The Solution National Conservation Fund has been seven to eight years in the making. It started with the Sustainable Financing and Management of Eastern Caribbean Marine Ecosystems Project, which started in 2011 and ended in 2016. The relevant components of that project to the Solution National Conservation Fund were the establishment of a sustainable financing architecture, leading to the establishment of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund. And equally important, the establishment of National Conservation Trust Funds in five of the participating countries, five OECS participating countries. So we should all be very proud that we are in fact taking the lead in the establishment of a National Conservation Fund and endowment fund at that too. A footnote that I would like to add here is that the Conservation Trust Fund standards have identified a gasation period of at least ten years for the establishment of these funds. And we have been able to do it in seven to eight years. And that's through a lot of hard work, through a lot of agencies and a lot of assistance. The Endowment Funds for the respective National Conservation Trust Funds were obtained from the Jeff Four Cycle. Each country allocated 4.5 million US dollars to the individual Endowment Funds. And that in many sense helped us to expedite from that ten years to seven to eight years. These funds are managed by the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund. And the board of the CBF is responsible for identifying and engaging the asset managers. As an Endowment Fund, the National Conservation Trust Funds are allowed to draw down on their annual interest. For the first two years, these National Conservation Trust Funds are eligible to draw down the entire interest. After the second anniversary, these funds will have to provide a one-to-one match. So you can imagine after this launch, most of the work is going to be focused on raising funds to further capitalize our Endowment Fund. During the project phase, a group of agencies and like-minded persons had constituted a project steering committee. And this project steering committee really worked very hard to establish the structure, composition and governance of the proposed St. Louisian National Conservation Fund. Many times we went to meetings and we didn't have quorum. Many times people would say they would come to meetings and they'd be in short. But we persist that we are here today. Many of you who worked so diligently are in the audience. And I'm really quite repetitious to call names, lest I mistock some. Nevertheless, it would be remiss of us not to mention the hard work put in by Mr. John Callix, who had chaired the project steering committee at that time. Many a meeting was held in his office. Ms. Shana Emanuel, who at that time represented the Fish Fish Department. Ms. Caroline Eugene, who represented the Department of Sustainable Development. Mr. Bishnu Tulsi and his team from the St. Louisian National Trust. Ms. Snalya Mahal from the CYE and Mr. Vaughan Charles, who at that time was representing the SMMA. And of course, we cannot forget Robbie Bovino from the Nature Conservancy. I said, many a discussion, many a misunderstanding not knowing where we are going, not knowing what the CBF was, what the relationship between us and the CBF is going to be. But I think that hard work has paid. In 2015, the cabinet approved the participation of four government agencies on the board. We also requested for a not-for-profit status for the SLUNCF. In addition, this core group of persons who formed the project steering committee worked on identifying the board membership and various governance documents, including a plan for identifying sustainable financing mechanisms for the St. Louisian National Conservation Fund. In 2016, the AG's office approved our not-for-profit status, and we became incorporated as the SLUNCF Inc under the Companies Act, Chapter 13.01 under the revised laws of St. Lucia. At that time, three members were identified as founding members, the St. Lucia National Trust, the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association, and the Government Ministry responsible for economic development and planning. And these three founding members were responsible for undertaking all the necessary paperwork for incorporating the SLUNCF. In addition to the three founding members, there are eight other ordinary members. And based on the original intention of the creation of the National Conservation Fund, the St. Lucia National Conservation Fund is an example of public-private partnership. There are four public sector agencies and eight other agencies representing the private sector NGOs and CBOs. Together with the Antigua Mapper Trust, we signed the first pre-financing agreement in September 2016. In June 2017, we signed the partnership agreement once again with the Caribbean by Adam Stefan. Today, of the CBF participating countries that have operational national conservation trust funds, we stand next only to the Fonda Marion in the Dominican Republic and the Mapper Trust in Antigua and Barbuda. So we are way ahead with the rest of the pack. Indeed, together with Fonda Marion, we will be issuing grants this year. And this is indeed also very exciting. We've spent so much time operationalizing the fund. Now we are ready to issue grants. I want to make special mention of Ms. Anita James. Where's Anita? Anita was the first biodiversity coordinator. And she always made the clarion call and worked hard for the establishment of a biodiversity fund. She provided us guidance and assistance. I also must mention that in addition to the call for a biodiversity fund, Crispin and his team and the National Environmental Commission had also made requests for the establishment of an environmental fund. And more recently, the establishment of a climate change or climate change adaptation fund. All of this augurs well in the sense that we now have a fund that can provide the model for all other sub funds or all other new funds to be created. We cannot of course forget the Jeff Small Grants program. The program's objectives are very similar to and aligned very closely with those of the Solution National Conservation Fund. And we hope that we will work very closely in a strategic alliance as we look at how we can co-finance and co-sponsor different projects that meet our collective goals and objectives. Work is now ongoing on strengthening the National Designated Authority and designing the country programming for the Green Climate Fund. We hope that there will be close coordination with the SLUNCF and that we can also benefit from the Green Climate Fund. I also need to mention that attempts are on the way for mobilizing financing for sustainable forest management in collaboration with the UN Global Forest Financing Facilitation Network. So there is now an increased impetus, if you will, in mobilizing resources for conservation and environmental management. Finally, with the increased funding opportunities available for St. Lucia, we hope that there will be coordination and collaboration so that the strategic alliances can be formed in order to ensure that the funds are put to good use. The SLUNCF and the Jeff and the SLUNCF and the SLHTA Tourism Enhancement Fund have already been speaking about creating strategic alliances and we hope that we will be the model for such other alliances and collaboration. Thank you very much. The journey to this point has been a long and arduous one, with many peaks and troughs. To be able to launch the fund today is a dream come true for many people who have worked very hard to get to this point. Chief among them, I must say, is Dr. Versantia Chase and Mr. John Carrick. They started this journey eight to nine years ago. I am proud to state that the fund is taking the lead among all conservation trust funds within the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund network. We are among the first to sign the partnership agreement with the CBF and we will also be the first to be issuing grants, working in strategic alliance with the Jeff Small Grants Program in St. Lucia. This grant is for species conservation and restoration of the habitat of the white breasted thrush. We are in the process of designing and collaborating with a consortium of agencies in St. Lucia to apply for funding from the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund's ecosystem-based adaptation facility. So, you are behind from us very soon. I am delighted to announce the SLU NCF will be signing an MOU with the SLHTA Tourism Enhancement Fund. We are also in discussion with the IGY, Rodney B. Marina and Capella Resorts in Marigold for partnership to develop an environmental marina program through co-financing of such programs. Recently, we registered with the Accelerator Global Giving Community which will provide the SLU NCF the opportunity to build skills, access tools and grow our base of supporters to achieve crowdfunding success. The SLU NCF is developing a resource mobilization plan that will target national, regional and international entities in order to raise funds to further capitalise our endowment fund. There are some 52 standards for our conservation trust fund and we can safely say that the SLU NCF has achieved at least 80% of that standard. This stands us in good stead because it shows our governance instruments and documents of international standard. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the official launch of the SLU National Conservation Fund. Thank you. I must say I am quite excited to be here today and I was even more excited when Dr. Chase called me about a week ago or two weeks ago to ask me to just provide the experiences that we went through establishing the fund. I must say I was introduced to the project to establish a fund by two individuals. One is there and one is not here and I know Chris may not remember but several years ago, somewhere about 2009 or 2010 or so, both yourself and Miranda Morris from the System Development Department came to me to tell me there was this exciting project that they are involved in. It involves financing but they needed to get to the permanent secretary, Mr. Isaac Antony at the time to get his views or his lessons, you know, to participate in the project. Now, being a WDPS, you thought I was the right conduit to go to Mr. Antony. So having given me the objectives of the project and the details for the project, I proceeded to inform Mr. Antony and the first thing he told me was, okay, John, get the small committee together to examine some of the financing options that have been provided and provide a response back to Crispin and Miranda. So I proceeded to do so and there were several options that were provided which included things like putting some kind of tax on grocery passengers or tax on overseas visitors, tax on water extraction, trying to increase the fees for dives and some of the other activities that we do on islands. So the committee met and we said, you know, at that time, it was 2009, eight, nine or so, and we were just going through the financial crisis and the possible government at that time was, you know, no increases in anything in taxes and fees or whatever it was. So we went back and we told the committee or Mr. Dover and Miranda that, look, these alternatives, these finance mechanisms that you have given to us, you know, they're not able to be, they're not possible. They cannot work, so therefore, you know, we have to look for alternative, you know, strategies. So I was happy. I felt that was the end for me of my involvement in the project because they cannot be objectives of the project where we were supposed to establish the funds and really thinking of going through legislation and we had to, the fund is from the CBF is a marching grant. So we had to generate our own financing for the project. So I was very apprehensive about, you know, identifying strategies to help us achieve the wanton marching grant. So I was never very happy because I realized that it had been very difficult for us to, you know, identify the types of strategies to do so.  You have to develop the legislation through the draft people. It always takes some time. So I thought, you know, hey, this product is really going to be, you know, a very, I would say, difficult but very challenging project. And, you know, do we have what we have, do we have what it takes to, you know, to go the full course? So I was quite happy to tell, you know, Chris Menendez around here, you know, so please tell the World Bank and GEM that we need to have some alternative strategies. However, what came back was okay, John, these strategies kind of work, then you may have to, you on the committee may have to know, identify other strategies to help us identify the funds. So obviously, I mean, I don't share it from challenges, so we took up a challenge.  