Yeah, welcome back to the Sportsmax Zone. Jermaincan law firm Archer, Cummings and Cole have formally written to the President and General Secretary of the Jermainca Football Federation. The first of two letters released on Tuesday, the 24th of October, was addressed to the GFF President Michael Bricketts, questioning the legality of the current board's existence. The letter highlighted that based on the GFF's adoption of a new constitution at its Congress in December 2022, the current GFF board's term, which began on September 15, 2019, should have ended in September this year. In a second letter dated Thursday, the 26th of October, GFF General Secretary Dennis Chong was requested to respond to electoral concerns related to the current membership of the Federation. This relates to the formation of entities after the stipulated deadline, which may be considered to become a part of the GFF's list of voting delegates. Joining us to explore the two issues at hand and maybe even so much more, yeah, Denza Wilkes, former general manager of the Sports Development Foundation. He's now head of athletic development and training at the UWI Mona and he's joined by human resource specialist Dr. Cecil Dennis, lady and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to have you on the Sports Max Zone. First of all, I want to get an understanding of your connection to the real solid action team. I like the name by the way, real solid action. And that team is led by Raymond Anderson, who we've had on this show before. So I want to get an understanding of your connection. Let the lady go first. Okay. Thank you for having me. Well, you're not alone. A couple of persons have asked, what's your connection? So I'm actually a sports person. I represented Jamaica in table tennis and not just at the sport. I played with Sandra Reti and Sofa Virgo and in fact, in 1993, I was a part of that winning Caribbean champions team. So I've been connected with sports, but in 2007, I held a marketing position with an organization, COK, and we actually took the sponsorship of the Champions Cup. And out of that sponsorship, I developed a relationship with the JFF, with football, and subsequently I was asked to sit on their marketing committee. I actually started, but unfortunately had to admit. So my association is a long one. With table tennis, I've been a part of administration, which of course gives you exposure to the other aspect of sports. So I guess Mr. Anderson thought I had some skills that would add value to this real solid action team. Yes? Sir Wilkes. Well, I've been around for a long time, over 50 years of the football game, and not to mention involvement in a number of sports. I've played at the national level like my colleague here, but I really have been involved and let me say that Mr. Anderson approached me while I was still at the Sports Development Foundation, and he asked me to join his team. I have developed my own perception as far as administration is concerned, because for nine and a half years at the Sports Development Foundation, I had to do with interfacing with the administrative people across as many as 60 national sporting associations. And so I think I have an in-depth appreciation for the challenges that come with administration. And in particular, as far as football is concerned, I was asked by the current president of the JFF to serve on the technical committee some four to five years ago. So there you go. Yes. So let's get right into the meat of the matter then, and let's not skirt around the issues here. There is an election that is coming up for executive positions at the Jamaica Football Federation. Of course, chief among those for the position of president of the Jamaica Football Federation. I think everyone knows by now across Jamaica and the Caribbean that Raymond Anderson is set to challenge Michael Ricketts, who is the sitting president. Michael Ricketts recently in an interview said that elections will not be held this year, even though they are constitutionally due this year, and that it is likely to be held in January of 2024. You are saying that is unconstitutional and should not be the case. Bring us up to speed. So yes. So all the actions of the JFF are guided by the constitution. And this constitution was, we want to refer to it as a newly adopted constitution. In the constitution, there are provisions for elections, and there is a stipulated tenure for every administration. This administration has a four-year tenure, and that tenure expired on September 14. Between September 14 and probably yesterday, there was no mention of the election date. And of course, there is a 60-day period in which the election has to be announced, and it has to be held within the 60-day period. And our team, we were really looking at what's happening in the dates, we're watching the dates, and realizing that if the election is not called by a specific date, then we're either going to be at New Year's Eve or we're going to be in 2024 without any plausible explanation as to why the elections were delayed. We raised the question. Yeah. Densey, you're about to say something. No, I'm not. I just want to mention, you just said that you were a part of the technical committee, invited to do so by the current president, Michael Ricketts. But you were suspended, weren't you? Oh yes, just recently I was suspended as a result of that improve, we should call it, with Lauren Donaldson and the Rege Girls being, his contract not being renewed, and I of course made certain utterances publicly, I still stand by them, but for my sins I have been suspended, I'm pretty confident with that. You breached collective responsibility. No, I did not because the technical committee had not met and had not made any pronouncements. All we had was the general secretary calling in the coach and telling him that his contract was being renewed. So there was no collective decision taken. So I cannot be accused by any stretch of the imagination of reaching any collective responsibility. Yeah, our understanding based on the number of delegates or the number of representatives that can vote, which has been increased from 13 to 56, is that I heard the general secretary speaking on television a couple of weeks ago and he was trying to explain why things were not in place for an election to be held this year. And it had something to do with the endorsement of some of the new bodies that are being added to the list. Can you explain his position? I know you don't agree with it, but for the benefit of our viewers, can you explain what Dennis Chung was was saying? Well, I have to start by saying that must be a confession to their election of duty because he has been in the position. The administration has been there and even before him. And they knew when the new constitution came into being and there was more than enough time to ensure that the relevant Congress was held and everything else was put in place to suggest that things are out of place has to be on his part and admission of the election of duty. But in addition to that, the fact is we are aware that there is a deadline of June 30th for the various entities that are involved in the vote to have been properly registered. And I am not sure where he's coming from. So in short, I am not able to explain the shenanigans of Mr Chung. Yeah, let me see if I can put some context to what Sir Lance is referencing. So as you pointed out, Lance, before there were 13 voting members, which were the parish associations only, that has now been increased to 56. They have been placed under three categories or three pillars as they have been described. Pillar one would be the parish associations who individually would have two votes each. So that would end up being 26 of the 56 votes. And then you have pillar two, which would be the clubs. You have the top four primarily clubs. You have the top four tier two clubs. So that would be eight votes. And then you have the top four women's clubs and the top four tier two clubs on the women's side. But there is no top two, sorry, there is no tier two women's competition. So I gather those votes will go to the top four women's teams, which would make it eight. So that's 26 plus 16, 42. And then there is pillar three, which is where I'm gathering most of the issues are, which are the affiliates of the Jamaica Football Federation. So we're now talking about the professional football Jamaica Limited, who we know very well. We're talking about the Beach Soccer Association, the referees association, past players association, coaches association, inter-secondary school sports association, and Intercal seven. And they will come with two votes each. So that's 14, which will take you to the 56. Apparently, from what I'm understanding, ladies and gentlemen, is that some of these associations have been registered twice by different individuals. So let us take, for example, the Beach Soccer Association. One was registered some years ago under a particular name, and one has been registered more recently under another name. So from what I understand, and again, you can correct me, there is to be a meeting soon to decide what will happen with the affiliates that, can I say, have been registered twice? All right. OK, so let's take it from the Constitution. Yes. The Constitution has articles that speak to different points in the process of registration. All right, so Article 12 speaks about being an affiliate, being members. And then, way down, there's an Article 83, which it talks about transitioning. But it specifies a date by which any of these entities who want to be recognized, they should be registered and, of course, submit what is required to the JFF. Which is June 30, 2023. Yes. Let me ask you this question before you go any further. Is it true that if the election goes to 2024, then that June 30 date becomes irrelevant? From a review of the Constitution, we have not seen anything in the Constitution that eliminates that date. Our cause is the date to be no longer in effect. There's nothing. However, there is a process of accepting these members. But if the entities seeking membership were not registered and the process had not been completed before June 30, then they would not be eligible. However, I have to say, however, there was something today that suggested that the date had been changed. You mean the June 30 date? Yes. There is some information which has surfaced, which suggests that the date has been changed. However. Where is that information coming from? I can't state the source. I can't state the source. So this is not public knowledge? Several persons have the information. But I can't confirm the source. But there is a suggestion that the date, there's a recommendation for the date to be changed. However, that change cannot be made by an individual. The recommendation cannot be made by an individual. It would have to be voted on by Congress. And not just the board now? No, it has to be Congress. Right. Can I ask a question quickly, Denzel and Cecile? Because it is my understanding that the current president, Michael Ricketts, would struggle to get votes from the pillar three, which we have just outlined. Is that your understanding as well, representing the Raymond Anderson group? Well, let's say we have heard the same thing too. One can say what is the fact. But we have been advised. And we have reason to believe that he is struggling to get a nomination from the group referred to as pillar three. And