For those of you who aren't familiar with EcoMain, we are a quasi-municipal non-for-profit organization. We have 46 member communities. Of those 46 member communities, 21 are actually owner communities. EcoMain is committed to the waste hierarchy, which has been identified by both the state of Maine and the EPA as reduced reuse recycle first, and then organics recovery, such as composting, and then waste to energy, and then the very bottom rung of the waste hierarchy. The least desirable solid waste management strategy is land filling. Land filling, we feel, is a storage strategy and is a temporary strategy. Eventually that waste is going to have to be dealt with someday in the future. Our mission statement reads, EcoMain provides long-term solid waste solutions in a safe, environmentally responsible, economically sound manner, and is a leader in raising public awareness of sustainable waste management strategies. And public awareness is key here, and this event, the EcoExcellence Awards, is one of the tools that we use to connect to our communities and spread the word about sound solid waste management practices. The EcoExcellence Awards is really all about public awareness, about best practices in our communities, and they obviously we're a we're focused on recycling and best solid waste practices, but it goes beyond just that. Green efforts is what we're looking for. The really the thing we want to do is first identify those best practices, and then recognize and reward them, and then publicize it, and we do that through a series of press releases so that other folks can replicate these best practices in their communities. We've been doing this program since 2006. It grew, it was very small when we began the program, and it has grown about a hundred attendees at this event each and every year, and this year we had 22 nominations from 22 different communities. So it's a huge success for our member communities, and I think does a real nice job at publicizing these best practices that we want to replicate all over our communities. The first award goes to from Bridgeston and Harrison. It's a joint community award, and it's presented to the Lakes Environmental Association, and I saw it here from the Lakes Environmental Association, Colin Holm would call them, there he is. We have applause Matthew Frank who's here, an EcoBoard member who represents the town of Harrison. The towns of Bridgeston and Harrison both water beautiful, long lake, and so the work of the Lakes Environmental Association is of great importance to both Bridgeston and to Harrison. The mission is to preserve, and when necessary, restore the high water quality and traditional character of Maine's lakes, watersheds, and related natural resources. Programs that benefit from this non-profit organization include boat inspections to prevent the spread of non-native plants, removal and eradication of invasive millfoil from local lakes and rivers, water quality testing, on-site visits to individual properties, to analyze erosion programs associated with runoff and design issues, providing help and support to local code enforcement issues, on local code enforcement issues, and they also provide educational programs at Harrison Elementary School and the schools of SAD 61 to enrich earth science programs and to create the next generation of environmentalists.  Watch carefully. The next community to be to be recognized is the nominee from the town of Cape Elizabeth, a fine town, very beautiful community. That's where I'm from. The community award goes to Ted Darling. There's Ted. Nate was Frank Stroh, and he was also supported in preparing that nomination, I believe, by Chris Franklin, the executive director of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. Come forward, Chris. Ted Darling, the last five years, has been chair of the Cape Elizabeth Land Trust. President of it, Frank, in preparing the nomination, cited some major achievements during Ted's leadership for the Land Trust that included the following. They protected a piece of land called Trundy Point, which extends out to the Atlantic Ocean, just in the Shore Acres neighborhood, provides beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean. They acquired, working with the town of Cape Elizabeth, a trail easement on Elwides Brook, protecting an important habitat and providing a major connector for the town's green belt system around Great Pond. They helped to establish Turkey Hill Farm, a cultural learning farm that teaches children about nature and the importance of farming and worked with the owner of that farm to protect it with an easement. Perhaps most significantly is they acquired what's known as Robinson Woods II, which is a 63-acre parcel off Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth that is immediately adjacent to another 80-acre parcel that the Land Trust acquired. So to acquire 143 acres on Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth is a major, major accomplish with the cost of land in Cape Elizabeth. All of this was due to the leadership of Ted Darling. Let's congratulate Ted on all of his 80 acres. The next community award goes from the town of Shabig Island, Cumberland Land Trust. This award goes to the Shabig and Cumberland Land Trust and here representing the Land Trust is Penny Asherman. It's President. Well, congratulations, Penny. The nominator in this case was Susan McGinty, an eco-main board member representing Cumberland and as I mentioned earlier the Chair of Recycling Committee. The stated purpose of the Shabig and Cumberland Land Trust is to preserve and protect the intrinsic values and public benefits of the natural resources of the towns of Shabig and Cumberland, the mainland island and contiguous Casco Bay and to be responsible stewards in perpetuity for those resources in the trust. The organization has protected 650 acres in a total of 19 properties, 10 on the mainland in Cumberland and nine on Casco Bay. This land provides recreational and learning opportunities for the public, including information about coastlines, ponds, nesting islands, wetlands, riparian areas. Did I get that pronunciation right? Let's hope so. Did I? Yes. Great. Forest and farmland. Let's congratulate Penny and the Shabig and Cumberland Land Trust. The next awards to the town of Falmouth and we'll call them up separately. The first award is the Community Award and the Community Award goes to town manager Nathan Pore. The nominator for this award was the Falmouth Recycling and Energy Advisory Committee represented by Claudia King, Claudia here, great Claudia, who was a past EcoMain Excellence Award recipient and by Jed Wright. And also here is Bonnie Rodden. Bonnie is an EcoMain board member who represents the town of Falmouth. In their nomination of Nathan, the committee wrote, quote, through his commitment to helping Falmouth citizens realize their vision of a more sustainable town, through his attention to detail and follow through, and through his knowledge of regulatory processes and funding mechanisms, Nathan makes change possible. His recent actions include working with other towns to create legislation allowing municipal control of street lights. This would provide an opportunity for towns to install more energy efficient lights than has been permitted. He is working with Falmouth officials to ensure that changes made to Route 1 will be achieved in environmentally responsible ways and will be environmentally sustainable. With the choices Nathan Nathan makes every day, he also leads by example by lowering the thermostat in winter, incentivizing staff to use town-owned Priuses and even using fewer paper towels. And having been at the Falmouth Town Office, I would agree that anything you ever have there is a sustainable practice and well done. So congratulations Nathan Paul. And the Falmouth, that was the Falmouth Community Award. The Falmouth Business Awards goes to Stephen Woods from Tidesmart Global. And I understand someone else here from Tidesmart. There you are. How you doing? Kevin Joyce. Kevin will be receiving this award for Steve. Steve, as I mentioned, is the president and chief executive officer of Tidesmart Global, a group of companies with the green campus recently built in the town of Falmouth. Tidesmart Logistics, the company's on-site warehousing facility features a variety of green systems including radiant heating, motion sensitive lighting, a water reclamation system, zero-sort recycling, electric car charging station, pretty impressive. Solar panels to generate much of their own electricity and coming soon a green roof, a vegetative roof. Tidesmart, a company that specializes in green event marketing, operates by its principles too. Meetings are paperless. Apparently Steve didn't want to drive here. They use that too much fuel. And the company also is a great sponsor of environmental volunteerism. The nomination said as an employee and as a manor. It makes me proud to work for someone who is building his business in a thoughtful, environmentally responsible way. Kevin, would you please congratulate Steve for us and participate in the photo and so he'll see that the great award that your company's receiving. Absolutely. Thanks Kevin. Congratulations. Steve's also the council chair in Yamath. Some of you may or may not know him. Congratulations. We're