Too often, the media focuses exclusively on the violent and tumultuous crises occurring daily around the world. And with clickbait exploiting negative social events for the sake of increased ratings and revenue, there are few incentives for media outlets to focus on the good that is happening in the world every day. Even media channels dedicated to peace-building sustainable development remain focused on the ills of corruption, war, and conflict rather than the efforts of peace builders within those conflicts. But peace talks too, and with this show, the voice of peace will be amplified. Mr. Rogers is often quoted in saying that, when crisis strikes, look for the helpers. This show intends to do just that. Every day, right here in Vermont, there are thousands of engaged citizens actively building peace. We plan to amplify their efforts, and we seek to develop a platform where peace builders all over the state can connect with each other across social boundaries and industry sectors to collaborate for the benefit of our collective community. Ladies and gentlemen, this is peace talks. And today we are meeting with Will Dodge. He has served as the chair of the Essex Energy Committee for the last seven years and is the deputy managing partner of the DRM law firm. Welcome Will. It's a pleasure to have you. Great to be here, Daniel. Thank you so much for inviting me. Of course. Hello to everyone out there. Hello to everyone out there. Yes. Well, let's just jump right into it. I'm excited to have you here. I know that you've got a lot to share, so tell us about yourself and what you're working on right now. Well, so let's see. So, I've lived in Burlington or in Essex now for 13 years and have been in the Burlington area for about 23 years. I was born in Rutland, but I grew up in Montreal and always found an affinity for this place as I was passing through to visit my then-girlfriend, now wife of almost 30 years on the way to Williams College. Wow. And I had a cousin who went to UVM. So, I've always loved this community. I feel like it is, you know, just far enough and close enough to both the U.S. and Canada, but that it's a very special kind of in-between like place. And, you know, one of the things that brought me to this area, I think, as I was, I decided I wanted to go to law school long time ago. I was actually studying at the University of Texas, but I was thinking about this place because of its connection to Montreal and I've got a lot of friends and family in both places, Vermont and Canada. And one of the things that always intrigued me about Vermont is how does a state like this that's so devoted to the environment deal with things like energy and telecommunications and new technology and those kind of parts of development that are both intriguing to me and that I like. But I also recognize that there's a lot of communities that, you know, where it's not always easy to get those things permitted and make them work. So, I started out before I became the, got involved with any type of community involvement. I was really kind of working a lot on my legal career, but that meant I did at DRM have the benefit of doing a lot of different projects in energy and telecommunications and the environment and learning kind of the overall fabric of Vermont, who are some of the important players and, you know, I think that kind of brings, in my mind, I was not thinking about my community very much other than I loved Essex, I loved in Burlington, we lived there for about eight years and we moved to Essex just because it seemed like a wonderful community with some great families and a lot of friends. But for my first six years there, I really didn't interact very much with the time. You were more focused on just taking care of business at work and get your law firm off of it. Yeah, raising kids, doing all the things that I think all of us have in a busy life. Exactly. Yeah. So, what was the turn? Where was like the moment that you said, you know what, I need to do more? Yeah. It was, it's a good question and the way that I think of it is a couple of things. For one, you know, to be honest, I was like a lot of people kind of watching Election Night 2016, saw that Trump won and was upset about that, but also felt, I think maybe a lot of Vermonters do, a little bit powerless in that and saying like, look, this is something beyond our control, it's definitely going to have an effect on the law and on energy. I was, I think at that point in 2016, I'd been a proud volt owner for about 10 years. That's about as much as I'd done for maybe about six years. But it made me realize like, look, it's not enough to just kind of sit around and absorb the news and do your job.  So I said, well, what should I do? Where can I actually be of value? And I went to a couple of local, in fact, V-PURG organized a couple of events where I met a guy named David Scopin at one of those events. Okay. Yeah, David's great. David's great. David is on the Essex Energy Committee with us. But at the time, neither of us were involved with it and didn't really know about it. But I started looking around for volunteer positions and I saw that there was this thing called the Energy Committee and I didn't really know what the, exactly what the Energy Committee did. I looked up the statue to see what it says and I looked up some information, put in my name and the next thing you know, I got a letter saying, you know, well, you are on the Essex Energy Committee. You kind of said, great. Voluntelled into service. Well, the funny part of the story is that, you know, I got on to the committee and I was excited and I figured, oh, I'll just go in once a month and kind of participate and see what I can do and spread some knowledge and so forth. But no one contacted me and I said, well, what's going on? Where are the meetings? Where are the agendas? Yeah. And the select board informed me, well, there really is none. Like, you're it. Would you like to chair? Would you like to chair this board that has no other members now? Right. Thankfully, I was very fortunate that Irene Renner, who's now, you know, a senator, she was on the select board at the time and she was like the ex-officio member. And so she gave me some guidance, but she's like, yeah, if you want to do anything, you got to chair it. You got to do it. You got to go in there and build it up. Build it up from scratch. So the first thing that I did was I started to, you know, to put out some feelers in community and I forget exactly how it happened, but I connected back with David Scopin. Yeah, with David. Okay. And his wife, Natalie Braun, both of them are very active in 350 VT and have just been, you know, our super passionate activists on the environment. Wow. They wanted to, they wanted to join and we found a couple of other people and before they're too long, maybe about two, three months, we had a full committee and what was neat about that, Daniel, was that, you know, we had a general idea, like we all read the charter. And what is the charter? Well, the charter? Offhand. Of course. So I think our energy committee charter is similar to a lot of other charters in that it is, as written, it's focused on the municipal government. Right. Very local. What can you do to help the municipal government with our electricity bills? Rather than the whole town as a, as a, exactly. But as we started to, and so, you know, which is all fine and certainly it's part of our mission and we want to make it work because every time you, you know, find some benefit to reduce the municipality's costs or find a source of revenue for them, like for instance, you know, with solar, you're both, let's say, helping the bottom line, but you're also improving the environment. Yeah, at the same time. Yeah. And so, like, that's, I've learned a lot about that being on the committee and I've really appreciated your focus and emphasis on, like, energy efficiency and weatherization, you know, prior to coming to Essex, I was very focused on renewable energy development and thinking, like, this is where, like, the big work needs to happen. Me too. That's what I, but... But it's, it's not that way, right? Can you speak to that? Like, how, like, because when I read that mission, I was like, wow, we're really that focused on energy efficiency and weatherization. Renewables is a part of it, but, you know, speak to that. I want to kind of hear more of that. Well, so, I think that, I think that what happened is that all of us kind of think the same way that, you know, that, at least before you start to learn about it, geez, doesn't it just make sense to generate more power? To just build a bunch of renewables. Exactly, and use renewables, but once you start to learn about it, and you know, I think we're, we're very lucky in Vermont that we've had the, the, the Global Warming Solutions Act and the Climate Council, and especially VECAN, the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network, to provide guidance to all the energy committees. Which actually is happening this weekend, right? Yes, yes, they put on events all the time. It'll be in Middlebury College this weekend is the, the VECAN Summit, which is the Vermont Energy, what's it? VECAN, yeah, Energy Climate Action Network, yes. Climate Action Network. It's, it's a really great, I'm excited to go. Well, that is a plug in. Well, there you go, but yeah, sure, no. No intention, but I think it's great. It is. No puns with the plugging in of the energy there. So VECAN, what VECAN explained through their work and through, and I think that GWSA matches this up, is that when we're really looking at the broader problem of climate change, okay, you got really 40, at least 40% of it, maybe more like 45% of it, it's all about transportation. And there's another 40s, let's say 45%, that's really all about weatherization, just about the inefficiency, thermal exactly, but really what that amounts to is stopping the thermal energy that we're using from just going through the awning, through the door, through the windows, or just, right? And then what you've got left is, is renewable energy. If we're really gonna solve