So today we're going to be talking about migrating to a new platform and how to leverage hidden opportunities. And generally what we want to do today is talk about the opportunities that you have that when you are migrating to a new platform. I think a lot of times platform migration can feel very scary and overwhelming. And that's okay. It's okay to feel overwhelmed by platform migration because it is a big deal. But we want to make you aware of all the opportunities that moving to a new platform unlocks for for you and your team and your organization. So this isn't going to be like a strict how to guide of everything you need to do for a migration. But it's really to get you in a mindset to be aware of all the opportunities and the scope of the opportunities and the scale because you know as with everything, it's more than than just a platform at the end of the day. So a little bit about us if you're not familiar with a person CKO and our methodology. We are all about engagement architecture. It's our philosophy it's our methodology it's really underlies everything that we do and how we approach any kind of digital engagement or engagement challenges. And you see the very bottom of the graphic on the right is the thing that essentially we are talking about today platforms. But platforms are just part of your organization's engagement architecture. So when you think about a platform, you also have to think about the processes that are around that form and the people who use it and the strategies that it advances. And the experiences that the platform provides both for your internal users and external audiences. So, you know, ultimately what type of engagement is the platform. Try to try to support. And then what kind of data is going to be available through all of these new layers of your organization. So, with that lens in mind we'll be talking about the opportunities for you and your team, as you move from one platform to another. I wanted to say don't panic. Eric and I are big hitchhikers guide to the galaxy fans. So you'll see some hitchhikers guide references but this is the first thing that he and I thought of when we were talking about this webinar, you know, particularly for people who might be on a platform like lumenate that is about to go away and you might not have been planning to plan for migration. So if you want to say don't panic, everything will be okay with with these sort of lenses that we're going to talk about today, hopefully you'll feel a little bit better about where you're going. We do want to say, after don't panic, panic don't panic like sorry not sorry, just to give you a sense of, you know, the big deal that is a platform migration but also why you shouldn't be panicking. So on the panic side of the equation, just so you understand the gravity of these are things that you probably don't need to be reminded of you're probably aware of these but, you know, in the planning stages of platform migration, the things that people end up panicking about if they don't plan for our time, you're going to need more time than you think and you don't have as much time as you think. Maybe if you're, you know, if you're not aware when a platform's contract is expiring or what it takes to move from one platform to another. Definitely start there and think about how much time you have. What is that what are all the steps that goes that you go through because it can take and normally does take more time than you think. There are a lot of details to figure out. And you'll see all the different aspects of that from the rest of the talk today, because it's not just about going and finding quote the best tool out there that checks all the boxes of feature sets. There are so many really good viable options for platforms that you really need to think through all the elements of your engagement architecture. So the people that are using the tool, the other tools that you're using and how they integrate and share data, the processes that you have that are going to that are going to have to change. So there's there's a lot there that goes beyond just platform, you know platform analysis. The other big change that you're about to embark on is that you're moving from a new platform is really disruptive. You know you're going to be changing people's skill sets processes and patterns how they work. Personally, that can make people very uncomfortable sometimes angry, but you'll also find the people that are really excited to try new things. And that brings us over to the dope panic or the positive side of the equation here. Because the platforming as an opportunity to really help people in your organization by giving them tools that are going to help them be more effective at their jobs going to help your organization be more effective in its outreach. And as we'll see throughout kind of the opportunities that we're talking about opportunities to really bring people together and, you know, come to a new shared sense of purpose and vision for what you do as an organization and how you go about it. So we like to end with a don't panic because there's a lot of good that you're going to be able to do and go through as you go through the process. So one quick note before we get into those opportunities about migration scope and scale. And this is kind of a spectrum from a seamless migration to transformational. And a lot of what we're going to be talking about our opportunities that are in place, you know, whenever you talk about a new platform or a new opportunity to really kind of go big and think holistically about the people the processes the strategy. It can be very transformational and if it's going to be very transformational you want to take a certain amount of time to do it. There are other cases where you have a very niche tool that a small handful of users use very specifically for a very known, well governed task that maybe they just need to flip the switch and get a new tool operational. And depending on the platform that you're looking at that might be what you have the situation that you're in that you just want to switch from one thing to another. And, you know, that might be all the time you have or the budget or the staff, the resources you have might move you into more of a direction of, oh, this is going to be a simple kind of rip and replace.  Okay, so we're going to talk about the opportunities that we're going to talk about opportunity knocks platform is potential again, you know, the platform at the end of the day is a tool that people in your organization use, and often a tool they use together to do good work. So we'd like to think of it as potential potential energy that you're going to be able to unlock a lot of as you go through the migration process. So today we're going to have a conversation about six hidden opportunities that you should be thinking about when you are going through any stage of the migration process. You know, especially if you are in the early stages of thinking, oh gosh, you know, maybe our programs are platform is some setting and we have a year to pick up the replacement or we've had this email system for seven years and everyone is not really happy with it, what do we do. You know, really being aware of all of these opportunities can help you get the get some good perspective. So we'll have a, this is going to be very conversational we'll talk about some ideas for each of these opportunities, we'll get some questions will kind of riff on what we've experienced and what we've seen with different organizations as they go through this process. But definitely please feel free to ask questions as we go along through them in the chat. I said I think we're we're we're an intimate group today so we should have time to really dig in if people have questions. The six that we see here are creating momentum. So you with when you when you're moving to a new platform you have an opportunity to create really good momentum in the organization to kind of move from where you are to where you're going. Particularly if it's a platform that people have felt stuck in for a while. The second opportunity is to really empower the people in your organization, bring people together, understand, you know what they want to do what they want to do better involving people and giving them this great new tool. This is also an opportunity to improve your process. That is a huge piece of the replatforming equation and something that a lot of times organizations don't plan for, which is really saying, you know, we have this tool, what are the processes that are in place around it. Oh, we don't have any processes in place, we should get some, or we should revisit these are some of these are outdated. So this is a great opportunity to get to get clear in your processes. Similarly, it's a great opportunity to refine your strategy to really get down to the nuts and bolts of why do we even have an email system. Why do we even have a CRM. We need a new one. Mostly we use it to send out emails to our newsletter. But why this so this is a great chance to sort of take another look at your strategy. This number five is a particular interest of mine. This gives you an opportunity to find your contacts, especially from migrating from an email system or email systems or CRMs or anything that has to do with the contacts that your organization engages with. You're going to have to think through a lot of the elements of those contacts as you move them between systems. And this is a really great time to get more granular with your definitions so you can get more information about your audiences and engage them more effectively. And then finally, the last and opportunity we'll talk about is really getting a sense of the scope of the change that the platform is going to provide. So, Eric and I will kind of ping pong go back and forth on on the different, the different opportunities and kind of guide the conversation so with that I will hand it over to Eric to talk about creating momentum. What do we mean by creating momentum, creating an environment in which iterative progress is kind of car right that creating those steps, creating that cadence creating that that that direction, and also a direct is a environment that supports that to right. So this is your chance really to create a shared sense of purpose. Both institutionally as an organization right and also even for your team and yourself here right. This is new change that you're active, actively creating right in your organization so building on your existing work cultures, and the way that you work. And as Adam said before changing some of the way your colleagues work to go on to the next slide Adam please. These are different factors right of good momentum and the