I would like to welcome you all to the fourth in our series in a day in the life of a leader and our guest today is Kelvin Watson. We're very excited to have him here. I'll just give you a moment of background about the series for those of you who haven't joined us in the first three parts and then I would like to introduce our guest. So at the School of Information at San Jose State University where Dr. Allman and I work, we have a number of advisory committees for different subject areas and Sue and I co-chair the Library Management and Leadership Advisory Committee of which Kelvin is a member and so one of the pieces of advice that we've been given over the past several months is that graduating students from the MLS program and librarians new to their careers often don't expect that they'll be applying for and participating in management positions so early in their career and there's a lot of questions about what that entails and what they can do to prepare and so one of the ideas that the committee came up with was that we have a day in the life of the leader series. So here we are Kelvin was named the Broward County's Director, Broward County's Library Director in Florida in February 2017 and prior to going to Broward he was the Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President for Queens County, part of the Queens Library in New York City, one of the largest libraries I think in the country. Since he came to Florida he's launched a number of innovative initiatives such as the Veterans Connect Hotspot program as well as an initiative that makes digital library cards available to all Broward County public school students. He's the immediate past president of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and currently we found out just yesterday a member of the Public Library Association Board. He was just elected to that board as well and has recently been nominated for the Book Industry Study Group Board too. We're all crossing our fingers that he will become a member of that board and represent libraries in the publishing industry as well. So you can see this rich background that Kelvin brings to both our committee and to today's talk and we're thrilled to have him here. So I would like to hand the microphone over to Kelvin and have you take it away. Excellent. Thank you. So good afternoon, good morning and I've been seeing some of the folks log into the chat to see where we where we're being represented. So today my talk is going to be about librarians and leadership and what you know from a public library standpoint some of the things that I've seen over the last 20 years being in and around libraries and from multiple different ways. So as we think about the 21st century library especially here in Broward County which is a diverse area I really focus on the people and I think that for our profession going forward we really have to think about the people in the library not just the customers we serve but the people that we that we work with and around as well. And so that's really what this conversation this afternoon is going to be about when I talk about libraries transform. You know the people come from multiple walks of life and so it's about building building communities. You know the ALA came out with this library transform marketing initiative a few years ago and one of the things that I talked about with my with my teams that I've had the opportunity to lead over the over the last few years has been about not just building the communities again from outside the library or transforming what the library or how the library is seen from the outside but really transforming from within. How do we transform our staff? How do we transform the teams? How do we transform ourselves so that we are meeting the needs of the communities that we serve? And the way to do that is to think about abandoning conventional library practices right. So many years ago as I said 20 years ago I was I was a library book distributor sales person. So the and the one thing that I would hear over and over and over again and we hear it still today is that's the way we've always done it or you know we're not looking to change we like it just the way just the way we are we have been doing it. And so we we and the future leaders really have to think about looking at things differently cultivating collaborative partnerships within the community. Get outside of the physical building and work with the people and it really doesn't matter what library what type of library you're coming from public library a school library an academic library special library. We all need to get out of our own way and start looking at things differently and again it part of that is starting with our with ourselves. And I'm one to say that I feel like I continually transform all the time. So putting the customer first again we with what we are now have a lot more digital resources than we previously had. So some of the initiatives that we've launched here at the Broward County libraries and the library taking the lead has been to work with our transportation department. We know that people are still catching the buses here in Broward County they are all Wi-Fi enabled. So we have 300 buses that have Wi-Fi on them and what we've done is we thought about our customers and said you know why they're on this long bus ride why not offer them the library services why not advertise the library and connect them to the the Frigo music service that we that we offer and then guess what if they don't have a library card let's simplify the method so that they can get a digital library card on that bus ride when they find out about our services. So we've really integrated programming services we've initiated a lot of training all around putting the customer first leveraging digital and focusing on the citizens that we that we serve. So how do you get there you start with transformation you start with that libraries transform you use methods that have traditionally not been what libraries and libraries have talked about one of those is being agile another is being adaptive third responsive to your community. So I started using agile in my library world or my library work after my time that I've spent at a library technology company so I used to work I worked months in front of time for a library technology company and we built software using agile methodology so I took that same concept for those came concepts and said we need to be agile in libraries we need to stop sitting around the table trying to figure out what our customers want and get them involved we need to take the leadership role we need to lead so it's not about what we want or actually what even we think we know but it's delivering to the customers what they want sooner versus then then later dealing with and resolving issues that we think are coming and again hearing from and hearing from the customers. So a couple weeks ago I had a meeting with some advocates for the visually impaired because I wanted to hear from them what is it that we are offering at Broward County libraries but more specifically what aren't we offering to serve the needs of the visually impaired community. So it's taking that taking that approach so if you've never heard about agile or you're not familiar with agile some agile lean strategies that I wanted to share today was talking to your customers interviewing your customers not and as you can see I use customers and not patrons I use customers because it's a to me it's universal and it's a it's a customer service mentality that libraries need to continue to uh to home and and make better and think of think of ourselves in the service-oriented way that we that we should. Working across disciplines so what I like to do is I like to pull people in who are not familiar with leading projects and give them a project to lead so I give the cataloging manager that's reported to me a an opportunity to work with with the IT department to build an app so that we could so that we could leverage people's memories that they provided us in a digital in a digital way. So cross-discipline training, issue escalation, teamwork all you know all of these things are some easy what I think easy agile lean strategies training training and more training that's certainly another aspect over the last year that I've been here at Brown County we've engaged in a very robust training program for our for our staff um and one way that we did this was you know bottom up bottom up top down listening to new employees and having them communicate directly uh directly to me another thought about transformation is is to really understand what industries we are competing against so becoming aware of existing market needs when I go to the grocery store when I go to 7-eleven when I go to Walmart I am looking at how they are delivering customer service and nine times out of ten I am coming back to to my library and saying hey how can we do this how can we do this better um I am a big amazon Netflix user so I'm always trying to learn from them as well um you know when I talked about the you know the a few minutes ago about the the music on the buses well we took that same concept here at Brown County and we've now launched music at the parks so all of our parks have workout areas and so we collaborated with our parks customers to um and the parks um the parks marketing team to develop a new library service that people can access in the park while they're exercising we also we also made it easier for people who are camping at the brown county parks to get a library card easier as well without having to come to a physical library so you so you can see that we've taken things we've looked at new ideas we've tested them um and then we've relaunched them um and so what I tell my team here and you'll see it at the bottom of the slide is that you know our work is never done we continually uh we continually function like a like a business even though we're a government entity we really work like a business and as you know businesses are never done with um coming up with new ideas to serve their customers so speaking of businesses as you can see don't force business processes on your users listen to them learn from them um have focus groups um survey ask them questions um look for ways to satisfy their needs stop using so many um of those uh you know we we had a a library app here at a brown county we recently transitioned and what in the app for our our server our books in in our catalog was wow w o w and so when you saw wow for one I never knew what wow meant or what it what it really stood for because it had nothing to do directly with the with the library so we've now transitioned to a new the new app and a new library card that will that literally says brown county libraries which people understand um the other thing that that I would say is that you as a as a leader and everybody is a leader to me regardless of what role you have in uh in a library in the organization is to not be a blocker to your success so what is a blocker a blocker is someone who is just pessimistic always looking for the negatives not willing to try things not willing to to test things and not willing to course correct when you find out that you've tried something and it didn't work so I wouldn't be I would be remiss if I if I didn't continue to focus on and do something experiment my my my career has been about doing something not being paralyzed by by change um not uh looking at um not looking to be perfect but looking to provide the services that I need to provide to to progress and then if I need to course correct after we've tested something or experiment it it's okay so I use this one I use this one quote by John Ingram I used to work for Ingram uh Ingram book group early in my career and so um now I'm still in communication with John Ingram so I use this example John Ingram um is the is the chairman and CEO Ingram book and so as we as we know we've moved into a much more digital age not um we're not distributing as many physical books as we