So I'd like to go ahead and welcome everyone to this Center for Missional Outreach Zoom call. This is one of a series of calls that this center and the other centers of the North Texas conference have been offering so that we can do our best to support and resource and equip and inspire people like you who are on the ground and in the mission field clergy and laity who are in your own way on the front lines of meeting the needs of persons in North Texas in the midst of this pandemic and so just at the very beginning I want to start by saying thank you to each of you thank you for your ministries thank you for the ways that you are offering hope and lights and feeding stomachs in the midst of this time. We're grateful for you in the ways that you are learning as you go and experimenting and and and pivoting and all and all of the ways that you are so thank you at the beginning. As you join the call, most of us I'm sure are now pretty accustomed to these calls but if you would keep yourself on mute that will help the quality of our conversation. At different points you'll definitely have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. For that, please utilize the group chat function, you can note your questions and comments there. And I think Andrew Pfizer who's on the call. And a part of the Center for Missional Outreach will be monitoring those closely and he and Jareeda Williams Louie also on the CMO staff will be helping to facilitate our conversation as the call goes along. As a way to center ourselves, I did want to offer some words of scripture from Psalm 146 believe these words are appropriate for us as we gather to think about the ministry of meeting the need of food insecurity and how we can come alongside those who are being affected, most, most dramatically by all of the ways that our life together as a society has changed in the last couple of months. Psalm 146 begins with an acknowledgement that we cannot put our trust in human beings we cannot put our trust in leaders and institutions, but that we must put our trust in God and so picking it up in verse five. You'll hear these words of scripture and hear them as a kind of centering prayer for us. The person whose help is the God of Jacob the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God is truly happy. God, the maker of heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them. God who is faithful forever, who gives justice to people who are oppressed, who gives bread to people who are starving. The Lord who frees prisoners, the Lord who makes the blind see the Lord who straightens up those who are bent low. The Lord who loves the righteous, the Lord who protects immigrants, who helps orphans and widows, but who makes the way of the wicked twist and turn. The Lord will rule forever design your God will rule from one generation to the next. Praise the Lord. Let us pray. Holy God as we gather in this virtual space together. We give you thanks that whoever we are and wherever we are your spirit abides with us. God as we gather we do so for your sake and for the sake of those who are suffering in profound ways in the midst of this pandemic. God I acknowledge that for me I experienced this pandemic, mostly as an inconvenience, as a disruption of my norms and routines, but God I'm hardly suffering.  We ask that you would draw near to them and we ask that the conversation today would serve them, would put them at the center and would help us to be in ministry alongside them in ways that will bring them food, yes, support and encouragement, yes, and a witness to your gospel and to the truth that you are faithful and that you are for them. So God bless our time together. Thank you for those who have given of their day and time to not only be on the call but to be a part of presenting and leading. God be with them and may you speak through them to inspire and equip all of us. We offer this prayer in Jesus name. Amen. Andrew, turn it over to you. All right, thank you for your patience. Still learning this whole unmute myself business. Again, welcome to all of you. As you'll note in your chat. So hopefully, this time find a PDF of our agenda. And on that second page there's a list of other calls that will take place either this week or later this month and into the month to come. If you're aware of those calls make sure you know about those. And if it's not appearing to you in that chat box just send me a chat, and I will work on getting that a little bit later in our conversation. We want to welcome our guests who are here with us. We have a number of people who have various intersections and experiences with hunger and food insecurity, especially here in this time of coronavirus in different ways. We have Reverend Sarah Marcellus Lugan Bill who's the pastor to family and young adult ministry at Lubbers Lane. Dr. Haley Foyerbacher, Foyerbacher sorry, director of the Denton Wesley Foundation. Hi, I'm Haley Peters, who is the community relations manager for crossroads community ministries and Reverend JD Allen, senior pastor at Chapel Hill, UNC and Chelsea white who is the executive director for the Dallas Bethlehem Center. Am I missing anyone on the on our call here. If so raise your hand. A couple of folks who were not sure okay. Well thank you and I know a number of you have showed up to this call because you have an interest in or experience with of late and for a long time about conversation. Alright I'll work on that attachment. I already have a kind of interest in or doing work in food security. So I want to thank you for that. So I'd like to begin with some questions just to kind of get us started to kind of introduce where we are in our work and where that's intersecting with food insecurity. So, you know to our guests who are here with us, you know from your vantage point and hope you'll kind of share a little bit about the work that you're doing right now. Who is facing hunger and insecurity at this stage of this pandemic here in North Texas. What are you seeing whoever would like to feels ready to begin. Well I'm with the Dallas Bethlehem Center in South Dallas Fair Park, and we are seeing an all out crisis for our neighbors. We serve 75215 and 75210 and you know it's it's clearly a food desert year round and now it's just been exacerbated in our food distribution program which we run in partnership with Crossroads Community Services. We run the program year round and in the past two weeks we've seen a 445% increase in demand and it's only just begun. It's trending up and it will continue to do so. Likely long after the rest of us are you know out of the woods of the issues caused by the virus and the economic ramifications for us, South Dallas will likely continue to suffer. And Chapel Hill United Methodist Church, we're part of a network called the Metrocrest Ministries Fellowship. And we, you know, kind of like we've been doing with church we had our April meeting, which is our monthly luncheon via zoom and really just spent our time allowing the cities and local food pantries and other organizations to share what needs they're seeing in light of the pandemic. And it's really similar to what we've seen from what we've heard from the Dallas Bethlehem Center is going to email this week from the CEO of Metrocrest Services that their demand for food is up 367%. Meanwhile, North Texas Food Bank, the regional food bank that serves so many of our local food banks is running urgently low on food. And, and, but there are other major resource for getting food is getting the unpurchased groceries from the grocery stores, and there are far fewer unpurchased groceries right now for the local food banks to draw from when they need additional resources. And so we're seeing that need increase as more and more people were seeing the pantries that are really struggling with more and more people flowing their way because of economic distress. Um, so from my vantage point so my daughter goes to Nathan Adams Elementary, which 89% of the students there are at or below the poverty line so 100% of the children receive free breakfast and free lunch. And so, from my vantage point it all began with a very personal relationship. Um, this really began for for me with Greaton's classmates and the teacher reached out she knows I'm a pastor at Lovers Lane. We have a partnership with Nathan Adams. And, and there was five families that couldn't couldn't buy food. And so the teacher reached out to me and so we started getting food and so then I reached out to Randall Lucas, who is our missions pastor. And, and he was also in conversation with some of our ministry partners some of our brothers and sisters in ministry at Christ Foundry at Wesley Rankin Casa Linda, our own heart of Africa fellowships. And then we saw this need just begin to bubble bubble bubble from our own people from the people that clean our buildings from the people that take care of my children and the nursery. It just began to explode. And so that's kind of where we are seeing this is in the faces of those that we love and care for deeply. Just to echo what everyone said I'm with Crossroads. So we have a pantry and then we also distribute food to over 100 partners throughout Dallas were a redistributor of the North Texas Food Bank. So, similarly, our pantry stats are up 300% we're seeing, you know, in February, we served 150 families, we serve that in one week. Last week so the need is insane that the faces of the people that are in need is, we've never seen it before. We had someone that was let go from a major league baseball team recently that came to get food so it's. It's people that we've never seen before and we know that the need is just going to continue to increase and it's not going to stop anytime soon. I'm with the Den Wesley Foundation so my campus ministry serves the University of North Texas, North Central Texas College which has several campuses in the area and Texas Women's University. So we are seeing our numbers increase by 350%. Our food pantry is chartered by the Terran area food bank. And so we are considered essential. So we get to stay open. But we are the only on campus food pantry out of the three colleges that we serve that is continuing to operate. So you have an interesting situation when you're dealing with college students because so the college college campuses expand so rapidly that they take up a lot of commercial property that otherwise could be used for grocery stores and things like that. So a lot of college campuses, if they didn't have on campus services or really good public transportation are food desert. And that's the situation that we have in the Denton area is that the University of North Texas is a food desert. And the public transportation routes have since changed and schedules have changed ever since the outbreak and so our students are lacking transportation to the local grocery stores and they're not walkable distances. And every single campus had at least a giving shelf if not a full blown food pantry and all of them are shuttered at this point. Most of the students, the student employees have been furloughed, some of them have been have been officially let go from their positions. But the trouble with the furlough positions is that they're being placed on zero hours so they're not eligible to apply for unemployment, but they're not receiving an income anymore. And so we've got students with no income students with no transportation students who are not going to be getting the stimulus check and students who are living in a food desert. So we're trying to resource them. So one of the things that like for y'all to speak to is, I know that some have been able to note, particularly here in Dallas, the effects of historic injustices and systemic racism over decades, centuries that has created situations around the country where communities of color, especially in poor communities are affected, you know, more deeply are you seeing that and could you kind of speak to that in your own perspectives and you Chelsea already spoke to that a little bit. Yes, just to kind of continue on that. You know, I've been saying that if I didn't already fully understand what systemic racism looks like, I would now. And I think it will be undeniable from the virus standpoint alone, what we