Welcome back. Well, you had a pretty exciting and formative first half of the program and we anticipated equally exciting and formative second half of the panel that we have for us. Sherry Johnson is the field services director for society for human resource management based in Round Rock, Texas. She supports the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Sherry serves as Sherry's staff liaison to the government affairs coordination area for the advocacy team initiative and she is a member of Sherry's speaker bureau. Sherry has worked in the HR profession for over 15 years with industry experience in market-market community organizations, public education, and entrepreneurial experience as a owner of a smaller business. Jane Mehta founded MRR Medical Reimbursement Resource, LL City in 1992 in Houston, Texas. For over 20 years MRR has advocated for patients and their families to ensure that they can see all the benefits to which they are entitled under their insurance plans. MRR's clients include individuals with chronic illnesses, dual professional couples with children, seniors, and anyone frustrated with medical bills and insurance claims. Anyone frustrated? In addition, Jane consults with clients on benefit issues and insurance choices including the surge in selection of the most appropriate Medicare Part D drug plan for seniors as well as the selection of Medicare supplemental plans. Sherry Young serves as the executive director for the Credit Coalition, a HUD approved housing counseling agency whose membership includes Houston area financial institutions, community organizations, community leaders, and other related businesses and organizations. She is the Credit Coalition's lead instructor and foreclosure intervention, credit, home buyer, and reverse mortgage counselor. Aside from counseling and conducting credit coalition classes, Sherry participates in many community events to help spread the word about financial education, individuals with developer accounts, free visa side tax preparation assistance, and other programs that can help families build and retain their assets. She is the chair of the Counseling Committee of the Greater Houston Housing Coalition and co-chair of the Counseling Committee of the Texas Orpoacher Prevention Task Force. Each panelist will do a short presentation followed by a few questions from the department manager. Please use your index cards if you have questions and write them down and we will collect them so that they may be given to our panel. Please welcome our panelist. Pleasure to be here with you this afternoon. I wanted to preface my comments with the approach that I'm going to be taking with you this afternoon. You've heard a little bit already about the impact of the big boom of retirees on the workforce and I'm going to speak to you primarily from that perspective for just a moment. So from the perspective of the employer. Now keep in mind as I'm sharing with you the information that I will be going through. If you are representing yourself as an individual and you're wanting to arm yourself with information and data that will help you go back and have an effective conversation with your employer about what your goals are for your personal retirement, then hopefully that's my goal, that you will find some information in my presentation that will give you those talking points that you can go back and talk to your employer. And again if you're in the room representing an employer, then I'm going to give you some information that is really going to help you prepare for the future for your workforce and the success of your organization moving forward. Things that you should have on your radar and be preparing for. Now I've also brought with me 11 DVDs. So 11 individuals who registered for this event this afternoon are going to be lucky enough to take one of these home back with you or I guess we're going to mail them. We're going to draw the names and we're going to mail them to you. What this is is a 20 minute video. This highlights the National Institutes of Health. They are considered to be a preeminent, a premier company that serves the needs of their older workers in an exceptional fashion. So they are an extraordinary best practices case study compared to other companies on the best ways to work with, handle, engage and retain older workers in the workplace. So this is again a great piece of information that will help you prepare for conversations with your employers back home. So let's go ahead and get started. What I want to start with is the up and coming baby boomer retirement is a challenge, a significant challenge that employers should be preparing for. What you see before me on the screen is some recent statistical research done by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And what you see reflected in here is that the U.S. workforce is aging at a very rapid rate, especially that age group of 55 to 64 years of age. Now you'll notice, if you look just below that, a significant decrease in the number of employees, the number of workforce, between the ages of 16 and 24. We see an increase in older workers, we see a decline in the number of new entrants into the workforce at this point in time. And that is moving forward into the next couple of decades. We will continue to see this pattern. Now I want to share with you some more information about how many baby boomers do we really have in the United States. Well the research indicates we have about 77 million baby boomers. The first group of those baby boomers who reached the average age, the traditional retirement age which is 65 years old, that first group of baby boomers started reaching that age in 2011. So again, in 2011 we had the first baby boomers starting to reach what we consider to be the average retirement age. According to the Pew Research Center, 10,000 more baby boomers reach the age of 65 every day. And they will continue 10,000 a day every day for the next two decades, reaching the age of 65. Now there's good news for employers to keep in mind. Because of the recession, since about 2008-2009, we've seen a trend that the number of baby boomers have decided to postpone their retirement and stay in the workforce a little longer, because financially they had to. No other option. But now as the recession is starting to improve, we've seen the GDP is starting to go up, and we've seen the unemployment rate starting to come down after some pretty dismal years. And with that, it's bringing an increased level of consumer confidence. And there's more trust in the economy at this point than there has been over the last few years. And for that reason, many baby boomers who had postponed retirement are now considering moving forward with those retirement goals. We've been doing a lot of research, and you can see I'm not going to go through all the data here. You can read that as I'm speaking. But you can see that many of the baby boomers have already started to retire. Some of them are fully retired. Some are partially retired. There's a lot of different things that baby boomers are starting to do right now as they're entering into those retirement goals. Now, there's a problem within the United States, and that is that, as I've already represented to you, the number of new entrants in the workforce will not sufficiently cover the vacancies left by the baby boomers when they leave the workplace.  What's going to happen when those 77 million baby boomers leave the workforce? It's going to leave significant skills gaps and talent shortages. It's going to mean that the employers are not capable of getting the same level of productivity from the workforce left behind that they are currently accustomed to in achieving within their strategic goals for the organizations. Does that make sense to everybody? So, they're going to be dependent upon the new entrants coming into the workforce. But as I've mentioned, there's a decrease in that number, right? There's not as many of them. In fact, what you can see on the screen, there's only going to be about 23 million people, but there are more than 23 million people, but that's all the graduates that will be coming out of our colleges and universities during the next 10 years. So, again, there's not going to be enough new entrants in the workforce to fill the gaps that are going to be left behind. When the baby boomers leave, they take that institutional knowledge, the skill and the talent that they've earned or gained in the workplace for their employers, that all goes with them. We're finding too that the United States, compared with all other nations, educationally, we are lacking. So, there's an organization called OECD that stands for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And they do a survey, they do research, they study students aged 15 around the globe, and they compare the ability of those students in the areas of math, reading, and science to see if they can apply what they're learning in the classroom effectively on the job. They put that program together, that study together is the PISA, which is the Program for International Student Assessment. This study is done every three years. The data I have on the screen for you is from 2009 study. I did not have the 2012 study results on the screen, but what my understanding is that the results are comparable. In fact, maybe even a little less successful for the United States as compared to 2009. So, again, about 470,000 students participated in that study. And what we found is there's a significant lack in the ability of U.S. students as compared to other students from the nations around the globe. Especially, this is creating competition between the United States and those other emerging countries, specifically China and India. So we'll talk about that just a little bit. China is quickly surpassing the United States economically. They are very highly educated. They are expected, they are anticipated by the year 2020 that they could be the world's second largest economy. And so that should give us great concern considering the information that I've just shared with you. That we were losing talent from our workplaces. We don't have the skilled, educated students, the new entrants into the workforce and that's going to put a significant strain on the U.S. economy moving forward into the next couple of decades and beyond. AARP and SHIRN are partners. We've entered into a multi-year partnership to study the impact of baby boomer retirements on the U.S. workforce and what is that going to look like. And more importantly, our businesses, our organizations, large and small prepared for the impact of the baby boomer retirement. As a result of our partnership, SHIRN conducted a survey at AARP Gratefully, thank you, AARP co-sponsored that survey and it was conducted in 2012 and the research has continued since then. And as a result of the research, a toolkit has been developed and available on the SHIRN website to help employers with this challenge. Now, there's some specific points of data as a result of that study that I want to share with you right now. There were about 470 responses or organizations represented in this particular study. Seven out of ten out of the organizations that responded to the survey indicated that they know for a fact that the up and coming baby boomer retirements will have a significant and adverse impact on the success of their organizations moving forward. Now, here's a scary number. Only 29% of those organizations have done anything about it. 29% said that they had conducted a strategic workforce analysis to determine exactly what that impact is going to be on their organizations. Now, about 45% of the companies responded said that they have started to put some sort of covers or initiatives in place to address this challenge, but many of the organizations know that they are not prepared to move forward. That concludes my specific points for you right now. There's my contact information. I'm sure that during the questions, well, I'm hoping to get to you this afternoon some specific strategies that employers can put into place to address this challenge and those talking points that you as an employee in an organization can take back to your employer to work on those retirement goals for yourself as individuals. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Slime Adjustment. With all us boomers here and with all us boomers who've been paying for years for Medicare, that's what I'm going to talk to you about this afternoon. Medicare is federal health insurance for people who are over 65 or folks who are under 65 and who are disabled. And the only people today who are automatically enrolled in Medicare are those folks who are taking Social Security benefits early or those folks who are disabled and are those folks who are disabled and are receiving disability benefits. So how do you do it?  It is the job of Social Security to enroll all of us in Medicare. You can call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213, 1-800-772-1213 or you can go to ssa.gov and you can enroll. If you're working past 65, you'll have to call them. You cannot enroll online because they have a couple of documents that they ask for you to complete. One thing I'd like to caution you about is try to allow about six weeks from the time that you initiate this process until you're planning on starting Medicare because it takes them a while. Don't be like my walking partner the way that I did the day before.  And I lectured her and, you know, what can I tell you? There are two special enrollment periods and they just about cover all of us. The first special enrollment period is for folks who are going on Medicare to turn 65. That is a seven-month enrollment period, the three months before your 65th birthday, your birthday month, and the three months after your 65th birthday. And most people really shoot to go on the month of your 65th birthday and you always go on Medicare on the first of the month. Now, if you happen to wait past your 65th birthday and you enroll a month or two afterwards, you would just go on the following month. But a lot of us, as Sherry was saying, are working past 65, aren't we? Now, those of us who are self-employed, like myself, when I turned 65, I obviously went on Medicaid because I didn't have a group plan. But many people continue to work and they have a group plan. And if you have a group plan and you turn 65, your company must continue to ensure you to provide you with insurance. But what the government says to small companies, and that is a company with less than 20 employees, the government says to that company, we're going to give you a break. Yes, you've got to continue to provide that insurance, but your employee who's over 65 can carry Medicare as primary insurance. Now, the company does not have to do that. The company may like you and say, I'm going to continue to pay for this insurance just the same as before you turn 65. But that is the option of that smaller company. If you're working for a larger company of 20 or more employees, most folks will carry that group plan as primary. You don't have to. You can always carry Medicare. But most of our clients, most of the people we see that continue to work past 65, they have a large company and that is their primary health insurance. I will caution you, if you decide to carry Medicare along with your primary group plan, Medicare will be secondary and Medicare rarely pays many benefits as secondary coverage. And you're going to be paying a premium with Part B of Medicare. And most people will wait to pick up Part B until they retire because you're going to be paying a premium for secondary coverage that rarely will pay benefits. You're going to have your large group plan as primary. So just keep that in the back of your mind. There are some people that may not be working or they may be working and they're insured through a spouse's group plan. Same rules and regulations apply. If you're insured through your husband's group plan, you can carry it as long as he's working. When he stops working, then you must go on Medicare if you're over 65. And that's the second enrollment period, the special enrollment period for those of us who are working past 65 and who have a group plan. An individual continues to work past 65 and is insured on the company plan or your spouse's plan. And when you stop working, you could retire and you could just stop. Or you could quit. You have an eight month special enrollment period during which you can enroll in Medicare. Now just about everybody I know goes on Medicare as soon as they can because they want to have continual coverage. Does that make sense to everybody? I'd like to say one thing about COBRA. You know, we have COBRA and there are certain times that you will use COBRA when you stop working to continue your insurance coverage. COBRA and Medicare do not work together. When it's time to go on Medicare, it is not time to use COBRA. If you are retiring from your group plan and you opt to go on COBRA, there is no special enrollment period for Medicare after COBRA ends. It is not postponed until you finish your COBRA. Simultaneously, while you are on COBRA, you are running through your enrollment period. Whether you're at 65 or you work past 65 until you're 70. What does that mean? Well, it means that you don't have a period during which you can enroll in Medicare. So what do you do? Well, you're left with the annual enrollment period. Let's just say that you retired and you could have gone on Medicare and you opted to carry COBRA for 18 months and your COBRA ended in December. So you can enroll in Medicare sometime in the first quarter of the next year, but your Medicare will not start until July 1, so you will not have any insurance for six months. In addition, because you did not go on Medicare when you should have, the government is going to attach a penalty to your partly premium. And it's 10% of your partly premium for every 12 months that you should have been in Medicare if you weren't. So in my example of 18 months, they've gone into the second 12-month period. And that person will not only be without Medicare coverage for six months, that person will have a 20% penalty of their partly premium, monthly premium for ever. I'm not trying to scare you. What I'm trying to impress upon you is think very carefully when you retire from your group plan or you turn 65, it's time to go on Medicare. Think very carefully about carrying COBRA. And companies are not required to inform you about this. I have a client and she asked me to share her story with everyone. She was an attorney for Exxon and she worked until she was about 67 and then she carried COBRA for 18 months and then she called me and said, I'd like to go on Medicare. It was August. I said, you can't go on Medicare until next July. And she had serious health problems. And when she went on Medicare, she has a 20% penalty of her partly premium for ever. So just kind of put that little COBRA memo at the back of your mind when you're thinking about going on Medicare. When you go on Medicare, you have choices. You have two choices for medical coverage. Traditional Medicare is called A and D and you can see Part A covers inpatient, hospital-skilled nursing and hospice. Part B covers all your outpatient care and they tag team together. If you have one, you have the other and then you have full medical coverage. And the dollar signs indicate premiums. That's why they're in red. And if you're carrying A and B, we recommend that you do carry a free-standing Medicare Part B drug plan. They're offered by lots of companies like Art. My husband's on Art. It works really well. There are 34 in the state of Texas. And you can go online to Medicare.gov and you can put your information in and you can put your prescription drugs in. And they will list the 34 plans that are most economical, down to the most expensive. What we do caution you to do is to read past through the pages that they have there and it can be complicated and look and make sure that it's a user-friendly plan. We do this for a lot of clients and we want to make sure that you have the most economical plan that works for you but also one where you're not going to the pharmacy being hassled about a drug that you need to take because your plan doesn't want to pay for it. 34 plans in Texas this year. And then we recommend that you take a private, carry a private supplemental plan which is your catastrophic safety net that goes along with Parts A and B and it picks up deductibles and it covers all co-pays. And the supplemental plans are private insurance that have been standardized by the government. So that's one of your choices. And your second choice is the new kid on the block. He came out under the Bush administration. It's called the Advantage Plan and it's Part C. And Part C, you see there's just one dollar sign there. That's one of the real advantages of the Advantage Plans. You only have one premium. And it happens to be the same premium as Part B. We call it the Part B premiums. I'm going to show those to you right before I close. The Advantage Plans replace AB and the supplemental. And you would want to be on an Advantage Plan that has a drug plan incorporated in it. But you can see just one premium as versus three premiums. And essentially the benefits are the same.  With A and B, you do get a larger choice of providers than you do with C. There are lots of great Advantage Plans and you all have heard them on CMI TV right now. AARP has some.  They all have Advantage Plans.  You just want to be sure about that. And open enrollment is 1015 through 127 with changes going into effect on January 1. And that's when you can switch from A and B to C or vice versa. They don't care. They don't care what your pre-existing conditions are. And it's also when you can look at your Part D drug plan and ensure that it's going to work for you for the next year. Because there are two variables on these Part D drug plans. Your drugs can change from year to year when you've done your search and the plans do change. Most of the plans do change. So you just want to make sure that your plan for 2014 is going to work for 15. And that's during the period when you do that. This is actually some information on Part B and because we don't have a lot of time I'm just going to go down to the premiums here at the bottom part of the page. The left column is your monthly individual Part B premium. We all go on Medicare as individuals. And what Medicare started after 2000 actually under President Bush is that they have five different levels of Part B premium depending upon your income. And if you file as a single that's the income breakdown and if you file as a married couple that is the married couple breakdown. And these are the premiums and they cannot come up since last year they're the same as last year. And so if you were ever curious about if they could exchange information about you yes, the IRS Social Security and Medicare are able to exchange information about you and Medicare is able to get your tax return. And they will look at your last tax return which means then they will look at your income from the year before. And if your income changes from year to year your premiums will change from year to year. And what they look at is they look at your modified adjusted gross. That is your adjusted gross you all are all familiar with if you ever signed a tax return with your adjusted gross. Modified adjusted gross they add in any tax free interest income and that is an example of that would be a municipal bond. So I'm going to end with that. And if anybody has any questions I'll be happy to stay after the program is over and answer any questions you have with that. Here as well. I've been this long writing, writing, writing trying to write all of them down. So you're not going to provide a PowerPoint? Of course. I'm sharing it with the credit coalition and I'm very grateful and thankful that I was invited to be part of this program today. And I don't mean to put a downer on this wonderful presentation but I've been asked to talk about how to handle a financial hardship if it comes your way. As a financial education provider and a reverse mortgage counselor I speak to people from all walks of life and usually it is when they're in their down period either a loved one has passed they've lost their income they're 52 years of marriage and because one of them doesn't like each other anymore or they have just said that notice at work that their job they aren't working for one of those employers who actually care about their benefits they're carrying with their company or the company's been