But along the way, Hurricane Thomas struck, so our attention was moved from the financing project into, you know, trying to recover from Hurricane Thomas. So having done all of this, we encountered a number of challenges along the way. And the first one, as I said, was to identify the, you know, alternatives for the strategies to finance our local trust funds. Another challenge that we also faced along the way was, why is people, you know, discussing and meeting and trying to come up with these strategies? The CDB, who was supposed to have been the project, what I call coordinators, suddenly pulled out. So we said, okay, we'll have the OECS secretary, so they are used to working with, you know, Caribbean countries, or the OECS countries, so there would be the natural choice. They started, but they pulled out again. So we said, well, I felt why it looked like the project wouldn't continue because there was nobody who we had in mind to be the project supervisor or coordinator because of eight countries involved. But then suddenly the TNC said, look, you know, we don't mind, we worked in the region, we worked in all the islands, so why not have us as the project coordinators? There were discussions amongst the islands, and we all agreed because we didn't want to lose the funding and we felt that even though the project was a challenge, but the objectives of trying to establish a sustainable financing mechanism for protected areas was a noble objective, and we could really put our shoulders together and try to get the project organized. So we supported the TNC in the project, being the project's coordinator. The next step was that I think in 2011 or 2012, there's a meeting in Grenada where all of the countries came together. That's in 2010, where we all discussed the issues with the strategies and we're all adamant that, you know, we were not able to use the strategies provided to come up with the financing mechanism. So at the meeting, another issue was raised. Why is it that we had to have the matching grants? Why is it that we couldn't not just receive the funding from the CVF without providing the matching grants? There was another alternative which we provided was, okay, why can't we get a percentage of the funds from the CVF instead of having to, you know, because you know we couldn't have raised whatever allocation we received. And the third point was, by the way, what is each country's allocation? So we could determine what we have to match in each country. So these were discussed at the meeting and it was agreed that, okay, fine, you couldn't raise the funds with the strategies. So why not have somebody come in to assist all of the countries in identifying new strategies? So we agreed to that. And that is where Dr. Haas came into the picture. Dr. Haas was from the U.S. and he was contracted to come to the Caribbean. And in 2013, he met with myself and some of the officers from the budget, the officer of the budget. And based on that meeting, we agreed to have seminar sustainable finance and options for conservation to help us to design and come up with, you know, these strategies. So we actually came up with a number of objectives for the seminar. And they were one, to raise awareness of the range of available mechanisms and the highest levels of governments. We wanted to get everybody involved from not just the officers but the ministers of governments, the permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries. And two, to generate a forum momentum and a kind of action for designing and implementing the mechanism of a suit of mechanisms in Senusia. So again, you can see Senusia was always, you know, in the forefront of all of these discussions. We took upon our own to say that we couldn't do it so less from our own figure out what are the best alternatives that we can use and Dr. Haas gladly decided to assist us. The first workshop was held in 2014. And we had a number of panel experts. We had Karen McDonald who is here today. I can't remember that first meeting. There was Professor Haas from the Colorado State University and he was who specializes in tourism, natural resource management and protective area financing. He was represented from the Belize PA Conservation Trust who also had experience in identifying resources. And he had Ms. Jennifer Alexis-Ellard who was a travel philanthropy specialist. Coming out of that meeting, there were several strategies that were identified. There's one philanthropy.  But we're not approach them because they think we'll understand what we're trying to do. So that was one. Support by local companies. Major companies like, well, Massies at that time was SuperJ, Digicel, it was Lime at the Time on Flow, Sunset Distillers, the Brewery. Why not, you know, try to get these companies involved too? Maybe give us a one-shot, you know, allocation or disbursement. We also spoke about amalgamating payment fees when divers and other people come into Senusia. They have to pay several different fees at several different times. So we said, look, why not amalgamate all the fees? Let the trust fund collect the fees, distribute to these companies, and we then retail to the three, four percent, you know, to go to the trust fund. They serve credit cards and debit cards. Again, people can pay for these tools, whatever it is, overseas. So again, they use the trust funds website, and we again retail in a small fee for our service. Then we also looked at the voluntary fees on online passenger tickets, or on... Well, visitors who are here, and the fee for cruise ship passengers. We found the cruise ship passengers fee was not something that they wanted to get into at the moment, because of what happened several years ago, where I think the head tax for the Karakom has a government leader, and I agree to put on the ten-dollar U.S. head tax on cruise ship passengers. But somehow that never materialized, because by the time the Prime Minister got back home, everybody was looking to see how they could have reduced that fee, so that never materialized. So we felt that that was not a good idea. The voluntary fee on online passenger tickets, we thought it could work, but it could work if it is implemented by everybody, or the countries participating. And we felt we could have spoken to some of the original organizations like TNC themselves, Karakom, to see whether that would have been a possibility. So that is still on the cards. I don't think we have ever taken it off, so it's still something that I think the trust fund can also consider as they move along. At that time, as Dr. Chase pointed out, we decided to already put together a small committee to look into not just the financial options, but to oversee the entire project. And again, somehow, I'm not sure how I got involved, but I'm not sure how I became the chair of that committee, but it's just a project that just not once grew for me, for whatever reasons, and I'm not sure. But I'm happy that I stayed. I must say the committee as Dr. Chase pointed out were very committed, very dedicated. She mentioned some of the names of the people on the committee, and some of them are here, Caroline and Snally or Vaughn is here as well. Shana is also here. Ms. Peter who is here and sometimes Mr. Nelson who used to deputize for her, they're all here. And I must say I worked on many, many committees in my short life, but that committee I really enjoyed working with them. There were numerous disagreements on, you know, some of the issues. They know, but still we came back day after day, month after month, you know, to be the challenge of trying to get this project, you know, up and running. I think one of the good things that we did was we began organizing ourselves even long before the actual project document was signed. The project was signed or approved by the World Bank in 2011 and TNT signed the documents in 2012. But as I said before by 28 and 29, we were ready for some of the activities. So even if the first between 2012 and 10 and 12 the activities were sent to the around trying to get TNT to meet all the conditions to get the document signed. But we still worked very diligently calling meetings probably every month. Sometimes we spent a whole afternoon, you know, discussing the issues. But slowly but surely we saw that we were making some headway with the project. So after the project was signed, it meant that now, you know, we really had to be looking at, you know, how do we establish the National Conservation Trust fund. Yes, we were talking about the financing mechanisms and so on, but the thing was the project is signed, we have four years you know, to get everything organized. So as all of the annals that, you know, we had all meetings everybody would say, okay, let's we have to legislate, go to parliament, etc. So yes, as part of the project we brought it under tourney. And just saying, you know, but wait a minute, you know, there is a simpler way to do this activity and a quicker way. If you want to establish a not-for-profit making an organization or a statutory which has the same objectives of the statutory body that you want to establish why not establish a company a not-for-profit making company with bylaws and articles of association and it would have the same impact that you want with your you know, your statutory body. So we were all surprised and at first we thought it wouldn't work.  So within a couple of months she based on, you know, with advice from the steering committee she was able to prepare the bylaws and the articles of association for us to review. So we began reviewing the documents and at that time the TNC were also on our steering committee through Mr. Robbie Bovino. And so we were able to use the lawyers to guide us and help us to, you know, improve the articles and the bylaws. And so by the end of that year we had a completely revised set of articles of association bylaws. But then when we went back to your tourney to begin the registration process two things happened. One we were told that what we had revised did not follow the formats and the company's acts. So we had to go back and do some further revision. And secondly the original tourney was not available. So we were in the country because we're saying to get somebody new to come back and do the same all over again is going to cause a problem. However, we did, through Dr. Chase's, at first we did find another tourney and she was very instrumental in helping us to put together the bylaws and article association. And she was also very instrumental in helping us to establish the company. So at that time we were discussing with some of the other islands and I must say when we started the process in terms of doing the establishment company we started last. All of the other islands were ahead of us in terms of speaking to the AG's office about the legislation and what they wanted to do and I said to myself every time we go to a meeting this component we have nothing but to say. So I told the committee we need to get this thing going and let's see how we can meet our deadlines the quickest possible way. Which is why the tourney came up with getting the company organized and surprisingly when we began talking to the other countries and we indicated we got in this company organized and the same thing that you want to do people began listening and they began thinking maybe this might work for us as well. So we began sharing the information with them either directly or through TNC. I remember meeting Diane Black from Antigua at some meeting in Nevis and as soon as I met her she said Joanne I heard you were doing something different from all of us so what is it that you're doing? So I explained to her okay can you send me your biologs and your articles of association and probably your company's act so I did send it to her I didn't hear from her for a while then at our next meeting Antigua was also considering doing the same thing then since Benson said look we will have another problem with the legislation so again it came to us how did you establish your company? So it told me okay but come across to Benson they speak to our company and our PSS there explain what you're doing and see if you can convince them to go our route. So through TNC support or CBF I'm not sure probably CBF both okay so I was able to go to Amsterdam Benson and I met with the committee I met with the chair and everybody and I met the Minister of Tourism and I was able to explain I gave them a couple of biologs article of association company's act and to them look as long as they have a company's act in fact I also met their attorney who was doing the same thing and she told me no it can work based on what their company's act says are always very similar a few changes have to be made and in fact for a while because we had to change our attorneys Benson actually got the trust fund registered before ours because we had to go through a study different process where all of our directors had to be interviewed by the AG's office before that was done. I don't think that's the case in Benson so for a while they will study ahead I also got an invitation to go to the Bahamas I remember I've been in office one morning and I got a call from Mr. Rich in Bahamas can I come across to the Bahamas this week to discuss the same the same thing with their Bahamas trust fund but their trust fund was being done through legislation so they wanted to see how the two mechanisms were different the two systems are different so I spoke to the PS and they said ok you can go ahead another three days again through TNC and CBF and again they were quite amazed at what we were doing