To kick us off, I have the pleasure of welcoming and introducing the first presenter of the day from Griffith University in Australia, Sebastian Lopez, talking to the app FishID, developed as a smart monitoring tool to support the aims of the global wetlands project and how the app FishID can be used for conservation and management action. Welcome again, Sebastian. If we could now go and show Sebastian's presentation followed by Q&A. Thank you very much for your time. Today I'm going to give you an overview of FishID, which is a smart monitoring tool for aquatic ecosystem monitoring. At the Global Wetlands Project, we are doing three things, measuring wetland health with new analysis and tools for improving conservation action to protect and restore coastal wetland habitats globally and then also engaging communities and managers to help them care for coastal wetlands and also to learn how to support biodiversity and human livelihoods. The Global Wetlands Project has partner sites across the globe from India, Portugal, South Africa, China and Vanuatu and the core team is based in Morton Bay, Australia. When measuring wetland health, there's this big push now in science and in research as a whole to use automated and remote techniques. Specifically underwater cameras are becoming a technique or a method that it's commonly used and mainly because it can collect data from species, counts, behavior and size. Another thing or another point that makes underwater cameras also useful as a remote technique is that it can be deployed for many hours at many different sites and obtain footage of rare behaviors or rare species. So this example that you will see in that video is juvenile giant groper and these are protected species in Australia and it's very rare to see the juvenile form but most importantly we found this individual in a fish passageway moving from a wetland to a tidal lake and yeah so that individual was using that corridor to move between those two ecosystems. To measure wetland health we're developing a new platform called FishID which is an online platform that automates the analysis of underwater video footage and it uses artificial intelligence to provide actionable data from aquatic ecosystem monitoring. The pictures that you see there, it's the core team based in Australia and it's a mix of PhD students, research assistants, software engineer directors and science communicators. FishID at the moment can do four things. The first one is that it can detect target species. So you will see in that video top left that the FishID software is detecting that specific species that it's on the red polygon and it's providing us data of where it is and where it's going. You can imagine that this sort of data is important for managers for example that want to monitor invasive species in a particular ecosystem. We can also detect and count fish communities as a whole and you can see here a baited baited footage from Morton Bay in Australia and every fish that comes into frame it's being detected and sending us what species it is. So there's no need for a human to watch these videos and to determine what are the fish species there. Also we can detect grazing behavior in fish species as you can see there that fish is grazing on the seagrass bed. So this might be important for managers that want to understand how fish communities utilize a specific habitat. And just recently we're also now doing detection and tracking of fish across different visibilities and ecosystems. As you can see there is different scenarios that we use that tracking pipeline and we can use that information to understand behavior of animals across different seascapes across different ecosystems. I've added the links to the papers that we have released on each of these components and they are the orange links or text at the bottom of each video. I just want to also give you a bit of an overview on the fish ID tracking pipeline which is our latest output of fish ID. So basically it's a it's a pipeline that in simple terms it's using artificial intelligence to detect a fish and then track it in subsequent frames. Then, throughout the video there is an interaction between the tracking and detection components. And it all starts of course from an underwater video. So what you will see in these videos is a the detection of the fish and then the tracking output displayed as the dotted white lines in the video. If you want to learn more again about this pipeline just check out the paper that was recently published. Another component that we're not exploring in fish ID is how it performs in low visibility conditions. We know that low visibility conditions are common in most underwater existence and not all ecosystems have perfect visibility. So we have been training our fish ID models to be able to identify and detect species in a wide range of visibilities as you can see there. And for different species. And the graph that you see on your right are three measurements of accuracy for fish ID and the X axis. So that's where it says sake. It goes from two to five so that means two meters visibility, three, four and five minutes. So what you will see there is that the accuracy of fish ID across these low visibility conditions. It's quite constant, but there's also no clear trend of any influence of visibility in its performance. This was done on a fairly small test compared to the test that you will see in artificial intelligence papers. So this is a test on 12 hours of footage across different places. And this is an area that we're also expanding at the moment and it is an area that we could develop partnerships with other institutes or researchers. And I just want to also make a note here that fish ID has been tested with images that have not been pre processed with any software or any algorithms that improves the quality of the images so we're using using just the raw images for this test. Another area that we're also exploring and this is a place where we are open and available to have a chat and collaborate is fish ID automated sizing. So this will increase our monitoring capabilities even further. And at the moment what we're doing is quantifying error and creating baselines, but also finding that interaction of hardware calibrations and software. What you will see in this graph is the error rate of our method at the moment, which is still in development. And you will see that we're getting around 0% error for most of the length estimates that we are calculating on fish. So this will definitely give us now even more automated data about fish across ecosystems and across conditions. Another point that I want to make with fish ID is that it's fairly flexible. We're using very cheap underwater cameras as our hardware. We're not using $600 cameras. We're just using $30 US underwater cameras to collect and train our fish ID software. And the pipeline is deployed across visibility gradients across many conditions and it's working. Just to give you an idea of how flexible it is, we are currently processing three terabytes or around 300 hours of fish movements that are across connectivity corridors just to understand behaviors in those fish passageways. And we're also using that data with common ecological statistical methods to explore rare or latent behaviors. So again, just to show you quickly the tracking pipeline. It's there. And as I said, it works in different ecosystems and this is just an example of how fish ID performs across visibility gradients across different ecosystems and with different fish as well. Now, you may be asking when can you access fish ID or when is it going to be available and fish ID will be an open access and open source platform very soon where you can annotate, train, evaluate and analyze underwater video imagery. It's available now as a partnership with the developing team, but it's going to be available for external users from 2022. Now, we have been able and we're making this big push in our field to also make our code and datasets available. And what you will see on those two images there are two GitHub links which are repositories where you can find our code, datasets, hardware, or any other software that we're using to develop a product similar to fish ID. But as I said now, it is available now as a partnership with the development team. And if you want to learn more about it, you can just scan the QR code, which has been appearing at the bottom right of the screen. You can also contact me through my email, which is now displayed on screen. And I also added my Twitter link where I post regular updates about fish ID product and all the developments that we're currently doing. Thank you very much, Sebastian. Well, great kickoff to the three days and sharing and thanks for sharing your team's work. I have a small question for you. It seems like you put quite a lot in your talk about how people outside your team can connect with you. But I'm interested to ask you what type of assistance do you think what potential collaborations with you welcome to advance the uptake and utility of what you're developing. Sure. So we can get input from either ecologists, researchers, or also data scientists. As I said, our two menus that we're exploring right now is fish ID in low visibility conditions. So that is more in the data science side and how we can do some image preprocessing. The other sector is fish ID sizing. But yeah, so this app was developed by ecologists for ecologists. What we're trying to bring is a community that can use this automated technique to monitor ecosystems a bit better. So in all, in all the sectors, as I said, data science and ecology, we can get some feedback and also help us develop this platform for everyone to use. Matt, I believe you have a question. Yeah, fantastic presentation, Sebastian. Really interesting work, particularly like the open aspects of your work and that you've got a trajectory which is intended to open up to everybody. What I'm really interested in is how do you intend to make it accessible or more accessible for people that say don't have a very good internet connection, or don't have a very technologically savvy background but do work say underwater or do fish surveys using underwater cameras and sheet ones like you say $30 is very accessible actually, which I think is one of the key themes of the forum. So how do you intend to take that trajectory? Yeah, sure. Thank you. So with the tech, as I said, all the code and software will be made available. So if someone in the end cannot use the online platform, they will be able to interact with the code in their own computer. So that's the vision, right? It's all open access, open source. But our key idea is that we could develop, so we're trying to develop this platform that won't require any knowledge about coding or data science will be all point and click. And then the people can really interact with that AI and exploit all the benefits of that automated processing. And as I said, so by doing it open access, then people can use it in any way, and then potentially also interact with open access data sets that we will see in this forum later on.


