No worries. So we are recording. Okay, great. Thanks. Welcome. Are there any members of the audience out there just to see? Yes, there are quite a few today, it looks like. Okay, good. So let's go ahead and get started. I don't have the slide that that also usually shows so I'm not going to show it this week, and we'll just jump right into review of the minutes. So has everyone reviewed the minutes and would someone like to move to accept them or suggest changes. We can show them if anyone wants us to show them. I wasn't here last week so I will be abstaining from this. I'll move to accept them. Okay. Oh who's taking notes this week. I haven't done it in a while so I can do it. Thanks Laura. So Don just move I'll give you a moment to get set up let us know when you're ready. So don move to accept the minutes is there except is there a second. I'll second that. Okay. And by voice vote in no particular order. Allison. Yes. Goldner. The stain. Roof. Yes. Breger. Yes. Drawer. Yeah. D. I'm staying. It's a majority of the quorum present. I think we're good. I always have to say that out loud. Sorry. I was going to say that. Good. Okay, so next up is public comment. If members of the public have questions, raise your hand. Questions or comments. Okay, we have four members of the public and no one is raising their hand at this point. Okay, so seeing none. Let's go ahead and move on to updates. So Stella, I think you're on first transportation. Yeah. I mean, contact with tack. So I'm going to go to their meeting on the 27th. And chat about the carp and stuff. And kind of talk about collaboration and whatnot. So if anybody has things that you want me to talk about, or what have you thoughts, feel free to send them to me. And then green energy consumers is still coming to chat. That's pretty much the update. And that's, I forget what date it is. It's in my calendar somewhere, but I don't roll. 26. Yeah. Next meeting before actually. Yeah. That's our next meeting at five o'clock. They're planning on chat talking at 530. Okay. Because I think I have flyer that you did. Let me make sure that flyer. That flyer says five. Yeah. So I thought. Okay. I corrected a version that I thought I sent that said 530, but let me. Yeah, I think mine said five, but I will, I will change it. When you said, when you sent the three flyers out together, that one said five. Right. And then there was another one I thought maybe I had corrected it on my own. Oh, you know what? I think I sent it to Stella, but I don't know that I sent it out to the group. I just sent it to all of us then and that would be easy. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted Stella to take a look at it first. All right, I will do that and I'm making a note. Anything else. No, I think that's it. I have a question. When you talk to the tack. To what extent are they concerned with, I know. With bicycle access around this town. Do they spend time on that? Do they. Bike access. Yeah. They have this whole great, really great plan. The bike and pedestrian plan that they put out that it sounds like isn't fully, fully finished. There's some mapping like last mapping and stuff that needs to be done. But yes, the short answer is yes. They taking input on that plan. Is it posted anywhere? Yeah, it's posted. It's posted. I could. Right. There's no chat in this. We can send it around. I can send it to everyone. Yeah. That would be great because I would love to see what's there and comment on it myself. It's really fantastic. It's a great plan. It would be good to not feel like I'm going to die every time I go out on Pellum Road on my bike. A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For those of us in Echo Hill. We're a little isolated from by getting out to the bikes. I use a big pool noodle out into traffic. I go on Pellum Road. Oh, that was you. I saw you the other day. That's a great idea. Only way to keep people from trying to kill me. I've been side-swipe too many times. They can side-swipe the noodle. It doesn't hurt. All right. Anyway, onward. So then there's a review and vote. Is there a review? Okay. Oh, sorry. Heat pump thing is already done with that. Stella. I think so. Okay. Heat pump panel. So real brief update there.  Scott Ternac just today. Finally. It's quite a, quite a saga. I tried emailing him the email bounced. cooling. I did finally manage to get through. He's very happy to come and join us on May 10th. I still don't have a good way to reach him. He says my email, he's going to try to make my emails not bounce anymore. He has a great way to reach him because he's installing our geothermal system and connect with them all the time. That changeover is happening next week. The whole switchover from our propane system is taking place next week. We're in regular communication with Scott and with Ben Christopher who's actually the project manager for our project at Western Mass. Yeah, it's interesting. I also used Western Mass. I think most of us ended up with them, but I didn't ever talk to Scott through that. It was Lauren Harris and Mike Somebody and I forget who else, a couple of the people. All right, so good. If I need help contacting him again, Don, if you have a number to reach him at that cell number even, he says the cell doesn't- I'll forward it to you. If I don't, I'm sure my wife does. Okay, all right. But anyway, so that's in place. So who among us is going to volunteer to answer questions? Is it all of us? Don, you'll do the geothermal. Yep. And Steve, what sort of system? Did you have a system installed recently? I have a heat pump water heater that I'd be happy to talk about, but not heat pump space heating or cooling. That's fine. What else do we got, Wayne? Yeah, I have air source heat pumps. I have one system also that's internet connected so I can control them remotely, which is a nice feature. Yep. So is this air source mini splits? Mini splits, yeah. Yeah. Laura? Yeah, I have too many splits in an air source house system. So I don't know how much overlap there's. I don't know if we all need to be there, but happy to. Remind me, your air source has some sort of fuel backup, oil or gas backup or no? Electric backup. Yes. It's different from mine. Mine still burns fossil fuel for backup, just because I have gas and it's still way too expensive if I'm going to, it's not economical for me to do it. So I didn't quite go all the way, but I'm set up to go all the way when the price changes. So who else to believe out. I can just throw a wood pellet stove in the mix. Oh, yeah. I also have a wood stove, wood pellet stove. And Stella? Yeah, we have, we switched to mini splits and I don't heat pump water heater, but I can't talk about it because it was all my partner doing logistics. But I can say that they work and we have like just a fireplace for backup. Okay, so I just want to get all this down. Okay, cool. So I think that's going to be great. Scott mentioned that he would like to give a little overview of heat pumps. So I told him, you know, we were trying to do mostly question and answers. I have a feeling though he's still going to end up putting together something that's probably 20 minutes. So maybe we can all just, you know, introduce ourselves in a minute or two and say what system we put in and then invite people to contact us whenever, I mean, you know, through eCAC or through Stephanie or if they have more questions that didn't get answered. And I think the key thing here is going to be to advertise this early so we can start advertising it right away. Okay. And I think that's all I got. I mean, it's going to be pretty informal. It's going to be Scott, I think, giving us a little overview of, I think what we'll do is introduce each of us and then introduce Scott, let him talk for 20 minutes and then take Q&A. Sound right? Okay, cool. All right. So the next thing is a letter to new DPU commissioners, but that's Andra. And so what do we do with that? You skip it. You put it off for another meeting. I wasn't exactly sure when and I'm just kind of keeping it as a placeholder. So you can just move that to another the next meeting, but I don't know that she'll even be ready for the next meeting. Yeah. So I do have a question about that. I had sent Andra after our meeting like a month ago, we had decided we wanted to write a letter to about the Springfield pipeline. And I see from the notes last time that that sort of expanded, maybe expanded, maybe it's a different effort into a general note from town council supporting or not supporting the expansion of pipelines anywhere of gas distribution lines anywhere. I had done some research to put together a little letter sent a draft to Andra because I wasn't sure who we were addressing and then never heard back from her, I think, because she's been busy with her, you know, with everything in her life. So it sort of got put off. Is it still worth pursuing that letter as well? And I think the intended audience for that was for the town council to write to the to support the efforts of the groups in Springfield who are opposing the pipeline, the distribution line that's going in, but that's proposed to go in. So is that sound like something we still want to do or should I talk about that later and member updates or is it related to this DPU? The DPU commissioners is different, completely different, I think, right? There was a letter that Vasu sent a few meetings back and now I don't remember. I'd have to pull it up. My memory, if my memory certainly correctly, Andra's main objective on the DPU letter was more about municipal aggregation and trying to smooth out that process a bit. Stephanie probably knows more about that. Yes, that's true. And they were they were two separate efforts, though. There was another letter that you were discussing town council to take a stand. And I'm pretty sure that that was the letter that Vasu had maybe drafted, but I can't recall it. It's a few meetings back and I'd have to pull it up and take a look. So. Okay, I somehow, I probably because I missed a meeting, I think maybe that this would have been several meetings ago. I'm confused because I would have been at that meeting. I don't remember it. All right, well, let's let's put that on the agenda for next time. Then the Vasu's, if we can find that meeting that that letter that takes a stand on pipelines, I'll also bring a draft of the one I've been working on specific to the Springfield pipeline with some facts and figures thrown in that I that I looked up short and to the point, but I believe it go over your draft at the last meeting. Andra put a draft up on the tree and we talked through it and gave her feedback. I never got any any feedback on that. That's interesting. So, so yeah. But it was just last week because we just met last week, right? Or maybe. Yeah, you just met last week. I was at the the BEA meeting. No, I was at last week was Passover. Oh no, last so we did not meet last week. Okay. Anyway, we did look at a letter and we provided some feedback. So it's any Andra's hand. So I'll just note in the minutes that you'll connect with Andra and we'll bring it up at the next meeting. Okay. And for clarification, that meeting was the adoption of specialized building code. That's what the letter to from Vasu to the town council was. Oh yeah, that was a different one. Okay, so that was a different one. So also letters. There was a boss regarding that one. I remember special adoption of specialized code. We really should do Boston is now done it, you know, Boston has done it. We all should be doing it. And then there'll also be a letter on the pipeline. I think it's a little later than we wanted to be with that one. But so be it. And if Andra does not connect back with me because she's recovering, I'll just bring something with me. And then there was also last time the discussion of a letter to take a general stand on pipeline. So where did that one come from? General stand was that from Andra last time? I think that was your letter. That was my letter. Okay, all right. And also, okay, expand to take it. Good. Good, good, good. So letters for next time three. What the third? What's the third one again? I thought that's the letter to the DPU commissioners for regarding municipal aggregation and smoothing out that