In this, you know, in this context, I want us to see beyond just penetration testers and red teamers.  Now, in this context, we are not just talking about red teamers. We're not just talking about pen testers. We are talking about black individuals who are subscribed to a system of growth and over time, as transitioned into a competent, competent individuals who are skilled, you know, and can bring, you know, their cybersecurity skills to solve, you know, security problems. So what I mean in short is that I want to create, you know, black competent cybersecurity professionals who are hackers in their different domains. That is, it might be in a GRC, governance risk and compliance. It might be in, you know, SOC, you know, Security Operations Center. It might be other domains like risk management and the rest. But what we are saying is we want to create more black, you know, hackers in those domains, people who know their onions, you know, black people who know their onions, black people who are competent to deliver, you know, in those, in their chosen domain, not necessarily in the penetration testing domain or in the offensive domain. It might be in the defensive domain, it might be in the purple teaming, it might be in the, you know, orange teaming, in the white teaming or whatever teaming it is in cybersecurity. So we want to create more black individuals who will represent the black community in each of these domains and we won't have them, you know, so many in those domains.  And that is what I will be discussing with you this morning. OK, so my name is Shegma Alaniyan. Yes, Shegma Alaniyan for short. I'm a vulnerability remediation analyst with S parties in vulnerability remediation, risk mitigation, mitigation, planning, development and whatever you could, you know, think of around mitigating risk, you know, filling up compliance gap, identifying risk, residual risk in systems and applications. This is what I do as a vulnerability remediation analyst. I'm also a cybersecurity analyst, research and development analyst. Medially, I focus on identifying security loopholes or security problems or security gaps in small and medium businesses, you know, making research on, you know, how best they can mitigate some of these gaps or feel some of these gaps. And also I write a lot of articles that addresses small and medium businesses, security issues. OK, I'm also a security awareness advocate and trainer. I'm so passionate about, you know, end user education, awareness within security, awareness within organization of holding security culture within organization and within the society at large. And I do so by, you know, engaging in speaking, presentation and the rest. I also train cyber security awareness to people. And right now I've trained more than 500 female tech enthusiasts in cyber security awareness across seven African countries.  I won't mention names, but some of those you might know, cyber safe foundation, Diary of Arcaz and the rest. So in those communities, I speak and I train cyber security awareness. OK, so I'm also the co-founder of Cyber Safety Media. This is like a small state of that, you know, I co-founded, you know, to help roll out different cyber security awareness talks and and materials that relates to, you know, helping people to stay safe online and help people to get people informed on cyber security, best practices. I also lead, I mean, this speaker at Cyber Safety Webinar. This is a monthly webinar that I co-host you know, I co-host this webinar every month where we talk about latest trends in cyber security, latest scams in cyber security and latest concepts, concepts and terminologies that people need to get used to, end users now immediately need to get used to. And I'm trying to relate, you know, technical stops or technical concept to non-technical audience, end users who are not so tech savvy. Then this year also, I was, you know, thanks to Blacks and Cyber Security, I was awarded BICA 2022, I signed the Cyber Practitioner Honorary Award. And this is all about me. Of course, you can check me up on LinkedIn and Twitter. So let's just continue this, just if you do it about me. OK, so you can attain any height when you have the right systems there to support you. You know, we're talking about creating more Blacks hackers, you know, Black cybersecurity professionals who are competent in their chosen domain in cybersecurity, who would come out, fielders, you know, field cybersecurity jobs, positions, you know, in the industry. So for them to be able to attain that, you know, the systems that they used to, you know, that they were used to support themselves, that they were used to help themselves, you know, to attain that height, to get to that height where they will be able to, you know, solve cybersecurity problems in different aspects. OK, so for you to attain this height, right systems, right systems, there are different systems, but the right one and the ones that we help you to attain that height as fast as possible. OK, so cybersecurity growth systems and compasses platform processes, process and people, then compasses, platform, process and people.  You must, you know, subscribe to these three three components of growth systems, which which are platform, process and people, which are platform, process and people. So now talking about growth systems, you know, talking about growth systems, we see here that you don't just grow, you know, in cybersecurity, you don't just grow in that there must be systems that support you. Of course, I've said that before, that helps you to grow. Now, these systems have components. They have components and can also be said to be group of the categories which is platform, process and people. Now, growth systems can be a holistic model to strategically and sustainably grow a career, you know, strategy, sustainability. It means you're strategic about your growth and then you are applying component systems that help you to sustain is any growth.  You have a continuous growth. You have a continuous growth and then you take into consideration, you know, key cross practice linkages, which is between a platform, process and people. What do I mean? I mean, you need a platform to thrive. You need to subject yourself to process of learning and credibility, process of learning and credibility.  Also, you need to connect and learn from people of like mind and also people who have gone ahead of you. You see now that this is strategic and then subscribing to this continuously, we help you to sustain a steady growth in the industry. OK, so this growth system is now divided. I divide this into five, which are very, very key, you know, to launching you into a very rapid and sustained growth.  Then we have and on practice categorizing this on that, you know, the components of the system when it comes to, you know, growing, continue to continue to grow in the industry. And on practice falls on that platform. And then also cyber security certifications, you know, falls on the process while some of the communities falls on the people, professional networking, like LinkedIn, platform that LinkedIn falls on the people, you know, now having all this.  You will be able to sustain a substantial growth if you subscribe to all this. Now, people who are starting out, cyber startups, you know, enthusiasts who are trying to get their foot grounded in the industry needs to subscribe to these systems, needs to support themselves with these systems for them to be able to achieve more in a very little period of time. You know, and then the first one is virtual internship. You know, I know internship is when you actually, you know, you are you were taken in as like a staff or a worker who is, of course, learning on the job and also delivering values while you're there. Of course, that is what internship is. You have entry level experience or zero to like one year experience in a particular field and then you are trying to get the experience, industry experience in that particular field. You go for an internship, you know, go for an internship where you will learn while applying what you are learning, you know, to also deliver value in whatever company or industry you find yourself. OK, so now virtual internship, I don't define what internship is in that manner. Virtual internship replicates work at top companies, you know, like a replication, like a snapshot of work at companies, at top companies. And then it connect enthusiasts or, you know, people who are just starting out in the industry to those companies themselves. It means that with virtual internship, you know, cybersecurity enthusiasts can leverage on different cybersecurity projects, you know, the way it is done in the industry. You know, it would replicate, it would give you a snapshot of the way cybersecurity projects are being done in the industry and then workloads for career growth.  So that platform, virtual internship platform, provided with, you know, that opportunity to interface with real workload, real life workload, real life projects, you know, as it is in industry, the way staffs, the way staffs in different organizations, you know, the way they approach those kind of projects you've been interfacing with those projects and then to give you an opportunity to work on them and then learn how those projects are being carried out. OK, so in only five to six hours, you know, you can actually learn relevant tools and skills necessary to complete tasks that replicate and employees work with it. So it means just like, you know, seeing a day in the life of a day in the life of a cybersecurity analyst, it means the day to day task, the daily tasks that a cybersecurity analyst, you know, does, you know, on a daily basis, what the task that they carry out on a daily basis. So it means within five to six hours, chunks of those tasks, you will have the opportunity to interface with chunks of those tasks and then learn relevant tools and skills necessary to complete those tasks.   