downsizing or for whatever reason they're out of work. And so my place today is to have everyone in here think about not think about that you're going to have a hardship come your way well what would you do before that hardship comes, that financial hardship how could you prepare for it so you aren't calling a Hutter Group Housing Counseling to see in desperation say what do I do. So the first thing we ask everyone that come through our classes and that I speak to you on the line is we ask where does your money go right now? If you're going to be trying to prepare for a potential pickup in your life or a potential problem do you know what it takes to maintain your lifestyle today? You may not be in such a bad shape if you don't truly know where your money's going how do you know you're going to have a problem in the future? So we ask everyone to write down every single penny you spend for at least 30 days the good news is tomorrow's the first right? So everybody in here if I saw you in 30 days I asked you how that tracking go so I asked you to write down everything you spend for the next 30 days every penny from money that you give to your growing children money if you give to people in the corner put money in a machine down the hall wherever you spend your dollars we want you to know where that is but we also ask you to save your receipts the receipts saving people say well you know I don't need my receipts I use my debit card what is the purpose of a receipt? someone share with me what you think the purpose of a receipt is? balance your checkbook you can see what you actually bought yes? it could be for tax purposes not how much you pay for the giant it separates out what you purchase what you pay yes ma'am? proven purchase I'll throw one more I'm going to return and discrepancy you have your receipt each receipt were you purchasing that item from the the couch at your house or your comfy bed were you laying there when you went to buy that item how did you buy that item? you went to the store right? some of us do buy online but if you went to the store what does that take? it takes gas what else? it takes time if at the end of this month when you pull out all these receipts and you separate them out in categories how many times do you go to Walmart how many times do you go to Target do you shop at HTV where do you shop look at your shopping patterns if you could eliminate one trip in a week to one of those stores still buy what you normally buy you might be able to free up at least an hour what could you do in that hour? or longer if you're like me you go to the store and just ramble what could you do in an hour of your time if you had an extra hour in a week what could you do? think about that you don't have to tell me no one wants to share maybe take a hot bath read that book watch this video that you're going to win here this 20 minute video you could do something fun for yourself take a walk something that gives you pleasure when you go to a grocery store we want you to know where your money goes if you're honest with yourself this could be a real eye-opening exercise because you may find that what you thought you were spending living paycheck to paycheck or not able to set aside anything in savings you may find now, wow I could squeeze out an extra $25 this week I didn't realize it who in here goes to the grocery store and the first thing you do you do that? grab a basket my homework to you guys is this instead of grabbing that basket for those quick run in the store and grab trips or getting milk or bread or snacks for dinner tonight or snack after dinner go in with just your hands go into the store I know, I heard it in that case you might be using that basket and I can understand that too you might need it to help prop you up but then in that case get one of those smaller baskets but try not to grab a basket and go in and buy what you were going to buy with just your hands you stop with the checkout counter don't walk out you pay buy what was in your hands and you leave that could keep you from spending an extra $20, $30 that's what you weren't intending on spending on that trip to the store again now you can set aside we talked about how you save earlier the question was how can we start saving pay yourself first review your credit reports who in your senior personal credit reports in the last 12 months oh good I hope you've seen all three the federal law allows all of us to see our personal credit reports every week, every 12 months many people think I don't need to see it because I know I have good credit how do you know someone else is not using your good name if you're going to need to reestablish credit after a hardship or establish credit for the first time after a hardship your creditors are going to be looking at those credit reports to determine what kind of person you've been in your past life we want you to create a debt worksheet to let you know who you owe and what terms some of you may have a car note right now but you may not have a clue what you're paying for interest if you go and you pull out your contract you may have thought you were getting that 1.9% but maybe you signed for a 5.9 or 7.9% rate maybe you thought you were getting a 3 year term but in reality you signed for a 5 year the payment is very affordable I ask everyone to get a copy read those contracts and if you find that you have a return that you're not comfortable with or you could do better interest rates are very low go to your bank or credit union or you have a relationship with ask them about refinancing maybe you'll free some money up do not close any existing accounts if you're thinking right now I know this hardship is coming I just need to close all my credit card accounts if you need them in the future put them in a ziploc bag get that credit card stick it in a ziploc bag a freezer bag a gallon bag fill it with water stick it in a freezer it'll be safe there for you when you're ready to use it again it's like Thanksgiving turkey you buy it a night before what do we have to do stick it in the back doesn't let it defrost right let the water run on it you can do the same with your car but it may keep you from making a purchase you didn't really want to make although you could return it because you had your receipts but again if you are needing to use that credit in the future you don't want to close it know your assets what do you own? could you possibly if you're coming up with you're thinking of this financial disaster is happening to be our company's hardship what can you sell? what do you have that you own free and clear? your home could you take could you sell your home would you need to downsize? the market right now they say for the sellers are selling quick but what would it cost you to replace that home? would it be more economical for you to stay there or would it be more economical for you to sell and then rent? before you become a renter check out see what are the rents going for in the community you want to live in if employed okay this is where I was going to talk about Cobra but I'm not going there now if you're employed either and you are right now employed but you're looking at the possibility of being downsized but you're not 65 yet or approaching 65 I learned that today thank you do you have Cobra benefits? what are the benefits? do you have many employers have employee assistance funds that will help you either locate new employment or help you find services that may help you in the short term possibly in the long term can you bring in extra dollars by building an emergency save or do you have an emergency savings we just learned that one out of three of us and I'm in that bracket we do not have more than five thousand dollars in savings I feel very good that I'm not alone but I've lived a long life and I've spent a lot of money and I've taken care I've had a good time doing it but now I'm also looking at the future where am I going to get this money from I'm going to be following these tips so hobbies can you declutter and sell again part-time employment you wear scams if anybody is trying to tell you that can help you quickly for a fee run run the other way there is nothing these companies can do for money that you can't do for yourself for free if it sounds too good to be true it most likely is not good for you we see you on K-H-R-E right? we see you on K-H-R-E we see you on many of the TV stations especially gentlemen that there are so many scams out there they're targeting our elderly population but not just the elderly they're tackling all of us and if you did not live in Canada how do you win the Canadian lottery if you don't have family members in Nigeria or Afghanistan or Timbuktu you're not a prince of that country so they're so perfect for these scams make a plan get your whole household involved in it ask your household members some of us are single wager in our household some of us are just single households we don't really go to our dog at our cat and ask what can we do here can I change our benefit to somebody else but understand that your household that you live with you share your information with you tend to buy in on this reduction if a reduction is necessary and last but not least seek help from the free sources that are out there 2-1-1 are you not a way upline no matter which community you live in you're not away as a upline that you can dial from your home phone or your cell phone you tell them what you're your cousin is going through this problem my sister has this problem maybe you're talking about yourself they'll provide the information and the resources for you and the United Way also has online a job they are local in the United Way of Greater Houston has a job resource center where you don't have to sign up for it but you just go and look at the job connection board the jobs listed last 90 days a lot of nonprofits it's a lot of listed salaries and reach out to the head of the housing county agencies we are here to help you for free you see oh I'm sorry okay I'm sorry okay may I thank you okay I love this paying attention thank you contact your creditors if you are in a situation where you think you may be missing a payment you haven't missed yet it's very important to call that mortgage company call those credit card companies and let them know that you are potentially going to have this issue you want to place it in the notes let them know that this issue might be happening it's done I'm still making my payment but I just want to let you know that I'm getting ready to lose my job is there anything that the company can do to help me through this crisis they may be willing to give you a forbearance period a time off one or two months of no payments but understand this they may still report it as late to the credit bureaus but a late on the credit bureau is something minor compared to being able to feed yourself feed your family and take care of yourself so again it's very important open up that line of communication always write down date, time and who you talk to and what the conversation has said which you said both sides keep notes I would suggest so just keep notes get a notebook and you meet by the date I called this one I called that one I called this one and that one this is who I spoke to this is what they said now will they always be in agreement to assist not the first time pick up the phone and call the second time you might have to call the third time ask for a supervisor again they're there they want to get paid and you want to pay them but maybe this time you're just having an issue and you just need some help it's a little bit of time off last thank you here's my information if you need us outside of this we'd be glad to answer any questions let me just tell you I'm an agency staff myself people get personnel email me we're here all of us are here to answer your questions and again thank you very much I'm sorry about my time thank you sure they have a question cool question yeah okay I bet there were questions out of the audience is that hard we'll take a minute to show some of them down these are the answers we were talking about earlier who can really help you address questions directly so this is your opportunity now while we're gathering some questions maybe we'll ask a couple here first well let's I know Jane went over this a little bit earlier