not necessarily to get degrees but to improve their ability to do work through formal education. So the more educated you are, the more knowledge you have with regard to your discipline, the better off the Army is. So we think that's a great investment in people. Yeah, and it's great to have when I'm working on my PhD project, to have a nice application with the soldier and the military be able to work towards benefiting the soldier in my technology that I'm working on as a PhD student. So where did you go to school? I went to University of Maryland. Oh, right next door. Yes, it was convenient. Yes, how nice. Yes. And what did you study there? Mechanical engineering. Okay, so now I get it. So your degrees in thermodynamics or something else? I actually started more as a packaging engineer building electronics and I started one of my PhD advisor had a program through the Army Research Laboratory and I was doing package reliability as part of that research and I realized that I never actually built electronics. So I started here as an intern over the summer to be able to get a hands-on. We have an electronics packaging laboratory here and so I started working there to be able to actually physically build the electronics packaging. And then from that you quickly realized that it's the thermal management that what's limiting most of the technologies and so then I transitioned and became part of the thermal sciences and engineering team here. So is there a particular curriculum in Maryland for thermal sciences? You can do, not necessarily, you can do a thermal track in a master's degree. Certainly take classes related to thermal and packaging as well. They have a very strong packaging group as well, especially in the master's degrees and PhD, but not necessarily. So of all the things you could have studied, why this? Why packaging? In some ways I fell into it, in some ways you start to realize, for me it's most interesting because it's multidisciplinary. It brings all the disciplines together. To build an electronics module you need electrical engineers and thermal engineers and mechanical engineers and reliability engineers and materials engineers and everybody needs to come together to be able to, physicists. It's really one of those truly multidisciplinary areas of research. You have to understand them. If you want to really make an impact you need to understand these other domains and how they start to play a role with each other because a better thermal management solution is only going to get you so far. You need a better package. You need a better thermal management solution. You need a better device. You need a better control circuitry. All of this needs to come together to really make an impact on the electronics.  It's kind of a systems-to-systems thing. It is, and it's multidisciplinary. And I think that if you want to make real impact, for example, you can make a better heat sink, but you can make a better package. You can make a better circuit. But it's really about tying all those better circuits, better packaging, better heat sinks together to really create true impact and really revolutionary design. That's really insightful. And we talk about multidisciplinary research all the time. It really is the norm rather than the exception for the future, I think. I agree. You're out in front. Yes. And I sort of fell into an electrical group here. I primarily work with a lot of electrical engineers. And so that's helped me see this bigger picture perspective by working here in that multidisciplinary group. I don't think necessarily when you think about packaging and thermal management, I mean, this is a problem that's pervasive in all electronics. You think about servers and cloud computing. I mean, there's an enormous heat problem there. So I would imagine that many of the major companies, particularly the large electronics firms, all have a group who are focused on thermal management to some degree or another. What do you think is unique about what you do for the Army? Like, why couldn't we go somewhere else to get what you do? So what we do that's unique is we have a program focused on co-engineering co-design, which is putting these electrical, thermal, mechanical systems together. And a lot of bigger companies, it's very a siloed approach to design where you can create a better, I guess I said this earlier, but you can create a better heat sink. You can create a better circuit. But really what we're doing that's different is pulling these different technologies together. And we're developing another area that we're really big on is developing the design tools that can then tell you where the most appropriate ways are to improve the design. So if you're understanding huge design spaces, you want to be able to say, this will lower my inductance. It'll improve my performance. It'll reduce my temperature. It'll create X percentage reduction in size and weight. You need design tools to be able to do that. And so that's an area that we're making a lot of progress in here is developing tools to be able to do quick parametric studies that can handle tens of millions of simulations very, very quickly. We like to think that we are speaking a language that everybody understands. But when you use the words parametric studies, I'm not so sure everybody knows what that means. Okay. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what a parametric study is and how you do your modeling and simulation? Sure. So if you have, I guess this initial program started seven or eight years ago and somebody came to me and they said, I wanted you to do some thermal design. And I said, okay, what's your devices? And they said, we don't know yet. And I said, what are your materials? And they said, we don't know yet. And I said, what are your dimensions? And they said, we don't know yet. And so when you're starting very early in the design process and you want to understand the entire design space, but you don't have any constraints, that's your parametric space. It's all of these design constraints coming together. All the materials you're considering, all the geometries you're considering. And if you want to look into across a parametric space where you're not just looking into thermal, but then you're also looking into the materials and the inductance of different loops can create different higher inductances can lead to lower switching frequencies. And so you have issues across these multiple domains. And so we want to look at this entire parametric space and understand how every design decision that we make and then ideally the idea would be to optimize, figure out what our sensitive parameters are, the ones that'll make the biggest influence on the design and then also the insensitive parameters. Moving into this technology isn't really going to buy us anything because at that point you've sort of saturated your performance benefits. And so we don't want to look into those technologies. And so we want to understand this entire design and parametric space. Gotcha. So I think you mentioned it earlier, the need to do thermal management for high-energy laser systems. So the Army is looking very hard at whether or not high-energy lasers should be on the battlefield and what capabilities the Army might bring to the future. I think the high-energy laser may show up on the battlefield at some point. The question is how much power is going to be in a laser? How large the platform will be and whether or not the Army can take full advantage of the capabilities that a weapon like a high-energy laser may have should the United States ever get into a long protracted war? As we know here, lasers are particularly inefficient. The more you try to get out of them from an optical power perspective, the more electrical power you have to put in. And I think it's that inefficiency that creates this enormous heat control that you have to contend with. So my question for you is, given everything you've learned today, what do you think we can say about thermal management for high-energy lasers? So directed energy weapons are interesting because they have a thermal magazine. What is a thermal magazine? A thermal magazine is how long you can shoot and the amount of energy that you can shoot. The time on target is strictly dependent on your ability to remove the heat from the system. It's not based on the number of bullets you can put into a gun or it's strictly a thermal limit.  Because things will melt or because the beam will lose its optical quality and won't be able to focus or all the above? So the laser diodes are extremely temperature dependent, which means at this point there are programs looking into temperature-stabilized, higher-temperature diodes. Right now the diodes operate at very low temperatures and any deviation from that temperature causes inefficiency in the output wavelength. And so when you deviate outside of that designed wavelength, you lose system inefficiencies. Wavelength is the color of the light, so to speak. And so the entire system is usually designed on these laser diodes outputting a given wavelength. And so when you deviate from that given wavelength, your entire system, because at that point now you have your optics where you have an array of a lot of these laser diodes that are assembled together, each one of them outputting a certain amount of energy and then you coalesce all of these individual wavelengths together to create beams. And at that point if you deviate and any one of them isn't outputting it because it's not operating at the temperature you've designed for, you can start getting system inefficiencies. And they are at this point still very inefficient. You're talking 100 kilowatt system that's only 30% efficient. There's a lot of heat that's being generated. There's a lot of heat that's being generated and there's a lot of electrical power that needs to go in. Exactly. So there's power electronics and thermal management and it's a very unique challenge because it is a very transient problem. You think of a lot of vehicles for instance and even a lot of directed energy weapons. These days are designed with a constant flow rate going through the system. A constant flow rate of cooling? Exactly. If you're looking into a directed energy weapon it's not shooting 100% of the time. It has a certain upper limit of which you can design for and at that point there's a reload or a reset that can happen and designing thermal and packaging and electronics related to this very transient nature of the directed energy weapons is where real system improvements can be made. So what do you think? The research you're doing, what have we learned? Let's say lasers stay as efficient as they are. We don't make any improvements. What can we do from a packaging and cooling point of view? So one of our programs is looking into putting metallic phase change materials directly in contact with the laser diode. So what's a phase change material? A phase change material is a material that changes phase. We're focused on solid to liquid phase change. Now we're looking at metallics and so if you think about it when you change state you can absorb a huge amount of energy and a glass of ice water for instance as that ice melts in that glass that glass of ice water is always at zero degrees until that ice fully melts at which point then it'll start to rise in temperature again. And so we're doing the same thing in our electronics. We're putting a metallic phase change material that has a given melt temperature based on our application and as you heat it up that can absorb a huge amount of energy and stabilize the temperature through the entire pulse and then at which point at the end of the pulse you can resolidify the material. So it's a real disruption because it will increase the thermal magazine? So it can do a number of things. You can either have less number of diodes in the system. You can reduce the amount of cooling you have. You can put more power into each diode. There's a number of ways that once you start saving energy you can make a smaller system or you can make a same size system with more power or you can reduce the cooling on the electronics. There's a number of different ways and once you start to improve this you can start doing swap analysis or system size, weight and performance analysis to figure out where you want the benefit to be. And how far away do you think we are before we see metallic phase change thermal management system in the field? I think with the right interest it could be seen within five years. There's a lot of technical complexities at this point. Material compatibility is a challenge. Long-term reliability is a challenge. Material selection is a challenge. Even in terms of how to properly design these because they are very system dependent application dependent you have to make sure that you properly design them based on the system. So one size fits all solution isn't going to work. So the proper design tools associated with understanding how these affect the system is very important. You're in an area of science that fundamentally if you don't make improvements in I don't believe you'll see the real disruption in high energy or directed energy weapons nor actually do I think you'll see improvements in quantum information science at least quantum computing at a very small scale or artificial intelligence at the cloud based or server level where all three of those technologies can generate quite a bit of heat and if it's not managed properly we'll never get into the form factor that the army is looking for for the future. So while in description it might sound a little mundane to talk about thermal packaging it's really very exciting and totally useful for an army to think about these things. I agree it's a really cross cutting technology it's not necessarily tied to any one application what we're developing for directed energy weapons we have similar programs for power electronics as we move to more electrified vehicles. Not to mention the electrified vehicles. And so as you move into these more electrified systems thermal and packaging is a very crucial portion of every one of these technologies and so being able to leverage advanced technologies and there's a lot of system benefits and we've showed some of our programs have looked into replacing standard electronics modules with these really high performing packages to get 40 times higher power density. So that's a way to but you know individual technology by itself is when you start integrating these multiple technologies is when you can start seeing system improvements. Well thanks it's really interesting and I really appreciate your passion for this area because it's very very important for the future. Well thanks for joining us for ARL what we learned today in upcoming episodes we'll continue the discussion about the disruptive research that will fundamentally change the army of the future and make American soldiers stronger and safer. Please consider liking and subscribing. As always science is a journey of discovery and we're glad you're along for the ride. For the Army Research Lab I'm Dr. Phil Percontin.