Today on our Ambassador Series, I'm joined by Australia's High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Greg Wilcox. High Commissioner, thank you for your time. Thank you. Australia established its resident mission in Dhaka back in 1972. How would you describe the relationship and how has it evolved? Well, we established direct diplomatic relations in 1972. We actually had a mission there beforehand when Bangladesh was East Pakistan. We had a person there, so in a sense that carried over to Bangladesh's independence. Because we were one of the first countries to recognise Bangladesh and we were early on the ground there, we're old friends, we know each other pretty well, we've been on the ground for over 40 years. The Bangladeshis feel quite sentimental about that. There's that association going back for that long. But of course the relationship is much more than it was in 1972. We now have a billion dollar trade relationship. About 7000 Bangladeshis studying in Australia at any moment. We do a lot diplomatically together. We run a large aid program. The Bangladesh community in Australia is growing quite strongly. It's doubled in size just in the last few years. So in summary, there's just more going on. The relationship is an old one, but it's a much more sophisticated, broad based one than it used to be. How do you see that relationship growing and what are its best prospects for expansion? It was real prospect on trade. As I said, we're sitting at about a billion dollars of bilateral trade right now. That's a nice round figure, but it won't stay there. It'll grow. It'll continue to grow. We have highly complementary economies. We send Bangladesh a lot of food. We educate their people. We send them other commodities like cotton. And in return Bangladesh sends us more and more every year clothing, textiles. It has the world's second largest garment industry. That garment industry will overtake China's one day, probably fairly soon. And as Bangladesh grows and develops, it remains a poor country, but it's less poor by the day. Increasingly wealthy, has a growing middle class, and in a country of 160 million people, that's an increasing amount of purchasing power. So Bangladesh will continue to grow in its economic significance for Australia. That's where the real prospects are for us. That's where the real positive growth is. We're seeing companies like the Just Group, established their offices in Bangladesh. West Farmers through Kmart and Target have their presence in Bangladesh. We see our energy companies taking an interest in Bangladesh. And in fact, Santos has been there and has been there for a few years. Australia runs a significant aid program in Bangladesh. What have been some of the key projects and how successful have they been? Well, as I said before, Bangladesh is a fairly young country. It started from behind in 1971 after its independence war. A very traumatic experience for it. Forty years is not a long time in the life of a country. And it remains a poor country, but much less so than it was 40 years ago. Nonetheless, our aid program in Bangladesh is about pushing out, expanding the Bangladesh government's capacity to deliver basic services for its people. Principally on education, but also on health. Our assistance on education very simply translates into a widening of Bangladesh's primary education network. More boys and girls in primary school, more people being educated, in turn lifting the productive frontier for Bangladesh. That's one of our very large scale programs. But I should also talk about the Australia Awards. Bangladesh is a significant destination for the Australia Awards. We have a fairly large program in Bangladesh. Australia is very much known for its tertiary education, for its university sector. Thousands and thousands of Bangladeshis have studied in Australia return with qualifications to build their own country. The Australia Awards program reinforces that value. It reinforces our education brand in a country like that. That's very prospective. I also want to mention our Australian volunteers for international development. We have up to about 40 young Australians who come to Bangladesh under that scheme at any one time. These are young, dedicated, quite gritty professionals who are in Bangladesh because they recognise that there's a serious job of work to be done on development. They're health professionals, they're generalists. Whatever they're doing, whether they're working for the cholera hospital or for UNHCR or other NGOs, they're actually making a practical difference to how aid is delivered on the ground. This is your first posting as head of mission. How has this role differed from your previous postings? Well, for a start, you're in charge, so you have to be the leader. You're accountable for everything that goes on in the High Commission. So, as much as we've all been trained and developed to worry about policy and to think in those terms, the job is about substantially more than that. When you get around to policy, it's often the bonus. Your day-to-day work is significantly tied up in running the mission, in dealing with personnel matters, dealing with logistic matters and significantly over the course of the past year in Bangladesh about managing the mission's day-to-day security. It's been a difficult year on a security front in Bangladesh. And we've found ourselves almost making hour-to-hour judgments about who should be where when. Policy is something you'll always get to and something that's very important and it's what defines our relationship. But if something like security goes wrong for the mission, that's what you'll be remembered for. And these are the things you need to fuss over every day because it's about people's lives. But zooming out from that, being ahead of mission is, I think, to the extent I've tried to theorise about it, it's about having the self-confidence to make the decisions that matter, but also having the self-awareness to know what you don't know and where you need to seek help and counsel. And that's what your team in the High Commission is for and that's what Canberra is for as well. What's it been like living and working in Bangladesh? Bangladesh isn't high on most tourists' itinerary. It is an extremely crowded country of 160 million people living on mudflats two-thirds the size of Victoria and a substantial part of the year. Significant parts of Bangladesh are underwater. There's an intensity to life and activity in Bangladesh that few people have seen elsewhere, including veterans of South Asia. I've worked in Indonesia before. I've worked in East Timor before. I've never seen an intensity in life, in commercial activity, in traffic that I've seen in Dhaka. So that's confronting to start with, but you soon get used to it. And the wonderful thing about the country is that for all of its difficulty for the challenges of living in Dhaka, it's an extremely welcoming city. It's not dangerous in the sense of criminal violence. You can walk around in the old quarters of Dhaka, which are historically and archaeologically fascinating. And when you go down there looking as a stranger, looking like a stranger as you do, people are very interested in who you are and what you're thinking about. And they all want to give you a cup of tea and a decent feed. So it's a wonderfully hospitable place. Doors fly open. We will miss it very much when it's time to go, but that time hasn't come up yet. What advice would you give Australians who are wanting to travel to Bangladesh? Well, we recently upgraded our travel advice in Bangladesh due to the political difficulties of last year. We went from exercise a high degree of caution up to reconsider your need to travel. We did that because of the difficult political and security situation at the time on the basis that Australians who visit Bangladesh should expect their lives to be seriously interrupted by the political and security strife that we saw. In Bangladesh, our travel advice has largely always been about avoiding being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And that continues to apply. It's just that in recent history, there have been more wrong places, wrong times. How Australians take care of themselves in that environment is to pay attention to their surroundings. Very little happens in Bangladesh in a security sense without it being telegraphed first by the political parties, without some announcement being made. So Australians, whether they're travelling there or living there, very quickly discover the value of reading the news, of turning on the television set, of talking to Bangladeshis, be they co-workers or hotel managers or tour guides, or whatever, about where to be and when. And because most people are prudent in that sense, because most people who come to Bangladesh take a natural interest in the environment, take a natural interest in keeping themselves informed, the great majority of Australians and the great majority of travellers stop, avoid trouble and enjoy themselves. Lastly, what would you like to have achieved by the time your posting ends and you return to Australia? Well, as I said at the outset, it's a substantial and growing relationship. The trade relationship is growing. As governments, we discuss more to do with cooperation in the diplomatic sphere, immigration, people-to-people links, sport. A range of interests is very diverse. One of the things I'm working at doing and will have a chance to actually implement in practice is to establish some routine bilateral senior officials' talks to, metaphorically, to establish a framework around all of our bilateral interests. To ensure that foreign ministries, as the custodians, as the managers and coordinators of the bilateral relationship are fully informed about what's going on across the breadth of the relationship, be it in the government sector, be it in the private sector. So we know we're usefully to intervene and to make a difference, to add value. That's one thing I'm working on. We have more to do with each other in the security sense as both of us are developing a sense of what the Indo-Pacific means, what the opportunities are for cooperation there, the sorts of frameworks we should be building between ourselves but also as multilateral players in the region to establish habits of consultation, a framework for dealing constructively with security challenges. I'd like to be able to establish more on that front in practice before I go, including, I hope, by establishing a formal defence relationship between us. I'd also like to do much more with the alumni network. As I said before, education is one of our most powerful brands in Bangladesh. We have thousands of alumni in the community, many of them in very influential positions. We launched the alumni network about 18 months ago and now we're in the process of giving it practical things to do, of steering in the direction of diplomacy, public diplomacy, of proselytising the benefits in Bangladesh of an Australian education, of using our alumni to build our networks into the business community in Bangladesh. And that's something I would like to make much more tangible and active by the time I leave. High Commissioner, it's been great speaking with you. Thank you for your time today. Thanks for the opportunity. And that was Australia's High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Greg Wilcock, for our Ambassador Series.


Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva. I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Stephen Burrow, who is chief executive officer of Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority of the Bahamas. On the occasion of GSR 2018, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Max. It's great to be here in Geneva. Now, well, in fact, last time we saw each other was in the Bahamas where you graciously hosted the event. It was a very wonderful event. I just wanted to talk to you about your impressions so far of this one. It's been a real learning experience, you know, and continuing in many ways on the themes that we discussed last year and at previous GSRs, and looking at new technologies and emerging trends, you know, as regulators that we're always chasing. I'm particularly happy that I seem to have brought some of the Bahamas weather to Geneva with me as well. Absolutely. Now, in terms of emerging technologies, how crucial are emerging technologies such as AI, incentive of things in building confidence and security in the use of ICTs? I know that subject has been talked about quite heavily here. Yeah, and, you know, we are very much learning as regulators how important these new technologies are. You know, our regulatory frameworks are really, really trying to catch up as they always are with the changes in our regulated sectors that will be led by these new technologies. So artificial intelligence, AI, has driven a whole new range of both threats and opportunities in ICTs. And, you know, the extent to which when you combine that with the internet of things and with the fact that everyone's home, everyone's person, very often, has multiple connected devices. And you have not only people in that space, but you have these new intelligences, these new learning machines, which create a whole new wealth of opportunity. And as regulators, not just ICT regulators, but we're now dealing with the police, we're dealing with all these different agencies that have to find ways to combat to address these changes. And, you know, it's very, it's just important for us to understand them and to be able to ensure that people understand what the risks are, but also where the protections are so that they feel confident and able to use their devices to, you know, walk around with, we've heard interesting stories of how, you know, the technology in a fish tank can be accessed. Or everything you have is potentially an area of opportunity, but potentially an area of threat. And we as regulators really have to make a better effort, I would say, or more effort, faster to adopt, embrace the technology so that we can deal with our stakeholders in an effective way. And how you best can be equipped to do that, do you think? Well, I think one thing is we have to adopt AI ourselves. Within the government and regulatory frameworks, we have to have our own intelligences. The simple reality is no human can keep up with a machine for speed. We may be smarter than them, or, you know, we've had a lot of discussions about where the skill sets and where the person fits in this space. So, you know, computers aren't quite taking over, but certainly they have made it much more necessary for us to be quick, for us to be faster, for us to detect threats, for us to respond. So I think one of the key things is many regulatory agencies or law enforcement agencies and so on are going to have to adopt AI. We're going to have to find ways to create reactive or detection and prediction systems that will include the new technologies so that we can respond to those others who have them. So as the private sector adopts these technologies to bring more and more benefits to people, we've got to be prepared as well. What about in the Bahamas? What are going to be your principal concerns? Well, you know, step one for us in the Bahamas is always the challenge as a small country of resources. So I think the key issue for us really is to develop the expertise we need, which is why being here is so important, to develop the expertise both technically and also to understand what we need to do to our frameworks. We have legal frameworks that are not designed for AI. They couldn't be. Hopefully they are flexible enough for us to be able to adapt rather than have to come up with new ones. But you know, even the simple issues of who are the regulators, how do the regulators work together to make sure that we're all doing our part? Because I'm pretty sure as an ICT regulator alone, we couldn't address this threat. But we have to work with other regulators. You know, I remember a couple GSRs ago, the discussion on collaborative regulation, which I think becomes even more critical now. Because we no longer regulate a separate sector. We regulate the sector that brings all the others together. You know, and that is something that has really struck home as we talk about new technologies, as we talk about internet of things. It's not internet of computers. It's not internet of phones. It's the internet of things. So each of those things can be differently regulated as well. We are really in new space. And it's changing faster than it's ever changed before. Your Bahamian tings. Exactly, tings. Yes, fantastic. And in terms of, you mentioned it briefly, but in terms of attending this event, what makes this event special? Why have you traveled all the way to be here? And why did you obviously host us in the Bahamas last time? What makes this a key event in your calendar? Well, you know, as ICT regulators, we've always appreciated that the ITU brings together more stakeholders than any other in this area of endeavor. If you're talking about ICTs, this is the place where you get the government, the policymakers. You can speak to them. You get the experts through the ITU's work and standardization, radio communications, and so on. You really get the best people from the industry as well.  I had the pleasure of moderating a panel yesterday of experts in areas that I would never have met in one place anywhere else. And as we sit through these panels, we understand as regulators that we have to learn things we didn't know before, or at least we have to know the people who know these things. And this is a fantastic meeting place for all of those different people that we need to know as regulators. What do you hope will come from this particular GSR, or perhaps a few GSRs ahead in terms of the landscape itself? Well, I think the internet of things and the internet generally has taught us that we operate as a world, not as countries. And what I really hope to see and what I hope to get as a single participant is really just more of the collaboration of the international melting pot of people and ideas so that we can work on problems across borders. And the Bahamas is a small island developing state. We have hardly enough people to fill our own space and to do what we do. But with the help of our neighbors, with the help of people all over the world, we have very close ties. We're building great relationships with similar countries everywhere. And again, this is the space where we get the opportunity to meet them, because they come here too. Stephen Brewer, thank you very much indeed. Thank you. And do check out more fascinating content, such as Stevens and his colleagues, on the ITU YouTube channel and on the ITU SoundCloud channel as well. Thank you. Thanks.


of NN headline news update. Good morning everybody I'm Tommy O'Brien coming to you live from TFN headquarters in St. Petersburg Florida it's Thursday 9am Eastern time 30 minutes to go until the opening bell and we got markets hanging around positive territory looking for a record open yet again. Dow futures up a hundred and twelve points right now that's about four tenths percent in the positive trading at 28,882 S&Ps up 11 at 32 71 Nasdaq futures up 52 points at 89 97 that's Nasdaq 100 oil up a bit gold trading lower we'll start things off let's jump over to the charts we'll start it off with the indices Dow 30 you see yesterday's action a little bit of a sell off towards the end of the day but still quite a positive day quarter reversal back things up I mean look at that run from the overnight low we had Tuesday evening we were trading at 28,094 we're looking for 29,000 potentially today pretty remarkable 28,872 Nasdaq 100 you back things up to yesterday you back it up to overnight Tuesday I mean the numbers are just remarkable when you look at the load of the high over the last couple of days 86 82 we're now flirting with 9,000 in the Nasdaq 100 S&Ps trading at 32,70 you're talking about almost a hundred S&P points we're at 31,81 that's 90 S&P points we're looking for a record open made it to as high as I believe 32,74 almost crude oil trading a bit lower under $60 quite a day to the downside yesterday you had crude I mean you back it up again can't help but look at the charts from the Tuesday night prices 65,51 we're now trading at 59,36 gold overnight quite an acceleration continuing the downtrend gold at 15,49 actually made it to 15,41 and again you back things up we were as high as 16,11 16,13 I think so we're talking about $65 to the south for gold and the euro US dollar trading at 11,12 in terms of what else you have happening fundamentally some news out there we get weekly jobless claims this morning that number coming in at 214,000 this ahead of the market expecting weekly excuse me non-farm payrolls tomorrow 8 30 a.m the market looks for that jc penny coming out with their holiday same-store sales following 7.5 percent reaffirming reaffirming their outlook and coals disappointing on dismal holiday sales jumping over real quick to those you got coals KSS looking to open about 45 jc penny but about 17 stay tuned folks Larry Pezzavento coming up right now we'll be right back


So we'll call to order. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? Put an executive session on right here. Correspondence, oh no, sorry, consent agenda. Approve the minutes of Tuesday, August 22nd. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? I'll second. Is there any discussion on the minutes? All right, hearing none, so moved. Board correspondence or communication? Does anybody have anything? Public comments. There's none online, right? Do you have any comments? Probably no problem. I didn't know if there was an online meeting, but that wasn't a good question. So I'm Carleton Bonneville, so I'm actually the new town liaison for Vermont Law School for a South Royalton area. So this might be your first time seeing me around. I might have seen you walking around the Royalton area. But I'm actually trying to improve the relationship between VLGS and also the community around us. We're also part of the community, and we definitely want to actually improve not only our relationship here, but also moving forward. So anything that can be done, let me know. And we'll try and see if we can do it to actually make it a little bit more feasible. Great, great, thank you. Fantastic, thanks for having me here. Thanks for having me. All right, so report to the board. Thank you. So you have my superintendent report in hand. I think it captures a lot of what's happening. What I would say is, you know, Onda's and Annette's and Ray's report really gets into the thick of all the exciting things that I think are happening instructionally across the supervisory union. But I would just say that I've been in all of our schools multiple times now, and I'm really pleased with our start. I'm really pleased with the focus on setting expectations, pleased with the positivity I'm feeling in our buildings. And in general, happy with how we've been able to start transportation across the SU with a new contracted service provider. I had some worries there just in regards to a switch after having a longstanding different contractor. In general, I just would say that it's one of the best starts we've been off to at least in my tenure. And I'm really thrilled about the work that we have upcoming for our SU-wide in-service days, the work that's happening in buildings during their early release in-service days, our intentional