h compared to other states as well, right? Isn't it up in the mid-70s, as I recall? So, it's not surprising to see that. Yeah, but I think we were actually surprised at the other at MGM as well, to see that number as high as it was. And education as well, seeing a higher number of education, again, Massachusetts has a pretty high education level compared to some other states. Yeah, I mean, I just was totally struck by almost 40% of folks who are gaming in the state make $100,000 in more household income. So that was really struck me. And so I am interested to see those comparisons and interested in kind of why that is versus other states. Well, I'm looking, I just pulled up MGM real quick. And if we look at the entire sample, 100,000 or more, it was 18.7 per, excuse me, 18 plus 16. So it was a pretty significant number, 18.7 plus 16.2, 34.9%. At MGM. At MGM of the entire sample, yeah. We're 100,000 or more household income. 100,000 or more. If we looked at just the host and surrounding area, it was 30%, so a little bit lower. But still a significant number. And to your point, Commissioner Maynard, trying to compare what this piece of work that's being done in Massachusetts with patron surveys with any other jurisdiction is almost impossible because there are no other U.S. states that I'm aware of over the last 10 years that have done patron surveys. So I'm sure that the operators have lots of excellent information about their patrons, but that is not information that we're privy to. So we have to collect information in a different way to get a sense of the patrons. That's a really good point, Dr. Volberg. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Commissioner Steele. I'll just add excellent work by Dr. Volberg and the Sigma team as always, chock full of good and helpful data. And thank you very much for your presentation today. Thank you, Commissioner. Anything else? Well, Mark closed it out. Oh, he closed it out completely. I made that unmute, I apologize. I was thinking like closing out the item. I was closing myself up. Nothing else to add. I'm happy to see that we've done this at all three properties now and it contributes to our ongoing monitoring after the social and economic impacts of gambling in Massachusetts. Thank you. And I look forward to the integrated report, right? It'll be really interesting. And I didn't use titles because at this point, I'm just ready to give you all honorary doctorates. So it's nice to see you and Rachel, thank you again for your leadership in this work and Laurie, nice to see you and Tom, thank you. So I guess we're all set then to continue on to our next item. Does that make sense, Mark? We're all set. Thank you, thanks so much. All right, item number seven on our agenda. It's just barely good afternoon now. Dr. Whitebound, how are you, Alex? Thank you, I'm good. Yes, good afternoon everyone. This item is just to inform the commission that I use the 2013 delegation to the director of racing to approve certain track matters, to approve Dr. Zach Matzkin as a racing official, which is the association veterinarian. Earlier in the year, the commission approved all plain ridges racing officials, including Dr. Murdoch who has been there veterinarian for years, but this year, we have been fortunate enough to get a sub for him. So if there's days that he wants off, Dr. Matzkin can come in and it just took a little bit to get through the veterinary licensing procedure. He's been a veterinarian for quite a while up in Maine, but he needed to get his mass registration. So that came through and Steve requested him, Steve O'Toole, for on the 22nd and he was able to work on the 23rd with that delegation of authority. And Steve O'Toole is on the meeting today. Any questions? Thank you. And I saw a director O'Toole did come in short, just a few minutes ago. Questions for Dr. Whitebound Director out there. He is good afternoon, Steve, our director O'Toole. Good afternoon. Okay. Commissioner Maynard, Commissioner Hill is the process the same and the one that's we'll just authorize as being a minorized member. Back to you. I believe it is. That would be my interpretation. Right. Excellent. Well, this works, right? No questions. Do we have, do we have, we do, we don't need to take any action. We just remind them that delegation. Okay. Dr. Whitebound, thank you for your report. Thank you. Steve, good to see you. Have a good day now. Always great to see you guys. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Then we're moving on to item number eight. We have a fiscal year 24 budget. Commissioners, I'd like to continue unless we need a short break. We're good to go. All right. Sounds like I'm not hearing any, any requests. Okay. We've got, there he is. We have our Chief Administration and Accounting and Finance Officer, CAFO, Eric Mullen and we see John Skelly. Thank you. And I know Commissioner Skinner, you're involved with today's presentation. So let's get started. Oh, there's Doug. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Commissioners. I'm joined by Douglas O'Donnell and John Skelly and we are here to present to you staff's recommendations for an operational budget for fiscal year 2024. The budget documents begin on page 368 of the public meeting packet. The MGC's annual budget building process begins in February and concludes once the commission approves a budget in June. The MGC office of finance met with each division bureau head within the MGC and developed a spending and revenue recommendations that are best estimate representations of what will be needed in FY24 to operate the commission. As well as what can be expected for revenue based on the commission's current fee structures. These requests were then reviewed by the finance team, the executive director and the treasurer of the commission. A third review was conducted by representatives of both the gaming licensees and sports wagering licensees in a virtual meeting on May 15th, 2023. As a result of the aforementioned process, we are recommending an operational budget of 54.9 million that funds approximately 133 FTEs and six contract employees. The MGC's FY24 budget of 54.9 million represents a 5.5 million or 11.12% increase over the currently approved FY23 budget and is funded from the gaming control fund, the racing oversight and development fund, the community mitigation fund, the sports wagering control fund and the public health trust fund. FY23 experienced substantial growth in FTEs because of the implementation and regulation of sports wagering. The table at the top of page three of the memorandum shows that we approved an initial FY23 budget funding 104 FTEs and four contractors. As of the writing of this memo, we have increased the approved FTEs to approximately 123 and 10 contractors. In FY24, we recommend increasing the number of FTEs to approximately 133 and dropping down contractors to six. The finance team developed a revised cost allocation plan for charging the costs of staff that work across programs in racing, gaming and or sports wagering. The method used was to take the positions that work directly on racing, sports wagering and gaming as a subset and then determine each fund's share of that subset. Those percentages were then applied to staff that are not directly assigned to a given fund. The distribution arrived at 65% to the gaming control fund, 28.5% to the sports wagering fund and 6.5% to the racing oversight and development fund. As a result of the licensee meeting on May 15th, we also shifted approximately, well, we shifted 28.5% of our lease in shared IT costs from the gaming control fund to the sports wagering fund. This amounted to approximately 790,000 additional costs that were shifted from gaming over to sports wagering. The tables on page three of the memorandum illustrate the changes in FTEs as well as how the cost allocation adjustments distribute FTEs across each item within the commission's budget. Recommendations for the gaming control fund begin on page four of the memo in page 371 of the packet. We're recommending an FY24 budget of 37.39 million for the gaming control fund, which is a 3.95% increase over the currently approved FY23 budget. Just as a reminder, this item funds both our regulatory costs as well as statutorily required costs of the Attorney General's Office, the Alcohol Beverage and Control Commission and the Commonwealth's Assessed and Direct Costs. The MGC's regulatory costs funded by the gaming control fund increased by 4.17% while statutorily required costs only increased by 2.94%. The table on page five of the memorandum demonstrates that the majority of the regulatory increases came from union contract costs of living adjustments from the gaming enforcement unit, both MSP and locals, as well as our own 5% recommendation for COLA's. Moving on to the racing development and the oversight trust fund, that fund is actually decreasing spending projections by 5.83%. The page seven of the memo or page 374 of the packet shows the decreases coming mainly from the revised cost allocation implementation and shared costs for racing going from down from approximately 10% in previous years to 6.5% in FY24. The racing division itself is experiencing a 3.4% increase from FY23 spending levels and that is attributed to the COLA's that we're recommending. Community mitigation fund is recommended to be funded at 385.4,000, which represents a 10% increase from FY23 funding levels. The increase here is related to the COLA's and friend rates going up. As a reminder, 205CMR 153.05 allows the commission to expend funds for the administration and oversight of the community mitigation grant program. The regulation requires the commission to annually approve a budget not to exceed 10% of the funds available on the account for the fiscal year. This funding level is well below the 10%. Just for reference, as of May 30th, we had brought in 13.9 million from wavering taxes collected in FY24 and deposited in the community mitigation fund. The 385,000 is less than 3% of the current deposits and we still anticipate May and June deposits to go into this. So like in previous years, this will probably be closer to about 20% of what we're allowed to spend in this budget. In August of 2022, the Massachusetts legislature and governor approved a bill that legalized sports betting in the Commonwealth. The gaming commission was designated as a regulator. Included in that bill was a sports wager and control fund to provide a means for the commission to spend money on regulating the industry. In