All right. We'll get started. As folks know, this is a meeting that will be recorded. We are holding this meeting virtually again because of relief that Governor Baker provided over a year ago now in light of the pandemic through an executive order that lets public bodies like ours meet virtually. Today is April 8th. It is a gorgeous day. So I hope everyone gets a chance to do some kind of a walk or a run or something that gets you outside. It is public meeting number 341 and for at least two of us, that is particularly significant and it's becoming pretty significant to the other two at this point as well. So here we are. I guess we'll move right into the minutes. Commissioner O'Brien, good morning. Good morning. I don't know, Chair, if you wanted to take a roll call. Thank you for the reminder. You're good to remind me. Of course, because we're meeting virtually, I do need to confirm our attendance. Commissioner Cameron. Good morning, everyone. I am here. Good morning, Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. Commissioner Zuniga. Good morning. I am here. Okay. And I'm here. So all four of us are here and I hope Commissioner Cameron, you had a little bit of a nice break. We missed you last week. I did. Thank you. It was nice to be away for a couple of days. Was golf involved? Of course. Good to know. Then we know you had some good fun. All right, now we'll get started with the minutes. Thanks, Commissioner. Certainly, Madam Chair. I believe that the Commission approved the meeting minutes from February 17th, 2021, subject to the insertion of the timestamps on the agenda topics. Todd Grossman and I have already spoken about this. They're going to be doing that. And other than that, subject to correction for any graphical error or ministerial error. Any questions, comments, edits requested? Just a second. Okay. Thank you. Then we'll move on to the vote. Commissioner Cameron. Hi. Commissioner O'Brien. Hi. Commissioner Zuniga. Hi. And I vote yes. And we're here. Thanks. As to the second set of minutes from February 25th, it's the same. They're inserting the timestamp in terms of the agenda topics. Aside from that, I would move that the Commission approved the minutes from February 25th, 2021, subject to corrections for any typographical error or other non-material matter. I have one friendly edit, and it is not technical. It's simply technical, more around spirit. On the beginning of page two, where the very first paragraph that says at the last sentence, Chair Judson, I explained that the minutes were not sufficiently detailed. Our minutes are always so detailed. I didn't want that to be reflected in the minutes. I think what had happened in that particular batch was that the minutes were detailed around our team's reports, but were less detailed around the commissioner's reports. Right. Yeah. So if we could just say, we're less just needed to further detail the commissioner's comments, that would be great. Thanks. Any other comments or edits? Great job. Second. Okay. Great job as always. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron. Hi. Thank you. Commissioner O'Brien. Hi. Commissioner Zuniga. Hi. I vote yes. Four zero. Vivian, thanks so much. So we're going to move on then to item number three, Executive Director Wells in our administrative update. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, commissioners. As we've been doing over the last almost a year now, I think the item three A is the on-site casino updates. Well, I'll turn that over to Director Lillios and Assistant Director Ban to give you an update on what's going on on the properties. Hi, Karen. Thank you and good morning, Chair. Good morning, commissioners. So I wanted to report to you consistent, as Karen said, with the reporting we've been giving around COVID related health and safety measures that the licensees are continuing to abide by the heightened measures the commission adopted back in June. Those measures are around the cleaning, the sanitization, the continued focus on the high touch areas, monitoring for crowding, signage, availability of hand sanitizer throughout floor markings, at queuing areas for distancing purposes and ensuring that the mask mandate is adhered to by both patrons and staff. The licensees have maintained their staffing levels and continue to give resources to let them comply with all of these requirements. And this includes for MGM and Encore measures around their hotels as well to make sure that hotel guests are not using the hotel properties in a way that puts people in danger. The IEB through our agents and through continued communication with the licensees are continuing to find a high degree of compliance with these measures. And in terms of patrons as well, they generally are knowing by this time what to expect. I don't have any significant incidents to report to you. Bruce has been providing you with updates on capacity and operations. And I can ask him to jump in and let you know what's been happening for the past couple of weeks. And then, of course, we'd be happy to try to answer any questions that you have. And the fourth seat continues to go pretty well. MGM still hasn't started craps. They've had a couple of technical difficulties. The only thing they still have to do is to get their camera coverage down on the craps tables. And I imagine they'll be ready by this weekend. They had a few tweaks still left to do. As far as occupancy goes, PPC's high day was on March 27th with a thousand four hundred and thirty four people which represents 25 percent capacity. And that was they had a sweepstakes going on that night for MGM. Their high day was on three twenty seven as well. And that was a thousand nine hundred and forty four, which represents 25 percent as well. They had a car giveaway. That seems to be their big nights when they have the highest capacity. Encourters highest was March 27th as well when they had a slot play promotion. And their high number was three thousand six hundred and sixty four, which represents 22 percent capacity. Other than that, there wasn't any real high numbers in you know any of the casinos or anything like that. But the thing seems to be going rather smoothly. Thank you Bruce. Questions for Lerata are proofs. All positive news. Thank you. I'm just curious how popular is the craps back at EVH? It seems to be going real real well. There don't seem to be a crowding problem around it. They're doing a real good job with it. People are learning how to throw dice underneath that container that there's a little bit of a learning curve for people. But other than that, we really haven't had any problems with it at all. Okay. Great. Thanks. Great. Any further questions? Okay. Thank you. So the next item on the agenda I'm looking forward to is an update from our financial investigations team led by our supervisor Monica Chang. So similar to what the gaming agents did for you last public meeting, you know they're going to give you an overview of what they do and sort of a robust look at sort of the day in life of the of the financial investigator and then overview of that division. So I'm going to turn it over to Monica to give you their presentation today. Good morning Monica. Good morning. Good morning chair and commissioners and everyone. Happy to present to you today. So let me just share my screen. How is that? That's good. Okay. Great. So again, happy to be here today and to take you through a high level look into the financial investigations team within the IED. But before we dive into the details of that team, I want to briefly just start with the IED investigations team and its core function. The team is made up of both members of the mass state police and financial investigators who completes law enforcement checks and ongoing suitability evaluations on casinos, vendors and employees of the gaming establishments. This is done to ensure that people and business entities involved with gaming be the high standards of integrity, honesty and good character. So for the specifics of the financial investigations team to start off, the team is made up of six professionals, including myself. The group is split into three main levels, one through three, and each carry out specific types of investigations. The team's background and experience include tax, both on the audit and tax preparation sides, accounting and audit and also financial reporting and analysis. So the team is really an interdisciplinary team because of the different backgrounds and experience that we have and that is one of our core strengths. So we take on a collaborative approach and with our different skills we can think very critically together and we oftentimes have brainstorming sessions together. Our work sometimes is reviewed by each other to make sure that our investigatory approaches are applied consistently but also that they address the risks that are applicable for each type of investigation. So since the tax accounting audit and finance world change quite frequently, the team also has to aim to stay on top of the industry news. We dedicate time to learn new concepts and adjust our investigations appropriately. For example, the team had to study some of the details of the tax cuts and drops act that was enacted at the end of 2017. So that affected the 2018 tax returns but also the questions of what type of questions that we asked our applicants. So that's just one of the examples. And on top of domestic industry changes, the team also has to be mindful of foreign rules because we do perform investigations of vendors and individuals from outside of the U.S. One of our main investigatory responsibility is to review, validate, and analyze information to determine financial stability, integrity, and background. This means that we have to examine both personal and business financial records to determine the source and also adequacy of funds. Aside from those, we also have a monitoring function for our casino operators and vendors for ongoing sustainability. Now there are different types or level investigations that the team does and I've separated them into two main groupings, individuals and entities. So for the individuals on the left, we have our casino qualifying individuals, our key employees, junket representatives, and vendor qualifying individuals. So the commissioners, you're familiar with the first one which is, which are the qualifying casino persons and the most recent ones that came forward were Cornell Strom from Wind Resorts and John B. Newman from MGM. So one thing that I wanted to highlight is that the financial investigations team perform the review of applicants who have either supervisory functions of the properties or executive management teams or they have directorship positions. The employees who are considered to be non-key gaming employees or service level employees that work at the properties, they don't undergo this financial background review. So then the other grouping is the entities which includes our casinos, our primary and secondary gaming vendors. So our primary gaming vendors are those companies that offer the goods and services directly related to gaming. So for example, the slot machine manufacturers like Interblog, Aristocrat, IGT, those would be the primary gaming vendors. The secondary vendors are companies that offer the services and goods that don't relate directly to gaming like construction or frequent beverage. So here I listed some of the financial documents that are looked at by the financial team between the personal and business documents. They're quite similar. We look at bank statements, real estate documents, annual reports, financial statements, public filings. We also have look at loan or even credit reports, tax returns. And sometimes the investigatory reports from other gaming jurisdictions are reviewed by the team as well. Some of these documents are public but some are private, sensitive confidential information that the applicants submit to us. So the team does have security protocols and procedures that are in place to safeguard that information. And obviously that's not done without the help of our MGCITS team. So if you wondered about the process of an investigation, I put up here a flow chart of what that looks like. It starts with the application documents that the applicants fill out which has a wealth of information already because it does include attachments that they have to submit. After the application review, then we move into sort of the kickoff stage where both the state police and financial investigators come together and formally kick off the investigation. Timeline and logistics are also discussed during the stage on top of talking out and figuring out what types of questions and additional documents that we should request from our applicants. After that we go into the investigation and analysis stage where the bulk of the document review takes place. So after gathering all of the information either through public or private means, this is the stage where we process that information. So not all investigations are created equal so the team adopts a risk-based approach. And that just means that sometimes we might ask more questions or we might ask for more backup documents or interview more people. So it all really depends on the complexity of the cases and what the risks are. So when the bulk of the analysis is complete, investigators move forward with the site visits and in-person interviews. Finally everything is put together that ultimately becomes the IED investigations report. So at the last final report stage that's when everything is drafted and reviewed either through secondary supervisory review or even third-level review. So as I mentioned briefly before the financial investigation team we have to have knowledge of foreign rules and regulations because we have applicants who are not US citizens. They don't reside in the US or don't have businesses that are set up in the US. So through independent research and sometimes guidance from our applicants we gain proficiencies in interpreting these foreign regulations and processes. We have to do this because we want to be able to identify the high-risk areas and then adjust our investigations appropriately. So on this slide here is just a listing of the 15 different countries that the team has come across in our investigations. These type of foreign accounts which tax returns documents were all looked at by the team at one point. We've learned how to interpret the documents for each one of them and this is a valuable skill because like once you've gone through it you don't forget because most likely you will come back through the renewal process or you can simply just apply what you've learned to another investigation. So since the pandemic and the team has been teleworking the financial investigation team just has not slowed down. We have continued conducting our investigations. One of the changes though was switching from doing the in-person interviews to holding the interviews virtually through some of the platforms here that I listed out. And of course on top of that we have suspended travel to do the corporate site visits but as restrictions lift around the globe the investigations team would be able to resume those vendor site visits again obviously taking into consideration the health and safety of everyone involved before jumping into that. So besides those two changes the team also has used WeConnect to communicate with our applicants instead of using our desktops obviously because we're not in the office and lastly we use the secure file transfer site for receiving and exchanging sensitive and confidential information. So this is a new site that replaced the old interchange that we were using before. So on top of doing the investigations the team has accomplished quite a few other things during the year including assisting with the casino