A society where adolescents suffer most has not attended to its death properly. Certain things were done when people died so that they don't try to live through you too strongly. You distance yourself genetically from them so that this life operates and organizes itself as a fresh life. Well, it is Mahalaya Mawasya in the next few days. This is the time of the year where close to the autumnal equinox, this is the time of the year when the earth is most feminine, particularly in the northern hemisphere. The feminine quality of the planet is more enhanced. So feminine being dominant, Mahalaya Mawasya is also seen as a time when our respects, regards and obeisance be paid to our ancestors. What is the significance of ancestors? They're dead, why should we bother about them? Well, the problem is who you are right now, in today's world you constantly being on Google, maybe you think you are delivered by the Google lady, the people that we refer to as your ancestors, they may not necessarily be wandering around, hanging onto the trees, but they're living within you. How much of ancestry stays alive within you?  We are who we are, only because of our forefathers, what they learnt, what they knew, their skills, their technologies, their sense of life, we have imbibed all of it knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us.  This is why so much care was taken, not in any one culture, across cultures, everywhere in the world, certain things were done when people died, so that they don't try to live through you too strongly, because if they live through you too strongly, your life is wasted. That is, you will not be a fresh life, you will be sort of a carbon copy of an old life.  You know, I'm talking about the free spirits.  So every culture always took care to distance themselves from the dead in so many different ways. In India, we developed elaborate methodologies, chose times when we can do maximum in this direction, so that year on year, we create more and more distance. So this is the time of the year, which was called, which is referred to as the pitru paksha. That means this is the time to attend to your ancestors, you may know them, you may not know them. Up to twelve generations of people are usually attended to, so that they don't try to live through you, you distance yourself genetically from them, so that this life operates and organizes itself as a fresh life, has a new possibility that it doesn't become a repetition of the past. So this, we are right now at this time under Mahalaya Mawasya. In the yoga center, I think anywhere between twenty to twenty-five thousand people will do the necessary processes to distance themselves from their ancestors. There may be dead long time ago, how we handle the dead has substantial relevance to one's life. I have said this before with now going into research mode in some places, because what you observe with life is no more research, you have to observe the lab rats, whether their ancestral behavior has influence on them. Only if it's true for rats, it's true for you. Rat race, you know. Well, even among them it's been noticed that one experiment, I think this happened in the Emory University, if I'm right, or I could be off in terms of university, some premier American university for sure.  They lapped it up one day. Next day when they came to eat, when they bit into the cheese, they got an electric shock, you know humans. And again and again a few days they did this, that whenever they bit into this cherry blossom smelling cheese, they got a shock. Seven generations of rats would not go anywhere near cherry blossom smell. They learned their lesson, I'm saying. And these generations did not live together in case they're running a school. They were separated. So wherever they were for seven generations, their learning remained. It's only in the eighth generation it started dissipating. So it is true with rats, it must be true with you. I'm going by the data, but we know always it's true with you. Both positives and negatives are true with you. Both positives and negatives, if it become very strong influence upon your life, they turn into a negative process. It may be positive, but if it becomes a very strong influence, then it becomes negative because whatever your seventh generation, I'm only going seven, okay? Mahalaya Mahasaya we're going to twelve, but in case because you're all covered, I can't make out whether you're homo sapiens or rodents. Really we're all looking funny these days. So generations of people that we have lost, probably we do not know them, we don't know their names, we have not even seen their pictures, but they're living through us. So whatever learnings they had, seven or twelve generations ago, if it plays out too strongly, you will become irrelevant to today's life. So you have a fear of cherry blossom, may not mean anything today, but it continues within you. So this complex web of information, which we are today calling as genetic information, karmic information, chronic information, various kinds of things which have built up as a network of information which is functioning in our lives in so many different ways. Some of it has been accessed and researched by scientific modern research. Many they know it is heading in that direction, but you know you need funding to come out with results. So it is being postponed, but we know this has influence. Especially societies which don't handle their dead properly. In those societies, the most vulnerable population will be adolescents. From zero to eight years of age, children generally have a kind of a protection and an immunity from the ancestors. They be their own thing, but between eight and eighteen, the influence of unattended ancestral, for lack of words I'm using, their spirit or their memory plays havoc with adolescence. So a society where adolescents suffer most, it's the best part of your life in many ways, but they suffer most, that society you must know has not attended to its dead properly. So this is the time of the year where even if we have not done something in the past, everybody makes an attempt to deal with the ancestral dead, so that their influence is limited in our lives. We appreciate whoever, we appreciate their contributions, we have this kind of body, this kind of brain, this kind of learning, this kind of whatever. In all that they have a role, we appreciate that. At the same time, we want them to stand a little away from us so that we can live our own lives, this is important. Otherwise their influence will be very, very strong. Adolescents and post-pregnancy women are most vulnerable for these forces. It is very important if there are such people in your homes, you must attend to this. So mahalaya mawasya.


Hello and welcome to the session in which we would look at this CPA exam simulation that's covered on the financial accounting and reporting exam. The first thing you do when you look at a simulation is what type of a simulation am I dealing with? I'll scroll down. What I'm looking for is some type of drop-down menu, yes and no, and I have to input some figures. I have to compute some figures and put some figures. Good. I should not be intimidated by this. Second thing you do is what is the topic of the simulation because the simulation topics are topics that are covered on the CPA multiple choice covered through the blueprint. Let's read real quick. What is the main topic of the simulation? RAF company is reviewing the accounting and disclosure requirement for its significant guarantees, commitment, and contingencies, including litigation as of December 31st, year three. Right there, it looks like this is the topic of the simulation so far. The financial statements are expected to be available and to be issued on February 10th, year four. Use the information in the exhibits above to determine the amount, if any, to recognize and whether disclosure is required in RAF financial statement as of and for the year ended, year three. Unless otherwise specified, assume that no amount related to these guarantees, commitment, and contingencies, including litigation, have been recognized. So nothing has been recognized. That's it. I know what is the topic is all about. Now I can go ahead and get started. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat Accounting Lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today. I am not going to look at any exhibit unless I know this exhibit will help me. So in other words, don't waste your time looking at exhibits now. Why not? Well, because let's take a look at what we are told. Contingent copyright infringement, starting with copyright infringement. Do we need to disclose the copyright infringement? And yes or no? And do we need to basically book an asset or a liability? Usually, we're booking liabilities. And remember, liabilities make sure they're in parentheses. Copyright infringement. Now I have, what do I look for this information? Well, I have one, two, three, four, five exhibits. Would I look for it in the letter of credit? No. Would I look for it about email regarding letter of credit? No. Would I look for it about email regarding loan guarantees? No. Copyright infringement, it's not going to be a state, a letter from the state and health and safety agency. So I'm going to look, I'm going to look at the letter from an outside console to RAV, a general console. Click on this letter. Let's see what's in that letter. Well, that's a lot of information in that letter. I'm hope I'm going to find something about the copyright infringement. This is how I'm, how I am, how I am approaching this. So this is from the outside console to our console. The following is an update on four matters for which we were retained to represent RAV. This is the outside console. There are four matters. So we know this letter is going to have four different things. RAV is a defendant in 6 million copyright infringement lawsuit brought by beach in October year three. RAV has offered 1.5 million to settle the lawsuit, but they counter offer a 5 million. The case is not expected to go to trial and we believe that the loss is probable. There's a good chance we're going to lose. That's why basically we offered 1.5. As of the date of this letter, negotiations are ongoing, although we cannot determine the exact amount of loss, we believe that the reasonable estimate of the loss is between 2 and 