will very likely see whether we actually get these numbers or not which is a whole other, whole other call is more people in South Dallas Fair Park will get the virus of those who get it more will die of those who cover more will have long term health consequences. And that's just the immediate health issues with the virus. So with food, for example, you know, I live in Arlington and I have four different grocery stores within walking distance to where I live. When I go to the grocery store shelves are clean or cleared off and I've got for around me. I have the means and I have a vehicle to go to other stores to or on Amazon. And, and it's still slim pickings for me when you live in South Dallas in a food desert public transportation is really unsafe. They're, they're taking it anyway. They're panicking because there's one grocery store. It's expensive. It's cleared out. It's everything is just all of the regular crisis of South Dallas is just going to get worse. And it all stems from these very historical systemic issues, even with the students. The ISD initially was offering hot meals at two schools in the South Dallas area, and they actually had low turnout. The reason is because the kids don't have transportation to get there. Those kids take school buses to get to school and school buses aren't running. And so now they're trying to identify other locations including DBC to serve hot meals. I mean, you really can can go on and on just playing connect the dots of the many different ways systemic racism plays at a time like this to make things so much worse for South Dallas. Thanks, Chelsea. Others. Where are you seeing these historic lines of injustice and systemic racism kind of raising themselves. I'll kind of share what Christ United Methodist in Plano and we do a we serve food on Wednesdays at something called sandwich blessings. And we've done that for almost two years. And this is and we also partner with street side showers which many of you all may know what that is and so they're able to come get showers get fed and that kind of thing and what we've seen is just all there are folks that are homeless their resources are just absolutely gone and you know, including bathrooms, you know, not being able to get in bathrooms to clean up, you know, and to go the restroom and that kind of thing and so our homeless coalition, luckily, intervened and we actually have one park that they have opened up the bathrooms but you know just the concern of not having food but also just the dignity of these folks that are living on the streets and that's kind of with this pandemic is taking away those resources it just strips them of their dignity as well. So what you know really really disheartening. I think one of the struggles we find in our neighborhood with a rate rapidly growing with Phoenix population is we have a number of folks because they're undocumented are going to have far less access to the kind of benefits that are being offered. Snap or unemployment or stimulus checks or any of that. And so if they lose employment, if they're not job jobs that are considered not essential they're they they feel a hurt even more because they have a lot less they have a lot fewer places to turn in our community to get the assistance that they'll need. And we've been trying we've just been we've been staying in touch with the school that we're partnered with trying to help keep communication with the principal and community liaison to try and coordinate, you know as to what families may have the greatest needs in the school we've had a partnership there for a few years now. As is, you know, as many of us have in the conference in recent years, and that's helped us kind of start to identify where those needs are and how we can help fill those gaps. So, yeah, so working on the college campuses I mean college campuses are sort of a solid bowl of intersectionality right. And it really becomes a salient intersectional class issue as well. So definitely the majority of the students that we're serving are international students or people of color. We have a large number of single mothers. I myself was a parenting single mom as an undergrad a grad student and doctorate student. And I'm seeing that reflected in our, our clients and students that we serve. And the funny thing about college education especially in the context that I'm in serving in CTC UNT TWU is that college today is not like for the privilege anymore right. And these are three of the most affordable colleges that you can attend in our area. So what we see happening is because because there's this narrative and the actuality of like needing a college degree in order to get jobs and this is the narrative of how you better yourself or whatever. And we're making student loans so available and so predatory. Lots of our students are seeing going to college as the most economic option because you got a student loan right. And the student loan is going to help them get better jobs in the future but it also will provide them with better housing than what they could probably afford without that college degree. And so a lot of us end up selling our souls to go and get an education. And so here they are they are in these college campuses and the rug is just completely pulled out from underneath them. A lot of them because they're first generation students or because of just the class issues in our country, they're coming from families where they're not being funded by their parents. About 75% of my own students in my community are self supporting. And yet there's their parents still claim them on income taxes. And so because of that, the parents need to claim them on income taxes because the parents are struggling as well economically. So these students can be claimed on income taxes up to the age of 25. And that is leaving them without the means of getting their own health care without the means of being able to make their own decisions on a lot of things. A lot of them are impacted by their parents credit scores, and they're not going to be getting stimulus checks because they're being claimed by their parents. At the same time, so one of the things that's been largely frustrating to me in Pandemicville is that this is a really ignored population because we're still operating under this idea that college students are privileged and come from families of some privilege who can afford just in their kids to college. That is simply not the case. And so nobody's really looking out for this population. And they're not considered productive citizens. And so there's not a whole lot of intervention that's trying to make sure that they're doing all right right now. Also, we serve students who are have different disabilities we have deaf students in our community who access our food pantry. We are open and affirming of LGBTQ community and so we are a safe space for the trans community. And one of the things that I've been hearing throughout all of this is that has been an obstacle prior to the pandemic to getting a job and that's becoming even more of a barrier now to find you any sort of employment. If you can't hear you can't do zoom calls. Unless you have an interpreter on it. If you are trans, there are no protections in Denton to, you know, in the job place. There just aren't. If you don't have transportation, you can't drive for Uber Eats. So these are things that are intersectional and historic and class based and race based and have to do with our gender. We get single moms, sexuality, all of these things taking place on a college campus and it's being ignored because of this narrative that's been operating for the past 50 years that's no longer relevant about privilege and college. Thanks Haley anybody else want to jump in on this on this vein. From our panel. If not, you know I'm just thinking about, you know, some of these concerns that you've already raised. You know may fit this category but really what what are the top concerns for you and your organization or church right now. As you think about how to move forward in this situation with alleviating this kind of food insecurity. As you see it. Is it money is it volunteers is it all the above. I can start. So I think that crossroads our biggest concern right now is food supply. As someone else mentioned on this call the north Texas food bank is extremely low on food and in turn all of our partners are low on food in our pantry. So, you know we're trying to get as much food from outside vendors as possible but just like the grocery stores are out of food. So that's a big struggle right now, kind of your basic items like rice pasta canned items there's just none of it available so we're hoping that that'll ramp up soon. And then we're thankful to have enough volunteers and staff we've been working with shift smart to have employees on site that are helping with our pantry. I'd say you know we're all still concerned about someone getting coronavirus and not being able to do the good work that we are doing. So that's concerned we're obviously trying to keep all everybody safe and take all the precautionary measures but don't know if that's going to be enough. We'll see. Others. Andrew I know on a local church level at Chapel Hill I mean we are a we are a older church right now. And so we have a concern about our folks getting out so we're trying to do things in a way that discourages them from doing extra shopping for one the younger members of the church are volunteering to do their shopping for those who will allow us to. But also when we're providing these relief efforts we're focusing more on monetary donations that either where we can either get a list of much needed food supplies from the food banks. And we'll have a designated shopper that takes the money donated to pick up those supplies to take to the food bank or simply send the check to the food bank so they can get things but some. So Katie and. Oh gosh, I'm dropping the name here Dallas Bethlehem Center they've had more insight on how they how they feel like local churches can best facilitate that but I know I mean our concern to is our older members staying healthy so we're trying to help give them ways to help without further exposure to the virus. Before we let you go. Can you also speak from your connection with Texas impact and this kind of higher level advocacy piece and kind of what's going on politically around the state and country. Yeah, I'm the, I wasn't sure if that was for now or later but there's a there's a couple of parts that we can be working on their local churches we have pastors members and everything and I can post links on how to connect with this information and how to sign up for their advocacy work to is the main food security or food insecurity emphasis right now that Texas impact is communicating to its members. And this comes out of the, the Washington interrupt religious staff community and I'm trying, I can't remember the other organizations name off top of my head, but the biggest needs they have in terms of advocacy on the federal level is, you know, seeking and the in the upcoming stimulus bill to increase snap in a bit fits by 15%. So unemployed families working poor families will have more on hand to actually go and acquire groceries. They're seeking to increase the minimum monthly benefit from $16 to $30 and can suspend all administrative and looking to suspend all the administrative snap rule changes and definitely because of this time of economic distress and long term recovery. I've got a, I've got a website from Texas impact here that I'll share in the chat here in a minute, so that everyone can go there and then you scroll down the page and it shows kind of the different pandemic related emphases but those are the, those are the matters strictly for related to food insecurity, although there's, you would, I would also look at the utility assistance and advocacy needed there too, because whether that's on a state level a federal level or a local level and if people can't keep their water on or keep their electricity on, they can't cook food. And so those are pretty important matters to keep in mind as well. And then the other advocacy piece that I just, I start, I started on in the last couple of days just trying to put out feelers and figure out if