used to and so what John what John did probably about 20 years ago was he said I think things are going to be moving in a in a way that I won't need as much warehouse space but I'll be printing books on demand and so he started this little company called Lightning um Lightning Trent and now that company is um doing as much or more business as the physical book distribution business used to do so he's printing books on demand and he he experimented and he tried to he made some changes so that he could remain and his company could remain relevant for the people that they're that they're serving so the anatomy of transformation a few steps step one getting the right strategic vision is critical um step two execution is the hardest part of transformation step three the biggest challenge to transformation may be a leader went into a past or current success and step four take a broad view of customer demand when embarking on business transformation so we're going to get into the next few slides and kind of talk a little bit about each one of these steps and how you as a leader can focus on these as you start your career as you're in the middle of your career or as you're as you're looking at opportunities um in the in the future so getting the right strategic vision is critical that's that's being able to anticipate what the customer is going to want and again when you when you're looking at what other companies and entities are doing to service customers that will help you craft kind of your strategic vision um and help you move forward so again more people are using online resources so my focus is how do i provide a virtual a lot more and more virtual library services to service the needs of the people who don't want to come in the library for the people who do want to come in the library how do i craft a strategic vision to bring them in one of the ways that we're doing to here at Broward County is i'm planning to work with Broward College and of Florida Atlantic University to build an academic success center here in the Broward County main library so i can bring more people in um who are students who can leverage this space as well so it's think through strategies around what is happening in your area to be successful in your in your transformation bringing the library to the community as i just mentioned so where the customers live where they work that is central to a customer service model for a library in the 21st century and again it it doesn't matter if it's a school library academic public that's why we launched the program with the schools for example to offer digital library cards to all the students in Broward County and we're also working with charter schools and private schools as well and and and putting some marketing marketing behind it that the library card is the key to your your success whether that be a physical and or a digital card so realigning what we've done to meet our customers lifestyles we also recently launched a new project as well called library card for life so anyone that's born in Broward County can actually get uh get a digital library card from uh from us so you talked so i i talked about the strategic vision in being critical the next critical piece is execution uh which to me is the is is really the hardest part of any transformation you know many many of us have may or may not have experienced sitting around conference rooms talking about what we want to do coming up with ideas and brainstorming and then one to two years later we're still sitting around the conference room talking about what we want to do and it's that same talking about what we're going to do that same topic that we're going to work on two or three years ago and we really have it we have it executed so one of the things that i that i leverage with with with agile is the execution so bringing together all of those components putting dates around it and actually again getting something out that we can test and experiment on and then course correct as well so don't you don't have to wait um to uh to you have perfection be the leader and execute so talk about the hardest part um so the biggest challenge then is that leader who doesn't and my mind leaves being wedded to the patch our current success as i mentioned before your work is never done my work is never done i tell my staff that all the time um we know and they i think they're getting to understand that the work is never done and that never be happy with the you know the success continue to to to to you know reevaluate and and launch new services work with new partners so that you can continue to to move forward um so i think that i've been successful in my career is because i have not been lulled by being complacent um as and i'm never probably done with you know wanting to contribute to the success of our profession and what what libraries do and what and what i do so again don't be wedded to pass don't be wedded to any current success another thing that i've that i think that i've been uh been called um and this is in a good way is a is a disrupt is a uh disruptor uh so i would encourage you as you think about leadership and being a leader to be be disrupted think about the library as being disrupted to the community that you that you serve that you that it's the it's the place that people don't always think about um but the but i always want libraries to be top of mind so i'm always looking to create new business i'm always looking to uh be a first tester of something that a vendor is coming out with i'm always looking to provide better and better um better and better customer service and it's not always about the money um but being more creative so you don't need money to offer a lot of things programming sometimes that libraries offer so it's really about being being creative we did a we did a very interesting program um this uh this this past december where we worked with our cultural division here in the county and we did um the program was called um actually it was a festival it was a chalk c h a l k literacy festival so we brought together chalk artists who actually took books and they they drew the characters from the books on um on the plaza outside the main library that was the first time we had ever done this type of event um and the really big collaboration with with our cultural division but we had over five thousand people visit the library at that and so it's really about again making the library the first thing that people want to do uh and spend um their time on the weekends for example so this is just a something to share when you're thinking about um you know what what we've been known for libraries people have thought about us as old books and that's pretty much all but you know we're running large library systems so i of course worked at queens library one of the top five libraries in the country and actually um america borough county libraries and it's number 10 out of all the public libraries in in the country um and so this is where this is where we're going um and this is where we have to be we have to think about competing with google and amazon not for profit but for business and that's what leadership looks like to me in uh as we move forward um and as you move forward in in your library career so i wanted to share some disruptor examples um more from the business world um and and how things have kind of changed um some of these places i've actually worked for so ingram uh as i mentioned i worked for them and how they really changed the book purchasing industry um i actually used to work for borders books as well um and so uh was actually there at the height of amazon and uh how borders is no longer here because uh amazon you know focused on um the web and as you can see they're uh they're moving more to physical stores now which is uh which is something interesting as well but you have uber and taxis i take uber all a lot but apple and itunes microsoft and netflix and you can see what tesla is doing to the car industry so these are some examples of you know what disruptor examples look like um and then of course libraries are still here uh so we've got to have our place as well for disrupting um disrupting businesses and disrupting other um other entities that are actually taking people away from uh from using the library step four is it just again taking a broad view of customer demand um customers need solutions not specific products or services um so an example of this is um so i cut the cord from cable about five years ago and traditionally i'm now using um um hulu and netflix and amazon those are my web um that's how i get my movies and things but then what i also use as another solution is hoopla that we offer at the at the library um and encourage a lot of our customers to use hoopla as well as uh as an alternative solution to um to uh paying for services if they if they can't you know they can't afford to pay or they don't want to pay that we have alternatives that we have solutions um aligning with their with their needs and again anticipating that nobody the parks um the parks partners that i have here in the county they didn't come to me and say hey kelvin uh we think our customers want music in the workout areas or what is it what type of library services do you think you can offer our our customers um it with the other way around the library anticipating that hey you're going to the park you're going to be walking the trail you're going to be working out you're probably going to be listening to music why can i why shouldn't i offer the library music service to to you while you're enjoying uh enjoying this kind of park so that's an example of trying to anticipate some business needs or some needs of our customers um that that we are uh again moving forward on so one of the things i i thought about when i was um thinking about our our talk today was going through the presentation and there's certainly some takeaways there but i i also wanted to hone in on some specific leader um takeaways and what i have experienced again in multiple organizations both both from a library perspective um from a business perspective for profit organizations um i also work for the federal government and one of the things that that that is always uh relevant is the culture and so some leader takeaways that i like to share with you today is uh as well is about the culture change and how that is is leader led and i've had the opportunity to be a leader in multiple organizations and help affect culture change and so stepping up um and you know looking at my role as a leader and saying you know what i'm responsible for this change i'm responsible for implementing agile and and it's going to take you know five years probably for us to fully be where we need to be and taking every section by section what the leader a leader has to be in the mix um you you learn to lead from your respective if you know your respective business area so you know um i am very uh very much attuned to what's happening throughout the entire library system so i'm learning as a leader i'll get i get the opportunity to learn a lot about a lot of different things how we how we do our technical services from collection management from metadata digitization you know i'm also in the it world um understanding about our our digital assets and our um in our wi-fi i'm responsible for the bit for the money so the business and accounting and paying and bills and invoices so really learning all of those areas so that can learn the lead when there is a budget cut or if there is a you know another recession or if there is some new service that's coming out that's going to be a disruptor to my business which is the library um also being successful stepping into uh to my role um to actually lead the organization where i wanted to be so setting that tone setting that example um and actually speaking it and walking and talking um one of the things that i wanted to do what i got here was to broaden the communication and so i immediately implemented on my fifth day here at at broward said i am going