5 million. No amount within that range is more likely outcome than any other amount. That's my answer for this copyright, copyright infringement. Do I have to disclose it? For sure I have to disclose it. Do I have to book a liability? Yes, I have to book a liability. Why? Because it's probable and I can estimate a number. And what's the number? Is it 2 million? Is it 5 million? Since it's between 2 and 5 and no number is more likely than the other, gaps as you can go with the 2 million because no number is more likely than another. So it could be 2, it could be 5, but we don't know the percentages. Therefore we can go with 2. That's it. This is done. Do I have to disclose? Of course I have to disclose. Do I have a liability for this? Of course I do. And the liability is remember 2 million, it's a liability, it's in parentheses. Done. Loan guarantee. Okay, do I have to disclose a loan guarantee? And if so, do I have a liability? Loan guarantee. Let me take a look at this legal counsel real quick later, make sure there's anything about this loan guarantee. There's a product liability here real quick. I'm looking at this real quick. Some water damage, state something from the state health and safety agency. Based on our review, we believe that will be subject to a penalty. That's fine. None of it, none of this about the about the loan guarantee. Well, there is an email regarding the loan guarantee right there. I missed it. Click on the loan guarantee email. Let's see what's in that email. From the controller to the accounting manager, we just received a notice from Birch Company and unrelated third party with respect to the loan guarantee we provided for the company. At the inception of the guarantee, you recognize $150,000 liability for this guarantee. It looks like we're going to be responsible for this. Now from the CFO of Birch Company to the controller, RAV has fully guaranteed an outstanding loan of half a million from Sunnytown Bank. Due to our deteriorating financial condition, we were unable to repay the loan, which was due on December 31, year three on January 15, year four, Sunnytown Bank deliver us a notice of default in accordance with the terms of our loan as a result of our default on the loan and our inability to pay it's probable that Sunnytown Bank will require you to perform as a guarantor. Please let us know if you have any questions. Very nice letter from them, right? In simple English, RAV guaranteed the loan of another company. Once you guarantee the loan of another company, hold on a second, whether that company is going to default or not, it's the answer is always yes. So if you guarantee the loan of another company, you always have to disclose it. Now whether you have to book a liability or not, that's a different story. This is what we have to determine now. And the answer is yes, if it's a probable, it's clearly probable. We're responsible. We're on the hook for that loan. RAV is on the hook. Therefore, they have to record the liability for the full amount of half a million for half a million. Okay. And accept property insurance claim. Let's go back here. Property insurance claim. It's not loan guarantee. It's not line of credit. I believe I saw on the letter for the legal console, there was something about property insurance claim. And it's right here. We have an insurance claim on October 15th. Let's take a look at this. One of RAV's facilities sustained significant water damage. At your request, we conducted the property insurance carrier to check on the status of the 2.5 million claim that RAV filed. So that's what they did. The outside counsel did that on December 27th, year three, the property insurance carrier acknowledged that the loss to be covered by the insurance policy is so good. So we're covered. However, the property insurance carrier stated that its adjuster is still reviewing the claim and does not expect it to settle until March year four. So they accepted the claim, basically said, don't worry. This event is covered by your insurance, but we cannot give you an answer yet. The property insurance carrier further indicated that any payment is subject to a deductible of 125. That's fine. Do we disclose this? No reason not to. We can disclose this. It's basically a contingent gain because we're going to be receiving some money from the insurance company. Do we book any asset? Do we book any receivable? And the answer is no, no, you don't. You don't book anything there. And the reason you don't book anything there is because gain contingencies, you cannot book them. You want to disclose them? That's fine. Especially if you disclose the event. You want to let the users know that you have an insurance claim pending and you're in good shape. That building is covered, but you don't book how much you're going to be getting. Wait until you get it. Conservatism. Five, penalty from state health and safety agency. Now I saw in that letter, I saw there was a letter from the state health and safety agency. And in the lawyer's letter, I saw something about this. So since that lawyer's letter is open, let me go down and take a look at what the outside council is saying. On November 28th, year three, the state health and safety agency completed its inspection of the facilities, noting several violations. Based on our review of the agency filing, we believe that you'll be subject to a penalty up to 175. That's what the outside, our outside council is saying. But before we make a decision on that, let's take a look at what the letter from the health and state agency is saying. Since we have this additional information, this letter is February 5th. This letter serves as a notice that you are being assessed the fine of 150. Well, our lawyer kind of, they went over the estimate related to a violation of the state health and safety codes that were identified on November 28th. Yes, this is what the lawyer was discussing. Our follow-up inspection indicated that the violation were appropriately remediated and there were no outstanding code violation. That's good. We complied. Now, do we have a contingencies to disclose about? Of course we do. Of course we do. Now, do we have to book an amount? Of course we do. Even the lawyer told us it's going to be 175. But now since we have the letter and we have the exact number, we're only going to book 150. That's fine. That's 150. Oops. Remember, it's a liability. It's negative. Okay. Product liability lawsuit. I believe the letter, that lawyer's letter, has something about the product liability lawsuit. So let's take a look at it. Product liability lawsuit. Let's close the state agency. Product liability lawsuit on September 15th, year three. Product liability lawsuit was brought against our company by a customer who sustained injuries while using our product. As of the date of this letter, we have completed our initial discovery and we believe the lawsuit is without merit. Good. That's easy. Given that the lawsuit lacks merit, we believe that the possibility that Rev will require to pay any amount is remote. What do we know about contingencies if it's remote and the case is without a merit? Companies get sued all the time. They ignore it. Do we have to disclose anything about this? No, we don't. We don't have to disclose. We don't have to book anything. We don't have to book anything. Why? Because it's without merit. We believe it's without merit. There is no liability to book. There is no liability to book. We don't even have to disclose it. It's like, it's a non-existing event. Letter of credit. Well, letter of credit, we have, I believe, two documents. Now, one document, actually two. Letter of credit. Let's see what this letter of credit is all about. This is from Megabank. Issued 1231 expiration a year later. Issued by Megabank. The company is our obligation. Beneficiary is supply company. Amount available. So, the bank may represent this letter of credit upon providing the following documentation within 21 days of the purchase. So, basically, this is a letter from the bank telling us we have a letter of credit of 1.5 million. Oh, that's great. It's good to have a letter of credit of 1.5 million. That's from the bank, but there is something else. You want to check everything. Email regarding letter of credit. Let's see what that email is about. From the Treasury Manager to the Purchasing Manager. Per your request, Megabank issued 1.5 million level of credit for the purchase from supply of raw material that are expected to be received February. So, they're telling us, look, we're telling the Purchasing Manager, go ahead and make the purchase. We have the letter of credit. Now, what do we have to do? Do we have to disclose if we have a letter of credit? Yes, we do. If you have a letter of credit, you just disclose. You have a letter of credit from the ABC bank or whatever bank, and it's for that amount 1.5 million. Do we have a liability on that letter of credit? No, we don't. We don't have any liability because it's just a letter of credit, and it's issued to us, and we can use it. That's all what's to it. It's like a credit card balance that we can use. So, this is how you would approach a simulation like this one. Look, I'm not disclosing anything about the exam, but this is an AI CPA simulation. So, I'm telling you, they're telling you, you could see something like this on the exam, and I know many students do say that they receive questions about contingent liabilities. So, don't worry what the simulation would look like. Worry about how to answer questions about contingent liabilities. If it's probable and you can estimate the amount, you have to book it. If it's not probable, you have to disclose it. If it's possible, you disclose it. If it's remote, you don't do anything. That's what you need to know to answer the questions for this, what looks like an intimidating CPA simulation. At the end, I'm going to remind you to stay calm, to stay confident. Farhad Lectures can help you understand the concept which are tested on the CPA simulation. You cannot prepare for a particular simulation, but what you can do is you can learn the material so any simulation they throw at you, you can learn the type of the simulation and the material so anything that they throw at you, you'll be good to go. Notice we didn't even use a calculator in all of this. Good luck, study hard. I'm always here for you and stay safe.


