How to empower employees to make decisions is one of the hardest tasks many managers face. I mean after all you've been promoted to the management ranks in part because you are a good decision maker. Yet your time each day to make decisions is limited. So why empower employees to make decisions? Well firstly you gain more time back in your day. Secondly, you can focus on the more value-adding activities of your role. Third, you increase employee engagement by up to three times. And fourth, you increase the work ethic and there is results ownership of your team. These are all really powerful reasons to empower your team members each directly helping you in your position as a manager or leader. So today, we're going to cover these seven actions to help empower your employees. Use these actions to help your company create and empower the managers and leaders of tomorrow while at the same time moving your career forward. My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in Corporate and house odd names through to SMEs. I know empowering team members to make decisions by getting the balance between staying out of their way and being available to coach provides amazing benefits to you and the team. Empowering employees is definitely worth the effort needed to achieve this. And if you're new to this channel enhance our training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first action when planning how to empower employees to make decisions is to really embed the team or the functional goals. Teams are much more productive when everyone is moving towards common goals. Everyone's efforts and work are supportive of each other rather than some team members being counterproductive. When you have one person making decisions within a team, that person can keep the goals in mind when making those decisions, thus keeping the team moving overall in the same direction. When you empower multiple people to make decisions, even if the key decisions are made by one person, making sure everyone understands and accepts the common goals becomes a lot more important to maintain alignment of effort and work within the team. This moves everyone towards common goals. If you've already set your team goals, then steps to build awareness and buy in might include if firstly taking the team through the company strategy. Second, link the company strategy to the team goals. Third, explain the why and the impact of the team goals on achieving the company goals. Fourth, ask the team to plan projects to implement these goals. And if you've not set the team goals yet, the steps to create awareness and buy in might include if firstly take the team through the company strategy. Second, ask the employees how the team can contribute to achieving the strategy. Third, work with the team members to agree goals for the team. And fourth, persuade your manager or the management team to accept the goals created by your team. Getting the team involved and contributing to the goals themselves or projects and activities focused on achieving the goals will make the goals become theirs or at least partially theirs. Team ownership improves the chances of achieving the goals set. Don't allow the team goals to gather dust. Constantly bring them up in team meetings and in one-to-one meetings. Put them on the wall. Empower team members to track progress against a specific goal and get them to regularly report to the team. Create a competition or a game to keep everyone focused on achieving the goals. Use any methods or ideas you have to keep the goals front of mind for the team members. If you, their manager are focused on the team goals, then they will be too. The second action when planning how to empower employees to make decisions is define what decisions can be made by whom. Not all decisions are made equal. There are many different types of decisions from the low impact on the business and familiar choices to large impacts on the business and involving unclear right or wrong choices. So putting in place a clear framework to cover the decisions that can be made by each role is a key risk management tool for the company. And it also protects the individuals making the decisions within the frameworks agreed. Look at which person controls which areas and work out the scope and the level of decision making that would be appropriate for each person so they can do more of their roles without reference to you. The decisions typically delegated are those which are frequently repeated and have a relatively low impact on the company in isolation. When combined, the impact of many low impact decisions can get quite significant. Examples might include deciding on which option to use in managing a customer complaint or the permanent terms agreed with a supplier or the volume discount given to a potential customer. Capture the decisions in a framework document and get your manager sign off for this document. Then talk through the authority levels and scope of the team members decision making with each person on your team and then share the framework document. Don't forget to periodically check that team members are sticking within their authorities as set out within the documents. The third action when planning how to empower employees to make decisions is to share information. Information is power is a common saying and there's plenty of truth in it. Having the right information at the right time gives you a significantly better chance of making a good decision with a positive impact on the team and the company. Sharing information in reports or access to ERP systems or whatever holds the information gives the individual or group better tools to make decisions. Without the right information, they are just going to rely on their gut instinct or on a limited picture of what is happening. While good decisions can be made in this way, the best decisions are nearly always made in conjunction with the right information and the right insights on hand. Give your employees the information they need to make good decisions. This is absolutely in your interests and the business's interests. You can also use information as one of the tools to keep track of the decisions your employees are making and the impact of those decisions on the business. For example, the conversion rates from changes made on landing pages or from different adverts. Using data to track progress is a useful way for you and the person making the decisions to monitor performance and get early warnings of developing issues. Free availability of information helps everyone do their jobs better. The fourth way to empower employees to make decisions is to delegate problems, not tasks. As a manager or leader, delegating problems is brilliant, as it means you don't need to do the problem solving yourself. Solving problems requires thinking through the issues, coming up with the options to solve the problem, evaluating those options and then choosing the best one. Then you have the task of implementing a solution, typically a set of tasks to do. Most employees enjoy the challenge of working through these steps themselves and doing so gets them more engaged, motivated and keen on seeing the solution successfully implemented. If you're only going to delegate tasks, the problem solving has to be done by you, which takes up your time and does little to