I know we're just a little bit of a mess, but on the jazz band, they were telling me what happened to that song. As David was explaining, it's the same thing with the Hartford, yes, they have to walk, they have to be like, they can't play the guitar, they just have to play the bass a lot more quickly, so it's not a big deal. Especially when it's coming from the band. Generally, the audio is not running anymore with the music services. Because it's on the radio, it's not running anymore with the music. Because it's on the radio, they try to stop it between the services. What we're doing now is we have to run it in order to make it. So in that video, in terms of the audio, it doesn't come down that perfectly, it's not really a service. I was participating in a doctorate in between services. They told me I had to mess with my doctor, but I didn't do my doctorate here. So I was walking around talking to them about what they were doing. What's your name? I'm a doctor. I was in both of them. I'm a doctor. I'm a Brian Roberts. Oh, I think that was Brian Roberts. I can't tell you. Who's Brian? I don't know. I don't know. It's Brian Roberts. What do you use? I don't know. I don't know. There are three of them. I don't know. There are two. You can use them well. I think that one was better. I'm glad they're all here. It's fine. It's all good. I don't know. I don't know. I think it's better, it's better. I'm glad they're here. I don't know. It's not like this. That's the next. Nice. Do they also have a table? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. Do they have a table? Yeah. Oh, okay. Do they have a table? Yeah. Do they have a table? Yeah. Do they have a table? Yeah. Yeah, they have a table. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. Okay, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'm going to miss me a lot. Yeah, there you go. Hey, we got this. This is Mark. There's a book here. Do you want me to put that up on the table? Please join in a moment of centering silence so we can be fully present with each other this morning. And now let's get musically centered by turning to the words for our in-gathering hymn, which you'll find inside your order of service. And speaking of being connected, good morning everybody. And welcome to another Sunday here at First Unitarian Society, where independent thinkers gather in a safe, nurturing environment to explore issues of social, spiritual, and ethical significance as we try to make a difference in this world. I'm Steve Goldberg, a proud, good-looking member of this congregation. And I'd like to extend a special welcome to any guests, visitors, or newcomers. If this is your first time at First Unitarian Society, I know that you'll find it's a special place indeed. And if you'd like to learn more about our special buildings, we conduct a guided tour after today's service. Just gather over here by the windows, and we'll take care of you. And speaking of taking care of each other, this is the perfect time to silence those pesky electronic devices that you simply will not need for the next hour. While you're doing that, I'll remind you that if you're accompanied this morning by a youngster and you think that young person would prefer to enjoy the service from a more private space, we offer a couple options for you. One is our child haven in the back corner of the auditorium. And the other is some comfortable seating just outside the doorway in the commons. As is the case every weekend, our service is brought to us by a great group of people whom we call volunteers, and I'd like to announce their names so that you can join me in thanking and appreciating their effort. Operating the sound system, I say thank you to Maureen Friend. Our lay minister is Anne Smiley. Thank you very much, Anne. Karen Hill is our greeter upstairs, thanks to Karen. And we have a group of ushers today. We'd like to thank Melinda Carr, Doug Hill, Wally Brinkman, and Allison Brooks for their help as ushers. The hospitality and coffee are hosted by Terry Felton and Sharon Scraddish. Hannah Pinkerton is making sure that our greenery is vibrant and watered. And speaking of our greenery today, the flowers behind me were lovingly donated by Jean and John Tewes in honor of their 60th anniversary. That's 60th with a six. So congratulations and thank you to them. And Richard Miller is our tour guide. Speaking of tour guides, we offer an opportunity for others to be trained as meeting house guides. And at 3 o'clock this afternoon, not 12.30 as listed in your Red Floor's bulletin, but 3 o'clock this afternoon we offer a training session, a brief one for those of you interested in becoming meeting house guides. Now we have a couple other brief announcements. One relates to Passover. Our annual FUS Passover Seder will be held Friday evening, April 22nd. And it's a Unitarian Universalist adaptation of the traditional Passover Seder featuring a traditional, tasty, delicious, and wonderful kosher dinner. It's a family-friendly event. And if you'd like to attend, you can sign up at the table in the commons and we ask that you sign up by a week from tomorrow, Monday, April 18th, so that we can plan appropriately for this very popular Unitarian version of the traditional Passover Seder. And speaking of special projects and meals, you might know that FUS has a Shelter Meals Team, a Shelter Meals Team. And they need people to help prepare 90 servings of food, vegetables, and desserts for the upcoming Men's Shelter Meal at Grace Episcopal Church Saturday evening, April 16th. So this coming weekend, Saturday evening, April 16th at 8 o'clock. To sign up, the email address for that is listed in your red floors bulletin, but I'll read it for you right now. It's FUS Shelter Meals, again FUS Shelter Meals at gmail.com. So speaking of special projects, who knows how many days until May 20th, which is our cabaret. How many days until May 20th? 40. You were here for the 9 o'clock. That's right. 40 days and 40 nights until a party of biblical proportions known as cabaret. This year's theme is an evening in Italy. You can experience Italian food, Italian music, Unitarian auction items, when this entire place is going to be transformed into an Italian party venue. And come see how this has earned a reputation over the years cabaret has as one of the most enjoyable and entertaining and exciting evenings on the FUS social calendar. You get a chance to raise money for the organization we love so well, First Unitarian Society. And you can buy your tickets after the service, or if you want to wait and pay more money at the door, you can wait until then. Otherwise, come to the cabaret table after the service and we'll take good care of you there. Also, we're still looking and you have all kinds of time, but we'd like you to move quickly in identifying items that you would like to donate to the cabaret auction. And if you participated in the past and select to connect, we're going to be combining those events with cabaret as well. But it's going to be a very Italian evening. I know some of you are wondering, how Italian is it going to be? Well, let me just say, when you come to cabaret, I just know you will say, that's Italian. With the food and the song lasting all the night long, that's Italian. We'll have an auction there, bargains beyond compare, that's Italian. So please come to cabaret, get your ticket today, it's Italian. Well, that concludes the announcements for today. So I invite you now to sit back or lean forward to enjoy today's service. I heard the nine o'clock service and I know that this will touch your heart, stir your spirit and trigger one or two new thoughts. We're glad you're here. See you in 40 days at cabaret. Come to this place where you are invited to be here and present with us in whatever vessel that you came in, whatever its shape or size. And to highlight that, I would like to invoke the words of the late great George Carlin. You probably noticed elsewhere that I use the word fat. I use that word because that's what fat people are. They're fat, they're not large, they're not stout, they're not chunky or hefty or plump. They're not big boned. Dinosaurs are big boned. These people are not necessarily obese either. Obese is a medical term, a particularly meaningless term at that. They're not overweight. Overweight implies that there is some right weight. So there's no correct weight. Heavy is also misleading. An aircraft carrier is heavy. It's not fat.  I offer no apology for this. It's not intended as a criticism or an insult. It's simply descriptive language. And if you put a judgment on that descriptive language, that says more about you than the people you're describing. I don't like euphemisms either. Euphemisms are a small form of lying. Fat people are not gravitationally disadvantaged. I prefer seeing things the way that they are. I like seeing things and people the way that they are, and I'd like to see you all better. So if you wanted to rise in body and or spirit as we light our chalice, the words can be found in your order of service. We light this chalice for all who are here and all who are not, for all who have ever walked through our doors and for those who may yet find this spiritual home, for those who we can't even yet imagine. For each of us, for all, may this flame burn bright and warm. And I encourage you to give bright and warm friendly greetings to each other. And young ones at heart who choose to step up for a story. We have a great book today. Does anyone want to come up front for a story? I see some enthusiasm. I like it. Hi, how are you? Fantastic. You can all have the asm. This is exciting. I can't wait to read this book and I just read it now. All right. So this book is called It's Okay to Be Different. And the author is Todd Parr. Okay to be different. It's okay to be missing a tooth or two or three. Yeah, some of you, that's okay. It's okay. Wonderful that your friend lost a tooth on his birthday. I bet that's okay too. Hey, can we read the story? Thank you. Okay. It's okay to need some help. It's okay. Hold on, let's read the story. It's okay to have a different nose. That's any of you ever seen a rainbow zebra? Now you have. Have no hair. And it's okay to have big ears. And it's okay to have wheels. Okay to be small or medium or large or extra large. And it's okay to wear glasses. And it's okay to talk about your feelings, to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub. And it's okay to say no to bad things.  What's this, or a different place? This says a different place, but the picture makes no sense. He is saying, it's okay to be embarrassed.  And it's okay to dance by yourself. I'm glad I do that all the time. And it's okay to have a pet worm. It's okay to be proud of yourself. And it's okay to have different moms. And it's okay to have different dads. And it's okay to be adopted. Pretty much okay to have any kind of family, right? And it's okay to have an invisible friend.    