Okay, are we online? Good afternoon everybody, welcome to this Hangout with the MOOC Open E-Tweening. My name is Diego Rojas, you may know me from the videos of the MOOC by now. I work for the Spanish National Support Service and my main duty is to support teachers in pedagogical and issues or technical issues, how to develop a good e-tweening experience. Here we are with four of my colleagues belonging to different National Support Services quite well represented in the MOOC. So let's start by introducing ourselves. Irene, please. Hello, good afternoon everybody, I'm Irene, I'm from the Greek National Support Service, working in the Ministry of Education dealing as well as Diego with pedagogical issues. I see that you are very interactive about MOOC and I suppose some of you are already ready. Max, can you unmute you please? Yes, good evening everyone, I hope you can hear me. My name is Massimiliano Odino-Censo and I work for the Italian National Support Service for e-tweening. I am dealing mostly with online training for teachers who are approaching e-tweening platform and also on the evaluation of the quality labels for e-tweening projects and some other staffs, many staffs, we are sharing responsibilities with my colleagues in Italy. And I have to thank you to be present here, to invite me to be present. As many Italian teachers are quite interested in the MOOC you are developing, you are running and so we are happy you did this for training also our teachers. My teachers are quite interested in the MOOC. Oh, something happened there. Okay, Natasha please. Hello, my name is Natasha Erguliev-Kameric, I work in the National Support Service in Serbia, which is an innovation foundation campus. I am an e-tweening officer and my main job is to write about e-tweening in Serbia and I am happy to have so many teachers interested in both in Serbia and in this event. Thank you for asking the questions. Okay, and Rita? Hi, my name is Rita and I am an English teacher. I have been involved in e-tweening since 2006 and I have been working in the National Support Service in Portugal for eight years now. Nowadays I am the e-tweening national coordinator in Portugal and this has all been a really wonderful experience to work and learn with everyone and I hope that by now I am not just one out of the box teacher in this angle. I am sure you are all out of the box teachers or else you won't be here so I hope that we all learn a lot today. Okay, thank you very much you all for accepting the invitation and being here with us. You have been told you were advised during the last few days to post your questions with the hashtag e-tween quest both on Facebook or on Twitter. We have seen some creative changes in the hashtag in the meanwhile but I think we have managed to collect most of your questions. There were one questions which I am not sure if it is related to the MOOC itself or to e-tweening in general so just in case we are going to answer in both ways. Claudia de Censor said can we make changes in the original draft in relation to some aspects of the project we are building? Then if you allow me I am going to reply in the part related to the MOOC. Yes, you can and yes you should. That's the point. We start with an idea then we present this idea to our partners and in the next two weeks we are going to not only be evaluated on made suggestions we will also see projects from and evaluate projects from other colleagues and we will get new ideas that we can implement in our own projects. The ideal thing is that the final design has little to do with the original idea. That would be perfect to let the project grow and transform as we are contacting other ideas. Now to put this into a more general e-tweening context and one of you, can we change an idea of project in e-tweening once we have started? Who wants to answer this? Maybe Arini? Yes, okay.  You are drafting a little bit how you are going to work there but in the meantime when you are starting working with your students and with your partners you may see that you want to change things and of course you can do that and of course you can change things and you can arrange activities in the way that they would be interesting for your students and you can even change the project plan, you can edit it after it is approved so of course you can make changes and it is good to make changes and take into account what your students like so in case you are starting a project and you have evaluation during the different parts of the project you may see that some things may need to be changed so don't be afraid to do that. One of the things that I have learned in the beginning was that e-tweening is organic so you can start very small and go really big and you can change everything it's like when you have a class in front of you sometimes we have great plans and they change everything it's the same with projects, we have also great plans sometimes they don't go as well as we wanted so we can change everything. Okay, thank you. There was another question related directly to project planning our project has not finished yet but our schools are finishing for the other day I would say for all of us but the question is, can we go on our project next term or should we finish it? Max, your turn. Yes, in the flexibility of e-tweening of course you can go back to your project even next school year so you are completely free to decide whether to close the project now or reopen it at the beginning of September with the new school year. What we suggest as a national super services is always to be careful when you decide to work on a project for more than one school year so it's always better to have a link between the project and the school year but of course you are completely free to decide if you want to