develop your employees. So why waste the talent you've worked hard to get into your team by treating them like robots? Look for opportunities to get your employees thinking and problem solving. This helps you directly by saving new time and energy you can put into more important or enjoyable areas of your role. The fifth action in how to empower employees to make decisions is to start small. There is risk in giving employees more decisions to make. They may make worse decisions than you. They may find the responsibility for making the decisions a challenge. They may lack confidence in their own decision-making ability and so on. So reduce the risk to you, the team and the business by delegating the smaller and easiest decisions to make to start with. Starting with the smaller decisions gives the individuals practice at decision-making and using their judgement. And assuming their decision-making is sound, move them on to decisions with a bigger and bigger impact over time. This progression keeps improving their decision-making skills. And I don't advise empowering your employee and then leaving them to their own devices. This deprives the individual of vital support and help to build their decision-making skills. This also deprives you of visibility of the decision-making process and the ability to avert poor decisions. Make the time to mentor and coach the individuals throughout the process of their decision-making.  Do expect mistakes to be made. Mistakes are part of a healthy learning process. Coach the individual through these mistakes so they learn and don't repeat them. Do not blame them or criticise them for making mistakes if you want them to continue developing their decision-making skills. Start small and only move your employee on to bigger or tougher decisions when you feel they're ready. The sixth way to empower employees to make decisions is to resist the temptation to make their decisions for them. Your decision-making skills are likely to be better than those of your employees. You might also have access to a broader range of information and be involved in more discussions about business issues compared to your employees because of your position. Your employee might have responsibility to make decisions that you've faced many times before. All these factors make it very easy and very tempting to make the decision on behalf of your employee. Doing so is a very slippery slope to ensuring your employees don't make these decisions and your time is taking up making them instead. While this may make us, as managers feel, important on a personal level, it does little to help us, our employees or the business in the longer term. Remain disciplined and constantly redirect the decision back to the individual. Don't get sucked into making a decision on behalf of the individual. You know, imagine the situation one of your employees comes up to you and says, I'm struggling with what to do in this situation. How would you handle it? I mean, effectively, they are saying, I don't want to make the decision. Please, would you make the decision instead? Reply back to them with something like, you're in the best place to make this decision. What options are you considering? Keep using questions to redirect responsibility back to the individual until they make a decision. This is a coaching approach to providing support and guidance to the individual without taking away their responsibility. Ask questions and don't provide statements or opinions so you keep the decision making firmly in the employee's court. The seventh action in how to empower employees to make decisions is coach the decision maker. Using a coaching approach is great in that firstly, you can provide guidance and support to the individual making decision, which provides a set of guardrails, if you like, to the decision making process, reducing the business risk. Secondly, you get full visibility of each stage of the decision making process so you can intervene to head off bad choices if needed. Third, you help the individual develop good decision making skills, reducing the team's reliance on you to make decisions over time. And you get all of this without taking away the responsibility from the individual to make the decision. A coaching approach uses questions to get the other person thinking. Do not make statements or give your own opinions. For instance, if you spot a big issue with a particular option being considered, you could ask, you know, what would the impact of option C be on the cash flow of the company? IE, ask them a leading question to get them to explore the issues that you've spotted. Don't say, I don't think you should choose this option because this is an effect making a decision for them. The employee will learn more working through the issues themselves to hopefully arrive at the same conclusion you have. Keep asking questions to prompt the decision makers thinking. Keep practicing your coaching skills wherever possible so you build a stronger and more capable team. So in summary, there you have seven actions to take when planning how to empower employees to make decisions. Helping empower employees to make decisions is a great management and leadership training for them and very useful to enable you to move your career forward, too. The seven actions we've gone through are firstly, embed the team goals. Secondly, define what decisions will be made by whom. Third, share information openly. Fourth, delegate problems, not tasks. Fifth, start small. Sixth, resist making their decisions. And seven, coach the decision makers. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.


Russia lost more than 1,000 soldiers and 150 military equipment in one day. Russia has lost approximately 1,030 soldiers, 44 artillery systems, 26 tanks, 49 armored combat vehicles, on-air defence systems and 33 military vehicles in Ukraine over the past 24 hours. The armed forces of Ukraine eliminated about 285,920 Russian invaders in Ukraine from February 24, 2022 to October 12, 2023. The Ukrainian defenders have also destroyed 4,931 enemy tanks, 9,313 armored combat vehicles, 6,807 artillery systems, 811 multiple launch rocket systems, 546 air defence systems, 316 aircraft, 316 helicopters, 5,264 unmanned aerial vehicles, 1,531 cruise missiles, 20 warships stroke cutters, one submarine, 9,203 motor vehicles, and 967 special equipment units. It should be noted that Russia has suffered heavy losses in a large-scale armored assault to encircle a strategically important town in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, open-source analysis has shown. Analysts said Kyiv's forces took out dozens of tanks and other armored vehicles during Moscow's two-day offensive operation to encircle the settlement of Abdiivka. According to a telegraph publication, Russian troops attempted a blitzkrieg-style advance on the town in what was seemingly a shift away from its previous reluctance to use heavy armor in an attempt to make sweeping gains. Battlefield footage on social media in recent days appeared to show Ukrainian efforts to bring the offensive back under control. Ukrainian military analysts have estimated that Moscow lost at least 36 vehicles in the two-day assault on Abdiivka. Russian losses included at least one of each of their four main table tanks, the T-62, T-72, T-80, and T-90.