and aligning to our strategic plan. And I'll finally just add that we have distributed leadership teams now meeting in all but one of our buildings, but the teams have been identified in the final building. And I expect those meetings to start soon. And so that's something that you've heard me talk a lot about in regards to our structures around creating our multi-tiered system of supports. It's something that we were trying to possibly get negotiated into the collective bargaining agreement previous to make certain that took hold and that that was part of how we did business moving forward. Even without getting it in the CBA, the really good news is that it's happening at our buildings. And so I really see that as one of the biggest structures that we need in place to do the work that we're trying to do in the strategic plan. We have to have that grassroots distributed leadership model at each district and at our buildings in order to have those teams then look at our strategic plan and align their action plans to it in regards to priorities in the work ahead for our different schools and buildings. So I'm really pleased with the effort that's been put into that. And I can really see that start to demonstrate authentic work in distributive leadership, like planning faculty meetings, planning in service time, focusing on what their professional development needs to be as a building, looking at what the needs are in their building. So we've been in different places with that work across the SU. Some have been further ahead. But it's now happening in all of our buildings. So that feels good. It's just taking a little time to get there. But we're there. And so I just wanted to highlight that. I didn't entertain any questions folks may have. I also, just a reminder that you'll be getting academic, local academic data in some of your local boards starting the second week in October. Those boards that have your meetings next week, that will happen in November because the window hasn't quite closed yet. But you'll get your full SU-wide academic data in October as well. And then just wanted to let you know that we're still working with the Agency of Ed in regards to the release of last spring's, the VT cap, so the Vermont Comprehensive Assessment data. What the AOE did release is data from two years ago recently in the annual snapshot, which you all received. We released it early. I felt like the embargo was just taking way too long. So we released that SU-wide data prior. But the Agency just released that data a couple of weeks ago. But all that data is on the SU website. And you've already seen it if anyone talks about that. It's not the past year's data. That was two years ago data. And I'll entertain any questions folks may have. On the leadership, distributed leadership teams, was this a hard pull to get the teams organized or was there enthusiasm, understanding the importance of what it was all about and how critical that can be to make each school really thrive? Give us a flavor of that or a turn. It's been a little bit of both. I think in some of our schools, there was much more distributive type leadership-making decision making already happening. So I think that's an easier lift, right? In some of our buildings where there was a feeling that teacher voice wasn't being taken into account to some of the decisions that were being made and or a feeling of some decisions came from the top down. An example I would give to you, I feel like some of our buildings really felt like the work we did around Fountas and Ponello. And that literacy work prior to my coming on board was a top down decision that was pretty big, right? That purchase happened and went across the whole entire SU. So feeling like, is this actually truly authentic voice where they're going to be able to make some decisions like selecting what makes sense about the science or reading around their research-based reading materials that they're going to use as a school and get investment in. I think they're starting to see they can make those decisions now. Example is in math, we said you can use bridges. You can use envisions. It had to be research-based, but we allowed those teams to make those decisions. With the caveats, when we say we're going to do this, we're all doing it, meaning in that district. I think they've seen that that has been how this work has happened, so I think we've been able to build some more trust around that. So I think in general, now that teams are happening and they're seeing what's on their agendas, I feel like we've got really good momentum moving forward. And Anna sits on pretty much all those teams, so I think she has a good flavor to that, too. And I think what I'm saying is fairly accurate. Yeah, no, I think so. I think the more people see the result of those conversations influencing from small things to bigger things, I think then we've had greater buy-in for it. And then it's also just figuring out the right time and how to do it in a way that people can feel like the time is efficient and effective and well-timed, so. Gotcha, thank you. Sometimes it's just a schedule, I think. Any more questions for Jamie? They are on through. Yeah, so again, you also have my report where we talk about the assessments that are going on now that we are into the fifth week of school and getting a lot of that benchmark data, which all of our buildings are looking at as we head towards that. We kind of think about school and six-week increments. Both, that's a great way to monitor progress. And so we've got a lot of different assessing going on to try to have more of that information ready for those conversations at the end of the first six weeks. And I think the big piece here, and really happy that Mikhail Martin's here also as well to talk about it, is that we do have the proficiencies that our teachers have been working on over the last year up on the website now for you all to and for the public to be able to see what it is that we are hoping that all students are able to know and are able to do at the end of each grade level in each content area. So we can pull that up. It's right on the WRVSU website under Departments Curriculum Instruction Proficiencies. And they're organized there by grade level and content area. And if you have a favorite content area that you don't happen to see there, it doesn't mean we don't think it's important. We have a couple of things that we are still working on and what is up here are the ones that we have had a chance to complete with the teachers really taking the lead on that. And so the other pieces like science and social studies that aren't showing up on that initial menu are in the works and we will be rolling them all out as they get completed, but certainly wanted to share the bulk of the work, particularly in elementary has been around English language arts and math. And that's certainly where, we've been talking a lot about the curriculum, a lot about our instructional approaches. So that is where our focus has been there, but certainly working on all the other content areas as well. McKenna, anything else you wanna add on? So the documents that are forward facing for our parents, the language is really put into a student language around I can do or I understand. So that was the goal of this and the format's the same throughout the entire website. We're trying to make it as clean and simple to find for parents and families, but we're really excited about the work that was, that our teachers engaged in over the past year. And these will be, you know, documents that we look at every year as we use them. So they'll be rolled out on Friday with our teachers. And our reporting system is aligned to these proficient systems. Right. So we do, and so on, the other part of our report is on Friday, we have our first SU-wide half day in service. We had a building-based one last week, two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, and so this is our first SU-wide one, that's an opportunity, again, really aligned to our goal three around interdependence of bringing our teachers and other faculty and staff members together in groupings that make sense for what their role is, whether that's around a particular project, whether that's around a content area that they teach or a grade level, whether it's another piece of their job. And so we've got 20, I think I added another one. So 25 different groups that are running on Friday. And for example, I'll bring the kindergarten through second grade groups together, we'll go through, we'll have everyone be able to have a chance to look at these documents. It should not come as a total surprise to them, it's a lot of the information they've been working with, but in this organized way, they'll be able to see it. And then split out into a kindergarten group, a first grade group and a second grade group to really think about what does this mean for our practice, what can we learn from each other? We've got kindergarten teachers who are kind of brand new to the SU, some that have been in the SU for a long time, they're gonna have a chance to talk together and also set some goals for the year in terms of how can we maximize that time together as professionals together? What do they wanna get out of it? How can we support it from a professional learning side, both bringing in external resources and them as their own resources for each other? So that is, it's an exciting week for all of that. I think that's it. I can answer any other questions. It gave us a great chart on the intervention threat. Intervention methodology you're using by grade and by different curriculums, what's the right term on that? For the intervention being the first part of the report? Yeah, here the intervention menu you talked about. So that is, those are actually divided up by the sort of the domains within literacy that we are, right? Foundational skills, phonemic awareness, those sorts of things. And then you've got different programs, so I don't know. Am I using the right term? Program to tackle that, to achieve those, each one of those columns there, okay. Could you do that or is one available in the future for having to do with mathematics? Yes, it's interesting. Math is really, it's a little bit more straightforward, particularly in our elementary, in that we have some really great aligned resources. We have Bridges Intervention, which we actually use in all of our schools. And there's also, this is one of those where it's an acronym and I actually don't know, M-D-I-S intervention system, which aligns to our Envision's Math program. And so those are both already being used. So there's not quite as much, choose your own adventure. Both of those do a really good job of aligning to identifying where students are and placing them where they are in the intervention program. We will add some more, but the literacy was a much bigger need for a variety of reasons. Whereas math, it's more clear where we're heading, what folks are pulling from. And we use some Title I resources this summer to ensure that all of our interventionists and special educators had those math resources. So it's a little more straightforward there. This will be one of the, in our retreat, we're not going to be quizzed on this chart. At least give us 24-hour notice. So we can cram. Thank you. Any more questions, guys? All right. Hi everyone, Steve, my report as well. It's been a busy September, but a great September of just getting services and interventions up and rolling. Also kind of absorbing a lot of students and families who have moved into our communities, getting them rolling and programming in school and also their interventions and services. We've also had a lot of professional development continue from the summer right into the fall. So we had handled with care training, with Claire Martin. We've had more corrective reading, DI reading with Jeannie. Onda had mentioned our first SU half day coming up. We've got writing revolution happening which is really exciting. It's a writing intervention and writing structure program. We also have Claire Martin providing what we're calling a social-emotional