declare boldly and say the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom to Him be glory forever and ever. So maybe we can say it out loud and you can just say this with me and the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom to Him be glory forever and ever. May this be your experience also just like Paul that may the Lord stand with you and stand next to you even right now and strengthen you and make you able, empower you so that the message might be communicated, that your life would communicate it, communicate the message of the gospel fully through you. Yeah, let's pray and get started. Father, we we thank you Lord. We thank you Lord that you never leave, you never forsake Lord and whether it's in ministry, whether it's Lord anything that we are involved in God you are with us and like Paul and what he experienced God and everyone for Sukhum and everyone left, Lord you stood with him Lord and I just pray Lord may each one of us Lord experience that standing, the Lord standing with us, you standing with us, you standing next to us. Lord I pray that maybe experience today God that your hand upon us, your hand around us Lord your hand Lord your presence with us just encouraging the strengthening and saying I am with you you do not have to fear anything I am with you Lord may we experience that Lord experience that I am God may we experience your presence Lord with us and in us and strengthening us Lord and Lord empowering us so that we might go beyond what we think Lord we can do God that may we go beyond what we Lord the limitations Lord that we put on ourselves Lord Lord maybe go beyond that Lord Father God we pray that you will lead us that you would fill us this morning strengthen us and continue to Lord take us from glory to glory from strength to strength God we thank you we give you all the praise and all the glory right now in Jesus matchless name we pray amen amen okay awesome okay so this is class 2 class 3 I should say Christian leadership last class we looked at just the introduction right we looked at what leadership is and one of the ways of defining leadership not the way of defining leadership one of the ways is to you know is to define it by saying that leadership is about influence for good you know being an influence for good in people's lives to bring about change in one's thinking and behavior and to help either the individual or the group collectively to to reach accomplished goals and and this can be done with or without an official title yeah so yeah I just answer of me 17 and 18 so so we we saw the I mean we went by we looked at the definition of course we know that the scope of leadership really is really vast and you know sometimes definitions can be very restrictive we're aware of that because only so much you can put in and then leave out the whole lot but then this helps us to really define to really kind of encapsulate right bring into focus the heart of what leadership is so so we looked at that and then we also you know looked at how the scope of leadership you know leadership is of our subject so we're gonna focus on three areas leading through time winning with winning with others and then teamwork right and so those are three areas that we are looking at through this through these sessions okay so today let's go to section one and start off leading through time okay leading through time and we're going to look at various aspects which come under this module so we'll start with you know we'll start by looking at the life of Jesus the life of the Lord Jesus and some of the leadership insights right that we can we can derive and how we can actually put to use in our own lives right so leadership as Jesus modeled it and so we can look at it right so you know sometimes we make a differentiation between I don't know if you've done that but you know between make a differentiation in the sense okay so this is what faith is this is what the church says this is what I see in the Bible and but this is how I work in the real world and so I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and but this is how I work in the real world you know I don't know if you've kind of done that you know and this is what the Bible says this is what the principles that I see in the Bible but then you know in the real world I need to work it out this way because people are like this and sometimes in the back of our minds we we have this nagging you know maybe doubt will it really work you know if it works at what cost right so we are you know you're maybe you're working for a company maybe you're working you know for an organization maybe it's like you're running your own business and the thing is you know if all these leadership principles will it seem like you know how do I effectively work it out you know but it seemed like I'm too soft now will it really work how how do I actually do it right and maybe we've had you know be in our own minds we've we've had thoughts ideas and and say okay maybe this is how it is maybe it was you know wrongly implemented even right misplaced truth misplaced or you know truth you know executed in a misplaced manner so it didn't really give us the desired result right so maybe there's this you know so we just kind of demarketing okay you know this guy I really need to shout him down you know I really need to you know this any intimidate to manipulate him and and get the work done and this person you know we might have you know certain things like that in our minds but as we look at the life of Jesus as we look at the leadership qualities he walked in and he spelled out there are some things that we can there are many things that we can learn but if you look at life of Jesus you know here are some things that you know I you know we can we can conclude right now when we you know I attended once workshop called lead like Jesus it's actually something that was started by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges resource that was put together by them and so I attended a workshop and and some of which is learnings from that you know the things that I'm sharing are learnings from that so let me just put that here okay so when we look at the life of Jesus we see that he accomplished you know we see him accomplishing a mission with imperfect people okay just think about that all kinds of people different imprimands one guy very impulsive so impulsive that you know he jumps into water he's you know some of these things he does he draws a sword cuts off somebody's year very impulsive you know one one says I know even if I die I will not I will not deny you and then then we see him you know cursing and denying the Lord not just once but thrice you know we see all kinds of things all kinds of people one person who's putting the money you know put his hand into the into the treasure box and the collections and using it and you know okay so he accomplished this mission with imperfect people and his ability to establish and communicate clear purpose I'm sorry purpose is meant spelled purpose and direction right you're gonna look at that we're gonna look at that I think that was one of the first things that we're gonna see the purpose you know he was very clear he said this is what I came to do and nothing would deter him or distract him from the purpose and he communicated that to the disciples though they didn't understand it okay recruitment of people to accomplish the task okay he he selected he recruited the people to accomplish the task okay so training development I'm just putting these things in the chat and of course for the e-learning I'm just reading it out so you would also know so training development and delegation issues he he faced that and he sorted that very effectively well there was there was conflict within the team you know there are people who are talking about who should be the greatest who should sit at the left and right and there was also you know they used the influence or you know they didn't use but then there was influence from the family to you know to try to get that position so and as a result the team had some conflicts so he managed that managing demands of time energy and resources right right from BBC in scripture I mean it's amazing he spent the day I mean he started early or you know early early in the morning he started with spend time in prayer spend time he goes to goes by himself he comes down and it's like the whole thing starts right we we see that they're going from you know one place to another to minister and to you know the teaching and they're traveling and it's it's it's pretty hectic and you know he he was very good at managing the time managing his energy and there were times when he said okay now let's withdraw let's come by yourselves and then rest and and he do he did that right then dealing with competition you know there were others who came and and then he got news of that and said you know there are others who are doing the same thing and they were using your name and and very effectively said you know he who is not against his use you know it was doing the same is sorry he was not scattering is actually gathering so let them be and of course he had faced betrayal lack of understanding by family members he he faced that as well then there was also you know if you look at his life you see there's there was also constant scrutiny and challenges to commitment and challenges to his integrity which he handled there was all kinds of temptation right temptation Satan for the season just brought in temptation one after the other temptation to misuse power temptation to give up the mission then temptation to to turn from the from who he would worship and turn and hand over their legions etc. he faced temptation then this factions rejection criticism opposition phase that and also in his life we see that there was personal sacrifice in in serving the good so you see that the Lord Jesus did all that and and you know if you if you go through you know this entire list we see that you know maybe either in ministry in life in you know I'm just using these terms as separate compartments but we know that it is just one thing you know you could be working in an organization and ministering and serving as well you know working in a company but what I'm just for the sake of differentiation you know that maybe you're what is so called full-time ministry or maybe you're working in an organization maybe you're running a business you're teaching you're whatever right you face all kinds of you know these kinds of challenges these are real issues these are real challenges and the way the Lord Jesus led the way the Lord Jesus lived his life the principles that he lived by he was able to face this he was able to overcome this he was able to manage these things he was able to sort these things out right so so if we have any you know doubts about whether the whether the actual workability of it the feasibility of the principles the leadership principles as as taught as embodied by the Lord Jesus then you know these are just proof that yes that we can our lives we can walk the same path right we can do that and this this works and over and above over and about that you know these things over and about looking at looking at these as just mere principles as believers you and I have an edge in the sense that we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us we have those who is called the spirit of revelation and wisdom and here the spirit of revelation and wisdom imparting revelation and wisdom for us you know moment by moment day by day and not just that but also empowering us empowering our choices in I mean empowering us to make those correct choices or those wise choices so we have all this so there's no doubt there should be no doubt that we can live by these principles okay so we gonna look at even as we look at just we're gonna look at just seven things seven insights about how the Lord Jesus led but I'm sure there will be more but he was going to look at seven things but in our minds we don't have to have any doubt you know okay maybe certain things didn't work maybe there are other reasons why it didn't work there are other factors why you know things didn't work okay so so let's look at this with a you know a fresh right let me share the the notes again the notes are there in the classwork section so you could check that okay so just coming up on screen so let's look at leadership as the Lord Jesus modeled it okay so like we saw last class we saw that the Lord Jesus modeled a very radical a very it was a very paradigm shift in leadership in the sense he came to serve he came to serve others he came as a servant leader and he was not a self-serving leader but he came to serve others and we see that and if we read from Matthew chapter 20 and there was 25 to 28 he he puts it very clearly and said Jesus called them to himself and said you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lauded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them okay so which means that the Lord wasn't like ignorant of what was happening right he was pointing the disciples to what was really happening you know you know