Hi, I'm Darren Terry, database developer with Pacific Data Management. At this year's FileMaker Developer Conference in San Antonio, I'll be shaking the dependency tree to discuss FileMaker calculations along with how and when they update, and also when they don't update. We'll review where you can use calculations in FileMaker, such as filtered portals, conditional formatting, web viewers, and object visibility. If you're ready to explore the world of FileMaker 13 platform calculations, I hope you can join me this year in San Antonio.


Growing up I was raised by a toxic woman and she was the perfect example to show me of exactly who I did not want to be.  A single mom by choice. Not even a single mom. She was an alienator. We refer to them as single moms sometimes, but a lot of them are just alienators. But she would say things like, if you don't... We're young girls. She would say, you get a boyfriend.  So this is teaching manipulation.  And really what she taught me was there's two types of women.   Your value is that you offer sexual gratification to a man.


wouldn't it be weird if our nipples were different sizes like massively like the one on the left had a nine-inch circumference and the one on the right had a half-inch circumference he's got some big nips it's nip time today we are reacted to a new trailer dropped its taxi panu oh good and vikrant messy yes and say hush pardon and this is called has seen Dilruba ah this is what I haven't been looking at when she posts it on Instagram yes yeah so it said in the socks I see their posts so often like when family man first started to come on and everything on Minaj's page was about that I'm like I can't look at it this is the low description under the tree gruesome death of a man rocks a small town and casts a shadow of suspicion on his wife is she an innocent victim as she claims or is she the mastermind behind a cold calculated murder what really happened nothing is as it seems in this unpredictable tale of love seduction and deception this is the ultimate conspiracy that's that's I like that count is yeah calm seriously is this related to the film calm that we watched with my nose bush by maybe our thoughts I could be I don't know okay and we need to watch another top say I miss tops it's it's been a while we knocked out a couple of like three of hers and of span of a month yeah we're sort of an top they should be we love tops like it's this one here we go oh wow it's different he does look very different sure it was a little bit I can't get a lot better but it was a little bit of a It looks good. Looks good. Looks very good. Yeah. You know Topsy is going to take it to another level too, because I know just knowing her from social media and all that kind of stuff and the types of roles she likes, I feel like she likes to pick different type of roles and stories that aren't the norm. Yeah. Bollywood. I'd like to know what that expression was about when she was looking at the burning charred remains. She actually looked pleased. That was a great takeaway. She might have done it. So it's a, under investigation, husband rises, thorny marriage that seemed to only further blur the truth. All right. Directed by Vinno. Mathew. Vinno Mathew. I don't recognize his name, but you know Topsy was great, but so did Vikrant. Yeah, he looked really good. At first I didn't pick up it was him. Yeah, he had got a thick beard in this one, but he always brings such a vulnerability to his roles. And I like him a lot. And he obviously does also like picking more unique style roles as well. He seems like one of those actors who's a real thespian. It wouldn't surprise me if he did have theater background before he became a star. I don't know if what was, it was definitely the kind of performance of her. As far as when they were made or when we watched them made. I want to say it was, yes. I think it was. I think it was. I don't know that for sure, but I'm pretty sure it was. I don't know what made him famous, but it wouldn't surprise me if he did have some theater background. Yeah, me too. And I obviously, this is going to be a story, like a thriller who's done it kind of a thing where you're going to believe it's her for a while and then maybe it could have been this guy that she seems to have had an affair with. And then maybe it was something that the husband did to himself to get back at her. Or maybe there's another twist to the story. That's my hope. I'll tell you what, the trailer leads me to believe we're going to get some kind of a payoff at the end that's going to be a, oh my goodness. So if it doesn't have an oh my goodness in the end, I'll probably be a little disappointed. Yeah. What film does she have with On Your Rock coming up? Topsy? Yeah, there it is. Dubara. Dubara. Because I, you know, I follow both of them on Instagram and I've seen them post a lot about it. It says it's coming on 2021. Swash? No, okay. Is it even in, but is it in production? Well, yeah, it doesn't matter what MBV process. No, it doesn't. Is this the, oh, that's Bob. Oh, it is. Yeah. So she's doing a film with On Your Rock. Bob. I can't, it's Swasat. Swasat Chatterjee. Swasat Chatterjee. Will forever be known as Bob. Bob from Kahane. Kahane. So yeah, I knew, and I think they're already signed on for another one. They seem like, they seem like the type that would really like working with each other. Makes sense. They both like good storytelling. And then she also has a cricket one coming up. Oh, if it's anything like 83, it'll get delayed two years. Yes. Like I swear, man, that film is still not come out. But yeah, looks really good. I would totally watch this when it comes out. It seems like there's a lot of good films, but once again, they're all OTT platformed. Did in the Heights get a theatrical release or does that go straight to? I think it's in theaters too? Today. Okay. Yeah, I knew it released. I think it was today. I think it's doing the dual. It is. It's online and it's in theaters. So you can, which I like it a lot because even if it wasn't a pandemic right now, I have one and a half year old, I can't. He does not sit through films. And so I was able to watch Cruella because of that. I agree. I've always felt like you should release them on the platforms and release them in theaters because the theater lovers like us, we're going to go to the theater and support it as often as possible. Charge the same amount. Yeah, exactly. Charge the same amount. People like scoff at it, but like if I was going to a theater, I'd pay that amount. No. And it's like somebody like, I've hurt my back before and I couldn't even get to a theater. I would have loved to have been able to see a new release from home because I literally can't get to the theater because I'm in pain. Yeah. Yeah. So like, I think it was like $30 for Cruella, which would actually be cheaper than taking three people to movies here in California. Yeah. But yeah, whatever. So yeah. Yeah. Anyways, looking forward to seeing those. So yeah, this looks good. Let us know what should be the next Topsy Panoo film that we shot. I thought I know a lot of people really enjoyed. Yeah. That we haven't gotten to yet. So let us know what should be next.


