I suspect we could all agree on the following, what I'm about to share, and that is the dating marketplace today is an absolute mess. I mean, it really is a mess compared to what many people fantasize about and what many people hope for. And this is true for men and women alike. And I think one of the things we have to examine of why it's such a train wreck out there, and I'm calling it for what it is, because I think to fantasize about something so overly romantic like the movies or Disney or whatnot is absolute delusion in my mind. And I think the vast majority of human beings have a weak understanding of the mechanics to a healthy happy relationship, what it takes to create a healthy happy relationship and more importantly, being capable of being in a healthy happy relationship. So why is it a mess right now? It's partially a mess because we have a significant percentage of the population that has weak emotional or weak relationship skills to begin with, okay? So right off the bat, we have a significant population with weak relationship skills, weak communication skills, weak listening skills, weak conflict resolution skills. And more importantly, we have a significant percentage of the population that operates from victim consciousness and not victor consciousness, which is one of the key elements to emotional maturity. Add to that that we have, again, this pool of people that are absolutely dysfunctional, you have a greater chance of ending up with a dysfunctional person than that person that has the emotional maturity or relationship skills to lean into a relationship. And then add to that the fantasy that chemistry equals relationship success. I'm gonna repeat that, that chemistry equals relationship success. And many of people are in this fantasy because there's a deception associated with chemistry because most humans don't consider the more important factors to a relationship and that shared values, blendable lifestyles. And as I've been talking about emotional maturity. So let's talk about this emotional maturity for a second because one thing I've observed for those of us in midlife and if you're in midlife, that's after baby making years or before retirement. I always say my audience tends to be 42 to 69. Those are the women that tend to hire me most. By the way, there's a link below to schedule a discovery call with me to see if working with a coach is right for you can schedule a free discovery call. One of the things I've observed in midlife is that roughly 75% of the single population the population that is actively in the dating marketplace over 45 years old are divorced human beings. And with a significant percentage of divorced human beings you have a lot of dysfunctionality depending on where they are in the spectrum of their divorce. And what I mean is are they in the beginning stages of the divorce? Are they in the final stages? Are they divorced? And then do they have a contentious relationship with an ex or do they have a contentious relation throughout? Or maybe they're just going through garden variety midlife crisis. Maybe they have issues with their children. Maybe they have professional issues going on in their life. Maybe they have health issues going on in this life. This is true of men and women alike. So what I've observed in the divorce category is this rise in what I call dating as a replacement for therapy. I'm gonna repeat that dating as a replacement for therapy. And what I mean to say is there is a significant percentage of people that are using the online dating platforms to connect with people to as a form of therapy. And what I mean is as a temporary, actually not even therapy as for some people it's self-medication. So instead of doing drugs and alcohol they're using the online method to connect to soothe whatever pain is going on inside of that. And I know this because I was that guy that literally was addicted to the online dating process to soothe the pain I was going through after a divorce and then after losing my significant, my quarter million dollar a year job and I was addicted to the online dating process for over a decade. So I shared with you as a form of therapy why that's so critically important to understand is a lot of men in particular, this is true of women as well, but men in particular finally in midlife feel like we've stuffed our emotions for so long and if we've got a viable prospect at the other end of the phone we might vomit all of our insecurities, our fears, our weaknesses just so we can feel validated by another human being. And to many of you women you think this is music to your ears.  He's being insecure. He's so emotionally mature. And yet all he's doing is vomiting his feelings because he's probably never gone to therapy and actually have done some genuine introspective work. So one of the reasons why I wrote my book What the Heck Is Self Love Anyway? A Journey of Personal Development Self Up in Spiritual Work. There's a link below to get a copy of my book. Why I pitch my book so often is a journey to begin shifting out of this pain and suffering many people are feeling as a catalyst to begin a process of personal development work. So you can get out of the need of using online dating or talking to people incessantly as a form of therapy. And I want you to think about this. Even people who do therapy oftentimes just go so they can get someone to listen to their problems and feelings and oftentimes validate them but not with any real genuine forward progress help. This is why when I think of my coaching I'm gonna be candid with you.  And the way I scream and yell in my videos is because I look at you. I look at most everybody in the dating realm as children and I'm your parent scolding you for your stupidity.   