other hidden opportunities within that. You know a lot of these can be subtle changes they don't need to be readily, obviously apparent right, but these subtle changes can have huge impacts on the way you operate. And also streamlining your workflows streamlining your, your processes, all of these help get people to be part of that part of that transition to be on board with your, with your process with your new new shift. And it's also a good time to, to acknowledge that changes hard right and that if you've gone through several of these types of changes before. If you've had to already migrate multiple times multiple CRMs in the past because something wasn't working out. Every time you do this that is time taken away from using the platform itself right you're just constantly shifting. So, if you are doing that time over time reflect acknowledge and accept right that yes you have to take a break just to focus on this because this is a lot of work. But, you know it does bring about, hopefully positive steps. So, try to point in that direction. To that point right you need to address reflect overcome those those past anxieties and be able to be willing to stretch right if you've, if you haven't had the best fit before, maybe you know try and focus to to ensure that that next fit will be better. You know, creating that environment again in which there is a cadence which there is a pace helps set expectations for the changes that will occur, right, having that pace having the iterative progress or at least the direction towards progress and regular communication and not just communication but the but the organizational tasks that you're doing to get to that place, all of these sharing it together with your colleagues help to create that that pace that will get you to that next place. And yeah, you know looking to really help your colleagues right you're trying to improve and make your maker, you know make your work stronger, more effective, less time consuming, more, and you know simpler right simpler but also complex. These automation platforms, some of these complex CRMs out there fundraising platforms unlock a lot of potential and that can get people excited, but you need to make sure that you're taking those steps, you know, step by step, slowly, but also deliberately. So guys in regards to creating momentum. How would an organization begin the process of their migration, not just to identify the platform itself before preparing the transition and the transformation. That's a great question artists and one of the things that this. This brings to mind for me is the idea of having like a project mandate a project mission and getting buy in from the people who are going to be involved in the process and impacted by it. So that you're you kind of create a mandate. Here's what we are trying to do. Here's the process that we are going to go through. Here's the people that are going to be involved in the process and that everyone has a role to play. So you kind of treated you similarly to any, any big project that you would have in your organization, where you have a very clear specific mandate for what it means to undergo the work together.  So a little bit of a project mandate and having a project champion. We'll talk about the people in the in the part of this right after this but you know, really getting people bought in and having someone who is excited about the project and who can bring that excitement out in others. And as Eric was talking about acknowledging change fatigue and anxieties and really, you know, you want to to sort of, you're going to be doing therapy, you're doing like any any degree of organizational change and involves a certain amount of therapy where you really need to understand changes and anxieties, but then you, along with that you need some sort of vision of where to go, and that you're rowing in the same direction. And I think of the I used to whitewater paddle, and when you're whitewater and paddling in a group, you know you're constantly scanning the places you want to avoid.  So it's not that people aren't aware of the challenges but they have that vision for where they want to go, because focus on the positive. And that's kind of a high level kind of idea for for where to get started. Eric if you had any other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I really agreed with your statement having that mandate, not just even, you know, has it as a deemed mandate but have your own sense of purpose for this right what do you want to achieve as a team individually through through this. You know, that I think helps unite that shared purpose, and whether that's a personal, trying to get to that next step or also right. Clearly the organizational schools here too right, how can we unlock some hidden revenue how can we better engage our supporters are constituents how do we encourage them to to to engage with our content. You know, or learn from our experts, you know, having those top level, not just top level but but critical mission goals there really helps unite around that and seeing how those plug into the platform that you're either we're using or moving forward and having that destination is is really key to to yes pointing at that continue that that pointing in the right direction. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We actually have a question from Lissa Klein. I'm happy with MailChimp for communications purposes it's our CRM that we'd like to change moving away from Salesforce and Upsana. It'll be critical for us to find a new CRM that gives us more functionality and that integrates with MailChimp migrating the data from Salesforce is what worries us. What kind of support might we need for that transition. And are there CRM platforms you know of that are easier to migrate Salesforce data to. That's a lot of good questions. I think the, we have some sections in the in the webinar I think there will be a particular interest where we talk about some of the philosophies and opportunities of looking at your contacts and the data that they have and making sure those are well modeled, as you know, for migration. So, a big part of it it comes down to the model of the different entities in your architecture so what is a contact what attributes do we have of contacts, what attributes does the email system need to know about what attributes does the CRM need to know about, and how do we leverage those attributes to do better more effective engagement. So, if we want, you know, if we want to say, we want to send, you know, an automated email series to everyone who signs up for an event about a particular topic, and we want those emails to come, you know, about that specific topic. That's all stuff that requires modeling so that you can, your email system can know, you know what emails to send and what content to pull for this, the contact that it's going to a lot of times that's stored in the CRM. The email CRM connection. You know, I, a lot of it comes down to the complexity of what you want to know about your, your audiences. And, you know, we like MailChimp as well for a lot of reasons. I think anytime you're talking with about a Salesforce move into or out of Salesforce, that's, that's definitely on the side of the, oh, there's a lot of details to figure out. I would say, you know, from a, from a, you know, what kind of support you need to move to, to a new CRM. I think it's definitely there's the strategic guidance support of, you know, really defining what we'll talk about a lot of these areas but really defining what we're trying to get at the end of the day, what we're trying to get to. You know, what does the CRM need to empower people to do. And a lot of times what we found within organizations is that there can tend to be a tension between owners of the different platforms I don't know if this is true in your organization but in many organizations, you know, communications owns email and maybe fundraising owns the CRM and they use them for slightly different purposes and they come from different budgets and have different, you know, owners. And that's all stuff that, you know, again, replatforming provides you an opportunity to really figure out. Oftentimes that's, that's one of the reasons it can be useful to have an outside party kind of come into play the neutral third party and say hey, here's a process for getting through this that you know equitably involves everyone in the organization. I've been rattling on for a few minutes Eric I don't know if you have no that's that's fantastic. Yeah, I would also say you know look at what if you are you know look at your scope right and we're kind of getting ahead to but but look at how much and you want to complete replacement in terms of getting all of that data over there or also is are you looking at your data a little more strategically, are you willing to unload some empty weight right if you're having to deal with a system that has database limit sizes and you need to, you know, your budget can only accommodate a certain amount. How do you decide right what you're going to take over. If you have a field limit, and then also yeah the technical integration as well right how well does that platform play with the Mailchimp. All of these are critical to the requirements for when you're migrating. And yeah, I mean you might need it takes a lot of research, it takes a lot of experience, you may need an expert to help get to there. You know it's it's certainly a field that we are excited about to having you know done a number of these and finding the opportunity, the opportunities within to help unlock potential. And we'll be providing Calendly links as well so that we can set up some time if you want to talk through with Adam and Eric in more detail. For sure. So we'll definitely be able to follow up with you if you have more specific questions. Absolutely we could definitely go on about that just that question for the rest of the time. But hopefully the other sections we'll talk about we'll speak to elements of that process as well. I'm going to talk a little bit more about empowering people, because again this is a huge part of, you know, having a successful and meaningful migration, which is really involving the right people. So there are a couple key things to consider here and one of these goes hand in hand with what we were just talking about we have like a project mandate is identifying your team, your team for this, you know, significant through. Obviously you want a project owner who was going to be a project owner slash champion, who's going to be the person that is steering the ship to select the right platform. You need to identify both a product owner and a business owner. Sometimes those are the same