FY24, we are recommending a budget of 8.33 million which represents a 75.55% increase over the current FY23 funding level. The majority of the increases composed of the annualization of salaries approved for part of FY23, new positions that are included in this budget to help regulate sports wagering, as well as the allocation of lease costs, IT costs and the support positions we discussed earlier in this briefing. The table on page eight of the memo shows by spending category the changes from FY23 into FY24. And as you can see, the majority of the increase is going to staff and fringe costs. One area to focus that I wanna call attention to is we are moving away from consultant assistance and towards more internal staff work as can be seen by the decrease in the HA costs. And once again, that corresponding increase on the AA costs, which is straight salary. Moving on to the research and responsible gaming office. This is a statutorily required component of the MGC and began being funded by the public health trust fund in 2020 through a collaborative process with DPH and EOHHS. The MGC's research and responsible gaming division will continue to be funded in FY24 from the public health trust fund. Funding for the office has been increased by 12%. The table on the bottom of page eight of the memo shows up much of the increase in this item is in consultant services. And that is increased in the game sense program run by the Mass Council for the addition of sports wagering and the Commonwealth. The additional revenues will be funded through both the licensing fees for sports wagering operators as well as from the taxes on sports wagering operations. As in previous budgets, we're tracking potential exposures in our FY24 proposal. Litigation costs are funded at a minimum required by our insurance policy. The overtime for the gaming enforcement unit is funded at the same approximate number of hours. We've increased it for the colas that we're anticipating, but the number of hours remain consistent. And the Everett police requested a large increase for their share of the GEU at Angkor Boston Harbor. We funded a portion of that and our GEU team continues to work through those requests with the Everett police department to see what the right staffing numbers are and how we can work together to contain those costs. We've decreased, as I pointed out earlier, we've decreased our anticipated spending on consultants and outside help for sports wagering. If our divisions come back and say we need additional help with that, that item may need to increase, but that we're tracking that as a potential exposure for this year. Moving on to the assessments on licensees, this budget requires assessments on gaming licensees for the gaming control fund, as well as $5 million for the public health trust fund. To determine these assessments, we need additional time to work with the licensees to get estimates of what their slot and table game counts will be. Mass General Law Chapter 23K, Section 56C directs the commission to determine the difference between the projected budget and the projected fees and assess that difference on licensees and proportion to each licensee's share of the total gaming positions. Without those actual gaming position counts, we can't give you a chart that shows what the assessment would be for each licensee, nor do we have the revenues that we would bring in for the $600 per slot machine fee. Once we get those numbers, we will bring those back at a meeting on the 29th for your review. The budget also requires two assessments on sports wagering licensees, one for the sports wagering control fund and another $1 million assessment for the public health trust fund. Mass General Law Chapter 23N, Section 15C requires the commission to assess on sports wagering licensees, the difference between its anticipated costs and its anticipated revenues and proportion to each licensee's adjusted gross sports wagering receipts. For the purposes of the initial FY24 assessment, we recommend using the actual adjusted gross wagering receipt figures for licensees from implementation to the end of May 2023. This will allow the commission to assess costs and begin regulating sports wagering in FY24 and then revise for actual performance through June 30th, the end of the state fiscal year, when staff provides its first FY24 quarterly budget to the commission. There are two operators that we do not expect to begin operations in FY23. Therefore, we recommend they pay the same percentage of the assessment as the operator that generated the lowest adjusted gross sports wagering in FY23. We will not be able to provide those percentages until we release the adjusted gross sports wagering numbers on June 15th. So I just wanted to give everyone an overview of all the assessments that had to happen. However, we can't provide those. We are ahead in this budget cycle. We usually don't come to you until the middle of June, but because of the expansion and sports wagering and the changes to the cost allocation plan, we thought it was wise to get to June 1st, give a full two weeks for the public to comment, and then if there are large comments coming forward from that, we can take those up in a meeting before June 29th, which is when we are projecting to come back forward for a final vote on this budget. Well, those are all of the prepared comments I have. I know that I had a chance to meet and the team had a chance to meet with the commissioners and two by twos to provide a deeper dive into some of the figures that we just gave a general overview when they're in the packet. But the team is here and ready to discussion. I just wanna say that we are very thankful for all the work that the executive director, the treasurer, all of our directors put into this. Like I said, this starts in February and it's a pretty intense process. And I think that the licensees had a good review this year, came up with some good decisions and some recommendations for us to put forward for your consideration here today. Thank you, Derek. Just on the very last point, did you say two or was it three who will not be contributing in this fiscal year? So we're thinking it's two because I think Fanatics is set to open up before the end of this fiscal year. So it'll just be the two remaining ones. It'll be Bally's and Betway, which is a digital gaming court. So just those two. So Fanatics will start before June 30. Okay, excellent. Thank you. All right, just a point of clarification because I wasn't sure of what I heard. Thank you. So commissioners, we did have the benefit of two by twos. Commissioner Skinner, you've been involved as in your office of treasurer. I know commissioner O'Brien and I did have quite a really productive discussion with you and my perspective is a very good presentation that you, John, Doug, Eric gave us. So thank you, commissioner O'Brien. I think we can maybe hold our comments but I turn first to commissioner Skinner and then commissioner Maynard and commissioner Hill will you two together? Will you together or commissioner Skinner or will you with commissioner Hill or Maynard? I'm not sure because of treasure if you did it two by two as well. Commissioner Hill and commissioner Maynard would get together and commissioner Skinner had just helped us to develop the whole process. Yeah, that's what I thought. So commissioner Skinner, maybe you have comments first and then we'll turn to commissioner Hill and commissioner Maynard and commissioner O'Brien. You and I can follow up. Yeah, nothing too substantive for the reason Derek just mentioned has been very heavily involved in the process and developing the budget. I think it's sound, I think it's physically responsible and Derek, thank you, John, thank you, Doug, thank you and the entire finance team for their work as well as the directors who contributed to the process. Okay, excellent. Mr. Maynard and commissioner Hill did your two by two generate anything you wanna share with us or? Madam chair, I would just say that I have or had concerns regarding the sports wagering requests for employees moving forward without really knowing exactly what it is that we're asking for. I mean, there's been money put aside and I understand that and it should but I would have liked to have seen maybe and I talked to Derek and Doug and John about this what other jurisdictions actually have for employees, what their positions are, what they actually do. We're kind of, in my opinion, we're kind of waiting and seeing where I think other jurisdictions have already been set up and maybe could have given us or given me anyways better information of what positions we actually could be adding in the next year or so. That was all and the discussion was a good one and I got a lot of good answers out of that discussion that made me feel comfortable that this budget as presented is a good one. And I don't have really any financial questions except for getting me better information of what type and what employees we need in the new sports wagering division. Mr. Maynard. I appreciated Derek and John and Doug spelling out for me how the balance is really going to work in this budget and making sure that we are fiscally responsible but that we have the resources we need to effectively do our jobs at the commission is the balance I want to strike. One thing that I brought up that I'm happy to say here publicly is that I have noticed that we have had difficulty filling some positions. I know it's a highly competitive market out there and one of the ideas that I've brought up to Karen in the past and I know that we've never been at the right spot for it but hopefully we will is getting people involved early on in their careers and making a pathway to capture some folks early on and keep them and move them through the systems because I really believe that there are a lot of people that if they saw how interesting the work is at the MTC and rewarding that they would want to make a career out of it. And so that's one thing that I did bring up and just making sure that we have the resources we need. I believe from my prior position that the worst thing that a state agency can do is not have enough resources. It should be fiscally responsible but there's gotta be enough hands on the deck. And so that's kind of what came out of our conversation. So Commissioner O'Brien, we raised the same issue about the sports wagering division and I think I use the term functions. What are the jurisdictions requiring? Not so much in terms of necessarily under sports wagering