confirm this rule or act as you wish it's always in the flexibility of e-tweening the teachers can decide whatever they want to do with the e-tweening project so e-tweening allows you to have a lot of tools but you can use all these tools according to your purpose. Okay, and now there is any more comments about that? Yeah, okay. Please unmute yourself. I can't unmute myself. Sorry, we can't hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah, now we can hear you. Okay, I just wanted to say because I know that you have many Greek teachers to have in mind that especially in Greece teachers change school almost every year so in case because we have some cases we have teachers who want to continue their project next year but they are in different schools or they have different students so if they want to start if they want to have a project with different students it's better to start a new one. Okay, so we are allowed to act with almost total flexibility inside e-tweening but just trying to think makes sense. Right, and we have a question also who was written and published on Twitter a couple of days ago which is quite appropriate for the newest country to join in e-tweening here in the Hangout how to make e-tweening even more popular? That's a difficult question because we are very popular so far So, Natasha, what can you say about that? It refers to how to make it more popular in the school where you work you can talk to your colleagues tell them what you do in e-tweening or tell her what your projects look like and you can tell them all about your activities in teachers' meetings show them what you do with students how you can integrate e-tweening projects into your curriculum you can make small presentations of e-tweening and that's basically what a teacher can do to make e-tweening even more popular in their school of course explain how to, in most students how to make accounts for students in a train space, etc. So, there are different things that you can do to make it more popular and to show them how e-tweening has improved your teaching Okay, any more ideas? More suggestions? How to make e-tweening more popular? If I can add something according to our experience in Italy the secret to enhance the strongness of e-tweening is to propose teachers to work on what they have to do already in their classes in their school life using e-tweening tools So, e-tweening, as I told you before is just a tool and you can use it according to what you have you must do for your profession So, if you be able to if you can be able to to link e-tweening to, for example national rules, national law, national what teachers have to do at national basis, at European basis So, this is the way to improve the success and the use of e-tweening We are experienced in Italy a new, if there are any Italian teachers now online, they of course know about that a new plan for developing the digital school developed by the ministry and what we are trying to do is to show to teachers how e-tweening is already there teachers are already working in a digital school in e-tweening So, in this way we were able to link e-tweening to something that teachers are called to do and this is quite involving for new teachers to discover the opportunities that e-tweening gives to all the teachers in Italy and in Europe in general Okay, thank you Max There is another question regarding organization in class how to organize group work by Elena, Laili72 in Twitter and she says monitoring group work in our class is easy but how can we do it when groups are made of students from different schools and cannot meet who is going to answer this Come on, any volunteer? Because for example, right now today I finished evaluating a project for a quality label and the solution they had is to have international teams of students coordinated by one teacher regardless their nationality So, we had groups of students compounded by students coming from four or five different countries and one teacher coordinating in one case they coordinated with a Spanish teacher in another case the Greek teacher or the Italian So, it was a really good way to monitor all the group work and to also advise the students and also it helped students to really break the limits of the classroom because they were in a classroom with some schoolmates with a teacher as usual except for the detail that the classroom was electronic was the twin space and not a building surrounded by walls But, any other idea to monitor group work in international teams? Ammute yourself Okay, monitor means that they want to know what they did because actually I think it has also to do with the netiquette So, this means that we have to trust our students that they can work together all together and create some content So, if they decide since the beginning the netiquette how they are going to work together and if they are separated if they are grouped in transnational groups according to their interests or according to the different activities or if they are in primary schools they can have the same activities but in transnational groups then there are different kinds of easy tools that they can use and you can see who did what For example, if they want to write a collaborative story for example they can just open a titan pad and they have different colors so you can just check and see who did what And I think that most of all is to try and show to our students how they can work together if we manage to make them understand how they can do that I don't think that monitoring in a strict sense is really important Any more ideas about that? I cannot I think that it could be also important to give responsibilities to pupils So, for example, if you are working in mixed groups for each of them one of them could be responsible for the entire