Everybody pays a price. Anybody that's deployed has scars, whether visible or not, I'd say, but we adjust fire and find new goals all the time. I enlisted in 2008. I usually tell people that it was laundry day and I needed the free t-shirt. One of our career fairs, there happened to be an Army recruiter that showed up and I got to talking to him while visiting boots and he convinced me to take a meeting with him. He said, I'm meeting with a recruiter next week. And I said, you are? You do know there's a war going on, right? And he said, yeah mom, that's why I'm doing it. I have to make my life count for something. And he told me about this very little known but awesome job of civil affairs in the Army where you go into foreign lands and you connect with people and it really spoke to me. Adam and I were stationed in Afghanistan. I was the deputy commanding officer for the provincial reconstruction team and Adam was at a fire base called Shumkani. It fell on me to take the conference call with our deputy commander. All of a sudden he broke in and said, hey sir, gotta go, we're under attack.  That was the last order I've ever disobeyed in my military career. I got on a gun truck and was firing on the enemy positions and ended up taking her out from a sniper in the head. Everybody kept fighting and they got me patched up as best they could and took me to the med shed. The phone rang and they explained to me that Adam had been shot and they told me that he was alive and they had gotten him to Salerno. But beyond that we didn't know a lot. So we ended up having to wait six days before Adam was able to be brought back to the United States. And those six days were awful.  They did lots of procedures in country to stabilize me and then got me to Germany and did a few more procedures. Then got me to Walter Reed Hospital in Bethesda where they did the big surgeries and that kind of stuff. And then they transferred me to the VA hospital in Minneapolis where I did all my rehab, which was about a 10 month process. He was suddenly struggling with things that he never had to struggle with before, which I would think would be horribly frustrating. But he never showed that frustration. He never showed anger. He just showed determination. My only real focus was to get back home because I had met my then-girlfriend, now-wife, shortly before I left for Afghanistan and we really started to connect. We had a wedding planned and bought and paid for and so if I wasn't out of the hospital by the time this wedding rolled around she'd probably find somebody else to fill my spot. Adam has always been a jokester, always.  I'm better at it and I'll win. And it's amazing to me how it's come out now with this injury. It didn't go away. Adam, as a person, his personality hasn't changed. He's still Adam and that's the greatest gift of all. Any other conflict, I can tell you Adam would be deceased. Praise God, great medical technology. He's here today. And all of a sudden one of the names was Adam Alexander. And I was like, wow! So I quick shot an email and said, Adam, is this you? Sure is. Well, how about we meet for coffee? So we met for coffee and he told me about how he was getting into the DAV local here in Oshkosh and that I should come check out a meeting. So I went with them to a meeting and he got me to become a life member of our chapter. He does a lot more with DAV than most people do. He does a lot of guest speaking to schools and really, really dedicated to what he's doing, which is we need that. He's testified in Madison on our reimbursement tax credit bill. He's here to do whatever he can to make sure more veterans like him are taking care of us. So you have this fearless warrior on the battlefield that one has faced the enemy, two has just brought himself physically back from these insurmountable odds and now he wants to talk to you about veterans issues. You're going to listen to him. It's been healing for me to tell my story and hopefully allow somebody else to get something out of it. So I really wanted to give other veterans a platform to tell their story and hopefully find that healing as well. And there's two components we look at with the Outpost. One, sharing the DAV message and what we really like to do is we like to hone in locally. So what does DAV mean for me in this county? The second thing is every veteran's got a story. I always like to say every veteran is a piece of U.S. history. It was the first time I've talked about my past to anybody. And his family got to hear it from start to finish by watching the show and I think it helped them understand his situation a lot better and him kind of get a weight off of his chest. I think with veterans they realize that Adam's somebody that does care and is compassionate and that they can sit down and just share what's on their mind. To be able to take something so painful and negative and turn it into something positive is amazing. And we all have a gift to share and Adam has chosen to share his as opposed to hiding in his house. He's literally out there showing people what you can overcome as long as you have the heart and the drive to do so. He fought and got to where he needed to be and who knows where he's going to go in five more years. I mean, his story, he continues to write it. I felt like I was alive for a reason so I'm still figuring out what that reason is but there's definitely a reason. Every day above ground from here on out is a good day because they gave me a 5% chance to live when I was injured and here I am over 10 years later with a new baby and life is good.


Highway 371 through Pequot Lakes will look a little different beginning tomorrow when four new lanes, a new interchange and new routes will open. The project also includes oval shaped roundabouts which will improve traffic flow and reduce severe right angle crashes at the intersection of Highway 371 and County Road 11. After the new lanes open motorists are encouraged to use the new routes in order to get to Pequot downtown Pequot Lakes. There is also a new intersection just south of Jenkins in northern Pequot Lakes at Highway 371 and County Road 112. That intersection is a reduced conflict intersection which is designed to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes at a high speed intersection. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


We plan to distribute a half a million copies of the magazine to the opinion leaders of the trying to create the client political understanding for what you're trying to do. We want to appreciate that. Well, I'm most appreciative. I'm appreciative of that. We also have a computer wire service that we're going to start on May 5th. We'll go out to activists, sort of career activists each day. They'll let what's happening in Washington and how they can use their influence to contact their senators and Congressman on a daily basis. We hope that's going to be going out to 5,000 to 10,000 people by the end of the year. We'll be able to work on that. I'm excited about that because there's no question about the world being pretty sophisticated. This information programs, one from Nicaragua, is particularly successful throughout the country. This particular issue will focus on both the peace and the freedom issues that are in your SDI program and your rated doctor. We hope it helps. I'm sure it will. It's great. You've probably been getting a lot of compliments about your performance the other night, but I thought you did. We're in primetime style as it were. It was really a good job. Well, thank you. We're all happy. Thank you very much. The line about only doing one thing annually in the last seven years. What we're going to try and do with the SDI issue with the president is to get on the front and help him to frame those issues. We're most anxious to have you say, or someone say, the rating agenda is one, two, three, four. If you produce it to one, two, three, four, we'll be all so happy to magnify that 10,000 to 10 million times, whatever. Well, I think we can. We're still in the midst here of putting together time and all of