now moving to Freeport. Not literally. The Freeport Community Award goes to Sandy Thompson. Sandy, I saw you earlier. Let's congratulate Sandy. And I have to add, live here for a minute. I first met Sandy when she told the town of Cape Elizabeth to stop burning trash at our old dump on Spurwick Avenue. And if those of you remember when dumps used to burn, Sandy worked for the DEP and she was dogged in her determination to to make us act environmentally appropriate. So it's not surprising all these years later you're being recognized for environmental activity. Great. Thank you. We didn't shake hands back then. Many years ago. Anyway, it was great to see her and so I'm really pleased she introduced herself. We got reacquainted. The nominator of Sandy was the Freeport Recycling and Solid Waste Committee, represented today by Patrick Norton and Recycling Facilities Manager Suzanne Duplissig. Great. The also here is Rod Greger. Rod is the Eco Main Board member representing the town of Freeport. Sandy is a longtime member of the Freeport Recycling and Solid Waste Committee and was nominated by her fellow committee members. She is credited with being the primary force behind the town's effort to promote composting as an environmentally sound and economically effective method of reducing its volume of waste. This is not surprising. Her advocacy has resulted in a collaborative program with the town's Recycling Solid Waste Facility to promote the sale of composting bins. In addition, the program has a provision to provide free composting bins to qualified residents. In 2012, her program sold 15 composting bins and provided another seven bins at no charge. To reinforce the program, Sandy constructed a composting display for the Falmouth Community Library and has organized meetings for the program participants to share their experiences. It is a great honor to have Eco Main present this award to Sandy. Congratulations. Thank you Sandy. Congratulations. Now to the town of Gorham. The Gorham Community Award goes to Tyler Kitter and Steve Sweeney of the University of Southern Maine. Steve cannot be with us today but is with Tyler USM Facilities Manager Bob Bertram. Please come forward. Is Bob here? Bob? Great. Good. Congratulations. USM Assistant Director for Sustainable Programs Tyler Kitter and Resource Recovery Supervisor Steve Sweeney have created an effective waste reduction program for 1,300 staff members. They call it the Tiny Trash Initiative. This program replaced the standard four-gallon trash container at each desk with a tiny one-quart desktop container labeled Tiny Trash and added a four-gallon recycling container, one-quart for trash, four gallons for recycling. Pretty impressive. Employees are now responsible for emptying their own trash but the custodial staff continues to empty the recycling containers. Tough group. Personalized presentations were made to each office cluster on Gorham and Portland campuses to encourage participation and to ensure understanding of the program. Preliminary results indicate an increase in the recycling rate and the reallocation of 45 hours of custodial labor per day. Tyler and Steve are also expecting that the $3,050 spent on trash container liner bags each year will decrease. This is a program that can easily be replicated in many office settings and we congratulate Tyler and Steve in the entire University of Southern Maine community for seeing this project begin and to see it continue. Let's congratulate them. The Town of Hiram. The Hiram Community Award goes to the Sacco Valley School Recycling Committee. Soccaby? What did I say? Soccaby? I'm getting dyslexic here. Here to receive the award are students Brandon Burnell. Come forward. Colby Sanborn and Cameron Sear along with lead teacher Betsy Orr and Principal Michael Lynch. Vice Principal Michael Lane. Stepping in for the principal. Great. The nominator for this award was Deb Doughty who was also a past eco excellence award recipient. Congratulations Deb. The Soccaby Valley Middle School Recycling Committee is a team of eighth grade students, eighth graders, right, who have voluntarily taken on the responsibility of collecting recyclables from the school offices, classrooms, library and other areas. They are and put your hand up when I say your name. Brandon Burnell. Brandon. Colby Sanborn and Cameron Sear. The committee's lead is physical education teacher Betsy Orr. Twice a week the committee members empty all of the recycling containers and because of their consistency and reliability almost every class participates. That true? That's good. To make it as easy as possible and to minimize any disruption the committee announces on TV2 when recycling bins should be placed in the hallway. Students then carry the recycling to a large recycling container in the parking lot making sure to capture any windblown material from the schoolyard. Good for you. Their nominator herself a past eco excellence award winner said the committee's dedication has resulted in far more recycling and far less work for the custodial staff. Let's congratulate the Sarco Valley Middle School Recycling Committee. Jay and Livermore Falls. A joint community award goes to the Andrew Scoggin Land Trust. Here to receive the award is board president Judy Martin and with her is Mary House of Otis Ventures. The Andrew Scoggin Land Trust currently manages conservation of more than 4,650 acres and with the help of a $259,000 grant from Land for Mains Future is purchasing an additional 1,300 acres from Burso paper for a community forest. It will be managed to conserve local landscapes for wildlife habitat while ensuring public access and maintaining the land as a working forest as well. In addition the owner of the Otis Falls mill property has donated a recreation trail easement in Jay and Livermore Falls. The trail easement will provide access in Jay and Livermore Falls which will promote the Andrew Scoggin River for seasonal recreation such as paddle sports and fishing. The town's access will in turn support local businesses. This is amazing conservation of more than 4,650 acres of land. This multi-use trail network clearly brings recreational opportunities to Jay, protects habitat and will bring tourism dollars to both Jay and Livermore Falls. Congratulations Judy and Mary. The town of Manchester. The community award goes to Barbara Goulouche. Barbara congratulations and Barbara's nominated was Pia Holmes the principal of Manchester Elementary School. Barbara is an educational technician at the Manchester Elementary School who goes beyond her normal duties to encourage green behavior in children and adults. She collects school recycling and monitors every waste basket in the school for misplaced materials. Good for you. She then rewards classrooms for the recycling work. Barbara even provides the service of taking the school's recyclable materials to the silver bullet receptacle located at the town hall. You've been busy. In the warmer weather she also maintains the school's gardens and shrubs and composts as much materials as she can. Barbara's principal, that would be you Pia, has dubbed her the eco-fashionista. Did I say that right? The eco-fashionista after she began wearing a brand of vest and jackets made from recycled materials. Her enthusiasm has spread to others who asked Barbara to hunt for more clothing of that brand. Congratulations Barbara. The final award I will be presenting in this series, before Susan takes over, is to the town of North Yarmouth and this is a community award and it goes to Skyline Farm. Here to receive the award is Pamela Ames, the vice president of Skyline Farm. Combinator was Dick Ropes, an eco-board member representing North Yarmouth who eagerly is looking forward to coming up for the photo. Skyline Farm is a non-profit organization that owns and maintains the 54 acres that were original to that farm. Though well known for preserving Custron carriages, it is also dedicated to preserving the fields, woods, and streams that are part of the Royal River watershed. Trails were purposefully designed for multiple non-motorized uses year-round and are open to the public. Skyline Farm volunteers are also avid composters and recyclers as well. The farm allows the use of its site for events and dinners and in 2012 hosted an event for 100 people that resulted in just one bag of trash. Everything else was solided for either composting or recycling. It was a lobster bake. Glad someone ate the lobster. I wouldn't. I just don't like it. Anyway, they have wonderful lobster bakes at Skyline Farm. Very good to go there. And I'd like to conclude before I get any more trouble by congratulating Skyline Farm for protecting green space, for increasing public access, and for initiating green practices. Congratulations. And Susan McKinty and I will now switch roles. Welcome Susan. I have new glasses so I've got to find the sweet spot here for reading. I'm going to be starting with a gunquit and this is a community award in the case of a gunquit and the community award goes to the a gunquit playhouse and we have Sandy Clark, Peter Lewis, and Amy Peacock here to accept the award. The nominator was the a gunquit recycling committee represented today by Barbara Early, Leslie Matthews, and Mike Lynch. Would you like to come up as well? Thank you. In the spring of 