group and so if you give them more responsibilities of course you can also have more feedback from them and you can control in a way what they are doing inside the group the mixed group Okay Now there is a question very specific regarding the MOOC so if I may answer it Leimer says how she asks how long does it take to get a peer assessment I'm still waiting for evaluation of week 4 and 5 Okay, week 4 started yesterday so it's really soon Week 5, even if the materials are open they are open for your convenience just to be more free to organize your time but theoretically all the tasks in week 5 should start next week so we are still on the second day of the first week and it won't take long just upload your work, your URL the link to your products in the box and you will get the evaluation and even if you don't if you have a problem, for example if you upload the link too late because you have till the very end of the MOOC to finish all the tasks if you upload the link too late and most people have already finished evaluating their colleagues from the moderation team we will do something about that so do not worry too much just try to do it the sooner the better because the sooner you upload your work the sooner will be queued so the rest of the participants can evaluate it that's all, so be patient because eventually you will get everything done and just in case if you commit a mistake if you put a wrong link just write to us using Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag to MOOC and do nothing in the meanwhile while we fix everything just do not evaluate anything because you will receive some evaluations to do even if your link is wrong but don't do that if you have committed a mistake or whatever just tell us and we will tell you what to do so let's go to the next question Maruja Romero Spanish teacher I guess because of the name asks when can start from little and go big but there is a rubric one is going to be evaluated from the draft it's also about the MOOC when you're evaluating the draft in unit 3 you have to be aware that it's only a draft to evaluate this as if it was a full project or a full idea please when using the rubric it's very important to have this in mind when you're evaluating your colleagues we cannot do we cannot write this I mean we can write it but you cannot go into your minds we cannot write a rubric to force you to do that so you have to do it just bear in mind you're evaluating initial ideas in unit 3 and then more complex project plans in unit 5 this is what you will have to do next week so be generous be critical in the sense that try to find flaws and try to give all the suggestions you can be critical with that but be generous at the end and then a very general questions but very interesting because it's one of the key approaches in E-tweening what do you think about integrating CLEAL and E-tweening any opinion about that sure content language learning who wants to say something about that how to integrate CLEAL and E-tweening can they be integrated I think E-tweening is CLEAL and CLEAL is E-tweening I don't have many things to add because if you think about project based learning and CLEAL it's E-tweening but that's it I mean you're dealing with different subjects in a common language and you are all working for the same and you're learning all these different subjects in the different language so you're working all these different competences and that's it E-tweening and that's it so as simple as that and as complex both at the same time more ideas that's my idea yes we usually say that E-tweening is CLEAL when you are developing whatever kind of activity in a foreign language with a foreigner partner you are doing something CLEAL so there is no need to work about the integration because it's already done so of course if you are working in a European project in a European collaboration using a language that could be English or French or German you are developing a CLEAL activity so it's something really easy and difficult in the same way as you say in fact E-tweening is a tool to develop any E-tweening by itself is not a pedagogical approach E-tweening is a tool to implement pedagogical approaches quite easily I must say so if you are thinking in CLEAL thinking in peer learning or collaborative work or wherever wherever you are thinking on you can use E-tweening to implement it so that's also a way of approaching E-tweening use it as a tool to do any kind of innovative plan you have for your lessons okay Can you just say Diego that E-tweening can be the motivation on these approaches it can provide a very good motivation for all that's another value it's not only a tool it's not only an efficient tool it's also a fun efficient tool all this and quite cheap by the way and easy to manage there is an interesting question here now that we are national support services in different countries Mildian Mildian Prof on Twitter says is there a possibility of E-tweening recognition by certificates by the Ministry of Education okay in the Spanish case it depends of any country in the Spanish case it also depends of the regions as you may know Spain is divided into autonomous communities so far a bit more than half of the communities in Spain give recognition to the participation of in E-tweening projects with different procedures different legal procedures you just ask the Spanish National Support Service if you're Spanish or ask your regional representative of E-tweening and they will be able to inform you but in Spain probably you will have the chance to get some recognition so can we have a round of to see what kind of recognition you can get in your countries if you can because it's very difficult to implement the legal recognition for such a flexible program so Greece please