Okay to do something nice for yourself. And it's okay to help squirrels gather nuts. It's okay to have different kinds of friends. And it's okay to make a wish. Adpar wrote you a letter. He said, it's okay to be different. You are special and important just because of being who you are. Love, Todd. And I hope you all enjoy the special different parts about yourselves as you go to your classes. We're going to sing him number 118, this little light of mind. And if you know the words, sing it while you're leaving. And if the rest of you want to rise and body your spirit, please do so. I love it when the choir is fat girl Facebook rant that I share with permission. Dear men in bars in California, this may come as a shock to you, but I do know that I'm fat. I do in fact have mirrors hanging in my home. And despite all of the rhetoric that tells me I shouldn't enjoy living in them, I actually think I'm attractive. I appreciate that you also think that I'm attractive. But it's not necessary to tell me that you do so in spite of or even because of the fact that I'm a big girl. You don't get points for offering to sleep with me despite my figure. And I don't care if you've never been with a big girl before. It's not that different and it's not going to happen. Hey guys, here's a hint.  You are not a unicorn. You are not a snowflake. You are not that rare guy that looks at me and feels tingly things in his no-no bits. Our culture insists that I'm not beautiful, but our culture is wrong. So what you're feeling is reality pushing against the false sense of beauty, our plastic, obsessed society enforces on you. And guess what?  So I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I am truly sorry that our society's unrealistic beauty standards are impacting both of us tonight. But right now, I am here to have a drink with my friends and butcher some Adele songs in the karaoke machine. So I can suggest some books for you to read. I can suggest a website for you to peruse, but I really don't want to help you work out your conflicted attraction to me. I don't want to have a discussion about why you're telling me about it in the first place is totally inappropriate. And I'm certainly not going to participate in some fetishized experience for you. So can I go back to having fun now? Because dude, honestly, you're not even my best option in this place. Even if you weren't standing in a crowded room trying to talk to me about my weight.  Lost my page. Hold on. On October 26, 1993, I had a really bad day. First, the guy I was dating said he was embarrassed to introduce me to his friends because I was fat. Ouch. Then Blue Cross Blue Shield decided not to give me health insurance because of my weight. Double ouch. I was stunned, hurt, and outraged. Now, if you've ever been stunned and hurt and outraged, you know how hard it is to feel all of those things at once. Pretty soon, you've got to pick one feeling. Stunned and hurt are great emotions, but they really aren't very useful. So I chose outrage. All my life, I've done everything I could to make sure people accepted me. Maybe even liked me despite my fat. I was a good student, a trustworthy friend, an obedient child. I didn't speak unless I was sure I had something interesting or abusing to say. I went out of my way to be considerate, supportive, a good listener. But if no one wanted to hang out, I was quite content with my own company. As a fat teenager, I never expected to wear trendy clothes. I never expected to get invited to the prom. I had friends, but never felt like part of the crowd. Instead, I focused on the areas that I knew I could succeed. All of the independence and communication skills I developed as a fat child started to pay off in unexpected ways. I loved to write and became the editor of my high school newspaper. I was good at school, so I earned two degrees from Stanford. I wasn't afraid of being alone. So I traveled all over Europe and Russia by myself having adventures. In fact, I wasn't really afraid of much since I figured the worst thing had already happened to me. I was fat. In that fearless mode, I learned how to fly an airplane. In college, I threw brilliant parties and developed a wonderful circle of friends. And over the years, I learned to trust that my personality and charm could attract men. But some part of me always discounted that attention. Some part of me was afraid that if I stopped trying, I wouldn't count for anything. After all, I was fat. Then, on October 26, 1993, my worst fears came true. None of it mattered. The accomplishments, the personality, the extra effort, being fat, outweighed, everything else about me. I am five foot four inches tall and I weigh 270 pounds. My blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar, the three best health indicators are all normal. I have no history of serious illness. I don't smoke. I exercise and eat my vegetables. I brush my teeth, I pay my taxes, and I wear my seat belt. Yet, from my most personal moments with that guy to my official business with the insurance company, I was shut out because of a number on a scale. So I sat there on that really bad day deciding between stunned and hurt and outraged. And I thought about what my date had said. I thought about what Blue Cross had said. And I realized that I absolutely did not agree with them. Fat is not a death sentence. It's a fact. I decided that if that guy couldn't accept my weight, then he didn't get to date me. I decided that Blue Cross's label of morbid obesity wasn't a diagnosis. It was a discrimination. I decided I had to speak up about the kind of mistreatment I experienced on that really bad day. Staying silent would mean that I agreed to being mistreated. That I agreed to being banished from life and from love. And I most certainly do not agree to that. In Madison for about eight and a half months now, I can find most places without using GPS. I've found a lot of my favorite little spots that I go to. But I believe that you have fully integrated into a place when you understand its humor. So I'm going to tell you a couple of stories. And by your reaction, I'm going to judge whether or not they're funny. Okay, so first story. It's the deep south after a hurricane. A couple of AmeriCorps workers decide that they're going to go out to a bar to get a drink after a hard day's work. Now, what they don't know is that this is an all-white bar. They don't know this because it's illegal to post it anywhere, but the locals know this. And one of the AmeriCorps workers is a person of color. When she goes to the bathroom, the people in the bar drop the door and tie a rope around the door handle. And then they tie the other end of the rope to a bar stool and somebody sits on it. So when she tries to leave the bathroom, she's like pulling on the door and yelling, and they're like yelling things at her. This is not funny. This is not funny. Okay, all right, it's not funny. Let me try again. So you know those displays in the grocery store that jut out past the aisles of food? They've got special merchandise they're trying to sell, and they have these little hooks that you can hang price tags or small merchandise on. So this one time, a person in a wheelchair is going around the corner and the spokes of their wheelchair actually get hooked on one of those little hooks. And they start to push their wheelchair.  And they actually like fall half out of their wheelchair and they're just laying. This is also not funny. This is not funny. Okay, okay, that's good to know. I guess I'm a little bit confused because the other day I was on campus and I saw a bunch of kids laughing uproariously to a video.  So I want to make sure I understand. Even in liberal progressive Madison, it is not funny for someone to be stuck somewhere because of the color of their body and it is not funny for someone to be stuck somewhere because of the ability of their body. But it is hilarious for someone to be stuck somewhere because of the size of their body. Our society has by and large admitted that it is morally inferior to discriminate against people because of things about their body like gender, color, or ability. And I want to be very clear in saying we are not always good about recognizing when these discriminations are happening. We are not always good at doing something about them. But we have in the public sphere, at least by and large, recognized that it is morally inferior to have these discriminations. And you might say, well, yeah, the same thing is true with fat. People, those were just kids. They were college kids. College kids are mean. College kids can be mean, but I would bet you in liberal progressive Madison, I would bet you dollars to donuts phrasing intended that if those kids were watching a video of a person of color stuck in a bathroom or a person in a wheelchair on the ground, they would at least not so publicly be laughing and sharing.  We have decided that fat is still one of the things that it is not okay to be. And an argument that I hear often for why this is the case is that folks of color and women and folks with disabilities, they don't have any other choice, but fat people could just lose weight. There are at least three things really wrong with this statement. The first is the assumption that if folks of color or women or people with disabilities suddenly had the power to transform themselves into able-bodied white men, they all would. Because clearly, that's the kind of body that is right. That is the kind of body that is correct. I don't have to spend much time with a group of people as emotionally and intellectually intelligent as you all to discussing why that assumption is not correct. The second thing that's wrong with that statement that fat people could just choose to lose weight is that it puts a lot of agency in the hands of fat people that I'm not sure they actually have. The National Institutes of Health, the NIH, says that 90% of all diets fail. 90% of all diets fail.  There was a woman at Columbia University. She was a professor and a nutritionist. She deeply understood the effects of food on the body. She deeply understood science and research at its place. She was familiar with the NIH study that 90% of all diets fail, and she was a fat woman.  If you could get rid of all of that simply by choosing celery over ice cream most days, that would be an easy sacrifice to make. And yet 90% of all diets fail. 90% of all diets fail. So she did a study to figure out why is it so hard to stick to a diet? And she found something interesting.  It has a natural size that it wants to be. And if your body goes below 15 to 30 pounds of this natural size of this set amount of fat that your body wants to have, you will feel like you are starving. No matter how much you're eating, no matter how much you weigh, if you deviate too much from this set size or set amount of fat, you will feel like your body is literally starving. Another interesting thing that this study found is that this set point is set in childhood. It's set in very early childhood. And there is a direct link between obesity and poverty. There are some folks that cannot afford good food. There are some folks that it isn't even available where they live. And then even if it is available where they live, if you're having trouble putting food on the table, fresh organic produce is much more expensive than the dollar menu at McDonald's. So these kids have this set point in the hippocampus of their brain that tells them they're starving. And just like the cycles of poverty get passed on to the next generations, cycles of obesity get imprinted in children's genes, the next piece of evidence I don't have anything to give you that would pass the scientific method. But I do have lived experience.  