What's going on guys got Kyle here with laden sports cards, and we are ripping one box of 2022 2023 Bowman inception University This one is for Matthias S Good luck, sir. Let's see what we got. Let's see your redemption That's what we're hunting here. I haven't seen any wimby base. Do they have wimby base? Yeah, that's not right. Weird people to ask I guess Girl interesting First up we have green to 299 and that's sweet Green to 299 of Seth tremble dude. He might be Chris. It's a it's a day of the week. So he might be going yard 299 tremble check this one out. We got duel auto number to 50.  There may be a glove there for bow nix That is sick Very nice Caleb Williams there. He might get a second Heisman coming up this year very nice duel We'll bag that for you. Congrats Matthias and behind that we have Bruce Thornton out of Ohio State first bowman auto Hey, no problem Matthias. No problem sir.  That's a sick one for you. Thank you so much We'll get them right out to you


Assalamu alaikum peace be upon you our respected viewers and welcome to the beliefs of Islam This is Hassan Hadi in today's episode. We will talk of miracles as evidence of prophetic claims No logically accepting any proclamation fundamentally requires proof The connection between the proclamation and the proof must be so reliable that the confidence is the reliability of the proclamation Isn't the soluble from the evidence provided a prophet proclaims or presentation from Allah the Exalted There is no way of proving this proclamation except from the confirmation from Allah the Almighty Thus a miracle is a practical confirmation from Allah for his proclamation as a prophet a Miracle takes place without a material cause with a will that encompasses the causes and effect The cause in the first place determines the effect and the effect in the second place except determining from the cause Which is nothing but the will of Allah the Exalted When a miracle takes place here with the proclamation of a prophet Then it gives certainty that Allah the Exalted performed in the miracle for its confirmation The best definition now which we can give for a miracle is that which exists out with the productive capacity of human beings When someone proclaimed to be a prophet and it was rationally possible to confirm this if he showed a miracle It would be a convincing proof to verify his claim However, if he was not truthful then the occurrence of a miracle from him would be verification of a liar and a reason for misleading the people Allah is far too exalted to act by authenticating a liar and misleading the people Now Imam al-Riba alaihi salam said if one said white compulsory for them meaning the masses to know the messengers acknowledge them and submit to their obedience The reply could simply be this is due to the creation not being able to reach imperfection with what is in their interest The creator is higher than can be seen now due to their weakness and Incapability the creation cannot perceive them Thus it was a must that the infallible messenger be in between him and his creation to convey to them His commands regarding what to do and what not to do now in short if we may put this in a context He would teach them the matters and inform them of their interests and harms as they do not have the ability to understand What they need and what is in their interest or what is harmful for them on this regard if Recognizing and obeying the prophet was not compulsory upon the people then there would be no use of his coming This would mean that he has carried out a useless act Which he has not benefited news. This is not the attribute of all wise who made firm everything This is for today until we meet next episode. Thank you very much indeed and assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakat


What's up guys, it's Big Jeff here. We have T-Lines, we out here curling, we out here bowling. Me and my team, we trying to get a win today, trying to get a dub. See you guys soon. We're flying by the seat of our pants here. Never done curling. They got one cut to camp, just finished up at T-Lines. Great charm. Cole is heckin' there, but we got the curling champ here. We out.


With these mad panels we love to end with a chef because we love chefs and the chef we have today has come down from Brisbane to spend some time with us so we're very grateful. Alana Sapwell, she's plied her trade in three different countries, has been a globe trotting chef. She actually got her start in a play kitchen at the age of six. I want to know what she made and a childhood passion for cooking eventually led to apprenticeships at the River House in Nusa, Stints in Florence, Italy, in Japan. She returned to Australia and joined the team at Brisbane's Degustation Focused Urbane, worked her way up to Head Pastry Chef and then spent two years at the Sydney Seafood Destination. Everyone's talking about Saint Peter. She returned to her home state. She grew up in Gympie. She decided not to put her restaurant in Gympie. She decided to very smartly, having been to Gympie many times, to take the top spot at the kitchen at Brisbane's Ark Dining and Wine Bar at the beautiful spanking new Howard Smith Wolves. Welcome Alana. I too would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the owners of this land. There's no cookie cutter of leadership. I've always believed that it starts with looking after your people. The truth is, I need everyone in my team to be successful for us all to succeed as a whole. I've learnt that everyone has their own agendas and it's how you incorporate that into your business and values to establish a common goal. That's the leadership challenge. I've learnt more from what not to do than what to do. I settled down early.  Six months into this reality I knew I needed to get the hell out of there. So I did up my van at the time and travelled to Northern Territory with my partner to meet my best mate, who was travelling Australia at the time. When we met in Dublin, the car had broken down. Potentially I put a little bit too much time into the aesthetics of the van rather than the mechanics. We all got a job on Pasipali pearls. I was stationed in Arnhem Land, where I really started to hone some skills and leading the way. How would I get rid of my waste every day? How would I feed 30 plus men well? We started to throw our food scraps into the ocean, which would attract a bounty of fish, which I would then cook for the guys. You can't learn that kind of problem solving at school. But when it came to tropo season I had to escape the heat, searching for anywhere cold I sent my resume out to Japan and landing a job as head chef. Whilst the bosses were happy with my food and used to laugh at me communicating with my team, obviously it was an off the cuff decision and I didn't have time to even learn the language before I was in the thick of it. My manager speaking both languages was astonished that even though I was speaking to them in complete English and they were speaking back to me in complete Japanese, nothing was missed. But this is where I was hit hard with imposter syndrome. Whilst I had enough to get me through the day and get the food up, how could I properly lead this team? Not to mention, I was hitting my limitations with my food as well. I never wanted to do anything mediocre, so I took it upon myself to take a step back, treat every section as a trade itself, and dedicate a few years to every section. So when back in that position, I could give it the respect that it needed. I headed home and found myself in a high-end job and right at the time dude food came through Brisbane. Everyone was gravitating towards cooking burgers and chicken wings. Brisbane being home, instead of whinging about it, I fought back and created drinks with chefs. I gathered the influences of Brisbane's cooking scene and gave them a platform to show where they wanted to steer Brisbane's food. We'd drink, talk, eat and reimagine together. One of our events was called Wasted. We rode tripped up to the long apron in Montville. Chefs cooking the things that would normally be wasted and talks from scientists, forward-thinking farmers, foragers and one another. And the events continue still. Recently we had one here in Sydney called How I Failed Successfully. Whilst these were all issues I wanted to change, the people I involved taught me a great deal and have helped shape me and my views and how I lead today. Probably the most influential person I've learnt from was at my last job at St Peter, owner and head chef Josh. In the first night we lost our manager. The way Josh not only had to be head chef to lead the team, to change the menu every day, he then also had to take on a manager's position until we found someone. His attention to every detail was the music right, the lighting on top of everything really reinforced me that it's not all about cooking. He is a true leader. This brings me to Ark. I started Ark with a clear vision. One, I wanted to create thoughtful, delicious and confident food that people would want to eat not just on special occasions but three times a week. Two, to support farmers doing the right thing, whether it be ethically raised animals, old farming techniques or lesser used species of fish. Three, to grow a garden that can provide us with unusual ingredients but also gives us a backup plan. Working with small farmers means accepting that there will be a supply issues so always have a backup plan. Four, to create a kitchen that teaches people a solid foundation of cooking. We teach the basics how to make your own butter, break down a carcass or make charcuterie. I've always believed that there's too big a gap between being a great chef and opening up a restaurant. I wanted to provide an environment that creates a better all rounder chef which leads me to creativity. What is creativity? Creativity is thought to be a skill that you're born with but why can't it be obtainable for everybody? I believe that it can be trained and at Ark I encourage every individual from the kitchen hand up to own their own section. Constantly relook and rethink how can we make this better. Come to me with ideas and we can decide together whether we implement them and set new standards. For example I've been working a lot on pastry recently and even if I've done 90% of the work towards a new dish I'll showcase the other person who did the 10%. This builds up their confidence and ownership and who knows in two years it could be that person putting in the 90% and I do the 10%. We're all just focused on creating dishes that are aligned with Ark's values. To foster this kind of focused creativity requires growth opportunities so as a team we've decided instead of collecting $20 a week each in tips we save them and do something worthwhile for the team in particular the people that have been putting in the extra. We've recently done a chef swap with Oak Ridge in Victoria paying for all expenses for Jake to spend some time down there or Josie our vegan chef getting to work with Shannon Martinez the queen of vegan food. This is a no-brainer we have an amazing hospitality community in Australia this creates opportunity to learn from others whilst not having to change the roles and helps us retain staff. Staff shortage is a major issue in hospitality across the board. People have been moved up the ranks quickly in some cases too quickly and now