OK, so advantages of virtual internship. So now before I will go into the advantages of virtual internship, there are virtual internship platforms, you know, available. Free of charge means you wouldn't need to pay any amount for you to access them. An example is Forage, Forage.com. You know, Forage.com is a virtual internship that different top companies have subscribed to, you know, to present some of their workloads that staffs, you know, interface with on a daily basis to present it to enthusiasts. So what you do is you sign up on that platform, you have access to these workloads from different companies like the Lloyds and the rest. And then, you know, they have videos of, you know, instructions on how to go about some of these tasks. And then when you complete it, you have the opportunity to submit, you know, your completed task that is your project, you have done the task, you have the opportunity to submit and then few staffs or certain staffs assigned, you know, to these virtual internship platforms from those organizations will review your submitted work. And if your work stands out amidst other works that have been submitted for the same task, you will be contacted. I've seen, you know, testimony from cybersecurity enthusiasts and other, you know, starters in the tech world who have given testimonies about how they got an interview with some of these top companies and eventually landing a job. Do you see that? You know, so it is very easy. It is a easy way to interface with real world projects. Industry inclined tasks, you know. So what are the advantages of, you know, such virtual internship? What do you stand to gain in telling virtually? Number one is industry insights. Industry insights, you know. Exposure to the skills and qualities necessary to thrive in the industry. So it means that the skills and qualities that are necessary for you to thrive in the industry, you will get so much insight into some of those skills and qualities because those tasks and projects are tailored, you know, towards helping you to gain insight to know more about those skills and qualities that are needed for you to try. And then number two is project-inclined tasks. Exposure to modules and tasks that simulate industry-related projects. These modules, these tasks, they simulate like a snapshot of industry-related projects like in Deloitte, the way a cybersecurity consultant, we address, you know, an issue of PCI DSS, Women's Card Industry Data Security Standard. Now, you know, you will be interfaced with a simulated form of that kind of project. And then you will have an exposure to diverse organization, work culture and business values. For example, you know, these platforms and these projects expose you to diverse organizations, work culture and business values. For example, you will learn about, for example, if you are virtually in 10-width, let's say PCWU or NSM Young, you will learn from that virtual internship, even though you do not visit the organization physically. From that virtual internship, you will learn the culture, the work culture, their core values, their business values. You will learn from participating in such virtual internship or participating in such projects. Four is exposure to potential employers. I said at the time that you submit your project to the partner employers on virtual intentional platforms. And then you have the ground to showcase your work to these employers. And they also have the platform for them to view your work and then contact you if you do, if you actually do a very good job. If you submit something that even beats their expectation, if you submit something that even be the expectation of the employer, or you even submit a solution that beats the solution of their own inner staff. You have the potential of now having the opportunity to interface with employers directly, being in contact with them. They will contact you. You can check out forage.com, forage.com. You see testimonies of different entry-level tech individuals who are at the opportunity to be called upon by employers because of their outstanding performance when it comes to deliverables during their virtual internship with such employers. Then we have relevant experience. You gain, you know, you have engagement with activities that sponsor experience in the industry. Of course, you know, experience is is is is one of the challenges that entry level jobbers or job seekers or cybersecurity starters have in this industry. You know, experiences is one of the challenges. They do not have industry experience. They do not interface with the production environment where they will do the real thing, you know, using the real technology, you know, to access real organizations network, but via virtual internship, you have that opportunity to engage with activities that sponsors experience in the industry. It means that if an organization is uploading their workload, the real workload, like a replication of the real workload that they do on a daily business, it means that for you to complete that task, you will gain such experience that you would have gained if you actually visited or if you are actually a staff or an employee in that organization as an entry-level individual or as a cybersecurity staff. OK, then the last one here, advantages of virtual internship. The last advantage here is you are open to job opportunities, face-to-face with job opportunities in the partner organizations.  And then if you exceed their expectations, if you exceed their expectations, they reach out to you and then they offer you real internship, not virtual now, real internship where you can, whether we move it, you know, in time with them and work on real-life projects. You know, this will help you, this will actually help you to to gain a lot of insight into how work is being done in the industry on deliverables when it comes to cybersecurity. OK, let's quickly move on to the next system, growth system and on practice and on practice. This cannot be oversized because cybersecurity startups or people who are just starting out in cybersecurity, they know no organization gives them that, you know, that privilege to, you know, learn with production environment, you understand. So and that is why a percentage or a certain level of experience is required even to start as an entry level job in cybersecurity. So it means that employers, you know, have that confidence that at least you can handle some technologies and some tools professionally or ethically so that you don't cost more problem than what problem you are supposed to solve. OK, so and that is why answering the practice comes, you know, very, very helpful in participating activities rather than passively reading a resource or attending a class. You know, so it means that, you know, just going through a resource or reading will not actually give you that feel or give you that, you know, that competence in some activities that release to cybersecurity. Of course, you might not have the opportunity to interface with a production environment where you carry out this thing in real time or in a real life project, of course, but there are platforms that are being designed, you know, to replicate some of this practical, you know, practical jobs or tasks that helps you to actually learn the skill and learn how to handle some of these technologies ethically and professionally. So learning and growing by doing through experiencing something. So it means that while you begin to engage and practice, you will begin to learn and begin to grow by doing. So the more you do this practice, there's a thing that says practice makes perfect. So it means that while you are doing, you can make all the mistakes you want to make because this is not a production environment.  So even making mistakes will not affect any, you know, any company's network or any company's workstation. You'll be able to do learn and learn and we learn using our own practice. OK, this will give cybersecurity and teachers an opportunity to enhance themselves in a learning environment while putting their acquired skill to use and building new ones. So it means that you will be in a learning environment where you can mentor yourself, where you can immerse yourself to a deep learning experience, you know, where you can put your acquired skills to use and then learn new ones. For example, cracking a password.  You know, no organization as a starter or as an entry level job, no organization will give you maybe their logon environment, their website logon environment or logon environment for you to practice password cracking or practice brute forcing.  But as on practice platforms, we give you that opportunity to practice with fake websites. Well, I don't want to say fake. Let's see. So that doesn't mean something else, you know, with a simulated, simulated, a simulated website or simulated environment that helps you to practice brute forcing, helps you to practice password cracking, helps you to use Metasploit, helps you to break into virtual machines, bypass authentication and the rest.  OK, so benefits of ants on practice.   So what are the benefits of ants on practice? Cyber security enthusiasts can develop expertise through a blended approach of instructor-led videos, of course, instructor-led videos on some of these platforms that help you to see how it is being done. Then you can also replicate the way it is being done. Learning path, different learning path, quizzes and ants on exercises, ants on exercises, where you do it, what you have learned in instructor-led video or what you have learned in your work through, you can actually practice them. You can do them on your own via ants on exercises.   Cyber security enthusiasts can take their cyber security skills to the next level through gamified ants on training experience. You can take it to the next level. I've seen, you know, entry-level job, job out, job seekers, cyber security starters, enthusiasts, people are just starting out. I've seen some of them who are very passionate about, you know, hands-on practice, who have practiced so much on platforms like Try Help Me, having, you know, becoming, you know, part of the top one percent on the platform. You know, it means you have learned so much, you have got so much skill, practical skills that you can actually use during view, view watch and projects. OK, so cyber defenders, enthusiasts can practice, validate their skills and acquire the ones they need, you know, as much as also GRC governance, risk and compliance. Compliance enthusiasts also, you know, can also learn from industry experts, you know, I believe there are, you know, hands-on practice that in the future will be released with labs that can help you to develop your GRC skills. OK, third system of growth is cyber security certifications. You know, this also cannot be oversized. You know, certification exposes you to cutting-edge specialized and vendor neutral technologies. So there are technologies that you use to, you know, to accomplish or to deliver values, help solve security problems in the industry.  