statutory audits. We've completed the PPC renewal. We've also created the casino monitoring program. During this time we've also worked very closely and worked closely with the different divisions within the IED and one of our team members is also a part of the equity and inclusion working group that you the chair has initiated and last but not least the team has hosted different training for the group in obviously the areas of tax accounting and audit but also branching out into SEC filings, corporate structure, trust and junkets. This is my favorite slide Monica, my favorite slide. Yeah so at the end of the day who are we? The financial investigation team are accountants, we're a tax accountant, financial analysts, we're auditors. Susan LaRosa, Paul Eldridge, David McKay, John Feijo and Matt Jordan, they make up our investigation team. They work very hard and they've been maintained the same high level of professionalism integrity and work ethic in the last year and this team just would not be successful without each and every one of them and oftentimes they really have to take like the technical financial information given to them and they'll have to present them in ways that our non-financial audit audience can digest and understand so being able to do that is really something to be proud of. So on this slide here I really like the definition of accounting. Someone who solves a problem, you didn't know you had in a way you don't understand and positions. I'm pretty confident to say that the team relates to this but on top of being wizards and magicians the team is a group of professionals who like working with numbers and we like to decipher the meaning behind those numbers. So that wraps up my presentation. Thank you, I can take this off and I welcome any questions that the commissioners have. Commissioners, Commissioner Cameron. Yes, first of all Monica, excellent presentation. I loved reading it and I like it even better with you really putting the detail behind the words on the PowerPoint. A couple of things stood out to me. One, your interdisciplinary approach. It's just not always done that way. I'm in the collaboration and I see it and I understand it. It's not it's real meaning how well you work with the state police investigators. You mentioned the peer review, the brainstorming. That's such a critical piece of any investigation and to watch our team do this seamlessly is it makes me proud. I'll give you one example Monica and I don't know and I'm remiss if I didn't share this story with you earlier. I know I did with the the head of IED. I know Karen's heard the story. This is a couple of years ago but it's relevant. I'm at a conference and a woman seeks me out and said I saw your name on the roster a gaming conference and I wanted to find you and I introduced we introduced ourselves. She was in charge of kind of this is one of our licensees that has deals with you know 28 different states you know so it was an MGM person who sought me out to say look I just wanted to tell you how much easier your team makes my job because it was her job to get all the qualifiers ready in every state for these investigations. I said really and she said they are so professional both your financial as well as your state police investigators and I asked her for an example and she gave me two. The first was how accessible the team is for questions you know somebody may be doing this for the first time and there's a lot of paperwork right the forms are somewhat detailed and how excellent our team is at answering those questions and second was how prepared our team is in the actual interview these are very busy people right lots of them are at the top of their profession and there weren't questions that were fully detailed in the application it was so apparent that our financial folks and our state police investigators had read everything thoroughly and their questions were totally on point which saved a lot of time in the interview. So I just appreciated so much hearing that about our team from someone who just sought me out and and I just wanted to pass please pass that along to your team that the work you do is recognized and and you represent us so well as a member of this commission so thank you and thanks to the whole team. Excellent, excellent. Commissioner Zunica or Commissioner O'Brien? Commissioner Zunica? Yeah, thank you. Thank you Monica. It's a great presentation and Gail summarized a story that I heard before but it's emblematic and all the great work that you do. One thing that has occurred to me as we have moved into the share point you know revamping our share drive one thing that I think might be really helpful for commissioners especially new ones is to be thinking about a place where we were the final reports could reside for us to take a look at you know on an exception basis as we as we might want to. We delegated and that was I think appropriate the decision for licensing to the IED director and et cetera on a number of things we still review the qualifiers but the vendors we don't see and access to those reports would be I think very very important. I don't mean the work papers I don't mean anything confidential I don't mean especially anything in process because I know we we remain there there's there's a necessary distance from that process but when the final report is issued and we keep for our records as I know you are very diligent in keeping access to those would be in my opinion very important for commissioners to come in and see from time to time or you know they could be if you could you could proactively say you know here's here's an important you know final report that you might want to take a look at or not but that's not to say that they're not available I have gotten them upon request but again as we as we continue to improve our our transition into a shared environment of a shared ride in with SharePoint and all of that is with the appropriate protocols for access and I think it would be really important commissioner in fact this is really helpful and helpful to have it and repeat in this forum because I have been just have been in discussions with both Karen Commissioner O'Brien and and Director Lillios about a tracking system on so that we can know what's underway and what's completed and if it's a if it's a database it I'm not sure if it's SharePoint you know what it looks like if it's Excel but that we could clearly have the final reports and read only we don't want to mess up their system but read only and it would help us start to really get a collective feel for the body of work that the IEB and the investigations do so we are thinking about that in the SharePoint really I think we're going to have to tap Katrina's team as if they don't have enough on their plate anyway but Loretta is aware of this this sort of ongoing request Loretta I think it just shows that the the commissioners are looking because you are now really building up a body of work and so to Monica's credit all of your good work we now want to be able to reflect on it so thank you that's that's helpful Kathy and Enrique we had been pre-pandemic I was very proud of the well-maintained file drawer with the final reports that were available to you to sign out on a library card system but that sounds very seems very quaint and antiquated now so we will get we will get with with the technological updates because that's that's an excellent point right and so so that work is underway also just to track so that we know what's in the queue and we can if in the event as a group as a commission decides that they you know that there's some priority that needs to shift we can you know work with Loretta and her team but certainly that you know the good news is that that that body has now grown we can be you know we can do our own homework and and go in and read things that we need at our own leisure and not have to trouble you with sending it to us so Commissioner Brian did and I'll make it did you have another point or was that the one that you want to know it's you know it's I agree with the fact that you know they're always available I didn't want to create the impression that that they have not been no right and and I think that's important as we and I know this is an effort agency-wide you know precipitated by the pandemic but also a best practice to make more and more electronic versions of our work product which is better for record keeping and and like so as we move forward with this effort incrementally you know it's it's good to continue to have that in mind that we appreciate not only the work that you do but being able to read it from time to time in the form of the final report. Yeah it just would allow more flexibility for us when we're thinking about something oh I remember and not having to trouble the team so that's great uh Commissioner Brian. I agree with everything that has been said I do want to thank the team also I know having done investigations work how much I used to prize the face-to-face interviews so I want to laud all of you for making the shift this past year and going to remote interviews I know that's not an easy choice and I think you guys did it pretty well and you know kept up with the pace which is impressive given everything that was going on. I do agree with Enrique's suggestion about access through SharePoint etc and then as you mentioned to here we've had some conversations in terms of whether an access database or some other tracking system so that we as commissioners know who the qualifiers are in the queue. A, I think it allows us to know what changes in the higher up structures of the licensees have happened that's helpful to know particularly who's you know rotating in and out and then also because there's sort of a temporary status to the qualifiers ability to work it's also nice to know what the timing is in terms of how this is working its way through the system so I do think that that would complement what Enrique suggested in terms of access. The final product once is done so we're not you know defining this lead to look at that but then also to know what's coming up in the queue so if we felt like there was something you know pressing that we were curious about in terms of just timing we'd have the ability to know about it. Commissioner O'Brien Cameron do you think that the commission's ready for that kind of access do you think that's helpful? The way it was just explained absolutely with you know not interfering but but having access without bothering a team member I think that that really makes a lot of sense. Yeah yeah so I just want to just go back to Monica's presentation. Monica I've been fortunate to be able to meet with you a few times and just recently had a great presentation for me you always do such a thorough job you're meticulous and and I know that the entire team appreciates that. Like Commissioner Cameron I noted even today you made it a point to say that within you know how much you value collaboration and also what I like is that you've you value the benefit of a checks and balances within your own team that you share among yourselves to make sure that there's compliance that you're not missing anything. I miss that ability to do that on a regular basis because of our open meeting law with my fellow commissioners so when you said that there was a little ping in my heart because it's exactly what I think is so beneficial in work quality that when you turn to your colleagues and say you know if I got this right so I you know I I have seen that in your work since I've you know joined the commission and and can see the strength of your leadership and the strength of your team because of it and of course I also noted you know the impact on COVID is there anything other than the not and of course it's such a substantial piece but other than the ability to meet in person and gain the benefits of a personal meeting that you would say has been a challenge because of COVID? I mean I don't I can't think of anything on the top of my head right now but I think the interviews is probably the biggest thing that I would highlight you know we gain a lot from doing them in person you know reading the body language or you know the tone of voice things like that so and switching that to the virtual type and sometimes those you don't capture right so that would be the biggest challenge that we've kind of come across this past year and in terms of being able to collect the records that you need from the candidates did you see that there was a greater there was some delayed understanding obviously because some of the vendors they do have furloughs during this period of time and if they didn't have the staff to do it obviously we we experience some delays in getting those documents but they are always very communicative about you know where they are in the process what they're hoping to get in the timeline that they give us so as long as you know we keep in touch with our vendors and applicants we can definitely get through and get all the documents that we need that's good to hear that's good it's honestly a communicative that's good okay my final point I saw all those platforms has anybody else used blue jeans meeting did you see that I don't think did you see I sometimes say say I'm sorry I sometimes have blue jeans when I'm coming to these meetings but that's not what you mean I know I wondered if that was a new platform that had emerged just during this time but anyway I got the point this very clever name so anyway thank you very helpful thank you and and demystifying what I love to about monica be approach is not only the collaborative approach but you're you're innovative you're always looking for better best practices and how you can improve the outcome of your investigations which we I know that Loretta values and Karen values and of course the commissioners and I value so much so thanks really nice presentation thank you thank you for the input and the compliments I'll definitely share that with the team and now about your baking yeah all right well we'll discuss that later thanks yeah thank you monica and you know I did want to give a shout out to to monica individually she was one of our first financial investigators that we hired and she moved up through the ranks and was instrumental in developing these processes and procedures which I know from my own experience is really hard you know to build this from scratch to build the team to build this to you know as a new agency and a new division within the agency I just want to compliment her and also just the culture she's creating that team that is a team you see them when we're in the office they do things together they walk to the lunch area together you know it's really nice to see you know that's what you see in over here so thank you monica I want to compliment you on that okay so the next item is item 3c um which is the racing opening day update so given that opening day is coming up on monday Alex is just going to give us a little bit of an update so I'll turn it over to Dr. Leipam good morning everyone oh as a executive director wells mentioned monday is our first day of live racing they meet as 110 days and it'll end the day after Thanksgiving it'll start off three days a week monday thursday and friday one of the highlights will be july 25th when they hold the spirit of massachusetts and the claire barton races which have been a success if you remember last year we were just being able to open a couple of weeks before that race in july due to the COVID so we're in a much better spot this year um talking about the protocols for COVID we I spoke to director lilios and then to steve otul director of racing for plane ridge and alice tisbert the managing director of hhan the horseman's association and we are not asking for any changes to the COVID plan so those same plans that we had in effect last year um