So welcome back or welcome to the 14th edition of the RCA Training Tip Show. We're gonna get into things straight away again today because I'm joined again by an expert bike fitter, Neil Stambry, who's been fitting road cyclists for around 10 years in conjunction with being a sports physiotherapist and today we're gonna be talking about a very common issue, why cyclists get sore or numb hands and what to do about it. Now I am conscious this topic has been done quite a few times in the past, notably by GCN. In fact, they did a video a couple of weeks ago on the topic, which was very good, but I'm confident if you watch this video as well today, if you watch that piece by GCN, you're gonna leave this video with an even greater insight of why this happens and what you can do about it. So let's get into it. Why does that happen and how can we stop it from happening? Yeah, you're right, man. It's super, super common. It'd have to be maybe 50% of people or more that rock up for a fit with me. It's one of their complaints, even if it's not their primary complaint, it's one of their complaints. And numbness and tingling in the hands is typically caused by a compression of a nerve pathway or a restriction of circulation or a restriction of circulation to the nerve rather than the hand itself. So they fall into two main categories. The classic one that you'll read about if you Google it is carpal tunnel compression, which is compression of the carpal nerve, just a little section of the median nerve where it passes through the wrist here. It passes through a little shallow space between a couple of bones. And that area, if you hold it long enough or put pressure on it for long enough, it can kind of scarify around the nerve and you can end up with a semi-permanent compression of the nerve, which needs to be surgically released or something like that. And cyclists are really prone to it because of the static nature holding onto the bar and absorbing road vibration and that type of stuff. And the second type of the... So that one will give you a numbness in the median nerve pathway, which is sort of the palm of the hand and into a couple of the middle fingers. The other ones fall into one other sort of main category, which is proximal to that area. So compression of the nerve pathway through the forearm, the elbow, the shoulder, where the nerve pathway passes out underneath the clavicle here, which is called thoracic outlet syndrome. And then there's some which can also come from your neck. So if you've got a nerve compression in your neck from a little bone spur, some arthritis or a disc herniation or something like that, that will often also manifest for the first, as a first symptom is pins and needles in your hand. So you get these kind of two areas, the ones which occur here and the ones which occur further up. And there's lots and lots of different types of those ones. The primary cause of most of the ones which affects cyclists is too much weight on their hands.  That is the position of the front end is one of the causative mechanisms, but it's definitely not the main one. The main causative mechanism of compression of the nerves anywhere through the arm on a bike is usually too much weight on your hands. And that opens up a huge can of worms who why have we got too much weight on our hands? Well, there's a lot of different reasons. There's a seat height, the seat, four and a half position, the seat setback. The cleat position bizarrely can play a role in it too. If you've got a dodgy cleat position which is not allowing your glutes and your hamstrings to function strongly and lift weight off your hands, the mass in your upper body, you know, all this sort of stuff. And then secondary to that, the position of the bars, height and reach. And then one of the least causative mechanisms is actually the position of the hoods and that type of stuff. It very rarely causes big trouble. What could there be a third? I'm thinking because there's a lot of people that are just getting into road cycling to support the channel. That being, they don't realize that they shouldn't be putting so much weight on the handlebars. Could that be a reason as well? It can be, yeah. Yeah, especially if they're new to it most, a lot of new riders really hold on really tight because the road bike is a twitchy apparatus when you first get on it compared to like a mountain bike or a Kmart bike they rode when they were a kid. The road bike is sharp and precise and so a lot of them, and you see a lot in ladies who are arguably much more risk averse than most men. They will hold the bars really tight and brace themselves almost as a safety mechanism as an unconscious thing that they do. But in most people it is just too much weight forward over the hands. And so what we seek to sort of strive to do with the position in a global sense is to create a balance where you're cruising along on your bike at a decent clip. We're not going too hard, not going too slow, just around your threshold or down below that and you've got very little weight on your hands. You can get the weight off the riders' hands, there won't be a compression issue. So they need just enough weight on their hands to steer the bike, but not so much that they're really loading their hands. And so that's kind of the ethereal concept of balance is really the best thing you can do. If you've nailed down the balance of the rider four and aft up down, their glutes are engaging well, their bars are in a nice comfortable position, they've got a gentle bend in their elbows and they're not loading their hands heavily, regardless of where the compression is occurring, it'll probably disappear. And so it's a function of a lot of things, the seat height and the setback and all that sort of stuff. And it's very rarely a massive problem in the wrist. Although every year I come across a few people who've got a proper carpal tunnel and it's become an issue where they're getting it off the bike just as much as on the bike. And the bike is worsening it, but it's actually a mechanical problem in their wrist which they need to get sorted out by a surgeon or something like that. But that's fairly rare. So we try and create balance on the bike and sort out the front end position so that it's very comfortable and the rider can ride along with just enough weight on their hands to steer the bike, but not so much that they're really loading their upper body and gripping. And upper body mass I guess I should mention comes into it as well. If you've got a really lightly built rider like myself who's really light in the upper body, that rider's gonna throw less weight forward for a given position than someone who's got large, whether it's muscle or not, someone who's large in the upper body. They've got more weight can to leave it out over the bars, the heavier they are in the upper body. So is that what you see with your fitting clients? That's when people complain about that, they're typically heavier? Yes, it's certainly more common in people with big shoulders or a big gut. Anyone who's heavy in the upper half, it's a much more of a problem because that rider is just gonna throw more weight forward almost no matter what you do than someone who's built like Chris Froim or like me, who is very light in the upper body. And playing into that comes the person's core strength, how well they can stabilize their torso in a flexed position and so forth. So if they've got rubbish core strength, they've got more weight on their hands, right? So it's kind of an interplay between all of these things and a good way of sort of examining it yourself, if you're wanting to know if too much weight is being applied to your hands, are you routinely riding with your elbows locked because when you bend them, your triceps fatigue too much. So if you bend them slightly and you're having to really push down with that tricep, that means your weight is still trying to tip forward, right? If that's happening, you're getting a lot of tricep fatigue unless you lock your arms out, you're probably throwing too much weight forward for one reason or another. And another great way of sort of quantifying it is to look at Steve Hogg's seat set back balance, I think he calls it the balance test, somewhere deep in the depths of Steve's huge website as a video and some photos of this. And if the rider is riding along at a moderate clip, say a 20 or 30 minute effort, something that they could, around their threshold sort of power, if they can swing their arms back next to their hips and maintain the same torso position or very, very, without sort of tipping forward or sitting upright, just with the act of pedaling, that means most of the time they'll be able to place their hands back on the bars and have very light, very little weight on their hands. And that balance test is a nifty way of kind of examining saddle set back and seat height and bar position for being sort of grossly wrong or grossly right. So if you've got your seat way too far forward and you go to swing your hands back while you're riding, you're just gonna go, yeah, whack on the bars, right? So it means the seat's too far forward. Assuming that all else about the position is good means your seat is too far forward. So would somebody try that type of thing and that test on the road or on the trainer? Try that on a trainer. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I can do it on the road, but I'm assuming there's no cars around. I've got amazing core strength and I'm very light in the upper body, so it's really easy for me. But you should definitely do that on a trainer. Safety first. Yeah, okay. So what about the seat? Because someone once told me, and I've kind of run with it, that if you don't have the right seat width or seat position, that can affect blood flow from down there and into your hands. Luckily, that's an urban myth. That's a myth, okay, all right. The sensory nerve pathways go one way.  The descending motor control of your nerves and muscles goes the other way, but this is a feedback system. So the one in your pudendal nerve, the one in your crotch, won't play a role with your hands. Except for the possibility that if the saddle is grossly wrong, it might throw your weight forward. Or you might find yourself creeping forward constantly on the saddle, which loads your hands. Interesting. Or something external to that direct roll. So it can play a role. It certainly can, yeah, yeah. Saddle choice, yeah, can certainly play a role. It's one of the things that we change relatively regularly is the saddle to create a better balance for the rider. That four aft up, down the pelvis, the cantilevered position of the pelvis, which dictates where the shoulders are on the bike and that sort of stuff comes a lot of the time from the correct saddle choice in the first place. If you've got a saddle which is not allowing you to roll your pelvis forward to the degree that your central nervous system wants you to ride at, then just pressing up under your crotch as soon as you roll your pelvis forward, for example, that rider will posteriorly rotate their pelvis to get away from the seat, which messes up the front end. So shorten their torso and trouble with their hands and shoulders. So, yeah, it's all kind of an integrated system is the moral of the story. But I guess if you could put it into one kind of nifty sentence of what causes pins and needles in my hands a lot of the time for most riders is poor balance on the bike, you know? And most of that, I'd sort of argue probably 75% of that comes from the position of the pelvis relative to the cranks, not so much where the front end is. Now, the front end needs to be right, but it can be a bit off and you'll be fine as long as you're in good balance at the back. Okay, interesting.


