I think we're going to go ahead and get rolling here. I'm sure people are still coming in from lunch, but we'll go ahead and get started. So the session is remotely virtual, which is about remote teams or virtual teams. So if that's not what you thought you were coming to, you can leave if you want to. I'm Karen Stevenson, and let's go ahead and talk about this. I have been involved with Drupal for about seven years.  So that's how I got connected to Drupal. I work for Lullabot Consulting. We're a big Drupal shop. We do a lot of training. We do a lot of consulting, and we do a lot of web development work, friend-in-the-back-end design and everything else, and lots of big sites that we've worked on, Martha Stewart and Grammys.com and WWE and lots of others as well. This man right here is my great-grandfather. He's the first cat herder in our family. Hurting cats. Don't let anybody tell you it's easy. Anybody can hurt cattle holding together 10,000 half-wild short hairs, but that's another thing altogether. Being a cat herder is probably about the toughest thing I think I've ever done. I got this one this morning right here, and if you look at his face, it's just ripped to shreds, you know? You see the movies yet, you hear the stories. It's, I'm living a dream. Not everyone can do what we do. I wouldn't do nothing else. It ain't an easy job, but when you bring a herd into town and you ain't lost to one of them, I ain't a feeling like it in the world. I love that commercial. Hurting cats. So does managing a remote team feel a little bit like hurting cats? Yes, it does. So let's start. People throw around the terms virtual and remote kind of interchangeably, but they're really not the same thing. So let's talk about terminology for just a second. So virtual means something that doesn't really exist, right? Something that's sort of simulating or pretending to be something else. And remote means things that are far away. Something that's not close. So for instance, Drupal is, the Drupal community is a virtual team. Drupal is not a company that you can join.  You can't get fired by Drupal. You decide to be a part of it. And Drupal can't do anything about it more or less. So that's a virtual team. And we obviously have remote members on this team. They're international. It's all over the world. I used to, when people asked what I did, I used to say I am a remote employee on a virtual company. But that's not actually true, because Little Bud is not really a virtual company. It's a real company. But we do have remote employees. In fact, that's all we have is remote employees. So it's kind of unusual in the sense that we don't really have anybody who's not remote. Unlike a lot of teams where remote is kind of the exception, at Little Bud, remote is what everybody is. And then Little Bud in turn participates in virtual project teams with lots of other people. So we work with a client and we end up with a project team that is partly comprised of our Lullabot people and partly comprised of people from the client that we're working with. And in some cases, another vendor is involved. In some cases, there are multiple departments from the client or whatever. So we end up on a lot of these virtual teams. So again, that's a team of people that's come together for a purpose. But that's where the virtual comes in. And it has remote members. So we've got a lot of kind of variations of all of this. So who exactly is remote? Well, the obvious answer is you've got an in-house team and you've got remote contractors. So a company might have remote contractors that they bring in to do certain things like work on a website. You can have a company that has remote employees. There are individual employees in the company that work from home or work from someplace that's not the same place that everybody else works with. You can have remote offices. And remote offices are interesting because people a lot of times don't think about remote offices when they talk about remote employees. But a remote office is sort of in the same boat as a remote employee. A lot of times, they're kind of the forgotten stepchild that kind of is out of the loop and doesn't know what's going on at the mothership. And I would say that it even goes a little farther than that because if you've got people who are working while they're traveling, you've got people who are temporarily remote and they need to be able to function and do their job, but they're not connected. They don't have the connection. You can have people that are working from home during emergencies and that could be either the emergency of the employee.  I'm going to have to work from home today. We've had a blizzard and I can't get to work, or it could be something's happened at work and work isn't there. And I've got to work from home. And you can have open source and joint venture projects which is kind of where Drupal falls in, right, that you've got this virtual community of people that's working together on a mutual project. And I would actually say that you can even take it a step further there's research now that says that even, you've got companies where people are working in different buildings and those people may be somewhat remote from each other. There's actually research that says teams that have members in the same building but just on different floors actually have some of the same kinds of problems that distributed teams across the country have because if you're not there, if you're not right in front of everybody, that's a little different. So many teams have remote elements, probably more teams than anybody really realizes because if somebody says, you know, we don't have remote in our company, most likely you have one of these things. The only people that really, only companies that really don't have any remote employees at all would be a very small company where everybody is physically in the same location and you never work with anybody else. And that's probably not that many. So if you go back to kind of the traditional idea of, you know, remote means people are working from home they can work from wherever they are, the benefits are obvious, right? You've got access to the best talent wherever that talent may be. It gives you a wider pool of employees. Your employees have more of a global perspective. It's not just this narrow little group of people that work right where you do. They may be more productive and more available because they're not commuting, they're not wasting their time doing that kind of thing. And they may be less expensive because you don't have to pay for a desk in an office building. They're working from home. So there's a lot of benefits. What's coming into play more and more is employers are beginning to realize that having the ability for people to work remotely is actually kind of business interruption insurance. A client that I work with, you know, the Hurricane Sandy. How many businesses were unable to work in New York City after Hurricane Sandy? And those that were already set up with the capability of allowing people to work remotely were able to continue to do business as normal even though their offices were actually shut down. So it turned out to be kind of business interruption insurance. So there's some employers that don't embrace this idea of remote employees. There's been a lot of discussion about what does this mean that Yahoo said we don't want people working from home. And I don't think personally, I don't see that as any kind of like a smear on the idea of working remotely. I think Yahoo is just a special case. They've got their own reasons for doing what they do and wanting to do what they want to do. I don't think in any way, shape, or form, it means that remote work is going away or it's not important or there's a new trend coming or anything like that. It's just their particular situation. There's a lot of things that employees love about it. You've got a flexible schedule. You've got the ability to do some work-life balance. You don't have commuting. You've got fewer interruptions. Those things are great. But it comes with responsibility.  You have some responsibilities that come with it. So I've come up with like my five commandments for team members. There's probably more than five, but five seems like a nice number. So you will spend much time on the phone. One of the things we tell people when they come to work for Lullabot for the first time, if they haven't been, especially if they haven't worked remotely before, is be sure you get yourself a new phone plan because you are going to be on the phone a lot. And I think almost everybody doesn't believe that enough and ends up with like a $500 or $1,000 phone bill the first month that they're working and then they're going, oh my God, you really meant it. Yeah, yeah, we really mean it. You're going to be on the phone a lot. You have to be visible and accessible. You cannot just drop into a black hole and disappear. That won't work. And in fact, when we have people like that, and sometimes this happens, you get somebody on a remote team who just doesn't get. How do you work remotely? And they do just sort of disappear during the day and maybe throw some code over the wall every once in a while. It doesn't work. You can't function that way. Part of the agreement for somebody to be in a remote employee is they have to understand that you have responsibilities. And you can't disappear without explanation. You can disappear. Everybody can't always be visible everywhere, but you've got to let people know what's going on. You must over-communicate. And that is everybody. That is management has to over-communicate and employees have to over-communicate. And you can't do too much of that. You have to excessively communicate. And there is no way to do this successfully without understanding how to use the virtual tools. So if you don't know or you don't want to learn how to use virtual tools, people in this room probably don't have any problem with that at all, but you do have teams where there are people who are not comfortable with virtual tools and that can be a real problem. I want to reiterate commandment number one. You will spend a lot of time on the phone. Now there are some potential problems that come with remote workers. Isolation. People are not in a group of people. They may not feel like they belong. They may feel like they're kind of cut off from everyone else. It may be hard for people who are working remotely to feel a sense of rapport with the rest of the team. It's nice to work remotely to have that work-family balance, but the work-family balance can kind of go the other way, because you can have them colliding into each other and you can't separate them enough. That can turn into a problem. Remote employees can have trouble seeing the big picture.  