process. A letter regarding the adoption of specialized code to the town council and letter regarding pipeline expansions. And particularly the Springfield expansion. And it's a little unclear to me, you know, so the DPU one is going to the commissioners from us or from the town? Is it a draft that goes to the town to go to the commissioners? Or is the intent for us just to send it? Well, I think if it's going to the DPU commissioners, I think it would be from the town, not just the committee. Okay, town. And the same thing with the adoption of, well, specialized code is a recommendation. This is a recommendation. Right. Correct. And the pipeline thing is sort of twofold. It's to get the town to support all the other entities that are opposing the pipeline in Springfield and oppose pipelines generally as a change of policy. Sort of, I'm a little worried because it's two things. It's a change of town policy opposing any new pipelines or any access, you know, any change, I would think, in the status of any embargo against gas and Amherst. So no new gas hookups anywhere. I don't think that was part of the letter we looked at last time. It wasn't. Okay, good. So it was just this. So it was probably just the pipeline letter that I had drafted. Okay. So I will just do that. So that letter could also be a editorial. We could also just do another one of these editorials from ECAC, right? So I think what I'll do is I'll probably come with two different letters, one for the town council, one to use as an editorial, as an op-ed opinion piece, a letter to the editor. Does that make sense? Anything else on letters? This item, this agenda item, sort of became letters generally. Okay, then onward to the sustainability festival moving right along today. So I think this is straightforward. Jesse has gone out and bought a 10 by 10 tent, which I will get from him probably the Friday before some couple of day or two before the event. I'm going to bring a couple of tables. I think, Steve, is that you who said you had someone had a thing to hold flyers? Or flyer? I have an easel that will hold one of those large pads of paper. Oh, you have that now. Okay. You do have one. I can get it from Hampshire and bring it Saturday. I think Duane was the one who said he had those clear flyers. Yeah, I had four of them, the clear things that would hold something and prop them up so that we don't have to hand them out, but they just look at them and has a QR code and so forth. What's my best way to get that to you? I figure I'm going to just spend some time Thursday or Friday before the event going around town. Okay. Yeah, I can bring them home and walk them over to you. That works too. Where are you on campus Duane? A building you've never heard of agricultural engineering building. Are you going to the energy networking event next week? In the morning. Yeah. I'll be there. We could bring them there too. Okay. I'll put that in my notes. If we don't connect there, then it will be I'll pick them up whenever. I'll figure that out next week. One week at a time. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Good. I think Steve has the other easel and pad and I have tables. Okay. So far I have the EV flyer which needs a change in the time. I put together a couple of flyers, one of which it occurred to me that the thing that left out last time we talked about flyers was a flyer that connects people to sustainable sustainability, emmer sustainability website or whatever it's called. The one whose name I don't like, but whatever it's called, I put it on the flyer and yeah. It's kind of a lot of it's a great website and it has a lot of information on it. So I thought we really want to connect people to that. We really want to connect people to the ECAC website and to our own events. So I put a couple of flyers in the packet. Have you guys had a look at them? Anyone have any comments? Should I show them or just go with it? Go ahead Steve. I was looking at those. I thought they looked good. I even checked out the QR code and it seems to work. I wasn't sure if it worked with the dinosaur there in the middle. That's how they happened. I had to figure out how to do that. The dinosaur just sort of happened. I don't know how that happened. We might have covered it, but the time, where do I happen to see it? Yeah, on the one that's the ECAC flyer at the bottom there, Stephanie, it says, when's the April 26th at 5 p.m. Electric Vehicles 101. I think that's the one that needed to be updated to 530. Yeah, that's all we're going to, you got that. There actually is a corrected version and I sent it to Stella. I thought I put it in your packet, but I think because Lori sent those, I didn't look to see which version she had sent. It's in two places. I copied the time from the first EV flyer that I got, which was 5 o'clock, so I have an EV flyer that's probably also wrong. Let me double check. I'm just going to double check because I'm pretty sure that I must have forwarded it to Brianna, our communications person, which might make it a little more complicated. If it's really everywhere, we might want to see if they can do 5 instead of 530. I just changed it on, if it's already out there, yeah. Well, let me know because I just changed it on the ECAC flyer and I also put in the time for the Wednesday, May 10th heat panel thing, so I put that in as well. I had TBA I think on the original one. Now it's actually in there. It's the only change I made. If it's okay with us, my sense is they're super flexible and would probably rather come earlier than later. I'll double check on that as soon as this meeting is over. Okay. I'll put stars here and save check. All right. Okay, things that I still need. I just have a quick question only because I'm trying to keep in mind with you, Stephanie, keep saying to us and in the ECAC flyer, it says what we do and it says we make recommendations to the town council and I thought you told us that we make recommendations to the town manager. Might be one of the things I changed. I'll have to double check on that, but thanks for catching that. Town council. Okay, so you're going to send me an edited, did I send you a PDF or did I send you a word version of that, Stephanie? I can't remember and I just let me see. I don't know what I sent out. I think you sent a PDF. Okay, I can send you a word version so that you can edit it. I didn't realize that there was, I thought I looked that up, but I thought I pulled that off of a website somewhere that recommendations to the town council phrase, but I might have screwed up. So, do you know if it's manager or council? Oh, it should be town manager. You were appointed by the town manager.  Okay, got you. Okay, so I just changed town council to town manager on that anyway, just in case there's a something happens. I changed it and I will also make a note to send you send Stephanie word versions. Any other comments on flyers? Thanks for catching that on. I still need that pacifier formatted. Did anyone ever format that? We've kind of held off on that until and I'm happy to do this in the updates. Stephanie can chime in since she's the one who actually got the return email from mass development, but we wanted to make sure that whatever we put on a flyer was consistent with what mass development, how they're implementing this, this program. And they're still in the process of figuring out in light of the change in the program, how they're going to implement that. Is that fair to say Stephanie? Yeah, they're doing program updates. And so they're not actually holding any events right now until all of that change in regulations has been ironed out. So we shouldn't be sending materials out about the program right now because things are changing. So we might just want to hold off a bit. It may be in May. It's not really ridiculously crazy out. It might be, you know, the end of May, maybe June. Okay, but it won't be for the sustainability festival. The only other flyers I was going to have was a really simple one that says read the carp here and then maybe decarbonize your home for renters, decarbonize your home for, if I can, that would probably be, I'm not sure how to do that without it being an actual flyer for renters and for homeowners, how to decarbonize your home. Although really the sustaining Amherst website has some really good stuff on it. So and good links. So that might be enough. Thank you. Yeah. And then a mass save QR code somewhere. That'll probably just say mass save and be a big QR code on some on top of one of the one of the easels. And then I think that's it. Now the other problem we have is manning this thing. So I wanted to go over the that quickly. Let me find it. ECAG schedule. So Don, are you going to be there at eight and nine? I plan to be, if you needed, I can be really flexible. So you tell me where you need me and I'll come because my wife is signed up for the whole day for mothers out front. So, I can be flexible. So, okay. So then where I might need you instead, it looks like we're thin with a bunch of people who can't make it for various reasons, right? So it's just going to be one of us there all day. So I can do the morning if you want. The time that I'm not sure of and Jesse's not here is three and four. So what I have is right now I have, I can stay from eight till to noon. Steve takes over at noon and one. That's still okay. Jesse might be available at three and four, but he didn't make a commitment. So if Jesse's not available at three and four, Don, I think I'll stick you in there. That's fine. I meant it when I said I am at your disposal. Okay. Then I'm just going to put you in there, but I might change you back to the morning because I could probably use some help setting up and I would love to come at nine and not eight if possible. Believe me, I'm up in plenty of time. So eight, whatever works, Laurie, whatever works. I'm at eight and at four. That would work too. I'm just wandering away all day. So Stephanie, what I'll do is I'll put the final schedule together after I hear from Jesse, and then if you would just distribute it to everyone to make sure we're all on the same page and we all show up at the right time. I think that piece you could actually do, Laurie. I mean, you're just sending the schedule out. You can just send that out. That's not, there's nothing you're deliberating over. Okay, cool. I can do that. Great. Any other suggestions or thoughts for the sustainability festival? Laurie, just, I don't know if we have enough plastic holders, but just, or maybe it just go up on the somewhere else, but just a flyer on the UMass Energy Transition Symposium. And for this group, we're going to have, I guess, penalty speakers that are, that might interest the community. We're going to outreach us to the community as well. We have the joint chairs of the Telecommunication Energy and Utility Commission Committee. Jeff Roy, I think it is, and Barrett, I believe it is, Senator, as well as Mindy Dom and Joe Comerford are speaking and our Chancellor, Suba Swamy, will be plenaries and then a lot of posters from undergraduate and graduate students. So I'll send around the flyer on that because a new flyer has just been created to Stephanie and she can circulate that to the group if she's so willing. I think there's additional effort to reach out to the five colleges, Steve, but also we'd like to draw folks from the community as well. So if there's room for it on our table at the sustainability festival, I'd love to offer that as well. Yeah, I suspect that some of the flyers are going to end up under rocks. So I don't mind putting it under rocks. Yeah, I'm not going to bring a stack of them. I don't want a rock. Yeah, just one of them under something. I can see if I have something to hold stuff like that too. I might have something around. We'll get as many as we can and hold it. I'm happy to have a, I can always tape it to the table too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that works. So if you send that, I'll make sure I have a copy there. Maybe I'll give you that when I give you the plastic things. Yeah, great. And it'll probably, I suspect it will show up in my email box at some point. I got the first, I got the email, but it didn't see a flyer attached to it. Yeah, and there'll be a new flyer that has its speakers on it now. Yeah. And Lori, thank you for doing that one for the, the flyer for the sustaining Amherst page. I'm probably actually going to print it out and have it at the information table too, where I'll be. Good, good, good. Yeah. So thank you. No problem. All right, I think we're on staff updates. Right now it's all sustainability festival all the time, pretty much. So yeah, like I said, it's going to be a smaller event than we've had the past. Well, we didn't have anything the last couple of years, but prior to that we had over a hundred vendors. And at this point, we're actually whittled down to about 35 or so. That does not include performer performers or special displays, but I think it's okay because we also didn't know until a month ago that we're sharing the space with the farmer's market. So it's going to, you know, it's going to change the layout quite a bit. So I'm about to work on that next.   