Hello, everyone, and welcome to this session of the Association for Baha'i Studies annual conference. Over the next hour, it's my pleasure to host you for the presentation, Developing an Approach to Discourse. For the next hour, we will hear from four members of the US Baha'i Office of Public Affairs, and we will learn about what they have been learning in their work in the area of discourse. Over the last five years, the Office of Public Affairs with the Baha'is of the United States has been reorienting its focus, moving beyond pure representation of the Baha'i community and national spaces. OPA has been learning about what it means to contribute to prominent national discourses, including race, media, sustainable development, economic inequality and human rights. This shift in focus has also reorganized to some degree, the OPA self-conception from an entity that articulates of a high perspective in national spaces to one that builds collaborations among like-minded people and organizations, developing a common vision on how to advance society. So today, four members from the Office have prepared a presentation, which will really be a conversation based around different questions that they're learning about. And we invite the audience after about 40 minutes to pose their questions, you can actually enter them in the chat box under this video as the presentation is ongoing, but we will leave room at the end for discussion. And now I would invite May to please introduce yourself and the other members in this presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much, Andrea, for that wonderful introduction. My name is May Lample, and I'm a race discourse officer with the U.S. Baha'i Office of Public Affairs. I'll be starting us off today by giving a little bit of an introduction to our work. And then we'll have a chance to hear from some of our other panelists, and I'll be posing some questions to them for them to share their experience based on their work and the work of our office. Our office is an agency of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, and we're tasked with representing the American Baha'i community at the national level. And our office is learning about contributing to the discourses of society that have a significant bearing on the well-being of the country through applying Baha'i principles and accumulated experience applying those principles. So Andrea mentioned some of the areas of discourse that our office focuses on, and I'll just repeat them. So we focus on the environment, the equality of women and men, economic justice, racial justice and unity, media and human rights. And the last three will really be the focus of our conversation today as the discourse officers representing those areas are here today on the panel. So our work at the level of discourse is really guided by the idea that the challenges that we're witnessing humanity undergo can't be solved without the illumination of the revelation of Baha'u'llah. And we know that the type of change we're envisioning will not come about solely through the efforts of the Baha'i community, but will be the result of all individuals and groups contributing to the advancement of civilization. And we're working alongside others who are deeply engaged in pursuing new knowledge, social progress and transformation. The work that we're doing now is part of a process that can be seen as a first step that will take decades, perhaps even centuries to unfold. And as part of our work, we try to read different aspects of social reality from a Baha'i perspective, build relationships with the diversity of individuals and organizations, attend a variety of social spaces where conversations on these subjects are taking place, as well as create our own spaces and develop content that can be used to further these conversations. And although we focus on differing discourse areas, we often address foundational elements that cut across any one specific area. We talk about elements of human nature, the nature of change, the kind of social transformation we're trying to build, these key elements that are part of our conceptual framework for action. We talk about human beings as being both spiritual and material, capable of great feats of generosity, self-sacrifice and growth. We discuss the importance of change through cooperation and reciprocity, in which our means are in line with our ends, in which individual community and institutions recognize their roles in social transformation and seek to support each other in the process of change. We talk about the need for transformation at the level of individual and at the level of institutions, and that these two types of transformations have to tap in simultaneously. We talk about unity and justice as two foundational principles for a new world order that need to operate both as angles and as operating principles. And we talk about learning as a mode of operation in which all assume a posture of humility. And these represent just a few of the elements of our framework that we try to bring into our work at the level of discourse, and our panel will share more about this in their presentations. The guidance given to us by the Universal House of Justice and its July 22nd message is extremely relevant to the work carried out by our office, in which they stated, within the context of the framework governing your activities, it is necessary to carefully examine the forces unfolding around you to determine where your energies might reinforce the most promising initiatives, what you should avoid, and how you might lend a distinctive contribution. It is not possible for you to affect the transformation envisioned by Bahá'u'lláh, merely by adopting the perspectives, practices, concepts, criticism, and language of a contemporary society. Your approach instead will be distinguished by maintaining a humble posture of learning, weighing alternatives and light of his teachings, consulting to harmonize differing views and shape collective action, and marching forward with unbreakable unity in seried lines. So now I want to invite my colleagues into this conversation where they'll introduce themselves and start with giving a brief introduction to their work. Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well. My name is James Samimi-Farr, and I'm the media officer for the US Baha'i Office of Public Affairs, and I think it's apt in a certain way that we started with my introduction because I think my role changed a lot when I first joined the office in 2017. I was right around the time that our office was experiencing a bit of a transition as far as how we approached the work. So when I interviewed for this position, and when I read about the description and was told about the job, in many ways it was described cheaply as a communications position. My job would be to place press releases concerning the persecution of the Baha'is of Iran and Yemen, pitch stories to journalists on these issues of the persecution, and essentially try to have stories about the persecution of our community in the national media. However, when I joined the office, it became clear that this role was actually a lot more broad, and the way that the House of Justice and some of the House of Justice's offices and agencies were encouraging us to think about this role was a lot more broad as well. So there was some guidance or some advice really that was issued stating that while it would be important to learn about the techniques of communications, what would be far more profound would be to enter into an evolving conversation with media professionals and practitioners about the role of media in society. So my work in a sense overnight kind of got flipped into this discursive mode of functioning in which I really had to think, okay, what is the role of media in society? How do I even begin to approach this question? And so that's really what I've been thinking about for the last three years and trying to understand it. And my work has involved a number of different things, you know, building relationships with different collaborators, which cheaply means journalists and media academics, people who think about it on a regular basis. And actually right now I'm trying to develop some spaces where I host a number of journalists in an ongoing conversation about the role of media in society. And we discuss a number of different themes, including but not limited to the limits and politics of objectivity, the importance of narrative, different questions like this disinformation, issues that are prominent in media discourse and where there is an opportunity to correlate aspects of the Baha'i teachings to these questions. And I think I'll leave it there for now because I don't want to take too much time in my intro. Thank you very much James. Hi, good afternoon, good evening, good morning. My name is Tishika McBean and I'm the Human Rights Officer for the US Baha'i Office of Public Affairs. I work primarily on issues related to the defense of the Baha'is in Iran and Yemen. But in addition, I explore emerging discourses related to human rights and areas that intersect with the other discourses in the office, as may outline a few moments ago, such as the role of religion in advancing gender equality and conceptions of justice in the United States. Before I joined the office, I came with a background in international law and domestic law, specifically human rights, maladies and maltreatment, family law, criminal law. And so having this background and thinking how to engage in discourse was very, was very interesting in that the conversation, the emerging conversation and justice connects with my past, but also it's emerging discourses. Discourse right now in the United States. In the past, I worked as a defense attorney for formerly in cars with individuals, where my main role was to remove barriers to employment housing and successfully reintegrate these individuals back into society. And through my experience working in this field. I found that the US criminal justice system had some oppressive elements. And it also seemed that the structure of her justice system effectively alienated people who had, who were convicted of crime. So four years ago, March 2016, the conversation regarding justice or criminal justice reform were mostly tailored or tied to policy initiatives, change in laws, passing legislation. But right now in this current atmosphere, the conversation about criminal justice reform is at the national level. And it seems like, you know, groups regardless of political affiliation social group, religious affiliation all agree to some extent that you know the criminal justice system needs some level of reform. And coincidentally, there are also emerging narratives about radical changes that is necessary for this criminal justice reform. And uniquely, these changes seem to invite dialogue and conversation that are centered on certain spiritual themes like cooperation accountability forgiveness, etc. And surveying this area, this specific new emerging line of thought regarding underlying foundational elements. I found that there are certain areas that the teachers of the how law can actually illumine this conversation.  