toolkit which is great and that's open to nursing staff, support staff, custodians, everyone. It's a wonderful, wonderful six-part series that they're gonna offer. And I do have one new hire, an occupational therapist, Stephanie Yarnes. She is coming from having therapeutic outdoor education experience. She just received her degree in license in May. So she's already started and making a great impact. So we're really lucky to have her as well. And then just lastly, the Vermont Agency of Education has notified me that our special services department has passed targeted monitoring. So we've been in targeted monitoring for five-plus years and we finally have shown that we're proficient in all of the indicators that the Federal Office of Special Education requires. Can you minister through AOE? Yes. Yeah. It's no easy feat. It's 100%. You have to get 100%. It's a huge accomplishment for our team. So it's the team, it's the team, it's not me. It just, it's our team has worked really hard. They've been very open to professional development. They've been really open to feedback and kind of working together. So it's great, really great. Thank you. Any questions? Ms. Tara. So you all have my report, which tells you everything I'm working on in October and the rest of my team. And then I also have in our packets for us our fiscal year 23 year end projections. And one thing that isn't in our packet and a couple of boards have already seen it, but not all is with our new auditors this year, we actually have some questionnaires that they've asked our boards to complete. So I'm visiting each of your board meetings in person this month to hand those out. So we also need it done for the full SU board. So Kathy, as the board chair, you get to do it. Here's your copy. And then I need one more board member who's willing to complete it and fill it out and send it in to the auditors. I'm doing one for AB board. So I just want to volunteer. All right. There you go. Thank you.  Why is it that the works are being online now? I don't know what you're saying, Ray, as I say now. And then Ray, if you could put up the fiscal year 23 projections, we can go over that. Thank you. And don't feel like, if you don't know the answer to one of those, you can put in NA. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out and we can work through it together. I put in DK, don't know. So we'll start on the expenditure side of the budget. So it works the same way at the supervisory union that you've seen at your individual board levels. We go over potential areas of overspending. So ours this year was advertising our computer, our copy lease, and then the VISTA's new teacher health assessment, which is a number that we project based on how many new teachers we had last year, but we will pay this assessment every year for any teacher who is newly licensed, as long as they work for us, they pay this. So each year we'll see as we get new staff that that number could increase. And then the potential areas of savings and salaries throughout. So this is both, again, central office and special education budget. So it's those two budgets that you vote on for the entire SU combined. So in salaries, budget versus contracts, we had just under $79,000 in savings this year and benefits just over two grand transportation because we were able to utilize some additional IDEAB grant funding that we received from carryover from a prior year. We were able to use that so we were able to save on the actual budgeted transportation. And then the same thing for contracted services with all the extra federal funding that we receive, we were able to save on the budgeted contracted services. And then tuition, that's the tuition as Jamie and Annette had mentioned many times throughout the last year, that's bringing our kids in and not sending them out to those high place placements. So that's where our tuition savings came in from. So current projection is we have $388,898 savings on the overall expenditure budget. Any questions on that? Go through well. Okay, on the revenue side. So based on our federal title funds, we received a little bit more than we budgeted for last year which we had talked about previously. So we had about $45,000 there. We got more in our new census block grant than we had originally budgeted for. And then the extraordinary, extraordinary reimbursement was less than what we budgeted for because we were using those federal funds to pay for those services that we normally would get extraordinary reimbursement for. So we get less there because we can't double dip and can't submit through extraordinary reimbursement when I'm using federal funds to pay for the original expense. So we had a reduction there. And then again, IDEAB basic, that's our grant through the agency. We had a little bit more than we had originally budgeted for on the regular side. Preschool was a little less than what we had budgeted for. And then our triple E grant was again, a little more than we had budgeted for. So overall, we had a reduction in revenue of $72,072. And you add that to our savings on the expenditure side. So current projection for a surplus for the supervisory union is $316,826. And I feel like I'm yelling, Rodney, because you're right next to me, but I can hear you. I can hear you. I can hear you. I'm really sorry. No, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you all, guys. Good question. On the tuition help me, there seems to be various components. One component would be where we have to have some of our students that need particular help and assistance and we contract with others. And that's tuition, I assume. And so part of the savings is that we didn't have, we had more resources to serve these students within our SU so we didn't have to farm, not farm, but we didn't have to do out of district placements for our students. That's part of it. Now, another one is tuition, because I'm in a choice town. After sixth grade, they have a choice of where to... It's all that. What you just said. It's only special education. Only special education. This is all special. This is all special ed. Okay. But are not having it be an out of district placements. For tuition. Don't we budget though, assuming how many kids are coming in or not? That's all local budget. That's in the local budget. So that's in your local district budget or tuition. And then for the high school, they would budget that as revenue in their local budget. So this is the SU administrative special ed out of district place. Wow, wow. So like a student that's going to some examples where you'll have choice academy, EVA, East Valley Academy, the... Maple Hill School and so on and so on and so forth. Hartford has their RAP program and then there are our C program. So these are kiddos that we're paying, those entities to take on because we don't have the resources to teach them here. We were able to bring those students back in this year as we have reported throughout the year so that we're saving that tuition. And we haven't needed to send more students out to those types of programs. I mean, we're talking about a celebratory... Yes, absolutely. It's not huge that we do not have to send abroad. We can provide adequate, excellent educational services to our kids. And that's that reported net does a couple of times a year. So we'll try to highlight that better. So that's something that we need to get out and tell that story out there. Because it just, that speaks volumes to the whole team. It seems to me if I'm getting this wrong. And it also ends up not only helping the kids, but we save money that we can utilize other places or save the taxpayer. Wow, wow, wow. Thank you. That's where I got confused. Okay, the rest of us in the district budget. All that you'd seen in your district budget. Thank you. And then our budgeting going forward, we'll be looking at this $316,000 and deciding on that surplus. How much of that should be, how that should be utilized like investing in capital programs and that sort of thing. Have I got that correct? Talk about SU surplus. So the supervisory union, if we have a surplus here. Yes. It impacts the assessment that your districts pay. So if we have a deficit in the supervisory union, we have to reassess the districts at the close of the fiscal year. If we have a surplus, we can choose to keep it for one year within the supervisory union or we can pay back assessments to the districts. Okay, and then it's up to the district level to decide whether we wanna put it into capital or we wanna put it someplace extra teacher or two. Yeah, so we'll have to take this up next month as we start our budget process. Thank you. Yeah. Will? Yeah, so I'm just wondering, I mean, does the SU have a mechanism for capital improvement planning and funding? So the SU- The building you're sitting in? The SU can't own property. So we don't, I mean, we could yes. So if our landlord here said you have to pay for a new air conditioning system, we could then yes, budget for that and utilize those funds. But as far as a reserve fund for the supervisory union, because we don't physically own property, we don't have a capital projects fund within the supervisory union. Makes sense. And we can't legally own property. Right. As a supervisory union. So there's no need for us to do the types of funds that we talk about at the district level, at the SU level. Basically, we handle it at the district level. Yep, okay. Although I am curious, Tara, and we could research this, whether or not this surplus could possibly be put in and into like a tuition reserve fund for specialists. Because that could be a really good use of these funds. Because it could, I don't know if folks heard me. So in some of your districts, we create these tuition reserve funds where we will put these reserves into a fund in the event that we have an influx of students who move in or if we have a large sixth grade group going into the tuition pool and a 12th grade group that's smaller, we could tap into the tuition reserve funds. And when I said to Tara, I am interested in looking into more whether or not the supervisory union could create a reserve fund that would help offset if we did have students who needed out of district placements and or an influx that were not budgeted, whether or not we could tap into that for that cause. And I don't know the answer to that. I will find out. Yeah. And what the course of action is that we would need to take in order to do that. Because usually it's a vote of the town. We may not be able to. So I will find out. It may be worth asking. Yeah, I will absolutely find out. All right, any other questions for Tara? All right, so we are ready. Good work, good news, the whole team. It's not easy as a supervisory union to do that. Okay, as I bring up my report, you have my report in hand and I would feel any questions either virtually or here in person. And I would add, that's one of the new things this week. We're adding some outdoor air quality monitors to our schools under new HVAC projects. So that is Rochester, Stockbridge, Bethel and Loyalton and Tumorch. They have indoor air quality monitors that have been in place since March and this project runs through December. And it's part of the grant funding for the related projects. Any questions for Ray? All right, thank you, Ray. Policy committee update. Who wants to take it from the policy committee? I can. Tonight at the policy committee, we discussed how we're gonna move forward. We have three policies that we're gonna adopt tonight, hopefully. But we also have, we talked about the next work of the policy committee and we decided we're going to, we have several pages of policies that we already have enforced. We're gonna start going through each of those. Jamie's gonna prioritize them by policies that we see have issues or things that have come up that might need adjusting or tweaking policies that are required by the VSBA to make sure that we're up to snuff with those. And if there's any changes, we get those updated and then just all of our policies. We think it'll take about five years. It depends, Jamie, whether or not you actually link the policies. I know, I know. So the big joke is I created this chart for everybody and I've had every policy open over the last two days and did not hyperlink them in for easy access. There's supposed to be a hyperlink here. So we will do that. And Ray's gonna teach Jamie about spreadsheets. Yeah, that as well. So go learn and experience. All right. And so on to adopting the policies. Act to adopt policy A20, which is the board civility and code of ethics policy. We've been working on this one for. Ended up draft six. Mora, this ended up draft six when we finally put it to bed. So this is our final version and our final reading. So we would like to have a motion to adopt this tonight. I'd like to move the adoption of the code of ethics board member civility and code of ethics as proposed as A20. And I also want to come in the policy committee because this is an example where it's not easy. It sounds so easy. And you have to go back and think and think and review and revise and you get the import from six boards. All of us have remarkable ideas and you have to chase those down and pull them together. And I think what you've done here is commendable. And it's also very important. We've got to be civil in our behavior. Setting an example for our kids, for our communities and for the people that work with us. So I'm very pleased to move this policy. Thank you, Bill. Do we have a second? I'm happy to second, but I will not second it because I need some sort of comment. Policy committee. All right. Is there any discussion on the policy? All right, hearing none, all those in favor to adopt policy A20, say aye. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Are there any nays? Hearing none, the policy passed. All right, next policy is F35, fire and emergency preparedness drills policy. Do I have a motion? I move we adopt the policy. F35. 34, sorry, it's 34 this one. This was 34. I'll second it. All right. All right, any discussion on F34? All right, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Are there any nays? All right, policy is passed. Act to adopt F35, access control and visitor management policy. Do I have a motion? I'll move. And a second. Second. All right, is there any discussion on F35? All those in favor of adopting F35, say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, hearing none, none, F35 passes. We have discussion items, WRVSU full board retreat planning. Yes, we had October 10th down as the date.  We did it at the high school last time, mostly just because it's central. Yep. So are folks still okay with that location as it being centralized? It's a high school, good for everybody. And what time would we like to start? We went like five days last time, I think. Did we go that early or no? Yeah, I think we did five days. I think we did. So five to eight work for everyone? Is that cutting close for work schedules or will that work? Yeah, getting there, I'll write it at five maybe. We could go five 30. Want to do five 30 to eight 30? That'd be easier than we'll do that. Five 30 to eight 30, Jamie. Okay. So we've done the survey on your board goals. So I will resend that out, some of you have filled it out. It would be good to get some additional data on that. So we can, certainly I thought one of the things would be analyzing that data and re-looking at your goals as a progress monitoring and looking at are those still your priorities? And that, I thought that was a good process that we went through last time too, around that discussion at the full board meeting. One of the things I wanted to propose and I look at this, just tell me if this is something you're excited about or not, but we've got this strategic plan and the board's reviewed it and the board adopted it. I would like to suggest that maybe we take some time as a board to break out into some committees to analyze and progress monitor each goal of that plan. And then those committees could come back and share where they feel like we are in regards to those tasks to the full board. Am I making sense? Like to really dig in and progress monitor and really make certain folks grasp what's in that strategic plan. Much like our schools are, I'd like to suggest possibly that the board consider that. I think that's a good idea, everybody agree? Yes. Okay, sounds good Jamie. And Bill, I know you had sent Kathy and I some other ideas too, I don't know if I've missed any of those or not. I think you've talked about a reviewing how the SU board did and the goals that we established for ourselves last year and then again looking at the superintendent's goals for the year that we're starting and whether we need to amend or change or add to goals for this year for the SU board. I think that's just, the goal setting process is just huge and reviewing how do we do and then what do we want to do going forward and making sure that we're in sync where we're committing the superintendent, the superintendent's committed to the board of where SU is going to go. And the other thing I, most of you are aware that AOE board recently adopted local public school standards and part of those standards and they're going to go into effect 2025, I believe. Part of those are school board governance goals. We, the state is now going to say that we need to have a level of how we conduct our business and the things that we focus in on. For instance, like goal setting, for instance, many of these things we're already doing, like evaluating the superintendent, also having governance standards ourselves. And so I think it would be useful to at least become aware of what the state is suggesting and build that into working that for this year of how we want to put the SU board in sync with the state's governance expectations. They're not going to start cracking the whip, but I happen to think I was on the task force. These are things that common sense we're doing about 75% of it right now. So let's celebrate and also hone in and be prepared to go the final 30, 25 yards into the end zone. That was another idea for the retreat, just to talk about that and how we're going to tackle that this year. Does anything else? Okay. All right, WRVSU, temperature fair table, feedback. Yeah, this was year one.  How we're looking to try to beef it up and improve it for next year based on it being our first year. I want to thank everyone who stopped by and or helped cover the booth. One of the things I'll say, and then the board can talk further is for me, it just highlights, I think the opportunities that we need to be looking to pursue in regards to if we are community schools, how are we getting out in the community and meeting people in the community versus always trying to get folks to come to the school. And so I was there three days and just was able to connect with a lot of constituents who I know, who were very comfortable talking to me about how they thought things were going in that setting, but who I think we would be very challenged to get to come to a dinner in one of our buildings. And so I've started a lot of conversation with Mary Shell, our community school coordinator around how do we start to really identify across the SU what those events are and how do we look to make certain we have a presence there. An example is we had that table at the Bethel Ford Festival this past weekend to try to start to do that work. But just looking at how do we really start to leverage our community events and then make certain where they're at the community event versus trying to create our own always and ask people to come to us. So that was one of my big takeaways. And then I'll hand it over for other thoughts and discussions. Any other thoughts, discussions? I had fun being there with the Jeff Thomas and so we're a tag team and boy, he knows all these kids coming through the tent and coming over to the coach and the principal and that was really exciting to see and just the connection's still there. And I was more, because I'm myself kind of with the adults and I wasn't that successful. So I'm gonna have to work on that. But it occurred to me that we, that booth needs to be, it can be more powerful. And one of these is to have a three-sided booth. Right now we had kind of the backdrop, we had the table so that we can highlight why we are special, why people should be interested in us, whether it's a kid. Gee, I didn't know they had a soccer team or I didn't know they have music and lessons or all that sort of and parents thinking about, gee, where am I gonna send my kid in when I get to a choice year and that sort of thing. And I think we had three panels that we could have more of things like the championships is one of it, our academic success story is another. Whether a video, but the nice thing is, as we develop this, we could move that around. So it's to Bethel or it's to Royalton or it comes over to Stockbridge. We have it right there. And I'm not sure people know what WRVSU is and so they kind of looked and I think we need to talk about our branding and I'm really getting excited about that. And part of my thinking is they can relate to schools. Oh yeah, oh, this is Stockbridge. So how do we highlight the schools so that we bring them to have that conversation at the table and so that's just some of my thoughts on that. I love the idea of outreach, I really do. Yeah, and if I might say something on that, I was starting to miss the Tumbridge table. Has a nice ring to it, by the way, Tumbridge table. But yeah, I was, I think it's a great idea and as far as maybe the owners can't be totally with Jamie, it's great you're reaching out and stuff. I mean, maybe there should be a committee or whatnot that can kind of handle this kind of outreach thing. We can have, you know, members just kind of really stay kind of in tune and kind of look for these opportunities. That's a great idea. Yeah, that could be something we should talk about as a board goal, I think, and at the retreat and talk about if that's something we want to do is create that committee, Dustin. Yeah, I like that. Anything else? All right. I think Mary-Shell would like that, too. Yeah. So we're going to have an executive session at the end, so we're going to skip over that real quick. Is there any other public comment? Here we are, I didn't actually, I think quite catch the name, sorry. Bill Edgerton. Bill, you actually have a really great idea with the branding as well with the tent. I came from a lot of worlds with the expos and you really have to capture someone within that first five seconds. Otherwise, they are not going to want to stop. And if they don't stop, they don't want to hear your pitch or take in information. And instead of being a waypoint, you could be a destination at the fair. So that gives you an enormous amount of recognition and knowing that you're actually there, people do actually want to stop. And that is actually very effective in terms of community building and outreach ability. Thank you. We're going to get your name and number. We're speaking notes here, right? Thank you. I'd like to follow up with you. Oh, no problem. Resignation new hire is already. Do you share my new hire? Oh, we have a new hire in the business office. Jacob Hinton joined us last Tuesday as our payroll accounting clerk. He came from the banking world and we're really excited to have him on board and he hit the ground running and seems to be doing really well. Any other business tonight guys? All right. Our next meeting is, well, we're going to have a retreat on the 10th and then we'll have a regular board meeting on Tuesday, October 24th. And the board members, I ask that you hang out for a short executive session, please. We're going to make a motion to come out of the executive session. Second. All right. We're out of the executive session. Phil, would you like to make our motion? I'd like to move that the White River Valley Supervisory Board vote to accept the recommendations of the superintendent's negotiating committee with the superintendent's contract. I'll second. Any discussion? Thank you for your work. Phil. Yeah, thank you. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. Thank you guys.


