Income tax 2021-2022, self-employed, what you need to know. Get ready to get refunds to the max diving into income tax 2021-2022. Most of this information can be found in Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Businesses on the IRS website at irs.gov, irs.gov. We're looking at the first line of the income tax formula, although we're supporting that within essence of Schedule C, which will be an income statement, income and expenses. Expenses basically being deductions, which the net then pulls into the first line of the income tax formula, as well as the first page of the form 1040, which we're looking at here, focusing in on line number 8. Other income from Schedule 1, the Schedule C flowing into Schedule 1, and then ultimately here to line 8 on the first page of the form 1040. This is the Schedule C profit or loss from businesses. This is going to be basically an income statement, which flows into the Schedule C, the bottom line of it, in essence the net income, which then flows into the Schedule C, to the Schedule 1, then back here to the first page of the form 1040 and the income area. Now we're going to go over a couple items. These are what you need to know types of items. When we're thinking about a business kind of reporting, there's so many topics that basically can be covered and there's no real linear process for us to do it. It's not like we can really go from like an income statement, for example, going from the income line straight through to the expense lines, although we'll take a look at some of those items because as we've seen in prior presentations, there's multiple areas of the tax return that will be impacted. So we're going to kind of have to bounce around a bit to touch on a lot of the different things that will be involved if you have a Schedule C. So there's just a couple of them that you might want to keep in mind when you're referencing where you could find them in the tax guide for small businesses and we'll touch on more of them as we go through our presentations. So what kind of federal taxes do I have to pay? How do I have to pay them? So obviously that's going to be an important point. The first one that you would be thinking about would be the federal income taxes. But remember, you also have, in essence, the social security taxes, Medicare and social security, which are kind of like the payroll taxes and the self-employment taxes, which become quite important. And then you also want to think about when you need to pay those taxes, how are you going to pay those taxes, given the fact that they're not being withheld from W-2 withholdings, but rather something that you have to pay either with an actual check or with electronic transfer. What forms must I file? So when we start to think about a Schedule C type of business, a sole proprietor, it's going to be far more complex in terms of the number of forms that will be put in place, as opposed to simply having W-2 type of income. For example, forms such as, as of course, the Schedule C, and of course you're going to need the self-employment form at the minimum in general that would need to be filed. What must I do to have employees? So what if you have employees? Notice that if you're self-employed, then if you're talking about a sole proprietorship, it might just be you. You're basically being treated as an employee on the net income of the business because you're paying employer and employee taxes on it in the form of self-employment tax, which are basically payroll taxes, but you could, of course, as a sole proprietor, hire employees as well, and that adds a level of complications of then you have to be following the taxes that you're going to be paying with payroll taxes, which are similar to any kind of business. If you had like a C corporation, then you'd still have to deal with similar kind of payroll tax situations if you have an employee as with a sole proprietorship, but you also have the thought process of what do you then get to deduct in terms of the Schedule C for basically your employees. It also gets a little bit confusing when you talk about payroll taxes with regards to you paying your employees as opposed to when you're talking about basically the form of payroll taxes that you're paying, which is in essence the self-employment tax, because you're not actually paying yourself as an employee of the sole proprietorship and therefore the way that Iris is going to collect the self-employment tax, which is kind of like payroll taxes, is by using the self-employment tax instead of having them calculated in the payroll. When you process payroll for employees, then you're going to be paying self-employment tax the employer portion out of you and you're going to take out of their wages their withholding. So that's a whole issue in and of itself. Notice that if you're thinking about payroll with regards to a tax preparer, then you want to keep it kind of distinct in your mind in terms of the data input for the actual federal income tax return and then what you're going to do for employers that have questions about employees and whether they should have employees, whether they should hire contractors, whether they should hire partners and you're either going to think, should I help them out with those kind of things or am I going to align myself with other people that have that kind of specialization so that I can do what I do, which is basically the data input and then I can help guide them to where they need to go if they need advice on things like setting up another entity in LLC or payroll advice. Who's going to do the payroll taxes and actually the reporting? Are you going to do that through your accounting system like through QuickBooks or something like that with the third party helping you to process the payroll and do the payroll tax forms which are different than the federal income tax forms because those are things that are typically reported quarterly on like a 941 yearly than the 940 and so on. Okay, do I have to start my tax year in January or can I start it in any other month? So you might have a different fiscal year than the calendar year for the business. Normally if you're a sole proprietorship you're usually going to have a calendar year January through December but you might then have exceptions to that. You might have questions in terms of people wanting a different year. What are your capacities in that instance? What method can I use to account for my income and expenses? So in other words, if you have any accounting background this gets into the accounting area whenever you're doing taxes for a business entity that's where the CPA designation is actually quite good. Notice that there's other designations for tax preparers like an enrolled agent for example. The thing in a lawyer can do taxes and whatnot. The thing that the CPA might have more in-depth knowledge about would be the accounting because a lot of the CPA examination and so on is related to just accounting and that's going to be necessary for the actual tax preparation. However, if you're a tax preparer then think about the situation of how much accounting do I want to dive into? You're probably going to be dealing with small businesses who might not have the best accounting system that is going to be set up. Is that something that you want to dive into or do you want to be saying look I just do the data input of what you give me if you need bookkeeping help then align yourself and network yourself with bookkeepers and tax professionals they can basically possibly help and pick up that kind of advice as well just to keep that in mind. What must I do if I disposed of business property during the year? So then you've got the instance normally an income statement is fairly straightforward. We talked about what kind of accounting method usually you can choose between like a cash method or we'll talk more about this later or an accrual method and those are accounting kind of topics or you might have some kind of hybrid method between the two of them but the goal is consistency so once you choose a method then you basically want to be kind of consistent with it you also could have obstacles for things like inventory which are more likely to push you towards an accrual method because inventory by its nature is usually accounted for on an accrual method. And then you also have a situation of well if you buy large things and this is especially important if your business has a larger capital investment that you need to put in place so for example if you need to buy like a large piece of equipment like a tractor or something like that to do the business then you're going to have these large pieces of equipment that are on the books and that means you have to deal with an accrual concept which is going to be the depreciation and remember that's a little bit confusing for a sole proprietorship because you don't have a balance sheet on the actual income tax return although in accounting you would want the balance sheet that would mean that these big assets are going to go on the balance sheet of property, plants and equipment and then you'll depreciate them not in accordance with generally accounting principles but in accordance with the tax code and then if you dispose of a piece of equipment you'll have to write that off. Now these things will take place on those types of businesses that have a substantial investment that needs to take place if you're talking about just like a service business like gig work or something like that you might not have too many big things that you're purchasing doing gig work and you might not have these big items that are going to be more of a problem so as a tax preparer you might also want to think about what industries if you're going to pick up C corporations or schedule C businesses what kind of industries do you want to then be picking up in what kind of industries might you say maybe that's not the industry that I want to pick up because it has things along with it that are going to add to complexity if you want to deal with inventory do you want to deal with large pieces of equipment large investments and so on and if not network with people that might want to help you out or pick up those kind of clients or those components so what kinds of business income do I have to report on my tax return so now you've got the question of well now that I have my business set up what kind of income what qualifies basically as business income and the common answer I think well anything that I get a 1099 for I have to include but that's not generally the case even if you don't get a 1099 for it you typically need to include it in income the 1099 is just a double verification the IRS is attempting to put in place to kind of lock things down what kinds of business expenses can I deduct from my tax return this is clearly usually the more complex question usually those expenses of course in general the rule would be those expenses that were necessary in order to help you to generate the revenue were the ones that you get to deduct but you can imagine a lot of gray area in terms of what's a necessary expense was it personal or was it business what if it has a personal and business component what about like a part of my