there's anything to be done here and it sounds like maybe there is I reached out to the Texas Department of Agriculture after hearing all these stories of farms who were disposing of produce and dairy and dairies that were dumping milk because their distribution channels say restaurants and other such places were, you know, they didn't have those to sell to anymore so I reached out to that department to see if any work is being done to facilitate the delivery of those kinds of goods, even at a low cost or something to our regional and local food pantries to try and meet some of the need that we're facing in our food pantries right now because it doesn't make any sense to be throwing food out. I mean, and I talked to Jordan Gregory who's the policy specialist in that department they said there is conversation on going about what they can do to link those farms with food pantries during this time of crisis. So, and I can also also send also post a link on the chat with contact information for the Texas Department of Agriculture. I think the more we can send emails at least maybe not phone calls because I'm sure they have plenty of phone calls coming in already the more we can say hey we're, this is where we're seeing the need and this is where we would love to see action on then we can certainly help maybe help facilitate the movement on that it doesn't sound like there's resistance they said there's actual work to get that done, but I would also encourage you to not when you reach out to your state representatives and state representatives to encourage our Texas Department of Agriculture in their work and to seek ways to make that possible. They're not in session right now that they can still have a voice, whether it be with the governor lieutenant governor or the departments. And then of course, you know with the Texas impact stuff, Texas impact usually works on the state level they're an interfaith group that's based on its member organizations social principles and what they have in common. But right now they're working on them. They are working on the national level because of the main food insecurity in terms of advocacy that can be done right now is on the federal level, since our state legislatures not in session. So I'll share those links and those are just a couple of things that we can be thinking through and and kind of give some voice to going forward. Thank you JD and and for those of you who need this information JD believe you're still on the board for Texas impact is that right and kind of our conference liaison. Yes, I'm one of our conference board members. And so I get regular communication from Texas impact. And they also have I should have mentioned this before too they also have the rapid response team which anybody can sign up for where when there's a legislative matter where advocacy is needed. You'll send out an email and text to people so you can contact your elected officials to advocate for for those in need in terms of policy.  Oh yeah so for Dallas Bethlehem Center our needs. Primarily are for donations we need funds. It's it's clear that there's beyond groceries. There's a need for hot meals just like what DISD is trying to offer to the students. Oftentimes you know when students go to school that could be their only meal they they receive for the day and now that they're not in school. We want to plug in we have a commercial kitchen we have a kitchen manager who's actually a caterer. Born and raised and still living in South Dallas and so that's a way that we can plug in and meet a huge need. But that that will cost money and our our ability to turn on that program or not is is based solely on our ability to get funding for it. So that's that's my biggest concern is you know the the amount of expanded programming we can do is is simply based on how much funds we receive so that's that's our biggest ask. I'm up in Krum which is northwest of Denton. So we are in a more rural area. The food pantry in town doesn't just serve the town but it serves the whole ISD and with the other stories there is greater demand due to loss of employment loss of income. And our church has been having or holding food drives every other Sunday in order to get an effort to collect as much as we can to funnel to the food pantry and we put out the list of most needed items plus we also collect money to give to the food pantry. So that has been going great. We've had a very generous response before the pandemic. We already at the church encourage people to take the list of most needed items to the food pantry. And as they were doing their weekly shopping for themselves they also picked up for the food pantry and bring it to the church on Sundays. And so that helped us going into this. But what is my concern going forward. The church has been very generous. We are a small older congregation and they've been very generous. But there's going to have to be perseverance and encouragement for this to be a sustainable effort. I think the the donations will drop off as there's going to be a greater need. And so for us it's going to be perseverance when and I'd like though to be able to widen it more to than just our church people on these drives. When I was listening to JD talk about the farming situation. I was thinking back years ago to when we used to help with the gleaning network of Texas where we would go out into the fields and pick the produce that would go to the food pantry. And I know that was Susie Marshall years ago. I don't know if we still have a gleaning network today or something similar that we could join in on. Yeah and Sonia I've reached out to Susie Marshall who's now with grow north Texas to see what connections we might be able to make in that venue and as Deborah Hobbs Mason is noted in our chat box. We have a lot of idle buses and vans, and, you know, possibly there's a way for us to put those to work. So if anybody else has any connections in that kind of gleaning network. You know speak up or let us know others Haley what's I mean what's the concern for y'all moving forward. Yeah, so I mean there are two ways of like addressing the situation right there's crisis response. We're dealing with the lack of access to food that's happening right now. And because of the pandemic, and then their systemic justice work because there's still going to be lack of access to food from probably the majority of the people that were currently serving there's still going to be lacking access to food. When the pandemic ends. Right now, the crisis response needs that we have are like what y'all are mentioning in kind donations go a really long way. Financial donations are super helpful to they don't go as far but they're needed invaluable. Right now, to be covered conscious we are doing curbside pickup and delivery. So most of our students like I said, don't have transportation. So most of our students that we serve or I'd say about like half the students that we're serving right now are meeting grocery delivery. And I have, I can have about five volunteers work every week with our food pantry these have all been student volunteers. And I have one or two students who have cars of their own so it's been me and one or two students driving to about 75 different households. The past couple of weeks so if anybody wants to volunteer to help drive. We do it every Friday. So that would be a huge help for the future. One of the things that has been limiting in the past for us is that people will earmark funds to our food pantry. This is great we get to spend that money on food purchases, but again, we're treating a crisis situation we're treating a systemic justice situation as a crisis situation. And that is not sustainable and it's not empowering and helpful it's not promoting change. My organization students that I have are extremely like politically mobilized and astute and aware and they've got really great ideas on how to advocate for justice. And so we would like to see a little bit more trust in our organization that comes to financial giving to where people don't earmark their funds and they give to our ministry in general and trust that we're going to use it to try to get at the root of these injustices. So that would be a big need of ours going forward. And then I was really glad that JD talked about advocacy. There are some things that need to be advocated for simultaneously as we're working on the crisis situation that we're facing right now with food insecurity things like trans rights laws and protective laws for trans the trans community and then there are ordinances in some of the surrounding areas including Dallas but there's not one in debt and right now. Amber Bruegel I can post her contact information but she's spearheading the work on that. We there are sprinkled around the country there are. There's advocacy for student workers who are treated as disposable and who are not supported and there needs to be a larger national movement. So in the future I'd like to see us like gaining some momentum in that direction to protect our student workers. And also to do some work on more accessible and affordable education. Additionally I could talk all day long about single moms rights I'm not going to take that space today but that is something that I would love to see a conversation generated in the North Texas conversation around. Thank you Haley. Others. Grace Avenue has been having ongoing food drives for our both our food pantries Frisco family services which carry Keck's on this call today in our little own food banks so we've had an ongoing seven days a week 10 to four and we've had a great response. We just did a mission video for them and as far as including them so that has been really successful. I'm hearing up it is what's next what is the next we're seeing middle class coming into the food banks. We're seeing more people addressing and saying resistance coming to the churches and saying, you know, pay my pay my rent, or what can we do so we're trying to grasp that and put our hands around that. The same question as we're having with everyone else's as far as what food insecurity. And I don't mean to call you out Michelle I saw I just saw your inclusion in the chat box would you mind sharing about your context and what you're seeing in your rural context. We're just a much smaller town we're in jacksboro. So, we've only got one grocery store and $1 store and when things are gone they're gone so a lot of the kids in our neighborhoods are lacking meals. So the school being small enough reached out to each family to see what the need was and have based food routes with the best drivers and school buses to deliver meals. So each day they get a lunch for that day, plus a breakfast for the following day to hold them over to lunch the next day. So that's what they're doing and then we have a food pantry here that I'm involved with that we only serve once a month and we give them about a week's worth of food breakfast lunch and dinner. And then we have the produce truck that comes to town because of the food desert twice a month that anybody can get from. Michelle and Drita could you help us think about how we can take action with your questions. Thank you everyone for sharing your insights and your expertise and for doing the work that is necessary for us to love our neighbors, not just in crisis or in pandemic, but on a regular basis so thank you for already having the infrastructure to do that service. So I just wanted to ask, how can we get on board and come alongside and help to resource and give our constituents a ways to help what your efforts are doing in the pandemic, what are some other ways that anyone can think of that are innovative or that you're already doing that we can add or that we can continue to contribute as a conference and at the conference level. What are some ways that we can do that. You know, I was talking to Andrew last week about this and I said, so one of the things is as I've been thinking about like my concerns and my fears is we're moving forward is so I really think that this has revealed some of our greatest shortcomings as a church. So we're the United Methodist Church and we are supposed to be connectional that's one of the greatest things that we have going for us and we haven't been doing it