be more proud as a husband. It's very impressive and I heard traffic was pretty bad because it was sold out type of thing, but I heard it went really well. So I was long asleep by the time she came home. Yeah, things are going good. I know in OTAs we spoke and I didn't wanna put a timeline of anything, I'm still not gonna do that, but I'm not doing Indy now and I'm taking some reps here and there and I feel great, I feel like the exact same person. I had an amazing team that I put together when it came to my leg and those people I completely trusted and they did not let me down. So I have a newfound appreciation for the game and I definitely feel like I'm back to my normal self, if not a little bit better. It's hard at this point to stay patient given the field. What's that? Yeah, no, I mean, in these types of things that we have a great training staff and our coaches, they have a great line of communication. For me, yeah, I'd love to be out there. I'd love to go take the plays, but they're integrating me slowly and it's great to know that they care and they're gonna put me in the right position and not compromise anything going into the season. So barring anything, there's gonna be no issues. Week one is not gonna be a problem. I feel great. Do you need preseason work to get ready for the season or are you at stage or career where you just step right in and feel like it's going?  And I don't know how things change with three preseason games compared to four. For me, practice and preseason is the same exact thing I'm just wearing a real uniform versus not a real uniform. And so I'm excited to get out here and start taking team reps and just, I'm just excited, I've never been in my life excited to practice. And I'm, I come out here, I'm just stoked to get a man reach, you know, I'm stoked to do a pass set. And it's just, I'm just really happy with where I'm at and I'm really lucky and fortunate to be as healthy as I am. Kelly, you said you have a newfound appreciation for the game. What did you miss most in that time that you were away? I miss the boys. I miss, I miss playing. I miss, I mean, it's crazy.  You miss being, I remember waking up like two days after we got here, because me and Roger came in here early to help some of the rookies out. And obviously, start getting some good rehab and getting on the field. And I woke up like two days later, my legs are sore and I'm like stoked about it. You know, it's just nice to feel the pains and the football and, you know, getting calloused back up. I missed it all. And I think a lot of people will see that in my game this year is just how much I, you know, I've always cared, I've always played hard, but you know, I've never had an injury before. You know, I've been hurt, but I've never, I never had surgery before in my life. I've never been under the knife. I got my tonsils out when I was 21. It's a whole different deal, but I've never had a real injury. And so this going through that process, going through points where you're like, am I ever going to be the same person again? You know, you're relearning how to walk, you're relearning how to strengthen. Am I going to be strong enough to play this game again? It's kind of like a, you know, there's a lot of ebbs and flows, not only physically, but emotionally as well. And so I had to go through a lot of that. And I'm just really appreciative to be where I'm at right now. Do you guys ever feel unstoppable, invincible? Everybody's human, Paul. Um, I mean, no, I mean, I think there's, there's games last year that, um, you know, teams did a really good job of, you know, edge walling and swarming and getting to the ball carrier. And so there's the success we've had in the recent years with Derek is awesome. And it's, it's a great thing. But at the end of the day, you can't rely on your past successes every year is a new year. And that's a, it's, you got to keep the momentum going and keep building off that. We know we can do it, but it doesn't mean we're going to do it. We have to start working towards that. And we've been doing that in camp and it's early, but, um, you know, these guys, we know what our goal is and we know what we want to accomplish. And I think that, um, no one's taking anything for granted.  It's not, that's not how this game works. You start getting comfortable. That's when you start getting bashed in and the Cardinals are very capable of doing that. Taylor, you mentioned all the ebbs and flows that you had, you know, physically and emotionally going through the rehab and whatnot. What kind of, I mean, there's a lot of things that I did.    You're in pain.  And so, you know, it was just kind of every day is a new day. You got to keep grinding forward.  And then obviously what I'm grateful for and those kind of things helps you reset. And there was definitely a lot of resetting because there was a lot of downs. And, but this up, it just feels great to be out here talking to you guys. I've been looking forward to even speaking to y'all. And that's, that's a bit of a weird deal. What's the last year you've said you were going to cut out the penalties? You're next.  And you did. How proud were you that you did and how confident were you that you could have kept that together through 16 games? Yeah. You know, it's five games, no penalties, no sacks. You know, with my track record, it could have turned around real fast. We could have gotten to game six and it could have been three, you know what I'm saying? And now the fans are pissed. And, you know, so it's just being cautious and being mind-filled and playing on that edge. I think it's really important. My game is high energy, bring it to them type of mentality and finish through the whistle. And sometimes there's some occupational hazards with the yellow flag. Yeah, it's just being aware of that and trying not to hurt your team. Yeah, what do you think? Let's do this. Yeah, you've been waiting. I got two of them.  What are you seeing right now from the sideline from this offensive line? And has your role grown, changed at all in terms of mentoring, especially the younger guys?  I'm not the miracle guy, you know what I'm saying? But if I can take a guy over to the side and help him out with, you know, Pass Pro, how his punch looks, when to punch, like if you do it for a long enough time and have success that I've had, it's nice to help those guys. And so I don't know if it's developed anymore. I just appreciate doing it more because not being around sucks, man. It sucks watching games on the TV and it's just nice to be here and be able to help and be able to help these young guys like Dylan and Chandan and Cole, these guys that came in.  He demands the best out of us for good reason and everyone's held to that standard. And so it can kind of get away from you sometimes, like, you know, you have all these things piled on top of you, you don't know really how we play or how we practice. And it's hard to, this is a hard place to practice at. You know, these coaches expect a lot out of us. And so taking a guy over, helping him out and realizing like you're going to get a barrage of things to focus on each practice, like take one or two things and go fix that. And then the next day, go fix the next thing. And so it's just chipping away. And so I don't know how much it's developed, but helping out is definitely going to make this team better. And that's really the main goal, right? It's gotten a lot better, man. It's gotten a whole lot better. I think there was some resistance from me in the beginning of our relationship and you know, I was, I went scratching and clawing the whole way, but I think, you know, his standard and the way what he's held us to has shown a lot in the success that we've had. Hate saying that out loud, but he was right. And so I think I have a lot more appreciation for Keith and what he demands out of us. It's allowed us to go out there and play the way we do as an offensive line. And there's always, there's a lot of things we can do better, but you know, there's a consistency of everyone wants to get better every day. No one's coming out here and just going through the motions. Keith won't let that happen.   You know, I've never done a very good job with authority and he's definitely an authoritative figure. And so that was a hard thing for me to handle. And, you know, that's just being as candid as possible. But, you know, I really appreciate Keith and what he's done for this team and especially for this offensive line. We've gone, we went from, you know, we were pretty good offensive line when Keith got in and now we have an opportunity to be a much better offensive line now. From a size, weight standpoint, what's the balance like in wanting to be big and sturdy, but also wanting to be lean and being able to be athletic and move well? And we are, yeah. It takes a lot to look this average, Jim. There's a lot that goes into it. Eating clean as possible, knowing what your weight's supposed to be at. I know where my comfort zone is. I'm not the biggest guy in the world, but, you know, I have other attributes that help me out. And so, you know, it's a process. Keeping weight on for me is a process and it can get difficult at times, but I'd rather have it this way than the other way around where I can't lose a pound to save my life. If you lost playoff games in your career, but this year or last year- Great way to start that question. Last year of the Ravens game, you didn't play. A lot of your teammates have talked about how much that game hurt them. For you to not be able to be out there in that game, how much did that loss hurt you? I heard a lot. I mean, that was the first football game I've ever been to in my life as a spectator. And it was just weird being there.  And it's like, they're not paying attention. They're talking. I'm like, we need to be focused on that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you're almost like, guys, you need to focus up, you know, type of thing. It's kind of a weird deal. That was the first game I've ever been to in my life. I think college or NFL, like, as a spectator and all the games we lost hurt. Watching those things, a game like Cleveland where things just didn't seem like it was going right at all.  You're doing your rehab while you're watching and you're just wishing you can be out there to help out.   Some of the guys have said that without you being out there, there's kind of not a lack, but a different energy. For you, is that something that you bring naturally? Is that what you make an effort to do? And where does that derive from? It's just juice, man. It's like before coming out here practicing is never the most fun thing in the world, but games are awesome. You got millions of people watching you and you have an opportunity to put something on film that everyone around the league is going to judge you for. And I just love playing football. I love taking a guy to the sidelines and throwing him to our sidelines. And guys getting hyped up.  I'm all about it. So I don't know what that comes from. I think when I was in high school, I was like a nose tackler, like a detackler. I was trash. And this kid, I put it on YouTube. I'm thinking I'm going to get a scholarship offer or something like that. And some kids post that. Taylor Lawan's never in shape. He goes hard once every four players, something like that, like he was a teammate of mine. And I always remember that. And I was like, I'm never going to let myself be the guy that can't finish because of a lack of something I can control. And that's, yeah, I just I think it's really important to be in shape and show that. As a guy that's been around, it's one of the leaders on this team. Is that something you pay attention to? Or you just pull back? Like the fans being excited? Well, I'm excited. I think there's a lot of opportunity here. But it's kind of what can you do? There's all this, we could do this, we could do that. But the other day, it doesn't mean anything until we do it. And so you have to temper those expectations and realize that we have to put these blocks down and move forward and get these pre-season games done and get stuff cleaned up. And things aren't perfect. It's definitely not perfect out here right now. And that's what we're capable of. And that's our goal to be that week one and sustain that. I think that's been a thing. Being here in 14 and 15, there weren't a lot of hope around here, you know what I'm saying? There was guys in November planning their vacations and stuff like that. And you look around, you're like, holy, this is a bit of a deal. And to be able to experience that in 14 and now be here in 21, we got guys, we got names of people we didn't have before. We got dudes that are capable of being some of the best players in the NFL at their position. And that's awesome to talk about. It's super cool in July and June. But August, it's like we got to put up our shut up now. It's like it's time to go. Good? Thanks, guys.