because for them it took them almost two years to go through the legislation get the AG's office to get everything organized and to get departments and they also recognized some advantages to our process because one of the things that we did in establishing our company was that we were able to be a little flexible by having by making it possible to have different windows attached to the trust fund so for instance you can have a window for the environment and I remember there was a consultancy with the Sustainable Development Department where they were looking at an environmental trust fund and we were saying look we have the trust fund being established so why can't we have a window within the trust fund to take care of the environment and again they went with that and if you look at the reports they did suggest that we also use the trust fund for that so we can have a window for adaptation measures for climate change a window for energy so all we have to do is ensure we have the right mechanism and structure for each of these windows but you have the same agency involved in managing funds for financial resource management so that's one area which I think we are totally different from the other countries where if we activate these windows we can have a structure or modality that everybody has in the Caribbean can emulate so we are able to establish the trust fund finally and the next step was to have our executive director and that is where Mr Cherry came in as our first executive director and this task basically was to help us to get all the documents ready the initial grant operational grant from the CBF and I must say Mr Cherry was able to accomplish at least the grant making document and the operational document for access to grants from the CBF and in 2016 when the CBF held its annual meeting here we signed that agreement right there in this setting to access that facility from the CBF and I think the second in all of the islands to do so and as I said before we were very instrumental in being very innovative so we're here today and like I said I'm very happy that I'm here I'm excited I always felt that this trust fund was a very innovative idea and a number of innovations can come out of the trust fund so I'm hoping that as the trust fund develops and grows we can see the innovation continuing with the trust fund I believe that when I settled from day one because of the various windows that we have and the structure of the trust fund we might be able to whether the trust fund developed we should be able to access grant funding from the green climate fund and other types of funding being offered for natural resource management so once again Dr Chase I want to say thank you for inviting me here I also want to pledge my support to the trust just want to say one more thing as I said before some of this project doesn't seem to want to leave me when I left the Ministry of Economic Development and to the Ministry of Education at that time the government changed and guess what happened sustainable development became part of the ministry so I was still involved in the trust fund I left the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Agriculture natural resources there fisheries is there so I'm still involved with the trust fund so I believe that thanks to Chris Spin I don't know if you have the foresight Chris Spin but I've been involved for a while and I do want to remain involved and I look forward to Dr Chase making whatever contribution I can you know to the trust fund feel free to call me and I can provide the necessary thank you everybody and really the way I see this process of the launching of the fund is that everyone at the head table and all of you in the audience are true champions of this process all of you have put a lot of effort in this we've heard already from Dr Chase Mr Sherry and Mr Kalix about the rich history in getting to this point there was something mentioned during the prayer that really resonated with me and that is the word nourishment I think that's the task we all have now that you all have now we have made it to this point there have been some strong wins as you saw already that have been trying to get the maybe the fund of course or taking another route but we have had great sailors and captains keeping on track but now comes the time to continue to nourish this trust fund and that is what the CBF and the San Lucia National Conservation Fund partnership is about it's about nourishing the fund here and nourishing the ones in the rest of the Caribbean the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund it's proud to be a partner of the San Lucia National Conservation Fund I won't repeat again how the SLUNCF has been a leader a shining star in this whole process I think we already heard right now from Mr. Kulix about how even in the strategy to develop the trust funds San Lucia played a leading role and now in the more operational phase of the establishment of the other trust funds San Lucia is also serving as an example to the rest of the countries today that initial process that began they were talking about 10 years or so it's actually more like 12 believe it or not in 2006 was when two countries Grenada and Bahamas really challenged the rest of their peers to come together in this process that is also linked to the Caribbean Challenge Initiative today we have 10 countries that are involved in this financial architecture being built and truly I really would like to thank everyone here at the head table for your leadership role in this process we also like to see this partnership as something beyond channeling resources from the CBF to the National Conservation Trust Fund this partnership goes well beyond that it's about knowledge sharing it's about participatory governance I don't know how many of you here in the room or I don't know how to call this a room in this setting realize that when we sign a partnership agreement with one of the conservation trust funds that also means that one of the members of the board of the national fund the respective national fund becomes a member of our fund so it's not only about financial resources flow it's about joint decision making transparent participatory decision making and Mr. Sherry is actually a CBF so the San Lucia National Fund nominated him to be part of our board and he's now a full-fledged member of our board so I think that's a very important aspect of this partnership we are trying to be holistic encompassing and really moving forward as a true network it was mentioned during the different remarks also about the sustainable financial mechanisms and match requirements this partnership is also about working with the San Lucia fund and finding the avenues and the ways of fulfilling those match requirements it is not just a requirement that we put on a piece of paper when we signed the partnership agreement it's something we are here to work together with you and we are sure that all the efforts that you're already making are going to be fruitful we can see that already with the mentioning of the MOU with the San Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association we are really happy to see those kinds of innovative partnerships coming to life with that I would like to end my remarks by saying that the San Lucia National Fund and all of you champions in this room really have an open door and a friend in the CBF and all of our staff to continue to move forward in this great process this is literally this launch event this is literally the beginning it's not an end it is the beginning of the rest of the journey thank you very much this is a historic day a suspicious day for us for me in particular many many years ago 30-something years ago I sat on a table with people like Gabriel Charles and Robert DeVoe sitting combo in the south talking about San Lucia's first protected areas plan where there was a need to find co-financing and we had to go all around the world the Swedish Development Fund USAID we had to go to different the World Wildlife Fund the Macafa Foundations the Kellogg's Foundations very difficult very competitive very exhaustive so as I walked in here today I was reminiscing a bit about our ideas we had ideas that were rich in stars that we had no money and because we had no money many of those ideas stayed in our in our drawers and never got implemented so this moment in the evolution of environmental thought in San Lucia, environmental practice in San Lucia, this is auspicious this is historic, this is important and from that perspective in San Lucia, I see this as being a moment in time a moment that has to be marked because it has given us resources to do what many of our forefathers for parents, grandfathers wanted to do and I must thank the Nature Conservancy because they were there with us back in the late 1980s people like Brad Nothra came to San Lucia and helped us to design this stewardship plan on private property for San Lucia so this is not your first time in San Lucia in that respect you all have been there with us in the early days of protected areas on behalf of Steven O'Malley our resident representative UN resident coordinator for Barbados in the OECS Yoko Watanabe who is the global manager for the small grants program out of here in New York Dr Barbara Graham the chair of our National Stern Committee we congratulate you for such an excellent job piloting the early days P.S. colleagues on the excellent work you all have done we are looking forward to collaboration to partnerships that can bring San Lucia to another stage of development when the history of environment and movement in San Lucia is written this will be marked as an important congratulations San Lucia National Contribution Plan this project meant a lot to me the first thing that was handed to me in November 2012 when I was at the Department of Fisheries and believe me there have been so many learning opportunities and so much has happened and a lot has passed but to be here to be standing here in front of all of you today it means a lot and Dr Chase you know a lot of people held my hand through this I was the fisheries focal point and it means a lot to be here at the launch we had a lot of back and forth about who should be first and how we're going to be first and it really really built me I think and built me into a better person and I honestly believe in this fund I know it's going to be a game changer it has already been a game changer this entire process has changed everything for this country and I want to say that on the behalf of the Department of Sustainable Development we finally have a national donor agency our very own with all the decisions being nationally determined by a board that is committed to making a difference and it feels good to be here and to be a part of this process and I know at the Department with our mandate for coastal zone biodiversity climate change and of course sustainable development in itself we will be here and we will be supporting the fund all the way through so I bid congratulations to everyone involved and I also want to say thank you to everyone who has been a part of this process and I know it's just the beginning like Java said and though it's the beginning it's a well deserved beginning thank you very much the Caribbean Youth Environment Network joined this process a little later on about 2014-2015 but in it has been a very very great learning experience for me personally I work directly with the fund operationalizing or assisting in operationalizing it and seeing it at this it's very emotional and seeing how all of our efforts have finally been realized and I am happy today to be part of this process I also want to say that whoever thought that it was important that the Caribbean Youth Environment Network should be part of this process and also given the opportunity to sit as a member of the Board of the Salvation National Conservation Fund I think it is a very important milestone in the sense that you have young persons participating in decision-making processes that are very very important to the development of Saint Lucia and I think that just the fact that myself and also our assistant secretary Mr Cornelius Williams who is the alternate director on the Board I think it augurs well for our future as a small island developing state and also for young persons so that we also know that we are not left behind in the development of our country so I am very very happy to be here and I congratulate Dr Chase and every other member of the Saint Lucia National Conservation Fund Board I got a lot of support from the Caribbean University Fund from the Nature Conservancy and I want to say a special thank you to Dr Chase and to Mr Calix for their support over the past few years they encourage me all the time and Shana of course also I am not forgetting Shana whatever questions that I had she answered them we spoke a lot we collaborated we discussed and I think it is very important that as a young person on my way out in a sense I think that this this fund is a shining example for all of us in Saint Lucia and by extension in the region and internationally that we can do things once we put our minds to it and then we work hard collaboratively not forgetting that yes there are challenges but once we have one goal in mind thinking of what the future will be for our younger generations I think that it is something that we should always keep in our hearts that yes it is possible once we are determined to get it done congratulations once again