home for example the home office deduction what about part of my car which has business and personal possibly related to it so you can see some that's where most of the gray area comes into place because there's a lot more expenses items usually in terms of line items although we're hoping the income in terms of total dollar amounts will be greater what kinds of expenses are not deductible as business expenses so just as important as knowing what kind of expenses are deductible we want to look at those things that would not be deductible as expenses as well so what happens if I have a business loss can I deduct it notice anytime you have a loss the IRS is going to be skeptical of the loss because notice from the IRS's perspective what do they want they want to be your silent partner sharing your income they don't want to be liable for your losses right there they don't want to pay you for your losing money so if you have losses the question is well what can I do with those can I can I take like if I have a Schedule C business like gig work can I take the loss against my W2 income and sometimes you can a lot of times you can have a Schedule C business if it qualifies as a business if it's not a hobby for example and so on so that's going to be an important point but you want to be aware that losses are going to be something that the IRS is going to be kind of skeptical of if you have losses for a long period of time the IRS might be more likely to want to check that out and check out what's going on so normally when we think about a Schedule C we think about income and the government taking a piece of it but the loss side of things is important because that can have significant tax implications what are my rights as a taxpayer so you can get into what kind of rights do you have in terms of the taxpayers your reporting rights with regards to the reporting of the IRS if they have any changes and so on and where do I go if I need help with federal tax matters you can go to some of this give you some suggestions in terms where you can go to get help and some guidance on those issues


Trails take a beating every year from the elements and from heavy or improper use. Routine maintenance helps to keep trails safe and fun. We're going to show you some of the basics, things you can do to keep trails in good shape now and in the future. A good trail is one that is easy to follow and well maintained. Each trail is designed, constructed and maintained to meet specific standards. These standards relate to the recreational experience the trail is intended to provide, the level of difficulty to negotiate it, the amount of use expected, and the physical characteristics of the land. You need to know the specific standards for the trail you are maintaining, who was the trail designed for, and what are the particular maintenance standards you need to follow. Once you know the standards, you need to be most concerned with correcting unsafe situations. You'll also be responsible for minimizing natural resource damage and fully restoring the trail to its original design standard. Whatever the reason, doing maintenance when the need is first noticed will help prevent more severe and costly damage later. Before heading out, make sure you're prepared for the work ahead. The most important thing in trail maintenance is your personal well-being and safety. Drinking water, lip moisturizer, sunscreen, sunglasses, insect repellent, and personal medications are important items to take along with you. Pants and long sleeves are the best protection from scrapes, insects, and sunburn. Good leather boots at least 8 inches high offer the best support and ankle protection. Ankle high hiking boots are okay for some trail work, but sneakers or tennis shoes do not give enough support or protection. Rubber boots might be the norm for boggy trails. Having a positive attitude about safety is most important, and don't start the job until you have the proper equipment. Safety gear includes hard hats, especially when working in timber or an area with falling rock, or swinging tools, eye protection for cutting or rock work, and ear protection near chainsaws or rock drills. As a crew, you'll also need a first aid kit and some sort of communications plan. The project leader should have a job hazard analysis that identifies the specific hazards of the work you'll be doing, and should hold safety briefings before you start work, especially on something new. Now that you're ready, we'll explore some of the basics of trail maintenance. Trail clearing, tread maintenance, switchback maintenance, surface water control, rock and wooden structure maintenance, marking the trail, and trail obliteration. Let's begin with trail clearing. The trail corridor is a zone which includes the trail and the areas to the sides and above it. The trail corridor needs to be unobstructed for the safe passage of hikers, stock, and riders. The clearing limits for hiking and mountain bike trails are about 3 to 4 feet wide and 8 to 10 feet high. For pack stock trails, they are usually 6 to 8 feet wide and 10 feet high. Your specific trail standards give you exact dimensions. Keeping the trail corridor open requires that you remove seedlings, prune overhanging limbs, log out fallen trees, and cut down unstable leaners. Clearing begins by removing tree seedlings which are beginning to crowd the trail corridor. The longer they're left to grow, the harder it will be to eventually remove them. You can yank the seedlings out by the roots or thin them out with loggers or a small power tool. Cut them off at ground level, taking care not to leave pointed stubs. Overhanging tree branches may also crowd the trail corridor. Cut the limbs off within half an inch of the tree trunk. Make a shallow undercut first. Then follow with a top cut. Do not use an axe for pruning. If over half the tree needs pruning, it's usually better to cut the tree down. Throw limbs and stems off the trail, but ends first where they are least visible. The trail corridor may be blocked by fallen trees. Logging out a trail means cutting away trees which have fallen across it. The size of the tree, restrictions on motorized equipment, and your skill in training will determine whether chain saws, crosscut saws, bow saws, or axes are used. Cutting timber is hazardous, whether using a chainsaw, crosscut saw, or axe. It's important to have the proper training, certification, and concern for safety. The most basic logging techniques involve an undercut and a top cut. Sometimes side cuts are also needed to relieve tension in the log. Cut the log out as wide as your normal clearing limits. Experienced trail maintainers have everything carefully planned so that once the cuts are made, the log almost naturally moves to the side of the trail. Or can be easily rolled outside the clearing limits with a little leverage. Don't leave a log end suspended in mid-air. Make another cut to drop it to the ground. Leaners are trees which have not fallen but are leaning across the trail. If the leaning tree is within the trail clearing zone, it should be removed. It's a judgment call whether or not to cut down a leaner outside the clearing zone. Felling a standing or leaning tree, especially one that is hung up in other trees, can be very hazardous. Only highly qualified sawyers should do it. If you're uncomfortable with your ability to cut a tree due to its hazards or your lack of experience, walk away from it. Leave it for someone more qualified. You'll be exercising sound judgment if you do. The tread is the surface of the trail that you walk on. The tread needs to be maintained at the minimum width for which the trail was designed. An outslope tread is one that is lower on the outside or downhill side of the trail than it is on the inside or bank side. Slupping lets water run naturally off the trail. A two foot wide trail would have an outside edge one and a half to two and a half inches lower than the inside edge. Slough is soil, rock and debris that is slid onto the inside of the tread narrowing it. Sloughing can also cause hillside trails to creep downhill. Slough needs to be removed. This is hard work. Loosen compacted slough with a mattock or pilasque. Then remove the soil with a shovel or mclout. After the slough has been removed reshape the tread to restore its outslope. Berm is soil that has built up on the outside of the tread forming a barrier that prevents water from running off the trail. In most cases the berm should be removed so outslope can be maintained and water can easily drain off the trail. Trails can move downhill over time because of sloughing and overuse of the outside edge of the tread. Livestock, mountain bikers and hikers often use the outer edges of hillside trails. Ever wider trails push off the planned alignment or bench of the trail often into soft soil causing the trail to creep down the hill. Your job is to bring the trail back uphill to its original location and to keep it there. Trees, stumps, logs and rocks on the downhill side of the trail help to keep the trail in place by preventing people and animals from walking the edge. Curb rocks need to be well anchored and placed at random distances so they don't look like a wall. You may have to remove an occasional stump and routine maintenance but before you do consider whether a stump should be left to help keep the trail from creeping downhill. Removing them is a lot of work. The larger the stump the more difficult. Stumps and stump grinders are sometimes good alternatives for removing stumps but chances are you'll have to do the work by hand. Your specific trail maintenance standards may also call for removing embedded rocks. Use good judgment here as to whether the rock is movable or better handled by blasting or by rerouting the trail. Rock bars are great for skidding medium to large rocks. Use the bars to pry rocks up out of the ground and then to guide them around. When crew members have two or three bars under various sides of a large rock they can apply leverage to the stone and virtually float it to a new location. Increase the leverage of your rock bar by using small rocks or logs as a fulcrum. Be careful when rolling rocks off the trail and out of control rock can knock down small trees, wipe out trail structures, start rock slides and even worse hit someone on the trail below you. Once a rock is loose however do not try to stop it. If there's any possibility of people below close the trail or road or post sentries until the rock work is done. Lifting rock should be a last resort. If you need to lift rocks be sure to keep your back straight, bend your knees and lift with the strong muscles of your legs. Filling holes, turnpikes or washed out sections of the trail is another part of tread maintenance. For this you'll need replacement fill material. A mixture of sand, gravel and small well graded angular rocks work well. Creek bottoms which are replenished by storms and seasonal water flow, the cut bank of the trail itself and the base of slopes or cliffs where heavy runoff or gravity deposit sand and gravel are good places to find fill materials. Very fine soils like silt and clay do not drain well. They're slippery when wet and are highly erodable. Dark