the, or at least start to solve the climate change. So yeah, like I love that kind of, that, that breakdown of that, and I want to kind of maybe spend a little more time with the, with the energy efficiency, something that I've been learning while out there is like, you know, on the one side, heating in Vermont is primarily, you know, done through gas or biofuels, right? But, you know, if we're talking about efficiency, you know, it's a long term transition away from those fuel sources for heating until like maybe geothermal, you know, networks really become more of a standard within our towns and cities. That's a lot of infrastructure development. That's, you know, long term strategy there, but short term, right here, right now, what we can do to reduce the need for those fuels is better energy efficiency. Exactly, and a lot of that comes down to heat pumps really. I mean, it's so interesting because when I, probably at the beginning of the tens, like 2010, 2013, heat pumps were, you know, another terrible pun, but like a pipe dream, in other words, that no one actually thought that they were going to work. And so, for instance, you know, I think a lot of energy and time was put into the expanding gas pipelines, right, by Vermont Gas. But now, Vermont Gas, you know, if you go onto their website, they'll say, we'll help you install a heat pump. And if that isn't a major transition, right? And I think, I'd like to think, I think we can show that part of that, a small part, but a significant part in the end, comes from the advocacy of folks like VCAN and working with the energy committees, you help disseminate that type of message in your community, just like what you're doing, what we're all doing here and even talking about this. Well, no, and I think it's come a long way since you started in Essex seven years ago with just you and you kind of met with David and David Scopin and Natalie Braun. And all of a sudden, now we've got this kind of small family getting started. And how did you help the town of Essex bring in this kind of awareness? What was the big kind of turning point there in terms of like really helping to move more towards this clean, energy-efficient, renewables kind of development? Well I would, so it's a great question. I would say that one of the things that maybe I was a little bit lucky with is that at the precise time that I'm trying to reconstitute this dormant or non-existent energy committee, the legislature had passed Act 72 of 2016. I'm forgetting exactly the right number, but it was an Act that focused, I think it's Act 176 that focused on development of energy plans that are enhanced energy plans, as they're called, that basically what those do is they focus on helping communities identify where are their renewable energy or their potential for renewable energy resources, how much of them need to be developed in order to ultimately meet the Paris commitment? Again, that's focusing more on renewables. Right, the Paris Accords, as well as, and sort of similar types of statistics for how many cars do we need to convert over to hybrid or electrics, right? And what other measures, and also with thermal, how many homes do we need to weatherize? And so that's obviously just to say it out loud, like the enormity of that undertaking for something like ethics, right? But even for a smaller community, it's hard if you don't have that expertise, where do you go to get that expertise? Yeah, to crunch those numbers and really understand the data and how to formulate a strategic plan to really dole that out over the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years, right? Exactly, where's even the starting point? And so the answer was really the regional planning commissions.  Working with Melanie lately, she's great. Yeah, exactly, she's wonderful. So she spearheaded an effort to first develop a regional energy plan, and to do that, they really needed the involvement of people from every community, and obviously the logical place to draw from is the energy committees. So in doing that, that brought many of us together from Bolton and Huntington and all these communities to work on what we intended to see regionally, and then that in turn helped us to then forge enough of the connections and get enough ideas that we could then work with that same staff and our own community development office in Essex to develop an Essex energy plan. And that plan then needs to all go and get approved by the Department of Public Service and the Public Utility Commission. Yeah, which I'm learning about. Can you maybe speak, what is the Public Utility Commission and how does that get all the way down to the local level? I'm asking the hard questions now. Yeah, boy, I tell ya. So the Public Utility Commission, as it was originally intended, was to regulate all actual public utilities, which is primarily focused on electric, whether it be electric distribution, electric transmission, gas. Electricity through the wires, or, you know. High tension, low tension, yes, and certainly gas. They don't regulate things like number two fuel oil, which is what, let's face it, a lot of our monitors still get, you know, that's their primary source of heat. Sure, number two fuel, yeah. They also regulate telecommunications, primarily the wire line, but also they do cell siding, which is what I do a lot of, right, for wireless. But a thing that distinguishes Vermont from a lot of other states is that the PUC along the way also took responsibility for regulating the energy efficiency utility, which is efficiency Vermont, and which became energy efficiency utilities plural. So that includes Burlington Electric Department. So it's really an alliance of utility energy efficiency based organizations that are trying to drive this forward. Exactly, and the PUC, the Public Utility Commission, has a combination of, you know, what we call quasi-judicial, or basically they decide on specific cases, whether it be a rate making case, or whether it's going to be to build a pipeline, but then they also do some policy making and some legislative things like, okay, how are we going to deal with the demand for electricity from cars, right? Charging stations and things like that. So they do touch upon really every community in Vermont. They really tap into all of this. Based in Montpelier, across the street from the Supreme Court, looks very innocuous, but boy, they can have a big impact on what actually happens. And where that really lands strongly is with these enhanced energy plans. And so you were able to, you know, not just like build up this energy committee and give it a sense of purpose, but in doing so you helped facilitate the development of an enhanced energy plan for the town of Essex by tapping into these resources, these community, you know, advocates. Absolutely. That we're able to kind of coordinate and come together. Like what, you know, to me, that really speaks of leadership in a really powerful way, you know, what helped you kind of learn to lead through the ways, through those methods? Yeah, it's a good question. So I think, you know, part of it is that it's obviously, it's quite something when somebody tells you there is no committee, you know, it's up to you to figure it out. It's up to you. Right, you have to just kind of say, okay, well, what do I have to work with? Well, I think some people might have been like, if there's no committee, I'm not your guy. I'm not here, right? Yeah, but you chose a different path. Well, I mean, if you're going, you know, I had sort of made the deal with myself that if, you know, you're gonna, if you're gonna do anything to try to counter forces that seem to be taking us backward, at least in terms of, you know, the Trump administration dropping out of the Paris Accord and, you know, no real traction in fighting what is one of our most important things to be dealing with, right, which is climate change. Well, then it's not enough to just say, well, I'll go find some other committee. You know, especially when the framework is right there. Sometimes it's time, it falls on us to step forward and grab those reins and- Exactly, exactly. And I guess, you know, I took, I took a little inspiration, frankly, from some different examples, you know, both far from being close to me. So, you know, I was a huge Obama fan. I won't deny that. But I think the specific thing that I liked so much about his example is someone who, you know, for a period of their life was very devoted to their career and sort of advancing and really making their way in the world, but took a turn toward community activism and community organizing, right? Specifically of- At the grassroots level. At the grassroots level of building something that's, you know, now, his is much more profound, right? Working in Chicago. Sure, sure. But it's still as a principle, a guiding principle, I think it's important to be looking at, you know, if you're starting with little bits and pieces, well, don't just take that for granted.  Well, and in terms of, you know, in terms of community organizing and what you're talking about with how Barack Obama inspired you through that path. You know, I think I've shared this poem on this show before, but I do like to share it. It's a little haiku, just five, seven, five, you know, one drop ripples, but a thousand drops birth new life. Absolutely. Together we reign, right? You know, and so it's like, you know, it's that togetherness that allows for transformation to happen. And what I've really been, you know, I've been on the Essex Energy Committee for about six months now, I would say maybe a little over six months. And I've been really inspired by your leadership will and your capacity to bring that collective participation to the committee that we're in.  