Okay. Well, you all have received the quarterly report and Andrew sent some questions. Instead of going through the annual report, I mean, you've had it for a couple days, so I'm sure you've seen it. So what I'm going to do is just kind of take it by section and I'll go through the questions I know about. And then if you have other questions, you can pipe in. So on page one, the first section is the summary section. It starts off by saying that we anticipate having a deficit this year. Not shocking. We just came off a year where we had a $700,000 surplus. So even if we have a significant deficit, we'll be better heading into FY22 than we were heading into FY20. So I'm not worried about that. Andrew asked if I had a feel for how much of a deficit. I mean, that's really crystal ball, eight magic, eight ball type of thing right now, because we're so early. But if I were to throw a number at it, I'd say maybe it would be in the $200,000 deficit area. But even if it's that, we're half a million dollars better off going into FY22 than we were in FY20. So still in great shape. When I said that some of our COVID expenses might not be reimbursed or won't be reimbursed. That still goes back to my uncertainty about what's going on statewide and with the agency of education. I know that there's only X number of dollars and all the districts put in for their grants. None of us have gotten our approved grant applications back. So we don't know what's going on. We don't know if the amount of money that everybody put in for is within the amount that the state has available. If it is, then we could get it all. If it's not, we'll get proportional shares. So I'm just not sure what that looks like. And I will be honest and tell you, I'm not putting in for everything, meaning if there's, say there's a requisition to Amazon and there's 100 line items on there, and one is Lysol wipes. I'm just not chasing that because it's just too much to deal with because there has to be a separate federal procurement form done. I have to make sure I have clean requisition invoice and all that backup for whenever I have to submit for the reimbursement. But the big chunks for sure, we're still waiting on a big order of Chromebooks for well over 100,000. That whole thing is going to be submitted and hopefully we'll get it all back. But right now I just can't say that we're going to get all the COVID money that we have coming to us. But we'll get a better feel for that as time goes on. Let's see. I can read the rest of that. Then right before I start with on the revenue side, Andrew asked a question again about projection for the likely deficit. So back to what I said before, if I were guessing right now, maybe a couple hundred thousand. On the revenue side, yeah. Yeah. One thing too, and I realized I didn't put this in my questions, and you might not have a feel for this just yet. But when you are looking at areas, line items where they're, and I don't know how you break it out, whether they're accounts or how you view these line items in your system, but we're looking at them as programs. So when we're looking at deficits within programs, are you able to identify the extent that something is one time related to COVID-19 or some other reason compared to if something's more structural like the food situation that we've been in, where we know that we've been under funding, that program for a number of years? Yeah. The COVID expenses that I put in for are going to be a separate fund. So I see them by fund, but they also are broken out by function. And function is those categories you see, general education, special education. So I will be able to see as time goes on what's causing it. Right now, you'll see a big chunk when we get down to it. Facilities is where there's a big chunk of it. And the good news is a good chunk of that we will get and we should get 100% of it. The efficiency Vermont amount that was granted, our grant request, and Andrew LaRose did a great job putting together that grant application and he's doing a great job executing it. It's $199,950 and we're going to spend most of it and we'll get it all back. And that's going to show up as an over execution in facilities, but then we'll see on the revenue side that getting backfilled. And a lot of the materials that we're buying, we're putting in the facilities area. So most of the expenses for CRF are going to be in the facilities area. Although whenever we see that big chunk of computers, that will show up in, I think it's staff, yeah, staff support is the line where that's going to show up. So yeah, we will see those broken out as time goes by. And then on the revenue side, I have special ed intensive reimbursement will likely finish under budget. And Andrew asked a question about that. What I'm thinking about is, as an example, we have a lot of IAs that are funded with special ed dollars. Some of those IAs are now in the pod model, and they're doing 100% general ed work. And so when the time studies come out, and I have to realign that money, I have to move it out of special ed into general ed. And that means I won't be able to get as much reimbursement because we don't have the expenses. We will have the expenses in total, we just won't have them in special ed. They'll show up in general ed. And when that happens, the expense will be there, but we won't get the full reimbursement. And what I was wondering is, and you and Libby will be much more attuned to this, is Act 173, I know some elements of that were delayed, but I thought Act 173 was going to allow for more flexible use of special education dollars. And I was wondering if that helps at all in this case or not? No, not yet. And not next year either. Because with COVID, they pushed it again. So not only isn't it in effect for this year, it won't be in effect for next year. And if others don't know what that is, that basically changes the funding model so that we get an X number of dollars in special ed funding times the number of kids that we have. And so it'll be just kind of like a block grant. And how we use that money is going to be up to us. So that will provide a lot of extra flexibility. And it's something that we've been thinking about in our system so that we can maximize that. On the downside, we're assuming we're going to see less special ed reimbursement through that model. But we'll have to see. The good news is, well, kind of good news, bad news. The good news is, we don't have to worry about dealing with that even through budget development for FY22. The bad news is that it does provide extra flexibility that we won't be able to see until then too. But you will, during the budget cycle season, during the presentations, you will hear about this. We are planning for it now and thinking about our budget this year with, this is the main thing that we have in mind to create our internal system to make it stronger, to support more kids internally so that we don't have to turn to external factors. So this is like that one idea that Grant was just talking about, Andrew, you asked about, we are planning for now for two years down the line. And you'll hear a lot about this during budget season. So are there any other questions about just that summary paragraph that anybody has? Okay. All right. On the expenditure side, I'm just going to kind of cherry pick some of the line items. Under general education, you'll see one of the notes there is that grandparent intuition for Roxbury students is going to under execute by about 50,000. That's going to help toward the overall deficit. And what that's all about is just kids that have moved from Roxbury to a different town and now they're not, we don't have to pay tuition because they're residents of that school. We also had some transfers. I think at least one kiddo instead of going like full time general ed high school is now going tech. So it saves money here, but eventually it's going to hit us in that six semester average. We also, I talk about the fact that costs may be a little lower here because we have a title one vacancy that we haven't filled. That means though our revenue for title one will be down. It'll match expenses and revenues. In special education, right now it's kind of hard to say whether we're doing well or not because billings are a little behind and it's kind of like I said, a timing issue. And when we start seeing bills, one correction that says two vacant positions will provide some savings. We do have two vacant positions, but one of them is in general ed. Only one is in special ed. So there'll be a little bit of a savings there. But as I also mentioned, some of the costs for these IAs and potentially even some teachers might shift from special ed to general ed, depending on the work that we're having them do to get through this. Let's see what else. Guess I'll scroll down to staff support. This we will overspend by at least 100,000 whenever we knock on wood when we get those Chromebooks in, but then we will have additional revenues to cover that. Moving further down, my personal favorite business services. So I'm going to come in over budget. The reason why is because Joanne retired, I didn't want her to retire and then have somebody come in the next day and have to try to manage payroll without some overlap. So we did have an overlap that wasn't budgeted. Not a big deal, but definitely worth the cost to make sure that we have transition there. Buildings and grounds, that's where we're going to see a lot of COVID expenses. Right now, as of the end of the first quarter, there was already 217,000 in expenses. Probably about 80 or so was for the efficiency Vermont, which I know we're going to get all back. And then 130 maybe or so is for supplies and materials, plexiglass, things like that that we purchased. And hopefully we'll get a good chunk of that back, but probably not all of it. Transportation. We don't have special ed transportation, daily transportation running, which is in the contract. So I assume that we're going to see some savings there. I've been going back and forth with a big wig at the bus company to just make sure that the assumptions are right there and that we're going to get that full credit. And then under debt service and fund transfers, this is where Andrew was talking about kind of that perennial issue that we always have a bigger deficit and food service than we budget. We've been building that up. It was like 25. And then we made a big jump up to 75 because we were providing benefit packages for some employees that didn't have it. This year, it's 100,000. And in a typical year, 100,000 might be good. It's just this year, I have no idea where we're going to finish with food service. On the bright side, it's 100%. Everybody is like getting free meals. And it's fully reimbursed through federal and state money. The problem is I don't know what our participation looks like right now. I know that it started out real slow. It's been picking up. Even though it's free, you still don't have all the kids grabbing those meals. So if the meal counts go up and we get fully reimbursed for them, then maybe we won't be in as bad a situation as I am kind of concerned that we might be in. But I'm just projecting that that 100,000 fund transfer that we budgeted probably won't be enough. I don't think we have to make a huge increase for FY 22, because I think this really is related to COVID. And I think if next year we're back in school all day, that we're going to be back to kind of our normal expenses and revenues. And hopefully $100,000 or so is about right. But in the interim, we've got fund balance that we can continue to cover it. Are there any questions on that section of expenses, or are we good? I guess the one question I have is, do we want to this year even just take 25, add 25,000 extra to food service just to be safe as part of the budgeting exercise? But I guess it depends on where we are. I'm looking at the available fund balance looks like 866,000 is what's estimated. So with the $200,000 deficit just in the fiscal year that would leave us out of fund balance of like 666,000, which 25,000 is not a big deal there. So we might not really need to address it. But is my understanding in line with what you're saying? Yeah. So how we end this year, and if you kind of scroll to the next page, because we're going to be on it anyhow, if you skipped revenues and get down to that fund