People are gonna throw things at you that mark you and that sting sometimes to the point of bruising. When I moved to California, I was enamored with the topography. I'm a Midwestern girl. I had never seen hills like this. There are places in the San Francisco Bay Area that they actually have poles driven into the earth on the sides of the sidewalk because it's difficult that you need to assist yourself getting up the hills because they're so steep. There are places where you can reach out in front of you and touch the sidewalk where your feet are supposed to be in a few steps. And once you get to the top of those hills, you are rewarded with this rush of endorphins and the most beautiful scenery. I was obsessed. I wanted to do it over and over and over again. Every day I had a day off, but I'm a Midwestern girl and I was not used to those hills. So I took my free student gym pass and I went to the gym at UC Berkeley and I set the treadmill on the highest incline possible and I decided I was gonna climb and climb and climb until my legs were strong enough to get to the top of any hill in San Francisco. I didn't realize that I was putting myself on a hamster wheel that I couldn't escape from where everybody who wanted to could come up to me and point out that my body was different and make comments and assumptions about it. I didn't wanna lose weight, I wanted to climb and yet these are the comments I got. Good for you. It's so inspiring to see you at it like that. Good job. Good job, honey. It is really amazing that you have decided to take this weight loss journey. I am here for you. I just want to let you know I'm a personal trainer. If you ever need anything, let me know.  You know, doing that incline work, it's just gonna add muscles to your legs.  It might actually be counterproductive. You should try interval training. But it wasn't until I stood in the shower and consistently had people give me weight loss advice looking at my exposed body that I realized that I needed to stop going to the gym. If you need any empirical evidence to show that my experience is not the only one, go on YouTube and there's a YouTube channel called Fat People Running on Treadmills where people are sharptitiously video-recorded and those recordings are put on the internet for public shaming. So the argument that fat people could just lose weight if they wanted to, that's giving them a lot of agency and I love fat people. But I don't know that we have that much agency to overcome nature. Sometimes income inequality and public shaming, that's a lot to ask of a person. But the third thing is actually, the third thing that's wrong with this argument is actually the most harmful. The third thing about this assumption that fat people could just lose weight is that it's assuming they should want to. It's assuming they should understand that there is something wrong with their body. It's assuming that it is okay to publicly call someone out because that shame, you're not putting it on them, they already felt it. They know they inhabit an inferior vessel. So if a fat woman can perverse the world of tiny cafe chairs with little arms and airplane seats and the forest of polyester that is the plus size section in most department stores, if she can get through all of that and still believe that she's worthy of love and respect, society doesn't disagree with her. It simply assumes she couldn't exist in the first place. Now some of you might be thinking, it's good to love yourself, don't get me wrong, but being fat is really unhealthy, isn't it? Thank you for bringing that up. Obesity is linked to higher instances of breast cancer, higher instances of heart disease, higher instances of hypertension and higher instances of diabetes. The New England Journal of Medicine noticed that more fat women died of breast cancer than thin women and they wanted to know, but they also noticed that they didn't get cancer at different rates.   This could open up a whole range of studies.  But what was actually going on was fat women were just less likely to go to the doctor. Up until the Affordable Care Act, it was legal to discriminate against someone because of their weight. It was legal to deny them health insurance because of their weight. But the New England Journal of Medicine also found that even fat women who were insured were less likely to go to the doctor than thin women. Marilyn Juan, who I read from earlier, created this zine. A zine is an independent magazine for people who are cooler than me. She created this zine called fatso, or, if you want to add in the punctuation, fat exclamation point, so, question mark. And in this zine, she collected stories of people living in fat bodies. And there was an entire zine that was dedicated to stories of fat people going to the doctor. Fat people, they have all of these stories about how going to the doctor is just really shaming because you're always told, just lose weight, just lose weight. Just lose weight. But not only is it shaming to go to the doctor, you get worse medical care because doctors are looking at your body and assuming that everything that's wrong with you is due to your fat. I'd like to share two stories with you. There was a woman named Betty. Betty had this persistent cough. She wasn't feeling well. She had to go to four different doctors. The first two doctors didn't even touch Betty physically. The third doctor examined her and told her that she needed to lose weight, that clearly she couldn't breathe because she was in this bigger body. The fourth doctor diagnosed her lung tumor. There was another woman named Candice. Now Candice was a stunt double. Candice had a toned body. Candice had what all the magazines would put in a bathing suit on their cover. Candice was feeling tired. She was feeling more and more tired. She was getting sick and dizzy. She went to doctor after doctor after doctor who did tests after tests after tests. And they kept telling Candice, there's nothing physically wrong with you. There's nothing physically wrong with you. We've done all the tests. It took Candice falling into a diabetic coma before her doctors would recognize that she had type 2 adult onset diabetes because no one's going to check for that in a thin body.  But fat people are more likely to die of heart attacks, right? That's true. That's what all the studies say. So actually the New England Journal of Medicine, they looked at all of these original studies about fat folks. And they found that if there were one or two things that were controlled for, they found that there were one or two things in each one that were not controlled for that made those studies scientifically invalid, meaning they didn't do a control which means the whole study needs to be thrown out. And in the last decade, there have been two books written by thin white men called Obesity Myth and Big Fat Lies. And both of these books chronicle the retesting of these studies or the looking at information from these studies and what could have happened if the controls at the NIH, I'm sorry, not the NIH, the New England Journal of Medicine put on them happened.  They're not even cellularly similar. But we've all heard all the stories, right, of the fat people dying of heart attacks. It turns out that the things that the NIH wanted to control for was the use of a fedron drugs. These studies were done in the 90s when the market was flooded with things like fennfen and redux, things that had a one in 30 death rate if used consistently over a period of years, things that the FDA had outlawed for, things that literally led to heart attacks. And also, the New England Journal of Medicine wanted to control for yo-yo dieting. But these original studies were done on people that were rapidly, rapidly losing and gaining weight. And what happens to you when you lose weight really rapidly and really quickly? Your muscles deteriorate. Your heart is a muscle. If you try to lose weight too quickly, you will literally break your own heart. We've all heard of Mama Cass, right, of the mamas and the papas. Big, beautiful woman, 300 pounds. When she died after the vicious rumors that she had choked on a ham sandwich subsided, when she died, everyone said, well, yeah, of course Mama Cass had a heart attack. She was huge. The thing is, Mama Cass had been touring for almost a decade, keeping up a rigorous schedule, performing every night. When she died, the four months before she died, she had lost 80 pounds. When you control for use of effedrine drugs and yo-yo dieting, there's actually not a higher instance of heart disease in fat folks. These people, they weren't dying because they were fat. They were dying to be thin. And what about hypertension? Those studies weren't actually redone, but other interesting studies about hypertension were done. There's a 20% higher instance of hypertension in the African-American community than in the white community. And that is after you control for things like access to good health insurance. That instance of hypertension directly correlates to the amount of people who feel like they are persecuted and discriminated with on a daily basis. In other words, it has been scientifically proven that if you feel persecuted in your daily life, you can develop higher instances of high... You have a higher likelihood of developing hypertension to a rate of 20%. Guess what the rate of hypertension is in fat people over thin people? It's 20%. It's an interesting statistic, if not scientifically backed up. And what about diabetes? Yes. Diabetes is the one disease that is scientifically proven is linked to obesity. If you are fat, you have a more likely chance of developing adult onset type 2 diabetes. And even in this instance, what people found when people were trying to control their diabetes without using medication that actually wasn't reducing weight that helped, it was their diet and their exercise that really helped. In all of these instances and all of these studies, it is true that more active people are healthy. It is true that people who eat whole nutritious foods are more healthy. It is not true that thin people are more healthy. There are sedentary thin people who are not healthy.  And yes, diet and exercise do correlate to body type and how much you weigh. But not directly. We all have a place that we want our bodies to be. So how did it happen then? How did it happen that we got this story that fat is bad? How did it happen that we focus so much on what a body looks like, even though you can't tell if it's healthy by looking at it, rather than how much that body is moving and what that body is eating. Why is it that the first lady of this country goes around telling young children that my body is an epidemic? Wouldn't it be better if the story was, you should enjoy your body, you should celebrate being in it by moving? Wouldn't it be better if the story was, you should celebrate the gifts of the earth by eating full, whole, nutritious foods? Isn't that just a more lovely thing to concentrate on? It turns out that our good friend, Al Koop, Everett Koop, Al Everett Koop, who's a former surgeon general, after he retired, he had some time on his hands and he had a lot of standing because he was a surgeon general of the United States, had some gravitas.  Guess who funded these studies? Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig put millions of dollars, much of it going into our friend Mr. Koop's pockets, millions of dollars for us to concentrate on, not what the studies actually said, which were that we should move our bodies and eat nutritious food, but that we should discriminate against fat folks. What would it be like? What would it be like if we simply had a revolutionary act and decided that we were going to love our bodies? What would it do to the 40 million, 40 billion-dollar diet industry that profits off our self-hatred? What would it be like for the fashion industry and the magazine industry that give you images of why your body is wrong and then sell you things to correct it if we just said, I'm good, I love this. The most revolutionary thing I've ever done in my life is decide to love my body. After all, these. These are the only vessels through which we get to experience this miracle of human living. So what would it be like if we just said, all bodies have worth and deserve dignity and compassion? What would it be like if we fell madly, head over heels, totally, completely in love with our bodies? Our fat, then tall, short, hairy, wrinkled, veiny bodies? After all, these are the bits of stardust that we've borrowed from the universe for this span of life. What if we just soaked them in love? Could we not then learn to be more loving and compassionate to others? Would we not be more accepting of people in different body forms if we were not devastatingly afraid of becoming them? And if we soaked ourselves in goodness, if we soaked ourselves in bright, happy, accepting, loving, powerful things, then might it not be possible? Might it not just be possible that when they go back to the earth, when they become dust again, they will have more love to inject into the cycle? Isn't that a lot of the reason why we're here, to learn to put more love into the cycle of life? What if one of the first and most revolutionary steps you could take to doing that is simply to love yourself, to accept yourself as you are? It's not simple. It's not easy. But man, it feels good. Blessed be an amen. Our offering today will be taken for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. The Wisconsin Council for Children and Families is working nonstop to create a nurturing and just community for every child in Wisconsin. Let's hope they're teaching them to love themselves. The offering will now be taken. Most weeks, there's a book out in the commons next to the Cares of the Congregation sign. It's an opportunity for the community to be able to share what's going on in our lives with each other. Jody Stryker-Bremmer is thinking about her friend Louise, who went from feeling perfectly healthy to a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer in a couple of weeks' time. Wishing her well as she starts chemo and transitions to the new phase of her life, send thoughts and prayers. We also hold Joe Murphy in our hearts who's recovering from a recent surgery. All's going well and we send prayers that recovery continues to be smooth and uneventful. And y'all, I'm excited because the Waxlers are back in church. It's great to see you guys. If we would all rise now in body and our spirit to sing our final hymn, Standing on the Side of Love, it's number 1014. I've had a whole bunch of things that are counter to a lot of the things that you've heard in your life. So if you have any questions, I will be sipping coffee in the commons shortly. But until then, I would like to invoke the spirit of a bowling ball. A bowling ball is shapely and purposeful and unabashed about announcing its weight. And if anything gets in the way of a bowling ball, it knocks those pinheads down. Be like the bowling ball in your lives. Roll through with purpose, sure of your mass and gravitas. Go in peace, return it in love, and please be seated for the postlude.


I have six 30 folks. So I'd like to convene this meeting the Board of Directors for the Severance and Valley Water District for March 16, 2023 in the session. Holly, can you take the roll please? President Smalley. Here. Vice President Hill. Here. Director Atman. Here. Director Atman. Here. Director Falls. Here. Director Maynard. Here. Tina, could you report on the one item that we discussed in the closed session? Yes. The report of actions taken in closed session is that the Board voted unanimously to approve the district manager's goals and objectives for December 2022-11 that's November 2023 with specified changes to publish the final document on the district's website. Thank you. There's nothing to report on the other two items under the discussed closed session. The decisions or deletions to the agenda stand by the chair. Okay. Oral communications. Do we have any members of the public? In attendance? No. Does anybody from the public have anything that they want to bring up for items that are not on the agenda this evening? Don't see anybody? And for the members of the public that are in attendance remotely I see nobody from the public physically here in the meeting. Mark, I wanted to suggest it might be helpful given that this is our first meeting back in person to see if either the attendees via Zoom to make sure they can hear us to see if somebody can let us know if they can hear us. Mr. Goldson, could you comment on the audio quality? Yes, can you hear me? Can you hear us? Not good. The audio quality is reverberant and it's a challenge to make out what people are saying. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. That's just my experience. But it's much worse than it was prior to going to the new meetings in format. This is the title. Okay. And records my understandings. Yes. We're moving ahead and we have an installation date yet but we are looking on that for both rooms. Can I ask a question? Would it be helpful to have a microphone system? I don't know. This is a temporary setup for tonight. A lot of cameras will be installed last week in March. Other equipment has come in. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your indulgence. Anything else from that procedural standpoint before we since this is the first in three years of an in-person meeting. Okay. The President's report. I have nothing at this point that I want to bring up. The district manager's report is at the end. Okay. Moving on and unfinished business. The investment update. Mr. Finance and your will present them to both of you. This item is in regards to the update on the investment of our 2018 COP and 2021 COVID-19 gross use. The January 18th budget finance committee meeting discussed investing the unspent funds from both loans into higher yielding accounts. The funds are previously being held in the Santa Cruz County fund earning an average of 1.4% and that is based on the December 2022 interest apportionment provided by the county of Santa Cruz. District staff chose to invest in treasury bills or T bills which are short term U.S. government debt obligations and the treasury department with the maturity of one year or less. These bills are sold at a discount to the fixed value and when the bill matures you are paid at fixed value. For example, you buy a T bill with a fixed value of 990,000 and you buy it with a discount at 980,000 and when the bill matures you are paid a full 990,000. Making the 10K on that. The investments are being made by the district's investment policy and the district has a long-standing relationship with those who are operating checking accounts with them and they were quick to respond to our inquiry regarding investments and we wanted to move as quickly as possible on these. Exhibit A in the agenda shows the project schedule that was prepared which shows the amount available from each loan allocated to each loan. The project schedule is being made to begin construction being. The project schedule will be referenced monthly and reviewed as project expenses are incurred to determine if changes are needed or if we have more time to re-invest. A schedule of each T bill purchase with their yield and maturity date will be provided for review of the next budget and we will then continue to provide quarterly reporting for the investment policy and we will continue to monitor as the project progress. Any questions? We will take them from the board before I solicit questions from the rest of the board. I do want to make note of an email that I received earlier this week from one of our rate fairs Mark Lee. Mark Lee is the individual that brought the recommendation to us previously that we consider these T bills. He recommends not placing these through Wells Fargo but instead through JP Morgan Chase based on the liquidity levels of Chase Morgan being a four times what Wells Fargo has. I received this on Monday. I think in part the Silicon Valley bank collapse that occurred last week is what prompted Mark Lee to put this together because he cites that in his email to me but given the fact that this was not part of the agenda was not able to be circulated to the rest of the board but he cites Wells Fargo cash and equivalents at 1.59 billion versus Chase Morgan at 5.67 billion in liquidity. So I wanted to put that out there to let the rest of the board know that I can receive that and who there will start to take other questions. I will start again. Good. I will ask the staff to respond to that would be that the T bills are back to the government so when the bill matures we will get that money back and if it is put back into an operating account we will have funds available to spend on projects. I am not sure it is entirely relevant so that is my response to that. Okay. Jamie? I was just wanting to clarify in the email that he sent us was he making an apples to apples comparison about Treasury bills? No. Because that was my reaction too when I read the staff report this is a short term investment vehicle it is not like the Silicon Valley but I have less concern about the bank institution itself. Okay. Any other questions on the not specifically is what any other questions on the agenda items specifically comment on that question. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I understand some of the email given the collapse of Silicon Valley bank which I have an account there unfortunately for deliberate reasons I understand that he was expressing but I think he does understand what was happening we are not buying equity in Wells Fargo hopefully we can explain that to you because I figured we would probably go into the office. I did have a couple of questions about the T bill range is about 4% or less at this point? It's about a year from I'll start out the schedule but over 4.5 to 5. Depending on the life. Exactly. Are you planning to do a lateral review? Yes. So what we did is we determined when we would need funding for the projects and what he did is he invested with the maturity closest to when the project starts to be conservative but as we get going and evaluate the expenses we need for the project we can determine if we want to do the same and the last question is what kind of cost did they charge us or did they do it because they were doing so much business with them and they didn't charge us in? So the email he sent me an email and said this is our rep at Wells Fargo it looks like management decided to waive the same thing with these testing T-bills really the cost of the transaction is what the focus is because there's no risk on security. Right. So he said please don't be received manager who will waive same thing until further notice. So I'll clarify what further notice means. And also there's a new cost that we did. I know they operate very thin margins okay great well I think this was really fantastic I'm satisfied I think I think we've done the right thing here and whether you personally care for one bank or another I think the risk is is almost zero here because we're putting the money into the bank doesn't have the money for companies and in times of all the chances of bank failure and so many things almost nothing yeah okay good okay I don't have any questions either Bob I just asked the one that I had so really with that is here the question will be of this profile on our accounts in Wells Fargo yes given that then I don't see a specific motion so oh thank you thank you does any member of the public wish to comment on this item I don't see any so are we concluded on that then I understand don't we have a motion okay thank you then moving on then to the agenda is the new business and it's the memo template and Barbara will present the memo okay well good evening everyone nice to see everyone in person again a little straight okay this item is regarding adoption of the memo template over the years many versions of the memos have been used to address the board and committee members to standardize and better organize memos district staff and the administrative committee created a memo template which is included as the instruction cover sheet details memo goals objectives and general instructions the template itself outlines each memo section is examples of recommendations and quotients at the March 3rd administrative committee many of you and the draft template recommended the board adopt a few changes incorporated these changes included adding environmental impacts if there are any provide further context in the background section ensure prior memos reports and other relevant documents were included staff recommended the board adopt the memo template and allow for further improvements to be identified for the following month that was the fair answer question okay okay I'm just really happy to see this this was something that I had advocated for a few years back and just wasn't timing we were visiting a lot of other things back in front of us I think it would be fantastic in terms of making sure that the board members are informed of the relevant information for the items in front of them and I would send you all some links to documents on the website which would be great I think it would be great for the community so thank you guys for putting it together something to do with that I'm sorry so great thanks a lot for doing it it's great job alright and I would like you to go to chair D.M and see if she can reflect on this first I would just say I'm really happy with the template I think that it will be a significant improvement just in terms of the organization of information I would like to emphasize what Bob said about including other information I didn't mean for it to be 400 pages of information but just point this to the links of past staff reports on the topics that were relevant that we might want to review as information for the current decision that would be really helpful to me so I love that we're encouraging people to do that I know it's going to be a work in progress I encourage staff to look at the language that's being offered around the resolutions it's really helpful to the board to know clearly what's being asked of us and sometimes the resolutions can be a little like what are we adopting here exactly so I think we gave a lot of examples of the way that we would understand this is what we're being asked to do but other than that last time yeah I'm happy with it I expect there will be some modifications over time but that's the way things work so we got it working better okay yeah okay great we have one request and I'm looking at the memo template and can you bold whatever you're asking the board to do as far as the recommendation because I don't see that in this one and I'm used to seeing that in other ones such as the next one that we're looking at where the request of motion is bold it makes it easier for us on the board to grab that as we're thinking through the various documents that we have in place and then good job on setting the standard yay yay consistency then makes it easier I would hope for the staff to give it away but then also for us that we're doing so that we can see similar information in a similar format down the group and at last any thoughts following on who edits these to get them into performance well I suppose that would be my job and the key to that is getting them to me so that I'm not having to rush them out as soon as I get them so the sooner I can get this information I can review it and edit so that it follows the template all of that sort of thing um yeah I will need to get it in advance okay yeah that's actually true the question which is all the staff's body this is I'll give you a thumbs up okay have you seen it okay I don't know where it goes exactly I don't know okay well I'm not just asking because that will actually make all those jobs wherever it is easier I do have a request to all staff I'd like to send a couple of versions of the contract approval recommended motion can you speak up please oh sorry about that I was requesting to send Carly a couple of bullet points related to contract approval to put in here so that we have a couple of distinctions that may be important depending on what's being done see you'll be very fine that's all right this is great okay um any comments from members of the public on this mellow template thing um then the board adopts them I think the board adopted the mellow template with the suggested additions to the council board okay all right oh President Spali yes Vice President Yell yes Director Atman yes Director Falls yes the next item on the agenda is the Peabody and Tree Work right thank you and District Engineer will present this report to Justice thank you Rick in keeping with the previous item this demo is in the new format so if anyone has any changes or suggested revisions this is your opportunity so staff are recommending that we proceed with tree work on the Peabody and the portion of the Peabody and the five mile raw water alignments in this case what we are looking for is authorization from the board to perform a hazardous tree survey which will identify all trees which are hazardous and or damaged along the alignment referred to removal removal being the second phase of this particular operation will then allow us to get a topographical survey complete which is the next thing we need in order to proceed with determining exactly how it is we're going to proceed on replacing the raw water pipeline to that end I presented a memo and the proposal of my power's forestry and we'll take questions you said Peabody and five mile the greater Peabody and five mile, this is limited to Peabody so yes, Peabody searcher question is that Jeff wasn't clear to me what is happening with the slash trees that get removed they will be locked and I left in place as an urgent control interest okay any opportunity to recover any funds by selling this firewood or anything like that frame that you need the backpack to allow it would eliminate any possible in time yeah there's no vehicular access yeah yeah let's turn this together yeah I guess I noticed that it costs money to mark the trees and it doesn't take them out and so if you're going to remove them why is it necessary to mark them this is our our land and so in our there is a reason the reason is that in order to get a female reimbursement for work we must be able to provide an email with a latitude and longitude to 10 significant figures of every drum roughly one meter of accuracy for every single tree greater than 6 inches in diameter at breast 8 or roughly 14 of per yes every single tree an exhibit that demonstrates where they are and if we don't people won't pass so that's why we the tentage is facetious I suppose because one meter starts getting differentiated no it was not facetious we use tentage or accuracy I think female that's more than what we are better than tentage just under a meter yes we provide greater accuracy because that's the equipment sorry do you mean decimal 4, decimal 0.6 for 10s yes okay got it okay because I was freaking out it was 10 on the other side not 10 significant figures roughly one meter the other question I had is just to be really clear so the number 2 that's actually cutting down on the trees that is removal cutting down on identified hazardous trees lopping them up in place and scattering them on the side did we do hard people or solicit bits from multiple suppliers we have not and is there a reason for that yes because the primary other forester that we would use indicated he was not interested so we could have gone through the process without one bid if there's only two guys in the area that can do the work because in fact they need to be registered in professional foresters I thought maybe one of them would just lay down okay great so at this point when this is all done it'll be safe for everybody to go out there and like to trail et cetera whether for many 90 given day yes very cool thank you I can tell me questions about the p9 replacement project although really interesting to catch about it being more expensive to mark the trees I'm taking out I just just you know it's a necessary step in the preparation for the tree removal that I will say since you invited comments on the staff report I'm really over it and thank you I thought it was really clear the only thing I have asked is that all of the recommendations don't worry about putting reading more because you know read it we're not doing our docks but otherwise thank you very much it was great staff work so to be clear the 13,550 that covers all of the tree removal so I assume somebody's been out there already to assess about how many of these trees yeah okay that is my understanding okay Mike I was very confident with his numbers okay good last month we spent 5,000 getting 9 trees revoked without any service we spent 700,000 that is like 700 trees yes and that's okay understood do we have an alignment or is the alignment that we're using the alignment for pipe it is the existing alignment okay okay that's what we're going with any environmental impact this this is I didn't see that in the memo but I do see that in the draft this particular work is in the nature of immediate repairs which we can do without getting clearance okay once we get on this we will need to look at environmental impact we'll also need to complete some biological surveys and potentially cultural so at least nothing bird and we're starting before September 1st or for the tree for the actual tree removals okay alright okay and I have been back to the previous item on the agenda since the memo that says that particularly for the construction budget to deal with any of those even because no environmental impact is going to be online you can keep that status and you don't ask that question okay okay that's all the questions I have on anybody from the public want to ask questions or comment on this tree removal item if not I'd like to make the motion that the board authorize the district manager to enter into negotiations with first Street LLC to finalize the award of the Peabody Pipeline Hazard Tree Serving