Welcome to Applied Coaching Practices by Peter Maricin. So I'm glad that you all could join us today here. Well, hello everybody, it's a pleasure to meet you all. Okay, so Applied Coaching Practices. So this should be an interesting little talk. I hope we're going to run through some of the things that I've learned in my own professional coaching journey and how I've applied some of those to my role, which is as a transformation consultant and coach. So I'm one of these people that goes into organizations and helps them work out how to change, how to adopt new practices, new ways of working, new ways of thinking about how to work together to produce greater and better outcomes. Predominantly, I've been working in the technology sector, mostly in finance and strangely, loyalty marketing, the two areas I've spent most of my career in. And yeah, so without further ado, let's get into some of the topics that we'd like to go through today. So the agenda is going to break down roughly like this. What is, we're going to go over what is coaching and what it isn't, run through what are good questions, the different types of questions that we could ask in coaching, how that works and what the importance of questions are. We're going to talk through the different tools as well, some of the things that we can bring to the table and there are a lot of tools, but I'm going to talk through two of the most common ones that I found very useful from coaching that I use daily with the clients that I work with. And then we're going to wrap it up with a brief overview of aspects and they'll be available to answer any questions anybody has. So let's start with what is coaching and the first thing that I'm going to ask here is if people would like to provide some viewpoints as to what they think is coaching. And I put together a quick little survey here on Menti if you'd like to go there and start entering some information and see what feedback we get. And I have a couple of these in the course of the slides and seeing if this works in the context. Guiding others, find them own way. Nice thing about Menti, you get the live feedback. Getting the cricket team mild up, that's definitely what coaching is about. Okay, so let's go back to our presentation here. The ICF, the International Coach Federation which is one of the largest professional coaching bodies that describes coaching like this. Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. So if this is the case, how does this compare to other service roles that there are out there? So, and we have coaching, but then what about the other roles that we have out there? So for example, consulting. Well, the difference between coaching which focuses on setting goals and trading the outcomes and consulting is the consulting uses the consultant's expertise. We're focusing on achieving a certain result. Consultants come in and they provide recommendations and implement solutions. And whereas coaching is focusing on getting the outcomes that are related personally to the person, to the things that the person is capable of doing. Versus mentoring. Mentoring very much uses the mentors knowledge and the mentor is providing advice and guidance and using the mentor's experience and expertise to help guide the mentee. Compared to training. Well, training is the transferring of knowledge. And whereas we can use coaching type practices within our training, really training is just how do I get knowledge from one person to somebody else? And there's an automatic assumption here of I know more than you do and which is why I'm surviving this. Counseling therapy. So coaching isn't counseling either. I mean, coaching very much is focused on the positive outcomes, helping somebody grow, helping somebody find their inner strengths and ways of developing. Whereas counseling is much more of the act of healing and dealing with dysfunction and other problems. And facilitation. Well, facilitation works with the desired outcomes that you're trying to create from a group. So it's about creating an environment in which others can effectively produce those desired outcomes by the ways that they can actually create the kinds of outcomes you're looking for from those groups. When we look at the role of an agile coach, we see that professional coaching is indeed one of the capabilities that we have in an agile coach. And there are lots and lots of the other things that the coach is supposed to do, many of which are the other professional services. But really the focus here is on this professional coaching piece where we're talking about how we use the professional coaching skills in helping. I realized you can tell my camera. The professional coaching skills to help with agile transformation, dev ops transformation and helping organizations improve. So if you look at the flow of solutions focused coaching, which is a form of professional coaching, it runs roughly like this. We start from this concept of coach position. And coach position is this idea that as a coach, you are not directly involved emotionally in the outcomes that are being looked at being achieved. It's almost in some ways a meditative state. And when coaching you, you look to try and distance yourself from the questions and look at things purely from listening and working out, how do I move things forward? How do I help the client? Next part is establishing rapport. And this is where we use things like softeners and backtracking and recapping and methods in order to ensure that we're on the same page. And this is absolutely critical. It's why we have to do this early to make sure that the person that we're working with is willing to open up and listen and share their experiences and thoughts. And very often we find that if you slip out of coach position and start to provide advice and guidance, and then you can very often break that rapport. And by breaking that rapport, it's much harder to achieve the kinds of outcomes we're looking to through coaching. The next very critical part is this idea of initiating the contract. And the contract is something that's always stated in the positive. It's something that's gonna be within the client's control and it's going to be something that they are, is ecological to them, something that they can understand within their surroundings. It's when we establish the contract that we lay out what we intend to get out of the coaching session. And if we're running coaching in just even a short conversation with somebody to help them overcome or to dig deeper into a particular problem, this contract is absolutely critical because it sets the groundwork for will we know whether we're successful or not. And this is one of the interesting parts we see here is that a lot of these practices and behaviors are very similar to the ones that we use in Agile coaching. We borrow these into the Agile coaching world and we use them to help people learn these new practices and ways of thinking. The next part is this concept of ensuring that you're working from the outcome frame. And the outcome frame is this idea that the contract that we've created is phrased in a positive manner in way that we can, both you and the client and the other group that you're working with can understand how this, how success will be achieved. And we've defined this in a solid way to understand what that looks like. And we're confirming the contract at this point. We're saying, is this what you want? If at the end of these 30 minutes that we're talking, if we achieve a couple of ways of moving you along in your Agile journey, is that a good thing? Is that what you want out of this session? At creating an experience, this is the part that comes next. And as we go through some of the questions later on and some of the pieces around different tools that we can use and the types of questions, this is, we use those both in when we're initiating the contract, but also, and especially in this creating the experience. And creating the experience is where we start to dig into what is the problem? What is the actual thing that we're looking to solve for you? If we want to get to that outcome, we need to create an experience. And to create that experience, we need to bring a set of tools and capabilities and conversations to the table in order to be able to make that happen. And after we've created the experience, we can now start to identifying action steps that the client or the group might need. And this is where we break it down and say, what are those action steps? What are the things that we need to do in order to achieve these outcomes that we're looking for? And most importantly, at this point, we ask, well, how might you commit to this? How are you going to hold yourself accountable to actually achieving these outcomes? If you want to improve how you understand the running your sprint, how might you commit to this? How might you hold yourself accountable to making that happen? And then to wrap the session up, we ask questions around how is this a value to you? What do you understand now that is different from before? How has your experience changed? And finally, we celebrate the client. And these last two pieces, it's very similar to what we do from a retrospective. When we do retrospectives in an agile manner where we ask the value we ask, and what would you do better next time? And celebrating the client saying, we appreciate you for showing up. This is another critical part of it, showing that we really appreciate you contributing to the conversation. So as we go through exploring and identifying contracts and looking at what things we need to do to help people, we ask questions. And coaches are very much known for asking questions more than making directive statements. And so when we look at this, there are different types of questions, this concept of open and closed questions. And these make a huge difference the way that we engage in conversation and the way that we interact with people. And open questions typically start with your how, where, who, when statements like tell me about or explain more of that to me. Whereas a closed question is one that elicits either a yes or a no or just closes the coachee down. So if we take an example of this, we say something like, are you going to complete the task this week? This is a closed question. The answer is yes or no. And it's not really going to help us understand whether there are anything, anything's which holding them back from being able to do this. It's not giving any opportunity to explore deeper. So better coaching question would be, well, what will it take to achieve this task this week? Which is an open-ended question that starts to open up this idea of how might we learn about this? How might we learn a bit more about what it's going to take to achieve this? So another example, is this something you'd be willing to do? Is it yes or no? If somebody's committing, they're making a promise, you're putting them on the spot to do this. Whereas if we ask, how committed are you to getting this done? We're much more, being much more exploratory, we're asking and seeing how is somebody engaged? Are they engaged in this? Are they thinking about what it might take to do this? And there are graduations of open questions too. And some questions will elicit a dead end, even though that they have a how or a what at the beginning of it. For example, if you ask your kids, how was school today? It's not uncommon to get the answer of, well, it was okay. Whereas if you ask a question like, what was the best part of school for you today? This is a much more open, open question. This is a question that is going to elicit a deep answer. It will create thought. You can't