And with regards to justice the teachings of the how law is that it's filled with insight. And it begs us to think about how do we create a new framework of justice, especially since you know there are certain elements in a national discourse that lends itself to the spiritual underlying principles. So I'll stop here and we'll continue the conversation. Thanks. Good evening or good afternoon everyone my name is PJ Andrews. And I also serve as a alongside may as a race discourse officer for the Office of Public Affairs. And our work has, we've been, we've been, we came on at the end of 2017. And a lot of our work initially was really learning how to develop certain certain capacities that that were sort of critical to be able to contribute to discourse at the national level and one of those was really being able to have a thorough reading of the discourse on race in America. So we actually took some time to map it we took some time and of course it's an evolving exercise but we did a lot of work just trying to identify what are the major themes in the discourse on race. What are the sub themes within those major themes what are the who are the major thinkers who are advancing the discourse. Most prominently and loudly but also who are maybe making some of the most some really interesting contributions much more quietly and under the radar and trying to really catch the full breath of that landscape. And of course we can't, we couldn't do that completely but it was a really helpful exercise for us to understand, understand it better and see where where we might be able to start applying some principles from the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh in a meaningful way. And I think early on in our discourse in our exploration, we noticed that there was maybe a tension between the relationship between justice and unity in the national discourse on race. That sometimes they felt like they were pitted against each other and also that that understandings of them were quite limited and maybe dominated by a materialistic vision of the two of justice and of unity. And so we thought that, in fact, the faith has incredible things, incredible depth to offer to a discourse on justice and unity. And we were guided very early on by a statement of Bahá'u'lláh where he says, the purpose of justice is the appearance of unity. So that statement, and if you've seen us present in other spaces you might have heard this, but it's been a, it's sort of been a guiding light for us in terms of how we really think about the relationship between these two, these two cardinal principles. But of course they're so huge. There's, it's really hard to approach those, the relationship between justice and unity in such an abstract way. And so it's, we found a few discourses that have allowed us within the broader discourse on race that have allowed us to explore that a little more deeply. So one is related to conceptions of history and embedded in the discourse on truth and reconciliation. A lot of work has been done globally around truth and reconciliation to repair from, from basically human atrocities. But there's been very little, although some meaningful work around truth and reconciliation in terms of the history of race in America. I'm showing a feel that in fact, since the killing of George Floyd, it's actually taken on an incredible legs, but we've been following this discourse for a number of years and, and I think, in a sense, history is an expression of truth. Understanding the history of what has happened is an expression of truth. And reconciliation in a sense is an expression of unity. But there is a bridge between truth and reconciliation and that is his repair. And the idea from that there needs to be some effort to repair from harm done from from the history of history of harm done so a lot of our work has been that working with groups of people who are who fall in the world of developing historical narratives around justice that help us understand who we are and help us then move forward. So, so that's one area. We've also been working in the area of expanded conceptions of justice that Tishiko was touching on but restorative justice, reparative justice, healing justice, to name a few that help us transform or transformative justice that help us transform into something new and different. And then to be able to begin a conversation on on reconciliation as an expression of unity. And then two other areas that we've been keenly interested in is is what we sort of talk about becoming champions of justice. What does it look like for everyone to contribute to to this process of racial healing and transformation and realizing that we all have different roles and responsibilities to play depending on our social position in society. So we've been exploring with different groups and organizations. What it looks like for all to be able to contribute to transformative processes of racial healing. And then and then that find that sort of leads to and connects very closely to another theme, which is that of participation. So I think the participation actually in 2010 and the 28 December 2010 message, or might have been the reservoir 2010 but the House of Justice says justice demands universal participation. So, so this idea that in the process of transformative work that everyone needs to contribute there really isn't any sidelines. So what does it look like to create the conditions in society for all to be able to find their, their role and to contribute collaboratively to a process of transformative social change around around racial justice and unity. So those are a few of the broad themes that we explore there there are others but I think as we get into the questions of this panel will be able to to maybe give some concrete examples. Thank you. I was hoping you guys could talk about why we contribute at the level of thought and what we hope to see through these contributions. And continuing the trend I'll offer some brief initial reflections, you know I think this is this is a question that we often pose within ourselves and as behais you know I think it's something that we often think about because we're such an active community you know we're so used to getting out and trying to do stuff and putting all this emphasis on, you know getting out there and contributing something to social change and to social progress that when we talk about something at the level of that there can be a certain wariness around it, you know, and when one idea and one quote that I find supremely helpful in that regard is I always think about to this remark from Abdul Baha in Paris talks where he, he said that the reality of thought is his thought. And for me this just has such profound implications. And we know you know in later on in that very same passage he goes on to say Abdul Baha goes on to say that thought is useless without action, you know, but, but implied in his statement I think is that meaningful action cannot occur without sound developed thinking behind it. All human beings are not automatons, the way that we move through life the way that we seek to create social change and contribute to the prosperity of our society both spiritual material. These contributions are propelled by sets of ideas that shape our actions. And with respect to my own discourse area, you know there's another quote from Abdul Baha that I often return to a lot and it's that he writes the publication of high thoughts is the dynamic power and the arteries of life. It is the very soul of the world. So, clearly there's something very important there for us to consider has by as I think you know and, and for me, being engaged in media discourse is particularly interesting and almost a little bit meta in a certain way. Because I think, you know, media and our media systems. They're one of the preeminent spaces in which thought itself becomes public media systems are places where thoughts themselves are mediated to the public they're shaped and explored and understood. And there's a sense of trying to create you know a public mind in a way through our media systems. And, you know, there's relative degrees of success and failure and all of that. But nevertheless, I think it's sort of an important point to consider when you're thinking about about media generally. And I would say also you know journalism as an industry it's it's somewhat already predisposed to self reflection there are a lot of, you know, different think pieces different ideas floating around about what the nature of journalism is and how it should be but these are often limited to very specific and discreet band of ideas so I think in my focus area and the role of media and society I often think about how to evolve media to realize its its role more the the role that Abdullah describes as the publication of high thoughts being the very soul of the world. And for me this this comprises a couple of different things. I think media should be a place where we come to understand the forces and processes shaping shaping our society and our world and then also enable the diffusion enable the distribution of ideas that are that are contributing to the transformation of society and its movement toward the lesser piece toward a unified and just civilization. And I think we have a sense, often an immediate discourse of this first point of trying to understand the world around us maybe in a certain way, though many might call that into question itself. But the second point, I think of diffusing kind of helpful ideas and examples that are that are occurring across the world to address social change and social ideas I don't think that's explored. Quite enough in the conversation that I've observed on the national level, you know, mainstream or traditional media can be somewhat agnostic, I think towards social change. So I think that's really what I'm what I'm hoping to do through this contribution level thought is really sort of reshape the thinking and framework behind how we think about media and move it toward more of a vision of what's what's described in the context, you know, but how memorably described media as a really newspapers as a mirror of the world.  And so I think through through our work, we're trying to sort of tease that out those implications and rebuild it a new framework through which to address these things. I think that to address this question, you know, great thinkers of all throughout history have always harness the, you know, the idea that thoughts are important. Albert Einstein said that and that's the cool that, you know, underlines some of my thinking as well. And that, you know, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we use when we created them. And obviously this makes sense. Otherwise, we just create the same different manifestations of the same problem by the old way of thinking, you know, nothing can solve the issue is stagnated. But when we engage in genuine conversations at a level of thought, you know, we draw from our experiences or education, culture science. And now, in terms of thinking of adding religion to the list of insights that you draw from when contributing to level of thought, creates something new and different. And I think with the introduction of religion as a source of insight, it lends itself to, you know, create and shape something new. You know, as in the office for the past two years, and it's clear that religion as a body of knowledge is vast and affords of the opportunity to add, you know, new insights, you know, create new narratives or new or complete narratives. And, you know, if you think about, you know, why do we focus on the level of thought. And if you know, thought influences speech, emotions, actions. And to me, so to me it makes sense that when you engage in a level of thought, you also influence these other areas as being outlined a few moments ago. But considering the emerging conversation and justice, and what my plans are, I just plan to continue to engage in as many spaces as possible, and freely share insights from the writings of the how law, and be attentive to how, you know, various groups are interacting with these concepts. And I first started looking at this conversation on justice, and especially with my background as a defense attorney. I'm trying to find some hope, hope in the oppression of Bahá'u'llahs quote about justice which says I'm going to read this. The light of man is justice quench it not with the contrary winds of oppression and tyranny. So it follows that any system that is oppressive cannot be just. And considering my prior work, and this quote. It allowed me to think how do we then create systems of justice that do not lead to oppression. And when I engage with, you know, fellow attorneys or activists on this particular concept is a very unique and refreshing thought that lends itself to very holistic conversations. And in doing so thinking about a system that doesn't lead to oppression. You also think about what is the role of the community, the institutions and individual in achieving this particular mandate. And then, you know, how do we create a justice system whereby the end results are coherent with the means of this injustice. And as you as you as you pull compared at these thoughts, new ideas and conversations would emerge. For example, how do we even begin to imagine a system where punishment would not lead to further oppression of the community, perpetual punishment of the perpetrators that you know what I saw in my prior job, or a state of affairs where the victims are not truly recompense, which, you know, PJ alluded to in terms of restorative justice, and also institutions that are burdened and corrupt. And in that the lack of transparency among other things causes public distress. And so, such, such ideas and a new thought lends itself to holistic conversation, even, you know, maybe like two days ago, I came across this Baha'i inspired text about consultation. Part of the text read that getting to a just solution may create a new problem, which is worse than the original one. And that had me thinking, if we, if we delve more into this particular line, and we, and we, and we think about how do we then create a new understanding of the criminal justice system, especially punishment. And had me thinking it made me harken back to my prior job. And the question that I thought that was kind of going over with this particular line how do we get into a just solution may create a new problem which is worse than the original one.  