balance section, that's where the last line is that 866,000 that Andrew is talking about. But a couple lines above, you see the COVID impacts. And right now I just put question marks in there. When I say maybe a couple hundred thousand there bringing down to 666, which is a horrible number to change that. But whenever I was forecasting maybe 200,000, that included food service deficit. And we could just kind of wait and leave it at 100,000 for FY 22, knowing that if that is not a good number and we end up needing another 25,000, we would have the flexibility to cover it in the fund balance next year too. But we'll think about it if between now and when we're pretty much baking the budget, if we have better information regarding food service and think that we really should bump that up a little bit more, then we can always do it during budget so that we don't have to worry about covering it from fund balance next year. So let's go back up a little bit and just look at the revenue section. I don't think there's as much to talk about here. Education spending, we'll get that full amount. There's a little bit of a timing thing because I think with the COVID impacts, I think there were some grace periods added, which I think is why we didn't get Roxbury in time for the first quarter. But we will get 100% of that money, so that's not a concern. And then the rest, like going down to special ed block grant and through special ed block grant, those should all execute as planned. When we get to special ed intensive, that's where we might see that we come in under budget because if we have to shift some expenses from special ed to general ed, then we won't get all that money back in intensive reimbursement. That's that 56% reimbursement for our expenses. The triple ed block grant, we'll get all that. I'm not sure if we have any state place students. I think we probably do, but we get 100% reimbursement for that. Extraordinary, sorry, skipped over that. Extraordinary, that's for individual students whose costs are over 60,000. Once you hit 60,000, you get 90% reimbursement. We will have some of that and that'll just align with whatever our expenses are. Best in Act 230, I don't think we've put in for anything as far as a grant for those. And we might not because a lot of that's professional development. Some of it is, you know, a conference that probably won't even happen. So we may not put in for that. But if we do, whatever expense we incur, we'll get the matching revenue. Vogue transportation should be pretty much close. idea B should come in pretty close to the budget. Title one is where I say we might get less revenue, but we'll have less expense as well. I think we're actually trying to fill that other 1.0 that it's really challenging. The Corona Relief Fund, we'll see. My frustration and I'm trying to temper my frustration with CRF. We have a receivable for FY20 of over $40,000. I still haven't even gotten that. And that's part of the grant that needs to be approved. So don't really know. The next line is CRF too, but it's specifically for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. That's where we're going to get that $199,950. Medicaid will probably come in a little under because one of the positions we fund with Medicaid, that person is doing 100% special ed services. So that'll actually be an increase in special ed cost and increase in reimbursement. But we'll under execute Medicaid, which is fine because that money carries over. EPSDT is kind of a Medicaid pot too, but it's separated out. We'll get whatever we spend. Tuition, this is the first year probably that I can recall where tuition is going to come in under budget. And I'm not sure what is going on there. I mean, I know there's at least one student that was going to be tuitioned in and that family has decided to homeschool. So we don't get that. I think there's just a lot less moving around. Families are staying in their zone and not moving. So we have less kids than we budgeted for. Hopefully that's a one year thing. And next year it might bump up a little bit again. Interest will be higher than we budgeted because we have that large fund balance. Rentals, I say dramatically under execute. By dramatically, I mean we will get none. Luckily, it's just a $20,000 line item, so it's not going to kill us. But as of right now, we are not doing any rentals inside or out. So unless something changes dramatically in the world, we probably won't get any revenues there. Excess costs, that's for kids that are tuitioned in here. And we provide additional services. We can build a district for those additional services. It will align with expenses. But I think expenses and revenues are going to be low just because we don't have many kids tuitioned in from other districts. And we might see some for the that the arrangement we have with U32, if some of those kids are still coming in here, we might have some special ed services there. But whatever we spend, we'll get back. Miscellaneous, we always budget just a normal amount. And then we always end up seeing these unusual revenues come in. This year, one that's a little strange is $4,000 in prior year. And that it still blows my mind. I am impressed with this family. We sent out tuition bills last year for kids that were coming in. And one of the families didn't pay the bill. And at the end of the year, I just wrote it off because I figured surely they're not going to pay because the kiddo I think was a senior, so it wasn't coming back. And we were not in person. And the fact that they didn't pay the bill by the end of the year, I figured surely we'll never we're never going to see that. And lo and behold, in like August or September, we got a check. So it was after the audit. So we collected it as a miscellaneous revenue this year. But we also have an electronic vehicle charging station. And people use that and we charge for that. We have a facility manager directors association rebate where if we buy money, if we buy materials through a contract that's been established by them, we get a rebate back. And so that's always a good chunk of change. So we're already well over halfway to collecting what we anticipated from miscellaneous. And I assume we'll get actually more than we budgeted. Enrichment, I assume Drew's going to do a lot less this year than he's done in the past. So I assume we'll have less enrichment revenues. What we have there is for a bike camp that went through the summer late summer. And then fund balance transfers. You won't see anything there until later in the year. That will be I'm trying to think actually that 240 that's there is the money that we budgeted from from food from fund balance as a revenue source for the budget that 240 it may never even show up there because it's actually our money. So it may just be something that I factor in at the bottom line at the end of the year. And we already went over fund balance. The quirky thing is the top section of that fund balance where you see that $1060.  We spent pretty much all that what's left now is this little bit of money for special ed software that just didn't get spent. So that's why there's this really small amount of committed money. Hopefully that'll go away and we won't have to deal with that anymore. The bottom part basically talks about what's left after that committed amount's gone. What we have is a fund balance revenue source in FY 21 this year. And then I put in assuming maybe 250 each year for the next two years, which if you remember as we lose two cents of merger incentive, 250,000 is about what you need to kind of offset that two cents. So we were planning on using fund balance revenue as a source of funds in our budget development for the next couple years. And then whenever there's no reduction in that incentive, then we won't use that fund balance anymore. So we're just trying to level out that tax rate. It's like we're pushing that 2% back a year and a year to kind of flatten out that path. It's a good idea. And whenever we have no incentive at all the very next year when we don't have to absorb that two cents, then we can make that fund balance revenue go away and we'll still be leveled. This year, the FY 22 fund balance amount, the assumption here is that it's going to be 250. We may have to play with that. That's a great lever to be able to adjust as we're building the budget. If we think the tax rate implications are a little too high and we think everything in the budget is important, then we can always tweak that fund balance a little bit to manage that tax rate or drop it back down. The only thing you have to remember in the back of your head is as you do that, though, that's not something that's sustainable. And the next year, if you don't keep that same level when you reduce that, it's just like increasing your expenses. So we do that very carefully as we build the budget. That's why I was asking about the structural versus the one-time deficits because it's really good to use something like that for one-time costs. But if we have ongoing long-term structural expenditure to revenue issues, then dipping into the fund balance is just, for lack of a better phrase, kind of like a taking time bomb. It's better to use it to cover a deficit. So if there's some uncertainty in the budget, if we think expenses might actually be higher than what we're budgeting, we could leave it like that and then just cover it, cover the deficit from fund balance. And then that way you're not building it into your budget and screwing up your tax rate across years. So it's something we'll think about and we'll talk about when we build the budget. But for right now, I mean, that's great shape having that kind of flexibility. Any question on the revenues or the fund balance? All right, you're making it easy. The next page, there's not really much to talk about. Food service, we already kind of talked about that and probably talked it to death. We'll just have to see how that plays out. The other funding section, those are grants that we didn't budget for that we might get. Like this bit has a $7,500 grant safety grant that you can put in for every year. This year, we also attended Libby myself and Andrew attended like a back to school webinar talking about COVID and precautions and planning. And since we participated in that, we got an extra $2,500. So I know we'll be putting in for $10,000 and we'll get the $10,000. The rolling grants are left over from prior years. I was hoping we could put a big dent in those this year and get that money spent, but with COVID, they're probably going to be limited on what they can spend that on. The good news is I don't think there's any kind of time limitation on that. So it's just something I got to continue to track until it's gone, but we don't have to worry about losing it. And Watson's has been around a lot longer than Lisa Noss's. I think Lisa will probably get her spent before and to tell you the truth. And then don't have Anne's in front of me. How much does Anne have left? I don't have the paper in front of me. 20,000. 20,343. Lisa has 21,319. So they almost have the same amount that Lisa's is like two years newer. No, I know. But Anne's is about international students and one of the things that I've really been thinking about is once we're out of this, how do we, I want to, Anne has kind of given me the like carte blanche to take that over and I really want to increase our international. So we'll spend that. No, it's in my bucket. We'll spend it. Yeah. And I have to remind you what the amount is. That's my concern. Between you and Andrew, you'll keep me honest. And so that other funding, there's not a whole lot going on there. We might see more as the year goes on, but I'm guessing that in this year, we probably won't see a whole lot more because, you know, we're just not focused on looking at what these little grants are that pop up that we could put in for. So we'll continue to track what we have and what we get. And then the bottom section is just that long term debt. I could take it off of here, but I think it's a good thing to just keep reminding ourselves of what that glide path looks like.  So provided we don't backfill with another bond in the near future, we can look at those expenses coming down every year and then the areas that are in gray are years where we're going to see significant drops. And I think that's it.