just say it was okay, you're gonna have to think about, well, what was the best part? You're gonna have to reflect. And this is a key part of what we're looking to do when we ask questions like this. There are lots of questions out there. And one area that's quite interesting coming out of psychology is this concept of clean language. Mike Burroughs uses this very well in his agenda shift methodology for helping strategy and transformation. And the clean language is based out of these nine questions that you see here. And this set of questions can be used to elicit deeper inquiry into what's happening. And it uses the client's own language and plays it back to them in the form of questions so that you can say, and then what happens? So if we ask when we're looking to release a product and then what happens? If we're looking to create a new service for a customer and what kind of service is that for the customer? So this clean language is a very, very powerful way of asking questions that will help you explore and learn more about what a client is looking for. So I recommend meeting up about this and using this in your conversations with your clients or your staff. And in terms of powerful questions, so coaching is about questions but it's not solely about questions. And in fact, if you look at the criticality of the aspects of what we do in professional coaching, questions aren't even the first thing that we need to concern ourselves with. The first thing we need to concern ourselves with is that building of rapport. If we don't have rapport with the coachee, if we don't have that interaction with them, that they are willing to open up, that they're willing to listen to us saying, without that rapport and the maintaining of that rapport, it'll be very, very difficult to get them to start to think differently, to start to change the way that they behave, to start to think about the kinds of questions that we're asking them. Asking the wrong questions at the wrong time can very easily help somebody to, we'll start to shut down and not respond in the way that you expect them to. The second most critical part is listening. So as coaches, we have to listen not just to the words that are being said but to the tone they are being set in, to the silences between the words. It's a hesitation, does the person sigh or do they seem agitated? Are they, and there are different levels of listening. We talk about three levels of listening. And the first level is the superficial level that we generally do in sort of everyday conversation. Second level of listening goes a little deeper when we start to pick up on these nuances. And the third level of listening we're really deeply listening, we're really listening for what is going on with the client. What is it going on with the person that I'm talking to? What is causing them to respond in the way that they are? And then questions are indeed very important but rapport and listening are actually far more important in the coaching conversation. So moving on to talk about some common tools that we use. So the first kind of common tool that I'm gonna talk about and is as if shifts. And these are things that you can use in lots and lots of different ways throughout all of the conversations that you have. And I'm gonna run through eight of them and there are many more. And some of these you are almost certainly using even if you've not even realizing you're using but by talking through it you can start to realize that I can use these consciously to elicit the types of responses to inquire about things in certain ways. So the first one is time. So an as if shift in time is for example imagine it's six months from now. We've rolled out the product, everything is incredible. The clients are really, really happy. We've delivered everything on time. Now looking back from six months from now what are the key things you did to get there? What obstacles did you run into? How did you overcome them? And so time gives you a wonderful opportunity to look at and explore what will it take to get there? We talked about values. And if we ask about the client's values we can say for example if the client is talking about the energy and the creativity could ask a question like well assume that energy and creativity continues to build momentum and grow how does that benefit you and your colleagues? We're asking the client to shift perspectives to think about things in a different way. Point of view shift. And this one is very common especially in FODM because this is simply the just suppose you were to take on the perspective of one of your potential customers. Look through their eyes, what would they ask of you? Put yourself in the other person's shoes. Next one is a system shift. And this one is interesting especially doing a lot of work in the DevOps space. It's and thinking about systems thinking. So just suppose that you look at a whole company some areas are faster, some areas are slower some areas are really excelling. And how does the overall system need to shift to move forward? What would you change? Where would you change it? So systems shift is taking a step back looking at the entire system and they're starting to think about what could change in that system. Next one is information. Now information is great for people who are stuck in analysis paralysis where they're struggling to move forward where they're having difficulty taking that next step and what's holding them back is, well, if I just had that another piece of information if you hear somebody saying, well, I just got to do a bit more research or I'm not sure about that. Then you can ask them simply, what if the research is done? What would your next steps be then? And sometimes that can just asking that question can help somebody move past that road by move past the analysis to realize, well, actually the next steps, I can do those right now. I don't need to go do any more research. I have all of the information that I need. I just needed to start to think about what I actually need to do next. Next one is amplifying the solution. Now this one is around suppose you get the project off the ground and you're accelerating. How worthwhile is that project now? What do you see? What's different? What can you do now that you've got so much more than you have before? Contract creation and this is the contract similar to the coaching I was talking about earlier. This is if you were to make an agreement to do this project, what would you be doing differently? And this is talking about your intrinsically talking to somebody's, they've made a promise. You're asking them to, if you made a promise to do this, what would that change about the way that you would approach this? What would you do differently? And then last but not least out of these eight, one of my favorites is the doorway button. So imagine that there was an easy button on your desk and you're having a different day, trying to work it right forward. You press that easy button. What would you be doing differently? What would happen? Another form of this is imagine you had a magic wand and you could wave that magic wand and one thing would happen. What would that thing be? We use this question frequently in consulting. It's one of the questions we always ask at the end where we go through, we did, we learn, as we do assessments, we understand about how organizations are operating. It's important to ask this question at the end to say, well, what would you change if you could? And that really helps bring out the thought process, helps to get people to think about what they might be able to do differently in their environments. I would say that the time, the magic wand question and the point of view are probably the ones that I end up using the most. And then the information one for when we run into those people who are struggling with that information paralysis. So another critical tool that we use is one called logical levels. And this is a great tool to help people uncover a deeper level, to start to connect into what's really underlying the problem. And where they've got a problem where they're looking at things from a superficial level and we're trying to get them to look underneath that, to look at the deeper problem, the getting to the why and what it really truly glows. And it runs like this. So we start with this idea of asking a question about where and when. So where might you go to get the information that you need in order to complete this? When do you think you'll get it done? And this is very much about the environment. This is about what's going on around you. Do I have the information I need to be able to have this conversation? And it is really about that. The next question is around what? So what are you gonna do? What might be the right solution to this? And we're asking a question about behaviors. Well, we're talking about moving up from the environment that is around us and up to the behaviors that we're gonna take in that environment. Next question, how? How are you gonna get that done? And this is about capabilities, like looking at skills and ways of doing things. And as you see, as we move up the pyramid, these questions are getting deeper into and more complex in what possibly are the answers. However, most conversations really occur below this squiggly line here. Most conversations occur at this reasonably safe level where we're comfortable with this. We're comfortable asking each other questions about where and when things might happen, about what it is we might do and how we're gonna go about doing it. The problem is that if we only stay at this level, we're never gonna truly get to what's actually underlying the way that we interact with each other. Why are we doing these things? In fact, that's the next question. And specifically, the question of why is that important? Why is this important to you? And this is a key question that we always ask at the start of a coaching conversation is why is this important? And it's the only why question we really ask because why is very much an aggressive word? It can be seen as being aggressive in the sense of why did you do that? So it's not, it doesn't come across as nicely, but the question that we ask here is why is that important to you? And this elicits the values that may underlie why somebody is doing a particular action. So if we've discovered like, so how are they gonna do it? When we're why, what they're doing and where they're gonna do it, we can now ask like, well, why is it important to you that you do it that way? Why is it important to you that you have all of the code upfront? Why is it important to you that design is done this way? And this allows you to look in and dig underneath as to what are the values that are driving that? Why is this person wanting to do things in this particular way? Next up from values, we can start to ask questions like who? And the typical coaching question out of a more of a life coaching space would be who do you become? However, and this is related to identity and identity is critical because this is where we're starting to now tie back into who are you when you behave in this manner? And once people can open up to that level, you can really truly start to understand more about how these things relate to each other. However, if you ask your typical person in a company or off the street, like who do you become? They're probably gonna look at you blindly with absolutely no idea what you're talking about. So another question that you can ask in the identity space would be something more along the lines of what role do you play in creating this? And for example, if we're building products or creating value for a customer, it's