well and I think we all know that. But this has definitely revealed that. And a few years ago we had our one plus one and and it was through that that we built relationships with Nathan Adams Elementary, and we have a relationship with WT white which is a high school and DISD and so through those relationships is how this began. And so I began to talk to Andrew about what happens if all of us who have a relationship can go to principals and go to teachers and say what what needs do you see that we can help respond to and then what happens if we as churches just simply begin to connect those. And to begin, I mean, things like this are so so so helpful, but even in a, in a, in a really grassroots relationships form what happens with that. And just how we could take these few fish and lobes and what we could do with them by just offering those up to Christ and so that's been kind of my, my, really the biggest thing that's just been on my heart and the spirit is really challenging. And thankfully, I think the same thing is happening. It's interesting to see what happens even in our own church and Randall Lucas is making such relationships with some of our, you know, some of our sister churches that he's simply calling and saying how can we help and just watching that grow has been incredible. So how can we do that better. Thank you Sarah. So anyone else how can we be present with our neighbors when we are separated. How can we help those who don't who don't have the infrastructure to have the capability to have zoom calls and those. I'm sure college students and a lot of our students in our ISD, especially in rural areas. They don't have Wi Fi readily available for them to continue the school work that needs to be done. How can we encourage teachers you spoke of one plus one that's my one of our initiatives that we're attempting to feel our way through and how we could revitalize and how we can continue to shore up those relationships and help our churches to go deeper in those relationships. And so are there any other ideas we want to highlight or lift up for how we can come alongside as churches in those areas. One of the things that would be helpful, I think to a lot of probably a lot of us I think I know I'm not the only person who has, you know, deaf students in my ministry or deaf people in my congregation. But there aren't a lot of resources out there in terms of access to interpreters for reasonable cost. And we're, you know, we're just a small student ministry, our students don't, you know, we don't take up a weekly offering we got students. We rely on the generosity of donors, which is yes, and, and also agree it from the North Texas conference. So we have a very like a shoestring budget and interpreters for us cost anywhere from $180 to $210 per worship service. So we're paying that at least once a week. For Zoom calls, we are hiring interpreters at this point to come into the call and sign for us. We don't have the ability right now financially to make those interpreters available at things like our food pantry. I also found out that the organization that we've been, I mean, there was basically like one organization that people that I'm familiar with that people hire interpreters out of. And I just found out last week that the interpreters make about a third of what we're paying out. So if I'm paying 200, they're making, I mean, at most like anywhere from, I think what I was told was anywhere from like 30 to $50 of like that 180 to, so I guess it's more like a six, 180 to $210. So if we could come up with ways of providing access to interpreters in a more ethical manner. That would be awesome. I think Catherine has a resource that she's lifting up in the chat box. So maybe that's something that as a connection we can help to find interpreters and I appreciate that ethical piece that we're speaking to as well. In times of crisis, sometimes we want to cut corners and cut people, but this isn't something that we want to continue or do will be mindful of. So thank you for raising that up and really acknowledge navalism in this. And so are there any other Andrew are we I was going to share just something we have a tutoring program at Christ United and throughout the year, the school year, and we have our, it's one on one and so what we've been doing is actual zoom or FaceTime tutoring during this time. And we did have some people through the corona issue went and stayed with relatives and so we have done things like pay for internet service and stuff like that so kids could keep up with their schooling. And so, but, but I will say I'm so grateful that we had those relationships built prior, or that wouldn't have been possible, you know, to do that. I'm, I wasn't showing who that was speaking. Who was that was that Jenna. I'm, I'm Janna that Janna grandma. He who was speaking but thank you Janna that's really helpful. Just a reminder of school, I think school partnership and church school partnerships are low hanging fruit for us to build relationship outside of what we would call crisis the pandemic. This is only a crisis for most of us who are privileged, but just having that opportunity to connect with teachers principles and parents is ideal for allowing relationship and we do have resources to help you do more more good than harm. And so, if you're interested in, in, in helping or are allowing us to help you come alongside those church schools partnerships that would be something that we're completely interested in helping you do. Hey, Jerita Montreal, how are you. I'm not sure you're well, how are you. I'm well, I joined in a little late so I just wanted to know is there. And this may be a suggestion as well. Possibility for a opportunity to have a resource page. Since we are connection like someone just lifted up and it sounds like we just don't know who has who has what what what ministry what church has that has that resource available that they can possibly partner with another ministry that is in the And that, you know, that possibility they can resource together. I don't know. But it's not like we didn't a resource page either on the conference website, or something that we all can go to and say hey, that's what lover Lane is doing best can we possibly partner with them instead of just recreating or looking elsewhere. Thanks for lifting that up Montreal yes we absolutely do have a resource page already for the CMO. And we're also that was my next question for us to highlight those of you who are already doing the work and what you're doing if you would send a link to the chat box. Andrew will be putting together a resource page so that we can do just that, because, like we said so many times we are siloed we're not quite sure what and how they're doing it. I think the zoom calls COVID has done a good job of helping us to get together around the conference to know what everybody's doing. I'm hoping that we could get these resources put together and placed on our website so that we can connect and we can do. And Andy and I can help with the connection part. Since we are at the conference to help you not have to do so much of the lead work and we can do the connection part for you but yes, we are working we'll be working on that resource page for you guys to have access to from our website. Thank you. I mean it's a elaborate on one piece you said there. And that is that Montreal, absolutely. I mean yeah printed piece. There's one in process already on the website, it's constantly being revised but I would the thing I want to say is that relationships have been noted several times in this call as the real key to doing this kind of work and ministry. And at any point if any of you are aware of a particular need Montreal like you said, feel free to share that with myself or with charita or with Andrew. And just by virtue of the role we play we, we have a lot of relationships across the conference and we may be aware without without a pre printed list of people who could be a partner or helpful resource to you. So, I mean, feel free to reach out to us and together the relationships we share the connection we share can can do a lot of good. So that may be the shortcut call one us. Awesome thanks. One quick note of you don't mind me asking Drita. Katie with crossroads. Have you already mentioned, forgive my memory about kind of the status on taking new applications. Yeah, so we're our pantry is open Monday through Thursday nine to three I just sent it in the in the chat. We're serving anybody that can come to our location. Our partners that we're currently serving I think I mentioned we, we have over 100 partners that we provide food to and then they provide it to their community Dallas Bethlehem Center being one of them. We actually had to put a hold on any new partnerships, because we just don't have the food right now. And we want to make sure that our current partners are able to feed their community well because they have been established and have the volunteer base and have the capacity to be able to do so. Unfortunately, at this time we're not bringing on board any new distribution partners. But if you guys are interested in it becoming a partner in the near future we're hoping this dies down soon. Reach out to me and I can get you steps on how to get started. And I had just one follow up question of sorry to Rita, who of the organizations that are represented here. Who all is participating in North Texas giving day now, which is coming up on March, sorry, May 5, I believe it is. And so that's good. The West Lane didn't Dallas Bethlehem Center will crossroads be a part of that, you know, okay. Christ Foundry United Methods mission will be participating in that so those are ways that you can do some good fundraising, and possibly can have funds matched by organizations that might sponsor them. So that's a great way to give coming up to offer a closing benediction for us. Absolutely. Just want to thank everybody again for jumping on this call there's so many things that I know each of us have to do and that we're going through ourselves and how we're attempting to walk alongside our neighbors in this time. And so this, I just had a prayer from Pixie Lighthorse that I wanted us to think about and it's entitled honoring loss of control. I don't know about you and most days, you know, we like to have the illusion that we have a little bit of control of things. And I'm sure COVID has helped us know and be reminded that we do not. And so you would just bow your hearts, you don't have to close your eyes or bow your heads or anything like that but just contemplate and hopefully take in these words by Pixie Lighthorse. God thank you for this exhausting day of pure chaos. May I seek to loosen the strangle hold on what I cannot ultimately keep together so that deeper understanding of what is at work can flow in. May I dedicate myself to becoming more at ease with all that is flowering in directions I cannot stop. Help me to see where I can be useful and focus my energies there. Reinforce my awareness that I can do my part for evolvements rather than striving unceasingly for perfection. God help me see control as the illusion of containing what is not mine to hold. Let me fall apart when I need to and make room for others to splinter into smithereens to let there be a return to wholeness that offers offers more than can be found in a tight anxious cluster. Let me make space for more possibilities to unfold. God free just the one I hope for. Help me to see why I habitually strive for control, but don't actually want to be in charge. Let the sword I carry be swung only at false perceptions. Help me to open me to the real experience of life free from the need to sweep up around it obsessively. Help me take care of the cluttered rooms in my mind flushing out the buildup of reflexive patterns that no longer serve me or serve others. Help me cope with unpredictable circumstances and environments, knowing that I will find the tools to buffer my hyper responsiveness. Help me learn to let it go. Guide my nerves to sanctuary when I quicken to overreact. Inspire me to delight in emancipation from the confinement of my ideologies of supreme exactness. Unshackle me from rigid expectations and smooth my brow with the hush of my appreciation of you. Amen.