that this is the trend you know that this is the leadership style of you know what we see around you know this is what happens predominantly okay and and he's saying you know this is what it is right this is what happens this is the reality of you know what you see around verse 26 yet it shall not be so among you yet it shall not be so among you meaning that you're saying guys you know it's not an option it's not an option of course you have a free will to choose but it's not an option for a follower of the Lord Jesus for a disciple of the Lord Jesus a lot of saying it is not an option yet it shall not be so among you okay but whoever desires to be become great among you let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you let him be your slave and just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for any so so he qualified it said you know this is how it is that if you want to be great if you desire to be a great leader if you if you desire to be you know a top leader top notch leader then this is how it is that you desire to serve you become a servant meaning you you you look out for the needs of others you you fulfill that you serve them and and this is what this is what you do right and it's right after actually interesting to see it's right after you know the sons of Zebedee come and the mother comes and has this conversation so let me just read out then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to him with her sons kneeling down and asking something from him and he said to her what do you wish she said to him grant that these sons of mine two sons of mine may sit one on your right and other left in your kingdom but Jesus answered and said you know you do not know what you ask are you able to drink the cup that I'm about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with they said to him we are able so obviously they've had a family consultation and mother and sons and you know this is it they said we are able so he said to them you will indeed drink my cup and be baptized with a baptism that I am baptized with but to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but it is for those for whom it is prepared by my father and when the 10 heard it they were greatly displeased with the two brothers how can you even how can you guys even think about it how can you do this right then Jesus brings forth this he calls them and then he shares so that is the context so he's talking about you know hey let me just tell you how to be a great leader okay let me just tell you how to be a top top-notch leader this is how you do it right you you determine that you want to serve others you determine you know the view that you that you will be a servant that you will serve that minister and then you will be a great leader and verse 28 just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many now whether they appreciate it whether they you know receive it or not you know the when he gave his life as a ransom for many many it was it was of course a great risk you know there are many who did not who would not accept who would not receive right but he did it anyway right so in our serving yeah they made it might be it might be the reality that it will be looked down upon it might not be appreciated but the Lord gives us no option really verse 26 yet it shall not be so among you okay so the thing is to really do it with wisdom and do it in the right manner possible do it with the grace that he gives us and it need it should not be a misplaced one okay so may the Lord give us understanding right John chapter 13 verse 12 to 15 when he had washed his feet taken his garments and sat down again he said to them do you not know what I have done to you okay you call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet you also ought to wash one another's feet for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you now in our own minds you know okay this is an example of serving again practically he did it and he said okay this is what it is you know you ought to do as I have done to you know I being your teacher I being your Lord and I I served you in this manner so as I have given you an example with this action with my life and teaching you should do as I have done to you okay so so he really set the bar he really set the standard I think we have a question okay Shri Kumar go ahead Shri Kumar thank you pastor pastor as you now as you explain the way how how to serve how Jesus has put across a you know a certain example before us so in a corporate you know corporate area how can this this can be implemented like now the way how Jesus did and and can we do the same way yeah it is like many times you know people are not you know the same same same mindset same sometimes people are very rebel sometimes people are very arrogant in that case how you can you know how can you serve like how Jesus washed the feet of the disciples can we do that whether it is really applicable or whether it will work out I just want to thank you pastor yeah yeah so let's say you know you are you have some peers who are who look down on you who are you know very I don't know who are you know very abrasive very difficult to get along with who are constantly undermining you or maybe trying to bring you down okay so so thing is to ask the question you know how can I serve them how can I be a leader in this situation with these people how can I serve them the thing is okay the Lord Jesus also faced a similar you know similar challenges right so now the setting is let's say okay people are there the setting is maybe a formal organization so how can I serve you know one thing that comes to my mind of course others can just weigh in who had you know had that experience one thing that comes to my mind is okay to find out okay what is the challenge what is the need this person is facing with regard to the role okay with regard to the work does he or she need any empowerment in terms of training in terms of skill that I have what is it that I can give okay what is it that I can bring in now so you so that that's something that you know you can think of pray about and say okay what is it in this manner I can serve it could be just some act of kindness you know it's in a very simple way way today a relational thing and just an act of kindness maybe harsh word is spoken but you don't react or respond with even harsher word right so that is again you know reflecting Christ's likeness but you know specifically when we think about serving then you know we can what comes to my mind is that if they have a need if they have a challenge or you know there arises a situation where you know one needs to lend a helping hand one needs to work together it's a team one needs to work together and definitely if you know if there seems to be some kind of a relational tension and you know the normally you know you don't react in the flesh normally we would want to react in the flesh and say okay I'm not going to you know I'm just going to hold back information so that this person doesn't succeed or I'm going to you know things happen you know I worked in a sales and an organization like and I worked I worked for you know in the sales function so there was this company that I worked with we were selling pages we were selling pages and it was a very difficult time in the sense the the paging industry was virtually shutting down you know it was moving on to mobiles transitioning on to mobile phones but we were in that company at the wrong place wrong time you know kind of thing so we would sell one page we would have like three four disconnections the same day people moving on to mobile so it was very the pressure was really so much so the thing is all the sales guys you know we had to there would be some inquiries coming in and it had to be shared with all the sales guys and there would be this you know it will come come to our customer service executives and they would actually give it out so the guys would do a lot of things you know like to to make sure that they get the one person or they would probably give money they would give gifts to the customer service executives just to make sure that they get everything and all the sales inquiries just to go ahead and do that and they would not share with others if there would be no teamwork it would be heavy you know backstabbing and teamwork and so on so so in such an environment you know to be a believer to be like a servant leader it was very difficult you know it was extremely difficult but at the same time I think God just gave me the grace to do that I don't know how to what extent I was you know but of course I was I was having my own issues as a believer in a lot of strongholds but I but I remember you know when I as I was leaving the organization exactly shut down like one of the customer service executives saying this guy is a very very straightforward guy you know all the other guys would come and do this and and this this lady actually there was an office get together and this lady shared that with my wife so there was this get together as a dinner and then she said this is very straightforward I've seen a lot of sales guys very straightforward so it is possible and the Lord would give victory you know the Lord would give openings like in the sense there'll be a call call I'll just go there and it'll end up I'll end up finishing the sale you know and then some some corporate inquiry would come and then so the Lord would give grace so that's that's one of the things right so this is one example that I could think of anyone else wants to you know if you've worked in an organization if you can just help share and maybe it'll be helpful to Sri Kumar and the others also please go ahead yeah sir please correct me thank you pastor so I am a part of organization and we are kind of exploring this so it's a very new organization and we just kind of doing a few things but some one of the things that we constantly are struggling with is defining the role of a leader and the more and more we explore into this at least in my mind what I'm realizing is more than anything else it's it's it comes down to functioning like what is the function of a leader you know rather than a possession so so like for example if if there's a guy whose job is to assign roles like okay you'll be in charge of media you'll be in charge of sound you'll be so so there is a role assigned so we we ourselves select a guy who we think has the wisdom the experience to be able to assign roles and so you can call him a leader call him a driver we're trying I think this leader the word is so heavy you know culturally immediately when someone says leader there's there's an automatic hierarchy position created so that that creates a certain mindset the moment you hear someone being the leader so so for me for us we are thinking of functions you know who who is good for a particular role a particular function and and that person what does that like like you were saying you know what empowerment does that person need what training does the person need to be able to do that function properly and in today's session as you were sharing about the sons of zebedee and and also Jesus washing his disciples feed something that that that I'm thinking of is I don't know the culture then but I'm thinking again the culture there is predominantly of hierarchy you know there's like what first level second level third level etc so who gets to sit on the right hand and left hand are at a higher level than who gets to you know and one of the things that I see Jesus trying to do is bringing about like a flat structure and and saying like you know so it's it's almost like going against the the structure of a hierarchical structure and bringing more of an equivalence and egalitarian structure is is what I'm sensing and and that to me is quite appealing. So in a in a practical setting like Shri Kumar asked you know what do you think would help you know to be a servant leader to serve others you know who may not see eye to eye with you who might you know kind of you're saying rebelling and all that so how can you serve such a team how can you serve such you know such colleagues as a servant leader anything any thoughts I think for me in in that case so two things one is let's say if Shri Kumar was my team member and I'm the designated leader per se so I think something that would help me and Shri Kumar work together would be a clarity in our roles like you know what what what position what role Shri Kumar has and what role I have and and what do we need getting clarity in our roles and functions like what does he need and how can I support him with that versus what do I need and and how can Shri Kumar help me support me with that so I think it just comes down to function and support supporting each other with that food. Yeah I think yeah I think that that word support because you know the roles are defined the roles are clearly defined it comes with a job description you know the time you join etc so they may not be an opportunity to redefine it you know unless it's you know a situation demands that but so in a setting where you know it's it's already spelled out so yeah so