Inventory and Trail Clearing 31970 dollars second thank you President Smolley yes Vice President Hill yes Director Ackerman yes okay moving on the update of the San Lorenzo River Worker Sanitary Serving is it time for you to present San Lorenzo so for the past few years the district has partnered with the City of Santa Cruz to meet the division of drinking water or BEW's requirements of completing a sanitary survey in the watershed the Sanitary Survey must be committed for all watersheds that act for drinking water source through partnership with the district through partnership the district has been able to meet this requirement with minimal investment however this economic approach has led the document to be recycled throughout the years this year staff has had a significant amount of time working with the consultant in making revisions the document does meet all BEW requirements in highlands and more takeaways the document could be significantly improved due to budgeting restrictions and high constraints to meet BEW's deadline staff in the city agreed to move ahead with submission of the survey to BEW after considerable edits requested by the district were made these edits included additional information on the impacts of the CBU fire on the watershed and district lands and a cover summary sheet highlighting key sources of contaminants and recommendations in the future staff recommends continuing to partner with the city of San Groups but starting with a fresh document instead of recycling the original document it's recommended that the board review and accept the 2023 update for the San Lorenzo river and north coast watershed Sanitary Survey and staff is prepared to answer questions This is quite a lost first thing isn't it? And I can see how it can be a fixed job that eventually needs to be done I was very relieved to see that it's a very analytical volcanic eruption Are you sure? Let's say some of the geology was a little scrambled but this report doesn't bother me too much because I don't think that there's stuff that is going to be acted on shortly the way, for example, some of our senate margarita reports are so it's not worth to go into detail the kind of things I thought were interesting one of the recent announcement of the new PFAS EPA requirements that you've got to be under the parts patrolling and that actually is probably two hours and I could do higher than that because we've set that at the protection level what most of the things are it was interesting that they got a number of pits in the San Lorenzo river that we love that and a lot of things are close I don't know I'm hoping that our should be problematic but I guess that's a question information I would think that it would be less because we're the geology that we're in but given especially that we've got a whole lot of watershed that burned it would just be useful to know to try that this is something that really scares me I suspect that we're going to find out that 90% of the service order is in violation of these standards and how we're putting out this the other question I had was there was a statement here about there's an upward trend in the all form abundances in both Fall Creek and Borden Creek and most notable was the big jump in 2021 and so I guess one question I had was when were these measurements made in 2020 in other words were they before the fire that's a great question and that would be something that so Jesse our water quality manager did go through the drama as well through the water quality sections so that might be something that you think this is under investigation but it's pretty important that we know when it gets testimony because if that number is pre-fire then what we when we recollect in 2021 what we'll get in then is some effect perhaps it has something to do with the fire and I don't know why California would necessarily go on with the fire and James you may know one reason you know what we do is we do something in the moment like what's happening before the fires are out there in 2021 well we do that monthly so these are okay so do you add how geometric means yeah so we do that monthly and it's it rotates throughout the whole district so we actually take weekly coliform bacteria tests so it's a continuous all the time sampling thing but I guess I would still say what I was going to say which is we should at least for those for the paul-free conformity which places would be in our water is go back and look at those for the fire the raw water is quarter I understand that I understand that these are raw water bodies but I'm just trying to understand whether this is a fire whether it's suggested that it may have something to do with the drought although 2021 is also a drought we can look and see what percentage we're taking on that data that's pretty good just okay I'll take my question no problem alright James yes yeah just a couple of questions is this something that's driven primarily by the city of Santa Cruz and we piggyback on that that's right so in the past the city we actually don't believe confide in 1996 when the first report was due I believe the actual requirements are in 1991 with the five year intervals and then we were supposed to submit by 1996 and I don't believe we actually did about that time I'm not sure exactly what history is there I don't know if Rick knows so for the compliance it started in 1991 and I don't believe the district actually submitted a report for 1996 when the first one was due and I believe we started to partner with the city in 2006 was the first one we did with them and so they had completed it for our entire watershed and we were able to partner with them because we share the same source waters in the watershed and is your view that the content and the views mostly the city of Santa Cruz view of things in terms of assessing a variety of factors yes because the report started out as just a city document does highlight a lot of city portions so what I ended up doing this year particularly was really adding in and SLBWD does this and here's the components we're doing for ourselves to protect the source water and you found a remnant of those of your parents without any issue and apart from cost point view you have an idea what the split cost is so we do it by connection so the city does pay the larger portion of the document we pay $18,000 this year for our portion and I think I actually have that I can provide to you yeah I understand it probably isn't significant it would be interesting to we have a lot more commercial it's not an apples and apples site given the connection deltas between the organizations but we don't need any material thank you yep so our website we have annual sanitary surveys or personal water safety surveys we did not do one or we don't have a postal for 2022 is this a replacement for that we do it every five years okay well there are annual ones for those reports that should be a separate report the sanitary survey that are annual are of the actual water system and the distribution system and the treatment system yeah the reports we get from the state okay my only question was how does this relate to that so once we put it on our website our reports just relate to it so this is a combined larger scale and the water system where the other ones don't have water okay and is that why we don't see 2022 data exactly so it covers 2017 to 2021 okay all right chapter 6 as I'm trying to go through it seems to say to me continue doing this testing continue what we've been doing continue doing the same thing is there anything to report results in us do we as far as any significant new actions that we will have not not really I think the other part of it being a recycled document is it does kind of stand to stick to the same you know our sort of contaminants our risk of change that's it recommendations that to me looked like all the recommendations that things were already doing and that we've been doing and it's probably the same recommendations that they've seen through last 10 or 15 years okay okay those are the questions that I had then oh one editorial since we've already talked about memo templates and formats the proposed motion comes at the end and already holds forward to follow the recommendations so look at that okay any questions or comments from the public on this sanitary survey aspect seeing none so I believe that you're asking us to accept this then I'd like to make the motion that the board accept the 2023 update for the San Lorenzo River and Norquist Wireships sanitary survey second President Smalley yes Vice President Hill yes Director Ackerman yes okay includes the business items the consent agenda does anybody want to comment on this otherwise it's approved as as noted in here just for reports just manager manager yes we've received today the funding agreement the sign funding agreement the mistake or the Polish frames so now we can start requesting reimbursement for your funding agreement in place so so San Francisco so we can submit those I am also wanting to know turn around or what do we submit okay good thank you about how far are we to the internal expenditures that we're in that's where we're going to be and percent wise all of us here's I would be exactly but I would say it's pretty substantial yes I would be very nervous but way more expected okay so the the questions on these we'll start okay yeah Jamie so Bob I didn't know this were we just get us to that can you get us over that yeah if the storm's internal creeps up into really dirty, turbid water plants will not shut off but once it gets super dirty we get them back on line very quick and we're still sending surface water to Scotts Valley and we can continue doing that for a foreseeable future not under the emergency situation we're so we're kind of doing in lieu already we're not having a pump in Scotts Valley which is the the we're actually a couple of different ones we just made the surface water a little bit strong this year I'm shocked I'm pretty comment on that I'm just putting it in my hillside right now he might be doing surface water a little bit longer than me okay that's great okay thanks Bob a couple of questions me on the engineering Josh, when do you expect Sandus will complete the design and update their engineers cost assessment for for I'm expecting a complete set of preliminary plans at the end of this note that is for all pipeline work does not include necessarily the tank site the tank site work which is not fundamentally safe we follow that the updated cost estimates should be done with that preliminary assessment okay and on the oilhole pipeline you noted the damage that was done out there is any of that potentially related to the fact that we had a contractor out there and we disturbed Brown or is it potentially the situation as of this afternoon so it's not necessarily in the back of here we had on site they had a little bit they're in two episodes if you will the first half of the part of county took responsibility for it is a diagonal process under drain with an outlet into the field in the park which they own entirely their project the second episode which is much more recent this past storm last two storms we started seeing sinkholes going down the oilhole towards again so just down to the oil circle we talked to the county played with them for safety through this last couple of days at Grand Rock out today