We're all set? I think we are. Okay. First of all, let me let me introduce myself. I'm Ramiro Salazar, Director of the San Antonio Public Library. And on behalf of the San Antonio Public Library Board of Trustees and all of our staff, I'd like to extend to all of you a very warm welcome to our Central Library. Isn't it a beautiful building? Thank you for participating in this very important summit. Today you will have an opportunity to listen to providers of digital services, best practices, an opportunity to share ideas, to have a dialogue. It's an important issue in the community, the digital divide. We're proud of the efforts of the San Antonio Public Library in bridging that divide. Not only all of our library facilities, locations, we have 29 locations throughout the community. Not only do they offer free Wi-Fi, free access to high-speed internet, but we also offer access to public computers. And for many communities, and for many individuals in the community, the library is the only option to access high-speed internet. So we play the library plays a very important role. Our staff, they do a fantastic job of providing digital literacy, some of it formal, some of it informed, some of it it's on the fly. As folks try to use the public computer, some of them may not know totally how to operate the computer and staff come in right away and help out. So I'm very proud of the work of the staff and I want to congratulate the staff of the San Antonio Public Library for the efforts. And now that I know that there are other, and we'll learn about other entities that provide extremely important services in this area. I would like to acknowledge now cast and Charlotte and Lucas, their leader, they're streaming this event throughout the day and then it'll be archived so it can be accessed later by those that may not have had an opportunity to participate. We are honored to be, to have the mayor here, Mayor Ivy Taylor. She'll be joining us very shortly and she will be formally introduced later. I also want to acknowledge the various partners and supporters and planners that this was a collaborative effort. I will name just a few of the key partners to this will be identified, but I'd like to recognize Richard Milk and the San Antonio Housing Authority for the partnership. Federal Reserve to Donna Barton, Mayor's Office, Lila Paolo, first Lila. Lila, thank you so much for your continued support. And again, there's been others. And there's two key individuals that I would like to acknowledge. And there are the two Google Fellows, Emma Hernandez, representing the San Antonio Public Library and Munir A, representing the San Antonio Housing Authority. I'm going to introduce and invite to the podium a very dynamic individual with extremely high energy. You'll probably know her. It's my pleasure to introduce Ms. Molly Cox, who's president and CEO of the F8 2020. She will share kind of the outline for the day and other information. Molly, a certified nonprofit professional, previously worked as a director of UCSH Center for Policy Studies where she led non-profit management programs for current professionals and undergraduates and graduate students. Molly is an active member of the in the leader in the San Antonio community. And again, you'll find her extremely dynamic and high energy. And that's my pleasure to invite to the podium Molly. If I'm not dynamic now, it's over. And I have only a two cups of coffee, so that's highly possible, but I could not be. Hi, and good morning. It's early. And we're at the library. Check a book out. I'm just saying, we're here. You can. I was approached about the digital inclusion idea about a year and a half ago during a conversation with Google Fiber and they came to essay 2020 because they said it was very important for us to understand how digital inclusion and the digital divide sort of undergirds quite a few issues in our community because nowhere in the essay 2020 goals or vision does it say everyone should have access to a computer or everyone should have access to the internet, right? I found that to be quite interesting as we started to really speak to Clarissa and like talk through what that means, right? Like how do you fill out a college application if you don't have a computer? How do you look for a job? How do you create a resume? How do you do your homework? How do you sign up for health care without an email, right? And the list goes on and on and on and on and on. You know that in this room. When we talk very specifically, right, about digital inclusion, I think we get bogged down in language. You know, there's the digital inclusion, which is the framework for assessing and considering the readiness of communities. There's digital inclusion and a digital divide, right? So the digital divide tends to focus on the access available to individuals and the inclusion is really more this holistic sort of how do we bring this to communities at large. So as the president and CEO of essay 2020, which lately has been referred to as San Antonio 2020, which I appreciate. It's not the trademark, but I'll appreciate it. I truly do think about the community as a whole because the vision itself was created by the community, right? So I'm asking you today as we travel through this sort of space to think about you in the space that you occupy in our community as a business leader, as a community leader, as a volunteer, as an educator, and the space that you occupy within your own space within our community and how you take the information you hear about today to go back out into the community and help make this problem less of a problem. Here's what we know, right? One in six people in San Antonio don't have a computer and internet access. That's what we know. So one in six people are doing things on their cell phone or not doing things at all. And in a community where we say it's 21st century jobs and it's the digital age and it's super important that we get access to information, can you imagine what would happen if you went home and turned your internet access off and did everything tomorrow off of your cell phone? Everything.  I would do mine on my cracked cell phone and it wouldn't be pretty. So I just want you to sort of in that frame as you're listening to conversations around equity, which you'll hear today. You're going to hear about the implementation process. How do we make broadband access for everyone? How do we collaboratively work together? What kind of approaches have worked in the past? Tackling sort of digital skills and digital literacy and that gap too will also be addressed today. There will even be a lightning round, but it will be fast. It'll either be fast or you will actually be shocked. I don't know. It's at lunchtime and maybe you'll start to need a nap and they'll be like, nope, I don't know. It's important to acknowledge the partners in the room who are helping and putting this event on and collaboration and support. Obviously the San Antonio Public Library, grab a book. If you don't have a library card, stop it. I'm just looking out and admonishing you at this point. Obviously the mayor's office. I say 2020. I like that I've listed here so I can remind you that we also helped. We didn't. I just showed up to MC or something because my initials are MC. Goodwill San Antonio, 8020 Foundation, Federal Reserve, Bank of Dallas and Google Fiber are our local partners and then of course the national partners are N10, the non-profit technology network. Everyone on NDIA, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. So those are the partners in the room who've made this possible. Be an interesting day, I think. But the hope really is that you take the conversation one step further, right, that you're going to hear smart people say smart things. I know because I'm on one of the panels. I don't know why you're laughing at that. It's real life. You're going to hear smart people say smart things but if we just keep it as a conversation in this room, we don't really make anything happen, right?  Can I get that commitment from everybody in the room? Thank you for the applause. I'm supposed to remind you that on your table is a fiesta medal. Look at that. Mostly that was bribery. You know that and I know that. You're not allowed to take it with you unless you stay for the whole day. So people will be watching at the door. When he's got it at the door, should she stand at the door? Okay, got it. Just like, give me your medal if you need. My next job and I saw her walk in. So that's my next job is to introduce the mayor of San Antonio. Ivy Taylor, who I've known for a long time. We used to work together at UTSA is a very significant dancer. It's true. We'll ask her to do it right before she leaves. I have the music ready. Prepare yourself. It's early, but you're dancing. Dance for a digital divide. That is a fundraiser. That's a fundraiser waiting to happen. Trademark mollycox. And this is an important piece to her and I think part of the idea around connecting our community, which is very specific in the comprehensive plan that came out of essay tomorrow. And then we've got the chair, Councilman Nuremberg is here. The idea around the comprehensive plan, if I'm correct, and I think I am because now I'm helping work on it, I hope I am. I could be wrong. Is connecting our communities in a very smart and specific way, making the infrastructure make sense and sustainability make sense and our neighborhoods make sense. And it only makes sense that then we should be connected digitally as well. You're going to hear why this is important to her and why it's important to our community. And I am pleased to introduce our mayor, Ivy Taylor. Thank you so much, Molly, for that kind introduction. Good morning everyone outside of this important work that we're doing here on digital inclusion. Molly and I are working on a significant dance initiative for the city of San Antonio. I