colored organic soils found in bogs and swamps retain water. None of these make good fill material. The hole you dig for fill material is called a borough pit. It should be as close to the work site as possible but screened from view. A large deep pit is better than many small or shallow ones. Be careful not to destroy aquatic or riparian habitat when digging your pit. When you dig the pit, save all squares of vegetation. Keep them in the shade and as moist as possible by covering them with wet burlap. When you've taken out all the fill material you need, fill in the pit by collapsing the sides. Once the pit has been filled in, replace the grass squares, camouflage the area and access trails with boulders and deadwood, reseed if necessary with compatible grass or ground cover. Switchbacks usually require more maintenance in straight sections of trail. Slough, erosion and trail shortcutting all take a toll on switchbacks. Maintaining the outslope and inslope of a switchback and the shape of the turning platform is critical. First, remove slough and berm from the trail. Next, regrade the outslope of the lower trail leg and the inslope of the upper leg. Ensure drainage by cleaning debris from the inside edge of the upper leg and the ditch along the inside of the turning platform. Last but not least, close off shortcuts to stop erosion and to keep users on the trail. Block off the shortcut with brush, logs or rocks. Thorny plants transplanted onto the shortcut will persuade users to stay on the trail. Use your imagination but keep things looking natural. However, where traffic is heavy or there's a lack of screening, consider constructing a rock wall or a log barrier along the top leg of the switchback. These are just some of the basics you'll need to know for trail maintenance. We'll explore more of them after you stand up and stretch for 30 seconds. Diverting surface water off the trail is the most important job in trail maintenance. The sooner water is off the trail, the better. The primary ways to do this are maintaining drainage structures and removing standing water from the trail. Usually drainage structures are the only things keeping a trail from washing out. It's important that they are maintained. The drainage structure should be cleaned thoroughly to allow for an entire season of traffic and weather, including seasonal runoff. To maintain a water bar, reshape the tread with a shovel, combination tool, McLeod or fire rake to form a funnel-like apron approaching the bar. Be careful not to undermine the bar by digging the apron too deep. This allows the water to run off the trail before hitting the bar itself. A common misconception is that water must run down the trail and actually hit the water bar before running off the trail. Instead, think of the water bar as the ultimate backup to divert water off the trail in a heavy storm or during spring runoff. Reset or replace loose water bar rocks, anchor stakes and rotten logs. Clear rocks, logs and other debris out of the lead-off ditches. Make the lead-off ditch wide enough to handle the expected volume of water, usually at least two shovel blades wide. When maintaining culverts, you'll need to repair, reseat or replace those that are in poor condition. Run a shovel through culverts to remove silt and debris. If a culvert is narrower than your shovel, use the handle or a combination tool. Not all eroding trails become major problems. Some eventually stabilize by themselves, especially those on relatively level and rocky ground. However, if erosion is evident, you may need to install additional water bars, grade dips, culverts or other surface water control structures. Figure out where the water is coming from and where it is likely to go. Consider soil type, slope gradient, distance of flow and volume of water. See where erosion is occurring and do something to stop it. A section of trail that is very muddy or that holds standing water is a messy problem. Trail users will often try to avoid getting wet feet by detouring around the mucky area, which enlarges the problem by beating down vegetation and soil. On hillside trails, the best way to remove puddles is to restore the trail tread to its original outslope condition over the entire length of the puddle so that water naturally runs off the trail at all points. In soft soils, especially on pack stock trails, both ends of the puddle are good places to anchor large rocks to help keep stock in the center of the trail. There are other strategies for correcting problems on trails in treeless areas. Trails that cross meadows and alpine tundra can become a lacework of paths. The problem often is that the original trail was poorly located. Without obstacles such as rocks, underbrush or trees bordering the trail, there is little to encourage users to stay on the tread. As the trail becomes difficult to use, people simply step aside to create new, easier paths. Often the answer is to relocate the trail onto a side slope. The trail will be where people are more inclined to stay on it and where drainage is more successful. If you can't move the trail, restore the trenched out trail by filling it with mineral soil or crushed rock. You can crown the tread, making it slightly higher than the surrounding ground, to encourage water to run off to either side. Another solution is to locate the source of the water, usually a spring or seat, and channel water away with ditches or culverts. You may also consider elevating the tread above the wet ground with a turnpike, punchin' or stepping stones. In most cases, draining a trail is easier than elevating the tread above wet ground. Trail turnpikes need periodic maintenance. Recrown the turnpike and fill in any holes or depressions. Inspect the retainer logs or rocks and replace or reset any that are missing or loose. And clean out the lateral and lead off ditches. Rock and wooden trail structures require routine inspection and maintenance. Rock structures that have been built properly should require little maintenance. Even so, you should take a look at them. Inspect rock structures to see if any stones are working loose. A wall can sometimes be strengthened by chinking smaller stones between larger ones. Examine the bottom tier of the wall to be sure it is still firmly embedded in solid soil or against rock. Where soil has eroded away, you may be able to prevent further undermining of the foundation by piling heavy stones against it. Add replacement fill where needed. Rock structures that are loose and wobbly should be dismantled and rebuilt. The same stones can be used for the reconstruction, often in the same order. At stream crossings or fords, remove large rocks from the tread area and make sure the approach apron does not have abrupt drops. Load bearing structures made of wood should be inspected for signs of rot and deterioration. Often bridge and punchin inspections are rather elaborate and beyond the scope of routine trail maintenance. However, you should look at them and report obvious problems. To get a sense of whether a timber is rotten, stick it with a knife. If the blade goes in easily, the wood has probably lost much of its strength. As part of your routine maintenance job, remove all debris from wooden surfaces. Moss, pine needles, leaves and debris on bridge and punchin decking hold moisture that causes decay. Next, look for nails, spikes or rebar that have worked loose. Drive them flush with the wood or remove them. Reshape the approaches to bridges and punchins and clean out drainages that keep water from running onto it. A well-maintained trail is obvious. The more clearly defined a trail is, the less need there will be to market with signs, blazes and carns. The amount and type of signage varies by jurisdiction and the type of recreational experience being provided. The Forest Service has national guidelines which cover all types of trail signing. There should be a detailed sign plan in effect for the trail you're maintaining. Repair damaged signs and install replacement signs or markers where the originals have disappeared. You should also report any down, inappropriate or dilapidated signs to the project leader. Make sure replacement signs are put in the correct location, visible yet not an obstacle to trail users. To install a signpost, dig the hole at least 20 inches deep. The hole should be at least the width of your shovel. A post hole digger often works better than a shovel to remove loose and soil and rock. Once the hole is dug, drop the post into the hole. Pack a few rocks around the post and tamp them down to hold the post in place. Fill the hole with rocks and soil, tamping as you go. Top the hole off with soil and pack it down. Some signs and plastic markers may be nailed or bolted to trees rather than to posts. Aluminum rather than steel nails are often used. Leave about a half inch gap between the sign and the tree to allow for additional tree growth to occur. Blazes are a traditional way of marking trails, one that is being replaced by signs or markers in many areas. In some parts of the country, painted blazes are acceptable. You should cut new blazes only if given specific instructions to do so. Carnes are used to mark trails in treeless areas. They are effective year-round because they are visible even when the tread is covered with snow. Carnes need to be conspicuous so they are easy to see in low visibility conditions. They should be three to four feet wide and three to six feet high. Stack large, flat rocks into layers making sure to bridge each joint. Each layer should slope slightly to the center so that gravity will stabilize the carn. Sometimes it's necessary to abandon a trail and restore the site to its natural condition. There aren't any fixed approaches for doing this. Each site should be evaluated for its potential to regrow and heal. At sites that are moist and relatively flat, it may be possible to simply block off the trail and allow rehabilitation to proceed naturally. At the other extreme, dry steep sites take a lot of work. The first step to obliterate a trail is controlling surface water and erosion. Drainage structures should be left intact. However, you will need to remove culverts and replace them with ditches. Check dams and water bars might be needed to stop erosion. Next, break up the tread by decompacting the soil with hand tools, stock and harrow, or heavy equipment and then reshape it back to its natural contour. Finally, you need to stop people from using the trail. The most effective way to do this is to block the route with logs, rocks and brush. Be sure to block the entire route or at least enough of it to discourage use. Blocking just the ends of the trail usually isn't enough. Revegetation with native species is the final step. Transplanting vegetation, planting nursery stock and seeding with native or commercial mixes are all possibilities. Introducing weed species is always a concern. Well, now you know some of the basics. Once you actually construct or maintain a trail, you will never look at one the same way again. You will have a much better idea of why a trail is where it is and what keeps it in place. And you should feel good knowing you've helped make some great National Forest trails safe and enjoyable.