to have an open door policy and people can come anybody in the in the organization can come and meet with me at at uh at anytime um and then i also set a specific day for people to meet with me um as well they can schedule an appointment why did i do that because that's why i want to have happened across the organization that people feel comfortable talking to leadership and people feel comfortable talking to their managers but the only way to really do that is to step in and do that myself and the last last thing is don't don't feel breaking the pattern break out of old ways of doing things and and i've talked about this a little while ago and don't be you know don't be wedded to those to that to that past and what's happened before break out do something different be be the person that brings innovation and and be the person that is not only talking about transformation but actually doing transformation as well so you the leader have enormous power to transform the culture simply by changing your behavior so it's within you to do that um so the last thing that i'll that i'll leave you with before i take questions is uh it's to never underestimate your power the power that you have to be the leader regardless of what role you have in the organization that you yourself are a leader as well and now i and now i think we open it up for questions thank you so much kelvin for the formal part of your presentation i'd like to open it to the floor for people to ask questions you can put your question in the chat if you'd like and we can make sure that everyone here is it we'll read it out um or you can try raising your hand i'll just leave that open for a minute and otherwise i think both sue and i have some questions for you too kelvin so okay i'm gonna start if i may um it's sue and so many questions i have um because we didn't have time to explore everything that you mentioned but um i am uh i was trained my mentor talked about resistance to technology and that's the what you've called the blocker so how do you we know that people resist change they block efforts do you have any tricks or um strategies to get the blocker to come around one of the things that i've done um so not um and again i've done some of these things throughout my uh throughout my career and that's really having and we use the word training so we use the word training loosely but it's really having people experience the technology themselves it's it's it's being able to um you know understand it from a layman's point of view so an example that i'll give you about so we launched this new service called the gochik which is a it's a little device where it connects to multiple uh you can connect to multiple tablets your phone even your smart tv so what i so what i did did and what i do is i talk to people and my my staff like hey i know you have a smart tv uh or you're going to get a smart tv because it's around christmas time and here's how you connect this advice to your smart tv so i so i make it uh and implement ways that it that that they can see technology for themselves in their own environment not just from the library the library perspective does it make sense yeah i had to unmute myself yes it does um and i think that that's really important um we want to take people's questions now too and there's one in the chat it's how do you evaluate what services to continue what to change what to abandon after your experimentation so the evaluation is done in multiple multiple ways uh one is really just looking at the data so i'm i'm i'm big on on on having the data and understanding the usage and sometimes sometimes there's low usage and i'm looking for not the problem but the solution and or the challenge so when there is something that needs to continue right so sometimes it's based on money sometimes it's based on data usage um we make decisions that way what to change the change we learn about what it is we want to change that we hear information again we leverage data we leverage the surveys we talk to our customers so we can figure out what it is that we need to you know what do we need to change or how do we need to change it so for example we we started lending um we started lending tablets here at brower county i also loaned tablets to customers in queen had different experiences in both both uh both areas actually in brower we put a few more restrictions on the tablet than i did in in queens and so what we what we had to do when we adjusted and said you know maybe we're wanting the customers to come to the library when we really need to go out to the schools more and we need to talk to parents more about using these tablets and we also maybe need to look at expanding it from we were doing it at one location and now we're going to be doing it from three locations so it's but i only knew that because or felt like you know we had enough data to do that was after we we sat down and did the analyze you know abandoning things you know that's you know that's also kind of the same the same way you you make decisions as a leader and you and you weigh um you you weigh your return on investment so that's how what i would say is um that's how i would answer that question as well so the return on investment and that could be that's not just financial that's also that's also about the time and energy exerted into you know a program or service that you may or may not want to be doing um then there's another question uh well i can i just say i put in the chat letting go of legacy services is a book that people might be interested in and it was written by two of my former students uh mary evangelist and kathryn furlong so it goes into some of the things that you were saying but it gives real examples of what people let go um because you can't do everything all the time uh so i would recommend that book and then um i'll read this out loud while you're thinking about the question kelvin you talked a lot about technology one big issue here in new mexico is that things like the internet are not available to all people so how do you deal with this we want to be connected but if most of our service area they are not able to access the internet at home is difficult so one of the ways that we've done that here as well as uh again in new york was we worked with uh we worked with i worked with t-mobile to come up with a plan so that we could offer uh wifi enabled tablets but we also uh worked out a program with them to offer mobile hotspots as well so that when people so that people could continue to have internet access after they left the library so we we receive the devices we pay nothing for the devices and we pay a uh a nominal service charge for for the internet access for people and so we've been we've been lending out both of those devices um since last um since last summer and that was a first for a first big push for broward county one of my first initiatives here and again i had this a similar type of work with a similar type service at at queens where we where we felt like you know people don't have the access then we need to give them access and uh this the telecom providers was a was a partner for us uh to actually achieve that at least at some at some level here in in broward as well as queens i'd like to add on to that or ask a question um because you've got the different services um with those mobile devices um being able to have the buses um have library services on the buses in the parks how do you get the information to the people to your customers or the non-users as well non-customers uh so that they know about this uh sometimes it can be word of mouth sometimes it can be costly it can be a campaign you can use a variety of things so what um has worked best for you so we've used those things that you've mentioned too but we've also done um a tremendous amount of outreach um and physically being uh places um so i'll give you some examples so we we we have done an event here it's a night event it's in one of the lower income areas of broward county and it's been going on for five years and so what i what i added again thinking about from a business perspective was we started doing outreach at the event so the event is kind of like a party it's like after i was party for adults you know it's cultural but we were not talking to people about the library services we weren't signing people up for library cards as a matter of fact so that's something that we've implemented over the last year the other thing that we've been doing is again getting outside of the library ourselves and participating in the community so i've been i'm not sure if you're familiar with a group called sage but it's a uh lgbtq um group for seniors and so we've built a relationship with them i've actually been a speaker at one of their at one of their meetings and my team is actually going back this week we had a table that that initial meeting i attended you know lending library cards talking about our services they're going back this week to actually show individuals how to use some of the services that we offer like the digital services so it's really all of the things you talked about the advertising the marketing the emails but also what works is getting outside of the buildings and actually connecting with the community oh i absolutely agree that's um you have to have the face outside of the physical building and i teach a course in marketing and say it can be you know in the the line at the grocery store where you start up a conversation just to get the information out well listen i've um talked a lot she'll do you have questions and i will encourage people to type in your last questions we have a few more minutes so please make the most of this opportunity with um one of the most transformative leaders in the profession you don't get this opportunity all the time so share i'll turn it over to you and then ask people to please put in your last questions in the chat okay thank you sue i do have a question for you kelvin um that might be relevant uh typically with our series we've had a mix of students attend as well as people who are working in the profession but i wanted to ask specifically for students as an employer and as the head of your library when you're looking to hire new graduates or librarians who might be at the beginning of their careers what are the kinds of things that might strike you as desirable in those applicants when you're looking for leadership you know what kind of things and experiences and ways can applicants practice leadership skills that will show to you that they would be good potential employees so i would say um very similar to my career i've had a diverse career so i'm looking for candidates with some diversity in their you know in their backgrounds uh you know if you have been um volunteering um as well as you know working at a library but learning something that was different than your library type work that makes sense sure so it's so i like i like people who bring different ideas to the table because they've had experiences uh they've worked in bookstores they worked for borders they've uh worked at different uh places or again volunteer they were the church treasurer for example i mean so i like those types of skills not just that you know i want to work in the library and i want to be an archivist and i want to be the head of digitization um you're you're gonna you'd strike a better um you'd be the the best candidate for me is one has uh some multiple experiences that they can bring and or interest in multiple because uh gaining experience as well i'll i'll add that at all too right so that flexibility and um that having shown you know taking on leadership regardless of the setting prior to applying to the library it's that i totally agree um uh we have a question from uh a couple of questions in the chat uh the first one is i like your statement change is leader led in your career who you look to uh whose behavior that you strive to model wow so that i've had i've had the opportunity to work with a lot of uh a lot of great leaders that i've