And I lose that casual contact that you get when you're all physically in the same building. So we just don't have it. But we can work around all these things. So one of the things that we have to do is we have to have the right infrastructure in place. So these are just some quotes from, I've got some quotes scattered through here from people that are working on virtual teams that kind of said, you know, what works and what doesn't work on our virtual team, what makes it successful or not. And one of them is virtual teams are forced to be better and follow clear procedures. And that is really true. You cannot assume anything. What we find is you need to have a team identity and a lot of times you need to have some sort of an intranet or, you know, a point of central contact for the remote team or for the whole team. Right, both the remote and the local ones. You want to have an online team directory with photos of each person and contact information. If you are not in the same room with these people, you want to see their faces. You want to know what they look like. When you do have a chance to meet them in real life, you don't want them to be strangers. You want to feel like you know who these people are. You should treat adding a person to a virtual team in the same way that you treat adding a new employee to a company. They need that same kind of orientation and attention. I would say that one of the things that Drupal has been accused of having problems with is new people approaching the Drupal community and feeling like they don't belong and nobody wants them and nobody wants to hear what I have to say, that kind of thing. It's that same kind of, you know, that's that sense that this new person who's trying to join this virtual team doesn't feel welcome. It doesn't feel like they're a part of something and that's important. Each team members have an understanding of what the others are doing and how each person fits in with the rest of the group. And again, it's easy to miss this. It's easy for this not to happen, but it's really important. Documentation and data sharing is vital. You know, this is all kind of a lot of the same thing. We need to know what's going on. We have to have ways of communicating with each other. And so we kind of have, like at Lullabot, we have, I'd say, like five kind of big buckets of things that build the infrastructure that I think are important to a lot of teams. So first of all, you need some sort of a team internet. You need a central point of contact and that should have a directory on it so you know who all the team members are. You need a way to share files. You're going to have to have a way to get files back and forth. You need some way of calendaring and keeping track of events and that kind of thing. You probably need a time tracking. Not every team needs time tracking, but I would say that maybe more of them need it than realize it. And then you need lots of communication channels. You don't need just one communication channel. You need multiple communication channels. So for instance, our Lullabot Internet is super simple Drupal site, right? Nothing really fancy. We've got a place where we've got client information and documentation. We've got a place where we've got our team directory. We can bookmark. We've got an ability to bookmark. That's just flags. This is just a super, super easy Drupal site. And then blogging about things like birthdays and benefits and company news and all that kind of thing. We've used OpenATrium in the past. It wasn't a particularly good match for exactly what we were trying to do. So we aren't using it right now, but that's another alternative. There's a lot of companies that use things like Basecamp for this purpose. There's a lot of tools out there. It doesn't really matter what you use. The point is that you need something. And then how are you going to manage files? We're using Dropbox. And I think Dropbox is mostly pretty good. It's not a perfect solution either. I don't know if there is a perfect solution for sharing files, but Dropbox is working pretty well for us. I think what you need for file sharing that's important is you need a way to say we've got some files that need to be kept private and we've got other files that we need to share with people. So we need a way that that can happen. If a client needs a file, how can you get that file to them? And at the same time, you've got private files and you want your private files to stay private.  Dropbox gives you that. Some people just put files into something like Basecamp. And I don't know if you can do a hierarchical organization. The ones I've seen didn't, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a way to do it. Cross-platform accessibility is really important. Like Dropbox, I can get to from any machine that I'm on. It's got an iPhone app. It's got an Android app. It's got lots of different ways that I can get to my files. And I've got some revision history. So all those things are really important. And then you could say like GitHub would be, you know, or another way is GitHub for your code repository. You need a calendaring system. Now, we use Google Calendar. And Google Calendar is pretty powerful. And one of the things that's nice about Google Calendar is you can combine multiple calendars into the same one. So when you see the two different colors here, this is an example of somebody that's got a couple of different calendars. And so what we do, for instance, at Lullabot, is we've got a calendar that is our regular, you know, everybody's got their regular calendar. And then we've got a calendar that keeps track of who's out of the office. So we've got an OOO calendar. And I can bring the OOO calendar into my thing. And I can see that, oh, yeah, so-and-so is out today. I'm not going to find him. He's out today. We've got a conference call calendar. So we've got another calendar where we keep track of all the conference calls. Who's using what conference call lines? You could do a calendar for meeting rooms, which doesn't apply in our situation, but somebody might find something like that useful. So you can have lots of different calendars that are used for different purposes. And then everybody can bring them into their own calendars and see that information. Very handy. Time tracking. I told-I said-I mentioned the idea that not everybody thinks that they need to track time or wants to track time. We're currently using something called Let's Freckle, which is an online tracking system. I like it really well. Periodically we have debates about whether it's the right answer or whether there's a better way to track time and then we go look at other ways to track time and then a lot of times we end up back here again. But we do-we do from time to time kind of revisit this question of what's the best way to track time. But you can put projects in here. When I started at Lullabot a long time ago, way back when it was, we didn't track time. We actually-the only time we tracked time is if we were billing time. So if you were working on a project where you weren't billing time and materials, nobody tracked time. And we found out over time, we found out that it's actually useful to track time for everything, even if it's not a billing situation, even if there's not a billing question. So what we've got is we've got buckets for things like internal time, and therefore working on the company website. And you can keep track of how much time are people spending on these kinds of things. The tough part about that is getting people to actually do it, right? So you really have to keep up with those kinds of things. You have to get into the habit of tracking time and it's really useful when you're at home to know what it is you are spending your time on. So there's basically two ways to do it. You can use some sort of a timer where you're just constantly keeping track of what you're doing and then you click, you know, done and you post it. Or you do something where you kind of catch up at the end of the day. I tend to do the second because I do so much switching back and forth between things that I don't find that the timer works. You can wait to the end of the week or the month, but you will odds have forgotten what you actually did do. And like I said, the important thing is that we're finding that this is kind of transcends billing. It's really just time management. This is keeping track of how you're spending your time and not just for management but for the employee as well.  But again, trying to get people to actually do it sometimes requires some gentle reminders. So we've come up with a freckle fairy and if you don't post your time, you get an email from the freckle fairy. And if she has to, she might post it in a public place where you're going to be shamed. So people are getting pretty good about now posting their arms, their hours now. So we've got, I'm quoting various people because we've had conversations about what are suggestions about working at home and one of them that Seth came up with is track your time. You want to know that you're spending enough time, but you also want to know that you're not spending too much time. Maybe if you're spending too much time on something, maybe you're spending your wheels, maybe you should be asking for help. Maybe there's a problem. But the only way to know how you're spending your time is to track it. Another thing that we use is called Yammer. And Yammer, if you're not familiar with it, is basically Twitter, but it's kind of a private Twitter. So it's not open to the public. Everybody can't see it. It's something that's constrained so that we can feel free to put names of clients into our Yammer's and that kind of thing. We're using Yammer as sort of an announcement, right? I just got done working on such and such a project or I'm getting ready to work on something else. We do lots of things with Yammer. We keep finding more and more ways to use Yammer. We do something called the Hive Mind. So you're stuck on a problem and you say, you know, I feel like this is a problem somebody else has solved and I'll post something and I'll put hashtag Hive Mind. And that means, hey, anybody know the answer to this question? Anybody got any good solutions?  So we do the Hive Mind things. And we say, you know, like this is an example of, I found this really great resource that we could use as a resource. So there's a lot of different ways that we use Yammer. But what it all comes down to is you absolutely have to find good ways to communicate. And one of the things that's important if you're going to be a manager on a remote team is you have to have good communication skills. It's the manager's job to stay on top of everybody. There's a whole bunch of things that we'd use for communication channels. So email, obvious email. We use email lists all over the place. So for instance, we have an email list to team and that is all the people on the team. So if you want to make sure that everybody on the team knows something, you just have to copy the team email list. And then every project that we set up gets an email list. And so if you want to send an email out to everybody that's involved on a certain project, you don't have to go look up all their names or worry about whether you've left somebody out or anything like that. You copy that email list. It's really great for making sure that people aren't left out of the loop. And I think that's one of the really valuable things about it. Obviously you want a mobile phone. You need a way to do conference calls. We use something called TurboBridge. There's a bunch of different services that you can use for conference calls. But you have to think through how are we going to do conference calls. And if you're the remote employee and you've got the company set up, they're going to have to figure out how are they going to conference call you in, right? So one way or the other, there has to be a conference call solution. IRC is like the mainstay. Everybody sits in IRC all the time and you're expected to. And the idea is, first of all, you're easy to ping. And second, it also lets everybody know that you're there. I'm here, I'm available, I'm working. You can reach me if you need to. So that's the idea with IRC. We use Yammer for all kinds of things. For personal things as well as business things. And then Skype and Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts are great. So the bottom line is all teams need good communication. But co-located teams, so co-located would be the opposite of remote. We're all in the same place. Have more chances to stumble across information. I started a bunch of conversations with people about what's good about working remotely, what's wrong with it, what works, what doesn't work. And one of the responses I was getting was they're harder to manage. And I think it's interesting because there's nothing about managing a remote team that isn't a good idea for any team. It's just that you have to do it. And with a co-located team, you can get away with not doing it. And actually I was thinking about the grapevine, right? So some people say, well, you know, the remote people, they don't hear the grapevine. Well, you know, the grapevine is really sort of a failure of communication. It's sort of a response to a failure in communication. Somebody didn't tell somebody everything they needed to know and the grapevine tries to pick up the pieces. So the fact that you don't have the grapevine is really