division because we might be, I think Carol will comment on this, we might get a lot of those functions taken care of internally through other divisions but what are the functions that are fulfilling that other jurisdictions fulfill and what are the gaps? Commissioner O'Brien, then we can go on the other matters but maybe we just focus right now on the sports wagering division. Yeah, so I had kind of the opposite reaction Commissioner Hale to you in terms of sports wagering, just I feel like our staff has done a tremendous amount with very limited resources. We took three internal people with tremendous skills. They are now our sports wagering division. We are relying heavily on contractors. I asked Eric this during the process because the budget line item for that is going down. Understandably, there's a lot we don't need anymore but I wonder if we are going to be needing to pull them in and or expanding sports wagering as we go forward and truly understand what it is that those three current staff members need as we fill this out. I think it's a great idea. Chair asked for it, it sounds like you guys did too and you're two by two in terms of surveys of other states figuring out comparable sizes. What are they doing? What are the ideas? So we're not creating the wheel. I also didn't want licensees to be shocked however at the I think likelihood that we're going to be expanding the money that's going to be necessary to fulfill that regulatory function be it through third-party independent contractors in certain areas like assisting with advertising, monitoring that sort of thing or getting staff in the dorm what that's going to look like. So I agree with Commissioner Hill with your sentiment of not putting something out there with not necessarily knowing what it is but I also felt like realistically to tell the licensees this is going to be a bigger number just by the nature of the regulatory task in front of us. And so that was a lot of the conversation that the chair and I had when the budget team kind of briefed us on this the other day. I'm going to turn to Karen in a minute but I think if I recall, I've got my notes here Derek and I revealed that maybe last year I might have used the term slush fund and that was a little bit frowned upon. It's precision, but I do think that perhaps Commissioner Hill you're joining us. I know there are a few positions that are in the budget for sports wagering division. I think Commissioner O'Brien and I are like, that's great but is it sufficient? And Derek I think you even said perhaps we could set aside a lot of dollars for sports wagering use should it be needed. So with that I turn to Karen because you've been thinking about this and you know the whole team's been thinking about this of course, Director Bannon, Sterl and Crystal are thinking about. Yeah, absolutely. And had another conversation yesterday with Sterl and with Bruce and I think you are correct that there will need to be additional resources for the sports wagering division. Sterl sent me something this morning as an example from another jurisdiction and the expectation would be that there would be a build out of sort of the audit function. So we've now got things up and running and then it's a matter of, okay, what are we checking and what is the process to audit the licensee. So I gave an example of another jurisdiction that launched sports wagering I think first in November 18th and they're still organizing and structuring in that jurisdiction. So it is not unusual as the process unfolds to be looking at your division and developing the systems as you go. In that particular jurisdiction which I've made, they have a gaming operations unit that processes internal controls. That's sort of the Sterl side of the house and that's what he's doing there. The lab handles the technical testing. That's what the IT department and Katrina's group is doing and they have an audit unit that's responsible for auditing all forms of gaming. That's sort of the piece that we've built out now that we have the launch. And they also have 247 recs in the casinos where there's sports books where we have the gaming agents unit. So using that as an example, we have sort of the infrastructure for sort of three of the four of those and then the next phase is the auditing. And in talking to Bruce, it's a matter of, we still are going through all the regulations, still going through all those. So that next phase would be hiring that audit division and working on that piece of it. The team is also gonna look, they were speaking with other jurisdictions as we were planning for the development of sports wagering anyway. But now that we're sort of within the world of actually regulating and we're seeing what we need. We obviously see advertising is a great concern. We have to deal with patron complaints. We have to deal with just monitoring the website, things like that. So as we identify where the needs are, there'll be additional hires. When I spoke to Bruce, he didn't want to just hire a bunch of people and then figure out what they're gonna do. We need to figure out the job description and bring on the people. But I think that is in our future. So I'm very grateful for the commission and their proposal here to put in some money because we know we're gonna need some people as we go forward and it's folks operate. So those are my comments as we wait for afternoon. There's questions for Karen. Karen, could you tell me the state again, please? Well, I don't know if I should say. Okay. We're talking about the timeline. You didn't mention it. I couldn't come here. I wasn't sure if I'd missed it. Thanks. I didn't know if there was a question to disclose. That's a double check. No, no problem. You're gonna maybe do a little bit more reaching out. And again, I think we either write my point. Some of the functionality of other jurisdictions are captured perhaps in our divisions and not necessarily have to be recaptured in the sports wagering division. And that's where when you, when we finally hear from you, Karen, on where you are for right now. And I appreciate you saying that's gonna keep on evolving. And I think that's a really important point. But maybe next month or so, you can keep on updating us on what you're envisioning. If you could tell us where the functionality is too. Because for me, that'll be important to understand, well, it may not be through reckoning sports division, but it's got in between as team is capturing it to the distance that would be really helpful. Different jurisdictions do it differently. There are some jurisdictions where they don't even have a sports wagering division. They just fold it all into their existing operations and other jurisdictions really silo it out. We're somewhat of, you know, we're working on a hybrid model here. So we're sort of picking and choosing from different models as we go along. Okay. So Derek, given that, do we right now just pause because I know Commissioner Berman had a couple more points you wanna make. Would there be a recommendation for an amount to set aside? And there's already, how much has set aside for the FTEs that they already identified? So we've identified three additional FTEs. And we have those positions built in and we have the specific functions. But that is the extent to what we have built in for this year for sports wagering. And that's what we talked about. We can either come back in the two by two with you and Commissioner O'Brien. We can either award a certain amount to the executive director and some FTEs and have the executive director have her keep coming back and saying we've identified this function. We'd like to fill it until we hit that FTE cap and or that dollar amount. So that could be a combination of consultants and FTEs. So you can do both money and FTEs. Or you could say I would like a straw man put together by the June 29th meeting of different functions. And we could go that route based on the conversation that Karen had with Bruce. That sounds like option one may be easier because option two we're not ready to do yet. So I had said just throw out a number of three quarters of a million dollars and six to 10 FTEs and start there and then keep coming back to update. And there was that's there's no science behind that, right? That's just a number of throwing out. So that would be at least a recommendation. I'll lose recommendation that you can make but then we're gonna get feedback anyway because this goes out to public comment, right? Correct. All right. Precious Skinner, any response in terms of your thinking now that you've heard what the two by two has revealed? No, I think this question had come up earlier in the process and I think it's good, a good strategy to get ahead of it and plan for it as opposed to the other option which would be once a position is identified and scoped out coming back to the commission for approval of it and an increase in budget after the budget has already been voted on. So I mean, I think it's to Commissioner Bryan's point putting the licensees on notice that this is something that is going to create an increase in the assessment. I think it's just a good process. It's a good approach. And I agree with the need to account for the additional staff for sure. Great, excellent. So if we can just kind of put that one out there. Commissioner O'Brien, we also had a couple of other points and one was with respect to the executive director herself and that item. Yeah, so this is, I've been saying this for a while structurally, I feel like we need it and I absolutely think we need it given the number of licensees that we have and the number of direct reports that go up to the executive director. I do think that us exploring the org chart adding in and I know the title can't be deputy because that by statute belongs to the head of IB but someone who would be either second in command deputy executive director functionally for the ED so that there can be an assessment of how the direct reports come in and up so staff can be reviewed because as we just talked about we were getting a unit up and running right now that S3 it's gonna get bigger than that. There are gonna be contractors that need to be monitored by staff even if a third party is performing the function. So I feel like we're at that point now and since we're going into the budget to have a conversation about adding an FTE that performs that function. Yeah, and I had it, I had Commissioner O'Brien during our review I had your observations in mind and I did mention that