like what role would you play in creating this for a customer? And I find that role question tends to land much better than the who do you become question, which can be difficult for people who aren't coaches or don't have a coaching background to come in and actually really even approach. But once we move beyond even that, we can now start to ask the question around, well, if you play that role in creating this for the customer, who else benefits? What else happens when you do that? Where could we then take this? And when we start to ask questions like this, we're starting to ask questions which are very much more related to what is the vision? What is the vision that we wanna undertake? Where is it that we wanna be able to go with this and what do we wanna be able to do with all of these things that we've learned? The interesting thing about logical levels is that once you've worked your way up here and you've uncovered that vision, you've uncovered the identities and the values and the critical parts, which what is actually underlying the decisions and the behaviors that we're taking? We can now work our way back down through this. And the interesting part here too is that as we work our way back down, we can continue to use the as-if shifts to explore more deeply. So what role would you play in creating for this customer? Could turn into six months from now, if the customer had this, what would they have? How would you have got that? What role would you have played in creating that for them? And so this allows us to explore even more deeply into looking at what sort of things we need to ask in order to be able to help people dig more into what is really causing these behaviors? Why are we behaving this way? And this is especially critical in doing transformation because in order for us to help people think in a different way, we need to start to ask these kind of questions to understand what is causing us to behave in this manner so that we can start to think about what manner do we want to behave in? How do I wanna be known? What role do I wanna play in this? Are we aligned? And so these are very, very critical parts. And as we work our way back down the pyramid, we can then start to use this to generate the action items we need to do. So if we start from this idea that the value that we've created for the customer and we work our way through the roles that we've played for that, why it's important to us to having done that, the skills that we brought to the table to make it happen, what we did with those skills to create that value and where we did it and when we delivered it to them, we can now tie that value that we created for them, the vision that we have of this directly to those actions that we're taking. And this allows us to now start to think about if I take this action, if I start to perform this task in this particular manner, what does that particularly do for me? What does that create? So that's logical levels and logical levels, I find to be one of the key pieces that I use in a lot of conversations, even just being able to understand the differentiation as you move both the line into deeper questions about how people are paving, this can help people stop and think about why certain actions are being taken, why certain behaviors are occurring. So I have another quick question for everybody here that having been through all the different things I've just presented is another quick mentee. And this one is on what words describe coaching for you now. So if you have to, now that we've gone through all of the information, all of these questions, what words would you use to describe coaching? As it differed now or as it changed from being about the cricket team, is coaching something different for you now than it was before? People a chance to grab the word cloud off that whereas I like that. Yes, building working relationships. That's very much a key part of what coaching can really, really help with. Awesome. I do like these word clouds and they build up. So I'm gonna leave that building and you can continue to put words in. It's fun that practical came out as the most world. And I wonder what that does for people perhaps we can discuss afterwards. So going back to, so for me, when I talk about coaching and wrapping this up, I think of it in terms of this Socrates quote about, I can't teach anybody anything. I can only make them think. It might be a few thousand years old but I think it's a very good point that he's making here that we use coaching to help people open up their minds, to think about things differently, to start to try and understand the problems that are facing them in a different way. And sometimes we can really help people move forward. Nearly always people already have ways of going about solving these ways of moving forward, understanding even if that is looking at what other resources might be available to them. So hopefully the questions and the different tools and the pieces that I've been showing you today will help you think a little differently about how do you use coaching? And I hope these can be directly applicable to the way that you interact with others. So I'll leave you with one more question as a coach which is how will you help somebody today? How will you take these bits of information and help somebody today? So with that I'm gonna wrap up as a quick feedback survey because there's, and I think that's actually left over from previous times of these presentations and my contact information is here. I'm always happy to connect with people and chat. And thank you very much. I think we're at the end of our 45 minutes. Hi. Hi, so if you have any questions for Peter you can put it in the Q&A section. You can ask him over there which is you can put it over there in the discussion bar, discuss button which is there on your right-hand side of the screen. Don't think we have any questions. I was so informative that everybody's... We'll wait for a minute and see if there are any questions. And if anybody wants to talk about this I think they'll be hanging out and we'll be waiting for that afterwards. Yes, sure. So there is one question for you, Peter. Okay, so in a large Agile transformation how would you get the support you need for coaching in the first place? So there's a couple of different ways. Approaching it from an Agile transformation so typically within Agile transformation coaching is a key aspect of that change already because coaches are often brought in to the Agile transformation. It's the value of coaching is often sold in as the ability to help people change the ability to help people through change. So there's a lot of discussion around that side of it. So depending on how it's being introduced to the organization will depend on the right way to go about engaging with it. I've seen it brought in from a organizational change management perspective which often comes in more through like the HR side of the house. Within Agile transformations they typically have started within the technology part of the organization and the value of coaching there is very much tends to be brought in with the transformation agents with the coaches who are doing that transformation. I hope that answered, I can dig more into that. It's a bit of a broad question around transformation because in all of the transformations I've done coaching has been front and center as a part of what's being brought in to make it happen. In a corporate setting seeking coaching especially with colleagues is taboo and perceived as weakness. So this is an interesting concept and it might be cultural in its nature but there's this idea that everybody needs coaching in order to advance and grow and coaching is a great way to start to explore things at a deeper level even from a leadership perspective. Leaders are providing coaching into other parts of the organization to help them help their staff grow and to develop new skills and start to learn how to behave in different ways. Every coach I know including myself has coaches themselves because it helps to... You can't coach yourself, you're looking in a mirror and trying to ask yourself deep questions is very difficult. So you need somebody who's gonna be able to mirror things back to you. I think we could point at a ton of material and online and in books and in other places that shows the value of coaching and how it helps people move forward and move past particular barriers. So there is a... Especially in technology I've seen there'd be a bit of a taboo around coaching in that it's this idea that well, coaching is like life coaching and coaching is this more spiritual in nature sometimes versus the more practical style of solutions focused coaching which is what I've been presenting here today. So there is this other way which can help break that taboo I think which is that coaching is not just this form of coaching over here, coaching is also this other styles of coaching which are very much geared at organizational change and at being solutions focused and at helping people solve problems and framing it in that way to say that we're using coaching to help people solve problems and to help overcome difficult situations. I think there's a very good way to do that. And how can we measure the transformation matrix which we can use? Well, there's lots of different ways of going at the same time. There's lots of different ways of going about that. In terms of from a coaching perspective, how do we measure whether the coaching was effective which I think may be what you mean in this case. And again, this is being totally out of coach position because but I suspect this might mean what you mean Kili and that the to measure the transformation from a coaching perspective we can look at the effectiveness of the changes that we're getting into the organization or past the organization moving faster. Do we, if we start to look at the behaviors and the actions that are being taken, are we seeing the right behaviors and actions being taken, have behaviors changed? And we can measure that in a number of different ways. An interesting place to go look for that is out of something like, well, Kirk Patrick comes out of training, but his Kirk Patrick's has these four levels of training evaluation. But what he's talking about after that is a lot of pieces you're evaluating coaching programs. So if you want to look for a book that's quite good on that and that will give you methods and themes to measure the outcomes of transformation that would be one place to look. I also, I mean, I tend to look at like what metrics are we measuring and what metrics are we creating to those metrics aligned to what the organization is looking for. If we start from a outcomes focus, we look at what outcomes we're looking to generate, what obstacles are going to prevent us getting there, what outcomes can we need to create along that way and what indicators can we use to tell whether or not we're hitting those outcomes. So once we start to look at those indicators, we can use those indicators to measure our progress and coming out of, I mean, it really depends on then on what type of transformation, which part of the organization in technology and development of technology, looking at things like door metrics are very good ways of doing that. And I'm happy to have a deeper conversation about the different ways of doing that and the different resources I could point you at. So by all means reach out and I'll let you know the kind of process we go through to define that. Hope that answers your question. Okay, I think we're wrapped up here now. Yeah, so thank you so much Peter for this session and sharing your experience with us today.