Sometimes they are specialized based on the fact that, you know, those technologies and these certifications, some of those certifications are supporting certain technologies and then we have vendor neutral certifications that are not necessarily supporting certain specialized technology, but covers, you know, holistically a certain domain in cyber security. So certain industry skills cannot be gotten without certification. That is very correct. Certain industry skills cannot be gotten without certification. For example, networking skills. Of course, you can learn online via MOOC, massive open online courses, of course. But for you to get the skill required actually to implement, you know, some of these, you know, technologies, some of these tools, you need certifications that teach you how to implement without implementation. For example, firewalls, you know, there are different types of firewalls or different examples of firewalls from different vendors. For you to be able to know the configuration of some of these firewalls, you need to learn it from, you know, the vendors who manufacture the firewalls or who develop the firewalls, whether logical or physical, you know, and then you can start with free cybersecurity certifications available and then migrate to paid ones. You can then migrate to paid ones. You know, I normally advise in cybersecurity statuses or enthusiasts to start with free ones, free ones that will introduce you to the basics and foundations of cybersecurity, basics and foundations of some of these tools and technologies that we get to inform theoretically, then you can begin to migrate to paid ones that will actually, you know, help you to dive deep, deep into some of these technologies and some of these skills. So what certification offers you? The first thing certification offers you is credibility, credibility, the quality of being trustworthy. It means that the certification, you know, employers can have this confidence that you can be trusted with certain technologies and certain tools.   This validates your knowledge and your understanding of certain tools and technology, certain terminologies and concepts in cybersecurity. This is why certification is very key, is very key. And it is a process that you must subscribe to. This is a process that you must subscribe to. You keep getting certified in different technology. Of course, you might know those technologies, you might know how to use it, you might know how to wield, you know, be skilled in using those technologies, skilled in certain areas of cybersecurity.  OK, so the next, you know, system of support is the cybersecurity community. This is extremely important. This is extremely important. You know, the community together of cybersecurity professionals from all walks of life to learn and grow together. You see that to learn and grow together from all walks of life, you know, to learn and grow together, there is nothing as important as learning and growing together in the community, which is what Black cybersecurity is doing fantastically well. They are doing it fantastically well. They are, you know, bringing people together from all walks of life, from different cultures, Blacks, you know, from Black communities, from all walks of life, you know, to learn together and grow together. You know, cybersecurity community sounds as good as strategic and functional vehicle for engagement and collaboration on trends, risk, threats, impact.   You know, this helps you interview or your employer to know that you know what you're doing, you're passionate about the community or you're passionate about the cybersecurity ecosystem, you know, even though you don't have all the skills, you know, this can show your passion that, OK, I belong to a community, this and these are what I do, this and these are what I do to give back to the cybersecurity community. These and these are, you know, some of the, you know, services, community services that are engaged in via cybersecurity communities. And then these are some of the information that I've been able to gather. These are some of the knowledge I've been able to gather.  So community, this showcases how passionate you are. And then it helps you get an edge over other candidates even doing job interview, OK, so for engagement, collaboration and trends, you know, you get to, you know, have first hand information on trends in cybersecurity. There are communities, risks, you know, imagine threats, the impact some of these threats are having, the control measures, the good practices associated with all aspects of cybersecurity related to people, process and technology in community, because you know why community contains, you know, cybersecurity experts, subject matter experts from all walks of life. In short, you can, you can have access, I'm still going there, you can have access to, you know, cybersecurity leaders, cybersecurity subject matter experts. Within a community that you wouldn't have had the opportunity to, you know, meet or even interact with outside the cybersecurity community. So what communities hovers you? What community offers you? What community offers you? Access to industry experts. As I've been saying, you have access to industry experts. There are industry experts, cyber leaders that you might want to connect with, that you wouldn't have the opportunity to connect with them outside cybersecurity communities, you know, outside cybersecurity communities. Now, every, from my own experience, every expert in cybersecurity that I long, you know, to connect with or I long to meet with, I long to meet with, I've actually met with them through communities. Communities brought us together. I thought it would need to, you know, go through the stress of saying, how do I meet them? How do I connect with them? You know, just by belonging to the community, we just want programs that would come, you know, being invited to speak and boom, that is it. We'll get connected and then, you know, you have access to, to, to cyber security experts, industry experts, you get mentorship from them. Mentorship from them in communities. Access to eating opportunity. There are certain opportunities in the industry that you cannot get outside cybersecurity or outside communities, outside communities. There are several opportunities I've come across. I belong to the area of, to the area of other communities, the area of other community. And there are several opportunities that I've gotten from that community, for, for, for being a member of that community that normally, naturally, I would not be able to get them if I do not belong to the community. Because sometimes those kind of eating opportunities are just, you know, shared within the community. I could remember like last year, you know, there are certain, you know, slots that was given to the, to the community of Dario Vacas, to the community of Dario Vacas for internship slots, like 10 of them. Now, that kind of opportunity is not, is not published publicly. So it was, it was released within the community. And the only people that got those slots came from the community. And I know blacks inside the security also will have hidden opportunities like this that is not open to a non-member of communities. You know, these are the opportunities that communities give. You grow, you see, by this you are growing. By this you are learning.  As you have pictured it when you started out, you know. Also, community gives you the ability or the, gives you the opportunity to, to actually to participate in conferences like this, participates in conferences like this. Then let me share experiences from cyber status conference. Very wonderful conference that was organized by Dario Vacas. I was part of, you know, the, the, the committee, you know, put this together and it was an awesome moment, you know, meeting with different cybersecurity experts from all walks of life, you know, from different, you know, from different geographical location, from across the world. Now, now, cyber status conference, you know, is an hybrid conference that brought together our own professionals from around the world who are eager to talk about their triumphs, their setbacks and the greatest advice needed to secure a job and examine cybersecurity. Do you see that for you to attend such, you know, a conference as a starter? You know what that means? You are going to learn from the best of the best in the industry. You are going to learn how to learn your first job or even how to learn the second job or even how to learn your third job. You will learn from their mistakes. You will learn from their experiences so that you will make the mistake they made. Now, experience it from this conference.  He's a wonderful black hacker. You know, you can check him up on LinkedIn. Black hacker, you know, ushied from his wealth of experience, you know, given perspective to the ingredients for cybersecurity career growth, you know, ingredients, different ingredients for career growth, different principles one can apply to one's life. These are the things that make some of us. Communities made us. And I know I'm speaking some, you know, cybersecurity professionals mind in this conference right now. Community made us.  This guy learned almost everything is showcasing from the community. You know, because there is flexibility, the community provided platform for people to learn from one another and even learn from cybersecurity leaders and experts in the industry. A member. Now, when this guy is joining, was joining this community, he wouldn't have even know that one day in a conference like this, in an international conference like this, he would be demonstrating a hacking demonstration or a hacking demo, you know. So these are the things that community offers you. Exposure. Networking with people that matters in the industry. And by so doing, you are growing, you are growing. This is another section of the of the conference, you know, where we have different experts from diverse tech world. Or tech domain, discussing, you know, about virtual reality, non-fungible talking, blockchain and Web 3.0, you know, discussing opportunities for cybersecurity in these domains. So it means that communities brings together experts even from the tech domain to help you to discover what opportunity lies in there for you as a cybersecurity enthusiast. There's another panel of community members who just made their way into cybersecurity job arena. These ones just got like from them, from Dario workers. These ones just got, you know, their job and they are sharing their experience. They are sharing their experience.  