just a signal or the grapevine is just a signal that communication is not going on. So then we'll get to talk about phone calls because there's going to be lots of them. So here are my five commandments for phone calls. Thou shalt use a headset. We have to kind of teach people this because if they're not used to being on a remote team or in a phone call that includes a lot of people, they don't always realize this. There's a lot of people on a call and they don't have headsets on. You start picking up background noise. You start hearing somebody clicking on the keyboard, all kinds of things. It gets really confusing and noisy and it's just, you just have to say people on a call with more than two people have to use a headset. And the corollary to that is when you're not talking you should be muted. Thou shalt ta-da. So what happens when you've got a conference call or a call with a lot of people involved is sometimes you can have what some people like to call the Thunderdome thing. Everybody's talking over everybody and you can't tell who's talking and when they're done and all that kind of thing. So a couple of things that are really helpful. First of all there should be somebody leading the call and we try to do that. A lot of times it's the person saying, okay Jim what do you think? Okay, wait a minute that's enough Karen. Let's hear what Sue has to say. That kind of thing, sort of doing that. You also need a way to communicate that you're done talking so somebody knows okay now I can move in. What we started doing at Lullabot and I don't even know who started this thing is when you get all done talking you say ta-da. Ta-da. And that means I'm finished and somebody else can talk and it's hilarious because we bring other people in on our calls clients and things and they're all picking it up and so pretty soon you hear the clients are starting to do ta-da on their calls I think it's a lot of fun but it works. It's very effective. Again you have to have a conference call system and you have to think about international calls as well. We're in a global community. Some people maybe will never ever ever have any reason to either need to have somebody international dial in or out and keeping in mind that even Canada is international you have to think through how are we going to do this? If somebody from outside the U.S. needs to dial in how are they going to do it? Do we have a number they can use? Is it going to cost them a million dollars? How's this going to work? And vice versa. If we need to call them how are we going to call them? Skype is sometimes an answer but it can use Skype and so you can't rely on that. Sometimes it works. So now we're really really good. We are commuting communicating the hack out of everything. We are copying everybody on every email we are pulling people into a million phone calls we need to do that but the corollary to that is now we've got information overload so what do we do about that? We have to balance the availability with a way to get away from it a little bit and so one way we can do that is there's a couple of ways. This is an interesting suggestion that I just ran across when I was researching this topic. We actually haven't been doing this but it might be a good idea when you're sending an email blast to everybody on the list to say the CC means I'm just letting you know that you don't have to do anything but the two means I expect you to respond. I think that might be an interesting idea to try. You want to schedule time to speak with each other so the idea is you don't want to just constantly interrupt each other nobody's going to get anything done if they're being constantly pinged and interrupted and stopping what they're doing to answer questions and that kind of thing so ideally you want to say Jared I need to talk to you what's a good time I'd be available after 2pm today and we set up a time and we figure out when we're going to talk and we can both fit it into our schedule and similarly you can schedule time to go dark so you can say okay I've got this project going on I really need to focus on this thing I mean I cannot have all this other stuff going on heads down in this project and so what we've started doing a lot of us are doing is Will Yammer something like I've got this big project I am going to go offline for 2 hours you know if it's an emergency try and contact me otherwise you know I'll be back in a couple hours something like that so you're kind of announcing to people you're letting people know what you're doing and what to expect but you're giving yourself a chance to kind of step back and actually get something accomplished so then we have body language so one of the things that happens when you're dealing with a remote team especially when everybody is not in front of you is if I'm hearing silence on the other end of the line am I seeing is that somebody smiling and nodding their head or is that somebody looks like this and you don't know right you don't know which one silence is so this is an issue you're missing body language that's one of the things that happens when you're remote is you don't get the body language clues and you have to be very conscious of the fact that you're not getting those clues and silence does not mean necessarily mean agreement it does not necessarily mean I understand it may be total confusion who knows so what we have to do is we have to find out how can we kind of solve for this problem that we don't have body language when we're dealing with remote teams so first there's basically two solutions so one solution is you've got to explicitly ask questions okay you get done explaining something you hear dead silence people are saying yes yes yes I agree you know you've got agreement but if you're not hearing anything you don't know what that silence means you've got to ask you've got to say does that sound right do you agree do you disagree did you understand what I was saying you have to do that and then the second one is you can use something where there is a visual element so you could do something like Skype or Google Hangout or something where you actually can see the person that you're talking to and get some of those body language clues and again another quote from some of the research I had to totally change my work process and be much more direct when asking people how they're feeling or acting I have to translate what I and I think what this was supposed to say is I have to translate what I would have picked up from body language in other words there is no body language so I've got to figure out a solution for that so we do things we do Google Hangouts and we have a lot of fun and sometimes when we have this really tough problem that we're dealing with the best part is and it's like they're all just going ah you know they're just going to have a little fun and break the ice a little bit and then they're going to get back and solve the problem another problem that you have with remote is isolation so you've got people that are kind of out away from everybody else and again keep in mind that all of these things could be like a remote office just as well as an individual remote employee working from home so you've got isolation you've got a sense that you are separated or left out or missing out on things you're not a part of the mothership you're missing something you don't know what's going on so this came up over and over again as a potential problem you know people feeling like they were left out so how do you get around this so this is an area where a manager can really make a difference so a manager who's really kind of conscious of the fact that this can happen and this does happen one of the things that some of the comments talked about was the idea that an employee or a team member might not be comfortable saying I feel left out you know they might not ever verbalize that and so that you need to the managers need to kind of check in are you doing okay haven't heard from me lately things going alright kind of keep that thing going and the other thing that the managers can do that really helps is keep communicating the big picture how do you fit into the big picture the reason why you got to do this crazy project is because of this you know here's the big thing that's going on here's your piece of it this is why this little thing that looks so screwy is really important and it needs to happen and then confirming understanding again silence may or may not mean anything you've got to do that check to see then we'd have the things like the work family balance working from home means it's nice you've got the ability to be involved in more things in the family but you also have the opposite you have the family everywhere right and sometimes it's hard to get separated from them so what a lot of people are saying is things like the way that I do this is when my office is closed it means leave me alone I need some quiet time I need you to pretend I'm not here basically it's a real risk everybody that works from home I think would agree that there is a tendency for everybody to sort of assume you're here that means you're available and just ping you all the time and you have to avoid to communicate when you're not so I just pulled out some pictures these are things that have been posted our team sort of balancing their work and family stuff and we all figure it out right eventually we all figure it out I love that picture so another issue is time zones if you're dealing with more than one time zone and if you're in a remote team you are dealing with more than one time zone there's two ways to deal with multiple time zones a team that has multiple time zones you can say we're going to pick out a block of time when everybody is going to be available we're all going to be working simultaneously we're going to have some overlap period and it's early for some people and it's late for other people but this is the period when we expect people to be around and we're all going to work together or you can say we're not all going to be working simultaneously and what we're going to do is we're going to do these handoffs so team A is working we're going to pick up and work from 5 to 11 etc etc so basically you got one of those one of those two things going on it's really hard to figure out how to schedule meetings across time zones I found the neatest this is a really useful thing if you have to do this kind of thing thisworldtimebuddy.com basically what you can do is you can pull up a list of time zones that your team members are in and then you can pull your calendar up to the top and then you can look down the list and say okay here's an opening on my calendar and here's what time it would be in everybody's time zone on the team and I could I can send an email and try to you know I could put it on my calendar and send an invitation out or whatever but I can see what this means you know and I could tell that oh that's three in the morning for somebody that's not going to work right another way to do it where the time zones are less obvious people like to use doodle.com so this would be something where basically you don't ever see what everybody else's time zones are but you figure out some times that are good for you and then everybody else sees those times in their own time zone and they can respond yes or no to them the downside of this is you can't tell you know the thing that you know that you've just sent something that was two o'clock in the morning for somebody but this can be useful too if you're going to do a 24-7 hand-off one of the things you've got to keep in mind is that if you don't if you don't answer all the questions that need to be answered when you do that hand-off you are basically going to lose a day of work because now that you know you hand it off and you went away and you're not there anymore and now you your 24-7 team may be sitting there with twiddling their thumbs because they needed a piece of information they didn't get it so you have to be really focused on those issues there's all kinds of things that you don't even think about because everybody is so sure that everybody else thinks the way that they