whatever Portugal please so as Diego said it depends on the countries we are in the Ministry of Education in Portugal so it's easy for the Ministry to give recognition so E-tweening is the Ministry E-tweening we are always under the umbrella of the Ministry which gives also some so teachers rely on us most very much because of that so as for recognition we also award the National Quality Labels and we have a ceremony promoted by us as National Support Service but we are also as I said Ministry of Education so we have a ceremony in the different regions of Portugal where the Ministry goes there and gives them a certificate for the National Quality Labels all the projects that have National Quality Labels are candidates for National Prize there is an event, a National Event where the Ministry is and awards these National Prizes by the way if there are any Portuguese there the application is going on until the 10th of July so you should apply for it so yes we as the Ministry of Education give recognition to E-tweening projects and because of that we have many many applications okay next okay so we are trying to find a way to put we don't have a valuation yet so we want to recognize E-tweening widely but we are still waiting for that as Rita said we also have a National E-tweening competition and the last two years it goes together with the National Conference and it's a scientific conference so it's for two and a half days we have around 600 participants coming all over Greece and presenting their work mostly E-tweening projects related to E-tweening or other European projects we are also in the Ministry of Education and I think that this is also really important because we are in the center and the recognition is wider and so we have the National competition, National Awards of E-tweening for the teachers who have applied and have received the National Code label so our application is until 31st of August and that's the end of it as Rita said for the Greek participants but I think that it's now quite well known between E-tweening in Greece and they are trying to combine it with other projects as well and we also offer it's not a recognition it's a kind of recognition so for the teachers working in the secondary education not many but quite a lot of them they can have a reduction in their schedule for two hours a week and that's a kind of recognition because they have time to work for their project in E-tweening Okay, any other country? Talking about recognition I can say that the Ministry of Education in Serbia of course supports participation in E-tweening program we have started with E-tweening in January 2015 so there are a lot of things that we are still working on there are types of seminars in Serbia that teachers can participate in within their professional development and soon in September seminars organized by National Support Service will be used as part of professional development for teachers and they will be able to gain points for their proper participation in these seminars of the E-tweening National Support Service so that's it for now Thank you Max Actually in Italy we don't have a real recognition accorded only to E-tweening activities so for example we have the prizes for an E-tweening project in Portugal or in Greece but it's something only in the E-tweening world I can say so what we are trying to do is always to understand the links between what you are doing as a teacher in E-tweening and other things in the profession so for example you can have a recognition if you can use E-tweening to do something so for example you can develop clear activities that are compulsory using an E-tweening project so you don't get a recognition because you are running an E-tweening project you can have a recognition if you are doing something with an E-tweening project we are working a lot on the recognition of professional development through E-tweening that is not only for the learning events learning whatever kind of formal professional development but also for not formal professional development in E-tweening so what we are working now for example is to understand better which is the contribute of E-tweening to be part of the community for teachers part of this community of practice at European level and we are trying to do this firstly with our ambassadors so that we can then share results with all the community at least in Italy but also in Europe and then there is also recognition for pupils schools in Italy a lot of autonomies and so they can decide whether consider the work pupils and not only teachers do in a project for their school program so we are working to have a common framework at least at national level to help teachers to and also their pupils to in order that they could see the work they do in E-tweening could be recognized officially for every school but according to this autonomy everything is depend on the school okay thank you no there is a question here quite important and we know that it worries a lot of teachers about that E-tweening is about curriculum it's an educational activity you do it as a teacher in class with your students to develop your curriculum then it comes this question how can an E-tweening project be integrated with the curriculum of all the different countries that take part in it that's a difficult issue to tackle sometimes any idea any advice for teachers how to coordinate the curriculum integration of different countries please speak up please me? okay yes did I? that was a mistake the first thing I wrote was impossible it's not impossible maybe you cannot do the whole curriculum but I'm sure that some parts of it you'll do it so don't try to go to do the impossible all the curriculum must fit that's impossible but I'm sure you can manage maybe in some countries you will