I think we should anticipate that position given the fact that we have 10 additional right now which measuring operators. Karen's always, we've always noted that it's a very flat organization with a lot of reports. It just has gotten that much more complex. So I'm in agreement that we explore that and ask Director Wells to maybe make a proposal about what she might think. But again, that would mean some reserving some another pot of dollars to anticipate that possibility if others agree. Commissioner Hill, Commissioner Skinner, Commissioner Maynard, Wells? I can speak. I'm happy to hear that, Commissioner O'Brien because I think the first day I came into the office I looked at the chair and said, well, where's Karen's deputy? Like that was a day one ask for me, right? Because I was trying to send something out and so I wouldn't, I totally support it. Okay. Commissioner Hill, Commissioner Skinner, any thoughts? I support the concept. I'm one of those people I've already stated my original thought. I'd like to see a plan come back and if it's something we agree, then we add money during the year. I don't think we need to put something aside but the concept I like for sure, just the way I am. Well, maybe we should discuss that, the implications of setting the money aside versus adding in, Commissioner Skinner, you alluded to that as the two alternatives and I guess maybe we should understand the implications of that. Commissioner Skinner? Yeah, I totally support some assistance for Karen in the form of a deputy or equivalent. I was pleased when Commissioner O'Brien raised it during Karen's evaluation recently. I think it's a great idea and very necessary. So thank you. So to Derek, what are the implications of setting aside or adding in later? So the implications of setting aside or adding in later are just the timing and then when the licensees get assessed. So this type of position, I wouldn't budget for a full year. If it's added right now, I'd probably budget it for seven to eight months because we would have to one, generate the job description, two posts for it, three interview for background check and then finally on board. So I'm not saying that we can't do it quicker but that's probably realistically what I would budget for it. If that time period slipped, then we would have assessed for money for a position that we didn't bring in earlier. So that's the only implications, right? And the licensees get that money back at the end of the year. Anything that's unspent gets credited back to them in a proportional share to their either adjusted gross sports wage during receipts or their share of the gaming positions because this position would be split across all three appropriations. And if we didn't put the dollars aside. We would just assess it at a quarterly update. We'd come back, we'd say we're ready to hire this. You've approved it. We think we're ready to bring this position in now when he has a start date and that's when we'll assess for it. Any preference, commissioners? My preference would be to market pro-rated the way Derek referenced, because I feel like we are in a position to start drafting a job description and moving forward. So I have another question too. Is there a requirement we submit an org chart with FTEs into the Comptroller, I think? So Secretary of State, when does that happen? Historically, I've done that, so it's annually. I'm trying to, I usually do that at the beginning of the year. I think I just said Mary Ann said that in the last couple of months. So I'll double check on that, but yes, we do set it up. Okay, but I think we incorporate it into our ICP. ICQ is coming up. So all of that is, we're looking at all of that. Those internal control matters. But we can always amend any submission, right? Correct, we can amend it. And as long as the org chart is approved by the commission, we've met that requirement. And this would be one of those positions that would be approved by the commission. Yeah, we could just submit it for amendment. All right. Other, so Commissioner Bryan has indicated that she likes the preference of marking it, letting it aside. I've heard Commissioner Hill indicate he'd rather wait. I'm going to turn to Commissioner Maynard, your preference. Mark it. Okay, Commissioner Skinner. Preference, we can go with the majority. Okay. And we're not doing taking a vote today right there, because now this goes out to public comment. Perhaps we'll get some input even on this issue, right? Correct. All right, any other questions? I guess we did have another one other question on legal. Commissioner Bryan, do you want to reference that? It was looking again at the money set aside for the contracting, right? Third party contracting. And I know we had to spend a substantial amount on legal fees to get the regs up and running. And that number went down. Obviously, we're coming out the other side of the reg drafting, but, and I mentioned this already, kind of when I was thinking about sports, way during the concept of having to hire a contractor maybe help with monitoring advertising compliance, that sort of thing as we got going. And Derek, you answered this, but I don't know for the wider five of us, whether you want to be more, you know, give that same response in terms of, if that number would need to go up because we need to contract out with third parties to do things like compliance, auditing, that sort of thing. Is that something we need to flag now or how do we handle that going forward? So that would depend. We dropped that down to 200,000. If we got the ultimate flexibility proposal of, you know, three quarters of a million and six to 10 FTEs, then we could just come back to it and update and say we've spent part of that for a contractor. If we have to come back with a specific plan based on comments coming in by June 29th and then come to each time we want to increase it, then that would impact how quickly we can respond. I mean, we can pull up a public meeting pretty quickly we've shown. So we could come forward if it were a quick request, but it does take away some of that flexibility of staff to be able to just do the work and then update the commission at a subsequent meeting. Yeah, I'd like it to be in a position where staff can move as quickly as they can. I don't know myself, but that was the last area, I think that you and I spoke about, Madam Chair at the briefing. I think we also, there's a new position set aside for legal and. The legal assistant. Yeah, yeah. Yes, so we, yeah, we were talking about that because you did flag that they were asking for a legal assistant. And Madam Chair and I were wondering actually if it should be another attorney given the volume of work that's coming in the minutes that need to be prepared. All of that, that whether that legal assistant position was gonna be enough to really give support to legal that we thought might be necessary going forward. Correct. And I think this went around the job description drafting because we have two new attorneys in for this budget and one assistant, but the job description that I saw come across had notes, meeting notes for the legal assistant. And I think your question was whether that person would be able to do the notes because of the frequency we have in meetings as well as do the administrative assistants help that we need and should the notes reside with an attorney. And if that's the case, we should just hire another attorney. Right, and that was as the person who was the secretary before Commissioner Hill and we were trying to get the backlog cleared. We came from a structure of the secretary and one paralegal trying to do the lion's share of getting the minutes out the door. And there was a couple of challenges to that, one of it being just the level of work that fell on those two people's shoulders respectively, but then also just getting into a rhythm and fulfilling the expectations that we set out for what we wanted for the minutes. So where I saw it and where I've seen it going, I would prefer to have an attorney involved in the drafting of the minutes. And so that's why my preference was to get more administrative support to legal if they need it, but also in the form of an attorney to continue to assist with the minutes. Correct, that's the essence of the conversation. Yeah, and I was in agreement with that. I know that there's some debate about that, but I do believe that the minute taking should light with an attorney. So I don't know how that figures into the budget for Todd and Karen, but that was, I think, our last point of discussion. Very rare, two by two. Right, did I talk about this too, yeah. Correct, so I can circle back with Todd and Karen on this and HR to make sure that the job description accurately reflects, and if so, then we can come back with a recommendation for an additional attorney at whatever levels the legal department feels is right for those meetings so that we get outside of the contracted help, which is more expensive than in-house personnel. Sorry, quick interruption in this discussion. I'm having some internet connectivity issues. I'm gonna stop my video for a minute and see if that makes a difference. I might have to log out and log back in. Of HD meeting. Okay. Thanks, Commissioner Skinner for the update. Our technology is, we're challenging it today. Oh, good. All right, so I think that's a good idea to swing back, Derrick, with Karen and Todd and Michelle Brown, you're all right with that, right? Right, any other questions for Derrick and John and Doug and Commissioner Skinner? And of course, Executive Director Wiles, who was for all of the discussions. Karen, are you also, anything that you'd like to add? Nope, I think we're good. Okay, Commissioner Hilly, you're all set. Yeah, I thought you were leaning in. All right, so we don't run on this. It goes out to have a comment, we'll wait and see and we've got some good time to turn back to this before the end of the year. All right, it is still before one o'clock and I'd love to be able to get down before we have to break for lunch. So I'm gonna turn to item number nine. And then we do have just a couple of minor things to ask about after we get through this issue. Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. This matter relates back to section 243.11x, you'll recall. Excuse me, Todd, I'm sorry. Can you just, can we pause for just a second? I'm gonna call in by phone because my issue has not resolved if you don't mind, Chair. No problem, thank you. Just let us know so that everybody knows we're turning now to page 141 of the talk, right at the end. I guess it's actually, I don't know, 39, sorry. Join the meeting. Mr. Skinner, are you on now? Mr. Skinner? I'm here, I'm here. I'm here. Okay, I'm here, I'm sorry. Okay. It's not a hit song, but it's something. She's definitely here. There we go. Okay. How's that, Commissioner Skinner? I'm off that, thank you. Okay. I didn't know if the Reds had that hit or the Reds song. Okay, Todd, thank you. Okay, thank you. So again, we're in 243.01, it's section 1x, which you'll recall, talks about sports wagering operators getting a technical security control audit within 90 days after commencing operations. Those audits have to be performed what the regulations refer to as a qualified independent technical expert. In order to ensure a uniform and diligent review of these experts, the team has put together an application, if you will, and sent it out to all of the entities, I believe there are three that we are aware of that are interested in performing these audits or already have for some of the operators. That process has not been completed yet. I believe it's underway and hopefully will be completed shortly. And at that juncture, we'd bring the experts before the commission for final approval so that they could finish the audits and then submit the reports. So ultimately, what we're here for today is seeking an extension of the 90 day date that is referenced in the regulations so that we can get these experts fully approved by the commission. We proposed an additional 90 days. I don't know that it'll necessarily take that long, but just to be on the safe side, that is the proposal on the table. And ultimately, that is the crux of it. The regulations also talk about in paragraph X2, the standards for qualifying as a technical expert. And then further on here in X1, they talk about what the audit actually has to look at. But again, today we're just looking for additional time for these audits to be completed. And I know Christian is here if you have any specific questions about the status of that review. So they're asking for an additional 90 days still. Is that right? How much time do they need? I don't know, Christian, can you speak to whether the applications have been received and are being reviewed or are we still in the process of gathering the information? Yes, we have received the one application filled out completely, we're waiting on the other two. Any questions? How much time did we grant under the initial waiver? It was 30 days. 30 days, okay, thank you. That would be 120 days since the initial, I mean, collectively. Correct. And I understand most of that time is precautionary. Most of the time under the request so that the team is not back before the commission requesting any additional extension. That's right. Again, it doesn't feel like we'll need a full 90 days to bring this back before you, but that is just precautionary. Commissioners? I have no problem with the request and making it 90 days, Madam Chair. Right, I'm in support. And we'll just maybe get a little bit of an interim report, Karen, if it looks like they're not gonna make the next 90 days, because there's, you might wanna get a little bit more information should there be anticipated additional requests. Is that fair? So just if you could put it somewhere as a note that the question, if it looks like they're on course, it'd be great. Understood. Thanks. All right. So do I have a motion? Are there no other questions or comments? Madam Chair, I move that in accordance with 205CMR 202.023, the commission issue a temporary waiver for an additional 90 days to all sports wagering operators from the requirements set out in 205CMR 243.011X. That requires operators within 90 days after commencing operations in the Commonwealth to have a technical security control audit conducted by a qualified technical expert as granting the waiver meets the requirements specified in 205CMR 102.034 and is consistent with the purposes of general laws chapter 23N. Second. Thank you, Commissioner Hill. Thank you, Commissioner Skinner. Any questions or edits around that motion? All right, Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. Commissioner Hill. Aye. Commissioner Skinner. Aye. Mr. Maynard. Aye. And I vote yes. So five, zero. Thank you, Todd. Thank you, Christian. Thank you. Christian, thank you for all your good work that you've been doing along the way. We hear reports, so thank you. Thank you. So just a couple of comments before we close out. Commissioner O'Brien, do you want to just give us a quick update on yesterday's public safety meeting? Sure, short and sweet. So was the meeting and so will this be? It was a presentation of Justice Research Associates 2022, the COVID impact study that we did at a public meeting earlier this year. I know Fritz came in, presented to all seven of the members of the South Committee along with is it Dean Serpa? Grace, did I say that right? The G-PAC chair. It was very helpful. I think we meet the new Chiefs of Police, head of the Chiefs of Police Association, got some connections with him, D.A. Galloni for MDAA, talking about human trafficking in addition to what we talked about in the report. And then I also had Grace pull a list of all our regs and electronically getting into the hyperlink so that that committee, as an extension of the requirement of 23K could give comments back to legal and Grace would be the point person on any of the regs that are out there. And acknowledging some of them are sort of in the process or done already, but knowing that we would want to hear from them, regardless if they had thoughts on what's out there. So we did sort of ministerially make sure that was distributed with the idea that the next meeting we're going to put that on to make sure any comments that needs further discussion by the group, we can talk about it. Great, thank you. Thanks Grace too for your support on these subcommittees. And I just wanted to point out that we talked on briefly about the need to update the mission statement I'm putting together a working group and I've asked Commissioner Maynard to help. I think that he's newest in will be really helpful and we'll have a working group and circle back to the commission on that you know probably in a few months. And then to Commissioner Maynard earlier you raised a point that really I think when you said the pipeline where we really need to bring in and let folks know that this is a great place to work and where your career can develop and evolve and it's interesting. You're really pointing out that I didn't need for an internship program. Commissioner O'Brien you have always favored that and you've looked of course in terms of North East. As music to my ears. Yeah, North Eastern program. Of course it doesn't have to be just a co-op. It could be, I'm familiar with both using co-op students and interns from other universities. We are really blessed to be in the Boston area. And so if I could, I'd love to have the two of you work together and perhaps help Executive Director Wells, she certainly has had that but you know it's extra hands could be really helpful, right? Commissioner Wells? It really would and it's very timely because Chufti Banda, our HR manager has sent me a whole proposal for the internship program. So why don't I forward that to Commissioner Maynard and Commissioner O'Brien. You can take a look at that. That would be a huge help because that's already on the way. Yeah, they're great. They're a little more work up front getting them going but then once you get in the rhythm they're great programs. Yeah, and of course you're thinking I know about the co-op but Commissioner Maynard, you and I have had great experience with respect to the co-ops and those all the universities, right? I think that I would just say and the reason I brought it up in terms of the budget we don't have to visit it here and perhaps it's one of those quarterly updates that we can do. I put a little money behind it only because. Oh yeah. Only because I would say in my previous job one out of every two employees that went into our office came through an internship program. That's 50%. And I know that MIMA has a program. I can see her name every state agency that has a program that they get a large chunk of their entry level hires from an internship program. And so I really see this as a competitive advantage for us if we've done properly. So happy to join. It's a topic, it's a topic university.  So we've all had our experiences I know in the legislature, the prime young people coming in through. So everybody's had that experience. And I think it's a great one. And I like the acknowledgement that you made, Commissioner Maynard, that there is opportunity to grow at the gaming commission. We've seen it, we've experienced it. And why not help get this, help Troop D&T with this initiative. And it will require everyone being generous mentors. So great. Anything else, commissioners that you have on your minds? If I could just add to the current discussion, Chair, when I spent time at the Boston Public Health Commission a while back and also at my state agency, we had significant interest in an internship, a co-op. We were able to find some extraordinary talent in that way. And the best part about that was it was a part of that student's financial aid packet. So the agencies didn't have to throw any money behind it. It's a good idea to do that if there is not a way to supplement any additional funds that we might put towards this effort. So I'm all on board. I think it's a great idea. Right. And I do, I think you're right. Sometimes they'll just say, they have to just get certification that they served in a public service capacity and it covers. So, this is a- Yeah. And some students are available full-time. They would work a semester full-time for a particular corporation or entity and then go back for the second semester to complete their courses. And we did that for a number of years. It's a great opportunity for the students. Right. Good. Sounds like we're all on board with that, Karen. Yep. Help keep it going. All right. Anything else, commissioners? 113, that 9 a.m. start was pretty smart. So, with that, I think just need a motion to adjourn if there's nothing else. Move to adjourn. Second. Okay. Michelle Bryan? Aye. Commissioner Hill? Aye. Commissioner Skinner? Aye. Commissioner Maynard? I vote yes. Five-zero. Thank you, everyone. Thank you to the team. Thank you for all your input and great job on that budget to our finance groups.