It is time to step into your empowerment. And one in particular is speak your truth to a guy instead of the fear of expressing yourself that he's gonna run away. And this is why I've been lately continually recommending this book, Why Men Love Bitches.  It's an empowerment book. So you don't fall to the, you don't fall in this trap of becoming a guy's therapist because as music to your ears this might be it is setting you up for failure. It's setting you up for the, you're gonna see the signs shortly thereafter of how he's probably going to leave you at some point.  I'm just sorry I've got to call this out. But men experience, okay, so we all know that men are hunters and they love to hunt and they love the chase.  Listen, I'm no angel here. I try to have sex on the first date. I'm just, I'm a horny guy that is sometimes impetuous. I mean the chemical reaction of lust and limerence can make me absolutely the shark's eyes roll over and I wanna go for the kill.  Oh, it didn't show up. Hey Google, look up post not clarity.  So post not clarity defined on the urban dictionary immediate clear mindedness or soberness and individual gains after orgasm or orgasm you're busting the nut. The concept of post not clarity has been bandied about for years in many different contexts.  And the problem, okay, there's three actually. Okay, I apologize, there's three. He either likes you, which you all wish was the case either runs away, which is most often what happens or he wants to go for repeat performances because he's basically a user or a spender. And if you're not familiar with my user spender category I'm just gonna show this to you real quick. Users are the roughly 20% of the population. This is not a fact, this is merely an opinion. These are the love bombers, the players, the gold diggers, the entitled people and the spenders are those people that want companionship, connection and sex but they have no real direction in a relationship. So sometimes these people that are and by the way, the growers and the builders are the ones who genuinely want a relationship, okay. So coming back to, you could be with a user spender who may wanna keep coming back for more.


You may have heard that we have Matthew Hughes joining us today. Matthew is the executive director at the International Relations Council, and Matthew is joining us today to talk to us about growing and adapting your membership. So welcome, Matthew. We are excited to have you in particular to talk about this topic today. Jared, it's a real treat to be with you. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And before we get started, we like to start every episode by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our amazing presenting sponsors.  We are so eternally grateful to all of our sponsors that you see here. I like to say that these sponsors like us. They like Julia and they like me, the nonprofit nerd, but they love you. They love the work you do. They love that you are supporting and elevating so many causes and missions in your community. So please do find them online, give them a like or some love, and again, just know that they are here to support you and to help you do more good work. I'm so grateful to Julia Patrick for having this wonderful idea, March of last year. And she said, let's come on and do this for two weeks. And here we are almost, gosh, I want to say like a year and a half later, not quite a year and a half, but clearly the two weeks have blown by. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. She's not able to join us today. So here I am when the cats away, the mice will play. I'm Jarrett Ransom, also known as the nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group. Enough about us. I want to dive into our conversation with you, Matthew. But first of all, before we do it again, I just want to thank you for joining us. And if you would spend a little bit of time before we dive into memberships, tell us about the International Relations Council, who you are, what you do and why it exists. You bet. And thanks again, Jarrett for this opportunity. It's great to be with you today. The International Relations Council is a Kansas City nonprofit organization. We basically talk about what's going on around the world, how it connects to our community here with the mission of strengthening Kansas City's global perspective. As you can imagine, COVID has brought us some really interesting challenges and changes in how we deliver that mission. But it's just as critical now as it was when it was founded in 1955. Eleanor Roosevelt was our first speaker in January of that year. And since then, we've been bringing in journalists, professors, diplomats. We've had discussion groups. We have a film club. We have a couple book clubs. We have cooking classes, right? Things to bring people into the international at the ground floor, but things to bring people into international discussions at a higher level as well. You are hard pressed to find a city that is farther away from the border than Kansas City in the United States. Oh, you are so right. And 55, I mean, clearly, I'm still stuck on that, on that number that you shared. I cannot imagine really what the membership cycle has looked like for the organization. And so I'm really excited to dive into overall membership organizations. And our first topic here is how do memberships work? Now, again, I'm going back to that 1955. And I imagine, Matthew, they've worked a little differently over the centuries. Just just a little bit. And I'll tell you, Jared, that our founder was executive director for nearly 40 years and then a lifetime board member after that until he passed away in 2012. So you can appreciate. And I'm sure some of your other guests on this series have talked about founder syndrome and what that looks like for an individual or a practice to be the center of gravity for an organization for such a long time. And so, you know, thinking about what a dynamic membership looks like has really been a challenge for us, but a real opportunity as well. I've been at the IRC for five years now. I was the only staff when I started five years ago for a year and a half. And now we're a staff of four and we're continuing to grow. And a lot of that has been how our membership has been able to grow and change with the organization as well. You know, I think there are a lot of folks who see membership as some sort of transaction. Right? You pay a certain level of dues and you get certain benefits out of it. And we even talk about membership in that way, sort of like a used car salesman. Right?  