2012 the agunquit playhouse began its first recycling program ever with 95,000 people attending shows over the course of a season taking all of their paper bottles and cans out of the playhouse's trash was a significant improvement. Their program went beyond that however now an effort is made to reuse play bills and to recycle those that can't be reused to break down and recycle cardboard boxes and to institute recycling in the offices as well. Of the agunquit playhouse chair of the of the agunquit recycling committee Jeffrey Porter said in his nomination they continue to work with members of the agunquit recycling committee to find other ways they can be more green. Please join me in congratulating the agunquit playhouse. The next award is a community award in the town of Porter and it goes to the Socopy Valley Health Center. Here to accept the award from the Socopy Valley Health Center our volunteer Vicki Ladd executive director Mary Agnes Gilman and board president Judy Ingram and the nominator was Lorraine Cody. The Socopy Valley Health Center makes every effort to recycle all paper that does not contain sensitive patient information. Clearly marked bins and boxes are placed in individual offices and in other locations where paper is likely to accumulate such as the mail room by the photocopy equipment in the lunch room and in the front office. To dispose of papers containing of confidential information a volunteer first removes all paper clips and staples before running it through a shredder and I can tell you that takes some time. This material which has amounted to 8,000 large bags is then safely recycled. We'd like to thank Socopy Valley Health Center Recycling Efforts for setting an example for others to follow and this is again an example that any office could follow but it's really wonderful to see it when you have to take that extra effort to dispose of the sensitive information. So thank you very much. The next award is one of two awards going to organizations in Portland. The first is a community award going to the Cheers Club at Riverton Elementary School and Olga Valencia. And here to receive the award are students Ethan Thea. He could not make it but we'd love to have him here. He could have been. And Darcy Lawley and their leader Olga Teddy Valencia. The nominators were nominators were Jean Malia principal these glasses this is where I need to have it. Cathy Cole Community Coordinator and also here are Eco Main Board Member and City Councilor John Anton. John I haven't seen you. I plan to be here and Eco Main Board Member and Portland Solid Waste Manager Troy Moon who I also have not seen yet but they're here in spirit. Olga Valencia or Teddy Valencia is the leader and organizer of Riverton Elementary Schools Cheers Club which stands for Cultures Helping Everyone's Environment. There are 125 members of the club from grades two through five and they are responsible for many impressive school initiatives. They produced an educational video for both students and teachers about the school's new composting and recycling program. It was so well received that they were asked to present it and their program to a sustainability press conference held at King Middle School. This club has also raised money to adopt several symbolic sense several endangered animals. The club even developed an environmentally friendly cleaning spray to stop the spread of germs in the classroom. I hope you brought some of that.  They have a butterfly garden raised beds and a community garden where we're all cleaned up. All of these gardens were cleaned up by club members and plants were started from seed in the fall. They harvested their vegetables and served them at a luncheon which they hosted for the new superintendent of schools in Portland. To conserve paper the school now uses fabric as a background for bulletin boards but that is a lot of paper to cover a bulletin board. Washable. To earn money for the school drink pouches are collected cleaned and bundled by the cheers club and Ms. Valencia is sponsoring a sustainability conference at which students from across the district will share ideas on additional ways to help the environment. So thank you very much for your many efforts and congratulations. The second award for Portland goes to a business and this award goes to Revision Energy. And here to accept that award is Phil Coop, co-founder and managing partner and because he recently installed my photovoltaic cells. And here also are the direct or well I'm pretty sure actually that Troy and John are not here but they planned to be here to to join you in this honor. For the past 10 years Revision Energy has helped reduce fossil fuel consumption and co2 emissions through the design and installation of solar energy equipment on homes and other buildings. In 2012 a new initiative was launched by the company to address co2 emissions from transportation which resulted in Maine's first solar powered electric vehicle charging station. The charging station is located in Portland and generates enough fuel of power to fuel four electric Chevy Volts for a year and that is enough to remove 24,000 pounds of co2 emissions per year from our atmosphere. So we like to thank Revision for taking this crucial first step towards vehicle emissions reduction in Maine. So it's really kind of a solar car and Phil has brought one of his Chevy Volts here and can take a look at it after the program. The next award goes to a business from the city of Saco and I did not forget this award goes to Patriot Subaru and here to receive that award are Tom Talbot communications director and Jackie Parker a green team founding member. Patriot Subaru was established in 2003 by Adam Arons and by 2012 it had become the first Subaru dealer in New England to be certified by Subaru as an eco-friendly dealer. Many of the initial green changes were made in response to national economic downturn to reduce costs through efficiencies. All expenses were reviewed for more eco-friendly alternatives and all employees were asked to make suggestions. From this came Patriot's comprehensive green plan and I think it's nice and kind of important to mention that being green can also be economically responsible because sometimes and certainly in the past it always seemed like it was an extra effort or an extra cost and it's nice to know that that is not always so unperture. Most recently Patriot worked with Efficiency Maine to become one of the first businesses in Maine to replace all outdoor halogen lights with new more efficient LED lights through a large expenditure by the company well there again not so I could but energy costs were lowered by 80% and the return on investment is just six years. Patriot has continued to make improvements including elimination of decorative balloons replacing them with live hanging plants. Very nice. All computers are turned off at night all uh there is recycling of all fluids like the oil from cars that come in car fluids and also paper, water, tires, batteries, metals and lead weights and there's composting of all food waste on the establishment of an organic garden which is tended by employees and customers. I have to mention that to my daughter next time she has her car serviced. Patriot generously shares its ideas with other dealerships and businesses both online and in person so we congratulate Patriot Subaru. Thank you very much. The next award goes uh to a group in the town of Scarborough. It's a community award and it goes to the Wentworth School Community Garden and here to receive the award the award is Joanne Stewart. Hi Joanne, lovely to meet you. The nominator is Michael Shaw, Scarborough Public Works Director and EcoMaine board member representing Scarborough. The Wentworth Intermediate School of Scarborough created an organic garden for both nutritional produce and for integrating lessons into math, social studies, literature and sustainability. Under the leadership of teacher Joanne Stewart and with the important cooperation of cafeteria personnel led by Leslie Dumas and director Judy Campbell the school's community garden had an outstanding year. Here's just some of what they accomplished in 2012. They planted and harvested root vegetables that were roasted and served as an adjunct to school lunches. They planted a raised strawberry bed. They grew locally donated heirloom rhubarb that was made into dessert and grew butternut squash which was used to make squash cake for all 800 students. They planted and harvested many kitchen herbs used by the school. They constructed a popcorn field and created a scarecrow based on a literary connection. And with the help from the Public Works Department they added a greenhouse to extend their growing season. They grew kale and other leafy greens as an alternative source of calcium, my favorite source of calcium. They grew cucumbers in answer to a student question, do they float? They discussed, discovered and researched harmful and beneficial insects. They began a worm composting project to research results. They visited two local farms and they have many plans, even bigger projects going on. Their plans continue into 2017 and I'm sure they'll be going stronger. We have a new school coming so new garden, new school. Great well thank you very much Joanne congratulations. The next award goes to South Portland. It's a community award and it's going to Doug Howard. The nominator was Doug Gailey, South Portland's city manager and vice chair of eco mains board of directors. When Doug Howard was hired as South Portland's public works director in February 2012 he inherited a problem that began in April of 2011.  