A cascaded grating coupling scheme for unidirectionally launching surface plasmids from free space light with ultra-broadband and wide-angle efficiency is proposed, theoretically investigated, and applied in sensing. The cascaded sub-gratings of different periods couple incident light into surface plasmid polaritons, SPPs, which interact with the sensed medium and are coupled back into freely propagating light through a nanoslit in the metal film. Broadband sensing is achieved by observing changes in SPP mediated light coupled out through the slit, and a quantitative theoretical model is developed for performance prediction. Proof of principal demonstrations show spectral full width half maximum of 400 nanometers and angular width of up to 25 degrees, wavelength sensitivity as high as 852 nanometers RU-1, and a relative intensity change up to 5 times 10 4% RU-1. This article was authored by Cohen Lee, Feng Xiaoh, Fan Lu, and others.


Good morning, everyone, and welcome back. I have the honor of introducing Commissioner David A. Wright. The honorable David A. Wright was first sworn in as a commissioner of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 30th, 2018. He is currently serving a term ending on June 30th, 2025. Before joining the NRC, Commissioner Wright served as energy and water consultant and policy advisor on nuclear waste issues. He is a former president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and served as vice chairman and chairman of the South Carolina Public Service Commission. He was also elected councilman and mayor and Irmo, South Carolina, and to the South Carolina House of Representatives. A colon cancer survivor, Commissioner Wright is a strong advocate for cancer awareness and education. He is a proud father and grandfather and has enjoyed umpiring baseball for nearly 50 years. He's also a graduate of Clemson University. Commissioner Wright, we look forward to your remarks. Good morning, and welcome to the NRC's 2022 Regulatory Information Conference. Also known as the RIC. My name is David Wright, and I've had the honor of serving as an NRC commissioner since May 24th of 2018, which was also my late father's birthday. This is my third RIC as a commissioner. As I stand here today, I never imagined that my first RIC would be my only in-person RIC so far, but I think it's safe to say that none of us imagined many of the things that we've had to deal with over the past several years with COVID and how it's impacted our personal and professional lives. I wish we were meeting down the street at the Marriott because I miss seeing everyone in person, but at the same time, I'm grateful that we are able to gather this way, share information, and include a broader audience given the capabilities of technology, in particular, increasing participation in general, and especially with our counterparts from around the world. Before I begin my formal remarks, I'd like to congratulate my colleagues on their plenary remarks. And publicly acknowledge how much I appreciate their friendship, their work ethic, and their collegiality. My appreciation and thanks extends to their staffs as well. To the chairman, thank you for your leadership during a challenging time, most due to the impacts of COVID and because of the evolving nature of the nuclear industry. The NRC is tackling the regulation of new and emerging reactor and medical technologies, the extension of licenses for the current fleet, and the planned and unplanned decommissioning of facilities, as well as a myriad of other issues including cyber and physical security. It's a busy time and an important time in our agency's history. I'd also like to extend my thanks to the RIC organizers. For those of you who have never attended a RIC, I hope you find the panels informative and helpful. The NRC staff works very hard to organize and put on this conference, which features panel breakout sessions along with a handful of plenary sessions like this one and many general sessions. And finally, I would like to take a moment to say how proud I am to be a part of the NRC team and to say thank you to my team, Team Right. Thank each of you for the ways that you support me and each other as we do the important work of this agency. My family in South Carolina is a big part of my team too. And I especially want to say thank you to them because they totally support me being here at the NRC. I have said this before, while I serve, my family is serving too. And I appreciate their sacrifices and support of my being here. As was the case last year, this past year has given me reason to reflect on many things, to remember my past, where I came from, and where I am today. As I reflected, I kept coming back to how goals, goal planning, and executing plans to achieve my goals have played a huge role in my life. So my remarks today will focus on that. I will share a few examples of personal goals that have shaped my life and my approach as commissioner. And I'll discuss the NRC's goal of transforming as an agency and my perspectives on how the agency can best achieve that goal. With both professional and personal goals, you always have to factor in change and the unknown. Certainly, and if the last two years has taught us anything, it's that change is inevitable and we must adapt. Take this RIC for example. As you know, the NRC's goal was to have this year's RIC in person. Omicron changed that. But I have found, and will discuss with you this morning, some of the ways that changes and challenges and meeting goals can ultimately give greater purpose and help achieve a greater goal in the end. I actually have a wooden block in my office that says a goal without a plan is just a wish. It's one of many motivational wooden block signs I have in my Rockville office and in my home in South Carolina. But of all the signs I have, this one speaks to an everyday truth in my life. Having goals is important, but having a plan to achieve that goal is critical to success. Last year, my personal goal was to find laughter despite the change in chaos that COVID-19 brought. It was actually the subject of my RIC plenary remarks, the power of laughter and the importance of taking time to take care of yourself. I encourage you to get outside and experience what is happening in nature around you. I ask you to take the time to smile and say hello to people you meet each day because that recognition may be the best thing that happens to that person all day.  I urge you to step away from the computer and the phone and return to and experience the things that make you smile, that make you laugh and make you happy. That's because laughter and taking time for yourself improve you in many ways from your health to your relationships to your work product. And I truly believe that this personal goal has huge impacts on one's success at work and focusing on tasks, interacting with colleagues and being productive and successful. My goal from last year has not changed. I attribute my goal to find laughter to my dad who among other abilities was a stand-up comic. And let me tell you, there was very little he wouldn't do for a laugh. Bringing laughter to his audience, to his family and friends was his mission. When I was very young, he had a safari-themed television show that ran for nearly a decade and he would bring all kinds of animals on the show. He would get bit and kicked, even strangled by a path on, all for laughs.  Another goal that I attribute to my dad led me to public service and ultimately here to the NRC. You see the television station where dad filmed his safari show was about two blocks from the South Carolina State House. He took me to be on his show when I was an eight-year-old third grader studying South Carolina history in school. On the way home, dad slowed down to show me the State House. It was an impressive structure and I remember asking him how people got to go to work there. After he explained elections to me, I told him I wanted to serve there one day. That day, a goal of public service was set in my mind and what my dad said next really resonated with me. He smiled and nodded and told me anything is possible for you son if you want it bad enough and I wanted it bad enough and through planning and executing, I achieved that goal at 30 years of age. Achieving that goal brought other opportunities into my path up to and including my current position as an NRC commissioner. I'm truly honored and blessed to be in this role and I can assure you that I would not have imagined I could ever be hired to work here much less lead this great agency. What an honor. At the NRC, our main goal is set for us. It's meeting our vital safety mission, reasonable assurance of adequate protection. But there are different ways of planning and executing that goal and there have been many changes and hardships, especially in the last several years. Through all of the change and hardships though, I'm encouraged by what I've seen accomplished at the NRC. Together through unity of purpose and resolve, the NRC staff has shown that we can still achieve our mission and we have achieved some really good things along the way. I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of all our stakeholders, particularly licensees. Their dedication to keeping nuclear facilities running safely and compliance with our regulations was no small task, particularly during COVID. Our counterparts around the world also provide incredible help and insights and work closely with us sharing challenges, successes and lessons learned on licensing and regulating. Although reasonable assurance of adequate protection is our main goal, the NRC has other goals as well. One of the top goals of the NRC for the past several years has been transformation. I'll be the first to admit I was initially hesitant about this effort primarily because I wasn't sure what the goal of transformation was. Was there a unity of purpose at the agency for what success meant or looked like? What was the plan for executing the goal? As you may have heard me say before, I have always seen transformation as not a huge change in what or how the NRC is doing things. Instead, I see it as a recalibration in our regulatory approach and acceptance that the way we have always done something might not be the best or only approach. It's about being ready for what is before us and what we can expect in the future and ultimately for the NRC not to be a barrier to innovation. As with any goal, I wanted to understand the staff's plan and how they were executing that plan and I've been impressed with much of what I've seen. The staff has been focused on four areas. One, recruiting, developing and retaining a strong workforce. Two, moving towards making more decisions in a risk-informed manner. Three, establishing a culture that embraces innovation in four, adopting new and existing information technology resources. I'll touch on each of these four areas with a focus on the last three. We've had to embrace innovation and adopt new and existing technological resources and adapting to the new and changing world and regulatory environment around us in recent years. And there are two areas that I think are real success stories when it comes to innovation and the use of technology at the NRC. The first is the agency's response to COVID. Similar to what happened for all of you and your organizations in the March 2020 timeframe, things changed almost overnight for the NRC with the issuance of stay at home orders and a move to almost complete telework. For the NRC, as a safety regulator that is responsible for licensing and inspecting the civilian nuclear fleet, this raised a number of unprecedented and difficult challenges and decisions. It created emergent licensing needs, forced us to prioritize inspections to ensure the health and safety of our inspectors and plant personnel. It put us in a virtual environment with each other, our stakeholders and the public, and it required us to consider our statutory and regulatory requirements to ensure we were meeting them despite the changed circumstances. To say decisions needed to be made quickly is an understatement. Resident inspectors' presence at plants, requests from licensees for exemptions and amendments, and how to handle the need for secure communications and in-person interactions were just a few of the challenges. We had to transform on the spot. All of our processes and procedures were in question, and we did it. In every area we recalibrated how we did things, using technology and new ways to address something I doubt anyone could have expected, and we never lost focus of our mission. I cannot overstate how proud I am of the way NRC planned for and executed the goal of dealing with COVID impacts. The other area where I've seen real success at the NRC and executing its transformation goal is staff-led efforts to innovate. A few examples that come to mind are MBARK Venture Studios, the Be Risk Smart Initiative, Nuclopedia, Idea Scale, and the variety of staff-level efforts to streamline our environmental review processes. It's exciting to see staff at every level of the agency being energized and encouraged by management to think creatively about new and different ways to achieve our mission. I personally want to thank every staff member and external stakeholder watching or listening, including other federal agencies, domestic and international organizations, and members of the public that have been brave enough to put their idea out there, and I'd like to encourage each individual watching and listening today that has a new innovative idea to keep those innovative thoughts coming, even if some question you. I recall when the NRC's MBARK Studios was first introduced and there were chuckles in the hall.  