is what we're going to start off with for this year as well um we have already uh had some of our seasonal staff come back last week and and even more of them this week they held qualifier races on monday and there were 11 races and around 90 horses participated as well as their 30 trainers so that's great to get them back in the uh swing of things we are holding um another set of qualifiers tomorrow at plane ridge and the entries for that are today so we'll get another batch of horses it'll be all set to race for next week. I want to thank the HR team troop tibanda Natasha martin and jacklyn connect they've been very helpful on onboarding our returning folks and as well as um finally is finalizing our team with some new people for this year so uh once again it um involves a lot of paperwork interviews and the whole thing and i did want to thank them for that we're gonna have to you're gonna have to type to them in tundery I also want to welcome sergeant McCormack to the um racing division uh racing unit um he's going to be joining us this year uh he was a trooper at plane ridge um on the gaming side for a while so I probably a lot of people already know him um we've licensed 140 new people so far this year and um as you know down at plane ridge a lot of the participants do take out a three year license so we have more than that um licensed overall but um it's always good to see people coming in and renewing licenses and um I think that uh covers the um opening of the meet um we're looking forward to being able to finish a whole meet this year I see that north this year good morning um north I don't know if you want to chime in after Dr. Lightbaum but I'm just looking to see what the weather is have you looked at Alex to see what weather is for Monday I have not I haven't gotten that far all right so let's see oh 40 chance up here and where I live well let's hope it stays dry yes I think toward the 60 percent uh north good morning good morning how are you commissioner madam chair well thank you good good yeah no we're we're looking forward it's a beautiful spring day here in plane ridge um and plane bill the weather is gorgeous the track is in good condition the paddocks are ready swept out prepped with hay um and uh we we're ready to go so we're looking forward to a great meet we appreciate um everything Dr. Lightbaum and her crew has done to help get us ready uh Steve and his team have been great as well so looking forward to a great day do hope at some point you guys are able to come out and spend a day at the races well I'm going to talk to Dr. Lightbaum about um if if I if I could join I would like to join so that's I'll be showing up I can I can say that I'm looking forward to it uh thank you so much and and any questions for Dr. Lightbaum to Richard Cameron yep thank you uh Dr. Lightbaum I'm glad that all the preparations are going smoothly I know there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to get ready for a meet like this on both the racetrack side of the house and the regulatory staff side of the house I'm happy you got most of your team back and I know you'll do a good job with the new folks getting them uh broken in um a new sergeant on board how many have we seen but it's great it's great for um sergeant McCormick to come over and learn the racing side of the house so I hope he's looking forward to that and I know I'm looking forward to live racing this year um after having taken uh taken last year off due to uh due to uh COVID but yeah I look forward to getting out and seeing and hopefully we'll have some more records broken this year what do we think yeah yes yeah I think it'll be a great year and we'll plan on a lot more records being broken and both the sire steaks races the mass bread races and with uh the claire barton and uh spirit of mass yep great thank you great thanks any other questions for um Alex or nor okay all right we're all set thank you so much and Karen and the last item for the administrative update I just wanted to recognize one of our longtime employees is going to be leaving us so Maryam Bratton which I know uh she is on the meeting today so hello Maryam I just wanted to uh thank you for all the work you have done over the year she has been instrumental to the licensing division and really has upheld the core that one of our core values of customer service when it comes to dealing with uh the external parties that we deal with on a daily basis she's also been really helpful just to within uh the iub licensing collaboration so really just want to say thank you to Maryam and give Nikisha and Derek an opportunity to say a few words because both of them work with you know Nikisha is her supervisor right now and then Derek worked with her during the transition just give them an opportunity to say a few words it is a big deal because Maryam has been with us a long time she's made some wonderful contributions to our office so I want to say thank you so I'll start with Nikisha and let her just say a few words thank you Karen good morning chair commissioners and everyone so this is bittersweet um I think most of you all know Maryam or at least have had the opportunity to cross paths with her at some point or another um as Karen said she's been at MGC in the licensing division pretty much right at its inception in 2014 um and that's the reason me and the rest of the licensing team think of her as the backbone of the group she's seen many iterations of things over the years she understands uh and can explain the many different perspectives um and she can do her job with both eyes closed well maybe not but but she's really good um but we're definitely losing a valuable resource it's a good opportunity for her to be uh moving onward and upward um she's taking a position at DCAM another state agency it's division of capital asset management and maintenance um and she'll be a certification specialist over there so if you all would please uh join me in congratulating her on her new position as I said it is it is a tough loss for the team um she's contributed so much you know I haven't known Maryam for a long time but you know she was instantly uh someone reliable um that I could go turn to when I needed all my questions answered about you know why things are the way they are um so Maryam best wishes to you please don't be a stranger to us thank you mckisha I'll turn it over to Derek uh good morning everyone morning morning Maryam I just want to say it's been an absolute pleasure working with Maryam uh we started at the gaming commission right around the same time in 2014 on the 10th floor 84 state street um Maryam has been a key contributing member member to the licensing division from the day she arrived she's worked with us through two licensing systems two office moves four changes in her supervisor whether it be a licensing director chief or manager she's worked through multiple policy and procedure drafts and redrafts as well as amendments and not to mention the opening of three casinos with thousands of employees and vendor's license for a very brief but rewarding time I had the honor of working with Maryam and the licensing team daily and I can tell you her commitment to excellent customer service historical knowledge and her continuous quest for more skills and and understanding cannot be replicated or replaced what is even more amazing than her professional persona are her attributes as a human being Maryam is compassionate friendly straightforward and an honest person with a very keen sense of humor when we moved to our permanent space at 75 101 the finance office was very lucky to share space with some of the licensing team Maryam would add so much knowledge perspective perspective and sense of humor to our morning conversations Maryam is the type of person who will offer assistance to you at her own expense and not complain about it to anyone in the background I don't know if many of you know this but Maryam actually helped the finance office with some invoice processing for a few years so that she could get relevant experience for advanced studies and she did this while balancing her own workload I will truly miss Maryam working with her and watching her grow professionally and responsibility and knowledge has been a pleasure deep Kim is very lucky to be getting you but as Nakisha and Karen well said we're the ones that are losing out Maryam please realize my thanks and words cannot even begin to address all the good you've done for the citizens of the Commonwealth and then in this quick thank you I had to admit literally omit literally thousands of meaningful contributions you have made I want to close out my remarks by saying thank you Maryam for the lives you have positively impacted including mine at the M.G.C. and for all of the thousands of employees and companies you in the licensing division have assisted in a selfless manner so that the gaming industry can help provide jobs to citizens and add fuel to the Massachusetts economy I'm sad to see you leaving the M.G.C. I am however happy for you for your new opportunity and for the Commonwealth because you will remain a state employee you understand and embrace the awesome responsibility it is to be a public servant if you're ever again in a situation where you're looking for a job I hope the first place you'll come is the mass gaming commission that's it thank you when I stop crying Derek I'd like to say something so it has been my absolute pleasure over the better part of a decade and I actually started in 2013 to serve our colleagues and our licensees as well as those who are a tangent to our mission including a few folks who called me when I first started to ask how to get a fishing license and what to do about getting a moose out of their pool when the gaming commission was young and had not yet become as well covered in the media as we are now so as some of you know I began as a receptionist and this is why I was filling those calls so I thankfully was prepared with the tools I needed to get that color to the mass while live folks and help them out but as Derek said what we do matters here our work results in so many positives jobs you know contracts for vendors successes for licensees tax dollars for important programs community grants for surrounding communities and groundbreaking research on the impacts of gaming and how to mitigate that so I really want to thank you all especially my mentors Derek and immediate co-workers and Akisha for providing me the experience and the tools to balance our mission of great service with the need for rigorous regulation so it's Monica just detailed for us we have to be mindful of the burden of regulatory obligations and provide really thoughtful service and make sure that's accessible to everybody while our stakeholders navigate the licensing process which can be intimidating one of my great joys over the course of my time here has been the number of times I've heard I can't believe I'm dealing with the state agency some folks have a perception rightly or wrongly that they can't get help and so I'm glad to say that the licensing team among many other departments here has really turned that perception around I'm so proud to have worked with everybody who is as dedicated to the mission as my friends and colleagues here have been and hopefully will be at DKIM I will miss you all very much and I'll just be right around the corner at Ashburton thanks thank you Mary Ann Karen I am I think Mary Ann knows that her video wasn't on right so that was by choice Mary Ann I think you just got such nice recognition from your your two most recent supervisors but most mostly colleagues I'm going to turn it over to my fellow commissioners right now who would like to go first why don't we okay Commissioner Zunica yeah thank you that was very well very well done everybody Mary Ann I think you captured the essence of a culture that that we tried to have here from the beginning so it's really great to hear you say what those words about how we've received with people that we deal with in terms of customer service that has been a huge principle that has carried through the agency I'm happy to see that being implemented with the likes of you especially I remember one of my takeaways from all the years I remember you as well from 84 stage street one of our first employees is your good spirits which I think go a long way towards this customer service and your flexibility as outlined by Derek and Makisha we've had a number of different iterations in building a licensing and really an agency that has meant that they need to be flexible but also have good spirits about it in order to be able to make it work so good luck with with your with your next phase your contributions have been tremendous and thank you for everything that you contribute Commissioner Cameron if I could just add Mary Ann you you bring back the memories of some of those early phone calls and how well you are able to navigate some of those very very strange phone calls with a sense of humor that's always so important because we were new we were all just kind of doing everything there was to be done right I love your story about starting as a receptionist and moving up not only through our organization but continuing your studies that's something I didn't know we were able to work with Derek's team in order to professionally advance your education and now moving on to another agency to further advance is just a great story and you should be proud of that I'm hoping we could help a little bit it sounds like maybe we did with this with your growth and your abilities to to move ahead and just just offer the state something at a different level at all times so I'm sure they will love having you and it will be our loss but I always think it's so important to move ahead and we support that and just thank you so much for all the contributions. Commissioner Marion. Mary Ann I do I wish you luck also I think one of the nicest things you can hear from the boss when you leave is sort of the the overture that you're welcome back whenever and so I think it's great that the skills you took here you were able to use and then I do think it's great you're staying in state government that someone like you is continuing the Commonwealth continues to benefit from your service I wish you luck and then as Derek said you know the MGC is still here so who knows what kind of skills you get a de-cam and then you know maybe come back at some point in the future but until then you know I wish you luck and enjoy the cafeteria in Ashburn. That's funny yeah and Mary Ann as I mentioned earlier such really wonderful accolades from Akisha and Derek and you could tell so heartfelt but I know that they represent the entire gaming commission sentiments you know folks are here today and they're they're in many ways I can speak for them that they're sorry that they're not getting to say goodbye to you today in person and the good news is that you really are going to be around the corner so I know that you'll be sharing your experiences at de-cam de-cam is super lucky they're a smart agency and they scooped you up so I think it's a great opportunity for you and you know while we suffer losses the Commonwealth benefits overall and I thought commission's a bright observation that you know you've been invited back if and when the time comes the doors seem to be prepared to be open there's an opportunity here so very very best wishes I can say my big takeaway was meeting with your team in the past in person was recognizing that in so many ways you are the face to the public this group. Matisha you know your team interacts so much with the all the folks who really want to benefit from the expanded gaming act and get jobs and Marianne's style just really made me realize we were really well positioned to do that well so Marianne you've got a whole team that you're