Just one, although you need two. That's right. That's right. So it's not quite good enough. But I think that that really dynamic membership blends art and science. Right? So it's not just about the dues transaction. It's about the art of membership and figuring out how you build relationship, how you build community, how you build buy in with the audience that you are going after. You know, and I had shared with you in the chitty chat chat, as we so professionally call it. I actually started my career in a membership organization. So I was an intern in Greenwood, South Carolina, where I went to college. I went to Lander University and I was an intern for the Greenwood Area Chamber of Commerce. That was where I first dipped my toe into not only membership organizations, but truly nonprofits at large in that professional space. I had done a lot of volunteering throughout my childhood and, you know, really, really early adulthood. But I never considered nonprofit as a career venture until I had that opportunity with a membership organization. So for you to come on and talk to us about how they work and you already hit so many nails on the head, you know, receiving buy-in, staying relevant, so many conversations that we really need to keep. I'm going to say top of mind. And I imagine many of these changed or maybe some of the focus and priority areas may have changed over the last 18 months. So that moves us into this slide that you all see in front of you here, which is really talking about the lifecycle. And what can you share with us when it comes to a membership lifecycle, Matthew? Sure. You know, just like customers, right? Just like anyone who has any sort of affiliation. You don't start your membership the way that you finish your membership or the way that you continue your membership. At some point, you have to be brought in, right? And so outreach is a really, really critical first step. And it's incumbent on the organization that's trying to build this community to figure out what outreach looks like and the approach you're going to use. And I'm sure you've talked about generational differences among stakeholder groups. You know, it really depends on the different personas that you're looking at, the different folks who you're trying to reach, how you're going to reach out. But the next step is acquisition and onboarding, actually bringing people on as members. And again, it's easy to look at that transactionally and to say it's just the dues transaction. But what is our obligation to the members we're serving? What is our obligation in terms of providing information, in terms of getting them up to speed? I'm sure you've had some folks talking about best board practice and things like that. What's good for the board is good for the member at large. And being able to equip them with the tools they're going to need to get the most out of their membership experience. Then you have to think about how you engage folks. And again, that's going to look very different depending on the stakeholder groups that you have. For some, it's very straightforward. So, you know, membership organizations are a very unusual breed of nonprofit organization. Some are very specific and very niche. You know, here in the Midwest, we have a lot of farmers associations, for example. And so you can get the soybean farmers together and they can talk about things relevant to soybeans, right, which is great and very important for them professionally. But for us at the International Relations Council, we have a much broader membership. And so we have working professionals and we have students and we have retirees and we have just interested members of the community who care about the world. And so it's really critical that we're finding meaningful ways to engage them where they are as they are and with what they need. There are two more steps. One is how we're acknowledging the members as we go along for the contributions that they're making. The value chain really is two ways at a membership organization. And we rely on members all the time to bring as value as volunteers, as leaders, as discussion leaders, as moderators, whatever it might be. And then finally, what does retention look like? And how are you inviting people who have dived in deeper to the organization to become advocates, to become ambassadors for the work that you're doing and to help you with the outreach so that the cycle continues? Wow. And I would imagine perfecting all of those steps takes systems. It takes processes. It takes time, sweat, equity, a lot of just really clarifying the steps. What's working for you as a membership organization? Because what works for you for the IRC might be different than another membership organization. Now, one of the things I'm known for here, and this is by no means meant to put you in a corner, Matthew. But as you were talking about in particular the life cycle of memberships, I'm just curious if there is a timeline or a shelf