He is given a life sentence, but he leaves behind five children foster care. So it's a just action according to how our site, our society is currently structured. Does it create a worse problem. And if so, how do we then create something new, etc. And, you know, ideas, or thoughts around in the one is of humanity and shifting, you know, conversations from what is just for me to what is just for us or what is just for the community also lends itself to like new questions and new thoughts. And, um, yes, I'm going to leave it there and we'll pick it up in the other question. Thank you. Yeah, so I'll just add a few other thoughts about this. And maybe as I do so I can I can also start to address our second question which is why is building relationships important when it comes to contributing at the level of thought. And so just thinking about what my colleagues have shared about why it's important to work at the level of thought and its connection to relationships. So one thing that that I was I was thinking about is how there's sort of this intimate connection between language and consciousness. And so, as as your consciousness advances so does does your language and then language as to she was saying influences action. So there's these these all these things all are connected very intimately connected. And so, you know, we talk a lot in the faith about having a conceptual framework for action. And the conceptual framework is a is a tool by which there are certain beliefs principles convictions assumptions about human nature and reality that guide your guide your thinking in the way that you act. And I think one of the greatest powers of a society that we that we currently have that's quite oppressive is that people aren't really given the, aren't really the capacity isn't developed to be able to connect their beliefs their thoughts their actions their conceptual framework to the things that they do so then what ends up happening is there's sort of inconsistency between means and ends right so your principles and your beliefs aren't always aligned with your actions but when you're able to articulate well these are the things that I believe in this is and then this is the way that I act as a result of my convictions. It's quite empowering. And I think, you know, a lot of what we do and in our work is try and really think about how we can unearth some of the hidden assumptions that that underpin, you know, social order of American society, and not to say that they're all good or bad just to be actually lay them out on the table, and then say okay well if this is the way that our society, these are the beliefs convictions that our society is currently structured under, or around what needs to go and what needs to stay and what needs to evolve. And so then, you know, just to give an example so one assumption that I think is exist, you know exist in our society is that change happens to conflict and that that generally we are we we advanced to competition. And so then that has a lot of impact on the way that we even we even think about the way the way that progress can occur. And so, you know, in our, in a high perspective we might say that change actually happens to collaboration or reciprocity. And so thinking well how can, how can you advance thinking that enables language to evolve around a, you know, collaborative action and reciprocity. And so then just to connect it to this question of relationships, and how conceptual frameworks, maybe get brought forth so there's a friend and colleague that we have that man I've been been working with for about a year and a half now. And he was recently developing a series of talks with with four organizations in Washington DC and they're all basically national organizations base here. And he was talking about some of the difficulties that he was having that each of the organizations came with certain need institutional needs, and he was trying to navigate those institutional needs. And, and I was because of my, my close relationship with him. I, you know, he, I was able to sort of present the idea of, well what would it look like to have a process of learning among these four organizations, where you don't see as trying to compromise around certain institutional priorities, but actually trying to find over the course of the series of presentation that you're contributing together to a sort of unity of thought a deeper level of unity of thought that might actually bring you closer together and help you rise above what you see as things that keep you separate that that are sort of barriers between your two organizations, you these four organizations. So anyway, so I just wanted to sort of connect the dots of how my ability, the ability of having an evolving relationship in this particular context allowed me to sort of help help my friend think about some of the assumptions that we're depending his decision making process and maybe bring in some different principles that were alluded by the revelation and some of the work that man are doing to think about how he he is creating social spaces that advanced thinking. Yeah, it's so interesting that you say that PJ I think. And also works, it works both ways in a certain sense to that, you know, as as Baha'is we were equipped with a very general sense of the revelation and its implications but, of course, we would never believe that, you know, we had it all figured out and and I often like to think of the life of an idea in a certain sense is like building a snowman and here I'm really betraying my Canadian roots here but you know when you're building a snowman. You know, think of like the initial momentum that's propelled I like to think of like the force of the revelation you know and maybe that first little like snowball that we're rolling is is us you know kind of contributing our understanding of it. And it develops have to becomes a more defined object you know it really depends on the contributions of others those other little bits of snow they get picked up in it and then that's how it truly develops into something, you know, substantial so I think we really need a process of collective inquiry that involves all the members of society to help elaborate and elucidate. You know some of the principles with which, with which we're equipped you know and they kind of lend to a much more holistic understanding of these principles you know and I think that's that's a big part of it as well. And just to add to that I think that relationships just allows that space for deep holistic conversations I don't think that you will go deep if you don't have a trust and relationship with someone else. I mentioned that in thinking of, you know, the bodies of knowledge that we glean insight from. If you want to glean insights from religious texts that I think having a relationship allows that to naturally come in into a conversation. And I just want to add that may do you have any thoughts on this particular question. Well I was just going to say something that we found of benefit is that I mean I think it's also something that we're also seeing through the Institute process it's not surprising that it also is relevant to us in a participation discourse. But the strength of building relationships with people allows you to go more into depth around particular ideas and to explore concepts I mean what PJ was saying around the idea that part of our contribution to discourse is really thinking about what are the underlying assumptions that underpin our actions and our beliefs. We don't have a lot of space to actually do that in society think about why do we believe what we actually believe. So that's one of the things that we try to do in the spaces that we create, and we mentioned specifically to our friends and collaborators from wider society who joined us in our spaces. But this is really an opportunity for us to step back from our day to day obligations, and to think about why we're doing what we're doing essentially. And I think that we've also found especially in our particular discourse area, PJ and I that the quality of the relationships we have with the people that we're working with allow us to have a type of trust and a type that allows for a depth of conversation that we wouldn't otherwise have. Not everything we necessarily believe is behind around the elimination of racism is is popular is something that everyone believes is easily digestible in a matter of a few talking points. But when we have relationships with people, it allows us to offer those thoughts humbly and to explore them and people are receptive to those ideas because they trust us and know that we're coming from a particular sincere place of wanting to see the elimination of racism. I mean if you think about the idea that we essentially as Baha'is or my understanding is that we're also in the that we are we have an understanding of identity that exists beyond just a racial identity and this underlying oneness of humanity that's not as though there though there's a growing understanding of that. I think there are also it's popular in our in our society to want to really hold on hold on tightly to certain racial because we conflate or strongly associate race and culture, which has I mean that's another topic which has elements of validity, but I think that people are willing to understand why it is we might want to move beyond a racial identity. When they understand that what we're looking for is an elimination of racism and one that actually appreciates the diversity and experiences that people have had. So that's just to give one example but I know that we also want to allow time for questions. So, I'm not sure if Andrea if you wanted to pose a few questions to us and that will will be happy to respond. Sure. Thank you so much for this very rich conversation. And the first question I think would build on what you were just talking about me, which is this trust and this ongoing dialogue you have with collaborators in different areas of discourse. So the question is, have you found agreement or a like minded response from those that you engage with in areas relating to the conceptual framework elements and principles in each area of discourse. Yeah, it's a really interesting question and actually a pretty active area of learning for us is to to try and gauge how people respond to the introduction of ideas. You know, it's interesting we so we host our office hosts quarterly dialogue on faith and race that brings together national faith based organizations. So to explore the question, the overarching question what is the role of religion and the elimination of racism recognizing that religion has had has been an incredible force to sustain racist thinking and patterns, but also has is an incredible force to transcend. And as is the path to sort of true identity right so so then how do we explore this this this complex history of religion and race and so so this is the purpose of the space that we create. And it's a pretty consistent space there's about 5050 people are so calm on a somewhat regular basis they usually about 25 people each time. And, and I think, you know, we've been able to create the discussion papers that guide that space that are that allows us the opportunity to introduce by ideas to relevant topics on the discourse on to the discourse on race. And, and because of its coherence we have been able to sort of track a little bit the evolution of thought within the participants over time but I think it's really more at this at this point still in one on one relationship so it's in those between the sessions we really do to we're very intentional about sort of visiting all of the participants as much as possible. In person or over zoom phone calls just to kind of check in with them and continue the conversation and find other avenues of collaboration and I think it's in those sort of smaller settings as more intimate conversations that we have recognized you know, people's thinking changing but I also think that, you know, the evolution of what's happening in this country also affects people so whatever is unfolding in the country at that time you know so, like one participant was feeling particularly hopeless at one point and then the next dialogue she came back and was thinking about the sort of ideas that tended towards hope or resonating much more with that participant. So I think it's also about having a faithful presence in a space that that sort of presents certain ideas in a certain posture over time that can also