Alright guys, extended break over. I should not need another one of those That way we can push this 12 hours Thank you for sinking around Hanging out. Thank you outposts.   I am free From Newby Island Popa, popa, popa, popa, popa, popa What's that? Pinwheel, raw bird drumstick. What's a pinwheel? Really, someone just put this here and it didn't do anything Okay, there's a tower there More animals Tiny birds. Oh Those are enemies Sorry, jeez. I'm leaving. I said I'm sorry They haven't stopped yet chat. God dang it Want to do this I mean this I'm using like three different fingers Look at all these chickens chat. Look at all of these devilish chickens They're gonna hold this for me, and I'm gonna go bye. I don't know how to change arrows This is such a goofy. I'm used. Oh, man. There's somebody left. Why don't I get a treasure? Oh, there he is That 200 we're having a broadsword Then I pick it up. I don't have any room I got two of these so let's dump it. I know where do you go? Keep pressing the wrong buttons guys Like a billion shields I'll take the spike one please What's this a bow even a better shield? All right, I think I'm gonna get to this tip when I get to this tower We're gonna switch games Huh the first five to six hours of Zelda. I Don't know man That was uh, I was kind of rough. That was a rough start. I ain't gonna lie It seems to be starting to open up now. So hopefully it'll get better, but then that was rough me just really food fuel Has arrived in the form of sandwiches. Oh That's not gonna be as easy as I think it is to get to it's it What's this? What's going on you aim on your oh nevermind cuz it's been aiming on the ground Let's try to do that. This is Aim underfoot aim outward. Okay, so it's under my feet I got it. What's up, buddy? Does it matter which side? I don't think so Oh my goodness.


Epidemiology. This is a medical specialty that explores viruses in determining their origin. It can also look at medical and treatment planning, how and which to prevent diseases, how to heal through various medical treatment forms or otherwise, and also looks at how viruses are transmitted whether it be through humans or animals, through air transmission, touch, or even blood.


Hey everyone and welcome to a new format of the Formula 1 race debrief. We're gonna focus on five key points of the race. Five two watch points from five key points moving to five two watch points. I'm still in Indianapolis at my engineer's place. Those pictures behind me are made by Kate, his wife and they're really good. I think I'm right here. There's Tecomo, Saddo, Silas and Bode. Anyway, Monaco. Many things to talk about. The win for Perez and his contract extension. The rain, really good race from Gasly, Auckland Hamilton penalty. So let's go. The first point to watch is Ferrari. Ferrari pod position. First rope locked. One two in the race. Two and four. How can that happen? That shouldn't happen in Monaco when you're first and two in qualifying. You should be one and two at the end of the race. They would not be sent to Charles when he asked for inters. They got undercut by Perez. They went too late. They even got undercut by Verstappen and Sainz. Came to the pit. Inters straight dry. Double stack pit stop. Lost time. That's not good for Ferrari. That's not good for Charles Leclerc. Barcelona should have won the race. Engine issue. Monaco should have won the race. Strategy issue. E-Modai was on for P2. It's fun. So that's a lot of points gone for Charles and Ferrari. Obviously the season is not over, but they started 2020 very strong because in 2021 they completely stopped developing the car to focus on 2022 whilst Red Bull was actually fighting for the whole championship in 2021. So I see Red Bull being getting stronger and stronger and Ferrari may not have what it takes to fight them. I hope they do. But my feeling is that it's going to go more towards Red Bull. But again, I may be wrong. The other point to watch and not to watch is the delay. One hour delay of the race start. Yes, the first water. It was too much water at the beginning. When they launched the race, started the race, first of all it was a bit messy. Just a communication. Then the race went behind the safety card and too much rain. Red flag was the right thing. What I don't understand is after the red flag, two things. First thing is why did the driver had to be on extreme tires and not didn't have the choice, right? Some of them would have started on inters. And second point. I wish we've had a standing start. You can do standing start on a race. You normally use a second gear. Very light, very gentle on the throttle. Drop the clutch slowly and roll from there. So it's possible. And I think it would have been interesting to see who gets a better start and change a bit the order. But I felt like the communication around the delay wasn't the best. Could have been done better. I've dealt with better. But that was a point maybe not to watch, right? Make sure to make a big crash. I don't know why the car got split in two pieces. Yeah, it's a decent impact into a fast part of the circuit. But it was very strange to understand why the rear end went away from the front end while the gearbox was broken. Watch the crash. Tell me what you think. But I'm a bit confused in why did the car split in two parts. Kevin Manusen pointed right that with the budget cap, it'd be nice that the budget doesn't go into reapering car but developing car. Because he knows that it's not one of the strengths from Haas. And Mika's already crashed in everyone in Jeddah, I believe. That's another everyone. So it's a lot of damage on the car. That makes it very hard for the budget cap. You know, we've been hearing the top team saying it's going to be struggling to stay underneath it. And Kevin wants to upgrade. He wants to do well. He had an engine failure. Qualifying didn't go that way. But they looked fast out there. So that was good to see. Gasly started 17th, finished 11th. If you want to have a clear view of how a driver set up a pass, you should watch Gasly on board. It was really, really good to see. He didn't overtake on the braking zone like he would expect. He would cross over obviously on the inters. He was much faster than everyone on the extreme. But saying so in Monaco is very hard to pass. So he had to be creative. He had to open the entry. He tried to cut, go around. Yeah, fine ways of overtaking in Monaco. That's tough. It wasn't well-paid because he didn't get points at the end. But still, it was a good drive. It was fun to watch. I especially liked the one outside, inside of the exit of the Tabak corner. It's definitely our place to overtake. Can't remember who he got out there. But he pushed it to close on the inside. Opened the entry, cut mid-corner, went on throttle, had a bit of a wheel spin there, but managed to overtake before the swing put. And that's a very cool overtake manoeuvre there. And then we had Orkon versus Hamilton. So Orkon got penalized five-second time penalty. But it's not for the contact that they made in turn one, as a lot of people thought. It is for Orkon that actually, later in the race, completely squeezed Lewis against a guardrail on the pitch exit. The first manoeuvre was racing. Robbing is racing, right? Lewis tried. He didn't have the momentum going into the corner. Orkon kind of knew that, closed the door. They made small contact. But that was okay. The second one, it's not easy. It's not a bad move. It's just a little bit late for Orkon, I think. On the straight line, he can open a little bit, so Lewis goes in and then he closes down. It doesn't really react to Lewis' move. It doesn't look like it does react to Lewis' move, but it's squeezing really hard against the guardrail a lot. They weren't a car with. And that's what you're supposed to kind of leave a car with, with the other car, right? If you know it's going to be there. So I think it was, I don't know. Clumsy is not the word, but it was just like a little bit unnecessary. I was trying hard and, you know, Monaco is a tough one. But at that point, Lewis was so much faster than Orkon that, again, the first battle was really good. Orkon was playing very well. He was trying mid-track. It wasn't 11 Lewis to go around. And that was pretty good to see. The first robbing was racing. There's someone I felt just wanted a little bit too far. That's why Orkon got a penalty. So I kind of, you know, if it was for the first contact, I would say, why would you get a penalty there? But that one, yeah. I think that one is a five second penalty. And that's kind of sadly for Orkon deserve. Next race in two weeks, Baku. That's going to be something. Baku is always a lot of good racing. I think Red Bull is going to be strong there. But I'm looking to see if Ferrari can get to top speed. I'm looking forward to see if Mercedes can get the car to be faster. They've always been pretty good in Baku. Looking forward to see what the midfield was. It's going to be an exciting track, definitely. With a huge straight line. But yeah, Monaco is always, it's the race that you want to win the race in the year. It's the most lame race of the calendar. It's not the most interesting one on TV. And there's a lot of talk about, shall we change Monaco or not? I don't think so. I think just the cars got too long, too wide for Monaco. But I don't really want to see the track being changed. It's almost like we need a different car for Monaco. A smaller one, a Formula 1 car. Maybe a Formula 2 or something like that. Just for Monaco. But I love that race. You do the race on Saturday in qualifying. And you want to make sure you get it right. Baku is kind of the opposite. Baku is so much top speed straight line. The Arizona zone that you actually do the race on Sunday and not on Saturday. So it's going to be exciting to watch. Please always make sure that you leave me a comment, to subscribe, your like. I'll speak with you very soon.