So that's kind of what I'm dealing with right now. And other than that, I would say things with the community choice aggregation continue to move forward. We're in communication with the consultant about we have to create websites. Each community has to have their own website that has information about the aggregation. It will link to the consultant's site, but it has to have their very specific documents that the DPU wants links to on everybody's website. So each community has to create that and it has to exist in perpetuity. So, and it can't be embedded in, you know, deep into the town's website. It has to be very prominently featured or easy to access. So we're sort of figuring those pieces out and also the materials that we'll be going out to begin the community outreach stage of this effort. So that's all happening fairly soon, I would say. I think our goal is to sort of launch that in May, but we just have to make sure that everything, all of these things, these pieces that we're doing, the materials and the websites and all that are up and ready to go when we start that outreach. So yeah, it's crazy. It's one of those, you know, sometimes when I work on projects that feel like they're just never going to happen. You know, this is one of those, it's just been quite a while in coming. So it's pretty exciting to get to this point. So yeah, so that's very exciting. And then as I said, I've, you know, we've got a contract now with KLA associates for our community dashboard. I haven't heard from them yet about sort of when we're going to begin that process, but that's moving forward. We are submitting an MVP grant for resiliency to, and you know, I don't know whether we'll get this grant, but it's to do some work over at Puffers Pond, which is our one community cooling location. It's the only really large body of water. It's free to community members. It's on public transportation routes. So there's a lot of reasons why this is a really valuable resource, especially right now as we get more and more higher degree temperature days during the summer, we really need to have somewhere for community members to seek release. So relief, I'm sorry. So we're doing quite a bit to try to improve that location. And the pond needs dredging. The dam needs shoring up. There's, you know, trail work that needs to be done sort of adjacent to it to prevent erosion. So there's quite a few things to sort of make that and enhance that, you know, a place for the public to utilize. So that's that effort is moving forward with a consultant who's going to assist us with that application process. Let's see what else has his hand up. Is there a question? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I didn't want to get you off track, but comment on Puffers pond. You're mentioning Puffers jogged a memory of a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago with a friend, a colleague, a friend who, and I thought I told him I'd bring it forward to the committee here. He lives adjacent to Puffers and has always been wondering about tapping into all that potential energy or kinetic energy, I guess, of the water spilling over the dam there.  My sense is that at the end of the day, it's not a huge amount of power, but it's some. And but also there may be just some some reasons why it's not feasible. But I'm wondering if if that's ever been looked at, or whether and what Dave's Yes, we will we have we have explored the idea about hydropower. This is certainly not the first time we've heard this suggestion. It does not generate enough, you know, enough, it wouldn't be enough power. And also, I think there were some safety issues in terms of putting in some kind of a turbine or something would potentially be a problem there at that location. So I think there were reasons why I don't have all of them. This is just my recollection, because it has come up before. And those were my that's what I recall from the last time we we discussed it. And there may be additional reasons, but I don't can't think of them off the top of my head beyond beyond those. And then the other things that I wanted to say again, I think I told you we secured the two fellows, I think I told you that at the last meeting. So they're starting. They'll be starting in June, or really the end of May. So that's also really exciting to have those efforts moving forward to cool. And then transportation, let's see. The electric fleet. Transition effort that has been really slow in part again, and I think I told you this before, it's sort of like what Steve was going through with the, you know, the rental housing stock in town, trying just trying to get the data that we need in a format that we need has been a bit challenging, because we have two separate systems that where our vehicles fuel at. And then there are different systems. And so for some reason, the way they sort of produce the data is a little different too. And so we're just not able to sort of match up exact vehicles with fuel usage. And that's, of course, the crux of what we need right now. So we're still sort of struggling with making that piece come together. So and also, you know, because it may mean that people have to program how some of the information is in the system right now, and how it delivers the information back to us. So again, one of these things that always sounds like, Oh, just get the data. It's not always that simple. Laura. Yeah, so that raises a question I have about the dashboard and how might that process potentially help us with some of this data collection in the future? Like, can it be built into that process that we develop a better data collection process? Or is this, is that process going to run into the same challenges? I don't know the dashboard. I think we haven't sort of fully flushed out how that will work just yet. I mean, we've had some very initial conversations. So I don't, I couldn't tell you at this point, it might be that the sort of down the road, it might initially it won't, but down the road, it might be able to sort of help with that process. Part of that is that we don't have, in order to get a contract with KLA, they were doing a special and the special would sort of enabled us to go with them without having to go out to bid. So, and we know that we know there are so many communities use their specific system. So we know kind of what they can do. So I think we just started trying to sort of figure out to get it initially just set up. And then, you know, it's the thing that once we get it set up, then we'll might be able to sort of expand on what it's doing and how it's doing it. So that's something that might, you know, that's a long winded way of saying that's something we hope to be able to do. But I don't think it's going to be set up that way initially. Anything else, Stephanie, and any other? Sorry, I was waiting for more questions. No, I mean, again, you know, there's a lot of things that are going on.  But, you know, there's a lot of other little sort of efforts underway too. So, but that's it for now. I'm busy. That's all I'm just busy. Can we do anything to help? You are. You already do. So thank you. And I'm sure you know, as we move along, oh, this is the heat pump program. It's on my radar. It's just that I literally right now I feel like I'm dealing with the first, you know, emergency that I have to get to. And right now that's the Sustainability Festival. And that's there's so many pieces to that I just really need to give that a lot of my attention other than the support I give you all in the Solar Baila Working Group right now. When that's passed. Sorry, go ahead. I was just going to say when that's passed, then I can definitely like the heat pump program and the community choice aggregation are the things that I'm really most like right now. That those are the next big things that I really have to sort of work on. Right. And considering you started off by saying it was all Sustainability Festival time, you then gave us about half a dozen other things going on. So that's that's quite enough. Thank you. Okay, eCAC member updates. Moving on. Go ahead, Dwayne. I mean, I'll just provide that the Solar Baila Working Group is continuing to meet and make progress. I will particularly provide a shout out for our meeting Friday. We do have as we have in the past sort of bring in some quote unquote expert and topic specific speakers to advise us and inform us about certain issues. We do have this Friday. Jonathan Thompson from the Harvard Forest that will be speaking informally. I think he may have a short presentation, but then mainly Q&A with regard to that we've been pulling together for him to give us some some science based information on forest and solar. He's obviously a has done a lot of work in forestry. He's also been involved with the state in their decarbonization plan has been working with them on on certain portions of that, particularly with regard to land use issues. That's at 1130 to 130. And Jonathan hoped to have him for about an hour at the beginning, or at least very close to the beginning of that timeframe. Nice. And I mean, that's an invitation for anybody who'd like to join us. That's on the town website under the Solar Baila Working Group or something like that. Yeah. Okay. If I can, I will try to be there just here. So I was just going to say that I did go to this, Jesse was there too, this building energy Boston conference, which was highly informative and often very amusing. There were two things in particular that might be of interest to this group. And they were the two keynote addresses, which were very good. The first one was Lisa Cunningham and a guy whose name doesn't come to me right away talking about the whole experience of the building electrification accelerator group and how they made change, how they got the recent specialized code in place and, you know, have slowly been changing the policy and legislation in, in Massachusetts. And it was a very entertaining story because they got so close so many times and then were rejected.  