do I mean it just doesn't even occur to us to think about this but there are cultures where working through lunch nobody works through lunch and there are cultures where of course you work through lunch when does the day start and end do you work on weekends do you not work on weekends what are the holidays who has holidays when they explicitly call all these things out there are actually and there are also cultural differences on communication style so here's a couple of examples and so this was one team that had Dutch members and US members and the US team said okay we'll meet next Thursday and the Dutch members said sure however it turned out that the US team thought that next Thursday met the upcoming Thursday and the Dutch team thought that it meant Thursday of the following week so again you can't make assumptions and then another example American faculty members said we'll tell the students to adopt a chosen procedure and then the Dutch faculty supervisor said we'll discuss the procedure with the students you know just that different cultural response to how you communicate and on top of culture we have language so we can have multiple languages and one of the things that we have to be aware of is for those people who don't have English as their primary language you need to be careful because if you start moving too fast they may be thinking about how to respond and you've moved on to the next subject and you completely left them in the dust and so you have to be conscious of the fact that they may need a little extra time to stay caught up with you all kinds of interesting things can happen holiday schedules you want to let everybody know what the holiday schedules are one of the things that came up was the idea that the people who are proficient in speaking English are not necessarily the experts on the team so this was an example where there was a team of people that spoke different languages and the experts on the team were not proficient in English so they sort of sat in the background and the people that were communicating were actually the junior members of the team that spoke different languages and the American team treated them as though they were the experts and they treated the experts as though they were the juniors so these funny things happen the other thing that's interesting about this is one of the solutions for language problems is that a lot of people are going to find it easier to write or read a foreign language than to speak it and so using text confirming things and writing writing things as opposed to trying to read and speak everything can be a way to help get across that yeah this was that example the junior members and then this was an example of somebody who didn't speak English well who thought that they had somebody who made the team really successful and they said when I asked a question they didn't just say yes but they said yes you mean this and this they told me what I thought I meant then I could say yes you're right and then they would send a little story about the meeting and what the outcome was so I could read this and look if it was right so the idea again of saying okay this is somebody who doesn't have English as their primary language we want to make sure that they understood what we thought they understood and confirmed that we want to develop rapport we've got a bunch of people that aren't in the same room but we want them to feel like they belong together and I think that's one of the things that Lullaby has done really well at and so I'm trying to figure out like how do you make that magic happen because it's important one of the suggestions I came up and we actually don't do this but this was a suggestion that came up was doing a virtual lunch once a month trying to build rapport we use Yammer a lot I see Yammer as one of our things that kind of build rapport I love this one my mom has a mom and she's my grandma mom has a dad and he's my grandpa dad has a mom, dad has a dad there are many many people who love me and then Andrew says this is a great excuse to start teaching recursion all these things and all kinds of things like somebody will start a thread and they'll say a picture of what it looks like out your window or somebody else will send in a radar map and a big X and say this is my house, I'm going for cover you know a bunch of us have Fitbits and we've got like a contest going to say who's going to do the most steps and Fitbit keeps track of that and then every time somebody comes up to the top of the list they post it and say I'm the winner and then somebody else beats them later but all of these are really great rapport or building things and we go around sometimes because there's a lot of quote noise on Yammer because of all this stuff but I also think this is really valuable because if we didn't have that we wouldn't have that sense of rapport and then the baby pictures I mean we've got all these like Lullacids now so we got all the baby pictures posted all the time and they're all sweeties the other thing that you can do is you need to make opportunities to see people in real life so if you are literally remote you still have to create those opportunities they have to be days when you could do co-working you can have retreats you can have on-site meetings but you need to have those periodically I'm not sure how possible it is to really have rapport with a group of people that you never ever ever see it is possible to have a good relationship with them but I think it's important to have those in real life things or real life opportunities and then we've got hybrid teams and these are really challenging so the team where most of the people are local but there's a few remote people we had asked a question I guess it was Matt asked the question at one point about how do you feel about working at a remote at a company where you're remote and I think almost everybody that responded said it's so much better if everybody's remote than if there's this one lonely person who's remote and you're it because you tend to get forgotten that's not an impossible thing to fix but management has to be really conscious in that kind of situation to not let that remote person get lost so I think that's an especially challenging management issue you need to have a feeling of trust you need to feel like you can trust the other people on the team and a lot of that comes back to if the other people on the team are doing all this communication if they're talking about what they're doing you know what's going on you'll have that sense of whether or not they're doing what you expect and you know is so and so getting behind and all that if they've gone dark if they've gone into a hole and disappeared you have no idea and that's a real problem for trust on the management side the idea is managers need to be really proactive right they can't just wait until a problem devolves into chaos they have to be like probing all the time if things okay do you want to write do you need anything lots of praise, public praise let people know what's going on let people know that they're doing the right thing this was an example of a horrible manager the silent approach included screening phone calls from remote colleagues not returning calls and emails leaving them out of the loop and avoiding working with them all together so this is the guy you don't want to work with so my management commandments initiate communication the management has got to take the responsibility I think for creating a sense of identity for the team and making sure that everything is documented and documented in a place that everybody can get a hold of it and showing everyone the big picture I think that's really important so then the last thing I want to talk about is meetings so we have meetings so we have a remote meeting in particular online meetings are easier than they ever used to be we have Skype, Google Hangouts used to be expensive complicated and hard crazy equipment it's so easy now to do meetings online meetings you can do mixed media we do this all the time maybe we've got the same Skype number but we're using something else for the video and we're using something really important to make sure ahead of time that everything works there is nothing worse than a meeting where you've got a dozen people in the line and the person that's running the meeting is trying to figure out how to get the thing to show to work I can't figure out how to get WebEx to work so you want to get that all figured out ahead of time practice makes perfect so I feel like it's crazy to keep jumping around and using different kinds of... find a system that works for you and get really good at using it and know how to use it and keep using it I really think I've seen a failure on this one a lot when you're on a remote meeting a lot of times it's very easy not to know who else is in the meeting I think it's really important for whoever is leading the meeting to make sure that everybody knows not just who's there, who are they right? I don't know how many... well it hasn't happened a whole lot of times but it's happened a few times where I thought somebody was a junior person and it turns out like they were a really important person and I probably would have answered a question a little differently if I'd known that it's really important I think to make sure that that gets communicated who are these people and then sending documents there's nothing worse I don't think than getting into a meeting where you're just sort of ambushed we're going to talk about we're going to talk about what I had no idea we're going to talk about that I'm not prepared for that at all ahead of time ideally means more than five minutes before the call and those of you on my team know who I'm talking about meetings again, a meeting needs a leader in particular a meeting that involves remote people needs a leader and that leader needs to be constantly paraphrasing making sure that everybody understands trying to keep one person from dominating the conversation, drawing other people in and in particular don't forget not forgetting the people that are on the phone okay the people in the room a lot of times will dominate the conversation and the people on the phone will sort of get lost and you need a leader okay let's hear from the people on the phone you know what do you think encourage personal conversation before and after I think that's wonderful but the meeting needs to stay focused I think one of the most difficult things is the hybrid meetings you've got you've got a bunch of local people and then a couple of remote people if you've ever been the one on the phone in these things how awful is it when you can hear people like talking quietly in the corners but you have no idea what they're saying it's just again you need the meeting leader that sort of keeps this stuff from happening make sure the people on the phone can hear everything make sure they understand what's going on don't use visuals that not everyone can see this happens a lot we just decided we're going to pull something up on the screen or we're going to put it up on the wall and then the people on the phone are just out of luck you have no idea what you're looking at the other thing that I've seen is sometimes you send out materials ahead of time we're all looking at the same material like we're paging through a PDF or something you have to keep saying okay now I'm on page 10 now I'm on page 11 because the people on the phone are not going to be able to know that so we say it's hard to get your point across if you don't have a virtual whiteboard but there's again there's lots of good solutions for this now we've got Skype Google Hangouts, go to meeting, join me you can share your screens there's so many ways to do this Hackpad, I don't know if you're familiar with Hackpad but it's a document it's a document that you can get several people in and you can all be writing simultaneously and like keep notes about what's going on in the meeting Google Docs which is the same kind of idea you can share a Google Doc and everybody can see the same thing at the same time you can have an audio call with