Galaxy One will be interesting to see if there will be a decentralized system which cannot directly be impacted by big companies, central bank, and governments in terms of money, social media, and even markets. I think we're seeing that right now Galaxy One. Like Rumble is one, as you mentioned, Bit Shoot is another for video hosting, video sharing, Odyssey, right? In terms of food, sustainability, local farms, like R, the CSA that me and my partner belong to. CSA is community-supported agriculture, right? So every week, right now it's every two weeks because we're coming out of winter, but we're kicking into every week as of next week, I believe. Every week we get a basket of locally grown organic produce, right? Mostly, you know, greens, herbs, you get zucchinis, you get tomatoes, you get chard, kale, squash, when they do melons, you get melons when different things ripen at different times, right? This CSA we belong to is sold out every year. The only people or the first people that get access to the CSA are people who have been in the CSA from previous years, and we've been in it I think for five years now, right? So we get to, you know, decide if we want to join the CSA or not, right? And we join the CSA every year. There's a waiting list for people waiting to join the CSA. That's a sustainable market, right? The farmers get their money at the beginning of the year when they need to buy their seeds and soil and all this jazz, right? And they form for us and whatever else they're making, right? Amazing market.


Good afternoon. My name is Floyd Warren, the president and CEO of the Babcock Center. Each year the board is tasked with determining the subject of the Christmas ornament. It is a difficult decision as Columbia is a city with many beautiful historic sites. With that said, the Babcock Center Foundation is proud to unveil the 2021 official city ornament, depicting the Big Apple. The Big Apple built in 1915 was originally the House of Peace, Beth Shalom, synagogue. Its interior architecture, including a notable recess dome and a balcony, reflects the original function. The structure gained its greatest notoriety when used as an African-American nightclub in the 1930s and became known as the Big Apple Club. The dance known as the Big Apple originated here and spread across the country. Some historians say it was the third most popular dance craze in history of the United States. Swings dancers throughout the world still dance the Big Apple and honor its history and creative legacy. In the 1980s the Big Apple was moved from its original location at 1318 Park Street to the corner of Hampton and Park Street. Today the Big Apple continues to be rented for events such as weddings, parties, concerts and meetings. The Big Apple is listed in the National Registry as the House of Peace synagogue. Proceeds from the ornament sales will benefit the Babcock Center Foundation, firms from the ornament sales are used to enhance the lives of people with lifelong disabilities in a variety of ways such as providing medical assistance and care not covered by their insurance. As well as providing for the amenities of life that we all take for granted such as clothing, bedroom and home furnishing and resources for recreational and social activities. All these make it possible for the Babcock Center to achieve its mission to empower people with lifelong disabilities while they enjoy life by promoting abilities and respecting their choice. So on behalf of the foundation and the board of directors I would like to thank all of you of our lower collectors who are out there who have supported this project each year since 1993. It is very heartwarming to see the outpouring of support from the community at the holiday season. The contributions help us to achieve our mission and make our positive impacts on the lives of people with lifelong disabilities. Finally ornaments are $18 apiece and may be purchased at the Columbia's Visitor Center or by calling our foundation at the Babcock Center at<PHONE_NUMBER>. You may also purchase online at www.babcockcenter.org. So it's my pleasure to present the official Christmas ornament for 2021 to our mayor Steve Benjamin who has been supporting us throughout his tenure here as mayor and we know that it's his last time so we want to thank him for all that he has done to support people at the Babcock Center and people with lifelong disabilities. It's wonderful to be here with you all and I'm going to read this proclamation that has very small print I might add those of you who might not realize I've been doing this since 2010 but I don't have 2010 eyes anymore. Whereas each year the Babcock Center Foundation board is tasked with determining the subject of the Christmas ornament whereas the Big Apple built in 1915 was originally the house of peace special arm synagogue it's an interior architecture including a notable recess dome and a balcony reflect its original function whereas the structure gained its greatest notoriety when used as an african-american nightclub in the 1930s became known as the Big Apple Club the dance known as the Big Apple originated here and spread across the country some historians say it was the third most popular dance craze in the history of the U.S. swing dancers throughout the world still dance the Big Apple and honor its history and creative legacy whereas in the 1980s the Big Apple has moved from its original location at 1318 Park Street to the corner of Hampton and Park Street today the Big Apple continues to be rented for events such as weddings parties concerts and meetings whereas the Big Apple is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Another prize Stephen K. Benjamin Mayor of the City of Columbia along with my fellow members of Columbia City Council do here by proclaim the Big Apple to be the 2021 official city ornament in the City of Columbia it really is an honor I think pretty amazing that as we begin the as we begin Hanukah begin Hanukah that we would recognize the Big Apple it is one of the many places in this community I think speaks to the amazing spirit of inclusion that defines Columbia the spirit that Shana John Gervais spoke of in 1786 it's a spirit that that allows a house a piece of synagogue built by the people of the house of of David to eventually become a place where African Americans live work played and prospered in one of our most