And it was, it was, they thought, and they were, they were, one of them was talking about policy and the other was talking specifically about politics and it was talking about heat pumps and the underlying policies that they're trying to get in place. And it was a very funny back and forth between the two of them and it was a nice, you know, it cleared up a lot of things for me that BA had been trying to do that I didn't really understand why or where it came from. The other one was an interesting story on, you know, we started off when I first joined ECAC. I, I'm slowly learning about, you know, there's a need for electrification. There's also a need for, for conservation and insulation, right, insulating structures. But there was a real push at this building electrification meeting to skip the deep energy retrofits that how they, you know, really, really rebuilding a building and trying to get it all tight and passive doesn't pay for itself in the end. And combine that with the fact that I was staying with a friend in Boston who's in a very old building with a, with a dirt basement, right, that is impossible and extremely expensive to insulate. And yet is very tight, I think in part because it's massive. It has huge old, it has plaster everywhere and holds a lot of heat. So it's got a very long time constant, you know, if you heat the inside of it, it takes it forever to cool off. Whereas I have friends in Amherst and similarly old houses with no insulation and that don't have tons and tons of old plaster and art is tightly built. And they can't even put a geothermal system in because there's no way to insulate their home well enough that would ever heat it. So it's an interesting, it was an interesting talk about, you know, what is really required to electrify and, you know, what, what's the most, what's the biggest bang for the buck in terms of getting rid of fossil fuels. And I'll leave it at that. I just wanted to, there were a lot of really interesting and informative talks I'll probably go again next year. Anyway, I don't have anything else if there's any other updates. Also a lot of talk about solar storage and storage of heat rather than electricity and how that makes a lot more sense in many cases. It was a very good seminar on that. Different ways to do that. Okay, so items for the next agenda then if there's nothing else in the way of updates. I think we had a couple earlier and should probably do a sustainability fest. We have the three letters. We have the Andres, if Andres is back. Well, that was three letters included one. I think that was Andres, the thing we skipped today, right? Yes. So there are three letters. You have the presentation. There's a, oh right, next time is the presentation. So I don't think we need to worry too much about these others and maybe we can put them off. The other thing I was going to put on there was just a recap of the sustainability festival. Maybe that can wait another week. Also, I know that the report, the final report will be ready from GZA. So I know that Adrienne had sort of planned on doing a brief presentation, I think, for you. We hadn't determined if we should do just one presentation at a time and invite both the Solar By-law Working Group and the ECAC to hear it. It's really, at this point, you know, it'll be a final product because of the timeline and we need to get it done. So it'll just be, because basically it's just, you know, reporting on what was covered in the surveys and the outreach that was done. It's more just a sort of factual. There's nothing, there's not a lot that's going to be built off of that. It's more just reporting out of the information they gathered. Maybe we should just, so that will be done at the Solar By-law Working Group as well. It will, yes, it will also be at their meeting as well. So why don't we just either watch a recording or attend that meeting if possible because the next two meetings in a row, we have presentations. So they're going to be short working meetings. Yep. Does that make sense? Oh yeah, that's fine. I mean, that's good for us too because we're trying to sort of figure out how to best do that. Okay. I see Steve and Laura. Yeah, I think I'd prefer to have them present at one of our meetings and not just have us as visitors to a Solar By-law Working Group meeting. I think we will have enough significant questions that it would be worth finding a time to include it during one of our meetings. Sorry about that. We could alter the time. We can, you know, you could start at four instead of 430. If that works for people on the 26th actually would be the best. I don't know if that works for folks. We just need a form to start. On the 26th, I think I can probably do that and then get a little more time in that way. That would be okay with me. That works for me. On the 26th or yeah, yeah, that would be okay. Okay, and then we could have her at the beginning. Yeah, I was going to have a similar comment, mainly that because Friday lunchtime never worked for me. So, so thanks. Okay. I just need to confirm with her that that's the date that works. If not, we'll probably suggest the same thing for the May 10th meeting, which is the next one. So, I think we should try to keep the agenda short. So, we'll try to do, try to get, try to limit the discussion on the letters. And if we can't come to a quick consensus, we'll put them off another week. And then I think they're just the usual things, updates and updates and that sort of thing. Anything else? If not, I think we should open for public comments again. Okay, Martha. Sorry, I'm going to, Martha, I've unmuted you. You can go ahead. Thank you. Hello, it's Martha Hanner from just right there in Amherst. And I just had a couple of questions. Laurie, you're, the meeting that you went to sounded interesting. And so I was just wondering, is there anything on the web from the meeting, any kind of report or recordings or any way that people can access it? Yes, I think there are, for some of them, you might have to be a member of this organization of the bill, what's it called, N-E-S-E-A. I can try to find out and send something, if I send something to you, Stephanie, can you get it to Martha? Or how does that work? Absolutely. Or you could mention that at the Solar Baila Working Group, maybe Stephanie, if you get the information, you could just send it to us there. Yeah, a big shout out to Nessie, which is the Northeast Solar Energy, Northeast Sustainable Energy Association, serves the Northeast, headquartered in Greenfield. But they run the Building Energy Conference and they've been doing the Solar Now Building Energy Conferences since the 70s. I could also just send a link to the site. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll just, I'll just send the link to the site to everybody, both committees. Thanks, Stephanie. Okay. And then your meeting on May 10, when you have somebody going to be coming and talking about heat pumps, will that be open to the public? And would the public be able to ask questions? It sounds like a great opportunity to let people get educated. Yes, that was the whole, the whole point of that panel is we did a, we did a, we did have a heat pump presentation earlier that was all about heat pumps. But the idea here was more to let people ask questions, because I don't know about everybody else on the panel, but I get all sorts of questions from my neighbors about heat pumps. And I don't always know how to answer them. And some of them have questions about systems that I don't have in place, but others on the panel do.  And I hope very specific questions, you know, ask us about your house and what would you need to give us some idea of what you have. And maybe Scott or one of us will, something will click and we'll say, well, maybe you should look into this, or maybe you should look into that, you know, hopefully it'll be a little more specific than we could do at the other, at the previous heat pump work seminar. All right, thank you. Please come. And if anybody else from the public has a comment or question, please electronically raise your hand. No other comments. Okay, in that case, I think we're up to the adjournment, right? Do we need to do anything else? Move to adjourn. If not, see you all give you, give you a, wow, 55 minutes back and see you all in two weeks. Sorry. Right. Sorry, I can't make it. Thanks. Yep. Bye. Take care.


Everybody forced here ripping 20 22 tops diamond icons baseball hobby one box number four Random hit style So we have ten spots that break ten hits in the box We'll do the random at the very end if we type in all the hits as we go along to see who gets what thanks everybody for joining Best of luck. I'll just type it in over here We'll make it work no matter what that's a thick. What is that? That's thick? It's not a book Probably not learned a whole lot. He's trying to get the computer to work Hey, here we go guys. That's a thick card on top. It's not a book. It's not a book Let's see what we got All right, what is this big relic here? Oh my goodness Wow What is that? It is a pre-eminent piece is a relic a bobeshet that is for sure a cleat four of ten That was like a partial swoosh to me. Oh my goodness Thanks dummy thick Pre-eminent pieces relics. So you just put bobeshet jumbo relic four ten Boba shed jumbo relic four at ten that is freakin sick. That'll have to go in 360 with like a filler in it. You just show them at the end Yeah, that's freaking awesome, dude. Here we go as a Red Sox got Roger Clemens auto nine of ten the rocket Roger Clemens auto nine of ten as a Red Sox Next up is a Vladimir Guerrero auto Exposed Vlad right there one of 25 on the Vladimir Guerrero auto the images or the icons of the diamond auto Acetate those are pretty sick.  Ooh, that's sick dual relic auto Buster Posey nine of ten So Buster Posey dual Jersey auto nine of ten Great Giants catcher there you're tired kind of young I think but I mean not much more for him to accomplish MVP winner three-time World Series winner. I think a World Series MVP winner as well. Thank you That's a sweet one You got an Edgar Martinez auto three of ten Red ink Edgar three of ten Yeah, the images of the of the diamond are new this year or the icons of the diamond I could get the the the all acetate ones. Those are new this year. Nice Edgar there three at ten God nice sander Bogart silver ink auto 11 at 25 Most games started for a Red Sox shortstop Which is actually kind of crazy Xander Bogart's auto 11 at 25 a Don Mattingly auto numbered six of 25 red on the Donnie baseball Does he still manage the Marlins? Yeah thought so Derek you de-lept him man He was like no, I can't do this. I need I need someone to pay for some players for me Sammy Sosa slamming Sammy right there. I knew I yeah Auto looks kind of weird on this gets silver ink 11 at 25 his auto is too big to go on one of these cards I think nice slamming Sammy all of them see that one a Brank Thomas auto number nine of ten the big hurt Back-to-back 90s slugger hits and on the back. We've got a In the news a lot lately for Nando Tate's junior auto four of ten sweet Tate's Four out of ten. I know it seems bad right now for like his legacy But when he starts playing again, what? May next year. I mean he's still gonna like be a 30 30 player for like five months of the season Nice Tate's four of ten. We'll get that one magged All right Alright Cool Just make sure it's all correct here Clemens Vlad posey All right, cool, cool. Good luck everybody on the random will randomize the names and the hits the same amount of times And I'll do the random at the very end five and one six times six times one two three four five six John a down to Bernie s and six times on the hits Good luck one two three four five and six Got madding Lee down to Vlad There you go John a Don madding Lee auto Mike a the Tate's auto Bernie has the Xander Bogart's auto and the Frank Thomas auto David be the Sammy Sosa auto and the bobechette jumbo relic Bernie has the Buster Posey dual relic auto Nam cue the Edgar Martinez red ink auto John a the Roger Clemens auto and Bernie with the Vladimir Guerrero auto We'll get those results posted to the site and we will get moving on to one of one box number five