a Google Doc so you're all looking at a Google Doc and you're listening on the call but because it's real time you can all see what's going on with the document so there's a lot of ways to fix that clarify the purpose of every discussion and summarize decisions that were made okay so this is it so what are the takeaways that I wanted to get first of all the things that make remote teams work make all teams work better this is it's not that these things aren't needed for teams that are not remote it's just they're critical for remote teams and they're also important for teams that are not remote you can't over communicate there's no way to do it however much you communicate is probably not enough both members and managers have to be available and visible and the infrastructure has to be right so remote can work and I don't I guess we don't really have time for questions although I suppose I could take one if anybody's got a real quick question there's a mic back there you probably need to jump back there you showed that slide on whiteboards which of those are competent in like collaborative market so you can actually truly collaborate virtually and another question is how do you what are the special needs you need for presenting to clients in this situation okay I'm not sure I understood the question just a second so the first question was whether the tools were collaborative so the collaborative tools would be like hackpad or google docs those are ones that you can be working in simultaneously was that the first question different different people right different people can can all be working in at the same time both of those will will do that I didn't understand the second question those okay so I'm gonna take a stab at trying to rephrase that so you're saying when you're dealing with a client language are you talking about language body language oh right right yes so body you're missing the body language when you're dealing with a client we really do try to have an onsite pretty early on in most engagement so that we're not like this is nobody we've ever seen before that you'll you'll still have meetings where you know where you can't talk about language but they're the best you can do is is just keep asking right did that make sense did you understand that does that look right to you you know and that's that's probably the best solution I can think of yeah so this one is potentially I suppose kind of a negative question I definitely don't mean it that way but probably one of the hard parts is for management with a fully remote team if you have examples from how have you identified under performance and have you dealt with it okay dealing with performance on a man on a remote team is probably really no different than dealing with performance on on any other team the difference is that managers have to manage a little differently so to know what people are doing they have to be in communication with them and the employee has to be in communication with the manager so a lot of it is about everybody staying communicating with each other enough that the employee knows what's going on and the manager knows what's going on you know beyond that it's probably the same as it would be anywhere else you have a review you know you you talk through things in a review but the evaluation is the work that you've done and and you're you know the the visible things that you have communicated I think I'll take that one question then I need to I know I need to end go ahead do you have ideas for virtual parties or virtual celebrations with remote teams virtual celebrations yeah the a small group could do a google hangout I guess but I that wouldn't work for a big group I don't know what you would do for a big group there's a blog post about that so there's he said there's a blog post about everybody takes a picture of themselves with a beer or something like that yeah I don't know I don't have any good ideas about that alright I think I need to end because the next session needs to get in here but thank you very much


What's up everybody, Jason here for jazby's case breaks calm We just sold out twenty twenty one top series one jumbo six-box case break pick your teams number 12 So here you go guys all-card ship and again A lot of nice stuff that we're gonna be doing right here guys remember 70 years of baseball do autograph cards in this set You know be one of the 50 lucky collectors to celebrate 70 years of tops baseball cards each jumbo HTA Includes one autograph and two rally cards And then of course there's 25 tickets to the event will be placed into packs of 2021 tops baseball series two Our series why I should say and then each one again and a guest gets to be invited to a unique event featuring players exclusive items and more So here you go Spiro all the way down to David Walt the last Balmocho All right, so John really quickly guys before continue on with this just like I put on the schedule so people know So John just actually Got the last spot straight up in the tarantula mixer. So we are now officially sold out And that will be popping up soon In a few hours at around nine o'clock And that should probably take me to like 10 30 or so or 1 1⁄2 or something Mojo Mojo We'll do the silver packs at the end of the break and I'll rip in three boxes at a time As there's the first three boxes foil Tautis Casey mice sicto Sanchez Foil Tyler Stevenson and your autograph here is Chadwick Trump Giants with that one. All right guys. Let's continue on Joe Adele You got Matt dies to 4.99 That's Caleb Smith for the Dbex Ryan Sandberg Derek Jude a little die-cut Nick Madrigal Alec bone and I'll be with spring training Cody Bellinger number to 299 2021 Christian Pash Gold foil. All right guys. We got school. We got Harrison. We got Joey Bart Joey Bartz Dylan Carlson, and we got a foil here of Eddie Alvarez Raphael Devers Out of 199 Josh Donaldson Um, yeah, Christopher, if you want to click that little schedule right there night, but I was dropping But yeah, it is man Stan and that is 70 Matt Olson Jonathan Raza Stevenson Joe Adele Casey Mines Mike trout and we got MLB spring training Chris Brian for the Cubs hat relic Nick Madrigal Alec bone Ryan Mountcastle Joe Adele foil, that's nice to 2021 for the Rockies Boba chef Joey Bartz Dylan Carlson Pool hosts our next box and then we got three more and we got an autograph bill Burroughs for the Tigers Detroit Tigers as Matthew Dylan Carlson Ricky Henderson And we got I don't know if it's kind of coming off a little bit. You can see the little like right there that Shane Bieber for Cleveland 70 who to 99 little canvas Byron Buxton We got Joe Adele Joey Bart Joe Adele Casey Mines, Sigdo Sanchez Spencer Howard Relic Miguel Suno. All right guys, so let's continue on. So this will be the last box here And then we got three more boxes to roll guys foil here 2021 Mookie Betts Louise Roberts Nick Madrigal Alec bone Ryan Mountcastle Sonny Gray Alrighty guys, let's continue on. No Christian. So there was a I believe The three spots straight up and then we have to do one two three four Yeah, we better do two fillers Which I believe one of them sold out. So it'd be three plus one filler. Alrighty guys. All right guys. Good luck Raphael Devers Nate Pearson Joey Bartz Dylan Carlson and we got Santiago Espinado Toronto Blue Jay is going to Justin. Dylan Carlson retro Casey Mines Sigdo Sanchez And a 70 Aaron judge But it's your fault Look at it Well, what are we gonna get? Huh, I like bomb the shut up all the power on the coldest day That's not good Ryan Mountcastle and we'll be spring training relic Nick Madrigal my Mountcastle 2021 Oh, they're doing it in waves. Gotcha Got a relic here major league materials to 50 Ronald Acuna, Jr. We got Louise Robert enter Ken Griffey, Jr. We got Nate Pearson Joey Bart Dylan Carlson Sonny Gray Ronald Acuna, Jr. Mountcastle Goldfoil very nice 49 and Jack Peterson Casey Mines, Sigdo Sanchez Edward Olivares Reggiotto grab there for the Royals Cuba Ruiz foil 2021 pretty freeman. All right, you guys almost done with the second to last box We got Starling Martata 299 The Marlins Joey Bart Dylan Carlson Glavor Tours Relic Casey Mines Nate Pearson All right, guys Lost that cure. Let me have one more box Joe Adele Casey Mines, Sigdo Sanchez Ronald Acuna, Jr. Short print very nice All right last box guys, and then we still have the silver packs and then the oversized toppers All right guys See you last box Wow, look at that in the last box. First of all, let's do this right here. I'm about a Fernando Tatis, Jr. On card auto for the Padres Who has a Padres? Dean does At a 70s Spencer Howard very nice Blackboarder Willie Maze New York Giants, of course going to the San Francisco Giants Modrigal, Alec Bohm Mountcastle Eli Eminence All right guys last two stacks right here At a 2021 you got major league materials Trevor story Joey Bart Dylan Carlson Alrighty guys So quickly go through the silver pack to do a quick little recap right here at the end That'll be it guys. All right. Hello guys Actually go through these first. Although these could be autographed. They still haven't seen one Have your bias Another have your bias back-to-back What if they were all hobby or bias? No, Juan Soto Fernando Tatis, Jr. Gary Cole Chris Bryant Dolton Varsal rookie Ken Griffey, Jr. Frank Thomas Chris Bryant Raphael Devers Nate Pearson rookie. Wow Is that a one-of-one One-of-one superfactor Alex Bragman and that's going to mojo and the Astros Fitting we'd pull that for you buddy One-of-one superfactor Out of a silver pack. There you go pretty strong You're gonna like that mojo Ian Anderson Yeah, the owner is here this one, but it's probably not going to be for sale And out of 150 Xander Bogarts Dylan Carlson rookie Brady singer rookie Cuba Ruiz Joe Adele And a 75 for Nana Tatis Jr. All right, so there you go. All righty guys, and there you go. That was the break So do a quick little recap So we got that little patch card you got for now Tatis, Jr. autograph you got olivirus you got a short print Ronald Cooney, Jr. Santiago boroughs Arazu Chadwick Trump You got all your relics here Labor pretty freeman Acunia Mount Castle so no Shane Bieber Boba chef Chris Brian Raphael Devers Cody Bellinger and of course all your Silver pack rookies a couple numbered cards, and here's your other numbered cards here We got our rookies in general And there you go guys So appreciate this was jumbo pick your team number 12 on jazzy's case breaks calm