This is what community offers you. These experiences from, you know, people and even from members of such community. I know that a lot of cybersecurity professionals in this conference right now have, you know, had the opportunity to gain from some of these advantages from Blacks and cybersecurity communities. OK, professional networking, which is the fifth, the fifth network, the fifth growth system. Professional networking, which is a platform, LinkedIn, is social media platform for professionals. Now, why use LinkedIn? Now, I know there are different social media platforms. We have, you know, Twitter, we have Instagram, we have Facebook. Now, all those ones are just for normal social activities, you know, connecting with family and friends, meeting people about your life. And then maybe sharing some of your few achievements here and there. But what made LinkedIn so special is that this is tailored, made platform for professionals. This is not where you come and say, I'm just today I am eating fried rice or today I'm eating ganangelo rice. OK, now this is not a platform where you do that. This is a platform where, number one, you network socially with professionals in different domain and different industry. You know, LinkedIn offers quality access to networking among professionals. So the platform of them built in such a way that it is tailored towards networking among professionals. You know, and it helps you to build quality connection with industry experts. So it means that when you're coming to LinkedIn, you are coming with that, with that knowing, with that ideology that you're coming to network with industry experts, people that matter in the industry and for the purpose of career growth and development. Number two, job posting. LinkedIn makes it easy to reach a higher number of recruiters and get access to jobs across different locations. Yes, I know indeed and the rest, they are job platforms. But, you know, LinkedIn has made it so easy that why you make work with professionals, you also have access to job posting. And even by having access to job posting, you can easily, you know, reach out to employers who post certain jobs and then, you know, speak to them directly, network with them, make connection with them. That even gives you more leverage than just applying randomly to jobs on job websites. You see how LinkedIn stands out now. You are not just getting job postings. You are having the ground for you to actually reach out to job posters or recruiters. And then, you know, tell them about you and tell them about your interest in some of those jobs that they've posted. Number three, you build personal brand. You know, LinkedIn helps you to build a personal image for your personality, a professional image for your personal personality. The goal is to be visible to quality audience. Now, the goal is not just to be visible to everybody. The goal is to be visible to quality audience, audience that matters, that we have one positive, one or more positive impact on your career growth. And then LinkedIn will help you to get that done. Quality visibility to quality audience, quality visibility to quality audience. Number four, generally leads for business. Of course, if you also have a business as a cybersecurity consultant with LinkedIn, you can generate quality leads to a freelancer as a freelancer or as a business owner, connected in because of communities that put your service offerings and then you push your service offerings to them. You see that? Very fantastic. Now, number five is exposure to other opportunities. Every other opportunity that's touching professional growth can be secured using this platform. Every other opportunities have seen people got picked just by one single post. Now, let me share with my experience. The first job or the second job I got, I got that job via one post on LinkedIn. The post went via. I made one post and the post went via. And this CEO don't reach out and the rest, the series history. Now, the cybersecurity research and development analyst, you know, role and also I've gotten only two opportunities to speak at conferences. I've spoken at more than 15 webinars and conferences. Now, this came to be because I leveraged LinkedIn. Because LinkedIn exposed me to opportunities that helped me to grow my profession. So use it for your advantage. So let's talk about LinkedIn hack. How do you position yourself to take advantage, to leverage this platform, this networking platform for your career growth? Number one is have a divine purpose. Why are you coming to LinkedIn? You know, don't just jump on LinkedIn, define why you want to use the platform and what you long to accomplish. Define why you want to use the platform and what you long to accomplish.  So if you do not have a divine purpose, then you will not be able to optimize your profile to fit that your goal. Then have a well optimized profile. A well optimized profile helps you to build a professional email from the brand. This will help you to stand out when you optimize your profile very well, you know, in accordance or according to your divine purpose. It will help you to stand out. Now, there are ways you can optimize your profile that we help you to any time that they search.  Your profile will show up. You know, and that will give you edge over other people who don't know who doesn't have an optimized profile. Number three, have a well-written CV or resume. Have a well-written CV or resume. Develop a well-written resume or CV to send out, you know, to applications. Have a payload made resume. You can also have a custom cover letter written to fit each application. A well-written resume. They just add the way you are doing it. These are the ways you take advantage, you leverage LinkedIn for your career goals as a cybersecurity enthusiast. Number four, develop a social communication skill. There is a way you communicate on LinkedIn is not the same way you communicate outside of LinkedIn. Your communication on Instagram might be different based on what Instagram is all about, but on LinkedIn, you must develop a professional way of communication for you to secure a lasting network on LinkedIn. You must sharpen your social media communication skill professionally, professionally, sharpen it professionally. Make strategic, the fifth one, make strategic connections. Now, don't just connect to anybody. Don't just send random requests, be strategic about the requests of connection requests to make, connect with relevant individual communities.  And now the connection or the connections you are sending out is to somebody who is who works in a in an hotel as a chef. I don't know how will a chef help you to achieve your goal? That's misplaced prior misplaced priority when it comes to connection, you know, making connections or connecting with a musician. How would it mean? Of course, yeah, relationship matters, of course, but relevant one matters most. Then communities that different communities you can join on LinkedIn, you know, blacks and cyber security, your workers, she hacks, Kenya and the rest of them like that can join them, they have different value that they rode out as a community that you can take advantage of. OK, so how do you gain visibility? On LinkedIn, even as you're starting out or even as you're growing as a professional in the industry, number one, always share engaging and informative content. One of the things that have helped me to gain so much visibility in the very short period of time is my posts and my engaging and engagement with other people's posts. My posts and my engagement with other people's posts. And I make sure that every industry expert and subject matter experts that I come across on LinkedIn, whenever they make a post, I make sure that I get in their comment session and I make sure that I contribute value value. I contribute in such a way I contribute excellently. In such a way that, you know, people will be able to learn from my contribution. From there, you gain more visibility, you gain more connection. Number two, always use relevant hashtags on your posts. For example, if you're making a post, you know the post you're making is about cybersecurity career or maybe about cybersecurity job arena or something around you should know that there are even hashtags that we have that would help you to make your post go viral like carriers, like cybersecurity carriers, as cyber security carriers, as that InfoSec carriers, as that cyber jobs, as that tech communities, you know, relevant hashtags that makes, you know, it gives it widens the visibility of your posts. Number three, always engage with posts from professionals and experts. I just said that now. Make sure that you engage the post because they have more visibility than you have. So by posting, by commenting and getting their own posts, you are gaining more visibility also. The next time you make a post, because they are engaged in their own posts, they also will replicate it. Number four, learn the professional way of communication. I've said that, learn the professional way of communication. There is a way you communicate. There is a way you, you know, interact with people in there. Professionally, you don't just come and just talk anyhow, you know. When you reach out to, maybe you have, you send me an email, a personal message to a cybersecurity expert, there is a way you should accord yourself. There's a way you should compose, craft, you know, craft your posts or your message. Share posts that are relevant or related to cybersecurity for companies and leaders. I do this a lot. And in short, I've noticed that I gain, sometimes I gain more visibility by sharing the post of other companies for leaders. So this way, you can take advantage of linking for your growth. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this opportunity, you know, given to me to speak to you today on, you know, creating more blacks, hacker, more black hackers, growth systems and cybersecurity in two years.  Thank you so much. Here is my contact information. If you have any question, you want to ask anything at all or you want clarification or clarity on something related to cyber security or anything, you can reach out to me or LinkedIn. My LinkedIn, here is my LinkedIn profile and then on Twitter, you reach me, reach out to me on Twitter. Also, thank you so much. We are in cyber security for this opportunity. And I look forward to, you know, connecting with each and every one of you on LinkedIn. Thank you so much. Bye.


We have Tim Ord on. Tim, can you hear me? Yep, I sure can. Can you hear me? I can hear you. How are you doing? Good. How are you doing? I'm doing well. All rested from the holidays is very good. So what are we taking a look at today, Tim? All right. I see you some charts. I assume you got them. I got them, yes. All right. Let's take a look at... We'll start with chart one. Perfect. And anyhow, the bottom window is the daily SPX. The next higher window is the SPX-pix ratio, and the top window is the VIX. And while I want to point out... So when the S&Ps were going higher into, I think, the December 28th or 29th high, and the SPPs were making higher highs, we're on the current timeframe right now, and that's what's shaded and basically shaded in pink there. Those are the divergence times that I wanted to point out. But when the SPPs are making higher highs in that ratio, which is a SPX-pix ratio, it's the middle window that makes lower highs, you get a short-term divergence. Now, you can look at... There's bigger divergence, smaller divergence. This is just a small divergence. And it can mean just a sideways market or even a pullback, but usually not a major sign on the bigger timeframes. But also, as the market pulls back, you want to look how deep that ratio goes. If you notice on today, we're basically matching the December 20th low, which is the previous low we had here. And the SPPs pretty much matching that low. If you notice, the SPX-pix ratio made a lower low. So now it's making lower highs and lower lows. And that's a pretty decent divergence. Not saying these diverges can actually last a while. So it doesn't mean we have already seen the top.  