leaving but they've had the benefit of learning a lot from you so I wish you luck you'll do great thanks commissioners and thanks everyone else I really appreciate you and I'm gonna go mute now because I'm still crying thank you thank you Karen yeah so so on that uh lovely note uh that ends the administrative update great well thank you um tough to do this virtually but yeah yeah heartfelt you know um does anybody want a break now or after um commissioners and again looking at you yeah maybe five minutes real quick just a quick five minutes before we go into the game sense report I think that might make some good sense um I'll take uh it is right now uh 11 o'clock and we can be in five minutes 11 0 5 thank you looks like we can get started I'll just do a roll call to confirm we're all here commissioner Cameron I'm here commissioner Brian I am here commissioner Zeneca here here we are okay um Karen we're going to move on now to item number uh four um director of research and responsible gaming Mark Vandalinden hi Mark good morning good morning madam chair and commissioners um so today we have uh the quarterly update for the game sense program um I'm joined by Odessa Dorica Charlie or Dilly and Chelsea Turner um Marlene Warner is hanging in the wings for questions and in discussion following as well as Teresa Dora so today the the game sense update um I think it's is really interesting we're going to talk a little bit about problem gambling awareness month and the activities that happen there as well as just other activities both inside and outside of the casino so with that I will turn it over to uh Chelsea Turner thanks mark I'm just going to share my screen if that's okay give me one second here so I can just turn on the audio okay can everybody uh see the presentation terrific all right so my name is Chelsea Turner I'm the director of responsible gambling at the Massachusetts council on gaming and health and I'm I'm joined here by two of my colleagues Charlie who is a game sense supervisor at cleanridge park casino and is really sort of the captain of the team there as well as Odessa Dorica who um really leads our programs and services efforts and all of the community outreach efforts for the game sense team we're really excited to be here today so thank you in advance for your time sorry about that um sorry about that uh so mark said we are going to talk about problem gambling awareness month quite a bit we're also going to start by talking about some of the interaction numbers at each of the properties we'll touch on our excellent awards which are awards for really for casino staff that go above and beyond when it comes to responsible gambling we'll we'll weave in communications highlights throughout this report but we'll also spend a minute or two talking about that touch on all of our outreach and engagement efforts and then wrap up and answer any questions that you all have so these are our third quarter interaction numbers and what I think is very interesting as you look at these numbers is you look sort of across the top and you look at the top three circles um you're going to see a big jump year over year now obviously last year during the month of March we were only open for two months or two weeks of the four-week period so you would expect that our numbers would be higher this year but our numbers are higher by double and we're doing that with less staff so um and and while COVID is still a big deal and while we have traffic issues and stuff like that so I'm really really pleased to see these numbers um you know if you look at PPC the numbers are almost double um MGM again almost double and really encore hit it out of the park um over the over the last quarter particularly in March then if you look what I think is even more interesting if you look down and you look at the demonstrations and exchanges which are really the significant interactions that we have either with patrons or well with patrons um and that's those are two-way interactions um not simply you know am I where's the restroom or I need a cup of coffee um if you look at those numbers those are really high and so those are the quality interactions so looking at those gives me um a big smile on my face at least um and then the last thing I wanted to highlight were the VSE numbers um so our VSE numbers are I think bouncing back up to where they need to be but if you look at the last quarter at EVH you're gonna see really I think strong numbers and what's most interesting about those numbers what you can't see from this chart is that in the month of January we had two remote VSEs in the month of February we had three remote VSEs and two of our VSEs occurred during our overnight shift and in the month of March we had six remote VSEs and three VSEs occurred in the overnight shift so the the sort of the new things that we've brought in to the game spends program around around VSEs both having that overnight shift um and being available 24 hours a day for folks really in this crisis situations um that need a VSE and being able to offer them remotely um seems to be working um pretty well obviously this is just a snapshot in time but I think we're trending in the right direction so some things to keep in mind sort of just as you look at those numbers um it's not an apples to apples comparison um as I said we have fewer staff um you know I already talked about March um the hours were reduced and you know we just popped back up to 24 hours a day in late January capacity has been limited there the traffic patterns are challenging for us um some of the games have been closed um and interactions are just plain out harder right because people are wearing masks and people aren't even even though it's getting better and it feels better um and I think our staff feels safe um it's still harder right it's it's different when you don't see somebody smile and that's what our game sense advisors are used to doing but most importantly the takeaway here is that we're really getting fantastic numbers here good quality interactions and again trending in the right direction so I want to spend uh a little bit of time a small chunk of time today talking about Pgam and normally Pgam is focused on the back of the house so we're focused on the casino staff um this year we weren't able to be back at the house for safety reasons like we normally are um so we utilize technology um by doing quizzes and I'll talk about that a little bit in a little bit and we also did a lot in front of the house we actually did a lot with the patrons as well um we had outreach outputs that we'll touch on a little bit and then we also had various social media and communications efforts so I'm going to weave some of these in throughout our presentation and the first thing I want to show you is a fun little social media clip um that we did uh that highlights basically the importance of understanding the games and we aired this throughout the month of Pgam I'm sorry about this I practiced this yesterday with Teresa uh Chelsea you're on a pdf does that make a difference oh I should not be on a pdf um it does give me one second Chelsea you might need to on share your screen and go back to sharing if you're going to get another application okay give me one second sorry about this if you don't have the other version perhaps Mark Teresa or you have a handy I have it oh great thanks you know if I could just add while she's pulling that up um I think that the the numbers highlight it but but just to take a step back from it a minute and just realize just you know they these are amazing folks our game sense advisors who you know during the last several months with with a lot of challenges that they're facing we're still there and providing a really valuable service to our casino guests so so I think it's worth recognizing and I really thank um for game sense advisors for for doing that day in and day out sorry about that and thank you Mark hopefully this works so let's try one more time so that's just a fun little clip that we aired throughout the month of March and sort of demonstrates you know the spirit of Pgam what you're looking at now is just a sort of a a chart that we used to sort of graph out some of the things that we were doing so you can see you know we kicked off that the month of Pgam with a press release of course we helped work on the governor's proclamation there was digital ads that really ran throughout the month those and when I talk about digital ads I'm actually internally within the casino so we work with each of the properties so that there was a lot of signage at all of them about Pgam and awareness for problem gambling um on the ninth we had a gambling disorder screening day I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute and each week we had different quick quizzes that were patron and staff-facing and I'll I'll get into that in a little bit so so these are yep sorry so these are the quizzes that we ran throughout the month of March so each full week during March we ran a different quiz and for the casino staff we administered those we worked with the with our liaisons at the at the properties to administer them digitally and then we at the game center administered them using predominantly using the large screen monitors so the first week we focused on positive play and tried to educate folks about gambling literacy, pre-commitment and other elements of positive play which we're going to continue to hear a lot about um and week two we talked about voluntary self-exclusions and try to highlight and showcase our efforts there and the importance of bsc's in week three we had a little bit of fun focused on March Madness and talked about sports betting and a little bit in odds and in week four we talked about the various resources that are available in the in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts um and ppc even went an additional week um that last half week of March and did a superstitions week a superstitions quiz for that week so a lot of interactions that helped to contribute to those good numbers that you saw in the charts earlier the next thing i want to talk a little bit about is March 9th which is national gambling disorder screening day we partnered with the folks at Cambridge Health which is something that we do annually and you can see the numbers here um for that all the screens that we did on each each of these days in person um the screens are really a three question quick quiz i mean quick quick assessment if you will to ask questions about you know in the last 12 months the first one is have you become restless irritable or anxious when you try to stop or shut or slow down your gambling the second one is have you ever during the last 12 months have you ever tried to keep your family or friends from knowing how much you gambled the third question is during the last 12 months did you ever have get into financial trouble um and had to get help and so what i think are interesting about these results is if you look at the number of folks that have a positive screen it's actually higher than what the app with what the sort of rate is in the state of Massachusetts for folks that have problem gambling now i'm not necessarily surprised by that because we're in a casino asking these questions so we probably have a higher concentration of folks who gamble at the casinos but i thought it was really interesting and in talking to the gsa's who administered these afterwards they said that they think that actually the numbers would have probably been higher that people aren't exactly always a hundred percent truthful or comfortable answering these questions um we think it's an important initiative to be a part of we were happy to do it and you know certainly we've of course already followed up with Cambridge Health with all of our results so the next thing i wanted to talk about briefly is just our sort of enhanced links to problem gambling and responsible gambling resources and i think everybody knows that there's a new helpline number 1-800-327-5050 and we've been doing quite a bit to help to promote that number so through social media etc they you know the kind of one of the i think benefits of this the new helpline that dph is administering is that it's coordinated with their substance use helpline so as their as their screening folks for substance use they're also screening folks for gambling disorder so if we receive any calls about people who are in need of clinical services we are now referring them to that helpline and have been doing that for some time um and really trying to sort of boost boost these these efforts and initiatives so the second thing is we wanted to the number that we were originally using to answer these calls before dph took over the helpline um was the 1-800-426-1234 number and this is a number that has a long history with the mass council and so um you know and and folks are you you know the numbers in a lot of places and so we wanted to find a use for the number that we thought complimented the helpline and so what we have done is really sort of repurpose that number into an a line where we can answer questions about the games themselves so somebody has a question about um the house edge or the mechanics behind a game or what the odds are of a game game sensitizers can certainly answer those questions and more most importantly probably wanted to make sure that there was a direct line to bsc's especially as we're doing more and more remotely and digitally and we have the ability to do remote bsc's we thought it was important to preserve that um direct connection um so um and as i already mentioned um we are actively referring folks to the helpline so we think that this this complements one one another and they're happy about how it's been going so far um and then the last thing is we rolled out live chat at the end of problem gambling awareness month um and so we've been having a lot of fun with that the live chat is um uh feature embedded right into the mass council website it's also on the um game sense website and it allows anybody that um goes on to the website to ask questions about the games um to ask questions there's even a drop down about what is a vsc um we had a really good call recently where mom was concerned about her her son's um frequent lottery play believe or not and was wondering what she could do so you know and wanted to know about actually want to know about voluntary self-exclusion so um so we feel like that's been going really really well we're gonna you know this just launch so i don't have a lot to report to you on that yet um and we will have much more to report to you at our next quarterly presentation in june um before i turn it over to charlie to talk about sort of ppc and how they really hit it out of the park during problem gambling awareness month i just wanted to quickly show you one more social media clip that um features our helpline in the launch of the helpline or sorry the not our helpline our live chat and launch of live chat and promoting live chat so we're really sort of taking both the safer gambling education line in live chat and focusing on how the games work themselves any questions folks have about the games as well as vse's and again anything clinical we refer over to the dph helpline um at this point i'm gonna turn it over to charlie charlie from plain ridge park casino he's the senior game sense advisor there and um i'm gonna let him tell you about the great work of our game sense team there and the staff at ppc during pgam good morning uh madam chair good morning uh commissioners morning charlie it is a beautiful day out there i think we should we should take this outside um so i just want to i'm just going to highlight some uh things that we did at uh plain ridge park uh for this uh began this year as we all know it's uh everything's been a challenge and uh so we what