influence people's thinking, cumulatively. You know, like mindedness is a continuum like any other you know and sometimes it simply starts with a spark of reciprocity but it can often develop relatively quickly into something rather exciting and I think, you know when I first started trying to enter into media spaces and have conversations about the role of media society I certainly had a lot of trepidation representing myself as a Bahá'í in these spaces. You know, people the connection wouldn't necessarily be clear you know why does why does a Bahá'í care about the role of media in society what do you what are you really about here and that sort of thing. But there's one example of like mindedness that I think is really interesting and exciting that I'd like to just briefly touch on and that was. So some years ago there was, there was a communications professional journalist was who was contracted by the Bahá'í National Center in the US to help out with some communications work, and during her time with the Bahá'í is the really inspired by our principles of consultation are principles of accompanying others. And she actually started a journalism movement based on this, which is, you know, she might not say that she started her name is Jennifer Brandell and she has an organization called Harkin, which has really just kickstarted this whole wave of engagement with them so thinking more intimately about the role of a journalist and, and the relationship with their audience. So she's been doing wonderful things with this organization and she specifically sites the principles of the faith as being one source of inspiration for her work. Fast forward a couple years. She learned Jennifer learned that there was another journalist for the Atlantic a writer of books her name is Amanda Ripley, who is working on a book on how to transcend conflict and polarization. And Jennifer through her experience with the Bahá'í faith said, Oh, Amanda, you should really talk to some some Baha'is, you know, and so Jennifer was connected to a Baha'i who then connected her to our office. And we actually had an interview that's that's going to be forthcoming in her book about about this that kind of describes the Baha'i approach to consultation the Baha'i approach to elections and these kind of things. And she just had such a wonderful conversation that she actually joined my own regular media roundtable conversation so now we're in regular conversation with each other and and trying to develop some ideas together. And it was just this beautiful sort of many threaded, you know, relationship of reciprocity through one person who had been connected to the Baha'is, you know, then found enough, you know, connected another person to the Baha'is, and, you know, it's a modest, it's a modest thing at this stage, but there's there's so much potential in I think. And I think I could also add that because, you know, I mean, I'm engaged in these immersion conversations so I go around different spaces and see what people are talking about see if there's any spiritual incisor conversation happening and on these one on one conversation that PJ was talking about. When I mentioned, for example that you know, justice shouldn't be oppressive if the system is oppressive that means it's not just, and that you can see the spark and the expression of people receiving that information. Just, just, just, you know that there's this, the animated force of the house revelation touches everybody. So when you mention a phrase or a quote that resonates with people. I think the gauge that response you see, you know, the way in which people follow up with you or send articles or, you know, to sheep you this might be interested into your work and keep those relationships building. So I think that, you know, you know, join as much from the teaching of the how a lot because that is the bridge that connects so many people on these emerging issues, and just gauging their receptiveness or the way, you know, the lights that eyes would light up just just listen to a phrase or a new concept and see in the way in which they engage with that concept. I think at this initial stage, that is the way in which I'm gauging the like mindedness and the follow up conversations and the follow up email or the tweets or in something of that nature. Thank you. I wanted to talk about this question too because I think we have like, I don't have maybe I shouldn't speak for everyone, but for myself like an evolving idea of what like minded means. Whereas initially, I think when we I first started the job like minded really meant people who who you can do who from a very basic foundation we understand things in a similar way so like okay they're also people who are seeking to eliminate just racism. And maybe are following similar methods. But I think that the lot that I've also come to appreciate more and more that one of our roles as Baha'is is to create to higher and higher levels of unity, so that even if our methodology is is is different. How can we reach out to or be in conversation with organizations that have similar end goals and I think that one of the things we've also been thinking about is how do we engage people in a conversation, like differing organizations that are seemingly not actually in conversation with each other, or who perhaps approach things from a different, different way I mean I don't want to talk too much about this example because it's not my specific discourse area but I know in our, our discourse officer who's focusing on economic justice is creates a regular space for people who are engaged in issues of around this discourse area. And she's really done a great job of reaching out to people who previously wouldn't necessarily want to be able to table together because they really didn't understand their work as overlapping in any way, but through the space they've, they've sort of come to understand like where their areas of overlap whereas their areas of unity and I really think that as Baha'is that's something that we're really trying to learn to do as we participate in this course. Thank you. So the next question we have I think is touching on this distinction with national discourses versus discourses that different communities might be contributing to at a local level. The next question is, does your office support efforts or provide advice for efforts at the local level. Our mayor has proclaimed his goal to eliminate racism in Erie, Pennsylvania, and what would be, you know, a good approach for benefiting from behind inspired ideas. Yeah, I think that in our, one of the things that may and I think about is is is that the national discourse on race unfolds at many levels and it definitely is. There is a lot to learn about what is happening at the local level in fact, some of the richest most interesting things is that's the case so just to give an example. James May and I went to Detroit for about a week a few years ago. And it was, it was, I think it kind of as an example of how local and national come together so we went to a national conference called Facing Race that brought together people from all over the country. And we were able to, you know, learn a lot, meet a lot of people it was a very good learning experience. And I think, I think we were, we presented I can't remember but but anyway so it was, you know, also an opportunity for us to share some ideas but then we were also able to work and connect with we use that time, you know, traveling to Detroit to connect with local organization and there's an organization called the Bog Center, which does a lot of organizing in East Detroit for the last, I don't know, 50 years, and we were able to meet with their staff and representatives we met with a local university Wayne State University. We met with a program that does work. It's called it's actually a behind spy program called M rule, which is a multiracial university living experience. It's a program that has a number of their alumni who still lived in the Michigan area doing work locally to see how that experience and M rule influence their lives and their thinking. So I think, you know, it was it was actually quite useful for us to be both at the at a national space but then to be in a local space. And I think the work that that mayors offices are doing right now is is great because in some ways cities are not enmeshed in such political gridlock that we have at the at the at the national level. And so constructive approaches can be taken much more often more easily and openly. And so, so I think there's a lot of mayors, especially in the south that are doing that are are young and coming from a different perspective and are doing very interesting work. So, so yeah I think that's that's a great question. Our actually we are office fields questions such as these from local spiritual assemblies around the country. So, I'm, to be honest, like we couldn't have this conversation more in detail. So I could give you the email address for highs us at us bnc.org. Great actually one of the questions was how to be in touch with your office following this presentation. So that's great maybe the, the email address can be posted visually so people can know how to reach you. Sure, definitely. Maybe a final question as we're getting close to the end of the session is about the the power of media. And this question is how can we stop the dividing force of cable internet media from further segmenting society. Well I'm going to assume that was directed at me. I wish I had a great answer for you it's a very complex and excellent question and it's one with which the national discourse on media is very gravely concerned. You know, and I think I think for the kind of change that you're you're alluding to in your question would really require a complete systemic overhaul of our media system which is based on a number of faulty premises, that contribute to the phenomenon you identify of division and segmentation. And I think one is the sort of prevalence of conflict in all areas of public discourse but particularly in our media there's a sense that the best ideas occur through contention. So the premise that I think will require significant overhaul I also think there's an issue with something as vital as a media system, being subject to the whims of market forces, and being sort of needing to adhere to a to a model that generates profit to the exclusion of other values. I think that's a very dangerous premise for public information to be based upon. There's a number of conversations around this by a number of media scholars more more erudite and more important than I am. Finally, I think on an individual level and I think this is this is really important is just to recognize that what's occurring what what what we were so often disturbed by reviewing our social media feeds and watching cable news. These things may have a sort of internal coherence and compulsion but you know if we if we get out in the neighborhood, and we're, and we're kind of engaged in the framework of the plan and serving in our in our neighborhoods and communities. This reality, it's not consistent with with that one, you know we find a different world in a certain sense. And that's a great comfort to me at least to realize that these sort of these flashy contentious images that are often put before our eyes they're almost like snow globes you know, and that they do have a sort of internal consistency and they look very appealing in a certain sense but it's not the real world, you know. And that's a very short and incomplete answer to your excellent question. And if you'd like you can you can certainly follow up with with me by email after after the presentation is over and be happy to take it up further with you. Thank you. And maybe just to say that. Just two pieces of guidance that seem particularly relevant to this question is that the December 1 2019 message from the House of Justice about social media. And also the message on climate change from November 27 29 2017 and those are all both posted on the by reference library. So friends were nearing the end of our session today so I wanted to thank all of the panelists for their great insights and for answering all of these tricky questions, and I'd also like to thank the audience all the participants that tuned in this afternoon or wherever you are to learn with us and to also think about what discourses, you may be contributing to in your neighborhood or your city. We have the stats that over 80, 80 people participated in this session, and it is possible to rewatch this session later as everything is recorded or to tell your friends about it. I hope that you enjoyed the session and that you continue to enjoy this excellent conference. Thanks.