to the channel, if you haven't yet, make sure you subscribe to stay up to date with all the latest content. And at this point, we've pretty much got content going out every 48 hours, so make sure you stay up to date with everything that we have, okay? And if you need any help with your business, reach out to me, the description below is a number of ways we can connect and I can help you with any business struggle that you might have at the moment. Now, today I wanna talk about 10 ways to improve your indoor sports facility. So over the last couple of weeks, I've been talking to a lot of coaches who are owners of indoor sports facilities, right? And a lot of them reach out to me because they are struggling to create more revenue and they just wanna find different ways to improve their indoor sports facility business. Now, what I want to be very clear here is that when you have an indoor sports facility business, right, this becomes a separate business to your actual coaching business, right? A lot of coaches want to purchase an indoor facility because they feel as though that's gonna help their coaching program to grow and scale but what they don't realize is that when you do purchase an indoor facility, okay, this becomes ultimately another business that you then have to manage and grow and look to scale, right? So alongside your actual coaching program. So I don't want you to think that just because you've got a coaching program that that's gonna help your indoor facility to grow, right? There's a lot more that goes into building a really good and prosperous indoor sports facility. So this video is pretty much gonna be relevant if you are in basketball, if you're in soccer, right? If you're in any sport that has an indoor sports facility or an indoor training facility that you are using to run your sessions out of and that you have clients that you see on a regular basis, this video will help you, right? Our company's got a lot of experience helping coaches to scale to the point where they are in a position to make that investment. But again, what you've got to remember is that once you are at that position, okay, that becomes an extra business, right? That becomes a separate business to your coaching business. Not only do you have to grow and scale your coaching program, your training business but now you've got to look to grow and scale your indoor sports facility, right? So I wanna share with you 10 different ways to improve your facility, right? So again, screen in front, the highlighted points are the ones I'm gonna go through. These are pretty much the ones that I see on a regular basis. These are the ones that when I speak to business owners who have indoor facilities, these are the ones that they ask me about and how they can improve, right? So the first one is quality training surface. So if you are in soccer, if you're in basketball, then you've got to have a good quality training surface so that your clients can come and get quality training from you, okay? Now, if you're in soccer and you've got an indoor turf field, right? And it's got lots of holes in it or it looks really run down, then you might have the best facility but if your players don't feel safe training on it, then ultimately they're not gonna be with you for very long, right? So when they come to your facility, they wanna make sure that they have the best surface possible to train and you want the best surface possible, right? Cause you want essentially results with the clients you're working with, right? We are in a results industry. So you to get results, you need to have a quality training surface. Whether that be an indoor turf field or whether that be a basketball, an indoor, a quality basketball indoor court, right? Whatever it is, but you're gonna make sure that the surface is really good for your clients to be able to use. Now, next one is good lighting and ventilation. I was speaking with a coach recently and we were talking about a good ventilation and a problem that he had is, I think it was last year when it got to winter, the heating system within his indoor facility broke. So essentially what happened because he was in a quite, he was in a cold part of the United States. It was really difficult for any clients and customers that used it that, because the heating wasn't working, a lot of their clients didn't wanna come back to that facility until that got fixed. So making sure that the place has got good lighting. So when you're running sessions, people can actually see where they're going and see if there's any objects that they have to see. Okay, because that's another problem. If there's certain areas of the facility where they can't see, that could cause a health problem because they could trip or they could hit into something and that could cause severe problems for you. And then just making sure it's good ventilation. So in the summer, making sure that is good air conditioning or that doors can open and letting the fresh air so that it's not damp and that it's a nice fresh area for your customers and clients to come and train. And then in the winter, obviously, if you're in a very cold part of the United States, making sure that the facility has good heating to be able to heat up the facility. Now, the next one player amnities. So this is changing rooms and yeah. So changing rooms, bathrooms and making sure that obviously goes without saying that they are clean, that everything works with them and that your players and customers can use and they are happy with it. I've been to a lot of indoor facilities in the past and some of them you walk into those facilities and they are just disgusting because they're not cleaned regularly. Some of the soap machines don't work. Some of them have got broken toilets. So just making sure that your players have good changing rooms, good bathrooms to use and maybe older customers or players that wanna have a shower making sure that there's a place available for them to shower if that is a possibility for your indoor facilities. Some facilities don't have that because there's not enough room. So host that but making sure at least you got the basics in order which is the bathroom, toilets, both for men and so male and female and making sure there's changing rooms so that your athletes can go and get dressed. Now next area is parent watch, right? So if you're gonna be running a lot your training sessions, there's gonna be parents that are going to want to watch the training sessions. So making sure that you have an area whether it be some bleachers on the side. So somewhere where parents can sit down and just watch their children train and play. Something really good if you have a coffee machine within the facility somewhere where parents can get coffee or something to eat and watch their child train and play is really good.  That adds a lot of value because it adds like a community feel and you can have all the parents there just supporting the coach, supporting the players and it just feels like a great, great atmosphere. There's some places I've been to where they don't provide that. So essentially parents have to drop off and then pick up. But sometimes it's nice to have parents a little area within the facility where parents can just watch because that can then generate extra revenue because you can have a bar area or you can, as I say, you can have a vending machine where people buy snacks and they can watch the training session. Safety protocol, right? So that goes without saying. So make sure you're insured, right? So your facility has insurance. It has a fire drill in the event of fire. So what's the process that we do in the event of fire or any type of event, right? So making sure that it's secure, it's licensed and that you have a certain protocol for the event of an evacuation, right? Also making sure that goes without saying that you have first aid kits available in the facility in case players fall over or hurt themselves, right? You've got someone that is first aid trained in that facility. Okay, the next one is diversifying your customer reach. So what I mean by this is making sure that to get the maximum out of your sports facility that you're maximizing the hours within your day. So during the morning, you could hire it out to local schools. So local schools can come in, use the facility and then during the evening or early evening, you can hire it out to local clubs or run your own training sessions. And then later at night or later in the evening, okay, you can hire it out to adults where you could run adult leagues or tournaments or they could play five or sides, six or seven or side depending on what your facility is and this could be for basketball or soccer, okay? Next one, technology integration. So some facilities have certain, if they run leagues, for example, they have certain cameras that take clips of certain highlights of games and then what they do is they upload it onto the sports facilities YouTube channel. And I've seen this happen where some of the games, so for example, if it's in soccer and you're running a fiver side leap, you might decide to buy some software that records the matches and then you upload the matches onto a YouTube channel where your customers can then go and watch the match in full and watch the highlights, right? That's quite cool. That is integrating technology into your facility. Also, there's other other softwares that you can use to track player performance if you're running training sessions out of. So there's a lot of things that you can integrate technology-based to help your facility and improve your service. And next one, marketing and branding. So making sure that you're marketing the facility constantly to the local public or through social media, okay? Running events for the community at your center is a great way to market. And then just making sure the branding is attractive, right? So making sure that the name of your facility is a name that attracts people to want to come and use it, right? You don't want to have a name where people looking and go, oh, yeah, I don't like the name of that facility. I don't want to go and try it out. Okay, so marketing and branding really important to improve it. And like I said, you could run community events for local churches, local schools, have it done at your facility. You don't even have to charge them to use your facility, but it's a great way to market and to get more parents and players to know about your facility. And next one, staff training. And that just kind of goes in with the safety protocol. Make sure that all your coaches are qualified. Make sure that all your coaches are criminal background checked and just making sure the staff inside the facility are trained for any event, whether it be admin, administrative work, whether it be in the event of an evacuation, whether it be that you have certain staff that come in to clean the facility. Just making sure that there's staff training constantly and that you're staying up to date with the different trends in the indoor sports facility industry, okay? Because again, it's an industry that changes a lot, right? And different, there might be different laws within your state that change. So just making sure that you're always up to date and that you're training staff in line with them. Okay, and then last one is maintenance and upgrade. And that kind of goes back to just making sure that, you know, your facility is quality. It's maintained well, so it's clean, everything works. It has great ventilation, good lighting, making sure that if something breaks, it gets fixed quickly. And now with upgrades, and I know with turf fields, for example, in soccer, there's loads of companies and manufacturing different types of turf fields. So making sure that you're kind of staying up to date with those latest trends is really important because, you know, you could upgrade your facility to have a certain type of playing field where your local competitors don't have it, right? It might be a big investment, but it will separate you from everyone else, okay? So just making sure that everything's maintained well, it's, you know, the health and safety procedures are in place, everything works, the pitch, or the field, or the court. It doesn't have any cracks, so it's not broken. There's no hazards. And making sure that you're just staying up to date with any upgrades in the industry and with any certifications that you may need to stay in line with your local laws, okay? So if you need any more help with this, reach out to me, okay? Description below, number of ways that you can reach out to me to ask any questions. And also, if you do want more help with your indoor sports facility, this is something that we can help you with. But what we'd have to do is get on a call so you can book a free 15-minute call with me. Just the link is below. Book a call with me and we can see how and if we can help you, okay? Thank you for watching and make sure you subscribe to our channel.