feel very passionately about that as well. But I'm so excited to see such a great crowd here for this important event, our first San Antonio Digital Inclusion Summit. Thank you so much to Ramiro and our public library, all the staff here. And thanks to Molly and SA 2020 for kicking off the program and all the organizers, sponsors and partners for making today's event possible. I'd like to welcome everyone from San Antonio and those who've traveled from other places as well to share their experience and help us as a community move our own digital inclusion efforts forward. Since I became mayor back in 2014, I've noticed increasing attention to this issue of digital literacy at the national level, just as I've increasingly emphasized the importance of digital literacy in our community. I'm sure that you've heard me discuss my vision for San Antonio as a globally competitive city where everyone has the opportunity to connect with prosperity and we can't achieve that vision unless we close the digital divide. I know that you know what that means, that gap between people who have access to broadband service and know how to use the internet and those who don't. It certainly prevents many San Antonians from completing essential tasks like filling out job applications, communicating with teachers and even interacting with their local government officials. We experience a digital divide because many parts of our city lack reliable internet access. They have poor broadband connectivity, no access to computers or they're just unable to use a computer for basic functional tasks. They are digitally illiterate and unfortunately the necessary tasks of daily living like paying bills will be even more difficult for those on the wrong side of that divide as the pace of our technological change continues to increase. So not only are these residents without the tools to easily enter the workforce, but they're also missing the skills to actually be productive workers. Living our workforce limits growth in our local economy here, creating a vicious cycle and reducing opportunities throughout our community. In one form or another, all of us eventually feel the negative impacts of the digital divide. However, it's also true that structural socioeconomic inequalities will widen the gap between those early adopters of technology, those who have the resources to become proficient and those who are least adept or have the lowest levels of access. Low income individuals and other marginalized populations such as seniors and disabled are less likely to be digitally illiterate and to have access to computer devices and reliable internet connections. The usage gap that characterizes the digital divide has now been linked to escalating income inequality in a negative feedback loop. And these effects persist and are reinforced for one generation to the next. And that's why digital literacy is so important to me. When I'm asked to identify the most important thing that I'm working on as mayor, the thing that motivates me every day when I come to the office, it is breaking the cycle of generational poverty here in San Antonio. And that digital divide is in evidence in San Antonio. Texas is the nation's second largest state in both population and land mass. And unfortunately, it's emblematic of that digital divide facing our country. In our state here, 38% of both urban and rural areas currently lack access to high speed broadband. And within this population, 20% indicated a lack of digital literacy as a major barrier to subscribing for broadband service. The 2013 American Community Survey found that San Antonio ranked in the bottom third of major U.S. cities based on a percentage of households with no internet access at home at 25.3%. And our population here of approximately 1.4 million spread over 467 square miles can make service delivery difficult due to low densities in many areas. Additionally, low income residents are more likely to be hampered by a lack of basic literacy, including tax literacy, numeracy, and financial literacy as well as digital literacy. The estimates of a literacy among our adult population here range anywhere from 11% to 25%. So think about that for just a minute. That up to 1 in 4 San Antonians may be functionally illiterate. And that's why it's so important that our partnership, that we have a partnership with our public library here and with the Bear County Bibliotech because digital inclusion is not just about high tech solutions. Yes, it's important to provide devices and activate dark fiber, but the most important thing we can do to address the digital divide is to build relationships that help our residents learn basic skills and apply them confidently to new technology. I know you'll be hearing more about this later, but I want to congratulate the folks from the San Antonio Housing Authority on their work with our public housing community residents, which is building a great model for our entire city. SAHA's involvement is critical because lack of internet access correlates with lower socioeconomic brackets in both urbanized and rural areas of the city. An open technology institute study showed how San Antonio reflects that nation's broadband divide, that more than 80% of households in higher income areas north of downtown and in northern suburbs have broadband while in areas west of I-10 and within the urban core, fewer than 20% of households have access. And so that means that San Antonio's more affluent residents are four times more likely to have access than our lower income residents. So it certainly is critical that today we've gathered to talk about what we can do and what we're already doing right here in San Antonio to address the digital divide. And so I want to acknowledge all the leaders in this room that have been engaged in on this issue from the Housing Authority to Goodwill, the Federal Reserve Bank, our wonderful public library, Google Fiber, NDE, NDIA, the National Digital Inclusion Association, and everyone on, and especially our great partners at Connect Tone. Together we are working to make San Antonio a digitally inclusive community where all people are connected to opportunities offered by technological advances. In San Antonio, our collaborative effort has four main components. First, making reliable, affordable broadband widely accessible. Second, ensuring that each of those elements through participating in HUD's Connect Home Initiative during the last year will provide a great platform for us to bring together media, the public, and private partners that are working in this state. And then to better leverage Connect Home, I created the Mayor's Digital Inclusion Initiative, which has drafted a City of San Antonio, our first digital inclusion strategy plan. And we'll build on work already being done by engaging partners in this room and others that we have yet to find, so I hope you will help spread the word once you leave here today. You'll hear about many of those efforts today, including the opportunity to bring this to volunteer to San Antonio to continue to implement Connect Home and the creation of a digital inclusion alliance. Lila Powell, my Chief of Policy, she'll be presenting later on the need for a digital inclusion alliance and how we can make it as inclusive and effective as possible. I'd like to thank you for your diligence and your connection to this thinking as we innovate in other areas. For example, because we know that the digital divide can keep our residents from fully participating in a technical company or local economy, we must be just as committed to inclusivity as we are to innovating and adopting innovative technologies. So as I lead, what we refer to as our smart city efforts for the City of San Antonio, I constantly remind our team that all of our residents are digital, dashboarding in place. And so to achieve that vision of San Antonio as a globally competitive city that offers everyone the opportunity to prosper, we must continue to work together to improve interactivity, making devices available, providing relevant training and planning for sustainable digital divide and opening up a whole new market. You've got that there for you to take notes, etc. It's my distinct privilege to kick off the first panel. I do want you to know that if you are tweeting out with the Twitter, that you mentioned that people can follow along making this, which is fantastic. Of course, I have to thank San Antonio Housing Authority for making that possible. So I just want to make sure that you say, hey, follow, hashtag, follow. I don't know what, just whatever the Twitter does. In economic mobility, a panel is up next in it. I'm going to introduce your moderator for the panel. Irene Chavez from the Maestro Entrepreneur Center. She's the Executive Director there. It's a nonprofit center created to help prosper existing small minority women and veteran owned businesses to the next level. It's a professional accelerator and a culinary incubator. During her career, Irene has advocated for small businesses, promoted diversity, provided training and facilitated mentor protege programs. She was with the City of San Antonio's Economic Development Department and was named during the San Antonio Business Journal's 40 under 40 rising stars. She's been honored with the North Chamber of Commerce's Athenian Professional Leadership Award, the SBA Minority Small Business Champion of the Year. She's also a recent graduate of the inaugural Latina Leadership Program, which was hosted by the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber. And currently she serves on the Board for the Peace Initiative, the Cesar Chavez Legacy and Educational Foundation, and the Medway Consortium Committee. More importantly, Irene is also like me from Corpus Christi. Together, we want to say you are welcome for Waterburger and Selena. We didn't learn that from some professor. We didn't learn that from some civic leaders. We learned it from people in the neighborhood who were hearing it from employers and family members. And 20 years later, this will get you to my point, right? And this is 20 years later, I have, you know, advocated for community for digital inclusion programs across the city and in Ohio. I now serve as research and policy coordinator for National Digital Inclusion Alliance, among other things. The basic thing I still do is work in Cleveland, working with groups across the city who promote digital literacy and access for all our neighbors and neighborhoods. That's what the connected community is.  