City staff met with the apartment complexes management on many occasions and periodically pulled contaminated bins from the curve but to no avail. After many months the problem was clearly reflected in South Portland's rising costs. There was a lower number of recycling tons which have no disposal cost and a correspondingly higher number of trash tons and it was costing a significant amount of tax dollars, dollars that were not budgeted. In January of 2012 the city council was considering the removal of normal city recycling services and instead considering placing a silver bullet in the area of the apartment complex. If the silver bullet recycling container continued to garner contaminated materials then the apartment complex would be responsible for the costs. But at this time Doug was hired and he assessed the situation and determined that more education of the tenants would be more effective than talking to management. He began by placing stickers and magnets with specific information in the area where tenants could read them and specific information as to what was recyclable and what was not. He made periodic checks of the neighborhood and continued to work with individuals from the city and made on-site visits and handed out literature. Doug and staff also attended a summer block party along with the department's mascot. After 18 months of Doug's leadership the situation has turned itself around and they are recycling well at that 500 unit apartment complex. The next town is the town of Standish and this is a community award going to Reagan Ellsmore. The nominators were Amy Hubbard and Donna Sear of Bonnie Eagle High School. Donna is here today and she is the mother of Cameron who received an award hyrum earlier today. As a teacher at Bonnie Eagle High School Reagan Ellsmore created and implemented a recycling program on her own initiative without direction or stipend. Bonnie Eagle has an enrollment of 1,300 students and of course there's staff and administrative personnel and they had little or no recycling so almost everything was thrown out as trash. Reagan worked with maintenance, custodial and administrative staff and other stakeholders to develop a recycling program. She and her students then made training presentations to faculty on the use of their recycling buckets. Reagan's next step was to meet with stakeholders to curb waste in the cafeteria and to develop a plan that included elimination of styrofoam trays. Her students taught other students how to sort their trays at different stations one of which is for dumping milk which is a big problem in school cafeterias. Even though Reagan has left Bonnie Eagle to teach at another high school her recycling system is still in place and participation by staff and students continues a real testament to the effectiveness of her plan. And we thank her for getting that started. The next community is Waterborough and we have a community award going to David Pope and class. Miranda Raymond, Alyssa Dooley, Sophia LaFrance, Ivory Dickinson, Steve Fitzgerald, Lakley Tibidow, Chase Stearns, Kaley Dunlap, Emily Archer, Raymond Rabada, Casey Johnson, Time Witton, Chanel Oquita, Kaley Hall, and Will Geary. And I apologize for any mispronounced names. Here also today are Massabesic Middle School Principal Mark Fisher, who could actually not make it, and graduate student Chris Goodchild. The nominator was the Waterborough Transfer Station and Recycling Committee represented by Dennis Abbott, who is also an eco-mainboard member and representing Waterborough. Massabesic Middle School teacher David Pope involved his class in a challenge called Zero Waste, which was put forth by the Chewanky Foundation during the 2011-2012 school year. For the competition, middle school students were required to create a plan that covered six steps pertinent to reducing school waste, with two key areas being recycling and composting. The students examined waste from their school and their data showed that 32 percent of the trash generated was actually trash. Food waste accounted for 65 pounds of waste daily, and the remainder was compostable material and recyclables. Specifically, the school's 800 students produced 40 pounds of liquid waste each day, and they calculated more than 125,000 recyclable milk cartons were disposed of every year. David Pope's class earned third place in the Zero Waste Challenge and received a thousand dollars in January of 2012 to help fund the implementation of their plan, and today the students are removing milk cartons and liquid waste from the school's trash. The eighth grade students are training younger students to take over the program, and this year students began the next phase of their plan, which is to compost food waste. Congratulations, all of you. Thank you. She's on the count of three. One, two, three. Again, thank you, David Pope and class. The next award goes to the Town of Wyndham. It's a community award that's going to Bill Hansen. The nominator was Edra Long. RSU-14 School Facilities Director Bill Hansen has been a great supporter and promoter of all green programs connected to the schools. Recycling, composting, and growing foods in campus green spaces, he gladly works with teachers, cafeteria staff, and others to make change happen, change that will benefit the environment. Bill was instrumental in replacing paper towel dispensers in bathrooms with wall-mounted air blowers for drying hands. This not only saved paper, it improves hygiene as well, and he was also key to the success of a school garden house that was built to enable composting. Bill's personal involvement includes being present twice a week to help children and cheer them on as they carry their recycling bins from school classrooms to the recycling dumpsters. His nominator added that Bill is a class act and so deserving of this award. And now we come to the last but not least of the community awards. This is going to the town of Yarmouth. It's a community award for Mark Primo. The nominator was the Yarmouth Recycling Committee represented today by Diana Hibbard, a former eco excellence award winner. Sally Grover and Public Works Director Eric Street. Eric is also the Yarmouth representative to the EcoVane Board. And by Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Iott and Executive Director Carolyn Schuster. For the past two years, Mark Primo has been the director of the Yarmouth Clam Festival, an annual non-profit event that has an estimated attendance of over three days of 150,000 people. I hope you've all gone. Since his appointment, Mark has worked closely with the town's recycling committee to improve recycling and reuse options, especially for the many food vendors that take part in the festival. More than two tons of recyclable paper, tin, plastic, and cardboard were generated by food vendors and they have been that has been diverted from the waste stream each year. In addition, cooking oil is collected for recycling and returnable bottles and cans are collected for both recycling and fundraising. In 2012, Mark and the Yarmouth Recycling Committee went further by implementing a pilot program for the collection of food waste. Two public collection stations were placed in the festival's food area during peak hours and each was staffed by a volunteer. A very good idea. The result, a total of 820 pounds of food waste were diverted from the waste stream and into composting. With this success after just one year, Mark and the committee are hoping to expand the collection program for the July event in 2013. The recycling, the Yarmouth Recycling Committee is very appreciative of Mark and his efforts to make the clam festival a green event. Well, as I said, we've come to the end of the community awards and congratulations to all of you who received awards today for thus far today and thank you to all of those of you who nominated someone for an award today and thank you all for coming. And now at this time, it's my privilege to announce the Best Business Award. The winner of this award will receive a plaque made in Maine from recycled plastic and the winner of that award is Patriot Subaru. Please come forward. The final award is our Grand Award and I joined Susan in congratulating all of you. The Grand Award winner was chosen from among all of the community awards. The winner will receive this beautiful white rocking chair also made right here in Maine from recycled plastic milk jugs. Our judges had a difficult time, they always do, in making the selection. They used the awards criteria of effectiveness, increase in awareness, community impact, and ease of replication to make the decision. The winner is Tyler Kitter and Steve Sweeney of the University of Southern Maine. We need more nominations, so if throughout the next year if you see good solid green practices, best recycling practices, good solid waste diversion, if you see those examples in business or in your community life or in schools, recognize them, send in the entry so that we can reward them here at Eco Excellence Awards.


