Hi everyone this is Jason here from the Nathaniel School of Music in this lesson well it's not really an actual piano lesson which you'll see me doing normally where I teach you a concept or a rhythm pattern or a way to develop hand independence or whatever else you see on our channel it's more about me trying to say what are the things I did wrong as a piano player growing up and as all of us do when you learn something you're going to have mistakes you're going to learn there will be a few hurdles which you will face or for no fault of yours maybe it was a annoying teacher or maybe it was a system which was not serving you well or maybe you didn't have the time and so on so how I look at my journey especially with the advent of YouTube which happened around maybe for India just before 2010 in in all seriousness you know prior to that music learning was very random you learn it through peers through friends through well-wishers if you're lucky you get yourself a teacher at least in a place like India and the teaching has been generally limited to grade exams they have exams for learning music like the Trinity College exams the ABRSM or whatever it may be you basically anyone who learned music the only way to really learn it was that way but luckily at a young age I had the opportunity of working with a variety of people a variety of artists musicians theater people also general creative people like for example my dad who who was a very theater and creative person so even if we were to make music he would find a visual use for it you know you would find something which it can transform itself into so music was also looked at in our family as a very artistic thing it's just part of art it's just part of what you have to do so we I was trained to kind of respond and respect all forms of art whether it's theater or whether it's music or painting or whatever it might have been so very lucky in that sense so however there were a lot of mistakes which happened along the way which I can definitely prove to you in this lesson our mistakes because I can show you how it helped me and luckily for me I got into music education and becoming a teacher you know as you see the youtube channel and in our normal classes at the music school which I am part of teaching has been a huge help not only you know to to survive as a as a individual and have a job and all that but teaching is a great way to learn as I found over the years of performing music sometimes doing endless concerts playing the same genre may not be as educational or helpful to your playing as as teaching as a normal music class so I found that teaching has actually helped my technique because I can see so many other individuals like me trying to grow the same way I am trying to grow it's not like when you start teaching you stop learning I just say we just know a bit more than the individual we are teaching and thus I guess that gives us the claim that oh we are a teacher that I can educate you because I know something maybe you don't know so I started teaching maybe in around 29 2009 2010 just when the music school launched its course music method which is a performance based course which gets students on stage provides a certificate and and all that while teaching I realized or just when I started teaching I realized a few things which I can actually improve you know and which I have improved so over a span of about 10 years you kind of see that improvement maybe in a span of one year or a few months or a few classes you're not going to know things real time changes always felt over a few years as I'm sure you know with everything which happens around the universe so the first thing I would like to talk about now getting more from a technical angle what are all the things which I did wrong as a pianist okay I'm focusing only on piano not music in general otherwise this rant will go on and on I don't know maybe for a few hours who knows right so this is just piano and just piano technique and I hope that all these points or words of advice will kind of get you to cut to the chase and kind of understand these mistakes and try to realize okay he didn't he's gone through that so maybe I shouldn't even bother getting into that that that particular issue right so before we get started it'll be great to hit that bell for notifications we do a lot of lessons hit the subscribe if you haven't already follow us or support us on patreon that'll be really cool let's get cracking so the first thing I've observed is with the use of my right hand thumb there was a kind of a misconception years ago where you should not use the thumb for a black note and I realized that there are problems if you think that way so if I just show you with just a D major chord going to A major with a C sharp at the bottom right so no teacher told me this I had to figure this out on my own now if you do a quick change between D major and A major with a C sharp at the bottom also known as first inversion of A major what I find is after a point your hand starts heating up or it starts painting and sometimes you may even miss a finger you know that so I never realized the the fact that I can actually play the thumb on a black note but do it in a way so that it doesn't feel awkward so all I am suggesting you do is when you go inside to play black keys curve your thumb a little bit it has worked for me you can curve it out and back that way you keep your hands straight however you need to move your arm a bit inside slightly inside like that so I've learned this a lot even also realize that this thumb is a very stretchable finger so when you're stretching it out you know you can use it well whether do you want to play black notes or white notes it shouldn't be a kind of hurdle as you can see I'm using the thumb for a lot whenever it goes to the black key it curves out a bit so I don't access or rotate my hand in this direction I just move my arm inside so I find a lot of jazz musicians who play piano they they use their thumb a lot more so perhaps I've learned from them I've also learned from a few students at Nathaniel who I've observed them playing like that and I'm like wow that looks efficient right so that's one thing which I fail to do as a pianist that is using the right hand thumb as often as it should have been used moving on right so here's the thing which I fail to do as a pianist at least for the first 10 to 12 years and that's the sustain pedal I actually thought that I never even knew what the sustain pedal could do perhaps in a it was because of our the piano at home we had an upright piano and the pedal just didn't work and we had I think two pianos and both the pedals of both the pianos didn't work and the guy who used to come and repair it always repaired the strings he repaired the keys but he never even bothered to fix the pedal so all through for years I actually thought that okay the pedal is just something you know which maybe somewhere down the line you learn but I never realized how it can transform my music as a composer first of all the sustain pedal adds additional harmonics to your sound if I hit an A major chord this is without the pedal with the pedal you actually feel a layer you hear like a pad of additional overtones and harmonics which get added to the fundamental so even using simple physics you need the pedal to make your sound richer that's what happens on a real piano and depending on what piano virtual instrument you use I use piano tech by mod art it will give you a better sound so the better sampler or the better VST or the better keyboard you have the better the sound will be or you just have to rely on an actual piano which poses other challenges okay the other advantage of the the pedal apart from its sound is it allows you to do so many technical things which are impossible without it for example just moving your left hand and some students actually I never knew this which actually may be a good thing in disguise some keyboards have a feature where you hit the button and it just automatically sustains so you end up doing it all sustains now this could be counterproductive there could be an issue here because your sounds are kind of getting jumbled and this is only right hand so as long as you are in and around middle C no problem but as it goes lower start sounding annoying almost like something's wrong with it you know something's wrong with the pianist or the playing why is that well again simple laws of physics the frequencies are too close here there's very little hurts you could say between them while here to here there's a lot more range so if I do even if I do A and B flat you can actually hear those notes but if I do them here just sounds like nonsense you know or if I do an A major chord there versus why would you ever want to play that right so the with the pedal comes great responsibility you have to transform your technique you'll have to do a lot more with your technique with the pedal and I'll not talk too much about it because there is a lesson where I've really gone in and out in depth with the use of the sustain pedal I would advise you to watch that at any level you will learn something we'll put the link up for you to to see it so that is one thing I definitely wish I could have done as a younger pianist before I got into a scenario where I was gifted my first keyboard right by my dad again so when that keyboard came to the house on a birthday of mine or whatever I guess it would have been a birthday then I learned that oh yeah this Kurzweil keyboard comes with a pedal you plug it in and it's magical you know it completely transformed my playing then I wanted to fix the old piano but then we learned that that was pretty much busted right so the pedal became a part of my playing it also improved my independence I felt more about how to use the pedal than about how my hands were coordinating so it removed the stress between the two hands it's like now I have this whole all my limbs are sort of being used right and I also ended up going for a couple of music concerts where you have a scenario where you maybe you have a choir a choir does a gig and then you have your choir which is to