got leaders um so my i initially started my career in the military so i look to uh those types of individuals you know colon pow is one i just recently read uh read a book by a gentleman el uh el david uh marquette marquette who wrote a book called turn the ship around um and so not that i'm promoting the book but it's a good it's a military focused book on on navy um and how he was part of the navy and he helped via his leadership to change how the operations were done um and how after that the people under him the leaders under him went on to have very successful careers as well so i i looked for you know i've had those john ingram is well another um uh that comes to my again that i've had the opportunity to uh to work for and i try to model that um you know type of uh leadership you know i work with john john's a billionaire but he's a really down-to-earth kind of person as well so again i i i should try to follow those folks so then i could answer i could probably give you a list of people that i've had the opportunity to work with that have been you know leader led changers great i think probably um more than uh answers the question from the person in the chat there we've got one more i think we this might be our last question just because we're coming up to the top of the hour um nancy it says that i recently had a young man who's a reference librarian ask how he can move up to a management or leadership position what would you suggest he do to get recognition for those skills so i would say and again this is these are you know these are these are the kelvin uh things is that i would say not just trying to get recognition or like if i'm reading this right i'm assuming the reference skills and i think that it's even beyond the reference skills i think is um i would say the opportunity to move up would be joining or being a part of some cross functional teams i would say that if there is some um when there are programs going on and and and there and people are looking for volunteers that he volunteer to be a part of those cross functional teams or teams i think that um those round people outed and and you get recognition by contributing collaborating and that those are the things that will help you i i think when you move up into management and leadership positions as i mentioned i think we're going to uh stop our questions here because we always try to start and stop on time i i want to just start our closing remarks by thanking you so much kelvin for not only so many different things to think about about how we can enact leadership and become better leaders but also for the time that you provide on the advisory committee and for suggesting this series and then being so gracious as to agree to be one of our guests as well i think everyone here has certainly benefited from what you're saying but also to remind you and to remind all the participants here that we're recording this session and we know that people really enjoy downloading them after the fact and that many other people will benefit from the session today so thank you so much and i want to turn the mic over to su before we go if she has anything to add well i was going to say exactly what you did Cheryl um kelvin has done so much um in his time on our leadership and management advisory committee to really improve our courses for our students um but i'm also going to tell people we won't send out the url but it will be posted on the san jose state university school of information website and if you go to the top of the screen to events and look at webcasts um it's going to be up there it usually takes about four or five days until we get the video and transcript up and it's on youtube as well our own youtube channel so you can either look on youtube for the school of information at san jose state university or come to our website for the direct link so thank you to all of our people who participated today and a very big thank you to kelvin for taking time out of a very busy schedule um very dynamic programs and fabulous leadership so uh without further ado i will turn off recording and just know that we do thank everyone very much


So, welcome everybody, I will tell you a small contribution to a famous problem, which is sometimes called the inverse Goldback problem of Osman, at least this is how Christian Elshos calls it, I don't know whether it is his invention or not. So this is about representing the set of primes as a subset, it is easy to see that the complete set of primes cannot be a subset in any non-trivial way, but maybe if we add or delete a few then we can. This is still unsolved, everybody expects a negative answer including me, what is known that if such a decomposition existed then both A and B should have about square root X element up to X, which is achieved by some version of large sieve and also Elshos has an explanation why we cannot hope a complete solution in this way. What I'm going to tell you is that the situation changes if we allow negative primes, so this is the following, we will assume hypothesis which is expected to be true and soon I will remind you what it is. So if we assume the prime hypothesis then there are infinite sets A and B such that the subset is the set of positive and negative primes including plus minus two and excluding plus minus two and plus minus three, it is easy to say they must be excluded. And I will tell you a proof of a slightly weaker version when we exclude a finite number of primes just not to, I don't want to tell about the extra trouble we have to take to include the small primes and also instead of some set I will use a different set of course we can change B into minus B which will make for a somewhat more comfortable notation. So this is the result I will, whose proof I will tell you assuming the prime number hypothesis there are infinite sets of positive integers such that the differences are, all differences are primes and only a finite number of primes is missing. Now the prime top hypothesis means that in a any linear configuration you will find primes unless there is a congruence reason to exclude it. So if we have a finite collection of linear forms A i times x plus B i then we can then find an infinity of values of x such that they are all primes except if there is a fixed prime P with the property that for all x one of those forms must be a multiple of P. Now the simplest and silly answer of the case is the twin prime conjecture nobody notes that this conjecture should be true. I will use a corollary written in a somewhat different form we want to prime find numbers x in a given congruence class module some number q such that a finite number of translates are all primes and the condition is the following for divisors of q the zero class module of P should be missing and for primes not dividing q at least some residue class should be missing and the plan is very simple and naive with have a finite collection of numbers such that the differences are primes we take a prime which is not represented and try to represent it by extending the sets. So our prime is R we want to include a set a number x to A and x minus R into B so that that difference should be R. Under the previous assumption this can be done if the union of B and the union of a translation of A by R does not form a complete system of residues module or any prime. Now the life is not that simple because if we exclude this x and x minus R then it can happen that in the next step this condition is avoid for some other prime or there is a trap that will kill the process after 10 steps and we must take care to avoid this and what we will do is that we will impose restrictions of on our sets A and B module or quite a lot of primes now we cannot fix them infinite for infinitely many primes at the starts because then there may be no integer that satisfies all those conditions what we will do is that we import some initial conditions and then as we proceed we invent new and new conditions while keeping all the numbers which are already in our set. So we list all the primes we want to represent that is all the signed primes in a sequence with increasing order of absolute value and our plan is to find sequences A1, A2 and B1, B2 such that A sub i minus B sub i is exactly the R i prime R sub i. So what in step n we will have the first n elements in each set A and B that is we are representing the first n primes and we will have also a set of restrictions u sub p v sub p of residues module of p for every primes which is less than the next than the first prime not yet represented so that all residues of AR in u sub p or residues of VR v sub p and here is the condition we need that the elements of u which are not in v and the elements of v which are not in u should have the property that their differences contain every non-zero residue module of v. So in the first step we take R1 the first prime to be represented we put it into A we put a zero into B and for the first and the first and the primes for up to k you know it will represent primes bigger than k so the assumption that p is less than the next R is exactly the same that p is at most k we put every non-zero residue into u sub B and only the zero in u in my screen somehow there is a mysterious pink line which I don't know how I got there so now this is the real plan and if we have somehow n minus one terms we want to need the ends we want to construct the ends term so we want to find the numbers A sub n and B sub n and also we want to find the restrictions u sub p and v sub p for primes between r sub n and r sub n plus one which means either one or zero prime so we want to put some x into A and x minus r sub n into B and so this represents r sub one and all the other new differences should also be primes x the new x minus the old B and x minus r sub n minus the old A they all must be primes so first we try to find residues of x modulo the small primes and here is the assumption on the previous slide comes into the picture since r sub n is not zero modulo p there are elements an element of u missing from v and an element v of missing from u whose differences are sub n and we impulse this condition on x and we will see why this is useful to apply the prime table hypothesis we have to check two kind of assumption for primes dividing this cube which will be the product of all small primes that is a condition for all small primes and there will be a different condition for big primes for small primes we need that this congruence does not spoil the possibility of the numbers being a prime that is the condition does not turn any of the difference into zero modulo p and here is how this condition is used u small u sub p is not in v sub p but the bs are in v sub p that's the way we constructed them before and exactly the same argument with different letters from for the other number now for big primes we don't have a condition we need that the numbers that we want to turn into primes do not form a complex system of residues no the number of primes the number of elements which should not form a complete system of residues is two n minus two they are the previous a and previous b translated by something so this is two n minus two number and they cannot form a complete system of residues model any prime which is bigger than that so we will need that the next absolute value of the next prime r sub n which is the dividing line between small and big primes is at least two n minus two soon we will need a bigger bound now so in this way we find our new elements a sub n and b sub n and we need or in some cases we don't need but sometimes we need new uh sets of restrictions u sub p and v sub p and here comes the only small trick in my proof so we cannot construct them arbitrary because we already have n numbers which are in u and n numbers which are in v and we can add as many as we wish but need to be careful so there are two n residues which are already disposed of and there are p minus two n for us to play with and what we do is that for each residue we toss a coin and according to result we put it into