It's a type of transformation of leadership. Well, yeah, no, I appreciate that. I think the other thing that I thought about a lot is that I've been very lucky in my legal career to be, you know, trying to involve in a lot of projects that require you to build some bridges and to think creatively about how to make the best out of, you know, what sometimes is a terrible situation. Up situation, yeah. I was very, we didn't talk about this yesterday, but I was very fortunate in the early zeros to work on a compromise for stormwater legislation at the time that, you know, it spurred out of litigation, but it started to go into the legislative arena. And I saw, I was trying to draw my connections from the people that I knew, but also ended up working with a lot of other, like wonderful, wonderful people. And it ultimately, you know, sprang to life in a piece of legislation that helped regulate stormwater in a brand new way. Wow, yeah. And so that, so I think, yes, that's, it is definitely peacemaking.  And I said, and I think other people have the same thought, why don't we get together to try to do, you know, if we're gonna be talking about weatherization every fall, right, it's a ritual that I think everybody, Greenup. Well, not Greenup is in the spring, but in the fall, it's always button up, right? It's kind of the major push, if you will, statewide to do weatherization. We organized an event with Jericho and Westford and a bunch of other energy committees to have kind of a regional showcase at the Essex Experience, where you go to see the T. Rex Theater, et cetera. It had been converted over. That's a particularly inspiring place for us because Peter Edelman, who owns the, what used to be called the Essex Outlet Malls and it's now called the Essex Experience. Yeah, he's really transformed that space, too. He has, and one small, you know, part of that is, I think if you look around, you'll see it's one of the only kind of commercial shopping mall areas that has solar panels all over the roof. Right, yeah. Peter and I talked about that and I said, boy, I think it's one of these things that if you consider that, there's gonna be a lot of, not just tenants who think like maybe that's the place I wanna be, maybe my bills will be a little cheaper, but it'll certainly be cleaner, but also that I think it's an inspiration to everyone to see a space like that, especially when the talk is that big, getting, you know, being solarized. Being solarized and using cleaner sources of energy. Exactly. This is, you know, you and I talked a little bit, have talked a little bit about natural capital, right? And, you know, the use of renewable energy is one form of natural capital, but the idea behind that is, you know, capital development is something that grows, right? And quite often through conventional wisdom, what we think of when we think of the natural environment is exploitation until depletion, right? That's the old model. That's kind of what has been happening for a few centuries now, unfortunately, right? You know, and so what we're seeing with solar and with these new developments in weatherization and efficiency and trying to change the way we engage with our environment, it's much more of a generative process now. Exactly. It's about developing that space. How can we expand our natural environment? How can we expand those natural resources in a way that serves us, but can be sustainable over the long term? That's right. You know, when we did the energy plan for Essex, and I think there's a lot of other communities will have experienced this too, one of the things that we kind of realized is, well, one of the best potential resources that we all have are parking lots because they are the perfect place to solarize, right? Because usually they're cleared of, you know, there's no trees and or anything nearby. So why not? Why not? Exactly. And so I think our energy plan, like many others, will focus on some of those areas and say, boy, this would be a perfect place to put a solar canopy. And from my perspective, those solar canopies are great on multiple levels. Not only are they, you know, generating electricity, but they create shade. They create shade. And honestly, if you're walking from your car on a rainy day or a really snowy slushy day, it's really nice that you still will cover. Yeah, you got some cover there. And you have to imagine, too, that we're going to get to the point and not too long, right? With the rate of adoption of electric cars. Electric vehicles. That those canopies also could potentially be, you know, combined with charging stations. Electric vehicle charging stations. To make it a lot easier. And we're lucky in Vermont that we have so many pioneers kind of work thinking about, like Suncommon, I feel like was a real pioneer about that. They've been great. We've reached out to them and have organized events with them within Essex. Yeah. Or just co-sponsored it, like some of their sun run events. And so I think that, you know, just back to the point about Essex experience, that is a perfect place where we had this resource that didn't feel like a resource until you started to look at it. And think like, how else can we use this? Yeah. How can we use our natural environment or the environment we have, in this case, a blacktop, which doesn't feel natural at all, but how can we convert that into a space that is something new, that does rely on natural resources in a way that generates more than where we were before? Right. Yeah. So we were to use your haiku. I mean, we were one raindrop in that whole process of transforming that place, but it's wonderful to see that it is transforming and it's proof that, you know, every little bit of pushing that you can do, you know, for your community is gonna have an impact. Yeah. You know, it doesn't all, like for instance, just to take you another example, when we did the Essex Energy Plan, we looked pretty seriously at, wow, do we actually have hydro resources? Could we do a micro-hydro? Micro-hydro power kind of process. A lot of people in the community or in, you know, Greater Burlington have been to Indian Brook, right? To walk their dogs. And when you come into Indian Brook, there's that nice, there's that beautiful little, you know, tiny dam there. And we looked pretty seriously at, well, could we make it work? And we benefited actually from the expertise of some of the folks in South Burlington who had done their own micro-hydro project. Right. They'd actually, at least, it looks like theirs is actually working, but they had a much bigger vertical drop. So we got lots of information from them. We ultimately ruled it out as a resource. But in doing so, we discovered a couple of other things about, you know, about Indian Brook and about micro-hydro that surely we're going to be able to use and share in the future. Yeah, no. And so that's, it's incredible to see that kind of creative energy. You know, I think we touched on this, like, if we were looking at energy, you know, 25 years ago or 30 years ago, in comparison to, like, the conversation we're having right now about energy, you know, I mean, 25 years ago, energy was not a subject that people wanted to talk about. It was not, it was old. It was, you know, based on an industry that's been around for over a century now. Right. And really just it wasn't doing anything to benefit the planet other than, you know, creating an economy that ran the world. Yeah, there are great benefits that have come out of the fossil fuel industry, but not in a way that is in alignment with nature and not in a way that I think most of us really want to participate, right? Yeah, that's sustainable. You know, I was thinking a inspiration from long ago to me. In other words, like, why did I ever get interested in any of this kind of area?  Well, for me, there was one of those Usborne books when I was, have you ever had those? Or like, I think now it's DK. They're very similar to DK where they're explaining things about the world we live in, especially when you're 11 or 12 years old. And I have an enduring memory from one of those books that was about, you know, what is going to happen in the future? What are cities gonna look like in the future? And it was a juxtaposed picture. And on one side, you have what the world will look like if we do nothing about the environment. And in it, it looked very much like Blade Runner, right? You had kind of darkened skies, heaps of trash, you know, raining and everything looks like it's covered with soot, people walking in gas masks along the street. Yeah, that's a dark future. That was a dark future. And right next to it, on the very next page, and this is, to me, the more inspiring part, was the very same location. People are walking without any gas masks. It's sunny, but you could also see that all the vehicles were electric, that there was green space in the median between the electric train and the electric cars. There was a person on the bicycle, right? Going along, using a dedicated bike path. And to me, that juxtaposition of the image has always kind of summed it up, like boy, we could pick one direction or we could pick the other. Yeah, well, and if we don't pick soon enough, you know, Mother Nature may pick for us. That's a great point, that's a great point. This is something that you just inspired in me, thinking back to my childhood and where my roots came from in terms of just environmental awareness, was the giving tree. Oh, yes, great.  