life, that's a bad terminology, of how long does a member typically, on average, stay a member? What does that look like? I think it depends on a lot of factors. It depends on who they are, the stage of life that they're in. So for us, we have basically a lifelong sort of membership, where you could join as a very young person, you could join as a retiree, you could join anywhere along the way. And your reasons, your why for getting involved, may morph, may evolve over that time. So it's about maintaining relevance. I think for us, we look at a two-year new membership span. And so basically, if folks are with us for two years, they've pretty much seen the sort of value that they can get out of the organization, out of the community that we have built and are continuing to build. And by that point, they've pretty much made up their mind about staying involved, because again, they see that value, they see the relevance to wherever they are in their life and to wherever their why might be. Other organizations, as you very correctly signal, Jarrett may have a shorter new membership period, or may have a longer period, depending on what their purpose is. If they're working with recent college graduates, for example, or young professionals, that may need a longer runway to really get folks up and running. Whereas some professional organizations, if they're offering a certification or something like that, the value may be obvious, and it may be an immediate buy-in for the member. Yeah. Another curveball, really going through this, and I like to preface it, so you know it's coming. How have you managed and really retained your membership through what I'm going to say, one of the political pandemics? You know, I've said pandemics plural over the last two years, and so really looking at social justice, looking obviously at the political divide, looking at the global virus, and then I'm also going to throw in environmental issues. So I can imagine that you've got a very segmented membership group, and what does that look like when it comes to really keeping all the various segments happy and on board? You bet. And we ask this to ourselves all the time. What does it mean for us to be an apolitical, nonpartisan educational organization since the day of our founding? And that has been an integral part of our identities. So don't just look at this moment. Look at the moments that have happened since 1955, right? And how do we do that? You know, one way that we look at it, Jared, is to say, we're not just talking about international affairs and what's going on around the world and how we connect to that. We are also helping to foster informed civil discourse in this time of such deep polarization and division. How are we centering skills like critical thinking, active listening, empathy, media literacy to help people really inform themselves in one another about what's going on? We have a very broad table at the IRC. We do our best to welcome people of different perspectives and backgrounds to that table. And I think that's something that we're uniquely equipped to do. People bring opinions, but how well can they share those opinions? How well can they articulate those? And how open are they to listening to others and actually listening, not just developing a visceral response? And so we have discussion groups that help with that. We have opportunities for members to get to know each other personally because we know that that personal connection really helps to break down those walls. And like we say at the IRC, how can we do international relations if we can't do interpersonal relations? I couldn't have said it better. And I don't think over the last 300 and so plus episodes, anyone has said it better. And all of that really plays a major role into the life cycle. And a couple of things that you just hit on really were about why memberships join or renew. I'm going to give a little sneak peek because the next slide is also about the discourse and engagement. But let's go back to why members join or renew. And so we talked a little bit about that life cycle. I also threw a couple of curve balls that none of this is scripted. So for those of you that are watching live or either on the recording, Matthew is truly just having a very direct conversation style dialogue with me. And I have no script either. So these are very genuine questions out of just sheer curiosity. But talk to me about, because you had said you're in particular membership there at IRC, Matthew, is very diverse and even age diversity, right? So you've got young individuals. You've got retired individuals, although now people are retiring at any age. So that doesn't really name an age range there. But talk to me in particular about IRC and if you can also just kind of some broad strokes about why someone would join a membership organization or why they might consider renewing. You bet. I think it goes back to the personas that you're looking at, the different marketing personas, the different membership profiles. And their whys are all going to be different, right? Some do it for personal gratification because they're interested in the topics that we're talking about. Some people have a personal connection to something international, right? They may have come from another country. They may have lived or worked in another place. Others do it because of the community. And this is something we've really tried to focus on is how are we building a community within this organization? It's really not just about the content and the subject matter experts that we invite in. And it's not even about the discussions themselves. It's about the stronger bonds that are forged. Social fabric is something that's fraying right now. How are we bringing folks together? There's a book