And that will be the time to look for a short position. But not now, at least from my work, could be wrong. But I think there is a good chance on a short-term basis. We're going to bounce up here. Probably starting, if not today, tomorrow, and probably run into next week and how high that rally goes. Could set up the next sell signal. So on a short-term basis here, I also want to point out last week, I think it was last week, we're at five days in a row going into December 29th or 28th, where that last high was. The market is up five days in a row. Normally, a 3% of the time, the market will be higher within five days. So we're down right now. We're down four days in a row. So tomorrow's fifth day, can we make new highs tomorrow? Probably not. But that's also another sign. If we don't hit a new high within five days, I still think we'll get a rally because that five days up here is usually never the final high. Usually you get some sort of attempt at least to go back up and mash the high.  But the next step is going to be pretty important. So anyhow, that's a short-term picture. So a short-term picture, probably a short-term balance that could lead to a sell signal. So what's that mean on a bigger timeframe? So let's flip to chart two. We have it up. All right, chart two, this is a weekly chart. So you really can't see the little negative divergence on the daily chart. The same chart as the same tecla analysis, I guess, is here. The bottom window is the weekly SPX VIX ratio. And the middle window is the SPX. I didn't use the SPY. But this is on weekly timeframes. And the diversions work the same way. As the SPs go higher, you want that ratio. The SPX VIX ratio go higher. And that's what's happening here. So we, on December rally, we broke above the July high. And if you look at the SPX VIX ratio, we did break above the previous high. So that's all bullish on the weekly timeframes. But on a shorter timeframes, you know, in chart one, you know, we could see some up and down. Probably what I'm thinking, probably a rally maybe later this week, tomorrow or something, or the first part next week. And we may hit a high or may not hit a new high. But ultimately, I think the pullback will take us back to 4,600, which is basically the high we had back in late July. I think that's probably going to find support in from there back up. So nothing real significant. Norma just said probably a consolidation of some sort. Maybe over the next couple of weeks, maybe possibly into month in, I don't know. It does look like anything really serious on the bigger timeframes is going on here. But let's flip to chart three real quick. All right. We got chart three up. All right. Chart three is kind of the bottom window is the SPX VIX ratio again. And I'm just showing you as yes, the ratio is making higher highs. And you notice this is the monthly, I believe. Yeah, it's a monthly SPX VIX ratio. Now, this chart goes back all the way back to the top we had back in 2022, late December. And if you notice, we haven't hit that the SPX has not touched that high yet back in December, 2022. It's a little bit lower. That high was 48 something and we haven't quite hit that yet. Just a little bit shy of it. But if you go down to the bottom window, the ratio has already made higher highs. So at some point, we're going to break above the December 22nd high. And so I'm thinking we're probably pulling back to 4,600 and with the bigger timeframes of monthly ratios showing a bullish configuration, that 4,600 is probably going to be support. And at some point, we're going to start breaking above the December 2022 high. How high is high? Well, I'm thinking what the pattern that's forming here on the monthly chart is the head and shoulders bottom. Where the October, July is the head and is head and shoulders central pattern as an upside target around 5,700. So ultimately, I think we'll hit that maybe this year, you know, probably later on the year. But if you notice that neckline I've drawn there is at 4,600. That's pretty close. I think we'll pull back there to get to go. I hear the music. Awesome, yeah. Yeah, Tim, stay tuned or stay right there. We'll be back. Interested to look at the other charts. We have nothing about three more as well. Folks, stay right there. Self and Tim Ord will be right back. Welcome back, folks. This is Jacob Schrupp filling for Tom O'Brien. We are with Tim Ord of the Ord Oracle. Tim, are you still with us? I sure am. I'm right here. Awesome. See, we're still on chart three, right? Go ahead. You're still on chart three? I just pointed chart three. The bigger pattern is bullish. The weeklies look OK. The daylies are kind of not real bearish, but probably a consolidation in January is starting to look like. So that kind of sums up the first three charts. So let's flip to chart four. All right, let's get this going here. I have chart four up. All right. The middle window is the monthly HUI Gold Index. And it's the ratio. And this ratio in a nutshell, when the ratio is rising, it's bullish. And when it's declining, what happens? When the gold stocks are outperforming gold, gold and gold stocks are an uptrend. When gold is outperforming the gold stocks, usually the market's in a downtrend. And so all this is, is the ratio. And I use the Bollinger Band on it. And the blue lines are when the Bollinger Bands or when the ratio closes above the mid-Bollinger Band. The red lines are when the index closes or the HUI Gold Index closes below the mid-Bollinger Band. So back in 2011, high went bearish, never turned bullish until 2016. Now it stayed bullish for about a year, went bearish again for about maybe two years. It's been bullish again in 2019 for a couple of years. And it's basically been bearish since 2021. That's the red line, excuse me. That's the red line. And since it has not closed above it yet. But what I want to point out here, what was really intriguing, notice the Bollinger Bands on this ratio start to squeeze. And that would be the second window up from the bottom. That's the width of the Bollinger Band. And the squeezing of the Bollinger Bands suggests at some point, the market, you know, if you look there, that ratio has been going sideways since about mid-2022. So it's been going sideways for almost two years. Now really hadn't gone up, went up a little bit, went down a little bit. Now it's trying to go back up, but really hadn't gone anywhere. And that's when the Bollinger Bands squeeze. When those Bollinger Bands squeezes, it suggests at some point you're going to see an impulse wave. An impulse wave is more of a straight line move. So we're going to break out of this sideways consolidation and either go up or down. And that doesn't give you the direction, but most likely it's going to be up because you can always stay down for so long.  So now you've got the Bollinger Bands squeezing. And over the last couple of months, this ratio has been going up. So I think at some point we're going to close above the Bollinger Band. And that's going to be a longer-term bi-signal. And these bi-signals last at a minimum of a year and can last, you know, three, four years. So how long is it going to last? Really don't know. But the second window up from the bottom is where the Bollinger Bands squeeze. I guess the more squeezed it is, the more bigger that move is. Last time we got near this squeeze came back in at the 2011 high, not quite as low as it's been, or quite as low as it was in 2011, but it's nearing that level. And that predicted, and that was a major bear market. So this one, in my opinion, is probably going to be a major bull market. So something big is about to happen. It's not going to be years down the road.  But we're going to break out of this trading range. And if you notice, you go to the top window there, that's the H-U-Y index also. If you notice the Bollinger Bands are starting to squeeze together there also. Right here. So we've got something that's about to happen, probably within the next six months, maybe even the next three months, I don't know. But something big is going on with the gold market. So has it triggered the bicycle yet? No, but that H-U-Y ratio needs to keep going up to get above that mid-Bollinger Band. And once they get above the mid-Bollinger Band, I think a lot of steps is going to, you know, can it be explosive? I don't know, explosives is the right word for it, but it's going to be meaningful. I'll put it that way. Definitely. And I see for the other chart you have here as well, and this is something I've just been following, because I think the movement of it is more extreme compared to gold, is you have silver going on here. So you have like the monthly silver on chart four. And I think this is going to be fascinating for everyone. Yeah, yeah. Here, I'm pulling it up right now. It's on chart five. Chart five. Yeah, chart five is really interesting. Yeah, this is the silver gold miners. Excuse me, let me get a drink here. I think we're both having the same thing there, Tim. Yeah, this is where my drill gets right anyhow. This chart is really interesting too. The bottom window is the SLV silver ratio. And so this ratio has never been as cheap as it is right now. And last time it was this cheap. In other words, this ratio is down. It's cheap compared to the silver stocks or cheap compared to the price of silver. And last time it's been this low was back at the 2016 low. And right after that, you know, the market screamed up. It went from basically 17 on SLI up to about 45 or whatever. You know, and it happened within a year. So cheapness were there. Also, the next window up is the Bollinger Band spread again. And so we're as cheap as the spread is. Now it is going back to 2018. So that also, you know, the market's going sideways for almost a year and a half, two years on SLI. So silver stocks really just hadn't done anything yet. But if you notice, we did close above the Bollinger Band. You know, it's back down on it right now. But you got the ratio extremely valuation-wise, extremely good valuation. And you got the silver ratio above the mid-Bollinger Band. And I didn't draw all those lines in there because the chart gets too messy. But every time in the past, you got a close above the mid-Bollinger Band. You had a multi-month, if not a multi-year rally. So the silver stocks may have already started their rallies, what I'm saying. And we're very early in the stages. So that's, I guess, gold hasn't closed above its mid-Bollinger Band. But the silver stocks has. So silver, you also want silver to outperform gold because that's what happens bull markets. Bull markets, silver performs better than gold. So silver should be taken off along with silver stocks here, along with the Bollinger Band squeezing. So we got chart six. Do we got one more? We got time? Yes. So we have about 20 seconds left. If you want to stay with us into the next segment, you can as well. I'll pull up chart six anyways. But I just wanted to say, even with silver, I mean, seeing that, I mean, it was such a, it hadn't been animated. I'm looking at the silver futures. And just to see it kind of bump up to that 26, like 35 level, it interested me a little bit, right? And I'd like to see silver get