what um chelsea had said about the five quizzes while we went up a step a step above um what we did was we collaborated with ppc and uh we collaborated just to kick it up and so um we offered a few other things uh pgam tip of the day which on that board there is a one little event for the team members where uh they would put in a daily tip a responsible flash probably gambling tip of the day they put it uh they're drawing they draw it and put it up from the board so at the end of the month uh they one winner with the best excuse me with the best uh tip of the day uh so it was kind of fun it was just get the members uh really into it and it when it worked well and if you see around that picture there's some swag that we were given out um little notepads with uh gaming tips game sense tips uh on there some nice pens which you see uh they kicked the pens before the uh clips but uh it was all good and um the magnetic uh chip clips we call them our chips tips and the chips clips so um it was fun they really liked this swag and we also had some other things we also um did a uh we we partnered with ppc they do an annual uh event for st patty we thought about you know join them and ask them if they would uh you know let us uh work with them on their on their program and they were uh more than more than helpful and so what we did we supplied a basket with some uh some st patty's day novelties in there some obviously game sense swag um game sense literature on um on vse's uh gaming tips uh where to get help resources different things like that play my way obviously and uh a 25 hour gift card so so the event was ppc was run an event where their team members would have to find uh in the back of the house find a piece of gold and uh they would turn you know whoever got the most pieces of gold they turned it in for prizes so what we did was and and this was hr for ppc did a great job coming up with uh with this um the the team member who found the green the game sense uh green piece of gold would win this basket so throughout the day they would do uh an email blast to their team members with the clue uh riddle and a clue to where this piece of gold may be hidden so it created a lot of buzz in the back of the house so when the team member found this piece of gold it was it was hidden in plain sight it was behind our game sense bulletin board in the back of the house they would have to go to get to get the piece of gold they would have to go to the game sense center located game sense advisor and they would have to answer three problem gambling questions before they could receive the key for the uh piece of gold get the key they take the uh get the gold take at the hr to for the prize you know it's pictures it was it was fun uh they also some ppc also supplied uh pgam the blue ribbons that you see throughout pgam for all the team members and the game sense team as well um and next extra weeks quiz as he said uh pbc put up the $50 gift card for an extra week and it was a superstition quiz it was a fun quiz about different superstitions in different cultures and things like that uh which was kind of fun so the team worked very hard both pbc and uh the game sense team make it this work and it worked out quite well and i'd like to also uh do a little shout out special thank you to uh lisa mckinney she's a manager of compliance for people and her team and north we're really going you know above and beyond to help in game sense you know couldn't you know the collaboration and the attitude that ppc they're they're always there to help us not only in uh for pgam but you know rgw and in september that's outside with you know with these uh you know the challenging conditions making sure we're all safe and what we do and a lot of other things as well we're uh we're currently working on a racing for the upcoming racing season that's incentive which i'll get into in a moment um which uh you know they've been really great with that we're working on a property map uh where it's the ppc map where we're going to be putting some game sense uh tips and um things on on their property map as well so um yeah so i wanted to thank lisa and her team for that and the next um the next uh section here is the uh what jelsie said the excellence award so the uh the game sense uh quarterly champion award acknowledges casinos successfully incorporate responsible gaming into their daily roles so i'm gonna start off with ebh uh actually every um every um quarter that we picked three members for each property so uh for ebh the first uh award winner was uh mathew o'brien from the security department mathew was approached by a guest who mentioned that he wanted to learn about table games he escorted the game to the game sense info center introduced him to a game sense advisor uh this simple question turned into a great conversation with the guest who may have not found game sense um the next one was uh philip wakefield from slots philip frequently brings guests to the game sense information center uh when they have questions about their gaming he also interacts with the game sense team to learn more about the various games how the various games work to help to better help the guest uh within the outreach uh related to the slots and then the final one from ebh is alex ariga he's in the security department as well um alberto convinced the guest to come out to the game sense information after engaging with him for an extended period and observing his gaming behavior he recognized the guests seemed to struggle to control their gaming activities and proceeded to approach him in a kind and professional manner so that that's um for ebh now i'm going to uh go over to uh mgm mpm um so mgm has three as well um when these awards for mgm are presented they're presented in their quarterly feel good friday meeting and uh where the team members recognized and amy uh the senior at mgm would speak uh you know to the uh to the the team members there and introduce these winners so the first winner was daniel miller he's the director of compliance since stepping into his role as director of compliance over a year ago damis built and fostered relationships with the games team at mgm he has been an enormous advocate for responsible gambling initiatives and elaborated game sense to create a new and innovative ways to reach both guests and team members the next one is um page mitski she's a marketing and assistant manager for special events page has played an integral role in collaborating with game sense to to assess promotional events at mgm which allow us to find opportunities to engage guests with large to engage with large groups guests to share the game sense message and the final one from mgm is um jeremy pain jeremy is uh in the sound and video production manager that jeremy has been essential in the game sense obtaining a beautiful monitor to display our our responsible gaming materials at the game sense infamy center jeremy helped with the setup and technical issues that had come up and then the final one at ppc we had three winners at ppc as well what we do at ppc they have a team member appreciation day uh once a quarter or if with covid we really didn't have a team member appreciation day so but each team member was called down in a group and we we presented the awards in the hr training room with their managers as well so our first winner it was Stephanie Rosenberg she's a slot shift manager uh while performing her many responsibilities such as supervising staff and dealing with ppc guests needs Stephanie goes out of her way to assist guests to show signs of distress and finds the gsa on duty um i've been you know Stephanie has brought people to me uh on numerous occasions or directed me in their in their direction just to monitor and talk to them if they needed to talk to derrick wilson derrick is a hr coordinator for ppc derrick was extremely helpful in this um saint patty's day scavenger hunt with the game sense gold uh derrick has always been there for game sense to assist in scheduling quarterly champion award ceremonies and with the massive help with the largest numbers of toys that was collected for the team members and guests during the toys for touch truly drive uh most recently derrick and the hr team has done a fantastic job we're doing pgm activities for pc team members including game sense part of the fool's goal event and saint patty's day and our final award winner for ppc is um tom metcoccas as a security officer um so um tom is there always there for the guest and notify game sense advisors of any game uh games guest behavior that he feels we should observe also doran or gw in september uh we had that table we had a table then outside at the valley entrance and tom you know tom would answer guessing questions and bring guests over to us and and you know make sure they were social distance and different things like that he just went above and beyond in in uh in his duties while he was there and so we want to uh i want to thank every one of these award winners um for what they do for the game sense laws and the game sense program they're they're an asset so um that's all i got and uh so i've been going to turn this over to odessa oh my bad that's all not all i got sorry it's it's just a little bit more of me um and a little bit more charlie and then we're going to turn it over to the desa so just really briefly wanted to touch on some of our communications efforts and these efforts are really spearheaded by our communications team that's bill sherwood and and michael and they do a fantastic job to push out social media um work with each of the properties throughout the course of pgm and you saw some of the the fun videos earlier um but one of the coolest in addition to the all of you can see how many social media graphics and stuff that we did but one of the coolest things that we did i think during pgm is we did something called geofenced advertising um which basically means we can literally draw a circle around the casinos and if somebody is there and they have their mobile phone on them and it's on for we can set the time for an hour or two they're going to get a pop-up message a game sense pop-up message and so we this is the first time we've tested geofencing um but we did it for five days at the end of pgm and we had 18 897 views in five days um and those are all folks inside the casinos um the vast majority were at mgm which is a little interesting so we're probably going to try it again and wonder a little bit if we didn't draw the the line big enough around ppc for example but i think the numbers were really successful it's very inexpensive and it's a way to do very direct targeting so this is something we're going to continue to try in the fourth quarter and we'll be back to you in june to talk feel sure we'll be back to to you in june to talk to you a little bit more about the analytics at that point in time um and then lastly um i just wanted to say that charlie and the staff at plainridge park is really again done a fantastic job working with the casino staff at plainridge park um in terms of the race season prep um and so i'll turn it over to him again very briefly to let him tell you a little bit about what he and his team have been working on there yeah so um as we all know last year was a challenge racing and even though if it was going to take place because of covid and that so it was really tough to prepare and and it was just really very difficult we had a presence down into racing but it was very difficult to really interact and communicate i guess but so this year things are a little different we have some to prepare and we're really uh looking forward to this upcoming season so like chelsea said that you know we've been cooperating you know in coordination with ppc with the racing division and uh we have we've had some um you know discussions about what we would like to do down there and they they've been open to everything and it really it's really great actually so a couple things that we have we have this um this banner here i'd like to wager uh that game sense people running mate that's a banner that's in the um we had installed at the in the racing down by uh the uh the electronic terminals it's can be from anywhere in the inside the racing inside the race book we also have uh that ad with the with torey right there on the right hand side actually trained to help keep the game fun that's a full page ad that it's going to be ran in the racing program for the entire racing racing season um good way to get our message out there um and you know it's really good and then we also have some other things that we're working on during the planning stations in planning stages we're gonna have a tabling event we're gonna have um preferably outside during the uh through a few different events uh this season but most notably um the spirit of massachusetts trot in um in july we tried 25th um we're gonna we're gonna be outside of that event um which is a big event a lot of families a lot of kids i want to say kids a lot of families coming out you know watching the races as well so we have that going on and lenny the track announcer he's going to be you know advertising making announcements about game plans over the uh when he's calling the race you know races or whenever he feels that he can get a plug in for game sense so um so we're looking forward to racing this year hopefully the weather's great and thanks so much thanks so much charlie we're gonna turn it over to odessa now to talk a little bit about community outreach and engagement in some of our additional community supports hi everybody um so i'm odessa dwarika i'm the director of programs and services at the council and i was just struck by listening to charlie because i've been working more with game sense since july and they know how to make public health fun like i've learned i've been in public health for more than 20 years and they're the first ones where it's completely fun it's completely based on relationship building and it's all carrot and no stick and i think that's the way it should be so i just had to say that so with the clothing of you know senior centers community centers programs classes like everybody else uh we've had to pivot without reach to ensure that game sense messaging is still reaching the community um when in-person access to priority populations has been suspended we've often still been able to reach the providers um that serve them so we do this via video presentations and we really focus on helping them carry and game sense knowledge onto their clients we've also been able to collaborate with max mass access it's a community access tv station they're amazing they've helped us reach households all across the state uh with game sense programming and public service announcements uh we did this with a show created for older adults and we're in the process of designing something similar for veterans we expect to be filming that early to mid-may and we really hope to finish out this year with a bang um as vaccinations increase warmer weather is upon us um some organizations are returning to in-person programming um scheduling tabling of events outdoor events and all of that so we're looking forward to doing a lot more next slide so we've been offering we started offering capacity building support to agencies who serve the api community this is something that began kind of organically um when an organization reached out to us saying yeah we love a game sense presentation but we'd actually love a lot more than that too we we need more help and we want to do more around gambling for our population so when i say capacity building i'm talking about a number of things that we can offer to an organization i'm talking about of course game sense trainings for their clients that might be esl clients or job training programs or other types of programs serving people