perform after that and I would always observe the keyboard players or the pianists in those performances where one guy who's before me or the player before me just sounds like light years better than me you know even though I I also play I know my chords blah blah blah I just never sounded as good as the guy before me or after me so I actually felt a bit bad here and there but then I learned yeah it's just the pedal you know pedal just adds that rich overtone flavor and it allows your hands to go all over the place I'm not that much of an arpeggio player as you will see by a lot of my own music I don't do a lot of this flying or shredding as we call it I just stay in one zone but even in one zone the pedal is very helpful and yes that's about the pedal right so another thing which I really wish I had learned as a kid growing up well a lot of my you know contemporaries or people my age also playing piano whenever it came to this left hand of ours there were just two things I would see people do one is you want chords of course in your left hand so what people would do is they'll just play a fifth chord and they'll kind of play a little bit of rhythm around that and that's it now this is not a great sound because the fifth chord is a chord so if the chord is supposed to be major well that's not major that's a fifth chord but the fifth chord ended up being or I guess all around the world as far as all the students I teach go the fifth chord is more like a survival thing you go and maybe the other reason why you choose to play fifth chords here is because you're not so good with triads or you just believe that triads sound annoying in the left hand to begin with which is true as I told you earlier the frequencies are clashing and so on so there was this school of musicians who are navigating through chords in the left hand with the fifth approach there was another school of musicians who would buy these arranger keyboards you know keyboards where you just hit a button hit another button hit a chord and then voila you have all sorts of music being played by the pushing of two buttons which are not piano keys now that music did never fascinated me as a kid growing up because I think my roots were good my family is a very musical family my mom plays she plays the organ her brother my uncle also play my dad's dad is a karnatic or was a karnatic genius on the violin and he's had a huge you know legacy in in the karnatic space and there's this western classical space as well which where there are choirs there's church music there's intense harmony so I was grounded very well so the moment I would see this guy fancy musicians hitting these arranger things I would observe what is this guy actually doing with his left hand well he's just hit a couple of buttons which is not piano buttons and then he's just holding a chord and just music is just flowing but this is a horrible way to play a chord on a piano if you ask me so if your goal is to be a music arranger well some people buy these arranger keyboards but again my argument for that would be if you want to do music arrangement or production or programming seriously you don't need a keyboard you need a DAW or a digital audio workstation like Logic Reaper or Pro Tools so it's it's useless if you ask me that approach of playing chords pushing buttons and it's not it's it's really not the right way to go so having said that I was in the world of playing fifth chords in fact if you see some of my covers on youtube you'll you'll find a cover of the Beatles song yesterday which we'll put up you'll find that I'm actually using fifth chords but now when I teach it after a lot of students have asked me please teach me your version of yesterday I'm like I don't play like that anymore like I don't like that rendition to be honest and the reason being not because of my dynamics not because of my improv mainly because of my left hand because I was still stuck into that right so I was pretty much doing those that voicing so my advice to you is learn learn how to voice chords well don't only you know just use this fifth voicing in your left hand the thing I learned was you can still bring in the third but bring it on top you have it you have Bach's cello suite made using that same technique right and again with the combo of the pedal you need the pedal because you have to lift your hand I can't stretch so much I don't think even you can you need to be like a differently evolved human so you go that way you hold your pedal so this is what I've been learning so I always love the depth of the piano because I'm also a bass player and in in general I'm a bassist at heart so I would always then survive my playing by playing a bit higher where the chords don't sound so muddy but what I've learned actually over the past not too long ago maybe about six seven years was let's play chords like that that way you're a bass player you're not annoying your bassist everyone's happy because it's sounding rich and full right and you don't play too high to compensate the higher you go the more annoyed your singer gets the lower you go the more annoyed your guitarist and your bassist get but if you play low like this now you enter cello territory you entered the electric bass territory this is how they all play their chords in that frequency region right so my advice to you is don't go the arranger root don't do all those pointless chord holes in the left hand very bad for your foundation especially for those of you starting off and look at spread voicing look at spreading the chords again I will leave you a playlist in our description where we talked a lot about spread voicing a lot of detail on that so make sure you head over and check that out let's move on right so a couple more things before I end this discussion or rant if you want to call it that I feel a little bit awkward because I usually teach techniques and positions and whatnot but this is just something lot of people have asked over recent times so I thought let's make a video out of that you know and sort of demystify some of these things which you may be facing or hopefully you don't repeat these mistakes which I ended up doing as a youngster right I'm very happy with some of the mistakes as well because it's part of our evolution you will make mistakes you will do the right thing you will do the wrong thing so you need to you shouldn't feel bad about I'm not at all bad about it I just felt that had I learned this a little bit earlier who knows what would have happened you know so maybe you all now that you have watched this video you could consider these things and see if it works for you right so the other thing which I think we all fail as piano learners in a traditional school of thought or a standard standard system will be we all play chords in the root position so you go D major A major now I found enough and more youtube tutorials enough and more apps enough and more teachers I know this because students start coming to me after having learned from that teacher and then everyone thinks this is how you play D major this is how you play A major well you are not going to play a gig like that no one is going to allow you to play these two chords like that you have to voice your chords better you need to use inversions you have to study chord voicing chord inversions so this is something I was sort of wrongly programmed into believing that D major is way more important in root position than it is in all those other inversions F sharp A D A D F sharp yeah so we were kind of wrongly programmed to play D major only like this sort of like a guitar player always holds a C major chord like that or a D major chord like that or a E major chord like that E seventh with the pinky well there are so many other ways of playing chords so many other beautiful ways of voicing the notes of the chord so that's something I feel had I learned at a little earlier stage you know I did learn chord voicing chord inversions but then over time we would only stick with triads and then the problem is when you start doing chord extensions when you do an E major with a flat seven you're wired to playing that chord only that way and you're like what if I thought of it this way E major is this E seventh is with a flat seven which is the D so what if I can find D around this triad you have a D there and a D there and maybe if I played it like that you have the D there and you you just build your chord in a more knowledgeable way rather than in a visual way and the piano as I keep telling students and in so many of our youtube lessons the piano is a what you see is what you get instrument that means you need to know stuff before you play it you can't rely on shapes and patterns and whatnot inversions also pose so many other important musical goals which you need to know so I have linked up my chord inversion playlist it'll be there for you to see in the description make sure you watch that there are exercises and so many other things on the chord inversion front so that is another thing I wish I had learned with more respect as a kid growing up people would tell me this is D major and you just listen to that you know but that is not D major D major has so many ways to be played spread or you could even play an E major chord with some embellishments like that like that right there's also a playlist where I've actually over the years as I've been composing music I've listed out 10 of my most favorite chords which I love to use in my music in the albums of Jason Zach band which I release so do check out that playlist as well basically my favorite chords of all time so there you'll also learn how these chords are voiced okay let's move on right so the next thing which I have you know initially failed as a pianist but I don't do that failure now is the concept of practicing and doing stuff on multiple scales as young piano players we're always everyone gives us exercises on C major you know they'll do and then they'll tell you okay class is over now you practice on multiple scales and see how that goes now here we've created a bias and we are saying that C major is the main thing or C major is the basic thing you