I think it stuck with a lot of people. It made me think a lot about like, wow, if the tree just keeps on giving, and you know, what's left at the end. Nothing left, yeah. I love it. I love where all of this has come from, such a rich history, such an incredible journey to elevate that, the energy committee like you have. What are you doing right now with the Essex Energy Committee? What's the next steps for you? Yeah, so there's a couple of things that I'd really like to see us accomplish. One of the things that, and you know, Daniel, you've been instrumental in a lot of it, but what we'd like to do is to take that concept of a regional event and take it one step further and try to do a button up during the Champlain Valley Fair during at the CVE. And what we're trying to do is get members from every energy committee in the whole region to participate and do a combination of, you know, promoting weatherization, promoting electric vehicles, to really try to use that sort of incredible energy in the sense of like the amount, the number of human energy, the number of visitors, the number of people in the community that come to that event, we'd really like to see if we can make that work. The other thing that from my perspective is really missing, you know, aside from missing people when I started the energy or when I came to start to work on the energy committee, the other thing that was really missing was funding, right, money. Money is a necessary component of all this, right? It is fuel in a sense. I mean, human energy is too, and we've got that. Well, money is stored energy. Yeah, there you go, exactly. It's there for when you need it and then you deploy it at the right time at the right place. So we are trying to work with our treasurer and with town staff and also getting some help from the regional planners again to set up a revolving loan fund so that when we get a project going, whether it be a new renewable energy facility or even things like some savings, you know, we have a buildings manager. We did not have a buildings manager when we started. It was one of our real accomplishments to make sure that there's a full-time position for somebody who's literally, you know, trying to weatherize all of the municipal buildings. Right, really serving that original mandate. Exactly, exactly. What we'd like to do is put that money back into a fund that can then be used for other energy projects. And this is not an original idea. It's really something that Montpelier, as far as I'm concerned, the Montpelier Energy Committee, they were the leader, but others, South Burlington, many others are starting to do this. And so it's something that we want to achieve because that could also really make a difference. And it's all the more interesting in that, at least now as a result of the separation between Essex Town and the city of Essex Junction, the town of Essex is going to be looking for new space to build a new building. And it would be great if we could make sure that that building is, if it's not net-zero, it should be net-zero. It should be net-zero. It should be solarized. It should be. It should be a symbol of what the future of our community is about to look like, right? Exactly. It should be that picture. Exactly. It should be the picture from the book you're talking about. What was it again? The Osborn, Cities of the Future. The Osborn, Cities of the Future. That should be, when municipalities have an opportunity to build new infrastructure, that's an opportunity to capture where that municipality is going. Absolutely. I think, I will say that I think South Burlington did a truly excellent job of that in that, you know, that market street that's emerging now, when you look at those buildings in comparison to the old buildings, not only are they aesthetically nicer, but you can see that there's sort of an economy of scale there, everything right together, connected by bicycle paths. They were really thinking about the human scale and they were thinking about the environmental. Yes. As well. Yeah, South Burlington has done a great job at that. They have. I'm confident that Essex can do the same, but it doesn't happen if you don't put a little creativity and a little elbow grease. You have to provide the right nutrients. That's right, exactly. Yes, comp, yeah. Well, to that point, this is where I always like to end the show and that is, how are you building peace in your community right now? It's a great question. I feel like we've been talking about it a lot, but I really want to just bring it home now. You mentioned being a peacemaker as a lawyer, but I think you've transitioned into a peace builder. Well, so let's just say that we've talked about that, but I do think it's such a great question. And the way that I think of it or what we were talking about yesterday is a lot of people have terrible impressions of lawyers and that could be for totally justified reasons, that there are only time in their life that they get into a real legal quandary and they have an awful experience. They have an awful experience with lawyers and that's unfortunate. Kind of sets the stage, yeah. It sets the stage, but I think that if I and my terrific colleagues at DRM, when we do our jobs right, we are old and that's true whether we're actually representing a client or we're just being active in our community, which is one of the values of the firm. And I think values as a Vermonter, I think when we're doing our job right, we are creating peace. We are reducing or eliminating conflict or we are finding a way to ultimately achieve an equilibrium that advances things forward. And nowhere is that truer when it comes to thinking about how much we value just this thriving community that we have here in Essex and in greater Burlington. Really using those skills and expertise in a way that harnesses future potential that takes, because I mean when you start talking about the PUC and regional planning commissions and municipal enhanced energy plans and all of the stuff in between, that takes a lot of expertise. And talking about like infrastructure projects and understanding zoning and regulations and having all of that as a part of this conversation, it almost takes a lawyer to figure out how to carve a path in that direction. Well, that's true, but I tell you, I don't feel that our energy committee would have the success it does without people like, you know, like you who are thinking outside the box, you're thinking about the piece, you're thinking about how to bring all of these forms of capital together to actually make it work. We have, you know, Natalie Braun and David Skopin who are consummate activists and they're the people that will go up to you on the street with the pamphlet, with the form and explain it to you and not be afraid and not be abrasive or offensive but be bold enough to say this is something that you should be thinking about that we all need to be thinking about. And we've had the benefit, we had Michael Fink who works at Efficiency Vermont. He joined us, you know, a few years ago and he's, even though he's left, he made a great contribution in the sense that he helped us to think about the, he managed to sort of do a rough calculation with the help of an SX, I was a great student of SX's GHG footprint, right, which is wonderful. So bringing, you know, multiple people together, I think different talents and different perspectives is absolutely necessary if you're to get peace, right? Right, yeah, well, and so this is something that I would, so I have training in peace building and conflict transformation. That's kind of my space of expertise.   Right, regulation of storm water, yeah, exactly. That's what I'm talking about, regulation of storm water.   Keep everyone apart. Keep everyone apart, that's a peacekeeper. Yes. But peace builders, they arrive before a conflict starts to develop, they are there when the treaty is signed and they stay long after in order to implement on that treaty. That's right. And so like what I have seen with your story on with the Essex Energy Committee is like, you showed up when nobody was there, right? And you have seen that arc as the energy committee has really stepped forward. And that's what I mean, like you know, so there's that peacemaker part, and I think that legal expertise is so significant because we do need peacemakers. We need folks that can strike that bargain, that can make that space and codify it and ratify it and build coalitions, right? We need people like that. But we also need peace builders. Yes. We need folks that are in the communities that are doing the work that you've been doing for the past seven years to really advance this mission. You know? Oh, absolutely. And you know, I think to me, the biggest lesson is that you should never be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and go into something just because maybe, you know. Maybe it's not what you expected. Maybe it's not what you expected. But it's worth doing.  And I think one of the things that we really need to cherish here is that people do really care about this community and how it works and whether it's, you know, has an environmental ethos that permeates everything. Not every place is like that. And so we gotta take advantage of that. You know, doing so is... It's a wealth that we have to preserve. It is. It's a complicated and a complex wealth, right? All the stuff about the BUC and McChifrey and all of that. But it's really important that we do it. And I'm very glad that you stepped up and came out of your comfort zone, right? Came to a brand new place. Well, you know, my story was similar. I was actually, my expertise is really more in economic development. And I've had my hand in some energy projects in the past and I care about sustainable development, environmental conservation. And there happened to be a seat available on the Energy Committee and not on the Economic Development Committee. So I said, okay, this is the path that I'm taking. Right? So I think that... I think you took the right path. I think so. I think so. And with that, I think we all need to step into that uncomfortable space and really think about how we're going to move forward to create that vision of a community we can all appreciate and enjoy being a part of, right? Absolutely. Great, great. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again. I really appreciate everyone that's stuck with us all the way to the end. This show, Peace Talks, was brought to you by Community Wealth Development. And what we're trying to do here is bring peace builders together to create collective impact for our communities moving forward. Next episode is going to be the finale of season one and we'll have Will Dodge back with us along with all of our previous guests for the last five episodes so that we can have a conversation together about how these very different folks, how can we build community wealth together? And so that will be the conversation that we step into next time. And thank you so much and have a wonderful June Pride weekend. Weekend, exactly, thank you. Thank you, Daniel, thanks. Cheers. Take care. That's it, bye-bye.