what you said about support I think that's that's a good takeaway so like so to say in how can I support despite their personality you know despite despite our differences how can I support and that's a way of selling right okay okay anyone else would like to maybe if you have gone through a real-life you know setting maybe I think that will also be helpful is Rupa here Rupa in your Hagai seminars or the thing have you come across any case studies any real-life settings you can share that also I think we'll take one more yeah first there are like two things that come into my mind one is in a setting where I was actually a manager and I had about 40 plus team members and one of these guys was quite different a believer he was the only believer in my entire team but the kind of attitude that he carried he was different yeah he was different yeah he literally on an appraisal discussion told me that promotion comes from God not you so he he's he's and he so it's like setting the values very clearly I'm standing for them so it's like a raised up role or a raised up salary these are not the motivations when you're working at a workplace when you are very clear about it people really get confused what drives you like you know many a times there are some people at workplace we know that if there is something that is that needs to be done without honoring the values they say this guy cannot do it because that guy stands for the values very well and the organization knows because right from day one he is very hard on standing for the values so you when you want to do something wrong they always pick and choose who who is it good to give that job so you should you should take a strong stand right from day one and do not budge no matter what like whoever it is because it sometimes it's over a period of time you might lose on something momentarily but over a period of time you people will know you for standing for those values and that will help on a longer run there are there will be bigger things that will come on your way and the smaller things that you let go of would would just be a test that you have cleared yeah so values and standing for them so so how do you bring that into serving in a serving kind of a situation so like at the end when it comes to serving serving is not for the individual serving is always in the sense of accomplishing the purpose who what you have called for Jesus displayed servant leadership to show the humility of like the position of what he has come for not the person whom he is washing his feet no we we don't serve in an organization a particular individual we serve the organization as a whole and stay aligned with the vision that the organization is called for so as long as we stay focused on that it's easy to make decisions because the things that come on our way they all come on our way because a boss who is very powerful is asking you to do something that's against the values set forth for the organization then you can clearly make a decision because you are here to serve the organization not the person actually in ethics there are like three perspectives like utilitarian justice and rights perspective you know each one talks about one thing like utilitarian is all about for everyone's common good and involved with justice and the rights we are not compromising on the rights of individuals so we have to look at all the three perspectives and make a decision that serves the purpose of the organization as a leader we are influencing for something good not something that is that's the purpose that has been established not an individual then it becomes more clearer on making the decision right right i think that was helpful yeah thank you yeah yeah rupa i see the scripture that you said thank you yeah go ahead please just few thoughts while we were sharing last time the spirit of god was ministering on to me on those lines on which will be helpful for the whatever we are discussing now i think the one thing is when we study about Jesus servant leadership uh his heart is completely in tune with his master the father god completely in tune with the master and he knows just like uh uh darun has shared he knows his master's plan and purpose completely and he is in in obedience to it and he is very clear about his identity and authority and he doesn't have to prove himself to anyone there uh he doesn't have any ego issues when when he comes to that and uh where i also realize that he's not only self-seeking but he's also self-sacrificing and calling his disciples to a model that to sacrifice ourselves and empowering us to do that and yeah that's what i realize sir and whenever i come across this difficult situation where we most of the time and ministry because she uh brother she kumar is also in ministry we face a lot of opposition a lot of people backbiting and all that is part of the job so when we take it as part of the job and just don't concentrate on those negative things but concentrate on the master who has called us and just do the job as we are doing it on to them and each individual counts i think in the ministry because god in god's side each one is very valuable and we have to respect them and when we start respecting them in spite of what they are doing to us and what they are trying to plan or uh team against us when we stand on this line of loving and serving and just doing a part and uh not talking about them behind and just respecting them over the time we can win them over right over the time it takes a long time it is not done in a uh day or two because that person is very important to god and only god can give us that love for that person because we will only look at them as uh when we see the negative qualities when we concentrate on them the the whole purpose of god is lost and we cannot serve him as servant leaders that's what i learned sir thank you all right thank you so i think both Arun and Rupa uh what you said yeah yeah i brand yeah um yeah please go ahead yeah sorry i forgot yes thank you sir i i'm thinking that uh when we talk about leadership we are talking about management and if we talk about management it means that we are helping people to do what they are supposed to do in the context of christ we could see that we had a standard and his purpose was to help us to meet up with that standard so to me a leader is someone who stands with a standard and also helps the people especially those who are willing and obedient to meet up to that standard so it's not about telling people to do certain things it's not about standing with the people so that they can accomplish their own purpose that in the view of a leader that's what i think sir right thank you thank you abraham yeah so um yeah that was that was a good insight and also yeah like what i was saying um like what Arun and Rupa shared also uh i think the the the main important thing is to not lose sight of the big picture um like in the in the case of uh you know the lord jesus he was very clear about what the father wanted and uh and that was the the big we're going to look at purpose um so that was something that he was going after and um like Rupa also rightly pointed out well people are connected and people are precious and people are part of it right uh but at the same time not at the cost of fulfilling that purpose i think that's what thermo is also sharing like uh well you're serving the organization and people are there but then if if there is a conflict between like serving the organization and serving the people and and not really you know these the the ethics that he shared the utilitarian rights and justice perspectives of the ethics um if there is a compromise in that without compromising that right of course but uh you know uh without compromising that if there is a conflict then uh one has to take a stand right so uh so so the thing is if the the the reason why most times you know uh whether it's uh you know loving someone right you you love them and uh but then love also involves uh communicating uh something in truth right if we lose that perspective of truth and um you know and lose that perspective of holiness and everything it is love um you know we are you know communicating love and you know demonstrating love but we lose the perspective of truth uh in demonstrating love then you know then then it is it is misplaced love right so um i think that's that's when the that's where the challenge is and that's where the problems come in and that's where it becomes you know what people call sloppy agape you know it agape is it's good it's it's very uh strengthening transformative uh empowering but if it's uh it's misplaced uh then it's it becomes an issue yeah so prabhakar shares and he says i think one of the ways of serving as a leader is to show others how to be successful yeah like how they did it kind of declaring that i'm not a competition to you but somehow wanting to see your growth i think that's um very true prabhakar and and a person who is not really constrained by you know ego is not constrained by wanting to serve oneself who's totally liberated uh would do that you know who has a very uh you know is secure in the identity you know as who we are in Christ would really be liberated to you know to to do that right right thank you so we'll take a break and then uh we will come back at 11 right thank you


Here's what it comes down to.  If you want to deal with a man who has his things, has his life on the ball, if you think these questions are asked were tough, when a man has real money on the line, real stuff on the line, a lot of stuff, you'll never even hear these questions. High value men aren't just going to throw it all to the air just for a piece of tail. And far too many women think they're cute and they'll just say, okay, I'll just have a man come in and take care of me. I mean, it's troubling to hear women say that they left their man to go be on welfare or he wouldn't work, but he's here all the time.  Nothing. And we got to get this thing straightened out between the people from 36 to 60 years old.   The younger folks, they're getting better information than any of us have. But that's where the real obstinate group of people are.  And again, you're talking about a group of people who the dollar doesn't circulate but six hours in our community. The woman that I hung up on, she can't tell me she has property, money, anything else. You are better living with a man than without him. Let's talk about it. Let's just say the dude, he wouldn't keep a job and we risk foreclosure. So you have no forgiveness in your heart. The man can't make any mistakes, can't make any failures. See, she didn't say he wasn't there and he has to be somewhat stable if he's coming by every two or three days. You notice when I even said, well, the defining question, I need you ladies to evaluate where your daughter is happier with their daddy in the house or out and she would not give it to him. They're always happy. Really? That's a wow. Look at how we look at each other. So you're talking about black women aren't protected in this and that. Well, when you have disdain and low level contempt for your black male counterpart, when they got to be perfect and even that ain't good enough, we'll Smith got cheated on the guy who didn't work out, you know, got kicked out of the house.  Talk about leaving her. I mean, like. Sisters, you hear this? When are y'all going to start talking to each other and start saying, you know what? Maybe we need the other side of the story. Maybe maybe there's something to this, you know, stuff that these guys are talking about. Maybe they all ain't hurt who hurt you or this or that. I mean, everybody can be crazy, right? All right. So that's where we're at throwing people away. I hope you go with throwing people away. The Bible, the old adage in the Bible, judge not less, you be judge. No, what it really means for how you judge for you will be judged the same way. That means if you're judging harshly, you'll be judged harshly. I hope nothing. It is easy to make harsh decisions with people when you have your health. But think about it. We're in a pandemic right now. Imagine if that woman who put her who divorced her husband because he wouldn't keep no job fell ill. Do you think her ex-husband would be there to take care of her in the chat room? I want to hear how many people feel like her ex-husband would be there to take care of her if she fell ill.  And see, sadly, we've got so many black women who just cannot. The ego just won't allow. I just can't have a man who won't work. And there are women to be like, yeah, I understand, so let's understand. OK, good. But you got no man in the house. Well, he ain't no man, no way. He ain't making no money. That's how you want to judge. You'll be judged the same way. That's some foul stuff, in my opinion. But we get everybody to make their choices. I will say this, though, that getting out here dating kinds of me like, oh, no, no, no, they don't. They're going to run your car facts. They're going to see why you did what you did and who you did it with. And they are going to act accordingly. But anyway, until the next time, peace, we are gone.