Hi all, I am Tricia Clements, and I'm the chief fur wrangler with muttbutts.com So I'm a social media manager and I specialize in pet businesses Hence the mutt butts and also video so today I want to talk to you all about content and using video for content in your blog But first I want to tell you a couple things so there are my two rescue mutts reading margin I love talking about them and showing pictures of them So also, I'm a little obsessed with tiny houses, and I kind of like the color purple just a little bit Okay, so the first thing that you need to do for your website is to determine your content strategy and you're going to do that so that you can establish credibility and authority and Also, it builds brand awareness and helps with SEO and traffic for your website The way I like to start is to start with a calendar some type of marketing calendar And I do like to kind of start with 12 months But if that's a little bit overwhelming and too much for you Go ahead and just do a three month or a 90-day plan and come up with topics broad topics Not really detailed at first just some broad topics for your content for your site And if I go through the slides, I'll have an opportunity. I'll have a link for you to get them afterwards So you definitely will get those if you don't get everything that's up there So for the topics, where do you come up with these topics for your blog? Several things if you're having new products new services come out And if you're having promotions and specials throughout the year You probably already have some type of marketing setup for that So make sure you're including a video and blog in that marketing strategy So that's one thing events seasonal things A lot of us have different things that come up in our business that are seasonal now the one that I like are holidays And we have our regular holidays like Thanksgiving Christmas on all of those But I like doing something with it's the National Day calendar. They're a little bit unusual and unique holidays And they're not really holidays, but so like today is National Gardening Day It's also National Pecanda So basically every day of the year has like at least four or five different days on there so you can pick something and Just make it unique and use it for just an inspiration for your blog content for instance I have I do pet businesses a lot and April is National Stress Awareness Month, you know, we're all stressed out in our businesses And so one of the things I like to do is take something that doesn't necessarily Completely relate to your business industry, but do a twist on it so that it does. So what I did was said what? Reduces their stress level so much, but our dogs So I said well instead of talking about our stress Why don't we say what are some ways that we can pamper our dogs and show that we appreciate them? So that's just an idea of taking something like National Stress Awareness Month and Associating it with the pet industry. So that's just an idea so that you can see what I'm talking about with that Video and also live stream Facebook live all of that You all know how popular video is and it really does help increase the know like and trust factor and One thing is people want to get to know you they don't necessarily want to really know your business They want to know who you are who they're working with and who they're dealing with That's why video is so important. It helps with that know like and trust factor really well It also helps increase engagement online Now the key I think relief with video is to Transcribe your video and if you all some of you all were probably here this morning hearing Christine talk about accessibility For those that are impaired and have different disabilities and need access to that. That's definitely a One of the reasons you need to do it. There are a couple of other reasons that I want to talk about The first thing is SEO so we all know Google can hear us Google knows what we're saying all the time. They're listening to me and But for instance, I have Google voice on my phone all of my voicemails get Transcribed and emailed to me Sometimes I know exactly what they're saying sometimes. I'm like, huh who called. What did they say? So Google doesn't always get it right So definitely have it transcribed because in your videos you're gonna be mentioning your keywords You want them to get it right because you know, we y'all we all have accents. We talk really slow We talk really fast and Google doesn't quite pick up what it is. We're saying all the time correct So make sure you're having them transcribed for that so that they're getting the exact words what you're saying and also because you're doing that and it helps with the SEO it picks up what you're saying it will increase traffic for your website and Viewers can watch it without having the sound on that's really great. So there are two different ways to have it transcribed One way is the free method. I do have a link to a YouTube video that I did the one thing I have to tell you about that. It's very labor intensive So it takes a lot of time to do it yourself unless you're a transcriber but now I like to Use online method where you send it online and they transcribe it for you And usually it starts off at 72 cents a minute So depending on the length of your video It really may not be that much to have it done and it's really worth it I'm gonna talk if whoever you decide to use for that. I use go transcript But whoever you use make sure that they also give you a word document And I'm gonna talk about that in a little bit why you need to have that so When you get your file back from having it transcribed typically they give you what's called an SRT file That's what you'll do when you upload that video to YouTube. You'll use that SRT file Facebook doesn't recognize that SRT extension. All you have to do is simply go to your file and change the extension Really easy a lot of that like I said with Google. It's not always right I've gone and that's the free version free method is having it done that way But a lot of times it misspells my name. It misspells my company name I want people to know if I'm doing a video how I am and like I said with keywords it may get them wrong So you that is a good way to do it the free method But it is time-consuming to go through it and make sure everything's spelled correctly And it just depends on how How fast or slow you talk how much of an accent, you know, how how you how Google picks up your voice Or YouTube it will Google YouTube is owned by Google. So same thing So it may work really well for you to have YouTube transcribe it right there for you and you can download that transcription file So but yes for Facebook you just change the extension. I have that the EN us SRT that's what you're going to change the extension from SRT to in order to use it on Facebook Okay Yes, it is En underscore us that SRT Now before you do any uploading of your videos to wherever it is you're going to upload on Facebook Instagram YouTube wherever you want to upload it make sure you're putting your metadata in there So you're gonna it's really easy. Just right click the file and go into the properties details description and fill everything in You're gonna have your keyword for your title and subtitle And your tags that's the same thing as keywords. So if you have secondary keywords, that's where those are gonna go And also your comment section one or two Sentences about your video what you're the whole gist of your video is about they have a section there for you to five-star it My videos are always five stars. So I five-star it. I'm not sure how if if they decide if they they count Anything towards that but I decided well, it should be a five-star. So Okay, so now here is a big tip for you Did you know if you do a Facebook live and After you've finished with your Facebook live if you think this is a phenomenal. I did so good what you can do is Send that off and hit have it transcribed and Afterwards go to your Facebook live and edit it you can upload a Transcription because Facebook loves Facebook live even more than just regular video. They love their Facebook lives So afterwards if it's getting lots of attention you can have it transcribed and uploaded So whenever you share it or someone else shares it that transcription will then show up on it And that is only available for pages right now not profiles. It's Facebook So who knows when that winner if that might change So your content content, what are you using your videos for you're gonna use them for any number of things your blogs your newsletters Your social media posts you can use them for lead magnets online ads All kinds of things that you want to use your blogs for and I almost forgot I want to do a have this passed around and anyone who's interested Please put your business card in it if you don't have a business card write down your name address and phone number And I'll be doing a drawing it'll be for a free 30 minute video chat with me So that'll be going around the room and we'll get that at the end So just let me know if you have any question. I'll do that towards the end But those are the three things you'll need to have on it. Okay So your blog You do need I mentioned the word document that you're going to be getting when you get your transcript This is what I use to create my blog We talk a lot differently than we write so I will just basically go down and Take the word document adjust it for a blog content put in the headings put in links put in Images a click to tweet. I always like to do that. Just basically optimizing now Your keywords of course make sure they're in there Now when you're putting your video in there, don't just upload your video to your website first It takes up lots of space, but you also want to have that Social media share and and everything that you're getting from people viewing it. So YouTube Facebook Instagram when you post that video on those sites, you're able to get an embed code Use that because when someone goes to your website, let's say you used Facebook and they watch the video You'll also get that count as a view on your website on your Facebook Video that's posted. So make sure you embed it and don't just upload it to your website Let's see and then of course images. I think I mentioned that Okay, then I will take the Blog that I just did do a couple of sentences and do a newsletter So the main reason I want to do a newsletter is to send people back to my blog Because that's what I really want them to do is come to my blog and read it there So I use the newsletter to to do that link to the blog I also sometimes put the video there in the newsletter as well and Your social media of course all the different social media things places that you're on go ahead make sure that you are putting that out there and Using it for stories ads and promotion. You can even take little clips of your video and put that out there as well and then the main thing is to make sure that you know that the goal for your social media is to lead them back to your site and Potentially for a sale. So when you're sharing your content, you do need to have something some type of call to action To get them interested in coming to your site or to sign up for your newsletter Which then lets them know about everything that you've got posted on your website and Again, I mentioned the call to action Whether it's having them comment and engage with you or sending them to your website or also Sending them a lead magnet Okay, so basically the main thing that you need to know about video is it's a good way to just consistently add content to your website So you are having your video and creating your blog and then sharing that sharing the video It really is a good way. The main thing you have to do is just prepare and plan for it That's the most important part is to prepare and plan and use video and yes This is my Margie done is better than perfect. Just do it. Just do it And then let's see. I have one little thing here. So I have oops Well, this sounds not on but let me go back. So So I had her on here, but but yeah, so the Let me go back down here to it. I was thought the sound wasn't on but maybe you I'm not sure. Are you seeing that? Okay? Okay, okay. Yeah, you can hear it. Okay, so that's Margie And she loves doing that and showing off so I do have a free checklist for you and it includes everything as far as Preparing to create a video Creating a video different tips that you need to do for that and also after you do your video what you need to do So that's at muttbutts.com slash a video checklist and remember our but only has one T in it because they might be Mutts, but they are 100% loved. So there's Margie. She loves showing off She loves chasing squirrels and you see the Little acorns at the bottom of the last couple of slides. That's because your goal is to be the squirrel and You know on social media, you know, it's just like we like dogs. They get squirreled That's your your goal is to be the squirrel be the thing that grabs their attention Okay, so yeah there oops Okay, so there it is and there's Margie dressed up again as a squirrel you have to be the squirrel on social media All right, and so again the checklist is muttbutts.com slash checklist and does anyone have any questions?