Hello everyone and good afternoon. I'm happy to welcome you to this thematic webinar of school education gateway and today is a special day. Today is the last time we meet in such a remarkable year of 2020. So in this special occasion we'll talk about student mobility and student mobility in real and a digital world. My name is Ina and together with me today is my colleague I see and we're delighted to support this webinar and our speaker panel today is. Yosef Brand Steiner who is a 40 years of career in education and extensive experience in coordination, convenience and European Erasmus Plus project as well as a student and mobility projects in several European countries. We also have with us today Isabel Lascaux, who is a teacher from France and who is an active member of the coordination coordination team for Erasmus projects in her school. She will also showcase to us the activities of the Erasmus projects that she is working on. And yeah, I think it's going to be very interesting webinar because student mobility has always been a very important element in the education and this year it had been significantly challenged by the restrictions that were imposed on physical mobility and therefore it has given a room for this phenomenon to be developed also in a digital world so I'm very much looking forward to listen to our speakers. As usual, I just want to point out that this webinar will be recorded and it will be published later on on the webinar page and on the YouTube channel of School Education Gateway as well. Feel free to pose the questions to our speakers in the question answer box and we'll try to address as many questions as possible in the end of the webinar. So, Yosef, if you are ready to start, I'm happy to give you the floor and start this webinar. Thank you. Yes, I want to start with my presentation about student student mobilities about advantages disadvantages of student mobilities. My school has a lot of experience with student mobilities. We started when student mobilities have been implemented in a convenience project some years ago. It was, I think, about 2010-11. And yes, it was very good for our school because our school is very focused on languages. The students study English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Latin. We have also a lot of connection to another schools in Europe. And as I said, a lot of experience with long-term mobilities for students. Yes, what are the advantages of long-term mobilities? I think long-term mobilities increase also throughout the school. It's very important. Also, the parents are very interested that children go out to another school to another country to improve their language competencies or to learn a new language or fix a better one. Also, it's the personal maturation process enhanced very strong. The students are more mature when they come back. They have fixed new skills, their knowledge, understanding, also in the question of intercultural competencies and also the experience is shared with peers, with teachers, with a family. So, these are very good advantages. This year it was because of corona, of COVID. We couldn't do any long-term mobility. The students wanted to go to Finland and to Spain, but they connected or had contact to the students in the partner school via digital instruments. Yes, what are possible problems and difficulties of long-term mobilities? On the first, of course, home sickness. Yes, always home sickness always arrives, but I think it's very easy to solve. We always had a system of mentors. We have mentors in our school and mentors in the host school. So, this mentor can solve these problems very easily. Also, problems with the host family or problems with classmates at the host school. Another thing is, yes, how did, how do the students get the subject matters from the home class? We did it always by digital instruments, as, for example, e-twinning or Microsoft Teams, etc., also with emails or similar things. Another very important question is how to assess the learning outcomes of student mobilities. Yes, to assess the learning outcomes is very difficult and also often the result becomes visible later, not in the situation. Progress in school should not be hindered by mobilities. Our students, when they go abroad, are normally good students, but whereby I have also had parents who have said that it doesn't matter if the student loses a year because the overall positive effect of the mobility takes precedence over the positive competition of the year. But that's mostly singular opinions. We always created a learning agreement. This learning agreement is made by the both by the mentors of the schools, of the host school, and of the sending school, and with the students. The student has to sign and also the mentors have to sign this learning agreement, so you can control the success in the school. The student mobility recognized by schools. It's a very different situation in very different legal approaches on different countries. Austria has a very special situation. I will explain this very special law in the next slide. I've heard the European Commission is working on automatic mutual recognition of upper secondary education qualifications and learning outcomes abroad. Very special is, as I said, our Austrian school law. Austrian school law says if a student is more than five months abroad visiting a foreign school in a foreign country, except in a foreign language, it's not possible to visit the school in Germany for that reason, but in the foreign language, then if the student comes back after five months or more, up to one year, he can upgrade into the next class without passing any exams. I think this law is very singular in the whole European Union. What are the advantages of this Austrian school law? The student has no stress to pass the exam, so he can be really... It's very easy for him to be, to stay in the school, to take part on the lessons in the foreign school without exams. For that reason, the best time for long-term mobilities for Austrian students and from an Austrian point of view is the 10th grade. The 10th grade, the students are 15, 16 years old, and it's two years before the final exam. The final exam in Austria is called Matura, so the student has the possibility to catch up on missed learnings in the next school year. He can study the subject matter in peace and has no stress. That's also the reason why our students are normally good, very good qualified students. How do we select our students for long-term mobilities? The most important thing, of course, is the personal motivation to go abroad. Also the support of the parents to go abroad and also the experience of elder students and friends plays a major role. If a friend has did a long-term mobility last year or a colleague of the class, it's very positive. That was the reason why in our school the number of students going abroad increased every year. Then very important things, also the academic performance. Good students are also more likely to go abroad. As I said in our school, normally only good students want to go abroad. Another point is the maturity of the student. Another very important thing for us is the principle of reciprocity. It's very difficult to find families in abroad to host students. So we use this principle of reciprocity. That means a student has to host also a student from the partner school. He has to accept it. This matter is a matter of balance. The parents, the families didn't get don't get any monetary benefits for the student accommodation. So it's fair to host another one and very important. So the intercultural contact is more intensive. Often happens that the families visited together in holidays and so the intercultural contact is not only between students, also between the families, between friends and so on. Because of that reason of the Austrian law the lengths of the stay abroad is normally more than five months, as I said. And we prefer a so-called three-three-three month concept. That means the first three months, for example, the students are together in Austria. A Spanish student comes to Austria maybe in October. They stay together for three months. They know each other better in that time. Then the Austrian student goes in the next three months, for example, to Spain or Finland and stays there separately. And in the last three months the students are together in the host country. So that's also the problem of home sickness would not be so big because they are friends, they get becoming friends normally and so it's easier for both students to be abroad. If a student stays shorter abroad, for example, with the Finnish schools, the Finnish schools wanted only stays up to four months, so three or four months. So we do the stays one after the other. So the students are always together and with all these advantages I said, less home sick, less problems with the family. How do we communicate with our partner schools? Yes, we have the principle of mentoring. There is a mentor in both in the partner school and in the host school and this mentor is responsible for the communication between the two schools to mentor to mentor as well as the communication between the host parents, the host school and the student. It's not good if in case of problems the parents of the students communicate with the parents of the host, of the parents of the hosting family, it's better to communicate with the mentor and the mentor communicates with the mentor of the other school. So it's easier to solve problems. A mentor should always be in between as a connecting and balancing element. We have very good experiences with the system and the mentors of our partner schools and the mentor of my school, of our schools, they know each other personally. So there is also a connection, a friendship and that's very important if problems arise or problems increase. We use all the communication tools, mobile phones, of course, email, social media and digital. In the last year the students communicated with GoToMeeting or Microsoft Teams to see together because they had contact before the real meeting should start it. That was a possibility but it can't be, it's not like a physical exchange and we hope that students mobility will be possible in the next year, in the next time. Very important also is to create a so-called crisis plan. This crisis plan regulates the procedure in crisis situation. This plan is signed by the mentors, the parents and the students. Our experiences with long-term stays or long-term