Okay, okay, I don't know what this is. It just says Garfield. Okay, I'm gonna put this in and we're just gonna see what it is Everybody's got the screen share off. Yeah Okay, hold up, hold up. Stop for a minute Dang though, she's got like a whole family go down to the description. It's so fun. What they have in Okay, okay, descriptions about this idea. Oh frequently bought together Let's read the description the fat cat strikes again from head to toe this figure screams the world's fattest and no cynical cat I mean, yeah, it's early. I think it screams of like death noises really. It's wait.  There's a customer review customer review Let's see the customer reviews. Is it cursed? Yes, okay Is this demonic entity washing machine safe? No, don't risk it The entity might think there is holy water being used the ensuing screams will be Show it in the tap water and gently surface wash only might look stoned, but very aware of surroundings Okay, let's look at the reviews of the images now. There he is He looks just like Ed Sheeran You don't want Gorefield. You need Gorefield recalling him Gorefield from now on. He's my spirit. I know he is my spirit animal Children's allergy relief. There he is installing our cheletics. So I bought this for me and my boyfriend He is now our child and his name is Gerfer. Gerfer is the best thing ever Bruh, he likes to meditate do morning yoga and connects with his crystals as you can see Okay, thank you. Oh, no. Yeah, see see This is this is like child abuse. Yeah child abuse. It's yeah. This is literally an image of child abuse I will never get over this image. Honestly. I'm saving like 10 I Can imagine this is real. This is real. This is real. This is real. This is that that's just I don't even know what to tell you By him by this man just as horrible as the product I at least they admit it laughing so hard so derpy. Yeah, how do I delete? How do I delete Amazon? That's a pretty good question


1984, by George Orwell, is a dystopian novel set in the super-state of Oceania, where society is under the constant surveillance of the party led by the enigmatic Big Brother. The protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth, altering historical records to fit the party's propaganda. Orwell introduces us to this world through the first part of the novel, consisting of eight chapters. In Chapter 1, Winston returns to his drab flat in Victory Mansions. Here, Orwell introduces the concept of telescreens, devices that both broadcast propaganda and monitor the citizens of Oceania. Winston conceals himself from the telescreen and begins to write in a diary an act of rebellion against the party. Chapter 2 introduces us to Winston's family and neighbors, including the Parsons family. Winston helps Mrs. Parsons unblock her sink and during this visit is terrorized by her two young children, ardent junior spies. Orwell presents the concept of children betraying their parents, a frightening reality in this totalitarian society. The next chapter takes us to Winston's workplace, the Ministry of Truth. Here, he alters historical records to match the party's official narrative. Winston receives a message from a co-worker, a dark-haired woman, causing him to fear that she's a member of the Thought Police, an organization that punishes even the slightest hint of rebellious thoughts. This chapter portrays Winston's daily life and explores themes of manipulation, surveillance, and paranoia. In Chapter 4, Winston continues his job of rewriting history. Here, Orwell delves into the mechanics of how history is manipulated by the party to control the population. Winston is aware of this manipulation yet feels powerless to oppose it. Chapter 5 takes us to the canteen where Winston has lunch with Syme, a linguist working on Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Syme discusses the purpose of Newspeak, to limit thought and prevent rebellion. Through Syme, we understand the party's manipulation of language as a tool for control.   Chapter 7 begins with Winston remembering his mother and younger sister. He contemplates whether life was better before the party took control, but he realizes he cannot trust his memories due to the party's constant manipulation of the past. Winston muses on the concept of freedom and hopes that the proles, the working class, might one day rise against the party. In the final chapter of Part 1, Winston takes a risk by speaking to an old prole in a pub, hoping to learn about life before the party's reign. He later visits Mr. Charrington's antique shop where he buys a coral paperweight, symbolizing his desire to connect with the past. He also sees the dark-haired woman from work and grows more suspicious of her. Part 1 of 1984 sets the stage for the events to follow, introducing the key characters, the overarching societal structure, and the protagonist's struggles. The sense of constant surveillance, the manipulation of truth, and the struggle of individuality against a controlling mass power are themes introduced that will be further developed as the novel progresses. Orwell immerses the reader into the chilling reality of Oceania, laying the foundation for Winston's journey of rebellion. Part 2 of George Orwell's 1984 shifts the focus from the broader societal structure of Oceania to the individual experiences of Winston Smith, specifically his relationship with Julia, which develops over the course of 10 chapters. In Chapter 1, Winston receives a note from Julia, the dark-haired woman from the fiction department saying, I love you. This unexpected message throws Winston into a mix of shock and intrigue. The following chapter finds Winston and Julia secretly meeting in the countryside, away from the ever-watchful eyes of the party. They express their mutual hatred for the party, and Julia reveals her rebellious streak, having had multiple affairs with party members. Their relationship, fueled by their shared rebellious spirit, becomes a symbol of personal rebellion against the totalitarian regime. In Chapter 3, Winston and Julia begin their clandestine affair, making use of a room above Mr. Charrington's antique shop.  Chapter 4 delves into the regular life Winston and Julia start to lead, meeting in the rented room as often as they can without arousing suspicion. In this chapter, we see the tender, caring side of Winston, as he and Julia create their own sanctuary, separate from the party's control. In Chapter 5, Winston sees his former wife, Catherine, in a dream, and thinks about the futility of their marriage. This chapter illuminates Winston's past, contrasting his current relationship with Julia. Chapter 6 explores the narrative of Winston's meeting with O'Brien, a member of the inner party. Under the guise of discussing the latest edition of the Newspeak dictionary, O'Brien subtly inquires about Winston's loyalty to the party. Winston, interpreting this as a sign that O'Brien is part of the rebellion, openly declares his opposition to the party. O'Brien invites Winston to his house, giving him an address. The next chapter involves Winston and Julia visiting O'Brien's luxurious home. During this visit, O'Brien confirms their suspicions. He seemingly indicates that he's a member of the elusive resistance movement, the Brotherhood, led by the legendary Emmanuel Goldstein. They pledge their loyalty to the Brotherhood, agreeing to do whatever is necessary for the cause. Chapter 8 follows Winston as he reads parts of the book, supposedly written by Goldstein, which provides a theoretical understanding of the societal structure under Big Brother. However, Winston and Julia fall asleep while reading it and wake up to find the telescreen hidden behind the picture on the wall of their room shouting at them, revealing their location to the thought police. Chapter 9 starts with the preparations for Hate Week, a major propaganda event. Winston's role in the preparations becomes more significant as an error in predicting the enemy's alliances forces him to work overtime to correct the mistake. In the final chapter, the anticipated Hate Week arrives with a surge of fervor and enthusiasm. In the midst of the chaos, Winston finds himself with a copy of The Book, revealing the true structure of society. As Winston reads, he learns about the futility of the prole's rebellion and the purpose of perpetual war. 1984 is integral to the development of the novel as it focuses on the personal rebellion of Winston and Julia, who dare to defy the norms and laws of the party. It amplifies the theme of resistance and the human spirit's irrepressible need for freedom and love in stark contrast to the party's oppression. Furthermore, it delves into the complexities of the party's propaganda and manipulation tactics, ultimately culminating in a chilling cliffhanger, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. The third and final part of George Orwell's 1984 pivots towards the harsh consequences of rebellion in the totalitarian state of Oceania, encompassing six chapters that bring the story to its tragic conclusion. In chapter one, Winston finds himself in the hands of the thought police after being arrested at the end of part two. He is held in a cell at the Ministry of Love, known for its use of psychological manipulation and physical torture to control dissenters. Here, Winston encounters various people, including Parsons, his neighbor, who was reported by his own daughter for thought crime. The chapter paints a grim picture of the terrifying power wielded by the party and the inevitability of capture for those who dare to rebel. In chapter two, Winston is brutally tortured. Amidst this, he is shocked to find that his torturer is none other than O'Brien, who he believed was a fellow rebel. It becomes clear that O'Brien had been setting a trap for Winston all along, posing as a member of the resistance to exposed dissenters. This reveals Shatter's Winston's last hope for an organized rebellion against the party. Chapter three delves into the manipulative tactics of O'Brien, who uses a mix of torture and intellectual conversation to break Winston's spirit and make him accept the party's reality. O'Brien admits to the party's manipulation of facts and insists that reality exists solely in the mind. The party, he claims, has the power to control reality as it can control the mind. In chapter