that, and what we think can do the best. But we really do have an agenda that involves the budget and involves trying to get a rebuild for the budget policy. I have to tell you, coming here as a governor and one of the states, I've just been aghast at how ridiculous the federal budgeting policy is compared to what virtually every state does in this country. Out of the state life, you wouldn't go dead with a thing of this kind. It's a real mess. Do you think there's any chance, for example, on the transportation bill of getting a buck chain to sustain an override? To sustain the veto. I'm reasonably domestic here. There's a solid core, and then there's still something we're going to have to gain to get it. We can't get it in the house. We're aiming at the center tonight. We do have a chance. And here again, that's just what I heard at the report. Mr. President, is there any consideration being given for you to make a trip to Honduras to show support for the freedom fighters in the region? Well, I don't know whether that's as effective as trying to deal with that disinformation program right here. You know, a poll was taken. I had to learn that Gallup has a subsidiary in Latin America, and they have done a poll of the Central American states. They're the people. And they found, for example, that 80 percent of the people in Honduras are delighted to have our practice maneuvers down there, because they think it's a safeguard for them. They, as well as all the other countries, including Costa Rica, it's great to know no army at all. All of them believe that it's absolutely essential that we stay there helping the Congress. Because without the Congress, the people believe that they are all those other countries threatened by the presence of the Sandinista government. Mr. President, they asked some other incisive questions that you'll be seeing this evening in draft form, as it is now. We have two o'clock, and we'll probably discuss that very issue. But thank you for your time. These gentlemen are among your best friends on the outside helping out. They are really with you. I mean, you have the majority overwhelming support. I want you to know that. Just keep on doing what you're doing and your issues and what you're doing for them. Amen. Thank you very much. God bless you. Pray for you. Thank you. I want to give you a copy of my book. It's got several of your books. Thank you very much. Glad to do it. God bless you. Hang in there. Really. This is what is a non-enlightenment's cover on top. It's like the years. The legit experience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. That looks great. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. It's better than you think. Okay. It's better. Okay. It's better than you think. I think we have a moment or two of a chitchat, a couple of waves of press coming in. Yeah, what's this? Mr. President, how does this veto fit in with your new conciliatory move with Congress? Mr. President, the kidnappers in Beirut say that a hostage on the scene is going to die within 10 days. Is there anything that we can do for him? Now it takes the rules. Okay, I'll help you.  I'm talking to your mother today. Well, let me say just one thing. I can understand why the Washington Post couldn't find it. It's a foreign language newspaper. Well, let me just begin. Please have all of you down here. I should tell you that this highway and transit bill is too costly and my decision to veto the bill can't surprise anyone. Secretary Dole and others have sounded the alarm bells every step of the way. In a moment, I'm going to ask Secretary Dole to cover our specific objections, including funds set aside for the Los Angeles Metro and Boston Highway and Tunnel. The overall mass transit levels last but not least those 152 demonstration projects. I do favor the proposition adopted by both the House and Senate, permitting states to return to the city five miles per hour speed limit in rural areas. There's no doubt that getting a highway bill is long overdue. This is just not a bill that I can sign. I intend to work hard with Rob Dole to have my veto sustained. And if it is, there's no reason why Congress can't act swiftly to send a bill to my desk that can be immediately signed into law. But now let me ask Secretary Dole to brief you further on this bill. Thank you, Mr. President. I address you with these two simple words. I'm in the Humberway, the Exotic Office, as the day for the celebration of the ideals of liberty and human dignity, upon which ancient democracy of the Periglian times was founded, upon which our great nation stands so proudly. The resolution of the Congress, known as Senate, joined the resolution number three way. Signed on October 27, 1986 into a law by EU, speaks in itself of the nobility and sensitivity of the people of the United States, and becomes a very important and significant part of the annals of our republic. Allow me at this point to express to you the deepest gratitude of the Greek Orthodox community in the United States and of Greece everywhere. The Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Andreas Papandreou, asked me to a special letter to express to you his warmest thanks and the thanks of all the Greek nation. I admit, Mr. President, to present you with an icon, depicting the intersection with the whole Virgin, as the actual reason to an iconographer to conceive it. I do this in humility and profound respect for you, a esteemed and beloved President. A stop and appreciation. It wasn't this very fist of the Annunciation that the enslaved Greek freedom fighters of 1821 took the oath to preserve against all adversities their faith in Christ and their love for Mother Hellas, stubbornly refusing to succumb to the Ottoman tyranny of that time. May the nation of the Annunciation ever protect you, Mr. President, and strengthen your affordable task as the leader of the free world, effecting the defense, protect and safeguard human rights and values for the benefit of all the peoples of the Earth. This is the icon with special dedication. For beloved President Donald Reagan, a captain of the regional commander is prayerfully offered, depicting the Annunciation in front of which a handful of Greek freedom fighters on March 25, 1821 melt and ask for divine help and guidance in the determination to free their beloved Motherland from the oppressive Ottoman Empire. As unto you, on March 25, I thank you very much. I am very proud of this. And of course, you know, we in our country realize that the very nature of democracy came to us. That it was the day of the coming anniversary of the Greek and American democracy. We were all indebted to you. I'm honored to do it. Incidentally, on an entirely different subject, I understand that you're a baseball fan. How do you think the red socks are going to be? I always look good for the sale of dwellers. Well, I'm kind of a root of that one. I used to broadcast baseball. And in those days, the team I broadcast mainly in baseball was well up there, but hasn't been for a while. Chicago Cubs. I broadcast the historic moment for a game when the Cubs did games. When the Cubs did something, it was still a day of record. The only mathematical chance they had to win the pennant was to win the last 21 games of the season. Straight 21.  The letdown was they lost the World Series four games. Oh, listen, I'm very pleased with the problems. I'm glad that you have accepted with the feelings that it's offered to you. I'm honored, I respect the expression of the feelings that you've all been giving me. Thank you very much.  God bless you. You've assured me that sometime when I am, if I get a busy signal, I'm going to get you in the right hand. By the way, we're almost of the same age. I'm becoming 76, July 29 this year. I was born in 1911, too. It was a good vintage year. It was a good vintage. All right. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. We are very grateful to you and I, thank you very much for having us. Thank you very much for having us. It's great to have you on this day. See you again. Thank you very much.