How to plant sunflower seeds? Sunflowers are annual plants that produce large or small yellow flowers in the summer. Sunflowers are very popular because of their beauty, and because they are easy to grow. Planting sunflower seeds in the spring can be a fun activity for adults and children. You can plant sunflower seeds with a minimum of time and preparation. Germinating sunflower seeds. Check the outdoor temperatures. While sunflowers can be started indoors, they work best if they're started in the ground. Sunflower roots are sensitive to being moved, so transplanting them may kill them. They grow best at temperatures between 64 and 91 F18 to 33 C, but you can plant at slightly lower temperatures, once the last frost has passed. Sunflowers usually take 80 to 120 days to mature and produce new seeds, depending on the variety. If the growing season is shorter than this in your area, plant the sunflowers two weeks before the last frost, most seeds will probably survive.Aria-label equals, link to reference 3, greater than sunflowers usually take 80 to 120 days to mature and produce new seeds, depending on the variety. If the growing season is shorter than this in your area, plant the sunflowers two weeks before the last frost, most seeds will probably survive. Select a sunflower variety. There are many sunflower varieties and hybrids, but most gardeners will only need to look at a couple characteristics, usually described on the seed packet or online listing. Be sure to check the sunflowers maximum height, since this ranges from dwarf varieties under 1 foot 30 cm, to giant sunflowers 15 feet 4.6 m or taller. Also, decide between a sunflower that produces one stalk and flower, or one that branches out into multiple stalks with several smaller blooms. It is not possible to grow plants from roasted sunflower seeds, but you can grow it from sunflowers in bird seed, as long as the outer shell is present. Fold the seeds in a damp paper towel. Moisten a paper towel slightly, so it is damp but not soaked or dripping. Place the sunflower seeds on one half of the towel, then fold it over to cover them. If you have a large number of sunflower seeds, and don't mind a lower success rate, you can skip straight to planting. Seeds planted directly in the soil typically take 11 days to emerge. If you have a long growing season, try germinating seeds in batches 1 or 2 weeks apart, so you'll have blooms in your garden for a longer period of time. Keep the paper towels in a plastic bag. Put the damp paper towels in a plastic bag. Check on them once or twice a day, and continue once the seeds have sprouted. Typically, you'll see sprouts emerge from most of the seeds within 48 hours. Once this happens, move on to planting the seeds. Keep the paper towels at a temperature above 50 F10C for best results. Clip the edge of the seed shells if necessary. If the seeds don't sprout within 2 or 3 days, try using a fingernail clipper to remove the edge of the shell. Be careful not to damage the seed inside. Add a few more drops of water if the paper towels are drying out.


Welcome to Toffy TV. It's the final word. Baz is back. Made up. You've changed out those little ballies that you've done last week on the beach. The speedo. The speedo, mech. The speedo. Baz was. Baz. The bed, I mean, to be fair. I could have bought them cos the bed was a cut off. You see sharks and dolphins now? No, I didn't see dolphins. That's a lie. You see sharks and seals?  He was living this week. He loved it. I think he is, bro. The other one. I forgot it already. So, you're not that one. It's a damsky. A damsky. Feet in sail. Well, it wasn't actually Feet in sail, but it was just a damsky. He was sail, Tim, isn't he? He married supermodels and then bombed them on. They didn't bombed them off, he slipped up. Anyway, we're just doing all this so we don't have to sell our match. If anything bought the football. So, it hasn't been a great week, has it Baz? Come on.  I was really disappointed that I couldn't have gone to the... This game looked amazing. What really annoyed me is you chose your family over going to France with me. That's what really hate me. You chose. Hate me here. Not getting out of bed rather than go to Austria with me. So, not getting out of bed. You just want to lay there with your Batman bills on watching us win 22 now, instead of being there with the people. 27 hours at what it took us. It's alright. You had us going through 70. You had us going through 17 countries to get there. I mean, amazing. It looked amazing, didn't it? It looked amazing, didn't it? The boss looked like FIFA League Tuesday. A bit like Ivy Lane or something. The boss, but the people just watching out the balcony. I was expecting at the end of the escape of victory. I was expecting like someone to throw a console with Jag so we could escape. I loved it when you could just see smoke bill on the battling grip. It's the barbecue. It's not on fire. It looked amazing to me fair. Yeah. That's everything else around the game. It hasn't been a very good week. Obviously it started well with the ritualis and deal. I loved today's guide on the thing. What's being spent on all that ritualis. 35 mil. 35 mil. 50 mil and getting all and sundry to comment. It's all right. When we spent 37 on it, didn't you? Oh, being made. That little eagle that fell out. Yeah, Blackbeam was not very pretty. That's all. Can I just mention as well? It was boiling hot, guess what they said in the media. I sound like a poor media. Chili. Chili. 32 degrees it was outside. Chili. No, no, chili. Had a beanbos cos I drink in this and start sweating when I drink in the studio. No, I swear of the chili. Full swear of the oil. But yeah, Blackbeam was a bit grim apart from ritualis and could have a later. But he looked bright. And then obviously onto the rent game of the weekend. Yeah. Well, we've got it. I was, to be honest, I was looking forward to it. To see whether he picked a team that he considered to be his first team. And I think he probably did and that's probably close to it. That was my worry, wasn't it? I mean, what can you say? I think at Blackbeam we looked tired, to be honest. We looked like the plays at the training sessions. And they did look physically tired. You could see it in their legs, every single one of them. So I was expecting a little bit more out of this game. I suppose I don't know what sort of... I know it's all nice, some of the senior and everything. But you know we're two weeks to go and you're watching other Premier League teams playing in front of like 60 or 1000 against really in a really competitive environment. That sort of coming back to that kind of game. I sort of felt straight away that it wasn't going to be a massively competitive game. Which I thought was a bit weirder two weeks to go. I don't know, I just thought it might have been a little bit more... Well, we would have been playing at their stadium. But they would have known that, wouldn't they, when they set up? Again, it's not organized. We grabbed the game, didn't we? Of course. We literally grabbed the game. Hence why it was two days after the Blackbeam game. Cos we grabbed what we could. We wanted to go to Germany. That didn't play out for whatever reason. So we've ended up grabbing a game and they'd rather the players play the game. I watched the game and just thought, I thought we started okay. I thought we zipped it around quite nicely. I thought there was a lot of good link-up play. The problem for me, and I know the centre-backs have been on the screen. And rightly so, the pair of them. But the two me feel players we've got, just woeful. I would say one of them. Well, when they play together, that's what I'm saying. As a unit of that four. I remember when I'd done the tactics, then you spoke about the block of four that he likes. But that block of four is no good if not one of them can run. Garn it. Garn it's very good at going and harrying impression. But I don't think, I think he just leaves his position when the other fellers there. I think he's more disciplined when he's on his own. And that's why for me, Sniadwyn, it is a big issue. He's always been a big issue. He's never not been a big issue. I don't know why. He was the first few months he wasn't a big issue. I honestly don't know why he's still at the club. I think if we're going to play. I think the positive side to look at it in the first half. We should have been really. I don't know why that goal was this laugh. Is it a push or is he offside? He's not offside. No, he's not offside. So what was it this laugh for then? I have no idea. So we should have been one-nil up. And then the manner in which we can see the goals was the most important. One thing you can't do in pre-season is you're not going to scout the opposition. You're not going to sit down and go where are these goals and let's check. It is all about the way you play and progress them with that. The simple fact is if they won, if Wolth played exactly the same style as they did, we wouldn't play like that. We'd have to change our style. So it was that counter attack all the time. The two wide lads are fast as anything because we were trying to push up so high. Every goal was on the counter attack basically. And three or four goals we give the ball away. And I think you can look at it in two ways. You can look at it and go, oh my God, that's our team and we are wide open and it's a nightmare. And some people have looked, we're going down, we're relegated. We can look at it the other way. It's a sign of so much emphasis on attacking. That they are getting caught and that is an issue. That's where pace comes into it. Pace is a big thing for us. We know that. We know that but the goals, if you look at the goals, it was very similar to the Porto goal that beat us. We give the ball away and we feel they go, boom, boom, Ann Mereigh is driven. He put it under the keeper. I mean, I know you can't really blame Stechlenberg but every shot that he seems to have had on goals in. But, you know, like you say, we went behind. It