where they moved into damage they see there's a little sinkhole which actually broke all the way through they found two moids in the sand just wash out and here's that that wash out happened when water struck the backfill and we put in slurry which acted as a water of our forced water down below through our pipe I would like to know the size of that slurry is a county specification and it works with a county detail so whether where that's all going to end up I can't say but I would say that yes the damage is likely a result of the slurry but the reason the slurry is in there is I understand that okay have we formally notified Grand Rock of this damage aspects the question is to you and to Gina do we need to have an indication of that in the end how it's coming back to us for costs on this I'm going to recommend that we take the discussion online and that I circle up with Rick and Josh about what steps good thank you okay okay that's all the questions I have questions on any of the department's status reports committee reports don't see anything else here come in what is the SLP that we are in Grand Rapids yes why is that there's no context yes I don't know what did you say that I believe you had asked good but no context is that actually it's there's no introduction information there's too why I did that sometimes we need to I thought this was being sent out as an inspirational email so sorry we went back and so please refresh my memory on what this is for this was an application to retain the grant proposal that was submitted and the board kind of approved the resolution and you requested to see the proposal that's the context thank you excellent okay we have to go back to the closed session but we concluded this portion of the open session yes and now we'll see our logistics when we come out of the closed session we have to re-copy that one yes we do need to re convene we could do what we have done for some of these in the past when you go back to the closed session at the end of the meeting and announce for the betterment of the public that there's no anticipated important open session so there won't be any there's nothing else on the agenda there's not going to be a closed session there's not going to be anything happening there's not going to be a closed session okay thank you for that great to see you great to see you not really Mark what time is it? I have 7.24 okay we'll look at our new clock my clock says one thing that says one thing


We should get back again. Okay. Okay. So, so let's continue. And edge. Yeah. So I am going to, to use my pen to point to the place. So, right. So we had this sheaf of conformal blocks. Now one important theorem is, so let's assume that. Can you? Okay. Maybe not. Yeah. Okay. Does that work? A little bit to the left to watch the mouse. Yes. Okay. That was worse. That you were also moving the camera sometimes. All right, right. Okay. How about that? Is it worse? I can see T belongs to capital T and geometric with C. Right. Right. But okay. Okay. How about that? That's worse. Okay. Now. Now I can see to me to me where I could see geometric before. Okay. But theorem. Can you read the theorem? Yes. Okay. Okay. So let's assume that T is a smooth and pie is a smooth morphism. Yes. Yes. I can see the, the theorem. Okay. Very good. Very good. Okay. So that's where we are. So let's assume that this parameter family of S pointed curves has the property that T is smooth. I assume knowledge is smooth. And pie is a smooth morphism earlier. We only asked it to be a proper and flat family, so let's assume that actually it's a proper and a smooth morphism. Then what happens? So then, okay. So can you see it? It still needs to go. Yeah. Yeah. That's better. That's better. That's better. Actually, right. Right. Okay. So this is space. Now this is the, the, some shift over T. So this shift admits a projectively flat connection. So this shift, which is a shift over T and T is a smooth variety now. So this shift admits a projectively flat connection. In particular, V sigma T, this family is a vector bundle over T. So when you have a variety and you have some, some coherent sheaf over that, which admits a projectively flat connection or a flight connection, then that she becomes actually a locally free sheaf. So this sheaf of conformal block now becomes a vector bundle. And the consequence it has that the dimension of this one only depends upon the genus of sigma and the weight lambda. So it does not depend upon the choice of the actual curve within that genus. Let's take, let's say that sigma was a smooth. So, so it does not depend upon the choice of the curve sigma within that genus. And it does not depend upon the choice of the points, the mark points there because given any other mark point, you can move in a smooth proper family to go from one set of points to another set of mark points. And from one particular curve within that genus to another curve, because the model I of genus G curves is connected. So you can go from one genus G curve to another genus G curve. And also you can go from one set of mark points to another set of mark points. So this theorem has a very important consequence that this dimension does not depend upon the choice of actual curve within that genus. And, but it does depend upon the weights and the genus. So now I'm going to introduce this notation mg lambda vector, which is the dimension of v sigma p lambda. And I said it does not depend upon the choice of sigma within that genus and the choice of the mark points. But mark points have to be smooth. Now, let's observe a corollary of the factorization theorem. So what it says that mg lambda is same as mg minus one lambda, but you attach two more points, mu star and mu. I mean weights, mu star and mu. And you run over mu in DC. So let's write here. So we run over all DC. So mg lambda is now mg minus one lambda mu star mu. And you keep going inductively and you get to mg lambda, but you have introduced two g many points, two g times, two times g many points. And the weights mu and star mu and mu two star mu two, mu g star mu g, where each mu i is an element in DC. So this one sum which we are interested in has become a sum of all these quantities, but the advantage is that we need to make the calculation on a genus zero curve, which is P one. Now there is, right. Now, actually here I have stopped over one small point that when I'm going from mg to mg minus one, we have to introduce a node in the curve. And then we have to normalize it. And what I said that this diamonds only depends upon the genus. That was only for the smooth curves. But actually what happens that there is some extension of this result, which says that the theorem remains true even for non-smooth curves, as long as they have only nodal points. So those are called the stable curves. Okay, so that's what I'm remarking. Let's remark that the last theorem remains valid when T is the modular space of S pointed stable curves. So I stated the theorem only for a smooth family, but actually this result remains true for the modular space of S pointed stable curves. And then what happens that this coherent sheaf of conformal blocks is becomes a vector bundle, not only on the family of smooth curves, but also on the whole modular space of S pointed stable curves. Okay, now let's see. Is it visible the last line? The very last line is visible. The top above is out to the left, out to the right. Okay, yes. So let's see further by the factor. No, no, no, no. Now we can see. Yes, correct. Actually now I should. Yeah, yeah. Now I figured out that I can see some picture. Okay. So now, so the problem of calculating these diamonds and MG lambda reduced to a problem of computing M zero that is a P one, but million more points now because it will depend upon genus. So if genus is 1000, then we have to attach 2000 points. And of course the original lambda. And then we have to sum over all these weights. So that becomes a very large sum. So the question is, have we really gained anything? And the answer is yes. So the factorization theorem is also valid. So what we do, we take P one and we, we, we. We deform P one to make a node. I think you got out of you now. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, right. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yes, sorry. One minute. No, let's. Yeah, yeah. No, it's good. Yeah, yeah, correct, correct. Okay. So what we have done, we take P one and we pinch it so that we introduce one node point. And now the factorization theorem is still available for this situation. And when we normalize, we don't get a connected P one. We get two copies of P one where this node point has become one point on one P one and another point on another P one. And let's analyze the situation. And we can apply the factorization theorem again. Let's see. Yeah, it's visible now. Yes. So we can apply the factorization theorem again. And now we take M zero as many points and we can break it into M zero, lambda one, lambda two and mu and M zero, mu star and rest lambda, lambda three, lambda s. This could be any number. So I have broken this number into product of two numbers. One number has only three points and another number has S minus two plus one point. So S minus one points, but it's still have to sum over DC. Now we can inductively do this process and this M zero with one million points becomes product of things with three points only. Of course, it will still be a big sum, but now we only have to understand in theory and actually in practice M zero with three points and three weights attached to that. So if we apply factorization theorem successively. So first we have reduced from MG to M zero. And now M zero with several points, I reduced it to M zero with three points. Okay. So now this tells us that we are reduced to calculating M zero, lambda one, lambda two, lambda three. And this is achieved by the fusion product on level C, level C representation of G. Now this thing is guided by what is called the fusion product at level C. So fusion product is. Okay. I mean, maybe all of you know about that, but just like tensor product of two representations, we can define fusion product of two representations at level C. And then this is not tensor product. This is fusion product. So what we get is only representations at level C. So we discard some representations which have level more than C, but also we have to discard some mirror images of that. So let's just say that I'm not being very precise there, but fusion product of two representations at level C is like tensor product, but it produces only components of level C and it discards all the representations of level more than C, but also it discards some representations which are mirror images under the affine while group of C. Okay. So, so this is the end of it. So we wanted to calculate mg of lambda bar or lambda a vector. And now this problem has reduced into calculating M0 that means on P1 with three points where it's guided by the fusion product. And in fact, it's not only a theoretical reduction. This becomes really a very calculable problem. And in fact, there's a very closed expression. I'm not writing down the closed expression for mg lambda, but it's a very, very precise closed expression very similar to the wild character formula. But probably it's not much interest to really write down that formula. But I'm saying that there's