Transcribed the craft foods company presents Willard Waterman as the great gilded sleeve Just about this time each week. We usually bring you some hints and ideas about using some of those fine craft foods But we just don't have time to do that tonight because Christmas is in the air and The craft carers are waiting with a traditional carol Excitement and anticipation that attends the yuletide season There's the hurried search for the last-minute gift the elaborate preparations for the big family dinner and people are saying Merry Christmas to people have never seen before Some folks like to put up the tree very early and enjoy its fragrance and beauty But it's traditional with the great gilded sleeve to decorate his tree on the day before Christmas Leroy don't just jump up in the air and toss things on the tree Tinsel on top here. Let me hang it up there. Okay. I Can't reach the top either. I got an idea. Oh, who's me up to the chandelier. I'll swing past and drop things Leroy you're not a monkey, but I can do practically anything a monkey can do. Yeah, well, let's leave well enough alone Okay, a tree doesn't need many decorations. Anyway, just presents. Yes I Can't get enough stuff on the top birdie. Did anybody think about using the kitchen stool? Why didn't I think of that? Because you're not as smart as birdie That's a risky thing to say before Santa Claus comes. Hey, excuse me. I beg your pardon. I'm sorry. I'll get the stool He's on good behavior today birdie. Yes, sir. You think we have enough lights strung on the tree Oh, yes, sir. I wouldn't change a thing If I It's too bad miss margin. Mr. Bronco ain't here this time. Yeah, but they'll just miss it. That's all They're tough luck. No mail from them this morning. No, they're not thinking about us Well, I'm a little surprised that we haven't even had a card from them Well, birdie better get back to her kitchen.  I'm up in the tree Eggman modernist Cooley Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I came to the front door because I'm not here on business. Hello birdie Come in Cooley. Merry Christmas Thank you. I brought something for your tree. Hello Leroy. Hi. I find it pays to remember my customers this time of year Hello customer gilder sleeve Oh, hello, mr. Cooley, that's very nice of you. What did you bring? Leroy, it isn't like to ask. Well, that's all right. I brought the water commissioner an egg poacher an egg poacher That's nice. I always give a lot of thought to my Christmas presents Well, thank you very much. Now. Let's see what we have for mr. Cooley. What are you gonna give him a gallon of water? I You'll have to come up with something besides water on the farm. We have our own well birdie Where is our gift for mr. Cooley? Here it is. Mr. Cooley. Well, thank you I'd better get back and look at that oven the card says do not open until Christmas. It's a necktie Well, he told us about the egg poacher Glad you told me Leroy. I wouldn't like to lie awake tonight wondering about it Well, I'll take my loot and go home. You'll have a nice holiday Cooley. Thank you, sir I suppose you're expecting all the family over for Christmas Well, Marjorie and her family are out of town this year. It'll just be Leroy and me. Yeah We're gonna have a ball. I'll betcha. It's too bad. You won't have all your family together We're having a house full. Yeah, that's nice All of my folks will be there and they'll be mrs. Cooley's sister from Kalamazoo and her brother from the Chicago Zoo Oh No kidding he works there Well, if you get a little lonesome mr. Gillers leave bring Leroy out to our house. Well, thanks, mr. Cooley, but we'll be fine Yeah, who's gonna be lonesome? Merry Christmas Merry Christmas. Yeah Well, you know, I guess the tree is ready Why does everybody feel they have to have a lot of people around just because it's Christmas? I haven't the vaguest idea. I guess they're just not as self-sufficient as we are.  Do you heck? No, that's what I've been telling myself Right. Yeah, right Remember when there were so many of us it took all Christmas morning to open our presents. Yeah, I remember it well But this time it'll be different. I can open a present. You can open a present Heck, we'll have all that stuff over within half an hour I Suppose it would be nice though to see Marjorie in Broncos. Yeah But if they were here with the twins and the in-laws, what a clam bake. Yeah, Christmas is no time to bake clams Yeah, what are we laughing at? I don't know Much of a Christmas for Leroy Well, I'll drop in the pv's and get an extra surprise for you Hello, Mr. TV. Hello, Mr. Guilnessy Merry Christmas.  What can I do for you today? TV? What Christmas presents do you have left? Yeah, I'm just about cleaned out Say you don't have much do you? Christmas business was so good. I dipped into some of my leftover Easter star I Really I took the cotton tail off the bunny rabbit put it on his chin and sold it for Santa Claus You didn't you know where I could what color rabbit do you want? No, no, I'm looking for a gift for Leroy. I thought you'd already bought him a bike and football and new skates Yes, but this is a bonus gift. It's something to fill his stocking. Yeah, and what about a chocolate moutain milk? No, pv. I'm looking for something unusual. That's pretty unusual Yes, yes pv come up with an idea well, I presented Mrs. Pee-Bee with a rather unusual gift this year We did I gave her a train ticket back to her mother I Wanted to spend part of the holidays back there. Oh, I see then we're giving our parents some canary seed for Christmas But that wouldn't do for Leroy Well, I see I'm getting nowhere here PD. Let's do this leave in the spirit of Christmas I'd suggest that you try to find something at Hogan brothers You're not even gonna try to sell me. No right now. I'm trying to do is to get you out of the store What I want to lock up for an hour and go here the craft car says you all say they're singing around the community Christmas tree in the square I'm here to tell you I just may go down there and help my little jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way Oh, what fun it is to ride in the one horse open sleigh My goodness pv, you're the one who should eat the canary seed Hogan brothers is booming I think I'll look in the sporting goods department. Well, I George. I'll find something to brighten Leroy's Christmas I can get to the counter in this crowd. It pardon me madam miss coming through He watched that umbrella lady Hmm. I was almost shish kabob What a time one at a time I've been waiting. Oh, no, you haven't I saw you push through the crowd pushy Oh See here, I'm the water commissioner and I'd like to see something nice for a boy. How about a girl? Smart alec, why don't you just look around in a moment? I'll be glad to help you But would you like a gift wrap madam? Yeah, now? Let's see. There's some basketballs punching bag Table tennis. Yes, young man. I'd like to buy this fishing rod. Well, I'm afraid that rod isn't for a boy Well, that's Leroy. I don't want it for a boy. I want it for my uncle Oh That rod is quite expensive. That's okay. My uncle isn't gonna have much of a Christmas I've got to cheer him up. Well, this you do it.  Let me see how much I got now one dollar two dollars Leroy Spending his pennies on me. I guess I don't have enough. Oh, we have some cheaper one Leroy Excuse me, there's a lady at the end of the counter waiting some money at me. What are you doing here? Well, I might ask you the same thing. I asked you first Leroy, I know why you're here. I couldn't help overhearing what you said to the clerk Where were you? Yeah, I was looking at the punching bags How about having lunch on me? I'm loaded loaded No lunches on me my boy. Come on. We'll shop later You bet nothing like Carol's at Christmas. So wonder he isn't up on it Yeah, and there's dr. Petty born with his boy home from school Everybody's here except Margin Bronco Stiff upper lip Leroy. Well You're gonna sing again. He will be right back Well Christmas is so close the bells. You just heard might very well be Santa's sleigh bells But before that jolly fellow comes to you This is John Heaston on behalf of all the folks at craft Wishing each and every one of you the merriest jolliest Christmas of them all Well, the great Gilda sleeve and Leroy are facing a situation They've never before had to face an empty house at Christmas time Each is trying to give the other the best possible Christmas and the water commissioner is sure he has come up with the right answer Birdie yes, sir Leroy