When a COVID vaccine arrives, UNICEF stands ready to deliver it around the world. And UNICEF workers go a long way to make those deliveries. Last year, UNICEF helped vaccinate 45% of the world's children against deadly diseases. UNICEF does whatever it takes to reach the most remote villages and the most vulnerable children. The Bridge Fund has been a long-standing partner in this work as a lifeline to children, fast-tracking over $250 million worth of vaccine purchases. We thank our investors and supporters for making this possible, and will continue to provide the accelerated financing that keeps children safe. You've just seen a small window into the type of incredible work UNICEF does in 190 countries around the world, which the Impact Fund for Children is proud to support. I'm Christina Shapiro, and I'm the president of the Impact Fund for Children at UNICEF USA. The fund started 10 years ago to use innovative investing practices to speed the procurement and delivery of key supplies and programs that enable UNICEF's important work. Our main investment tool, the Bridge Fund, fronts pledged donor dollars so UNICEF can put those dollars to work faster in emergency situations and speed up the delivery of education, health, and social services that support children to survive and thrive. We do this by raising a pool of protected grant funding from generous donors. We then borrow against that capital at a rate of $3.5 for every grant dollar, and then allocate the resulting loan money where it's needed most. Along with saving more lives, investors get a return of capital and a return on capital. And they appreciate how far their dollars go and are attracted by our strong track record. Of the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the Bridge Fund, we have reported zero losses over the last decade. In fact, this year marks the 75th anniversary of UNICEF, as well as the 10-year anniversary of the Impact Fund for Children's Bridge Fund. In a year like 2020 where the needs were higher than ever, the Impact Fund stepped up to the challenge, delivering a record $93.3 million to support UNICEF's work, bringing our aggregate activity since inception to over $450 million. But this, unfortunately, is still no time to celebrate, as the secondary effects of the pandemic continue to affect children and women at an alarming rate. I want to share a few reflections that are top of mind for me as we seek to continue expanding our impact amid the urgency that this ongoing pandemic calls for. The first reflection I want to focus on is the importance of time. The Impact Fund for Children saves lives by moving money more quickly. That is our guiding principle. And that is because when a disaster strikes, speed and expediency of funding are critical. The Bridge Fund is set up to respond quickly, so we have a competitive advantage in fulfilling a focus area around disaster relief. Specifically, our support lets UNICEF buy and deliver supplies when they are needed, not when the donor money comes in, which can be months after it is pledged. Time is also a critical factor when it comes to health-related needs, which is why 95% of the Bridge Fund's allocations in 2020 went directly to support emergency situations or health-related needs. As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only proven to be one of the most pressing global challenges of our lifetime, but it is a crisis where time really, really matters. The Bridge Fund has mounted a response that includes quicker delivery of vaccine cold chain equipment, those boxes that keep the vaccines cold, vaccine purchases, and personal protective equipment for frontline workers, most of whom are women. In getting supplies to the places that they're needed the most, the Bridge Fund has helped to stop the spread of the virus, which has resulted in human lives saved and a quicker end to the pandemic. In terms of our COVID-19 emergency response, we sprang into action in May 2021. As India experienced the worst COVID surge seen anywhere. If you recall at that time, about three people were dying every minute in India, which is why we accelerated $6 million a month sooner in order to help procure many critical supplies. Amongst the supplies that we purchased were two oxygen generation plants that each support 500 beds. If you do the math, over a thousand patients had access to oxygen a full month earlier, clearly a life or death situation. I want to move to the second reflection. And that is how UNICEF helps the most vulnerable, including women and girls. Why do we do that? Because we know women and girls experience more of the negative impacts of humanitarian crises, poverty, lack of infrastructure and lack of economic opportunity. Let me bring that to life for you. In eight out of the 10 homes without running water, girls and women are responsible for lugging those heavy containers over rough terrain. That is a lot of lugging. And it totals about 200 million hours per day gathering water, which is one of the many reasons girls are less likely to attend school and more girls are likely to drop out of school. Girls and women are also bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exacerbated inequities and reinforced gender inequalities. Some of the challenges that we have seen include one, an uptick in unpaid care work, which is disproportionately done by girls and women. Second, an increase in gender-based violence with cases of domestic violence up as much as 30% in some countries. Third, greater risk on the front lines of the outbreak, given that women account for roughly 70% of health workers globally and do the majority of support jobs at health care facilities. And lastly, lack of access to education with 11 million girls at risk of never returning to school due to the COVID-19 school closures. So how is the Bridge Fund helping to solve some of these challenges? In addition to working to end the pandemic, which would certainly help ameliorate many of the challenges that I outlined previously, the Bridge Fund accelerates funding for programs that specifically support women and girls, such as programs that address child marriage. This year, the Bridge Fund accelerated over $700,000 to help end child marriage by enhancing legal and political actions and providing education to empower adolescent girls. You might ask yourself, what is one-year matter in funding this type of program anyway? Well, we already talked about how COVID-19 aggravated many of the conditions that could lead to child marriage. And let me give you an example of a specific country. In Malawi alone, it is estimated that 40,000 girls got married and 13,000 got pregnant in the first COVID-prompted school closure last year. So in many ways, we are racing against time and the Bridge Fund is a key accelerant in that critical race. I want to move on to the final reflection and that is to talk about the importance of vaccines in thriving communities. The Bridge Fund supports a number of program areas that UNICEF focuses on, but I'm going to focus specifically on vaccines and that's because they save and improve millions of children's lives every year. Children who receive routine immunizations against diseases such as measles, rubella, polio and smallpox do better in school, which has been proven to have intergenerational economic benefits. And for those of you who don't know, UNICEF is the largest single purchaser of vaccines, immunizing nearly half of the world's children every year. And since its inception, the Bridge Fund has proudly accelerated funds to purchase and deliver countless vaccine doses to countries all over the world. In light of the pandemic and its disastrous secondary impacts on children, UNICEF is leveraging its vaccine expertise to procure and deliver COVID-19 vaccines as well. And to date, the Bridge Fund has deployed $86 million to support these efforts by accelerating country preparedness, vaccine purchases and to facilitate in-country delivery that help vaccines actually turn into vaccinations. Finally, I want to highlight that UNICEF uses a gender lens to drive an uptick in under-five immunizations by engaging women in under-vaccinated communities. And that's because a gender lens is not only an enabler, it is a key goal of vaccination efforts. And that's because immunizations, both routine vaccines for under-fives, as well as the COVID-19 vaccine, uplift communities, which inherently uplift women and girls who are often and unfortunately the most vulnerable members of these communities. In closing, I want to invite all of you to get involved and to learn more about the Bridge Fund, which accepts contributions of any size, from $1 to hundreds of millions of dollars from those who have the means to support at that level. I also want to invite you to stay tuned for updates from the Impact Fund. One of our guiding principles is innovation, and you can expect to see us launch other funds that invest in different ways in the coming months and years. Thank you.