person sometimes those are different. So the product owner is the person who manages the product who manages the platform who says, you know I know where the documentation is. Here's how it's supposed to be used if you have questions about changing it come to me. The business owner is the person who funds the platform, whose budget it comes from. Especially if you're doing something that crosses multiple organ organizational lines, this is really important to identify early on and have the right people in place and the right buy in. And oftentimes maybe that doesn't really exist, you know, a lot of times with with email or CRM, the ownership can be kind of hazy, can be a little bit murky. And particularly if you want to really take these opportunities to say okay we're going to get a new CRM we're going to get this integrated data that's going to power these automations. A lot of questions will come up about like oh does this live in fundraising doesn't live in comms doesn't live in development. You know, that that that can be a tricky, tricky thing to undergo, but it's important. And then expert users and non expert users, really thinking through who in your organization uses the current tool as an expert like they really know how to use it and maybe they can do some custom configuration of it. Or at the very least they're they're very familiar with it. Non expert users would be people who can do some tasks with it but need a lot of guidance. One thing that I don't have on the slide but thinking about that is internal and external resources, right. Alyssa mentioned, you know, moving from Salesforce, and Salesforce in particular is a platform in an ecosystem that you almost have to really invest in outside support to manage or change. You want to build up a very specific functional skill set with Salesforce.  And then you want to involve these people. You know, in different stages, different areas of replatforming that, you know, you should really be thinking about how to involve your team.  You're sending emails to, you know, influence policy or to get people to donate or get people to come to events and like an advance along the engagement path with you. So the people that are using the platform get them involved in and understanding and clarifying and advancing that strategy. And visioning is a little bit more lofty but thinking about, you know, what do they want to accomplish with the platform. You have some people that will say, oh, I just want to keep sending emails, but then, you know, find the people in your organization that are like, I really wish an email platform could do this and then get excited about potential. You know, involve them in discovery. And this is really critical. What's working and what's not working about the current platform. We always like to do both right. What do you like about the process and the platform we have in place, you know, what would you be really sad if, you know, if this went away. What do you want to improve involving them in that research, what options are out there, right. So a lot of times, you know, when you're going through replatforming you might have a senior stakeholder that says we're moving to Marketo. And everyone sort of has to get in line. But, you know, involve people in the research process, you know, people, especially people who are actively using the tool day in and day out, right, they should have a very large say in the replatforming process. Requirements. Again, what does the platform need to do and provide a beat and to do to be usable to the people who use it and maintain it. I think we're moving more and more away from an older model of platforming where it would kind of, you know, traditionally the technology side of the house would say well it needs this requirements it needs this budget and it has this many seats so it's good. I'm going to go through who's going to be using it and what their experience is going to be like, because platforms only as useful as the people who are using it. And if they hate using it, then it's not going to be as useful. Get them involved in demos. Again, you know, really getting hands on with a tool, you know, really pressing the vendors to give you meaningful demos that are tailored to your particular organizations use cases and get a sense of how it feels. So really involving people in that process. Also thinking about who's impacted beyond the immediate team so you know knowing again that you know platforms relate to your processes and your people and your strategy. So who's going to be affected outside your organization. So if you're moving to a new email platform. How can that be seamless how are we going to make sure that we're not, you know, getting unsubscribed that people aren't getting lost in the shuffle. How's your audience going to be impacted. If you're going to a new, a new CMS for your website. What's the impact on the user experience going to be. And what needs to be communicated. You know this is something we always like to get ahead of if there's going to be any sort of platform change you need to think about who's going to be impacted and what they need to know so they're not just a surprise. That is sprung upon them. Alright so I will just move into opportunity three. People and processes go hand in hand, particularly around your platforms so opportunity three is improving your processes around the platforms and oftentimes this is a great chance for some house cleaning and kind of an assessment of where you are, you know kind of looking behind behind the cupboards and doing some dusting. So what we find is there's a platform, but there's no real clear organizational process that says here's what the platform is here's what does here's how it works. So this is a, an opportunity to take us, you know, get an assessment of the state of your processes. So what we find you know how are they learned and replicated and what sustains them. You know a lot of times particularly in smaller, you know, teams or departments, it might be that you have one one staffer that really knows how to use a particular tool and they really pass down the information to people or you know send the help tools that they've, you know, developed over the years, but it's not documented anywhere.  So this is a chance to say, you know, do we have processes, are they, do we even have them are they outdated or they ad hoc. Who owns the process and the documentation, and this goes back to the idea of identifying a product owner for your platform. So this is a great place to say, if you're starting to move from one CRM to another CRM, who owns the CRM, you know, what are the processes, and are those documented, you know, especially if you've done a lot of customization of your CRM. So here is that customization documented, because it can be, it's much easier to figure out how to move from one platform to another if you're able to say, Hey, we've defined these 20 fields that we care about, and we've implemented them thusly, then trying to figure that out just by looking through the system. So, you know, this is a great place to think about process and documentation and the, the better shape you can get that in before you, before you migrate the clear your requirements will be, you'll have a better sense of what, what you need to do. So, that's kind of the big picture of the thoughts on on on process I don't know Eric if you have anything to add to that or if anyone has any questions. Yeah, and I can probably take us into the next one while we do that documentation right is really key or having a resource in which your tasks and your workflows and staff, and how they do the work is, is put is organized right put together this informs your, you know, way of how you work, how you do things. So having a place for that, having that standardized having that prepared and stored for for the future is really key in informing where you're going to go. This takes us to our, our next opportunity, refining or strategies, which is the, the piece of, of, you know, really what is, you know, what are you trying to accomplish here right, what, what does this platform actually do for you. So, is this very complex tool that is used for a very specific purpose. Sometimes, maybe not even what you expect, if you have a CRM setup and your development team is just using that CRM to send personal emails through it right because that's part of their workflow and it's easier to send personal emails through that system. If that's their like key reason for using that you may need to assess okay what is the purpose of this platform that when how we put it in place, what is there some better solution here that is could be a layer on top. How is it even effective right does it solve the business needs that you're seeing that you that you have right. And again, is it doing this successfully. Is it easy to use if it's easy to use because someone is so skilled at the platform. But then if someone new comes in and, and it takes some time to ramp up okay but it takes time but but it may not be the still the best solution for you right it's just because you're having the process and workflow so making sure using those to get to your strategic goals are really key. Yeah, Eric I'll just piggyback on that for a second because the, when we talk about the purpose of the platform this is another place where you really want to think about shared purpose. You know common purpose of the platform, particularly when you're looking at CRMs, because you know Eric mentioned the use case of the CRM is something that development uses and they use it primarily just to find people and call them and keep track of their history. That's, that's really important to know, but particularly when you're looking at CRM you want to look at it from the standpoint of, you know, in an organization, we have contacts, and the contacts can be contacted by multiple people for multiple reasons to advance different parts of our organizational strategy. So, you know when you're looking at particularly with CRMs or anything that involves contact, your contact ecosystem, I like to call it. I want to involve people and get a sense of what they're doing within the platform, and more importantly what they're doing outside of the platform. You know what we talk to so many organizations that they have a CRM and development uses it, but then every department has their own, you know, some department has a spreadsheet and another has another spreadsheet and other department uses their email as, as their CRM. So really thinking through, you know, what is the purpose of the CRM, what is the purpose of tracking contacts, but we want to know about them. I'll ramble on more about that later but just wanted to reiterate that idea of shared purpose there. Yeah, it's a great flag Adam.  