isn't home is he no sir. Oh good What you got there miss kill see more presents for Leroy more presents Yeah, open the closet door. Will you birdie the closet's full? You better dump them here in the den and lock the door Good idea Watch it birdie. Oh, just look at that. What'd you do buy off the store? Yeah, I'm just about yes Oh, Leroy We better get out of here and lock the door He's made two trips Leroy no word for Marjorie and Bronco, huh? Nothing so far. Of course, you know how the meal is a Christmas. Yeah, that boy needs cheering up Leroy, yeah, I suppose you noticed I locked the den door. No, I didn't Well, I did and don't try to find out why I locked it. Okay Aren't you curious well, I guess it's something you don't want me to see Piggies, I suppose so unless you want to stay here with birdie and me Well, I haven't a swell time down to piggies. They got a house full Long Goodbye my boy by Leroy He doesn't seem very interested in his gifts birdie. No sir You got out of the house and hurry Mr. Gills me Leroy wants to be where there's something going on Well, perhaps I should invite some people over for Christmas. Now you're talking George why haven't I thought of this before? Why don't I ask my girlfriend? You bet her family isn't here and there's PV. He said Mrs. PV was going away for the holidays all Leroy likes Mr P. He sure will have a crowd here. Yes, yeah, I'll get busy right away. Yes, very Christmas birdie This is a great idea And this wish it was working Miss Tuttle would be out of town visiting relatives. Oh, well, it'd be a lot of fun to have old PV Oh Did you find something for Leroy at Hogan Brothers? Oh a few things PV, but Leroy and I want you for Christmas You want me gift wrapped or can Santa Claus just drop me down the gym Yeah, PV, we want you to come over and spend the day enjoy our Christmas with us Well, I appreciate the invitation. Mr. Gills leave, but I I've decided to go with Mrs. PV to see her family Oh, Mrs. PV and I wouldn't enjoy spending Christmas apart. Oh, I see. I'm sorry your family can't be together this year Excuse me, Mr. Gills leave. I'll wait on little Mrs. Potter. Oh, she's still buying every pretty pill she sees Hey, just about Merry Christmas, Mr. PV. Thank you. The same to you Merry Christmas, Mrs. Potter. Merry Christmas. Who is that? It's Commissioner Gildersley. Oh, it's you, sonny. I didn't recognize you My glasses are all fogged up, but you're coming through now Well, good Mr. PV, I'm still looking for a gift for a friend of mine. You don't change. She's so hard to buy for She's never ill Of course, this is the mustard plaster season So it is. If she doesn't use them this year mustard plaster keep well Well, it is something she could wear if she's lucky enough But then she couldn't show off my gift Mrs. Potter, have you thought of a nice atomizer? That's a thought. I Take one, Mr. PV. If you put a gaily colored gargle in it Well, I have several suitable shades red green lavender. I take the red. It's Christmas, you know I'll cast them ribbon on. See, Leroy likes Mrs. Potter. She might come over Mrs. Potter. Yes, honey. How about coming over and spending Christmas day with Leroy and me? We've got a big tree. We'll have a lot of fun. Oh, Mr. Gildersley It's nice of you to think of me and I know I'd enjoy it. Yeah But I'm spoken for The party I'm buying the atomizer for invited me and I couldn't miss that her husband's a doctor Well, sorry, you can't be with us Oh, would you I want to hurry back to the square to see the rest of the Christmas program Oh, did you hear the craft core stirs, Mrs. Potter? Oh, yes And did you see the magician dressed like Santa Claus? No, no, I missed him. He kept making things disappear in his beard Yes, I noticed that he ate lunch in here He's so clever. Yeah, he is Mr. Gildersley, he's the same fellow we hired for the YMCA kids picnic. Oh, Leroy didn't get to go to that Say Leroy likes magicians. I wonder if I could hire him to entertain Leroy tomorrow I bet if you show him $20, he'll make it disappear Why George anything for Leroy? Like a beautiful Christmas morning You better get downstairs and see what Leroy's up to Don't think I'll tell him a magician's coming. I'll surprise him. You do whooping and hollering I only went up Why George, this is the first Christmas I can remember that I've been awake for the kitties Kitty What's the matter with that boy? Leroy? Leroy get up confounded. It's Christmas No matter plug in the tree lights. I could look cheerful in here. You wonder why they always put light sockets behind couches Yeah there Martinous guilty. Good morning, birdie. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Where's Leroy? He's on the way down. I Had to wake him up birdie.  No, sir.  Merry Christmas, honk. Merry Christmas Leroy. Merry Christmas, birdie Yeah, now I'll be Santa Claus and distribute the gifts. Okay Leroy do you want to be the first and open that big package? I know what's in it. I can see the bike pedals sticking through the paper Is that all you have to say? Oh, sorry young thanks Birdie here's something for you. Thank you, sir. What's in here? Leroy what you suppose I got? I don't know Well, I'll move some of these packages so I can get under the tree Oh, be careful of the one on top on it's a music box. I got it for the twins Yeah, I'll I'll be careful Who dropped it?  Oh, that's so pretty. Why don't you let it run down?  No, Birdie Sure miss miss margin them little twins Wonder what they're doing this morning. You know, let's not let it spoil our Christmas The fine is just beginning Oh, we kidding onk. This isn't Christmas well Just doesn't seem like it because we're alone.  Yeah, and a big box for Leroy. Let's put it by the bike. Oh My goodness, I sure wish the twins was home to hear that music box. Please buddy. Let's not dwell on the subject I'm not dwelling on it. I'm just wishing they was here.  They sure were Calling the uncle Leroy There's never kid my age who's lucky enough to be an uncle a lot of good. That's doing us today. Yeah Shall we open more presents? Oh, mr. Guilty. It ain't just getting presents It's one to give them and being with people you want to give them, too No, that's true buddy, but that's Christmas and this ain't it No, I'm birdie Wait a minute This isn't all there is to Christmas. I have a surprise coming. Yeah, what is it? Yeah, I'll give you a hint my boy. You know how you've always liked magic magic. You mean I'm getting a magician's kid No, no, you just wait and see you like this. I'll go the door. You know nobody I'll get it I think it's my surprise That magician couldn't have come at a better time Merry Christmas, Mr. Gillis leaves Marjorie Bronco Hi, Bob, come on in Linda Merry Christmas Linda Bless you my dear Come on, I'll give you a horseback Christmas say where's Ronnie. Oh, he's still sleeping in the car. I'll get him in a minute. Mr. Gillis leave you're looking bigger and better all the time. Well, thank you, Bronco, especially bigger Great to see you folks. Oh, wonky. We wouldn't think of spending Christmas away from home. Oh miss Margie All of you sure I'm looking well. Oh, thanks, Bertie. Well, bye George. Let's all go in and gather around Yeah, we have some presents to put on Yes, my boy you sure figured out a swell surprise me couldn't be better. Well No, I have to Bertie Now how do I make a magician disappear Here I am mr.  Yeah, well, here's your money. Why don't you take the day off? You mean it you bet? Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Just a little Christmas magic my boy The fine craft coral group the gilda sleep family and our friends wish you all a very merry Christmas Great gilda sleep was presented tonight transcribed Tonight play you bet your life


capital versus capital. These two terms are often confused due to their similar pronunciation and spelling. Let's take a closer look. The word capital is used to refer to a capital letter, a city that serves as a center of government, and also wealth in the form of money or property. For example, in American schools, the capital letter A means your work was at least 90% correct. Tokyo is the capital of Japan. The business did not have enough capital to buy the new building. Capital spelled with an O on the other hand refers to the actual capital buildings in Washington, D.C. and in each U.S. state. The United States capital building is located in Washington, D.C. Next time, think about whether you are referring to a letter, wealth, a city, or a capital building. That's it for today. See you next time.