Hello fellow followers of Christ and welcome to the show that introduces you to the men and women behind history's greatest works of literature. Come along every week as we explore these renowned authors, the primes and genre in which they wrote, why scholars praised their writing and how we as Catholics should read and understand their works. I'm Joseph Pearce and this is The Authority. Hello and welcome to this episode of The Authority. I'm your host Joseph Pearce. Thanks so much for joining me. And today we are going to be focusing on the greatest writer of the 20th century in my humble opinion and the author of the greatest work of the 20th century, not merely in my humble opinion, but in the opinion of many others. In fact, it was when this author's best known and best-selling book, The Lord of the Rings, was published that a whole new genre of what we now call fantasy literature exploded upon the scene, most of which is not fit to be in talkings of The Lord of the Rings' shadow. But my book on Tolkien, Tolkien, Man and Myth are the first of three books of it on Tolkien. More recently for Tan books, I've written Bilbo's Journey, Discovering the Hidden Meaning of the Hobbit and Frodo's Journey, Discovering the Hidden Meaning of the Lord of the Rings. But before that, I wrote a book called Tolkien, Man and Myth, which is a biography of Tolkien. And that book was provoked, prompted and provoked by the reaction of the critics to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings emerging as the greatest work of the 20th century, according to several opinion polls and national opinion polls in the UK. And the response of the self-styled literati to this success of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings was dismissive and contemptuous. So one critic even said, this just shows the folly of teaching people to read. Now the irony is it was quite clear to me from reading the banality of their responses that none of them had actually ever bothered to read The Lord of the Rings before passing judgment upon it, such is pride and prejudice. But I thought that I would come to Tolkien's defence and that was what I said provoked me to write my first book on Tolkien, Tolkien, Man and Myth. All you need to understand about The Lord of the Rings is, as Tolkien said, and I'm quoting him here word for word, the Lord of the Rings is, of course, a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously at first, consciously in the revision. So if you want to understand The Lord of the Rings, on the deepest level, we have to understand it's fundamentally religious and Catholic. And again, my book, Frodo's Journey, looks at that dimension. And so far as we have time, we will do so here. But I suspect we won't have much time for that. You can also check out Tan Courses, the course on Tolkien, which I've taught for Tan, where we go into much more detail on the Catholicism of The Lord of the Rings. But I want to focus on the author here, in the authority. Look, I focus on Tolkien himself. The Tolkien said there was a scale of significance in his relationship between him as author and his works. And he said there's various things in the scale of significance. But the most important of the really significant factors, he says, is the fact that I am a Christian and in fact a Roman Catholic, which can be deduced from my stories. In other words, the most important thing about Tolkien we need to know, if we want to understand his works, is his Catholicism and that this can be deduced from his stories. We can see that Catholicism in his works. He said in that, when talking about the scale of significance, he said that I was born in the Shire in a pre-mechanical age and that this was important. Now, this is poetic license. Tolkien's not telling a lie, but he's not telling the literal truth either because he wasn't born in the Shire, by which he means rural England. He was born in South Africa of all places in a place called Bloomfontaine where his father had moved for work and the family had moved with him. But after a year or so there, after Tolkien's birth, the family returned to England, or rather his mother and he and his brother returned to England. His father was due to return some time after once he had managed to tie up the loose ends of the business venture out there. But he never returned because he tragically, he died. So that Tolkien was born on January 3rd, 1892. His father died on February 15th, 1896. So shortly after Tolkien's fourth birthday, he lost his father that the family returned to England the previous year, 1895. So Tolkien spent his first three years in South Africa, probably the only connection to the Lord of the Rings from that period is that he was bitten while he was in South Africa by a tarantula. Now, Barry might have small teeth, I don't know what age he was when he was bitten by the tarantula, but he was only three when they returned home. So he was certainly small, a toddler. And if you're bitten by a spider that must have seemed as big as you are, then it's not surprising perhaps that you might have had an aversion for spiders. And we can't help but perhaps but see that some of the monster spiders in Tolkien's work, such as Ungoliant in the Silmarillion and Shilob in the Lord of the Rings and the Giant Spiders in The Hobbit, might have some arachnophobic connection to Tolkien's childhood experience in South Africa. Although Tolkien did deny that he was actually an arachnophobe, he had a fear of spiders. But when they moved to England following the death of their father, obviously the family was somewhat plunged into poverty and reliant, dependent upon financial support from both his mother's family and also from his father's family. And they lived in Birmingham before moving to a village. So born in the shy and a pre-mechanical age. Well, first of all, as I said, he was born in South Africa and hardly the shire. But then he moved to Birmingham and we have to understand about Birmingham. It was a village at the time of the Industrial Revolution. But by the time that Tolkien was living there at the beginning or at the end of the 19th century, it had become the second largest city in England. May perhaps not quite then. It was certainly growing very quickly. It is now the second largest city in England and certainly was by the middle of the 20th century. So this is a huge industrial city growing up on a spot which had once been a village and Tolkien and his family lived in a house, a small cottage, a small house with factory chimneys within sight, with a railway line going round the back with the steam engines belching out, salt and smoke. The factory chimneys belching out, foot and smoke. No, he wasn't born in the shire in a pre-mechanical age. So what does he mean when he says that? He's talking about a golden age, a magical period of his childhood when they moved from Birmingham from this big industrial belching city to a small village called Seherhol in Warwickshire, not far from Birmingham, but far enough to be a village with a village pond to play in, village trees to climb and peace and quiet countryside and nature. And this was the Shire in a pre-mechanical age, which fired Tolkien's imagination and inspired the depiction of the Shire in the Lord of the Rings. In 1900, when Tolkien's eight years old, old his mother converts to Catholicism and this plunges the family from poverty into penury because the families are so opposed to her conversion that they cut off financial support. So now the family is in dire straits and his mother dies only four years later in 1904 when Tolkien is only 12 years old. He becomes an orphan and Tolkien was convinced that his mother's early death was a direct consequence of the way that she was treated following her conversion. So he says that my own mother was a martyr indeed dying to ensure that he and his brother keep the faith and he talked of her death in poverty too ill to receive theatricum, the last rites of the Eucharist in extremis and because of this martyrdom of his mother's part, he said this is written much later. I find it very hard when my own children stray away from the faith. So for Tolkien, his mother was had heroic virtue and was a martyr for the Catholic faith. To no wonder that Tolkien remained a resolute Catholic for the remainder of his life.  And he became the legal guardian. They were not particularly at home with the relative with whom they were living. So every morning they would cycle to the Birmingham Oratory, which had been founded by John Henry Newman, 50 or so years earlier, slightly less than that, and would serve Father Morgan's mass every morning. Every morning. Around this time as well, in the summer of 1909, so Tolkien at this point would be 17, he met a fellow orphan, Edith Bratt, who was three years older than he was, so she would have been 20, and they fell in love. Father Morgan was concerned that this love affair would inhibit Tolkien's schooling, and so he requested that he did not see her until he was 21 years old. This must have been very hard, but Tolkien showing amazing obedience agreed to that. When on his 21st birthday, he wrote to her only to discover that she was engaged to marry someone else. But undeterred, he went and sought her out and persuaded her that she needed to not make that terrible mistake and that he was her prince charming, and she needed to marry him, which she then did. They got married, and immediately upon getting married, but Tolkien went off to fight in World War I and in what he called the animal horror of the Battle of the Somme. Battle of the Somme is one of the bloodiest, most horrible battles in the whole history of humanity. The number of people killed in very short periods of time was absolutely horrific. Tolkien thankfully was not one of them, but he was there at the Battle of the Somme. By the time he left to go across to the trenches, his wife Edith was already expecting their first child, John, who would go on to become a Jesuit priest. So having survived the war, they would have three more children, three sons and a daughter. And we mustn't underestimate the importance of Tolkien's role as Pater Phamilias, as the father of a family in his life and in his life as a writer. He wrote a series of letters every Christmas, allegedly from Father Christmas, and we'll go to elaborate lengths to have his children continue to believe they were actually from Father Christmas, even as children got older, including getting the postman to deliver the letter with a North Pole stamp on it.  