we're finding that people have an unrealistic expectations of what position they should have. At Ark I wanted to start with a clean slate introducing it as a no ego kitchen but also as part of that hierarchy was not sought after. My priority is how we all work together to get the job done. I've found that by doing this natural leaders emerge and they get promoted slowly with a list of expectations to be met but still room to grow and bringing back the meaning to titles. If you're given a sous chef position that's because you are a sous chef. We hire for attitude not so much skill level because of that there's one of the best cultures at Ark that I've ever worked at and it's actually a real pleasure to go to work every day. As you can imagine it's been an ongoing slog of kerples but being surrounded by people that I trust with the mind frame that no one's too good for a job and to have been trained over numerous sections so everyone can jump in and help each other if needed. It's the collection of putting all these little things into place that translates into the mentality of pulling together to get the job done which is one of the key reasons why we have achieved what we have in the last eight months. Howard Smith Wars is a unique place with its own opportunities. We have a leadership program so all the heads of the department catch up once week and it's pretty incredible to see the range of perspectives and approaches to the same challenges we face. Everyone has their own style of leading and I gain so much from these conversations. I'm sure I'm running out of time but essentially I think leadership is a mixture. The key elements I've used enabling creativity facilitating futures being available and as cliche as it sounds it's leading by example and don't be above washing the dishes. One last thing always make staff meal a highlight it's a small gesture like many of the gestures we make as leaders. It not only gives them the energy to get the job done but it's just nice to sit all together and talk about something other than work. Thank you.


You too, man. What's up? This is week six. We are four and one but we're going into a matchup with another team That's four and one we are playing the Denver Broncos their form one right now So that's gonna be a challenge gotta play the top best of my ability But before we do that, let's upgrade our two superstar rookies Robert was also gonna upgrade. We'll see what he got. You know, Robert was that hasn't done too much I always do deep threat. Hope to get a point of speed Maybe look how much I get Robert was just got catching traffic elusiveness deep route running juke jump release Everything decent for Robert Woods probably my second receiver But we got rap and we got D long. Let's see what D long gets man D long when you got to give him the long man I think I think I like slot for here. I'm not sure because I like him to be physical I like the man to play wreck the tackle. I like that zone play wreck Man to man. I'm not really pressed on man to man I think I'm gonna go with slot just because Not only do I get zone, but I might get tackle. I might get physicality plus one hit power Plus one block said plus two man plus two zone and plus two awareness great upgrade for my man the long There he is Taylor rap. Let's see what we can get with with these guys I always pretty much like to go run support. Give me that play recognition tackle hit power I want I want to wrap to just be wrapping them up and Putting it putting his mark on the game physically tackle a plus two tackles own play record That is good. Definitely dope. And if you tell me rap is not Asian He's Asian. I don't know if he's Asian in real life, but he's damn sure Asian on the game chat Degree or disagree rap is definitely Definitely Asian in the game. We're gonna play this game right here. Let's go. We're playing. We're playing the Broncos Four and one. I believe this is a commissioner league and if you're a commissioner league, you know all the CFM glitches Man, I don't know all the CFM glitches for the most part I don't really know how I'm getting better and you guys are helping me YouTube You guys are helping me comment and below you guys are definitely Making it easier and I'm getting better as the year goes on and the better you get at the CFM You know the more the more you know about it the more you know how to operate and you know Just makes it that much easier makes it that much more fun I'm having fun making my players better and just seeing how I can improve my team People are still trying to trade for girly, but they want to trade me garbage Like the people want to trade me third round picks for girly or you know 90 speed wide receivers. I really um, I Really don't want to move girly. It's easy to play the games I've played so far I've played all kind of bums and it's easy to play those guys And realize that I don't need girly, but when I play these better players I think girly is gonna be a huge part of my team. He's gonna be a huge part of me being successful in me winning So I'm not gonna get rid of girly for anything cheap. I Was thinking girly straight up for DeAndre Hopkins. That was something I was doing around But for me DeAndre Hopkins would replace Tavon Smith mark from that rookie fella that I got I Don't know if he's that big of an upgrade for me to get rid of my superstar running back then I'm gonna have to lean on in some some tight games here And I feel pretty good. I'm really just girly. I want this guy to join the game But there he goes, but girly. I really think girly. I've been big when I won manbo I won my belt.  I think running the ball is it is bummy, but you can definitely it can definitely When you not I don't want to say when you games, but it can make these tougher games that much easier So I'm definitely probably gonna keep keep girly around honestly I'm glad y'all checked out the commentary man. I'm glad some people watched it man It is child. We are doing base rosters, but it is with the drafted players So we the Seahawks do have DK Metcalf the Arizona Cardinals have Kyler Murray. So it's definitely it's definitely pretty pretty dope That they had those guys levy on bell is on the Broncos and The girly actually has 92 speed which I mean is good He's not he's not you know super fast, but the night play 92 speed is really good for a running back So I have what I have. I think I'm pretty good with my team. Honestly, we're four and one right now We have one sim lost the guy I'm playing right now is also four and one. I don't know who he played I've never played this guy. I don't know who he is As far as I'm concerned and mad at this point if I don't know who you are and I don't know Who your name is I should win the game Pretty much that's how I feel But we'll see we'll see how things go Adot is two and four right now. He was the defending Super Bowl champion He's two and four team more getting a win. I Swear I didn't wear these jerseys, but I like them. Hey, let's get it Spin the tackle boys. What is swarm? Oh We're just gonna run a little three through five the best part is saving the um Saving the auto subs child man If you're paying attention saving the auto subs if you could do that in every game mode would be ridiculously cool It really would the fact I don't have the auto sub in the beginning of a game is really Game changing really nobody really fast to throw the ball to I'm loving that no Tyree kill No, no, nobody will get the ball. Why receivers jet the fact Josh Huff is third on the team is just really weak Um, no a fan for he's a fullback. That's why he has a man speed Man It would say levy on Bell. I'm not worried about the run we have Aaron down. Let's see how fast his DB's are Bryce Callahan 94 speed. That's that's pretty that's pretty quick. That's pretty quick but Nobody else. I'm really a worried about All right, so here we go, let's start out Sometimes I hate all the flip sometimes I like it I don't know if you guys use auto flip, but it's really a debate I got to see how someone's playing to see if I want to use it But most of the time I just want my nickel back when I were going with two tight ends early Jesus Wham action. You really just get four yards on that. Oh, man. This is just pro right here, man You be a sell already clocked out. It moves pretty quick really So raise down to 25, I believe This is almost a guy that you wish you got the ball first just so you can put some points up Good hit boy Just so you could put some points on the board Just so he can't play like this That little guy All right, that's all you got to do with a runner man.       I just got get some points on the board Just gotta get some points on the board this games. I'll get ugly TJ let's go man. Come on man Rat man. No, you don't do it rat kid Might as well take your field go here.  It's the long man the long quick snap level sales man. This kid The long man, that's that play record right there, but I said play wreck that hit power that tackle Let's try to get some we got to get some points I'm telling you the way he played that first drive to me if I get some points This is gonna get this is gonna get this is the hands are gonna start tightening around the throat I'll tell you that Cuz when when you have a lead when you have a lead You have control of a game you kind of dictate how someone has to play offense and one of the biggest things for runners Most people that run aren't good offensive players. It's just simple as that's just the fact There's you're really gonna find someone that that runs 50% or something like that.  Let's see what type of game you want to play We run over one person. I like it. I like it. I'm a threat. I got TJ green is number three Right out of 335 normal. I like that. I like playing against over G It's a little bit easier for me. Oh, we can't take a hit like that cookie You can't take a hit like that cookie. We go rival was getting busy a little bit getting a little busy Get me a little busy Gotta keep it up. Just gotta keep it up. Baby. That's Chad. They just baby Yeah, I think there is a app. I don't really know how to use the app I think I can get outside. I think I just flipped he just flipped I can still get outside Okay, we get a couple get a couple that was that was risky me trying to bounce that all the way back outside the other way I just the numbers on that side. I liked This is where I love Brandon cooks because if you guys have been watching me and Brandon cooks has been killing for me Killing, but I wish I had a bigger body right here because I want to hide ball that corner out right there I really do like badly. I want to hide ball that Everett get that first for me kid First thing gold I really should just put a backup that it's just tough to put a backup tight in there Like I want this this high ball to cook so bad. Oh my gosh really just want to teleport through somebody Is that what we're getting at? Let's put Niles ball here. Let's put Everett here Let's do that down here in the goal line. Niles ball in there ever there Yeah cup got some size to them pause, but Kind of leave over three or something. Oh man Really want to get a touchdown here really bad Robert Woods, I just boosted them. I just boosted them chat way to come down with the past right there Robert was huge play. I'm excited I mean if I was playing a good offensive player if I was playing a player I thought was really good. It wouldn't even be that exciting But the fact that's what catching that pass is going to change this game man Let's go Robert Woods, and I tell you I really feel like he's going to just kind of get out his play style here, man I'm excited about that like when you have a lead against a runner. There's not a better feeling in the world Nice catch Robert Woods, man The boosted players now it's time for one of the defensive players to make some Yeah, we're getting physical early here Bruce Let's go Peters. Talk to him. Don't care. You can have a drag on my field. You can have a drag on my field TJ that's got to be death by linebacker. I mean, this isn't the bumbiest offense in history offense. Oh Lord Jesus Boys, that's what I'm talking about. Oh This is like watching paint dry chat. It's like watching paint dry.  