that may very well have to do with the kind of gymnastics that are taking place now. Because if everything was in place, as Cecile said, up to just about a day or two ago, there was nothing said about an election in circumstances where your term of office has really and truly ended. Now, we understand that you don't want to create a vacuum. And so you want to ensure that there is a Congress and an election before there is a change. But any decent administration would at least indicate that, OK, here are the circumstances. We are late. But these are the basis for that. We haven't heard that at all. And now we have the situation where we see people running in October to register organizations contrary to what is set out in the Constitution. Is what I'm hearing true that there is a proposed meeting this week that the General Secretary is meeting with a board that could fast track some of these registration issues? Well, we are sticking very close with our legal advisors. And our understanding is that, as Cecile just said, it's only a Congress that can change that situation in terms of the deadline of June 30 for the registration of the organizations. And that is our understanding. And that's what we're sticking to. We are watching very closely. We have heard from meeting in the coming week, but we have heard of a board meeting. And our understanding is that it will take a Congress, which is much more authorized than a simple board. But what would your position be if this board meeting goes ahead and the GenSec and the board decides to go with the program that they now have re-registering these double registrar people? Yeah, affiliates. Yeah, you know, what would that be a legal issue that you would contest? Well, we can object. Anybody can object. Any club can object to any action that appears contrary to what the Constitution outlines. And if, certainly, if this team believes that whatever happens is outside of the ambit of the Constitution, then we will object. Which your letters to the GenSec and the president clearly stated that there is an objection from a legal objection from your standpoint. Yes, because the Constitution is a legal document. And every activity, every action has to be guided. And certainly for our team, any appearance that suggests that you are trying to deviate from what the Constitution says is something that we will object to. But again, we await the outcome. You referred to two associations, double registration. And we're not sure why. You mean beach soccer and referees? Yes, we're not sure why. But let's not skirt around, though, because our understanding is that some of the late registration applications are coming from the RIKID supporters, or people who would be backing RIKIDs. All right, let's look at the beach. In the case of beach, our understanding is that both registrations are late. One was in September of 2023, and the other one in October of 2023. So both of those are in breach of the June 30 deadline. In the cases of the others, well, in the case of the referee, I don't even know if there's really a registration, because there's a referee association has been around, I think, since the 1990s. But before you go any further, the Jamaica Football Federation, this administration, when they came into office, they put together a referees' committee. And so the referees' association was not acting in such a role for the period. But for voting purposes, that committee can't vote, so you now have to go back to the association. Yes, because my understanding is that the Constitution contemplates the association, and not any special committee that is set up by the board. And in the case of coaches, for example, we have a coaches association that was registered as far back as 2009, and we have another one that was registered in 2020. And in the case of the 2000s... And so you need to now decide what's from SWAT? Is it the 2009 registration, or is it the 2020 registration? And how could you have a 2020 registration when a body already existed since... The 2009 registration has been Blaine's body? That is... Yes. And the 2020 registration is Speed's association? Absolutely. Rudolf Speed is with Ricketts? That's our understanding. I want to also make the point, right, and you can help us make this very clear that the significance of the pillars is not just about getting majority of those 56 votes, but you have to get at least a nomination from each pillar. So you need two nominations from pillar one, which is the parish associations, one from pillar two, which the clubs, and one from pillar three, the affiliates. And so if any person is unable to get, let's say, a pillar three nomination, they cannot contest the election. Absolutely correct. Absolutely correct. Hence what I referred to earlier on as shenanigans last minute running around and trying to register organisations that are really trumped up. Lance asked an important question earlier about where do you go from here? So let us say, and Michael Ricketts has said, that's the current president, the election will not be held this year. In a radio interview, we hinted at an early 2024 date, is the real solid action team ready to take this matter to the next level? I know you've spoken about legal alternatives, but take this, the conca-calf, and beyond that to FIFA. Absolutely, absolutely. And in fact, the statement that the election will not be held in 2023, it smacks off a bit of dictatorship in the sense that I don't know that a congress has been called and an explanation provided to say certain logistical problems make it impossible to have the elections. If it is accepted that constitutionally the elections are due in 2023 and specific circumstances suggest that you may not be able to make it, then the leadership ought to come in all humility, apologize to the stakeholders and indicate that because of these circumstances we are seeking the permission of congress to take the election and yes, we were prepared to take it through to conca-calf and ultimately to FIFA, if that is what is required. I've understood in recent months that there are FIFA representatives, mostly from the financial standpoint, overseeing the operations of the JFF offices at the moment. And my understanding is that these FIFA representatives have been for a long time, for several months, constantly reminding the JFF that these pillars and these new registrations must be in place because the constitution demands that the election has to be held by December and it has to be announced six to days before, which means that the announcement should have happened like in the past week. Exactly. If they were meeting the timeline and there was a constant reminder from the FIFA representatives that they needed to ensure that these registrations were properly documented so that there would not be any delays or any hitch with regard to the scheduled elections from the JFF, which to me aligns with what you suggested earlier on that the situation that we are now in, the JFF has to take responsibility for. Clearly. I can confirm that the FIFA does have a consulting person within the JFF as we speak and he's there on behalf of FIFA and conducting not just a financial audit but a governance audit. I mean, I have been actually contacted by the consultant because he had to verify whether or not I served on the technical committee and certain questions were asked of me regarding the operations of the technical committee so I can confirm that there is a representative of FIFA operating within the office. It should also be noted. It's unfortunate, you know. The current president has been in office for approximately six years. The current administration has been unrestricted funding by the FIFA for five years. There are two unfortunate things about that. The current administration did not inherit the situation. This situation, it started within this administration. In addition to that, it is my understanding that we now have a world record. No other country has ever been unrestricted funding by FIFA for five years in succession. Just for the benefit of our viewers, restrictive funding from FIFA means that they haven't been satisfied with your financial operations so they are restricting the funds that would normally accrue to your federation because of that. Absolutely. Is that a large part of the reason or any part of the reason for the financial woes that the JFF continues to speak about? There can be so many thoughts as far as financial woes. First of all, do they really have financial woes? We were told, for example, that they received a certain sum from FIFA to pay the girls. We had a figure of 1.2 million from the general secretary. We had a figure of 1.5 million from the president. The general secretary then proceeded to say that they cannot pay over the 20% that was due to the regular girls because they can't pay what they don't have. My appreciation for simple arithmetic is that 20% of 1.8, which is what they were supposed to get, amounts to somewhere in the vicinity of $360,000. Now, if you receive 1.2 million, the calculation there suggests that you have more than $360,000. So you can't tell me that you can't pay what you don't have. There is something not so correct about that statement. It's not mathematical. And so one has to question. Then we have a situation where they are not paid in spite of being told at different times that this has been paid. And then, all of a sudden, the general secretary now announces, okay, they have now all been paid. So it means that at some point in time, when you were saying that they had been paid, they had not been paid. What I can also tell you is that I have documentation which suggests that they have not yet completed payment to the coach whose contract was not renewed. I know that he has written to them making a claim for funds outstanding to him and indicating that if they do not pay up by a certain time, he will take legal action. So this administration, which I have worked with at some point in time, albeit voluntarily on the technical committee, has really been a bit of an embarrassment including to me as an individual. I want to get quickly from you, Denzel. At what stage did you make up in your own mind that you did not want to go forward with this administration? We started having problems. I mean, I started questioning the administration, going way back. We know the kind of fall-ups that were taking place with the previous general secretary. Define way back. We're going as far back as 2021, coming through 2022. Okay. They were just making error after error after error. And at those times, I mean, I was in constant communication with the president in my capacity as manager of the Sports Development Foundation because it was causing an embarrassment. Wasn't there a point that as the president, as the boss of the Sports Foundation, you withheld money from the JFF because of some financial issues? Yes, I had to. I was going to get there right away because this had to do with Suriname when the team got stranded in Suriname and they had a match back in Jamaica by the Tuesday.  