mobilities in the last 12, 13 years are very positive. The pupils do not have any school problems after return home. The students can also take part on lessons also in a digital way. The pupils have to organize themselves how they receive the learning materials. The learning materials of the home school are mostly delivered by email or digital in digital version but also in students can take part on lessons at the home school via, for example, Microsoft Teams via computer especially when they have free lessons in the partner school in the host school. As I said, crisis management also works via contact from mentor to mentor to the sending school and the mentor to the host school. Between the mentors we make always agreement, yes, so-called learning agreement between mentors and students. This learning agreement is defined by the lessons who have to be visited and the timetable of the host school. The student must attend the lessons scheduled in their own school also in the host school. If the lessons are not offered in the whole school, for example, there is no religious lesson in Spain but we have religious lesson in Austria so the student have one free lesson in that time. During this time he has to work on the project. Every student who is of our school, who stays abroad, has to work on a special topic for the whole time for example to compare the different school systems, the school system of the host country, the school system of the home country. When the student is back home he has to explain to his colleagues in the class this different in the presentation or the student has the possibility to take part in this free lesson on the lesson in the home school via Microsoft teams or via digital possibilities. Very important the students are not allowed to leave the school house before the end of the regular timetable because of security reasons. What are the results of a long-term stay for a long-term mobility for the students? They improve their language skills or learning a new language as I said. They get more personal maturity based on this experience. They get friends, get intercultural contact, get more tolerance and became more self-confidence and tolerance as I said became even even more European people, European students. How do we organize this procedure, this long-term mobilities? In the year before of this day we ask interested pupils for long-term mobilities. If the students are interested we organize a meeting with parents for information about accommodation, legal situation in the host country, national laws for the protection of minors in the host country, information about the host school and possible partner pupils. Then the pupils will stay in contact when we have selected the students pupils. They go in contact with his partner, his in the host country and it's very important to attend the mandatory pre-departure training of our national agency. Thank you very for your attention. I hope you got some new information that was interesting for you and I am interested and waiting for your question. Thank you very much. Excellent thank you so much. Thank you so much for such an interesting presentation. So we will address more questions in the end of the webinar right now. I suggest for Isabel to take the lead and continue with her presentation and later on we'll address my questions. Please wait to pose your questions in the chat box. Thank you. Okay hello my name is Isabel Lascaux. I am a French English teacher based in Clermont-Ferrand. I'm going to make a presentation of the Erasmus Plus project entitled lieu which means places in English, lieu incubateur de mobilité intelligente in French responsible mobility incubator which is a European partnership project on mobility. So this presentation will be three fold. In a first part I'm going to make a presentation of the project starting with the goals we have set then I will be telling you about the organization. In a second part I will show you some practical activities we made on Twitspace to promote the interaction and the communication between the participants. And finally I will briefly tell you how we have tried to adjust to the pandemics by imagining a few digital activities. So presentation maybe. I would like to introduce the partners we're working with. Sorry here we go. So six partner schools from six European countries are involved in this partnership. One in Valango, Portugal and one in Dynastia Basque Country Spain, one in Rome Italy, one in Cavalla Greece, one in Munich passing Bavaria Germany and one in France. The French, German and Portuguese teams have known one another for quite a long time now. Some teachers have participated in various partnerships over the last 20 years. The Spanish, Italian and Greek teams joined the project in 2019 and we've had the opportunity to meet twice already. The coordinating team is the French one and French is the common language of the project. So now I would like to present the educational goals of our project. In fact the project was born out of the observation that the new generation is far more mobile than the previous ones. It is a generation on the move who's used to traveling with a family, with friends, especially thanks to the development of low-cost flights for instance. This generation is used to taking gap years before or after university. Some young people even do internships abroad or they take courses etc etc. So this generation is definitely the connected one, the one who was born with the internet, who communicates mostly via social networks but still the question is are these young people really prepared to such a wide access to mobility? Do they even realise the variety of offers they are being proposed? Do they realise the hardships disabled people for instance may come up with? Are they aware of the stakes of the assets of the dangers of the problems entailed by all the various forms of mobility? So basically the main goal of our project is to raise our 12 to 19 year old students awareness on the upcoming challenges of mobility, be it real or virtual etc. The point is also to sharpen their critical thinking so they could act as European citizens, to make them think and get to work through collaborative work, to help them gain autonomy, to build their own opinion and then be able to act. Of course it is important that they should know more about your they should open up on Europe through of course interaction and connection with other young people. Many tools can help them reach these goals like the mastering of common information and communication technologies to promote an opening on the world and on Europe along of course with the learning and the practice of foreign languages. So now I'm going to present you the different areas of work. So to meet these goals the project offers common learning educational activities focused on the discovery of the different source of mobility, to show their advantages but also the problems they might trigger off. So indeed those activities revolve around four areas of work. Ecological mobility, reduced mobility, digital mobility and cultural mobility. Four important notions run through the project. The notion of consumption which can be linked with ecological mobility for instance and the point is to promote the idea of an eco attitude that is to say to get a critical thinking about the over consumption of mobility. I mentioned for instance previously that is quite common now to travel with a low cost company but this has consequences. For example this year we chose the French teachers, the French team chose to travel by train rather than to fly to Munich last February and that was a choice because we thought that traveling by train was cleaner than flying for instance. But this change of attitude requires a transition period, hence well the idea of support in the sorry energetic transition which could be both digital and cultural. It's always very important also for us to share good practices and to cooperate. For example we have some examples of infrastructures set up to carry out green mobilities in the field of transportation in Germany. We have also implemented workshops where good practices can be shared and what is crucial of course is the commitment of the participants in group activities and it's a priority for us. So let's talk about the way we organise ourselves. Six transnational activities meetings sorry gathering the six delegations are planned to implement learning, teaching and training activities and centered around the specificities of the hosting schools and countries. We have also decided that twice a year one of the schools would host two teachers and two students which is an experience an opportunity for the students to experience a cultural immersion with the host family. So this year two students were supposed to experience a longer mobility, a long mobility, a French one and a German one but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to the the pandemics. We also have two transnational meetings which are planned to implement and organise all the various activities one to launch the project and another one to conclude and all in all 16 learning activities are planned. So here is a number of examples of learning activities. Shall I show them or not? Okay brainstorming travelers day, walk amide my shoes, travel diary etc etc. In the respect of a quality approach a regular assessment measures the impact of the project on the target audience. You can see a survey it's in French and Fréd. These activities are assessed all along the project both by the students but also by the teachers. Okay as you can see here these as you can see the assessing tools are easy and fun to use. They do not require much time. The students answer with you know energies about the quality, the atmosphere, the organisation etc and they do not have much to write so it's quite easy and quick. So I am now going to tell you about the making of. We have used a collaborative tool namely a padlet to organise a brainstorming and to classify our ideas into different categories and I'm going to show you maybe here we go. So here you have the goals, objective in French, the activities, assessment, expected impacts, the specific tasks etc. Okay I'm going to get rid of this. To communicate virtual meetings have been organised via Twinspace so I don't know if we don't have maybe we don't want to go on Twinspace right now but the mission of the project is also to expand its network by relying on the expertise of local players