by a sociologist named Ray Oldenburg. It was published in the late 80s, republished in the early 2000s. It's called The Great Good Place. And it's really been an inspiration for me as we look at building a community within a membership organization. Basically, Oldenburg talks about three places in society. The first place is home. The second place is work. And the third place is essentially cheers. It's the place that everybody knows your name. You have peers there. There's a leveling factor. So stratification is not an issue. And you can really bring yourself to that space. And that's been inspirational for us at the IRC as we look at the intergenerational nature of the work that we do. How are we able to bring recent college graduates into the same room as CEOs and people who have worked in international business for years? And I think it's that leveling factor that Oldenburg talks about. And so that's been a really, really special motivator for us. And we're very excited to get out of the pandemic and be able to bring people together in person because we know that that's really where those social bonds can form. I just wrote that down. So Ray Oldenburg, I'm going to have to check out that book. It's a good one. It's a good one. Yeah, thank you for that. I remember, so I went through a leadership program in my community here where I reside. And although thanks to having Liz on with the World Affairs Council Dallas Fort Worth, she really introduced to me what global citizenry was. And I have always been a global citizen, but never knew that's what it was called. So really looking at that in a different perspective is really cool. So this leadership program I was a part of, I want to say the book that I'm thinking is civically engaged or civic for good. But I remember there was a gosh, I don't know, some kind of a white paper in this book. And it talked about why people join anything. And it really does go back to that three that you just mentioned, Matthew, but also really that sense of belonging, having that sense of belonging, being with like-minded people. I think any of us could think back to our early ages of maybe it's we joined something at church group for me, like I joined the Brownies and the Girl Scouts. I was also part of a soccer team. And so that was my sense of belonging. That was surrounding myself with individuals that created community for me. And that is not unlike, I don't think, really what a membership organization might provide. No, I think that's exactly right. I think that's exactly right. And when you think about the community and what's required to sustain it, it's about giving people meaningful ways to engage and plug in, giving people a variety of on-ramps and access doors that match their own unique circumstances and doing the hard work on the backend to personalize that experience as much as possible. Technology helps some with that. But again, it really is that balance between art and science. And you've got to have the artistic side, which is relational, which is actually talking to and listening to your members. I love that you've driven that home. Art and science, very, very two key points here. So I gave a sneak peek on this slide, and this is really our last and final topic, but I know we could talk about it a lot. And if you saw, I gave snaps when you were talking about civil discourse because I really believe civil discourse is dead. It is not something that we see happen often in our society, unfortunately, right? We're just very politically divided when it comes to relations and overall politics. But what does this look like when it comes to membership discourse as well as that membership engagement? You know, I think a really important part of this is intentionality. How are we being deliberate as we set up programs that are meant to have this sort of ripple effect? You know, it's no surprise that in Kansas and Missouri where we work, we're in a pretty politically divided part of the country, right? And we have people all across the political spectrum here. How are we intentionally setting up a space where people feel comfortable to come together no matter their political leanings, no matter their opinions on things? And a lot of that comes down to how we build trust with them. You and I were talking before, Jared, about the importance of communication, the importance of transparency, right? All of those things engender trust within a community. And again, giving people the opportunity to get to know each other on a personal level. So I think that's an important part of it. Another important part of it is the program framing that we use. You know, a conversation isn't just a conversation, right? A really impactful conversation has been thoughtfully put together, right? And in terms of the title that it's given, for example, in terms of how it's framed, in terms of the preparation that's offered to the speaker and the moderator, in terms of the preparation that's offered to the audience members or others who might participate, how are we setting people up for success in the conversations that we have? And as people become more comfortable and more confident, how are we giving them a chance to step into a leadership role to help them guide the conversation and sustain the conversation? And one other thing that I think is important to share, you know, we occupy at the IRC and many other associations a really unusual mission space. You know, we're not supporting the arts, we're not supporting pets, we're not supporting health issues or education per se. And so it's not a lot of the typical approaches for charitable support don't work for an organization like the IRC. And really it comes down to how are we developing the relationship with our members to where they see