Hi, this video will introduce you to how to successfully incorporate someone else's ideas into your work. To avoid plagiarizing, do you need to avoid using anybody else's work and just use your own thoughts? Definitely not. Writing academic research papers requires building on other people's writing and research. However, you need to let your readers know when you are building on someone else's ideas by citing them. There are several different ways you can incorporate another writer's work in your own, including paraphrasing or putting someone else's ideas into your own words, using direct quotations, and summarizing ideas. Let's say you're working on a paper about Beyonce and her influence. You do some thinking and you write a paragraph about what you already know about Beyonce based on your own thoughts and words. When you do some research and find more information about Beyonce's influence from experts who write about her, now you want to incorporate their work into your own paper. For example, in reading at last Michelle Obama, Beyonce, Race and History, you come upon a list of black artists and musicians followed by this passage, which you really thought stood out to you as relevant to your paper. Rather than directly quoting it, you might choose to paraphrase the sentiment in your own words and still give credit to the author. Let's say you then find a statement or reading check on it that you feel really captures why Beyonce is an important figure to explore in feminist studies, so you directly quote it because you feel like it needs to be said in the author's exact words. In another instance, you might choose to summarize a whole paper, such as this one by Railton and Watson, that focuses on Beyonce's performance of black femininity in music videos. Sometimes you'll use a signal phrase, such as according to, to let your reader know that you're referencing other people's research. As you can see, your paper would be a blend of your own ideas and the research and opinions of other experts in the field. Whenever you use other people's ideas and words, you need a brief, intact citation to give the reader a quick glance at who is being referenced. Then you need to include a full citation at the end of the paper and a reference or works cited list. If you have questions about how to incorporate someone else's ideas into your writing, you can ask your instructor or ask a librarian.


for Wednesday, March 13, 2024 to order. Are there any agenda additions or changes? Gonna pull out consent item 6B and make it 5B, B and C, C and D. I move that we, are there any others? No? Okay. I move we make a consent item 6B business item 5B. Second. Great, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Aye. Amber. Amber, motion passes. Great. I'm going to read this as we start.  The city council does not tolerate such actions and strongly condemns them. Well, it may not always be possible to prevent hate speech from occurring during public comments. The council will continue to take measures to make it more difficult to express such views. We're moving on to public to be heard. This is the portion of the meeting where folks can bring comments or concerns to the city council. These can be on any topic that's on, that are on the agenda or not on the agenda. So is there anyone in the room that has anything that you'd like to talk about? No? Okay, anybody on Zoom? See a hand raised for Albert.  And I see that you've unmuted, but I can't. Oh, you haven't. Albert, are you with us? I can, yeah. Can you give us your last name as well? Oh, sorry. Great, thanks. No problem. The federal speaker in my way is coming from the federal state and local government. We have government run programs that give assistance to non-life homies and fatalities that are just resiliency. We have criminal justice in that, let's criminal burning, murder, investigate Christians, bring a big murder back. Oh, it's serious? Yeah, six tourist corporations controlling 96%. Okay, we're gonna stop you right there.  Thank you for joining us. Goodbye. Talk to you, boy, or block him. Thank you. I don't know, Albert, if you just heard what I said, but you're welcome to not join us again if that's what you're gonna share. Sorry, that French speech hurts me. Chad, I hope I said my last name correctly. I think Albert's still talking and I don't know if we can get rid of him in the meeting. I'm now under the security tab if you can set a waiting room, that might be good in case he decides to come back. Okay, Chad, are you with us? There it is, finally. Hello, Chad Basewell here, can you hear me? Yes, thanks. How are you? Okay, yeah. Oh, okay, thank you. Well, it's interesting you started the meeting with a disclaimer of anti-Semitism, but that's the elephant in the room right now, it's the Jewish problem. And I think that's the main guy. What is going on? Love you, go. Thank you. Have a nice day.  Oh, jeez Louise. People have no lives. No lives. Wow. Anyone else online or in the room? When folks say that this isn't in our community, I hope they've just paid attention because it is very much in our community. That's right. All right, we're gonna move on. Business item 5A, FY23 audit presentation with Bill Kaiser. Yes, so we've got both Bill and Jess. Yeah, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Super. It's been a good meeting so far. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, no problem. Oh, you don't need to apologize. Jess, if you're ready, I can get started right here. Good, good to go. Yeah, did you want to, did you want me to show any of the audit report while you're running through? No, I imagine it's part of the board pack and I haven't checked that out yet. We're good, okay. Yeah, no, I'm good. I've got it on my screen, but if you wanted to do a speech error for questions later on, that's fine, but I can get started. And if anyone has any questions, feel free to interrupt. Great. Yeah, no, nice to see all of you again. Sorry I couldn't make it down, but it's kind of crunched up in our industry this week. But I'm Bill Kaiser. I'm the principal at Kattal Brownigan in Sargent up in St. Albans. We're the auditors for the city of Essex Junction. First time I've been saying that, or first time I said that. So if I say village at all during the meeting, I'm sorry. But now we were doing fieldwork for the city in the middle of October and we issued our reports about mid January. The audit for the June 30, 2023 year end resulted in unmodified opinion. We made or proposed no material adjustments to management that would affect the numbers that you would have received throughout the year in the 2023 audit. So overall, it was a very clean audit experience from fieldwork all the way to the end. As always, there are a few management adjustments, the changes are being made really right through the end of October. But overall, I think what you see in the financial statements reflects the financials that you would have seen pre-audit, which is speaks volumes to a strong finance department. One difference from 2022, but in the city or in the village, but the village slash city is used to it. There was a single audit in 2023 due to federal expenditures spent on the Crescent Connector Project and total federal expenditures exceeded the $750,000 threshold. In total, there are $3.5 million federal expenditures by the city in fiscal year 2023. And that Crescent Connector Project, which was our major program, made up 2.8 million of that amount. A single audit includes additional testings for grant funds that were spent to ensure they were used for appropriate eligible costs. And if there are matching requirements, it ensures they were met as well. We noted no issues or findings in relation to the expenditures specific to the Crescent Connector Project. Also a big part of the scope of the single audit is a review of the internal controls. And in 2023, we noted sound controls for the city. I would like to know those, the internal controls used are still those that were initially implemented by the town during the potential merger. In talking to Jess after field work, she is in the process of developing control specific to the city. So I would imagine while the controls being used now are still part of those old procedures. And while they are being followed properly, I'd imagine, there will be new controls for the 2025 fiscal year. Again, there were no findings for the single audit and the testing that we performed and all documents were readily available with no instances where grant required policies and documentation were requested and not provided. Now, getting into the financial statements. The format of the financials is consistent with prior years starting with the MD&A. The financial statements for the city not being comparative. The MD&A gives the reader a good year-over-year comparison of the financial activities of the city as well as the financial highlights and future plans. Next is the government-wide financial statements which are reported more on the accrual basis of accounting similar to a for-profit entity. Not typical for the city's budget process but how GAAP likes to report a financial statement. There are some differences for 2023 if you compare it to the village statements in 2022. This year, you will notice a large amount of cash balances and delinquent tax receivables. These were moved over from the town as of June 30th, 2023 and in past years, the cash and receivables had both been reported as a receivable from the town. The majority of the inter-entity balances have been settled as of field work in October but you'll notice on the balance sheet there is still a due from the town of about $430,000 that's still being worked through. The city did establish an allowance for doubtful accounts on delinquent property tax revenues of $12,000. That's offsetting the taxes receivable balance of approximately 60 grand as a gross. The city took back from the town only the 2022 receivables that were billed only because those are what the city is legally able to collect on. So the town has retained any receivables from before the 2022-2023 tax billing period. So those are not part of the towns they are or the cities they are, I'm sorry. Consistent with prior years utility collections in the accounts receivable have had significant success and subsequent to year-end, I think all about 4% of the utility billings had been collected. So there is not a need for a significant allowance consideration there. One other thing I'd like to point out is due to the city being a new participant in the Demers plan with the state