four, O'Brien continues to push Winston to accept the party's doctrine, using intense psychological manipulation and introducing the idea of double think, holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously and accepting both of them. Winston's resistance weakens under relentless physical and psychological torture, but he clings to his love for Julia, his final act of rebellion. Chapter five delves deeper into O'Brien's manipulation, pushing Winston to the brink of sanity. O'Brien reveals the party's ultimate goal, total control over not just the actions, but the very thoughts and beliefs of its citizens. Despite the torture and mind games, Winston refuses to betray his feelings for Julia, revealing his enduring spirit. In the final chapter, Winston's transformation is complete. His spirit is broken after a horrific encounter in room 101, where he is confronted with his worst fear. In a desperate act of self-preservation, he begs for Julia to be put in his place. This act of betrayal signifies the complete victory of the party over Winston's spirit. After his release, Winston is a changed man. He meets Julia once more, but the love and rebellion they once shared are gone. He has accepted the party's control and even feels a love for Big Brother. The novel concludes with a portrayal of the ultimate triumph of totalitarianism, a chilling warning of the power of absolute control over the individual. Part three of 1984 showcases the chilling effectiveness of a totalitarian regime in breaking the human spirit. Through the brutal treatment of Winston, Orwell explores the disturbing lengths to which a regime might go to maintain power, illuminating the horrifying potential of absolute power and psychological manipulation. The ending serves as a stark warning against complacency and the unchallenged acceptance of a


My name is Austin Lebeder. I'm from Kennewick, Washington. I was actually invited by a couple of people that I go to the gym with, and the first night that I came here, I didn't expect it to be so alive and so full of energy. Everybody here was on their feet and dancing and singing, and it really caught me off guard. Anything that I would try just seemed to fail. Every single thing that I would put my effort into seemed to go nowhere fast. And I was living my life so against God and so apart from Christ that looking back on it, I know that's why nothing worked, because I didn't trust in Him. I trusted in myself.  Everything I would try just seemed to fail, because I was looking at it from a standpoint of there's no God, there's no one to love me. I'm doing this by myself, and I always felt like there was something missing. But I didn't realize that that was Christ until I came here, and that night I decided that I had to give my life up to Him, and it's the best decision I've made. I've noticed that there are a lot more little attacks from the enemies, things that used to send me over the edge, you know, my jealousy, my anger, my frustration with anything in my life, and it just seemed overwhelming before I found Christ, but then after that all I would have to do is just pray about it, and I found such an overwhelming peace instead. And that's mainly what I've noticed, is all these little things that I couldn't handle by myself now seem to just be taken off my shoulders for me. I want to get baptized because when I was a baby I was baptized about one or two years old, and that wasn't my choice. That was before I knew anything in life, and before I faced any trials, any hard times, and so now that I've actually been through all these hard times on my own, and now that I've found Christ, I realize I have to start my life over again in Christ, because the life that I was living before this was just empty. Now Austin, do you believe in Jesus Christ as God's Son and your personal Lord and Savior? Absolutely. And do you promise to follow Him with good and clear conscience for the rest of your life? Yes, I do. Based on your faith, your confession, your commitment will baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.


Hey, this is Brett, and today I am super excited to go over this brand-new 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve. This Grand Cherokee also has the Advanced ProTech Group 4, and it also has the Luxury Tech Group 5 as packages. This is a 23U Summit Reserve package. Hydro Blue is the color, and this one also has the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine. It's paired up with the 8-speed automatic transmission, 293 horsepower. It's going to get you 26 miles per gallon highway, 19 city for an average of 22 miles per gallon, and it can actually tow 6,200 pounds with the towing package on it. I'm going to go all the way around in my videos. If you're not familiar with my videos, I do one of the most in-depth walk-arounds of each vehicle I do. We also take a look at the original window stickers, so stay tuned for that. It's right around the corner. This one does come with the LED headlamps, LED running lights, and LED fog lamps. I'm going to turn all those on at the end of the video so you can see just how bright they are. The Summit Reserve package gives you this kind of painted silver trim on the grille, as well as on the grille surrounds. Seven-slotted grille for all the continents that Jeep has been on, and that Jeep logo is also the same silver paint. You get the silver trim piece down here and the silver around the fog light bezels.  Hydro blue pearl coat, they just started putting this on the Grand Cherokee I think last year. Really a good looking color. It's got a lot of metal flake in it, usually reserved for the Wranglers and the trucks I've seen it on as well. But a lot of metal flake in there, really a good looking color. The Summit Reserve package comes with the 21-inch painted and polished aluminum. That's actually the same kind of painted aluminum that's on the front there. These are 21-inch wheels and it has continental cross-contact tires. These are 275-45R21s and they're an all-season tire on there. Going down to the trim here, same silver along with the Grand Cherokee and American flag lettering. The silver goes on the mirror and up around the doors and then onto the roof rails there and on top of the door handles. Let's take a look at that original window sticker. Feel free to pause this, I'm not going to go through everything, but most of it, 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Reserve. This one is Hydra Blue Pro Coat. It has Tepelo and black interior colors, Palermo leather seats, 3.6 V6 24-valve VVT engine with electronic start-stop and 8-speed automatic transmission. Everything on your left here is your standard equipment. So the Jeep Wave Quadra Track 2, electronic limited slip. Now the electronic limited slip is deleted over here, so you get a $400 credit. My guess is parts availability was to account for that. Select terrain system, traffic sign recognition, hands-free power lift gate, adaptive cruise control, active lane management, full-speed collision warning plus, and surround view camera system, parallel and perpendicular park assist, blind spot and cross path detection, side distance warning, intersection collision assist system, pedestrian and cyclist emergency braking. Active driving assist system, drowsy driver detection automatic dimming, rear view mirror, quadra lift, air suspension, anti-lock forwardless brakes, electronic stability control, hill start assist, tire pressure monitoring display, tire trailer tow package, semi-active damping, and rear seat object alert. So you can see just all the safety features that go into the standard equipment right there. Interior features include the Uconnect 5, the Apple CarPlay, Google Android Auto, those are wireless now so that you don't have to fool around with any wires. You get the nine amplified speakers with subwoofer, heated seats, cooled seats, second row heated seats, and then the power driver seat with back massager, passenger seat with back massager, driver memory seat, and the ambient lighting in there, which is pretty cool. We'll check that out in a minute. And then you get the 20 by eight and a half inch wheels, which obviously this one doesn't have because we got to go to the optional equipment on here. Hydra Blue Pro Code is the first optional equipment. That's $5.95. The only color that is not charged $5.95 is bright white, so you don't get a charge with a bright white vehicle. 23U is the Summit Reserve package on this one. That is a $4,400 and $80 option. Front passenger interactive display, 21 inch by 9 inch machine face painted aluminum wheels. 27545R21 all season tires, Palermo leather seats, 19 speaker high performance audio with the Macintosh sound system, active noise control system, 950 watt amplifier, vented rear seats, deluxe headliner, Palermo leather door trim. So this Advanced Protect Group 4 is a $2,865 option. It gives you heads up display, night vision with pedestrian and animal detection, and review auto dimming digital display. Now that system right there, especially in Wisconsin for deer is a huge thing. That's really cool. Luxury Tech Group 5 is $905 and gives you the manual second row shades. This one does have the conventional differential rear axle. $75,600 is your MSRP on this one to get your Summit price in the upper right hand part screen, and linked in the description below is a link to our website. Click that and you can get all the rebates and incentives on this particular Jeep if it's still available. Three or 36 bumper to bumper and five year 60 powertrain. Your fuel economy is right there, 26 Highway 19 City, 22 average, and then the safety rating is five stars up and down the board. Not rated for rollover, so they don't have the overall score there, but Jeep's historically very safe vehicles. We'll get to that interior in just a second. Four wheel disc brakes on the Grand Cherokee. Coming around to the back you get that silver trim on the exhaust tips as well as on the rear trim piece there on the bumper. There is your towing package with the receiver H4 pin and 7 pin wiring, number 6,200 pounds towing capacity on this Jeep. You get the gloss black on the trim back here, the LED tail lamps, which they look really good. Very distinctive back end on these vehicles. So when you're driving behind them, you definitely know you're behind a Grand Cherokee. Here's the cover for that receiver hitch. I take it off for the video so I can show you. Still has the Berber format inside the plastic here. There's the subwoofer, part of that Macintosh 19 speaker system, and then you get all the different generations of Grand Cherokees on that window silhouette there. That looks pretty good. Those seats do fold down nice and flat.  