Quickly orca puts it up All right, so it's 615 September 27th, and we had the this meeting announced on the website an email to interested party and posted physically in three public places So I think that we're legally allowed to go forward with their our meeting here tonight No, everybody my mind there So Before we start We don't have a whole lot on the agenda I don't know if anyone here or on Unzoom has anything that they would like to add to public comments at this time or not. I'd like to add skate space Yeah, it's gonna get to that Put it back in there So So yeah, we'll have a lot five minutes Per speaker on that and needs to go through and if they have more to say we can come back at it So I'll start anyone else have any additions No, all right, so we Start off at the minutes from the last meeting of September 13th, and they look good Existensive I second well, I didn't move it by move to approve Second on favor Cool Get those and the the scheduled guests that we had tonight are not coming so we're going to table the conversation about the Murray farm solar project and Do you want to talk about the office closure in the first week of October to attend to attend town fair trainings? Yes, so we're gonna close the office We may have some days that will be open I Think there's some law enforcement that we don't need to attend but each day there will be a different topic that I'm opening to any of the members or officers who want to come in and listen But they'll be all day events. So those will be zoom meetings here in the office. Yeah, virtually Is there anywhere that it'd be posting what the agenda with the topics are that it's gonna be covered Right there. All right Sounds good Joan you're here if what we missed your last meeting, but what have you got for us tonight? I missed you, too Well, let's see a couple things the generator grant has just been fully approved So that's good news Julie Receives some information from the Department of Public Service and forwarded it to me. So tune I Don't know if you got it, too. There's some Technology that I'm not up to date on But there's something called a DocuSign document right through it's a subrecipient grant And I tried to open it so I could at least go through it and make sure it looked okay before I passed it on to you for signature I wasn't able to open it and maybe because I'm not I don't have that on my computer or something So I was just wondering if you got it I When did you when did you send it? Actually didn't maybe I didn't spend it because I don't think I could oh, okay It'd be something. I'm just not knowing what to do on my end Last week I do have it and he can sign on there, so okay, so I'll check in on that because I We can hear you good, I don't I don't remember seeing that so I'll check in with Julie in the office and And take care of that Okay There's a lot of stuff on it that you want me to look over first and just let you know if I see anything Okay, I Think it's just a signature. Yeah, and doc you signs very easy. There are some grand terms on there isn't there Like I couldn't get in without doing like a signature, so I didn't dare You can create one you can create a signature in order to view the document, okay, but it's pretty it's easy And once you do it you're not like signed up for anything. It doesn't cost anything and you're not signing the document Okay, yep Well, yeah, you know these federal grants I'm not expecting anything but you just never Okay All right, but but I'm go ahead and you know if it looks good to you go ahead and sign it and send it in And then if there's a way you could save a copy just so I can keep it in the digital files. Yeah, that would be great and Well, I Can't remember now exactly what the terms on terms of when we can actually start, you know, but this put it out to bid again and get it done But I think we should Do it have time as fall to do that before the winter winter comes in Let's see going on to the next thing As I reported in my notes for the last like word meeting We have the construction grant now from Federal Highway Administration for the construction of the West Hill Bridge replacement And What they approved was the original amount we submitted two years ago I might have told you this already for six hundred thousand right now the cost estimate that The designers VHB VHB are using is Construction cost actual construction cost cost of six hundred sixty-three thousand dollars six six three four one four and that's before there's a 10-percent contingency which may or may not be a necessary part of the budget but in any case Ryan Austin and I were kind of exchanging emails about what to do to cover that if that is indeed the actual cost We won't really know what the cost is going to be until we put it out to bid and that will be some time early next year January February is what we're aiming for now And Brian feels it may be high But as I said, we won't know until we actually get the bids back in so given that uncertainty We agreed that we would look for some additional funding in case we needed it and the primary responsibilities on the shoulders of far service Brian was Assuring me that that was a case that you know if we don't find any other funding our services It will find it one way or another but I did reach out to Chris bump at V trans and He came back with the suggestion that he can't be trans could Make use of the funds the defunded funds for the Mount Cushman pulpit replacement, which was $175,000 and With some internal approvals and review of documents and various other things he may be able to Give us that $63,000 and change that we might need so that just Started late last week. So they're looking at documents and going through some kind of internal Review process and we'll let us know whether that money could be available for the bridge construction So I'll keep you posted on that Okay And then otherwise I'm just in the process of Compiling costs and comparing them with Julie and Christian's numbers for Total costs of the nation brook culvert project, which is pretty simple and straightforward basically the the cost of the contract Which was 213,605 Plus we had a small amount of well about $1,200 or so in costs from cricket for her engineering oversight and then the cost of the The permanent and temporary easements we purchased from three landowners, which was about 1400 so The total cost of the project overall with all those things was 217,000 and The grant amount we have from the trans it was a structures grant is 187,614 So we came out pretty well on that Um That was recently completed by cooter and the crew And grant amount there is 17,240 and the cost is about 20 Somewhere between 20 and 22,000 dollars and The state grant will pay up to 80 percent of our total cost or But not more than the 17,240 that they committed to us So we'll come in pretty close in terms of covering that cost And that's all I have. Let's see. Have any Yeah, what was the final amount on the Yes I don't remember Um, I just Yeah, sorry I can get that to you. Yeah Pat and frank are saying they're remembering around 10,000. Yeah, that's uh, yeah 10,005 maybe Yeah, yeah, something like that. Yeah, and hopefully uh, uh, you know, the 775 dollars for the generator. Yeah, great. Okay Hopefully costs have not gone up too much At all since then No Past gunner notes 10,775. Got it. Thank you. Yeah All right, thank you, Joan Um Tony you're here, um this week to represent the library. What's up? Well, it's pretty much the same as a hemp band, but we did sell out the first printing of the cookbook So I guess they're working on another printing. Oh, that's nice. Yeah You guys hear that in zoomland? No, the first the first printing of the cookbook from the library sold out So they're looking at uh doing a second printing Raise your hands if you already got one All right, there's one What's cooking tonight Rob? All right, um, is that it Tony? Yeah. All right. All right. Thank you um Highway cooters not here, but they um, they got the mowers and they've they're um, they're proceeding to more around town. So um That was a little bit of a slow start, but they got two machines and they're they're working flat out now Terry you're here. Um, I heard you're talking about The throat kills property you said about utility issues or what? No, I was my question. Oh, just another question. Yeah, right away there. Yeah I'm pretty sure they're all on the deeds because that was all federal money. Yeah, right I was just being a realtor. Okay separate separate topic. But do you have anything to to add tonight? I ordered those pumps. Okay, yeah, they were probably a bit less money Good so Less than you expected. Yeah, a lot less. Yeah They'll be here probably in eight to ten weeks So, uh, Terry was saying on the for the benefit of you on the computer if you didn't hear him He did order the two new pumps for the um, how much were they each? No, 7,500 7,500 about a piece which was a lot less than what we were Worried about and they'll be here in eight to ten weeks or so It'll be something we'll probably do in the spring. Yeah, but they'll be ready to go and they're available and they're available. Yeah, that's the main thing Hopefully All right, um Um, Jeff you um, you're back. How's uh, how's your trip? My