All right, Kimberly writes, Jonathan, I asked my guy deep questions, you suggested, and he asked me to quit watching you. Is this normal behavior? Is it normal behavior? It is certainly, okay, so most likely he either feels threatened by my content or he's not capable of going emotionally deeper. Either he's threatened by my content or he's unable to go emotionally deeper. So then this is an opportunity for you to ask yourself, does this man have the emotional capacity to be in the kind of relationship I like? Now folks, I'm not here to suggest you can't be in a relationship with a man who has no emotional capacity. You can be with men who are an emotional vacuum if you wish. If they pay the bills and take care of you, that's an option. But thankfully women aren't dependent upon men like they used to be in the past. So, and not to suggest that your boyfriend has to fill your emotional basket, if you will. But why would you want to be in a relationship with someone who couldn't be radically honest with you where you couldn't be vulnerable, authentic, and transparent? You know, most people will tell you who have been married 30, 40, 50 years who are happily married. They all say the same thing. I married my best friend. I married my best friend. And what that means is I married somebody that I can say almost anything to. I don't have to say everything, but I can say anything to. Knowing that it's a safe place, that's what friendship means. So, it's hard to say why he's threatened by it. But my guess is it's cause he's not able to go emotionally deeper. And by the way, I always recommend leading by example. This is why I always recommend reading these books together.  Otherwise, you're just in a casual relationship or a situation ship. And if you want something more, then I invite you to do the work together to decide if this is the relationship I wanna invest in for the short term or the long term. And that's my invitation for you. By the way, I also recommend checking the book, Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. This is a brilliant book, a brilliant book to learn how to communicate in a healthier way. So, listen, you can tell him I'm saying this right now. Why are you so threatened by my videos? Is there something that you can't share with us? Call me up, I'll get on the phone with you, dude. If you wanna get on the phone and talk to me, I'll do it. Because guess what? Your lady wants to go deeper on an emotional level. And if you genuinely care about her, if you really care about her, then why not invest in some of the books I recommend and do this work together? Because listen, these days, ladies, the cow is for free. You can get the, what's the expression? Why buy the milk? Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? The milk and the cow are free. There's little of nowhere investment people have to make. So I'm suggesting radical honesty as your investment to one another, to be vulnerable, to be authentic, to be transparent, to go beyond the surface of these casual dating rhetoric that's creating little or no emotional safety together. And I yell at the top of my lungs just like a child would be touching fire. I'm yelling so you don't make the mistakes that everybody else is making. And I'm like your big brother, I've got that shotgun there on your date.  So dude, I'm gonna talk to you right now. What are your intentions with my YouTube follower? What are your intentions? All right, Shannon writes in with a question. Question, I've gotten really close to my neighbor who is my age at 40s. He does everything for me and texts me every day and he is like my best friend. He won't do anything physical with me.  I mean, folks, I mean, I just say, listen, I don't have a, I have a filter. I also say this for comedy. What you might wanna say is, look, we seem to have a great relationship. Would you be interested in exploring this beyond friendship? Would you be interested in exploring this beyond friendship? Now that's one thing you can say to him. The other thing you can do is have a couple cocktails and get flirty with him. That's another thing you can do. You can tell him I'm really attracted to you. I'm physically attracted to you. Just let it slip out in conversation. That might be enough of a hint, but this is the time for your green light. This is the time for you to drop the hanky. You can simply say, I'd like to explore a romantic relationship together. I'd like to jump your bones. I'd like to explore the physical with you beyond the friendship. That's at least an option. And you could even just simply start by saying, I'm physically attracted to you. That gets a guy's peacock going. If he's genuinely interested, now here's the thing. I invite you to ask yourself, does he have childhood wounds and traumas? Does he have adult traumas? Does he do personal development work? Because he may only be capable of friendship and may not be able to go deeper. And that's okay too. But I'd rather you make effort and fail than make no effort whatsoever. We men are used to it. And by the way, we have been beat, we made lots of, we make effort and we get rejected. We make effort and we get rejected. We make effort and we get rejected. This is why men's hearts are just as fragile as women's hearts, because we've been rejected over and over again. And after a while that wears on our emotional psyche as well. So just try to get an understanding of where he's at, where he's at emotionally and give it a try. Listen, what do you got to lose?  By the way, there's a great Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine talk about not screwing up the friendship if they have sex together. I would highly recommend looking it up. It's the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine are talking about exploring sex together, but they didn't wanna ruin the friendship. So you might wanna even watch that episode ahead of time with them to kind of tee it up. That's just a suggestion anyway. So coming back to your question, Shannon, I hope that helps out. And when you say he won't do anything physical, that's certainly representative of being respectful of you. And I don't think it's gonna hurt. I don't think it'll hurt your friendship if you're honest with him. It might make it a little bit uncomfortable, but I'd rather you give it a shot than waste your time or having regret.


Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for being here. Since we're in the town meeting break and most school budgets were voted out this week, I wanted to talk a little bit more about education. As you know, yesterday we saw about a third of school budgets get voted down. And while some delayed votes who are already seeing far more voted down, and then we typically see, I know going back to the drawing board won't be easy for school boards and administrators. And identifying tools for help has proven to be not that easy for legislative members either. But given how rare these no votes are, this should be a wake up call for everyone. We won't know the exact impact on tax rates and bills until later this spring. But our most recent projection show on average for monitors will see a 19% increase in their property taxes. Again, it will take some time to see the exact impact of the final school budgets. But at the start this year, we projected education spending to increase by about $230 million over last year. And keep in mind, we already spend $2.1 billion on pre-K through 12 education today. With fewer than 83,000 kids, that's about $25,000 per student among the very highest in the country. And that's before this year's increase. Now, some may think that spending more than nearly every other state on education is a good thing. And in many cases it would be. But there are a few reasons why this spending is concerning. First, despite spending a lot more per student than most other states, when it comes to student performance in several areas, we're in the middle of the pack, according to the U.S. Department of Education. And state and national tests show less than half of our 3rd and 4th graders are reading at grade level. And the results are similar when it comes to math. As I've said before, this is not a critique of students, teachers, or parents. But it does tell us that not enough of the $2.1 billion in the increases we see every year is making it to our kids. Second, we simply don't have enough kids in Vermont. Yet school budgets and property taxes continue to grow this year by a record amount. And third, we don't have enough taxpayers to support this level of spending. One of the only states spending more per student in Vermont is New York, with a population that's 30 times larger and a more vibrant economy. Most furbunners can't afford a double-digit increase in their property taxes, or any increases in anything, for that matter. Take my hometown of Berlin, for example, where the proposed increase would mean almost $1,000 more for a $200,000 home. The average family is going to have to make some difficult decisions over the next year if that holds true, as they contemplate what they can do without. Not to mention those with higher incomes. And more flexibility, who also know there are more affordable options out there, other states they could move to. I'm concerned this could put our education system further at risk. So I know it's uncomfortable to talk about money and spending, especially when it comes to our kids' education. But the fact is, we have to be realistic about what people can afford. If we want any chance of continuing to offer quality education in Vermont. We also have to be honest about what we're getting for what we're spending. As I've said before, if we were just given a check for $2.1 billion to educate 83,000 students, I dare say that we designed something totally different than we're seeing today. This is why I propose major cost containment proposals that would reinvest savings in things like childcare and early learning, STEM, career training, and higher education, helping us improve outcomes for kids and keep property taxes in check. With the kind of cradle to career approach I've been advocating for since 2017, we could give kids a better start and open up more career opportunities. At the same time, a stronger education system at a price the average person can afford would attract more working families, which means more taxpayers, not more taxes. But you can't attract more working families or keep the ones you have if you can't afford to live here, which is again why my team has focused on finding ways to achieve this vision without a payroll tax for childcare, without new or higher taxes for the general fund, and without exploding property tax bills. Here's a few things I propose in the past that I believe would have helped. Moved school budget votes so we have a better view of statewide spending. Save money on school employee health care without reducing benefits. Increase the staff to student ratio through natural attrition, still keeping us among the lowest in the nation. Adjust the income sensitivity formula to target those who need it. Added guardrails for towns that can afford to overspend at the expense of those who can't. I vetoed three budgets to get some buy-in on some of these proposals, but nearly all of them were ignored, and the few that were taken up were changed significantly enough to make them ineffective. More recently, when Act 127 passed, I asked the legislature to address the cost pressures it created before it went into effect, which they didn't do. Although they did finally address