That's how one leaves behind this negativity that plagues so many people in the world. Gratitude, knowing how unique you are, knowing how much you receive from this existence. Knowing that even existing is an amazing experience. Namaskar. Namaskar, Anna. So my question is about how to get rid of negative thoughts and negative thinking. Because sometimes everything I think about is negative. Or even if it's not, I think in a negative way about it. And I am complaining about everything, the smaller things. And I also see that I am not nice to others when I'm in these phases of all this negative thinking and thoughts. So how to get rid of it? One of the ways to get rid of it or to leave it behind, actually, it's not even getting rid of it. It's like leaving it behind, growing out of it, is to remind yourself at least once a day about what all you have received in this life, what all you have as support systems for your existence. That includes the people around you. It includes the food you eat, just to be grateful. The moment you train yourself, and you can train yourself for that, if you really want to, you can train yourself. You put an alarm every day, and it's your gratitude alarm. Just once a day, because you're not the only one on this planet who's like this, there are a lot of people. And the more a person has the less gratitude they experience, that's the other side of the story. So you live in the West. You have basically enough food. You have a roof above your head. You have health. You have access to care. You have a lot, you know? But if you don't remind yourself of this, you can fall into that. And apart from all of that, you look beautiful. You don't look just average. You look very beautiful. And so that's what everybody wants, right? And then still, if that kind of thing is there, that means that something is not OK, and what is not OK is there's no gratitude in the system, no surrender, or less of it. So one way to start to leave this rubbish behavior behind of being negative about everything, and as I said, you're not the only one. The world is full of such people. The way to leave that stuff behind is to put on your gratitude alarm, followed by your surrender knock on the head. If that alarm rings, you know it's the gratitude alarm, and you put yourself in a state of gratitude, at least thank for one thing you've received. There's no other way out of it, because one can try all kinds of psychological processes. It doesn't work. The spiritual process is very clear. It is put that alarm on, put it on, and every time that alarm rings, you're going to tell yourself, this is a moment of gratitude for the fact that I'm alive. It's an unusual thing, Hannah, to be in a body in this universe. I mean, show me where else there are people and bodies. It's an unusual thing. There are only seven billion such cases in the entire universe, which has multi, multi trillions of stars. We know of only one place where there are embodied beings like we are. So it's a very exciting and interesting experience to live through this, and that gratitude should be there. I mean, it's a gratitude for being alive. It's a gratitude for being in a healthy body. So many unhealthy people in this world, Hannah, so many, so many. It's unbelievable how many people are suffering with pain. They don't even have access to medicines. They can't get rid of that pain. Imagine, to be in a healthy body.  One has to be deeply, deeply grateful for otherwise what life does is it comes and it will teach you to be grateful in a much, much, much harsher way. Like, you know that suffering is imposed on people when they refuse to consciously tune in and live from the truth. And living from the truth means being grateful just once a day at least. And gradually as you do that, you will leave behind this addiction to thinking negatively about things. Most people in the world, in the first world, which is now all over the world, they tend to be very cranky and negative about things because they don't practice gratitude. Gratitude is not something one is born with. One has to learn it and practice it. I'm grateful for this, this mind which is clear. I'm grateful for this ability at clear thought. I'm grateful for this strong, healthy, and beautiful body I have. I'm grateful for the fact that I'm able, at least some of the time to recognize when I'm in an emotional state and to be able to pull myself out of it. I'm grateful for the ability to be artistic and creative. These are the things one has to be grateful for and when you are grateful, that negativity just dissolves. And otherwise it's not gonna dissolve. And what's gonna happen is life will do it. So why allow life to do it when you can do it? In other words, the ego will take charge of your system and cause suffering rather than you, Hannah, daughter of Beatriz allowing the truth to determine what you're doing. And at one point you have to start doing it because knowing it as an idea in the head is not enough. It also needs action. I'm sure you're doing it also, I'm not saying you're not, but that's how one leaves behind this negativity that plagues so many people in the world. Gratitude, knowing how unique you are, knowing how much you receive from this existence, knowing that even existing is an amazing experience. Stand tonight outside, go outside and look up at the sky, look at the billions and billions of light years away, stars all over the place, and how many bodies are there in this universe that we know about, not that many.  And it's quite something. Don't forget the larger picture. Don't stay in a worm's eye view of life. Move into the eagle's eye and start looking down at this earth and what's going on in it sometimes. It's not about the worm's eye view always. It's both, you know? Gratitude is the key. Yes. Thank you. Namaskar. Namaskar, Hannah.