That's what we like.  This is just Let's go clay eat kid. You already put the GG's in the chat, man Go good catch right there Woods. Good catch. Oh man. Here we go I wanted to try to bop him. I really did but I need my timeouts I got confused right now. I wanted to hit the delay route, but it was like he was manned up Maybe there's a three record with that. Damn. That was bad sack. Fuck. That'll be come on, man This is one play man. I gotta hurry up. Just give me that cover two show Thanks for the timeout man. Make this feel a little nice and relaxed man. Nice and relaxed Can't mess it up.  Of course, I get my feel a little block. Oh, you missed it Hey, what's that mean? All right, one more. Oh, I don't need to go anywhere. I just not free.  Oh, damn it. W I can't count a box right now. I don't know what I want to do. I think I want to go for this I don't want to go out in this set though Look at that playmaker Playmaker god, huge play huge play. I would have never thrown that if it wasn't fourth down I knew I gave him a playmaker. I knew if I let it go right away and get away from his user Tavon Smith holding on to the ball good defense Tavon Smith Like I said, I didn't want to throw that but it was fourth down And I knew the playmaker would just take him off of that for a little bit This little three wreck is pissing me off right now Like I don't really have no idea what a three wreck does honestly Oh my god, how do you get all the way around me like that? What? Like what? God, I wish cooks was taller A little too close to do that post route. I didn't like it. I didn't like it A little too close to do that post route didn't really like it Girlie, I pay you to run people over man not to get tackled by the first person. Damn I'm kicking just going to scores man. Come on girlie Shit, I want to fake so bad chat so bad. I want to fake Especially because he tried to block my last one Oh, he actually tried to get me. Look he tried to bluff me down would have been salty Probably should just went braindead and spun all over the place with girly there instead of trying to truck Actually Clay Matthews is balling.     It's just it's just corny That's cuz a bilma never bought a bilma because he was using cuz because he used a custom The one year he had the fullback dive he had every glitchy like bro here fullback is cool I honestly don't it's not a life or death thing. I just it's just Part of man you get so used to knowing every formation or every play and then randomly i'm in some other shit It's just different Yes, you did when it was the seattle fullback dive man 16 1 000 bilma had a custom This customs, which is it's just corny.  They're not letting you use customs Why would you want to use customs and like I don't understand people? I don't know like I just Is this man? Come on man. That's my fault. That's bad pocket.   I couldn't run through any person right there I might could make this little really I'm not gonna get more Disney chat. I really do gotta get more Disney I couldn't lead that the corner didn't really The corner didn't really bail out like I wanted him to god I wish brainy cooks was taller. You know what? I want to get brainy cooks a shot anyway Just because he's my best player. I didn't want to get brainy cooks a try. I can't lie Oh, come on golf. You gotta get busy right there. God damn man. I really didn't want to I really I really didn't want to fit that that pass and this timing score. I could Cooks being small Pause I'm not letting this dude. I'm like, where are you going?  Yeah, that was a play right there Wrapped Oh, well, we have to break it up though Great play call right there, man Honestly, it would have worked if I didn't make them last adjustments right there.   Good job, brother Like every play. Yeah, it cooks. Yeah, it cooks Are y'all comparing me to v-tec? Is that what's going on right now? Please man v-tec is my brother Merle, but please do not compare me to v-tec man wise You know, that's where some more touchdowns man. There's now a son. We're in 5-2 All of a sudden we're random now. We're in 5-2 like good job, man.  I shoulda looked right up the middle He went cover three the last couple times he was in this though.    I just want to throw the high ball to Everett. That's all I want to do It was like oh my god Now we're back in juice close.   Definitely definitely got there, too It's just it's not that I run. It's a time and place for I'll tell you he's running cover three out of the set every time.  Yeah, I don't mind injuries. I really don't Cover three every play. I mean should I play a play for cover three? I think I just might as well shoot and stop vision God damn what is going on right now, man Oh girlie do something for the season. I like it brother. I like it Thanks for the time out. I really you really needed that time out. Thanks, buddy Thanks for the time out, buddy boy. Come on, man. You got to catch the ball. That's a dot That's a dot chat. That was a dot right there, man. Thank you, man. You catch that one Madden, man So I just didn't had all kinds of firepower to compete. I was super boxed right there I don't think injuries should be off. I don't think injuries should ever be off. I don't know It doesn't happen to me. It would suck like if Brandon Coast got hurt really Yeah, but I think injuries have to be on it's kind of corny.  You got to do it. That's why it is important to have back ups really It makes you have a little bit of that you have to have depth on your team So we really got every play in the book. I mean, but this is a playstyle the way he plays is really, you know, it's Conducing the one. Oh, let's run wham.  Love you. I'm Belle. What you shouldn't be able to but I mean, I swear I hit him a couple times Oh, man So that's five and one feeling good man. I wish I hadn't had a sim loss. It would have been verse j bird I should be six and oh sometimes they should just get like me if I'm out against a lesser opponent They should just give me the win. I don't know. Maybe I'll have to sign my contract going into season two If that should be like a j bird doesn't show up then, you know I should have to I should get a free win really But I mean like that that playstyle is conducive to keeping the game close I did not score touchdowns inside. I kicked three field goals Uh, look at table on smith huge game for me, man. Definitely balled out cooks Really didn't do much ever didn't do much but table on smith nine catches man. That's a big time From him. Uh, what did I get on defense? Matthews had a big game Marcus Peters John Johnson That's five tackles tj green seven total tackles tackle for loss. Not a bad game Red zone offense.  I want expert scouting Yeah, it should just give me the win man Oh, I could have got some of these. Oh my gosh, I didn't do the training. I did scouting boost. Jesus But anyway, that was I mean five and one. Let's see what I can do Marcus Peters gets an upgrade. He caught a pick. Let's go I like this slot. I like the slot for dbs. I'm starting like slot. I like tackle. I like Plus three tackle.    Hopefully get him to 80 speed. Who knows Dude, I do. I really didn't have to play offensive game when somebody has no ability to score the basketball You don't got to play offense I have jaybird in my who is this everett. Oh every got more love.  I have jaybird and That guy beat no nobody's no it was at the niners. I just played. I want to say it was the niners. Wasn't it? No, it was the broncos. Why did I say niners? It was the broncos I got a bombast division. They might as well just give me to give me the title So there we go. I mean that was week six. Yeah week six and five to one Let's take a look at the standings This division is run away already. I want to get a buy. That's my number one Number one, uh, I don't know why I'm six. How are the broncos ahead of me right now four and two and how do dolphins four and two But I got to beat clef and or Vilma for a buy and I don't play them So I got one of them needs to lose a game Yeah, maddie. Yeah, definitely.   He caught that one touchdown.  Yeah can't do everything for you told for no reason just Anyway, that was week six said the kid loses and then they come in here and talk about the bad things that happened to him He wouldn't win in a hundred games Not a hundred


The European Court decided on payment of compensation by Azerbaijani government for court violations. On February 23, the European Court of Human Rights announced five decisions on applications sent from Azerbaijan. Head of the monitoring group of the European Court of Human Rights, Hadid Agaliyev told Turan that the plaintiffs complained about the injustice of the courts and violation of property rights. The government must pay Rustamzad 12,000 euros for moral damages and 2,500 euros for legal costs and expenses. The European Court of Justice has also made a decision on the case of Emin Bashirli and others against Azerbaijan. According to Khalid Agaliyev, the ECHR recognized the violation of the applicants' rights and ordered the government to pay 2,700 euros to the first applicants, Emin Bashirli and Vusal Yolchev and 1,600 euros to the second applicants, Meriban Amedova and Cheyoon Aliyev. All applicants will also be paid 1,000 euros for court costs. In the case of Gubad Behramov and Rajab Imanov versus Azerbaijan, the complaint was related to the refusal to register the Centre for Public Initiatives. The court confirmed the violation of the applicant's rights to freedom of association and ordered the government to pay them 4,500 euros in compensation for moral damage and 500 euros for legal costs. In the case of Eina Imbranov and Asya Akmedov versus Azerbaijan, the European Court also found the violation of the right to freedom of association. The applicants did not make any financial claims in the case. The European Court also ruled in the case of Yassar Agazad and others against Azerbaijan, recognizing the violation of the right to freedom of association. According to the decision, the government must pay 4,500 euros of compensation to the first applicants, Rovshan Kabriely and Yassar Agazad and 2,000 euros to the second applicants, Fagan Azadov and Yassar Agazad. This must also be paid 1,000 euros for reimbursement of expenses. Yassar Agazad was one of the founders of the organization Assistance to Penitentiary Reforms. The Minister of Justice did not register the organization created in 2011 and local courts recognized the actions of the Ministry of Justice as legitimate. All these court cases were connected with the refusal to register public organizations.