of Vermont, you'll see a few new lines for deferred outflows and net pension liabilities in the government wide financial statements. The deferred outflows represent the city's obligation to fund the current portion of the retirement contributions for both 2022 and 2023 since the measurement date is a year behind. That's why 2022 is also included in there. The net pension liability is an estimate and will fluctuate year to year depending on mainly on market conditions. So 2022 was a bad year. You would see that net pension liability increase, but as the market improves the net pension liability that the city would be liable to fund that plan would then decrease with market conditions. There's also a lengthy footnote that you'll notice in the footnote number 13 describing the benefit, a summary of the benefits available under the Demers plan as well as a description of a number of the amounts on the balance sheet. Moving on to the fund financials, which is the modified accrual basis of accounting and more similar to cash basis in what the city would budget on. The receivables in the general fund are low, mainly due just to the 2022 tax delinquencies being included in that. The city is required to reserve in the fund financials any taxes not collected over 60 days after year-end. So you'll see an offsetting liability for unavailable revenues due to uncollected property taxes. That's a net of $46,000. There are, there's a large capital projects AR is the grant revenues from the department of transportation from the pressing connector project. These amounts have not been billed or collected 60 days after year-end. So they're also considered unavailable grant revenues for fund financial reporting. Once billed and collected in 2024, these would be recognized as revenue. And on the capital projects fund in the what you would consider the income statement, you'll see a loss. That loss would revert to an income once those revenues are billed. The ARPA funds are also on the balance sheet as a liability. They, a portion, a small portion of those were recognized in the 2023 single audit, but there's still $2,800,000 to be recognized. The plan I believe is to recognize the remaining funds in fiscal year 2024. So it is anticipated that these, those ARPA related expenditures as well as additional 2024 expenditures for the Crescent connector project would both be tested as major programs next year single audit. The other thing to know on the fund financials is the equity restrictions. There's a detail on pages 27 and 28 of the financial statements. Similar to prior years, just detailing what the commitments, assignments and non-spendable portions are for. The general fund has a fund balance of $1,471,000. And of that amount, $148,000 has been assigned for specific future expenditures. 435,000 of that amount is related to inventory and prepaid expenses that are non-spendable at June 30, 2023. And the remaining unassigned balance of $886,000 falls well below the fund balance policy for the city of 15% of next year's budget, which next year being 2024's budget. The cities right now unassigned fund balance is about 7.5% of the 2024 budget expenditures. 2023 general fund operations overall increased and resulted in an increase of $650,000 to the fund balance. Next in the financials, the proprietary funds, business funds or enterprise funds as the city refers to them as are meant to be self-sustaining. The water and wastewater funds had positive increases in that position for 2023 while the sanitation fund had a reduction in that position. You'll also see reported on these statements as EJRP, which ended up with income of $350,000 for the year. Beyond these financials is the footnotes to the financial statements where you'll see detailed explanations and many of the balances on the statements, specifically allocations of the fund balance, like I had mentioned, capital asset details and debt summaries. And like I said, there's also a new footnote for the VMware's plan with the state of Vermont. The supplementary and required supplementary information consistent with prior years is the budget of actual schedules for the general fund as well as all of the enterprise funds and the supplementary information. And then later on, you'll see all the single audit reports. That issue, a clean single audit with no audit findings. That is all I have for now. If anyone wants, I'd like to open it up for any questions. Great, thanks, Bill. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you. Any, just, did you have anything you wanted to add to that before we start answering, asking questions? Nope, I think I'm all set. Any councillor, 70, anything to ask for the last? Oh, I was just gonna say, I was happy to see a clean audit. That's all. I just, for my own understanding to help get this a little bit better. So under, right at the beginning of your document here, corrected and uncorrected misstatements, recognizing the fact that, again, this is a clean audit, but I'm curious about what it means to be an uncorrected misdeme, because it sounds like in this paragraph that there was something, but then it was chosen to not react or respond. I'm not sure. I just wanted clarification on what that was. What document are you referring to? I'm sorry. So I'm looking at the packet that we received. Okay. So probably this, okay. So uncorrected misstatements would be adjustments that we proposed to management that were not made. I do not believe actually in the 2023 audit for the city, there were any uncorrected misstatements. Corrected misstatements would be any, in the case of the 2023 audit for the city, like I had mentioned, any corrected misstatements would have been proposed by Jess or Shannon during our audit procedures, nothing that we had noted during our audit testing resulted in a misstatement in general, but also a material misstatement where we would have proposed an adjustments. The other thing, and this is not necessarily a question for you, this brought up a question for me. I was looking at the section in regard to compensation, compensated absences. And I'm kind of curious about how often this is used because I was looking at this table here and, if you're above the age of 55, you've been here for 20 years, you could get up to almost a year's worth of, hey, again, my reading of this, you can get up to almost, because it's 800 max hours. So estimating that's about a year's worth of hours that you can get compensated for. The reason I brought this up, not as concerned for this audit, but just thinking about our staff and making sure that they're actually taking advantage of the time that we give them to take off, to reduce stress, to help them be, to maximize their ability to be good employees and you're in the city. So that brought me a little curiosity concerning whether or not, I understand this is a policy, but I'm kind of curious as to whether or not people are taking advantage of this policy or whether or not they're actually taking advantage of the hours that we give them to take time off and are taking advantage of that. Did you see what page you're on? So I'm on page 23. Page 42, sorry, 42 of the back. Got it. And it's not, if I understand this right, it's not that we have many situations like this that it's possible. Correct. So I think also that policy, that balance that you're seeing there doesn't only include vacation time, but also I think it's compensated absences in sick time as well. Right. I'm not sure on the actual usage specific to the city just may be able to speak more to that possibly. Yeah, so Marcus, the chart that you're referring to that I have up on the screen right now is specifically for sick time. And this is part of the association contract, which in turn applies to all city employees. There are not very many people that have, that would fall into like the max payout of sick hours. But there are definitely some staff who would, sick time.  So it just sick time is not used. The other, you know, vacation time and things like that, people are good about using and we have a policy that you're required to take a certain amount of vacation time each year. But sick time is a totally different, totally different bucket, which is what this chart specifically is referring to. Well, even in that context, I would say that I hope that staff are taking the time off they need to be, even in this particular case, to be healthy. In a post COVID world, believe me, I remember living in a time where I would go to work and not take my sick time.  And it's not just my organization. I see that with organizations all over the place. So I would hope that even for this organization, it's a city that our staff is being encouraged to stay healthy, do what they need to. And if that means taking time off, we're encouraging them to do so. The only thing is, as I look at a policy like this, I just hope that it's not encouraging people to do the opposite, to accumulate time for which that they can financially benefit later. I get it, but it's like the balancing act of making sure that we're encouraging them to stay healthy versus encouraging them to just rack up time until they retire. Mm-hmm. Yep, yeah, it's a good question. We definitely encourage people to stay home whenever not healthy or even mental health today. So, and I think there's some history behind this table and how it came to be, and I don't fully have that at the top of my head in terms of where that came from and how it got there, but I can find out that history and let you know. But certainly we encourage folks, if not feeling well, to actually take their sick time off. But I definitely hear you in terms of what policy like this can potentially do. And I'd also like to add just for clarification on the policy that as part of the audit process for these specific rules, we do audit the caps and the years of service and make sure that nobody is over the cap. That is part of our audit procedures and recalculating. We'll take a sample of individual balances, trace them to the time off report or the pay stubs, which typically show the hours available or other supporting documentation and ensure that the city wouldn't be over accruing for somebody an unallowable amount of hours. Thank you. Amber, I can't see you. I'm just wanna give you an opportunity to participate if you have any questions. I'm good, thanks. Okay, Bill, I think we probably ask you this every year, but can you describe in more plain English for the folks that don't do this work, what a clean audit and unmodified opinion means just so we have that on the record? An unmodified opinion is not necessarily always gonna mean a clean audit. We can still issue a good opinion with multiple and we could have 20 audit adjustments and still issue a clean opinion as long as the material, as long as the financial statements are not materially misstated, but a clean audit in the term, when I say clean audit, specific to the city of Essex Junction, the fact that we could come in and do an audit and really have no adjustments, the reconciliations are all balanced. You can tell there's clear controls in month-end close as well as year-end close, where you get a reconciliation, you can go to the trial balance and the balance, it ties out, you're not finding errors where a check was cut in August 2024 and should have been an accounts payable and accrued back to the prior year. You're not finding any issues like that throughout our audit procedures. Materiality is typically a lower level where we're gonna propose an adjustment. So we're real, I mean, when I say a clean audit, I'm saying we didn't find really any errors that were like $5,000 even, going through our testing unless it was an estimate, then we would consider not adjusting it because it's just an estimate and one year it could be 5,000 too high, the next 5,000 too low, but our factual testing where we know what the balance is, we're not finding any errors, mainly related to cutoff. Thanks, I appreciate that. You're welcome. I don't have anything else. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thank you very much for having me. I'm sorry this year took a little longer to get into presenting the audit. That's right, Brad, I wanted to get Regina. I just didn't know if you wanted to see anybody else. Yes, I don't know what I do with the various counselors of the manager needling me on the public to be heard. Is there anyone online that has any questions or in the room that has any questions about this topic or comments? Not seeing anyone in the room, not seeing anyone who's raised on Zoom. So I guess not. Thank you, Bill. Jess, congratulations. Nice work. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Bill. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you, Jess. Yep, thank you. Bye. Nice job. Bye. All right, I imagine Jess is sticking around for what's now 5B, ARPA fund obligation and expenditure. Yep. Do you want me to share this, Jess? Now that... I can share it to whatever is easier. I have it up. Okay, you might be minutes ahead of me. Can you see that? The memo? Yes. Yes. Perfect. All right, so if you'll recall back in April of 2022, after all of the ARPA funds were received for the city, the council then trustees elected by motion to up for the standard allowance for ARPA funds, which meant that basically all of the ARPA funds we received would be used on the provision of government services. So currently today we have with interest accrued over the last couple of years, we have a total balance of $2,824,513.71 sitting in ARPA funds right now. VLCT through work with both the National League of Cities as well as direct work with the U.S. Treasury in around December, January started advising municipalities that they should really consider using their ARPA funds as quickly as possible. So as you'll see in the packet, I included a slideshow that Katie Buckley, who was the VLCT ARPA guru, presented at the Vermont GFOA workshop in February. And basically at that point, they were down to making two recommendations to municipalities. Given the potential changing political climate in November, even though we could obligate funds by December 31st of this year and spend them by December 31st of 2026, they put out some information and guidance that they would advise towns to spend directly their ARPA funds on specific projects in FY24 or FY25. The city's intention all along has been to spend at least most of the ARPA funds on the to Lincoln project and we've just been waiting for numbers basically to come in. So with that project not being able to be complete in the timeframe that VLCT is recommending at this point, the second option is what applies best to the city. So what they're advising is that the city formally designate the remaining balance of our ARPA funds to pay for municipal personnel expenses, transfer those funds into the general fund and then that will basically create a surplus in the FY24 budget and that surplus we're allowed to use however we want provided that it's within the context of provision of government services. So anything that the city would normally spend money on. So at this point, I have checked in with Katie directly at VLCT and also had conversations with Bill at Cattel, Branigan and Sargent on the best way to go about doing this on the books so that we account for the funds the way that is required by US Treasury and also meets all of the tests for our single audit that will happen later this fall for FY24. And so what we kind of came up with as a group is that we should make an adjustment to the FY24 budgeted general fund revenue to transfer those ARPA funds in the 2.8 million and increase the two Lincoln building expenditures. And so essentially what we're doing is we're saying that we're going to apply those, the 2.8 million in revenue to personnel covering our personnel costs for this year. And the surplus that is created by doing so will be assigned to the two Lincoln renovation. This has a net effect of zero on the FY24 budget. It's simply a mechanism for moving our ARPA funds into the general fund where they need to be in the timeframe that VLCT is advising at this point. So our reporting period for the Treasury is April. So everything has to be done heard this memo by March 31st, so that as of our April 15th reporting, we can say we transferred our ARPA funds to the general fund to cover salaries and we're done. The money. I don't know if we lost just the money. At that point cannot be pulled back. She said the money could be pulled back. That's okay. Yes. I have talked about this, so I don't have any questions. It makes sense to me. Is anyone? Was there a particular reason why you pulled it out of the reading button? Pulled it out to make sure it was in the minutes that when we made the motion, it was loud and clear that this is what the intention was and we did it. And it's an actual motion in the minutes essentially. That's the only reason. That's a good idea. So that it's not just in the consent to the. Okay. Sorry, I should have explained that. And we just wanted to make sure it was above board recorded. Yeah. That sort of thing. Amber? I don't have any questions. Amber, any questions from you? No. Okay. I'm not hearing any others. So the on page 92 of the packet, the recommendation, is that the motion we need? Yeah. So we definitely need the very first motion. And then if you'd also wish to designate the surplus at this time, we can do it all in one shot. So both the 1st is the motion to move the ARPA funds to the general fund for personnel expenses. And the 2nd item down here is to designate the surplus to the to Lincoln renovation project. Anybody want to take that on? I can read it. Okay. The move that the council approved the transfer of ARPA funds and FY 24 budgeted revenue increase in the amount of $2,824,513.71 to the general fund to pay for municipal personnel expenses in FY 24 per the recommendations from VLCT and also approve an increase to the FY 24 budgeted to Lincoln building expenditures for the same amount. Furthermore, the council will designate the surplus of the same amount created in the general fund to the to Lincoln renovation project. Second. A motion and a second. Any further comments? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Great. Thank you. All right. The next two items are executive session items. So do I have a motion to approve the remaining consent agenda? Oh, sorry. Just one note on the consent. Yes. Just want to let people know because it wasn't clear in the packet the application for the street vending permit. We do have the certificate of insurance. We just didn't have that checked off. Okay. Move we approve the consent agenda. Great. Second. Awesome. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. Manager Ford, council member comments. So just two things. One, we had a staff training last week and a staff appreciation event on Thursday, which went well. And I think it was already mentioned in this meeting, but the governor did sign the city's charter change amendments today. So that's exciting. And we will get that up and running again. The ballot for annual meeting is already set in stone. We move forward with those questions to the voters, but then moving forward, we'll be able to take advantage of the charter change. I'd just like to say once again, how appalled I was at the comments from the beginning of the meeting, waiting for the motorcycle and how disappointed I am that we had to endure that and that members of the community had to hear that as well. Amber, I really can't see that hand for you. I just wanted to note that last Friday, I attended the legislative council night at the Blue Spruce Grange. And I just wanted to say thanks for the invite. It was a very, very good event. They had a lot of thoughtful questions on the budget and the current projects that the city's working on. And so just thank you for the invite. Anything else? Nope. All right. Anything from the reading file? All right, if there's nothing else, I can get these right here. You do? Go for it. I move that the city council make the specific finding that the general public knowledge of pending or improbable civil litigation or prosecution to which the public body is or maybe a party would place the city at a substantial disadvantage. I move that the city council enter into executive session to discuss pending or probable civil litigation or prosecution to which the public body is or maybe a party pursuant to one VSA 313A1E to include the city council and city manager. Second, both. Any comments? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. And do you want to read the next one? Do you have that one? Next page. Yes. I move that the city council enter into executive session to discuss a personnel evaluation pursuant to one VSA 313A3 to include the city council. Is that supposed to include the city manager as well? Oh, yes. Sorry. Is it? Yes. Okay. Then I will modify my motion. Who includes? Excellent. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passes. All right, we are in executive session. Thanks everyone. We don't expect to come back. So that for all intents and purposes is the meeting for tonight.