historic districts the Washington district it's a place that allows us that to gather and this beautiful restored city hall just a few hours ago as we talked about major infrastructure investments and talk about the nearly 100 million dollars dedicated to rebuilding the Columbia Canal built by the blood sweat and tears of Irish indentured servants we are Columbia we're a Columbia in which those of us who come to work in this building every day or if we're differently able citizens who who work and who are supported by this wonderful Babcock Center each and every one of us has the opportunity to contribute to the whole of our lives in this country we have an opportunity to do great things with the with the powers and ability that God gives each and every one of us but we are stronger we are strongest when we come together and support good causes this has been supporting the Babcock Center and through purchasing this ornament and supporting the purchase of this ornament every single year has been one of the high points of my tenure here at the city of Columbia over the last nearly 12 years friend Josh Cruz just asked me in an interview what what my legacy might be and so often we we think of of the physical structures that men like to look back at and women like to look back at at stadiums and water sewer infrastructures and buildings and the like and the reality is that the greatest contribution that we can often leave I believe is it's do justly love mercy and walk humbly with God to bring people together to make sure that each and every one of us realize that we are only as strong as we are brothers and sisters keeper this speaks to that and it's an unauthorized to come together with you and your wonderful team at the Babcock Center to accept this on behalf of the people of Columbia to make a commitment for all future mayors I know Mayor Rick and then we'll be very excited about this event every single year and hopefully for another 30 years or so more we'll be able to do this in advancement of the goals and vision and mission of the Babcock Center and the people of Columbia may God bless you and keep you thank you


Hi everyone, Joe for jaspyscasebrakes.com coming at you with 2020-2021 Panini Immaculate Basketball. One box, random team number 66, like Order 66. Remember Palpatine? Bad guy. Alright, big thanks everybody here for making this happen. Do it! Congrats again to the people who won those spots as well. And all 30 teams earned in this quick little one box break. Let's roll it, randomize names and teams, five into two, seven times. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seventh and final time. After seven times, Austin down to Jose, five into two, seven times for the teams. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seventh and final time. After seven, we got OKC down to Miami. We do have another one box break loaded up. The next one box break, not part of tonight's promo, but everyone on this list in Break 66 is part of the promo. Alright, Austin with the Thunder, Robert with the Spurs, Carl with the Clippers, David with the Bulls, Kevin with the Lakers, got my Lakers. Nico with the Warriors, Carl with the T-Wolves, Carl also with the Hornets. David, Pacers and Mavericks, Ching with the Pistons, Carl with the Raptors, Nico with the Sixers, Hans with the Bucks, Carl with the Rockets, Jose with the Nuggets, Ching with the Knicks, Carl with the Magic Kings, Sons, Grizzlies, Andrew with the Celtics, Oscar with the Hawks, Carl with the Nets and Wizards, Nico with the Cavs, Carl with the Pelicans, Corey with the Trailblazers, Carl with the Jazz, and Jose, Miami Heat. Let's alphabetize this by team. Pause the video when we come back. We're going to see if there's any trades and then we'll have the break. Stick around, we'll see you on the other side. Alright, welcome back everybody. No deals are done in this one box break. It's all good here on the 21st. Appreciate everybody getting into the action. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Quick little one box break. Let's see what we got. This is kind of a, I feel like there is a redemption, there is a redemption in here. Any guesses on that redemption? For bragging rights? This is a Splank card to hide the hits a little bit. Alright, Colin Sexton, 7 out of 99. Nico, Cleveland, this is for you. Tyrese Halliburne, 21 out of 99. Piece of his jersey for the Kings. Carl with Sacramento. Ooh, look at this. Wow, Deer and Fox, Nike, swoosh, 1 out of 5, a Fox in the box. Woo, Carl with the Kings, just do it. 1 out of 5 and out of 5 is an under. Train whistle, all aboard the Big Hit Express. Woo, woo, that was nice. It's always cool to see. Alright, a couple more than the redemption. Could be an autograph, yeah. For the Thunder, Josh Hall. 33 out of 99. Austin with OKC. And then we got Rick Berry. Marks of greatness, on-card autograph, old school warrior. 13 out of 99, that's for Nico in Golden State. Warriors come out to play, yay. And the redemption. Good luck. What do we got? What do we got? And as we know it's immaculate. Whoa, quad autographs? Oh boy. Is it all the same team, or do you think it's going to be one happy person, three sad people? Let me pull up the CardboardConnection.com. Checklist. Fingers crossed, everybody. So there's only 10 cards in the quad auto checklist. And they're all serial numbered to 10. It's card number one. Let's see how we're going to get some names here. We got a Collins, a Collins, John Collins. This might all be the same team. Clint Capella, Deandre Hunter, John Collins, Trey Young. Wow. And it's all Atlanta Hawks. No randomizer. Oscar bought a spot straight up, got randomized the Atlanta Hawks, and gets this quad autograph. Woo. Plenty of time to redeem. You've got a year. Who do you think is holding this card up? Of these guys, I feel like Trey Young generally signs, right? I feel like John Collins generally signs. Trey Hunter, I think, generally. Maybe it's Clint Capella that's holding it up. This is numbered to 10. According to the checklist, they're all serial numbered to 10. No parallels. Nice one, Oscar. Thanks for grabbing a spot straight up. And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. A great one-box break in the books. Another one in the store. I'm Joe for jaspyscasebreaks.com. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time for the next basketball break. Bye-bye.