Russian hackers attempt to deceive German politicians. Russian hackers and spies attempted to deceive representatives of German political parties using fake dinner invitations, according to Bloomberg. Hackers from the APT-29 group, linked to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, were previously known for attacks on diplomatic institutions, but this time they focused on political parties. The material writes that this shift indicates a broad threat to European and other Western political parties across the political spectrum. Chief Analyst at Mandiant Intelligence, John Holtquist, said he is concerned that this may not be an isolated incident and other organizations may become targets of hackers in the near future. The attack involved Russian hackers posing as representatives of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union Party, sending fake dinner invitations via email claiming the dinner would take place on March 1. The invitation encouraged recipients to click a link, which directed them to a malicious file. The report added that the shift of Russian hackers to attacks on political parties aligns with Kremlin interests in understanding decision-making processes related to Ukraine and other issues. The article notes that some of the hacking tools used by Russian spies in the attack on Germany were first detected by security researchers at the end of January 2024. Outside of Ukraine, there is no bigger priority for Russia's intelligence services right now than monitoring changing Western political dynamics, said Mandiant's chief analyst, Dan Black. He believes this attack is not just aimed at targeting the Christian Democratic Union Party of Germany. He thinks it's part of broader Russian efforts to find ways to undermine European support for Ukraine. Recently, a series of cyber attacks by hackers were recorded, during which the perpetrators sent Ukrainian servicemen messages via the signal messenger with malicious software about recruitment to the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Israeli Defense Forces.


Hello everybody and welcome to another hobby cheating video and today we're going to talk about understanding flesh tone. Flesh is one of my favorite things to paint. It's really fun and what we're going to do today is going to be a fairly pinky skin tone but it's still going to stand in for you to understand the basics of how to paint flesh on any model. I really like models with a lot of flesh but I know that's often very intimidating and there's no reason to be intimidated. So the first lesson here about flesh is it's generally better to start darker and build up. So with this model I had Zenithal primed it and then I started with a nice thin glaze of Indian shadow through the airbrush. If you don't have that color or you don't have an airbrush, a simple contrast paint or a wash or something like Rykel and Flesh A could also get you there or a thin glaze of a dark red purple color. Now I've added in a little bit of Dollar Rowney Pains gray and you'll notice I'm shooting at this you know low angle right just bringing shadows up under the muscle structure. This is again just defining volumes but in a very broad way. When you're doing flesh tone it's important to remember first that the entire volume of the miniature i.e. the whole thing from top to bottom is going to be lit more at the top than at the bottom but each individual muscle is also going to respect that volume. So without applied I also applied some color to other areas just because other areas of color near your flesh will affect your understanding how you see the color. But with flesh tones as I said we start dark and we do that so that we can build up. Flesh tones feel very natural when you sort of build them up because then these the darker more ruddy colors slightly show through and influence the higher layers and flesh is translucent it's not transparent but it's not opaque. Stick a flashlight to your hand and you'll see how translucent it is. So I've begun with a mix of the Indian shadow and some Bugman's Glow here which isn't that much different than my thin glaze but I'm laying that down just reinforcing the color. Now what I'm doing is just reinforcing adding a little more Bugman's Glow and you'll notice I kind of go over the muscles. At this point I do still heat some of those low shadows but I'll sometimes connect to the tissue. The important part to remember here is that when you're highlighting muscle structures you have to push the highlight all the way to the top and when you have separated muscle structures your first couple highlights should connect to between the two. So in other words you don't want to leave each muscle just as an island to begin. Later highlights will focus on defining just the individual volumes but you see how I kind of crossed the line there from the muscle of the shoulder to the muscle of his back. That's because I want to draw those two together with these early layers. Not each muscle is going to carry the full shadow by bringing them across at the top of the muscle structure. You then create the next level of volumetric beneath the entire miniature. So now I'm working in pink flesh. I've gone up to just Bugman's Glow and then now I'm integrating pink flesh basically just taking these half steps up. These initial layers are quite transparent when you're working with these so you're not going to see really huge jumps. And as always you all like I'm working quick kind of wet blending these in and that's fine. You can work fast with these initial layers but do keep in mind that you won't have a good idea of the final color until everything settles and dries as all these paint layers sink into each other as the wetness of the paint evaporates and they get more dim. It's going to have a big influence on how bright it seems. So then with just the pure pink flesh and then we're mixing in some of the pale pink. Again I'm going with a very pink scheme. If you replaced this with any flesh progression you would have much the same effect. And then finally a little bit of the sunray or effectively an ice yellow mixed in for the very high highlights. You'll notice that when I got to the later brighter colors I didn't connect them. That's where I started to just build out the individual muscle volumes but each time I was pushing the highlight all the way to the top of the muscle structure. Okay when I was doing that I wasn't really worried about how it looked. That is to say using a rough layering technique like that and using basically one layer and a little bit of wet blending you're going to get a rough blend. This is where we come to the first secret of flesh tones. Highlight higher than you think you need to go and then glaze back down to bring them together. Don't wash. Wash just get everywhere. Wash is coffee stain. We're doing a controlled glaze. So I made a glaze out of my Indian shadow and I'm very carefully going over most of the miniature. What I'm not hitting is those highest highlights on the first pass. I then let that glaze completely settle. They will be weaker once it's done. By the way if you want to know how to make a glaze video linked up in the top right now. But once that glaze has dried which it will dry very quick because it's very thin paint and it's mostly liquid it's going to evaporate. I'm then doing a second glaze but this time I'm covering the whole muscle structure. By doing one glaze only about half or not the highest highlight maybe three quarters of the muscles and then the second glaze over everything. We end up smoothing it down. If you still see some challenges you can glaze a third time a fourth time. It's a fast easy process. You can see how now it brought all those blends together and gives us a really interesting tone to our skin. Now if you don't want it to be quite this pink you could glaze with your neutral mid-tone flesh tone and achieve the same result. So no matter what color skin you have to be working in. We're going to continue the glazes here and these will look stronger than they are. That's because they're wet and the light is reflecting back into the camera. But these are actually very thin glazes of my high highlights my lighter colors. The important part to understand about skin is that especially when people are outdoors or fighting which is how our miniatures tend to be portrayed skin is sweaty which means it's not only translucent it's satin. This is one of the reasons skin has everything. Contrast of hue, contrast of value, it's satin, it's translucent. That's why I think it can be so challenging but it's actually just following some simple steps. So now I've taken my highest colors which is some of the pale pink mixed with some of the sunray or ice yellow and I've glazed that over those highlights and you can see how much brighter it looked when I initially put it on as it's drying here in real time on camera. Notice how much dimmer it's getting. But I'm glazing this up to again smooth it out and make sure we have that full run of contrast. The satin nature of skin means it needs to have high reflections. Now it's not as bright as say non-metallic metal or something but if you've got a sweaty person out on a sunny day there's going to be some quite bright reflections and so we want to make sure we capture all of that drama and that contrast it really it makes the miniature pop. Okay once those were dry I went back in within a half step so a mix of the pink flesh and the pale pink thinned that to a glaze and then did the next step down on the volume of the miniature. I also used that to connect over some tissue here so not just doing the miniature or sorry the individual muscles but doing some connection points running a thin glaze over some of my deepest shadows to again connect all of that together. We want to avoid that muscle island syndrome right and by pushing the highlights to the top and connecting the upper areas of the muscle structures we can do just that. The other important element of skin is contrast of hue. Skin has a lot of reds in it we have a lot of reds a lot of pinks a lot of purples because there's blood right under the surface of the translucent skin. So here I've grabbed some magenta but again this is chimera magenta I didn't list that originally I'm sorry but you can use any magenta color you like and or any pinkish type color you can even use rikeland flesh shade and it would work fine. I've once again thinned this to an ultra thin glaze basically a filter and I'm running it along into the deepest shadow starting with about 50% or 60% down on any individual muscle. I am running it into all of the shadows again to add color and tone to what would otherwise be more boring shadows. This adds that touch of vitae of life to the the muscles by adding those red tones you make them more interesting and that's really it. With this this process you can get really bright but contrasting and interesting skin tones. If you liked this give it a like subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future but as always I thank you for watching this one and we'll see you next time.