but if I'm going to be 65 still working and have health insurance do I need to sign up for Medicare you want to use the microphone Jane if you are still working your company must continue to ensure you just as the company insured you before you turn 65 so you do have that insurance plan but remember I said that the government differentiates between large and small companies they give a break to those small companies of less than 20 employees and those companies do not have to ensure you as primary that means you would sign up for Medicare and carry Medicare as your primary insurance and carry the company plan as secondary I also said you may have worked there a while and they like you a lot they may say oh no you don't have to sign up for Medicare we will continue to ensure you as primary that's the small company there's flexibility there but it is up to the company and that means communication between you and your boss right to find out and then you'll find out if you need to actually sign up for Medicare and carry it as primary for those companies of 20 or more employees your group plan will be your primary insurance you do not need Medicare you can just carry your group plan and continue to be insured by your group plan until you leave or retire or whatever and that would also apply to a spouse who has a who is working in his group plan now we've got we have some of the questions for the audience so let's go ahead and take this for Sherry would you really advise seniors to do the reverse mortgage PS full disclosure IMA tax real estate broker alright first of all as a reverse mortgage counselor is not my place or any of our places to talk anyone in or out of any loan product our places to make sure folks understand the good the bad the pretty and the ugly about the reverse mortgage product as well as other alternatives that may be available to them that may not be as costly we do not advise and provide only information so the answer is we do not advise we only provide information and just say HUD is very clear that their counselors must pass certification exams we have to meet a standard and I'm just really glad that HUD has seen that sometimes we see people that don't quite believe that our place is still only provide information but that's the role and we just provide information okay this one I think probably is going to be for Sherry if there how much can you earn how much can you earn what? sorry I heard you while working how much can you earn while working and while drawing social security I'm sorry they wrote Sherry how much can you earn while working while drawing social security am I understanding this question okay okay I think that maybe that was mentioned a little bit earlier so the website has a calculator I'm almost 65 within the enrollment period at work part time my younger husband is covered by a large group plan any penalties for waiting to do Medicaid, BUD or C I guess that was the game and it's Medicare sorry Medicare and everybody gets those confused that's why I need some no there are no penalties and you know when I have more time to talk I always like to pick out someone in the audience who has a younger spouse who still is working and that person is turning 65 and the 65 year old is insured through the younger spouse we love it if it's a younger husband and as long as your spouse is working you can carry to be insured by that we're planning you don't have to go with Medicare at all you will not be penalized alright so Cougars keep working what kind of retirement investments do you suggest for someone who's just beginning to save for retirement stop funds, mom funds don't do anything we're going to have to take a pass on this one alright for AARP are you working to limit companies from reneging on retirement promises are you working to place the onus of correcting credit reports on the reporting agencies is there anybody from AARP junior that's true do you want to take that one are you working to limit companies from reneging on retirement promises are you working to place the onus of correcting credit reports on the reporting agencies we do have a lot of work that we do in different states it is frankly we have a litigation unit AARP that does public litigation but in many instances there is no legal basis for stopping the company so if there is no legal basis then you're kind of stuck we do work particularly on public employee pensions where there are efforts to reduce them we work with we work with the entity that creates the pension we try to make things the best we can for our members and for people who have these pensions but in many instances you are in a situation particularly for those who are not yet retired where there is no legal basis to keep something that you thought you might get okay and the second question I it's not yeah it's not something it's not something that I'm aware that we work I have a question for Sherry Johnson AARP said that it believes older workers will change the American workplace on a level comparable to the change that women workers have had on the past couple of decades as their ranks grew do you think that's accurate and what can both employers do to track to retain older workers and what can older workers do to stay active and engaged to make themselves valuable you spoke about that huge gaps that a million people thank you for the question yes I do think that over the next two decades as I mentioned a moment ago the number of baby boomers who will be leaving the workforce will have a significant impact on the workforce and on the economy here in the United States just as the women in the workplace have had over the years there are some strategies that employers can put into place to attract and retain older workers in the workplace one of them would be workplace flexibility that would be the first one that I would want to highlight for you you may have heard the term before work-life balance well the trend is really shifting you'll notice the experts in the field have stopped saying work-life balance and they started to shift that towards work-life fit realistically there's never going to be a balance it's more about making life and work fit together in a way that are conducive for the family and being able to continue to work we heard a moment ago about the sandwich generation those are the individuals who are currently caregivers for both young children as well as providing care to their elder loved ones and the baby boomers find themselves in that situation more and more a good workplace flexibility program will allow that employer to retain that talent within the organization so that older worker is not forced to leave in order to provide that care to their loved ones, younger or older it also allows the older worker to continue to work in the workplace reducing the level of stress you see one of the things that the statistics show which is indicated is older workers are actually healthier and happier and more productive than younger workers in the workplace and so if you can keep them in there you're benefiting them and their families as well as the organization something else tied to that is there's been a question about do older workers cost more for the employers in terms of healthcare insurance well actually the research indicates that older workers can be less costly to the employer for insurance and things begin typically the costly age group within a workforce is that group that are between like 30 to 45 or 50 years of age and that's because of children and the other health related medical needs older workers who stay in a workforce are inactive and become healthier and so if you can continue work your health will benefit from that and some other strategies for the employers alternative work arrangements job sharing job shadowing internships mentorships phase retirement now you need to look at things related to the pension protection act of 2006 has some legal implications that you might want to consider in the program but that is a strong way to keep the older workers in the workplace longer and if you are considering retiring and you've not had those conversations with your employer it behoots you to go to them and say what options do I have can I go into partial retirement gradually get into full time retirement can I come back on a hard time on a temporary basis after retirement what are my options so it's helpful for you to start the conversation health and wellness opportunities training and development maybe it's a shift of career so the older worker actually starts we heard about it what's my something new what's something new that you can continue to do for the current employer but in a less stressful capacity or a less full time capacity so those are some ideas thank you and I think I'm going to take one second how many people here are Facebook anybody? oh yay anybody Twitter? this is a blatant shameless plug as I try to you know keep up with the young kids at my office I'm going to just ask you if you would like me please on Facebook, KTOU, Sherman or Twitter yes, I'm trying to be two of myself you know I'm a mature worker and we get report cards on social media like how many people we have followers and likes and all that and I am not doing very well in this department I'm laughing behind the kids oh I see questions happening today you see more resources right here and then those steps alright thank you so much lazy informative, motivational you made it a couple of hours we've just had an excellent array of presenters our speaker from Cheryl, from AARP and Sherman we want to say thank you because you have brought some ideas to us and you've given us a lot of food for thought to take back and to really start giving more serious to you know thought to you know it's not some of these things that we have thought about but probably not giving it the level of thought and attention that we need to explain it so we do thank you for taking time and more you know so we also thank you for taking time to be here to stay with us this afternoon this evening we have prepared our presenters we hope you have enjoyed it we certainly want to recognize our AARP staff members who have worked so hard to put this together don't forget your parking validation tickets and if you have any follow-up questions you have your AARP staff members who are here to help you and thank you again for attending


We turn now to topical questions and we start with question number one from Anas Sawa. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to provide reassurance to communities in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack. Our thoughts and condolences are with the victims, their families and communities affected by this dreadful act. The First Minister has sent condolences on behalf of Scotland to the Prime Minister of New Zealand. We stand in solidarity with Muslim communities across the world. The First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and myself have visited and been in contact with Muslim communities in Scotland, including a visit to Glasgow Central Mosque on Friday to offer reassurance and our heartfelt support. Police Scotland has stepped up reassurance patrols around mosques and increased engagement with all faith communities, giving advice on how people and places can stay safe in these troubling times. We must stand united against Islamophobia and all hate. Everyone should be able to feel safe as they go about their daily lives. Scotland's diversity is our strength and we value and appreciate our relationships with our diverse faith communities and welcome their contribution to our society. Anas Sawa. We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those who lost loved ones in Christchurch. We also send a message of solidarity to the millions of people hurting in New Zealand and across the world. This was a devastating and despicable act and let's be clear that it was the act of a terrorist. In the aftermath of this latest tragedy, it is important that we unite and work together to confront hatred in all its forms. This is not someone else's fight. Don't leave it to anyone else. This is a fight for all of us. One of the issues raised with me is the on-growing security concerns at places of worship. No one should have to fear for their own lives, especially when in a mosque, a church, a synagogue, a