Right? There is no political recognition, particularly, but this actually matters to the people we know it matters so much, which is why it is, that's why I want to come to place, to place, and to come now, where I can listen to people like Mary Taylor. Anyway, so that's what we do. That's the perspective. And I hope what we're going to be able to do today is talk a little bit about how you can mobilize, not just professionals in the community, but the community to make this a crisis priority for these people. And we're happy to have you all here, so thank you. Jordan, I know we're going to start with the presentation, so if you'd like, you can Well, Jordan, that is getting up. Let me remind you of the Twitter handle. Connect Totos. Right? Connect Totos. Hashtag is sorry. The hashtag. I actually do know it's there. And if we work really hard at it, we could make it trend. Right? So thank you so much for doing on the Texas-Mexico border. And I want to recognize Gabriel Garcia from CPS Energy. You know, he's just a few steps away from my office downtown at CPS Energy, but I didn't know him until I met him on a plane coming back from Dallas. And I said, oh, we need to close the digital divide. I'm working with a group of people. And I said, we want to do this. And he was like, no, we want to do this. He was like, nope. So he gave me the reality check and the access to incredible people in this room. Deb Socia, all of our partners that have come here today from all over the country, as well as our community here. So thank you for that connection and that ability to really address this policy issue in a very comprehensive and smart way. Utilizing everybody in our community that needs to play a part. So I just am starting with this slide because I want to set this stage for where we are as a society. I mean, people talk about the technological revolution, but I think it's so big. Sometimes it kind of takes over. And it's hard to understand how it's impacting us. So they talk about knowledge as the doubling curve, right? Because until 1900, human knowledge doubled approximately every century. And but now the build out of the Internet of Things is going to lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours. So it went from World War II every 25 years, every and then every 13 months. And now we're into every 12 hours with the Internet of Things. So that's the pace of change. Everything about jobs is changing. I have a quote in the publication about how businesses totally change. Some of the Airbnb is the largest provider of housing, right? And they own no real estate, Uber, largest provider of taxi service, but they own no vehicles. All of that has changed everything in how business works jobs. People are lamenting the loss of manufacturing jobs. But what we're missing is that those jobs are gone and we're in increased automation. But there are all kinds of new opportunities. The Internet opens up, it's so democratizing, or it can be if we close the digital divide, because a person in their computer and a little knowledge of coding can create Google or Facebook or something totally new and that solves some of our greatest social challenges. So that's the purpose of all of this work that we're doing is to unleash that potential. Mayor Taylor talked about the gap. The challenge, right, is that we have this pace of change. We also are facing in San Antonio the greatest income and wealth gap in the country. And in fact the country, since the Great Depression, we hadn't seen such high levels of income and wealth inequality. And the problem with that, when so few own most of the wealth and there's such a concentrated poverty at the other end, and we're losing ground in the middle class, the problem with that, a structural issue, like the mayor said, of the digital divide exacerbates that. We will not get to the American dream, right? In economics, our chair of the Federal Reserve talks about the Gadsby curve. So when you have that kind of wealth and income inequality, the Gadsby curve comes into play, and that means you won't have intergenerational mobility. Children will not do better than their parents. That's a kind of a promise, right, that everybody believes, right, that if you work hard, you'll be able to do better intergenerational mobility and economic mobility. That will not happen in that kind of society. So that's the environment we're in in San Antonio. So let's look at the opportunity. So our friend from Cleveland is here, Bill. They're not doing very well. This shows the U.S. cities, I just wanted to point that out, but look at us. We're not doing too well either. U.S. cities with 100,000 or more households ranked by worst connection. I always hate it when, you know, we get ranked by worst, right? But Detroit, Cleveland, right up there, San Antonio, is 25.3% of households without internet access and so on. So you can kind of see the challenge that we're facing and why we're joining together to solve this together. And there you see it plotted out. So San Antonio, it doesn't have a little arrow, but it's kind of around with this little clothing. So that's where we are. And you see the direct correlation. And here's the problem between income, low income, are less likely to have broadband for all the reasons we're going to discuss at this conference. And that presents a challenge. So let's look also people with less education, 43%, only 43% with less than high school education have access to internet and adoption. But 90% of those that are college educated. The homework gap, the mayor talked about this, right? So households that make less than 50,000 a year with school age children, right? We can see the major gap in their ability to do their homework at home because they do not have connectivity. So the percentage lacking a high speed connection at home, 82.5% of all households in that income category that was in income under 25,060.3% and so on. And in the big picture, this is what the US looks like. And you can see the challenges we face in the South. You're more likely not to have a broadband connection if you live in the South. If you're elderly, if you're low income, generally metropolitan areas do better than rural areas. So all of those issues come into play. And it's a very broad big picture view. But let's look at San Antonio. So San Antonio and the mayor gave some of the statistics for the different parts of town. So you can see those with the lowest are on the red and pink areas, right? And then it gets higher in the blue and green areas. So you can see to the east of downtown, you have people with very low connectivity. And then to the west of downtown likewise and to the south. So what's important to note here is not just the statistics, right? But think of a child living in a hill on the east side, Sonia, she's growing up, she's going to school all eager and she's in middle school now, right? Well, she is going to get further and further behind. She's very eager, but her teachers are noticing she's not turning in her homework. She seems unmotivated. She starts getting labeled. But the fact is it's because she can't do her homework at home and her Tia only has a car and is off work one day a week where she can take her back to school to do her homework. So that exacerbates the problem. So by the time she gets to high school, she's been labeled as not interested and not up to par, right? So is she going to go to college? Less likely, right? Compared to a student growing up in the green area of Alamo Heights, the highest connectivity, right? And say you have Gabriel going to school in Alamo Heights and he has access to everything. And he's a highly motivated student and gets labeled that way. And he goes off to UTSA or Princeton or Harvard, right? So that's the problem here, right? Is that all these mapping, this is real people. So it's basically, as has been stated, access to broadband is the platform for everything in this country. All the way from workforce development and access to jobs, to access to financial services, financial services are increasingly digitized, right? We already have the greatest unbanked and underbanked population in San Antonio and south of here. So if we don't do something about it, it will only get worse. And the other area we talked about, right? So the internet economy, these are the ways that people can participate. We're going to talk about all of these ways today. So you want basic broadband access and then build your digital literacy, the digital inclusion program so you can participate as a consumer. You want to be able to access online banking and mobile banking so that you can build wealth. We know from the Federal Reserve that if you have a relationship with a bank or credit union, you're more likely to build wealth and opportunity for your family. So having access is important there, as well as the digital skills jobs are the ones that are growing the fastest. Even in the opportunity occupations, which we need to be very concerned about, so the middle skills, right, that might not require a college degree, but the jobs that are most increasing are those that require digital skills. They pay, you can have some upward mobility in your job. They pay at least $15 an hour, the annual, the national living wage, and there's