u p or into v p definitely not into both and if we are lucky these new elements uh will uh force the condition we need that is we get every element every non-zero residue model of p as a difference from an element of u which is not in v and an element of v which is not in u so take a fixed z and try to see the chances that it is represented take these pairs which differ by z z 2z and 3z 4z if the first is in u and the second is in v then we are happy this is a collection of p minus 1 over 2 pairs of there may be two n of them which escape our random choice because they are already in a or b we did not list all possible pairs which whose difference is z so from z to z we jumped into 4z and missed the pair 2z 3z this is to make those events independent so if we have a pair like that whose difference is z then if the first element comes into u whose probability is half and the second comes into v whose probability is also a half then there is a cotter probability that we get z as a difference there is three fourths probability that it is uh does not represent z and so the probability that uh none of those pairs gives us the desire the differences is three fourths to the number of pairs to p minus 1 over 2 minus 2 twice n now if this probability is less than 1 over p then those events do not cover the complete probability space there something will be out and there is a choice that works for all z we don't want a majority of them work only one so this is a condition 3 fourths to the number of pairs should be less than 1 over p and if we rearrange this we get that uh v minus 1 over 2 minus 2n is bigger than constant times logarithm of p which is p should be somewhat bigger than four times n basically four times n plus a constant times log n I'm sorry please excuse me to interrupt Anna Bromovich has a question Dan would you please unmute and ask yourself sorry um there is a question just a question did you say that the events are independent is that uh required part of the argument and if so why uh we could calculate the probability if they are not independent just we don't need it it is uh simpler to take only half of the possible elements which are independent so that the probability calculation will be uh easy those elements are independent because all because with this was all those pairs independently uh no choice not no incidence of the coin tossing uh effects two of those of those events they are independent thank you did it help Dan are you happy with the answer is it is it okay I'll have to think about it but okay so maybe I can continue yes please continue so this is an equality that has to be called from for primes which are at least as big as our sub n now if it holds for one number it will hold for bigger numbers as well so our sub n should be bigger than four n plus one plus a constant times log n which certainly happens if r of n is at least five times n and n is bigger than some easily calculated bound now our sub n in we see that our list half of our list is positive primes and half of them is negative primes so r sub n value of r sub n is the same as on the n over two the number of positive primes that is it is asymptotically n over two times log n so it is will be bigger than any constant times and after a certain limit and we choose the bound k so that it holds for numbers up to this limit and this ends the proof and this was the only proof I wanted to tell but I am going to tell you a few questions and then some observation about a similar problem for square free numbers instead of time of primes so the first problem is that the set of signed primes is a triple sum set and my conjecture is that it is and it would be interesting because we know again by a result of households that the positive primes definitely are not a triple sum set now I try to modify the previous proof to involve three or a thousand summons and I have a plan how to do it but so far I could not could not work out the details and the main difficulty is that this simple choice of residuals must be replaced by a rather more complicated choice of residuals we needed two sets U and V in our previous proof with the property that both have quite a big number of elements which are not in the other so that the difference set of elements which are unique to one of those sets represents every non-zero and for three sets the condition becomes more involved we need we don't just need that the set U minus V and W should be big we need that you should have a lot of elements outside some set of V and W actually outside the negative of those sums and similarly V and W and those three sets of remaining elements after excluding the some of the two other sets should have the property that there some includes every non-zero residue and since in the step we construct this we already have some elements of A, B and C we need sets with this property and including a number of prescribed elements this is a slightly more complicated problem in combinatorial number theory which I could not yet completely solve now here are two not closely related problems which are fun I guess one is to prove without using any unsolved hypothesis the existence of two sets A and B such that no element of A plus B is divisible by any prime congruent to one module of four and in this that if we want to residue exclude the residue class three module of four then we have an easy example namely the set of some of two squares more or less already misses three module of four except then both A and B have such a factor and we can avoid this if for A and B we only use primes congruent to one module of four so not only there are such sets but there are quite dense sets and I think this observation is also due to households definitely it is mentioned in one of his papers similarly the other problem is more or less due to him the question is that the set of some of two squares which is some set by definition is a triple some set or not and in the next some minutes I tell you a few words about the analogous study of square free numbers those square free numbers are a sort of toy model for primes and here is the first problem whether it is a set of square free numbers is a sum some set or not and here comes the complete analog of the austenland problem whether the set of square free numbers excluding some and including a finite number of more is a sum set or not now for the first I conjecture it is not a sum set and I think it probably can be proved by a finite argument so I have established some properties of possibly sets a and b and if I one could show that no such sets exist of the first thousand numbers and this would give a solution to this problem I try to play with the first few integers and they did not they did not gave a complete answer to this now so the the next problem is about a finite number of exception and if we allowed more exceptions but still density zero then the situation changes somewhat so this is a result quite easy one that we can find infinite sets a and b such that the sum set contains all square free numbers and the extra numbers that is the non-sphere free elements of the sum set have density zero so set of square free numbers can be approximated quite well by a sum set from the outside I could not decide whether it can be approximated by a sum set from inside that is that there are sets a and b whose sum is contained in s and the lm and the square free numbers not represented have density zero my feeling is that the answer should be positive and this is somewhat supported by the following results there are infinite sets a and b such that it has positive density even a density which is only a little less than the density of all sphere free numbers such that the sum set contains only square free numbers uh easy but not completely obvious so this is about positive square free numbers and if we take sine square free numbers then again the situation will be different because for this set positive and negative square free numbers I can positively solve the possibility of representation by a sum set not only three but as many as you want there are infinite sets k infinite sets whose sum set is exactly the set of positive and negative square free numbers and in the next version there are only two sets what they are identical so there is a set a whose sum set with itself is exactly the set of even positive and negative square free numbers we need even again by looking at residues module of four one sees that odd square free numbers must be excluded and the reason why the square free phase is easy is twofold the first is that we don't need any unsolved hypothesis so instead of the prime double hypothesis we have the square free double CRM if we have a finite collection of linear forms then there is a value of x for which all are square free except if there is a divisibility reason to exclude it I don't know whose result is it the similar statement is known for not only for linear but quadratic and cubic polynomials for quadratic it is still quite easy for cubic is difficult I don't remember whose theorem is it and the second reason is that to get Swerve numbers we omit all multiples of prime squares while for primes we omit multiples of p except p itself which we retain and for a similar argument of consisting constraints of residues module of prime squares the manipulations will be a lot easier and so this is all I wanted to tell thanks for the attention if and now I'm here to listen quest to questions or you can write questions and comments to my email address thank you so much


Well, welcome everybody to this call and my name is Rachel Schwam. I'm an associate professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Human Ecology and acting director of the Rutgers Energy Institute. And on behalf of the National Academies Committee to advise the US Global Change Research Program. And I welcome you to this listening session on global change issues with a specific focus on energy related challenges and opportunities through USG CRP federal agencies coordinate and global change research and use results to create tools and assessments to help people make decisions in the context of global changes. Through this session and others in this five part series, we aim to connect more directly with users and researchers who are building on and applying global change information and tools and their work. And gather insights and information that the USG CRP can consider as it plans the implementation of its work over the coming decade. In these sessions we are welcoming staff from the USG CRP and agencies that compromise it. And I welcome the guests of the National Academies Committee to advise the USG CRP of which I am a member, and all of you who are users and researchers who are engaged in building on and applying the types of knowledge and tools that the USG CRP is charged with developing and supporting. Can we start the slides. So, in today's session, we have a series of speakers who will provide remarks all of whom expressed interest in contributing when registering for this session. Everyone here will have opportunities to contribute through an engagement platform that we will introduce shortly representatives from the USG CRP and the committee to advise the USG CRP are attending and listening mode today. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to hearing from you over the next 90 minutes. Next slide. To start, I'd like to acknowledge that while today we are gathered virtually, the National Academies is physically housed on the traditional land of the Necoch tank and Piscata wave peoples past and present. We honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it through generations. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land. We thank them for the resilience and protecting this land and aspire to uphold our responsibilities to their example. We also acknowledge that our understandings of energy and global change issues are closely related to an important by indigenous knowledge and experience, and that many native communities are on the frontline of impacts from these hosts. Today, I am joining from Highlands, New Jersey, the traditional land of the Navasink and Lenape people. Next slide please. I and other and the other members of the committee to advise the USG CRP are looking forward to these sessions to connect directly with researchers and users who are using and applying global change information in their work. As part of our regular meetings throughout the year, we provide this and other opportunities to engage with and hear from broader audiences to inform this important work. This series of the series of listening sessions include to gather useful actionable input for USG CRP for implementation of its work, to make connections and expand group of researchers and users who are directly engaging with the USG CRP and its work to recognize connections across researchers users and themes of USG CRP work and products and inform a potential future engagement mechanisms and opportunities, including forms approaches and participants for such engagement. Next slide please. We are seeking input on how USG CRP may implement its work better to understand and address global change issues. You do not need to be familiar with USG CRP to provide input. We are specifically seeking to connect with a broader audience in these sessions. If you are unfamiliar with USG CRP, we hope you had a chance to view the introduction video on our event page is before the session or encourage you to view it afterwards. In preparing for these listening sessions USG CRP requested input and insights on the following themes to inform the implementation of its strategic priorities and activities. First, diversity, equity and inclusion, which actions should be prioritized to fully incorporate these values in research, community engagement and workforce development. How do we implement them. Third, advancing science. What are the priority gaps and foundational science methods that require enhanced long term investments. Third, use inspired research. How do we ensure that USG CRP science and products are better driven by and connected to users, including for example, improved use of consultation collaboration translation dissemination informing climate services. And finally socioeconomic sciences integration. What are these priorities for integrating socioeconomic sciences into our program and to inform critical decisions. Particularly helpful feedback might include ideas on emerging large scale scientific questions related to global change and or response, especially those where interagency collaboration will be critical. And the information on how science is or is not being used to inform societal response to global change and why in knowledge gaps and obstacles to implementing scientific tools or knowledge. The USG CRP is developing its next decadal strategic plan and expects to release a draft prospectus for the public comment opportunity before the end of 2021. The planning sessions might help inform the development or implementation of this plan. Individual feedback on the prospectus should be submitted through the public comment mechanism to ensure we all have time to speak today we will be holding you to the five minute limit. Next slide. In this session, we are committed to fostering a professional respectful inclusive environment, where all participants can participate fully in an atmosphere that is free of harassment and discrimination based on any identity based factors. Please report, miscontact immediately to Steven Stichter as hopefully it's there on the yes it's there on the slide. And I'll turn this back to us, Steven for further discussion. Right. Thank you, Rachel and welcome to everybody who's joining us today. Next slide please maybe. I, I'm here to talk about some logistics and want to first go over zoom we're all everyone who is here has successfully joined the zoom platform and we're happy to happy to see you here. Thank you to set your screen to speaker view we will have a series of speakers who are talking throughout this session, providing oral comments they've signed up for to provide oral comments to this session. And at the same time we have available a platform, Slido to capture key points from the speakers and contributions from all of you. And the interaction from all of you will be through the Slido platform which I will discuss next. If you have any issues with either this zoom platform or Slido, please send a chat to the host via the zoom, or an email to Rob Greenway, whose email is listed on the slide. I encourage you to update your name to have your full name and affiliation within the zoom platform. And today, we have a series of speakers who will provide oral remarks on the theme of global change and energy. The first set of speakers were were the first ones to indicate during registration and interest in providing oral remarks. These speakers will all appear with video. While remaining we will draw additional speakers from the waitlist and from the broader audience that's joined us today all of you. Any such speakers will be audio only. We also have closed captioning us available throughout the session the transcript is available through the live transcript icon in the zoom menu bar. And so please, please access that that resource if you are interested or need that. Next slide please. So we, as I noted in addition to the zoom video and audio contributions we will we are running the Slido engagement platform. Slido allows you to interact with to provide comments and interact with comments of other participants. There are a number of ways that you can join Slido. One is through this QR code, or you can go to Slido.com and enter the event code this listed on the screen. 219036. In addition, if you look in the chat, there'll be a link for joining Slido directly in the chat. Within Slido we'll be using the Q&A mode. It's a little, we're not using it exactly as design so we're actually looking for insights recommendations opportunities gaps and challenges that you have to contribute around this theme of global change and energy. So even though we're using Q&A we're looking for thoughts and statements and recommendations rather than questions. As noted previously, the USGCRP and the committee are here in listening mode so we won't be specifically addressing questions that are raised either in the oral comments or in the Slido platform. There is just a note a 300 character limit on entries. And so if you have longer entries you can enter a start a thread or reply to an existing thread and then add additional comments through the reply. So again, start by hitting the ask button even though we're asking you to provide comments and thoughts. Next slide please. So this is just what you will see when you are signing in the last for your name and email address and then you select join event. Next slide please. And then once once you're on whether it's mobile or on the web. You'll see a sign that says ask the speaker but again it's in that box type your question is where we asked you to give your contributions. Next slide please. So finally, some disclaimers that we have we are recording this this event and that it's part of the information that is provided to USGCRP as they consider your remarks and and contributions going forward. So all remarks and and contributions both here and on Slido will be part of the public record for this event. Additionally, we've invited speakers and they are coming on as individuals they they may be associated with organizations but we've asked them to speak from their own behalf. So thanks again for joining us and at this point I'd like to, I'd like to invite Mike Cooper bird to provide a welcome on behalf of USGCRP. Great. Stephen thank you very much. I'm told by my computer that I can't start my video. Yes I can. Thank you so much. I'm Mike Cooper Berg. I am the executive director of the US global change research program. We call it USGCRP USGCRP is managed by the subcommittee on global change research, which consists of representatives from the 13 federal agencies that make up the program. And the subcommittee as a board of directors for USGCRP. I'm here today representing those 13 agencies and we want you to know that we're serious about our legislative mandate to assist the nation in the world to understand assess predict and respond to human induced and natural processes of global change. On behalf of USGCRP. Thank you for your interest for your time and for your expertise. The input will be heard and considered as we draft and implement a new 10 year strategic plan for USGCRP. In addition to staff from the national academies there are a number of federal agency representatives and representatives from the USGCRP National Coordination Office here today. They will be listening carefully, taking notes to inform our discussions and writing for this new plan. The new plan will be completed next year between now and then you can expect to see a prospectus that is a high level annotated outline of the plan coming out for public comment. I hope in November, and a full draft of the plan, which will be released for public comment, and also for review by the national academies in the middle of 2022. So much for these opportunities and please feel free to comment both on the prospectus and on the draft plan. Finally, on behalf of USGCRP are sincere thanks to you for taking the time to speak to us today to the committee to advise USGCRP and the staff of the national academies for organizing these listening sessions specifically. Thanks to Rachel Schwarm, Steve Stickner, Amanda Stout and Amanda Purcell from the committee and the national academies, respectively. And my sincere thanks to Katie Reeves and Julie Morris from the National Coordination Office here at USGCRP for their roles in making this possible. We very much look forward to your comments and suggestions. Thank you very much. Rachel back to you. Thank you. Alright, now we're going to hear from our first speaker. Eddie Mishra. Please join us to speak. Am I audible. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so hi, I am an architecture student from SP a mobile that's India. And I am part of the UNEP MGCY as a constituency member and I am a secretary of the Yongo which is again the official constituency for young people in UNFCCC. I'll start with what concerns me the most, which is again young people's involvement so individual scientists commitments can lead to great discoveries and for sustainable learning to but they still when working across the systems must never let rely on some key aspects of existing academic cultures, or just to maintain their authority and status. All these functions make moving out of one's profession quite hard and again it's practically difficult not to mention the academic jargon and bureaucracies that come and itself becomes jargon. It is still hard for a young person to be involved in discussing their own future. So, the point here that I'm trying to make is we need more equity across people and also the research they do. What I have seen is the research work that focuses on something fundamental be favored and become to a more immediate concern to policymakers, the ingredients that seem to do so are the ones that considered topics that either have high impact or have multiple stakeholders or affect the robustness of societies as we know under the impact of the global environmental changes, or are likely to become more important over an immediate time scale. These again affect the capacity of a certain sector or may have irreversible effects in the global environment, or on people's ability to respond so I am quite grateful for the work and opportunities that USGCRP offers, but as we all know, it is only taking those few steps that can be to move to a larger goal. It's not just the idea that the indirect conceptual impact that is usually seen as influencing the policymakers thinking but in long term it reaches to the instrumental impact which again the tools that people are making and whatever we use is mainly in this youth population as I come