more attention as well. And I think kind of looking at this, that's actually not a bad forecast for it. But Tim, stay right there. And we'll have you on right after this break. Welcome back, folks. This is Jacob Shoup, filling in for Tom O'Brien. We are with Tim Ord of the Ord Oracle. Tim, we're looking at the GDX right now, huh? No, let's go back to chart five. Perfect. So. Love it. So this is a monthly chart. That doesn't mean silver's going to be up next day. But it has gave a, in my opinion, major buy signal, probably back in late 2023. And like I said before, these are not really whippy signals. Once they get on a buy signal or a sell signal, they stay there. So I'm thinking this index, silver miners, FIL, has turned up. So I'm thinking they're starting to perform an axiom and a couple of silver mines. And they actually have performed pretty well. So this is a bigger timeframe. This rally, in my opinion, on the silver miners has started already. The bottom, my opinion, is in, I guess, the worst case scenario. You could test below one more time, but I don't think that's going to happen. So, but there's too many good things. The valuation, which is bottom window, is where you like to see it, you know, rock bottom. And now you've got the Bollinger Band's pinching. So something is about to pop, you know, since it's a monthly chart, doesn't mean it's going to pop today, but it could pop, you know, next month, month after. My opinion, before June. So, but yeah, we can go to chart six now. Right on. Okay, we're looking at chart six right now, Tim. Yeah, GDX top window. Here's what I'm thinking is going on. We had a hidden, this is a weekly chart of GDX. We had a head and shoulder pattern that formed where the October low was ahead, the right shoulder formed in the November timeframe. You had a sign of strength through the neckline. And it came back to the neckline test, it went back up, went back down. And what I'm thinking, the sideways movement that's been going on for six weeks, is the right shoulder of a bigger head and shoulder spot. And the reason why I say that is because there's a correlation. If you look back in May, June, July of last year, you had a sideways pattern going on there, which I have left SHSN for left shoulder. So I'm thinking this is a left shoulder back in that timeframe. And we're forming the right shoulder right now. And this left shoulder and right shoulder, time-wise, they're usually pretty close in time. Left shoulder took about nine weeks to complete. We're in about number six weeks completing right now. So, market may stay, I don't know. Word's not stagnant, but the market may trade in a range of 29 to 31 range over the next couple of weeks or three weeks. And from there, I think we break above that neckline, which is on this bigger head and shoulders pattern around that 31, 32 area. I got marked there. And so I'm thinking this is a multi-head and shoulders bottomed. We got a second one developing on the right shoulder right now. And since October, if you notice, we're making higher highs, higher lows over the last, since last October. And that's the definition of an uptrend. So it's been really choppy most of the year, going back all the way to June. And I think that choppyness is probably going to end later, probably starting in February. A lot of times, February had big turns in the market for gold, gold stocks. I think that run could possibly start in February sometime and run all the way in probably October of this year is what it's starting to look like. But it doesn't look like anything real meaningful is going to happen over the next couple, three weeks. I'm thinking to form the right shoulder of this bigger head and shoulders pattern, it probably is going to remain in a kind of a consolidation phase. So the bigger patterns bullish, the short-term pattern is probably a little bit sideways. We have sport around 29, which is a smaller head and shoulders sport. We may possibly test that one more time. Then a larger one is up around at 3132. So not a lot to talk about. I think on short-term, SEM is fine on it. There's other indicators that suggest that some of the larger moves is also coming on some of these indexes. Just like silver, I think it's starting. So it could be a really big year for the metals. I'm starting to see what it's starting to look like. No, definitely. We've also, I mean, exactly what you're saying here. We kind of see it like just a little bit of a sideways moving in gold. You know, I look at a lot of the gold equities every day with some of our portfolios and stuff. And I mean, anticipating something big, I know a lot of people at least in the Tigers that are looking forward to that. And we're hoping to, you know, when they just move sideways, you're just waiting for something to kind of pop with it. So these are awesome charts, Tim, seriously. All right, I hope it helps your readers and stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you just have to be patient, wait for these signals to mature.  But between the two, I guess silver and gold, silver is probably the first one out of the ranks. If you start seeing that go, it'll probably head up before gold starts heading up because you like to see silver lead to rally and that's what's happening here. So, you know, I think this chart, what was that the previous year? Yeah, that was previous five. Yeah, five for silver. That chart is already started to go. Love it. Love it. And folks, listen, if, you know, Tim comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, if you like what he asked to say, we have on tfnn.com your services. He has two ones up currently and six ratios every trader should know and then the secret signs of market tops. Both of these were fantastic. I really strongly recommend it again. That's Tim Ord of the Ord-Oracle.com. Go give him a check out. Tim, thank you so much for coming on today. That was enlightening. All right, but thank you for having me on. I'll see you guys next Tuesday. Sounds great, Tim. We'll see you Tuesday. Take care now. All right. And again, guys, right over here on services, six secret ratios every trader should know and then the secret signs of market tops. Love both of these. That is one of the, you know, we usually have these after work and some people are like, oh, you got to stay longer after work. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter when you get people like Tim Ord. You know, we have Teddy Keckstat on earlier last year. Basil just released one for him. These, these things are great. If you're really looking to like, if you, you know, you don't know where to start, right? If you want to trade, you're kind of watching our programming. You like kind of being in it with the culture and everything like that, but you're not sure where to start. These are really one of the best things you can start with. Okay.  We have Tom O'Brien's trade methodology webinar archive. Two of Tim's, Teddy Keckstat, two of his, we have Basil Larry. I mean, everything guys, you know, you can check out these newsletters. We don't have Tim's newsletter, but you know, these are, these newsletters are all at least 30 day money back guarantee. It's good stuff.


We live in a world that never seems to stand still. Every day technology advances, information moves across the globe, people die, children are born, and life continues on. Most of us have wondered at some point in our lives, what is the point? What is the purpose of it all? In today's fast-moving world, it is easy to feel lost and alone. Lots of us think we are on a dead-end journey with no real destination, or that there is no help to get us there. Have you ever wondered why you are here, where you are from, and where you are going? These three questions have crossed the minds of many people all over the world. We'd like to tell you that there is a purpose to your life. We call it God's Plan of Salvation, or the Great Plan of Happiness. This simple plan will answer many of your questions. Let's start with the first question. Where did we come from? We lived with God as spirits before we came to Earth. We call this our pre-mortal life. God, our Heavenly Father, is the Father of our spirits. We are all brothers and sisters, and part of His family. Next, we came here to Earth. So why are we here? Coming here was part of God's Plan of Happiness. First, we came to get a physical body. When we came to this world, our spirit joined together with the body. To experience all the joy that Heavenly Father wants us to have, we need to have a physical body. We are also here to gain experience that we could not obtain in any other way. This would include being tested by making choices. If we continually make good choices, we can prepare to live with God again. So God's Plan for us here on Earth is fairly simple. To find happiness by gaining experience, getting a body, and by proving ourselves to Him. Eventually, we all die. Death separates our spirits from our bodies, and is one of the obstacles that keeps us from living with God again. But we will not be dead forever. Part of God's Plan includes the resurrection, when our spirit will reunite with our body. Rest assured that just like birth, death is another step in our eternal journey. The other obstacle that separates us from God is sin. Sin is when we do something that we know is wrong. Because of our sins, we cannot live with God again. Heavenly Father knew that we would make wrong choices in sin. He knew that we would die. So to overcome sin and death, Heavenly Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the first person to be resurrected, and through His divine power, all of us will be resurrected and live again. Jesus Christ also suffered for our sins and made it possible for us to repent and to be forgiven. Repentance is as simple as turning away from our sins and changing our hearts. If we repent and follow Jesus' example, we can become clean and live with God again. Knowing that God has not left us alone to wander through this life has brought great peace and joy into our hearts. We hope that you will find the same happiness that we have by considering God's plan for you.


A destructive tornado was seen ripping through buildings in Indiana, United States on Sunday, as a powerful storm ravaged several counties south of Indianapolis, leaving at least one dead and another injured. According to officials, footage shared on social media captured the terrifying sight of a tornado tearing through the city of Greenwood in Johnson County, hurling debris into the air. Johnson County Sheriff Dwayne Burgess confirmed extensive damage to neighborhoods and homes. Burgess appealed to the public to avoid the affected area, while several road closures were already in effect. There had not been a full assessment of the damage and casualties in Johnson County, but officials confirmed one person had died in Martin County as a result of the storm, as the National Weather Service continued its tornado watch in the state through Sunday evening.