the cap issue a few weeks ago, but it's likely too late to make a difference. Even calls for greater transparency on spending increases and more voting by mail has fallen on deaf ears. On top of cost containment, my team has made growing our workforce and creating more housing top priorities. Both are essential to showing up our education system, but as yet, I haven't seen the House or Senate pass a single housing bill out of their respective chambers. Unfortunately, because the legislature didn't act on the things that I proposed to them in the past, it's going to be very difficult to bring this year's increase down to anything close to reasonable. So it's a bit frustrating when I hear the legislature demanding I come up with some new ideas. Despite all the ideas I put on the table in the past, which they rejected. And especially when many legislators said I was just fear mongering about this increase back in December. And they would get it down to 2%. So I'd love to hear their ideas on how to do that. And I totally understand. The ideas I put forward in the past would be difficult and take a lot of work to implement. But if we acted on any one of them, we'd be in a better place today where the decisions and changes needed will be much harder or urgent and much, much more painful. So it's important we learn from our mistakes because we've got to get serious about structural changes to make sure more of the money we spend is getting to the 83,000 kids we serve. And the people who live, work and invest in Vermont can afford it. If we don't, if we just pull the money out of another pocket to close the gap or just raise another tax, we'll be right back in the position next year. And the next year after that and the year after that. Our kids and our taxpayers deserve better. So with that, I'm sure you might have a couple of questions. A lot of the ideas you've proposed have come from recommendations in 2017 and 2018. I'm wondering what, you know, hasn't the system changed a lot since then COVID, you know, new burdens on schools? Why might it not be time for new ideas? Because we have just basic structural ideas that we think are still relevant today. And as I said, we believe that we put some of those in place over time that we'd be in a better position today. They're still relevant. They don't have to be new ideas. And I'm more than willing to listen to what their ideas are as well. Because, and I've said that, you know, we have our ideas that we believe that can be tested off and at least discussed. But they must have ideas as well. And there's probably studies out there somewhere that have been done over the last decade or two that could be relevant, I would think. Because this isn't a new problem. This has been evolving over ever since Act 60 passed. It's been evolving. And I know they've tried to put some fixes in there. I think Governor Douglas tried to fix it with Act 68, maybe. But it hasn't fixed the structural problems we face. I think we're going to have to be bold. We're going to make some tough decisions. It won't help anything today in this budget. But it'll help in future budgets. And we have to look forward. Is it time to look at our, just reforming the education funding formula from the bottom? I mean, it's property taxes now, but like funding it fundamentally in some other way? I think so. I think it's time. There's an evolution of all of these funding formulas. And this might have reached its life expectancy. So I think we should contemplate that. But at this point in time, I've heard many say, well, we should just go to some sort of an income tax as well. Add to that to get ourselves out of this. And that's just taking money out of another pocket. That's just going to burden Vermonters further. It's not going to help the situation. So I think it is time. But it's just adding another tax isn't the answer. Did Act 46 district sort of consolidation law back in 2015-16, do you think that went far enough? And if not, I mean, is there more of that stake in doing proactively with school consolidation? I do think consolidation is part of the answer. When we have the reduction of the number of students we serve at this point in time and that keeps dropping. There comes a time when you have an infrastructure that is too expensive and too large to serve the number of kids you have. So that means closing schools, small schools, and combining efforts with schools. I've always looked at here in this region. I mean, you have up to your high school right here. You have U32 about four or five miles from here. You have Spalding about eight miles from here. I mean, it seems like there's something more we could do to consolidate fine efficiencies within the system and be able to have a quality education as a result. And I guess when these decisions right now are made for a local level, I think it was, is it a cap? Is the one that the town meeting, the voters voted to keep it open again. You know, these are our community hubs. You know, they're the heartbeat, if you will, of your community. So how do you bridge that gap? You've got these local decisions that are made but like big statewide challenges. Yeah, these are difficult decisions. I think it was Shapp Smith who said, when he was speaker, he said everyone wants us to save money. Everyone wants us to close some of these schools, but no one wants it to be their own. And I think that says it all, that we have to make those for here now. I mean, a 20% increase in property taxes would lead us, most people, to believe we have to make some choices. We have to make some decisions. And I think we're going to have to help on the state level as well to force those decisions. I know at one point when I was in the Senate, we had, after the moratorium was put into place in school construction, we left in place an incentive to combine schools to consolidate. In fact, we increased the level of participation from the state for that. There was not a single taker, as I remember. What are the concrete next steps for you as it relates to solving the problem that you've identified, as it relates to education spending? Yeah, we'll have to first of all see what the results are of the failed school budgets, but that's not going to fill the gap. We know that. As I said, well over $200 million, that's why I was surprised when legislators said we were going to be able to buy it down, which I knew we couldn't. So at this point in time, we have to do, we have to work together, try and figure out what we can push forward. And we can't use this for political wedges. That's been used against me for seven or eight years. Every time I brought something up early on about doing something with a statewide teacher contract, then I had the NEA outpicketing me on State Street. We brought up something about anything, healthcare, consolidation, anything. It was met with resistance and just to make a statement about the next election. So I think, you know, this is real. It affects people. We have to also make sure that we're not doing anything else that would burden Vermont as any further in other initiatives. I mean, I hear again, many legislators are talking about, I think they're in denial about the position we're in because they're still talking about spending more money. We don't have any more money without raising taxes. And we're at a tipping point here. And we're going to do some real harm if we don't pay attention, try and figure this out and try to keep it from getting any worse in the future. But we're not going to solve this $200 million problem this year. I don't believe there's going to be a property tax increase. In the short term for FY25, do you think buying down rates as part of the solution to this immediate issue? But I don't know how we do it. We don't have any funding to do that. So I don't know how you buy it down. So at this point? I think we have to prepare ourselves that we're going to be able to work it down. And I know, again, school boards are going to have to do a lot of work and it's not going to have a huge effect. I mean, it's not going to take care of the $200 million, but it'll have some effect on local tax rates.  On your school board, how did you know? I voted no. And what do you, if school board members look to you and said, what do we have to do to get you to vote yes on this thing? What would you tell them? I think we have to just do the best they can to try and find efficiencies within the system. Look longer term. What is it they have for ideas? They're on the local level. What is it they think we can do that's palatable and just get it down as far as they can? I think this did send a huge message to legislators that we got a problem. National grid wants a cancellation of the total states energy limit project. Yeah, I thought that was unfortunate. I didn't see that one coming at this point in time. Hopefully I haven't had a chance to talk to our commissioner about this yet. But the TVI line comes to mind in the in the other half of the state that is still viable, I believe. And hopefully we can move forward with that if National Grid isn't an option. Because I believe, you know, New England still needs the power. I really had, when I was at the National Governors Association, the New England Governors got together and I heard our, you know, friends to the south were promoting the fact that they didn't have any renewable energy available to them. So there's a need. We just have to figure out how to get it to them. And I believe TVI could be part of the solution. I've advocated for that for six years. And with today, it's another annual flooding. We're sort of in the flood warning for some towns in Washington County. Another early wet season week, almost. Going up the heels of the disaster information that you're advocating for. Any thoughts on how you're changing and how that's impacting your waters with these? Yeah, it's a couple things. One, climate change is impacting the length of our winter or the lackluster winter we had. So we have to, again, do everything we can to acknowledge that and move away from carbon emitting vehicles, as well as getting to more renewable, carbon-less electricity sources. So that, but from the muddy roads standpoint, I think we're seeing this year because we didn't have, like, typically, as I remember over the last 20 years, we'd have a freeze for the winter. We didn't have all of these freeze-thaw scenarios that we're experiencing today. So we've been living like mud season, it seems, like, all winter. And I think that's having an impact because we always hear in the spring of the year that this is the worst mud season ever and we'll hear it again now. But I would say that it's because, you know, the duration of the mud season has been ongoing. Some of the, as all of the staff-dissume ratios in the country, as you mentioned, I believe that data comes from a study through COVID. There's also some recent research from the U.S. Department of Education that shows Vermont has lost the second highest proportion of school staff since COVID. Why have we not started to see some of the cost savings from that loss of educators? I don't know. I mean, I don't know if they're still building in those costs because they still want to fill the positions. Every sector in Vermont has been experiencing workforce shortage and education has been one of them, state has been one of them, construction, you name it. We've all faced it. So this is an area, again, where we need to attract more people into the state. We need those workers and we need them here so that more are paying taxes as a result. Do you have a, is there a way that you would recommend we get to those staff-dissume ratios that you've recommended in the past? How could legislation make that happen? We put forward back quite some time ago a way to do it through attrition.  