Hi everyone. You've all probably heard the saying that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. But I also think that you are shaped heavily by the people you look up to and the information that you consume. So isn't it such a privilege that we can make an active choice to pick people to look up to who inspire us, people who provide us new perspectives and people who feel help us feel good for who we truly are. So welcome everyone. My name is Monica and I'm a med student and the host of the Ask an Expert series where we chat to experts. So people who might be clinicians, those who have lived expertise about all things mental wellness. I was recently acquainted with Yuri Choi and truly I left the conversation feeling so inspired. She's definitely one person that I look up to and I feel so honored to have the opportunity to introduce you all to her. Just as a short bio in case you have not yet met her. Yuri Choi is the founder of Yuri Choi Coaching and she helps entrepreneurs and high performers achieve powerful results through helping them understand and leverage their emotional states, mindset and find deeper fulfillment and peace. She is also the author of Creating Your Own Happiness. She's a speaker, a YouTuber and an 11 times bestselling co-author of other collaborative book series. She's also the designated performance coach and advisor for Psych2Go and she's worked with the CEO and leadership team. She is also passionate about mental health advocacy and so we'll be talking about that today as well. So today the topic is really around creating your own happiness, building resilience and overcoming challenges. I'm so grateful to introduce you all to Yuri. Welcome. Hi Monica, thank you so much for having me and just setting the whole conversation forth. You're amazing. I'm just smiling, listening to you. You have such a beautiful aura, beautiful energy. Calm me down. So thank you so much. You know the first time that we met I felt the exact same way. I felt the way that you connected was just so powerful. I think just getting to learn how to be a good listener is such an important skill. And I know we'll be talking more about positive mindsets, positive ways to approach situations and just hearing your story was something I learned and I wrote down in my journal that evening. So yeah, super grateful to have you here. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so excited. And I'm excited to connect with the site two goers, my favorite community. Those are all amazing. So yeah, let's let's have a great conversation. I'm so excited. Of course. So to those who have just joined you can let us know where you're tuning in from what perhaps just start the conversation. What gives you meaning because we'll be really delving into all those kind of wellness topics around meaning around resilience today. And while people do that, I'd love to just kind of dive in to ask whether you'd like to share more about your story to the site to go community. Yeah. First of all, sorry, I was getting a little distracted by all the people joining from all over the world. Wow. You guys are joining from like Australia, Alabama, Michigan. So cool. And the question was what I enjoy about the site to a community. Yeah, what? Yeah, just tell us a little bit more about your story, your involvement with the mental health community, your advocacy work. Yeah, yeah. So where should I start? You know, first of all, I think it's worth mentioning because I think we do have a global community here. I moved to the States when I was 11 years old from South Korea. So I, you know, kind of started that immigrant life with my family, first generation Korean. And, you know, moving to the States, there were a lot of challenges that I think immigrated immigrated families go through. And yeah, a lot of it affected my family in different ways. So I know we talked about this a little bit before our chat, but really one of my things is that one of my really close family members on, you know, fell into depression and almost took her life. And I was very young. I was about 17 years old. And ever since then, thankfully, she's still alive today. But ever since then, I really started questioning, like, why do people do what they do? What makes people so happy? What makes people so unhappy? What leads them to live a life where, you know, they get to continue to want to live and all that kind of stuff at a very young age. So I got really interested in psychology, like all of us here. And yeah, one of my degrees was in psychology, I loved psychology so much, I wanted to just understand humans and why people do what they do. And I actually just went on my journey of being in the corporate world for 10 years and there's nothing wrong with being in the corporate world, by the way. But I think for me, for whatever reason, it didn't feel aligned because I just never knew that I had other choices. And I'll come back to that in just a little bit. But in 10 years that I was there, I started to feel unfulfilled and just kind of burnt out. I definitely overachieved not really dealing with some of the things I've gone through in my life in the beginning of my those years. Long story short, in 2015 is when I really was hit with this fact that life is short, people's lives expire.  He ended up, yeah, he ended up passing away. And not only did that really shock like me in the sense that, wow, like, this is life does end. And we know that logically, but I think that was the first time that I really connected to that fact in my heart and my body. And after he passed away, I just really decided to go after my dream. And one of my passions has always been learning about humans, helping humans, helping people find what makes them happy, helping people find what they're really excited about. And I really decided to dedicate my life to it because guess what, like, everyone's life ends, and we have only one chance to really live out our lives, live out our dreams. So I quit my job at the time. And I started this journey of building my coaching business, really desiring to help people and really making a stand for what I'm passionate about, which is mental health advocacy. Eliminating stigma around that, as well as really helping people see that we can live in infinite realm of possibilities. So, yeah. And I'm getting delightfully distracted by these chats. And one of the things that we'll talk about I'm sure is I definitely have ADHD. So if I get a little distracted, you know why? You know, I've learned to embrace it, but I'm really like, oh, like, it's so nice to be able to connect with all of you guys from all over the world. And I'm trying to stay focused. So here I am. Well, first thing I have to say is thank you so much for opening up to us, you know, being vulnerable, sharing the really the journey that you've gone through. It's a lot. I'm really sorry to hear about your dad, to hear about your family member. You know, I feel for you.  I think that's something that is just truly amazing. So thank you so much for sharing all of that. Yeah. And actually I want to share a cool story. So today of all days right before this, one of my friends from seventh grade posted on like Facebook, like, oh, I just got Yuri's book, so excited to read it or whatever. This is my book, by the way. And it was actually extra special because he was my first friend when I moved to the States when I didn't speak any English. And I will never forget how like he'll just never know how much that meant because, you know, here I was this ESL student, somebody who didn't speak English and he took me on as a friend without, you know, even though we couldn't really communicate and a lot of people, you know, back then kids can be mean. They totally made fun of me and you know, there is like some indirect and direct bullying back then because I didn't speak English. But there's people who just took me on as exactly as I am. And, you know, many, many years later now I'm able to like give him my book and say like, look at this book I wrote in English, you know, we started up when we couldn't even talk to each other. So it's, it was really special. So yeah, I think I've found a way to really turn these difficulties in my life and reframe it and continue to make it into my own fairy tale, my own story. I'm like, for me, these moments I really cherish because it, it makes everything I went through when I was in seventh grade worth it, like these moments. And I also know that when I'm going through a difficult time now, I know that there's a, you know, future self that hasn't happened yet. That's already thanking me for going through this because it's going to give meaning in that moment even more. So, yeah. Would you like to walk us a bit through walk us through how the process was, you know, really being developing resilience, because I think that this is a bit philosophical but I don't think anything is like anything is just innate like we're not born with resilience we're not born with perseverance. So how was that something that you really, you know, took to the next level through your book through your speaking engagements and so on. I agree that's philosophical. And I want to offer a slightly different perspective, maybe we are born resilient. We learn fears along the way, which is good because, you know, that protects us in a certain way. And I want to actually start off by talking about what fear means, so that I can talk about how I was able to channel different emotions like anger to really help me push forward. You know, so fear is a really, I love talking about this, you know, fear is like an actually very common as well as healthy emotion and sensation in our body. Because back in the day when you know they were tigers chasing us we need a fear so that we can like hyper focus all of our attention, all of our resources and go after what it is that like we need to do which is survive. And over the years over the thousands of years, we've now created this, you know, system where we can activate that system without having to, you know, we without being chased by a tiger, basically. So then we have all these fears about what it means when we fail. We have all these, you know, stories about what it means when we are faced with challenges and we feel like, you know, we don't know what to do because we're scared that we're going to make the wrong choice and it really comes back down to that fear response of fight flight or fun or freeze right. So with that said, knowing that I think when we know that these fear anger fear based emotions are actually coming from a place where it's actually a socially conditioned response. We can also reframe the social context of what that means and make it into something that we can leverage. And as far as for me when I was younger. And so the reason I give that background is because I want to explain how I channel motivation now versus how I used to back then both are really powerful but just a little bit different energy so when I was you know 1211 years old. I was, I was not happy I was angry that, you know, I came from the, I came from Korea where I used to be like, you know, very social had a lot of friends, and then I'm dropped off in this country where I don't speak any of the language and culturally inept and I would just don't fit in. So then.  So it angered me, I was, you know, so what I wanted was to prove them wrong. I took massive inspired action because of that anger. And this is something that I talk about with my clients often this energy of anger is actually really powerful when people are angry. People do amazing things. I mean sometimes scary things depends on how you channel that energy right, but people can do really drastic bold things. And for me what I did was I'm like, I don't want to be this person who doesn't speak English who is bullied anymore. I'm going to learn English and I'm going to speak it better than that much. So it came from that like spiteful place channel that anger I read 30 books and 30 days and language I didn't know which was English at the time. And within just a few months I was out of the English a second language class. I remember going back after the summer to the teacher being like hey like I'm ready to move out of the English class and the teacher is like oh nobody does that. I'm like I'm ready like give me a test or something like I'm ready. So I took the test, and I tested out and it was it was a moment I realized like when I take inspired massive action like anything is possible. I didn't speak English in just two months like what else is possible so at a young age I learned that now I explained that though. Because when we take massive action, although the outcome is always good right like in a good way if we do it in a good way. However, it can have consequences when it's coming from that trauma traumatize or scared or spiteful place.  Right, so for me it was always coming from this place of comparison and competition back then. And I realized I wasn't healthy because all I can do is come back to neutral but I wasn't feeling more confident I wasn't feeling more worthy. Just because I was constantly, you know, trying to just prove them wrong. So I explained that because now when I talk about resilience because I'm moving towards a goal and a vision which is completely different energy. You know, I get excited and I keep moving forward with this mission to create infinite possibilities for people for and for myself and to be the example of that and to help people understand their emotions and to create their own happiness because what I get excited about is this like world I can see where more people are connected where more people are actually happy. So they're helping each other and just more harmony in the world more love in the world and that vision like pulls me forward now. And I think that way it also helps me overcome challenges and be resilient but there's like two different ways to achieve that. So I hope that answers your question. Yeah, definitely I see the it's like the way that you appraise the situation drastically changed.  