know I've actually seen so many music schools because students come to us with their approach of how they've learned in the past where C major is taught for like three years or two kids you know and I think kids are their mind is very active why do you want to hold them back by just telling them to play the white notes and not even know and be scared of the black notes it almost feels like that so well I have a lot to say about that but the the main thing I wanted to highlight about the advantage of multiple scales is in my own journey when I started off ironically C major was not everything it was E major it was a major because I would play with a lot of my guitar player friends and I was also learning a little bit of guitar at the time I was learning both instruments sort of together and then I kind of moved on to piano that's another story so the the fact that I was playing with a lot of guitar players looked at the more open string scales for them which is G major D major and A major and maybe those scales if you if you look at this logically on a guitar if you're playing on C major you'll have the F chord which is F major now that generally in my knowledge you'll be playing that as a bar chord you'll be putting your entire finger so for beginner level guitarist that's tricky playing F major as a bar so inevitably guitar players have they don't do stuff on C major so I was lucky that way but then things started to get saturated over time okay I was playing rock music rock music metal music basically guitar music throughout but there was a nice light bulb moment which ended up happening once I told myself okay I want to play more genres I don't want to just do prog dream theater and guitar driven stuff so I started working just with singers just guys who are singing or playing at weddings you just play the keyboard for some some singer who's performing now here's where the challenge started the singer would say wow we are prepared for a gig and then I'll be like okay songs on D major I've got it done and dusted then the singer has a bad throat or the singers like Jason can we please move this down a little bit I wanted a bit lower I'm like okay cool but then moving it lower is relearning it on D flat major which is very tricky at least if the gig is like the next next day or something like that so I would always tell the singer I can't do it it's too tough for me but then some cleverer singers would say why don't you use the transpose button you have a transpose button but then I'm like okay I'll do it but then I've had a lot of shows where I've got completely destroyed with that transpose button because over time you play music for about 12 13 years you start knowing the sounds of notes you know what C sounds like you know what E flat sounds like especially when you play music very often it's like colors you know something is red you know something is purple blue whatever it may be because you learned that and you keep using those colors and your eyes are open you keep looking at them with music well a musician deals with this stuff every day so if you have to transpose my advice to use please don't do it I've had a lot of show failures just by going up by one down by one or worst case up by two man if I will never do that anymore ever I'm never going to use that transpose button right so coming back to why I think this advantage of multiple scales helped to end this you know this the suggestion for you the way I look at practicing on multiple scales is to see if the scale can motivate you otherwise we are all human we are like okay let's do it on one or two scales let's chill out and avoid the other scales but what if I were to tell you that every scale has a feeling has a unique shape gives you different ideas for the brain to compose and think well that's all true right so try playing a song on about five or six scales and if you are at a more intermediate level you're going to realize that you give birth to so many different possibilities to a point that a scale is really different even two major scales A major and E major or E flat major feel so different on the piano that that brings out the beauty of the music when you compose very different than a guitar because a guitar is driven by shapes so guitar players are taught with shapes then they could even use a thing like as they call the capo you can move up and down so the guitar and the bass and a lot of stringed instruments work in shapes piano doesn't so use that to your advantage and you'll see even with the riffs which we make at a very you know good pace of one a day you you may be arguing how does this guy do it how does this guy come up with these ideas well it's just the concept of multiple scales so I will compose something on G major it'll sound like a folk song then I go to F becomes bluesy then it goes to E flat it sounds country or I'm inspired by like maybe Nora Jones then I go to D and then I start doing something heavier you know that's the idea so the scale inspires you to change your game almost like tennis courts you know french open versus Wimbledon grass versus clay you know or if you follow one of my favorite games cricket you know you have the ball swinging in one part of the world where it spins way way more in the subcontinent part right so the game changes the batsman has to adapt the bowler has to adapt that's the beauty of certain sports where the ground or the dimensions of the field affect the way you play the game and that's the point I wanted to make and I learned that again once I started teaching so let's move on to the last thing which I think I failed miserably as a pianist right so I'm going to leave you with this thought sight reading right sight reading we always think is staring at notation and playing what you stared at you're looking at notation you look at the treble clef you look at the bass clef or you're doing choir so you see satb you read that and play or you're an orchestra conductor so you're going to look at all those parts so the complexity of reading goes on and on and on there is no end to it it's always a game you play between your eye and your fingers because if you have to read the book you can't see the piano it's very difficult so I admire people who read complicated music and play the piano you know and in my own family I have my mom my uncle my granddad before them who would literally read the paper play the entire choral part and then when it comes to our rehearsal or a choir practice or something like that they don't even read the book they have to figure out a way to look at the choir look at the notation and make sure they're not making mistakes on the piano and conduct the entire ensemble at the same time so I would always admire that so reading became a huge challenge for me growing up so I became a kind of a revolter I was like I don't want to learn how to read let me go rogue you know away from the family's perspective and be and just do my own thing basically be a rocker play rock music just play by feel as we used to call it or play by year all of these things would would keep cropping up but now in hindsight I realized that was wrong because you should learn how to read reading inspires you and you also look at different perspectives which I would like to leave with you in this video if you don't like reading and playing or if that's not your thing don't stop reading you can do so many other ways of growing as a reader or being inspired by notation ultimately reading is notation so what if I were to tell you that you know you look at rhythm look at a bar of rhythm or two bars of rhythm read that get inspired by that rhythm and see where it goes you play any melody you play any chord arpeggio whatever you want on that rhythm so reading rhythms is something which has fascinated me because I have a lot of drummer friends who do the same thing right the other thing you could do it reading is sight singing so what you do is you stare at the paper now instead of playing the keyboard or the guitar or whatever you have to sing okay now singing trains your ear because you have to know the note whatever you're reading you have to know that note before you actually sing it you need to know the intervals of that note whether it's do re mi fa or sa re gamma and then you have to read the words as well so sight singing fascinated me as a kid reading rhythms fascinated me once I started working with a lot of drummers and then it kind of slowly removed the bias of reading reading is like ah it's only for professional people or you know we used to sort of it was a bit annoying that you know we we would always kind of the non-readers we would always kind of diss the readers the guys who are reading in some cases yes because I had a friend not a friend just a fellow guy who was playing the piano who couldn't play jingle bells unless he had the notation for it now I think that's a bit silly you have to know how to play simple songs you have to use your ear right so there are pros and cons of reading that we leave for another discussion topic but I just wanted to put this thought for you that don't let reading become a bias don't brand it as something really fancy and over professional and don't brand it as something useless because you can't do it that was what I did right because it is a very very important skill and spice it up with learning to sight read spice it up by learning to read rhythms and get inspired by rhythms and obviously sight sing learning how to sight sing train so many things at one time you become a better singer you better you you know your intervals better everything becomes better if you sight sing so see what fascinates you more about notation and reading and also see if you can consider using a software for learning notation that that has tended to inspire me softwares like Sibelius newscore which is open source you can just download it and use it and just be part of that community so notation software could be a great perspective I found that it's really helpful even with younger kids like eight year olds seven year olds they they they are very happy using a software like the world has changed right but it doesn't