Thank you. I'm going to shake hands before it, so I'll be here. It's a real pleasure to see you again. John Seminole and Tom King. I want to congratulate you again for making this reality. I know you had a successful meeting up there in New Jersey, and I'm not going to try to pronounce the name of the town. I think we're a mayor of the death row, aren't we? Well, congratulations for making history. Those of you who are governors elect have for the first time increased the ranks of governors for the party in power in the White House, the first time it's happened. And it wouldn't have been possible without the quality of candidates and the fine performance of the Republican governors who serve as your colleagues. Some of you new governors, particularly Guy Hunt and Carol Campbell, I think I have an opportunity to build a strong Republican party in your states. In this campaign, I don't know about you but going around the country, I was amazed and impressed with the percentage of young people that are now in our corner. It used to be that they don't even mention it when I was a Republican governor, but this is different. And I think we've got a great chance for real, real run in the future here for all the things that we believe. But I know I sat where you were sitting once you had one of the most important jobs in government. I want to make sure that Washington doesn't interfere with the way you perform. And that's why I've ordered that we do a further study on federalism, which is what we came here to reimplement and to see what further we can do and what we have failed in our efforts to bring it about. I believe that this being a sovereign federal, a federation of sovereign states is the greatest assurance of freedom for our people and the base of the strength of our country. And there's been too many years in which there were people in Washington who were trying to make you or your states, all our states, as just administrative districts of the federal government. That's no way to go. So we'll welcome all the suggestions and help that you can give us on what we're trying to do. I wish I had some of the tools that you have to keep the legislated body that I work with in line, a balanced budget amendment and a balanced environmental authority. I miss it. Well, I didn't invite you here to lecture. You want to hear what's on your mind. So Tom is the new chairman. Why don't you start off? Excuse me, Mr. President. We have one group of self-attahed first and one brand person. Take a picture of what the governor starts. I don't mean to be sacrilegious, but you know, for some of you, you're going to feel like the last words of the last supper, and you have to get them in pictures. You should be on the side of the table. No! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Vectority is an American. You have to build an attitude. Session like that only with about four times that many of the previous to this prime minister of Japan is visible. He just sat there fascinated. I'm pleased to meet with the leadership of the 5th Annual Inaugural Anniversary Interdance. It's especially nice to see our Party Chairman Frank Theron-Goffen, National Finance Chairman Keith Brown, and both very instrumental in the success of the Republican Party, and particularly the Eagles program. And I'd like to give my special thanks to Ambassador John Gavin, National Dinner Chairman, and Maureen Reagan, National Dinner Chairwoman. And each of you here have been tireless in your efforts to support me and the Republican Party. And I want you to know how much Nancy and I appreciate all that you've done. You've all given back to America some of the success you've realized, not only have you given freely and personal resources, but also of your time. The Eagles are such a vital part of the Republican Party. Since 1975, you alone have contributed $56 million to the Republican Party, and all that we've accomplished together would not have been possible without you, without that. As a Democratic political in California, you used to say money is the mother's milk of politics. Nancy and I are looking forward to being with you again at this wonderful celebration on February 12th, with each of you working to raise funds for this important event. I know that this year's dance will be the most successful ever. And with that, I won't make you listen to any more of a speech out of me, but again, just a heartfelt thank you to one of you. Maureen has been very nice to show us the Christmas decorations. One on the horse, and then followed by another one. Maybe no one told you, but his family a few years ago, his descendants brought this in, the first gift of its kind ever to the White House, and presented, that's the Nobel Prize, the Teddy Roosevelt won for ending the Japanese Russian War. And there was purely a Republican gathering, I would point out, that he did it in typical Republican fashion, or won it in typical Republican fashion. He settled the war sitting on a yacht. Gentlemen of this historic 100th Congress of the United States, I want you to know what an honor it is to welcome each of you here to the White House. And if I could address what some of you may be wondering, no, it isn't a dream. The campaign's actually over, and you won. And reading about you, I was struck by your diversity as a freshman class, in both the national, well, from the only pitcher to pitch no hitters in both the National and American League, Jim Bunning, to the basketball star Tom McMillan, from lawyers like Benjamin Cardin and Jay Rhodes, to a member of my own former profession, Fred Randy. I knew Fred had been elected when Cap Weinberger sent me a request for a new aircraft carrier to six destroyers, and I love boat. Fred, knowing you'd be here today, I could now think back to my own transition from acting to politics. When my old boss, Jack Warner, of Warner Brothers, heard that I was running for governor in California, he said, no, Jimmy Stewart for governor, Ronald Reagan for best