and relevant stakeholders to bring more maybe more scientific and educational insight and to knowledge and value the project. So now I'm going to present the second part student mobility. We to prepare our students for their mobility we have developed common tools. So first a call for candidates. It's a YouTube link so I'm not too sure I can show it to you. The students who are eager to apply, who are motivated, willing to try this experience should set a letter, a cover letter or a video to their teachers. Two students are chosen according to a specific criteria, specific selection criteria. Okay I'm just trying to show you but doesn't seem to be working. Sorry about that. Here we go. Here we go. Here are the criteria so we have a list of criteria. The students are then prepared to their mobility given a preparation sheet to help the teachers set up pairs according to common tastes or interests about the passion, the music, favorite color, favorite movie, etc etc and to enable, as I said before, the students to know a little bit more about their penpal. A roadmap with useful information is given to the students. It's a video. I'm not too sure it's going to be working. So we, yes here we go. Okay so that's what we call a roadmap. Okay we have many useful information along with a word baggage with educational material which was created by the way by students from a previous sorry from a previous Erasmus Plus project. Okay so we have been using a twin space to cement the relationships so it's a very useful tool tool to communicate and exchange and many relevant resources can be found there. There is a range of icebreaker activities. It's a place where the participants can interact and share results, share tools, showcase their project and it's also a place where you can keep all the documents and it's like a memory. So here is a few examples of the twin space. Okay for example where do we come from so people introduce where they come from. We have organized a carpool karaoke to get to know each other. It was a lot of fun for everyone and of course it's season Christmas time so it's always nice to say Merry Christmas happy new year. There are a few examples of brainstorming activities here. A calendar has been made also and a few quizzes on the different countries. There is a photo exhibition on what's in my bag, what's in my backpack where the students had an opportunity to introduce themselves through what they keep in their backpack. Okay so I think I'm going to get back to my presentation. So we are very deeply convinced that the intercultural experience is really crucial since we've had many positive feedbacks. It's an opportunity for the students to travel abroad and to improve their knowledge of the European cultures and meet different people. Some of them had never flown for instance they had never been on a plane so that's quite an important experience for them. Others had never left home for more than a week so here again it's quite an interesting experience. So the project is also clearly a means to offer young people who do not have the chance to travel to do so. So it is definitely a cultural asset and opening on the world to discover traditions to build friendship and connection. It's also a way to get out of one's comfort zone because you have to adapt to adjust and it's also a way to experience gratitude. So for the teachers these transnational activities reinforce the motivation also for the children as well. It is also important to note that the mastering of the new skills discovered throughout all the activities are valued through the Europas ceremony at the end of the stay. So I'm going to show you now a few oops sorry student testimonies very positive ones and so as you can see they are my experience in this meeting was magical this time will always be a second home to me piece of our hearts etc. So I'm going to now move on to the last part part three the project and COVID-19. As everyone else we have tried to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemics we've tried our best to carry on and to find solutions to for example the transnational activities have been postponed when possible and the activities that were planned have been rescheduled online. Of course some activities are on hold right now especially well due to lockdown and to this lack of mobility. Yet new activities adapted to the circumstance being added and so we had to meet with the new new challenges. I am going to show you maybe one or two of them so we've asked our students to express themselves and to tell them about their daily life during lockdown or you know during this pandemic and to share their feelings about the situation and about the lack of the lack of liberty and of mobility. So here we have a long text by a young lady who says that she has been reading a lot she has tried her best to make the most of it. We have also organized a radio program about mobility during the Erasmus days. I'm not sure I can show you maybe yes maybe I can show you a little bit of this experience it's in French and so it was a way to use the skills and the knowledge acquired all along the project and some students in Portugal have created a website because they couldn't have the opportunity to do their professional internship this year so thanks to our project they have been able to complete their curriculum so we're quite happy about that and we also have a website that you can see right now where the students can which has been set up during the during lockdown. So to conclude we could say that the current situation has made it clear that digital mobility is definitely part of our daily life hence the importance of mastering its code and I think that that's it thank you for your time and attention. Excellent thank you so much Isabel for an illustration of this project so right now we have some time to address questions and we already received a couple so while we're waiting for more questions to come I could already address some of them to our speakers so Jozef we've received a couple of questions while you were presenting so one question sounds like this seems to be a very good structure based on years of experience do you find that most of other schools and countries also have this level of planning are there certain improvements to make across Europe in your opinion thank you okay yes yes I think we have a very special situation in Austria because of our law so it's very easy to go abroad because of the possibility to come back without any stress any exams so in the structure we organize the structure with our experience as I said we started the long-term mobilities when this program started with Cominiers 12 years of 30 years ago and we have sent I think four or five students per year abroad to different countries to France to Finland to Spain to Italy and so on and yes I think it's very easy for us because of our law I have seen the problems with for example the Spanish students they have to pass all the exams afterwards they sent the exams to my school they have the exams in my school they sent them back for the correction it's much much more complicated so yes I think we are in a very good position in Austria about that thanks so much you guys are very good to know and the next question we have for Isabel Isabel what do you think how to assure that the contract for virtual mobility is fulfilled and which are the cause that can be supported by the project I cannot hear you you have to unmute okay is that okay sorry yes yes sorry what the question was sorry ah the question was how to assure that the contract for virtual mobility is fulfilled and which are the cause that can be supported by the project well that's a difficult question I'm not too sure I can answer that question myself that is too much for me to answer I'm sorry I cannot answer that question yeah no problem and then we can move forward so we have another question that was addressed to Jozef so Jozef could you please tell us more precisely what the previously mentioned crisis plan looks like yes the crisis plan we have information about the medical situation about the medical standard of the students they have to go to the doctor they got a letter about medical situation and when they go and the host family gets all this information also we have also the crisis plan when yes when some unseen situation happens like this covid or like political problems in the country to bring back the students all that things are organized in this crisis plan excellent thank you and so there is another question for Isabel Isabel could you could you explain who decides the selection criteria okay the teachers do the team together decides of the criteria and the they have to to be to be part of this project the students have to participate in the activity to show they are willing to very eager to participate to be very motivated and then the teachers decide which one well after we have of course read their application letters and watch the videos and we decide which which one would be the best to go excellent thank you so much i think we'll take two more questions so Jozef there was another question for you sounds like you have a great process with the partner schools for how long you have been working with the partners for example the partners from Finland and in Spain with the Spanish school we've worked more than 25 years we started with convenience projects with Erasmus Plus projects with the Finnish schools we work since more than seven years yes we have a very long contact to the schools and that's very important because that's the reason why the teachers know each other the mentors know each other there's a friendship between the mentors and between the teachers in our school and in the host school so it's much easier to handle problems okay thank you and one last question we have for Isabel also as a feedback great presentation Isabel could you please explain how the mastering of student skills is enhanced through the your your past ceremony um i myself uh have not been part of a your past ceremony i have i'm new in the project and this project so i'm going to ask my colleague maybe uh if she can help me with that so yeah there's a celebration there's a celebration uh and you know you you give the the diploma to uh to the students um and they go home with their diploma and it's very rewarding thank you so much excellent um thank you so much i think uh for for the time being we answered more or less all questions that we have received and we are uh coming