Today, I'll be reviewing the EcoFlow Delta Max 2. This portable power station supplies 2400 watts of continuous power with a surge capacity of 4800 watts. The Delta 2 Max comes with a standard 2048 watt hour battery, but what makes this system unique is that it's expandable to two additional smart batteries, which then gives you a total of 6000 watt hours. So each system is equivalent to 2000 watts a piece that you would put together. Now for those new to the power station game, there's some things here that you probably need to know. You have watts, which is the amount of power that you have available for the appliance, and then you have watt hours, which is the capacity, sort of like the gasoline of a gas generator. As you take away those watts out of the pail, the thing starts to go dead. It's the same thing with the way these work. Now of course there's an efficiency loss as you're converting the DC power to AC power, but those things are taken into consideration as we're doing the tests. As we start to go over the features and the capacities of the system, we're going to go ahead and test it. One thing I like about the EcoFlow's display here is how easy it is to read and understand. Right here on the left-hand corner is how many hours of power it has estimated to be left, and the center is kind of the same thing, gives the percentage of its left. Top right has input watts, which is going to be your input wattage, whether it be from solar, from the wall outlet, or a car. And the bottom right corner is the output wattage going out of the unit. On the top of the smart battery, you have a secret compartment here that you press, and you can open up, and you'll get access to your cable that combines these two together. As you can see, they're both the same diameter and size, so you're able to stack these very conveniently right here on top. And they do interlock to one another, so they're not going to slide off. It does have a rubbery space at the bottom here that helps hold it in place. Now as you noticed, I was able to pick that right up and put it on top because this part right here only weighs about 42 pounds, and our bottom section comes in right around 50 pounds. The total dimensions on this is 19.5 by 9.5 by 12 inches, so it's not very large, and it's fairly easy to move around and put it inside your car. Now we're going to go ahead and demonstrate hooking this up to the extra battery port, which we've got a connection cable right here in front, which features two 8-gauge cables and six conductors on the inside for communications. This cable does allow these two units to communicate to one another so that they're able to charge and discharge at its proper rate. On the side here, with the nice plastic rubber cover, it has the high-amperage jack there, which you can see that we have a pointed edge here, square over here, which makes it pretty foolproof. We just plug that in there like that. And down here on the bottom of the main power station, we have two extra ports. They have rubber caps over top of them to keep the dust and moisture out, and that matches up again with the little square and the triangle and plugs right in. That's all it takes to plug those two in there. And on the front here, you're going to be able to see exactly what they're doing. Here you can see on the display that it shows that it's attached to another unit, and you can see that also down here on the bottom. The little icon down here at the bottom tells us that it is connected to another battery, and off to the right here it gives us the state of charge, whether it's discharging or charging. The battery up on top also has the indicator telling you that it's sensing the battery down below. Now that we have the batteries put together, we might as well as talk about what kind of technology they're using. These use lithium phosphate batteries, which has got a longer lifespan than lithium ion, and it can be recharged up to 3,000 times before it starts to lose capacity. Those 3,000 times comes in about 8.2 years, or up to 10 years in general is what the manual states. That would come out to 8.2 years. That's using it every day, cycling it from full all the way to completely empty. Since we're talking about lifespan of the battery, we might as well as talk about the warranty that backs this unit. EcoFlow's warranty is one of the industry's best at five years of warranty time. All you have to do is register the unit at their website. Should you have any problems, you can feel comfortable that EcoFlow is going to take good care of you. Now's a good time to go ahead and fill you in on a few other things about the EcoFlow that I'm discussing here now. This was provided to me at no cost, however I'm not being paid to do the review, and when we signed our letter of agreement that I had the right to give my fair and honest opinion. So even though this was provided to me, I'm under no obligation to not tell the truth. And because I feel as though my reputation needs to be upheld, I guarantee you that if I find something wrong or I don't like it, I'm going to let that be known. In addition to the links down below, it's worth mentioning that EcoFlow is having some of the biggest sales of the season right now over Black Friday. Right now you can save up to 58% off the normal cost. And down at the bottom there will also be a promo code that will get you even extra money off in addition to the normal price that they have on sale. It's also worth mentioning that if this isn't a large enough unit, you can check out the EcoFlow Delta Pro, which has 3,600 watts of continuous power with a peak power of 7,200 watts. And the standard battery starts out at 3,600 watt hours and is expanded up to a whopping 25,000 watt hours. The Delta Pro is right now at $1,200 off, which is normally about $3,700 and right now is on sale for about $2,499, possibly lower depending on the discount code below. The Delta Pro series has a total of 5 in their lineup. You have the original Delta, the Delta Max, the Delta II, the Delta II Max, and then the Delta Pro. So be sure to pay close attention to which model that you're looking at so that if you think you're getting a better deal that you're not buying the older model. And EcoFlow is going to be adding one more model to the list that's going to blow the top off of the industry. It's called the Delta Pro Ultra. This unit starts out at 6,000 watt hours and is expandable to 90,000 watt hours, which is just absolutely crazy. This is designed to run your whole house with a whole house transfer switch. It's going to come out sometime in February of 2024. On the front, on the left-hand side here, we have USB-A connections that are rated at 12 watts. The fast charges on the right are rated at 18 watts. And down at the bottom, we have USB-C's that are rated at 100 watts. Now on the backside of it, we have a total of 620 volt outlets. And this is one of the few power stations that actually puts out 120 volts. Most of them that I've been reviewing have been right around 110 volts. Now according to the manual, these are rated at 15 amps, but if you was to take 2400 watts and divide it by 120 volts, that comes out to be in 20. Generally this is a 20 amp plug, which, like I said, I can only go by what the manual says, which is 15 amps. Down here at the bottom, we have the car plug, which is regulated at 12.6 volts. The DC 5521 outputs, which are only rated at 3 amps. Now up here at top, we have charging ports for your solar or your car charging. These have the ability to take anywhere from 11 to 60 volts DC and 15 amps max per port. And then in the center here, we have our 120 volt outlet, which as you may expect, it does come with the cord and there is no charging blocks. And it comes with the car charger port here also, which also, like I said, plugs right into the PV2 port. Now these two ports that we have right here in the back are XT60 connectors, which we have one that's included with the car plug already on it. However, this is going to take quite a long time to recharge it because the maximum wattage this is going to charge at is 100 watts per plug when it's coming off the car because of the amp for each that's limited on the plug. So you're going to have quite a few hours involved there because if you do 100 divided in or even 200 divided into the 2400, that's going to come in somewhere around 12 hours total if you're going in at 200 watts or 24 hours if you're going at 100 watts. So to say the least, going off of the car port is not going to be very quick, but it is there. Moving off to the side here is the high voltage resettable breaker and directly above it up here at the top is where you select the charge rate speed. When you have it all the way to one side, it charges at full capacity, which they rated it up to 1800 watts, which allows this to charge in about an hour to an hour and a quarter from completely dead. Or they also rated it at 80% in as little as 40 some minutes. When you move it over to the other side, you're able to adjust the charge rate in the app. What I really liked about this app here was it was so simple to use. You've got a combination of your input and output watts. You have the watts coming out of the different ports and they got the read out right there in the middle. You can turn your AC on and off by hitting that port right here and it kicks right on. It's very responsive. If you slide down to your 12 volt or your USB, you can turn them on, turn them off. Now, this app will be good anytime it's on the internet. So you can control it from anywhere in the world that has internet service. You're able to set up your profiles. And as I said here, the black Friday sale is at 58% off. You can also do updates. One of the updates that I just did the other day allows this now to go from 30 microseconds to 20 microseconds. Now this does offer pass through charging and battery backup. When you plug this device into the wall and it passes right through the outlet here, you're not draining from the battery. If you do lose power, this has a 20 microsecond change over now, whereas before it was 30 microseconds. We're going to be testing that with the computer to see whether or not the computer drops out. So stand by for that. Now this device does work off a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth both. So you're able to do either or depending on where you're at. So you're able to connect either way in the screen here. You can see what your extra battery is coming in at. It also has the temperature and Fahrenheit. When you go under settings here, you can name your unit. You can turn the beep function on and off under the energy management system here. You can decide how far you want the unit to discharge and how far you would like it to charge. So if you wanted to limit it at 80%, you can slide it right to there and you can do the same thing with the discharge. You can take it all the way to zero and you could raise it at highest 30%. It also has the feature backup reserve, which allows you to save power for later, which is a pretty neat feature under the AC charging speed. As I said, this also has the ability to integrate with a smart generator.  