a very precise formula which comes out of that for any mg lambda. Now let me say very briefly the history here. So, as I said, this conjecture was made in 1988. He made a precise conjecture. And then Shuchia, you know, and Yamada in 1989, they made a major progress in this project, major, major progress. And then I'm just going to list some of the names. So Bobby Laszlo in 94, they did some work for SLN. Faltings did in 94 for General G. Myself, Narasimha Naramanathan, we did something in 94. And Pauli did it for the parabolic case in 96. Laszlo Surgar did it for the modularized type in 97. And then Bismuth and Laburi did it in 93, actually. Direct proof for holomorphic sections, which I have not really talked about, but they have restrictions on the weights. And then there was some contribution by Terimaan in 97. And then for SL2 actually predates all these works, Bertram, Zenas and Tidius did it for 91, 93 and 94, but for group SL2. Now, what I have not talked about for lack of time, that there is a completely parallel picture for the space of conformal blocks. Maybe I am again out of sync. Yes. Yes, good. Yeah. So there is a parallel picture for the space of conformal blocks in terms of holomorphic sections of line bundles on the modularized space or modularized type of semi-stable parabolic bundles on Sigma. So I will have no time to explain more about this thing, but this space of dual conformal block or conformal block is canonically isomorphic with the space of holomorphic sections of certain line bundles on the modularized space or modularized type of semi-stable parabolic bundles on Sigma. And that makes this whole theory even more interesting for classical algebraic geometers because this line bundles on the modularized space of G bundles was studied for a very long time and its dimension was a mystery, but with this work now you can calculate the dimension in a very precise manner and because this space becomes isomorphic with the space of conformal block. Okay. So any questions so far? Anybody? So actually I see that I have 10 minutes and now as I said I am going to so this is so far this was not really I mean there was some part of it was done by me with other collaborators and several other people, but now what I'm going to talk about is a work with Juju and this is the Galois picture. So I'm going to very briefly talk about that. Let's see now. Now we can see the first half at least. Exactly. Okay. So what is the Galois picture? So earlier we took a reduced projective curve Sigma, but now what we are going to do, we are going to take still a reduced projective curve, but with the action of a finite group Gamma. So we'll let the finite group Gamma act on Sigma and let Sigma bar with the quotient of Sigma by this action of Gamma. Now we assume that any Gamma, I mean it's a technical assumption and we can even gloss over that, but let's say that we assume that any element in Gamma other than one does not fix any irreversible component of Sigma point wise. I mean it's a technical assumption. You may just forget about that. So the requirement is that Sigma basically does not act trivially on any irreversible component of Sigma. Now, as before, we are going to take a simple Li-Agebra over complex numbers. Now, except that now Gamma is also acting on G as Li-Agebra automorphisms. So Gamma is acting first of all on the curve Sigma and Gamma is acting on the Li-Agebra G and we have one technical restriction for at least some of the results. So let me say, but many of the results are true without this restriction. So we assume that Gamma is fixing a Borel-Saba-Gebra in G. That's not automatic, but if Sigma, sorry, if Gamma were a cyclic group, then it's automatic that it will fix the Borel-Saba-Gebra. But otherwise it's not automatic. So we just put that assumption and I said this assumption is for some of the results which I'm going to talk about, not for all the results. Okay. So now we want to talk about this twisted conformal blocks.  These are smooth points. These are distinctly smooth points, but we also require that Gamma orbits do not intersect. So Gamma PI is not equal to Gamma PJ for the I different from J. Now to PI, earlier we attached the same simple L-Gebra, sorry, same affine L-Gebra. But now to each PI, we are going to associate not the same affine L-Gebra, but a twisted affine L-Gebra. Okay. So what is this twisted affine L-Gebra? So let's take the isotropy of Gamma at PI. I think we are out of view now. Oh, sorry. Yes, yes, yes. I see that. I see that. I see that. Yeah, I think it's okay. Thank you. So I take Gamma PI, isotropy of Gamma at PI, and I take G-Hat as before, but now I'm taking it's twisted in the lock. So G-Hat at PI is nothing but G-Hat. And now Gamma PI, the isotropic group acts here. And we are going to take the fixed point there. So this is what is called the twisted affine L-Gebra if you are familiar with the theory. So G-Hat was the usual affine L-Gebra, but now we are going to take now Gamma PI. Okay. I should mention that Gamma PI is a finite, I mean Gamma was a finite group and it's isotropy. So of course it's finite, but actually it turns out that Gamma PI is a cyclic group because PI very smooth points. So the isotropic group is a cyclic group. And this is what is called the twisted affine L-Gebra. So now to the point PI, we are going to associate this twisted affine L-Gebra, not the affine L-Gebra. Okay. So the next thing is, now we are going to take, so now I'm going to take integrable highest weight module, not for the affine L-Gebra, but for the twisted affine L-Gebra, which I'm denoting by G-Hat PI. And this has its own parameterization, which I'm just denoting by DC PI. Now Siege fixed is still the central charge. I am not changing the central charge. Central charge is fixed for all the PI, but this DC PI depends upon the choice of PI. And now I'm going to take Lambda vector, Lambda 1 through Lambda S, where Lambda I is now in DC PI. That means the corresponding H of Lambda I is not a representation of G-Hat, but it's a representation of G-Hat PI. So still it's the integrable highest weight module for the twisted affine L-Gebra at PI. With highest weight Lambda I, I'm central charge C. And now again, as earlier, I take their tensor product, H Lambda 1 tensor H Lambda S. But mind that H Lambda I is not a module for same G-Hat, but for G-Hat PI. Okay. Right. So I'm just remarking that H Lambda vector is a module for G-Hat P1, direct sum, direct sum G-Hat PS, where the ith factor acts only on the ith factor here. Okay. So now I need to define the twisted dual conformal blocks. So to this curve Sigma with the gamma action, the points, the marked points P and the marked weights Lambda, we have this V Sigma, which depends upon the choice of the action of gamma P Lambda. So this is called the space of twisted conformal block. And this is by definition, similar to earlier, but we take H Lambda, but we divide by G of Sigma minus, not only P, but the whole gamma orbit of P. We removed the whole gamma orbit of P, but now we take the gamma invariance here in this Lear-Gebra. And that acts on H Lambda vector, similar to the previous here.  So let's put it out of focus. So the action of G Sigma minus gamma P on H Lambda is as before, except that, okay, okay, no, no, no, it's exactly as before, that we take a local parameter and since I'm taking gamma invariant, the local parameter will push us to the twisted-affined Lear-Gebra at that point and we let that factor act on the H Lambda I. Okay, so then we come to the Lemma. So this is space of twisted conformal block, is again finite dimensional. So we're missing the right half of the Lemma. No, no, no, thanks, thanks, thanks. Yes, now we can see. Okay, so this is space is again finite dimensional and it does not depend upon the choice of the local parameters TI at PI. Now theorems, and these are the results which I proved with Juju. So the analog of propagation of Vaku, I'm not going to say exactly what it is in this setting, but analog of propagation of Vaku is true. Factorization theorem remains valid, again with proper formulation. Existence of projectively flat connection on a smooth family remains true. And in fact, extension of the connection to the what is called the Hurich stack, which I don't have time to explain, on Hurich stack, it's similar to the modular space or modular stack of curves, but now here it's modular stack of curves, together with the marked points, PI with the monodromy fixed at that points. So we are fixing now two things. So we are fixing, no, we are taking three things and putting them together, modular space of genus G curves, points there, which are smooth points, and also we are fixing the monodromy at those points. And if we combine all three, then what we get is what is called the Hurich stack. And now there is extension of this connection, not only on the smooth family, but on this Hurich stack, which is not smooth, but this connection has logarithmic singularity at the boundary. And then what we prove is that identification of twisted conformal block with the global section of some modular stack, which were conjectured by 5% RACOPORT. So again, similar to the dual conformal block in the classical picture is identified with the global sections, it's based on global sections on the modular stack of G bundles with respect to some line bundle. So there is a very similar picture here where we identify the twisted conformal block with the global sections on some modular stack which were conjectured by 5% RACOPORT. And then we prove the precise diamonds and formula very similar to the whirling diamonds and formula. And this was proved by me and Juju and also independently by Deshpande and Mukhopadhyaya. In fact, Deshpande and Mukhopadhyaya proved it before us, but our method is very different, very geometric method. So we can see the bottom part. Yes, sorry. Yes, I am out of focus. Yes, correct. Yes, now we can see the bottom part. So I just want to end by saying there were earlier work in the twisted conformal block before us by Frankl Zeni. I don't know how to pronounce this. Shershni. Yeah, okay, okay. And then Kurobi and Takobi and Kira Demiolini. So there were some earlier works in this direction. I will not say exactly what they did. But actually I am over time by few minutes, so I will stop here. Thanks very much for a very interesting talk. Let's thank Sravan.


a very open dialogue, a very good exchange of perspectives across government and private sector and we all supported the Prime Minister's vision and policies in terms of energy security, affordability and low carbon as India continues to grow in terms of energy needs but also is a leader in the transition.


Hello everyone this is Ahmeddan of Ahmeddan.com You are watching one of my Malojiya travel videos and today I am taking you to a restaurant in a mall in the internal building which was the same building as my Double Tree Hilton Hotel. I ordered beef noodles and Pepsi. Beef noodles was 20 Malojiya Ringgit about 6 to 7 dollars Canadian and Pepsi was 4.75 Malojiya Ringgit which was about 1 dollars and 50 cents Canadian. I found the prices were expensive as if you eat outside in Kuala Lumpur it is really cheap. Thank you for watching this video, forget about subscribing this channel, forget about liking this video, there will be more videos coming up so I will see you shortly. Thank you.