You have those tools in service of that strategy. If you have an ever redundant use case like Adam mentioned we have multiple tools in place, all storing separate data, you have a redundancy right you have a duplicative efforts and that if you can find ways to to unify those as part of your greater strategic goals that will be in service to to your to the good to your organization. Where are those overlaps right. Those not only find alignment just from shared purpose, but also for shared shared work and making sure that you're going through and then doing it together so that way your work is interoperable is is is shared and really just able to be comprehended by by different departments, and it also helps just in your own integration right with in your platform ecosystem, looking at how you can get that data to talk and flow right through different platforms and ensuring that it is possible to do that without too much, you know, some effort it was required of course but without reinventing your ecosystem. I'll reiterate that that second bullet about the strategy review cycle. You know which is we've done over over the years I've had many, many occasions we start a project, you get a little ways into it and then some of those oh no we developed a strategy for that or you know some other team is developing a strategy that's coming out in the next month. Those are things you should definitely be aware of within within the organization so if you're in communications maybe there's a new communication strategy that you know you've just developed six months ago. And yes you want to be aware that you should also be aware of you know are there other strategies that are currently being defined or evolved your other research projects that inform strategy. You know, even if, which is not to say you should pause and wait for these other projects to happen. But if you know hey development is actually developing a new communicate a new fundraising strategy. You know for this quarter, you can go and just have an interview with someone that's involved in that strategy and say hey, we're looking at moving to a new email system. You know, these are the things that we think we really need to make sure the email system does these are the things we think would probably help as you move into a new fundraising strategy. Tell me, tell me where you are with fundraising strategy get a little bit of insight into the other strategies that are being developed. And again, you know, you know, make friends when friends influence people all that good stuff. You know what's going on in the organization so that your tool can effectively sort of address those needs. Absolutely. I want to move ahead there. I'm not going to go through all of these directly because there's there's quite a bit of here to unpack right but this is part of the framework of how we look at, you know how do you assess your organizational needs. You know these are different tasks that need to be accomplished these impact people. We've got touched upon all these different factors already right but but you know really what do you want people to accomplish what do you want to accomplish, and how can you support your organization and getting there. These are all of the different concepts and and and ways to frame what your needs might be organizationally and as a team and and strategically. In regards to refining strategy. Let's say that the platform that you're replacing isn't tied to any direct strategic outcomes, but the users of the platform do kind of what's always been done. How do you explore and emphasize strategic importance of the platform and that shift to everybody. I think that even creating this, this, as we, you know, new momentum new shifts new direction helps provide that space for that kind of communication to happen, right, to start under discovering how things are done, what could be better right not using the framing of, oh that doesn't work right. And also provide you know data to back it up. And, and you're doing it together. I think that that essence of solidarity in the goal right is really key to, to making sure that that your, you know, journey is, is, is part of your united progress, and not just a corrective measure. Absolutely. And just to piggyback on that the going beyond the idea of a corrective measure, right of like, oh we just need, we need something better. Right, because a lot of times people's direct people's direct experience with the tool is is often what is most at the top of mind, right, because it's most in front of them. What you want to use this opportunity to do is say, Okay, yeah, we're going to get a platform that works well that you're not like ripping your hair out because it doesn't refresh fast enough or because it's convoluted right, you want to kind of get people out of the space of like the, the use of the tool to what the tool helps them accomplish. And that's where you really want to start with that that strategy and sense of purpose and discovery where you're saying, What, what does our email platform do, what do we want it to help us do. You know, if we have a CRM, what kind of contacts do we want to be able to find what do we want to be able to do once we know that information. So I think, you know, the more that you can, you know, as you're involving people who are going to use the tool, you know, get a sense of like their frustrations with the tool and what also was working well, but then really focus on the outcomes of using the tool. So one of the one of the workshops that we run is a use case reporting workshop. When we're talking about any kind of data integrations is say, you know, forgetting how you find the data, what kind of data do you want to find and what do you want to do with that data. And then you can gather those from different people in the organization say, Oh, that means if we want, you know, if everyone wants to know this about this audience in order to do x, then we need a tool that will have these features. So you're really focusing on, you know, the, the, the outcomes, you know, what, what is the tool meant to do. I think I think we'll move us on to the defined audiences section. So that we still have plenty of time for questions as we go along. So define your audience again this is an opportunity particularly, particularly if email CRMs are involved.  I mean money is great and all, but like knowing your audiences is, is, is gold. And you know what, what we mean by this is, is really getting granular with how you define who your contacts are. You know, who's going to be captured in the system. Are they well modeled by well model means we, we know the things we want to know about them. And we have a plan for getting that information, and we have a purpose for that information. You know, the great thing about, you know, email systems as it makes it easy to get someone's email address, and more and more, it's getting a little easier to to get like their name and maybe what field they're working or their organization right those are just the things that are fairly straightforward. The more you know about your audiences, the more you can start to make sure that that information is in your systems. So if you haven't created a contact model, moving to a new CRM to a new email platform is a great way to do that. And then, you know, making sure that you have the tracking and analytics necessary to capture what you know about them. So actually did a webinar recently on on contact modeling and will will provide some links to those resources as well. But it's something that I care very passionately about so I'll talk very high level about it for a second. A good contact model really helps you articulate for a particular contact, who they are what they care about and what they've done. And these will be somewhat different from organization to organization. But if you can say, you know, who contact is what they care about and what they've done, then you start to get a really, really rich picture of them, and can do much more targeted meaningful communications and ideally automated communications. Right so if you know someone's someone's role, you might be able to give them an automated email series that is more tailored with content towards a particular role. If you're an organization that covers lots of different topics, maybe maybe someone sent it for your email for a particular topic doesn't care about 80% of your of your content. You might care about 10%. If you know what they care about, then you can give them the content that matters to them. If you know if you know that's what if this person has signed a petition or attended an event. You know how you know that they are more engaged than someone who was just visited the site or sign up for email. Starting with contact modeling again is really, it's really valuable because these are all things that can be stored in different ways in different systems, some of which can and should be connected across those systems so particularly if you know we have a, we have a client that uses MailChimp and Asana as their Monday.com as their CRM, and they're looking at ways to either integrate MailChimp and Monday.com or perhaps replace some elements of that and a lot of it comes down to what are these fields, you know what do we want to do with the services and how do we make sure that the right platforms know that information. Again, starting with this is a good, good place to involve multiple people in the organization right there shouldn't be a separate contact model for development as for communications. Right, you should know one person is one person, they have lots of different attributes, they have lots of different needs, different people in the organization might want to be contacting them for different things but they're the same person. So many organizations that we work with like have spread you here, spread you here, CRM here, email system here, they all have different slices of the same person. But that really hinders the ability of the organization to communicate with those people at scale. I'll get up in my soapbox about that. Yeah, I think maybe we'll move to the scope section. Yeah, definitely. You know, we'll try to keep this this within scope as well right. Part of this is understanding how, how why do you want this to go right and we're going to focus on primarily two lenses of scope here platform and process, but all of these do touch the broader scale of scope of what this transformation means right. Re-platforming is more than just, you know, it's more than just changing your tool around. It's, you know, defining what it's used for as we talked about. And at what, you know, where does