The newly sworn-in president of India, Srimati Draupadi Murmur being greeted by former president Sri Ramnath Govind and now, in a short while from now, they will proceed to the four-quarter Rashtrapati Bhavan, where Srimati Murmur will inspect the guard of honour. A day for ceremony and protocol, a day for transition and a day of pride, hope, joy, a photo session, photo shoot with the new incumbent of the highest office in the country and the former incumbent. There are historical photographs of the new Rashtrapati and the former Rashtrapati, Rashtrapati Bhavan's committee room in Kaveri, Bhavita and this is the summary of the four-quarter. The country's first Adivasi women have managed the country as the 15th Rashtrapati and it will be understood that the importance of this important event and the influence of it will be understood in the future. So we have cameras specially positioned inside Rashtrapati Bhavan and of course outside to bring you the detailing from within what is happening and of course beautiful images of the glorious surroundings and the vistas around. Thank you. awaiting the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who shall be here shortly to congratulate Srimati Murmur on her taking over as the 15th President of India and here we see the arrival of his carcade. the circular parliament hall we just saw images of that the historic Vijay Chowk here we are the Raisina Hill all having born silent testimony to our history of how power has transitioned about our mantles have been taken over and given away how decisions are taken on which the future of the nation depends and they have been witnessed to all this over the years. and into service is Gadawana here a station right in the centre of the forecourt the gently tinkling fountains on either side of your screen adding to the ceremonial air the gentle tinkling of water down a very very beautiful serene and gracious surrounding as the frame of this event. the head of governance of the largest democracy in the world has arrived here to greet and felicitate the constitutional head of the largest democracy in the world Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived here taking his seat next to the Prime Minister there are some very few family members also of the new president here in the audience people have come from her village some of them very few small number of invitees a new president is a simple lady and I think simplicity is going to be her strength we have in the audience BJP MLAs from Mahurbanj district we also have union ministers members of parliament to make president all the most special and that's the strength of our democracy when our new president represents all sections of society marginalized and mainstream and to ensure that the marginalized are mainstreamed that's the true success of democracy a democracy that continues to revitalize itself to grow and to take in its ambit inclusion as its strongest value so there are myriad ways of exhibiting inclusion today's ceremony Shreemati Murmuz election as the president of India is a prime example. A special day also today for the state of Jharkhand the moment Shreemati Murmuz victory was announced there were celebrations everywhere and I'm sure today also the state will be celebrating in a very very special way and of course a proud moment for all this is the North Court of Rashtrapati Bhavan again you can see the combination of pink and cream sandstone and beautifully sculpted stone and the president's limousine president's cars make their way towards the four court where the vice president the prime minister the three service chiefs and of course cabinet ministers are assembled and waiting for her and now the inspection of the guard of honor of the internal army by the president of the state of Jharkhand the internal army of the state of Jharkhand all three soldiers of the state of Jharkhand are the commander of the three soldiers of the state of Jharkhand the as a supreme commander of the armed forces the president of India Shreemati Draupadi Murmu inspects a first guard of honor and now a lights at the saluting base here at the four court of Rashtrapati Bhavan to be greeted to be wished at to intermingle with the dignitaries present here taking her leave the president after being wished by all here boards a vehicle another smooth transition of power and position and as the mantle of the constitutional head as president of the country is dawned by Shreemati Draupadi Murmu a new responsibility comes her way with her previous background with her wisdom with her knowledge and experience she is sure to take this democracy forward with the right values in today's world when the rate of change is so fast when memories are forgotten even before they are made certain pictures of this ceremony will always be etched with us because these are special memories these are memories capturing tradition transition these are memories that help the present understand that there was a past that anchors them and there is a future which they will have to create which then anchors future generations it is this passing of the baton it is this passing of responsibility that makes democracy seamless because people come and go but the country forever is on the move is always there is constant and as the largest reservoir of human resource in the world today with the youngest population India has a huge role to play I'm sure it's a sentimental and a nostalgic moment for the family of the former president five eventful years five years of eventful memories have been made here and the show must go on Prarambh and today all of us have seen this with the whole of Bhavita and we will be the witnesses of this event on this important occasion the engines of democracy when the day came it seemed that the rain could happen at any time but now at this time when the sun is coming out of the clouds and the current president both together and will now go to the other side of the world and we will be the witnesses of this event and we will be the witnesses of this event and we will be the witnesses of this event both together and will now go to the dignitaries there at the forecourt the central part of the forecourt it's been a hectic day for everyone here at Rajapati Bhavan lot of preparations making sure everything is in order as per protocol to be followed lots of activity happening the entire process is like this that you can get the time to take care of the protocol and the time to take care of everything the God commanded to stand at attention the nobles slowly and gradually the new president was welcomed and the former president was sent God commander requesting former President Kovind to inspect the God, mixed emotions I'm sure, going through former President Kovind as he remembers his time five years ago when he came in here, a tenure well lived, a tenure well served, a grateful nation thanks him and now the band will strike up a slow march for the inspection gratitude and greetings going side by side marches off, smiling faces greet the former president as he interacts with the people he had a close association with, built a close rapport with during his tenure, changing of notes, conversations and I'm sure relationships which will carry on into the future, nostalgic moment for the former president as he's accompanied by the president, Srimati Burmu, formal farewell to Sri Kovind and as the presidential car drives away we salute this great nation once again for its culture, tradition, customs and of course its people the trumpeter signaling a respectful farewell the president's bodyguard now is courting the vehicle from the forecourt of Rashtupati Bhavan truly traditional and ceremonial sent off lining the sides of the entrance the president's bodyguard being full respect to their former chief the supreme commander a picture speaks a thousand words moments captured for eternity the presidential vehicle is coated with full honor from the official abode of the president of India and in it former president Sri Kovind along with India's 15th president Srimati Draupadi Murmur seeing him off or a rashtupati Bhavan get pregnant say my name for them and three sure you know in the moodi ka prasad prime minister Narendra Modi who was here to welcome the new president and say goodbye to the former president now is a board his vehicle and is leaving the forecourt of Rashtupati Bhavan after a ceremony that made many memories July Sandu has our bias go the ishme pandrima rashtupati nashapati hai Badal the Bharat ne bhat kuch badla hai aur soj bhi badli hai Bhavishya me log jaanenge kis tarha ye badlaa kav hua his ke praman ye haa milenge this abhutpur badlaa ko desh aur dunia ne dekhah iti haas bhi palo ko iti haas me darjh hote huye dekh raha hain thanna baad namaskar


5. Highlights of Teaching English in Argentina Latin America is a very popular region for teaching English abroad as there are always plenty of jobs available in a wide range of countries. One of the most popular of these is Argentina which is one of the region's largest and most accessible countries. Thanks to a strong economy and a stable political scene, Argentina draws new and experienced teachers from all corners of the world with the promise of staggering national beauty, modern city living, and plenty of unique culture and customs. With so many experiences waiting for you it is hard to narrow it down, but after some consideration, these are our top five highlights for anyone planning to teach English in Argentina. Buenos Aires For many TEFL certified teachers, the capital city of Buenos Aires will be home for the duration of your stay. For others who settle elsewhere in the country, it should certainly be high on your list of places to visit during the holidays or at the weekend. Known throughout the world for its historical, European-style architecture and rich cultural heritage, Buenos Aires is an absolute must-visit destination that offers a wide array of attractions. From a buzzing art and music scene to world-class cuisine and local wines to match, there is something new to experience around every corner. Each of the city's districts offers a distinct character and unique attractions to explore. The oldest neighborhood in the city is Santelma where you can wander the cobblestone streets that are lined with colonial-era buildings, antique shops, cafes and tango parlors. La Boca is another popular area that is famed for its brightly colored houses and Italian taverns that provide welcome refreshment for weary sightseers and those enjoying a night on the town. Sports fans and those simply looking for a unique experience should also make time to attend a football, soccer, mash at one of the city's 24 professional clubs. A match between local giant-spoked juniors and river played is an event that is guaranteed to live long in your memory. For the best possible start to your teaching adventure in Argentina take our in-class DEFIL certification course in Buenos Aires. Igasu Falls When it comes to famous waterfalls many people would immediately think of Niagara Falls, however, the majestic Igasu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil is considerably higher and over twice as wide as its North American counterpart. Due to its breathtaking size and the stunning natural beauty of the surrounding area, it is no surprise that the falls are one of the most popular attractions in the whole of Latin America. It is recommended that you also cross over to the Brazilian side of the falls to get a full panoramic view of this staggering monument to the power of nature. San Carlos Bariloche Known simply as Bariloche, this city is a hugely popular tourist destination nestled in the foothills of the Andes. Thanks to its mountainous setting, the city is a magnet for winter sports fans and lovers of outdoor pursuits such as hiking, fishing, kayaking, and white water rafting. With a heavy European influence throughout the city, you would be forgiven for thinking you were actually in the Alps rather than the Andes. This comparison is further exaggerated by the extensive chocolate industry that is famously found here. Across Bariloche, there are several factories that are famous for producing some of the best chocolates in the region. Visitors with a sweet tooth are in for real treat as there are numerous shops and cafes where you can sample mouth-watering local delicacies. Pareto Moreno Glacier No visit to Argentina would be complete without spending some time in the extraordinary Patagonia region in the far south of the country. One of the most popular destinations in the area is the Pareto Moreno Glacier due to its impressive size and the fact that it is easily accessible. You can simply take a stroll around the perimeter for exceptional views of the glacier or you can actually take a trek onto the ice if you are more adventurous. If you have time you can also go on to explore other parts of this region that are rightly known as one of the most beautiful natural wildernesses in the world. Tango From its early origins in the poor areas of the River Plate region in the 19th century, the tango has since become one of the world's most popular dances and a crucial part of Argentine culture today. Throughout the country, especially in Buenos Aires, you will find the locals dancing the tango in bars and clubs. Famous for its passion and sensuality, the dance perfectly reflects the Argentinian attitude to life and is something you really should try during your stay in this fantastic country. Are you ready to teach English in Argentina? If you are considering South America as a teaching destination, Argentina is certainly a country to think about. The above five highlights are just a fraction of what awaits you in one of South America's most developed and welcoming nations. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.