mean that notation needs to leave us notation is a great tool it has been used by the greatest of the greatest composers so it's something you have to know okay so these are the the six things if I've counted them right which I've done wrong as a pianist over the years I've been playing it for a while it's been about 25 plus years of actually playing it you know gigging wise maybe I played it before even earlier but in 25 years lots of things changed so you need to realize what are the things which which have worked for you there are a lot of things which have worked for me maybe I'll do another video on that in a later lesson but these are the things which I think I did not do which I don't necessarily wish I had done but I think for someone like you who's starting off your journey or if you're in the middle somewhere you could consider these points these are just food for thought I don't feel bad about not having done it I just think some of them are wrong in hindsight you just made like a silly mistake you you are hanging around with the wrong group of people and or maybe you had a fairly useless teacher which which is sometimes the problem or in most cases the problem you may you may be guided poorly which I think is very important also you have to know the facts of everything and move with the times right guys thanks if you have watched this video till the very end wow thanks a ton I rarely do a lesson where I just go on talking like this I am very happy to do the teaching stuff and the arpeggios and whatnot but I just felt you know that I should do this video even for myself it's good to do this video and kind of see where you've evolved from where you started if you haven't already give us a thumbs up to the video share the video see if you can hit the subscribe button to our channel and hit the bell icon for notifications you could also support our channel on patreon or on youtube by hitting the join button and you can learn piano through a very very structured course which is on youtube as well as fill up a form and learn from the music school which I am part of which is the netineal school of music cheers and have a great day


The final matter to be addressed under Rule 5 is whether the defendant should be released or detained pending the trial. As you can see from the flow chart, this determination can be made more than once in the process. The decision is based on the same statute regardless of whether it is made at the initial appearance or at the arraignment. You must apply the provisions of the Bail Reform Act of 1984 contained in Title 18 of the United States Code. The Act requires every accused to be released without posting bail or meeting special conditions of release, unless the judicial officer finds that the defendant is likely to flee, endanger the safety of any other person, or endanger the community. In such event, the magistrate judge must impose the least restrictive further condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the defendant's appearance and the community's safety. If the defendant is released before trial on conditions, you must sign an order setting conditions of release. A copy of the form is included in the appendix to your written materials. You'll notice that the form sets forth all of the pretrial conditions imposed on the defendant, as well as the consequences that will result if the defendant does not comply with the conditions. If the magistrate judge finds that no conditions of release are adequate, then the detention of the defendant can be ordered, but only after a pretrial detention hearing is held. We'll talk about detention hearings a little later in the program. First, let's take a few minutes to consider some of the release conditions that are available to district courts under Section 3142C of the Bail Reform Act. Judge Carr? In this discussion, I will be following the sequence that appears in the legal manual for the United States Magistrates and the monograph entitled Judicial Officers Reference on Alternatives to Detention, which has been prepared by the Probation Division of the Administrative Office. Both are available from the Magistrate Judges Division of the Administrative Office. The first release condition we'll discuss is a condition requiring the defendant to report to a designated agency. This typically will be either the pretrial services agency or the Probation Department depending on which agency is responsible for pretrial services in your court. The frequency and type of contact usually can be set by the officer responsible for monitoring compliance with the order of release. Another release condition is third-party custody. This typically is with a spouse or relative, though another custodian may be considered. In many instances, you will want to have pretrial services officer check the background of the proposed custodian. The important consideration is whether such custodian manifests qualities of mature judgment and responsibility sufficient to give you confidence that he or she will place the obligation to the court ahead of any sense of commitment that may be felt toward the defendant. Some Magistrate Judges rarely use third-party custodians, others, like myself, use them frequently in the theory that even when release is warranted at any event, it is always useful to have an additional pair of eyes on the defendant. I use this condition primarily when the defendant is young and I require him to live with his parents whom I require to be third-party custodians. Outpatient substance abuse treatments and outpatient mental health services are two other release conditions. These conditions are desirable whenever the defendant has a history of drug or alcohol abuse or mental health problems. You should keep in mind that pretrial services officers often have contracts with treatment providers that assure immediate access at government expense to such treatment. Another release condition is to impose a curfew or home confinement. This condition restricts the defendant to a specific location during specified hours. It is often combined with supervision by a third-party or pretrial service agency, which can be required to maintain telephone contact with the defendant to ensure that he is where he is supposed to be in accordance with the curfew's conditions. Alternatively, you can have compliance with curfew or confinement supervised by means of electronic monitoring. Home confinement with electronic monitoring monitors a defendant's presence at a location designated by the court. The costs of such monitoring, which are less than $10 per day in most areas, can be imposed on the defendant or paid for by federal funds. Electronic monitoring, whether used in conjunction with a curfew or as part of a more restrictive regime such as home confinement, is no guarantee of appearance, but it does offer the benefit of prompt notice that something is amiss. Most magistrate judges who have used electronic monitors appear to be well satisfied with their effectiveness as an alternative to detention where risk of flight is a concern. Home confinement without electronic monitoring, sometimes referred to as house arrest, is a release condition which confines the defendant to a specific residence without benefit of electronic monitoring system. The security of this approach can be enhanced by third party custody and supervision by pretrial services officer. As noted in the monograph, a variety of factors may diminish the reliance that can be placed on this alternative. Financial conditions are another release condition which addresses risk of flight by the defendant. Most commonly, the defendant may be required to execute an unsecured appearance bond. Federal signatories may also be required to enhance the security afforded by this bond. An agreement to forfeit title, commonly referred to as a property bond, is another possibility. You can make this as formal or as informal as you desire. Some courts take a quick claim deed from the owners of record. Others take other forms of conveyance, while others use forms available from the administrative office. In any event, the effect is the same. The property is posted as security for the defendant's appearance and compliance with the law. It's important to note that some magistrate judges have declined to consider property bonds because of perceived problems with verifying the value of the property, recording and releasing the bonds and other similar issues. From a practical standpoint, these should rarely become impediments to taking real property as security. There is no requirement of an appraisal or even proof of ownership if you choose to dispense with this requirement. That's right. I have found that placing the owners of record under oath and having them testify to their ownership, equity and liens usually provides all the assurance I need. Moreover, I rarely require the bond be recorded and if I do, the defendant or property holders require to bear the costs. Cash bonds and percentage bonds are also alternatives to detention to consider in cases where the defendant has resources to post such bonds. Both give the defendant a stake in appearing for trial and otherwise complying with the conditions of release. Under the Bail Reform Act, a cash or percentage bond should not be set as a condition where the defendant is clearly unable to post a particular amount. If you take that route, you are avoiding your responsibility either to allow release on conditions that can be met or to ordered detention. Another release condition is the corporate surety bond. It's my opinion that corporate surety bonds have the unwelcome effect of causing the federal criminal justice system to rely on the unregulated efforts of the surety or the bail bondsman to apprehend fugitives. I also believe that use of bail bondsman may encourage some magistrate judges to disregard alternatives to detention that Congress has specified in section 3142C of the Bail Reform Act and to refrain from developing conditions suitable to individual cases and circumstances. I have never used a corporate surety bond and can perceive almost no circumstance in which I would do so. The