What is this? This isn't uncommon, though, when there's change or new ideas. There's often initial skepticism or some level of discomfort, but thankfully the staff kept moving and kept thinking. Now MBARK Venture Studios is a launching ground for innovative ideas, including initiatives that support Be Risk Mart. MBARK Venture Studios is leveraging data and risk information to help inform its licensing review and inspections. This is exactly the type of technological innovation that ensures that we're working in a risk-informed, innovative, and effective way. The NRC's Jam in 2019 likewise was met with some resistance and questions about what it was and how useful it would be, and it ultimately led to many thoughtful conversations and ideas. I hope that the staff considers another jam in the near term. To me, this is success in achieving our transformation goal, but by no means does it mean that every staff level idea or ideas from our external stakeholders are accepted or tried because they're not. The ideas have to be vetted and each idea that goes forward must meet our mission. But I love innovative thinking and action without too many layers of management, keeping it simple and not overcomplicating the plan or its execution. There are other areas where the staff has looked to transform that have been more challenging. One example that comes to mind is the advanced reactor area. As most of you know, there are many state and federal legislative efforts related to supporting or expediting advanced nuclear reactors and technology. And there are many vendors and licensees developing a variety of designs and concepts. There is also considerable focus on whether and when an effective regulatory framework will be in place for these technologies. The NRC is at the heart of making that happen, and there are many perspectives to both internal and from external stakeholders on our plan and execution of meeting the goal of transforming our regulatory framework to support advanced nuclear technologies. One of the NRC's many efforts in this area is developing a rule required by the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act or NEMA. This is referred to as the Part 53 rule, and many of you listening have been actively watching or engaging with the NRC on this effort. I appreciate all of the input and conversations on this important effort, and I'm excited that the commission has directed and the staff is proceeding on a schedule that would have this rule ready well before the required deadline in NEMA. However, recently the NRC has had growing criticism on its approach, with multiple stakeholders submitting extensive comments suggesting that there are some challenges that need to be addressed. First, I appreciate the staff's work and the extensive outreach done, and make no mistake, there has been transformative thinking and approaches in developing Part 53 thus far, including early release of draft rule language for discussion and consideration of the commission's advanced reactor policy statement. I also appreciate the detailed feedback from stakeholders and particular feedback pointing out particular technical areas where more clarity from the NRC is needed or would be helpful. Overall, I would say the feedback we are hearing on Part 53 is that the timing of the rule isn't as important as the rule being useful and usable. Of course, that's easier said than done when you're talking about a rule that's supposed to cover a broad spectrum of technologies. But I encourage staff to push forward, think creatively, and recognize that not only are we not constrained by how we've done things in the past, perhaps we should approach things differently because these are, after all, different designs than our current fleet. As we all know, what made sense for a large light water reactor may not make sense for a microreactor. Let me make an observation. What we are being asked to do and tasked with accomplishing requires us to be transformative and innovative. We may be an independent safety regulator, and our safety mission is clear, but we must remain externally aware regarding the goals of other agencies and other branches of government. The goals of Congress, the Department of Energy, and the NRC are all connected, and our preparation to evaluate new technologies will ultimately enable the safe use of these new technologies. And again, although our mission is clear, the NRC should not be a barrier in achieving this common goal. For example, our Congressional Oversight committees often reach out to us to ask if we need anything to support our mission generally or in a particular area, like licensing advanced reactors and technologies. We should not be afraid to provide feedback and have frank discussions. If we need more resources or are having challenges, we should say so. This does not indicate that we are failing. It indicates that we are aware of the issues and are searching a path to reach our goal. Their questions are asked so that they can better understand what is happening, how we are progressing to our goals and in meeting our mission. And in the end, what it is that they can do in support of our shared goals. Let's also not forget that we are in the proposed rule stage of Part 53, so let's not let perfection be the enemy of progress. We need to get the proposed rule out. Let stakeholders comment and go on from there. Let's not lose focus or overcomplicate things. We need to leverage the lessons learned from our experience with Part 52, where we were trying to simplify things with a one-step process. Our best intentions notwithstanding, in my view, we created something far more complex and difficult to understand than the two-step Part 50 process. The process many of these new technology innovators are using right now while Part 53 is being developed. We cannot do the same thing in developing Part 53 that happened with Part 52. The NRC cannot be a barrier to new technologies. That is my challenge and I know the NRC staff can meet it. Then once we achieve that goal, we will need to face the challenge of being ready for the possibility of multiple applications from one or multiple utilities or other entities. We must have a plan to execute for that as well. Another challenge in meeting our transformation goals has been rhetoric about our efforts being intended to remove needed requirements or rollback safety. Some areas in particular where we perceive that feedback are the decommissioning rule, recommendations related to the reactor oversight process and our response to COVID-19. With respect to decommissioning, for example, there are claims that the decommissioning rule does not appropriately account for risk or involve the public. With respect to reactor oversight, there are claims that the staff's previous recommendations would remove necessary inspections. Likewise, there have been concerns raised about our approach to licensing and inspection during COVID-19. For the record, I'd like to say that in my time and experience at the NRC, at no time have I felt that the staff put forward a recommendation that would remove needed requirements or did not provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection. Our staff are highly trained professionals with integrity and a focus on our safety mission. Our staff doesn't always agree with how to meet our mission or what the appropriate response should be nor would it be reasonable to expect them to do so. Professional judgments can and should differ. It's only healthy for those types of disagreements to be present in inclusive and learning organizations. However, when there are disagreements, the staff always presents this basis for the approach. The staff also typically does a great job of responding to stakeholder feedback on why and how we are doing things, though there's always room for improvement in that area as communication issues can and do arise. But also need to take a moment and thank the staff. Thank you for considering operating experience, data, inspection findings, your professional judgment, risk information, public input, and stakeholder feedback to come up with new approaches and ways of meeting our mission. Don't be dissuaded by some voices out there. Avoid the noise and simply keep on doing the good work you are doing and make sure you are telling your story so that it's not told for you. In conclusion, I'm proud of the NRC for setting a goal to transform and become a more modern and risk informed regulator. That's not a one and done thing either. It's a goal to change our behavior, our culture, and our processes in a way that doesn't change our ability to meet our mission. It's also the goal of achieving our mission in a more effective and efficient way that accounts for advances in technology and ensures that we are ready for any and all applications currently under review or coming. In both planning and executing that goal, we face setbacks and we have challenges. There are those that say transformation is wrong or an attempt to cut needed requirements and some that support it claim that we're not doing enough and are not ready for advanced reactor concepts, fuels, technologies, and are stuck in using our old deterministic ways. I encourage staff to take that feedback, adjust your plan accordingly, and execute. That might mean starting over in a particular area instead of continuing down a path that isn't working. In the end, starting with a clean sheet of paper can be more efficient than trying to rewrite something and be ready for the next challenge and the next goal, which is being ready for what will happen after we license our first advanced reactor technology. Are we ready for the possibility of multiple possibly dozens of applications coming in at once? I believe that we can be and if we aren't, we need to make that clear and develop a plan for what we need, what we'll need to do in order to be ready. I would argue that in many ways we have experience with licensing and advanced reactor technology. We did so with Shine, which has essentially several modular reactors and a production facility designed to produce Mali-99 using low-enriched uranium. We had to be ready for other applications with different designs and concepts to do the same. In those instances, we leveraged existing regulation and processes and developed guidance to effectively and efficiently license advanced and novel technology. I'm here to challenge both the NRC staff and stakeholders to continue to voice your opinions and ask the tough questions and respond to the challenges because it's