this touch where does this impact what teams are affected by this. It's very important to that day to day. And again, like having them being part of that process as part of a as a subject matter expert, right, knowing exactly how things are used so that way when you do transition to something new. They are prepared are also part of that part of that conversation. What was customized immediately right upon launch, what can be moved over right what is out of what is part of the solution that you provided if you know you need a whizzy wig tool drag and drop editor built into your email platform, and your team doesn't know how to code emails by by hand, you're certainly going to need another drag and drop editor and that new email platform. You can always necessarily just plug one in sometimes you can but can your platform support that. Knowing how all these different parts fit together is critical to the success of how big your, how big this is this is going to be right how much this will change what will have to be retrained, what will have to be re, you know, re taught. Right, and to that skip that data side as well like what can be migrated over. What needs to be manipulated is is are the fields going to match, are you ensuring that you are matching those line by line, or again what can be, what can be dropped what can be left as as cleaning house right. All of these need to be defined in order to to rain in where exactly your, your direction will be the next version or next vision of scoping like to look at is right as process. More people driven side of it, or people driven processes right. How many people use this is this a platform that the entire staff uses right is this.  And are they skilled, or are they beginners right or just getting their job done. So you need more training if you're moving to a more complex platform Salesforce example is is a platform that is very complex and requires usually third party skilled experts to help you get there. Maybe you want to move to one that is a little less complex so that your practitioners can get things done in a more straightforward right and unless customized way. There's no training to get there the answer probably is is going to be yes. New platforms do require that training. It is a great investment in your staff and your colleagues. And usually when you onboard some new platform there is a training portion. Or you can ask for that kind of package when you come in as maybe part of your your package. Right. Great, great add on right that you can get that empowers your staff look at what ongoing training looks like to, you know, whether you want that a continued training if you have an expert in house that might be able to facilitate that. If you want an outside expert you can facilitate that how frequently. And what does your governance look like, what does it look like right now, what resources are available to staff to to get their jobs done using one of these platforms, or what can you create. Use this as another opportunity right to create a new hub of support for your for your staff. And I'll show them how to, how to use and unlock the potential of these tools. Part of that, you know, either a static resource that they can access on your company organizational intranet. If it's training videos do you want to do in house, or just office hours right. I mean, even when we get back right into the office. You know, have a designated time for someone to drop by someone's desk for for Marketo training or, or for Salesforce prep. And that provide those opportunities so that way there is continued structure for people to go when they know when they're looking for and need help. Those are such such great points Eric and I think particularly that the last couple points you made about the sort of the ongoing training and support, you know, particularly if the tools used by a lot of people, and it's a complex, and it hasn't necessarily been clearly or well documented. You know in the past, you know Eric is involved with the project with another one of our clients who have moved from one big behemoth email system to another, and a huge part of it was, how are we going to get people trained and bought in and regularly learning to own the platform and use it effectively.  You know, you think a bit more as you're getting a tank, right you need, you know, someone to show you how to operate all the things.  And understanding the organizational needs the staff capacity and capabilities and really making a plan for, you know, what are the mechanisms that we're going to have in place to make sure adoption is is followed because that's again that's key. People aren't using the tool if they don't understand it. It's not going to be effective. Thank you Adam that's a great point you know your platform here too and we're kind of going back to the previous scope right, but, but is it a a truck right doesn't have 27 years to get through to just to just to send an email, or is it just simple and doesn't have a send button, a lot of these don't have send buttons and that is kind of scary for people and they need the training to get there to learn how to use these and prevent those oops moments that that happen. They do happen we all make mistakes here and there, especially in these very complex systems, but knowing how to use them and not repeating those mistakes over and over again is really key to the success of this. Alright, so we're we're have just a few minutes left all kind of just highlight again the hidden opportunities that you have. You know as you plan every platforming, you have opportunity create great momentum in your organization, really start moving your organization forward, empowering and involving the people in your organization who are ultimately going to be what makes the tool successful or it's a great time to improve your processes and make those clear and sustainable. Great time to refine your strategy so that people aren't just oh we're using a new tool but hey we're doing things more effectively, we're making a bigger impact, and because we have a clear strategy. It's a great opportunity to define your contacts better, particularly if you're using anything that collects data and uses that data about about who you're engaging with. And it's a great opportunity to really understand the scope of the platform and the scope of support that changing a platform is going to need. We'll send the stick around afterwards and I think we have a few minutes for questions, but we did want to say so long and thanks for all the fish. Another hitchhiker's guide reference, we won't really go into but we'll we have a few minutes to answer questions here. But you can also reach out in lots of different ways to continue a conversation with us directly. See if there are any new questions or. Guys, we didn't get any additional questions in the chat, but we really appreciate everybody's attendance, I would like to ask if anybody would be so kind as to answer our poll question. We'd love to learn more about your pain points in migrating to a new platform in your organization. If you are able to give us your responses before signing off we would really appreciate that. And just keep in mind that we do these once a month. Next month we will be discussing a new program that we're launching called our data innovation studio. We also have the team walking everybody through what that program looks like and how we're working really hard to create a collaborative data culture, and help organizations realize the power of the data that they have so keep them keep your eyes peeled for more information on that in your follow up email.


When the Army Medical Department, under certain General Sternberg, opened the Army Medical School in 1893, that was actually a pretty significant event because up to that time medical corps officers had been educated outside of the Army, had been given an examination to enter the Army if they passed it, and were presumed that they didn't need further education passed that, and anything that they had to do to learn their job, they would pick up on the job. The Army Medical School said, you know, there are some things about Army medicine that are different than regular medicine, we worry about different kinds of diseases. This became more important as the Army became an expeditionary force, fighting in wars overseas and encountering diseases that we were not accustomed to in the United States. In 1919, a hundred years ago, here in San Antonio, we were dealing with a pandemic at that time as well. It was the Army who first discovered cases of what we then called the Spanish flu. The first 51-52 cases were found at Camp Travis all in one day, and the Army was the one that actually began the quarantine here in San Antonio about a hundred years ago. Now, there was no center in school back then, we weren't a medical command, however, a hundred years later, we're sending staff to places like New York and other hotspots to try and take knowledge from the military and apply it to our civilian patients, wherever they're needed in the country. A hundred years later, we're doing the same things because they work. On the 15th of May in 1920, the Adjutant General responded to a letter that the Surgeon General had written in April 28, and he said the Army Medical Department was authorized to establish a medical field service school. This is the Surgeon General asking for a second school and saying, I have two separate skills that I need to teach. I need to teach doctors how to do Army medicine, which is different than civilian medicine, and I have to teach them how to be functional and professional and fully able to perform their duties in the field. And so, that's really the genesis for the medical field service school, is this idea that there are two aspects to military medicine that both need to be addressed in the education of officers. Things from a hundred years ago are just now getting into the psyche of the soldiers we're currently training. The other day, there was a group of them working in the museum, and of course everybody has their mask on, and we're trying to remind them, you know, they're even reminding each other, you know, don't get so close, and one of them finally said, so I guess we're part of a historic event, aren't we? And I said, so what are you going to do with that? And these kids for the first time said, oh my gosh, we're living this historical moment and it's going to change the way we practice our profession. And the same way that a veteran coming back will say, look at all these things I learned, I'll never have to learn those again. They're getting a practicum in public health that they could not have gotten any other place or at any other time.