defendant has no stake in appearing and the money he spends for the bond could be placed if cash bail is desired on deposit with the court to be returned when the case is over. Two other release conditions that are closely related to each other are residential substance abuse treatment and residential mental health treatment. These community-based conditions are intended for defendants whose substance abuse or mental health problems can only be controlled by inpatient treatment. Pre-trial services may have residential facilities under contract to provide for immediate admittance. Placement in a halfway house or periodic return to custody are two other available release conditions. Placement in a halfway house, if you have such facilities in your community, can be a very useful means of ensuring control and supervision, providing needed services and avoiding the cost of commitment to jail or detention facility. With periodic return to custody, the defendant spends nights and weekends in jail or a similar setting for specified hours, but is released to go to work or attend school. The Bail Reform Act also lists a number of additional conditions that can be imposed in conjunction with the ones we just discussed. These include requirements to the defendant while on release, seek or maintain employment, pursue an education, abide by restrictions on his associations or travel and abode, avoid contact with victims or witnesses, possess no weapons, and refrain from excessive alcohol abuse or any drug use. Finally, as the statute notes, the court can impose any other condition of release that it reasonably concludes is necessary to assure the defendant's appearance or protect the community. One such condition that is becoming increasingly common is require the defendant to submit to drug testing. Other conditions that courts have imposed have included video surveillance of the defendant's residence, submission of telephone records, and detachment of pen registers. So far we've discussed pretrial services, appointment of counsel, initial appearances, and pretrial release as well as alternatives to detention. Let's focus now on the preliminary examination. The preliminary examination is an evidentiary hearing held before a magistrate judge to determine if there is probable cause to hold a defendant who has been charged with a felony by a complaint. No preliminary examination is held if an indictment is returned because the grand jury's determination of probable cause takes the place of a determination by the magistrate judge. If the defendant waives the indictment, the United States attorney can file an information charging the felony. In that case as well, no preliminary examination is held. As we discussed earlier, the preliminary examination is scheduled at the initial appearance of the defendant. The defendant is entitled to waive his or her right to a preliminary exam. There are no rules or statutes governing the form or manner of accepting the waiver. Most districts, however, use a form which is filled out by the defendant and presented to the court. In other words, the preliminary examination is not a trial. That's right. It's not. Although some aspects of the preliminary examination are the same as a trial. At the preliminary exam, the defendant has the right to present evidence and may cross-examine witnesses but is not required to testify. The defendant is also entitled to the assistance of counsel. However, motions to suppress and objections to unlawfully obtained evidence are not allowed. Rule 5.1 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure governs the conduct of preliminary examinations. The preliminary examination is narrow in scope and its purpose is to establish whether or not there is probable cause to hold the defendant to answer the charges. It should not be used as a means to obtain discovery or produce testimony which can be used for subsequent impeachment at trial. Although frequently, this is what is attempted by defense counsel. The rule specifically states that the finding of probable cause may be based on hearsay evidence in whole or in part. If you conclude that the government has established probable cause, the defendant is bound over for further proceedings. If not, the defendant must be discharged from custody and the complaint dismissed without prejudice. Our determination of probable cause is not a substitute for that of the grand jury and the defendant is still entitled to be indicted. Because the preliminary examination requires the magistrate judge to make a determination of probable cause, it is frequently combined with the detention hearing in cases where the government has moved for pretrial detention of the defendant. You might be interested to know that in the case of Angela Smith, Smith's preliminary examination and detention hearing were combined in one court hearing. The magistrate judge found probable cause at the combined hearing resulting in a rebuttable presumption to require Smith to be detained pretrial. That brings us to the detention hearing. As we mentioned earlier, a defendant may be detained prior to trial under the provisions of the Bail Reform Act. The purpose of the hearing is to determine whether any condition or combination of conditions would reasonably assure the defendant's appearance or community safety. Section 3142-F of Title 18 provides that the detention hearing shall be held upon motion of the government in certain limited situations, such as where the defendant is charged with a crime of violence, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death, or a drug offense carrying a maximum term of 10 years or more. Section 3142-F2 further provides that a detention hearing may be held either on motion of the magistrate judge or upon motion of the government if the case involves a serious risk that the defendant will flee, attempt to obstruct justice, or attempt to threaten, injure, or intimidate a prospective witness or juror. The law requires that the detention hearing be held at the defendant's initial appearance unless the government or the attorney for the defendant seeks a continuance. The government must establish by clear and convincing evidence the facts used to support a finding that no conditions or any combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of the community. Risk of flight need only be established by a preponderance of evidence. Thus, a finding of detention requires to some extent that you predict the defendant's future behavior. Earlier in the program, we mentioned that Angela Smith was incarcerated pending her detention hearing under the provisions of the Bail Reform Act. That's because the Bail Reform Act requires that pending the hearing the defendant is to remain in jail. Yes, that's why it's so important that the magistrate judge not adjourn the hearing unnecessarily. Under the Bail Reform Act, the government is entitled to an adjournment of up to three days. However, if the government can be prepared earlier, there is no reason to grant the entire three days automatically. Likewise, the defendant has a right to have an adjournment up to five days. You should assure yourself that such an adjournment is not merely done for the convenience of counsel or the court, but it is necessary for effective preparation. Again, the federal rules of evidence are not applicable to the conduct of the hearing. General principles of relevancy and materiality should be kept in mind and applied by you, particularly if counsel appears to be using the detention hearing for purposes of pretrial discovery. What about the defendant who wishes to testify at the detention hearing? There are some courts which have held that putting a defendant on the stand at the detention hearing may be per se ineffective assistance of counsel. The Bail Reform Act allows the defendant as well as the government to proceed by way of proffer. Pretrial services has interviewed the defendant and oftentimes has obtained information from relatives or from the defendant himself that may aid you in making a determination of detention or release. The magistrate judge should accept the defendant's evidence by proffer in such cases. What factors do you normally take into consideration in deciding whether a defendant should be detained? The act is pretty specific regarding the kinds of factors which the court should consider in determining whether or not to detain a defendant. The factors are set forth in section 3142-G. It includes such things as the nature and circumstances of the offense, whether it involves violence or drugs, the weight of the evidence, and the history and characteristics of the person, including the defendant's character, physical and mental condition, family ties, employment, financial resources, length of residence in the community, and community ties, past conduct, substance abuse history, criminal record, and records concerning appearance at other proceedings. Additionally, the magistrate judge must consider whether at the time of the alleged offense the person was on probation or parole or on release pending trial for another offense. Finally, the court should consider the nature and seriousness of the danger to any person or the community. These are the items that should be contained in the pre-trial services report. It is important to recognize that if you find probable cause to believe that a defendant has committed a drug offense carrying a maximum term of 10 years or more, or that the defendant has used a firearm to commit the felony, a rebuttable presumption arises that no condition or combination of conditions will assure the defendant's appearance and community safety. These provisions are set forth in section 3142e. The presumption is subject to rebuttal by the defendant. The presumption also applies to defendants who have been recently released from prison or who are on release pending trial at the time of the alleged offense. Various circuits have interpreted section 3142e in different ways. Therefore, it is important that you know the law in your circuit. There is one more thing you must do following your determination to detain or release a defendant, and that