So the lengths he went to keep the magic of Christmas alive with his children in these Father Christmas letters, which have now been published with illustrations and it's absolutely delightful. But of course, the other thing about Pater Phamilias is that his first book to which we all know the Hobbit was written for his own children, for the entertainment of his own children. So it was as a father that he became an author. But for the day job, he was also a philologist and a medievalist and an academic. So in other words, he taught, first of all, at the University of Leeds in Yorkshire in the north of England. And then for many, many years at Oxford, a philologist, a lover of languages, a linguist, his expertise was particularly in Old English, the language of the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman conquest in 1066. And he drew upon his knowledge of languages in general and Old English in particular in his writing of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. And also his knowledge as a linguist in inventing the Elvish languages. And again, it's the Tolkien's being a linguist first and the story teller second, if you like. You know, we can honestly say of Middle Earth in general and the Lord of the Rings in particular that the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us, not as in the logos, not as in the word of God, particularly, but Tolkien invented a language, an Elven language, Elvish, and he wanted people to speak it. So having created the word or the words of the language, he then had to make those words become flesh by infleshing, incarnating people who can speak it. And so the stories were told so that his language could be spoken. The word and the words became flesh and dwelt amongst us in Middle Earth, Tolkien following, if you like, the divine pattern in his creativity. In the 1920s, he formed a friendship with C.S. Lewis. We'll talk about more about that in the next episode of The Authority when C.S. Lewis will be our focus. But when Lewis and Tolkien first met, Lewis was an atheist and very anti-Catholic. Lewis was born in Belfast, the most sectarian city in the Christian world arguably. The divisions between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast and Northern Ireland would eventually lead to civil war in Ireland and ended the so-called troubles for 30 years. This, of course, was more recently after the death of both men, but this was simmering. So you wouldn't have thought they had much in common, Tolkien and Lewis, to form a friendship. What they had in common was a shared love of the Old North, particularly Old Norse. So the sagas written in the Old Norse language, the Old Scandinavian language of the Vikings. And Tolkien had formed a club called the Elder Edda, sorry, it's not called the Elder Colbyta, which literally means those who bite the coal because they sit so close by the fire during winter. To read the Elder Edda, the great Old Norse saga and Tolkien's fellow linguists, philologists could speak Old Norse and read it. Lewis couldn't particularly, but he asked nonetheless if he could come along to these meetings and to this reading. And he was allowed and with a crib, he got better at his Old Norse. When that club ceased to exist, following the finishing of the reading of that saga, Lewis felt the need to continue this male camaraderie and formed a group which became known as the Inklings, which is the most important literary group of the 20th century with many prominent members, but most prominent of all were Lewis himself and J.R.R. Tolkien. And every week for many years, they would meet twice a week once in Lewis's rooms in Mordland College, Oxford, and once at the local pub, The Eagle and Child, which they nicknamed the Bird and Baby. And they would read their own works and discuss literature, et cetera. Most significantly to the future of literature, perhaps, was a long night talk between Tolkien and Lewis and their friend Hugo Dyson on September the 19th, 1931, beginning in Lewis's rooms, but they always went out for a walk. And the subject of that long night talk was mythology. And Lewis said, but myths are lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver. In other words, that myths are just beautiful lies and we love them because they're beautiful, but they don't tell us the truth. Because they don't tell us the truth, they're ultimately worthless. Tolkien's response was, no, they are not lies. And then, expounding upon his philosophy of myth, the love of wisdom to be found through story, and showing how the gift of creativity is part of the Imago dei in us. We are made in the image of God. And the imagination is the imagination, part of that creative image of God in us, and that we make by the law by which we are made. In other words, God is a creator. God's a poet, an artist, a composer. And we are, therefore, in our own creativity, in our own artistry, in our own poetry, in our own music, that we are showing that divine image forth. And Tolkien said that the gospel is the true myth. Tolkien and Lewis never used the word myth in the modern sense of being a lie. Myth is merely, in its original sense, a story. So the gospel is the true myth, the true story in which the story is not told with words, but with facts. The history is his story, is God's story. And in the story of Christ is how the storyteller enters his own story. And this long night talk had such a profound influence upon C.S. Lewis that it was the final step upon his conversion to Christianity. Within a few weeks of that, he was writing to a friend that I have definitely started to believe in the Christian God and that my long night talk with Tolkien and Dyson had a great deal to do with it. So in 1937, as we said, the Hobbit was published and a children's story. And the Lord of the Rings would begin initially as a follow-up, as a children's story, but would grow up and grow out of control, if you like, and grow into this huge, big work, which is certainly not for children only. That's for sure. But before we get to discuss the Lord of the Rings a little bit, before we conclude, I want to talk about something that's an interesting, it's an interesting episode in Tolkien's life. And it's his interaction with two people that we've also met in previous episodes of The Authority. One is Hilaire Beloch, who was the subject of an episode, and the other was Father Martin Darcy, who we mentioned in the episode on Evening War. He was the priest who received Evening War into the Church and the priest upon whom Evening War based the character, Father Mowbray, from, in his novel, Bright Head Visited. So these three come together. How do they come together? Well, Hilaire Beloch is giving a talk in Oxford on the Norman conquest of England. And of course, for those of you who don't know, the Norman conquest followed in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 is when the Normans invade England. And then thereafter, the nobility, the aristocracy, the royalty of England speak French as their first language. And English becomes the language of the peasants and of the poor, not of the court. So the academics and the clergy spoke Latin. The aristocracy and nobility and royalty spoke French and the peasants spoke English, old English. So Beloch, being half French and being a Franco file, a lover of all things French, said that the Norman conquest was a good thing for England because it brought England into the fullness of Christendom. Tolkien was present at this talk and sitting right behind him was Father Martin Darcy. And Father Martin Darcy could see Tolkien getting more and more irritated at the way that Beloch was belittling Tolkien's beloved Shire, in other words, Anglo-Saxon England. And Father Darcy suggested that Tolkien should actually raise some objections, but Tolkien was somewhat coy about doing that in public. So, but Tolkien's position was that Anglo-Saxon England was thoroughly Catholic before the Norman conquest and did not need the Norman conquest to become more Catholic. I am a great admirer personally of both Hillar Beloch and J.R.R. Tolkien, but in this great divide, this great argument between the two, I am very much on Tolkien's side, that Anglo-Saxon England, the Shire, did not need an invasion of the Norman French to make it fully Christian. Let's, we don't have much time at all to speak about the Lord of the Rings, we'll just say it's fundamentally religious and Catholic. I will say very briefly before we move on to concluding this episode that the key to unlocking the Lord of the Rings is the date on which the ring is destroyed. The ring is destroyed on March the 25th, Tolkien is a medievalist, he knows as a Catholic that March the 25th is the date of the Annunciation, which is the date on which the word becomes flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the date on which God becomes man. But he also knows a medievalist that traditionally March the 25th is the date of the crucifixion. So March the 25th dates both the birth of, oh, the conception of Christ, and also the crucifixion of Christ. The journey from Rivendell, the Fellowship of the Ring, when they leave Rivendell to Golgotha, Mount Doom, is the life of Christ. They leave on December the 25th, the birth day of Christ, and they arrive at Mount Doom on March the 25th, the death day of Christ, the date of the crucifixion. So what's destroyed on Mount Doom on March the 25th is the ring. What's destroyed on Golgotha on March the 25th is the power of sin. So the power of the ring and