How to manage expectations at work are essential skills to learn no matter what you do. Manage expectations well and you will be firstly, easy to work with. Second, colleagues will like you more because you won't let them down. Thirdly, you'll be perceived as more professional, a team player and probably better at your job. And fourth, I think you're more likely to be promoted. I'm sure there are lots more benefits. The above are compelling in my view. And if you have poor expectation management skills, then you will experience the opposite of the lifts we just went through. So in this video, I'm going to share my five-step process to manage expectations really well at work. This is my tried and tested approach, developed and constantly used through 25 years of working in businesses at all levels. In my experience, step two and five are often missed and both will make a big difference in managing expectations. So make sure you watch these steps too. My name is Jess Coles and I've spent 25 years working in corporates and household names through to SMEs at all management levels. Managing expectations well has been critical to my success and my ability to deliver results personally and through my teams. I'd like to share the lessons I learnt with you. If you're new to this channel, Enhance.training provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with friends. When you're working in any business, there are so many people that you'll need to work with. For instance, your manager, your team members, maybe your leadership team and colleagues from other teams or departments, customers, suppliers and possibly things like external investors or other key stakeholders, the list goes on. And when you are working with them or delivering work or products to them or even getting works and products from them, you'll need to manage expectations. It is impossible to escape setting expectations when working in any kind of team. The better you manage expectations, the more benefits you'll get doing your role, as mentioned at the start of this video. So the five steps are, firstly, think ahead. Second, find out why you're being asked to do the work you are. Thirdly, plan ahead. Fourth, set expectations. And fifth, regularly communicate until the work is finished. It sounds easy when it's a simple five point list. It's in my experience putting it into practice is where too many people fall down. And when you have a team to manage, you have a lot more moving parts to think about and a lot more people's expectations to manage. So let's start with step one. When managing expectations, when somebody asks you for a piece of work, you must give yourself space to mentally think ahead and work out what you already have to deliver and how easy it would be to fit this new piece of work in. If you can't do this in the spot, don't commit to anything before you thought through the implications of saying yes. If it's a simple piece of work and you're not that busy, then it may be a no brainer to say yes on the spot. If the work is more complex or you are busy, then I'll suggest you find out more before you say yes. An example of a response might be, so just to confirm, you want an analysis on customer X by Friday at 3pm and you want me to cover points A, B and C. In this section, you're just reconfirming what you understand is needed. And you go on to say, can you give me 10 minutes and I'll get back to you as to when I can deliver this. Before you go, I have a couple of questions if that's all right. This takes us on to our next step. Finding out why you're being asked to do something is a really important step that many people miss or they don't feel confident enough to ask when trying to manage expectations. If you don't find out more, you're making it really hard for you to prioritise your work effectively or that of your team. I'll suggest you find out, firstly, how your work fits into the bigger picture. Secondly, what deadlines the person asking you for the work is under. And thirdly, where or who initiated the work if it's not the person you're talking to. I've also been amazed by how many requests and projects are not as urgent as they first appear to be once you start asking a few questions. So if asking a few questions gives you more time to do the work in practice, then it's a pretty good benefit straight away. Secondly, you can often do a better job if you understand how the work that you're producing is going to be used. You can tailor your output, for instance, and this helps the other person and their perception of you improves another benefit. Asking questions in the right way is important. You want to make sure you come across as being helpful rather than difficult while still getting the information you need. As an example, you might say, it would really help me to understand a bit more about the project you are doing so I can better tailor what I produce for you. What are you trying to achieve? Rather than saying, I need you to tell me a bit more about the project you're doing. Both can achieve the same result. The first is positioned as you're trying to be even more helpful. The second is open to many interpretations, not all of them positive. Other example questions could include, again, to help me put together exactly what you need, can you tell me how you're going to use the work I produce in your project or work? We're super busy at the moment and I know you've worked for this piece of work back for Friday. Could you just tell me what deadlines you're working to? I may be able to rejig some of the work we're doing around to actually make sure we can meet the deadlines you have. Or it could be, is this your project and if not, who's owning it? If you're confident or have a good relationship, you can ask much more direct questions. Even when in this situation, I still find positioning questions as trying to help the other person get you a lot more information and goodwill. Work out your way of finding out more about why you're being asked to do the work. Now you know more about the context of the work you're being asked to do. It is much easier for you to prioritise this work against all the other tasks, activities and projects you or your team are currently working on. I've always found it useful to categorise activities and projects into what is urgent and what is important. Using a grid like this can be super helpful. A lot of urgent tasks can easily drown out the really important but less urgent tasks. Plan out which activities and tasks you need to deliver on and by when against your capacity to deliver. Decide how you can fit this new request into the overall workload you have. You are now in a position to set expectations. When managing expectations, you must be very clear when you initially set expectations. Be clear on what you're going to deliver and by when. If you're meeting the other person's initial request or expectation, then this is pretty easy. You're effectively saying, yes, I can do what you ask. If you can't meet their initial request or expectations, then it is really important that you explain why you can't deliver as requested. For example, I can deliver the customer X analysis that you've requested. I'm very busy with four other customer analysis currently, all part complete and I need to deliver these between now and Thursday at 5pm. This means I can only really start working on customer X analysis on Friday morning and finish by Monday lunchtime. I know you want this by the end of Friday and the deadline for your project is the end of Thursday next week. Would Monday lunchtime work okay for you? I can probably share some preliminary work on Friday afternoon if that would be helpful to you.  This all helps to maintain or build your relationship with them. And even more important, when you are clear and realistic in setting expectations, then they can plan and be confident that you will deliver on those expectations. When setting expectations, it is so much more important that you'll be realistic rather than nice. Working with a person that sets clear expectations and then consistently delivers against those expectations is fantastic. Even if the expectations set don't match my original request. The worst situation is working with a person that keeps missing deadlines or keeps giving you last minute surprises. This makes it really hard to plan what you can do to hit your own deadlines. So give as much certainty as possible, even if it doesn't hit the original expectations requested. It can also be useful to put expectations that you've set into writing. You know, a quick email for instance. This gives both parties a written reference point that you can to refer to if memories become a little bit hazy later on. This can also head off or stop future disputes or misunderstandings. Remember, be realistic and give yourself some wiggle room. Things always pop up, so give yourself space to deal with the unexpected and still be able to deliver to the deadlines that you've set. The last step in managing expectations is to communicate regularly with your stakeholders until you hand over the completed work. Too few people are good at proactively communicating progress. This is one of the most important lessons that I learnt in managing expectations well. Even if the project or work is going well and you're going to deliver on time, touch base and give an update. Obviously, use your judgement. If it's a small piece of work that's not that important and you're going to deliver it in a day, say, then just deliver it. If you're working on a substantial piece of work or it's particularly important, then give regular updates. A quick phone call or email every couple of days would easily help manage expectations.  