is to prepare an order. If the defendant is detained and a complaint and the magistrate judge denies release on the grounds of the presumption, you must find probable cause. This, as well as your reasons for the detention, should be made clear in your order. The written order should be prepared and filed as both the government and the defendant have a right to appeal this matter to the district judge. Several sample order forms with their findings are included in your written materials. A defendant has a constitutional right to be tried in the district in which the alleged crime was committed. But what happens if the defendant is arrested outside of that district? Rule 40 of the federal rules of criminal procedure states that the defendant has the right to appear before a magistrate judge in the district where the defendant was arrested and accords procedural safeguards before the defendant can be removed to the district in which the prosecution is pending against him or her. You should be particularly aware of the specific provisions of Rule 40 and their application to removal proceedings. You should also note that the preliminary advice given to the defendant includes the advice given at all initial appearances pursuant to Rule 5 of the federal rules of criminal procedure. If the defendant is arrested pursuant to a complaint issued in the charging district, the defendant must be advised that he is entitled to a preliminary examination in either the arresting or charging district. Furthermore, the magistrate judge is required to advise the defendant that he has the right pursuant to federal rule of criminal procedure 20 to plead guilty to the pending charges in the district of arrest if the United States attorneys in the arresting district and in the district of prosecution agree. If a preliminary examination is not necessary because an indictment has previously been returned or the defendant waives the preliminary hearing or if the defendant elects to have a preliminary examination in the district where the prosecution is pending, then the only issue left for you is whether the defendant is the person named in the charging document. As with all other pre-trial federal criminal matters, the rules of evidence do not apply and hearsay may be used to prove the identity of the arrestee. Federal rule of criminal procedure 40 F further requires the magistrate judge to take into account all release and detention decisions previously made in another district involving the arrestee. You are not bound to follow that decision, but must consider the reasons for the previous release or detention decision. If you decide to amend the release or detention decision or to alter the conditions of release, then you must set forth in writing your reasons for changing the previous decision. This concludes our discussion of part two of criminal litigation before magistrate judges. Again, be certain to refer to your outline if you need additional information or references. The legal manual for United States magistrates also contains checklist and legal discussions on many of the issues covered in this program and is a handy reference guide that is available from the administrative office to all magistrate judges. Will you leave you with this reminder? As you develop experience as magistrate judges, many of these proceedings will become second nature to you. Never forget, however, that the vast majority of defendants who appear before you will be appearing in a federal court for the first time. The proceedings will not be second nature to them. You must therefore take the time in each case to make certain that the defendant's rights are fully protected, that the federal rules of criminal procedure are followed, and that the case is resolved fairly and expeditiously. Good luck.


Good morning everyone. Good afternoon. Good evening wherever you may be coming to us from. I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I am joined today by LaShonda Williams, one of the wonderful trainers at Fundraising Academy. And LaShonda, I always, when I see your name come up on the schedule, I'm always like, Oh, I want to do this because you're super fun. And it's, I love hearing your point of view. So you ready for it? I'm ready. Let's get fired up and fired away. All right, let's go. Again, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors who are with us day in and day out on this journey. They include Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique and the nonprofit nerd. If you've missed any of our episodes or you want to go back and research something, we have more than 700, actually close to 750 episodes. And you can find those on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV and Vimeo. You can also download our podcast Q us up so that you'll never miss an episode. Okay, Cherise from Biloxi, Mississippi writes in, Do we need to ensure our volunteers when they are on our property or working at one of our outdoor events? We're going to start some walks and hold neighborhood meet and greets. Wow. Good question. It's a great question. It's a great way to get started because volunteers are the heart of most nonprofit organizations. They help provide supplemental resources when we don't have the said monetary resources. They provide talent, skills, treasures, but most importantly, we want to make sure that when they're in our space that they are safe. And so with that being said, you want to make sure that when you're engaging volunteers first and foremost, you start off with what are the expectations and the roles and the types of engagement that they'll have on behalf of the organization. Then you also want to provide adequate training for them. So interacting with some of the neighborhood residents and what some potential challenges could be or barriers as well as how to sell or demonstrate the impact of the entity. Because you're leaving the property, it does put your organization in some liability areas. So with that, most nonprofits will ask their volunteers to sign a waiver. And with the waiver, it provides liability protection from the individual organization. And that volunteer says, I'm willing to act on behalf of you. And I do understand that there may be some potential risk. However, the organization will try to mitigate them as much as possible, but there are things that are impossible to predict. So to protect the organization, I would say you need to have volunteer waivers in place for everyone when they come on to the campus, especially when engaging outside of the property where you have a lot of variables that they may encounter. Yeah, I think this is a I love what you said. And I think that that's something we really need to be thinking about. We need to be thinking about this when we have, you know, black tie events. I mean, when we're going to, you know, an offsite environment, absolutely. And I would say the first starting point to your piece of this, LaShonda, is to say, talk to your insurance agent and whoever's doing your coverage because they will have risk assessments. They'll have a lot of risk assessment. Exactly. And, you know, I don't know of a resort or event venue that will work with a nonprofit that doesn't ask for these some liability coverage. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it's it's in the ecosystem now going out into a meet and greet different situation. But yeah, definitely different. Talk to your insurance carrier because you don't want to learn the hard way when somebody trips and falls and then you've got, you know, some sort of, you know, and then, you know, it's funny that you should say that, Julia, because also thinking about trips and falls, thinking about the size of the organization, when discussing with your insurance carrier, one of the things they will want to know is what the traffic, the foot traffic will be. And so depending on the size of the organization, it may or may not impact not only your coverage, but your coverage costs.  But then you also, again, you have that option to enforce or to put a policy in place where you ask them to sign waivers, especially when you are off site because that is critical because you there are a lot of variables that you cannot control. Right. I love that you brought that up. I think that's genius. I hadn't thought of it that way, but hopefully, Cherise, this helps you. Okay, let's go to Raphael in Boston, Massachusetts. Oh, I bet it's cold there today. I just had to say that. I'm confident it's cold there today. I just feel like a chill. Okay, Raphael writes in, we're a new nonprofit. We don't exactly have all the paperwork filed, but we're already helping with several neighborhood cleanups and repairs. Can we accept donations? We're not sure if we want all the headaches of formally organizing into a 501C3. Wow. Wow. Not a good structure. Raphael, the complexity of it all. So let's kind of start with how are you defining nonprofit, Raphael, and your operational procedures and how are you defining your mission statement? That's first and foremost what you want to think about.  