friend. More than once during that campaign, I was reminded of a report that was made by Jack's brother, Harry Warner, with the advent of soundtracks for movies back in the 20s. He said, who the heck wants to hear actors talk? I want to congratulate each of you. You once again are welcome to the grand stage of national policy. Certainly on matters of substance, many of us in this room would disagree. There'll be time enough for that later. For now, it's enough to consider where we would do well to agree. Contrary to the demand of all of us Republicans, Democrats alike, that we work together, always stressing the element in our national life that makes a national life possible at all, by force and cooperation. At all times, it'll be wise for you, as it is for every member of the House and Senate, to work with and through your leaders. This makes life easier for us here at the White House, because my staff and I meet with the leadership regularly. But it will also be in your own interest as members of Congress. For without the coordination that the leadership provides, the House and Senate alike would fall prey to fragmentation and inaction. Perhaps most important, let us agree that the correct motive force in politics is ideals. In the coming months, you'll find your ideals along with your patience and stamina sorely tested. You'll work long hours, you'll be subject to conflicting pressures, you will need to compromise to further your ideals, but you will also find yourself subjected to the temptation to compromise those ideals yourself. Permit me to quote one who both served in the House and held my office, and was the uncle of Joseph Kennedy, a member of this freshman class. In Profiles Encouraged, John Kennedy wrote this about the conscientious member of Congress. He realizes that once he begins to weigh each issue in terms of his chances for reelection, once he begins to compromise away his principles on one issue after another for fear that to do otherwise would halt his career and prevent future fights for principle, then he has lost the very freedom of conscience which justifies his continuance in office. So if you'll permit me, fight every political fight long and hard, but fight every fight in the name of principle. It'll be trying to balance the legitimate demands of constituents, party, colleagues and family. The hours will be long and frequent travel often exhausting, but never doubt that it's worth it. To quote John Buckin, one of President Kennedy's favorite authors, public life is the crown of a career, and politics is still the greatest and most honorable adventure. When I spoke him home to go about that travel, I can't help but tell you that you're going to have to get used to the phone operators around here, particularly in the White House. I, early on, would pick up the phone and say, hey, would you get me so-and-so and put the phone in the ring, and I'd pick it up, and there'd be so-and-so. And one day it took quite a while for the phone to ring again, and when I got him, very jovial, I said, well, I'm a congressman, I was calling. I said, where did I find you? He said, in New Zealand. He said, what time is it? He said, 4 a.m. Now sometimes I point out, if there's some plate, they say, don't be traveling. Thank you all, and God bless you. I think I've got a couple of minutes left here. Not many more than that, but maybe one or two of you might have a question you'd like to ask. Since this is a kind of indoctrination session for all of you, did you really go to Mexico Rollo's Time Zone? There's no illusion in that. I was a freaking viewer. They made it kind of tough for me to watch television here, but... Well, no one has a question here. We're all intimidated, Mr. President. We don't know what to ask. They won't start a fight. What was that last time? I don't know what to ask. They won't start a fight. Mr. President, we have an orientation for us. What do they do for presents? Just get them up in the morning. I think the most orientation I got was from an 11-year-old girl who wrote me a letter, told me all the things that she thought I should do, and you'd be surprised at 11 years. She had all the major issues. It wasn't Amy Carter. Then she wound up the matter and said, now get over to the open office and go to work. I'll tell you, having been a governor, I would confess it wasn't all that strange. I guess that's probably the nearest job to this job that there is in the country. And having eight years as a governor there, but now having added on foreign policy, it wasn't much different. You think you're in charge, but every morning there's a slip or sheet of paper on your desk that tells you what you're going to do every 15 minutes. Mr. President, having just gotten through an election campaign, I just wanted to perhaps remind you of the plight of the poor and many of our senior citizens and hardworking American families that really are struggling in our country today. And I know as you're preparing your budget on January 5, I just hope that you'll be cognizant of the plight of so many Americans that aren't having the kind of economic success that some of the few are. Well, let me assure you, of course, and I feel it is the responsibility of those of us in government to do everything we can for those who through no fault of their own that cannot help themselves. And yes, there will be efforts to eliminate certain programs and there will be efforts to trim them down. But let me tell you why. When I came here, one of the discoveries I made with federal government, let us a matter of fact, I'd condemnated when I was governor, I discovered that in many of those well-intentioned programs, passed with all the compassion of people in government can have and should have, at the same time the bureaucratic overload was such that in many of those programs it was costing the federal government $2 in overhead to deliver $1 to a needy person. And I feel that we can find better ways to do it and make those dollars go further