Now we're going to get started on the inside of this monitor. Again, we're working on the Tony PVM 20L5. And the first thing we need to do when we work inside the monitor is get the shell off. That way we can get inside of the circuit boards and the other important areas of the monitor that we're going to be servicing and adjusting. Now, when you originally look at the side of this monitor, you'll notice there are some extra screws that will not be removed to get the shell off. What we're going to remove to get the shell off on this is the three screws on the larger piece of metal on each side. And then there are four screws in the back of the PVM on the plastic that are holding that black or the screws are black, but they're holding that board and the other things on the back in place.   It's pretty standard right there. So that's how you get it open. And one of the first things to notice on this PVM is how compact it is. Now, this is the first time I've opened this one, maybe not the very first time, but it's never the first time I've opened it to be serviced. I might have just opened it to check and make sure there wasn't anything damaged initially. But it still had cobwebs and some large amount of dust built up in it. And again, this one was sold new to a local video editor who rarely used it and then put it in storage and then I got it from him. So never been serviced inside. It's never really needed servicing to this point. So it's just a really good shape, but still pretty dirty inside and needs some cleaning. You can really see some cobwebs down here in this clump of wires over here just under the yoke assembly and right above that heat sink plate. So just a lot of things actually inside this monitor. This is one of the most compact and cramped 20 inch PVMs or really probably altogether broadcast level monitors you work on. So when you work on a 20 inch BVM, you're going to have a lot more room in there. There's a lot bigger. So this one's really cramped. There's a lot of boards hanging on top of each other. A lot of wires connecting the boards together. And the first board we're working on is going to be this board over on the right hand side of the monitor if you're looking at the back of it. It's got a ton of capacitors in it and a couple connection points. There are some screws holding it onto this plastic here. So just make sure that you don't torque those screws too hard. You could crack that plastic. Again, all the plastic in this PVM tends to be pretty brittle. So it's still workable, but it's very brittle. So you have to be very careful when you're working it. So this is the board we're working on first. Again, this cap kit I got came directly. Look, this one came directly from Save on Pat. At least the plan for it did. Now, I did replace a couple of different capacitors with the higher quality capacitors that I use. But the kit design was from him. So that's where I got the actual layout for it, plus his recommendations for upgrade kit parts. So this kit is available on eBay. And it might be something to definitely use if you have any troubles with your PVM. But it's kind of an odd kit. And I'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through this repair. Some of the odds and weirder things better on it. But this board was like a mini version of a power supply unit. It looked to have a lot of the power supply parts on it. So maybe that's even what its ultimate design is, is to be like a breakout board for the power. But this one, pretty easy to recap. The caps were in there. And the thing that Sony did do was they used extremely high quality capacitors, especially on these 20L-5s. So that's why if you get in there and you look at the capacitors, you'll notice a lot of them are metal topped. And I mean, they're really, really high-end versions of capacitors. So a lot of times, even nowadays, if the monitor doesn't have a lot of use, a lot of these capacitors will still be good. So these are the removed spots on the board where the capacitors go.  And then we're gonna replace the capacitors in here that are recommended by the Save On Pat cap kit. Now, if you're really serious about getting in here and replacing every capacitor in your PVM, just note that this one will be a colossal task. And it's definitely something I would not recommend for anybody who's on any kind of like a novice level. I'll give you my thoughts towards the end of this, more on that, on how difficult it was for this particular cap kit and to actually go in and replace all the caps on this particular PVM and do serious repairs. It's really difficult. There's a lot of the size on this. Everything's compacted down smaller. The components are practically right on top of each other. There's very little room to get in and out in between things. And this was actually one of the boards that was easier to work around. The later boards, I'm just gonna show them to you, they were actually really difficult to get in and work on. But the cap kit, you know, it's pretty simple, showing you how I like to replace caps where I'd remove them all first and then I come in afterwards and then sometimes I'll tack them into place, usually with flux and some nice solder. And then after I tack them into place and snip the legs down, I come over it and I reflow the solder to make sure the connection is nice. And then we'll of course clean these areas up with some alcohol after all this. But I wanted to show you the majority of the capacitor replacement on this board since it was easier to work around. And since primarily the other boards were really just too compacted and too difficult to work around and get a lot of good footage to work in. So this was really the best board to do all this. But it's always good. You see what I'm doing here? I actually had one of the capacitors I put in was the wrong value. I put the wrong cap in one of the places right there and I caught myself after I did a quick check after what I'd done and found that cap. So even, you know, when to make sure you're paying extra close attention and don't accidentally do that and then not catch it and then you'll have a big problem if you turn the monitor on or put it back together with possibly the wrong capacitor in one of the places that you replaced it. So it's always a great idea to go in and double and triple check the capacitor changes. You know, make sure that they're all pointed. The negative side is on the right negative position and then everything else is in the right spots. So that's that one board and with it out of the way we're gonna work on getting the next board out which ultimately is gonna be the neck board and the chassis and the chassis is obviously behind this video input card here with all our different inputs, the master input board that is attached to the PVM. So that board doesn't actually have any, that doesn't actually have any, you know, different parts in it that we're gonna be working on. Now, this is the discharge method. I wanted everybody to see that warning. Do not try this discharge method at home, okay? This is the Sony recommended discharge method and I only did this sometimes when the monitor is in really good condition I could inspect that anode cap and cable but this is how you're supposed to discharge it according to Sony's manual which just means working it around till you actually get it unhooked from the back of the CRT tube there, get it unclipped and then after you finally get it unclipped make sure you don't touch any of that metal but you tap that metal part to the main chassis really anywhere. I did the grounding plate on the back of the CRT and that's all you do. Now I'm not gonna go up next to that tube spot so I'm not actually gonna, I mean I wouldn't be going near it but you should discharge that too with a discharge tool after you've done what I just did. The reason behind doing it in that method that I just showed you is you're not gonna damage the back of the tube by scraping it with a screwdriver or anything. That apparently was a problem back in the day where two texts that were untrained would often go in and scrape that tube too hard and actually damage it. So that's something to take into consideration. Next when you're removing the neck board you notice there was a piece of plastic that tends to hold this neck board into place. That is gonna be so brittle that from the heat of being on the CRT gun it's gonna most likely shatter. Mine just shatters into pieces just by pretty much touching it. Don't worry about that. You can get some silicone and reapply that or if you're not moving the monitor it'll still sit nice and snug on the neck board without that piece of plastic holding it. But that's where the plastic went. And the next thing I'm doing is I'm actually disconnecting this portion of the plastic where there's two cables that come in from the back of the flyback. Those cables come into the neck board and you can see how that's got a weird proprietary grip or plastic connector on there. So that way you can get it out of the way and have nothing connected to it at all while you're going through and working on that neck board. You can have it isolated by itself which is definitely needed. Now I'm trying to get the chassis out and that cannot be done without removing this board right above my head where you normally have your cards, your additional cards. It's just a couple of screws that hold the whole plastic housing in place and then you can kind of just lift it and set it out to the side. And then there are two screws on the chassis. One is usually behind the flyback. So make sure you get that one.  And that's all that's holding it in there. So make sure you just get that out and get all the cables out of the way as best as possible. Because I've been, look at that. That is a ton of cabling probably twice as much as like a 20M2 or I mean an M series or like another medical monitor. It's probably got twice as much cabling inside it. So again, very small and the neck board looks pretty standard but the chassis is very small. Now here's one of the parts in the kit. And this kind of confused me, okay? Then one of the parts in the kit was this attached to this heat sink, this IC right here. And I checked the parts numbers on it and it was exactly the same. And for some reason Pat only recommended changing the first one. Now there's one of these for each color, right? So there's one, two, three. So there's gonna be three of these total. The problem is, is those heat sinks are so close together I have no idea how anybody would be able to change the other two if you had an issue with the other two back ones. If one of those burn out, I don't know how you change them without taking the whole board apart practically and actually removing the heat sinks most likely to get to the other part. And since the parts were exactly the same, take caution and you don't actually have to change them if you don't want to, if there's not an issue with these parts because again the part number is exactly the same. And the second reason I say this as I look on the back of this board and this was not clear in the instructions for the cap kit. There's actually a little diode I believe attached on the bottom of each one of these ICs. Every single one of them has it jumpered over into the same spot with some silicone on there. So that really wasn't clear either. And again, I don't really see the point to changing this part particularly here just this single one when it has three of them on the board. And again, it's not an upgrade part particularly there because it was the same exact part numbers on the front of that board description right there. So just note that there are some parts recommended, two parts recommended to change on that and they're pretty much a similar just like that. So that's what you get in that kit. If you go look at the kit some more you're gonna get in here and it's just got sporadic capacitors that are listed to replace in here. And that's fine, but you have again this is so difficult to get in and work around here just because of all the metal shielding and the actual design of how tightly close and all the heat sinks.  It's just like there's extra heat sinks over top of them. Things are compacted all together. Look at this cluster of capacitors up here on the other side of this. You've also got other components attached to the outside of this large shielding to dissipate more heat. So it's really a difficult design. And the only way I'd really, I'd only recommend this kind of stuff again for really extremely highly level of expertise and experience with electronics repair to get in here and do this. One of the other things was that that's another little part that was included in the kit. And I was trying to figure out why it's this one right here, this three-pronged IC. And again, same exact part number as the replacement part. I didn't see a single difference on the replacement part. It's not as if it was a better part. My guess is this board sits or this part of the heat sink sits on an exterior part where there's some ground cables that come across another cabling that comes through here. And you may get an opportunity to have a short between these legs and then you'll probably blow out this part. And that's most likely what I think would be the reason this was in the kit in case that happens maybe more often than not, this part fails. So if you have an issue with your PVM, that might be one of the parts to look at replacing. And that was actually an easier part that was on the outside of the board, one of the easier parts out of all of them. But when you get that kit, you also need to know that you're not just getting the parts. You have to actually go in and buy some more thermal paste, some nice thermal paste to put in between those components. If you do change, I mean to put that between that and the heat sink, a little bit of that on there, which I didn't show any of that. I just showed the single board being done. But now I've got everything put back together. And it's again, a long and tedious process that I just didn't show you all the way through it. It was exact opposite of taking it apart, just put it all back together, making sure every one of those cables is connected. And there were dozens of connections on this monitor. And then we're gonna go ahead now and do a firing up of the monitor or test run. And we'll see just initially, whether we can get power into it, what happens when we turn it on, what the screen looks like. And this is like one of those, the nerve wrecking moment. If you've finished repair, something that technically difficult and that precise of a machine, it always makes you nervous when you put it back together and you're actually getting to turn it back on. But thankfully everything worked out okay. And everything looks fine on here. So everything worked. That's really good. I just wanted to go through and show you the menu pulls up. This is honestly the very first time I did pull it and turn it on. So I didn't, I noticed I didn't have any edit cuts in there. That was, this is the first time after the capacitor replacement. So just at this point, we're gonna go in and work on running a lot of tests. And that's gonna be testing every input for analog video, as well as some of the digital input video inputs. And then we'll test the video card slot and just get a good overall idea of what condition we're in. But that's gonna all wait till the next video because that's gonna do it for today's episode. Today's episode was pretty much just about the chassis and the inside of the monitor and getting in there and working around giving you guys a good idea of what it looks like inside there. But again, this is not repair stuff that I'd recommend for people who are not highly trained and do not have a lot of experience working on specifically monitors like this. If you don't, if you get inside there and you're afraid to work on those boards, then it's probably a good idea to try to find somebody else that will do it for you. Because again, this monitor is becoming so rare and the fact that it does 480p and 720p and 1080i and 240p does all those and it just accepts so many great video inputs that it's still one of the most desirable broadcasts CRT monitors on the market. So again, let's look for that next time. I'll have that come in in just a couple of days that episode where we go through the calibration and you get a lot of, see a lot of the testing. I've got some really cool stuff already taking care of for that. But that's gonna do it for this episode. Please leave a like and let me know if you have any questions or comments below and I'll see you guys next time with some more retro content.