And we had to make some really difficult arrangements to get the flights. We had to get a charter out of Mexico, that plane had to come to Jamaica to refuel and then go to Suriname. There were no funds available to do that. And everybody knows it was public knowledge. I had to literally utilizing the leverage of the Sports Development Foundation to ask Chris Williams for up-fronting some funds that we could do all of that. Having done that, the understanding is that the JFF should repay a portion of that sum which was found by Mr. Williams. And they went way beyond the time. This is going beyond the time as far as the elections are concerned, it seems to be a habit of this administration. They went way beyond the time and as general manager of the SDF, I had to withhold their monthly subvention and indicate that if they did not pay up, we would utilize the monthly subvention to repay Mr. Williams. And so all of that took me to a point which said, I mean, this administration is incorrigible because you are constantly working with them. And I mean, I can go into things like getting their financials and all of that. They are always behind with their financials. If I go back to my time at the Sports Development Foundation, it's a litany of wars. Yeah, yeah. Why have you stayed so long? With them? Yes. Love of football and hoping that something would happen that would turn things around. I mean, there are discussions I had with the president. Pleading, we brought him to the table at the Sports Development Foundation, himself and his general secretary, then Mr. Wint sat around the board table with the board members and advised them and coerced them, you could all, or cajoled at the best, you know? So it's been a long journey. I contemplated many a time stepping away from the technical committee, but I think I had a responsibility to stay in there. And I'm glad I did, because in the circumstances for the selection of the coach for the reggae girls, remember initially, Lauren Donaldson was not the chosen one, you know? I was the lone voice crying in the wilderness. And it is only the situation where Jonathan, what's his last name? Morgan. Morgan. Morgan was engaged by Sheffield United, and then was no longer available. He was their choice. I was outvoted completely, but then I'm used to that. I mean, all the votes going back to top a bit more.  So you started having some issues, as you pointed out in 2021. Yes. They're about, you have your concerns about whether the JFF really has the financial issues, wars that they point to. And it just sounds to me that you're at your wit's end now, that you feel this association just cannot continue, this administration cannot continue to run Jamaica's football. It would be a travesty. It would be so unfortunate after all that has taken place. There are some things that we don't even want to get into too deeply, but at the highest level of leadership, there's this dereliction that has taken place as far as the whole court case is concerned. And it's not subjudicates, so I can mention it. And I'm not even talking about the decision that was taken, but I'm talking about just not paying any mind to the thing. I mean, my layman's understanding is that you're in fact in contempt of court, and then when you get the decision taken in absentia, you don't even make that effort to pay up. What kind of level of responsibility? Give us more details of that court case. Well, I'm speaking of the judgment that was made against the incumbent president because of a case brought against him by one of his colleagues. And the court ruled that a payment was to be made. The thing was not contested, and that is dereliction. It having not been contested and you get a ruling against you in absentia, you then move to the next stage where you are now supposed to pay. You don't pay, you end up in circumstances where a vicar has to be seized and you talk about bailiff. And that is the leadership of your premier sport in the country. As I said before, it would be a travesty. Yeah, we're running out of time, but I have to get this one in Raymond Anderson. Why do you believe that Raymond Anderson, who has been in football administration for close to 40 years, who has been part of this administration and previous administrations, has something different to offer, something better to offer? Very simple in my case, and Cecil can speak. Raymond, I've been close enough to watch the organization. Raymond has been, over time, more like the workhorse of the organization. He's been in operations, he's handled the competitions and the areas of responsibility that he has had to carry out. He's carried them out pretty well.  So he has to take responsibility collectively for some of the fall-offs, because it's part of it. But what I do know is that there are so many decisions that have been taken around not just Raymond, but around numerous other persons and the executive. This is an administration that takes decisions not in a real collective way. And that is why you have a situation where, for example, the president said in response to the letter that was sent to him, that he was advised not to respond. Then you get a response from Mr. Chong. So there clearly is a discord somewhere. There's no harmony. There's not even unison. We're in trouble. So the question was asked. Why Raymond? 20 seconds. Yes. So leaders emerge in crises. And as an HR specialist, I can tell you that. Leaders emerge. And there is, sorry, there's nothing wrong with a leader being a part of a team believing that he can build on what exists or he can improve on what exists. He has all this experience. And this is something that the real solid action team wants to do, because we have a manifesto. We're done. We're ready. We're ready. We want to rebuild. We want to reposition the sport. We want to revitalize the passion, get persons out. We saw what happened in the game. You could count the number of supporters. We don't want that to happen. We want to be sure that the future of football is in the hands of not just Raymond, who can lead, but this multidisciplinary team that he has formed. And everybody's asking about Slate. It's coming. Dr. Cecile Dennis, Denzel Wilkes, it's been a pleasure speaking to both of you today on the Sports Mag Zone. Definitely. An eye-opening conversation we had here today. And we are sure we'll be talking to you before the end of this year. Or who knows if Michael Ricketts has his way early January. We take a break on the Sports Mag Zone. We'll be back with more.


he capital improvements with the lighting and the taping in which we're on the second page here as I did one, I did two. Eastmont Bay are approved at their meeting through final allocation of the money that are in the bond money from the buildings built. There's $13,830. As you see in the email that they sent, that was their allocation approval of that, which recovered the two expenses of the $7,300 and that took $5,000 for the paving. Right. If I remember right, can we ask again to give that money back? Correct. To reduce the loan to bond loans. Correct. So over the years, we've used that in a number of different building projects after the facilities. This is where we discussed in the joint meeting. Correct. We didn't have a formula for this. So Ty, once this money is gone, the next time a project like this comes up, you'll be looking at creating a new capital fund or in some other way. Correct. So we have capital fund monies that are designated as building monies, and they're being saved already. This is one avenue of request, because again, these are specific items that are capital improvements, such as the pole lights, such as that additional paving through a typically black and muddy area. So it makes sense to use those funds for that. And then that item just clears itself off the table. So when you say, wait, do you mean this is my pail here? Or is it your capital reserve or is it your food capital reserve? We're in the capital reserve.   There's allocating monies in there that are going to capital improvement projects and things. OK. Yeah. We don't need to. We don't need to create some capital reserve. That's fine. You smell fair. We have something that they're working on there as well. They have to do a major roof issue down the road and things. But we have monies that are being set aside for that as well. Any other questions from the board? Does somebody want to make a motion to approve the exemplary fire department request for 7,300 for lighting, 5,000 for paving? Both of those are not to exceed. And these are expenses from the words exemplary fire department, bond or major fund from the building of the. Well, it's actually the town of these volunteers, bond. And they're remaining about as 13, 8, 30. So moved. Is this going to be that verbiage in right now? I'm not following. Is it in that email? Is it? Yeah. It's a big fat email and it doesn't have the actual motion. So the motion is to authorize the withdrawal of the final funds from the building's, what did you call it? The building's called the bond fund held by the town of East Montpelier. This authorizes the East Montpelier fire department to use 7,300 towards new lighting and 5,000 towards solar paving. And we're moved and I second it. We can worst that too, Lisa. Yeah, I can help you with the warning, Lisa. Any other questions, discussions? OK. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Close it. Here we go. Good next time. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you for your name. Thank you for your time. No, that's all right. That's all right. That's all right. That's all right. That's all right. We went and introduced ourselves on channels. This is kind of funny when you have somebody that you haven't met before, but it's nice to have people and people we haven't met before. OK. So, yeah.  So I guess my question is what do we expect from a liaison from a select board? I don't know what you're proposing Marcos to do for us. Well, I'm going to stop you, though, because that's kind of the question. Well, that's the beginning. The beginning of it is to do the exploration of, OK, what is the project? What do we need to do? Who needs to do what? How do we move forward? It's taking that putting shape on it online and coming back and saying, OK. Here's what needs to be done. Here's eight pieces of information that we need and nobody has, so I've got to figure it out. Or Jan's going to help figure things out. And I'm saying on this, you know, and I see your browser because maybe the thing is we don't know, right? It's a blank slate. And so it's for somebody to figure out what is this project. OK. And bring it back to us and tell us what it is along the way. May I ask you to do it? Well, we've already appointed Marcos to do it. But here's what we've learned today. OK. There's no news. From our district. From our district. No news. Hopefully it's no news. Pardon? Hopefully it's no news. Never. Well, go ahead. What's the news? Loosters have to do the bulk of the work is what we learned. We have to issue an RFP. You learned from whom? Barbara Slussinger, the district advisor from PBR. OK. So I asked her what the roles were between the select board and the listors. And in terms of reappraisal and learn that it is the listors who are to initially send out a letter of interest to the group of people and then say, will you go be issuing an RFP? Are you interested in having an RFP? And we must produce the RFP. The listors produce it? The listors produce the RFP? Yes. So my request is this is also not a town clerk's responsibility, but does this town have any administrative help that can be provided to us? And we are going to be able to do this until after our grand list is issued for this year anyway. What is that? Well, I don't know. We may ask for an extension. But usually we can't set the tax rate