Good afternoon. I'm Daniel Durasto, a Foreign Service Officer here at the U.S. Department of State. Thank you for joining us. I will be your moderator for today's global innovation through science and technology program, what we know as Just Tech Connect. And we will be having a conversation on diversity for success in business. Remember, you can join our discussion by sending us your questions and comments through the chat space next to the video player or through Twitter at hashtag Just Tech Connect. Very well, I'd like to begin by welcoming our experts. First, at the studio, I have Marcia Chong, an investment analyst for Village Capital. Marcia is in charge of investment advisory on education, financial inclusion, health, and energy. Welcome to the studio, Marcia. We also have connected with us via internet. Agostino Almeida, Chief Operating Officer of RutaN, a business and innovation center in Medellin, Colombia. Thank you, Agostino, for being with us. And lastly, we have Jorge Ramos, the Director General of Extend Consulting and Advisory Services, LLC. And he's also going to answer your questions and about interesting links. Thank you all for being with us today as we wait for viewers to send us their questions.  Agostino, let's start with you, please. Yes, surely, Daniel. It is a pleasure to greet you all. And thank you very much for the invitation. This is an extremely important topic in today's world to see how successful enterprises can be started up. I'm Portuguese. I now live in Colombia, however, in Medellin. I've been here for six years. My training has been very special, but I have been focusing in recent years on enterprise. And now I am currently in charge of operations at RutaN focused on diversity and ecosystems. What kind of impact it can have on the social and economic development of the region. I have lived also in the United States, in different states, different cities. I was raised there from a very young age. And it's important to point that out because actually it provides us a different vision as to diversity, which is so important for any enterprise. Yes, your personal background also comprises a lot of diversity then. Yes, you're absolutely right. Marsha, what about you? Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences? Well, first, thank you very much for the invitation. My experience has been with investments for social impact and venture capital. And that is why how startups begin. Originally, I was born in Ecuador. I'm very proud of that. And that actually has been very helpful to give me a different viewpoint as to how we conduct our investments. One of the reasons why I hold my position today is that there are big problems with venture capital because most investors are investing in the same places, in entrepreneurs from the different diversities. And that is having an impact on the world of enterprises in Latin America. It is a topic that I believe is very important. Well, thank you very much, Marsha. We have a lot of areas that we need to touch upon. Later on, we'll ask our experts to share with us how diversity in a team from a practical standpoint can impact the success of a project. Let us now dig into one of the questions that we issued through social media to the participants. We asked people, what aspect of diversity in business are you most interested in hearing about? You'll see the results on screen now. The most important answer was strategies to create a business with greatest diversity. That's 56% response, followed by success stories of enterprises with diversity. And then how to close the financial gap, what you were talking about just now, Marsha, how to ensure that investors make investments in companies with more diversity. Marsha and Agostino, what do you think about these answers we've heard from our viewers? Marsha, you first, please. Well, these are replies that I was also interested in when I launched in venture capital. And I believe that there are different strategies starting out with the team as well as suppliers and partners. Because when you're starting out in a venture, you not only have to think about your team, but how can I diversify my business when it comes to suppliers or shareholders for my business? So you need to really think beyond. Yes, that's true. And when we speak about diversity, there are many different aspects. It can be gender diversity, sexual preference, ethnic origin, religious groups, et cetera. All of those different factors come into play. Agostino, would you like to comment about these answers to the questionnaire? Yes, I concur with what Marsha pointed out. It depends on the type of business and enterprise and in what ecosystem it's working. That is going to really have an impact on diversity. It's a factor for success, and it's also interesting. Let me give you one example. We invested in a company when I was also working for a venture capital, and that was developing dyes based on endemic fruits here in Colombia. And the suppliers are very important, as Marsha pointed out, because these were specific ethnic groups from some remote areas in Colombia. So all the development strategies for the supply chain, even the negotiation when talking about access to natural resources in the country, all of this required management by communities and entering into agreements with them when they had no local trading. And that is very important to understand their needs and what is the strategic role needed to develop these businesses. So diversity can also encompass different regions within one same country, different socioeconomic groups that are represented. Yes, of course. Thank you, Agostino. Very well. We shared this question via Twitter earlier, and I'd now like to ask our online viewers, what do you believe is the biggest challenge entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds face? Is it lack of financing or perhaps difficult access to professional networks, limited educational opportunities that some of these groups face, or negative stereotypes or something else? All viewers are invited to respond to this poll that you'll find on the screen, and afterwards we will be reading your programs, your answers during the program. Let us hear some questions from our online viewers. We'll be receiving questions from different parts. First question, do you know of any incentive that enterprises can use to attract greater diversity among their ranks or their teams? Marsha, will you please go first? I think there are different types of incentives. One is if you're a startup or a business and you want to attract that talent, then one thing you could possibly do, if you join us, you can say if you join us, we'll provide mentoring for people who can help you and help you to progress in your career. This is extremely important. If you're creating diversity, sometimes you might feel that you're the only one in a team, that you're very alone. So to be able to provide mentoring is extremely important in those circumstances. Agostino, is there any kind of strategy that you'd like to share with us? I'd like to divide my answer in two parts. First, how a business manager truly understands the strategy to locate the capacity and talent, as Marsha pointed out. Once a strategy has been identified, then see how one can attract it by providing the appropriate conditions. Obviously, there should be different levels, but it depends on the sector and the business because the incentives can change. And in my experience, they range from placing people in or relocating people in the country, that was a benefit or an important incentive, but also access to resources and capabilities that perhaps don't exist in certain regions. It could be education or health. All of that can be a very attractive offer, focusing obviously on the specifics of people from remote areas. That's wonderful. We have another question from the viewers. Do Marsha and Agostino have any recommendation of how to maintain existing diversity within an organization? In other words, having recruited people from different origins, how to ensure that they remain on the team and continue to grow as part of the team or the enterprise Marsha first? Well, at least the startups we have seen, the problem of talent, especially in growing markets such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, talent is a problem. People might be with a company two, three years and they leave. One of the reasons is because there is scant investment in the professional development of the individual or they are not provided with sufficient opportunities to grow within the enterprise. In other words, give them that mentorship and have somebody to guide them in their career. And to follow up on that, when you say people leave, where do they go? Do they go to other enterprises, to the public sector? Well, for instance, if they're in a startup, they perhaps will go to the private sector where they are paid better. Very well, next question. If the experts could tell us about a new venture that benefited during their first steps from the point of view of having a diverse team. Agostino, let me begin with you. Have you had any experience with this? Yes, there are two that I would like to mention. The first one is EcoFlora Cares, the company I mentioned recently. And it has the ability to manage different teams in different parts of the country, some are very remote and different ethnic groups. And this was a very interesting and successful experience. The development of economic capacity in families, strategies for the development of the regions, all of that was extremely interesting. And at Ruta Inn, specifically, we have managed teams, perhaps not as enterprises, but at the agency level, and we have a very diverse team from a cultural, religious, and ethnic point of view. Wonderful. Another question from our viewers is something that incubators and accelerators can do in order to encourage diversity within ecosystems. This would be from a systemic point of view, not just for a single company, but on more broader terms. Marsha, how would you answer that question? Well, I think accelerators and incubators can do a lot, beginning with the different strategies. One is obviously open their programs for marginalized groups or different types of people, the Latino groups or Afro-Americans, and for talent coming from Latin America. That is growing talent. That is one strategy, but it is not sufficient. We must also create programs to connect investors with entrepreneurs and create a shared language where investors are able to say, we will invest at a certain level of maturity. For that, we need to look at a team with A, B, C, or D. We also need a business model having reached a certain maturity level. It's very important to entertain those conversations between investors and entrepreneurs. And many accelerators only focus on looking at the entrepreneur and looking at them, but they don't work on linking the two. Agostino, have you had any experience in encouraging diversity on a