do it in different months so we just have to change a little bit so it is possible to have all all countries work in the same subject at the same time and it's there in the curriculum I sometimes think about preschool and primary when they say everything is curriculum which is much easier than secondary schools and I envy them because I'm a secondary teacher so everything is curriculum but if you really want to make this work think about it everything is curriculum when you're doing some subject you're not only doing the subject you're training so many things like working together have a critical thought making them search the internet using the right tools so you're not just doing curriculum you're doing the soft skills now it's very common to speak about so we are training everything else but curriculum but the curriculum you can manage everything I can just say I'm a kindergarten teacher so yes everything is curriculum and everything is it winning in the kindergarten and I love that but I just had in mind a project that was awarded I think two years ago and it was the runner up I think it was in the second or third age category which was stories in history this is something that in history most secondary schools have collaboration among Poland, France and Greece and it was really wonderful the way how they talked about the different views different perceptions that every country has about the second world war so this is part of the curriculum as well and I think as Rita said you cannot do it in everything but you can find some places where curriculum can fit and can fit for every country if I may add something also we shouldn't get obsessed with having same objectives in our projects I mean it can be very difficult to coordinate the different interests not to coordinate to make different interest coming from different countries coincide but for any twin project not all groups must have the same objectives for example you can work with a group of math students working on statistics and then a group in another country of social sciences studies doing something with these statistics I mean you have two different subject areas you have two different set tips and contents but even if they are different they are complementary and you can work together they can work in collaboration under these circumstances so yes it's possible it's not only possible because we say so it's possible because we see it every day to have this coordination this complementarity among different international curriculums in each one any more ideas? No? I can just say that the answer I think is in the planning of the project so when you are planning your project you have to work with your partner so before the project in order to set all the activities you would like to develop to run during the project to answer to your your desire your needs for your curriculum in your country and so if you design a good plan of the project before you will answer to your needs through the project during the life of the project so you have to plan before and don't plan extra work Yes Yes exactly you have to plan in order to answer what you need to do and not to do something just interesting just something more There is another question quite related to this because more than a question is a new contribution to the discussion Ivana Bankovich says are theme based projects the answer to integrating between projects in the curriculum of different countries theme based projects or maybe project based learning are they the answer to for a full integration of curriculum in different schools what do you think Come on Rita I'm a little lost with the question Can you elaborate again are theme based projects the answer to integrating between projects in the curriculum of different countries or I think if I may rephrase the question I think it's are project based learning project based learning the answer to integrating between projects in the curriculum what do you think about PBL and E-tweening I think we go to the last question what is Clio E-tweening is PBL E-tweening it is and as I said E-tweening is a tool PBL is a methodology so maybe PBL should be in the curriculum for sure or we have the curriculum use PBL to work this curriculum and yes use the tool between so I think we are thinking about three different things but which the answer is do project work with E-tweening or with anything else but with E-tweening yes for sure we did our job Sure but just to remind that this PBL the flexibility of PBL fits quite really well in E-tweening they are perfect partners E-tweening is a wonderful tool for internationalization of project based learning I think and we have seen many good examples of that and many good examples of how to integrate different curriculums in one same project she is right, Ivana is right one of the answers, maybe one of the best answers to that and then there is a question that usually arises when we are talking to about E-tweening about Neticat and some kind of how would you say oh I don't remember the word sorry just slipped my mind I will say it later but the question is Florina Popescu asks what is the most appropriate way to act when one partner does not relate properly and don't contribute to carry out the project we have some cases like that should you advise the rest of the partners how to behave under these situations I can recommend you to communicate as much as possible to your project partners to agree on everything to make clear all the steps distribute the activities so that it is clear to everyone what each partner should do don't be ashamed to ask questions don't be shy, just ask all the time you can use different tools in twin space to answer your questions and your doubts with your partner the main thing in this question is the communication