in their communities but i'm also talking about um tailored trainings for staff that take a much deeper dive into problem gambling recovery supports to really help them understand gambling issues in their community um we've opened up our spring our spring training calendar this is a calendar of clinical trainings that we offer that the mass council offers and we've um had providers for this organization take the trainings at no cost for example we just held to our webinar by dr tim fong he's out of ucla did this update on asian-american treatment and we had 21 providers join us who offer social services in chinese vietnamese and cambodian language so that was really exciting that they were able to hear him and bring that knowledge back to their agencies uh for social workers and clinical providers in particular these agencies were offering full scholarships to our spring training institute which is a 30 hour um course on prevention assessment and treatment of gambling disorder with the trauma focus and health equity lens and we've given eight scholarships so far to staff of api organizations and finally um any of the providers that we connect with through any of these trainings we're also inviting them to become a vsc designated agent as well an example of this has been our collaboration with the asian-american civic association they have programming in china town and quincy the executive director you know was the one who reached out and said we want more than just a game sense training so we scheduled the video call and try to figure out how could we better support them and so we started by doing a game sense presentation for staff there was a sense that the staff um went to the casino a lot and needed a game sense um training and then we did a more in-depth presentation on problem gambling uh they they were interested in starting a support group for clients with disorder gambling and so uh jody nealy our recovery outreach liaison was able to consult with them and give them feedback and support and talk them through some of the issues that might come up and some strategies to do this and as their their programming started opening up again their in-person programming we were able to schedule three additional game sense presentations for their client groups so that was um a big success and their staff members took our clinical trainings and also signed up for our vsc designated agent training so that's just one way we were able to again wrap support around an agency who wanted to do more um and i think next slide so our community support so these are more looking at recovery and vsc's jody our recovery liaison um she's been delivering customized resources all year she's reached 157 people this year with customized resources and referrals on one of the most important resources i think that we offer is telephone recovery support so for those of you who don't know we call it trs and it's 12 weeks of phone meetings designed to support people working on harm reduction and their gambling or support them in their early recovery and it's a evidence-based peer-led intervention and it's very low barrier the person just needs to have a cell phone and when we started offering this in july i think we didn't know what to expect we didn't know if folks were really going to want this if it was going to be too much of a commitment and um we said well we'll try to reach 25 people but 25 people so far have already engaged in trs so we did get a favorable response and just to give you a little more context we offered trs to all of the 157 people who allowed us to follow up with them this is whether it be after a vsc after a call to the helpline after talking to a gamesense advisor on the floor and 75 percent of the people who got followed up after a vsc also chose to enroll in trs okay so 75 percent and if you look at the 123 non-vsc follow-ups less than 10 of those folks chose to engage in trs so i thought those were really interesting numbers um i thought that maybe it speaks to a higher level of motivation among vsc enrollees to change behaviors and enter a recovery process so i think it's it's an exciting beginning to that program um for pgam jody conducted about 15 virtual vsc awareness trainings uh substance use disorder recovery centers across the state um she also presented on vsc as a key recovery tool and our three-part webinar series designed for peers and then last but not least uh we've been unscheduling monthly trainings to certify community-based designated agents and we know that vsc is a great tool on its own um but more importantly i think it's just this precious opportunity to reach somebody in crisis and offer them more support so we really want providers across the commonwealth based in the communities to be knowledgeable and trained um in the vsc process that's what i got thanks so much Odessa so before we move on to questions i just wanted to talk about something that we are super excited about um and i know the gaming commission uh is also excited about this this is i think mark van der linden's one of his favorite things is is play my way and as everybody knows he's a pioneer um and play my way and it's a it's a responsible gambling budgeting tool that we currently have at ppc but is about to get rolled out at mgm so we are uh in meetings working with mgm about how this is going to happen our hope is to launch um in september um there's a lot of work that needs to go into preparing for this um we have a research partner curlton university and have meeting with uh folks there of course mark is leading these efforts um and uh there's going to be a study done a longitudinal study with 600 folks um at mgm um and again this is all coordinated with mgm they've been fantastic partners right out of the gate on this project um so 600 folks predominantly who play slots at mgm and they'll be a sort of a pre-test and then a two follow-up post-tests for the 600 participants in the study um of course they're incentivized a little bit through amazon gift cards to participate um which is the hook to get them to continue in phases two and three of the project but it's kind of cool that we're going to be able to sort of test um test this a little bit along the way sort of pre and post launch um so gamesense is excited about this um and trying to do everything we can to help facilitate this and make this a an exciting launch uh make it a little bit of fun um and make it as successful as possible so you'll be hearing a lot more about this uh in probably our next quarterly presentation and lastly before we get to questions um i wanted to uh also think a couple other people that um i wanted to mention one alex light bomb who has been really kind and hopeful in helping us think through what are some of the ways that we can have more of a game sense presence um on the racing side um so we really really appreciate her time and efforts um and then also you know i would be remiss if i didn't also think uh north ground cell at um cleanage park who's a general manager there and while lisa's our sort of day-to-day person on the ground at ppc um leadership often starts from the top down and so he was the one that actually allocated without any of us asking extra resources to go towards their pgm efforts so i just wanted to give him a shout out as well um and finally before questions we are hiring at game sense so we had somebody move on and in order to sort of maintain staffing and get ourselves back to place um where we have sufficient staffing we are doing just a little bit of hiring at game sense so if you know anybody that is interested please have them visit our website mach.org and we're also looking for a few good college interns so please help us spread the word um and with that said we would be happy to take any questions you have great um chelsea thank you if you could no great perfect questions um commissioners who uh can show brian do you want to go first now would you like to i don't really have any questions but i i'm happy to hear you um sort of given out to alex and to ppc i was it was great to hear the horse racing you know i've always been impressed with the game sense presentations but that's it's always been an aspect off to the side and so it was really exciting for me to hear how you guys have you know tried to pull bring that into the fold so to speak so i mean having this team that rolls out as the season kicks off yeah thank you and and charlina's team have developed some specific activities relating to a paramutual so that we can educate folks there um and on specifically on racing um and then we have some other ideas of our sleeves that we're not quite ready to share yet but hopefully in June we will okay great thank you very much it was a really good presentation appreciate it great great uh commissioner camera yep uh thank you madam chair and thank you for this presentation it was excellent and i learned something new every time a couple of observations things that i thought were impressive mark always talks about keeping it fresh and i did hear some really interesting uh new aspects that i do think keep this whole program fresh one of them was um i mean charlie was giving us the whole uh the quizzes that were done um you know i was impressed that you had one on march madness sports betting so you're you're also preparing your own team educating your own team so that responsible gaming will be seamless once if in fact that becomes i thought that was impressive um i also uh as uh commissioner brian pointed out love that you've made such an effort with the racing side of the house i loved uh let game sense be your running mate and um having a physical presence at the big events i think will be really a really good thing to really educate those folks on the racing side of the house because it isn't it's typically a different group of gamblers than it is on the casino side of the house so i think that effort was really uh something i enjoyed hearing about also i look forward to in june uh hearing more about the live chat and the geofencing i'm wondering if the live chat will be something that is much more attractive to younger people i know you don't have data yet but uh that may be something that some folks feel more comfortable with so um excellent presentation thank you for keeping it fresh and the way you all present and and make this such an important service for our gamblers here in in southeastern so much thank you commission senegal yeah thank you i um i picked up on a couple of them the the points that that commissioner cameron was also making i think the geofencing is fantastic i look forward to getting to know a little bit more about what uh the live chat um you know ends up working relative to the next progression right if somebody really engages does that mean they go and have a face-to-face it could be a referral or or uh some kind of uh you know referral to the the helpline or the the safer gaming educational line which which name i like very much by the way so um i also um think your your uh your theme of outreach um given the pandemic is is really good it's a it's a great overview of being creative and active and i think that's that's fantastic um i think there's also a theme of collaboration that emerges from your overall presentation in in from the likes of the casino employees of course but but many others and your staff and as well so um i um did you mention one thing that i also look forward to um that that you mentioned at the end and that's the play my way roll out um mark and our staff knows this but let me mention it here one of the things that we learned actually from the gamesense advisors of the ppc example was that some customers we didn't like those early notifications and and i know we've worked we worked towards they really just like the actual notification uh not the ones prior to and i know we're working towards uh perhaps configuring making the the mgc mgm sorry version be configurable so that people could choose whether to get early notifications or not and i know that that's usually a a it's tricky because the more you uh the the more choices or or things that you have to choose about the the the tool the more likely that somebody might just decide not to you know sign up anyway it needs to be something quicker or or people don't sign up so um as as the only point is uh as we continue to learn through you gamesense advisors and gamesense program how people are engaging with play my way and some of the feedback they've had in the past um some of the anecdotally anecdotal but very powerful you really are an important voice at the table in helping us roll it out early on so i'm i'm happy that you're excited about it because you're the ones who are going to make us uh i think successful in that role great i also have a few observations great presentation odessa and charlie thank you so much and congratulations to the um those individuals who are singled out for the excellent supports um each of the general managers at the properties are aware of that recognition and we're excited to make it public i like that this is part of the presentation hope that that will be part of the presentation going forward uh mark um vse expansion wonderful and you know the community outreach particularly now so critical but i hope that we can continue to build the capacity odessa that you described uh i like that you heard the need and you figured out a way to respond and uh congratulations on that um a couple takeaways from the day that we saw right off the bat chelsea you explained how there is evidence of increase in in the interactions um some were the simple interactions and then of course the more complex ones i i credit as mark indicated earlier that um the rule that game sense advisors have had to assume in light of the pandemic and that it was more difficult more challenging one um you do bank on on personal interactions and those smiles and so the fact that you could get through the masks and those those new barriers is so important so thank you thank you for your own willingness to do that in light of the the health issues i also think that besides the benefit you've provided you know for maybe um responsible gambling purposes there probably was also an opportunity for um providing some relief to the isolation that so many people in massachusetts have been experiencing so those simple interactions were probably in many ways uh a chance for those who have been isolated during this time so thank you for that too i'm presuming that um at least with respect to the simple interactions i bet there's a lot of benefit on that front finally i also just wanted to mention that you know it should be stressed that the game sense advisors are providing not only that key um interaction at times of stress for the patrons who are need help being able to make informed healthy choices around gaming but you also do provide an opportunity for the patrons to understand the games and you do it with your humor and your your humanity so that they um you know how the games actually work and and and the rules of the game um and then you you know today charlie emphasized how it really is a collaboration you know north is here with the the um all the individuals who are on the gaming floor that it's a collaboration with security members and it's it's truly um an opportunity to make sure patrons are informed about healthy choices and how the games work these on-site advisors were are mandated by legislation and you know they're fulfilling that critical rule of helping folks make healthy choices informed choices and uh and and understand um the nature of casino play here in massachusetts so it's um and it's you're doing it with fewer hands which we understand as well so thank you thank you so much commissioners uh commissioners and again did you want to add anything uh no pass that i wasn't sure no i think that's