trip, um My trip was involved hauling a u-haul from was minster to Rochester. So that wasn't too long It was it was the loading and the unloading and finding the place for everything that's that's the tricky part. Yeah, that's the trip. Um So let's see a little update, uh, gmp. Um has put out an rfp for the resiliency zone Um, it is on it went out a week ago today It's up on their website. Um What else to know about it what they They put out a timeline for the project They have referenced both A four megawatt generation field and a 150 kilowatt generation field They are asking their the bidders to be creative about it. Um, I was able to confirm with gmp today that What I thought was the case was that the only way we get four megawatts of generation Is with the removal of the entire school We can get the 150 kilowatts of generation From the ball field and the soccer field immediately adjacent to the school They have reserved the right not to take any Bid not to approve any bid. So it's uh It's kind of a fishing exhibit or expedition right at the moment with respect to that I also followed up today with energy efficiency investments incorporated to find out what they have identified in terms of Opportunities for savings and scopa project necessary to achieve those kinds of savings. I have not heard back from them yet And we have the Rochester area climate initiative community forum coming up on october 7th Um, hopefully you're noticing uh flyers around town and through a direct mailing on that It's october 7th from 6 to 8 30 via zoom and then there will be hopefully an in-person at the rochester elementary school outdoors Um on uh october 12th that would go from five to six 15 That would be a chance for folks who are not able to connect via zoom in the earlier meeting To have their voices heard about the topics That are listed on that flyer At the harvest fair the valley energy and climate action committee as well as The rochester area climate initiative were represented in Vic Maureen Ganon Frank Russell chris williams, and I only end the table The different parts of the day and did a lot of talking to people and handing out that particular flyer And uh, there will be a phone bank set up as well to try to get a real good community turnout For that event coming up on the 7th Um Chris uh christin sent me a note about Increased expenses as the fire department and the town clerk's office That was the august 9th bill A quick look at those What I see is that there are two more days in the billing period for each of those two accounts than there were the last Year So that does make them That's a natural reason why that would be higher Um, I don't see anything on the heating degree days that it explains it whatsoever But I'll take a little closer look to see if it can pin down a particular day or event That might call for that, but again, I think most likely it is the the two more days of of billing in 2021 than existed in the billing for 2020 um That's about all I have to report so with the rfp for the um, the resiliency Solar array is that what kind of um time frame did they put on that? Like you said, it's a little bit of a fishing expedition, but there's um Because there's a lot of a lot of things Yeah, let's see Be good to gather the information, but um, I would I would anticipate that they were Gathering now information not expecting to give out contracts right away because there's a lot of decisions that would be need to made Be made around the school Yes, um the initial schedule Was for the posting of the rfp september 20th In october 1st They are Spent is the initial indication of intent to offer which is non-binding october 15th Question and answer submission deadline and answers will be posted within two weeks uh mid offers and required documentation And Including information necessary to populate a draft form of agreement December 3rd deadline for gmp to notify each offer regarding the selection status of each offer December 17th 2021 deadline for selected offers to submit draft interconnection applications There is information later The the actual The in gmp deserves to write to select zero offers as an outcome of the rfp and I should have highlighted it, but I didn't Their their construction would actually be far down the road Several years actually I can get that for you. I'm just not finding it All right. Yeah, because it seems that there Would um still needs to be some elbow room allocated for the decision process around the um The school the school Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, all right Well, um, and you what else questions? All right, thank you jack Mercial aberration date pursuance in the terms of the agreement which should occur no later than july of 2023 And there's an also a one time six month extension So it's a couple years down a couple years down the road. All right Okay, thank you. So, um, getting on to the old business. Um, last meeting we tabled, um One item on the high school repurposing project discussion Pat you're going to look into insurance issue around what the Granting permission to access the building in the meantime What would you find out what I got from uh from motelings the cities in town Just that because the town is not the owner of the property um That passive our insurance carrier, um was not interested in in Coverage for that, but they had a good suggestion that the Uh consultant and the engineering firm working with the consultant their Insurance coverage would be sufficient To cover while they're in the building working. It should actually be their coverage not because they're on the job Yeah, and they're a subcontractor of ours. So, um, it can skip over us and that was sufficient They did provide us with both, um liability and workers comp coverage binders and we submitted them to the supervisory union and, um They said great. We didn't even expect to get this. So we're we're more than double covered on that. All right, all right. Cool. Thank you Um then um Does that mean we have to vote on something on that? No, I don't think so because We've we've voted to approve it right pending the results of the insurance. So I think we're ready to sign it and hand it over to The tory or vick. Yep. Yep Okay All right, um So, uh frank you were going to follow up with um um Joined about long-term implications of the west hill bridge project Right. We she kind of answered that. I thought you did. Yeah. Yeah. So that's all pretty well said. Yeah I mean, there's if they back out of it. There's not much we can do. We'll have some Some rights away Already there. So we'd have to probably look into whatever we could do financially to put a bridge in there Of some sort to appease this Back out, but yeah, but it sounds like it's it's happening. Yeah, it does sound like it's a go. So hopefully Um Terry you had something about skate space you wanted to talk about. Well, I've learned it's kind of a cluster down there and we had to make six seven trips down there for that and You know, it's that was with the new liner, right? Yeah, but you know, it needs a lot of work and they got a sizable donation And they were going to give it to the fire department and we said that You know, maybe you should take this money and spend it on the skating rink and bring it up to where We don't have to do this you know Granted, we got haven't got a problem with flooding it, but I don't want to flood it You know seven eight times a year Because somebody's on it with chains They're on it before it freezes I mean Somebody's got to get it together and inside that it's settled now In one corner only has like an inch of water in it But that could have been all taken care of I mean even if you Grilled and put some two-way floors on top so we could you know get You know two three inches of water on you know three or four inches of water on that one corner Because saw that doesn't break Right You know, it just seems like nobody's working on it It's getting late in the air and I know what's gonna happen is they're going well. We want to get flooded Well, you know, it's not up the the fire department has to do this Yeah, if they got the money my question is what have they done with it? They definitely haven't worked on it And now the trees are starting to grow in on it on like for a corner Why are you filling it so many times because it leaks they bought it with chains They go on it with chains there before it's froze All right with a snow blower right and then they poke holes Yeah They went on the first time and they broke the ice it was like this and it made humps and we couldn't you couldn't Just to renew the surface right but you can't fill it that full because there was no space to hold water It's not like we have a zamboni down there They used to have one they told them a lawnmower. Yeah But it's way too rough. I mean it took us. I mean even ray Took bobcat down. We tried Cutting off the high spots before we flooded it and you just Couldn't do it. No and we flooded it like I said at least six times That's something we'll have to speak to Yeah But you know they haven't done any work on so it's not going to be It's not going to be any different than it was. No The only difference we can make on that is Somebody's got to be smart enough not get on their chains on Because