Now the EcoFlow does have a feature called X Boost. You're going to use this when you're using a resistive load where it doesn't really matter if the voltage drops a little bit. Say you have an appliance that's just a little bit over the wattage this is capable of. What it will do is it'll reduce the output voltage out of the outlets of the back of the unit, which then in turn lowers the wattage that it's going to provide. That works fine for things like hairdryers and electric heaters, but you might have problems with electronic devices. You also have timers here where you can turn it on and off, which is fairly nice. You got firmware updates, lab features, everything in here is pretty self-explanatory and has a lot of nice features. Like I said, this is probably one of the best ones I've seen. It booted right up right away and it was very easy to understand. There really is not much of a manual. So the manual that you get for this is very simplistic. So you've got this big, thick manual, but it's because there's so many languages in there. So you've got your safeties here in the front. You have your specs here and here and you're immediately onto another language. That is the manual for the power station and the smart battery app is pretty much exactly the same thing. You've got some safety precautions in the front, your specifications here and immediately goes on to another language. They do include a quick guide, which makes it a little bit easier to understand things, but they break it down pretty simplistic right here because let's face it. This is basically providing you the 120 volt outlet that you take for granted every day when you have power. And this pretty much just shows you exactly what you've gotten in the box, blah, blah, blah. There you go. And if you choose to use third party solar panels instead of theirs, they do give you some instructions of what to check for so that you don't accidentally damage your power station. For our next test, we're going to go ahead and plug in some resistive heat. We've got our meter going right here, which we have 120 volts. We have a perfect sine wave, which means this thing is a pure sine wave. We have a perfect 60 Hertz. So looking really good to verify that we have everything plugged in on the back, which is obvious to see there. And you're going to notice that here right on the front of it. Right now we have everything turned off. But what you see is you have the top one charging the bottom one. We have 76 Watts going out and we have 76 Watts coming in. What we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and turn on the load and we're going to watch our meters to see if we have much of a drop. So the first heater here is going to pull right around 1300 Watts. Our oscilloscope shows a perfect sine wave still and we're right at 120 to 121 volts jumping down here to the bottom. We've got 1360 to 1400. Both of them are feeding at the same rate. So you get 690 here, 690 or so there. Now let's go ahead and add a little extra load to it. Right here, you can see we're at 2400 Watts or just shy of it. And let's go ahead and look at our app here. I'm going to show you what the X-Boost does. Right now we're running 109 volts. We still have a really clean sine wave. It's holding right in at 60.0 Hertz. Like I said, though, we have a 10 volt drop. By dropping that voltage 10 volts, it allowed it to keep it underneath the 2400 Watts. If you have a load that's over the 2400 mark and it's resistive, it will actually lower the voltage, which then lowers the wattage output. Let's go into the app. Let's go into our settings. Let's go down here to X-Boost, which we have X-Boost right there. When we turn this X-Boost off, you're going to hear the speed of the fan down below increase and the voltage is going to increase as well. Here we go. And then we're going to check the wattage going out. You can see that right here. You heard the increase. The wattage has already jumped to 2750. We're right back to where we started at 120.7. Sine wave looks beautiful. And she's sustaining that load. I did this test a little earlier, but we're going to go ahead and let it run. And I'm going to show you what happens when it goes into overload. This has overload, overheat, low temperature, high temperature, you name it. It has protection for all the different scenarios. As I said, we're 2700 watts. Let's just give it a little while. As you can see, it was rated originally for 2400. They're generous with their ratings. All right. It finally tripped out on overload and it went back to charging itself up from the top battery. As we can see there, the frequency is dead. Voltage is dead. It's completely isolated. Now if we go in here and put it back to that X-Boost, it will lower that voltage again and it will return to powering the load. There you go. It's dropped back down. All I did was hit the button on the back of it that turned on the outlets and everything is back to the way it was originally. So that shows you that the unit does put out 2400 plus watts. It's not cheating the specs. They give you actually 2700 watts for what about a minute or two originally. So we're looking really good. Let's go ahead and check out the USB section here. And because we're under this extreme load right now, we're going to be able to test out the fans. So you would think with us running this for at least this was recorded once before, but the audio got screwed up. So this thing's been running like this probably for a good 10 minutes now, 15 minutes prior to having to rerecord it. But we're going to go ahead and stop the loads down there by hitting the power button on the back. We're going to go ahead and turn on our SPL meter. Sound pressure level. I don't even hear the fans running. It's at 38 dB. Now, when it's charging, it will speed up a little bit. This thing is really built efficient and very well from what I see. So that takes care of the noise. Can you sleep with this beside your bed? Yeah, not a problem. All right. As you can see right now, we have no input coming in or output. The unit is just sitting there in standby. We're going to go ahead and plug in the power. It's going to start charging. And then we're going to power up the laptop that does not have a battery in it. And then we'll unplug it from the wall and see if the computer drops out. Now you're going to see the input wattage here in a second. Start kicking on. It's giving you the rotating fan right there that tells you that it's starting to turn on the fans. And depending on where my switch is set at, it's either going to charge at whatever I've picked, which is about 900 watts, or it's going to go to possibly as much as 1800. What's nice about this is you can select exactly what charge rate you want. So if you've got all day and you don't need to use it for a few days, you could set it down to a couple hundred watts and slowly recharge it, which is going to get you more lifetime out of your battery. All right, computer is starting to boot up. We can see that it's starting to draw 22 watts area. As you're able to see here, the computer is powered up. You can see that it is pulling 20 watt area and it's coming in at 900. So that tells you that it's plugged into the wall. It's sending power out. We're going to go ahead and unplug it from the wall and see if the computer happens to lose its display. There's the splash screen. Let's go ahead and unplug it from the back. You're going to see the top number of charge rate is going to diminish to nothing. Instantly switched over and it still kept the laptop going and to prove that, you know, the laptop is actually plugged in. All we got to do is unplug the back and she goes dead just like that. So 20 microseconds is how fast it's able to switch over. That right there is an example of pass through charging when the wall outlet is powering the unit. It's going through a relay state and right on to the load. The relay switches to auxiliary power when this is unplugged. And that's what we're calling by automatic switch over. Now let's go ahead and test out the DC and then we're going to start wrapping this up. To test the 100 watt output here, a typical load bank is not going to work. Unfortunately, the only thing that I've got is going to work good on that is using an actual USB digital tester and my MacBook Pro here. The MacBook has a 100 watt capacity of charging, which is going to test this out perfect. So we'll go ahead and plug it into the computer, plug in the USB-C after turning it on. All right, they have recessed this plug back and my USB-C will not reach in there, so I cannot read it on that one. We're going to go ahead and plug it directly into the computer and we can see that the computer is currently at about 18% battery life and we are charging right there at 96 watts. Go ahead and test it over here on the other one and it's right at 98.99 watts. So we know that it is capable of doing 100 watts. Like I said, you've got to have an actual PD type device that actually is talking the communications through there. You'd be surprised what kind of information is going on in there. At this time, we're using the USB-A that's rated for 12 watts. As you can see right here, we have 12 watts and down below here on the load, it actually says we have 10. We can increase that to 12. Let's go to 11, which these are small increments. We've got 13 there and we'll go up to 12 watts. 12 watts is about right where it cuts out at. So it's right at what they're saying. According to this right here, I'm at 12.2 watts on the digital readout. We're at 11 here. We're splitting hairs. It says 13 there. It's putting 2.4 amps. I mean, it's rated for about that same amount right there. Like I said, we're doing it at 5 volts. Now, let's go ahead and jump it over to the high speed. This one here was rated for 18. We're going to go ahead and increase it a little higher. Let's go up to 12. We're at 4.4 volts. It says 5.9 over here. You can see there's a voltage drop between here and there in my cable, which is about six foot long. It claims it's rated for 100 watts. As you can see, that doesn't always hold true, which is why we're doing our tests here. There's 13 watts. We have 16 up here. We have 15 here. Like I said, because of the voltage drop, we're having a wattage drop. So this right here is going to be your accurate one right there. Going up there already, there's 18 watts. Down here, it says 16. So we're between 16 and 18. We're pulling 3.2 amps. So we know that it is producing more amperage than traditional. And boom, she dropped out right there at the next one up. It produces exactly what they rate it for. Now, for this next test, I'm going to use a device like this right here, which is a kilowatt. If you're wanting to know how many watts you need and you really don't have all these fancy meters, you can buy one of these for about 20 bucks or less. There's some that are 30, some that are 15. The one you're going to see in the video I got for like 12 and it's just as accurate as what this one is here. This is a kilowatt P3. These have been around forever. It doesn't have a backlit display, which is why I went with the other one. In the test that you're going to see next is this 1360 watt heater ran until the system went completely dead. We're going to find out how many watt hours the battery came in at. It's rated at two kilowatt hours and some change. So let's go ahead and take a look at that right now. What we've done is we've completely recharged the system and we're going to run this completely down to make sure the kilowatt reading is actually accurate. You can see that we're actually pulling the 1346 watts. 1331 so within nine watts, 10 watts of it. So we've just ran the battery completely down. The total kilowatt hours out of both battery packs here was 3.633 kilowatt hours. So we're going to go ahead and do the math here and we'll calculate out the efficiency of the dual battery system. One of the cooling fans just came on. It's probably the quietest fan I've heard yet. I don't think even the quietest sleeper would notice that. But as I mentioned, as we start to bring our percentage back up a little higher, we're starting to input our wattage a little bit higher. So it is trying to slowly add the wattage to the battery slowly and not overcharge the battery or shock it. So you can tell we have some intelligent charging capabilities in the machine. And as I mentioned earlier, it is bringing that wattage up higher. The fan just speeded up a little bit faster. And now our top battery is starting to charge to at 530 and continually rising. So grand total input wattage were at 1600. The battery is charging at 550. The top is charging also at 550. And we've got about two hours of recharge time there on the bottom and a total of about three hours on the top battery. Well, there you have it. That is a full test of the EcoFlow Delta II Max. I did not test out the 10 amp socket on the back because when I was doing my initial testing, I did short a couple of the pins together and I damaged the unit somehow, which the factory is going to send me another one. No questions asked. I told him exactly what happened. Generally that wouldn't cause an issue, but in this case here it did. It's an electronic circuit. Sometimes you don't know which part is going to fail. Not a big deal. Like I said, five year warranty, got some problems, nothing's perfect. But for the most part, everything I've seen on this, it's very clean. It's really well laid out. It's simplistic and it's easy to use. I mean, let's really think about it. It's a wall outlet in the middle of a field if you want it. It gives you clean power, which is actually cleaner than what you get from the utility company. And it's regulated. So it's going to protect you against spikes and surges and all those nasty things like that. Overall, so far, this is probably one of the nicest units that I've reviewed. I've always heard EcoFlow is a pretty good unit. Other than that one problem, like I said, that had caused a short to damage the 10 amp receptacle on the back, the car port, that's it. I have overloaded the other ports, no problem. And we didn't have any issues after that. So it reset and everything worked fine. Once again, let me remind you, we do have links down in the bottom. Black Friday is tomorrow, which will be the time you're actually watching this. And it'll be months and years after the fact that you'll see this. But the website links are going to be down below. If you guys enjoyed the video and you got something out of it, if you would hit the like button, consider subscribing. Like I said, I do heating, air conditioning, refrigeration and home standby generators and all kinds of things in between there. So this just happens to be one of those things that I kind of enjoy doing. And I like having the equipment on standby if I have any issues, which is the whole reason why people are buying them. That's going to wrap everything up for me, guys. Once again, leave a comment down below. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video. And until next time, we'll catch you on the next one.