to the other ground. I understand that. But I'm just asking. Right now, if we make it, everything will be completed by early July. But that's our routine. But we have not been able to finish inspections. We haven't been able to get all the data in. We're fairly on track. And whether we ask for an extension, we don't always have to use it. That's the other thing. But we can't start doing the search for the reappraisal until after that work is done. The grand list is issued in our grievances order and reply to and all of that. That's because of the workload. And if we had an administrative person, they could get that. Well, if we had administrative person could help us with writing the necessary letters and mailing them, getting a response and helping us set up the matrix and what kind of questions to ask. Because we have a theory on the books. We have a treasurer position. We have a treasurer system. Neither. Neither. Which is highlighted right now. So do you have a sense now of specifically like what, I heard the task, what the, but we need, we need a person at number of hours by this date for this period. Can you articulate that? I can't articulate that because I've never done it to be able to tell you. And I don't know. I was not here when things were done for, before you hired Ed in 2015. That was, was it 10 years ago that we did the, the last re-appraisal was 2015. But that wasn't an inside-outside. That wasn't, yes. That was a statistical re-appraisal. Barber confirmed we cannot do a statistical re-appraisal. This is going to have to be a full re-appraisal. So not only that, we have to educate the population what's going to happen. So the reason we can't do this is because you, you don't have to do that once after a time. You always need to. We've done it twice in a row. And that's the reason, okay. It seems to me like a full loan, coming in your house, looking under the rug, was done about like 10, 15 years ago. Was it longer than that?  Two years between 2007 and 2007. And if you have, so that means the interior of these houses have not been looked at since 2007 or before. Or before, yeah. And, and you know, we just, and how COVID is affecting that, I don't know either, that's another interesting story. But, but anyway, it was an interesting conversation today to lay out the groundwork of what needs to be done. So I appreciate that you've selected Mark to be a liaison, but I'm not excited. I happen to know Mark's not an exactly an administrative person like this. Yeah. In terms of writing things. Well, then we, I would think that doesn't VLCT have templates for this. I mean, this has got to be pretty standard. We have some templates right here. This 58 page document, which we just got today. I am attending a four hour webinar tonight. Even though I'm not going to be here for this re-appraisal. Well, I know Mark's skill is not some of the administrative stuff, but I think he doesn't have to do that. He has to tell the board what it is that needs to get done and how do we make that happen? Yeah. Maybe his skill is exactly of, okay, let's make half a dozen assumptions based on excellent information that you have. And because we have to start from somewhere, if we're going to hire an administrative person, we have to have something. We have to make some assumptions on which we're making an effort. Yeah, we have to know what skills and what they're going to work hard for. Right. So we may not, we'll know for sure what we need after it's done. And until then, we're going to all have to do the best we can. And what I take my takeaway, what I'm wrong, is that you're asking us to figure out a way for you to have some administrative support. I just wanted some clarification on what to expect, I think. Well, I think this might be a very specific administrative support that needed that we, I don't remember right now, but I don't know, it's horrible. This might be something, because it's from here to here, it's not like you're going to be doing this job for the next five years. It sounds like to me like it has a beginning and an end. So somebody who's looking maybe for some kind of part-time temporary income, we could do some kind of a contract with somebody to provide that assistance. And it doesn't have benefits, that kind of stuff, because it's a specific task. You might be able to fight someone. You can hire Toby to do it. Toby has to do this stuff. Ooh, and he's got a brain for this stuff. He does have a brain? He does RFP type stuff for the fire department? I do think that the timing would be helpful, because if the need is during the summer, I'm guessing it's not, then... Well, it's after the line. Right, so it's not really summer. It's more like sometime in September to May, during the school year, because this is also a... Is it... Does it fit in community development kind of internship? I don't know. I mean, it's something... Yeah, I mean, in other towns, we might be looking for some similar help for something like this, because everybody's doing it. If you put an ad on Frontport 4, I'm looking for someone with these types of skills just for a single job. Right, Toby's suggestion. Yeah, well, he's one. But a tone might say no. He might be... Yeah. I think we have some specific... But then he's going back to what you said a few minutes ago. What we're starting to do now is probably with the new news becomes, okay, this is the mark rolling up his sleeves, and I do think it's in his skill set too, roll up his sleeves and say, okay, we got a problem here, we got to figure out where to solve it. How do we put some shape and words on the problem so we know what solution we're looking for? How about our town lawyer too, just in terms of... I mean, this has got to be a very standardized process. I mean, I would think that you'd go right to an RFP.  I mean, they're... Well, we have a list of appraisers. We have a list of appraisers. So when we put the RFP out, do we... We have to put the RFP out, right? We do that, but then how do we... Do we have word to like an appraisal firm or do we do... let's say like Martin puts those into somebody like that or do we... The list has definite appraiser firms that are in here that I sent in the... Yeah, right. And so we have to follow, we have to probably follow that list and find if there's somebody who's interested in doing this. And we have to develop a matrix of what we want based on what is there and be able to judge when the RFP comes in. Yeah, it's just there. You have to do the process. And then the select board has to enter the contract and what Barbara has also said, strongly recommend that the town's attorney review the contract prior to signature. So I mean, there seems to be a lot of issues. I mean, not issues, but there's a lot of things. I'm thinking in that, in the selection process, I mean, the criteria, usually you want to have person performance recommendations and then you want to have samples of work. Rick, I think when you find we have qualified appraisers, this is what they do for a living. This is not building an interest. Yeah, that's not part of it. We're hoping for people to go in and see that what you should brought up, see what and understand what your role value of renovations is. You want to have a job. And it's going to be in and out. They're going to go from one house to another in 20 minutes. If that, I know I actually manage real estate contractors that do this at work. That's why I'm asking. I mean, it's not rocket science. And there's a whole long list of people. You might know some in the long list, Rick. I know all. But when we when the listeners have to draft an RFP I'm certain that we would ask our town attorney to review the RFP and all these towns are doing this. They know that. So, Jan, we hear you on the administrative help how many times a week do I say we need an administrative help Denise? Eight times a day. So, totally hear you, totally get it. If you can be thinking about yeah, what the task is, what the timeframe might be and what the you know, is it a full-time job for eight weeks? Is it a half-time job for eight weeks? That kind of stuff. So, it's got to shape. That would be helpful for us to figure out. Yeah, in the task and skills. So, then we've got to go to the budget and find money that we didn't budget for. When would it start? I mean, we're going to have to advertise for it. Well, like I said, this market is pretty tight right now. Well, we don't have to advertise what the recommendation is. You send a letter, a blanket of information, asking them to tell them. I'm talking about the administrative help. Oh, the administrative help. The bottom line is that's what I'm hearing you need from us. Is authorization and a budget to hire an administrative person? Well, I have a question. It seems to me that when Jan was saying, we had a generic letter, one-pager, FYI, in the coming year the town of Calis needs to do a top to bottom so we're sending this to a larger list than you and you have any experience in doing whatever they call it, top to bottom. They may say we're looking for anyone who might be interested during this time frame to do whatever that term is. That simple letter, when they respond they'll say, yes, this is what we've done in another town. The way I was recommended to me is we're getting ready to do a full reappraisal. And we will be issuing an RFP if you're interested in receiving it. That's all the letter has to say. They respond back to us and say, yes. We should do that sooner rather than later. I understand that. But we can do that simple letter is what we're saying right now. Well, you're talking about that. We're talking about administrative assistance. I know, but I'm just saying that it's a simple letter like Jan just said that we could only say at that time. That's great. I may have the RFP ready to go too. Well, at least you there's a thought that that would give you some indication of who might be interested but if the whole state is doing this there's going to be a lot of those letters going out and a lot of responses coming back and then if you're not ready to issue the RFP they could get taken up with other towns and nine right away. Sometimes I'm just thinking if they respond and say yes, we're interested and we've done this 500 times we might then be out of call and explore with them could you assist us in terms of the information we need to include in our RFP maybe we could pay them up. We could even ask Ed that. Or we could hire Ed to do that. We can't really hire Ed to do that. He wasn't doing that. Let me see what this webinar is tomorrow which gets all the on how and what to do and I can more answer your questions as to the time. I'll go out of work and I'll look at the appraisal first we do appraisals all the time so I write the RFP but that's I mean it's not for town lives for state projects but if you got a list of who we typically send RFPs on to I don't know if they do this type of work or is it more commercial? Well the state should provide it for them. That's how the hard part and maybe a simple matter of you know you send them that. Well I'm thinking along those lines Ed could do that. So if a phone call were made to Ed and say we're going to be doing this feeling this is coming down even what's going on in the real estate market and Ed might say yeah I'm not interested but if we say would you be willing to be hired just for the administrative task of putting together an RFP to go to other appraisers Ed