Good afternoon, I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa to order, please We have a roll call Chairman Galvin here vice chair, Noni here board member badden for it board member banister Board member Dowd here board member Grable here board member what? Any statements of abstention by board members? Okay, we have no study session. We are deferring the meeting approval of the minutes to our next meeting We have no staff briefings. So we are at the consent calendar and there are Six of them on there board member Dowd I would just like to have I'm pleasantly surprised about how many projects are coming forth and Is there any reason they all loaded up at the same time or just happenstance? I Don't mean to pull the items off the consent calendar. I just like to have kind of a report on that looks like good progress Well, I'll give a shot at this one. I don't know if anyone else. I was hoping Lori was here. She's not here I think our CIP teams have been working really diligently to try and get some work out I think there's been some recognition with Everything that's going on in response to the fires that they've had a lot on their plates and really trying to prioritize things And I believe they came up with some innovative ideas to really try and bundle some different projects together to try and get as much out So we could really take advantage of As much of the construction season as possible So I think it's really great and we're really appreciative that they're trying really hard to get as much work out as possible well my compliments to you and the Asset management staff and the other parts of the staff that worked on these Congratulations and thanks Any other board member comments or questions on the consent calendar? I would move approval of the consent calendar Second motion by board member Dowd seconded by a board member Watts to approve the consent calendar all in favor say aye Any opposed? Passes 6-0. Thank you. We'll now move to the report items item 7.1 as a report on the contract award for the northerly slope protection ponds CD and Pon be slope repair Good afternoon. Chairman Galvin members of the board My name is Andrew Wilt. I'm here with Tracy Dwaynes To discuss the northerly slope protection ponds C and D and Pon be slope repair project So today's discussion. We'll go over the background the base scope The interior levy CD slope failure that occurred in March right before we were ready to advertise We'll go over some of the project constraints the contract review subcommittee that was held The approach to repairing that interior levy CD because it happened in March right before advertising It's a little more complicated than usual and then the recommendation to contract award So the background So ponds C and D the exterior levies are greater than six feet tall And they hold greater than 50 acre feet of water So they're under the jurisdiction of the California Division safety of dams So D also known as DSOD so DSOD does periodic inspections of these levies and In 2015 they did an inspection where they noted significant erosion on these exterior levies Especially on the north levies of these ponds and Delta pond as well And so they recommended that we repair them and that we use rock riprap to protect them from further erosion Now pond B had a slope failure that occurred this winter. And so that was added to the project So ponds a B C and D are part of the Meadow Lane ponds across the street from LTP their reclaimed water reservoirs their reservoirs to supply water to the geysers and also to the reclaimed water system there we have other reservoirs as well the largest being Delta pond and The Meadow Lane ponds being the second largest combined So look the location of the slopes to be rehabbed are shown in this picture towards the top highlighted in purple those are the slopes that have suffered the erosion and will be repaired as part of this project and then Towards the bottom of that picture is a purple Rectangle that highlights where the The pond B slope failure that occurred this winter is So pond C. This is a photograph of pond C You can see that it depicts the erosion that's occurred This is known as wave fetch erosion and It creates these benches. So what happens is during wind events The wind creates waves on these ponds and these waves lap up against these exterior levees and gradually Arrove the material away. This is a close-up of what that looks like There's a city staff member there to provide some scale so you can get an idea of how bad this problem is So pond D has similar damage as what was shown there for pond C Now this is a typical detail that we're going to use to repair this damage This levee is wide so we're able to trim it back as Shown this dashed line the dashed line that's shown there it represents the existing ground and the straight black line Represents the finish grade so we're going to create a nice uniform slope the material between those two lines will be Trimmed back and excavated out and pushed down to the bottom of the pond where it'll be Compacted down in the bottom of the pond and then we'll come back and we'll put some geotextile fabric over that Uniform grade that we've created and put some rock rip wrap there to protect it from future wave energy So now pond B that occurred this winter is a different type of failure It's localized. It's only about 125 feet long It's a structural failure. So the soil lost its structural capacity and it essentially just collapsed So the detail to repair that slightly different since it was a small localized area and that it's an interior levee It's narrower so we don't have the ability to trim it back So instead we're going to excavate out the failed material Down to some stable ground and then we'll rebuild it back up to the original design slope And then we'll put the slope protection which includes the geotextile fabric and the rock rip wrap on top to protect it from future erosion so We were about to we were about to have Excuse me. So we have our plan specs an estimate ready for advertising at this point and it's the Ides of March and The phone rings so being the Ides of March do you expect good news or bad news, right? So Of course, it's bad news There's recent slope failures that occurred on this interior levee between pond C and D now We don't have time To drain the ponds to hire a consultant to do a survey to do a geotextile investigation to put plans together All in time to for to add to this project For construction this summer. So we had to try to come up with another way to do it if we were going to repair it this summer So here's what those failures look like similar to ponds Be it's a structural failure where the soil Collapsed now because the water level is up. We don't know the full extent of all the damage Only what we can see above the water So constraints So specific to this recent slope failure As I mentioned, there's just not enough time to put together a detailed design of this recent slope failure to include in this in this advertising package forbidding this summer and specific to the entire project there's additional constraints such as this Construction season from July 1st to October 15th Now the earliest the ponds can be drained as July 1st due to operational constraints and they need to be back in operation by October 15th Which is when we'd expect the first large rain event to occur towards the latter half of October Now just because the ponds are drained by July 1st doesn't mean we can actually start construction in there because it's still going to be wet and muddy and It might not hold up all the heavy construction equipment So the actual window that we can be in there to construct is actually less than what's shown there so we have future projects scheduled out here so As part of that DSOD Delta pond is included as a jurisdictional Dam and they had noted in their in their periodic inspection report in 2015 similar to C&D that there's erosion problems there and those projects problems need to be addressed as well now originally the project included Pond CD and Delta together, but one of the operational constraints We learned was that we cannot have ponds C&D and Delta empty during the same Irrigation season or we can't meet our agricultural customer demands So we'd have to do these projects in series rather than in parallel Simultaneously, so we decided to split that Delta pond project off into future years So we have now have projects scheduled out for the next five construction seasons so Contract review subcommittee. So one of the reasons that staff felt we needed a subcommittee meeting Was because of this recent failures and the desire to have it repaired this season because we're scheduled out for five more seasons of construction We didn't think It was wise to push the repair of that interior levy out six years We just thought it would get worse and worse and worse over the years So at that contract review subcommittee meeting we reviewed the project history and scope We discussed alternatives for completing this CD levy slope repair that occurred in March The subcommittee approved moving forward with a proposed construction contract including this interior CD levy repair even though we didn't have Defined scope and plans together that we would normally do so it's unusual the city attorney was consulted and Approved the approach we were going to take which I'll show you in a moment here So the approach to repair the internal CD levy because we didn't have time again To prepare plans like we normally do we created this force account bid item Allowance and that bid item allowance was set at two hundred ninety thousand dollars so all the contractors essentially bid two hundred ninety thousand dollars on there and We're gonna have a geotechnical engineer on-site to evaluate the conditions since we like I said the scope was not well-defined already So the geotechnical engineer on-site will be able to Help direct the contractor as to what needs to be done and we'll do this on a timing materials basis charging against this allowance So force account work is not it's something that we do on a regular basis as far as change orders are concerned It's not that unusual what makes it unusual in this case is the dollar value. It's a high dollar value for a force account So again, there'll be a geotechnical engineer on-site to make recommendations as we proceed with this So the pros of doing this by force account is we can include it in this contract get the work done this season So the problem won't grow worse going through multiple rainy seasons Also, there'll be no additional mobilization costs because the contractor will already be on-site The cons force account is timing materials. It tends to cost more because it's not a competitive bid price Also, as I mentioned the scope is somewhat poorly defined because the water level was up high and we couldn't see the entire extent of the damage And the schedule this summer trying to get all this work done this summer will be a challenge But we think we can do it Now the timeline is the contract award May 16th today The notice to proceed would come out in mid-June and the anticipated completion would be October 15 So it is the it is recommended by the transportation and public works department and the water department that the Board of Public Utilities By motion approve the project and award construction contract number C 0 1 9 0 9 in the amount of 1,000,290,493 And 75 cents to the lowest responsive bidder granite construction company of Watsonville, California For north only slope protection pond C and D and pond B slope repair approve a 20% contingency and authorize a total contract amount of 1,548,592 dollars and 50 cents So thank you, and we'll take any questions Thank You mr. Wilt any questions. Yes board member Grable. Yeah a question on slide seven You have any idea the cause of that failure it looks like there was riprap installed and everything is I mean Judging by the drawing on the next page, and I have some knowledge of bank stabilization and geotechnical engineering it looks like They're gonna basically do the same thing So maybe just explain to me how how it'll be different how we can you know prevent those failures in the future based on the new project here proposed so I'm not a geotechnical engineer, so I Cannot answer that question specifically. I do know we had a lot of rain this year The water table was likely high the pond levels were high Across this levy is pond D so if pondry was if pond B was drained suddenly with the high Elevation of the water in pond D and the high ground water elevation It's possible that the water was moving through the soil hit a weak spot in that soil created a slip plane and just Rotated this failure right on out So there could be some operational Things that could be done to try to prevent this, but I don't this repair is a local repair Fairly confident we won't have a similar failure in this same location But I cannot speak to the other locations that could fail in the future That's what I'm getting at and if you're draining the pond and doing a bunch of geotechnical work there And we're doing for instance a geotextile Which would essentially be a band-aid on this one part of the levy but