After playing so much Wheel of Mutt and always having some absolute bum at a crucial position It is so incredible to look at a team like this. Oh my god Now I will say EA did a really good job of not making it Incredibly pay to win this year. I know it's still bad. It's always bad You can always pay to win in EA games But there have been meds where even the sweatiest of sweaters still struggle to build a God squad and this team is sick It really doesn't cost that many coins. We got a completely free golden ticket bow Jackson best hat back in the game We got Michael Vic 99 gold 99 mind you so for abilities gold 99 Christian McCaffrey gold 99 to gold 99 Megatron gold 99 Victor Cruz gold 99 rainy moss gold 99 tory hole. We got Gronkowski and Antonio Gates Apparently this Gronkowski is absolutely insane. I've never used the fully max one yet though So I'm excited Dan Deardorff the Castro pouncy Thuney Walter Jones all 99s, of course We have bears past defense at 28 which actually gives some insane stats to my defense You got zone run West Coast past rush lockdown sprinter brawler Madden passing. I've never used anything like this This Sean Taylor such a freak and this Taylor maze both Taylor in the name are an absolute dynamic duo So scary to play against Brian's Jazeera team captain 99 overall Ray Lewis Kalil Mack my favorite love this guy and then Lawrence Taylor a behemoth and she doesn't mean clowny cuz literally why not prime time with the classic Madden 15 card art Charles Tillman champ Bailey Julius Peppers worn sap mean Joe Green Miles Gary So expectors we got Sean Taylor prime time Lawrence. I personally am gonna say I like Taylor maze better on this So I'm gonna give this to Taylor maze. So now we got Sean Taylor Taylor maze Lawrence Taylor all three of them have Taylor in the name Whoa, I just realized that that is so sick three of the best cars in the game on Taylor And then we got Michael Vic Randy Moss Bo Jackson for the first time in my life. I will actually be trying out most 100 I'm sure I'll somehow throw a pic even though I've watched people get 70 plus yards on me every time they play me I'll some other open. Yeah, his team is Nuts without further ado ladies gentlemen, I'm ready to use a God squad once per year I always make this video and I'm really excited also, of course I want to give a big thank you to Raycon for continuing to sponsor my videos Raycon makes premium wireless earbuds and why they're so amazing is because they will sound the same as anything else You're used to seeing but they're about half the cost my personal favorite is the Raycon E 55 Which is in my ear right now it stays in my ear so well It has increased space water resistant and the colorways are so cool. I'll show you right now Raycon also makes the everyday E 25. This is their best-selling model, which of course has amazing colorways as well So if you're looking to get some new earbuds, please click the link in the top of the description It's gonna be by Raycon.com forward slash MMG Which will also get you 15% off your first order definitely take advantage of that and use the link Raycon Thank you for sponsoring guys. Enjoy the rest of the video That's a beautiful top three. That's a top three that I get scared of when I see it and he's got Beau Berry Does he have three? High facts all with X factors. Is that what I just saw correct. How are you an edger in James in that? What all right? We're trying out this really weird hat bag draw. Here's our X factors We got human joystick evasive escape artist dashing dead. I Michael Vick. I'm so excited We got three human joysticks on this team.  I'm supposed to just lob it up to Randy Moss and he catches it, right? That's like the thing He's blocking virtually nobody. Okay, so I just hold the grass of catching catching, right? What I do wrong all my opponents do it to me. What did I do wrong? All right second to 15 kind of in an ugly spot though. I won't lie So that is a QB spy Bo Jackson and I kind of open he got it. All right. Let's run the draw to Bo Jackson. He's not ready for it at all Hat back plunge dude.  Oh my god. That back plunge. This is my new favorite play Come here.  Do you look at that back plunge?   I'm really scared of that. I was scared the Lawrence Taylor enforcer and I get hit by a different enforcer anymore But we still got three yards on that with McAfrey. All right Let's see if he keeps QB spy in me if he does I might be able to hit a Koya out of this back field I'm about infinite time though. There's literally no pass rush here Let's see if I can get this QB spy to send I'm just gonna hit a Koya. I mean if you actually give me infinite time I will make a play out of it. Unfortunately. I don't have peaks on bubble I would 100% go for a touchdown peaks on bubble right now if I could. Oh, yeah, my god tray. Let me use this team Thank you so much. He let me do a team team team as well. So he's been really clutch All right second. Oh, that's why I don't have peaks on bubble though I think I got lucky. Do I have any good fakes? Oh fake. Yo, we have fake BAT holder power with Cordell Stewart Let's see if he's ready for it. I don't think he is. He's not. Let's send it do this place really good No, it's not he was kind of ready for it. Oh, we still got a shot though I took too long to pick the place So I think he was a little wary of me doing a fake there but 6-0. I love the start Haven't seen anything from defense yet. I got some monsters on this defense. So should be fun Yo, so I'm just so excited to see his offense dude He really had three X factor halfbacks. Is he literally just gonna run the ball on me every play or let's see what he starts out with So he does start out with the dive. That's not going anywhere, bro.  I get it. Yep That's and that's literally exactly what he did actually just insta subs out.  I turn 13. It's almost like he has to pass But not when you have three X factor halfbacks, you know pass having a God squad is fun. I really like this.  Oh fake Very bold my friend, but I still have lords Taylor on the field and he's gone What a very good start to our God squad team Psycho wiener. Wow. I absolutely love this guy's gamer tag and he's got a squad, too This can be a good one first in 10. Let's see what he starts out with. We got a stretch, baby I don't blame him. I think we got another one coming. I'm gonna go on Taylor maze case this comes right side. Yes, sir Yes, sir. All right. All right. I'm gonna blitz Lawrence Taylor. We're just gonna look for I Don't really know what we're looking for here, but we'll know when we see it.  Oh Oh my god That was insane do I have returned anything in forever damn and my favorite the older bar doesn't go through what was that? I'm sending the heater blitz. Let's see if he's ready for is that read option. Maybe oh It is read option.  All right, so he goes with the pass.  We sacked him So it doesn't matter. All right third and 21. I'm gonna cover deep this time. Yep. Everything is covered safety We miss the safety. Wait. Are you kidding me? Oh, well, I'll take that John Taylor our way to stay in position. Let's go.  I'm running here, but I'm excited for it. Okay. Good little human joy Did not want to take that hit. I knew I could pretty much do anything there though. Damn. I forgot to use rainy mosses thing Oh, wow, and he does not want a QB smiley. I Deserve it. I deserve it.  Oh my god, really must say they tackle the game That would have a touchdown for sure.    I'm gonna pick it off Oh Which one do you want? That matter which one you wanna ask you through a bad ball. What a bum fourth and nine. I'm sending a absolute screwing That's right. He's gone. You gotta be gone after that dude. That was so abysmal. I want no offensive touchdown, please I'm not this homeless. Am I?  Oh my god. He got that pass off We're in Dude, I'm playing out of my mind. I know that I have a god squad So it kind of makes it a little unfair. I'm playing out of my mind though. Did you see that mccaffrey? To the edge. Can I finally get a two point? I can't the answer is I definitely can't Don't test the champ, baby Don't test the champ. Uh-oh. Am I about to do it to him again? Yeah, good return though. I do not care what I'm running. I will make it work third and 16 Okay, he's open.  He's got a bad timing ball.  It's not but that's a punt. So 29 yard punt one for nine a single yard three interceptions It's just heater blitz every time and then play the beep routes Where man, where where what's your goal here, man? No, you know what? We're gonna get some offensive yards. We're gonna drive We're actually gonna go down there and earn this puppy taking this all the way back to the five And I'm gonna earn I'm gonna earn this whole position ever this read option We're starting out with a read option. It's gonna be a keeper. It's gonna be a keeper that could potentially be a safety How sketchy is that? Yeah, go.  Oh I made the wrong read and I'm gonna get a touchdown No, I didn't get the touchdown. I literally made the wrong read and I got that much. All right, let's see if they bite on half back again Yep, bit on half back To the house to the house. Oh my god. He's catching me. These dudes are so fast I literally only need read option though. I'm going off with read option So he's gonna roll left instantly and then Lawrence Taylor's just gonna eat him. Oh, okay. That's just my ball. Anyway How many interceptions is shown Taylor has three I'm recording for a hot minute on this one I'm gonna start shooting a little bit of clock off here the read option. It's all you need See you dude. Come on. Oh I shouldn't have bit him that hard because then I ran into the pursuit angles If I can't put a touchdown in though, does it really matter how effective I am with like read option Oh my god, I'm a freak though 37 I think I can find Gronk in the back of the end zone Wow for being so bad This guy has a really good user. He has like made diving lurks twice now. Like it's really impressive I'm sending an extra man on this one safety. That's why I sent the extra man, by the way 20 to 0 my ball. No excuses Papa Meeks. Oh wait That's safety. That's safety. Oh, just kidding. It's it's still a cover four No, you did not catch that. No, no, no This is what happens when you have got the EA knows this bro EA knows EA knows I'll pay to oh my god Air truck air truck juke. That's a touchdown.  There it is This guy's got a hurt of steel. He finally quits in the third quarter 26 is here I hope you guys enjoyed some god squad gameplay We didn't get a point put on us a quick rage quarter to start then a 26 is zero. You gotta love it All right, I'll see boys in action. Thanks for watching as always. Peace out