might say yeah. He might but he might not because I've heard he's really super busy doing these things and he is already he does all of that as the appraisal. And the putting together an RFP is not what I imagined to be the administrative task. The administrative task that's brain work that's not administrative that is administrative I think administrative people don't have to have a brain. No no no I get that but I'm saying that's very very substantive what I would imagine that the administrative work is being the RFP that I would imagine you guys are maybe with some outside consultant input you're developing an RFP the administrative person is compiling it sending it to everybody who is interested following up maybe with a reminder cataloging who came in by the deadline you said all of that I'm not saying people don't need to everybody has to have a brain to do the work have to be organized but the substantive piece putting together the RFP is not what you're looking at I'm looking for that person who will monitor do the matrix help us with when we do our interviews because I guess we do the interviews and then we provide to you a final list of people that we think will do it and then decide who you want to be I could see VLCT getting more involved in this whole process knowing full state is going to do it and maybe having some templates some advice I could see VLCT really it's going to reference actually it's going to it's going to put all the requirements all those standards things that you have to have insurance limits I'm guessing that that's standardized we wouldn't and our administrative person wouldn't know that that's why what we'd be filling out is what's the scope of this what are we praising what's going to be how many properties so so Mark so circling back we've asked Mark to work with you guys you're asked from I just want to make sure that we catch you with some clarity what you're asking for you're making us aware that there's a different understanding of the process and that we look at that and you're asking us for some authorized administrative support which I still I don't want us to be doing that in the vacuum I think it would be really helpful for us to understand what your job duties what the duties are and what the time frame is because really all we're going to do is offer you a budget sounds kind of like a project manager basically through are you thinking like through the whole appraisal process they would manage the execution of the RFPs that they've worked with you on doing all the selection process and then they would keep the deliverables moving or do you do that you know what is this progress I think the deliverables are the responsibility of the people doing the reappraisal and they are also I think then we have to decide last time it was a combination of the solicitors and the appraisal company who did the grievances it's a totally separate separate item of grievances and it's separate from what we do every year so I mean there's you know I'm looking at Jamaica's RFP and seeing that they have so it's pretty well laid out it would be pretty standard it's this person you clearly don't have a lot of bandwidth I mean that administrator would probably go beyond the RFP would go beyond the assignment of the contact do they manage it right through to the end when you get those final deliverables because you have to keep the contractors on track to making sure that they're meeting their goals you don't just cut them loose necessarily I don't know what this kind of thing is usually it's one appraisal firm and they go out and inspect the houses they have a sheet they fill out they have a gradation and then they come back with all these deliverables usually I would just have somebody like this I would see this person making sure that that work is happening that's what we do this is like hard to get a house there's buildings is there anything else we really can tell you about? I just wanted to give you highlighted on that because I didn't know what Mark was going to do for us we've talked to Barbara about this and Denise had a question that she had asked to me assuming that we find an appraiser that cannot do this until 2025 and we maybe have already hit the .85 mark as long as we're making a good show that we are doing there will be no repercussions from the state as far as there's no penalty for that because we are making a good show of faith that we have issued an RFP and the market is such that the appraisers cannot get to us until 2025 then that is the deal at least we have shown it and that's why I felt it was important to start this now because I have a feeling we're going to hit a bad mark next year well good good it's like such a lot of money have you done a year round or have you done a year of seven months or how did was it a full rehearsal? I have only done the statistical and John we were almost we were nine months to do a statistical re-appraisal which was going inside it just was going through and around because the biggest issue isn't so much going into and around the house and looking at it it's the collection of the data that you have to put into the system to change your system and update it and so that's what also takes the second measure of time and we we were novices and here's this guy who's doing well that's where this having a good scope of work that's our work to figure out thank you guys thank you very much alright so we are yes we are we are thank you thanks Jan thanks John no more than five minutes in the executive session I'll manage there are motions going into the executive session under one DSA research in a total of seven all in favor please say aye


Okay, so I haven't been very good at keeping a track of this but it has been about 19 days almost 20 days since we planted up the lettuces, the spinach, the arugula in my Hortus system here. As you can see everything has taken off really good. Just gonna lift the light up a bit more so we can have a good look here. So one thing that I did notice is that my spinach, my second spinach seeds did not take off. I feel like these seeds are maybe a little bit old and I probably need to buy a new batch. So you can see the spinach kind of has a spindly root system here. I think I need to put some clay balls around it just to kind of give it a bit more support. But all of this romaine is looking really good and the arugula. I left it so that I didn't thin it out so there is two plants coming in this one and I think there's three coming out of this one. So so far they are managing. I did notice though back here in the corner if you remember is where I planted some green onions and it looks like somehow one of my romaine seeds fell into that hole as well. So they're kind of competing with each other. So maybe I will take advantage of this spare hole at the back and throw some more green onion seeds back there. So far at day 20 we are looking like we should have some lettuce probably in another week or so. So this is the first time I've used the Hortues system and just by kind of judging the the strength of the pump and the light system here I kind of get a feeling that growing something as simple like lettuces and herbs would be best for this system. Maybe at some point I will try doing a tomato plant or a pepper plant but I kind of have a feeling that it won't do well in this system. I've done a comparison with the Aidu system to Aero garden and the Aero garden was hands down much better at growing tomatoes. I don't know if it's got better lights or if it's just that the pump just generates more air. I'm not sure but definitely this one will be good for lettuces. Okay, so we are now at day 25 for this lettuce and I am just going to raise the lights up here again so we can have a good look, but you can see that there has been a lot more growth. The romaine lettuce looks amazing. We've got lots of arugula and I can see that my system has drank up most of the nutrient water, so I'm going to first off start by refilling it up and I am using the two-part nutrient system that did come with the Hortes system. I mixed up two liters in this container and I'm just going to top it up and then I think it's time for our first harvest. So I think the cut-and-come-again method will work well with this lettuce and arugula. So you can see I'm getting some really beautiful leaves of romaine here. So I'm just going to work through the plants and cut away all the bigger leaves from each plant and leave the little ones that are in the center to continue growing. And here's what it's looked like after I have chopped away all that arugula and romaine. As you can see, I've got a large container here that I'll feed a few of us today that's supper. So I'm just going to lower the lights back down closer to the the plants and we will just leave this for another few days and see how it grows back. We are five days later, day 30, for the lettuces I have growing in my Houttu system. So you can see here about half of the water has been used up now in the last five days. And look at all this growth. I should be able to get another serving of lettuce off here in a few days. So the cut-and-come-again method works really well on this system. This lettuce that I harvested five days ago, we made into a really delicious salad. And I'm looking forward to having another one soon. So I just wanted to show you again the type of seeds that I planted in here. This is a new lettuce that I've just tried from West Coast Seeds called the coastal star. And I'm really liking the the leaves on this. The flavor is really good. They're nice and crunchy, substantial sized leaves. And so they are great in a salad. And I'm going to replant some of these scallions that I got from West Coast Seeds in this far corner here where nothing was growing. And my arugula is seeds that I had saved for my arugula plants over the last couple of years. So everything's looking good and we should be doing a harvest here in another couple of days. So I'm just going to be throwing three of these onion seeds into this pod here down inside the hole and then we'll be sticking it in the back corner here. Put the dome on it again just to until it germinates. And another comment I just wanted to make about the the Hortus system here is these light buttons here are super sensitive and I've hit them several times. Just basically they just turn on and off just by a slight touch, which kind of screws up your timing on this now because it runs on a 16 hour on eight hour off system. But you can't really control when it starts and stops. It basically starts as soon as you hit that power button. So it's in the evening now and I've been just trying to adjust these lights.  And then the timer starts over again. So now I have it set that it's going to run all night and then turn off during the day. So what I've been doing every time this happens is just coming down here early in the morning. Most of my lights I have set on timers to start at 6 a.m.  So overall, I give the Hortus system a thumbs up. I think it makes a great system for growing lettuces and I'm sure it will work good on herbs and maybe down the road, I'll test out something like peppers and tomatoes in it. So I'm just getting ready to set up an herb garden in my I do system here. So stay tuned for future videos coming to the channel. Please hit that like button if you haven't already done so. Subscribe to my channel and we will see you on the next video. Happy gardening.