This proactively stops the other person chasing you while creating loads of goodwill with them. And there will be times that you can't deliver to the original deadline set, even though you've planned out the work and given yourself wiggle room. Pick up the phone or go and see the person and explain why this is the case and set a new deadline. The most important thing that you can do is to tell them as early as possible so they can plan to meet their deadlines accordingly. No one likes surprises. And even worse, getting to the deadline and not getting the work you expected. Staying silent is the best way to annoy the other person and trash your reputation with them. So pick up the phone and explain what is happening and why. The other person may not like it, but they will be grateful that you told them so they can adjust their plans accordingly and manage the expectations of their stakeholders. So whether you're on schedule to deliver, and definitely if you're not on schedule, keep communicating your progress to your stakeholders until you've delivered the work. Managing expectations is a really important skill to improve. The approach and tips shared in this video has helped me in my career massively and will help you too. Remember, when managing expectations, firstly, don't forget to ask questions so you can prioritise the request effectively. Secondly, plan out how you're going to deliver the request and then set expectations accordingly. And always keep your stakeholder informed of progress until you've delivered the work. And lastly, many people understand the theory of managing expectations, but don't put the steps into practice. Don't be like these people. If you're not already taking these steps, put them into practice. Put them into practice now. Your happiness and career will thank you for it. And I'd also love to know if you're doing something different that works. Please leave a comment below if you do. If you've got any questions as well, leave a comment and I'll get back to you. And if you like this video, please hit the thumbs up button below and subscribe and hit the bell to get notified of our weekly video releases. This really helps us produce more videos to help you. Thanks for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.


Is Apex Legends dead 2020 and why Apex is dying? Apex has been a huge game for almost all of 2019 but what happened to it in 2020 and what's the main cause of its decline? First, let me show you some stats of how Apex is doing like 2020. On Google Trends, you can clearly see that Apex Legends has been declining in players ever since the first few months. As summer 2020, it's already hit its lowest point compared to other games like Fortnite and Cod. Not just YouTube and Google but Apex isn't doing good on Twitch either. Definitely not top 5 or maybe not even top 10 games on Twitch right now. Probably has around 10k viewers. We do see some spikes from players returning during new seasons but they just quit after a few days or weeks. I will be discussing why people are leaving later in the video. Now that you know that Apex is basically a dead game or close to dead, should you play it in 2020? My opinion, if you really want to, it's not a bad game. Yes, the community isn't as big and people are quitting every day. It's still a solid game people still play. I would still recommend other games like Fortnite or Cod if you're into battle royales. Now, I'm going to talk about why Apex is dying. And what we find entertainment can fix about that. Back in 2019, it felt like Apex was going to take over Fortnite. A lot of people thought it would be the greatest game ever because almost every streamer played it. Slowly, Fortnite pros started playing Fortnite again because of their fanbase and new streamers and gamers that stuck to Apex will also quit. Many of you already saw this coming and that's boredom. A ton of streamers, pros, and even just the casual players said that Apex was so boring in 2020. Here's why. The main reason is that Respawn Entertainment doesn't listen to the community. Some problems since day one, they didn't even fix. For example, hackers. Yes, they have a report feature, but hackers just ruined the game completely for some people because they keep on getting into games. Another thing Apex fans have been asking for are more updates. This is the main reason Apex feels boring and the main reason pros are quitting. A huge mistake Respawn is making is it's not changing the game enough. It feels like if you played the first day, you'll just hop back into Apex a year later and feel no difference whatsoever. Even back then on launch in February 2019, Apex was so polished. It felt like the perfect game. Respawn perfected everything about it. That's the reason it got 10 million players so quickly. Actually, in its first 72 hours after launch, compared to Fortnite, it reached 10 million by 2 weeks. This really demonstrates how good of a game Apex used to be, but they can still change some parts of the game. For example, still haven't added solos or duos permanently. I don't know why, but that's just a weird decision made by Respawn. This really limits players who don't have friends or who do but only want to play a specific game mode. Even if you queue up in fieldboats, sometimes people don't have mics and most of the time they won't even land with you because they just have 2 IQ, just trying to play the game for the first time. When they do add new content, it gets very stale very quickly. What Apex can take from other games to not get boring, for example, Warzone, are just adding more content and more consistently. Warzone had solos and duos in like a month, so why can't they do the same? Plus, they're adding new weapons and making changes to the game as a whole. Although they did add new stuff every season, it does get very stale at the end of each season for probably the last month. Fortnite kinda has the same issue, but they do fix this by adding major updates once every month or so, even after the season's launch. Another reason Apex is lying is because of its bad balance changes. Apex used to be a skill for a game that pros can enjoy, the casual player can enjoy, just everyone can enjoy. Now, just like Fortnite, they focus on new players, which there aren't much, and buff and nerf some weapons for no reason, and make everything just overpowered. Just make people talk about the game and not get bored of it, but that's just gonna last you so long and people 100% will get bored of it in the long run. For example, when Fortnite had mechs, yes everyone hopped on to check them out, but once it's been like a month, everyone already quit because Fortnite didn't fix their issue before it's too late. The weapons aren't the only thing that's unbalanced, also the characters or heroes are. With every patch, there are going to be characters that are super good, super trash, and like I said, they don't update their game regularly, so you'll have to be stuck in a bad meta for months. The spawn rate of things are just trash too. You might not even find a gun if you loot 3 houses. I know a battle royale may go to survival, but come on. At least one gun per house. Even Fortnite and Warzone make this a thing, and Fortnite chests have as high a spawn rate and the rate of a gun of a chest is 100%, not to mention the floor loot. Warzone chests itself have a 100% spawn rate, and so are the guns in them. Plus, you might not even find a shotgun or any close range weapon in Apex since spawn rates are so low for some guns. In conclusion, even though Apex has been dying since the start of 2020, it's just balancing its loyal viewers so that it looks like a more accurate number of active players. I don't think it's going to die more in the future, but it's for sure not going to grow to what it once was. Therefore I recommend it, just would rather play any other first-person shooter. I did sound like an Apex hater, but this was constructive criticism to respawn entertainment. I just want Apex to fix their problems for the better of the players, and of course, for the better of the game. Thanks for watching, and let's have a discussion about this in the comments below.