even if it's frozen at least mark right Digs it up enough so it's rough. It's not good. You know my question was they there was a sizable donation They could have done a lot of work to that skating ring the act doing that thing Didn't that donation go towards that liner that they bought? No, it was supposed the liner was already raised. There's a After the liner We don't have an idea what's in that account Do we ladies? I know donation was thousand dollars. Yeah, and the liner was about a thousand dollars The liner was already bought Okay, the liner was bought and paid for after the and they got this donation afterwards because they were going to give it to the party department right And we all decided that it'd be better to put it into the skate ring to fix it But I'm like said it's coming fall and yeah I'm I'm not going to play that game again. This one there So I'll have to have a conversation with no longer Yeah For who's the other person on that team and then he's part of it. He's a big part of it. Yeah So we'll have to bring that up with them who was plowing it last year John Gordon do it So we'll have to have a conversation with him too What kind of work needs to be done to it now? Yeah, it's got some pretty good holes in it that needs to be fixed around the drains And the liner No, the liner. I don't know what how they did pick the liner or where it is I got an idea they didn't dry it. So it's probably And it's a hole in it. Yeah, it has a lot of holes where you get onto it with chainspun Tor holes in the liner But you need the I don't know whether you can take a floor before and bolt it on Need to take a laser down figure out where it's, you know, what things are Yeah But I think you can bolt down in the You know, you put some yeah Stuff right down in there. Yeah Okay, and that would hold the liner up there so you could fill the water You know, so you can get another You know a couple inches in there Yeah, because it's that one whole corner is worthless because it just breaks. I mean an inch I use doesn't melt to nothing. Right But I don't know, you know, whether they dried the liner out Should have been dried before they rolled it up or else it's gonna be Gonna be a mess. Yeah. Yeah Remember it only had a three to five year lifespan anyway But you know, you could That liner wasn't much different than what they used to cover the corn. Yeah, it wasn't very good You can buy them a lot cheaper and what they paid for right if you can get it in the right color Printing everyone I've seen covers corn is white I see a lot of black ones. They used to be the four mill.  Are they now? Yeah I mean you go up and a good one is up there and wait till the Up to the frieze the frieze. Every one of there is covered white. Yeah White on one side black on the other so I mean doesn't take a nice sign to figure out Right But be rocket science, you know, because it's going to come down and everybody's gonna start hollering, you know Yeah, we want the skate. Yeah, because it does get used. It does. Yeah It's nice to have it, but I can't think of one fireman that uses it All right Did um you and zoom hear much of that what terry was talking about? Some of it some of it. Yeah, just concerns about the skate space and the um extent to which The fire department had to go down there six or eight times to flood it in a large result of the It being plowed with chains and also some deficiencies in the in the berm itself. So he's really encouraging The rec committee or who's responsible for that to to start taking some action now and just wait till all of a sudden winter's here And expect it to to work well Well, I think it's the rec committee the rec committee. Yeah So may summarize that all right All right, um Anything else anyone would like to speak about tonight rob gardener Yeah, just I just I to point out the obvious that the audio situation on these zoom things and and it's pretty tough and uh, I I think we may have talked last time by getting additional microphones in there trying to um And I and I'm I can help you with that. Anyway, I can I've got microphones. I can bring down there and try them out But anyway without making a big deal out of it. It's really hard to hear a lot of what went on there today Even even when you guys were talking you were breaking up But jones sounded fine. So the problem is there in the town office. Uh, I agree I'm just pointing that out and and anyway that I can help you to try to figure out a better range And I'm happy to do it. It's always going to be kind of clunky because it's zoom But um, if you're going to have zoom meetings like this and I think it's a really good idea to have This because more people can show up if they do That's something an area we probably should address and that's all I'm saying. Yeah, I totally agree with you rob So do I Well, we've been um gathering information and and about how the best go about it without breaking the bank And um, we're Yeah, that's um, it's time to start taking some actions on it All right. Yes. Yep Uh, I think that is the extent of our um our agenda tonight and This is um the shortest meeting we've had in a while. Yeah, so Thank you all at home and in person and orca for coming down And um, we'll see you next time


Hello everybody Andrea here let's start let's talk about starting your own mobile dental hygiene practice i'm going to be giving you guys the basic list, so this is definitely the basics of the basics, this isn't by all means everything you need to start your own mobile dental practice dental hygiene practice. But it's going to give you a basic idea of things you should be thinking about and things you should be looking at or looking into. When either you're thinking about starting your own mobile practice where you're going into patients homes. Or if they're coming to you, so I do a little bit of both, which is why i'm discussing both of those I do not have my own standalone practice I don't have my own. Physical office space, I just have a room in my home that is dedicated to patients, I have a lab as well that I do all of my. instrument processing sterilizing, but I am primarily a mobile dental hygienist. Where I go to the patients homes, so let me give you the basic lists of things that I had needed things that I kind of thought about after the fact. So this is in no particular order but i'm going to go through them one by one, so the first thing is.  Or are you going to go to them, or if you're going to do the same thing as me and do a little bit of each of those. Now this matters, because if you're just going into the patients homes and you're going to need certain things that you might not need if they came into your home only. Or you'll need more things if they're coming into your home as an example. If you're going into patients homes you're going to need a portable chair for your patient to sit in, but also a stool for you to sit in. If you're seeing patients in your own home, I suggest spending more money to get a more professional. Looking chair for your patient, but of course you're going to need a chair or a stool for you so see how depending on where you want to be situated. You want to think of different things if you're primarily mobile then you're going to need to think of a portable cart. Just basically like top work containers portable storage to transport things to and from patients homes to keep things organized in your car. Or if patients are coming to you you're not going to need as many as those things, because if you forget something you can just quickly. grab it from your office if you're mobile if you forget something well you're either grabbing it from your car, which isn't the most you know infection control that's not what we want to do when we're with the patient, we don't necessarily want to leave the patient right. I talk about that more inside my course, where I teach you how to basically start your own mobile dental hygiene practice from start to. As much as you need to being successful to making a full time income, but i'm just going to skip through that now, but. Basically think do you want to see patients in your home, do you want to see them in their home or a combination of both, as I mentioned before, I do a combination of both. I honestly prefer to see patients in their home just so that's just kind of what i'm used to, but if you're seeing patients in your own home, you can obviously see more patients and make more money so that's up to you. So the next one is talking about payment, how are patients going to pay you, this is one of the first things they're going to ask is how do you like to be paid, and this is up to you. Are you going to send things directly to the insurance company, are you going to ask them for cash only, are you going to accept email money transfer, are you going to accept credit cards. These things you need to think about again I talked more about this inside the course my mobile rdh academy course i'll leave the link for you down below, if this is something you might be interested in. But i'm just going to kind of skip through it everything now, just so you know the basic so take notes and then, if you have any questions, please let me know. The third one is, of course, appointments, how are you going to keep track, how are you going