Is this your first time seeing a drag queen? Yeah How does that make you feel? I find it but a little bit nervous I'm a little bit nervous. I've never seen a drag queen before Do you think that boy can wear makeup? Yes, and Would you agree that makeup is for everyone? Yeah, yeah our culture's current obsession with drag queens may seem out of the blue Confusing uncalled for until you realize one crucial truth their whole goal is to subvert truth And what better act of subversion can you perform than a man dressing up as a woman? The whole act is a lie to present this to kids as truth is an attempt to dull their senses towards sexual perversion The Bible is very clear God created men and women They are different yet equal created in the image of God your kids are being discipled by someone It's either culture or Christ


As we talked about in the previous module, a game within game theory is any situation involving their interdependence between adaptive agents. Games are fundamentally different from decisions made in a context with only one adaptive agent. To illustrate this point, think about the difference between the decisions of a bricklayer and those of a business person. When a bricklayer decides how he might go about building a house, he does not expect the bricks and mortar to fight back, we could call this a neutral environment. But when the business person tries to enter a new market, they must take note of the actions and the other actors in that market in order to best understand the viable options available to them. A situation that depends only on the actions of one actor is best understood as one of decision theory and not so much game theory. Like the business person, all players engaged in a game must recognize their interaction with other intelligent and purposeful agents. Their own choices must allow both for conflict and for the possibility of cooperation. So a game really tries to capture this dynamic where autonomous agents that have their own goals are independent in affecting some joint outcome. All games have three major components, players, strategies and payoffs. A player is a decision maker in the game. A strategy is a specification of a decision for each possible situation in which a player might find themselves. A payoff is a reward or loss that players experience when all the players follow their respective strategies. Games are typically represented in either a matrix form or as a tree graph. The matrix form models a game without time involved, where players must choose their strategies simultaneously. A tree graph model involves time as an element allowing for choices to be made in a sequential process over a course of time. Thus following a tree-like representation that captures the choices made by agents at each stage in the game. The matrix model is the most common method for representing a game and it is called in game theory the normal form representation. The normal form representation to a game associates the players with the axes to the matrix, with each column or row along the axes corresponding to one unique strategy for the player. Where the players different strategies interact in the matrix, a value is placed to represent the associated payoffs for each player when that given strategy is played. In simultaneous games, the players do not have to move at the same time. The only restriction is that no players can know the other player's decisions when they make their choices. The normal form representation is a condensed form of the game, stripped of all features but the possible options of each player and their payoffs during one iteration of the game. This simplification makes it more convenient to analyse. A game where choices are made in a sequential fashion over time is represented as a decision tree graph that branches out with each iteration of the game as time goes forwards and players have to make their choices. One example of this extensive form of game would be chess where players move in a sequential process with each move of one player creating a multiplicity of possibilities of moves for the other player as they branch out into the future. Players engaged in a sequential game then have to look ahead and reason backwards as each player tries to figure out how the other players will respond to his current move, how he will then respond in turn and so on. The player anticipates where his initial decisions will ultimately lead and uses this information to calculate his current best choice. Agents within a game are making their choices based on the information available to them. Thus we can identify information as a second important factor in the make up of the game. In any given game agents can have complete information meaning each player has knowledge of the payoffs and possible strategies of the other players or we may have a situation of incomplete information referring to a situation in which the players and strategies of other players are not completely known. An example of a game of perfect information would be one that is called the ultimatum game. In this game one player receives a sum of money and proposes how to divide the sum with the other player involved. The second player chooses to either accept or reject this proposal. If the second player accepts the money is split according to the proposal. If the second player rejects neither player receives any money. In this game all information is available to all players. In contrast many real world games involve imperfect information. For example prisoner dilemma games only make sense if given imperfect information where you are choosing without knowing how the other has chosen. Information plays an important role in real world games and it can work as an advantage or disadvantage to the players. When one player knows something that others do not sometimes the player will wish to conceal this. One example of this would be playing poker and other times they will want to reveal it. For example a company offering a guarantee for its products is a display of the information they have that their products are not going to break down soon and they want customers to know this information. This reveals also how games can be asymmetrical meaning the payoffs to individuals for the different possible actions may not be the same. If the identities of the players can be changed without changing the payoff to the strategies then a game is said to be symmetrical. Many of the commonly studied 2x2 games are symmetrical. For example games of coordination are typically symmetrical. Take for example the case of people choosing the side of the road upon which to drive. In a simplified example assume that two drivers meet on a narrow dirt road. Both have to swerve in order to avoid a head on collision. If both execute the same swerving manoeuvre they will manage to pass each other but if they choose different manoeuvres they will collide. In the payoff matrix successful passing is represented as a payoff of 10 and a collision by a payoff of 0 and we can see how the payoffs to each player are symmetrical. Games are played over some mutually desired resource. That is whatever we are defining as value within that game. For example countries go to war over territory. Businesses compete for market share. Creatures for the resources in an ecosystem. Political parties for decision making power. Athletes for prizes etc. In all of these situations there is some shared conception of what the agents value and some interdependence in how that value is distributed out depending on the actions of the agents. But the question is whether the total value distributed out to all agents remains constant irrespective of their actions or can it grow or decrease depending on their capacity for cooperation. Constant sum games are games in which the sum of the player's payoffs always adds up to the same. These interactions are games of pure competition where one person's gain is another person's loss. Zero sum games are a special case of constant sum games in which choices by players can neither increase nor decrease the available resources. In zero sum games the total benefit to all players in the game for every combination of strategies always adds to zero. One can see this in the game Paper Rock Scissors or in most competitive sports. In zero sum games the relationship between the agent's payoffs are negatively correlated and this is called negative interdependence meaning individuals can only achieve their goal via the failure of other agents and this creates an attractor towards competition. There is no incentive for cooperation and thus these games are called strictly competitive as competition is always the best strategy. Non constant sum games or non zero sum games are those in which the total value to be distributed can increase or decrease depending on the degree of cooperation between the actors involved. For example through the members of a business working together they can create more value than working separately and thus the whole payoff gets bigger. Equally the total payoff may get smaller through conflict like in an arms race between two gangs in a city. In non zero sum games the outcome for agents is positively correlated. If one agent gets more then the other agents will also get more. If one agent gets less then the others will get less also. And thus in non zero sum games we can get positive interdependence between the agents meaning members of a group come to share common goals and perceive that working together is individually and collectively beneficial and that success depends on the participation of all the members leading to a dynamic of cooperation. A cooperative game is one in which there can be cooperation between the players where they may have the same costs. So cooperative games are an example of non zero sum games. This is because in cooperative games either every player wins or loses. Cooperation may be achieved through a number of different possibilities. It may be built into the dynamics of the game as would be the case in a positive sum game where payoffs are positively correlated. In such a case the innate structure to the game creates an attractor towards cooperation because it is both in the interest of the individuals and the whole organization. A good example of this are the mutually beneficial gains from trade in goods and services between nations. If businesses or countries can find terms of trade in which both parties benefit then specialization and trade can lead to an overall improvement in the economic welfare of both countries. With both sides seeing it as in their interest to cooperate in this organization because of the extra value that is being generated. Equally cooperation may be achieved through external enforcement by some authoritative third party such as governments and contract law. In such a case we might cooperate in a transaction because the third party is ensuring that it is in our interest to do so by creating punishments or rewards. Likewise cooperation may be achieved through peer-to-peer interaction and feedback mechanisms and we'll talk about this in future videos. A non-cooperative game is one where an element of competition exists and there are limited mechanisms for creating institutions of cooperation. This may be because of the inherent nature of the game we're playing that is to say it is a zero-sum game which is strictly competitive and thus cooperation will add no value. Non-cooperation may be a function of isolation lack of communication and interaction with which to build up the trust that enables cooperation. We see this within modern societies as these societies have grown in size they have transited from communal cooperative systems based on the frequent interaction of members to now requiring formal third parties to ensure cooperation because of the anonymity and lack of interaction between members in a large society. Lastly there may simply be a lack of formal institutions to support cooperation between the members. An example of this might be what we call a failed state where the government's authority is insufficiently strong to impose sanctions and thus cannot work as the supporting institutional framework for cooperation. In this video we've looked at some of the basic features to games. We talked about the two basic forms of representation that of the normal form in a matrix model and that of the extensive form as a tree graph that unfolds over time. We talked about the important role of information where games may be defined as having imperfect or perfect information and how agents may use this information to their advantage. We talked about symmetrical and asymmetrical payoffs in games. We briefly looked at zero-sum games and non-zero-sum games where the payoffs can get larger given cooperation. Finally we talked about the distinction between a cooperative and non-corruptive game and some of the factors that create these different types of games which we'll be discussing further throughout the course.