well said thank you okay so thank you so much and uh and thank you again uh for the uh the presentation and in your good work charlie thank you thank you all you guys are always so kind to us and you make us want to come back and and showcase our efforts so it can always be intimidating speaking in front of a large group but um you always make us feel welcome and we appreciate it and and all of your all of your good work so um you're fantastic partners to us therese and mark i couldn't say enough good things about and we really appreciate everything thank you thanks then moving on we're all set okay moving on then to um our item number five communities of dares division Joe Delaney chief thank you thank you madam chair and commissioners uh welcome to the 2021 community mitigation fund so today before you will have three we'll be reviewing three 2021 community mitigation fund applications now that this is our first meeting of the year on this i would just like to spend a couple of minutes uh going over our process just a little bit so first i'd like to recognize the review team for this year's program which includes uh commissioner Enrique Zuniga uh senior enforcement council Kate Moxie-Hartigan uh associate general council Carrie Charisi uh director of diversity and legislative affairs Jill Griffin workforce program manager crystal Howard program manager of research and responsible gaming Teresa Fiori administrative assistant Tanya Perez and last but certainly not least uh program manager Mary Thurlow so the review team has provided recommendations on this year's application for your review in your packet uh we are making these recommendations after a very thorough review which involve numerous meetings of the review team a public comment process outreach to the licensees and sufficient of written responses to review team questions and as we've talked about recently our process has changed somewhat this year in that we are bringing grant applications to the commission for review and approval as we complete the review of each application rather than bringing them to the commission at one or two large meetings to help both streamline the process and try to even out the workflow a little bit so before you today are three community mitigation fund applications two of them are workforce and one of them is a community planning application now we included this community planning application with the workforce because it is it's actually for the development of curriculum which will eventually be used in workforce training programs so we felt that they were sufficiently similar to but to be reviewed together as a package even though they do fall technically under two different categories um so our twenty one twenty twenty one target for spending on the workforce grant in the guidelines was eight hundred thousand dollars and so what you see before you today the applications that we received totaled only seven hundred thousand dollars which we are recommending for award now since there are these extra funds available and we know the good work that these programs do we will also be asking that the commission authorize an award of an additional fifty thousand dollars to each of these applicants should they be able to either expand the programs identified in their applications or identify other eligible programs that would benefit from funding and what we are at this what we're asking is that you know you authorize staff to review and approve this additional funding with the provision that will keep the commission apprised of any expansion of funding you know the thought here basically is that um once the applications are approved by the commission there's a you know a bit of a bureaucratic process that we need to go through to award these we have to do contract documents and ISAs and and the grant documents themselves and the thought was that between now and when those are executed we can talk to the grantees and see if there are if there are any opportunities in this area and if there aren't well so be it but if there are we think it would be great to expend the funds that we have available for the program so unless there are any particular questions on that I'm going to turn it over to Jill Griffin and Crystal Howard to present the details of each application good afternoon chair and commissioners as Joe mentioned I'm joined by Crystal Howard program manager who stands ready to answer any questions you might have but I'd like to just start with setting the context before we review these three grant proposals and I just start by saying that these workforce development investments are more important now than ever before um you'll remember it's probably quite fresh in your mind we were faced with a very different picture when we reviewed grants last year the leisure and hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit industries nationally losing more than 7.7 million jobs or 47 percent of total positions according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from May 2019 to May 2020 Massachusetts was one of the hardest hit leisure and hospitality employment decreased almost 60 percent hotels in the Boston area alone were hit harder by the coronavirus pandemic than just about any other major U.S. city hotel industry officials indicate that recovery could take years the industry says that there are still more than 8 000 people out of work in greater Boston alone the good news is we are starting to see this sector slowly rebound just as we see the casinos begin to hire again but as i started these investments are more important now than ever before i'm going to review the proposals but i'm going to highlight some of the newer elements because most of the proposals are very similar to the proposals you've seen in years past as these applicants seem to be building on their strong strong work from previous years so the first one Holyoke Community College again partners with Springfield Technical Community College and Springfield Public Schools offering a continuing continuum of adult basic education career readiness and occupational training to meet the needs of both MGM and the region um Holyoke Community College is bringing back their culinary training which was eliminated last year due to the pandemic they plan to train 50 students to meet the needs of MGM and the region enhanced components include a new focus on online job interviewing and um English as a second language culinary classes um Springfield Technical Community College one of the partners will continue emphasizing job readiness entry level skills development increased reading comprehensive comprehension and math skills the new component of their program is that they're this year offering guest services gold certification in addition to their OSHA CPR and first aid certificates and then Springfield Public Schools um continues advancing students through adult basic education including um English classes and and high school equivalency courses they have a new emphasis on technology and digital literacy um their curriculum enhancements include survey of hospitality careers course in collaboration with both MGM and the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau so the review team felt that this was a very strong application and recommends full funding of $350,000 which includes $100,000 to each of the three partners and a $50,000 supplemental award of $50,000 for regional collaboration and this is even though the applicant only requested $42,551 for the supplemental award as you note in our memo we thought that additional funding for marketing would be well utilized so given that the workforce grant applications total less than the targeted amount we also asked that the commission authorize an award of up to $400,000 as director um uh Delaney mentioned um and um should eligible work be identified by the applicant and commission staff staff will keep the commission updated on these proposed use of additional funds so I think I'll pause at that point and our comments for director Griffin on this proposal I did um director Griffin have you had communications with the applicant in terms of ideas for marketing I mean it I'm not opposed to the idea of giving them extra given the need to sort of get going again given the last year but I'm just curious if you've already had those conversations with them about whether they have ideas for putting that money to use um we've had um we've had uh communication in the past and also with MGM um and both entities generally um value and discuss the need for additional marketing so I think um this funding would be well served but it sounds like there hasn't been anything specific to the upcoming years right um we would certainly um have conversations about specific marketing uses for the grant um as part of the um process Jill um so we've had brief discussions with them on this and in the situation from last year where they had proposed this marketing element we talked to them then and of course that was completely cut up with primarily a lot of that marketing intent goes to programming the culinary school but also um some of these students who are coming in are unaware in the region of the various positions that this grant allows them to get through and so they they try to target the the marketing is more of a recruitment strategy in order to put them into the right place in the pipeline but they use all three schools as the primary place where they go and do a lot of this recruitment they have other ideas that they've never been able to implement because they didn't have marketing funding in the past so when they came in last year with the regional collaboration proposal it included a much larger chunk for marketing and they had specific ideas then that weren't put into motion because of the pandemic so i think we'd revisit what those ideas would be and and right into the grant what the marketing strategy would be okay and then we can maybe table this for our discussion at the end but in terms of the requests for the sort of the leeway and discretion to do the extra 50 000 i just think maybe we can have a conversation about how that fits in once we've gone through all of the application i think it's i mean i think it's a great program you know but i think i'll table that comment until the end okay so um i want to make sure i understand you'd like to address the additional funding as kind of a separate matter so let's think about that when we when we move forward i think that makes a great deal sense i i do have just a technical issue if the 50 000 weren't granted chief delaney through a vote today as recommended if it weren't does it revert or where does it go how would it be accessed in or could it be accessed in another way well the money would just roll over you know so if we awarded 700 000 we had 800 000 available that money would just roll over to the next year um so the thought was if we have it available and given you know how much they had to cut last year with the pandemic and other things that you know they're probably are good uses out there um you know and our thought was hey if we could just have that leeway to do that we could see if they want to avail themselves of it and have any ideas we would do that and if not then you know the money would roll over and and just to clarify am i right that the the logic of attaching the 50 000 is because we pride we prioritize and value the regional collaboration is that the link to the 50 000 or is it simply because we have it available is there well i think it's it's a little bit of both i mean so each each of the applications got the 50 000 for the regional collaboration that was sort of the bonus that they get um and um you know we were looking at it and you know the demand this year is down somewhat for community mitigation funds and we thought since the money is available um if we can work with them to try to expand you know what good work these programs do you know so you know if there's a way to expand them and and they have the capability to do that this would be a good opportunity to do you know we certainly don't need to do it um it just seemed to us to be a good idea that with having the funds available if we could expand these get a few more people trained you know as the especially as the facilities start hiring more workers and so on um this would just be a good thing thank you i didn't mean to go out of line commissioners and again you do you have a question now or comment well i was going to comment on on on that question but i think joe addressed it i think context here is the critical part which is on the overall guidelines we had anticipated a level of expenditure on requests that just came lower than that what you know when when they submitted their application so in that context it's its recommendation to to have a little bit more leeway there are other larger questions that i think we could address at a later time relative to guidelines for example for future years as to whether some of those limits that we have placed and maybe limits is the wrong word some of what we have issued as guideline needs to be perhaps we thought without a number or with a higher number given what we're seeing so but i but i think addressing it in a way is is good for us an hour later and i just think just to add in the one other consideration there is it was as we were talking about at the review team originally thought well why don't we go back to these folks and see if they want to revise their application and add some stuff in now and so forth and the thought was well rather than delaying the approval of their underlying application let's get that moving and we could have these and if the commission is okay with authorizing an additional 50 000 per applicant we can have these conversations you know like i said while we're doing all the paperwork that we need to do to get done you know they still need to put together final scopes and timelines and so on and so forth you know based on the approvals as a reminder they could have come in with either the 50 000 supplemental bonus or the 100 000 supplemental bonus and they both only came in with 50 800 actually coming in under with their request which is why we bumped it up a little bit but so these applications could have been 50 000 more to begin with and just to follow up on the chair's comment procedurally speaking i'm assuming that absent us making that finding with the extra 50 000 in it today there's no mechanism for them to then come back in front of us and move to adjust an increase is that why you're recommending that we do it today yeah you know typically we we just you know we don't usually come back unless there's a real you know occasionally there's a modification to an application they either want to repurpose some money for something else and then we come back but we haven't come back before to actually increase the value so i think yeah the thought was let's let's see what see what the appetite of the commission is to do this and if it's there we do it now and if not you know we look we can revisit it if we if we want to you know if there's um you know we could go back to them and say all right we're you're approved for 350 um there's some additional money that's available there and if you want to come back with another proposal we could bring that in front of the commission i mean there's a number of ways that we could do it we thought here is that if the commission could just discuss the authority to to work with them to come up with scope that fits within our guidelines that would make some sense just you know to avoid you know multiple uh stops in front of the commission and so on but there wouldn't be a procedural bar then if we said 350 there wouldn't be anything stopping them from coming back with a plan that says well now we want 48 or 50 more yeah no and i think it's we we