broader, more systemic basis? Yes, of course. The accelerator is a good source, but let me also add, public entities such as local government, those strategies are very important. And one of the things that we've always mentioned is that it's not just the impact and the triple bottom line. It's not by specialty. It's good for business and it does have a systemic impact. And to attract talent becomes very important, Marsha. Spoke about attracting Latin American talent towards the United States or elsewhere in the world. But there are other examples. For instance, here with our companies, we have a number of companies here in Medellin under Ruta Ene, and over 60% are not Colombian. They come from 30 different countries. So in the cafeteria, you can hear 20 different languages being spoken and that encourage interaction, capacities, technologies, and talent can come from anywhere in the world. As a development policy to build up capacity and to increase a pipeline and a spectrum, it becomes very important. The next question we have is, are there geographic regions that could be within Latin America or even outside the region elsewhere in the world that have progressed in encouraging greater diversity in enterprises? Have you had any experience whether in Latin America or elsewhere with this diversity has encouraged at the systemic level? Quite honestly, my answer would have to be no. This is a region where there is a lot of diversity, but I do have some examples of companies with an international presence that have achieved a change. One that we have seen as example is in power financing and they provide loans to foreign students and to students in the United States who are part of the DACA program who have been excluded from the U.S. financial market. In their strategy, starting with the founder, they have indicated we have to have an intentional strategy towards diversity. So they've had foreign students and DACA students and this truly helped them improve their product and grow their user base. In my experience, I have seen different examples, a bit similar to this, but in different markets, and none that I can say, wow, this has gone beyond diversity. Agostino, have you had a different experience? Have you seen any geographic area that was successful in this kind of action? Quite honestly, I agree with Marsha. I have not seen a specific region focused on that, but I do see examples and modus operandi that do work along those lines. Ruta Ene have done it and there are other companies here in Colombia who, as policy, will only hire single mothers head of families to develop their talents in ICTs and to provide home office type service. That's a very specific case of one accelerator. So it would seem, based on your experience, that there has been a lot of success individually by some companies or some types of companies, but regionally, there is still need to work harder on a systemic approach. Very well, for those who have just joined the program, you are watching the GISTEC Connect conversation on diversity for success in business. We are taking live questions from viewers right now. You're invited to submit questions either through the chat space or via Twitter with hashtag just to tech connect. Marsha, what would you say are the top three benefits of having a diverse team, whether it be religious, ethnic, or national origin differences and diversities? I think there are lots of benefits, but if I were to choose three, I would say, first of all, the example I just mentioned in power financing, because they have employees beginning with the founder and through the executive levels and throughout the company, they have diversity from country of origin, races, and this has allowed them to improve their product and to scale up the number of clients. I think that is a benefit for the startup and for the business, but also from the investor standpoint, there are advantages. Some studies have pointed out that if you invest in a company with a more diverse team, you're going to have better outcomes. I would also say that the third benefit is to have a diverse team is like in society, you're going to be able to have better options and create solutions for issues that are truly important. Though that was a very interesting answer. Agostino, would you like to comment about the three top benefits that can arise for companies if they adopt a diversity strategy? Yes, Marsha is absolutely right. The impact as far as collective knowledge is incredible. This capacity to generate new ideas and to consolidate them through innovation and creativity is crucial both for academic experience as well as the origin, the religious background, ethnic background, and that gives you a different understanding of the market and obviously improves the value proposal for the market and this obviously will have an impact on business. Moving now to another aspect that is frequently mentioned, this is what we call the multiplier effect. Studies have shown that women in particular and other marginalized groups tend to invest a large portion of their earnings locally in effect putting back the resources to their communities and businesses. How could emerging enterprises or startups benefit from this? Agostino, this time let me begin with you. Yes, there are some interesting examples even here in Medellin and in Colombia itself. There's a business here called Krebs and Norfels that began selling Krebs and Waffles, selling them from a cart. As they grew, their strategy was always to employ women heads of family and with their income, they were able to provide training, donations, and they have reinvested all of this. That was a very interesting case and a successful business, perhaps not technological, but at least very interesting to see how they developed their approach and it had a major impact. So in this case, investment in diversity was a virtuous circle where the employees themselves also invested in education, thus promoting greater social development. Yes, that's right. Thank you, Agostino. Marsha, have you had any experience with this? Yes, I agree with what Agostino pointed out, to empower families, communities, the city in general. One example I have is a company who's got a presence in Nicaraguan Haiti, that is culinary foods. They create nutritional products based on one ingredient called moringa. Do you know what moringa is? No, I don't. Well, it's healthy, I believe it's equivalent to kale, and kuli-kuli have staff, they have farmers in these different countries. And by these employees, they have compared these farmers with others who don't work for kuli-kuli, and the income of the kuli-kuli farmers is five times that of others, and they are investing back into their families, into creating micro-enterprises in their own communities. So actually, the money remains within the market. So it's like a positive domino effect, where a company empowers a community and they, in turn, can have their own startups, et cetera. Well, thank you very much to both. Let us now turn back to some of the questions from our participants online. Hugo Romero-Sidat Juarez asks, how can the government help gender diversity initiatives in sectors that are traditionally filled by men? Marsha, what can you say about this? This is a wonderful question, thank you. What can be done is for governments to work on this, and I do believe in some countries that's happening, they can create an enterprise office, they can also have partnerships with investors or with accelerators or different capital groups or entrepreneurs, because as a country, they can say we see that enterprises are super important, but nonetheless, there are many problems for some marginalized groups. Their access to the market is difficult. So how can we create partnerships for them and to connect them to capital? I think it's important for the government to be active. We've seen this in Mexico, for instance, and I come from Ecuador. I think my country still needs to make some progress, but the government is truly a major helper, and they can ensure that groups of investors can also be part of the ecosystem. Agostino, in your experience, what are the strategies or what role can the government play to help out to achieve gender equity for some enterprises? Well, they play a crucial role. The government ought to be playing an important role, whether it be both the national or regional government. Unfortunately, in Colombia, we have not seen too many political strategies. There are nonetheless some examples, and they are from bottoms up. There are benefits, incentives from some groups of investors to invest in enterprises with that focus. Unfortunately, it takes time. I believe things are changing slowly. It doesn't depend only on the country, but also the sector and the industry. The local government in Medellin, for instance, assists with training courses, especially in STEM and IT, specifically for women entrepreneurs who are working on a startup. And this opens door for marginalized people. However, it's arduous work, it takes time, and more effort is needed. That's another important topic, and it does take time. These policies, these initiatives cannot be short-term. They need to be followed through over many years, probably. Very good. Our next question is from Mauricio Enonduras, who asks, what assessment have you got as to diversity in Latin America compared to the United States or Canada? Agostino, let me begin with you. You, who have lived in both regions, what kind of comparison do you draw between the regions? Well, let me focus a little bit on the country that I'm more familiar with, Colombia, although I've had some experience in Brazil as well. But here in Colombia, diversity, and I'm thinking more about ethnic diversity, it's accepted and it's part of business in Colombia, especially in certain regions, such as Antioquia, that doesn't appear as an impediment to encourage diversity. It already exists, per se, and especially in some sectors, compared to the United States. I'm not that familiar with Canada, but based on my reading, I think they're at yet another different level. But compared to the United States, Colombia is more open, more accepting of diversity as part of any business. Marsha, based on your experience, either United States or elsewhere, how do you see the difference between the countries and how do you accept diversity? I'd say that in the United States, when we talk about an entrepreneurship and adventure capital, people are thinking more about making sure that their team has, they want to know how many women are there on your team, how many men are on your team? There are, do you have Latin people, people from different cultures? I see that in the United States, but what more recently is taking place is people are paying attention to diversity at the executive level. And at all levels of an organization, it's not enough to just have a woman, but we want to make sure that there is, we want to have women at the high decision-making level. So back to the