opportunity to move up. Those jobs are all requiring digital skills. That's why the digital inclusion and the work that we're going to be talking about today is so important. And then you get into the entrepreneurship opportunities and computer programming and some of the big work that people are doing here in San Antonio and opportunities for young people to get into cybersecurity and entrepreneurship creating apps and awesome social enterprises. So those are all the ways you can participate in the internet economy. This just depicts, it's in the book, it just depicts the three legs of the stool, basically, that we're going to be talking about today. So this is basically the structure of the conference. We're going to talk about infrastructure, and we can't go anywhere without investing in infrastructure because people won't have connectivity, right? But then the affordability, the computer access programs for low-income families, the training and in workforce development opportunities and using the internet to create adoption, all of those you can do once you have invested in your broadband infrastructure all the way from. And so what we're seeing in cities is basically what you saw on the map. There's what looks like a red lining of certain neighborhoods who don't have services because of affordability and lack of investment in that infrastructure and in programs that help them gain access. So that's what we're addressing today. This was ground zero for me and the Federal Reserve getting involved in digital inclusion. I was sitting in a focus group for a study I was doing on the border and Maria stopped me after, I was talking about basic infrastructure and the family started talking about their need for digital access. And that's when I first heard about the homework gap. And Maria pulled me aside, she said, oh, this Marty pants from the Federal Reserve, she'll help me. Can you make my phone a hot spot so my child, her little boy, could do his homework at home? And of course, the greatest digital divide is between me and my device. So I was like, I can't help you, but it is my millennial assistant over here. It can help you. No, we couldn't help her. There is no, there was no broadband infrastructure to support connectivity, mobile and wifi access. So although many people have a mobile phone, there's very limited connectivity in some areas of the country, certainly in some areas of the city as well. So that is the story there.  And, and the other women that were there, they talked about the very real life things that we're talking about today in statistics. They, she talked about how she couldn't do a job training training program with South Texas College, a nursing program she wanted to do better. Can you imagine the amazing impact on her family and her community if she could have done that training program at home? Because they, they, they require you to, to be able to access online training. She couldn't do it. When we stop opportunity like that, stop women from having access. It impacts their whole family, their children could not see her getting into that professional role. That's what I want to keep in mind today, the real people who are part of the digital divide and get us excited about closing this and unleashing that potential. I hope you are taking notes because there is a test at the end. Oh, I actually would like to start with Bill. I know that we had spoken about how digital exclusion is really in regards to downward mobility. So relating to the statistics and the information, will you touch on that and what you're doing? There we go. So, I'm not doing a slideshow, but there were a couple of graphics that I felt like was helpful and I'm also not talking for a long time, just a slideshow, but I don't want to be repetitive because I think there are a lot of things that you can say to speak about this stuff that they wouldn't know. So, four basic points I would like to make in support of what you've been hearing. The first is, I think you heard this in Eric Gailer's presentation and you've been heard it from Jordanna and it may be obvious to everybody in the room, but we never really talk about it. When we talk about economic mobility and the impact of technology, we seldom are talking about the fact that mobility is a two-way street. And most of the mobility that most of the people in neighborhoods that I work in have experienced is downward, not upward. When somebody, kind of at the top of the curve of folks that we've trained in connected community classes, which is a pretty big enterprise during the B-POP program, we ran a program with 26,000 people in eight cities. And when we did the demographics, basically the 50-year-old working person was who was showing up in the place. And when you think about that, for an awful lot of these people, 10 years ago, they were fully confident that operating in the job market. They were perfectly capable of filling out a paper form, going to the personnel office, putting in an application, asking among their friends whether anybody knew who was hiring. They were working-class people. Right? And the jobs available to famously have slipped down the scale of income and resting from status, but so has access. So now that working-class person who's now was born again in 1950 and has worked in and out of a job is coming to us saying, I don't know how to apply. That's downward mobility. That's that person being shuffled downward in the deck. And that's a very, very important aspect of the mobility problem that I think we all have to take into account. And I'm actually going to skip that slide, but I do want to get to this one. So this is the city employee one. And it's basically the same statistics that you saw on the map that Jordana showed you. And we're going to do one for San Antonio in a second. But that's my city. And all the red areas are areas where fewer than 40% of the households have, as of the end of 2014, had three minutes or better fixed broadband service, which is to say the SDSL or the ACABLE mode. And the three minutes are better, right? We're not talking about the typology 25 minutes from the FCC, right? So that's it, right? If you know Cleveland, you know that on the, on your right is the east side. That is the African American side of our 52% African American community, right? That's little lump on the left is the near west side. That is the Hispanic part of our community, right? Those are the areas and the neighborhoods where not only is your household probably not had a good broadband connection, but neither does your neighbor. 40%. The other way to say that is 60% of the household in those red neighborhoods didn't have normal mainstream internet access. My point here, of course, is not just, it is that this is not just a mobility or access problem or the individuals in those households. It is a huge problem for the communities within which those, those people live, right? And this gets to, we're down to this real role in life, which is promoting all this is a community investment act issue, right? Is that when we put on our community development tax or our community organizing tax, right? And I'm saying this because that's, I think, an awful lot of what the city is trying to think about. When it thinks about it's planning around these areas, we have to bear in mind, this isn't just one of those nice services that you can build up on top of other community services. This is actually a core economic development problem for low income neighborhoods at this point, right? And it's because it is so geographically concentrated. If you stick up the next one. So there's the, you should do the next one. That's the red, that's the red area that's popped out, right? Maybe it makes it a little easier for you to look and say, oh my gosh, my neighborhood. Incidentally, if you put in the yellow of the original map, don't put that, I'm just saying, right? It's very, very large part of the city. But these are very concentrated. So that's one point I want to make. The community point of view, think about that. The second point I want to make is beyond the issue of downward mobility, the other word that I actually first heard in the speech today was the word exclusion. The way you think about this is important. For a long time, the people working in this area used to bat around the question of whether they like the term of digital divide, right? All kinds of reasons, right? About six years ago, seven years ago, people started talking about digital inclusion. Now that's become the way we talk about this one, right? That's great, right? It's a nice, positive affirming, right? Which also happens, you know, speak pretty well of the range of activity you need to deal with, right? But there's an inverse of that, and that's exclusion. And the reason I think we should start thinking about exclusion is because exclusion is an active process, right? It is something that some people do to other people. The people who do it to other people are not necessarily doing it deliberately or intentionally, or with malice or forethought, right? We do it because it seems like a good idea. But in the speech very directly is the point that Mayor Taylor made in the first speech, right? When the city engages in the smart cities strategy where it puts more and more and more of its eggs in the digital basket, it is saying to the people in those neighborhoods, you're less vital for our activities. Thank you very much. Now, if you are the CIO, and I don't want to pretend that I actually know that much from this world, but I can try it, right? If you're the CIO of enterprise, I'll let you try it, whatever. And you're supposed to roll out a new software or hardware system in your enterprise, right? And you roll it out and it's, you know, for mission critical activities, right? Use the jargon. So you need to make sure that everybody can use it, right? So what is the working mistake