was a bad goal. You know, but we got back in. We kind of got back into the game at the end of the first half. You know, I'm going to tune it down and then the Tarlasons goes a cracking goal and he was, again, really, really bright. You know, the one when he went down five minutes if they went there and got brought down, he looks like he's going to be a real threat for us and that was good. I think my criticism in the first half will have been that he's not being in the middle enough. He's got to stay in the middle. You know, coming out and trying to get involved. We had that with Wayne. We need someone. Focally needs to stay in the middle. Did we get enough off the other side with Sanson Coleman? We'll be both linking up quite well. I just think at times, the ball into the box, the final ball just wasn't there. While not disappointed, he was gilfy in that role. He's got to do better. But, again, he's had that was what his second game after being off for a couple of weeks. And I've heard Jags today talking and said, they just feel leggy cos they've done that much work. He said, you can tell by watching our games. That were leggy, he said, but it'll settle down because the game, you know, we've got a week to dig in. So that's the thing that's kind of bringing me back a little bit ago. All right, well, you know, and the other way he looked at it, sorry, was I just thought in some respects, getting spanked like that might actually be a good thing because it's showing the manager the deficiencies there and then. If he didn't know them before, which he probably did, it's flagged on back up for me. Massively. Massively. No, I know what you mean about the sentiment fielders, but we've got it sort out of the sentiment fielders. Neither of those plays are good enough. And I know you like Keane. No, I know you're not. No, let's clarify. You like him in terms of... I just think he's all right. I think if United and Liverpool were interested in the misty way, and he got in the England team, and he was outstanding for Burnley, he must be a decent defender. Is he performing at a level at the moment? No, he's not. I think he might be a decent defender. I just don't think he's mentally tough enough. I just don't think he's mentally tough enough. I don't think there's much between Keane and McGuire, right, as defenders, but McGuire wants it. He's prepared to put his head in. We'll go up to that next level. I don't think Keane's got that. He just never looks switched on. He just looks too nice. Doesn't he? He looks like one of those centrebacks where he'd tackle, yeah, and then he'd go, you're all right, and then he'd pick you back up and go, you're all right. It's great being a nice person, but I think he's got it off. His evident career is hanging. I would say now in the balance, like buying a thread. If you've got your career buying a thread, you've got a fight for it. I think back to some of our centrebacks, I think back to the likes of Waggy, who would just cut you in half, whether it was a training game or that kind of thing. You've got to have that nastiness about you, and you haven't got the nastiness. Whether he got someone alongside him, who was, who was a bit more, I mean, I don't think me and it will come, because I think that would have been done surely, I think he wants man United, but if he was to turn up, not just Brandon, he's going to knock on the door and go home here, but if he was to come, he is nasty, he's horrible. He's horrible. He's watching anything of me, he's always having an in that England game, but would he be good enough to come? I don't know if Keen smells danger. No, I know you said that. He just doesn't, you know some, we've watched the players like Goff and Waggy, and these players, and the legs have gone, but he's still... He's got a get to be fair from the other, with... Jax does, does he? It's just his legs are going now, but Jax does do that. I think it was in the second half, where they broke, and I think they might have scored off it, but Jax was still made up more ground than any other defender. He got the closest to getting to the lad, he went past Keen, and that's a lamin, because positionally I think, I think he just looks flat-footed to me. I just don't care.  I think battler, I think physically wise, I think he's okay. I think in the air, I think he's okay, but if he's going to be flat-footed and getting done by runners, then we will have it, unless we've got someone with sear and pace alongside him, we're going to be caught by that, otherwise we have to defend on the edge of our box, which that's what Silver might do. He might push, if Keen's going to be involved, I don't know, if he's going to play, he might end up saying to him, right, stay ten yards fairer back. We'll have snad, we'll have... See, this is for me why I think we need a mobile midfield player. I do. You've seen snad and trying to catch one of their lads, and I've come a little bit sack as he for him. He's just like, I don't know, I don't know. You see, I look at that evidence and I think there's still good players in that squad, there is. There is, but the key areas need it. You're looking at Bains, still a great footballer.  But he looks like Dean, how do you say it? Dean Yee. Do you want to say it, Scottish Dean? Dean Yee, Dean Yee. But you've got to say it in a French way, so Dean Yee. Dean Yee, Dean Yee. That's Italian why he's doing that for. Because he... He's dead in my bed next! Dean Yee. He looks like a nice tidy footballer. Looks like he's got a turn of pace about him. He's lightning but he's got a turn of pace about him. He's young and athletic and he's a good footballer. So that kind of filled me with hope that looking at that left hand side. Now, so you look at that left hand side. Like someone, see someone said this morning and he got a favourite. We're going to go for a martin and then ballasi to Dean Yee in the charles. So they've come in and looked and gone, that's a problem. There's that fixed. And that's why we have to maintain a patience with Silver and Brands because I think what the finding is and I think to be honest I think Robbie Cooman might have found this. It's great going. I want him. I want him and I want him. And then players are like... You've got to find out with Mina, aren't you? Mina's going to leave Barcelona on this, right? And at the moment he's like, he will leave them because by buying Malcolm I think that he's lost his... And he got the other fella as well. Anyway, he didn't need to want the defender so he'll go. But what he's doing at the moment is going, well I'm going to wait and see if Man United are doing it. And to be fair, Dean Yee's probably doing the same thing. He's probably been waiting to see if a Champions League team or Paris Saint-Germain or Lyon or whoever are coming for him. Who would want a sign for Everton? Honestly, if you played for Barcelona would you want a sign for Everton? Because I wouldn't. If I had no affiliation you finished eight in the Premier League you're not in Europe. Why isn't an incentive to sign for you? And then you need a manager to talk you through all that. I believe he did though, didn't he? Apparently, it was a little bit like that because other teams were showing an interest and then he spoke to Sylvain and he said the other side. So if I was Mina it would be the same thing at the moment it would be wait till all the options are gone and then maybe Everton might be third or fourth on the list at the moment in terms of what the win is off for Barcelona and what they're willing to offer him but he'll still wait for all those options. That's right isn't it? People who say don't bother Simon if he doesn't want to play for us I guarantee that nine out of ten players we approach at the moment don't see Everton as first choice because why would you? There is validation in that isn't it? You want players to play for you because you need that.  There people's names are people like Mel Bessards though. Well there's a catering point to Charleston The kids come in last week and he played a game and a half and looked like he wants everything he wants but I think that's in his night yet I think that is the difference with him is though I think someone like with Charleston is stepping up because he's stepping up and because he's stepping up you're having to pay the extra where is Dean Yee it will come in for less because he's dropping down so we want those players because I keep on saying I said this last week in a video for Ball Street we're having to pay that extra premium because we're buying players to big to step up I'll come for less but it's hard I mean where's your take on Mina because obviously I know you're just saying I don't think he's that good I've got to say I'm unsure but I've identified him oh yeah listen and whatever he say if they go we want him I'll go sound we'll have him but what I mean by it it's a mangale a game and he played it 124 minutes for us he didn't tell the world he was terrible well listen it's terrible get the milk man back we need the milk you've still delivered but I think from my point of view with Barys are the other options we go for have seen a Jamie Carrick has said something this morning that Evan needs to centre back and he said the problem you've got is there's not many great ones he said Liverpool still need one he went ahead and it needs two he's got good players although they've got the most expensive centre back in the world and one who played in the World Cup final he took his team to both world greatest defender this is what he said so I'm saying when you look like that and go well who would you get Alfie Morrison I think is a good defender but again the knee he's in back for me still don't he's paying 25 million quid for a lad who's knee is untested but I'm saying then there's Ben Gibson is he quick enough people say he's slow but if we've already got a kid that can really don't have centre back so that's the problem and that's probably why they're waiting for me and they're probably looking and going well this