munder or a goudwara. There is a place of worship security funding scheme available in England and Wales. No such scheme exists in Scotland. Will the minister urgently consider this and commit the Government and agencies to work with all our faith communities to deliver it? Anas Sawa, for his remarks, associated with much of what he said about the act of solidarity that is so necessary at this point of grief and vulnerability for so many. The recent visit to Glasgow Central Mosque by the First Minister and Humza Yousaf committed to exploring further what the Scottish Government could do to provide reassurances to all faith communities and their places of worship, including exploring the issues around safety and security, and touching on the issues around the funding that Anas Sawa mentioned. We are working through that and will continue to keep the Parliament and the member involved as those discussions develop, bearing in mind the real plea and call from the communities around needing that extra reassurance and support from the Parliament and from the Government at this incredibly stressful and vulnerable time. Anas Sawa. For that answer, I stress that this cannot just be an issue that we consider while the issue is still hot as a topic but it needs to be something that needs to be urgently considered in the weeks and months that follow. I am sad to say that this tragic attack did not surprise me and it probably did not surprise Muslims across the UK and across the world. The us versus them rhetoric, the sowing the seeds of hate and the othering of our fellow citizens has become all too common. Security or places of worship is one thing but security and belonging at our homes in our everyday lives is equally, if not more, important. Of social media has opened up our world and I believe that it is a force for good, it has also allowed people with extreme views to amplify, recruit, organise and fundraise. That simply cannot go on. What action will the Scottish Government take to engage with social media platforms and make them understand their responsibilities to help to create a fairer and more equal world? I thank Anas Sawa for raising those points and particularly those issues around social media and the amplification of messages of hate, those toxic messages that do so much damage. I chair an action group that looks to try and establish much more cohesive communities and tackle the prejudice that he talks about and certainly those are the issues that we are looking at and will continue to maybe further investigate what more we can do around the platforms on social media. I think also being elected that we are in a privileged position to be listened to and to be influenced more generally. We can use that privilege in one of two ways. We can show that leadership, the empathy and the resolve to build a tolerant and peaceful and respectful world and communities and to reach out to those who feel threatened and vulnerable and fearful and celebrate the diversity. We can also use that position to choose to stoke up hate and use that toxic language and that practice of othering. That is what we have seen too much of. We cannot remain immune from the consequences of that toxicity of language that many choose to use and that will inevitably bring consequences like we have seen in New Zealand. I stand with an assarwar that we should all resolve to call out hate, promote tolerance and respect, show solidarity with our Muslim communities and friends who need our support at this time and know that we love and cherish what they contribute to our diverse Scotland. We should continue to explore ways in which we can call out hate and make sure that we can use every avenue that is open to us to make sure that we can have that peaceful, tolerant Scotland and make sure that we can cherish our diversity, which preaches tolerance and respect. I associate myself with the cabinet secretary's comments as to the abhorrence of the attack in Christchurch and the comments made thus far. We also extend our deepest sympathies to all victims of this horrific act. The cabinet secretary is right that Governments can and should take steps to reassure communities across Scotland, yet it is often by simple acts of unity and togetherness that we defeat such evil. Annas Sarwar is absolutely right that this is a job for all of us together. What steps does the cabinet secretary suggest that Scotland can take to show minority communities that they are welcome neighbours, colleagues and friends? I think that people can reach out to the Muslim communities in their areas. I think that we saw such a great strength of solidarity through some of the gatherings in Glasgow. I know certainly that the Muslim leaders that I spoke to were really just appreciative of that simple act of a phone call to reassure and stand in solidarity with them, but, more generally, we can call out that hate and that practice of othering. We can call out the toxicity of language that we see too often in political discourse, in the media and social media platforms. That was certainly one of the reasons why I and Humza Yousaf were jointly launched the tackling hate campaign, which showed that we wanted to encourage others to call it out and to use either the police as one way in which we can call out that hate or to use the third party reporting centres as well, if we wanted to do so anonymously. Again, we would underline that message to call it out to report it to the police or to use those third party reporting centres, but also more generally to reach out, not just at the point where there is something bad that happens, but to build cohesive communities that shows that love and respect at all times and not just at the point when that needs to be much more firmly understood. Those would be the ways in which I would urge members to encourage their constituents to reach out but also to ensure that we underline that message of calling it out when it happens. Patrick Harvie is to be followed by Fulton MacGregor. I am grateful that Annas Sarwar's question gives us the opportunity to stand together with a message of love and solidarity for the people of New Zealand, revulsion not only at the violence but at the white supremacist values that underpin that violence, but also to express some inspiration. I have certainly felt that from the responses that have been shown by the people of New Zealand who it seems clear are not going to give ground, not going to seed ground to the ideology of hatred and fear but are going to affirm their embrace of diversity and multiculturalism and respect. The comments that have been made about social media are accurate, but I think that we also need to acknowledge and admit to ourselves that, as a society, we have permitted a situation to develop where our mainstream media is awash with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiments, sentiments that are all too often taken up by those in positions of power who, frankly, should know better than pandering to those attitudes. We have seen that far too much. What does the Scottish Government have to do in relation not only to the security aspects and the policing aspects of the far-right threat that has been so deliberately cultivated, but also in relation to our education system? What are the opportunities that we have to positively affirm the values of a society that we want to be? That, surely, is absolutely essential, not just to counter the far-right threat with security but to counter it by building the values that we wish to express. I thank Patrick Harvie for raising his points. I absolutely agree that there is a moment in which people have to admit that the toxicity of language that she uses—not just in the mainstream media but in many parliamentary chambers across Europe—has allowed that toxic language far too often and created that culture where, unfortunately, things like that will inevitably happen. I would certainly cite Dani Garavalli's article that she wrote in the Scotsman, which called out some of that behaviour and encouraged members to read that. I would also call out the crocodile tears that often get shed at the point of something traumatic like this happening. Patrick Harvie raised a couple of good points in relation to education. Absolutely, the capacities within curriculum for excellence ensure that people are getting the understanding of the need for tolerance, respect, understanding about being an effective contributor to our society when they emerge into their own adulthood to make sure that our young people are aware of the need to be tolerant and respectful. Of course, there is more that we can always do, and certainly one of the issues that I am looking through through the action group, the tackling prejudice action group, is about what more we can do to link across to other areas of education. Youth work, for instance, is about how we ensure that our young people emerge to become people who are effectively and positively contributing to our society. On that and on any other issue, I am happy to engage with members on what more we can do if there are other things that we should be doing, if there are other ways in which we can work, because that is not something that is just owned by one political party or the Government. It transcends party politics. That is an issue that is about the type of country that we want to create, the type of Scotland that we want to be, and it is about respecting diversity, respecting other cultures and appreciating what that brings to our country and how we can continue to promote that and reject hate and ensure that everyone feels valued and who contributes so much to our country. As the convener of the racial equality group in this Parliament, I would like to associate myself with the words of Anas Sarwar, the cabinet secretary and the First Minister, earlier in the week. We are clearly all agreed that hate crime in any forum cannot be tolerated. How can the Scottish Government promote a sense of collective responsibility that has been talked about already and to promote that it is everyone's job to stand in solidarity with one another and call out hate in all its forums? How can people in communities feel confident and be encouraged to report hate crime when they encounter it? I thank Fulton MacGregor for his question and would use the chance to respond by underlining some of the points that I made to Liam Kerr. In September last year, myself and Humza Yousaf launched a hate crime campaign in partnership with Police Scotland to encourage witnesses to report hate crime. Again, we encourage people to call it out. Either people who experience it or have witnessed it to call out that hate crime or to report it to the police or to use one of the many third party reporting centres across the country. Again, it is the recognition of having strong resilience and supportive communities, the importance of community cohesion, in ensuring that there is one Scotland where people do live in peace and everyone has the opportunity to flourish in our country and feel valued and supported in doing so. Thank you for those contributions. To ask the Scottish Government what support it has given to create jobs at the former pinnys in Annan. Cabinet Secretary, Fergus Ewing. The Scottish Government has provided a £1.7 million regional selective assistance grant to support the creation of up to 120 jobs at the former pinnys plant in Annan. Working with Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Development International and Dumfries and Galloway Council, the Scottish Government sought to find a new investor. Together we have been successful. On Friday 15 March, at Lantys Pak, purchased the site from Young Seafood and announced a £9 million investment plan. That is fantastic news for the people of Annan and the south of Scotland following a very difficult 12 months since the decision to close pinnys. Attracting a new international investor to the site sends a strong message that Scotland is open for business and that we are determined to work collaboratively at a national and local level to secure investment and jobs for the people of Scotland. Joan McAlpine. Thank you, and I agree that it certainly is fantastic news for the people of Annan. Can I ask how will this venture contribute to inclusive growth in the local economy, and can he also indicate what part, if any, the UK Government played in securing the success? Cabinet Secretary? The UK Government was not involved in the work that we did. The work was driven and carried out in Scotland by our public agencies. I pay particular tribute to all those public servants who were involved. They did a superlative first-rate job, and it is not often enough that they get the credit for the hard work that they do, which in this case resulted quite directly in securing the investment in Annan, which so desperately needed it. Regarding the significance, on 13 March, we announced the proposed investment of £85 million in the Borderlands Inclusive Gross Deal over the next 10 years. That will help to drive forward improvement on skills, digital connectivity, tourism and infrastructure development. We are slightly disappointed that the UK Government has not matched the level of our investment as it is putting in a lower sum of £65 million, compared with our £85 million. I would associate myself with the cabinet secretary's remarks about the hard work of the officials and, indeed, his disappointment at the lack of equivalent investment for the Borderlands deal by the UK Government. He will be aware that the factory has been closed for some time and that the workforce, to some extent, has dispersed. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on what has happened to the workforce and how successful the Scottish Government has been in finding those employees' alternative employment? Ms McAlpine is absolutely right to raise this, because there were, sadly, over 400 redundancies at the site last summer. Since then, the public sector, working as Team Scotland, has worked tirelessly in order to help individuals to get the support that they need and deserve. First, through paced partnership action for continuing employment, and secondly, through the public sector holding two job opportunity fairs, one in July, one in October, one of which I attended, which, again, was a very well-run event that I saw for me in Annan and provided the opportunity to 200 individuals to meet 19 employers and recruitment agencies, exhibiting over 350 vacancies. That is all solid, valuable work done by public servants who are wholly committed to trying to help those individuals who suffer the hammerblow of redundancy provide other opportunities or employment. I am pleased that a substantial number of those who are made redundant and sought to do so have found new employment training, self-employment or other opportunities. Oliver Mundell, before by Colin Smyth. I think that people living in Annan will be extremely disappointed in what is a universally good news story to see politicians attempting to play petty politics and claim all the credit when they were interested in stepping in immediately at the time to provide the relief that families were looking for. That said, it is fantastic news for Annan and I wonder if the minister can tell me the current number of former employees who are still looking for employment and what the Government will do to ensure that those individuals get first access to those vacancies? There has been a huge amount of work done, as I have described already in my substantive answer to Ms McAlpine's question. In July 2018, the south of Scotland economic partnership announced funding of up to £250,000, £140,000 in 2018 and £110,000 in 2019-20 to create the local solutions team. That team is developing projects and opportunities for economic development, identifying sites for business expansion, for example, clearance of the site at Stapleton road in Annan, next to the Pinnies site. As I say, I have seen the response from Mr Mundell's keeping up a constant sort of barrage sort of voce, but if he wants to listen for a moment, I can assure him that a substantial number of those who were made redundant last year, who have sought employment, have found new employment, training self-employment or other opportunities. I am delighted that that is the case. Yesterday's announcement will now provide the opportunity for up to 100 people to obtain employment over the coming year, when production is hoped to restart and recommence in Pinnies in the autumn. That is a terrifically good news story. We are working hard with the company to see whether, in future, there are other opportunities to build on that further in other ways. I was very pleased to have an initial discussion at my meeting with Mr Baghat and his family yesterday at Annan, which was extremely cordial. Last thing that I would say is that Mr Baghat, in his short speech, actually mentioned the public servants by their Christian name and said that I am able to speak to any of those individuals at any time. He really appreciated that, so I think that it is right to keep praise on those individuals who work in the public service who help to secure this terrific result. I echo the cabinet secretary's thanks to all the council and government agencies staff that are involved in helping to secure a very welcome buyer for Pinnies. The cabinet secretary had the pleasure of meeting the new owner, Keeshaff Baghat, yesterday. I was encouraged by his desire to grow the workforce, hopefully beyond the initial planned 120 posts. Given the welcome financial support through Scottish Enterprise, that workforce will benefit from the Scottish Government's fair work first criteria, including full trade union recognition and collective bargaining. Given the fact that, hopefully, the posts will grow, but it is still below the number that were lost when Pinnies closed. What more will the Government do to support and grow the jobs prospects for the people of Annan and surrounding area? I think that Mr Smith makes a series of very fair points. To answer his first question, I can confirm that the RSA grant funding that has been agreed and will be provided is one of the first under the Scottish Government's fair work first initiative, which is committed to fair work, job security, fair pay and a greater voice for workers. As part of the RSA application, the minimum salary at the plant will be in excess of £18,000 above the £9 per hour living wage, and the majority of salaries are well above that amount. He is quite right to say that a greater number of people lost their jobs than are the new jobs being provided at this stage, or at least in the autumn of this year. A huge amount of work is continuing to be done, both in working with Mr Bagat and his team, but also with other potential employers in the Annan area. I am pleased that the local solutions team is playing an active part from that. I hope that Mr Smith agrees that, if the UK Government were prepared to match the Scottish Government's level of commitment—£85 million instead of their £65 million—it is just a matter of fact to report that that would be an additional £20 million that could be invested in the south of Scotland, which would help Annan and the whole of the rest of the area. Thank you very much, and that concludes topical questions.


The Provincial First Nations Métis and Inuit Professional Learning Project focuses on bringing First Nations Métis and Inuit perspectives and content into all aspects of educational programming.


Other than that, commercial's over. Our next speaker is Joel Orlina, who is sharing Maven's security journey. Joel is an engineering manager at Sonatype, who just happens to be a sponsor. Go check out their booth, where he helps with the care and feeding of the Maven central. While also contributing to product development, please join me in welcoming Joel. Take it away, sir. Apologize a little bit for not having the displays on the right screen. I think that's right. Yeah, well, I'd like to have the speaker view on my main screen here. And yeah, yeah, not that secret, apparently. So thanks for the intro, Crobe. My name's Joel Orlina. I'm an engineering manager at Sonatype. I've been with Sonatype since 2010. And as an engineering manager, I support multiple teams, one of them dedicated to not just the continue operations of legacy services around Maven Central, but also to some of the future plans, some of the new services that we're building to modernize and improve people's interactions with what is the single largest repository of open source components for languages that target the JVM. I used to say that Maven Central was primarily for Java developers, but I think the truth is that if you develop for S in Scala or in Kotlin, all these things target the JVM closure, there are components in Maven Central for all of those languages. So I'm gonna start with some definitions maybe, a little bit of storytelling around what I think of when I hear Maven Central. When I first gave this talk, it was for a developer focused conference, primarily for Java developers. I doubt that we have a majority of Java developers here, so I hope that some of the story resonates and gives you a little bit larger background into what software package repository like Maven is, what it consists of, and what it takes to run it. And to help tell that story after the definitions, I have some high level architecture. I won't get into the nuts and bolts. I'm here at the coffee break. I'll be here for the next few days. Feel free to come by me if you're actually interested in seeing more of the nuts and bolts. When I first gave this talk, I actually had more time, so I may actually skip Central by the numbers, a little bit of statistics around growth, around its contents, and I'm more than happy to share that as well. Maybe if we have time available, I might come back to them. What I really want to get to, though, is a little bit of operational description. I think I've seen many presentations today where people go back into ancient history. I'm gonna go back to 2021, which was a particularly eventful year for, I think, not just everybody here, certainly for the team at Sonatype maintaining Maven Central. We'll go take a look at certain events that punctuated that year and actually had security ramifications for the way we operate Central for our users and for us as maintainers. And the last few slides are gonna focus on the future. I actually have a slide with a prototype of the next generation of the publisher portal that we're actively building. There's a slide talking about our involvement with OpenSSF, which has been incredibly fruitful to date, but I'll get to that at the end, and with locked time allowing, I'll take a few questions before letting everyone go off to get coffee. I feel like I'm in the unenviable position, not just of blocking people from caffeine, but following Mr. David Wheeler. Thank you, that was Fabi's presentation, and I hope to keep the energy going. All right, what is Maven Central? So when I get this talking from Java developers, I have to ask them to indulge me a little bit. They already know what it is. So this illustration, it's actually one of many in a Wikipedia article. If you go on Wikipedia and search for blind man and an elephant, you'll turn up this great article about a parable from the Indian subcontinent. It's very old, the first, I think written evidence of it is from 500 BC, but purportedly it's much older than that. And it tells the story about five, six blind men who for whatever reason are asked to describe an elephant. One of them comes up, manages to wrap his arms around the leg and says, oh, it's a mighty tree trunk. The other one grabs the tail and says, oh, it's long, like a snake. The other one, I think, grabs the tusk. Oh, it's pointy, it must be a spear. Another one, the ear. Oh, it's a giant fan. Someone in the back says it's a great wall. And Java developers actually don't think about Maven Central at all. The original abstract of this talk was Maven Central. It's like the stars, it's like electricity. You don't think about it because it's there. If it's dark and you look up, you see the stars. Yeah, that's what Maven Central is, something that operates all the time without our knowing. But I like the support, I have, as part of my job, supporting the community that uses Maven Central and I get support requests that actually remind me that depending on how people use Maven Central, they have a very different experience of it, much like Six Mind Men in an Elephant. For the most part, developers, those of you here who are Java developers will happily type MVN clean