You just naturally do more with less, so to speak, to grow those, to make sure that the staff-to-student ratio grows in the right way. So just a marginal type of approach that wouldn't, would be seamless was our answer. But we'd be consolidating schools is, of course, the other. But in law, that sounds like a useful recommendation for our school boards, but how would it look as policy? We just put in law that we would put something in. We had something we've put forward. I mean, we'd be happy to share that with you. I'm sure you've probably, maybe you already have it. Governor, if we have school budgets, there's like 30 of them now that they have to go back to the drawing board, as you say, and they just keep failing and failing. And we can't pass budgets before the yield. I understand they have to take last year's budget, which, in this inflationary, times could mean pretty big cuts, layoffs, cuts to programming, academics. What effect, if we get to that point, I mean, how much of a concern is that for you, that budget will keep failing if you have to go to last year's budget? Well, again, I don't know as we've ever seen this level of failed school budgets. So we're in uncharted territory in some respects. So we'll have to let this play out and see where we're at. The legislature certainly could set the yield, notwithstanding, set the yield and live by it. You remarked in your speech introducing, from what Governor had on Sunday, the number of people in the room, the energy, the passion. Now that Nikki Haley has dropped out of the race, where do you want to see that go? I think, for the most part, from a national perspective, we'll be living this rematch for the next number of months. So I think people should pay attention, try and do their research, making sure that they do everything they can to prevent, my opinion, prevent Donald Trump from being president again. So doing all you can individually to make that happen. Somebody has asked you for suggestions on what that looks like. What advice would you offer them? Which? Do whatever you can to make sure... Well, don't vote for Donald Trump, number one. Number two, educate your family members. Try and do your research and homework. Hold them accountable for all the things he says and does that aren't accurate. And make sure you tell your neighbors and your friends and family and try to at least understand what the position is. Listen to them, but offer maybe some counterpoints to what's being presented because it's not all factual. And you've said you plan to do everything you can to prevent the former president from returning to the White House. What does that look like for you now? Well, again, I think I've done some here. My resistance to Donald Trump over the last four to six years. So I will continue to do so. Surrey, in your first brief, is it yourself casting a vote for President Biden again? That's always a possibility. I did it before, but we'll let things play out. We have a long ways to go before the general election. We've been about a year since we had a permanent Secretary of Education. Do you think we need to invest in the AOE in order to see some cost containment or leadership that could lead to lowering education costs? I think we live in a state where there's local control and that is different than other states. So we have to recognize that and maybe contemplate and talk about bold ideas. I know some people have talked about a single-member district in Vermont that may or may not be on the table. But we'll have new leadership soon enough and we'll go from there and we'll offer any suggestions we can to get us to a place where we're able to deliver a quality education in Vermont at a price Vermonters can afford. You mentioned the local control element. It's obviously so key here. You've also mentioned, maybe it's time to completely reimagine how we pay for education. Could that mean an approach that involves a stronger hand from the state limiting what kind of spending decisions can be made on a local level? I think it could, yes. And that's not going to be popular. I might just saying that probably isn't popular but I think it has to be on the table. And you've also said it seems like it might be impossible to get property taxes to what would be an acceptable increase. What would be acceptable? What could you, if we walk away from this budget year and taxes went up X percent, where would that line have to be to get your assets? Yeah, hard to say. You know, I vetoed budgets for going 3 percent over. So my tolerance is pretty low. This month as problem gambling or this month is how we're going to save online sports but in fact we have bigger resources available. Yeah, we want to make sure that people do so responsibly whether it's alcohol or gambling, we want people to know that there are resources there to help them if they have an issue with gambling, problem gap gambling and we'll continue to do everything we can from a regulatory standpoint to make sure that people are protected. I have some color down the line. Tim from business 19. Maybe Keith from Rutland Herald. Hi. So I was talking to some folks in the logging industry earlier who were saying this sort of extended month season we've been having the past couple of years with the warm wind years all the rain. They're looking at some expenses related to having to operate in the woods in such muddy conditions and comply with Clean Water Act and all that. Whatever our thoughts on finding funding for that industry to help it sort of navigate that. Yeah, I know the loggers in particular have been suffering for the last couple of years both with the mild winters extended month season but also with the flooding. So they were hit with like three separate issues. So I'm sensitive to that. We have working lands that could be an approach and avenue as well as we've over the years have provided funding for bridges so they can get into the woods over some of the streams temporary bridges that can be utilized that we have in stock. So I'm sensitive to it but I don't have any answers that would provide them with probably the level of participation help that they're looking for but I'm sensitive. It's part of Vermont and part of who we are and we need loggers to stay in business. Chris Roy, you've already expressed. Yes, good afternoon, Governor. Just a thought as with some town is starting to gain two tax sales. What you tell the Vermonters who can pay the property taxes because it's so high up is the education system and you're about to lose the houses of tax. What should we advise them? Again, we have income sensitivity in the state. In fact, I think it's fairly generous, I believe, up to $150,000 in income or somewhere around that. So there is help in that regard. So take advantage of that. Make sure you're getting what you deserve there. But it may be too late at this point for that if their home is up for tax sale because that would have to be a long drawn-out process. But again, if they think that they've been taken advantage of in any way, Department of Financial Regulation, it could help. But if you have an issue, give us a call. We'll see what we can do to help you through it. But I'm not promising we can solve it. But we can at least look into it. Thank you. Any other questions? Governor, getting back to the property taxes for a second. Have you had a sit-down, direct one-on-one meeting with the Speaker and the Pro Tem about this? I've spoken to the Speaker about this. We meet every other week. The Pro Tem, we have missed a couple of meetings. He has canceled. So I haven't had any direct communications with him about this issue. Governor, any comment on the big and senior legislature that represented the women's senate leave when she swims to role experience? Well, congratulations to her. By the way, she ran a great race and look forward to working with her in her new role. We will do like we do with every other vacancy. We'll wait for names from the party she is a member of. She's a progressive. So the progressive party in Burlington will get together and submit three names to us and we'll consider those and make an appointment. And by the way, I've done this throughout my political life here as governor, adhered to that principle that I laid out that we would appoint based on the party affiliation. I don't have to do that, but I think it's good to give credit where credit is due. You appoint somebody from the party that they represented and not play games with it. We know that teacher health care is driving up property taxes. I've advocated for a long time for statewide health care negotiations. I know that that came to fruition not exactly how you want to see it. The makeup of that negotiating commission is a little different, but we have statewide health care negotiations. Why, you know, what's not working? Well, they took out a lot of the provisions and I can get you more details tonight, but they didn't do it the way we'd asked them to do it. I think it would have been much more constructive, much more fruitful when the way we had it, but they did it a different way and I think it's actually created more harm than good and ended up costing more. Early, any plans for the eclipse? Where you'll be, what you'll be doing? No, I've thought about that. I don't think you have to go too far, right? You can probably, if we have a clear day, see it anywhere in this area right here north, so I haven't made any specific plans on that. I mean, we've talked a lot with your commissioners and people in and out of the government, but I mean, what do you think it's going to be like? I mean, it depends on the weather, right? Darkly. With tens, maybe hundreds of thousands. You know what I mean? How does that have been way enough? Well, we've tried to prepare, you know, public safety's been involved, transportation's been involved. We go as far as where are people going to be able to stay? Are they just going to pull over on the side of I-89? When this happens, it's just all these things. We've been running different scenarios to try and prepare for this. So I just hope everyone's safe that they are prepared and we'll have signage out, alerting them to this but take it in safely with the right protection but take it all in because we won't see this again in our lifetime. I hope so. We'll see. I'm sorry? $230 million worth? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if it'll be $230 million worth, but it should be about, thank you all very much.


Here's some fun history on chatGPT. ChatGPT is amazing at answering your questions. So, how does it do it? If chatGPT is the car, GPT is the engine. So, GPT is by far one of the most important components of chatGPT. GPT itself drew inspiration from the Transformer Neural Network. And this Transformer Neural Network was introduced in 2017, paper called Attention Is All You But on reading the paper, it doesn't seem like it was written with the intent to be the foundation of BERT, GPT and language models moving forward. It reads like a paper that less focuses on the architecture and more on accomplishing the specific tasks of language translation. That is translating from one language to another. So, if you're thinking chatGPT came out of the blue, think again. If you want to build a Transformer, check the playlist on the channel.