to book appointments I personally use. Google calendar, but I also have a Facebook business page that's where I book appointments and that's how I keep track of all my appointments as well, so I do a little bit of both. You might choose to have your own software, you might choose to do everything on paper that's up to you. The next one would be talking about staff, are you going to be the only staff Member, or do you want to have an assistant helping you, do you want somebody to. Book appointments, do you want somebody to submit everything to the insurance for you, this is something you need to think about at the moment i'm my only staff Member, if you will. But I would love to hire somebody in the future to help me with paperwork because it's a lot, I would rather be spending my time seeing patients than spending my time doing paperwork but that's just me. And now we're going to talk about the website, are you going to have a website that is up to you as well, I have a very simple website where, at least I have a website, so patients try to look me up, they can find me. But it basically sends them right to my page on Facebook because that's kind of where I want them to stay because that's how they book appointments. And that's how I keep everything together, so a website is up to you, you don't always have to pay for one, I suggest keeping it simple because these days. You know you don't need a $5,000 website a $10,000 website unless you want one, mine is very simple, in fact, the program I use. Weebly.com I can leave a discount code for you down below, it is free to start if you want to add more pages to your website, then you do have to pay for it, but it's still a great price. What I like about it is you can update it anytime you don't have to wait for somebody to update it for you, you don't have to pay it's very easy to update it yourself.   Facebook or just not do anything that's up to you, I highly recommend doing this if I didn't do this, I wouldn't have gotten any of my patients online is the way to go, you might want to pay for certain ads, you might want to pay for ads on Instagram. On Facebook, this is something you need to think about and supplies, so this is a very. vague word, but think of supplies think of things like what are you going to need to order on a regular basis, are you going to get toothbrushes masks. bibs PPE you know overall let's see what are some of the things I buy on a regular basis you're going to need some new instruments you're going to need, as I said like toothbrushes toothpaste. Profi pace you're going to need guys you're going to need micro brushes you might you might need mouth washes things and start to make a list. of things you're going to need on a regular basis, so that way you can plan it out so you're not spending too much money. But then you're also not running out of things either are you going to get a high speed handpiece. If you're a dental hygiene specialist or are you going to only need a slow speed handpiece what about the high speed suction what about the low speed section, so you need to think of all of these things. On the next side here the sterilizer are are you going to have a sterilizer in your own home. Are you going to be able to use one at another dental office, but then you need everything for that sterilizer. you're going to need your sport tests you're going to need your pouches you're going to need your indicator strips oh my goodness so many things. I do have a sterilizer in my own home, because I see patients basically all day every day I don't want to have to. Think about going to a dental office afterwards are going to a dental office before to sterilize my instruments that just doesn't work for you. For me, I prefer to know that whenever I want to sterilize my instruments, I can so I did spend the money to get that I have a statum. The larger statum it was about $10,000 so not cheap something you need to think about paper or digital are you going to be doing everything on paper. Paper charts paper claim forms paper everything to send to insurance or or even paper appointments are you going to write appointments down in a booklet. Or are you going to go digital I much prefer to be digital I am not paper some things you do still have to do on paper like the odd time when I have to print out a claim form. Then I have to sign it on paper, you know things like that, so I do still have a file folder for anything I need to keep. But i'm primarily a digital office everything is on my laptop I much prefer that it's much easier to keep things organized, you know copy and paste all of that. But you need to think of what works for you I tell my students inside the course, I would highly suggest being digital right away, if you can. Yes, you have to pay for a software, but it is worth every penny. I was paper when I first started and it took me way too long to get reorganized when I finally moved over to digital. Maybe about eight months later, so you so you can imagine you don't have that many patients after eight months. But I was doing so well that I wanted to switch to digital and i'm glad that I did but think about doing that sooner rather than later it's an investment, but I highly recommend it inside the course I kind of talk about the computer. Or the dental software that I have it's $3,000 about the price might have changed because I purchased mine several years ago, but $3,000 one time fee. Absolutely worth it, I do understand you might not have $3,000 starting out, but I would take out a loan whatever you need to do it will absolutely be worth it. The next one office supplies, yes, you need a printer do you need a fax machine I don't have one i've had to maybe send a fax twice. In my three years in business so far there's such a thing as a free fax software, if you will online I actually can't think of the name right now, because the last time I sent the fax was like a year ago. But they do have things like that, as long as you're not playing to fax every day. I think you can send a couple faxes a month actually for free, so why would I. spend more money to get a fax machine when I really don't need it, I do find I use my scanner and copier quite a bit but it's not that expensive when you're looking for a printer. To look for a scanner and copier kind of all in one, I think I may be paid $60 for my printer absolutely worth it for my mobile dental hygiene business, I do not take my printer with me. I send everything through insurance, I take all of my notes once i'm back home at the end of the day, I talk about more inside the in the course as well it takes some organizing but that's what I like to do and that's what works for me.  This is something you would set up while you're setting up for your electronic transfer, I had help when I signed up for my dental software. They kind of helped me through that things have changed since then it's been three years, but kind of think how you want to do things again. If your clients are paying you cash only, then you might not even have to worry about that because you wouldn't. be paid by insurance companies, but that's how I primarily get paid I personally prefer. A check i'm a little old fashioned that we not check from patients but checks from the insurance, so it sends the claim form with the check. I can see who the check is for what patients what appointment I just like to have that piece of paper personally. By it does take sometimes two to four weeks to get paid from insurance companies if you signed up for direct deposit you get paid within that week, I would say, for most cases. bank accounts is the next point, I do suggest having a separate bank account for any of your income and expenses it's much easier to keep track. You don't have to get a business account necessarily but talk to your accountant. I do think it's a good idea, just because again it's much easier to separate personal and business that way, but talk to your accountant and they can help you through that. credit cards same thing you don't necessarily need a business credit card, you know there's. Normal credit cards and then there's business credit cards, but sometimes business credit cards can offer you. More points more cash back your credit card depends on what you want to use it for, but you should have one credit card for business expenses only. Last but not least think about your budget if you need to take out a loan if you need to really budget per month, you will have more expenses let's say this month than you will next month i'm the same. Sometimes my expenses are $200 a month sometimes they're 2000 it depends on what i'm purchasing. you'll soon start to realize having your own business, the more masks let's say you purchase you might get two boxes free so so it's actually cheaper for you to buy a whole bunch of them. They might be sitting there for a year but you're going to need them anyway and Max's masks don't expire, but do you have the room for that in your home. Things you need to think about so, as I said you guys, this is a basic list if you need help any questions, I do offer a full course which i'll leave the link for you down below the mobile rdh academy. I go through everything, because I know how overwhelming this can be but having your own business is truly exciting.