So yes, you do need to go through the headache and complete the 501C3 because it is essential. You want to make sure you have that designation because if you don't have that designation, when individuals who make financial contributions come back and ask if you can provide them with a tax statement, you will not be able to do that. And as far as taking money, now I just would not advise to do so. Volunteering is one thing, but taking funds is something totally different and it can put your organization in a fiduciary, challenging situation with the IRS, especially because those documents have not been filed and they will not retro, allowing you to provide documentation to those that may have contributed prior to having that designation. So I say to you with pulling together your volunteers, create your board and have your board help you fill out that paperwork immediately. You know, I love what you said and I think you're absolutely right because it's an overarching compliance issue and many compliance issues come across your desk. And just like the previous question, that's a compliance issue. It is serious compliance. You have to be thinking about these just like you would if you were in a for-profit business, I would suggest, and you're in Boston, which is obviously a major American city, I would suggest that you look into what we call fiscal sponsorship. And that means that you tag your, kind of hitch your, you know, your start to a different wagon and that wagon is pulling a lot of different nonprofits and they use that umbrella structure to allow you to be compliant. And it's a great way for startups to work and to kind of figure out how things are going to go. It's a great way often to get training and to get support. You don't just call on a Monday and get it done on a Tuesday. I mean, it's a process. It's a process. Yeah, as it should be. As it should be. There's a vetting process and all that. But I agree I would not be able to do not take dime one. Volunteer hours, getting together in the community. Yeah, great. But the legality of this is a big issue. Serious issue. So Raphael, we wish you well, but please make sure you have the necessary documentation before collecting funds. Yeah, I mean, and you know, this is the thing, LaShonda, it's such a fascinating thing is that most people don't realize around the world, but especially even in our own country, that it's the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service that gives out the 501C3 status. Exactly. And it's the IRS that you will have to file those documents with. And it's the IRS that individuals file their returns with, with the documentation that your organization provides, or their tax benefits. Yeah, it's really an interesting thing. And so you've got to get you got to get situated before you can do the work of your heart. And I love that Raphael and his group is that looks like they're doing community based work. Oh my gosh, the work of the angels. Great. It is. But a part of the work of the angels is due diligence. And that is where having the proper documentation in place comes in. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, let's go to another question that is a new question. I've never had anyone asked this before comes to us from Rowan in Provo, Utah. And Rowan starts off with help. Several of our employees have been asked to be to get paid daily. Apparently, there are new apps that people get paid right away. Can nonprofits do this? I almost wish I had a law to get this particular judge share. So again, some additional complexities. Most nonprofits do not honor daily payments. That's very unique. However, what I can say is one of the most important things about payroll with any organization, whether it be nonprofit or for profit, is ensuring that the proper taxes are withdrawn from every payment. And that includes bonuses, and or any additional funds that you're not expecting. So I would say first and foremost, you will have to check with whoever facilitates your payroll for your organization. And if they are able to manage the volume of the daily payments via an app, and if an app is available that will with will withhold the necessary taxes that are required by the law, because you have to maintain compliance.  So there's a it's a balance to that. I wouldn't recommend it because it can become very cumbersome for the organization to try to manage and maintain, especially for the person handling your books. Unless there's some automations in place, I probably would maintain a normal pay structure of a weekly, by monthly or monthly. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting, LaShonda, because when I first saw this question, you know, we're seeing this a lot in fast food service, and yes, retail, where, you know, for, for whatever reason, the labor market is gravitating towards this. And so it is, and it's like all of these app services where you can do deliveries, they offer that. And so traditional workspaces are having to try to identify ways to compete with that pay me now. Right. And I think that, you know, it really depends on the level of labor. I mean, if you have labor that is is more it's fluctuating according to what your needs are, then that might make sense. But your executive your C suite level, some of these longer term pieces in management, that's just not really going to be ideal. But to your point, LaShonda, ask your payroll company, because I've got a bullet. Yes. More and more of these questions are coming forward. Right. And they're not going away. They're not going away. As we talked about, you know, how the newer generation is a little bit different, when it comes to payment and compensation, they're accustomed to things that are different, you know, they can cash app and Vmo and sale each other very quickly, and have access to cash immediately. And so that again, it creates some pressures and 1099 is an option, like you said, depending on the type of labor that's being performed. Yeah, it's a really big thing that I think, LaShonda, we're going to be seeing more and more questions like this and discussions like this. And it's it's a mindset shift. And it's a it's a accounting shift. Big time. Yes, it is. And I'm glad I'm not in accounting. Because it is ever changing. Yeah, it really is. And I think it's something to look at. I also, Rowan, would try and find out. I don't know of anyone using this, but I think it'd be really interesting to find out. And maybe your payroll person company can do this to find out what's happening with other organizations that are using this to kind of learn like, what's their ecosystem? What has been the opportunities and the challenges before you make that decision? Because we don't want you to set yourself up for something that you cannot sustain. And that can be very challenging. Yeah, very sticky situation. Yeah, yeah. It was an interesting question. Okay, our next question comes to us from Las Vegas. And I always love it when somebody asks us not to put up their name, because you know it's going to be a juicy question. Okay, so name withheld writes in two of our board members have given us notice that they are intending to open their own nonprofit doing work similar to us, but different. In essence, they will be competitors to our organization. Can we stop them? Wow. This is like, this is like, I thought what was said in Vegas or done in Vegas stays in Vegas. Oh my God, that's hilarious. Yeah. First and foremost, but just to say, this is a very interesting yet complex on once again. The first thing that comes to mind, Julia, for me, is conflict of interest. Yeah. That's the first thing that populates in my mind. And I say that because when we form our boards, one of the things that we consider when we're thinking about board dynamics is individuals that have linkage ability interests to support our particular organization. But then there's also some non disclosures that you have them complete prior to officially joining your organization that protects your intellectual property and also having confidentiality agreements and the conflicts of interest. So it seems like there are some missing elements which may give way for the former board members to feel the freedom to move forward in the vein of creating something different, but is competitive with your organization. So I would say that you in the perfect world, you'll have a conversation and identify ways that you can work together. And I've had this experience before, unfortunately. But in my particular situation from from what I know about the situation, it became very complicated and it can become a legal matter, just depending on what information they're using and if they're using any of the institutional or the organizational intellectual property. Because that is the clear conflict of interest, you know, one of the three courses would be a cease and desist. But hopefully you won't have to get to that point. I would say engage your board members because you know them and have a very meaningful, transparent conversation and see if there's any mitigating circumstances or if there's a way that you can meet them in the middle. So that instead of it being becoming your competition, that they become a subsidiary possibly of your organization, or they can have a special interest role in fundraising for your organization as an external agent, however, working in concert with you via an affiliation agreement. So there are a variety of ways that you can work with those board members so that it does not become a litigious matter. But do know that if some of the intellectual properties being used and you potentially have opportunities to stop them in a different type of way with legal help. Well, I love what you said and I would have never, ever, ever gone there. That that's brilliant. Because to me, when I read this, I'm thinking well, there's a bigger picture here of somebody within group within the board. They don't think you're you're pursuing your mission correctly or tracking the impacts correctly or whatever that is. And so is this is this a management issue? Or is this like truly a divergence of how you believe that the service should be run the mission vision and values? Exactly. So we didn't get a lot of information. So to some degree, what's happening in Vegas is staying there because we're not getting the whole story. It's true. Well, you know, it's really interesting. I served on a shelter board, domestic violence shelter board. And in our state, marijuana was becoming legal. And there was a huge issue because we had government contracts that did not allow for any on site use of marijuana, right? But then our state was allowing it. And so we weren't the only ones involved in this. I mean, we were one of many shelters that had to grapple with how to be legal, to be right, and to be compassionate. Okay, so there was that that level too, right? And it really became an issue for a lot of the board members for several board members who felt like it was a more it became a moral issue on drug abuse and substance abuse and all this being a big factor in domestic violence. And so it was fascinating to witness an upset that needed to be discussed. And so I loved what you said. I mean, sit down and have