I got it. I got it. I got it. What's your arm? This arm right here. Gotcha. Oh. It's as sharp as this. Is that Chinakid? Actually real world tight? Yeah, let me check you out. I double checked the arm. I think you got purple in here. Nice you guys.  I'm still looking. I'm still looking. Oh, yeah, yeah. Simpsons? Right, the scratch marks. Are you purple? Are you blue? Why? What? I don't know where.


So hey everyone, I'm Syed, it's great to be here and I work as a senior software engineer at Red Hat. Today I'm going to be talking about leading and growing an open source community. So let me go to the next slide. So let's talk about what open source is and what does community leadership mean. So as contributors to a project become more familiar with how the project works, they may wish to become more active in helping the project grow. Ultimately this means they will be taking on more responsibilities within the project. So today we are going to discuss in more detail what this means. What it means that is to lead an open source project and a community. The fact is that contributing to an open source project and leading that project to completely different modes of engaging with that project. So let me try to explain why. Let me move to the next slide. So as a contributor to an open source project, your duties to the project may be more or less straightforward. Fixed bugs, answer questions in the project's channels, etc. When assuming a position of leadership in the project, your real role becomes more comprehensive. You may have to drive technical direction, begin speaking with the authority for the project in public venues, just conferences, initiate programs to recruit more project members, or change the project's processes and policies. So in short, you are now assuming increased responsibility for a project success or failure. Next slide please. So why do we want to do that? Why do we want to take on responsibility for a project and a community success? There are many reasons to take on a leadership position in your favorite open source project. It may range from the needs of your employer as to your own personal joy. As you consider taking on a leadership position in the project, you might want to take some time to think through your motivations for doing so. Having a good understanding of why you want to lead will help you choose the best places for you to apply those skills and interests in the project. It might be a conflict resolution or better issue triaging processes to make sure that the users are getting more help quickly. And it's no secret that leading an open source project has many tangible benefits when it comes to seeking employment, but also many individuals choose a leadership position for the simple reason that they appreciate their social connections in the project community and wish to be of greater service to others in the community. So if we move to the next slide, we will explore some of the goals for today. So we would be talking about the responsibilities leaders have, the transition pathway from contributor to leader, and some ways in which excellent leaders help the project avoid common social challenges. So our goals for today include understanding common challenges associated with expanding, maintaining and popularizing an open source project, exploring steps how new community leaders can begin to address those challenges and identify steps where leaders can take to achieve project success. So an additional note over here would be that I personally can't see that you will leave our time together equipped with everything that you could possibly know about being a project or community leader. Every project is different and I don't know a free bit of advice that can help you lead each of these different individual projects. So you will need to translate this advice into your own context. What we are going to do today is examine the most common avenues for meeting the challenges new leaders face, general policies for getting started that we have found to be the most fruitful across communities. So moving on to the next slide, we would be aware to begin by stressing that anyone interested in assuming a leadership role in a community driven project will need to begin by asking three fundamental questions about that project. These are how can you expand the project, that is the add contributors and increase participation in the project, how can you maintain the project, that is ensure that your project is, that it is sustainable and that the public stays on course on pursuit of its mission and vision and how can you popularize the project, that is increase its feasibility, make it an appealing destination for users and contributors and keep it relevant in an ever growing ecosystem. For the remainder of our session today we will focus on each of these three questions. So the first thing that we will be, the first question that we will be talking about is the, so Leica, can you move to, yeah, can you just move to slide 11? Okay, thank you. So let's begin with the challenges expanding the community, like how do you increase community participation and contribution. On the next slide, yeah, so we would be talking about two types of challenges here, one is community challenges and the other one is technical challenges. So on community challenges include things like undocumented or insider information or what we call folk question. This talks about excessive and undocumented insider information or folk question which makes newcomers not have enough context and lacking that context makes them feel excluded. Then there is the issue of unwelcome social dynamics. How welcome do you feel when you join the community, especially how welcome do new contributors feel when they join the community? Perhaps the project is not as inclusive as it could be. Undifferentiated contributor base. Communities lacking diverse contributor base may not seem welcoming to newcomers, especially those from underrepresented groups. This means diversity along all axis. Things like types of skillset, vendor diversity, number of industries represented, gender diversity, racial diversity, geographic diversity and the list can go on. So when working to grow your community, if it appears that the community is only comprised of one type of contributor, people who are not like the existing contributor base may not feel very comfortable joining. And the most obvious challenge again is language barriers. Communities that communicate in only one language can be intimidating for those who don't speak that language. Moving to the next slide, we talk about the technical challenges. So this includes lack of clear onboarding and getting started documentation, lack of peer documentation on ways to get started and deter newcomers, aligning contributors with project needs, aligning contributors with different skills to the most appropriate domains inside the project can be challenging. Finding contributors with specific domain knowledge can be another challenging part. How do you find additional contributors with specific domain knowledge of very specialized use cases? That might be really difficult at times. A project's code base may be directed at specialized use cases. The project might be relatively niche. So locating additional contributors who share its typical use cases might be really, really difficult. Then again, there is unintended use cases which users might be applying a project software to situations that the project's founders have never thought about. So the founders might themselves be limiting their outreach. So let's move on to talk about contributor pathways. So every project and community will need to address these challenges in ways that are most effective for them. However, in general, we suggest beginning to address these challenges by examining a project's contributor pathways. So in the next slide, we'll talk about what these are. So opportunities for new volunteers usually begin to lending the unique talents to an open source project are called project contributor pathways. So the greater the number of contributor