install. After Maven is done installing and downloading the internet, you have a jar file that you can actually send downstream. That is the bulk of the experience of Maven Central, but there's a large community of publishers, the people who actually are responsible for putting those great open source bits out there and they have a very different experience as well and part of the team responsibilities at Maven Central at Sonatype are for that publisher community. We also offer service and you'll see this on the architecture slide where we focus on how people can do a little bit of research on those components, component metadata, age, and data that's in the POM, the project object model and that's also a service that we support. It's very different from the other experiences of people using Maven Central and that's where most of the overlap between this illustration and Maven Central actually lies. If you read the article, you'll actually see that the parable kind of falls apart in terms of applicability of Maven Central. The blind man actually, in many cases, get into an argument. They feel like their tiny appreciation of the elephant is the only truth and they come to blows in many of the retellings. That I don't think has actually happened in the Java community, but I really enjoy the parable of the blind man and an elephant because I'm not a blind man. I'm actually someone who has known this elephant for the past 12 years and has been tasked with taking care of it. This illustration is, I think, the most chaotic one in the article and it's my favorite. I mean, look, there's all this stuff going on and I think this accurately captures many points of the past 12 years for me and what have I learned from taking care of an elephant? It's very, very large. It is very, very expensive to house, to feed, to clean. When it becomes unruly, it is very difficult to calm it down and make sure it doesn't hurt itself and the people around it. When we get into the 2021 year review, I hope that some of these analogies become a bit more clear, but this is absolutely my favorite picture of the blind man and an elephant because it really captures some of my days. I think there's one person in there who's about to die and I'm like, that's me, actually. Not today, but some days. All right, very high level architecture and apologize if this becomes a little bit too Java heavy. I promise I'll try and keep it high level for the audience here and if you want details, come find me. I mentioned how we have different people with different experiences. I've categorized them on the left-hand side. Publishers, repo users. These are the people who actually access repoone.maven.org. That is the host name for Maven Central and then there are users of search. These are people who are doing more of the research style in more component metadata type lookups. But publishers actually interact with a sonotype product. Several instances of them. I'll actually get to how we got to several instances in the year in review. We use Nexus Repository Manager. It is, you know, there is a caching proxy but there's actually functionality in the professional version that we use that ensures a certain level of quality for the components before you can actually publish them. Are your components well-formed? Do you have a complete set of metadata around them? Are you providing sources in Java docs? Do you have PGP signatures? That is all guaranteed by the publication software. This is actually the area of the Maven ecosystem that actually where I, you know, receive and my team receive the most interaction with customers because we raise a non-trivial bar for people to vault over before they can even publish. We're not letting you in unless you can actually meet these requirements. And you'll see in the year in the life that this has become, you know, a source of, you know, extra effort for us but it's effort worth paying because it involves, you know, it ensures some baseline quality inside the Java ecosystem. Let's see, traveling counterclockwise, you know, you'll see we have our ubiquitous Jenkins icon. We use a posted instance of Jenkins actually for a lot of orchestration. We probably misuse it. But at the end of a publishing, you know, activity, the bits end up in an AWS S3 bucket. And S3 can be easily hooked up as the origin server to any one of a number of CDNs. The CDN that Maven Central relies on is Fastly. Fastly should be a name that's known to practically every person who works on a package repository. It is, you know, top tier global CDN. We've actually been with them, I guess, since very close to their original founding, they've been an exceptional partner to Sonata type. And they've grown quite rapidly but also quite stably. The point I wanted to make about this particular section of the graph is that, you know, Maven Central is relied on by millions of Java developers. And, you know, depending on how, you know, their build practices are set up, you know, if Maven say, if you cannot download a dependency for your build, your software does not go out. In fact, software does not get published. Other things start to fail. And so the choice we've made to actually to go with Fastly and then back Fastly with something like AWS S3 is about going with something that is internet scale.  What do we do if the repo goes down? What do we do if, you know, there's some sort of event that takes one piece of the infrastructure down? Relying on both AWS and Fastly means that we don't have to worry about that. If S3 goes down, if Fastly goes down, the rest of the internet is down with us. You've got bigger problems than your build from Maven not completing.  This is where MVN clean install sort of hits to actually, you know, get your build to go. From the same S3 bucket, we have a little bit more orchestration. I believe this is the AWS architecture icon for Elastic Beanstalk, search.maven.org, which I'm not sure how many people are familiar with, uses an index built from the same bits inside the repo origin server and Elastic Beanstalk serves up the front end. And I'm not sure I'm gonna go into too much more detail on search, we might talk a little bit about the functionality when we get to the forward-looking slides. All right, central by the numbers, I usually spend a lot of time on these. It's an elephant, it's big. If we have time, we'll come back to it. 2021, some ancient history. 2021 was interesting for all of us. I think everyone, you know, if you read ahead or go read to the right side, you'll actually see I'm gonna spend some time talking about the log for shell response. But we had great plans for Maven Central starting with the team. I feel like, you know, when I started at Sonotype, Maven Central was something that, you know, our CTO, co-founder, Brian Fox, said, in between the things I need you to do normally, you should take a look at this repo one thing. I've got a few things that I can't tend to now. And here we are today, right, and Maven Central is now, you know, larger than ever and more important than ever. Well, in 2021, I think that, you know, Sonotype got to the realization that the one, maybe one and a half people who were asked to keep the lights on in between their day job certainly wasn't sufficient. So we actually brought on two DevOps engineers to improve stability across some of the services I showed you in the high-level architecture. At the same time, Sonotype was undergoing company-wide adoption of scrum as an agile methodology. And we actually did a whole mess of backlog grooming and planning, and on February 2, we kicked off Sprint One for Central Team. Well, on February 3 was the announcement that Bintray was shutting down, and this is something that is definitely more in the top of mind for Java developers, but just so for the people who aren't Java developers, Bintray is essentially a competing open-source package repo with a superset of components, so you know, more components from other repositories than just Maven Central. So they actually mirrored Maven Central and then provided an alternate means for people to publish to Maven Central. Well, on February 3, they decided they were getting out of running their repo and that they were going to shut down. Their initial press releases weren't extremely crisp about what the migration plan was for people, so in the first few days after February 3, there were a lot of questions around the community like, what do you mean you're shutting down? Where are people gonna get my components now? Where can we go? And we, Sonotype, said that, well, we have an open-source Java package repository. You should feel free to publish to us. Here are our instructions. Here is the public JIRA project where you can sign up and publish. That started a giant chain of events. I have the link here. The announcement is still up on the internet and the update says that the actual repo is still live and running. It's read-only, but they continue to serve their artifacts, which is great. I'm actually quite relieved that that's the position they ended up in, but that's as of right now. Back in February of 2021, there was a lot less clarity. And I'm gonna highlight these two charts. The one on the left, I wanna call out the February to March giant stair step. That represents a, I think, 22, 23% increase in the bandwidth that users of Maven Central started consuming. We had always known that there was a significant amount of people who were consuming exclusively from Bintree versus us, but we never could quantify it. But with the announcement, Bintree was shutting down, people migrating over to Maven Central as the place where they could officially consume their artifacts, we saw this increase. And the good news is that, thanks to Fastly being this capable partner and being mindful of how important their continuing to serve artifacts are, we had no issues shouldering this load. So this is sort of the, from the perspective of the machinery of the internet, right? Between Fastly and people running MVN, Clean Astall, as long as they were able to find their artifacts on Maven Central, there was really no blip in terms of the quality of service with the Bintree shutdown. This other chart, I hope, captures the human toll of it all. So support for services related to Maven Central come through Ajira, the Sonotype Runs, issues.sonotype.org. And we normally expect January to be a bit depressed as people are still out on holiday. But what we did not expect was this giant leap, in February, March, and then a leap upward again in April, and this was all related to activity around the Bintree shutdown. First off, publishers who knew that the shutdown was coming and very quickly realized what it meant to them started signing up in droves on our services. So this leap is, you know, the blue chart is a specific issue type called New Project. And we saw the new project numbers jump up entirely. You know, it really looks like it doubled, right? In January, sustained in February, through March and then up again in April. This other color represents publishing support. These are things that aren't just I'm signing up for a new project. And I'll explain this a little bit by going back to something that we thought about when we saw the announcement that might actually be very germane to some open SSF topics that, you know, that folks here may have already heard about. So in the Maven ecosystem, we uniquely identify components with three coordinates. You know, we don't just have a name or Maven speak an artifact ID in a version. We actually have a namespace that is an umbrella for all and which allows you to sort of represent your organization, a group ID. If you've ever published a Maven, one of the more annoying things, probably one of the more necessary ones, is to claim your namespace with some sort of proof that you are actually serious about publishing. And these days, we ask people one to make sure that their group ID reflects a domain they own or at least control the content for. So com.jorlena, I would have to say, well, I own jorlena.com and I would have to submit to our automated process a DNS TXT record with some sort of record ID to prove that I own that domain. Bintree, publishing to Bintree did not have any such mechanism. I'm still fuzzy as to what they accepted as proof of organization to claim a namespace. But one