So it's not like you're doing something to get rid of something bad but to bring in something good. Yes, yes to yeah to I think there's two ways that people take action. One is because we're trying to move away from pain and the other is we're trying to move towards something that is more pleasurable or to create something that we are more connected to. So I'm just looking at some of these comments here. And I'm curious you guys like, where are you guys coming from? And what questions do you have for me? As you do that I'm just going to quickly lighten the room a bit as you probably can tell I'm based in Montreal so it's getting pretty late even with the daylight saving time so it's getting pretty dark. Yeah, the situation. Yeah, hopefully a lot better, but let me know. From Mexico, from Egypt, from the US, from Canada. So cool. And speaking about the process of, you know, being resilient, I think for most people it often involves things that people find give some joy. So I'm quite curious, you know, in a time when things are difficult in the time when things are sometimes sort of hopeless. What did you find gave you joy what were sources of inspiration for you what did you look towards for that source of hope. Yeah, I think when I talk about finding hope. Two situations come to mind I'll start with one of them, which was. So, I talked about this briefly, one of my parents almost took her life and she, there was a period of my life where she was in the hospital, and I was 17. And so it was scary. And I realized I had two choices. And I think this is when I start to realize like what I can do to start to create the life I want and manifest things. So I remember she was in the ER she was in the, or I see her whatever for, gosh, it's like a big blur for me during that time, but I think a week or two or so. And that's when I just gotten my license I was driving I was 17 and was going to high school and all that. And I remember.  And I remember I sat down with myself for the first time because I felt like I was like really alone in that anyway. I didn't have anyone I can talk to about like what just happened. But I had to make a choice. And that choice was, I can just be completely broken from this. Which I think at the time, I mean my best friends and my teachers that I did talk to, they're like you're you're allowed to be like completely, you know they didn't use these words but shatter from this this is a hard thing. But I remember thinking I'm like, no, no, no, no, like I want my mom who have something that she can come back to when she's like out of her coma.  And when I think about that type of person.  But that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to create the reality that she'd be happy to come back to.  Like, why would someone who just didn't want to live want to live. Probably a life that they can feel hopeful about. So that gave me a source of inspiration that gave me motivation so I remember during that time. You know, being an immigrant I already had to do most of this by myself anyway which is like writing all the college essays and all that, but like, I really had to be resourceful.  I was like, no, no, no, like I'm going to create the future that my mom would be so happy that she came back to. So they helped me write my essays and I actually wrote about the experience, which even now when I think about it's pretty bold as a 17 year old I'm like I can't believe I wrote about that situation my mom almost dying and really being vulnerable that way, which I think got me into a lot of these schools and which got me scholarship so by the time that she did become healthy again. Yeah she was glad that she came back I was on track to be continually successful. So I think in each of these moments when we do overcome or when we are faced with challenges we have choices. And I think it really just comes down to being able to kind of see past that challenge because a lot of times and this is what happens when we're stuck in the survival mindset. When we are stuck with that fear, which is, we can't see past that. We can't see past that here we can't see past that particular incidents or event. So we think it's hopeless. But there's like a life after that challenge. So then when we can start to channel like what would that look like in the future after post that challenge and like really play out the whole story. It just makes sense to continue to tune into a life that we truly want. So I think, you know, it starts with getting clear of what is it what would excite you, not just like dwelling on what is hurting me right now. But like, what do I really want? Like, this is cool because I mean it's not cool per se, but in the bigger picture it's like showing you what you really don't want. And then that could be an opportunity for you to create what you really do want. You know, you can just look at the opposite of that. So, yeah. I really hear the impactful role that your mom played to really guide you through those those moments when you had to apply to college for the first time. I know as a first generation student as well, it is so difficult because you don't know what to like, where do you even begin? You know, like there's the SATs, the SATs, this goes on. Oh my goodness. And if you're playing internationally, it's a whole different ballgame. It's really difficult.  And another theme that I noticed as well is really how I would say future oriented you are, because oftentimes, like you mentioned, the lack of hope comes from not being able to see that there's anything better than what you currently have. So it can and it is quite difficult to imagine the future when, I don't know, one day, everything will be normal, everything will be the way that you want it to. So, I don't know, do you have any kind of specific advice to people out there who are still struggling, who are trying to overcome a difficult moment, who potentially don't see a better future? Yeah, yeah. And here's the thing it's really hard to imagine the future though, when we are in that survival mindset. Because when we're running away from tigers, we're not thinking about, what should I eat? What kind of life do I want to create? What kind of business do I want to create? What kind of book do I want to write? We're thinking about surviving. So this is why I have such fun helping my clients see the benefits of things like meditation, things like exercising, which actually brings you back to a relaxed state, literally physically in your body, so that you can move away from the survival physical state. Like, so when we are stressed out or when we are burnt out or when we are stressed or scared or whatever, we're actually increasing the levels of cortisol in our body, which is the same response that happens when we are running away from tigers. So in our body, we think that we are in danger, like literal danger, even if we're not, like even if our physical body is not in danger, we think that we are. So what do we do? This is why people can't sleep. This is why people can't digest things when they're stressed because your body thinks that you're running away from something really dangerous. And when you're running away, the only thing you're thinking about is surviving. With that mindset, it feels really hopeless because the only thing that you can think about is surviving, so therefore you can't predict the future or you can't create the future. So one of the things that you can do to start is to calm down your nervous system, whatever that takes. For me, it's, excuse me, for me, it's meditation, for me, it's journaling, for me, it's connecting, for me, it's giving, for me, it's, you know, all of those things. So it allows me to start to connect to that. Yes, that's amazing. I second the notion you said about mindfulness. It is very, very powerful. There have been tons of studies done on how it can improve general well-being, but simply, it's just great all around. I practice every morning as well, every morning, every evening. Even brief mindfulness interventions were found to be quite effective for producing general stress levels. So that's something that worked personally for me as well. Yeah. And I'm curious from the chat, you guys, like, what, yeah, what kind of challenges are you moving through right now or have you moved through in the past? I would love to bring some attention to this chat and talk about how I can support you because that's why I'm here. Exactly.  So if people have anything specific that they want to bring up, then you can allocate some space for that. It's interesting. Somebody said it's shrooms. And I won't actually talk about that because I'm not an advocate of any of these things because I think it can be done, like, naturally, but I will say this.  It does exactly what breathwork does, which is, you know, it really interrupts the current neural circuits so that you're able to create different ways to think about things. There's no judgment about how you get there. However, I prefer the more natural ways, which, you know, is free and available at all times, which is, you know, different kinds of meditations, breathwork. Like this all does a very do similar things. Get anxiety from feeling lonely when I think I'm ghosted or rejected. Okay. When I'm feeling lonely, I think I'm ghosted or rejected. I think when we feel ghosted or rejected, one thing that we're thinking about is that we think that it's about us. There's like this underlying core belief about what we are worth. So when people disappear and do their own things, we think this because we're not enough. It has nothing to do with you for me, right? It has everything to do with what's going on in their own lives, what they're available for emotionally or not emotionally. We don't see it from their perspective. We take it on from the perspective that already exists. So if your, if your belief about who you are is that you're not worthy of that connection or other connections, then it might, the automatic thinking that I go to like, oh, I've been rejected because that person left me. But in reality, they're probably moving through their own things that you're not aware of that is being projected in the dynamic that was created there. So one thing that you can think about is that most people are just doing what's best for them. It has nothing to do with us. You know, in that moment, sometimes it's really hard to like internalize and it's a constant practice, you know, just to like really let that go and just say, okay, what could this mean for them? And what can I focus on? Again, it really comes back down to focusing on what you want. If that person, you know, quote unquote rejected you and by the way, I heard this quote once where rejection is God's protection from, you know, what you really want. So go back to what you really want.  If not, like, that's not your person, you know, focus on what you want. Probably somebody who loves you and accepts you. Yeah. I just like to add, I think that no message is the most powerful message that you can get. So by them not responding, it's telling you volumes, right? It's telling you that perhaps they have other priorities. It's telling you that maybe they perhaps even hadn't had time to respond yet because they're busy. Perhaps it's telling you that they, unfortunately, probably aren't great at communicating so you can take that for what it is and ultimately know that it's in your hands to want to respond or not. Yeah, I love that. Honestly, I'm currently under a lot of pressure. And instead of spending time with my family, I'm running around, collecting last few documents for moving abroad and my flight is on Monday. One thing that really helped me in my journey. And this broke my head when I learned this because I'm like, what do you mean pressure is not real. Like, think about what pressure actually means. You know, we run around saying like, Oh, that person is pressuring me or a pressure from this. Like, what is pressure? Really? It's what we decided is either important or not important. We're the one giving energy to that.  