So recently I did several episodes with Jim Mueller. He does competition chokes, hunting chokes, stuff like that. In fact, I got one of them in my hand right now. One of the main ones that I'm going to be testing today is the H2O Decoy Choke from Muller Chokes in my 20 gauge Franke Affinity III. One of the things that he was telling me in that episode is how to properly pattern and I know there is ways and I usually don't do it that way just for lack of time or ammo or whatever. But this time I'm going to go through the whole gimmick with this gun. One of the things that I'm going to do that it probably causes a lot of contradiction is shoot my 20 gauge from 15 yards without a choke. And one of the things that I've heard that's actually false and I've heard this my whole life and you probably have too is that you cannot shoot your shotgun without a choke in it because it will damage the threads. From what Jim Mueller told me it's absolutely impossible to do that. There's no way that the pellets or the BBs can move 90 degrees as they're coming out at the speed they're coming out of the barrel and mess up your chokes. And he said you know if you do that a couple hundred times it may be harder to get the choke in there but it's only because a carbon buildup has nothing to do with the threads or damage. So the proper way to just see if my shotgun is actually shooting properly straight from the barrel is take the choke out and shoot it out 15 yards five shells. So I'm going to start out shooting five shells no choke 15 yards added pattern board that's 30 inches and that's actually from Chase Waterfowl and he sent those to me to use and I really want to say I appreciate that man thank you so much and if you guys want to check them out I believe it's chasewaterfowl.com a great looking paper with the mallard on it and then the 30 inch circle and then also the quadrants on it so you'll see that here in a second. But anyways after we do we check the shotgun we're going to shoot it again standing shoulder mounted from 15 yards shoot it five times to see what kind of error there is and just the way I mount if it needs to be shimmed for me and then after that I'm going to put the choke in and he's convinced me that I need to use the decoy you can go listen to that on podcast I don't want to take all the time to talk about that on here but there's a reason for that and we've done multiple episodes go check it out the MVM show after I do everything that I need to do to pattern this then I'm going to go back to my shooting distance and I'm probably just going to do 30 yards and see what that looks like if everything is how it needs to be if I don't need to shim nothing or whatever one more thing then one of the things that he said is you need to stick with the same ammo I always shoot the heavy Bismuth 3 inch 6 shot one and an 8 shot charge moving at 1400 feet per second so that's what I'll be testing with today and that's what I'm going to stick with so I'm going to get this dialed in where this gun's a killing machine more than it already is so let's get started 15 yards no choke on arrest shot number two shot number three shot number four that is money right there so as you see without the choke this gun at 15 yards is center punched it's not shooting high it's not doing nothing crazy like some prior patterns I did it was definitely the choke that was a resting position so now I'm going to pull this paper down change it out put a new one up and I'm saving it well we can look at it more later and now I'm going to stand shouldering the gun at 15 yards I'll do for sure three maybe four shots on that so let's get started no choke still 15 yards standing shouldered to make sure my point of impact and aim is lined up for me shot two shot three I'll do shot four now this I'll be four shots I'm gonna stop there still looks pretty centered honestly so now I'm seeing it was the choke what do you guys think comment down below you guys if you watched the last pattern video you seen I'm gonna zoom a little bit more for the smaller because these do 30 inch 20 inch and 10 I mean that's no different than the other one in my opinion it's heavy in the middle but you seen on the last video my choke made it at 30 yards made this gun look like it shot way high like 90 percent over now that being said it was a smaller target but I didn't have the density in the middle so I'm gonna go change this target out now we're gonna put the choke in hi guys I've shot nine shells with no choke threads only here's the Mueller decoy choke gonna throw it in threads are gonna be all messed up now oh look what do you know the stuff we've been told over the years guys is just so funny to me but anyways screwed right in no problem as you see there so I got the decoy choke in Jim Mueller you can check him out at Mueller Chokes by the way everything's good my barrel's good because we shot it no excuses no chokes nothing messing it up the barrel square the barrel is good for me shoulder I don't need to shim nothing I'll do nothing so anything that happens now is straight up a choke so let's do it shot one rested what are we gonna get here shot two it's looking good so far shot three and my shoulder's getting sore shot four this will be we'll just do this as our last one not shooting right not shooting left not shooting high not shooting low let's go my goodness that looks good I mean it is 15 yards but look how full that is I mean obviously that's it's a little shocked as we see it the 15 yards rested with the decoy choke is phenomenal now that is 15 yards and you say okay that doesn't matter well I did some other tests with some other chokes in the past and you could see a major deviation even at 15 yards but anyways now I'm not going to do standing I don't need to I already did it without the choke in so and I've been texting and talking to Jim Moller as I do this make sure I'm doing exactly right so now I'm going to move back to 25 yards and then I'm going to do 35 yards which is you know shooting distances of where I mainly shoot my birds and that's the key is what he told me is it's always about how far you're shooting if you're shooting them past that use his passing choke you know 40 yards plus but I mean that's something I don't really do ever so anyways that's why we're shooting at the distances so I'm going to go back to 25 yards I'm going to shoot four or five probably five at 25 yards and then four or five at 35 yards now we are on the pattern test this is the actual pattern testing with this choke so let's check it out all right this is 25 yards decoy choke rested kind of pumped kind of excited kind of nervous to see what I what I see right here I don't wonder what it's going to look like shot two shot three shot four it's shot five uh yeah I would say that looks pretty good boys stay tuned at the end I'll video them a closer up talking about it phenomenal phenomenal is the only word I can say with that pattern unbelievable honestly I cannot believe what that looks like so now I'm back at 35 yards I can't blame no nobody or nothing this season with that pattern I've also always wanted to 50-50 I don't really like the little bit of a high personally I like putting it right on them now that being said I am putting the bead right under the crosshairs just for your guys's reference but anyways I'm back at 35 yards gonna do five shots again five shots at 35 yards rested shot number one shot number three shot number four shot number five all right guys it took me so long to count these hits I literally been here for 45 minutes trying to count on both the 25 and the 35 yard targets I haven't shot nothing and all my patterning that even comes close to this number one my gun's not shooting high itself it was the choke prior number two I've always wanted like a 50-50 pattern I'm not going to say this is perfectly 50-50 but it's pretty close because if you look in each sector like that top left quadrant you got 108 in there 179 and then 116 that's 108 they're exactly the same 50 158 that's really close to the left side 98 in the center one and then you come on the bottom it's definitely I'll just you just can't look yourself but it's a little heavier on top but barely like not much at all honestly because actually be looking at two bottom 20 inch circles it's pretty identical to the top two 20 inch circles so that being said you need 70 to 100 pellets on a duck to reliably hit the vitals I'm getting 258.6 guys per shot in a 30 inch circle that's nasty and it's so even and so it looks so good I never I haven't had anything like that that's five shots I had um oh man I can't remember