And let me begin by thanking, you know, Wider for this invitation, it's really privileged to be here. Thank you, Miguel, for that introduction. So I was asked to speak on a Mexican program to combat poverty, which is called Precio Opportunidades. I'll speak a little bit about that, but I want to devote an important part of my time to not only speaking about this program in particular, but to speak a little bit about sort of what's next and how this program fits into the broader picture of social policy in Mexico, and there might be some remarks that are useful for Latin America. I'm not really sure to what extent these experiences are useful to other parts of the world because institutions and contexts are different, but perhaps there are some interesting insights that are useful. So I'll begin a little bit with some very quick background on Precio Opportunidades. Back in the 1990s, when, before this program was launched, Mexico had about 30 percent of population in conditions of extreme poverty, and it was not because it was not running programs to combat extreme poverty, in fact, Mexico had had a long tradition of having many programs for food, nutrition, various kinds of support, it's just that these programs had very many problems. They had targeting problems in terms of the rural urban violence or generalized versus targeted subsidies. There were very inefficient programs in terms of what percentage of the budget was devoted for administrative expenses versus actual transfers, run by many ministries and agencies with little coordination, not really focused on the most vulnerable members of the household, and there was very little evaluation. So what changed, what sort of trigger changed, and there are sort of two things that triggered change. One is there was a major shock in Mexico in the mid-1990s, in 1994-95. There was a big crisis, GDP fell by about 6 percent, and it was clear to everybody that something had to be done, everybody was very concerned that this big shock was actually going to have a big impact on poverty. So that was an important political motivation for change, but also during the 1980s and the 1990s there had been some important advances in the analytical understanding of poverty, particularly why food and nutrition and health were complements as opposed to substitutes in consumption, some important research that clarified the role of food subsidies as income transfers, actually a paper that was very influential to my thinking back then, it was actually written by Ravi sitting here, I think it was called Poverty and Food Subsidies with Basically Economic Journal, 1980, something about why food subsidies in a way were equivalent to income transfers, and some important work of people in highlighting the importance of incentives in the design of the program. So all these analytical insights from the literature in the 80s and 90s were tried to be incorporated into the design of the program. The idea was then to replace this very large set of disjointed and unarticulated nutrition, health, food subsidies targeted, directed to substitute all these programs by a single program that would transfer income to the poor, but that at the same time would have more impacts on the health, education, and nutritional status of the poor. And the ideal was that by investing in the human capital of the poor, this was the driving idea, by investing in the human capital of the poor, the program would contribute to breaking the inter- generation and transmission of poverty. So that was basically the idea. Basically what it did is substituted all food subsidies, both in kind and in price subsidies with cash transfer. It actually gave the cash transfer to mothers. It conditioned the transfer partly on behaviors associated with health, partly on behaviors associated with school attendance. We included impact evaluation with a randomized design as part of the program for the beginning. And we tried to break away from some of the political economy considerations that targeted beneficiaries with other criteria by bringing in very objective targeting criteria. And I guess the program was novel because all these innovations were put together at the same time. Briefly, what has happened since then, it's more than 15 years since this program has been in place. There have been many papers written about projects opportunities that have looked at various dimensions of this program. I'm going to summarize about 15 years of research in two slides. On the positive side, what has been found is that the program has had a positive effect of consumption. Food consumption has gone up and general consumption has gone up. There's some evidence that people are beginning to save part of the transfer and turn it into investment projects. This has been a useful instrument to protect household against price shocks because the transfers are indexed to the CPI. There's some positive, there's some indication, you know, there's pretty good research that says that there's positive impact of this program on education, both on enrollment rates, on progression rates, and that actually the impact has been stronger for girls and for boys, which was one of the aims of the program. There's also a lot of evidence that says that this has had a positive impact on the health and nutrition of children and the household. It has changed gender balances within the household and it actually the preliminary that we have it hasn't affected labor leisure choices of adults, but it has affected the allocation of children's time in the direction of less work and more study, which is what was intended. So all these are sort of the positive results of the program so far, but not all the results have been positive. Some results have shown that despite the fact that children are going to school more often, the more deeper impact on learning and cognitive ability has been weak. There's been no impact yet on comprehension tests. We have very little evidence that in fact this is actually reducing anemia and stunting had to do with the fact that some of the nutritional supplements were not done very well. And there's some mixed evidence that in fact it's actually causing obesity and overweight in some of the children. So the balance is clearly positive, but it should be unfair to say that the program is flawless or that it should not be designed differently. We clearly underestimated the problem of the quality of the supply of health and educational services. Yes, children are going to school more often, but the quality of the teachers and the quality of the schools where this children are going to school is not up to the standards and that's why some of the impacts on learning are not as strong as we thought they would be. Yes, children are going more often to health clinics, but sometimes the service that they're getting at the health clinics is not as good as it should be. So there was clearly underestimation of the supply side problem of both health and education. And clearly back then in the time when we designed the program there was insufficient understanding of the importance not only of nutrition, but other elements of early child development which were not incorporated into the program. If the program were to be designed today and begin today from scratch it would be a different program. On the whole, however, the balance has been positive and a program like Progress Oportunidades, Mutatis Mutandis has been put in place in very many other Latin American countries. By last count I think there were 38 countries in the world that had a program with similar features to condition of progress opportunities, the famous CCTs that have been all over the place. What I'd like to do now is to look beyond Progress Oportunidades and devote the rest of my time to ask some questions about what is, how does this program fit into the broader framework of social protection and where is this program going? So the key question is will this program break the inter-generation and transmission of poverty? And for that I think the two conditions are essential. I think the poor have to have increased human capital and the evidence is that it is happening not as much as we would like, but it is happening. But more importantly, they need to have better income opportunities, especially more productive jobs with higher wages. And these two conditions are sometimes conflated, but it's important to understand that these are two separate conditions. And it is important to highlight that Progress Oportunidades is not, is not a job creating program. So unless the second condition is fulfilled, Progress Oportunidades runs the risk of being a permanent program to transfer income to the poor rather than what was the original design, a transitory investment in the human capital of the poor that would contribute to breaking the inter-generation transmission of poverty. And to understand a little bit why the second condition is not being met, it's important to distinguish between two separate objectives that social programs, I'm not speaking now about poverty programs, but social programs were generally need to fulfill. There is the problem of transferring income to the poor, and please look at that matrix along the rows, and if you look at that matrix from the perspective of the rows, you want to distinguish between the population that is poor and non-poor, and you clearly want to transfer income to the poor, and that's the role of Progress Oportunidades. But if you focus on the world from the point of view of the columns, not of the rows, it's clearly that you want to provide all workers with insurance against risks, but in the context of Mexico and many Latin American countries, the labor force is split between a formal and informal component, and as a result, the mechanisms to provide social insurance to the labor force are divided between what I call contributory social insurance, which is what everybody understands as social insurance paid from wage-based taxes, and an array of non-contributory social insurance programs that have been put together for informal workers. Now I want to focus on the columns as opposed to the rows. CCT is focused on the rows, but social insurance focused on the columns, and I want to focus on the columns because I think this is important for what happens to jobs. The key point here is that the