You can choose to do whatever you want. You can say your job is giving you all the pressure in the world, but you chose into that job.  It's because you care about it. So when you say you're under a lot of pressure, it's such a strong imagery. What if you get to say, I am above all the challenges and overcoming them. A lot of times how we speak to ourselves and others really creates a reality. Actually, a hundred percent in time.  I think you're the one here who's really giving all those amazing insights. It's really you who's doing the whole community a great service. I just want to share a comment that a person sent in the chat. That's quite related to what a person, the whole scenario that we were just discussing. It's not to, you know, invalidate whatever someone's going through. It's very real, but at the same time, I want to flag that most of the time, for me at least, I noticed that I catastrophize a lot. So I suffer more in imagination than what is truly happening. So sometimes just taking a step back and using accurate language. So telling myself objectively, these are the deadlines that I have to set. These are the deadlines that have to meet whatever. And then really thinking about prioritizing and really understanding what actually needs to be done, what actually doesn't need to be done, and all those extra emotions that I'm piling on top of it. Like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to be able to do this, all that kind of extra fluff is not helping. So that's my thoughts on that. And thank you to Duke of Cooker's Lane for that. Very, very relevant. I love that we suffer more in imagination than reality. That's so true. And I want to offer a practical way to really reframe that. So think about what is the thing that's stressing you out? Like, whatever you guys are stressing out right now, think about that. And then just like Monica said, think about all the stories you're creating around what's actually going on. So there's like the objective facts of what's going on. Okay, Monica has a deadline on this date. Monica has a deadline on this date. Monica has a deadline on this date. She needs to spend these many hours on those deadlines. Those might be the facts. But what are the stories that you might be creating, Monica? Is that, okay, then I'm not going to get any sleep. I'm going to be so tired. I'm going to be so stressed out. Like you're creating all these stories before it ever happens. Right. And I'm not saying you, I'm just using you as an example. No, it's very relatable for anyone as well. So totally fine. I do this too.  I have to do that. And I create all these stories about what that means about me and what you can try on is what is another story you can create? Like, what are the facts? What's another story that you can create around these facts? What if the story gets to be, oh my gosh, I have all these deadlines and Monica, I know you're becoming a doctor, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Med student. By the way, I so look up to her. I was very touched that you say you look up to me, but you're going to be a doctor saving literal lives. So anyway, with that said, wow, like I'm a step closer to becoming a doctor. Like that's what your deadline could mean if you like zoom out.  That's something I thought about too when I was moving through this challenge when I was young, you know, really moving through that time of like almost losing my mom and being like, I wonder who, how strong I'm going to be after I go through this, like nothing's going to scare me anymore. Like if I can go get through this, oh my gosh, I'm going to be unstoppable. And that gave me a little bit of hope that I needed at the time. Even when my dad was sick, obviously, you know, I think for me connections are really important. So it affects me a lot. And when my dad was really sick, he was, you know, diagnosed with cancer.   Anyway, with that said, and I had, I felt a lot of anxiety. I was, you know, moving through all sorts of emotions. But during that time, I remember being like, okay, like if I can get through this, I'm going to be so strong. I'm learning so much about myself. I'm learning so much about life and death and everything in between. I even thought about the fact that my mom at the time hadn't lost a parent yet. I'm like, you know, when I lose my dad, I'm going to be able to understand so many more people who either will or have lost their parent. Because for the most part, statistically, that's something that everyone will go through. And in a way, I'm lucky because I'm going to have so much empathy and understanding for these people for the rest of my life at such an early age, that I can be thankful for. And really seeing, like trying so hard to find a gift in that. And obviously, you know, I don't wish that upon anybody, but it did give me that reframe to be like, okay, like even though this is hard, like this is going to allow me to connect to people in such a special way, because everyone will go through this and I get to be there for them. And so, again, I think it's about future pacing. It's about creating a different meaning about what that means. It doesn't mean that what you're going through and the story that you initially created isn't valid, but it's equally valid as any other stories you can create about this. They can both exist. They can all exist. So I hope that supports you. That is very touching, truly just seeing how you, your mindset throughout it all, trying to find a gift in situations where I think pretty much anyone would agree that it's so hard that all you want to do is sleep in bed and not leave. And to find that energy, to find that source of, not really motivation, but that source of, you know, just how your mom inspired you to overcome your challenges through applying to college, all of that. It's impactful. Just finding that one thing, I think, or one or two things that help push you through is I think a good piece of advice that I'm taking from this. Also, if you feel like sleeping, sleep. I think in society, we have put so much pressure about just pushing through. And I don't think that's what resilience really means. Yes, I think it's finding the strength to move through certain things, of course, but sometimes that looks like sleeping. You need to sleep if you need to rest. I wish I knew that actually earlier on. While I am very grateful that I got through some of these experiences with strength, I also wish I knew to rest more, to be honest. If you need to sleep, take a freaking nap and calm down your nervous system. That's okay, you know. Yeah, definitely. Resilience looks different for everyone. I think the overall takeaway is that it's really knowing yourself, knowing what your body needs and doing, having the grit, having the courage to do exactly that. Because sometimes, you know, our body is very good. Our body will send us signals over to colds. You know, just as an example, our hypothalamus has this whole set point. You know, it's going to do things. It's going to change the way that we metabolize food, the way that we break down glucose, all of that to make sure that we are feeling comfortable. That's just one example. When we're hungry, our brain is going to release some hormones to encourage us to eat, things like that. Like our body knows what it wants for the most part. And so the problem really comes when our minds get in the way. When we know that we're so tired, but we want to continue to push through because for whatever reason, we're just telling ourselves to do that, even though we know it's not in our body's best interest. So I think really being resilient is listening to yourself, listening to your body and knowing that truly. Your gut knows what is the right thing to do and following that. I don't know, I didn't put it that gracefully, but hopefully that message gets across. That's beautiful. I love that so much. And I think also to get a little bit woo-woo, if you'd like, if you have a God of your own, if you just would like to connect to your best self, you want to connect to the sky, the universe, whatever you want to call it, that's something that you can also connect to. During the time of these difficult times, I prayed a lot. I connected to something bigger than myself, and that gave me strength too. And you don't have to call that anything. It's not about our religion, but it is about acknowledging that there might be other ways to feel divinely protected and guided. And I do believe in that, because if I think we talked about this the other day, the universe, God, whatever you want to call it, he's conspiring for us. At the end of the day, I truly believe that in my heart, that we are gifted these difficult experiences because our journey is not supposed to be quote-unquote easy and convenient, but it's supposed to help us discover who we are, what we're made of, what our spirits are made of, what our souls are about. And eventually our souls will evolve through that. So if that's the case, we can continue to connect to something that's bigger than us. And there's also scientific research and evidence that whether you believe in this stuff or not, that praying is actually most beneficial for the prayer, not the prayee, because it's just another form of mindfulness. Calmness and your nervous system creates hope, connects you to something bigger. And I found that to be really helpful. It would be impossible for me to talk about resilience without talking about my spiritual connection to the universe, to God, whatever you want to call it. I think there is a way that you can really source. I mean, when I do think about, and for me, maybe that being, that being that's bigger than us doesn't even have to be a being outside of us. It just could mean like your future self, because she or he or whatever knows, like they know, they know that, I mean, if they exist, they're fine, somewhere in the future, so they must know how to get through this, connect to that. If it's weird for you to connect to, you know, some sort of God or universe or whatever, just connect to your future self and ask them questions. How did you get there? How did you overcome this? Journal about it. Let it flow through you. We can source infinite energy that way. I think every one of those moments that it was really difficult for me, I think I met and it was guided by my future self. Like when I was 17, I swear, I was talking to my, you know, wiser self back then. I think one of the ways that I channeled that was through writing. I looked at some of my writings and my poetry from when I was very young, and I'm like, how did I know to write that? And some of the poetry poems that I've written didn't even make sense until I was way older. Like, but I wrote it. It was almost like I was like meeting my future self in those moments. So I think it's possible. I think it's so amazing to see how resilience for you really encompasses elements of spirituality, elements of what people will call like principles and cognitive behavioral therapy, principles of mindfulness, your things that make you excited, things that make you happy, that of writing, using your voice to inspire others. It all comes together. And I just think it's truly so inspirational to hear you speak about so many different domains so eloquently seeing those connections, how they relate together. So it's truly amazing. Thank you, Monica. You're amazing. I appreciate you. You're such a great listener and you asked such great questions. I really appreciate you. Feeling is mutual. And I could definitely see that in the community chat as well. So thank you, everyone. I just see if there's anything else. But I have, I guess, a final question for you. And I think it kind of encompasses themes that we've chatted about, right? So themes around happiness, themes around building resilience, overcoming challenges. So if you were to give one advice to your younger