what it was do the math on it I think it was like 12 or 1300 and then you divide that by five and it came up with 256 258.6 pellets per shot in a 30 inch circle insane let's look at the 35 yards so again you need 70 to 100 inside a 30 inch circle to reliably hit vitals on a duck at 35 yards guys 162 pellets inside a three inch circle riding sloppy I was just trying to hurry and get this done but look at this look at how clean this is insane that's at 35 yards with the decoy choke so that's all there is to say I don't I honestly don't have nothing to add to this that's phenomenal and to know that at 35 yards you still have that many inside a 30 inch circle you're you have so much room for error to still kill that bird and then shooting business on top of that because of the the density of it is just going to go right through them so that's it I'm done that's what I'm shooting this season bob line I was so set on getting the passing choke and trying that one but after seeing what this decoy does I've been Texan Jim Mueller on the molar on the side and he said buy buy those standards and how many pellets you're getting in the 30 inch circle you could definitely that could go out to 40 45 yards no problem not that I'm taking those shots on average but if I needed to I wanted to birds dead on the water are wounded on the water I can take that shot so phenomenal give this video a thumbs up if you guys enjoyed this I can't do it any better of a pattern test than I just did right now that's the best one I've ever done on this channel because a professional told me how to do it I know there are others have but I really want to take the time and do it and make sure my gun wasn't messed up or something wasn't off and it wasn't I highly highly highly suggest you guys check out the nvm show podcast listen to part one part two is even better than part one and then I got a part three and four out and probably out by the time you watch this all be out so go check those out give this video a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you like duck hunting and pattern videos like this and thanks for watching we'll see on the next one


This is your Current Ops Report. Baltops 2015 kicked off June 5th. Vice Admiral Fogo's opening remarks were broadcast live from the decks of the USS San Antonio in Poland for the event. Currently in its 43rd iteration, Baltops' purpose is to promote mutual understanding, confidence, cooperation and interoperability among forces and personnel of participating nations in the Baltic region. I'm Petty Officer Brian Biller and this has been your Current Ops Report.


I think we'll start this out with a demo. We got a hell of a chain, as you're going to have eight pads. I'm going to drive a bit loud. You're going to have to buy the function. We might be wrong. We're funny. You all see that back there? That thing right there. You know that's kind of got this bald spot on it. They call that an eagle? Bald eagle? No, I'm bad. Sorry. And that's a whole... I'm getting ahead of myself. Even that is a pseudo mountain. We do call it Mount Spokane. But it has nothing to do with this lecture, other than in fact it's in the background. No, actually it does. It has everything to do with this lecture, because it's a discriminative stimulus for me. But I'll get back to the discriminative stimulus stuff, because we're really talking about reinforcement. If you recall reinforcement... Gosh, I digress again. There we go. Nice and bright. Motivating operation to put those being back on. I'll come back to that later in another video. So anyway, reinforcement. By itself, reinforcement... No, I can't do it. Sorry. Motivating operations. That's just too... So much better. That's reinforcing. Gotcha. That's another video, but you'll... Stop being negative. Why? You had the wrong... No, Brad. You're talking negative is bad. Negative is good. Negative is great. Negative is reinforcing. Sorry, people. We're totally doing behavior analysis stuff that probably doesn't make any sense unless you watch a whole bunch of videos. But that's okay, because we want you to watch all of them. And if you can, point them out. We'll reinforce you with a thumbs up or something. So, anyway, back to the topic at hand is a discriminated operant. But I'm getting ahead of myself again, because reinforcement and consequences... Anyway... Reinforcement, right? When you have a reinforcer and it reinforces a behavior, and a behavior is strengthened, right? So the consequence goes up. That's two terms. Reinforcement and the consequence. But we also talk about a three-term contingency. Well, how in the flip do we get a three-term contingency out of it? Does it have a discriminative stimulus or an S-delta? Well, what the flip does that mean, people say? Well, it's really simple, right? To get that three-term contingency, which is one of the best ways of describing behavior or helping them understand behavior, we need to reinforce in a context, in a particular... or with a particular antecedent event, right? So, for example, it's a wee bit warm out here today. Just a wee bit, and it's a wee bit bright. So, in the presence of sunlight, sunglasses might be reinforcing. So, what are they reinforcing? They're reinforcing me putting them on. They reinforce me carrying them in my pocket. They reinforce me failing to sit on them. They reinforce me for keeping them. So anyway, the point being that putting your glasses on and earning a reinforcer, for that's one thing, but in a particular context, let's say the context of the sun, which is a discriminative stimulus, right? Then, we developed that three-term contingency. So, it transforms from this two-term contingency into a three-term. So, that three-term contingency is about a discriminated opera.  That three-term contingency is about a discriminative stimulus. So, something that signals that reinforcers are available. Or an S-delta. An S-delta is something that signals that no reinforcer is available. So, there's another great video on that in basketball games at Gonzaga. So, go look at that one to understand S-delta. So, when we add reinforcement in a particular context, then we get this three-term contingency, which is why we can't separate discriminative stimuli from the whole thing. Because in order for an SD to be an SD, it has to signal that reinforcement is currently available. In other words, if you engage in behavior, whatever it is, you can earn a reinforcer. And as S-delta simply says, if you engage in behavior, you're not going to earn a reinforcer. These things are simple, folks. So, that three-term contingency doesn't come out of somebody's bomb. It's not just pulled out of skinners. Well, we'll leave that alone. But he didn't just magically say there's three terms. It was developed as a result of experimentation and understanding the details of what happened in those experiments. And that reinforcement was never out of a context. It's always in a context, which is why, folks, that one behavior in one setting is reinforced. But that same behavior in a different setting, you know, isn't reinforced. If you go to a movie theater and put on your sunglasses, people just think you're flipping weird or super high or something. They don't... It's not a behavior that's typically reinforced in that setting. So, we have to keep that in mind. That the value of a context comes from what happens in that context. Not just from the context of it in itself. So, if reinforcer happens in a particular context, that context might become a discriminative stimulus. Now you have a three-term contingency. That whole thing, when we put it together, it's a three-term for it. It's called a discriminated operant. It can be a little bit tricky to understand, but just realize it's understanding what to do, when to do it, and earning a reinforcer for it. Understanding. God, that was so anti-behavioral, but it makes the point, doesn't it? So, engaging in appropriate behavior in a particular context earns you a reinforcer. When that has been established, when that pattern is there, then you have a discriminated operant. Forget that whole understanding thing. It's just a way to help you understand it. In other words, being able to explain it to somebody else, that's what understanding really means. Anyway, hopefully I understand it, and you listened, and you learned something. So, reinforce me, reinforce Brad along the way, wave at us in the comments. You can wave, I guess, in the comments that we might not see you, but feel free, or say something, or just, you know, drop us some cash. That might be kind of nice. We like those reinforcers.