Welcome back, it's so watching the breakfast on plus TV Africa and we move on with our conversations right here on the program Of course, the ASUS strike is one that has given a lot of Nigerians reason for concern We have a guest standing by to discuss this Very all-important issue that has affected Nigeria's education sector and it's of course giving a lot of parents Reason to complain in fact parents Association has released a statement calling for more to be done by The authorities as far as the strike is concerned As soon as extended the strike by two months eight weeks. They had a meeting at the national sectariat in the University of Abuja Yesterday where this particular decision was taken before we introduce our guest Who is a dealer sherry chairman of the academic staff union of universities in the University of Lagos? Let's quickly go to the background of this term Well after declaring a one-month warning strike on February 14 in protest at the federal government's Failure to meet their demands the academic staff union of universities has voted to extend the strike for a further Eight weeks rising from an emergency meeting of its national executive council or the University of Abuja on Sunday March 13, 2022 at its national sectariat Asu president prophesied Manuel Osso Decay Said the union had concluded that a government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FG and ASU memorandum of action within the four-week rollover strike period and therefore resolved That the strike be rolled over for another eight weeks to give the government more time to address all the issues In concrete terms so that in his words students will resume resume as soon as possible now other demands of the union as listed by ASU include earned academic allowances the state universities Promotion arrears with health salaries and non-remittance of third-party deductions now since the beginning of the strike on February 14 2022 the government and ASU have met two times Joining us to discuss the development and its implications. Let's welcome Delia. She will who is the chairman of the academic staff union of universities in The University of Lagos miss Ashu. Good morning to you. And thank you very much for your time Good morning. Thank you very much for this invitation. It's a pleasure to be here Please give us a summary of what happened in the rescue of buja yesterday. I'm sure on Sunday, right? I'm sure you were there at that meeting Oh, yes, I was at the meeting. What happened is as described by the president of our union we met at the National Secretariat of our union situated in the University of Abuja where we took reports from our trustees and principal officers About the engagements that they have had with government so far in the briefing we were told that Government has not demonstrated enough will and the desire to meet the minimum demands of our union Although we have a couple of them like you have listed out, but some are very very critical To these ongoing strike action One of them is the question of scooping up the already renegotiated agreement between our union and government with a view to implementing it after the briefing from our trustees and principal officers neck discussed the items one by one and concluded that Giving the ongoing narratives and going giving the work that is still ongoing It is necessary for our union to Give government some more time to be able to put their hearts together In the interest of Nigerian students and the Nigerian University system Consequent upon that the National Executive Council decided that there was the need to extend the strike action By another two weeks another eight weeks, which is two months and that has been so communicated to Nigeria's Okay, let's also look at another issue that some persons are saying that this might just be a bone of contention The major bone of contention between the union that has won the federal government and he talks about the payment system You know the federal government is proposing the IPP is system and of course the union is talking about the UTA Payment system and some people are saying that The reason asu is really embarking the bone of contention despite all that's been put out It's necessarily the payment system Which you know the federal government doubts the transparency of the system in the administration of you know the universities Can you share your thoughts on this? Well, let me start by saying that ah Government is not proposing IPP is Government forcefully enrolled us on IPP is despite our disagreement with government on the suitability of IPP is for the Nigerian University system and Our union has been vindicated because in a recent report By the auditor general of the federation IPP is was described as a fraud and our union are challenged federal government to publish the report of that of the auditor general of the federation so that we can see in bold relief the Damage that IPP is have done To the Nigerian University system and to the Nigeria state as a whole Let me also mention that Is it's an up payment system Supposedly to cop corruption and waste in the salary and enrollment of government workers This has eroded Autonomy and the smooth operation of the university system since its operation It was as a result of the rejection of IPP is that government you the challenge at us That if we say IPP is is not good Can we provide an alternative payment platform for the Nigerian University system our union took up that challenge? constituted a technical team that has produced what is now called The university transparency and accountability solution utas which is a payment Platform and software for payment of salaries in the Nigeria inverse system that system had undergone series of tests by Nita and In fact, the user acceptability test that was conducted by Nita Utah's code 88% and then we challenge government that was IPP is subjected to any test IPP is was not only subjected to any test up to now. It has not been tested In fact the database for IPP is it's not domiciled in Nigeria. It's domiciled somewhere in the United States of America so Haven't gone through all of these processes While discussion was still going on and utas was seen being tested the director general of Nita went on air Misinforming Nigeria's and telling lies about utas the current situation if I may inform is that our technical team and that of Nita are currently meeting in their office in Abuja clarifying gray areas and explaining areas that they don't understand as a prelude to certifying utas as a payment platform for the Nigerian University system But you also have the federal government saying that the utas failed integrity tests and that's what the federal government is saying They don't trust you. We have we have said that is not true. That's that's a lie And that's misleading Nigeria's utas cannot fail integrity test because Utah's is a system that has been carefully developed by the best brace in the Nigerian University system and I am Informing you that Those areas that the needs that officials did not understand Which made them gave that verdict is currently being reviewed between our technical team and the needs that officials It is unfortunate That government officials like the director general of Nita who had never attended any of the meetings Whether technical or otherwise could go publicly on air to mislead Nigerians and mislead the people about an unfounded tale concerning utas. Okay, as I speak to you utas Has integrity it has not failed. It is a system that is homegrown that is sufficiently fortified to take care of the payment system and its peculiarities in the Nigerian University system I like to take you back a bit, you know, let's go back to the IPPS system And you have mentioned that it's it's a you know the that payment system That was imposed on you know, the university's a fraudulent system Can you take us through how fraudulent it is because it feels like this might just be the bone of contention between your union and the government? Yeah, thank you very much. The first is that as I speak with you Nobody in the Nigerian University system today under IPPS Can tell you exactly how much of she is going to end in any particular month Quite often you find a situation where The salaries of a particular professor is amputated and paid I mean to another professor. There are Wrong entries. There are most often salaries Belonging to a professor in uni lag can be paid to another one in Buk or elsewhere not only that the Human resource compartment and the payroll system Together being loaned together By the IPPIS office in such a manner that provides ample opportunity For those in charge of the system to enroll even people who don't work in a particular system On the IPPIS platform and they continue to receive salary in some months, let me be specific in the month of Of of November October or November last year A number of people were paid about three month salaries And then they have to start withdrawing it instead of one. So the payment platform had constituted You know a club in the wheel of progress of the Nigerian University system And you find a situation where when things like that happen You cannot even resolve I mean those little challenges in your respective universities You have to travel all the way down to Abuja to get those things resolved Which also provides an ample of opportunity for those who work there To fleece our members of their added money by way of kickbacks and damning Settlement for them to get, you know, they are they are challenges sorted out at the IPPIS office All right. Mr. Denashir the ministry of Education or the federal government basically Had said last week that um, they won't negotiate with the they wouldn't make gunpoint negotiations with the But also it's essentially saying that um, they wouldn't like to be negotiating under duress and the argument about making gunpoint negotiating negotiations or Negotiations under duress is that also, you know whilst the negotiations are ongoing between the union and the federal government Has embarked on a strike whilst they're still negotiating. What are you what what's your take on that? The question is why will the ministry of education wait until we embark on strike To commence the negotiation When the negotiations started last year under professor monsali jubril We weren't on strike The the renegotiation was concluded in may 2021 Between may 2021 And last month when we started the strike. What was the ministry of education doing? It is the ministry of education that is making a suit to negotiate under very Conductive conditions and circumstances If they have been proactive and they have moved up to their billion as those who super intend over education in nigeria I do not think that This strike will commence in the first instance let alone be talking about negotiating under duress So the point of note is that the renegotiation had already been concluded What is left is for government To tell us its own side of the story Put a counter-proposer before our union for the consideration of our members It is not true that government is negotiating under duress It is cheap blackmail and it's much of a group of people who are bereft of ideas About how to move the education sector forward in nigeria. All right In response