of the first things, and Brian's still there, I think it was Brian Fox who came and said to me, he's like, well, Bintree's been around for a few years. They don't have the same validation process we do. Wouldn't it be possible for someone who knows that something only exists on Bintree to buy a domain that is not owned by someone on Bintree and then sign up on Maven Central? If they were to have done that, our automation would have granted them access to a namespace they did not own. And more importantly, to a namespace that already had provenance somewhere else and was mature and in use by somewhere else. So this jump in human activity represents what we did at Sonata to actually turn off that automation. We actually broke our own process for several days to think about what is the right way to honor this ownership from Bintree to ensure a safe migration to a safe landing spot that is Maven Central. Ultimately, it involved a few tweaks to the automation whereby we would check whether the project namespace existed on Maven Central already. And then we would check if it existed already on Bintree. And if it did exist on Bintree, we essentially threw it into another manual workflow where we said, it looks like you're trying to publish on Bintree. Well, if that's the case, we'd like for you to acknowledge that and then to follow this process to get yourself signed up. I won't linger too more on this slide, but I think we measured over the next three months how many projects we migrated from Bintree, either from people successfully signing up on their own or for us asking them to migrate. And we counted about 700 projects in those three months. And a lot of that was handled by human effort because we wanted to be sure that we were doing the right thing and purposely turned off the automation to make sure that we understood the scope of the problem and to make sure we had a viable and equitable approach to a solution. Before I go all the way into the middle of the year, I guess the one last thing about the Bintree shutdown that I like to call out is that when everybody decided that they needed to publish their artifacts anew on Maven Central, they had to publish them to one of our Nexus Repository Manager servers, we actually kind of got DOSed a little bit. We did not realize that the popularity of Bintree would turn into all these new requests. So between February 3 and February 25, we built up documentation, stood up new resources and essentially built a new server with zero tenants on it. And on February 25, we switched our process where by default we would provision people on the new and unloaded host. Leading up to February 25, we had continuous complaints of people saying, my builds are failing, they're timing out. And we had to unfortunately explain to them, yes, it's because you and everybody on Bintree needs a new home and we did not realize that we were going to need to scale this quickly. And so keep this in the back of your heads. We're gonna revisit this at the end of 2021. All right, so I actually, I'm really glad that I, in retrospect now, followed the David Wheeler talk because of the question about S-Bomb. This is something that we turned on in mid-May of last year where when you publish to Maven Central, when you sign up, you are automatically opted in to a workflow that will calculate an S-Bomb, not a perfectly complete one, but one of the other open source components in your build that are sourced from Maven Central. We will then send you an email after the successful release of your build on our servers with a summary of what's vulnerable and other weaknesses and consistencies, potential license threats inside that minimal S-Bomb. And if you click the link, you get a detailed report. So when David said the S-Bomb, not the silver bullet, right? Just because it says what's in there doesn't mean you know what to do with it. We're trying to introduce a little bit of silver here where look, we don't know where the fixes are yet, but we know that you are consuming this version that's vulnerable, this version that has a license, it's maybe a little bit copy left-ish. You might want to take a look at it. And this is free for anyone who publishes to Maven Central through O-1 or so, and we'll continue to be free.  All right, I think I'm still on time here. Here we go, it's the end of 2021. People are getting ready for holiday and guess what? No one's gonna take a holiday because the internet's about to break in a horrible way. So I feel like it takes me some effort now to remember what happened at the end of last year. So bear with me while I try to tease everything apart. First off, we had to upgrade all of our software. As soon as the Apache Software Foundation, you know, cleared up which versions were not vulnerable, we made sure that any of the running services at Maven Central were in fact upgraded to use patch versions of Log4J. That didn't take too much time. What ended up consuming all the time was realizing that even though we had, what, 10 months to have people move to our new and unloaded server, it is amazing that all the people who were on the old server decided we have to upgrade all of our dependencies as well. We all have to publish new versions of our software. So the same timeouts, the same failures, publishers actually all had to deal with it in February, we dealt with all over again in December.  I feel like oss.sonotype.org, which is the main host that we published to, was under water for three straight days. And we actually had to get volunteers from other development DevOps and SRE teams at Sonotype to essentially man our Jira and say, hey, we saw that having trouble publishing to oss.sonotype.org, would you like to migrate to the new host? And yeah, I remember five people showing up to a Zoom call on Saturday morning, am I having to tell them this is just in case we have more people to migrate? But we did it, we got people move to the new host and thankfully we had learned the lessons from February on how to quickly scale and what process to follow to move them. The slides themselves don't illustrate any of that. These are actually from our Log4j vulnerability resource center where we actually continue to calculate stats. There were still vulnerable versions of Log4j being downloaded, not the fault of the Log4j project. It's just people still haven't gotten the message and upgraded. All right, I think I have five minutes left to quickly go through the future direction. I mentioned that Central Team is actually actively building for the future. We've got, I believe, two front-end, two back-end developers and a tech lead all trying to build the new central portal that is going to be what we hope is a centralized place, not just for consuming metadata about the artifacts, but also publishing. To that end, we'll need to build a better sign-up and identity management process. This is a thing that we care so strongly about, especially in light of all the issues that we've seen recently. Like, do you really belong to this project? Should you have access to this group ID? So organizational identity management is definitely top of mind. We are also trying to launch new bits of data products, including component popularity and categorization. We're still toying with how popularity is defined. Is it raw downloads? Is it the liveness of the project? We have a research and analytics team at Sonosite that has categorized many of the most popular open-source products, and the screenshots illustrate that. But before I go to the screen, I do want to just shout out to OpenSSF and the securing software repositories working group. I've had the pleasure of attending a couple of those meetings now. I believe they're every two weeks. They alternate between the EMEA friendly and the APAC friendly, but I stay up late to hang out on the APAC call. And they've all been terribly welcoming. And it's been wonderful to sort of build empathy with them. These problems that we saw in 2021 aren't unique to us. There are certain things that we were better prepared for, but we are all learning from each other. We are all building for a future where we all share the same responsibilities and with luck leverage the same solutions. S-bombs and all the tooling that's available. So the last thing I have here is an actual screenshot from our staging server. And it has a section for most popular packages in the last 90 days, most popular namespaces, popular categories. And yeah, so far it looks a lot like search.mayman.org, look up things by group ID, artifact ID inversion, see some details on recent releases. But this will eventually be that one-stop shop where you can consume information about the artifacts and also publish new information, publish your new artifacts and actually see that transaction log of all your artifacts. I'm supposed to mention, Sigstore is going to play a huge, huge deal in this publishing process. Right now we require PGP signatures, but it's all decentralized and the tooling around verification is something that we've never been great at. And it's super great to be working with everyone at Sigstore to actually have something centralized that we can all leverage across ecosystems. Slide in case people are interested in helping, I think all the presentations have the how you can help. If you would like to contribute to the future face and requirements for Central, we actually have a Google forum for you to sign up, central-beta.sonotype.org. And then, because I'm here, you know, and I have, I don't know, maybe a minute or two for one or two questions, okay. I'll take them now or outside of the coffee break, but I will leave on this slide, which is an upcoming Sonotype event. All day DevOps, it's a thing. There are folks here who are instrumental in building it. Yes, in the back, Mr. Wheeler. Well, it's amazing because that is actually one of the first things we looked at.  We do ask them to add the DNS TXT record, but it's the same ID that's in the issue that they signed up. I actually feel that if we had more time to build in our legacy stack, we would have probably taken that track and, you know, been more ACME-like. But, you know, for the future, I absolutely believe that we'll need to leverage something that already exists. All right, I think I saw your hand on first and then we'll go to you. So the question is whether we plan to do any extra validation, not just ownership of the name, but the people who owned the name, maybe the trademark, right? I think that that's certainly on the table and that's always the question that comes up, is that, you know, great, you've just asked me to jump through another hoop. You know, well, what if my domain's expired, right? And so I'll share something with folks here that isn't apparent in our documentation. We've been fortunate in that, you know, we've come from an area of extremely, you know, high manual process historically. So if you were the first person to sign up for a namespace in Maven Central, you automatically become the person who is allowed to acknowledge that other people can sign up. We actually turn off the automated validation. So in cases where there's a long history where we kind of know who's actually signing it up, that served us really well, but I think that this is only gonna become more critical moving forward, is that getting at the root of identity, not just from domain ownership, but for true corporate identity or organizational identity, something we'll need to do more looking into, yes. They are already supported. It is actually the quickest path to publishing to Maven Central. Sign up for io.github.jorelena and we will actually ask you, create an empty repo with your OSSRHID and you will get automatically provisioned. We also support this for Bitbucket, GitLab, GitT for, you know, which is a Chinese repository and I think one more that escapes me right now. So yeah, you don't have to want to domain to publish Maven Central, just to have GitHub account. I do feel like there's lots of opportunity there, like we're already looking at that, using sort of whatever GitHub exposes in terms of organizational management and authorization. That may actually help us too. Verified by GitHub might be the thing where we're like, yeah, GitHub's verified you, we should probably trust that as well. Ladies and gentlemen, Joel Orlina. Thank you.