would approach them after you know if you didn't approve that today we would we would approach them and say hey here there's an opportunity there what do you guys think and and if you're interested come back with us with something and then we can bring that back to the commission right okay commission Cameron yeah joe it sounds like you didn't want to the timing is such that you want to let them know that they are going to be approved and they can start their planning and training and whatnot right yeah we just didn't want to slow down the process so that was really you know the notion was let's get this thing moving and get it get it going and um you know these workforce grants are typically ones they take a little bit longer than the others because we have ISAs and other things that we have to deal with um so the thought was let's get these out of the chute and get them going and um if we can if we can add more into it that's great and if not that's fine too can i ask a technical question to our guidelines or our regs or our statute and also just general you know i don't know if it's procurement rules is is there any concern about releasing the 50 000 if it hasn't been requested i i don't believe statutorily that there's there's you know anything that would protrude us from doing that in in terms of i think the statute and our guidelines what what's very clear is about a deadline for the February 1st deadline right the first deadline for that i remembered i was thinking the same way i'm gonna just we also have a functional didn't we also have a functional rule where staff would have the authority to sort of change the allocation of funds if it fell below a certain threshold my hesitation with that 50 000 request while i understand the sentiment um i felt like we all sort of come to a consensus that anything under a certain threshold could be dealt with quickly without coming back and just informing the commission as opposed to seeking authorization my hesitancy with the 50 000 where they don't have a plan yet is it does seem to be in contravention of the agreement we had before which is over a certain amount and i i believe 50 would be there it just is running a foul of how we've done stuff historically yeah you're correct on that that's you know we had we had always done it as sort of 10 percent i think of of the number yeah it's 10 percent right but the the February 1st would not apply here because you're just really going back to ask for additional information say on a marketing so that would not preclude us from eventually if we think it's relevant approving this additional right correct yeah so maybe the cleanest way is to approve what they have in front of us now and then you know you do your work behind the scenes with them and then we get a second approval sure that's never works fine that way by the way um by the way um we also included in the guidelines this year for the first time the ability to come in at at any time in the year with with more with more requests that's that's what i'm satisfied the February 1st you mean right right there was commissioner brian i think once you've satisfied the February 1st hard cutoff you can almost move move to amend so to speak if if circumstances change you have the ability to come back and harken back to that deadline and this was the singular applicant for workforce correct well there's two there's two more no oh i'm sorry i'm sorry this is actually really um this is the first this is for this is the first one for workforce well i know that there's the boston one but for the western were there any other oh for western mass it's the only one yes right right okay um and and we have um under our program region a and region b slice them in half i wanted to make sure there's no other applicant that would be competing for the funds down the road no workforce and it's my understanding that we don't if if the uh full amount we're not awarded today and there's a $50,000 balance or $100,000 balance they wouldn't go back into the fund for the entire applicant rule correct we would still keep it in the silos of workforce development and transportation and and um no it would it would just stay within the region so in the next year whatever whatever funds roll over from the previous year go into you know whatever we determine the guidelines to be for the next year if we look if we wanted to increase workforce from $800,000 to a million or uh you know the the target we can do that that's all a matter of the policy discussions that we get into you know in the fall when we're developing guidelines for 22 so now i'm going to ask the more complicated question if let's just say there's a balance from you know in each of our our silos right commissioner brian you can probably finish the sentence better than me you're nodding your head right if something more tantalizing comes up in another category would you take the money left in the silos pool it and potentially give it to someone outside workforce development is that something that's allowed under the guidance yeah yeah absolutely yeah so the sponsor all the more reason i think to sort of keep it where it is since we don't have a plan yet i hate to commit that money and then find out someone in another category came in and said i can take 75 on western mass and do a and we've already committed it to this other program that hasn't come up with a plan yet what i can tell you is that for this year that would never be the case we are within we are within our targets for all of our categories so that was one of the reasons why we were saying hey we have this money here why don't we see if we can use it this year rather than just letting it roll over and winding up wherever they wind up with that said i i think maybe it makes sense that given the threshold question of the 10 percent and the fact that this all goes back into a pool um that we maybe defer the 50 000 until there's we have more information on how it will actually be spent i don't know that's my thinking um although i appreciate i guess i'm a little uncomfortable uh um idea of giving funds away without a plan i think that's very fair even though i was you know originally open to the idea of of spending the you know everything we had quote unquote budgeted for the category i think that's fair we could and i think the most important part is to to look at the request which which as joe has mentioned you know it takes a little while to execute those isas and get them going make sure there's no interruption in their programs because this is a program they have especially if the 50 000 can be rolled over to next year you know that's another 50 000 for maybe a different proposal commissioner camera nodding your head are you yes precedent is important and we don't want any unintended consequences here so i i do believe it's cleaner to address the matter the secondary matter of the marketing after we have a plan yeah so what we can do is um assuming that you approve the sort of underlying amounts um we can uh you know once once that's voted we can know you know we can get with the grantees and and let them know that hey we do have you know additional funds in the categories and if you want to avail yourself of those funds um why don't you see if you can rework your budget or you know give us a supplemental budget for those amounts and then we can bring them back to the commission you know hopefully in the same time frame that we're dealing with now for the rest of the community mitigation fund so before we completely i don't want to derail the the good conversation around the the application um and perhaps i don't know commissioner camera if you wanted to just comment on the the three hundred thousand dollar um um request or the funding of the three hundred thousand under underlying um this application or supporting this application yeah i am very supportive of the application i've seen the good work done by the institutions out there in the training programs have been just tremendous so i i very much have been supported the original application for the additional training and you know to get these young folks trained and job ready just to clarify um chair judstein um the regional collaboration was part of the application um and guidelines so i'm gonna add that it's part of the original funding so as as we've done and i was mentioning is separate from that marketing and 40 to jail you have the number in front of you probably the 41 42 000 that they had required so yeah so the supplemental award is part of the workforce right so they they each of our applicants asked for three hundred thousand dollar base and uh in region a they asked for the full 50 what they were supposed to do was ask for either 50 000 or a hundred thousand dollar bonus and for some reason holy oak came in with this oddball 42 thousand 551 it's supposed to be 50 or a hundred so we read their application and said wow we think they should get the bonus which should be 50 000 so we rounded it to the 50 grand that's meant and that's not wholly distinct from the 50 that we just talked about that we're going to table and so really the request in front of us is rounding up the 342 and change to 350 exact that voting i saw that i saw that yeah thank you for i saw that number and and did jump right to the 350 because that's what the plan was um that's really helpful uh i i just want to remark before i go on to my fellow commissioners that i i appreciate uh director griffin reminding us of the backdrop of how covid has really hit um particularly the boston area but we know of course western mass entire commonwealth in terms of the hospitality industry so this this is really um a great investment and a critical one uh commissioner brine did you just want to remark on the the um uh original application no certainly i'll reiterate i want to make sure that my comments didn't get lost in my first comments on this but no i do i remember going out looking at the program one of the last times that i was able to go out there um it's very impressive i absolutely think the underlying request is is very important and very valid great commissioner zeneca i know you are involved too of course as part of the yeah same here even though it might be tempting to think well there were a lot of job losses um in the past so there may be some capacity out there there is evidence that a lot of people change professions perhaps during these times there's always a need perhaps of more training there's a lot of mobility so as jill and crystal and joe has have already said you know he's become um more important during times like these where there's a lot of re-entry into the workforce and that's why a lot of the recommendation any further questions for director grippen um or for crystal no um share we have we have um motions for each of these i don't know if you wanted to take them up one by one or at the end yeah yeah well so we're going to move on this um exactly uh we do need a vote so we'll i think it makes sense while um it's fresh in our mind to to um move on this if if a commissioner is prepared to do so commissioner brian certainly uh madam chair i move that the commission approved the award of a workforce grant in the amount of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to holy oak community college in conjunction with springfield technical community college in the city of springfield public school department for adult education career readiness and occupational training is described in the community fund analysis memo included in the commissioner's packet and is discussed here today and the commission staff be authorized to execute a grant instrument commemorating the award in accordance with 205 cmr 153.04 second any further discussion okay uh commissioner cameron i commissioner brian hi commissioner zeneca i i vote yes four zero bibby and thank you all right then uh director grippen if you want to move on to region a please sure so mass hire metro north workforce board in the city of boston and the consortium of community partners um will provide career and employment services yes well digital literacy trainings targeted at hospitality industry workers who have been impacted by the covet 19 economic downturn um and the proposal to focus explicitly on 1000 um hospitality workers who have been impacted by the pandemic is a new focus for this grant partnership this grant entity is regional um they propose to integrate a sequence of services skills development and re-employment services they hope to connect people to unemployment supplemental nutritional assistance programs and housing security and another new focus is the expansion of digital literacy training through north star digital literacy curriculum um and that will be expanded for use in chelsea revere and in evra as well as maldon this applicant also requests $50,000 for supplemental funding for regional collaboration and this would be allocated to the local career advisor organizations to focus on the needs of the hospitality sector so the review team supports the continuation of this successful workforce program and recommends full funding of this grant request um including the supplemental award of $50,000 for a total of $350,000 questions comments i so in this case again the supplemental is not that is part of the uh because it's a uh collaboration regional that's a request thank you part of the guidelines part of the guidance thank you um i just want to know for those who may not be meeting along on the memorandum always uh we get a licensee response to and of course both licensees um in region a and region b are supporting these recommendations any questions strong application thank you um then without any questions do i have a motion with respect to the region a application madam chair i'd be happy to move um that the um the mass hire metro north workforce board in the city of boston i moved at the commission approved the award of the workforce grant in the amount of $350,000 to the mass hire metro north workforce and the city of boston for the career and employment services english for speakers of other languages and the digital literacy training as described in the community analysis memo included in the commissioner's packet and as discussed here today and that uh commission staff be authorized to execute a grant instrument um memorating the award in accordance with 205 cmr 15304 second thank you any questions on that okay commissioner camera hi commissioner brian hi christia simica hi and i felt yes war is here i'll give you thank you so much really great work um joe do you have anything you want to add they have one more they have one more oh um because i um i scroll down i have to say i gotta i i don't i missed it last night so i'm so we had a community planning grant oh i did see that i'm so sorry yeah i'm sorry i over scroll thank you go ahead gel all right so the cities of chelsea and revere submitted a request for $97,500 in funding that will allow them to commission a consultant to develop curriculum aimed at english for speakers of other languages and adult digital literacy programs which are contextualized across four pathways including hospitality logistics health care and it the proposal states that such curricula design would aid the casino in meeting its workforce commitments in the future especially in the surrounding communities um and ensure the local economic impact of the casino reaches its full potential the applicants intend for the workforce curricula to address the employment pipelines both into and out of the casino due to the pandemic resulting in the casino resulting in the casino not being able to return to full employment at this point the review team recommends full funding of this planning grant in the amount of $97,500 with the condition that the applicant work to strengthen the implementation plan as the curricula development c