Sun Open Society. I talked into one Russian earlier on in the war. There's no mental health support. There's no worrying about being different and especially if you are gay, if you are LGBTQ. Putin does not like that. The government will go against that fully and people are being arrested, people were being hurt, some were being killed. That's a minority group that is definitely oppressed in Russia. It doesn't matter what the people say. I guess one of the things that, because we're talking about the effects of the Ukrainian war, I suppose it's not only like civilian Ukrainians that are affected by this whole


Greetings, friends. Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for December 6, 2012, the regular podcast of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. Whoever you are and wherever you may be on life's journey at this very moment, you are welcome here. We begin this week's conference cast with this meditation from the Reverend Charles L. Wildman, Interim Conference Minister. In the third chapter of Luke's Gospel, we hear the voice of John the Baptist, who echoes the words of the ancient prophet Isaiah. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. All of our lives we are directed to get ready, be prepared, don't be late. Hurry up, this our mantra, until we get to a certain age, and then it's go-go, slow-go, no-go. Admit his go-go, for sure, for most of us. Much to do, cleaning, decorating, making and buying gifts, writing checks to special causes like Friends of the Conference, perhaps, planning holiday trips, designing liturgies, writing sermons. An advent also is about preparing our hearts and minds to receive the child, God's beloved. This is a time for reflection on how life might be if we considered each day Christ's day, a time for giving our best to loved ones and strangers alike. In Advent's progression, we may slowly unburden our spirits from undue self-concern to make room for concern about others. Prayers for family, friends, and foes alike then might occupy our comings and goings. The other night I found myself perhaps with you also in an interstate highway three lane, ten-mile-long gridlock. We were completely stopped for a while. Our way was not being made plain in Scripture's language. Captive to the road with no exits in sight, we were immobilized in our steel and plastic chariots. All we could do after getting angry at our way being blocked was to say a prayer for those in the accident far ahead. Life can be that way sometimes. As hard as we try to prepare, plan ahead, keep track of what really matters, we can get stuck in our own track with no apparent way forward. Advent offers the way forward. Preparing the way of the Lord is to take giant steps in love and hope and faith. As God's presence has made manifest, we learn or reaffirm our life's purpose no matter what age or stage, go-go, slow-go, or no-go. And it all begins right now. As we put this piece away, may we get into God's way. Through prayer, service, and at least some measure of compassion, even for those who tend to irritate us with their ways and views. Thinking the best and expecting the best from others, acting in a civil caring manner toward everyone along our path, can lead both of us into God's path. Then we will be prepared to receive God's greatest gift, tenderly turning to the way that leads to life in God's eternal love and care. As Isaiah wrote and Luke repeated, repair the way of the Lord that all humanity shall see the salvation of God. Here is a prayer for this week. Lord, this Advent, if we are stuck, gridlocked with no apparent way out, help us to break free to follow your way, the way you made plain in Jesus, for a new overflowing joy that energizes us to lead others. In the news this week, over the last three nights lay and ordained church people from around the state have come together to learn more and to share ideas as they plan for mission for one earth. Fifty great days of care for our home planet. During the time between next Easter Sunday and Pentecost, beginning April 1st, UCC members around the country will try to achieve three ambitious goals. To plant 100,000 trees around the world, to send 100,000 advocacy letters to public officials and media outlets, and to engage in one million hours of volunteer service on behalf of the environment. At the first of these meetings in West Hartford on Monday, the UCC's Minister for Environmental Justice, the Reverend Jim Deming, said, at this and the additional gatherings in Darien and in Wallingford, folks offered ideas about ways to meet those goals. The Connecticut Conference's Patsy Buehling was able to announce that the National Arbor Day Foundation will partner with the UCC in making it easy to donate and purchase trees for planting online. Deming suggested that churches identify commonly held concerns in their congregations for those advocacy letters, and a certain excitement built at the notion of a common cleanup day. When UCC church members could walk the banks of Connecticut's major rivers, picking up trash and debris, and clean the Thames, the Nogetuck, the Housatonic, and the Connecticut, all the way to the sound. Deming emphasized that Mission for One Earth is a beginning and not an end. He compared it to prayer, which is not a one-time event. Like prayer, care for the earth needs to be a way of life. We're trying to do a transformational work of environmental justice, to where we begin to think that everything we do has an impact, that we are environmentally conscious, and we do this in a spiritual way. It says everything I do has an impact on God's creation. Mission for One Earth will run April 1st through May 19th, 2013. More information is online at ucc.org slash earth. Also on our website today is an open letter from the pastor of the First Baptist Church in West Hartford, the Reverend Thomas Carr, in which he calls for religious leaders to end their silence about human influence on the environment. To care for life is the human species' most fundamental vocation, he writes, and we are failing to do so. In fact, with anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 species of life going extinct every year, we are doing precisely the opposite of being co-creators with God. We are de-creating Earth. Let's work, he writes, to save the world that God so loves. Last October, the First Congregational Church UCC of East Hartford welcomed back some of its youth from long ago, as some of those who had participated in its Pilgrim Fellowship during the 1950s return for a reunion. They met members of the current Pilgrim Youth Fellowship, they ate pizza together, they shared memories, and they shared their wisdom. We were affirming roots and touching base with the first steps that sent us along the path to adulthood and responsibility, said the Reverend Don Vincent, a retired UCC minister and one of the alumni, and knowing we were Christians by our love. Other stories on our website today include Christmas greetings from the UCC's Collegium of Offices, brought to you via online video. Bangor Seminary has announced the foundation of a new center for 21st Century Ministry, which will carry the school's mission forward when they cease to grant graduate degrees after this coming June. You can keep up with all the current headlines by visiting us at ctucc.org slash news. You're invited to celebrate the ministry of the Reverend Enika Mitchell, our outgoing North Central Regional Minister on December 12th in West Hartford. She leaves us on January 1st to become interim pastor of the United Congregational Church UCC in Tolland. The Reverend Tamra Morland has already joined us as Interim North Central Regional Minister. The Christmas at Silver Lake Retreat for 5th through 8th graders is this coming weekend, and registration is now open for the thinking about working for God Members Retreat, which will be at Silver Lake January 4th through the 6th. Leadership for a Rummage Sale is Phyllis Tickles' theme for the Woodbury Leadership Workshop to be held at Andover Newton Theological School on February 1st. Advanced Intentional Indroministry Training will be held in Framingham, Massachusetts, February 4th through 8th, and CT women of the UCC are offering a Lenten Day away for clergy women of the conference on February 5th. You can always learn about what's coming up in the Connecticut Conference by visiting us at ctucc.org slash events. It's time to respond to the Friends of the Conference Annual Appeal, which helps to supplement the annual giving through local churches for ministries within this state. Assistants to congregations in their search for new pastoral leadership help finding resources for educational programs through the Ruth Dudley Resource Center. Answers to questions that require a specialist's expertise and of course the profound experience of Christian community at Silver Lake. Help support and extend these ministries to churches and to people here in Connecticut. Make your gift securely online at ctucc.org slash donate. And that brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Chuck Wildman for his reflection and to GarageBand for our music. Primary funding for conference cast comes from your congregation's gifts to our church's wider mission basic support changing lives through the United Church of Christ. This is Eric Anderson, the Minister of Communications and Technology for the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ praying that your days this week may be filled with the presence the guidance and the grace of God.