self, to perhaps the community, what would it be? My younger self. For my younger self. My younger self was just kind of like give you two second background of my younger self. So in my late teens and my early 20s, I didn't really have a lot of tools to manage my stress and the trauma that I've gone through and all that. I resorted a lot to very unhealthy habits. Like overachieving. Like drinking a lot. I mean, that was a part of my journey, to be honest. And I wish I, and I did eventually find healthier ways to manage my stress and anxiety, which was for me, yoga, meditation, helping others. That's always, that all been very helpful. But I wish I asked for help earlier. I wish I found a therapist or some kind of mentor or somebody who can really actively help me sooner to help find healthier coping mechanisms. Because, you know, I've talked to people who self-harm and all that. I think I was self-harming myself, maybe not directly, but absolutely indirectly. I did not have the healthiest coping mechanisms. And I really feel for the people who resort to that. And I want to remind you and let you know if you're one of them and myself from my younger years, if I get to give myself advice, there's healthier coping mechanisms. And I can say this now because even though I've gone through a lot of things with resilience back then, it was still coming from a survival mindset. So while I could see kind of like the short-term possibility of what's possible, I don't think I really saw long-term, meaning like when I'm like 50, 60, 70-year-old. And when I think about those years now, I'm like, wow, I really wish I took care of myself better back then to manage my stress and anxiety and have compassion for the years I did it. However, I also wish I did. So I think seeking help earlier, you're asking for help and not having this responsibility to feel like I have to do everything on my own. I was hyper-independent. So that's one thing. But also that she's loved and that she will be okay because I don't know if I knew that sometimes. I think I like, you know, obviously knew that. That's why I'm here. But there's times that were really scary. So just, yeah. And I think I'm telling you, sometimes I feel like these moments, when I say these things out loud, whether in interviews or just journaling or whatever, I really feel like my younger self heard me, my future self. Because I don't know how I got through that sometimes. But yeah. Thank you so much for sharing, truly. Being so open and so vulnerable, it's not easy. And thank you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I'm just reading some of the comments here. Yeah. I'm also reading it. And just so grateful for the community for joining our conversation today. I know we touched upon so many different topics from wellness, resilience, happiness, challenges, spirituality, you name it. And getting to get a bit of an insight into your amazing, your powerful mindset is, yeah, it's truly an honor. And I really hope that everyone here also enjoyed the chat. So I just want to also flag for people who are watching, the link for Yuri's book is in the description box. It is truly so amazing. You know, I'm just so inspired to hear that. You have come so far from not being able to understand English and now writing a book to influencing others. You know, that is something that few people can do. So thank you so much for your time today. We'll share your journey. And we'll definitely be chatting against you. Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Monica. I'm so grateful that you invited me for this chat. Again, you create such a safe, grounded place for this. And I think I can feel it. All the people who's joined us can feel it. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye, guys.


So our plan now is to go through a couple of the exercises as a demo and then we'll answer some of the interesting questions from HackMD. So should we begin? Yeah. Okay, so let's see, we've got exercise here. Yes, let's look at the exercise one first, where we are supposed to run this host name command. So what you want to do is brighten some script with an SH at the end. So that is typical for the slurm like shell scripts. One extent like ending that we also use is the slurm script. But basically in this script, you will want to write the shebang, so the interpreter, what needs to be done, and the actual program that you need to run. But in order to run it in the queue, you also need to give the resource requirements. So let's use the S batch time statement to give a time value. So Richard here is using this hour, minutes, seconds type of time format and then specifying the memory with men instead of memory, because otherwise it won't work. Oh yes, there we go. But all of these can be found on the reference page. If you, slurm will give you an error or it won't read the comment if it's reading some other form. So let's try running this. Okay, control X, save, there we go. Should I submit it? And with S batch, let's submit it. So we'll see that, okay, it run fast. So we have this job ID. And the output should be, yeah, if we look at the history. So yeah, we see that in the last 10 minutes Richard has run this serial one job. So if you look at the output, it's by default written in this slurm and the job ID file. And if we look at what's inside of it, you see that there's the host name of the, well, of the program. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We could. Well, I think the second and well, the other other steps are not necessarily something that we necessarily need to do because that's basically like they are like the output file name and the job name, you can do them with the J and J or the job name and the output flags. And you can monitor the queue interactively with this slurm watch queue. Control C will quit from that. So you will have to like, it will constantly keep it open. So if you're running some job and you want to see whether it's submitted, you should use this slurm watch queue. Yeah. Control C exits it. Let's try the second script. So in this script, we have a bit more like we use another program to do the analysis. So we don't use the host name. We use the Python program to run the actual Python code. So let's look at the SPC examples. Yeah. Python. Should I open the file or? You should probably check the path. What is the path of the Pi file? Yeah. There. It's over there. So let's open our editor and let's create a script for this Python file that calculates the Pi. Let's use an SH. Yeah. So we are using bash to launch Python. So basically, we are putting stuff there. So over here, we say to the script that you will want to launch these SPC examples, slurm Pi, Python thing. And like mentioned in the example of the exercise, we should try with greater number of tries with multiple s runs. So let's try it out. Okay. And then let's put some requirements there. So let's say we want to run it for, I don't know. Yeah, let's put first the requirements, yeah. Yeah. Like that. And let's put something like a spatch time, I don't know, 15 minutes. Okay. And then maybe a few gigabytes of memory. So just like two gigs. Okay. Yeah. And then let's see what happens. So now we can see it's running and we can watch it. So yeah, this watch will automatically update every, well, we can see from time. So now it's five seconds. I think it's something like 15 seconds or something. How often does it update? Okay. It's already finished. Control C to exit. Yeah, let's look at the output. Okay. So now we'll be called slurms. Yeah. 40481. Yes. Okay. Yes. So here we see that the script is increasingly better with increasing a number of iterations. Let's check slurms history to see what happens. So now we see the second part. The second part with the CDL 2. We see that there's many of these steps. So there's zero one and two. So these are the individual steps that that we run run. And you will see that the run times are different on the right side. You will see that the first one took 54 milliseconds. Second one 68 and the third one was already four seconds. So heavy calculating here. But basically we can monitor individual top steps. And individuals top step run times and requirements by using the S run statement. So these S run should be used like like mentioned before, they should be used when you're running some actual calculation code. You shouldn't like for every every command you run, you shouldn't run the S run, but only for those that are actually doing some calculation. And this brings us to one of the questions that was seen the HackMD that was really important, that can you run anything in this slurms script? And the answer is basically yes, you can run anything that you would run interactively. And that's the basically the idea of the serial script.  You have many different things in your workflow. This serial job basically codifies your workflow. So these individual steps that you're taking, they are then taken by the computer in your place. So basically, if your workflow is such that let's say you need to determine yourself with your own eyes that which plot is the correct one. Like you do a plotting stage and the plotting stage is determined by you like looking at the graph itself and okay, do this analysis or something. That's not something that computer can replicate because you are like in a major part in that workflow. But if your workflow is written in a way where the computer can calculate, let's say, a value that it can use to determine which plot to choose. It can do these certain steps of setting up the environment and running the code with certain parameters. If you can tell the computer to run these, then you can become the foreman of the computer. You can just let it do the job on the background and you don't have to think about it anymore. And that's the idea of the serial job of moving from this interactive way of like, okay, I will have my IDE open. I will have my window open. I will run the code myself and run the programs myself moving towards codifying that workflow of, okay, I will choose this environment. I will choose these code pieces and I will run it with these resources and I will run these programs. That way you can easily share it with other people and you can do it non-interactively where you don't have to wait for the results just there at the screen. You don't have to wait for your computer to, like one of my friends, when he was doing one of his thesis, he basically kept his computer on all the time and it was like shouting in the next room because he needed to do the calculations. And that's not something you necessarily want to do because let's say your computer crashes and you want to use the browser or something and the computer is working on the background and it's annoying you. That's something that using non-interactive work on the cluster helps you with because you can just push it to the cluster and put it there and it will run for you those instructions that you gave it to do. Yeah. And my equivalent of your analogy is when one of my supervisors came to my office and got everyone in the group together and said, okay, I need us to run something.  You run it with these parameters and so on and send me all the results. So that leads exactly to our next step, which is array jobs. So should we head there? Yes. Yes, but we should move towards it. But basically try to, of course, when you're developing code and everything like that and you need the results immediately, it's usually a good idea to maybe do it on VDI or on your own laptop or anything like that on a small scale experiment to see that the code works, like the algorithm starts to move at the correct direction. But let's say you want to run the same algorithm for a longer time for bigger resources, bigger datasets, then it's a good idea to start moving towards the non-interactive use in Triton. So it's like a gradient from interactive to non-interactive. And what we're going to be talking next, the array jobs, that's basically the production ready where you want to scale your stuff up. You want to run it with big data, big number of parameters. You want to get lots of things done with minimal amount of code. Yeah, so should we go on? Yeah, let's look at the array jobs then.