bundle of benefits associated with contributory social insurance, T, is a cost that must be internalized in the contract between the firm and the worker, because it's a labor tax. But the cost of the bundle of benefits associated with non-contributory social insurance, health programs, pensions, daycare programs, for informal workers that are present in Mexico are not paid from a wage tax and need not be internalized between the firm and the worker. So there's a big amount of evidence that shows that contributory social insurance to the extent that is undervalued by workers, because the benefits are not as good as the cost, acts like a tax on formal employment. And I'm not going to discuss that because there's quite a bit of accumulated evidence over time that in fact, if you increase contributory contributions, then formal employment will go down. What is less known is that, in fact, the bundle of programs of non-contributory social insurance acts as a subsidy to informal employment, because in the end, informal workers are getting a benefit that they're not paying for, nor the firms that hire them are paying for, conditional on being informal. And the evidence shows that this combination of the way social insurance is structured is actually reducing formal employment. By now there's some empirical evidence that in fact shows that this is the case. An important health program in Mexico for informal workers called Seguro Popular was introduced in the early 2000s. This is work by a colleague of mine at DITB in which he basically exploits the fact that this program was rolled out at different speed in different municipalities and what the graph is showing here is that controlling for everything else in municipalities in which the Seguro Popular program was rolled out, in fact firms responded to the program by not enrolling anymore in contributory social insurance. This difference in the behavior of firms that now can evade social insurance contributions without their workers being left without benefits is actually translating into reduction in formal employment. It's indirect evidence that evasion behavior by firms is increasing as a result of the program. And a couple of colleagues of mine at the IDB have shown that during the time that this program has been in place it has actually reduced formal employment by between 8 to 20 percent of the formal employment that would otherwise have been created in that particular time period and that the effects are actually stronger for low wage workers. Another piece of evidence, this is a health program that was put together in a municipal in Mexico City. Interestingly, from the point of your research, the mayor of Mexico City didn't want to go along with the program being pushed by the president. He was having difficulties with the president so he decided to run his own program at a different time period. So he created a health program for informal women in Mexico City and a researcher in Mexico used the fact that this program was put in Mexico City but not in the two other larger cities of Mexico which are Guadalajara and Monterrey and compared what are the probabilities that women were in informal employment. And interestingly the program for informal women in Mexico City actually reduced the probability that women would find a formal job. So there's also evidence that this was impacting formal employment. The key point here is that there's some kind of an incentive compatibility problem between the programs that are investing in the human capital of the poor which is Progreso Opportunidades which are trying to create capabilities for the poor by investing in the human capital and a different set of programs that operate more along the dimension of the labor market in which the incentives of firms and workers in the labor market are being distorted in the direction of informal employment because contributor social insurance is taxing formal employment and because non-contributive programs very understandable from a social point of view, from an economic point of view are acting like additional subsidy to informal employment. So the incentive incompatibility problem is turning into labor outcomes that are actually not the desirable which is persistent informal employment despite the fact that the human capital of the poor is increasing and despite the fact that workers are accumulating with human capital. The key point here is that Progreso Opportunidades, a income transfer program that invests in human capital cannot solve the problems in the labor market that are created by the formal informal dichotomy. And that if you think about the amount of budget that is going into these programs, the amount of money that is going into the non-contributive programs far exceeds the amount of money that is going into Progreso Opportunidades so that the distortions in the behavior of firms and workers induced by social insurance are much larger than the investments in human capital that you're taking place. This is a graph that shows this very interesting graph that shows on the right axis what has happened to years of schooling of poor workers. So I define here arbitrarily poor workers as workers in the first two desks of the income distribution and on the right axis what you basically see is that poor workers have increased the years of schooling by about the equivalent of three years over the last two decades. This is important because the amount of time that they have, the amount of schooling is actually increased by about 40%. So this is an important accumulation in the human capital of the poor. I didn't bring here in the case of quality. Quality of schooling in Mexico is low but it's been increasing gradually. So quality has been increasing, quantity of education has been increasing. So it's difficult to argue that human capital has not been increasing. Clearly the human capital of the poor in Mexico has been increasing. But if you look at the blue line on the left axis and you look at the informality rate for poor workers what you find is that actually the informality rate for poor workers has been on the whole fairly stable and surprisingly over the last eight years has been increasing gradually. So it's an interesting question, an important question is why is it that you have workers that are more educated that are gradually ending the labor force with more human capital but that not finding better jobs. And so kind of a useful, simplified procedure of way to thinking about it, I go back again to the quadrant in which the rows is the distinction you want against by income. The columns is the distinction you want by labor status. The poor in some caricature are in point A, poor workers are in some caricature in point A. And ideally, what progress opportunities wanted to do was to gradually shift workers from point A to point B. EI is earned income so you wanted to earn income to go up by delta EI so that their own earned income allows them to be in point B as a result of getting higher wages associated with having human capital. But in fact, the outcome is turning out to be a movement a little bit from point A to point C in which, yes, the income of the poor is higher but it's more a result of the transfer rather than own earned income because they've accumulated more human capital. And that's because they're remaining in their informal status in the labor market and they're not accessing better jobs with higher productivity and higher real wages. And in this caricature that I'm making, you have two conflicting sets of social programs that are incentive incompatible, one that invests in human capital that wants to pull from A to B, but another one that is distorting incentives in the labor market that is pulling things in the direction of B to C. Of course, there are many more of the things going that's complicated, but the deep story is that in social policy broadly, you don't have the coherence that you would like to have. So let me begin to conclude a little bit. Progreso oportunidades is clearly an improvement over the previous disjointed set of nutrition, health, price subsidies, subsidies in kind, transfers of a kilo of tortilla, a liter of milk and all that. It is, you know, on the whole been a positive program, although clearly there's room for improvements, particularly on the supply side, but it should be clear that Progreso oportunidades by itself will not break the international transmission of poverty. The critical question then is whether healthier and better educated poor workers are going to find more productive jobs. And this question is associated with many other things, taxation, you know, many other things, but it's clearly also associated with the structure of social insurance programs and the way social insurance programs are depending, are distorting incentives in the labor market. At present, this incentive incompatibility that I'm trying to highlight, what it's basically doing is it's limiting the returns to the investments in the human capital of the poor that was made by Progreso oportunidades. You have better educated workers that are not earning higher wages. And Mutatis Mutandis, you know, with some nuances and some institutional difference, of course, but Mutatis Mutandis, this is a story in Colombia, this is a story in Argentina, this is a story in many other Latin American countries in which you've reformed part of social policy, the part that has to do with income transfers and targeting on the poor, but you're increasingly distorting the other part of social policy, the part that has to do with social insurance because of the growth of non-contrary programs in the context of an architecture of social insurance that is still benchmarking and that is very ill-suited to the needs of the region. So we need a more integrated view of social policy. I think we need to make a sharper distinction when we speak about social safety nets and social protection. If I had my way, I would eliminate those two expressions from English language and I would, you know, focus attention on speaking about poverty programs or income transfer programs versus social insurance programs by the optimum objective what these programs do. And from this perspective, even though we've moved ahead, Mexico has yet a long way to go to develop a coherent and consistent strategy to eradicate poverty. Thank you.