I really enjoyed the meal, and you can tell because I stained up my sweater. I stained my pants. Not in that way, you guys. Welcome to a Fungro's Salvadoran food episode. Hola, me llamo Andreas, and welcome to another episode of Fungro's Food. Today we are eating Salvadoran food. It's highly requested. Hey, you guys, I did not get to join you guys for the last Cali Mechs. Chile. Reño. Chile. Reño. Reño. Chile. Reño. Reño. Reño. Reño. Reño. Reño. Reño. Oh, you missed out. I missed out a pepper. You wish you did it? Well, guess what, David? You're doing Salvadoran food today, and we got a feast. We are talking about... Papusas. Yes, the corn flour stuffed aripa slash pocket gordita. It's not an aripa. What is it, like a stuffed Salvadoran pie? Like a cornmeal pie? Yeah, it's like a maido pie or a chingdo roe bing. See, now you compare it to some Chinese. It's like a chingdo roe bing. El Salvador, if you guys are not familiar, it is in Central America. It's actually right next to Honduras, below Guatemala, which is below Mexico. The easiest way I've heard it explain is that Mexican food can get very, very spicy, and El Salvadoran food is not spicy. We got 12 different flavors of papusas. We have some beef steak. We have some pollo. We got some yucca. We got some platanos. It's gonna be lit. Hop hop boys, try an authentic El Salvadoran food. Let's go! This is the Revuelta Con Frode. So this has cheese with fried pork beans. And then here we have the cheese and fried pork. Yo, did you guys know that papusas have existed for like 2,000 years? Are they young people? But obviously 2,000 years ago, they looked a little different. Well, here we have the cartito, which is essentially like, now obviously for us, it's essentially like the El Salvadoran kimchi. Now, have you ever had a papusa? I have never had a papusa. Let's try this first one. This is the first original one. At the spot that we got it at, El Salvadorano Papusaria in Omani, California. That is the best selling. So let's just try it. So let's just try it. Still hot. Let's pull this apart. Let's pull this apart. Yo, pull it apart for the people, man. Oh my gosh. Oh, yeah! Oh, you see this? Still stretchy. Wow! Jalapeño. All right guys, we don't have to eat the whole thing. Let's just, this is the Revuelta, AKA the papusa with cheese and fried pork. Let's go. Of the breading, it's been soft. I love it. I like the cornmeal. It's really soft. It's stretchy. I like the way the pork juice soaked into the mesa, the mesa, that cornmeal bread. This is the Revuelta Con Froll. I said that really bad. Frijole. Frijole, yeah. Frijole. Frijole. Frijole. Guys, I'm not gonna pretend like any of us know how to say it, all right? It's just the one with beans and the cheese. Wow, look at that. So instead of pork, it has beans. Look at that, man, this is huge here. Wait, that still has meat in it too. Oh, I think they both had, this just has beans on top of meat. All right guys, do you like it with beans or no beans? All right, let me just say this. With the beans, it makes it way heavier. Agree or disagree? Super agree. I believe this is the chicharron one. Oh, this is pure chicharron. That looks good. Oh my gosh, that is so much chicharron. That actually, and I'm not saying that it is, that just looks the most Chinese. That looks like Xi'an food. Yeah, it does. Wow, look at this. No, look, there's plenty of peppers and meat inside the chicharrons.  Yo, I gotta get a dip. Chicharrons. This is my favorite one so far. Okay. You know what? It's nice to have a chewy, drier meat. I think it could have used cheese. I would have liked to see some cheese. I think there's one that has chicharron and cheese. That one gave me the most earthy as far. It was earthy, had some spice to it. I like that aspect. It's just a little bit dry. Should we give ratings to these or anything? Like you guys, we would give ratings, but I don't think we know enough about this culture to rate it. I don't feel comfortable doing that. Oh my gosh, this looks like, I'm actually really excited about this jalapeno one, bro. I love jalapeno and cheese. If you see that, if you see that, that ain't wrong. And dude, I can smell the jalapeno, man. I can smell it. Oh my goodness. jalapeno cheese or jalapeno con queso. Oh my gosh. What'd you guys say? And I'm not saying that this is the reason why we like it. That one tasted the most familiar. It does taste sort of like the jalapeno cheese quesadilla from Taco Bell, but way more elevated. Yeah? Taco Bell based their quesadilla off that. For sure. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like it wasn't like the reverse way. I'm just saying, I knew the internet was gonna take it the wrong way. Squash papusa. Squash papusa. Calabaza. Dude, you know when the cheese is fried on the edges? That's when it's... In my research that I did on the internet, on Wikipedia, they said that this is the original form that from 2000 years ago, that they were stuffing it with this squash. Anytime I hear something from thousands of years ago, I'm like, I gotta try that. I stand with the indigenous people of South America because I heard that they're related to Asians. I heard the indigenous people, they got dry earwax. Hey, they turn red when they drink it, they got dry earwax. All right. So instead of corn, this is now the rice papusa. Okay? Oh my gosh, look at how much oil that is. Oros, but not rice inside. This is a rice papusa. So instead of cornmeal, it's rice. Just still packing a lot of heat. It was inside, it was inside. I think I prefer the cornmeal one more than the rice. Not saying that it don't taste good, but it's harder to eat. The eatability is tough. I'm not saying the flavor is exactly Asian, but I mean, there's some Asian dishes that are exact, that are not that unlike this one. Hey guys, here we have the esponaco. Esponac. S. Bacaca. Esponaca. Esponaca. Esponaca. Esponcacha. Esponaca. What is it? Esponaca. It's time to stop. Esponaca con queso. Nope. Hey. Spinach and cheese. Light. I wouldn't say it's too crazy. Yeah, the spinach is like invisible. All right. Guys, here we have the, I'm pretty excited about this one though. The pollo. The pollo, the chicken one. Yeah. This is a classic combination globally right now. Pollo and cheese. Chicken's pretty subtle. Yeah? Yeah, it's tough. I enjoyed the bite that I had, but I don't really taste the chicken. I think with everyone that we move on to, the cheese gets more overpowering. Queso babusa. Cheese. I don't know, after eating all the stuff with flavor in them, I feel like it's missing something. I like the simplicity. It let the cheese shine. Yup, yup, yup. Hey, no. Would you compare it to in New York? Most people just like the cheese slice. Oh yeah, that's pizza. When I was younger, I used to say why would people want a cheese slice? But as I got older, I learned to appreciate the simplicity and just letting the cheese shine on its own. And I feel like there's a similar property here. I agree to accept the disagreement out of the bases that I want harmony for the rest of this video. Hey, you don't like beans too? You're my housemate. Guy named Kev loves beans, dude. Yo, do you need Kev to sub in for you, or do I need to sub in for now? I'm like, oh! Yo, Kev! We got a special Kev! Yo, yo! Bean and cheese. I'm rolling with this one over the regular cheese one. You gotta be kidding me. If you say anything, give it to me. Hold on, Kev. Try one of the pure chews ones and you tell me what you think, bro. Try the pure chews one. Kev loves cheese. Kev's gonna go with the cheese, bro. I actually kind of like a bean and cheese better. Yeah! That's because he's wearing a brand hoodie and the hoodies stay together. Nelson was incorrect saying I should like beans a lot. I actually don't like beans. When I order something with beans, I should get no beans.  