the value in what we're doing at a local level and in terms of building global awareness more broadly. So that they want to turn around and support what we do and bring others into the conversation as well. I think all of that comes back to building that community and setting the organization up for sustainable success. That is so important. And you know, as we loop back to the beginning of our conversation, I shared in the very introductory point of I started my career in a chamber of commerce. So it was a membership organization, a C6. And I remember, you know, being in part of some of those conversations of the membership retention, how are we attracting members, but how are we retaining members? And as we all know, retention is a big piece of success for any organization membership or not, is really looking at how do we retain our happy donors or happy members or happy supporters. And you had made a comment, Matthew, about sometimes, and I don't want to put words in your mouth. So if I say this wrong, please correct me. But really looking at sometimes people might join an organization and really see it as transactional. Now, I'm going to go back to, you know, I would always talk about when you join a membership, when you join an organization like the chamber, it's like a gym, right? You join a gym and you're not, you're not going to get fully buff and lose weight just by joining the gym. Like you have to put in the time. You have to do the work. You have to build the relationships. And so with, you know, my previous experience in my career at a Chamber of Commerce, the best success came from the members that truly got the most out of their membership by being actively engaged. And that I think is what I'm hearing you say, you know, throughout this whole episode as a member, but also as the organization providing membership, it goes so much further than that transaction. And as you just talked on, and I know I'm a bit on the soapbox here because I got really passionate, but as you just talked about, you know, it's really about building those relationships, building that community. So therefore the membership becomes the advocate to increase more members, which therefore increases a stronger community. And how are we taking the initiative as the organization to educate prospective members and new members and even continuing members on the ways there are to get involved? It's not their fault if they weren't aware of certain opportunities that would have been a perfect fit. If we didn't take the time to package that and get it in front of them in a way that they're going to see, right? If something's very deep on the website and the website's out of date and doesn't get updated very often and so on, people don't have a reason to go to it. So keeping updated communications and materials is very important. But also taking a look at what your organizational volunteer needs are and then seeking out people with a personal invitation. Even today and, you know, and it seems like communication has changed so much, right? Even over the last couple of years how we get in front of people, but a personal ask, you know, something where you can say, I thought of you for this is still incredibly meaningful no matter what generation you belong to. And so I think it's worth taking the time to figure out what your needs are and where people can actually fit in. So true. Everyone likes to tap on the shoulder and that I thought of you really is that verbal tap on the shoulder. And I think, as you said, regardless of demographic, regardless of age, that is always very well received. It sure is. And, you know, I'll add just one other thing, Jared, to this, which is that representation matters a lot. And we've really been able to center this as part of the conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion. But we hear a lot of membership organizations saying why can't we diversify our membership? You know, why can't we get members of X demographic to join? And a couple of thoughts with that. One, we've got to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush, right? There is incredible diversity within different communities. And I think it's really important to recognize that. But also have we taken the time to build the most visible parts of our organization with representation where others can look at that and say, I see myself represented in this organization, whether that's on the board, whether that's in staff, key volunteer roles, program attendees, speakers, whatever it might be. Are we taking the time to be mindful about the image that people have about the organization and how well they will be welcomed when they arrive? If you don't see somebody like yourself at an organization, it's hard to dive in headfirst. And that's really, I think, an important thing for all of us to focus on in a continual way as we go forward. I'm so glad you added that. And you know, we have a couple of more minutes here before we do wrap up. So I'm so grateful for you to bring that to the forefront and taking it further that it's not just the representation, but it's how are they included? How is that inclusivity? Once they become a member or once they become a part of that community, how are you receiving this individual listening to this individual, right? Making sure their voices are heard and so that it really goes beyond just the sheer fact of the representation. That is wonderful. And there's so much more to do once the diversity starts to really kick in. Absolutely. I mean, I think everything from surveys to focus groups, individual conversations, using board committees to help, right? Which are, by the way, best practices to have both board members and non-board members on the committees so that you're developing a field