the rest of it does not for instance have a Geotextile or some of the other You know newer technologies. I I mean just the geotextile itself I guess isn't that that big an issue But it just concerns me that it is a it is a sizable repair, and I'm just wondering, you know, is this one of those You know slapping band-aids on something that actually needs a lot more investment attention and you know, I Don't want to over complicate it, but it does seem to me to To draw that question out, you know I Yeah, it is my own opinion that this repair will be effective for this location only and there could Indeed be further failures in the future along the same bank Okay, and I guess my other question would be based on my previous recommendation about these projects you know what we often use with with banks civilizations and Restoration projects that have more hydraulic pressure more movement, you know more hydrology to them Shall we say you you do use revegetation use, you know Willow specifically and and other native plants and not only stabilize the bank a lot better than just engineered Phil You know a piece of fabric and some riprap, but it also creates habitat and And might be a better long-term solution. I don't just something to look into. Yeah, so that alternative I guess is a possibility for the Interior levees, but for the exterior levees department of safety of dams will not allow any sort of Shrubbery or trees on those banks interesting Do the existing levees have this geotextile material in them or is this something new that's being added for the repairs? That's a good question. I'd have to get back to you on that. I don't have that answer I Don't see any evidence of that from the photos Yeah, and I don't see any evidence of that from the photos. I'll put it that these original levees were built in 1977 just for reference we're member doubt I would like to defer the comments from the subcontract the contract sub Contract review subcommittee to chairman Galvin who also chairs that and then I have a brief comment after he summarizes What that subcommittee did and and evaluating this? Recommendations now before us. Thank you. Yes, as was reported. We did meet Several weeks ago and went over this project We discussed in in great detail then the need for the work and the urgency of it We did discuss also whether there were alternative methods potentially available to the repairs And we were satisfied as a subcommittee that the work that was being proposed was appropriate and needed to proceed right away So it was a unanimous Position of the subcommittee to recommend the approval of this motion The one thing that I wanted to add which was not available to us at the time that the subcommittee met but looking at the bids that we did receive from the six different contractors Many of them are well-qualified and so I feel good about the numbers that we receive and in particular I wanted to mention that granite construction is known for a very very good Track record as a contractor and if you don't know they are huge And have done many many different types of construction. So I was comfortable Not that I wouldn't have been with the others But I know in this case we're going to have the opportunity to work with a very qualified construction company And the other board of board member banister So you mentioned that there's a five-year schedule and what we're looking at here is this construction season correct plan Can you elaborate a little bit more on what else is going to happen in the subsequent four years? So Delta pond has similar erosion problems, and so it's going to be a similar type repair. I can show you that actually The repair may look more like this one because that levee is not as wide. We can't trim it back. So it's it's going to be More like we're going to excavate out some of the failed material and build that back up That project It's on the north face of Delta pond, which is very long And so it's going to take much longer than this and since the construction season is so short We think it's going to take three or four construction seasons in order to completely rebuild that understood I mean obviously it goes I mean is that one also under the jurisdiction of the agency with the dams correct Okay, so I mean obviously goes without saying that it's thought that It's safe enough, you know that you can do that over the next four years You know with that concern of a failure DSOD was encouraging us to address it in a timely manner And that this is about the best we can do and they're satisfied with it That one holds a lot more water than these ponds cd and so on correct So that one is my understanding that Delta pond holds A little bit more water than all these metal lane ponds combined. Yeah That's what I thought and that's the concern that you know, if there would be a catastrophic failure there It would be very damaging downstream. Yeah catastrophic failure there The water would go out into Santa Rosa creek immediately. That's that's where that dam is right on the other side of that creek. Yep Thank you Any other board member questions or comments If not, I'll entertain a motion. I I would make a motion as suggested in our recommendation for action page one of three of the staff report and I move for that A motion to approve that recommendation second Motion by board member doubt seconded by board member grable to approve item 7.1 Fall in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Six oh, thank you. Thank you Thanks, mr. Willow. Thank you for all the work on this And catching it and getting with it as quickly as you did You're welcome Item eight is public comments on non-agenda matters We have no referrals no written communications subcommittee reports board member reports I We're member down I would like possibly If Vice chair Arnone would talk a little bit about The the closed session that we had and anything that transpired when I believe you went to the city council meeting with our recommendation I did I attended the closed session and that's all I can say Literally, I will say that I I thought that we had a similar presentation. Um, we had A public comment period before the closed session where the All the parties except for hospice made similar presentations hospice did not a show did not make a presentation before the city council The city council received The input that I forwarded from the bpu and considered it and I think that's all I can say I can repeat what what was reported out was that The recommendation from the bpu was supported by the council and the direction to staff was given along those lines And and I think that's there'll be more Coming back on the future details of that transaction Thank you So I'll report that I attended the luncheon of the monthly luncheon that the mayor has for the chairs of the boards and commissions of the city and He wanted me to pass along to the board his recommendation and desire that the board Appear at the board's commission's committee's orientation session, which is may 29th from three to five here in the city council chambers Even if you've been on the board for a while It's still a good good opportunity to get updated on handbooks and brown acts and what have you And also you should have received I think late yesterday A notice from the city manager's office regarding the sexual harassment prevention training That's mandatory for everybody on a board or commission if you don't Complete that you will get removed from your position. So please look at the dates that are available And make sure you sign up for one of them right away Or remember down I wasn't clear on the email that came out about that. I did go to that first Harassment training session down at soma And that one that one counts and that one counts it does count My I know my certificate and others who attended that I believe you did chairman galvin as well Your certificate is held by the city of santa rosa. You don't have to have one in your own file as I Verified That's correct. I needed one in my file because it helps helps me for my Continuing education for the bar, but yeah Any other board member reports Directors report Thank you chair galvin members of the board. I have a few things to update you all on today Uh first, uh, you should have received an informational update Regarding the potter valley project and some recent activities that have occurred The sonoma county water agency Is entering into an agreement with medicino county inland water and power commission as well as cal trout To look at an opportunity to put forward a planning agreement And eventually work on a feasibility study To find a path forward for potentially continuing the relicensing process for the potter valley project So we are continuing to follow this very closely As water department staff and we'll continue to keep the board updated as More things progress with this process Second I wanted to let the board know that Unfortunately a second screen at our headworks at the laguna treatment plant failed this week So two of our four screens have now failed We have taken the other two offline to prevent any further damage while we work to Secure the maintenance that is needed. So the approval today of the soul source purchase order was very helpful In that regard so we can get folks out to come out and do some maintenance Um, unfortunately that leaves us with our operators needing to use our Emergency bar screens, which are quite a bit coarser and requires quite a bit more work by operation staff Operators will need to manually clean the debris from the screens And it does impact our process a bit downstream So we are working with the manufacturers to coordinate an emergency repair effort And there may be something that will be coming before the board very shortly. Don't know exactly what yet, but we are working very hard on that Also wanted to let the board know that we had another Event at the treatment plant the administration building was evacuated earlier this week due to a carbon monoxide leak And we did determine that the source of the leak was the boiler And we actually have One boiler that is out of service needing repair. So this is our one boiler that is remaining for the administration building So we do need to continue to use it. We have put in temporary ventilation As well as brought a contractor out to come out and take a look at what repairs may be needed We're waiting on a proposal in the next couple of days We've also added an air monitoring schedule as well as some additional Detectors in key areas to make sure that staff feels comfortable and there's no exposure All staff were fine. We didn't have any issues in terms of that We've also set up the opportunity if staff would feel more comfortable to go to an alternate location to work as well So both those things are are critical Efforts that we're following and putting a lot of effort into to get repairs in place as soon as we can On hopefully a better note This next week is our public works week So we'll be celebrating that Actually, it's a national public works week. We'll be celebrating that in santa rosa And we'll be combining an event with our annual water awareness month Hopefully this wednesday may 22nd at the wednesday night market So assuming that this weather clears up and the wednesday night market actually occurs We'd love to invite the board to attend It is a great opportunity to really find out about all the different Water use efficiency programs and rebates we have And we will also be having some very interesting fun equipment down there and crews from our public works department as well So great event. We hope to see you there 5 30 wednesday the 22nd of may And then also wanted to remind the board that we do have a special VPU meeting that will be occurring next week on the 23rd of may at 1 30 at our utility skilled office. So And that's my report Any questions for the director We're moved out This is a comment I happen to be on the executive committee for the sonoma county alliance And they have their general membership meeting the first wednesday of every month unless it's a holiday And they are planning on having if you read the article about the potter valley project this morning in the press democrat I believe her name is janet paulie Represents the potter valley mendicino county area in the discussions that are going forward on that whole subject matter And she's going to be a speaker at the general membership meeting On the first I believe it's the first Wednesday at 7 30 at san rosa golf and country club next month and if Anybody's interested i'd be glad to send the announcement of it to interim director berke and She can let the board know about the possibility of their attendance if they are interested It it's an informative Presentation by her There'll be many more but you if you're interested it's available Thank you happy to send that information out if you provide it and I and I will just let you know that we've had presentations by janet paulie before at a water advisory committee meeting she's really A great wealth of knowledge regarding the potter valley project so she really can help provide a lot of perspective Any other questions or comments for the director Very good. We'll stand adjourned. Thank you