issue, it's not just a matter of issue of gender, but we want to understand what is the role of this team, how much decision-making is taking place by women. Now, when we compare that to entrepreneurs, for example, in Mexico or Chile or Colombia, what I've seen is that when I speak with them about their teams, one of the things I hear is, we need more women. That the thought is there, but in comparison with the United States, they are still just beginning. We already have women, but in what positions? So there's more that can be done in that. It's interesting that you differentiate, that you point out that difference of simple inclusion of women in a group and looking at this other level where we're considering what level are, what positions are they occupying in this diversity. So we have a question coming from Medellin, Colombia, it's near you, Agustinio. To whom can I turn to find financing for projects related to diversity? So because the question is coming from Colombia, we'll turn to you, Agustinio. Certainly. Here in Colombia, in Medellin, there's a smart access to financing, I think that's appropriate, and it defines very well what the focus of each business is, it analyzes the impact, and they want to know what the diversity strategies are, and then offering different mechanisms. It's important to be aware of what different channels are available, there are different types of funds, there's seed financing for technology, but there are other types of agencies in the smart financing access system that brings other types of investors, angel investors and so forth. But as in any undertaking, in any enterprise, it's important to define what is it that you seek and what is the impact that your strategy has, and based on that, you focus and target on who you should speak with. But yes, there are mechanisms, there are channels that can be pursued. The next question, have you, Marcia and Agustinio, seen an increase in the amount of investment firms that are owned by women in Latin America? In your work, have you seen an increase? Have things stayed the same? Have there been a reduction? I would say that the thinking, people are aware we need more women, they see that we have plenty of men, but more and more we see the thinking of inclusion of women among entrepreneurs, but we have not reached a level where we can say, wow, the majority of our entrepreneurs in this program are women. We haven't reached that level yet. So in other words, you're saying that there is an awareness, but it hasn't materialized in outcomes, in verifiable increases in the number of women who own businesses. There are some examples of that, but it's not the majority yet. And Agustinio, what's been your experience? It's an excellent question, and back to what we were saying a bit earlier on the issue of exchange of diversity, depends on the industry sector. But first of all, the answer is quick. There are not a lot of women involved in venture capital in Latin America. It's growing, but compared with the United States, for example, we have a long way to go. But in Colombia, yes, the majority of analysts and investment managers are men, fund managers and so forth, that when we talk about gender and fund managers, I, as far as Colombia, I know one woman who is a partner, but in terms of venture, I can think of six women. So it depends on what area we're talking about. But it is an issue that needs to continue to be worked and the opportunities to be opened up for everyone. So in other words, there has been progress, but there's yet a lot to be done. So we have another question now. How can startup leaders be involved in a feedback process within their teams to promote diversity when they're in the strategic decision-making process? How can we involve a broader and more diverse group of people in the decision-making process in our companies? Anything to say about that, Marcel? Well, yes, I think it depends on the business model that each enterprise has. In my opinion, depending on the business model, in other words, if you are a lender for students, you should have on your staff, on your team, people who represent the diversity you're working with and that have the experience of one way to include, to be more inclusive, I would say, depending on what type of decisions are being taken, more and more diversity is being included in meetings, included in sales visits. And the employees that have that experience need to be included in the meetings. Rather than having team-wide meetings, you need to be a strategic in the way you meet with people. So in other words, what you're saying, that's another level where we can say it's not enough just to have people on the team, but we need to go further and create some structures that allow those people to actually actively contribute in decision-making. Agostinho, do you have some, another comment on this? Well, I agree completely with what Marcia has said. I have seen some very interesting mechanisms within some startups. One in particular that I saw last year developed entrepreneurs, and they created specific space for product development. And in those spaces for product development, they included the average age of the groups were 30 years old, but they made a great effort to implement gender and ethnic and age diversity to bring in different types of experience, depending on the product and servers that they were working on. And that brought good results. So very interestingly, that's the next question. The question is, is age diversity also a significant factor when building a startup team? Marcia, I think that's a good question. And I've heard some say, no, but in my opinion, yes, it's helpful because depending on where the startup is and what sales they want to achieve, the bringing in those different perspectives is helpful. Bringing in people who are young or you're gonna talk with young people who are using the product in one way, but you have aging people who use the product differently. So I think diversity in all aspects only helps develop more and more perspectives that bolster the strategy that's being implemented. So when we think about diversity, we should consider experience in age two, okay, good. The next question, can diversity promotion in your business, diversity promotion, can it be just as helpful to nonprofits as it is to for-profit companies? Well, in our experience, we work with social entrepreneurs as well and with, we don't work with nonprofit organizations, but we do have experience from other things we've done. And what we've seen is that diversity helps scale up to market, it helps better serve a customer or the end user of the service. So it improves your product in a private market, improves your service in the nonprofit market. So next question, what aspects should women in Latin America develop in order to reach executive level positions? Agustín, what do you have to say about that? Well, actually this question sounds a bit unfair because I believe that the women I work with are very well prepared. They have excellent capacity. So what we need to do is open up more opportunities. It's, I don't believe that the women need, if we speak only of gender and that type of diversity, I don't think women need more training or more capacity. What they need are opportunities at the executive level. There are programs that can change that type of access. So the issue is really creating equality in opportunities. I believe that question is very interesting too, says Marcia. And I agree completely with what Agustín says and I would add that women need allies. They need to have some allies, whether these allies be men or women, who can give them help. And they need support from the private sector, from the public sector, also from society. They need a society that understands that women can do the same things men can. So in other words, diversity not only is an issue for marginalized groups, but for society as a whole, right? Everyone has a contribution to make there, very well. Another participant online has asked, how can we promote diversity within a business and at the same time avoid harassment in the workplace? It's an issue that is deep rooted in Latin America. That's another question with it, has a lot of angles from which it could be responded to. So Agustín, what do you have to say? Well, yes, I think I can tell you again about the process that we use. We have, we treat everyone with the same way, with the same respect. We should do every, harassment should never exist in a workplace and there can be, that's a non-negotiable when we're developing our teams and our businesses, regardless of what type of diversity we're speaking of. When a harassment issue arises, there need to be mechanisms in place that immediately become engaged to eliminate that problem or correct that problem if it needs correction because those bring negative results to any institution, not only for operations as such, but for the relationships that this company will have. There are many dynamic changes that happen when that sort of situation occurs. Marcello, do you have a comment? I would say that's a difficult, a complicated question, something we face in a number of countries in Latin America and Ecuador, we have the problem also. I believe it depends, obviously if it happens to you, to the woman that suffers harassment needs to say something about that, say something if it happens to her colleagues, but it's going to take some time, but what we need to do is change, it's create a mindset of respect and that should become a part of an organization's culture. But this takes time, it takes time to change the mindset. Another question we have arriving online here is are there ways in which startups or enterprises can collaborate with each other and with nonprofits and universities or other incubators that are in the business ecosystem to promote diversity? There was not only among, not only within individual enterprises, but in the interconnected way that different organizations work together in the ecosystem. What have you seen about this in this regard, Marcia? Well, I see this daily, I work on that topic exactly. So what often happens is accelerators and universities have entrepreneurship programs and usually there's someone, for example, I work, if I work for an accelerator, I go visit universities and we interact that way as mentors for universities, but something that would help the ecosystem would be the creation of a benchmark language, a language that we share in common. So understanding that the ecosystem is made up of these universities, these accelerators, and we help work with companies that are of this level of maturity. In other words, we need to map out all of the players within the ecosystem and understand at which points one entity can help another. So I also, there's also a tool called Viral, if you look it up on Google, you can see their website, Viral is a free platform and something we're expanding in the United States to create this dialogue among all of the