exactly uh to the time to finish so try to finalize it and draw this webinar to the end i want to thank our speakers for being with us today and for such a fruitful contribution that you gave um i think it was very interesting and very bright illustration that you gave so it was really uh great to have you on board today and i also want to thank our audience our participants for being with us today and for your attention so a couple of practical matters um that is usually very important to mention too so as you know this webinar was recorded and you will be able to um see the recording and um also up also see the presentation that the speakers were using during their during the during the webinar it will be published soon uh on the webinar page and what's also important we have them as you can receive certificates and to do this it's important to be registered on School Education Gateway platform and be logged in on Teacher Academy and we just published in the chat the link for feedback survey so once you submit the feedback survey you'll be redirected for the automatic download of your certificate of participation so please um make sure that you save this link so you don't lose it when the webinar is over and um that is it from our side i want to thank you one more time and i wish you wonderful winter break and i'm looking forward to uh see you all again next year with the fully recharged batteries and um yes congratulations for this for completing this challenging year and um uh have a nice evening and uh nice a week ahead thank you so much good bye thank you very much good bye thank you very much bye bye bye have a nice uh Christmas holidays bye bye Merry Christmas to everyone good bye thank you bye thanks for me bye everyone thanks so much for the presentations and for the participants


We are used to seeing events and decisions in our daily lives, if you look at newspapers, tweets, Facebook posts, whatever it is, they mainly highlight all the events that is happening around and newspapers and news channels highlight various decisions that has been taken, in response to events or anticipation of some events or things like that, but that has been the primary focus, how we have been looking at things, where it is things are happening like a discrete set of events that has been happening and everything is in news for some time after it disappears from our radar, some other news catches on, so that kind of view we call it as an event oriented view, where the focus is on only one particular few events and few decisions often seen as being disconnected with each other, like even in newspapers there are so many articles that is going on, but when we read it, we read it like it is all different events, it has nothing to do with each other, some may be rightly so, some may be not we are not really sure, but we do not look at things in that fashion, we look at things as disparate set of events that is happening at different places with different people for different problems or actions, but in a systems view point what we encourage to do is to look at what is called as these patterns of behavior, what we mean by that is we want to see how things are evolving over time, so it is not just a disconnect set of events, but the things are actually changing over time, so that aspect is what we call as patterns of behavior that we are interested in, whether things are going to be improving or things are slowing down or is it just in a happening in a cyclic pattern, so those are the things that we want to understand and discover, of course for more long lasting efforts what we want to do is try to influence the system structure itself, so in a systems theory or in a systems view point, we will come to understand that system structure is what is going to drive the behavior of the system which in turn is going to cause various events may be sporadic events or regular events, periodic events whatever it is, but it is underlying system structure that is driving these behaviors which in turn is causing all these events, so if you want to actually leverage for a long lasting change, we need to start looking at system structure, understand the structure and try to influence the structure itself, may be through policy design or may be through appropriate setup of the system structures, while if you are going to keep reacting to the events and decisions then our leverage point will be very low because we are only solving that particular problem in that particular instance, but the problem has not gone away, it may come back much later, may be not to you, may be to somebody else, so this can be actually classified like this also, like when we are actually looking at events and decisions, they are said to be reactive, if you are looking at patterns of behavior then we are being adaptive as one simple example of behavior that could be the rainfall patterns based on the rainfall that is occurring, we know it is going to happen every year, we do not know exactly when it is going to happen, we do not know exactly what date, how much quantity, but come on soon season we are all prepared, we get our raincoats, we get our umbrellas etc, we are prepared to handle it, it is a kind of adaptive behavior that we exhibit, but if you want to really result in lasting change then we need to look at generating these behaviors by influencing the system structure, so that is what we are going to be doing in this course, how we how to do this is by distancing ourselves away from these events, just far enough that the events start to blur and we start to see the patterns and the behaviors that happen over time and that is one, second one is we want to see various other components that is also there in the system and how they are being linked to each other, so we want to move away from this discrete events view or a view that there are events that are happening in discrete points in time, disconnect with each other to a view where multiple things are being connected and how the behavior is changing over time, so that is pretty much what we were going to do, now let us see how we have been solving problems, traditionally we are very comfortable in this what is called as open loop thinking, where we come up with first identify some problem, then gather data, evaluate alternatives, select solution, implement, so this is true in not only in student projects, but also in real life, people want to make new district administration come, new government come, they always try to list a set of problems and say ok, what is the best we can do about it and then suggest a solution, the solution need not always be the optimum solution or the fair solution, but some solution gets implemented and then it gets implemented, sometimes even evaluation etc also does not happen, improvement may not happen, so that is a typical open loop thinking that we do, especially when dealing with solving things which are not connected with one cell, I will come to it in a minute, for an extension of that is this event oriented view, we just saw that there are events and decisions happening, so that means there is already some situation that has arise and we have in our mental picture there is some goal for the system, this is how it should be and this is where we are, ok there is a gap, ok the gap is perceived as a problem that has occurred, ok now how to solve the problem, let us take some decision which will affect it and then we expect that the result should happen, many times that result may not be what we want, right or it may not be lasting long enough to result in a sustained change in addressing the problem completely, like for example if the goal is to say there should not be any let us say hungry people in the city, ok there is a problem that is the situation is there are so many people who are without access to good food, ok and the goal is that everybody should have good food or complete nutritious meal, problem is identified, you can start a massive campaign and you can cook and do meals to everybody, it will address the problem today or for this round, but people going to get hungry in the evening then they are going to get hungry tomorrow day after, so how do we ensure that they are going to get nutritious meal every day continuous, suddenly the problem becomes much more difficult because it is not just not question of ok they have so much meals let us just cook it and start giving people, it becomes little more complex because it is not just a there is no such what can I say, technical solution to all the problem especially when you consider economic, social, environment kind of issues, let us suppose put yourself in a situation imagine you become some mid-level manager, many of you lose your hair you cannot help it, you are a manager you are nicely whatever, whatever job, dream job we are working there for last 15 years we are 840s, then what do you do, there are so many problems and so many issues that is coming up every day and based on whatever data you have, whatever information you have you have to take a decision and through the decision what you are going to do is, you are going to solve the problem, you are going to push the decision away, you are good you have to push the problem away by doing an appropriate decision and you will be evaluated for that and probably you get rewards, management will promote you, yes you have nicely solved the problem, sales was down, now you have got a rapid improvement in the sales, it affected my this quarter's profit, so you are going to get your nice rewards and nice what can I say, dinner treats and fly to various conference and even headquarters etc etc, so you do you do enjoy the outcomes that arise out of decisions that you made and that is what makes you a manager and you like what you are doing, but sometimes after whatever it happened could at some point in future to go all the way around and hit you, but this happens repeatedly, this happens repeatedly and people are finding it difficult to learn from this, why, in this figure what we are trying to see is what are the decisions that you are taking today can have something of an impact later, we know in our mind it is going to happen, but we still do not learn from it as much as we are supposed to do, why is that, why do you think it is, you are not aware of the system, what else, what else, limited information, we made the decisions keeping short term objectives in mind or short term goals in mind or short term rewards in mind without worrying about the