It is my pleasure and honor to introduce to you our great President of the United States, President Reagan. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Fred, Dr. Schultz, Jean Ashbrook, distinguished guests. We are here this evening to honor a man who, though he died at a tragically young age, garnered for himself a remarkable record of public service as a state assemblyman, a distinguished congressman, a candidate for the United States Senate, and for a brief time a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Here is sadness and surprise in recounting these titles of office, either held or sought by Jean Ashbrook.  Surprise because all of us who followed closely the career of Jean Ashbrook remember him for his youthful and vigorous advocacy of traditional American principles. When he entered the state legislature, he was 28, the second youngest member at that time of that body. When he went to Congress, he was 32, the second youngest member of that body. And when he died, a candidate for the United States Senate, he was only 53. It was never quite possible to say of Jean Ashbrook that he was typical, even though he was very much one of a breed of Midwestern congressmen, those who, over the course of several decades, fought along hard and frequently losing battle against the encroachments and intrusions of big government. As early as 1960, Jean Ashbrook warned against unbridled national power with the resultant loss of individual freedom and local autonomy. He warned against the state planners, the economy records, the spenders and the destroyers of local government. He was a founder and chairman of distinguished conservative organizations including the American Conservative Union. In standing up for these views, he was remarkably consistent. His lifetime voting record garnered him a 97 out of a possible 100 percent on the conservative voting scale. Yes, Jean Ashbrook was one of those honored few, those office holders in the 50s and 60s who warned against the current trends and fashions who predicted that someday the massive spending schemes and higher and higher taxes of the federal government would stall and depress the American economy, immobilize state and local government, and endanger personal freedom. But if Jean Ashbrook was a rock-solid conservative, he was also a conservative who broke the mold. He hardly fit the image of the stuffy or parochial reactionary some tried to attach to him. A graduate of Harvard, an adept and effective public speaker, the concise eloquence he brought to his views made the liberal establishment take notice. And most important, he was willing to take the kind of chances that few older and more traditional members of his party would ever have dared. He even challenged an incumbent president of his own party when he felt that president needed to be reminded of his original mandate. In John Ashbrook's youth, his erudition and his willingness to challenge long-established political precedents, we saw a new kind of Republican, a new kind of conservative. It was in this sense that he was ahead of his time, a forerunner of many conservative office holders to come, and the voters of Ohio, even those who didn't agree with him on every point, saw in him a man to be trusted, a leader who had clearly charted out the future and knew the direction he wanted it to go.  John Ashbrook knew that the first duty of public life is to responsibly speak the truth, even if the moment's fashion is against that truth. For it's through such consistency and coherence, such constant attention to principle, that the public trust is eventually won and a political consensus mobilized. In many ways, John Ashbrook symbolized the beginnings of a new conservative movement in America. As he grew in prominence, so did the movement he helped to lead. In the 50s and 60s, it was labeled a lost cause. In the 70s, it was thought of as another pressure group. And in the 80s, many could argue it was the dominant force in American political and intellectual life. We mourn John Ashbrook's loss to this movement and to his country. But as his longtime friend and fellow activist in that movement, William Rusher reminded us, surely our highest consolation is knowing that John Ashbrook did live to see his political principles victorious and his public career vindicated. Yet we do his memory and ourselves a disservice if we too exclusively identify John Ashbrook's political principles with one man, one party, or one political movement. To all of his writings and speeches, it was John Ashbrook's insistent claim that opposition to the cult of state power, the cult that has so badly infected our century, was deeply and irrevocably part of America's past and that the principle of limited government was America's greatest contribution to constitutional and political history. He spoke movingly of America's traditional values and how too often in recent years we as a nation had drifted from those values. At the beginning of his second term in 1963, John was one of the senior members of a special five-man committee investigating the Ku Klux Klan and its involvement in the murder of civil rights workers in the South. The minute I walk into those hearings, he said, it is like entering another world where all of the values, which are meaningful to me, law and order, respect for your fellow human being, justice, go out the window where traditional values are scoffed at. It was a long-standing American consensus based on these traditional values that John Ashbrook struggled to re-institute in this country, a struggle we continue today. And in searching for the solution of our social or economic problems today, we can speak of a matrix, a formula that unlocks the solutions to many different problems. And I believe it is in the political wisdom and the social consensus that began this country, the consensus that still abides here in the heartland of America and was so evident in the career of a John Ashbrook. It is this consensus that holds the key to our modern dilemmas. From their own harsh experience with intrusive overbearing government, the Founding Fathers made a great breakthrough in political understanding. They understood that it is the excesses of government, the will to power of one man over another that has been a principal source of injustice and human suffering through the ages. The Founding Fathers understood that only by making government the servant not the master, only by positing sovereignty in the people and not the state, can we hope to protect freedom and see the political Commonwealth prosper. In 1776, the source of government excess was the crown's abuse of power and its attempt to suffocate the colonists with its overbearing demands. In our own day, the danger of too much state power has taken a subtler but no less dangerous form. Out of the best of intentions, government has intervened in areas where it is neither competent nor needed nor wanted by the mass of Americans. There is no better example of the wisdom of limited government and the price paid by societies that forgot that wisdom than the economic problems we've encountered in recent years. The notion that government planners could fine-tune the economy from Washington led to a vicious cycle of boom and bust, periods of high inflation followed by periods of high unemployment. Ohio has suffered from the practice of Washington-based meddling more than almost any other state. Today, because of this vicious cycle and following decades of growth in government, there are 13 percent unemployed in your state. Even in states like Canton, the rate is as high as 17.5 and in Youngstown, 20.1 percent. These are not just statistics. They represent human hardship and suffering. They stand for unhappy families with lifetime savings eaten up and dreams for the future destroyed. Now, all of us hope, of course, that the unemployment situation will ease much more quickly than current predictions suggest. But if past recessions were the rule, unemployment will remain a lagging indicator in an otherwise brightening economy so the unemployed will be among the last to feel the benefits of the recovery. But those who have for so long preached the benefits of bigger government should be asked to acknowledge that the economic conditions that led to recession and unemployment were created by years of growth in government and the climate of government expansion and interference. When this administration took office, federal spending had tripled in the preceding 10 years and taxes had doubled in the preceding five years. The national debt was hitting a trillion dollars. Social spending had quadrupled in one decade. The budget for the Department of Health and Human Services became the third largest entity in the world just behind the national budgets of the United States and the Soviet Union. One social program, Food Stamps, had grown from a $70 million dollar experimental program in 1965 to an $11.25 billion dollar program in 1981, an incredible 16,000 percent increase. The government was draining off America's productivity and placing an enormous drag on the economy. Higher and higher taxes and inflation were discouraging work, risk, and the willingness of business and labor to invest time or money in economic expansion. Now this tremendous slowdown in the economy was more than a statistical event. It hurt those who could least afford to be hurt, particularly hard hit where those traditionally lower income groups that make up such a high percentage of the unemployed. Minimum wage laws with no allocation made or allowance made for young people doing marginal work kept many young people from gaining the entry level positions that mean invaluable job training and eventually full-time careers. Or take the slowdown in economic progress made by those with low incomes, as pointed out in a recent article by Charles Murray in the Public Interest Magazine, the great expansion of government programs that took place under the aegis of the great society coincided with an end to economic progress for America's poor people. From 1949 until just before the great society got underway in 1964, the percentage of American families in poverty fell dramatically from nearly 33 percent to only 18 percent. But by 1980, with the full impact of the great society's programs being felt, the trend had reversed itself and there was an even higher proportion of people living in poverty than in 1969. The simple truth is that low inflation and economic expansion in the years prior to the great society meant enormous social and economic progress for the poor of America. But after the gigantic increases in government spending and taxation, that economic progress slowed dramatically. If we had maintained the economic progress made from 1950 through 1965, black family income in 1980 would have been nearly $3,000 higher than it was. The great social spending schemes failed for the vast majority of poor Americans. They remain trapped in economic conditions no better than those of a decade and a half ago. The poverty programs failed precisely because they grew without regard for the burden they and other social programs were imposing on the overall economy. As social spending multiplied, economic growth slowed and the economy became less and less able to generate the jobs and incomes needed to lift the poor out of poverty. Not to mention the fact that inflation stimulated by government growth hit the poor and hardest, the hardest especially by devaluating the payments of those on welfare. The growth of government programs did little for the poor. They were sometimes even counterproductive. From 1965 to 74, for example, the Federal Urban Renewal Program spent more than $7 billion and ended a total failure destroying more housing units than it replaced. The federal regulations and grants of the Model Cities Program in the late 1960s spent more than $2.5 billion and didn't halt urban decay. But all of these programs, while they did fund jobs for an army of federal bureaucrats and consultants, put a huge burden on the productive sector of the American society. It was the working people