The next station is Ealing Broadway, change form, the central lines, the Elizabeth line, and national rail services. Can you hear that? I haven't been here in a 48 hour time. But yeah. I was, you know, the people who say India, the people who are presenting, because they say, oh, these people are able to write a beautiful thing with this idea. Because this idea is so untangible that it has to be very well written, it has to be, you know, or it can be boring and disastrous. That's the truth. Why Jurassic Park, with this high concept, very, I mean, unlikely, will be boring. Or, I mean, this is kind of boring, all these things happening, you know. But the character within their majority of business could be extremely boring, as you know. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of unsufferableness. Or it can be madness. Okay? So, what's up, guys? How are you going on? I still love my house. Besides, I'm a lot better. Are you still getting involved today? Yes, today, I couldn't get any, really. Know that everything's good, okay? So, number two is know your genre. Definitely know your genre. And then, you know, say it beforehand. If you're struggling to make a comedy sound funny, or a drama sounds funny. If you have a problem in the comedy that you're preaching that sounds funny, or you have a drama that makes people laugh. This means there's some mistake in the working, okay? Maybe the bits, the things that happen, okay? Then, number three, do practice your place at home. Make sure you don't overrun the other people's time. And this is very important. You will see it now when you watch things. Because, I mean, you cannot overrun the other people's time groups. Several reasons. The first one is because they will cut you. They will say over. And you will be like in the middle of the explanation. The second one is because these people are listening to one, one, one after the other, one after the other. If you make it longer, they will lose all concentration. Definitely. Okay? Number four, don't compare your series with screenplay to existing movies. Unless it helps to make your project sound fresh and exciting. Because if you tell all this, this, I compare my movie to this one and this one, it sounds like it's one more movie among many about the same thing. So don't compare unless, for example, you can say, okay, my story is like Romeo and Juliet. And then they would say, wow, one more love is impossible love story. But then you say, my story is like, it's comparable to Romeo and Juliet, but it's set in a distant galaxy. Now it's a fresh thing. Wow, how would a story like Romeo and Juliet's story develop in a distant galaxy? Then this makes it fresh. If it's not for a reason like that, don't prepare it because it will make it sound better. Then don't mention specific actors and directors or directors. Don't mention specific actors, but be prepared if they ask for your opinion. So you have to be ready to answer the question when you don't anticipate it. You don't say it will be. Only if they ask you after the pitch. After the pitch. And then it's, oh, and then number six is important. Register your 34-page pitch.man. Serious idol or script. Copyright it means. Which is interesting because in the UK there's no copyright, no official copyright agency. Which is strange. Because this is the only country that I know that has no official copyright agency. For intellectual property, there is copyright for inventions, machines. This, yes. And copyright for trades and names and that. But intellectual property, copyright. Copyright for intellectual property, there is no official agency in the UK. If you, for example, will help to register how to copyright my script, my wherever. You will find private companies doing that. But there's no official agency. And in North America, there is an official agency which is right by the Congress. And then there is the Writers' Guild. But here, not even in the Writers' Guild, the Writers' Guild doesn't have a copyright. So what happens if you are pitching a project, you're pitching a story. Like three or four different producers get to listen to it and receive your pitch back.  With a writer, you could show them. I mean, there is a tendency, because people have a tendency to, we all have a tendency to think that our stories are very original. And then if someone else has more of a symbiote, we have a tendency to say, oh, they copy to me. And maybe not, because the truth is that things linger, ideas linger. Many people have more or less the same ideas at the same time. A different thing is, you have been pitching something and it's a quite clear story, different turning points and a clear plot.  And then, three years later, you see a produced series and you say, what? This is why I pitched. And then you see that it's not only the idea which could be common to many people, no, no. You see that many elements in your story, many turning points are yours. If you have not the copyright, you would never even complain. But if you have the copyright, you would say, listen, you have copied. So I would recommend that you copy them. I guess, I mean, because in England there is no official agency, yeah, you could go and sue them.  But this, you know, if it's very, if you have the copyright, I copy right away. This is my pitch. This is all the ideas and they are really turning points and they are being used. Or if you have the entire script, you copy right the entire script. You cannot copyright in, for example, in the United States, you can copyright an idea, okay, or a concept. In European countries, you cannot copyright an idea or a concept. At least you have to copyright a treatment, something a bit more include. But it's worth it. And you can copyright it in any other country. You don't have to copyright the theory. It would be valid for the entire world, I mean, in case of trouble. So yeah, it's not, it's not. And if you, if you copyright in the Writers' Guild of America, the Writers' Guild of America East, you can register it, you call it register. You must copyright it in the Writers' Guild of Congress. And it's, it is a special price for students. It's not, it's not really so expensive and made it worth it. Before moving, I would copyright every single thing I do before even making a call. You know? You never know. And people are not good in general in the world. So we are more than ready to steal ideas from others, you know, more than ready. So yeah, I would say, then, okay, now here it talks about how to contact producers, how to, I would say, okay, and here it talks also about the necessity to do some research.


Creating a reference list in a particular style using EndNote. Firstly, choose the style. Then choose the references. Holding the Ctrl key allows you to choose the various ones you wish. Now select Edit and Copy Formatted. Open your Word document and right-click. Now select Keep Source Formatting. You have successfully created a reference list in a particular style. That is the end of this demonstration.


Hello everybody, my name is Gunther from GuntherMation and welcome to another Let's Watch Let's Play. I'm super excited for this week's episode, but no more than I have been for any other episode so far because I'm always excited. Let's get to it. First up this week is my Captain Zero, who has a voice made inside the best cookie you've ever eaten. Seriously, it's like putting candy in my ears, just listen to this. Hi there everybody, my name is Captain Zero and welcome to Project Zomboid. I can listen to them all day! Captain Zero plays games like Project Zomboid, The Trove Alpha and No Time to Explain. He does a mixture of gameplay and reviews and is just a really cool cat to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does in the days to come. Give him a look. Next up is JRPG. This Let's Play romance a few games completed right now, but his channel is still pretty new so I expect more to come. JRPG is currently playing through the JRPG known as Persona 3FES and has completed playthroughs of Darksiders and Darksiders 2. Here's a quick clip of his content. I'm asking you since you know what it's like to be a leader. Alright, I knew I could count on you. I'm a sucker for long-form Let's Plays and if you are too, this is the channel worth looking into. Show him some love and check out his channel for more videos like that. Last this week is Dark Avika Gaming. Dark Avika has a lot of really cool horror content on her channel and uploads a lot. Here's a look at what she does. Sounds are bad. I don't want sounds. Dark Avika plays titles like Amnesia and all of its mods, The Crooked Man and Darkwood. Beyond the funny commentary and wicked scares, Dark Avika likes to stream on Twitch, which is a big plus to folks who want to see more of her content. She's an awesome lady and I had the best time researching her videos for this feature. Go check her out. That does it for this episode of Let's Watch Let's Play y'all. To check out any of our feature gamers, click on the respective channel links here. To check out who I am, click on my widow Flandeia. And don't forget to get a freedom if you want to grow together or force a partnership opportunities. Until next time, bye.