through these conversations and inclusive dialogues that the NRC can fine-tune its approach and plan. In my view, success is not unanimity. That's a false hope and expectation. We aren't typically going to have 100% agreement on anything, either internally or from our stakeholders. But we must, as a learning organization, hear and be responsive to feedback from our stakeholders, from the public, licensees and the Congress on what concerns them. It helps feed into our process and broadens our perspective on how we can achieve our mission in the most transparent, effective, and efficient way possible. Because I assure you, everyone, the NRC, the licensees, the public, Congress, federal partners, and the international community, everyone, everyone wants and needs the NRC to meet our safety mission. And we must be ready. We cannot be a barrier. The beauty of goal planning is that the plan doesn't have to be bigger complex. The NRC and the government in general get a bad rap for exactly this. Over-complicating or adding too much process to achieve a goal. But there is some truth to the criticism, too. In my opinion, a successful plan, even to a complex problem, can be very simple. In fact, I prefer plans that are simple because of their clarity. Simple doesn't mean easy, though, nor does it guarantee success. The plan may not end up taking you where you thought it would take you, but a simple plan makes it easy to focus on what you need to do to accomplish your goal, including walking away from that plan if it's not working. Let me end with a personal story about a goal that I had in high school that still drives me and drives the way I think today. It's also something that I think applies to innovators, both those inside the NRC thinking of new approaches and applicants and licensees looking to adopt or create new technologies. When I was a junior in high school, I wanted to play on the varsity basketball team. I had a pretty good ball skill. I was quick, I could defend, and I had a decent shot. I worked out regularly, I ran a lot, and I never missed an opportunity to practice, but I had a problem. I was very short and small. I was by far the shortest and smallest guy trying out, but I worked hard, and I got to the last day of tryouts, and well, I was the very last guy cut from the basketball team. That by itself hurt a lot, but things got even worse when a coach for both the football and the basketball team told me that I was too small to be a good athlete. I was devastated. I went home and my mom was there waiting when I walked in. It's like she knew something. After I told her what had happened, she looked at me and asked, so, David, what are you going to do about it? What can I do about it, mom? I asked, well, you can give up and quit trying, or you can prove him wrong. I know you're upset about not making the team, David, but there's nothing wrong with you, and I can promise you this, this will not be the only time in your life you're going to face adversity, so what are you going to do about it, son? Well, after a period, my mind cleared and I knew she was right. I had a goal of representing and competing for my high school. That's what I really wanted to do, but basketball wasn't the only sport at my high school, so since basketball was out, now what? In her own way, mom reminded me that my goal of representing and competing for my high school was still very much alive. I just had to adjust the plan and hopefully successfully execute the plan. I decided to ask the track coach if he'd let me try out for track, although I'd missed initial track signups and workouts in order to try out for basketball. The coach allowed me to start coming to practice, and I quickly realized that all the working out, running and training I had done for basketball might help me in certain events on the track, so I decided to look at the distance team, the two-mile run primarily, along with the mile and half mile. I trained every day, learning how to prepare for and run the different races. When I finally got to compete, believe it or not, was in the conference championships at the end of the season, in the final of the two-mile run, and I found myself immediately near the back of the 24 runners when the race started, but I didn't quit. As the race continued, I found myself coming up on other runners, so I started passing them, including one of my teammates about a mile in. About a mile and a half into the race, I realized where I was, not too far behind the leaders, and I almost panicked. I'd never been in that position before. It was uncharted territory for me, and I was not sure what to do, so I just kept going. I crossed the finish line and finished third overall, meddling in the conference final in my first official race for my high school. I went on to represent and compete for my high school in my senior year, helping my cross-country and track teams win some awards and titles. I even won a couple myself, and I even went on to run for the Clemson cross-country and track team in college, earning three varsity letters in cross-country during my time there. Go Tigers! What the experience of being cut from the basketball team and the challenge from my mom did for me changed my life, and it wasn't about sports. It was about an attitude. What are you going to do about it, David? My mom's direct question to me is, when I hear in my head, anytime I face adversity or failure, do I give up and quit trying to do something, or do I use adversity as motivation to set a simple goal, develop a plan, and execute the plan? The success of that plan in my first high school track season set me on a path that not only affected my running goals for years going forward, but what I learned from that experience I've been able to apply to every aspect of my life, even today. The past can be a teacher, so I encourage you to learn from your past near misses. That way you likely won't repeat them, and more likely you will grow stronger and better through them. Don't be afraid to take risk just because you're afraid to risk failure. Embrace opportunities to achieve. I've seen so many examples of this at the NRC in my time here, so keep setting goals. Keep striving, and don't take no as never. Take no as motivation to find a different way to meet your goal. Some goals may appear easier to attain than others, but success in any of them requires a plan, and executable plan, because over complicating things can make things unworkable. The NRC must be ready, not just for what is before us now, but also for what will happen next. And if we aren't ready, what are we going to do about it? For me, it's critical that the NRC continue to strive to do the things we do in a more educated, risk-informed, and data-driven way. This includes our licensing and oversight, but it also includes a focus on our most important asset, our people. As I mentioned, the first transformation focus area is recruiting, developing, and retaining a strong workforce. It should come as no surprise that this is the first focus area either, as our workforce is instrumental in achieving our goals. The NRC is only as strong as its people, and the NRC has been leveraging its strategic workforce planning process, which it repeats annually, to continually improve workforce development and readiness and knowledge management. In this process, the NRC does an environmental scan that projects the amount and type of work anticipated in the next five years and identifies the workforce needs in order to perform that work. By analyzing the current workforce and comparing it to future needs, the agency can successfully identify skill gaps. The NRC then develops both short and long-term strategies to enable the agency to recruit, retain, and develop a skilled and diverse workforce with the competencies and agility to address both current and emerging needs and workload fluctuations. This helps us reach our goal of having the skills we'll need to perform the work that we expect. And the people that we have and the people that join our agency, whether for rotation and internship or as a permanent hire, can and should look at risk-informed ways to simplify our processes. That should be our goal every day, because the future is going to require us to be aware, nimble, adaptive, and responsive to the new frontier before us. I'd like to end by saying that myself and each member of my team are only a phone call or an email away. Don't hesitate to reach out if there's an issue that you'd like to discuss. Take care and all the best in setting and accomplishing your goals in 2022 and beyond, and I hope to see you in person soon. Thank you. Thank you so much for your comprehensive remarks. Commissioner Wright and the personal stories and the related analogies as well, and now we can turn to questions. Good morning. Thanks for recognizing early on. That's not working. And if I could, before we get to questions, if I might just for a second, I'd like to just touch on a couple of items. For the last several weeks, like all of you, I've been consumed by the coverage surrounding the situation in Ukraine as the Russian Federation has willingly violated Ukraine's sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. And now they have attacked and occupy several nuclear facilities. There's no shortage of amazing courage from President Zelensky to the people of Ukraine, to our regulatory counterparts in Ukraine and the IAEA and the international community, to the operational staff at the Ukrainian facilities that are occupied. I join Commissioner Barron and Chairman Hansen in their solidarity with Ukraine and with our regulatory counterparts over there. And to quote the chairman, I think this morning, he said, as they work to protect and sustain and if needed restore the safe and secure operation of their nuclear facilities. So it's very important. And you might have noticed today we had a little graphic kelp with pictures. And I want to just thank the AV team here at the NRC that they're amazing to work with. So we had Tyrus Wheeler, who's the contract representative here in Leon Montgomery. You know, he very good, awesome. Kevin McCormick, great job on the camera, as usual. And Addis Vesaitis, photographer. They're their willingness to help me really made it fun. And hopefully others will take advantage of it in the future. And so with that, thank you very much for those heartfelt and thoughtful remarks. And for your first question, how do we maintain a balance between the use of risk assessment, and particularly the PRA and the general public's lack of understanding and interest in risk assessment PRA? Doesn't it make the public involvement in the process more challenging? Thank you for the question. Well, yes. I mean, in the end, though, it's a technical staff's job, you know, to review and apply risk insights and where appropriate, right? And but it's really important that we communicate to you. So that because I do agree that the public doesn't understand some things. But, you know, we should leverage data and risk insights and making our decisions. So, you know, I agree with the premise of the question. And that's the answer I'm going to give you right now. Okay, next question. What do you consider the biggest challenge or challenges for the agency to overcome to be ready for advanced reactors and other new technologies? You mean as in roadblocks or what? Yes. You know, I think we've got to be open on everything here. Would you just quickly repeat the first part of that question? Sure. Hold on one second. Okay. What do you consider the biggest challenge or challenges for the agency to overcome to be ready for advanced reactors and other new technologies? Well, again, I think it goes back to workforce too. You know, there's a number of ways to answer that question. But strategic workforce planning has been something we've been at and after. And if we don't have the technical expertise to review what we're doing, I think that's important that we have to address that. But right now I don't see that that's a problem. And then again, I think with different technologies that are out there, whoever they are, because there's many