from India, this becomes even stronger for me. In the end, I'll just say that we need more resources we need more platforms for the impact that we the youth want to make and we need more of those platforms, not only on international levels but also on local grassroots levels because the more the voices they are the more the worse, that same goal that we will have after the COP26 and the ones that are going to leave as in, and just going to lead us together are going to then decide what impacts this future. So, people, power and climate justice, that's my message. So, thank you again for this opportunity. Thank you, Adi. I'd like to now invite our next speaker, Suzanne Singer. Hi everyone. Yeah, I am Suzanne Singer. I'm a member of the Navajo Nation, speaking to you from Northern Arizona, which is home and is a cultural significance to many tribes around the Southwestern US. I am the executive director of Native Renewables, and I have a background, a PhD in mechanical engineering, and I think sort of my experience growing up, my grandparents living without electricity, running water. My internet and my technical expertise and then leading to tribal energy research has kind of led me to form a nonprofit organization, largely because of the frustration of that lack of energy access for so many Indigenous families. And if you're unfamiliar, it is within Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. And I'll focus on that for now, just because that's the community that I'm from, but it's about 27,000 square miles. And there's approximately 15,000 families who still do not have access to grid-tied electricity. So a big peat part of what I work and promote is energy, energy access equity. And it's really a shame if you live like in Nevada, Las Vegas, Phoenix, you have benefited from natural resources that come from tribal lands and you have gotten electricity because of what companies have been able to do and export the power. So it's just a really shame the inequity that exists that others can have power because of the resources yet we're still struggling to power our own family homes. I think some of the things I want to share or promote and I think ask for in regards to future projects, programs, research. So one is always advocating for equitable goals in being inclusive of both Indigenous communities and rural communities. You may be familiar with informed consent. So that's a really critical process of which I personally think includes educating community members on technology that's going to be proposed within a community or the technology that it is going to be used for research purposes. So that's really critical. I think being transparent about those processes. I've seen a lot of energy projects not go through and a lot of research efforts not happen because not all community members felt like they were informed or that information was not shared with them or distributed widely and it was only shared with a small group. Another thing I'll sort of ask as you're doing the work that you do is really think about the whole life cycle process of an effort, a project thinking about decommissioning land use. A lot of Indigenous people think of themselves as caretakers of the land, we don't own land, but we are caretakers of it. And so in terms of energy disposal efforts, I think thinking about how that can impact the cultural values of community members who maybe rely on the plant life that's in the area or they use those land areas for gatherings. And so just thinking about the impacts that any effort projects, future projects could have, I would encourage you to think about that as well and be transparent about it. Another point I like to share is investment in on the ground organizations is really important. I think a lot of the folks that I work with, they're from the communities there and they've been there for years, they know the issues, they know the families and they know what's not going to fly in terms of getting work done there and they understand the barriers. So I think being, making sure you're valuing that community knowledge, that cultural knowledge that a lot of times can go hand in hand with science as well. And some other things I think is if you are wanting to work within Indigenous communities, thinking about what makes good partnerships. I think engaging in leadership in the communities, be it open to collaboration, but also bring ideas if you have that technical expertise and that community does not, they might struggle a little bit to come up with some ideas. So I appreciate your time and thank you. Thank you Suzanne for your comments. I'd like to invite Trisha Youngball now to speak. Hello everyone and thank you for inviting me to speak. I am Trisha Youngball as mentioned from the MITRE Corporation, which is a nonprofit that was founded 63 years ago that operates seven FFRDCs. And I'm part of MITRE Labs Energy and Environmental Sciences Group. So I will comment on the topics of social equity and energy resiliency and civilian and military use inspired research to assist in the energy transition. So what is really needed is the deployment of the good research and tools that's being done by a scientist into user accessible formats that could be put in the hands of practitioners and decision makers to help them bridge knowledge gaps and build consensus on their energy transition plans. So as I'm sure you all know, the US needs to rapidly decarbonize its energy production to mitigate climate change. And the good news is that there are many existing technologies to produce carbon free electricity at scale. And there are lots of feasible plans to do so. But the challenging part is making this transition equitable and as painless as possible. Producing that lasting community value that the last speaker touched on from these new infrastructure investments that can be in the way of new green jobs, clean air and more reliable power. And helping to build that infrastructure that is more resilient to climate impacts. So as many of you know, underserved communities experience many injustices, including energy insecurity, both from the cost of their electricity to living in places more vulnerable to floods and fires to having a polluting power plant their backyard directly impacting community health. You know, confound this with coal plant closures leaving workers without new energy jobs and high unemployment caused by the pandemic. So what is MITRE doing to help with the energy transition. We have spent the past year building several tools and capabilities to assist those local state federal and tribal governments with their energy transition and resiliency goals. You know one issue delaying the creation of new clean energy jobs is the placement of the new power plants, which is hindered by the difficulty of creating that stakeholder consensus. And the risk of not having the available workforce to build and operate the new facilities. So after a year of work, we've nearly finished building a tool. That's geographic includes geographical data and modeling to allow local governments to plan and site these new power plant investments. It compiles many federal data sources has an economic impact model and big data labor analytics to facilitate the decisions at the community level, and therefore help build that consensus. We're also building capabilities to assess threats and vulnerabilities. You know those be cyber physical or climate events of both military and civilian energy resources. And lastly, we're in the process of building a social equity and distributional impact analysis framework for federal and state agencies to use when doing benefit cost analysis of their energy projects. You know, there are a lot of different stakeholders convening around the energy transition. So, again, creating tools that are accessible that can be used across that decision space is necessary to help make the transition equitable. And as painless as possible. That's all I have. Thank you Trisha for your comments. You're welcome. So I just wanted to jump really quickly to say that we've had some speakers who were unable to to join us at the last minute so we will have an opportunity after this initial set of speakers has given their remarks for people from the audience to also make contributions. You have the capability in the audience to raise your hand, and if you would raise your hand, then we will, we will work through contributions from audience, the audience, those will be audio only, but please let us know if you're interested in making contributions. One of the things that we recognize is though we have these sessions that are focused on a specific theme. So much of this work in global change is cross cutting and so we actually welcome comments that come across across cut across any of these themes. I'll pass it back to Rachel to continue with the, with the signed up speakers, but we will look for your raised hands for people who are interested in making contributions. Thanks. Thanks Steve. So next up we have Ronald Larson who is speaking. Good morning or good afternoon to everybody am I coming through. So I'm going to talk about the subject that I worked on for the last roughly 20 years which is biochar a form of taking carbon out of the atmosphere.  Some of my present affiliations I was in the first class of Congress and fellows 1973, there were nine of us. I was representing the I triple the electrical engineers. I worked on the first solar legislation that established. What's now called an robe was then called Siri. And I worked for a year after that with the office of technology assessment. I'm a past chair of the ASIS the American solar energy society. I've worked mostly on stoves after I retired. I worked on stoves because I headed a project in cartoon Sudan for USA ID on all forms of energy, a very fine country on my dad. So I'm going to switch to my for entries and I'll just read them. I can't see any other screens, but I'll try to do this quickly. So my first of four points. Is a DOE often equates RE or normal energy to only solar PV and win a bio bioenergy is the energy source today for half the world's population, a community sure to be most armed by global warming. Biochar would be properly recognized if and when do we better includes bioenergy as RE second issue carbon dioxide removal and national labs. The Department of Energy is lumping biochar with all the other CDR approaches they're about eight of them to be handled by nettle. Designated DOE lead lab lead lab for fossil not renewable by one biomass energy. NREL with world class expertise in biomass including biochar is not being appropriate appropriately utilize for CDR. I was a branch chief I was in the proposal for today's NREL I was a branch chief and I was the first fellow or something I forgot principle scientists third point carbon negativity and energy, the cost of electricity as a co product with biochar is obviously more than its cost. More than its cost from wind and solar but the combined costs of one electricity or fuels to dispatchable stores. We're mostly talking about hydrogen these days and that's not the only option. Three carbon negativity that that is what the biochar is mostly listed as one of the seven or eight CDR options. Number four food. Number one, the fifth point into the ground is increased MPP and the fifth point jobs can be lowest with biochar. I forgot what that means that didn't make sense. Number D is more about biochar. Number one, it's going to be the least cost in developing countries where the USA should feel continuing CO2 guilt. Number two, biochar helps much of the US economy. Forest agriculture, I think agriculture is the US biggest industry, urban affairs, blue energy, the coastlines and oceans. Number three, biochar always means local jobs. Technology's cannot provide local jobs. Number four, biochar is always an investment. It's not a cost and must not be analyzed like Dax and Bex. Now I'm going back to the screen here. And I hope I'm still being here. Got no more time. That's it. Bye bye. Thank you, Ronald. And so now we'd like to open it up for questions. If folks want to raise a question, not questions, I guess comments. Folks want to raise their hand and offer some comments. Yes, we do have. And the next session, I mean, I just got a, a request or a query on and the next session is just audio only Bob Pilko, if can, Rob, can you open Bob's audio and see if we can get that to work for him. I think it may be open now I hit the unmute button. Can you hear me? We can. Great. Okay, very much. Sorry, I couldn't speak via video because of lack of connection and other issues but here on audio the reason for wanting to speak is the fact that the energy and all its forms is something that only recently is being recognized by the investment, the government agencies and other communities. It's been there for a very long time in the form of legacy geothermal especially in the West where there's very hot spots from the Salton Sea to the geysers. And of course, internationally in the ring of fire. That's great. Absolutely wonderful.  