of the federal government to to this new announcement that as we have extended the roll over by eight weeks It's the the minister of state for education. Um, mr. Chico make a wajuba who i'm sure you know very well Who is saying that um He's insisting that the federal government has met all your demands And that all the end allowances As well as revitalization funds have been released Mr. Shea yes The the first thing is to disregard the mr. Wajuba because It's more of a confusion in that ministry than any responsible public officer Interested in resolving crisis in all of what I have been explaining. Did I talk about the end allowances or revitalization fund? We are saying that we have a renegotiated document with government Scoop it up. Let us discuss the content of the renegotiated agreement as a basis I mean for increasing welfare conditions of our members and Ensuring that the university system works seamlessly A mean a junior minister is sitting down somewhere and and misinforming and misleading nigeria I think this item nigeria's told wajuba that is its likes are not the kind of people who should surprise turn over education in nigeria He has he has been more of a of a problem to the entire process than a solution And that is exactly what is currently displaying How can a union that is aggrieved that government have dedicated its own responsibility? and All the minister would have to say is that end allowances and revitalization fund Has been released. It's also a loud testimony to the fact that he is really not familiar With issues in contention under this this current strike action And it would be nice for mr. Wajuba to sit down and get familiar with the issues Rather than I mean going to press and making inferiority statements that will further degenerate the situation Rather than ameliorating all right very strong words for you for mr. Wajiba, but What are the contents of this this renegotiated agreement? So those who are listening and are wondering and I've read The statement by the minnesota state for education saying they've released the funds to you And he talked about the revitalization fund and end allowances meeting all your demands What are the contents of this renegotiated agreement? Let's just go back there There are four pillars in the renegotiated agreement The first is the condition of service of our members Mr. Wajiba is is saying what is saying because it's feeling part of public funds University teachers in Nigeria have been receiving the same salary in the last 13 years That is not a subject of concern to the minister of state for education The highest grade professor in Nigeria University Is today receiving a purchase home of four hundred something thousand naira That is not a subject of concern for the minister of state For you to hire The an assistant lecturer in the in any federal university in Nigeria His take home pay is not up to 150,000 naira We are saying that government should be negotiate this condition of service So that we can make I mean Teaching in the university attractive to best place Is busy talking about end allowances end allowances are mere symptoms of a failed system The meaning of end allowances is that government is unable to provide The requisite number of workers in the university and those who are doing excess Workloads should be compensated for the work that they are doing How does that Measure up to conditions of service. So the first pillar of the negotiated agreement It's conditions of service. The second is funding for revitalization of public universities Universities have remained in terms of reagents in terms of library provision, etc So one of the terms of that agreement is that funding should be provided so that we can Bring to light This decaying infrastructure and that is where the question of revitalization comes in Government is in default Of 1.1 trillion Naira as revitalization fund the highest that was they released so far was by the president good luck Jonathan administration, which is 220 billion This government has also Has only released a purchase of 70 billion naira and the minister of state is saying that all the money has been released The third in the renegotiated agreement is what we call university autonomy And academic freedom. It is that university autonomy That ippr is That is other matters that are related to all of the three items that I have Enumerated above and they have to do with global best practices in making the universities globally competitive In terms of research and innovation and ensuring that our graduates are globally competitive Okay, but let's also Stay with these issues. I mean, we're still understanding some of the concern Nigerians a lot of persons have been taken aback with the fact that as we still talking about Implementation of the agreement that was entered in 2009 and just some days back Your national president immanuel shudduke who granted an interview to assist the station had mentioned insisting that the government should chose between Funding these universities or shutting them and that's saying that the government must implement the agreement of 2009 thus all of this fall on the first of all I'd like to ask has the government not implemented the agreement entered with the union, of course, which you're part of in 2009 Yeah, I think that what the president said Is that government should implement the renegotiated agreement in in the 2009 agreement Both government and our union agree that that agreement should be reviewed every three years Our government had remained in default because Since 2009 till date government has refused to renegotiate that agreement But our union Haven't gone on strike for nine months in 2020 First government to renegotiate The 2009 agreement That agreement had been renegotiated and concluded since May 2021 So what the president is saying is that government should scoop up the renegotiated agreement and commence implementation now in terms of Making our universities competitive what What is contained in the agreement is for government to implement best practices Globally accepted best practices in our university system to save it from imminent collapse and Our government our president is just putting government on the edge Fund your universities Like a responsible government will do or close them for that period of time when I mean you'll be able to make up your mind as to they had the question of funds to be released to the university and of course, I know That it is not in the interest of Nigerians and the development of Nigeria as a country for government to close down the university. So our president is just putting government on the edge. Okay, so but Having an extension of the strike by eight weeks. Where does this leave the Nigerian student? I will want to You know say that you're also a parent. So and you have all the parents were Worried about the fact that their kids would be out of school or children would be out of school For a very long time looking at the implication Devices and all the issues this would cost them financially, you know and otherwise Well, you see that's that's a very challenging concept, but my reaction is you see There is no game when there is no pain For us to keep the Nigerian university system All of us must endure this pain for a while If we don't continue to do what we are doing now We may find out that we don't even have a university for these children to return As I speak with you There are no public primary schools That are What's that name in Nigeria anymore? There are no public secondary schools That are enviable For even all of us to send our kids there If we don't continue to struggle in the manner that we are doing at the moment We may wake up and find out that Governments are destroyed, you know public universities and handed them over to their private Cronies and collaborators. So these struggles are necessary to keep the Nigerian university system functional to ensure it plays its strategic role in the development of Nigeria And my appeal to parents is rather than sit down and agonize We should all organize and challenge This vicious and wicked government that we have at the moment And hold them accountable You know to their electoral promises in ensuring that they fund education adequately as you may already be aware No, any nation can rise above its own level of educational development. Okay. That's why government must take education Very seriously. Yeah, I mean it's actually finally before you go of course the minister of labor and employment has said that ASU has been acting in disregard of the labor act and the dispute the trade and dispute act as well I would like to know if you're being paid your salary while you are Still striking. That's no more number two if the federal government doesn't I see to your fresh demands What will you do on the expiration of these two months? So two questions if you can answer that very quickly It is not correct that we're acting against labor laws and The minister of labor himself has not drawn our attention To any specific labor law That has been violated In terms of paying our salaries, you know, we convinced our strike in february We had already worked for the salaries that we have already paid It is incumbent on you know, government to pay us because They are the ones who are first in this strike action on Nigeria's if government have moved up to its promises and its Uh Agreements with our union this strike Was certainly beyond necessary and the third question is to say that We all need to understand the role which education plays Uh in any society Indeed societies that are making progress the world over and those who are investing heavily You know in their education system and it is our hope and and wish That the nigerian government would also Understand this historic responsibility of education in any society and change this attitude to education especially tertiary education In nigeria. Thank you very much For your time Dela Shiro Is the chairman of the academic staff union of universities in the university of ligus Thank you very much for this opportunity to share my thoughts with you Where I did grateful for your concern in the development of education in Nigeria. Thank you. Thank you Well, still the breakfast and plus TV Africa a lot to talk about as far as education is concerned But we'll keep our eyes on this one. Of course, you can be sure the leaders right here on this station We have a break ahead where we return mercy. We'll be time for us to delve into the past sector. Stay with us


Recorded books and one-click digital present. The arrangement by Mary Balog, narrated by Rosalind Landall. Chapter 1 When it became clear to Vincent Hunt, Viscount Daly, that if he stayed at home for the remainder of the spring he would, without any doubt at all, be betrothed, even married, before summer had properly settled in, he fled. He ran away from home, which was a ridiculous somewhat lowering way of putting it, when he owned the house and was almost twenty-four years old. But the simple fact was that he bolted. He took with him his valet, Martin Fisk, his travelling carriage and horses, and enough clothes and other necessary belongings to last him a month or two, or six. He really did not know how long he would stay away. Sample complete. Ready to continue?