for a CIO who's rolling out a mission critical system in an enterprise? Underfunding training, right? Not making sure that every single person has to use a system, can use a system, right? That is the working mistake, right? And that is the working mistake that this society has been making with respect to digital adoption for the last 20 years, right? All of the people who need to use a mission critical system aren't trained to use them. And here's the thing, we know how. There's nothing mysterious that has to do with this, nothing. It's one of the easiest things you can do to have a major population impact, right? We need to reach out to people, through people who can talk to them. We need to give them some basic training about how to use the technology. We have to make sure they can get a cheap computer. And most important, we have to make sure they can get cheap internet access. Because you can expect somebody who can't pay their electric bill to pay 60 bucks a month for internet. It isn't going to happen, right? But we know how to do those things. It doesn't mean they're easy, right? But they're not mysterious, right? So as you think about how to do this stuff, right, in city, I want to encourage you to do two really important things, right? One of them is talk, make sure you're engaging with the people in the communities affected about the importance and make them the champions of what's going on. Don't make this a missionary enterprise. Make this an organizing enterprise, right? And secondly, don't believe that it's really complicated and it's going to be hard to figure out how to do it. It's hard because it's hard to find some money. It's hard because it's hard to get the providers to give you cheap service. It's not hard because it's hard to figure out. Wonderful point. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the things people have done that have been successful. So first, I got to tell you, along with what you're saying, my husband's from Queens, right? He grew up in Queens. Every time we go anywhere near New York City, we have to go into White Castle, right? We've never had White Castle, a little teeny burger with almost no wounded like this big, but we have to. And so about a year ago, we stopped at White Castle and we're in there and a young man comes in and he goes up to the counter and he says, I'd like to apply for a job. We know this is a minimum wage whipping burgers, right? I'd like to apply for a job. And the woman behind the thing said, you have to go online. And he said, I don't have access online. Can I talk to your manager, please? And the manager came out and said, sorry, we don't take anything. And the guy cried and he broke my heart. That breaks your heart when you can't get a job flipping burgers because you don't have $60 internet at home every month. And I love libraries and they're really helpful but they may not, I may not be able to get to the library when it's open to get that email back to tell me that I got an interview today at two, right? So we need to figure this out. We got to figure this out. It's not okay. So I'm going to tell you a couple of small businesses that I worked with, not me personally but the project that I worked on in Boston. Folks who were figuring out how to use that online service to create wealth for their families, right? Help their families move forward. Some of these folks created the most interesting jobs. One woman was making sock puppets.  She sold them in the neighborhood but if you're not online, you don't have a business, right? So we taught her how to organize, market and sell using technology. We taught her how to use square so she could sell at the fairs.  So what started as a small thing for her ended up being something that helped her family succeed financially. Another young person created a business shoveling snow. So of course this is Boston. It doesn't snow all year but it snows enough that you could make some money shoveling sidewalks. They actually find you if you don't shovel your sidewalk. So if you're maybe my age or older you may want to hire somebody to come and shovel your sidewalk. So but they made a ton of money this this winter and they have all these great pictures of them shoveling snow on their website. These are things folks can do when we empower them, right? They can use the skills and the opportunities they have to build wealth internally. So one other thing I wanted to mention and that's something that you alluded to which is if we have the will we can do it. It will take all of us though. And so one of the things that leaders we partnered with Google Fiber and we actually provide an award program that encourages leaders of communities to get involved. So mayors and city council members to get really engaged. You have an engaged mayor but we really want to encourage that and we want to uplift those folks because if we really want to solve this problem we need everybody. We need schools and libraries and community centers and community organizers and we need local officials as well. So one of the hopes that we have is that by elevating the leaders we actually encourage other members. I'll play devil's advocate and say that there's a maybe there's an opposing side of people that say you know why can't we just build out in the business area why do we have to you know bend over backwards for accessibility even though of course we've detailed that and I think everyone in the audience would agree that we need to what would you say to the opponents of that that would say it's not that big of a deal or let businesses figure it out or you know go to the library use your free resources. Let the market let me just start sure let the market take care of it right and provide the businesses they can afford it. There's a big problem with that for example and I'm thinking of for example an AARP program for people over 50 like their older children. So they have a program to train people to to be able to be self-employed and you know what I mean it's all about digital skills training and access to the internet because you can do the kind of in compassion. So we're facing in our society right now people retiring but not having enough in their savings people that were hit by the recession and needing to do in compassion. Well we have a beautiful opportunity to do just that with the internet because what you can do at home when your computer to promote a business even if it is making a public or but you need access to the internet because it helps you do how your business thrives and can grow and bring in that income. So that's why it's bad. It's bad because we're not unleashing people's own potential to solve some of our greatest challenges right to to become self-sufficient and and self-sustaining and do it themselves with all the pride and that that brings right for a community. So it's about investing in people and when you don't do that when you say no you know it's a luxury if they can't afford it. No we already know and the Federal Reserve and State is definitively along with many organizations that this is essential infrastructure like water like sewage systems like electricity and so that is why. Absolutely dead if you'd like to add on. So interestingly enough I was testifying before a subcommittee in the House last year about this very issue and one of the representatives said to me well you know there isn't a McDonald's in every community either. Why should you expect there should be internet access. The market has to be there. The market has to be up to the market. Well you know first of all the market we're going to solve this problem it would have it hasn't and so we need to be locally aware and we need to find solutions right. That's what we're good at right. We're really good locally at finding solutions and fixing problems but but my response was I'm fairly certain somebody said that about electricity and would we say that today about electricity certainly not. The big difference is we took as a country became very very engaged in ensuring everybody had access to electricity. We built out roads to rural communities. We did all of these things with the energy of the entire country. We're not doing that with broadband and that's really problematic. We need to have a much stronger movement. We need to have everyone on board. We need to be able to push back against big companies that sometimes put barriers in the way and that does happen and we know what happens right. So how are we going to stand strong and become much more collaborative in our efforts to make change and so in terms of having it accessible to everyone I don't see it any longer as an important question and so when anybody asks me about that I always refer back to electricity. The only thing I'd say is the question is why do we need that and my answer is who are we. Right. Who is the we we're talking about there. Unfortunately this discussion tends to happen in terms of a we that is limited to people who think of poor people and people who are disconnected as at best a missionary audience rather than as part of we right. As far as I'm concerned we need it because we need it that's all right and if we don't think that way I wanted to say we're all the same thing right why don't we just pave the streets downtown it isn't like people didn't have that idea once upon a time we've worked our way through it right and cities make sure people have paved roads and they have to look right so but among other things that's partly because I promise you the recent foundation would sell off a bunch of those roads if they could but they can't right because there is a political constituency on every street that said what you're going to turn this road over to somebody who's going to charge me rent right so they don't have the guts to say right because we have built that assumption into our civic culture now we haven't built that assumption about