team for your next batch of board members. But how are they reaching out, for example, to new members and getting to know why they joined, getting to know what brought them to the organization, what they're hoping to get out of it because all of that can inform your strategy going forward as the organization, but it can also help you personalize your communications with that member so that they know some things that are already in place that may not have been as apparent to them upon joining. Right. Well, this has been wonderful. I am so grateful to have you on to talk about everything, not everything. We're really scratching the surface here, let's be honest. But I'm so grateful to have you on with us today, Matthew. Thank you for joining us, spending some of your very, very busy schedule in your time. Again, Matthew Hughes, Executive Director at IRC and our National Relations Council. So grateful that Liz Brillsford has connected us and to have you on. And I'm just so honored to have met you and to know the great work that you are doing here in our world. It is much needed. And for really shining the light on membership organizations, how they're a little different, some different nuances and personalities there. If you want to connect with Matthew or you want to learn more about IRC, please do check him and the organization out here. I will tell you he's also very active on LinkedIn as am I. And you can find him there as well. Thank you, Matthew. I'm so appreciative. Jared, this has been fabulous and thanks to you and to Julia. And a big thanks to Liz Brillsford in Dallas. Liz is a dear friend and colleague whose work I admire greatly. And it's just been so exciting to be with you today. Thank you. Absolutely. And before we leave, I of course want to give a shout out to Julia Patrick who isn't here today. But I think we did a really good job, Matthew. So hopefully she'll let us come back. I'm Jared Ransom, also known as the nonprofit nerd. And again, we are so extremely grateful to our presenting sponsors to have their support to continue these conversations like the one we just had today with Matthew Hughes, IRC, talking about membership. If you haven't checked out our other show, it's Fundraising Events TV with Jason Champion and Julia Patrick. It is event season. It is coming up and everyone is really looking at it's saving the dates of, you know, having a fundraising event or just overall events, what this might look like. So check out the Fundraising Events TV channel and see if you can glean some insight for your upcoming events there. And Matthew, thank you again and to all of you that have joined us today. So grateful to have you here joining us either live or recording. You can find all of our 300 plus, plus, plus episodes, Roku TV, Fire TV, as well as Vimeo YouTube and various websites. So thanks again for joining us. We will be back here tomorrow. Until then, please stay well so you can do well. Thanks again, Matthew.


Hi, this is Christian. So in this video, I'm going to go over the UNIS-6B assignment. This is the horse racing assignment. So the details here, I'm just going to read it very quickly here. So each year, Christian, her, the owner of a racing horse farms, enters four of his horses in five local horse races. He uses a table shown below. We'll look at the PDF in a minute to keep track of his horse's performances in each race. And the table, a one indicates that the horse has won the first place, a second indicates second place, a third indicates the third place, and a zero indicates that the horse did not win at all, still not finished at all. So let's look at the PDF. If you click on that one, you're going to get this file here. And let me maximize this a little bit. You can see, so here is a table here. So this is a 2D table or 2D list. It's a four by five table. The rows here, each row represents a horse. We just call it a horse number. So horse number one, two, three, and four. And each column here represents a race, a competition. So that the horse number one, for example, enters five races. And then if for each race, you can see the number here. So number zero indicates that my horse number one did not win the top three. So you get a zero for that one. The second race, it got first place, and then no place, third place, and second place. And the same for the rest. So this is an example of the table. You can build this table so that your application works. And you can also generate random tables or keep changing it. The only caveat is that if you look at these columns, you cannot have duplicates for one, two, or three. They cannot be duplicates because they can only be one first place, one second place, one third place. They can be many zeros because out of that, then there are a lot of horses that didn't make any of the top three. So zeros are allowed for the columns. Duplicates have been. So in this column here, for example, even column one, so I have zero here and then one here and there's no two. Well, that means that none of my horses actually got second place. So maybe Lily's horse got a second place or something. So that's what this means. And then your task is basically to build this table and then allow the user to pick one of the horses. And then you're going to tabulate the number of wins for that particular horse. So if I pick horse number two and count the number of zeros and ones and two or three's in there. So down here are some requirements. You need to have these at the minimum. So create a 2D list.  