players and all the resources that make up the ecosystem, the startup ecosystem. Agostino, do you have anything to say about how to promote diversity and how to increase dialogue among the different players in the ecosystem? Yes, I would broaden the response a little bit. I would say, I would think beyond just startups, the ecosystem as a whole needs to promote this. Accelerators, incubators, universities, all of these relationships, existing established companies, government, the private sector, people who are wanting to invest in entrepreneurship. This is a big dynamic and it's an ecosystem, it's an ecosystem that's work and there's a lot of interaction among all those players and all of them should bring together and feed into each other's success. Yes, that's an interesting, this idea of interaction among companies and their customers and users brings this question. Should companies communicate the diversity that they have within their teams to their customers or to the public? Marsha says, definitely yes. I believe that can help you grow your client base and there are different ways that you can do it. You can say, look, we understand the problems because we, that our own employees have been through these situations. So it's a way to increase the loyalty that your clients have with your company. Do you have any experience, Agostinho, this idea of using diversity as part of the branding that you do for your company? Well, yes, I've seen it in some business strategies of large companies, both government owned and private. And I've seen it with startups also. However, again, there's not a particular golden formula for each situation is different and you have to look at each business sector and the business, what each business intends for its own growth. Another question, is there a particular commercial sector which startups or businesses are typically building more diversity within their teams? In your experience, Agostinho, have you seen some trends related to this, for example, in Colombia? It's a very good question, yes. Some time ago, there were many startups in the agricultural area. They were working to foster biodiversity and so forth, but more lately, more recently in the last four or five years, you've seen more work in the area of technology and innovation and diversity is being sought because it brings to the table a wide range of capacities that that startup needs. How about you, Marcia? Have you seen some companies or some sectors that seek diversity more than others? Yes, I think that ed tech, educational technology, I've seen a lot of diversity within the teams in that field, also in agriculture too. Well, very well, thank you to all participants and to our experts here for the dialogue we've had. Now we will share some of the results of the survey that we mentioned earlier in the program. We asked our public, what do you believe is the biggest challenge entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds face? You can see the results on the screen. The top answer was a lack of financing. Second was access and tied second, third, you have the negative stereotypes and access to networks of professional contacts. I think those were the main challenges that were determined through our listening public. What's your response to that? Are these the trends that you have seen, Marcia and Agostino? No, I'm not surprised at all with these results. This is happening because from the perspective of the investor, there are a lot of prejudices. There, we are investing in entrepreneurs that went to, that went to our alma maters or that run in our circles. And there's a lack of education among the investment community too. We need to speak more with them to ask them, how are you making your investment decisions? How can you make those decisions in a way that's more transparent so that entrepreneurs might be able to prepare themselves better and compete more fairly? Agostino, what do you think about the responses to our survey? Well, I expected something like that, honestly. I believe that the challenges startup faces, startups face the same challenges. Other areas, other businesses face, lack of financing, lack of access to professional contacts over there. As Marcia has said a few moments ago, a diverse team brings to the table some certain competitive advantages that can be used to develop products and services in the market. You can help, it can help to develop strategies, adoption strategies that are much more effective. From the perspective of investors, of what we have tried to do and being an investor, investors have their idiosyncrasies too. They want to invest, an investor wants to invest in a sector that he or she understands and knows. It's natural that they would seek out those industries where they already feel a certain amount of comfort. Here at Ruta Eni in Medellin and in Columbia, what we try to do is to show that there are good businesses that come from different, of different types. And so we want to develop one of the things we want to do with investors is to help them see other areas that are worth investing in. Well, good, well, going beyond the diversity of gender and race, we've discussed these somewhat and we've discussed the regional differences within countries, but how can religious minorities, LGBTI identifying individuals or people with disabilities and other marginalized groups have more of a level playing field when it comes to launching a business or contributing their talents to companies who could benefit from them in the private sector. Agostino, what do you think about that question? These other aspects of diversity, how can these be addressed? No, I think it's very important. Unfortunately, I know one case here in Medellin where we have these types of this type of diversity, this type of minority and seeking capital for them is much more difficult, but they found a sweet spot of investors that seeks that type of business and that has led to their success and that's the important thing to point out about that type of effort. From my own personal experience here at Rutaini, as I said from the outset, we need to stimulate this, incentivize this type of diversity. We're so integrated here that we don't even distinguish this on our day-to-day basis. There are just groups of people who have a common objective and we don't look at it beyond that and that leads to success. Marcio, I'd say that it's more difficult for these marginalized groups, that's the truth about it, but what these groups can do is to seek investors who are looking to invest in that type of diversity. But it's important also to think about the story that underlies your business and to tell that story in a way that makes it clear that your business understands the problem better than others perhaps and that this particular problem has an inherent advantage to it in reaching the markets you plan to reach and it brings some potential for greater impact within that market. So these groups that are more marginalized, what you're saying is that they need to differentiate themselves and find out where their advantages lie and then seek investors that focus on those same shared interests and however, pointing out that it's something that can actually benefit an investor very well. Well, I think we have time for just one more question from our public, guest 1539 from Nicaragua says, could the experts say something about some public or private or nonprofit initiative that is focused specifically on promoting diversity in Central America or where could we find those types of resources? Marcia, what is you have experience in Central America? What can you add to that? Well, I have an example of one company that is trying to do this. I've spoken some about them. Cooley Cooley Foods, this seeking farmers from different regions in Nicaragua and they're trying to scale up in that region. But as far as private groups, I believe there's a lack of resources. Village Capital is a player in this, but yes, we have a shortage. There's a shortage, there's a gap there that could represent an opportunity for someone. Well, very well. Unfortunately, our time has just about run out. Before wrapping up, I'd like to ask each of our panelists, Agostino and Marcia, what is the most important takeaway that you would like to share with our viewers? Agostino, you go first. Well, thank you, Daniel. I think that the first takeaway that I would like to underscore is that depending on which type of business or organization you're in, each enterprise has its own strategy. And I believe it's important to define the mechanisms that will stimulate diversity within that enterprise. And second, I would mention, as I said at the outset, diversity just for diversity's sake doesn't make sense. In other words, diversity is part of a good strategy, a good business strategy. And the other thing is just to create these mechanisms that promote diversity within an organization. Those, that's a no-brainer, as they say in the U.S. This is the logic that should predominate always. And those are the takeaways I would mention. And Marcia, what would you say is the most important takeaway for our viewers? From this dialogue? Well, I think my takeaways I was going to mention are similar to the ones Agostino mentioned. What I would say, I'd say that if you're doing business or if you're starting a bar, developing a startup, that startup should reflect the product service that you're building. And diversity should be reflected in the product and in the service. That's the simplest way I could state that. So in other words, diversity exists in the markets, in Latin America or United States or anywhere. And so it's a matter of companies, businesses, reflecting that same diversity within themselves and in the products they produce. Very well. Well, I thank you once again to both of you for having, to all of those of you who accompanied us here today. And a special thank you to all of the participants who have participated in this last hour online with us and groups that have met far and wide in Latin America and throughout the world.  Thank you for participating with your questions, your comments. We had the pleasure of having audiences at the American Corner University, Diego Parto Universidad Diego Portales in Chile. We had the American Space in San Pedro Sula Honduras. So there's a bi-national center in Guatemala City. You have some photos here of the groups who were meeting in this dialogue. The Fletchac in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. The U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. And from Quito, Ecuador, we have another group, and we have the GIST IHOP in Peru, Utec Ventures in Lima, Peru. So please, we would like to ask you to continue sending in your questions through chat or on Twitter at hashtag GIST Connect. And our panelists will stick around for a few more minutes to answer those questions online. I hope you enjoyed our discussion today. Thanks again for joining us. I wish a great day for all of you.