connectivity for our civic culture and so it is for the mayor who is being I have to say this your mayor is being brave about this right because for any public official to be saying we need to invest in something that isn't a known to be a broad public agenda is taking a chance right we have to make sure it's not risky for public officials to say let's make sure there's 10 megs or 25 megs down every street that people can afford right that's up to us it's not up to them right and and that's part of the reason I think that we have to say look let's start defining the weed as all of us and if you look at it from that point of view as the question itself thank you Bill and I know in the interest of time we'd like to also get some questions from the audience so I'm going to go out here if anyone would like to start I know the panel you can adjust it to the entire panel or to the individual so just work because I'm in heels hi good morning first of all I'd like to say thank you for putting this form together because it's very necessary I'm a pastor in the city I do a lot of things in district 2 and I love my city and my community God bless you mayor about three years ago three and a half years ago the promise on money was coming to San Antonio district 2 and so I went to mayor you remember that mayor when I came to the office and I brought some information on broadbay wave I think because as a pastor you want to meet the needs of your people not just spiritually but naturally we saw a need that people did not have access to the internet one they were afraid of it lack of knowledge all those different attributes and I asked mayor Taylor back then I said look at my proposal and now I'm here four years and I was online just yesterday and I saw this symposium and I signed up to come so it's not really a question but I'm confirming that it is necessary that we meet the needs of our people because whether it's the west side the east side the south or the north we need to bridge that gap God bless you keep us well if I could respond just for a moment I have to say one of the things I learned best was the importance of trust and that if you want to support a community you have to figure out who they trust and very often it's the faith-based community and so when I worked on this in Boston and when I help other cities I always tell them the first place to go is the faith-based communities because they really do care about the the well-being of their confidence really so thank you very much for sharing and Pastor Rosita we're going to need you and everyone in this room to address this so thank you I'm Jen Walker I don't have a question it was in reference to what I believe Ms. Deb was saying in reference to using the library uh one of my neighbors son was using I think six or seven grade we can use the library computer but at times 30 minutes and he couldn't finish his homework so she came to my door and then people who are filling out applications for jobs especially they throw out the Walmart they had a huge survey to take so it's our test before they can get the job and the adults get an hour and at times they're not so it's really difficult for people trying to get jobs going through the library sometimes so they could extend maybe you know a little more time that you know it's interesting because as an educator when I when my would send my kids home with homework when you realize that you have two children same skilled same energy going home and one can sit at their computer all night and revise and the parents can help at it and there's all of this engagement and I can share it with my friend and say it's this look right to you and you have all these options and when you're a child that gets 30 minutes and you can pop it on your thumb drive and get back in line and pop it on your and get back in line and take it to school early in the morning so you can get it printed out but the library closes I mean all of the things that impact that child that don't impact this child how can you grade those two the same right how can we expect the same output when we don't give the same input the other point I think it needs to be made around this room is how important it is that this particular coalition of people is in this discussion in every city in the country libraries are extending way beyond their research to be the people who make who overcome this problem right and I don't know anything about the San Antonio library's funding but I bet they're spending general fund money on technology right to to at time there's plenty of other competing things they've got to do in order to deal with exactly with what people have just discussed in the best way that they can I know that's certainly true in Cleveland it isn't enough right because it can never be enough right so but on the other hand the library is doing what the library can do so well and it's doing it in concert with what the city can do so well and they're doing it in concert with what community development organizations and churches can do so well then you start having the basis of the system right and that's where where you have cities that we like to call them digital inclusion travel lasers in San Antonio is one of them right but that's that's what you actually see is those all those their play it's not stakeholder those players in this market being as along with other partners like Google for example right in in driving this then you start putting the parts together but when any one institution tries to deal with it by itself it's very difficult I just want to thank you all for your presentations I'm very excited to have this conversation today um so one of the challenges in San Antonio is how low density it is and how spread out these communities are so I'm wondering from perhaps the municipal perspective how do we find the community leaders of the communities that are underserved by technology and furthermore how do we procure vendors or people who are selling this technology and kind of strategize ways to incentivize them to provide their services to these groups any tangible strategies any ideas on how to locate these communities perhaps from a municipal perspective and certainly I addressed that in this publication of the Federal Reserve and outlined the ways to expand and deploy broadband in areas where it does not exist the options available and then the strategy I did strategies for how to approach banks right and for banks to to see how they can be involved under the Community Reinvestment in partnering to provide financing grants and other layering of resources to make this happen right so so I think you know this is a first start we also have brilliant people here today and in this community who can can talk about the different geographies and what's most appropriate right to to look for is it Fiber to the home is it a Wi-Fi mesh network I know Joanne Hobus from CTC technology is going to be meeting with the San Antonio Housing Authority about there some of their infrastructure broadband infrastructure issues like why she's working with us on the border to deal with that geography that is very rural so the answers are right here in this room Joanne Hobus I don't know if you want to hold your hand up it's a brilliant and infrastructure Gabriel Garcia with CPS Energy has tried to teach me so much and I've learned quite a bit but an expert in technology and infrastructure development so we have people right here and I think Deb also would like to respond I actually was going to point out Cabe and there are experts in this room and people are successfully figuring this out and so one of the things we certainly can do at our organization is connect to another communities who have similar issues who have found solutions so that you can learn from them as well the idea is obviously it's the rural urban issue in terms of the policy around this stuff has been worth forever in Ohio lots of the state is rural meaning just the people are more spread out right and um most of Ohio now has broadband available most helpful uh the it actually if you look at the map of Ohio you will see that why did that happen I don't know but I do know that cables there telecoms there uh there are very few places where there's nothing there and um so again it's not an impossible problem it's all and treating it as a major obstacle is probably making it harder than it is you should ask yourself why it is that um that is it really an obstacle to the telephone company or the cable company getting there really I come as only a San Antonio citizen born and raised here and I you know I I came here because I thought about our whole city not just where I live and where I grow up opposed to where it's one of the red spots to where I am now that's one of the people that do have good broadband and so on and I think about first um how about city council people buy in and know who your city council person is that's what I think I think of what people young people older people are doing even globally like there's computer usage in Ecuador or in Africa and they're doing real innovative things in those remote areas you can you know think about that but in those were the two things right off that I but also I appreciate Mr. Calhoun saying um hear the people in your community listen to their needs and what difficulties they're having in your community then you can start from there well and we appreciate the engagement from the audience I'll give yourselves a round of applause so Deb your next century city's letter the president is out do you want to talk about that just a bit yeah I mentioned it a little bit we really do think that broadband infrastructure should be part of any infrastructure as do our our members we consider everyone signs on to our principles one of which is broadband is necessary infrastructure it is no longer a question it is as important to as you said as electricity or water