long term consequences of what it could lead to or what it may lead to, that is good, that is great, what else, nothing else, adding to that when you say short term and long term inherently what we are addressing is that there is some sort of a delays as soon as they start making decision it does not come back immediately, there is a long delay before things all the consequences of decisions come out, even if you want to gather data they will take some time, so we are taking decision and what all it has implications and everybody has to react accordingly and then it has to come back, so after delay there could be a feedback on the system, but sometimes it need not come back to you, you already taken nice decision you got promoted, so somebody else will be sitting there, so that also may discourage you to say okay it will be somebody else's problem, I have done it, I have done a good job, but unfortunately that fellow will be in a bigger mess and you will be in a position to evaluate the person and that person cannot even tell you that he is in the mess because of your decision two months earlier, he has to answer to you and why is this company is in a mess, so feedbacks focus on short term goals rather than longer term or short term rewards rather than long term goals and delays within the system can prevent us from understanding or learning from this as much as we can, and some other points was covered saying we are not aware of the full system structure, so we do have that short term focus, delays, feedbacks, unintended consequences, unanticipated consequences, so you are not aware, I do not know a system structure, but unfortunately that just cannot continue now, it is not my fault, there is a common adage, if at all it is you had made a decision, so but how much can we consider that we will see, maybe there could be some counterintuitive behavior and policy resistance came to nice decision, but unfortunately people resisted that change, that is called as policy resistance or you thought something will happen, but you know the behavior is counterintuitive to what was expected, these are reasons where and the delays and feedbacks makes it little more difficult for us to learn if you do not do it in a very systematic fashion, so what we are going to do in system thinking, let us try to do a bit of system thinking, popular Chinese proverb, you might have seen it, give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, you would have many of you must have heard it, is this adequate, if you teach a man to fish, nice technical skill that has been given to this person, is it sufficient so that he earns his livelihood for a lifetime, let us see, let us just go with me here, you taught a man to fish, question is, is this adequate, what are other things that can affect him to solving this feed for a lifetime, what are other things that can affect him, you know row board, okay, so more technical skills, what you are saying is other technical skills, okay, what else, if you know where fishes are fishing grounds, what else, okay, so let me just write environment here, let me just put climate, this is, yeah, tell me, okay, now we are getting somewhere, now we are getting somewhere, where all can you face competition, competition from fisherman, competition from big business, right, you taught him to fish but then huge business that has come and he has put huge boats and ships and trawlers and I know all the fishes are more so much inland, so much offshore that it becomes difficult, so big business can give competition, other fisherman similar to him can give competition, what else can affect, what about owners, in banks, you have a large water body and there is land around it, so people can just buy off their private property and prevent you access from going there, right, it is not very aesthetically nice to see people going and fishing, I want to come lake with nice views, right, okay, it can happen, so that is again a competition for you to do it, what else, now we are getting somewhere, price of fish, let me put it under market, selling price of fish, what can happen to demand, let us just keep it both ways, boom or bust, maybe there is a huge growth of suburban or city or whatever, the population then nearby areas and demand for fish increase, they are big, supporting a business or maybe demand fell down, they will stop eating fish for whatever reasons, maybe demand went down, we do not know that, right, demand can be either way, there could be other things also, like for example, maybe government coming with policies to promote let us say fish processing units, fish processing units, meaning small units, so that means that increase your demand, so you can get the fishes and tend it, what else, now we are getting somewhere, sustainability of the business, how that happens in the fish breeding cycles, what you are only referring to is can be captured under fish breeding cycles, like how much fish is there and all that, okay, let us put, what is happening to our powai lake, you have passed through it so many times, pollution that can affect the marine life, that can prevent you from engaging in fishing business, but what happens in Viharlik, Viharlik also people do not fish, because water is used for drinking or some cases suppose it is somewhere, water can be sent away for irrigation, so it is diverted, then it prevents, like one of the reasons where dams are being discouraged in the rivers is one, it will affect the flow of, say for example, even the sand, as well as it is going to prevent the movement of fish, so if traditionally fishermen were along the coast and near the delta region, they are going to get severely affected if the flow of freshwater is getting stopped and getting diverted for irrigation other purposes, right, so it is, what else, what else, anything on social, maybe this is social and cultural norms which dictates who can actually fish, you cannot train, you may not be able to train anybody and everybody to go and fish, there may be some cultural norms on who can actually go and fish or when they can fish, everything need not be driven in a very, what can you say, based on as it is fish breeding cycles are checked and based on, it need not happen, it is based on cultural and social norms, it can happen, yeah, local cuisine, so that can, why do you put it, market or social, I will just write it there, yeah, maybe it is abundant in one type of fish, but that is not consumed locally and you are unable to export, so policies can export, process imports, maybe imported fishes are cheaper, it is going to affect your competition or maybe you are going to fishing and you need to export market, maybe there is huge demand, so that is also good for you, yeah, so all are listening, so I do not know what is alternate to fish, but let us write alternate, I will just put alternate, anyway, so now you got an idea, right, it is, we are all, I think all are engineers, at least engineers by training, most of you would have done bachelor's engineering, we have been used to looking at a problem in one way, and okay, and find a solution to it, and a technical problem, okay, I need to increase employment, there is a nice opportunity, statistic shows that India needs for beneficiary man, let us start training as many fishermen as possible, that need not be sufficient, as if we are expecting them to understand all these things and operate at the level of your training, it also may not be possible, but we must teach people with capacity so that they can adapt and change and improve, because we do not know how these things are going to come, some places they may competition, some may be not, some may, they may have market, some may not have market, so there has to be opportunities and facilitation to be done, so that we can look at it in a more systemic viewpoint, so that we can identify the correct leverage point and attack there, is it because of policy issues that is happening, or is it because demand is not there, is it because of export restrictions, is it because of a lot of big businesses that is there, trying to understand the cause is always required before we can start teaching people to fish. And expect that they are going to get their lifetime, they set for life only based on this technical skill that has been provided, that alone is not enough. If we are say for example, building a bridge or building this building, the steps are known, maximum it can be get is delayed because of various reasons, but we know, okay, first we ought to make a big hole, play the foundations and then sequentially things come, you do not do the electrical wiring first, you get the civil structures in place and then work it out, you get the designs in place and then you know the sequence, you know what is going to happen. So that is we are sure, but if when you come to social, economic or political system, we do not even know what are all the elements that are there, so it is difficult for us to sequence them.  Like when you were young itself you wrote, this is what I am going to do, this month, next month, next year, next decade, everything is laid out, maybe your parents I do not know, but whatever it is, it did not happen, we are all here not by design or not by your plan which was done long ago, it was not a linear way, this is what I have to do, let me do all these things in sequence, it is never is. But what you did was you adapted based on opportunities presented, challenges presented and your own broad goals that you have in your life, you adapted to the current opportunities, current challenges and made decisions and then moved on with your life, or moving on with your life. So when it is true for us and we are going to be designing systems and solutions which is affecting not just, what can I say, even to build a bridge or build a building, it is not just building the building, people are going to use it, it is going to stay there. So it is also going to interact with that environment, you know it is going to consume water and electricity and people are going to come in and out. There are so many buildings in Mumbai where I am sure you all feel that building is so nice, everything is nice but the approach, the 1 kilometer before the building is so narrow and congested that it cannot support the thousands of people who are living in the building for example. And the building is also contributing to that traffic jam and other things that is happening. So trying to understand that and plan, so it is needed.