It's fine. Create a function to generate this table. So you can actually manually create it. I also provide a started file that you can use. In that started file, I provide a random function that can generate a random table for you. You can study about it and then study and see how that works. So this function will return the race table and usually assign that to a variable called race. And then based on the result of the input, you're going to use this function, calculate wins, to calculate the number of wins for that particular horse. So you also have the option of allowing the user to select all five, all four horses. So if that's the case and you basically count all the ones and twos and threes and zeros in here, that's all for all your horses. So that's the two options here. That's what this means. If you click on the single horse, then you would need to look at the row and then store the result of those wins in a one-dimensional list. This is an easier way to do that. I recommend. But of course you can do it any way you want. You can use string however you want. But don't create like four variables, okay? It's okay for a small project like this, but usually that's not efficient. And the same here. Are you still going to use one-dimensional list to store the result? Like the position zero index zero could be the zero place. One is the first place, two second place, three and third place and so forth, right? And then you're going to create a function called display results. That's to print out the number of wins for that particular horse or all the horses. And your execution starts at the main function. This is known as the driver function. And so I just recommend I use these loops in there and if NL's branch in there to help you make selections and also include this in the top of your program every time for all your assignments, you should have this and just read with that. So down here is some simple runs, okay? So when you run the program, it should, you know, this latest table, this is the result already so that the user can know which one to pick. So in this example here, and the user picks number one, so that this is the row that we're going to calculate. And then the print result will display this box right here, right? This message. So the number of wins for the first place is you can see there's one here and then one here. So two of the races, the horse number one, one, two, or one first place, okay? And then in the one, the second place, one, two, and three rows, you get three second place. And then there's no third place or did not place that off for that horse, okay? And then I usually, you know, give it a continue if they want to read, read, do it again. And that's why you don't have to do that. But again, things you already learn, right? Loops already. So you can ask the user to do that until they either quit or they say no and then you quit. So the next one is gonna pick horse number three, okay? So notice now, I guess I'm using a random table. So the result would be different. It's not the same table here. If you're using the same table that you can see the same result, okay? So again, it's up to you. So this is like a different day, right? So look at number three and then same as above, same idea. And then the last one here is I wanna pick all horses. So if you select five, right here, five all horses and then all you have to do is basically count all the zeros, one, two and three in here and then, you know, tabulate them, add them up and, you know, I'll put them here. So these results is the one I mentioned about the one dimensional list to store that number of counts and it counts for each of those places, okay? So that's the sample run. Now I'm gonna show you the code. So here is the, let me clear this for a second here. This is the sample code I provided for you, the starter file, make sure you fill the top. And this one here is the random table. So notice I imported the random library so that I can generate a random number right here between the start, which is between zero and three. So these are the placements, right? So one, two or three or zero in all places. So, you know, study this function if you're interested and your generate runs, this is the required function you need to implement. So again, you can just use this if you want to, that's fine. Or you can build your table manually right in here and don't call this function, right? And just return your own table here, okay? And so if you build this again, I'll check, make sure there's no duplicates at all. So we can test this actually. Let me do this, put like g is equal to generate. Table, I'm not gonna invoke that. I just run so it stays in memory.  And if you were to display it nicely, there should be no duplicates for one, two and three on each column, okay? So that's what this is used for, okay? So now let's go over here and run the program. Just wanna show you one sample what it looks like. So here we go, you see that the columns is no one, two and three duplicates, okay? So that running table should fix that. If I quit now and then we just quit, okay? So again, you don't have to do that, but I think by this time you should be able to do that. So let's pick the horse number one. And again, I get two first place, two second place, one third place and then zero in the first place. And then just say yes, continue. And then let's pick five and then you count all the ones, right? So you have one, two, three, four, interesting. Four ones, four two, four threes and then eight zeros. Okay, and then just continue and then now we're done. All right, so if you have any questions, again, show me email, let me know. Otherwise I look forward to seeing your project. Thank you.


Hi, my name is Emma, I'm the Director of Community Engagement here with Outright Vermont. We work with Queer and Trans Youth, 19 and under. We have year-long programs and statewide programs for Queer and Trans Youth. We also have professional development and educational opportunities. Come by, check us out. Thank you.