and really help the people they intend to help. Early on, I vetoed a job training bill and I vetoed it because that bill was aimed at, as I recall, 300,000 individuals to be helped and would have cost $250 million in six months to do this. Now, by some of the things we've done to get this expansion going for four years, we have been averaging around 300,000 new jobs for people in this country every month. So it isn't a case of lack and compassion. It isn't true that I ever wanted to do away with social security. There again, I found some problems that were denied when I came here, but later admitted when we started social security was faced with being bankrupt by July of 1983. And after the 82 election was over, we did get together in a bipartisan commission, Congress and the administration here and worked out a reform of social security to put it on sound footing for as far as we can see into the future and didn't deprive anyone of what they needed in that program. Mr. President, I'm from Baltimore and this past year you came to throw our first pitch at the Orioles opening game. We finished in last place. Did you go to New York this year?  I've only been to a few Oriole games and everyone that I've been to, they lost. So I think that knowing the superstition of athletes, I think they may have in mind that I'm the jinx for some reason or other. But I do recall that I threw out that first ball. Maybe I should have known something was wrong when I missed the catcher on the first pitch. Mr. President, we understand that Speaker Wright is gearing up for us to send back to you right away, the thing you are about. Are you going to send it right back down to us? It could depend on whether you correct the thing that made me send the first one back down. And that was a cost that was so far out of line that even our own people who would have to implement the program doubted that they could spend that much money and use it. So there were some things in there of that kind. It wasn't that I'm against clean water. It was just that, again, it was one of those overhead problems which government is so frequently guilty. Just one question, Mr. President. I'm sure all of our country is concerned about, but it's so prevalent in the press now. It would be helpful to us. I think you can give us your judgment as to when we might put it behind us, when we might move on to other programs. The Iranian arms sales process. No one wants it behind us more than I do. I think I'd like to call something to your attention on that. That the press now, these last three weeks, has been going on day after day hammering away at this. And everything that they know to ask about is what I told them. Because the thing is, of course, the transfer of funds, was there such a thing, how did it come about? And I absolutely had no information on that. The two individuals who have stepped down who did know about it and neglected it told them what we had learned and then went into the press room, took the Attorney General with me and told them what we had learned for the first time and that we were going to continue to investigate this and turned it over to them and for one hour he took their questions. Now I gave him all the information I had and within about 18 hours from when it was given to me. And now to see this attempt, apparently, on the part of the press, it indicated I must be covering something up. Nobody wants it uncovered more than I do because I told all I know and I'm glad about the committees that are going in. We have now made a decision to ask for a, I keep calling them Special Prosecutor, but recently they've changed the name to Independent Counsel. But he's still a Special Prosecutor and we want to get to the bottom of this quickly as we can and find out was there any criminals. They're telling me I overstayed my time here. That would be the last question. All right, Ms. President, I'm Ernie Kanya. I was born in Hungary and we're very concerned about most favored nation treatment for Romania, which is repressing about 2.8 million Hungarians. Yours and prior administration have supported that kind of treatment for Romania. Is there any thoughts in your mind that, based on Tom Lantus and my concerns as well as others, perhaps that can change? We are very conscious of that and the nature of the dictator there in that country. But at the same time I think this came about under the previous administration because of his resistance to the kind of Soviet control that is imposed on the other nations in the communist block. And it was an effort on our part to kind of recognize that he was willing to stand up and oppose them and charge his own course. At the same time, I have to tell you, just as we are the Soviet Union, we are trying behind the scenes to get more humane treatment and observance of human rights in that country. And you said you were from Hungary. Yes, sir. I have to tell you, you don't know of a story that's going around in Hungary among the Hungarians. I kind of collect stories that I can find, take place or are told behind the iron curtain that gives an indication of their real feeling, the people's feeling about their government. This one was a young Hungarian, Jano, and his friend just across the border in the Soviet Union, Ivan, very close friends. And they were walking along the border one day and they came upon a treasure chest. And they were delighted and Ivan turned to Jano and he said, Jano, let us divide this amendment between us like true communist brothers. And Jano said, not in your life, we split it 50-50. Your statements about public diplomacy and by diplomacy I also like very much. Thank you, sir. We're glad to see you in the United States again. Your family can allow to join you. And congratulations. Thank you, thank you. It's really very pleasant. You suddenly become so rich having a daughter after all this years. We called you here at Rachele because Isaac worked for Rachele for 14 years and we were working for 13 years. A little