Hello and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show where we bring you stories of resistance and defiance against the dictates of authoritarianism, capitalism and neoliberalism from across the globe. In today's episode, we report on protests in Rodriguez Island. We also talk about the crimes against humanity committed by Israel when it demolished a Palestinian village. And finally, we go to Peru, where a struggle against a mining project is being waged. On Monday morning, Israel started demolition of Palestinian residential buildings in the Surbahar village in the occupied East Jerusalem. According to Palestinians residing in the Wadi al-Hummas neighborhood of the village, hundreds of Israeli soldiers accompanied with bulldozers arrived in the village at dawn. The residents said that the Israel was targeting 16 residential buildings comprising of approximately 100 apartments for demolition. According to the United Nations, the demolitions would see 17 people displaced and another 350 affected. The State of Israel considers these Palestinian homes as a security risk due to their close proximity to the illegal apartheid wall, which Israel calls separation barrier. We talk to Diana Buttu, Palestinian lawyer and activist, and former legal advisor of the Palestinian Liberation Organization on these demolitions. One thing that is alarming about these demolitions is the fact that they're being done with complete impunity. So far, the US administration has given Israel complete green light to carry out these demolitions. Now, I think it's also important for people to understand why these demolitions are taking place in the first place. So this area is an area that's in East Jerusalem where about 24,000 Palestinians live in this area of East Jerusalem. This particular area where the home demolitions are taking place, Israel built its wall a little bit after 2003. And in building the wall separated Palestinian families from one another, so created an artificial line separating these Palestinian families from one another in order to build the eight meter high concrete wall. Now, the pretext for these demolitions is that Israel wants to have a buffer zone in order to protect the wall effectively, in order to protect the wall. So what they've done is that they're now demolishing any houses that are within close proximity to the wall. Now, these houses are houses that are in Palestinian-controlled areas, Palestinian authority areas. They have building permits that were issued by the Palestinian authority, but in Israel's mind, of course, that is all irrelevant. And so they're proceeding with the demolitions as well. And the precedent that it sets is that now Israel is going to be able to both demolish with impunity, which it's done for a while, but also continue to unilaterally expand the buffer zone area that's close to the wall in order to bring more and more houses within that area, within that, so to create a larger buffer zone. The village of Surbeher is located between the occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Israel has been occupying this area since 1967's Six-Day War. Under the Oslo Accords of 1993, most of the Palestinian structures situated in the Wadi ul Humus neighborhood are stipulated to be under Palestinian authority and civilian control. Last month, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favour of the military. This ruling came after a seven-year-long battle was waged against an order issued by the Israeli Defense Ministry to evacuate apartments deemed close to the upper side wall in the occupied West Bank. The court's ruling also set a deadline for the demolition of these homes to Monday, July 22. International and Palestinian organizations have condemned the demolitions as illegal under the international law amounting to crimes against humanity. For our next story, we go to the island of Rodrique in the Indian Ocean. The discovery of a treasure in a small coastal village in Rodrique by two Mauritian ecologists has given a new urgency to the debate and struggle for Rodragon independence from Mauritius. While the Environmental Commissioner of the Rodrique Regional Assembly demanded that the treasure remain in the island, the Mauritius appointed Minister of Rodrique declared that the treasure will be divided between the state of Mauritius and the ecologists who found it. In response, the people of Rodrique have risen up against what they see as another colonial loot of their resources. The Rodrique independent movement has been spearheading the resistance to the minister's declaration. On July 13, they began a sit-in with tents 400 meters away from the site of the treasure where Mauritian officers who are members of the special mobile force are stationed. In a press conference on July 13, members of the independence movement denounced the looting and demanded that the Rodragon people have control over the resources of the island calling for an end to the Mauritian occupation. They highlighted how the Mauritian government's actions with regard to the treasure are emblematic of how the government has exploited the resources of Rodrique while deliberately under-developing the island. On July 18, the movement reported that about 50 police officers from the anti-drug smuggling unit, the special mobile force and the Central Investigation Bureau arrived at the site where the movement had directed their tents and forcefully pulled down the tents. A woman and a seven-year-old child were also president of the sit-in and were forcefully pulled out. The police at the scene claimed that the orders came directly from Mauritius and that it was because the people had erected tents in a public place. The disproportionate violent repression by police shocked the population and complaints have been filed against the police brutality. With regards to the police attack on the sit-in, the Rodrique independence movement stated, the truth is that our crime is telling that we are a colonised island and that we aspire to be free. Since 15 July, thousands of farmers and inhabitants of the Tambo Valley in the Arequipa region of Peru have been mobilising in rejection of the right-wing government of President Martin Vizcarra's decision to authorise the Mexican mining company, Southern Copper Corporation, to begin the construction of the long-resisted Tia Maria Mining Project. On July 8, the Ministry of Energy and Mines granted construction license to the SEC despite strong resistance by environmentalists and inhabitants. The protesters are demanding that the government revoke the granted license considering the negative consequences that mining activities will have on the environment and agriculture. Tia Maria is a large open-pit copper mine located in the Islay province of Peru. SEC claims that it will produce 120,000 tons of high-grade copper per year for 18 years. The mine project involves an investment of $1.4 billion. The mine is located two kilometres away from the Tambo Valley, which is home to over 24,000 people who are primarily dependent on agriculture. Due to its proximity, at least 1300 hectares of agricultural land is threatened by the project. The strike is growing. The trade union of education workers of Arequipa region has expressed its solidarity and suspended all kinds of educational activities across the region. The civil workers trade union called the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers has also called on its 40-associated construction and civil workers unions to halt their activities and support the peasants. That is all that we have for you in this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. For more such stories and videos, do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Thank you for watching.