And then this button gets that gate down. Full size spare tire when you get the trailer tow package. And then to get this gate down, you press that button. It'll beep at you three times and then begin its descent. I don't know if you saw, but there's also speakers on the inside of the doors there. So that's part of that 19 speaker system. Capless fuel fill on all the Grand Cherokees. Love that feature. Never get gas on your hands again. And coming down the rest of the side of the vehicle, you get the blind spot heated mirrors, directional signals, does have the enter and go system. If you get the three lines there, you just have to put your hand in there. It'll automatically unlock. Take a quick look at the back seats. So the Summit Reserve 23U package makes these back seats heated and cooled. Obviously not cooled or heated in the middle, but on the outboard side, driver and passenger side, those seats are heated. That one's actually reclined. You can see how much they recline on there. So that's pretty cool. Rubber formats back here. You get a 115 volt, 150 watt plug-in, as well as two USBs, two USB-Cs, heated cooled seat buttons and rear air controls. You get the latch child safety system with a cover there. It keeps you from knocking your back into these bars here, which is pretty nice. And it hides them nicely as well. And then these seats do fold down. And you can see just how nice and flat they go. You get these sunshades, which is part of the Protek 5 package. You know, basically that's the only thing on that package, which is a really nice feature. Don't get me wrong. To protect whoever's back here from the sun on long trips, that's a great feature. I wish my van had that. $905, not so sure. You get the Palermo leather on the doors there, the wood grain trim, and then child safety locks on the back doors as well. Let's check out that interior. Now, let me know in the comments section below what you think that this color looks like. And then I'll let you know what I think it looks like. But it's definitely a tan leather. You get the black piping on the sides there, both these seats heated, cooled, and memory and massaging. The Berber floor mat up front, auto headlamps, powered telescopic and tilt steering wheel.  There's your wood grain trim going right into the door. Memory driver seat, there's your controls for that massaging seat. You get the Palermo leather trim on the door there and the black surround on the instrument cluster there. Then these mirrors do power fold in. You got to turn that knob down and then they go back out. And then the Macintosh premium audio system. Let's hop inside, check out the instrument cluster radio. Everything that this one has to offer in the interior.  I've got guys waiting on me. So digital speedometer on that 12 inch instrument cluster, you get a compass outside temp display. Now, if yours has the night vision, you're going to get this road with the half moon on there or the crescent moon or, I don't know, I don't know my moon phases, but you're going to get that if it has the night vision. And that's with that advanced protec four package, advanced protec group four. So that's how you get the night vision. Also the heads up display. It's kind of dim right now, but you can see it kind of great. It's like right there in the windshield. So anyway, it's a digital speedometer and you can adjust that through the instrument cluster here. The cool thing with this instrument cluster is if you press this different pain button, you get all your different screens that you can have and you can also change these. So if it's got an up and down arrow, you can change what's displayed there. So you got miles per gallon, your tire pressures, oil percentage, battery voltage, oil pressure, water temperature, trans temp, more water temperature. Anyways, you can change all those to read basically whatever you want. So really a lot of cool stuff you can do with this instrument cluster. We could do a whole video on that. It comes with the heated leather wrapped wood grain trim, black trimmed steering wheel. This is my, in my opinion, the best looking steering wheel I've ever seen. Really nice trim on there, how they did the wood grain with the black and the leather on these steering wheels. I've said it before in my Wrangler videos, it's like a really soft touch but a firm leather. So definitely a nice feel to it. Cruise controls, adaptive cruise controls, Bluetooth and information center controls, and there's that button to change that center console. You get the audio controls on the back as well as the paddle shifters. This one has the Uconnect 5, 10.1 inch radio. It's supposed to be five times faster than the Uconnect 4 or the old version of the Uconnect system. There is the factory navigation system. You get AM, FM, and Sirius XM radio capabilities as well as Bluetooth, USB, and AUGS hookups.  Not sure, there we go. You get your heated and cooled seat buttons as well. And then you get your massaging seats, which are pretty sweet. I think the vehicle's got to be on for those to be working, but you can do the waterfall lower back, extend, lower, extend, and then the rock climb for the driver or passenger side. And then you can control the rear climate controls as well. Here are all your different apps. Now I'm not going to go through everything. We will go through some of the stuff, but just not everything because there's too much and this video would go way too long. There are your massaging seats. And then basically these are just links to all the different options down there. Get your nav, your phone, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, the ambient lighting. Now that's really cool. So you can see, if you look underneath the door trim there, see how it's kind of blue? It's because the blue is selected. Now if I turn that to red, see how that changes? Do yellow, white, and aqua. I'm pretty sure you can probably customize your colors there, maybe. But anyways, you can change all that and then the bottom changes the floor color. You can see there, so however you want to set that up, it's a pretty cool system anyways. Let's go back to apps here. You get your front camera off road pages, which I will show you because those are really cool as well as the surround view camera. There's your system and other. So the surround view camera, you can see it gives you the surround view and then you can select all your other cameras so you get a narrow view of the back, a wide view of the back, a wide view of the front, a narrow view of the front, and then the actual tow camera to hook up your camper trailer or boat. And you get the grid lines on there and then you can zoom in on that hitch to get hooked up the first time every time. You also get your off-road camera. Those wheel marks are dynamic. So as you turn that steering wheel, it's kind of showing you where you're going to go in the future. I don't know if you'd want to really take some at reserve off-roading, but just in case you didn't want to hit any rocks and wreck those nice 21-inch painted, polished aluminum wheels, that allows you to see where you're going in front of you so you're not going to do that. And then we have the off-road pages, which are right here, and the off-road pages give you your steering angle, your transfer case, rear axle locker, if they're locked or not, steering angle, as I turn that steering wheel, you can see that angle changes and actually watch the wheels up top. They do change as well, so that's pretty cool. You have your latitude, longitude, and altitude on there as well. Different accessory gauges, pitch and roll, and select terrain on here. So that's part of the Quadra Track 2 system right down here. You got sand, mud, snow, auto, sport, and rock. So if I put it in sport, you'll actually go onto a race track there, a drag strip. You got snow, sand, and mud. You can see those change as you do that. It also changes all the vehicle dynamics when you go into those different modes. And you can see the Quadra Lift system is actually changing for those road conditions. It does have off-road mode 1, off-road mode 2, normal height, and then enter, exit, and then a lowered for highway driving. And that's basically everything on the radio. Wireless cell phone charge pad, two USBs, two USB-C's, and an Augstjack HDMI passenger hookup. And what's that for? That's for the passenger screen, which is right there. So you can control radio controls right there. You can also hook up like a video game system, or a DVD player, and watch movies right over there. You can't do it on here, but you can do it over there. And that's what that HDMI is for. You turn that screen on with that right there. This is your perpendicular and parallel park assist, parking sensors, hazard lights, stability control. There's your lane keep assist and your start-stop capabilities. Down here are, once again, are your Quadra Track 2 system controls, your 8-speed automatic transmission, your Quadra Lift system. You can actually lower that yourself right there. And it'll actually be lowering the vehicle. I don't know if you can see that. So it lowers the front than the back. There we go. Kind of hard to see. Anyways, downhill assist control. That's a neutral setting for flat towing, and then four-wheel drive low. You can see normal ride height achieved once it's done. You get your keyless entry with your remote start and power lift gate on there. You also get a holder for your key fob right there. Also note the gloss black trim that goes all the way around the center console here. Looks really good. And that gloss black goes around the passenger radio. Just a really nice color combination on this vehicle. And then you get the panoramic sunroof, second-row fixed power sunroof in the front, as well as the power sunshade. And then you get map lights, assistant SOS buttons, sunroof and sunshade controls.  