bit less. Well listen, we're a... this whole matter and I know what you're doing. We're... Stars. Chance to shake hand with all of you. Please be seated. Mr. President, the wave of photography is going to come in first and we'll just have to kind of mark down all of the... My eyes. I'd like to final words at the last second. I'm going to get some pictures from down here. Well, welcome to the White House. I want to thank each of you. Contribution that you're making by serving on the U.S. Savings Bond Committee. Bob, you and the 1986 members have turned in one of the best performances ever. We haven't had so many months when bond sales exceeded a billion dollars since the World War II years. I congratulate each of you and want you to know that Jim Baker and I deeply appreciate all of your efforts in making the 1986 Bond Drive the most successful one since 1945. As for the 1987 campaign, John, you and your committee have quite a challenge before you and I thank each of you for volunteering to lead next year's Bond Drive. You have my best wishes for a successful campaign and all of you have your country's gratitude for all your efforts. Well, thank you, Mr. President. Let me add before I mention some good things about our campaign that everyone in this room is totally impacted you and you should know that we're proud of you. Thank you very much. I once had a substitution here. I mentioned at lunch that Jimmy Goldsmith almost bought a good year. But I'm glad that I was able to make it. We wanted to blip right that bad because you'd have told me. I'm very proud of the championship team that we have and if you'll excuse the picture here, there are three bullets here to tell us really what happened. We now have over 90 million of us. The highest amount in history and savings bonds in 1986 of nearly 10 billion are doubled last year's savings and more than 1.9 million Americans invested for the first time were increased their participation in the payroll savings plan exceeding our goal by nearly 27% and last year's record by 200,000 individuals. And I'm very proud to present you with this report to thank you for the support. You give them spots for us that were just a burden. I think that puts us over the top. Jim Baker and K. Ortega and tremendous talented staff did a great job for us. And I'm just so proud to present this to you. Well, thank you very much. I guess I learned a little about how to do this and I was doing the GE Theater. That's a great report, kind of, I remember that. Thank you. Mr. President, I would like to first congratulate Bob and the 86 team for the great job that they did. But I want to assure you that we have an even better team like that tonight. And that we will exceed the performance in 1986 as long as Secretary Baker doesn't fool around with the racing. Hey, let me just make one thing clear. Only the President of the United States can make it. I've been taking credit, Mr. President. We did fool around with the race before, now the truth is out. I'm sorry, Jim. I was going to try to start off a campaign by selling you a savings fund, but we couldn't get it orchestrated quickly enough. But I will try to get back to the same one at the perfect time. I also thought that if I had a life insurance policy, you know, being from metropolitan life, I might have sold you a life insurance. I was discouraged from doing that. I am pleased, Mr. President, to present you with a copy of the brochure that we put together for the 1987 campaign, where the theme for the campaign is U.S. Savings Fund is a great American investment. I think it is a great American investment on a variety of counts. We tried in the brochure to make it people-oriented. We have five people here from each of our five of the companies that have been participants in the program, Jen and Mota, who won a good year, but bought life in the next year, the manufacturers hand over. And so there's a little story about each of them and some good pictures, a great picture of you, Secretary Baker, there's even one that made me look good, which is difficult, but each of them has a little story to tell about why they've invested in savings bonds, and why you'd be proud of how they have expressed themselves. And so we think that we're off to a good start, and we all welcome the opportunity to do this and promise you that next year when we're back, we'll be reporting a very successful year. Well, thank you very much. Again, I thank you all. I think I'm supposed to have the opportunity now to meet each one down at the end of the room right now. I think that's right, Mr. President. Before we do that, may I, everybody in this room has heard you tell jokes about age, and I just think it'd be great if Bob Mercer told you the story he told us about, which is a selling to each of them during the 1980s. I got worked up for President in trying to convince some of our retirees that they should be buying savings bonds. And one of them said, well, look, in 10 years, and he said, look, son, at my age, I don't even buy green bananas. I have to return the favor and give you one, I just heard the other day. You see, stories about age, that's the only ethnic humor I can engage in. This was a golfer, 86 years old, and finally, natively, one of the members that he was going to have to give up golf. He could still hit the ball, but he couldn't see anymore where it went. But one of the members said, wait a minute, I've got a golf partner for you that I think can take care of that and won't have to give up golf. He said he's 95 years old, and he's a great game of golf. So, run him and introduced him. 86 year old told his problem. He said, wait a minute, that's all right. He says, I can see as good as when I was 12 years old. So, they stood up in the first tee, they both drove, got in the car and started down the fairway in the 86 year old driving. He said, did you see where my drive went? He said, oh, yes, I saw it every foot of the way. He says, where did it go? He says, I don't remember.