6 p.m. I see a quorum. There are 11 towns represented. I will call the December 16th, 2021 special governing board meeting of CV Fiber to order. Are there any additions or changes to the agenda? Okay. Not hearing or seeing anything. Sorry, Jeremy. I have a quick one about communications committee membership. Communications committee membership. Let me add myself a note. I guess we should also finance committee membership. All right. So we'll call it committee membership and we'll do both. It's great. Anything else? Moving along. Public comment. Is there anything folks would like to comment on that are not on items that are not on the agenda? I just wanted to profusely thank you all for the news page on the website, the newsletter, whatever we're calling it. That has really brought me up to speed on the activities of the last six months. And I was able to generate a update for the Berry City Council and the mayor as a result. So thank you most sincerely for that. It's really well done. Yeah, kudos to John Walters, Chuck, and the rest of the communications committee for doing that work. That is invaluable outreach. I will definitely second that. Anything else? Financial report, Phil? Isn't there minutes approval because we have two sets of minutes to approve? Meeting minutes approval. So what are the dates for those? I didn't have those handy when I was creating these. Motion to approve the November 9th and November 16th governing board minutes as drafted. Second. Okay, moved by Jeremy, seconded by Siobhan to approve those two meeting minutes. Any questions, comments, otherwise? Okay, not seeing any objections to adopting that motion. Okay, motion passes unanimously. Okay, anything else on meeting minutes? I don't think so. Moving along to financial report. Now, Phil. Okay, thank you. The current bank balance is $1,048,646. That's up a little bit from the last, actually 10 minutes yesterday. We've received an advance on a grant of about 700 and just over 700,000. And we just the the executive committee just approved payment of invoices totaling about $110,000. Most notably in the invoices being paid are for poll inventory in three communities. And on top of that, there's some project management fees, mapping software, legal fees for some contract negotiations, accounting services. Any questions for Phil about the finances? Jeremy, I just I have an outstanding invoice. I hope you'll forward it to Phil. Okay, I thought we had taken care of that. Phil, did you get the invoice that I sent from RD? The second batch of magnetic signs. Okay, I'll send it again if necessary. Yeah, send it directly to me if you'd like. If we have the numbers, we add that to the bills that we approve. Can we take care of that? We're not talking about a lot of money. No. What's the total, RD? Like $388. Don't worry about it. I'll send it again. Okay. Thanks, RD. Sorry that got lost in the shuffle. Well, we do have the signs. I mean, we've taken possession of the signs. I think we already approved the payments. I mean, we already approved the expenditure. I just think that the check needs to get cut. Yeah, I don't see the invoice here. So if I'll send it after the meeting. Don't worry about it. Just send it to me and it's probably been approved. I'll get it in the batch that's being cut. Got it. Jeremy? Yeah, kind of not about this. So if there's more on this, get finished that and then I had a question after. Sounds like it's up to you. Financial report is where we are. Okay. Sounds good. So I am unsure of who the phone number calling in ending in 75 is. That's me, Jeremy, RD. Okay. I just wanted to double check for the minutes. Thanks, RD. All right. Anything else about finances? Great. Thanks for that, Phil. Moving along. Clerks report. Jeremy, anything else to add that you want to report on? Nope. I am keeping up with minutes and posting stuff to the website, and that's what I've been working on. I do need to get working on organizing files a little bit better, but that is something that I don't have time to do immediately, but we'll get around to it. Sounds great. Thanks for that. But before we get into the project manager's report, which I think is going to have a fair bit of meat, can we do the committee membership conversation? So, Chuck, do you want to start? Yes. I would like to move that we add Linda Gravel to the communications committee. Okay. I think I heard RD in there first. Sorry, Siobhan. All right. Move by Chuck to add Linda to the communications committee. Any further discussion? Jeremy, I see every hand up. Is this about this, or is that still up for before? That's legacy. I'm sorry. I'll take that down. Cool. Any objections to Linda joining the communications committee? All right. Motion passes unanimously, and Linda is on the communications committee. Ray? First of all, I'd like to thank Linda for having been a member of the finance committee and as a result of her dropping and now joining the communications committee. The good news is we have a spy in the communications committee. I understand that Christopher Schenke is going to join the finance committee that was part of the agreement that was worked out between Christopher and Linda. Christopher, if I have this wrong, let me know, but move that Christopher be added to the finance committee. Second. Okay. Siobhan did get it at that time, so if I write, seconded by Siobhan. Any questions or comments about adding Christopher Schenke to the finance committee?  Is that about this, or about other committee stuff? Yeah. Yeah. Why don't you finish this bit and then get back to me? Sounds great. Okay. Any objections to appointing Christopher Schenke to the finance committee? No objections. Motion passes unanimously. Welcome to the finance committee, Christopher. Thank you for your help. Alan? Yeah. It's my understanding that Linda is on the policy committee, and I believe she wants to continue serving on the policy committee. Does anybody know if the board has approved her? She said she's never been notified or has been able to find out that she actually is a member of the policy committee. If there's nobody that can say, yes, I remember, I would move that Linda be appointed as a member to the policy committee. Second. Okay. Moved by Alan, seconded by Jeremy. I think there's not a harm in, even if it's redundant, that's fine. Any questions or concerns, comments, any objections to the motion? Okay. Motion passes unanimously. Linda is now a new member or remains a member of the policy committee, depending on reality. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Linda. Thanks, Alan. And this isn't really committee stuff, but we have someone who is not an actual governing board member. So actually, maybe I'm getting this wrong. John Walters, are you a resident of Montpelier or East Montpelier? I forget. I am a resident of East Montpelier. My mailing address is Montpelier. Okay. Maybe that's where I'm getting confused. For some reason, I thought I was going to say we need reps from Montpelier and we don't have any. Okay. Sorry. Clearing my brain. Nope, no problem at all. If I move a quarter mile, I could qualify. So you actually qualify as long as you get appointed by the city council. It doesn't really matter exactly where you live. You just have to convince them, frankly. Because we have people who do not live in Vermont who serve on the governing board, so... All right. So anything else with committee membership? Okay. Moving right along, project manager's report. How about it, Jerry? Sure enough. So pre-construction work in grants. The pre-construction work that we set out to do a few months ago, if you remember, and it was September when we sent out notice to proceed for our poll inventories for area A, those are mostly completed. Middlesex, Moortown and Worcester are completed and we have the data in hand and we actually approved payment for that work today. East Montpelier is almost complete. They have just a few polls that they're catching up on that they had missed when they went through the first time and for whatever reason, they couldn't get to the polls. So they're closing out their data this week, I believe. They'll certainly be done by the end of the year. And in Calis, our initial contractor provided information to us. We did our quality review. We found that some of that data wasn't up to our quality standard. So we had another contractor come in and is providing, is filling that data gap, if you will. That work is going on right now. So we are pretty close to finishing what we call area A, all of the poll inventory work in area A. Also importantly, the grants that pay for that, we have gotten extensions. That work was supposed to be completed 31 December. We've gotten extensions to bring that work out to June of 2022. It's not going to take until June of 2022, but they offered it. We took it. And that's similar to the high level design that's going on. The high level design was meant to be completed at the end of December. It's going to roll into January. That's okay because that grant was also extended. So that work is moving forward. We are also moving down the bullets here for the fiber purchase. We are participating in the Vicuda coordinated bulk fiber purchase. And we've purchased or are purchasing 300 miles worth of fiber that we have a staggered delivery because we don't need 300 miles day one. So we've coordinated with the other CUDs and with Vicuda to stagger that delivery. We've also staggered the size of the fiber that we're buying. Some of it's 144. Some of it's 72. Some of it's 48. David Healy has worked out most of the details on this. But we're a part of this bulk fiber purchase. You may have read John's piece on that that's I think was even in the VT digger. So that's forward. We also have the next bullet is about Northfield Rocksbury. So that information actually isn't quite so good. That was a CARES grant, one of the original CARES grants that we got. And we had until the end of the year to get folks 50 of 50 some odd residences connected in Rocksbury Northfield. And what we we ran into into some very serious make ready problems. Actually, the make ready problems we ran into are basically a foul of Vermont law. And we are we are going to make a complaint to the Public Utility Commission over this in coordination with Valley Net, who are the folks that were implementing this for us. But nonetheless, it's even though we could get another 90 day extension, because of this problem, we're not going to be able to complete that project in 90 days. So this is not a clawback because we never got the federal money. What we are doing is we're rescinding or pulling back the invoice that we had sent for payment. We were pulling that back. So it's really not a clawback. There there there is about $26,000 worth of work that has been done on this by Valley Net that we're going to figure out how to deal with that as we go down the road. Because these people still need to be served that work may or may not still be useful. We'll figure that out down the road. But we so unfortunately, we have to we have to back out of this Northfield Roxbury project. And the I was per I was asked by by Rob Fish from the the VCBB to pursue this this complaint with the Public Utilities Commission, because there's an interest statewide, if you will, to have an administrative record to document the problems that we're we're we're getting with make ready. And this is this is part of that that problem. So we're going to follow up with that. We'll we'll submit and I don't know yet. I don't know yet what the level of complaint will be. We're not going to get resolution. That's not what we're looking for. But we do want to at least make sure there's there's an administrative record of this problem. And we'll do that in the beginning of the year, because there are a lot of folks that are out of town right now. And I'll take any questions on any of this, except for right. I just want to mention that the fiber, the 300 miles of fiber is costing us over $800,000. It's not money we have to put up with now it'll be something we'll get a grant later on that will pay that. There's a whole mechanism that was established between Vicuda, the Vermont Community