pathways that your project features, the more likely it is to recruit participants with various skills required for project success. So when you're thinking of ways to expand your project, focusing on contributor pathways is a great case to begin with. So in the next slide, let's take a look at some common contributor pathways. So firstly, here are some for pathways with community focus, things like documenting software processes, onboarding and mentoring new members, localizing content into various languages, copywriting, managing social media, organizing events. So does your project currently offer new and existing contributors opportunities to contribute rewardingly or even take ownership of work in each of these pathways? That's the question over here. So again, in the next slide, let's again examine some pathways with a more technical focus. So some of the technical pathways might include adding a new feature and documentation, fixing existing bugs and triaging issues, refactoring existing work to improve it, performing quality assurance, improving user interface and user experience, release engineering, creating and maintaining project growth map, code and user interface localization and so on. So again, ask yourself, does your project currently offer new and existing contributors opportunities to contribute rewardingly to or even take ownership of work in each of these pathways? If not, one general way to begin expanding your project is by making concerned, if concerned, efforts to formally like refine, document and advertise these contributor pathways. So moving on, in the next slide, let's explore these challenges associated with maintaining a project, sustaining its growth and as our prior expansion efforts succeed. So in the next slide, now we look at some of the common challenges again. So this includes additional infrastructure and overhead, adding additional tooling and infrastructure creates additional work of coordinating participants in a time otherwise which could have been spent in the project code or especially for small leaders who may have to take on responsibilities for deploying and maintaining new systems in addition to coordinating volunteer work. Then there's a challenge of preserving community intimacy. Preserving the intimacy of community is very important because it's this community intimacy that makes it so appealing and it requires more care as the community keeps on expanding. So very few people may actually know one another and when this starts happening, social bonds weekend. The next thing is keeping a growing number of participants involved. So keeping all participants informed about project development requires more time and effort as that community is large. Managing competing visions for the project as a community grows, competing visions for the project might create contributor tension, especially people who are newer to the project might feel confused where should they proceed with which vision can they focus on. And the last point again is architecting and scaling a mission and vision. Projects that begin as a personal hobby don't always have explicit and clearly defined community mission and vision statement. Without these, projects don't scale well. Moving on, let's talk about governance models. So in the next slide, yeah. So every project and community will lead to address these challenges in ways that are most effective for them. However, in general, we suggest beginning to address these challenges by examining your project's governance model. The specific combination of rules and customs that define who gets to do what and how they're supposed to do it is called a project governance model. The better you understand the project's governance model, the greater your chances of successfully helping that project evolve. So as you are looking for ways to help sustain project growth and success, we recommend beginning by examining your project's governance models. In the next slide, we talk about six common governance models found in open source projects. So every project has a governance model, even ones that say that they don't really have one. So begin by pinning down specific details of the way the project is running today. Here's a list of the six most common governance models, especially in open source projects. We don't have the time to explore the individual model. However, it suffices to say that knowing how your project is running and who is making decisions is a perfect way to begin thinking about making the project more sustainable. If your project relies on too few people, if decisions aren't being made in the most effective phase, then begin by addressing these issues. Moving on to the next slide, we talk about the dimensions of governance. So fundamentally, you will need to begin thinking about various roles people play in the community and the various policies and procedures that govern and direct people in those roles. Roles are the specific functions and contributors perform in and for the project. Roles have rights, responsibilities, and expectations around them. Make sure that these are explicitly documented. Policies and procedures are the specific rules and processes that direct people in particular roles and define the limits of acceptable behavior for the project, best practices, etc. So make sure that these are also explicitly documented. Simply documenting roles, policies, and procedures will go a long way by helping your project become more sustainable. And finally, moving on to the next slide, we talk about popularizing. How do you popularize a project? How do you increase a project's visibility, making it an appealing destination for users and contributors, and keeping it relevant in an ever-growing ecosystem? So in the next slide, we again talk about the form challenges. So these include increased competition for contributors' time and energy, competing for contributors' time, attention, energy is becoming more difficult than ever as the number of open source projects increases globally. Community materials available in a limited number of languages. So when projects become popular, they connect with diverse groups of contributors. But often what happens is that the project materials are only available in a limited number of languages. And if your community is not communicating in English, many people may not even be aware that it exists. This is a very common challenge across all, like, most major projects, I would say, probably. Then there is the growing threat of maintainer burnout. As the project becomes more popular, maintenance might experience burnout when trying to keep pace with it, mismatched expectations between enterprise users and hobbies is always a big challenge. And then there is the proliferation of platforms for user engagement. Finding the best ways to reach up to potential users and contributors can be really time-consuming, especially given the way people choose to consume information. So users now expect to hear things about, like, hear about things on platforms like Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. So figuring out where to meet people and where they are when you are, like, and where you are is a very tricky question. And that becomes a very big challenge for the community. So let's move on since we are almost out of time. Let's talk about reward models. And so to interrupt you, we have only one more minute, and we need to... Okay. Okay, sure. So as with other challenges we addressed so far, we could discuss many things here, but in general we have found that focusing on a project reward model is a great place to begin with. So I won't talk much about reward models because we don't have much time over here. So if you could just move forward a couple of slides to slide number 29. Yeah. So there's an overview of general kinds of challenges. This was more of just an overview of the different types of challenges that you're going to face as you assume a leadership role, expanding the community, maintaining that growth sustainably and popularizing a project along the way. We are already out of time, but yeah, just to give you a sense of light. To do a quick review, here's what we might have next. So in the next slides, we just wanted to talk about measuring success, but I knew I would be out of time. So here are just a few keywords to remember when it comes to technical contributions. And if we move forward a couple of slides, again, I did a quick workload of how you can track non-technical contributions. So yeah, and in the end, I would just want to say that, you know, people choose to lead open source projects for various reasons, including organizational needs, a sense of personal responsibility or personal fulfillment. By choosing to lead an open source project, you are especially assumed an increased responsibility for that project's success or failure. New community leaders face challenges related to expanding, maintaining and popularizing their projects, and they can begin to address these challenges by examining their projects. Contribution pathways, governance models, and reward models. So they will need to determine the best way to gather feedback from the community and to communicate the value of various stakeholders. So with that, I would like to conclude my talk or I would be sharing the slides on the Discord channel and with Venka so that you can also share it. Okay.