who had to pay the taxes, carry the burden of inflation and get thrown out of work when the inevitable economic slowdown occurred. Today, because of our attempts to restrict and cut back on government expansion and to re-target aid toward those most in need and away from those who can manage without federal help, the working people of America are directly benefiting. We have brought inflation down from double-digit, I can't get that out, double-digit. I stumble over inflation all the time. But it was double-digit levels, and now for the last six months it has been less than one-half of one percent. I have less trouble saying that. For a family on a fixed income of $20,000, the improvement in inflation has met about $1,700 more in purchasing power. And because of our tax program, a median income family of four in 1983 will pay $700 less in federal income taxes. And if they try to do anything about that third tax cut, I sleep with a veto pen under my pillow. But beyond all this, however, cutting back on government infusions into the marketplace and its drain on the economy has meant the beginning of a solid recovery. Auto production is up 40 percent in the first quarter over the same time a year ago. And in March, new home sales were up over 50 percent, building permits were up more than 70 percent, and building starts were up by 75 percent over the same time last year. Consumer confidence has had its best monthly gain in nine years, all the way to 77 percent as measured by the conference board. We now have the lowest prime interest rate in four-and-a-half years. Inflation is better than the double-digit figures of a few years ago, and the stock market is healthy again. And this need not be a temporary recovery. If we can continue to cut the growth in spending, if we can continue to hold the line on taxes, consumer and business confidence will remain high and the recovery will be sustained over a long period of time. Once again, America's working people will know that hard work, saving, and sound investment will pay off for them and their children in the future. And this will mean far more to the lower-income groups that have been so badly hit by unemployment and inflation than all the government programs of the past. It will mean economic growth and expanding opportunity over a long period of time. Instead of having government trying to redistribute a shrinking economic pie, that pie will be expanding and everyone will have a chance at a larger share. But if we're to continue this progress, we must resist that well-intentioned statism of those who urge even more spending and higher taxes. The British political philosopher Michael Oakshot has warned us about the dangers of government that tries to do too much. To some people, government appears as a vast reservoir of power which inspires them to dream of what use might be made of it. They are favorite projects of various dimensions, which they sincerely believe are for the benefit of mankind. They are thus disposed to recognize government and instrument of passion, the art of politics to inflame and direct desire. Well, here I would submit as the central political error of our time. Instead of seeing the people and their free institutions as the principal means of social and economic progress, our political opposition has looked to government and bureaucracy as the primary vehicle of social change. And this marked the onslaught of special interest politics, the notion that every noble social goal is the business of government, that every pressure group has its claim on the tax dollars of working people, that national legislation means brokering and bartering with the largest share going to the most powerful of the noisiest political constituency. This is the antithesis of fair government, of democratic rule and orderly government. As Mr. Oakshot has observed, it is the conjunction of utopian dreaming and government power that degenerates into tyranny. Even beyond the raids of the national treasury, the huge deficits, the high inflation and taxation, the very abuses that brought down so many empires and nations in the past, this trend toward well-intentioned but overwhelming government also diminishes personal freedom and the autonomy of those branches of government closest to the people. Even two centuries ago, the founding fathers understood this. They anticipated the danger. John Adams wrote that government tends to run every contingency into an excuse for enhancing power in government. And Thomas Jefferson put it more directly when he predicted happiness for America, but only if we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Now, some, of course, mistake this to mean the negation of government. Or to the contrary, it is by clearly restricting the duties of government that we make government efficient and responsive. By preventing government from overextending itself, we stop it from disturbing that intricate but orderly pattern of private transactions among various institutions and individuals who have different social and economic goals. In short, like the founding fathers, we recognize the people as sovereign and the source of our social progress. We recognize government's role in that progress but only under sharply defined and limited conditions. We remain aware of government's urge to seek more power, to disturb the social ecology and disrupt the bonds of cooperation and interchange among private individuals and institutions through unnecessary intrusion or expansion. When new management takes over a failing business or a coach tries to revitalize a sports team, both will frequently find that the key to success is cutting out the extraneous or extravagant while returning to basics and emphasizing those resources that have been traditionally successful. Well, this is precisely what we're trying to do to the bloated federal government today. Remove it from interfering in areas where it doesn't belong, but at the same time strengthen its ability to perform its constitutional and legitimate functions. In the area of public order and law enforcement, for example, we're reversing a dangerous trend of the last decade, while crime was steadily increasing. The federal commitment in terms of personnel was steadily shrinking. This administration has reversed this trend by adding more than 1,000 new investigators and prosecutors to law enforcement roles, and we have redirected our resources for a frontal assault on drugs and organized crime, or take our federalism proposals. We want to cut back on federal intrusions to local and state governments, and so those local and state governments can be more responsive to the people, or take the national security area where we're trying to make up for years of neglect when spending declined from 40 percent of the budget in 1970 to less than 24 percent in 1980. And let me take a moment here for an important aside. During the past 10 years, the Soviet Union has improved, developed, and deployed more than a dozen large new ICBM systems, while the United States has been thinking about developing one much smaller intercontinental ballistic missile. The debate over a new ICBM and our entire strategic triad has cost the country millions of man-hours and billions of dollars, and it still hasn't been decided. I wanted to get some answers once and for all, so I created a Blue Ribbon Bipartisan Commission this past January to study the strategic forces of the United States, the commission conferred with over 200 experts and consulted closely with the Congress and produced a thorough report that made three basic recommendations. First, that we continue with our strategic modernization program. Second, that we build and deploy the MX missile and develop a single, simple, single warhead missile. And third, that we continue ambitious arms control negotiations that promote nuclear arms stability and reduction of nuclear arms. Eighteen senior officials from the three previous administrations, including six former secretaries of state and defense, agree that all three parts of this commission's recommendations are essential to the future security of our country. The National Security Council agrees, the Joint Chiefs of Staff agree, and I agree. But I more than agree. I believe with every fiber of my being that these steps are essential to ensuring arms control progress and our nation's future safety and security. Only when the Soviets are convinced that we mean business will arms control agreements become a reality. We're not building missiles to fight a war. We're building missiles to preserve the peace for a national security that no foreign power would ever have been able to accomplish. I call on the Congress to support this bipartisan program, a program that combines vigorous arms control with the modernization of our strategic forces. Now, discussion of Justice Department personnel or economic statistics may seem a long way from the insights of Michael Oakshot or the lofty thoughts of the founding fathers. But I would argue that John Ashbrook would never have found it so. For him, conservatism was not so much a political pressure group as it was a modern reflection of the insights and wisdom that began the American Republic. His career as a public servant is testimony to this kind of enlightened conservatism. John Ashbrook believed in study and thought. He was close to Ashland College. He did all in his power to encourage the growth of conservative think tanks and policy groups. But he was a practical man as well. In the face of redistricting and an unfavorable political climate for conservative candidates, he won 11 consecutive terms in the House of Representatives. He believed in political action. He was among those select few who began the draft Goldwater movement in 1963 and stunned the political world by succeeding a year later. I first came to John's district at a dinner here with Bill Buckley. The spring after that election, he was not discouraged. John looked at the Goldwater campaign as a first step toward the eventual triumph of his political principles. Those principles are in the ascendancy today in large part due to his efforts. We owe it to him, to ourselves, to our children to stand by those principles, to persevere until, as it was said that night in 1964 in San Francisco by the presidential candidate, John Ashbrook had worked so hard to nominate until our cause has won the day, inspired the world, and shown the way to a tomorrow worthy of all our yesterdays. Thank you all and God bless you. We would like to present this plaque to a, presented to Ronald Reagan, President of the United States on the occasion of the John M. Ashbrook Memorial Program, and there is the inaugural plaque. John M. Ashbrook Memorial Dinner, May 9, 1983, Ashland College. Thank you so very, very much. Well, thank you very much. Mr. President, thank you very much for that wonderful address who knew him. The inspiration John provided to those whose lives he touched will now endure beyond our generation through this fitting memorial, the John Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs. Exalted principles are eternal, and principles were what John was all about, measures not men, principles not personalities. Yet through the battle for men's minds, John loved the sinner while hating the sin. His faith in you, dear Lord, was abiding. Your rod and staff enabled John to persevere in the face of all adversity. Bless this memorial, O Lord, that it may serve to inspire all who learn here to acknowledge you alone as the author of our liberty and to strive to walk in the footsteps of the master. May they honor John's memory by glorifying you. Guide those who will be stewards in this enterprise. Make them wise in your ways for where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Grant wisdom, courage, and your blessing to our president, our public officials, to those who have given so generously in support of this memorial center, the Friends of Ashland College, and all entrusted with the responsibility for securing liberty unto ourselves and our posterity. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.