the courageous conversation, basically figure out maybe what's the bigger picture? And how can we work together and work forward as opposed to automatically becoming, you know, contentious? No one wants a contentious situation. It doesn't benefit the those that you are trying to impact. It doesn't benefit the organizations. And it's time off task that you can be working together to forward the mission. So yes, definitely task love that statement. Because yeah, that it just it just is bleeding out, you know, energy and intent and good will and all the things that you need to be doing in order to, you know, fund your mission and manage your mission. And so these are the things that really come about. I would say in reflection today, what an interesting assortment of questions, but there's almost seems like a common thread, LaShonda, that I hadn't necessarily realized until right now is that a lot of these things go back to communication. If you have a strong communication up front. Exactly. I mean, did you see that today? Oh, absolutely unequivocally. It all starts with communication. And you know, I am a proponent of transparency. If you are very forthcoming and transparent, it can mitigate a lot of the challenges that you encounter within the organization, whether it comes to branding or external appearances. All of those things matter, engaging your donors, making sure that they are very much cognitive and aware and informed of everything that you're doing, you know, and, you know, talking about money management, which can be a real challenge. And it can be the life or the death of an organization. And so you want to make sure that you're always in compliance because the last thing you want is for a benefactor to find out that they should possibly be questioning how you're managing the books. And the last thing you want is an audit to come back and say that you have less than favorable practices. So one of the things to your point, Julie, you mentioned is staying abreast of what's happening with current trends and what similar organizations are currently doing. And then, you know, you can always reach out to AFP to find out what specific measures are available or what practices are the best practices. And if you're an institution, there's case as a point of reference. So there are a variety of organizations that can provide you current trend information and data in terms of what the best policy or procedure may be and help guide you with an expert in that particular area. But always I always say whenever in doubt, please contact someone because you want to err on the side of caution. And communication is definitely key. I agree. I think I'll throw in the American Nonprofit Academy and we have a news feed that's updated like every hundred and twenty seconds or something from all across the country. And you can by looking at that news feed every day, you can look at it through through the lens of your own region or on a national level. But to see what people are writing about and talking about and these are from scholarly publications and that type of a community. It's not just people voicing their opinions. These are these are cultivated through you know publications. And so for me, I get a lot of ideas about what are some of the trends and what are people thinking and what are they fearing and where success lie or where concerns are starting to kind of bubble up. Because to your point, I think you don't want to you don't have to deal with a problem. If you can kind of get ahead of it and exactly about something, then you're going to might not work. You might still have problems or issues. But at least you won't be just like blind sighted and then have to, you know, scramble, which a lot of these questions, they seem like scramble questions to me today. They do. And I can like I can almost feel the frustration in the text. Yeah. And you know, that's one of the things that you definitely want to prevent. And, you know, speaking specifically as it relates to Fundraising Academy, you know, we have a workshop and I just printed an article about supercharging your board. And so again, airing on the side of prevention, identifying particular professional development opportunities, you know, overcoming barriers. All of these are available on the Fundraising Academy portal. And these preventive measures in place will help you have front will help prevent you from having to be reactive. Let's operate in the mode of being proactive and ensuring that we're up to date on our skill sets. And when we're implementing programs so that we can continue with the work and not have to get caught up in a lot of problem solving that can tend to take away from overarching goals and objectives. Yeah, I love it. I think that's such man, that's like the sage wisdom of the day. And I don't know if we can get any any better than that because again, LaShonda, you're a sage and wise woman because that kind of pulls it all together. LaShonda Williams trainer with Fundraising Academy coming to us from the great state of Texas today. And I just always so appreciate your wisdom and your approach. It's different than mine. Sometimes sometimes it's not, but you always seem to bring in a different voice. And so for us, we are so thankful. It's just really a gift. So thank you. Thank you. LaShonda Williams. Hey, everybody, we also want to make sure that we thank and express our gratitude to our sponsors from Blumerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part time controller, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Fundraising Academy, National University, Staffing Boutique and the Nonprofit Nerd. These are the folks that join with us every day. Finishing up our third year, hard to believe we'll be starting our fourth year of broadcasting in just a couple of weeks. Hard to believe. It is hard to believe and I am so excited for you and congratulations for all that you've done and you continue to do. You are most appreciated because you allow those that sometimes may feel voiceless an opportunity to voice their concerns and also receive some feedback in a meaningful and thoughtful way. So congratulations to you. Well, thanks. It's been it's always fun, never a dull moment. And so it's a good thing and we have a lot of support. So we definitely appreciate and honor that we really, really do. Hey, everybody, we like to end every episode and now we're ending a week with the mantra to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here.


Traditionally, Shabbat is concluded with a service called Havdalah, which means the separation. We separate between the Shabbat and the weekdays. And one of the parts of the Havdalah service is that we take, actually not candles, but really candles that are made into a larger torch. We begin Shabbat with two separate candles, and then Shabbat ends by taking really a torch that has the candles intertwined. It's really a way of showing that whatever separateness and disparities that existed before Shabbat, Shabbat brings things together, we unite. And one of the reasons that we have this taking of a candle and fire after Shabbat is because one of the major sources of creativity, we have this fire, we use fire for creativity. It's really the symbol, even in ancient literature, of man's creative capacity. And so while in Shabbat we were told not to create, not to make new things, not to exercise our intelligent mastery over the world, Shabbat is a day where we really sit back and we acknowledge the fact that God is the only real creative force in the world. But after Shabbat, we now enter into the weekdays, and so one of the things that we do to symbolize the fact that now we are again in creative mode is we light a fire. It's interesting that people notice that sometimes at this service, this practice of having this Havdallah ceremony, people often raise their hands in front of the fire and they open and close their fingers. And I've often been asked, why do we do that? Why is that a practice? One answer that was given is that on Shabbat our hands are so to speak closed. We don't operate in the world, we don't create, we don't make things, we don't really do things creatively and now to show that we are again now operating in the world we open our hands as if to say now we're back in operational mode, creative mode during the rest of the week. But I saw a beautiful explanation that is based on a passage in the book of Lamentations, the third chapter, which speaks about raising up our hands to our hearts. And there's a lot of wisdom that we can learn from our hands themselves. One of the things that happens when we go through this motion of opening and closing our hands, and you could try this at home, is that when you close your hands, you bring your fingers into the hand itself, you'll notice that all of the fingers are at the same level, they're all equal. When you extend your fingers outward, every single finger is at a different height, they're at different sizes. And one of the things that we learn on Shabbat is that Shabbat is a day in which we don't work, we're not out there trying to conquer the world and to gain and move forward in our lives where it's a day, Shabbat, where we really retreat into an island, a sanctuary and time to really have this intimacy with ourselves, with our souls, with our families, with our community, with God. And so on Shabbat we gain a certain clarity in terms of our station in the world. On Shabbat we begin to learn something very important. When we go out into the world and we're in a very competitive world, we're going out, we extend ourselves, we experience a world where we're not all equal, we feel different from each other, people certainly don't feel equal to each other, it's a world where there's plenty of tension and competition. On Shabbat we come, we retreat into ourselves, we begin to realize with the clarity of the spiritual day of Shabbat, ultimately we are all equal, Shabbat is a day where we remember that God created every person in the world, we're all children of God, we're all equal and it's an incredibly important lesson that our fingers themselves are able to teach our hearts.