fella is strong he's big, he's great in the air which he is he's horrible and maybe him and Holgate and Keane maybe they'll be the three and Jacks will be the one that is the squadfiller if it stayed like it is right now who would you play centre back first game of the season you see normally I'd say I would play Holgate if he's fit I'd play Jacks in Holgate but the only thing that I know at the moment is the way that Bradley just shoved him on his arsteel then I put it in was embarrassing and then he looked gone at the weekend he looked finished to me at the weekend but it's still it's when he's knackered he looks like this when he's fit he's still got it so maybe by the time Wolves comes he will be I've just said to you if we play ten yards further back with them sat where Mason can make it up it'd probably be sad I'm excited by what we're doing going the other way I said to you the other day Seamus I thought Seamus defensively on Saturday he was horrendous he was nowhere literally nowhere but going the other way it was like he'd never been away and that was what that's the positive I'm taking from him his touch was great he was up and down if he can start and this is what I'm saying again about Towson give him a target when you're wide give the man in the box cos Colin put two gripes and he was flat-footed he should be running and running and running so we don't even have to look you're wide you're a man's in the box get it in there and that's what will get him Seamus that's what will get him dingy hence why I think the four is the big crux of the problem for us Guilfy won't be a problem because he'll get fit and he's done it in the Premier League for years he's a very very good footballer but those middle four for me I can't believe that the position Snidelining is in at the moment to the side of six hasn't been more of a priority in getting a player in cos it's such an important role in the team I can't understand why we've been linked with nobody and we continue to be linked with nobody cos you can't tell me you can't tell me that he doesn't look comfortable playing in that room there's nothing different from last season so I wouldn't say that there's nothing different from last season no no Richarlison you can sit look at Richarlison we picked the ball up and moved it that's what you want a number six to be doing picking the ball up and moving it taking it through the lines he hasn't got that I think the reason why I'm saying you listen we've said it for probably definitely a year is that those two as a pair can play that way because Garnir isn't good enough at the final end of the pitch he can go past players and he can wait he's not good enough for the final end of the pitch and he's not one who can play killer through balls Snidelining likes to drop deep and ping it which he's very good at but that's not good enough for us because we need someone to take the ball so that's what I'm saying if Garnir drops into that sick role he can't get about the pitch but your other midfielder then has to be someone like a Dembele someone safe from spares someone like that who will get the ball and run and transit the way Ross used to be before this is what makes you laugh right when Wayne Rooney was playing the number six and he had Sigerton in front of him they had that relationship with Wayne okay the fact of Wayne didn't have the defensive discipline obviously but then that's where you left Garnir so Rooney was actually doing a good job when he had Sigerton in there Sigerton would take that attack and responsibility off him Rooney could find him because he's a great passer to the ball and we would go through the lines that way where Sigerton Snidelining's not a good passer to the ball through the Iver Needle and when he gets caught, when he missed places a pass he can't take it quick enough so they are already on the way so that to me that was where people slide Rooney off I think that worked really well and we haven't looked to if he went out the team because Wayne then suddenly all the attacking emphasis was put on his shoulders from the number six position and then people got round because we didn't have someone who saved the ball that is what you need your number six to do modern teams at the moment mate if our squad was the obviously Dignay coming in if our squad was that then if today was the window shutting and Dignay was signed he'd be looking going but my midfield too I think for Wolves, I think I'd have to play Garner and Tom Davis and yet Tom Davis hasn't looked he's being robust this pretty season form wise I think Bezos is being good and bad I think the thing with Bezos will be in except he takes too many risks and so we've got he's a bit like Snidelining not in the fact that Snidelining takes risks like that Snidelining just simply gets caught he's too slow Bezos gives the ball away and then Bezos is the player who tries to do the things wrong he does, he's just not good enough he looked legging he looked like he was trying to impress but the amount of times he got caught trying to be clever on the ball that's the thing I think when he simplifies another one when he simplifies his game he's very good because he's got everything you want he's good he can take the ball he's got a bit of skill about him he's got that heart it's everything you want but he's passing his riskiness on the ball it's something you can do in a Premier League you can get caught too many times looking and people whip it off your feet so that to me is a big problem that to me is a bigger problem is the centre back and it smacks you in the face that you're looking and going like a centre midfielder and he'll be in the long side garn it ok, might work because he can do that then he plays ahead of him he's hit miss luckman but then luckman is in the centre of the midfield it's a battle wouldn't work that to me is a big problem we've been linked with the French lad who's a Roman 29 you know he's a big 6 foot 1 I don't think that's a bad age for that kind of player he's got to be able to get around that's the same and I don't think that's a bad age but at the end of the day we're still missing Jordan Pick for the goal we're missing Scarnance Sigarton only just back Theo Walklott hasn't kicked the ball which is really worrying with Charleston there's only just come into the side so there are those hopefully we'll come in hopefully we'll get another centre so there are things like that to look at I think the other thing is having a dom in a calvary another option at the end of the pitches we need to start creating more chances we're not creating enough chances we started we were there not forget the air we had loads on out but we looked at where we played we started again really well against real in the first half the second half was horrendous the first half we looked really bright Porto the first half we were really bright cut them open didn't take our chances but the last couple of games Black Bay although saying that Janks missed two sitters at Black Bay and the others should have scored two Charleston three if you look at it again you could have had that trick so we might have ended up with a couple of goals that night but at the weekend any chances against the team that we really should have been the kid at the back who we were linked with the big lad at the back why do these French teams have loads of box centre that no-one's ever heard of and now that no-one's ever heard of on these centre we feel there's no-one's ever heard of but we should be we've linked with them a couple of years but the other the couple of lads at the back the centre backs the ones we were linked with even a couple of weeks ago we should be after them the athletic, the strong, the fast the French people probably not paying massive amounts of money you get linked with all these players for 50, 60 million and you look at France and you're like every team's got a decent centre where you feel there a decent centre defender big strong athletic players one of them from Wren one of the back lads there and just go but we're all going to see what you're like cos we probably get them for 15 mils whatever might even be 18 and then go and get another centre you know we've got me go and get a French centre back as well to come in and go your in the squad as well if that means King going up to door so be it or if it means Jags going Jags becoming 58 centre back but being around a club so be it but we've got to start you know we've got to start looking those ways and one of those lads are probably be like come to everything yes please, no I'll just save man, you want me fair which is fair enough me has got you know he's well within his rights to do that but you know we don't really know that much about how long we look at him and go he looks alright but he could be when he comes in and you go he could be the main cow now you just don't know but you write the other end of the pitch we've got to start getting we've got to start committing more bodies in there which we were doing ironically so I can only think it's legs we haven't got as many up there but again that comes down to your midfield one of your midfielders on the edge of your box gilfy should be in there with 1000 this is how silver's teams play your two full backs are post right on it's what we're doing in them areas and again that's why I think if we had a new centre midfielders someone who could unlock you know unlock something and I think we've all you know I've said for ages there's no point selling the ass and that but I think I don't think I don't think we need a new centre for all it's going to push so no we do and the ass is sound for what he'll do but I think if there's a choice between him and Jank Jank's going to play isn't he because he's got a bit more to his game you know go and try and get bats away on none and maybe there'll be times when you can play him as a wide player as bats away and to get him in the team because he can do different roles obviously Theo won't make a big difference when he comes back with the