Foundation, Community National Bank, I think they're for letter of credit, three CUDs, et cetera, et cetera. And 144 strand of fiber is over $4,000 for a mile for one mile for grand. So it's a big deal and it'll be the first to frankly many buys that we'll have for that. Jerry, did you want to mention the area B and C polls and the statement of work change? Absolutely. I'll do that and I'll answer Jonathan's question as well. So we have 12 more towns that we have put out a request for bids. I shouldn't say an RFP. It's really not an RFP. We already went through the RFP process. A request for bids and those are due Tuesday, Wednesday timeframe. Next week they're due. Fortunately, the money is in the bank and there's a lot of interest in deploying people and keeping them in the field. So we're hoping to be able to get a good start on that. So we're looking to start the remainder of the poll inventory work for our underserved. We're looking to start that as early as the beginning of the very beginning of the year. Let me take a step back. Jonathan asked a question about Make Ready and what is Make Ready? Make Ready is a series of events and the end of that series of events is where you want to put CV fiber on the poll. The poll is ready to accept CV fibers, physical fiber on that poll. That's the end process of the Make Ready. There's a whole application process and a contractor process and a physical moving potentially of other wires to make room on that poll. But Make Ready, even though it's not the most expensive part of it, it very well could be the long poll in the tent that will delay the construction and the delivery of fiber services to the premises. So Make Ready is something that we have been talking about, for example, with our weekly meetings with WEK. It comes up every meeting. We've been talking about it for half a year. It's a really big item. We're asking a lot of the utilities, a lot of effort on the utilities to work with us. The utilities own the polls. The poll owners have a big stake in Make Ready. We've been working with them in advance to make this go as smoothly as possible. When we have our contractors on board that are going to do our design and that are going to work us through the process, that's going to make the Make Ready all the more smooth. It'll never be perfectly smooth, but when we have our design contractors on board working with the utilities and doing as much as we can in advance, we recognize Make Ready is a problem and we're doing everything we can to meet that problem. And it's not just us. The VCBB, the broadband board, everybody knows that this is an issue. David, I saw you had your hand up briefly. Did you want to weigh in at all? David, you're on mute. No, I'm all set. Okay. Any questions for Jerry about preconstruction, the Fiber Purchase, the Northfield Roxbury Project, any sort of stuff within his purview? If I may, Jeremy, I'm not sure I followed. This is R.D. I'm not sure I followed all of Jerry's explanations about the Northfield Roxbury problem without putting too much burden on volunteers. Do we have a memo that something in writing that we could, that would explain this kerfuffle and what we expect to present to the PUD? We will, R.D. We don't have that right now. I was actually on the phone today with the CEO of ValleyNet talking about exactly this issue. And there's their outside plant manager who coordinates this work just left for the holiday vacation today. Okay. So when she comes back, we're going to work together and pull this complaint together. And if you have any interest in being directly involved as a review of that or want to help us with the language, I'm very happy to share. Thank you. Okay. Thanks for that, R.D. Any other questions for Jerry? Observations? Concerns? All right. Thanks for that, Jerry. Moving on to the 2022 budget. Ray, you want to talk about that? Sure, Jeremy. Yeah, I do. After we do this, before we get to the next one, we talk about town reports for a second. I'm sorry, I didn't add that earlier. But the town reports, they're from the annual report. And we want to make sure that we're covered by that. And so we want to talk about it a little bit, okay? So we're going to talk about the 22, the 22 CD fiber 2022 budget. The process is kind of a three-step process. The first part of this was that the board approved a budget. It was sent to the towns for their feedback, if any. We held a public hearing in November. The first part was in October. And now we're at the point where we actually adopt a budget. And the recommendation is that we make any changes that we need to make at this point in time. And there are several changes. I sent an email out and identified all those changes. And hopefully you had an opportunity to look at those. The total was only in the administration section. We don't have enough information to change pre-construction, construction or operations at this time. But that will come up during the course of the year. The changes included adjusting the accounting budget to reflect the contract that was signed after we had sent out the approved budget. We adjusted dues to reflect the fact that the cooters asking us all of the CUDs to pay dues in the $11,500 range. And we also made a change to the treasurer stipend, given the statutory responsibilities and the commitment of time that's required by any individual that's in that particular position. And so that went from $2,400 to $12,000 for the year. The total was $35,000. The only other thing that was changed in the budget was the reserves. You may recall that we had income and expenses. At the bottom line, it came to $400,000 in terms of reserves. The net was like zero, right? We don't have any extra money. The money goes into reserves. And those reserves were adjusted to reflect the $35,000, which brought that to $414,290. I'm happy to answer more questions, etc. What I want to do is I'd like to put a motion in the chat room. And let's see here. The motion would be move the board adopt the CD5 or 2022 budget as recommended by the finance committee and the executive committee, by the way, and dated 16 December 2021. That's the end of the motion. It's a $15 million budget. I heard a second from Jeremy Met. Okay, move by Ray. Before we get in there, before you went on with the rest of your discussion, Brad. You wanted to be sure. That's what it was. Move by Ray, second by Jeremy. Any questions, comments? To me, there's not really any surprises here. I mean, this is something that's plowed ground. I mean, there's a couple of little adjustments as we've learned more. And I think, Ray, as you've said previously, this is likely a budget that's going to have to change next year too. This is our best guess for what we expect to be spending on a whole variety of things. And then I see Henry has a question, how much comes from grants? And so the answer is basically all. Basically, everything is covered by grants. I don't think we're borrowing any money. We've not taken any affirmative steps to take on any debt. And so we have quite a bit of grant money already approved, and we have quite a bit of grant money that we're expecting to secure next year. And probably the year after that as well. There is less than $900,000 expected from subscriptions and any installation fees that we might be collecting. But again, as mentioned, the budget under statute, we can change the budget during the course of the year itself. So as we become better informed, maybe what our requirements are or what the income is going to be, we'll make some adjustments then. Yes, indeed. All right. Well, I'm not seeing any hands or any protests. Are there any objections to adopting the budget? Oh, one moment. Jerry? Certainly not an objection. I just saw something pass by in the chat, and I wanted to make sure that everybody understands here. We are trying to optimize our grant position. We are very much dedicated to optimizing the use of grants. And then there's a hierarchy of low interest loans that follows that. So there's a lot of opportunity before we need to get to going out into the actual bond market. At the same time, what we're doing is trying to protect ourselves as we move through by ownership of assets so that when we get to the bond market, we're in a good position to be able to get whatever residual funds we might need. So I just wanted to throw that out there in response to what I just saw come across the chat. Thanks, Jerry. Anything else? Yes, Henry. Vita is pretty low priority now. We may look at that down the road as a way of filling gaps between grants and such. But yeah, it's not something that we really need at this point. But we shall see down the road. Okay. Yeah, Ray? No, I'm good. Okay. Anything else on the budget? Okay. Any objections to approving this question as presented? Okay. I don't hear any objections. So the motion passes unanimously. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Ray. Appreciate the final tweaks and the adjustments as we learned a bit more. Okay. Did you want to talk about the reports? Yeah. So I received an email from the Northfield Northfield. I'm the Northfield delegate saying that if I wanted something into the published book that goes before town meeting in March, I needed to get it in by January 10th, 14th some date. Okay. I know that I believe it's RD and Dave Healy have drafted. And what they're looking for is one page, a page and a half, not a lot, right? We sent an annual report with 10 pages. I forget how long it was. That is not the report that we should be submitting. And after we take some action tonight and hopefully to approve a contract with NRTC, we'll have some really good news to include in any such report. Okay. So I'm going to, I'm going to look at David's and RD's and model one for myself. And I'll be happy to share that with folks afterwards. But we should be looking at individually submitting these reports to our town counts towns this month in December. Don't wait till January. And Chuck has his hand up with much better information that I'm going to give you. Go for it, Chuck. Well, actually Ray, what I was going to say is, you know, we have a communications committee meeting coming on Monday. We're going to move it from the normal Thursday time slot to Monday instead. And so why don't we take this up as an item in the communications committee? Super. Sounds great. And then it will be onus once we have the final deliverables, the onus will be on the individual reps to get that to their, you know, town clerk, city clerks, etc. And make sure that it gets to the right place. David Healy said that callus required theirs by December 10th. So that's maybe they'll use a bit of what we already sent or maybe they have something or maybe you can just arm twist folks there and just say this is what we've got. If you can sneak it into the middle of the PDF before you send it to the printer. Maybe that can happen. I know Berlin is like middle of January as well. Yeah. So. Okay. Anything else about, I don't think we need to take any affirmative actions right now. I think we're going to kind of pitch it over to the wall to communications and we'll just go from there. Okie-dokie. All right. Next one is possible roll shifts within CV fiber. So this one is, this is my agenda item. And this is something I've shared with the executive committee and wanted to make sure he shared with all of you. I was, I would like to step away from the role of the chair and lower the amount of work that CV fiber that I'm essentially dedicated to CV fiber. So three or so years now I've essentially put a lot of my research and some other stuff that I should be doing for work and for family stuff on the back burner. And I would like to still be involved as, you know, as much as I can, but I would like to do a bit of a handoff at this point. And so I didn't have any sort of, you know, concrete air to the throne or something like that if we want to be overly grandiose. But having talked to Jerry quite a bit about this, he is interested in taking over as the chair. And there is a certain, there's a certain elegance to this. And I just want to kind of share with you what we're thinking and get feedback. There's no action on this item. We