Oh, yeah, that's not it. How dare you make some assumptions about his bean consumption?  Salad or vegetable. Bousa with cheese. Hey, what's vegetables are in here? I can't even tell. Can you tell? Look at that. Zoom in on that. Unlike the spinach one, the espancaca. I actually taste the veggies on this one. And by the way, I wanna put a disclaimer. Sorry for the bad Spanish. Sorry, we trying. We just having fun. We trying. We're not disrespecting you. No habla. Espanol. Did you take Spanish? Say some. Say some. Save our video. Mi llamo es Kevin. Yo hablo espanol. Nah, just kidding. Me no comprendo. Oh my gosh. All right. It's due Escordo. To Escordo, what's that? Escordo. Escordo. This is the bisque ensaballado. All right, man. I think ensaballado, I believe, is referring to the sauce and like the stew that's surrounding the meat. So let's check this out. It has a great mixture of onions, tomatoes, some bell peppers. I'm gonna get everything in a bite. Beef steak. That's good. Does that not taste like it could be from a ta-tan-tang? And tomato sauce? No, it would be tomato sauce. Well, I always knew that Central America, Andrew, the closer you got to the Caribbean, Puerto Rican, Dominican food, the more stewier things got and almost similar to Cantonese food. Yeah. Would you say that sort of tastes like some sort of gukchupai-fan, losung-tong type thing? Hell yeah. I can see it. Oh my gosh! Look at this! Emerging from the sauce. We got the chicken. Boyo! I'm going with the chicken, man. Chicken. It's healthier. It's juicier. Man, this chicken's good. Let me get some of this rice though.  Oh man, this is delicious. Oh my gosh, that ensaballado's good. This is like one of the best things I've actually tried during these Fumbo's foods that I've never had before. Try the smooth beans right there.  It has less carbs. It has less of the cornmeal, less cheese. I was getting a little tired of the cheese a little bit, I gotta admit. Wow, look at that steak. The fungal. Take it. Take the whole thing. It's better or something? Take the whole thing. Gordo. Damn! David Thicke, I wouldn't be talking, boy. You just have to say that you're fine. You're not really fine. I don't know if that's chicharron, bro. No, this is a platinos guanaco.  It's a very Caribbean thing to eat. Plantains are like really ripe.  Plantains. Grilled. Man, I'm a huge fan of Maduro's. I'm gonna try this with the sauce. Toastones, I'm a big fan of plantains. You guys want some sauce? Let's try that one. I'm a fan of the plantain, but it's not something I want to eat a lot of.  No. Like a banana, right? Right. It bugged me out to see cultures use plantains as their car. Yeah. It bugged me out, but actually, I do really enjoy it.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know, I know. It's interesting. So in my fingers, guys. Tell me why when I opened it up, I had the stupidest thought. I thought, no, I thought there were grilled hamsters. All right, B. Ham, Taro, Doug. No! A banana platanos. Mm. That was a big fruity bite. That was a big fruity bite. Gav, ooey gooey. Too sweet for my liking. That was a big fruity bite. That was a big fruity bite. Ooey gooey, gav, ooey gooey. That was a big fruity bite. Too sweet, too sweet. You know, if it was gonna be a pudding filled or something filled like this that is so soft, I wish that, granted maybe because it was in the container for too long, I like the outside to be a little crispier for more texture. It just feels like a gluey gum. But it's not bad tasting if you have a sweet tooth. But this is really sweet. Everybody leave in the comments below about Cam's opinions, Doug. I need, I need, I need. Get that quick. Oh, okay, I'm out of here. Second gen kids. You know what the feeling tastes like? It kind of tastes like horchata. Yeah, it does, it does. You're right, you're good. You're good. It's a milky sweet pudding.  Yeah. First of all, I want you guys to know I really enjoyed the meal and you can tell because I stained up my sweater. I stained my pants. Not in that way, you guys. Hey, you know, okay, the takeaways from all the different performances I tried. I should prefer the ones that did not have meat in there. I actually enjoyed these two plates with the beef and the chicken. The beef was really flavorful. It was just a little chewy, but the chicken was really juicy. You talking about the tomato onion meat stews, right? Yes. So there's pros and cons of each one. But if I ordered, you know me, I would just order a combo of both of them. Okay, because you're going to be. I felt like the squash one, I just had never had squash and cheese before. Maybe I had a squash pizza at one of those new-fingered pizza spots at some point in my life, but I didn't remember it. I think it's really cool, and this is a takeaway from doing the Hispanic countries or the South American countries. We always try to speak a lot of Spanish. And I think it's honestly, we do a terrible job, we are kind of trying as much fun as we're having with it, but I do think it goes to show you something, that when you're eating this food, because Spanish is such a large part of American culture, especially in SoCal, because we're pretty close to the border of a huge Spanish-speaking country, that we're all trying to speak Spanish, as much as we can. I mean, this is the first time I have El Salvadorian food. Okay. And I've got to say that, you know, it's very tasty in a sense where they put the right condiments together well. Just like you said, even though I'm not the biggest fan of bean and cheese, they make it just so smooth, so well that it tastes really good. All right, this one, I don't know. I think he threw in this tamale, just with the order as I hook up, because we were ordering so much. Is that potato, chicken? Oh, this is the yucca! El Salvadorian tamale. El Salvadorian tamale. Yucca. That's crazy. It just melts in your mouth. Wow. That's crazy. It's very moist. It's sort of like, you know a lot of people have had Mexican food, but they haven't had El Salvadoran food. Mexico has 140 million people. El Salvadoran has 6 million people. That's like saying a lot of people haven't had like Chilchiao food, but they had like Kanto food, yeah. Just goes to show you in these like blanket groups whether you're looking at them like Latino, Hispanic, you know, Spanish speakers like Mexicans and El Salvadorans, there's so many like different breakdowns that you could go and niche it out. And I think that for me it's like I want to explore them all, respect to everybody. I know they're different. I know that they're similar. Shout out to, I mean. Big shout out to Kev for stopping by. Shout out to Nelson from Hooping Life. Andrew and David from the Fung Bros. Thank you so much for watching that El Salvadoran video of Fung Bros. food with the Hop Hop Boys. Again, let us know in the comments below what other types of food you guys would like us to try because especially if it's Latin food, you know, they probably have it around LA. So. We are in the small countries now. Oh yeah. 8, 6 million? See. El Salvadoran, yeah. All right guys, thank you so much. And until next time.