and so having 65 city leaders sign on is pretty powerful I would say the other thing that you know that's some work we can do at the federal level there's always work at the state level too because there are state level barriers that prevent communities from building and selling broadband building out their own and selling broadband Texas has a law on the books and it may be something you'd consider looking at and advocating to change if in fact the solution for your community is to either work with a co-op or or build in those areas where it isn't built but you do have a municipality here that cares about this and so I know they're looking at all of these options already right you do have city council members who care and you do have a mayor who cares and you do have faith-based communities and libraries and schools and so you've got the mix that works and so you know I think this is a great step toward bringing together those pieces and building that fabric that actually can make the difference and where I think we all see that accessibility is really key to a lot of different issues that we think are multifaceted but if we can address those things I think we can see growth in all those aspects of economic development of education and so on so I'd like to thank the panel Deb, Bill, Jordanna, you've been wonderful thank you all so much. Yeah I think accessibility obviously is important then there's adoption and then there's application right so I appreciated a lot of your no that's all right I appreciated a lot of your questions because the great part about this summit is that it's going to sort of roll into what about infrastructure what's happening in our city currently right now that will help address these things so coming up in our next panel which will happen in 12 minutes you get a little break right for those of you in the very back before you move hold on for those of you standing up in the back there are some chairs up here at the front if you have an empty chair at your table invite people to have access to your chair and then they will adopt the chair themselves at your table see what I just did there that's full circle friends that's why I was hired for this job I'm getting paid that's right yeah I think so I think it's happening so just make sure that people are standing in the back those poor souls who are just standing it's cool you there's chairs I promise so up next we're going to talk infrastructure how do we get high speed home broadband for all several of the people that were like pointed at are going to be on that panel and then of course we've got the lightning rounds it's going to happen about things that are happening currently in our community that you can get involved in but you've got about a 12 minute break to you know do the potty thing and grab more coffee and come back in here


Hello, and welcome to this screencast on section 10.6, Directional Derivatives and the Gradient. The partial derivatives of a function tell us the instantaneous rate at which the function changes only in specific directions. In this screencast, we will introduce the directional derivative, which allows us to measure the rate at which a function changes in any direction. Jumping right in, the derivative of f at a point x, y in the direction of the unit vector u is denoted by d subscript u f of x, y and is given by the following limit. We insist on u being a unit vector so that this directional derivative measures the change in f per unit change in the direction of u. Just like we developed shortcut rules for standard derivatives and partial derivatives, we can also find a way to evaluate directional derivatives without resorting to this limit definition. Let's look at how to compute the directional derivative in general. Suppose we are interested in the instantaneous rate of change of f at a point x not, y not in the direction of a unit vector u. The variables x and y are changing according to these parameterizations, since we are changing by u sub 1 in the x direction and u sub 2 in the y direction. If we were to construct a tree diagram, we would have that the directional derivative depends on x, which then depends on t, and the directional derivative depends on y, which then depends on t. So by the chain rule, we can calculate the directional derivative using the following expression, and since the derivative of x with respect to t is equal to u sub 1 and the derivative of y with respect to t is equal to u sub 2, we get the following expression here at the bottom for the directional derivative. What we deduced on the previous slide is stated here. The directional derivative at a point x, y in the direction of a unit vector u may be computed by taking the partial of f with respect to x times the x component of the vector u, plus the partial derivative with respect to y times the y component of the vector u. Note that the directional derivative can be computed as the dot product of the following two vectors. The first vector has x component equal to the partial derivative with respect to x, and the y component equal to the partial derivative with respect to y. The second vector is u. It turns out that this first vector is special, as we will see in our work in the section. This vector is called the gradient of the function f, and we denote it using an upside down triangle next to f of x, y. The upside down triangle is the symbol called del. The gradient gives us an alternate way to state the directional derivative formula above, as we now replace here at the very top, in terms of the dot product of the gradient and the vector u.


Hey coach, welcome back to the channel. Now, today I wanna talk about the biggest mistakes most soccer coaches are making with their business. So what I have in front of me is a very simple example of a big mistake that soccer trainers are currently making when it comes to their pricing. And this is a big mistake because a lot of trainers, what they're doing is they're selling their time short for one-on-one training, but they're making more money doing groups. Okay, so let me break it down for you. Right, so in front of me, I've got a lot of trainers, what they do when they set up group training, they will earn anywhere between $200 to $1,000 per hour running group training. Okay, so this might be running groups of six, anywhere between six to 12 players. And within that hour of them training those players, they're making anywhere between $200 to $1,000 per hour in groups. Right, now, a problem that they're having is that they're running groups, they're making a lot of money, but then they're offering one-to-one training and they're charging it very cheap. All right, so the example I have in front of me is a lot of trainers, what they're doing is they're charging anywhere between $50 to $100 per hour for one-to-one training, right? Now, if you take the example I have in front of me, say, for example, you had 10 players in one group and you were charging them 100 per hour to train in one group, you would be making 1,000 an hour. Okay, so you've got 10 players in one group charging them 100 per hour equals 1,000 you're making per hour, right? And you're training 100 per hour and you're training all your clients in one go. Now, let's take the example below. If you were charging $100 for one-to-one training and you had 10 clients, that is 10 extra hours per week, you have to train, okay? So on the top, you've got one hour where you're working with 10 players. Below, you've got the second example where you're making the same amount of money, but now you're working 10 times more, right? You're working 10 hours per week, training clients one-on-one for an hour session, okay? This is a big mistake and it's one that a lot of trainers in this industry are making. So what would be the best solution, right? So number one, the best solution in my experience would be I would scrap one-to-one training and I would just focus on groups and building the groups. Okay, because if you've got three groups of 10 players that you're training, you're making 100, well, you're charging each client 100 per hour with those three groups you have, essentially you're making free K in the space of one-to-three hours, okay? If you run free groups back-to-back, you're making free K in that one day. Now, if you want to include one-on-one training, then what we have to do is we have to make sure it becomes a premium for the client, right? You can't be charging the same amount or making less in group training when you've got to personally give that player full attention. Okay, because when you work one-on-one with clients, there's a lot more that's involved than group training, right? Group training, you can set up a plan, a training session that is guided towards the needs of all the players you have within your group, right? So all 10 players are working on the same thing. When it comes to more personal one-on-one training, each session needs to be customized and designed to that client. Okay, so that means you need to ultimately plan the session, which takes time. You need to run the session, which takes time. You need to set up the session, which takes time. You need to drive to the session, which takes time, right? And you need to do a lot of communication during the week with the client and that takes time as well, right? So essentially you're losing money by charging less for one-on-one training than you are for group training, okay? Hopefully this video helps. If it has, right, make sure you like and subscribe. If you wanna get in contact with me, there's two ways to do that. Visit the description in this video. You can schedule a 15 to 20-minute call with me so we can jump on Zoom, talk about your business, and I can show you some actionable steps to take this week. If not, then you can also send me an email to MakeMoneyCoachingSports. Thank you for watching and I'll see you on the next one.