the power of sin are the same thing. So then we can see that the one who wears the ring is the sinner. When you put the ring on is the act of sin. If we keep the ring on, we shrivel and shrink and we golemise ourselves, we become addicted to the power of the sin, to the power of the ring, and become slaves to sin, as St. Paul tells us. On the other hand, if instead of wearing the ring, we're not ring wearers, we're ring bearers, we are cross-carriers. We are carrying the weight of sin without sinning. So there's much more to say about the Lord of the Rings than I have, and I would advise you perhaps to either check out the Tang courses on the Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, which I've taught, or my book, Frodo's Journey, Discovering the Hidden Meaning of the Lord of the Rings to go deeper. But we're gonna conclude here with two things I want to say about Tolkien to conclude. There's this wonderful saying where his understanding of tradition and the church, when he said that I cannot understand the modern mania for going back to the so-called purity of the early church, because I do not know why a sapling is considered to be superior to the foreground tree. And he said that even if the sapling is superior to the foreground tree, if we chop down the foreground tree, looking for the sapling, we don't find the sapling, we simply kill the tree. This is Tolkien's understanding of the church as the tree of life, if you like, that has gone through 20 centuries. It's the same tree, it's essentially the same, teaching the same truths, and yet it moves through the centuries, responding to whatever the particular fashions and fashions of the seasons of the centuries are. And then two things just to sum up where he stood on the most important things. He was sent a letter by his publisher's daughter, who was doing a school project. This is 1969, so not long before Tolkien died. And this little girl asked a school project, what is the purpose of life? So she asked him and the whole reply is wonderful, but I'm going to just conclude on the final two paragraphs of this. So it may be said that the chief purpose of life for any one of us is to increase according to our capacity, our knowledge of God, by all the means we have, and to be moved by it, to praise and thanks, to do as we say in the Gloria in excelsis, laudamus te, benedicamus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te, gracius agimus tibi, proctomanium glorium tuum. We praise you.  We worship you. We proclaim your glory. We thank you for the greatness of your splendor. And in moments of exaltation, we may call on all created things to join in our chorus, speaking on their behalf, as is done in Psalm 148 and in the song of the three children in Daniel 2. Praise the Lord, all mountains and hills, all orchards and forests, all things that creep and birds on the wing. If anybody doubts the centrality of Tolkien's Catholic faith to his life and to his understanding of the purpose of life, as he puts it there, they need reading no further. But we are going to conclude actually with one other wonderful thing he wrote, and this isn't one of his letters, and it's about the blessed sacrament, out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated. I put before you the one great thing to love on earth, the blessed sacrament. There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that, death, by the divine paradox that which ends life and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste or foretaste of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships, love, faithfulness, joy, be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man's heart desires. I certainly can't top that, so I shan't even try. Instead, we'll conclude this episode of The Authority. Thanks as always for joining me. Until next time, goodbye, God bless, and good reading. This has been an episode of The Authority with Joseph Pierce, brought to you by Tan. For updates on new episodes and to support The Authority and other great free content, visit theauthoritypodcast.com to subscribe and use coupon code authority25 to get 25% off your next order, including books, audio books, and video courses by Joseph Pierce, on literary giants such as Tolkien, Chesterton, Lewis, Shakespeare, and Bellach, as well as Tan's extensive catalog of content from the saints and great spiritual masters to strengthen your faith and interior life. To follow Joseph and support his work, check out his blog and sign up for email updates and exclusive content at jpearse.co, and thanks for listening.


My name is Leanne Schoemecker. I'm the training officer of the Taradale Fire Brigade. So it's my role to identify any skills gaps that we might have in the brigade and nominate members of the brigade to try and fill those skilled gaps. I also look after the training that we do on a weekly basis. So during fire season we do training every week. So some of the skills drills that we do is we'd cover a grass fire, we'd cover a motor vehicle accident, haystack fires, structure fires. I think training is really critical for our people. We need to make sure that all of our firefighters know exactly what they're doing when they're on the fire ground. It's both for their safety and also the safety of the rest of their team. We have a saying that in the heat of the battle you will not rise to the occasion but you'll default to your level of training and that's so, so important. You know, sometimes that we've been on a fire ground and people just automatically know how to do drafting or they automatically know how to switch on the pump. I try and take pride in having our people know what to do in their sleep without having to think about it. And if they can do that then I've done my job really well.


Today, the Iris Network is holding the 19th annual White Cane Walk for Independence, and we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National White Cane Safety Day, which commemorates the right to independent travel for people who are blind and visually impaired and the laws that ask motorists to yield the right of way to people using guide dogs or white canes. It's about 1.4 miles in total, so there'll be a lot of sighted people, there'll be a lot of blind people, there'll be a lot of visually impaired people, there'll be guide dogs, there'll be canes, and there'll be a lot of blue shirts, and hopefully people traveling through Portland today will see us and maybe it'll make them think a little bit more about being kind towards their blind and visually impaired neighbors. I'm the president of AlphaZ Delta at the University of Southern Maine, and today we're here volunteering and learning about visual impairments and blindness. I am totally blind, and I made that transition in my young adulthood, and organizations like Iris Network are why I'm able to do all the incredible things I do today. So I want to support and ensure that everyone is going to have the opportunity to have these resources, and that doesn't happen if people don't come out, celebrate a great event, and help support a great cause. The White Cane Walk for Independence is an event to make people aware of the need to preserve independent travel for everyone, regardless of disability, and to make motorists mindful of the fact that people are crossing the streets that may not be able to see them, and therefore they should be mindful and paying attention to driving and not texting. Right now, well, we've got a tent set up for registration. Inside the tent we have some muffins and donuts and coffee and orange juice. We've got a raffle going on. You can buy some tickets and put them in different baskets, depending on where you want to, what you think you would like to win. Let's see, we've got a radio station here. We've got a kissing booth for puppies, so if you want to run down here and kiss a puppy, come on down, and we have a lot of guide dogs, service dogs here, and so it's kind of a festive atmosphere. So far it's been amazing, we've had a lot of fun, we've met a lot of new people, and there's a lot of puppy kisses going around, so it's been really fun. You know, my first thought is this, right, I celebrate ability awareness. We all have disabilities, things we can't do, right, for me, I can't see, but to understand that we have so much that we can do, it's all about how we want to approach things, and if people believe that, work with folks who may have whatever disability so that together they can succeed better, I think that's the first lesson. I would couple with that though, right, there's sort of one other note on that front, which is that, you know, people have a disability. People are not disabled, and that's such an important distinction in a parallel line, right? There's plenty of things I can do, but I do have something I can't, and that's understanding that fully, I think, is the essence of what this walk is about. This is a public education event. We hope to raise a little money here today to help us with our public awareness activities. We really do want more people to understand that people who are blind or visually impaired can live independent lives in the community. The Iris Network provides vision rehabilitation services so that people newly dealing with vision loss can learn the skills they need to live independently and pursue their vocation or application and be completely integrated into the community. It's the Baby Boomers, which I'm one of, as we get older, there's going to be more visual issues and we need the organization to be strong to provide help to those who are losing their sight, to maintain independence. I've heard from a lot of people how they're seeing things change. I'm listening all the time to the conversations. There's a high energy, right? There's some positive steps being made, and that's good, but positive steps are only good if you keep taking them, otherwise you're stuck. So absolutely good start, good progress, let's keep it going. You can learn more by visiting our website at www.theiris.org.