I'm sure that haven't even, we don't even know about yet, but early engagement on all that stuff is important because the staff is going to be learning as well. And it will make the process a lot easier in the end and the long term. So it comes down to our, you know, we've got to have the right people. Okay. And the right information coming into right next question. How does the commission maintain a strong safety culture within the regulatory framework? How do they how does the commission maintain a strong safety culture right within the regulatory framework? Well, one, we have to be open. We have to communicate. We have to we have to talk with each other, right? If we see something, say something, all right. If there's a concern, we should not be afraid to bring it up and to talk it through. And I think that that applies agency wide no matter what we're doing, right? I mean, it applies on the material side of thing. It applies on the reactor side of things. It applies on the human resources side of things. It applies on the commission communication level of things. So, you know, again, I don't want to go beyond our mission. We have to stay, you know, I like that. I will tell you it reasonable assurance is the floor reasonable assurance is the ceiling. It's the whole room, right? And being a baseball guy, it's also the strike zone over home plate that we have to hit. Okay. Are there any areas where you feel that transformation efforts are inappropriate? Well, I guess bottom line to answer that question is no. You know, it's important first that we we have to define the goal of transformation, define what it is we're trying to do. Like I spoke a few minutes ago to end my time here, you know, like I said, I thought of it more as recalibration of how we do things, not particularly what we do with everything because we're focused on meeting our mission. And I think it should include opportunities to use new and innovative approaches to things. Again, as long as we're meeting our important safety mission, so those opportunities are everywhere within the agency. So I think it's appropriate everywhere. And we have time for one more question. How do you think NRC is becoming agile enough for new reactor development and deployment in a timely manner, at least to replenish the retiring nuclear power plants installed capacity? How to again repeat that? How do you think NRC is becoming agile enough for new nuclear development and deployment in a timely manner, at least to replenish the retiring nuclear power plants installed capacity? Right. I missed the word agile, didn't understand it. So we need to leverage our own efforts and those of our federal partners and in the international community as well and how advanced technology is considered, right? We need to we need to think of new and better ways to to do things because our way may not be the way we do it now may not be the only way or even the best way. And the new technologies likely they're not going to require the exact same things as our current fleet does. So we've got to be nimble, we've got to be agile to and willing right and open to to tackle those things and to look at new ways of doing things. And I want to thank you again, Commissioner Wright for your thoughtful remarks. And I also want to remind everyone on the platform that there are concurrent technical sessions at one o'clock. So don't eat lunch and not come back. Please come back to the platform and take part in all of the sessions that are the concurrent technical sessions. And with that, I close the session. Thank you. Thank you.


So here we are, Toi Whakari, the National Drama School, the National Library of New Zealand, and me, third-year performance design student, standing here ready to collaborate. I'll look at the collection online and go for a site visit and get some quotes from staff while I'm there. Then I'll show them that I know. I know history. I know what the information, I know they want the information that proves that I've been there and I've absorbed and I understand. I know because I do well at these things. I'm an A+. So here I am with proof of my all-knowing knowledge and all my information ready. But then they go and blindside me with a provocation and that's what they call it. What am I supposed to do with this? Where's the essay question and digital death spiral? What's that got to do with the National Library? What do they want from me? They're changing the rules. A National Library means authority, treasures, expert, preservation, Kate Shepard and getting it right. My perspective, how do I qualify that? And what do the other students think? The class is disruptive. It's chaos. But it seems to be part of the plan and there's more direction to follow. I can't really answer these questions in the way that I've learnt how to learn. I need to move between then and now, us and them. I need a sense of why they did what they did in order to work out what that has to do with me. We are the masters of access and since content has become so accessible we need help to become literate and how to contextualise and make meaning and that's what these provocations do. The following images are from Aki in Archives New Zealand in 2012 and Koho in the National Library during this year and they give a sense of what this approach produces. This is Timotima Paula. He's Tongan. He stands in front of a vault that holds the Treaty of Waitangi documents projected on the door as security footage of what is inside the vault as well as a countdown. In this photo he has 23 seconds left to convince the audience that his politics and opinion of race in New Zealand are as valid as the other four competitors two Maori, one Pākehā, and ones are the African waiting for their turn to speak. This is Cunt Free Sanders and she sits in the position of protester which grew out of research into iconic imagery of protest, the right to delete as well as preserve and the question of what a National Library is for. On the back you can just make out the Library's security guard whose watchful presence became part of the show. So much of the historical content that Hiramea Tuiloma moves through deals with specifics of our landscape. With his group he created a physical score that evokes this landscape in search into native birds, Matataki, the paintings of John Walsh, the films of Vincent Ward and New Zealand poetry. Adam Brown on the mic in the tumble room. The audience are shaped by the action of three performers who move in and out of multiple personas, representing and appropriating voices inside and outside of the Library's collection. The politics of voice, whose voice gets collected and whose doesn't, they appropriate and splice together verbatim material interested in how liveliness of the relationship can exist between voices recorded and those that repeat them. And then there's me. Hannah McDougall, 21, born in New Zealand and has been a member of the National Library and then there's me. Hannah McDougall, 21, born and raised in Christchurch to a national bank manager and an accountant. Fourth-generation Pakiha with no real interest and family lineage, listens to Skrillex, likes contemporary art, restaurants and smoking. Standing at the National Library with the presence of Molsworth Street outside, they asked me, what's the conversation that the Library wants to have with your generation? What do they need to hear and what's your contribution? We are communicating through online and I was impacted by the evolution from standing on Molsworth Street in a motorcycle helmet protesting against apartheid to sitting behind a laptop and being able to argue about five different issues or dislikes in the space of three hours without any real connection to a single group, community or idea. I was looking at all of these examples from the collection of protest, women's suffragette, the teachers, the trade unions, the springbok tour, Waitangi Day protest and we don't function in those ways anymore. We are two just jointed and separated from any real physical connection to people or place. The definition of reality has changed. Freedom of speech, the power of people, no censorship online or in life. We are many voices inside one voice without a face and without a name. There is no organization, no membership, no group and no ideologists. There is no fixed ideology. For a brief period of time, we may share the same route, much like commuters on a bus. When we share this route, things can change.  If you want to see what we can do, try to shut down our message, try to censor our speech, then you will see what we can do. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us. There's a desire in people for freedom. Freedom to sit outside of tradition and pre-determin moral codes that are no longer relevant.  I was watching porn when I was 12 and it's only getting younger. In fact, it already is. And that's not the problem. The problem is, what are we going to do with that information? You're not going to be able to protect your sons and daughters from certain things. In fact, you've already failed. What are you protecting? And what's the worst that can happen? We're trying to figure out what is inside of new morals when what is currently set up is not working. And it's hilarious all of these companies and businesses and leaders and institutions that are trying to target us and relate to us and they can't figure out why it's not working. We are a generation that operates on face value when it comes to accessing online information. We can be known to call ourselves Generation OS13, which is operating system 13. The message that comes up on a website when you have entered an area where information is restricted and you don't have authority to access it. We believe it's no-one's right to dictate what information is accessible. This is the foundation of our internet, but not just our internet, how we function in life. We have the illusion of being seemingly unmotivated because young people don't care about anything anymore. But we are seeking a way to exist that encompasses our values which might be different from yours. There is an erosion of boundaries between the real and the virtual as we move in and out of lives on screen. We are holding magnitudes of information next to each other simultaneously. Candy Crush, next to quotes about nihilism, next to a torrent for catching fire, next to dark net software, next to the Treaty of Waitangi, next to job offers via email and this is an ultimate freedom. It is so liberating to be able to pick and choose when, how and what we want of information. But this means in my mind that no singular piece of information has any priority over another. This is how we are consuming and therefore how we are making judgments about your collections. But we know that there are things that you are hiding and our question is why. There is clearly a tension that exists between unlimited access and the relational dynamics of taonga that protect innate boundaries. As we are rapidly learning to survive without you, the place, the house, the authority, what are we losing and what's your position. This performance project offers an opportunity to make overt and heighten this tension with a focus on questions not summary, engagement and not contemplation and with this in us comes a respect for what could come fully of infesting and conversations of national significance.


John C. Stennis Sailors are receiving damage control training at Bremerton Fire Training Facility in Bremerton, Washington. Being prepared to respond to a fire at sea is a basic skill every sailor must have. The burn tower replicates shipboard spaces including a birthing, a galley and an engine room. I'm looking for the Stennis Sailors to walk away with today for the training is proper firefighting techniques. There's a couple different types we show them today and it's very basic but it's extremely important and it's what they have to do to first put out a fire. Sailors rotate through all the positions on the firefighting team to become more comfortable in roles that they are not accustomed to. Reporting from USS John C. Stennis, I'm Seaman William Ford.