That is true, Bishop. I'm ready to be back. Good morning annual conference and Bishop McKee. I'm Kim Brandon, the conference lay leader, and it is my privilege to join you today and to report about the extraordinary faithfulness and courage demonstrated by lay members of our conference during this past year. First, I want to thank those of you who have stepped into lay leadership roles this year for your boldness and your courage during a very difficult year. Whether you have served as a lay leader in one of our conferences, 300 some churches, or as one of our four district lay leaders, or as an associate conference lay leader, your job has been significant this year, as we've weathered unprecedented storms. Only through the mighty power of God's love for us and your love for one another have we emerged from the dark and stormy night into the light of a new dawn. I just want to spend a few moments talking about the power of that love. So this past Sunday, many of you joined us at the annual conference lady session where we welcomed author and consultant Susan Beaumont. She spoke so knowledgeably about what we've come to understand this year as liminal time liminality. She reminded us that liminality is really a disorientation that occurs in times of transition. We are betwixt in between something that has ended in a new situation that is not yet begun. She reminded us that God often uses this time of transition to reform and reshape us. In fact, a great deal of the biblical narrative is one of liminality of not quite being there yet. But Susan Beaumont reminded us that this time of disorientation is when great creativity and courage can flourish. Susan Beaumont helps us know that the power of God's love gives us strength in hard times. Conference lady lay members that you know have embraced opportunities during this year of liminality and have responded in creative and grace filled ways that have changed our church forever. Let me share with you just a few ways our sisters and brothers responded to God's call for prophetic leadership, even when we don't yet know where we're headed. I want to introduce you to a faithful servant named Cynthia Harry. Cynthia is a member of Hamilton Park, UMC in Dallas, and she serves as a certified lay servant in the metro district. She works to make disciples of Jesus Christ through ministry in her church, through leadership at all levels of UMW, and through service to Methodist Dallas Medical Center Auxiliary. Cynthia Joy is also mentoring girls at the Hamilton Park Paysetter Academy, and as a certified lay servant Cynthia has been called to share with small groups and congregations, the love of God through speaking and prayer. She's known for her powerful prayers which provide love and hope, while giving praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. I need to tell you one other thing about Cynthia Harry. Due to a degenerative eye disease diagnosed when she was a teenager, she is now legally blind. She often shares how despite this, the Lord continues to work in her life as she adjusts to the limits and changes brought on by her visual impairment. Her expressions of joy over the blessings God has provided are infectious, bringing laughter and encouragement to those whom she meets. When speaking with others in her church in the community, Cynthia never fails to profess that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life for all. Cynthia Harry knows a little bit about the power of Jesus's love. For Sherman, a new member named Annie Henderson has been excited to participate in the Mosaic Modern Worship Experience there. As a member of the LGBTQ plus community, Annie has been overwhelmed by the acceptance that she has felt at first Sherman, but Annie's heart grew heavy this past year, thinking of members of her community who have been hurt or rejected by the church. So last summer, Annie had a dream of creating an LGBTQ plus ministry as part of first Sherman's Mosaic Worship. After discussing her dream with Pastor Abby Eccles, they decided together that a Facebook group might just be the best way to reach out and connect people, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. So in July of 2020, Annie created the LGBTQ plus and allies first Methodist Sherman Facebook page, and she and Reverend Eccles serve as co managers of that page. The dream for starting this group was to offer a place of safety and connection for LGBTQ plus persons and allies to partner with the Holy Spirit and bringing about healing and wholeness. To remind LGBTQ plus community that they are of sacred worth created in the image of God, and to also invite them into deeper or new relationships with God. So within seven days of creating this Facebook group over 100 people adjoint after two weeks it was 300. And today, there are 671 members that includes people young and old women and men pastors and atheists, and everyone in between. The members of this community range in education, socioeconomic status and faith backgrounds they span the United States and the world with members from at least 10 other countries. Annie Henderson says simply, our hope for the group was to save lives, save families, save relationships with God creating this group with Pastor Abby has changed more lives and we will ever know she says. Annie Henderson harnessed the power of love to create community. I learned recently of an active member at first UMC Plano who has spent time during the last year serving in his community. Downs a lay member to annual conference has been working with the faith based handyman program of seniors helping seniors, and it's called Plano helpers. Now Plano helpers started as a ministry of Custer Road, UMC providing minor home repairs and maintenance for seniors in need. One of his friends he had at Custer Road bill began volunteering way back in 2004. And today Plano helpers is a collaboration volunteers from at least 12 Plano faith communities, Protestants Catholics Jewish communities. All repairs made at the homes of seniors are free of charge. He had a longtime member, a long time resident of Plano passed away from COVID earlier this year. He would have loved to be a part of that group Plano helpers. A few years ago, Bill started leaving discreetly just little leaving little pocket crosses at the homes that he worked on and one occasion, Bill had a follow up project for a client that he had visited years before. He left his work and left the home he glanced down and noticed on the table by this lady's chair a little cross that he had left years earlier. What had been a little bit of home repair meant to this older friend living on her own. Who knows what that meant, whether she knew or not she actually ministered to bill that day in her own way. See, I think Bill and that lady that he helped both of them understand the power of love through service to others. So when I think of the power of love I think of our youngest lady Haven Emory is a student at Lovers Lane, UMC leading the youth group, and at her school, and ministering to children with special needs in Lovers Lane's rays of light respite program. We have a friend, Dr Teresa Sterrett, who took a job in the middle of a pandemic to reimagine children's ministry at first UMC Denton. So even the youngest disciples can learn to love others through the awesome power of Jesus's love. We've all encountered the power of love through children, haven't we. To play members of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, we are called to speak to lead to serve to minister. As believers in the power and love of Christ, we are commissioned in his service and his ministry. And I want to encourage you today, you are all equipped by the body and blood of Christ to go into the world. We've been talking for the last couple of days about being rooted in love in the love of God, and we have the power to love because we were first created in love. When things get tough, and we know a little bit about that love and the power we've been given with which to lead the church. The world needs the love of Christ as much today as it ever has. We believe the power of God's love equips us for our work in the world. Remember dear ones we have the power the mighty power of God's love. We are reminded today that the power of God's love gives us strength in hard times. It gives us the power to create community to serve others to be led by children to work in the world. As lady in the conference we inherently have the unique opportunity to minister in all imaginable settings. During the course of our days and our work, not just within the church to strengthen us in that work. I'd like to ask you to save the date for later this summer. The North Texas Conference lay servant ministries headed by director Susan Anderson will be providing just a fantastic event to equip lady to lead out of this liminal time. Save the date for August 14 as our guest Jason Moore helps us to respond to the question, has the church left the building. Join us for that as we continue exploring God's call on our lives to be the church empowered and perpetually sustained by his love and grace. So with that shameless plug I will end and say to clergy and lady of the North Texas Conference. In these final few hours of holy conferencing today, I look forward to our work together, shoulder to shoulder, face to face, heart to heart in the year to come. Amen.