pace and the directness but I'm asking if you go bats away and get at well you know you'd have a bit of patience I think if the game will tell the manager and he thinks it's that come day one if he hasn't got himself new players obviously the defence has to play 10 yards where the back got to and that's it isn't it really that's it you know it's you can understand why Aladdice did in a way by playing them where they were I mean it doesn't you look at them and still say you're still ultra negative but you can understand why they were 10 yards further back and that's what that's okay you can play you can play almost on the edge of your box and still be an attack inside it just means that you can't push out so teams you can't let runners in behind you if you're on the attack that's fine it's just a friendly isn't it when it comes to day one in the Premier League you're not going to leave that much space behind no one would lead themselves wide and that'll be the warning no one would lead themselves open just for the sake of wanting to play a style when we've seen that with Martinis you see how far that gets you in the league so it's a lesson isn't it it's a warning it's telling us where we actually are and then you have to play within that don't you have to play with in where you actually are not where you want to be did you think Marco Silva would come in already the wonder be waved and we'd be amazing and a lot of people this is what it's seeing a lot of people but a section of people certainly on social media to me it seems like that's what they thought because I've seen people questioning brands on silver already and I'm going this is not on them this is not on them no this is not on them it's a long time process even people losing we'd love it if do you like the face of all of our signs but five players they're all well class players and we go we don't need anyone now our business is done and we can but at this moment for all the reasons you've said before about Yeri Mina players who were going after will be going I'm gone because my agent is telling me this is going to take time this is going to be two and three windows down the line but all I would say to people who are getting it the window shuts when the window shuts it's not today so we've got time we might get a deadline day and three might come in for all we know we don't know so we don't have to panic just yet but just use the left side as an example of what these two fellas want to do they've come in and gone that left hand side last season was terrible the charlers and they'll fix that and Ben's is a great player but he's no one's threatening them he's 34 and they've identified that already straight on we know we need the centre back it's not like they're buying right wingers and we're going we've already got Theo Wolcott there do you know what I mean we know what we need to me that's how I'm looking at it anyway yeah just hope that window doesn't come back to on that's the fact that we're shut because those players will even though we're shut here those players will have another two weeks to go elsewhere the only thing for me the worry is will obviously be looking if he hasn't gone by then because that can this can track on till the end of August can't it I wouldn't imagine we're going to sell plays no I mean that's the thing I think the Premier League clubs are seeing someone saying this the other day almost there's almost like a lucygrim in between whereas when that's shut their squad's done unless it's played they won't opt at all no one in that squad will be going anywhere after that date regardless of the money because what's the point there's no point like if Bayern Munich came in on the 30th of August for Pickford for 80 million what's the point 80 million is about to lose your keeper you can't replace so I think you're right it will probably be your opinion teams for like alone, for say Belassie was still here a tears clubs they've got a week now haven't they got a week training trying to put things right for the game into the lens here and hopefully some kind of improvement realistically they've got two weeks haven't they I mean the lens we normally lose this one this is the one we always panic over this is the one we always panic over so this will be a 3-0 win because this is the one we normally and mind you we got a draw last year didn't we with Chavill we've got a penalty that Sandro's good was it against Porto we sat and watched them the week before Cooman's first game and we were like this is terrible and then the week after they turned up in space and it was all good because that's what it is just before we finish what have you made of Sandro it's difficult to put your finger on it physically he looks a lot fit and I think he stands to understand what it takes to be a Premier League player it looks like he could go football he does but I'm just worried that he hasn't got exactly what it is let's be honest he's been shoved on the right because we haven't got anyone else there's no one else who's played a lot of minutes but he's benefitted from those minutes massively I think physically he looks a lot bigger he looks like Jason Statham or something he's going to be one of those weird action films he looks a lot better that way as he's quite got a brain I don't know but if he's got the physical aspect then that's the first step because then he can get through the season so I think where as last year when we were watching him every time he'd come on you'd look and go he just doesn't know where he is here do you know what he's massively benefitted from the fact that you've got no other player and this is where we go back 12 months when we had too many players and this is where you go back 10 years no 14 years sorry when you play like Kale you couldn't do anything else you had to play them and they had to lane the role and they had to get the peanuts imagine if we had bought peanuts and we'd had 3 of the number 10s in the team he'd never have made it so you look at someone like Claeson who used to say this time last year if we had nobody else playing in that position and he'd had to play his way through Claeson could have become a player who used to say Sando won't become a player off the back of this summit and if we had a little bit of time and refinement he could become a good player he looked like an option now where I don't think he was an option last year I looked at him and thought I wanted him to be the option and he really did but as it went on I just looked at him and he was like he's just miles away from being what we need when now he actually looks like he can cope a little bit he's good on the ball some of his passion is brilliant that's exactly what we need alongside Ghana I'm not saying he could do it but I'm saying that is what we need someone who's bright and his goal the other night he starts that in the sixth row pass, pass, pass, pass and that's what we need maybe a more physical better vision of it but that's the kind of play we need alongside our defensive midfielder who for me it has to be got but that's what happens when you've got you've got too many players in the box and you don't bother that one now when you come into a new course you survive one and two players and they just play through it and you'd look and go you go in for a bit, come on when you've got three options you go I'm not playing you because he's better like you're playing are you ever going to play anything go and getting a new job and starting and just three lads what's a new job? what's a new job? you'd be like well how am I ever going to lane but you're still alright to me he looks like you know I'd be quite happy for him to stay in our squad this season and be used as I'm when there is no your thoughts in the comments on this one yet it was a bit miserable are you panicking? that baby she would have been great though that would have been sad maybe like Keane and Jack were having like burgers and when the ball changed over they were like that's the burger he just couldn't get back Michael Keane would have gone and just asked for a salad Keane would have really wanted sauce on it and he's been too shy to ask for it he would have been but he wouldn't go why haven't he gone even though he's gay and intolerant which is probably a thing Jack's look like he probably is Michael Keane's as well not lad I'll have that Keane I'll throw it in his we'll see you later


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So, Jared, there are really, I talk about five key habits of healthy boards. And I use that term habits intentionally because we all have habits, right? The key for our board is understanding what are the habits that we have that we want to memorialize, that we want to be part of the culture of our board? And then what are the habits that are not serving us well that we want to break? And so that metaphor of habits resonates with board teams. But it's about understanding how do we intentionally step through this in a way that makes sense for our board? Because there's not one singular, I can't pick up a textbook and say if I do these five things and just these five things, magically it's all going to work out. I have to do it in a way that's comfortable and makes sense for my individual board. So that starts with the first habit and Julia articulated it beautifully before, which is expectations, right? Healthy boards define the expectations they have of each other collaboratively. So it's not me as the executive director or the board chair saying, okay, every board member is going to do these 10 things, sign on the dotted line, and we're good to go. Healthy boards develop the expectations that they have of the team collaboratively, right? So think about a board retreat. Think about in a board meeting posing the question, what do we expect of each other? We expect a certain level of attendance. We expect a certain financial commitment or participation in fundraising. To me, it starts with that expectations piece as the critical first habit of a healthy board.