And then you get the sunglass holder there. Home link buttons for your garage door security systems and lane systems. And you also get the suede headliner, which is pretty nice as well. And then you get your review mirror camera. So this is actually a video display of what's going on behind you. You can turn that off. You can also raise it, lower it, brighten it, or dim it. All right, let's start it up. Take a look under the hood. And just check out all those LED lights in the front, as promised. I know it's kind of a long video, but this has got a lot of options. So definitely want to go through all of it. You can see the Macintosh lights up once you turn the vehicle on. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today. And hopefully from this HD video, you'll find a really good idea of the overall looks, styling, color, and options on this vehicle. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Want to see something else? Want me to demo something else? Let me know. Always open for more video ideas. Under the hood, we have the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine. Engine bay is very clean, obviously. Brand new vehicle. So you get the cover on the 3.6 when you get the Summit and Summit Reserve package. I'm not sure why they do that on just those two vehicles, but I just did a limited and it's definitely not on there in the limited. So that's interesting to know. They do have shocks to keep that hood up. There's your emission sticker. Everything you need to know is labeled in yellow, the washer fluid, coolant, oil. We're to put it in the oil. Everything else is for a technician. And yeah. That's pretty much everything. Let me know what you think in the comments below. Let's do a final walk around here with all those lights on. I really like that they've made all these vehicles LED's on. You can see just how nice and bright they are. Just look how far off they go. So it's definitely a good angle for those lights to brighten up everything in its path. Like I said, the LED lights in back are very distinctive. You can definitely tell when you're following a Grand Cherokee. And see more pictures of this Jeep or one of our other 550 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, Grand Cherokees, Cherokees, Wagoneers, Grand Wagoneers, Compasses, Renegades, you name it. We've got to go to the website right there summitauto.com. Full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle all at summitauto.com. If you'd like to check out more HD videos, you can go to youtube.com slash summitauto. Click the bell notifications. Get updates on the videos I do each and every day as well as having access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walk-arounds on YouTube. 9,000 videos and counting. Just hit 9,000 the other day. Super excited about that. And to see, in fact, in a second, you will see a link to subscribe to my YouTube channel on the upper left. A link to all the Grand Cherokee videos I've ever done in the upper right. A link to this vehicle on our website. In the lower left, a link to one of our latest YouTube videos on the lower right. Click those checks out. We're super excited to help you with this brand new 2024 Jeep Grand Cherokees Summit Reserve 23U package with the Advanced ProTech 4 package and the Luxury Tech 5 group in Hydro Blue ProCo. Thanks again for checking out the video. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel. I really appreciate it. Thanks again.


Okay. We're recording. Go ahead. Okay. So good morning. I'm calling to order the GLL meeting today, May 25th at nine oh one AM pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public are able to access the meeting in real time via zoom or by telephone. And I'll call on the other members to make sure that we can all hear and be heard. Jennifer. Present. Thank you. Pat. Present. Thank you. Mandy. Present. Okay. I'm hearing everyone and Michelle is not with us this morning. Okay. So we're going to start the day with the race, amity day proclamation. Joining us, we have Council President Lynn Riesfer and community sponsor Mr. Ash Hartwell. Athena, would you please let Lynn and Ash into the room? I don't see Ash in the attendees list. Marcy is there and she's probably there's direct from the League of Women Voters. And if we have any other community sponsors less, if you could please raise your hand so we can include you as well. And Mandy, would I be able to ask you to pull up the fuck? I was going to ask you that. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, Lynn. Good morning. Okay. Let me just turn my view so I can see everyone. Good morning, Marcy. Hi. Good morning. I just wanted to say I'm not really the intention was not for me to be this spokesperson or on the program at all. But until Ash comes, I'm happy to to stand in for him. But this is his thing. So if he comes out, I'll leave. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Okay. So we are looking for clarity consistency and actionality. And if we would, Lynn, would you like to say a few words? Yes. Thank you first of all for all your work. And I really appreciate the edits that have already been added to this. This is a proclamation that we have done. I believe every year we may have missed last year. I hope not. More importantly, I did compare this proclamation with proclamations in the past. And I believe it is the second and third paragraph, maybe the fourth, that are different from other years. And I just wanted to point that out to you. Other than that, this is a very important event for our town and is consistent with many of the things that we're seeing now as progress towards the whole area of racial equity and inclusion. Thank you. So if we would like to begin with the Manny. No, I was if we're ready to begin, I'll just talk about what you're seeing on the screen. Thank you. So this is this is my draft changes. And so I like to go through them since I'm the one that shares a document. I think the R in racial should be capitalized because I think they do that as their title. And then I added all the ands at the end of the warehouses. I bolded there was an S that was not bolded in one of the warehouses. There was a comma right here that was missing. And then a comma down here for the Oxford comma. And we bold the now there for us. And so I added a comma at the end of Sunday, a period at the end of the now there for and we tend not to say on behalf of the council anymore. And we don't tend to build that. So those are the changes that you're seeing in red here right now. So will we start with the first whereas and you take us through. I mean, I think we normally just say to the four CRC members, are there any changes in you can pick how many warehouses you want us to look at at the time. Were there any suggestions, questions, changes? It looks good. Could it be that we're ready to move to declare the proclamation to be clear, consistent and actionable? Can I ask one question of the sponsors? Sure. Do we know whether there's going to be some sort of event on Sunday the 12th that should be mentioned in the now there for. There is an event, but I think some of the details are being worked out still, unless Marcy, you know what time the event is. First of all, oh, there's Ash. Okay, he can answer. Sorry. Hello. Yes, there is an event and we're we're still, you know, filling in the details. But we're we're going to have some performance. It's going to be virtual for a variety of reasons, but we seem to be having a new wave of COVID. So but we're going to have performance and talks and we hope that the council will actually present the proclamation and we can work out the details of that. But I just want to say a couple of words about this. First, thank you all for being here and also for all the work you do in the town. You don't do this for money or for fame. I know that. But but I think you do it for amity. And a lot of people ask, so what is this amity? What what do you mean? And I think as you pass this proclamation, it probably is crossing your mind. Why amity? What is it? And just a couple of words, you know, what I think it is is is race amity isn't about friendship across racial lines. It's really about love and action. It's when you work together for others and for collective well-being. And in doing that, you're really transcending the prejudice and the hurtful, harmful fiction of race. And that's that's essentially the spirit of of race amity. And that's what we hope the proclamation conveys. And it conveys this idea that to make the kinds of changes in the town that are needed to achieve greater justice and equity and well-being, we need both love and amity, and we need justice and equity, and they go together. They can't be they should never be separated. Anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you. It's my sermon for the morning. But I feel deeply about this. And so does race amity. And thank you, Marcy, for being here. And I know that Andrea was also going to join us in a few others, but I'm not sure they made it. Ash, can you tell us what time the event will start on the 12th? It'll be at four o'clock. Okay. So we could add that in, Mandy Jo. Okay. And that's a Sunday, not Saturday. It's Sunday. It's Sunday. Thank you, Mr. Hartwell. Good. Excellent. Mandy Jo, thank you. Ash, are you okay with that? Fine. Yes, thank you. I'm not a voting member here, but yes, it's fine. Your thoughts are included if you had any other suggestions or changes. I know you joined a bit late. So if you had anything else, any other language that you had an opinion on, please share. No, this is this is just fine. Thank you. All right. Shall I make a motion? Yes. I move to declare the race amity day annual proclamation 2022 clear, consistent and actionable as amended. Okay. All right. Let's call on. So Jennifer. Yes. Hi. Mandy. Hi. And I am an I. Okay. It's unanimous. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you all for your time, for your work, after being with us today. And thank you all for all the work you do. And all the good that you contribute. Thanks. Thanks. Are you on the 12th? Okay. You are reasons. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Okay. So I do watch out that we will not be reviewing the bylaw concerning deceptive advertising practices of limited services, living services, pregnancy centers today. We did receive legal review, but it was not too late last evening. So, and to allow for necessary adjustments on a deadline, Godja has asked that we postpone that review until the next meeting. So with that, we can move on to the finance committee appointment recommendations. And I'll ask again for Mandy, if you would please, I know we have some questions, the questions to look over review and vote and also move to declare the applicant pool sufficient. Yes. So we need to do the applicant pool declaration sufficiency first and then the selection guidance. So the order needs to be sufficiency of the applicant pool, then selection guidance and then interview questions. Okay. All right. So I do know that we have two applicants and in order to move to declare that sufficient, do we just need a motion and a vote? Do we have questions or discussion first? So we have one one impending vacancy, correct? Yes. Okay. So I guess I'll make the comment that in general committees have declared pools sufficient when there are double the number of applicants as there are positions open. So in that sense, it's probably a sufficient pool to move on to interviews, in my mind, even if the, you know, with two people, what can you say about demographics, right? There's a very small demographic basis to look at. And so can you say those are as diverse as we want or not as diverse? There's two people there. So, you know, I think I would support moving to declare the pool sufficient myself, but yeah. So then we have work to do with outreach, but we are grateful for who we have. So do we have a motion to declare the pool sufficient? I'm sorry. So I will move to, no, no, I was going to make a motion. Oh, thank you. Thank you. No, I was going to make a motion that we declare the pool to be sufficient to proceed with interviews. Thank you. We have a second. Second. Okay, thank you. So we'll call to vote. Pat. Hi. Thank you. Mandy. Hi. Jennifer. Hi. And I am an I. Hi. Well, that's unanimous. And then we will move on to the selection guidance document. And Mandy, would you please pull that up? So I think this, this is the one that was in the packet. Yeah. Yes. Has everyone had a time to, had time to look this over? Were there any questions or suggestions? Mandy, may I ask, are we, do we vote on this again, or are we just reviewing this? The policy requires that the committee vote every year to adopt selection guidance. So even if this is, although let me, the policy says, I think GOL, did you, well, Pat, last year adopt this as standard selection guidance? Yes, we did. Yeah. So, so the policy on selection guidance, the council policy says prior to soliciting statements of interest, developing interview questions or holding interviews, the recommending committee shall by majority vote adopt selection guidance for filling the vacancy and shall provide the document to the full council and all known applicants prior to the deadline for submitting statements of interest for each multiple member body, the recommending committee may create a standard reference list of skills and characteristics of a successful member of that body and the knowledge and or expertise related to the work. And then it goes on to talk about criteria for a healthy multiple member body. So I don't, reading that, I think even if we create that standard list, which we've done as a GOL, we probably have to vote it every year. Okay. So we're voting to move to council, to pass the council for approval. The council doesn't approve this, it's just the committee that does. Okay. It's have to then send it on to the council at some point. Okay. So do we have a motion to approve? So I moved to adopt the standard selection guidance for non voting members of the finance committee as the selection guidance for the upcoming recommendation. Second. Thank you. Thank you, Pat and Mandy. Okay. So, Mandy. Hi. Hi. Jennifer. Hi. And I have an eye again. All right. Moving right along to the interview questions. So this is the one that was in the packet. Did you receive other questions? I know I sent you some, but many of them are similar to these. Yes. Yes. And those were passed as well. And I also had an addition from Michelle, which was concerning, concerning current members. So is it possible to ask current member, a current member about their previous experience or do all questions need to be identical regardless of experience? So per the policy. Let me, let me put the policy. That's a good question. Yeah. And so let, let me put the policy up because this is something as Pat can attest. I have, hold on. Let me see if this works. And GOL discussed this a lot and the council discussed this a lot as we were adopting the policy and actually removed, removed language that would allow follow-up questions and removed language that would have allowed different questions to different applicants. And so the short answer to Michelle's question is no. And, and the, the reasoning, you know, so the short answer is no, all the applicants have to be asked the same questions and the policy doesn't really allow for follow-up questions because the interview questions must be adopted prior to holding interviews. And they have to be asked of all applicants. So that's this first sentence right here in the adopted policy. And so, you know, the policy does not, in some sense, it's silent now, but it basically does not allow for any other interview questions or follow-ups anymore. And so if we as a committee want to potentially ask questions that might get to a, an applicant's thoughts on their current service, it has to be included in the wording for a question. So the way CRC has done that for planning board and ZBA is to sort of put a statement after a question that says, you know, in answering this question, please include all of your experience, you know, or discuss your experience. I think it says, please include any experience you have. And for these, it's appearing before or serving on planning board or ZBA or watching one of their meetings. So it would be a similar wording for finance. And that's how CRC sort of got around the, well, we want to hear what people have learned if they're served, have served on the committee. So, you know, I guess that's the long-winded answer for it can kind of be done in a roundabout way. Oh, okay. So there, there is an opportunity. Are there ever exit entries for members leaving committees? We have not done that in the past. Okay. What a good idea. So has everyone had a chance to look over the questions? Any suggestions or comments from anyone? So I'm trying to pull up the ones I sent you so that I can see. As I share multiple screens here. So I would add to that first question sort of the language I was just talking about. So I'll put it in red over here. The any experience you have with finance in general or the town's finance committee to get towards if we end up interviewing or anyone who interviews that's already on the committee, getting them talking about their service on the committee itself. So it's not changing the question, but it's just adding that explanatory language. That's great. Jennifer. I think that's great. Because it, yeah. And then you, because again, maybe I brought it up at CRC that I have, there have been instances where people found themselves appointed to committees or commissions boards and they haven't really ever been to a meeting. So this kind of gets to that. So I had two other questions that I suggested based on, again, based on sort of planning board and ZBA interviews. And so what I'm going to do is add them in so people can see them. Just so people can see them. And one of them number, what is now number six, this, what is your approach to incorporating public input into your decision major scheme is something that CRC just added in for the upcoming planning board interviews. I think, Jennifer, your request, you know, in terms of trying to gauge where people are with what they think about public comment. I know, well, Pat's on CRC too. So we've had a long conversation. A spirited conversation on that. But I thought I'd mention it as a possibility for FINCOM, especially since FINCOM is required to hold public forums and hearings on the budget itself. Similar to, I guess, planning board and ZBA that are required to hold hearings that take public comment. And number five, again, based on a planning board question interview question. And I don't know whether this would be useful or not. But I think it would be interesting to hear how people, you know, think about budgeting and financial matters. So I think it's worth, personally, I think it's worth trying the question out and seeing if it's useful. And if not, then the next time we could drop it. Yeah, I think I agree with you. And I think they should both be in there. We too have great additions. Thank you, Mandy. Okay. Welcome. And then if we're using this language, we just have to change this. Do we have to change the adoption date since we've made changes? Yep. Do we have, are there any other? Oh, maybe. Oh, is my hand still up? It's not. Sorry.  I've minimized it so I couldn't see myself. Sorry about that. No worries. Do we have a motion to adopt the GLL interview questions for finance committee applicant interviews? So move. I'll second. All right. So, all right, let's do it. Mandy. Aye. Pat. Aye. Jennifer. Aye. And I again. That's unanimous. So next up. Well, we're moving. So next up, we have a preservation of structures of historical significance by law, which would be a discussion and vote. Which Mandy so graciously is offered to take us through. Give me a second. Thank you, John. I finalized the other thing. So this is the clean version. This is what. CRC voted to recommend the council adopt unanimously. This is the other half of what GLL declared. Actionable, I guess the rescission part. This is the other half. I, I, I, this is mostly for Anika's benefit at this point. Cause Pat and Jennifer and I are all sit on CRC. So we've seen this a lot. So this might go really good. It made our homework easy for this meeting. Really. This might go really quick. So this is the clean version. Which would be the version we look at. CRC looked at the marked up. Because. This might go really quick. So this is the clean version. Which would be the version we look at. CRC looked at the marked up.


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