What I really want to have the DOE the NAS and others within the government agency and societal realms to start to focus on geothermal in a closed loop type system where everything stays below ground and in other type reservoirs which are medium temperature within a range of oil and gas. Well and drilling capabilities today and those capabilities are extending rapidly to much higher temperatures but basically we're talking temperatures in the 300 degree F to 500 degree F range. And if one looks at sedimentary basins. They are well spread throughout the US certainly within oil and gas reason region such as the Gulf Coast of the US other places of the world as well and the multiple uses of high temperature geothermal energy from direct heat use for heating facilities and buildings, communities and other surface areas to the use for conversion to electricity is something that has been will say not overlooked but minimized. And the most important thing about geothermal energy is it's continuous. It is not intermittent like wind and solar does not require batteries. Yes, it could be used for subsurface storage. And if one goes deep enough with today's technology. It's easy enough to drill deep enough it's not cheap though. Geothermal actually has a much water geographic footprint than originally expected. So more research continually goes into this area. Being able to drill and measure to much deeper and hotter depths, as well as the initial capital costs coming down. Right, frankly, the surface equipment continues to lower in price and get much more energy efficient. But the subsurface wells portion has a high upfront capex cost and that high upfront capex cost the wells again, because the new technology continues to drop rapidly. And I would like and advocate that NAS DOE and the other government agencies. Put more emphasis on geothermal research and geothermal development throughout the US and with US interests for all reasons including energy efficiency. And of course, and national security. Thank you very much appreciate the chance to speak. Take care. Thanks very much for those comments. Is there anyone else like to raise their hand. I haven't seen additional interest as as yet and I just, you can either raise your hand or send send a chat to me with that interest will give just a moment more and I seem to have had a series of folks who were not able to make contributions this morning after signing up. Let's just give it a moment to see if there's anybody who's interested. All right, well, let's see. All right, well this is a shorter session than we then are what we had time scheduled for but we have it is one of five sessions and we've had robust contributions for the others and look forward to engagement in the final two which will be in December. So can you bring up the final two slides. Great. So, in follow up to this and the other sessions, we will be sending an email to all registrants with another opportunity to engage and provide contributions to us DCRP through a call for input is the first questionnaire and then an evaluation for this session as well. In each listening session we will be posting on the event page, which you can find at the National Academy site referencing this address below or just searching on the National Academy site. Some of the outputs from this activity, you can find the outputs from all of the activities at the end of this session series of sessions. We will provide a video recording and transcript of the session, as well as will provide additional information as as it comes available inputs from these listening sessions will be available to us DCRP they're there. We have representatives from us DCRP participating in this. In this session and the others, but we will also be providing the recordings and and other inputs to us DCRP for their work. Next slide please. So today is our third of these listening sessions we have two more scheduled for the first full week of December on December 6 in the afternoon, we have a session focused focused on food and global change. And two days later on December 8, we have a session focused on transportation and infrastructure. And we encourage you to join us for any and all of these sessions and please spread the word about about future sessions as well. So, Mike and then Rachel, if you have some closing remarks. Steven I just wanted to repeat my thanks. Interesting comments. And we've got a lot of notes. Thank you all very much for your time and your input. It's valued and appreciated. Thanks. It's just similarly as a member of the committee to advise the US DCRP. Thank you all for your participation and insightful comments I learned a lot and was was here from you. So thank you. Great.


The paper examines the impact of psychiatric comorbidities, particularly depression, on the outcomes of tuberculosis, TB. It also explores how psychiatric comorbidities can lead to poor medication adherence among TB patients. Studies have shown that depression is highly prevalent among TB patients, and this has been linked to poor medication adherence. Additionally, other psychological reactions and disease perceptions have been identified as potential contributors to poor medication adherence. Overall, the paper suggests that better management of comorbid conditions, including depression, could improve medication adherence and serve as a framework for effective TB control. Further research is needed to determine the best ways to address these issues among TB patients. This article was offered by Argyro Pachi, Dinesios Bratis, Giorgio Smousis and others.


Well nights like these are just what you hope for as a spectator. It's Arsenal up against Tottenham Hotspur Yeah, great to be here. How lucky are we Derek? We get paid for this astonishing really looking forward to a fabulous game I'm sure the fans are too should be great takes the shot On a time for composure on the ball Here are the starters for Arsenal Laino gets the Nord in goal Danny Savaios plays with Granite Jacka in the center of the pitch and leading the line today Alexandra Lacazette crossing possibilities Dorothy They keep working away looking for an opening could it keep the ball Introducing the Spurs starting 11 Hyeongmin Son plays with Lucas on the flanks and the responsibility of leading the line today goes to Harry Kane He's in with a chance Lacazette playing through he was then Hello and a warm welcome on what is a glorious night for football perfect playing conditions I'm Derek Ray joined for commentary by former England international Lee Dixon and it's all about action from the Premier League in this case It's Arsenal up against Tottenham Hotspur. Yeah, thanks Derek I'm just hoping we get a nice quick tempo from the start of this game Both teams do like to get forward both positive in their approach in the game So we should be into some entertainment Attack or completely missed time and you would expect a booking under the circumstances Referees like to manage the game just as much as players do but today it is an early yellow card And we'll see what effect that has on the match Well, it'll have a big effect especially on the player and also the defenders around that player That's been booked early in the game because they now know he's walking a tightrope Hey, yeah, this is looking threatening Arsenal have possession again But offenders will certainly have done the homework Lee and on that basis must keep more than a weather eye on Lacazette Well, he's got amazing finishing ability and when a player's got that means you have to go that extra yard Tighter and when you do that you leave space behind you so it puts the defender in two minds Just the challenge that was required


They've ruined my whole life for this. Righty, I am here at like 11.30 p.m., dropping an emergency video, because I can now, with 100% certainty, tell you guys that UCC Group Dreamscapes is working on Canada's Wonderland's front gate, renovation, and our next coaster. UCC Group is a Dreamscapes company, an engineering kind of like firm that has done the new hotels at Universal Studios, Marine Lens Splash Pad, that impressive one, Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and Star Wars Galaxy's Edge at Disney World. So a very impressive portfolio under their belt, and they're the ones designing our new front gate. So I was beyond excited. They did Yukon Strikers Station. In fact, I have some of the original kind of like blueprints for that. I'm gonna try and throw some up on the screen. They do really impressive things, and when they go to town on a project, they go to town on a project, and I'm so excited. I am so excited that they are the ones doing our front gate, because that is starting to make me even more excited that this has potential to be a much larger project for front gate than maybe I'm even thinking.  But I will say, based off of seeing it in person today, it is looking really good. I am gonna show you guys some of the new security checkpoints that you can see. I don't know if these are gonna be the new security checkpoints, or if this is gonna be theming. Again, now that I know Streamscapes is working on the project, it makes it a little more complicated this before. I was like, oh, they're just gonna put some security scanners there. But no, I can start to see the flow of the front gate. It makes a lot of sense, and I'm really excited to see what they do with the actual front gate structure if they do anything. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed. With that aside, I'm excited. This is everything I could have asked for. I will be so happy if Cedar Fair goes all in on Wonderland's front gate. I know that Wonderland was supposed to get a front gate reno about four, five years ago. I think it was like the year of Yukon Striker, and then they had to delay it for something. So that has been confirmed to me, by the way. But so with that delay, it could be because they were dreaming up something like this, meaning more money might have been able to be funneled into this project with it being delayed so much. I will say that with all this work going on, I'm not so sure Behemoth is gonna get its paint job anymore this off season. I'm gonna have to keep an eye on that because I'm hearing rumblings that Behemoth might be pushed back. But we'll keep an eye on that.  So I could totally see them changing their mind to repainting Leviathan this off season, and even so, that's really expensive. But yeah, that's the coaster I would go with if I was Cedar Fair. But we'll have to see. As you can see here, I wanted to show you guys a really close-up of Moose Horn Falls construction. But yeah, that's it for today, guys. Thank you so much for watching my construction updates and paying attention. I am working overtime for you guys in getting as much information out to you guys as I can possibly find. And hopefully you find this as exciting as I do about UCC Group Dreamscapes as I do. Anyways, thanks so much. Hope you're having an amazing weekend. See you at the park this weekend. Bye.