just want to put this out there so that everybody's clear about how we think we might want to proceed. So Jerry is the alternate for Berlin. I'm the delegate for Berlin. We are thinking of asking the Berlin select board to essentially flip those because the chair has to be a governing board member. And then to ask you all to appoint Jerry the chair at the January meeting. And then so Jerry is already on the bank account. So there's, that's convenient. He's the project manager. And so has obviously been knee-deep in this stuff for quite some time. So yeah, I think I'll just leave it there. Jerry, is there anything else that you want to add before we open it up to other folks? No, I didn't actually expect that you were going to point to this, Jeremy, but that's okay. Because you know, I've been dedicated to this since day one, right? And I would be happy to follow in your footsteps here and keep this thing moving forward. I am going before the select board on the 20th of December in Berlin to be, so I'm going to resign as project manager. And I'm asking the select board to reinstate me as the Berlin alternate. And then we'll ask them to flip-flop, if you will, and make me the delegate and Jeremy the alternate. I'm not foreseeing any problems with that. I'm on the agenda. They gave me two minutes, maybe two minutes to say no, go away. I don't know. But I don't think so. But yeah, I'm dedicated to doing this. There's no question. All right, looks like Jeremy then Siobhan. Yeah, so I guess the one thing that comes to mind is, well, thank you, Jeremy, for all that you've done. And also you, Jerry, for agreeing to take this on. The one kind of woe moment was, do we not need a project manager anymore? Because I know that you've been doing a lot of project manager stuff. And is that going to go away now that we have NRTC? Yeah, why don't you just go ahead and answer that, Jerry? Yeah, no, that is not going to go away.  Because I hope there, if there's a misconception out there, I'd like to get rid of it right away. But the fact that we have NRTC and that we're going to start working with Weitzfield Telecom does not mean that CV Fiber can just like say, oh, okay, now we're good. Those guys are going to do it all. In fact, it's the opposite. And but we know this because the budget that was just approved includes a executive director, for the lack of a better term, we called it executive director. It's been used in other CUDs. There needs to be somebody full time that is the interface between CV Fiber and our consultants and contractors. Remember, we're the ones that are going to be hiring the contractors for construction, for make ready, for whatever, whatever else is coming up. We're hiring the contractors and we need that interface with NRTC. And they're wonderful people, but you can't just walk away from them. We have to be in contact with them every day. This is a full time job. I cannot do that as a full time job. But I have started drafting and submitted to some folks a statement of responsibilities of trying to think what's the term I'm looking for here for an executive director. What the job description. Thank you. I've started a job description for executive director and we're starting to circulate that around. And we're going to need to do this. And it's we, the money is in the budget to have a full time person as executive director. There's $120,000 in the budget for that purpose. All right. Thanks, Jerry. I have Siobhan then back to Jeremy. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I think that we'll have, with Jerry, we'll have really good continuity because Jerry's been involved in a lot of this and was working on our initial grants was way back when and just has, I think it'll make it a smooth transition because he's been here and he's been doing all of this. And I was kind of, well, who's going to do this when I heard Jeremy was stepping aside a little bit. And so when hearing Jerry is like, yeah, I think I could do this. I'm like, yes. Yay. So I'm very pro Jerry doing this. Thanks. Thanks Siobhan. Jeremy then Chuck. Yeah, just kind of hammering the project manager thing. It seems like we've got a lot going on right now. Is it going to cause us problems, delays, whatever, to lose Jerry as project manager in the month or two that it takes us for more seeing as how our hiring has been. Oh man, you must not know my MO. Okay. You know, I'm just going to keep rolling and we're going to transition hopefully sooner rather than later. But at least from my perspective, there aren't going to be any gaps. But I appreciate the comment because you're right. It looks like there could be a space so there might be a space where nobody's getting paid, but there won't be a space where the work's not being accomplished. Well, thank you so much for agreeing to be our free project manager.  I'm the I'm actually the only one getting paid. So, you know, I know, I get it. I get it. I know you do, man. All right. Thanks, Jeremy. Thanks, Jerry, Chuck. Since it came up, I have absolutely no bearing as to whether it's appropriate, but is it $120,000 salary enough for an executive director of this kind of organization? And, you know, was that researched and what have you? Hey, that's a really good point. That's actually based on some of the original numbers that we had used way back when from last year. And, you know, that's also in the ballpark with some of the some of the other other other folks that we that have public information about that are that are working in this area. So it's it's kind of ballpark, but no, you're absolutely right. And the budget is kind of a crayon drawing of how we're moving forward. And if that needs to be refined, we can we can refine that if that answers your question. I hope it does. It does. Thank you. Just, you know, as as somebody who manages professionally, I have kids four years out of college making much and I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to shortchange someone. We want raw horsepower in this role. Thanks, Chuck Walker. Maybe this is to Jerry or Jeremy. What do you envision? Like if we have an executive director that's paid, is that more of a project manager role? Or is it more like what's the what I guess what's the relationship between the board and this paid executive director? I'm a little confused about exactly what that role would be. Yeah, no, that no, that's great. So the this executive director would would report directly to the executive committee, which is kind of what I've been doing as the as as the as the PM, you know, basically David David, you know, David Healy has kind of been my my my boss, if you will, is the way that we've we have set this up. But it's still the executive committee that the responsibility would be to fulfilling the executive committee's requirements. So that that person would be under the purview of the executive committee. And of course, the executive committee is under the purview of the entire governing board. So that you know, there there's a there's a hierarchy there. But there's there's we really need somebody in the trenches on a day to day basis to make sure that everything stays on track and that and that the executive committee and through them, the governing board is fully aware of what's going on because there are so many micro decisions that are going to need to be made that you you can't just send all these decisions back up to to committee. It's impossible. Right. So that that's that's that's how we're looking at going. And I'll also add that this type of structure is also occurring at other CUDs. It kind of seems to be a natural or at least a reasonable way to move forward. Maybe natural is not the right word. Thank you. Any other questions about this or Jeremy? I have one. I'm sorry. I can't find the little hand icon at the moment. I in in light of some of the the critiques that have been offered about CUDs and about CV fiber in particular, I think it's essential that the executive committee get on the stick immediately, putting out a job description and seeking an executive director as soon as possible. Having a professional professional leadership in what is at the moment, chiefly, a volunteer organization is going to be, I think, vital in projecting an image of competence and and securing public confidence in our efforts. So I think we we shouldn't lose a moment in finding an executive director. And I would say that I if if the compensation that we are offering in the in the budget is is not sufficient, come back to the board. But professional leadership, I think at this at this juncture is absolutely crucial. Agreed. Anything else? Just before having said that, thank you, Jerry. Thank you, Jeremy. You've done yeoman service great, great work. I've been so grateful for your help in helping me ascend this very steep learning curve. I just I neglected to say that at the very beginning. Thank you. You are welcome and thank you all for putting in the work that you put in. Anything else on this? I mean, like I said, we don't have really any action items right now. But anything else that we should consider as we're going forward? Okay, very well. Moving on to the NRTC Master Services Agreement and the contracts. Ray, you want to introduce this and perhaps the next item as well. Sure. So the next two items have to do with the contract negotiations. And so I'm going to put a motion in the chat room that that we will find if this is needs to be an executive session. And then the second motion will actually be the motion put us into executive session. And so here is here is the first motion and then I'll read it. Move the pursuant to one VSA section 313A1A. We find that premature public knowledge of our discussions are led into the developer operator contract and WEC contract negotiations will put CD5er at a competitive disadvantage. Second. Moved by Ray, seconded by Jeremy. Any further discussion of this? So I want to point out that this is sort of combining the two agenda items that I have here at 720, 735 into a single motion to go into executive session. We will likely not have action related to the WEC agreement. We likely will have action related to the NRTC MSA and contracts and such after we leave executive session. I just want to make sure that that's clear as we're going in. So any objections to this motion? Okay. Motion is adopted unanimously. Thanks Ray. Part two. So the second motion is that moving we enter into executive session discuss the contract reference and previous motion pursuant to one VSA section 313A3 and that we include the project manager, treasurer and all board members whose information is needed in accordance with one VSA section 313A3. So second. Okay. That was seconded by R.D. Moved by Ray, seconded by R.D. Jeremy. Did you mean alternate board members, Ray, rather than board members because? Yeah. All board members and frankly every alternate is also a board member. Okay. Well, yeah, I mean board members would be included by default. The only question has been the alternates, I think. I think can we friendly amend that, Ray, so we can have all board and alternate members. Okay. John? Yeah. Two things. One, I will be bowing out from this. Can I get Ray to give me an update on any action that is reportable for the update? And two, regarding our professionalism, I have to say we're like 31 minutes ahead of schedule on the agenda. So. Thanks, John. Yeah. So, Ray, if you could follow up with John just to loop him in. So as we're writing the next updates, that will be helpful. As always. Thank you, John. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, John. So I see your comments there, Henry. Yeah. So we can chat more about the specifics of the contract as we get into the executive session. Any objections to entering the executive session to discuss these two items and including the folks that we're including? Hearing none, motion passes unanimously and thank you very much. I'm going to ask folks who are not board members or alternates to please disconnect. Christian, we will, I think Jeremy will catch up with you in terms of meeting minutes and such. Okay. Just send me what you have up until now, Christian, and I will finish them up. Okay. Thank you so much.