so communicate as much as possible I would say I would start Diego with something very simple first of all a tip I always give to teachers if you find a good partner don't ever leave him just keep him there okay then you can just add more partners but you're a good partner you can work and you are friends now keep it so in case you have a project and your partner you are two founders and the other has disappeared you send an email you try to find him in skype he disappears don't continue working alone because we have teachers they apply for a quality label they have done wonderful work here alone, this is not between if you are working alone if you don't have any partner this is not between so in case there are more partners and one of these partners is also not the founder of the project and you see that you know he's not really working at the project you can still keep working with the rest of the partners so I don't know what the other thing about deleting a partner the netiquette on that but I think that if you just leave him there and you can just continue working on the project and you have other partners who can work together then you can go on like that the only problem is that if you are only two then there's definitely a problem and you have to go and find a new partner to start a new project and be lucky that time what I usually say to teachers is that it's like a marriage sometimes it goes well sometimes it goes wrong and you have almost 400,000 teachers in the sea to look for another partner so don't give up and please keep communication flowing Yes, I should say also that the the initial negotiation gives you a good clue on your partner just do not start the project with under after just exchanging messages if you want to start a project with a partner you don't know because if you know them everything is easier but if you don't know somebody if you know how he or she are going to react just try to do a substantive negotiation just exchange emails do not do not hurry you don't have to start your project tomorrow and wait a couple of weeks and then have everything really decided even if you can change anything afterwards that's not the problem you can change anything but just have a long negotiation not too long but reasonably long negotiation to see if you are really willing to work together if you're talking the same language I'm not talking about English, Spanish, French or whatever speaking the same educational language or not this should be seen, this should be experienced before the project starts so it will be a good way to diminish the risk to diminish the risk of having a missing partner and also be very careful with cultural misunderstandings they are more common than we think I like to say that the word I'll do it tomorrow the sentence I'll do it tomorrow does not mean the same in the United Kingdom and in Spain they have different meanings in both countries so when you are if a partner just disappear just try to contact try to see what's happening maybe holidays for example we have different Easter holidays in Greece and in Spain which may lead to thinking that the partner has banishes and they're just on holiday things like that, just communicate previous work, previous negotiation and then just take your good partners with you, treat them well as Irene said any more something else to add yes, as you say the answer is again in the planning of the project so if you just don't start without to know before your partner to plan together the project is already a way to be more sure that you will be together for all the road of the project of course this is not always true and another tip is to exchange partners I mean if you work in a good way with someone and you trust someone you can advise other teachers to work together with this partner so you can also ask for example ambassadors to suggest a possible partner if you are alone if you cannot find the right person so what I like to say to teachers in Italy is that you are never alone in twinning so if you can have some difficulties some troubles you can refer to someone else you can find together an answer a person a partner a project so you are never alone and related to what Max said now I also want to suggest that now that you are taking part in that MOOC and in the learning events in twinning it's also a nice opportunity to fight good partners because you can see how they work there how they communicate collaborate usually many teachers come up with nice projects and nice partners when they have the opportunity to work together and collaborate through a course, through an online course okay we have a question for Sevier but for you Mirjan, I think I've pronounced it well says how much time is needed to be in mode and learning is implemented in the national curriculum of the country of Serbia how long would it be needed for twinning to be fully implemented in the national curriculum well, twinning projects can be implemented in each teaching school subject they are adapted to all school levels to all subjects so you can use any team in any class you can create a project that was the question I understand yes, I think so twinning develops different skills and different competencies with students so you can develop cross-curricular competencies you can develop digital language competencies mathematical all sorts of things so for example if you create a project in mathematics and you start in another country and use the English language students will of course be interested in English language for example and the grammar so there are different things that you can develop through projects and all these things are of course in your curriculum, you can start with a subject from your curriculum in a teaching planning program for example as an idea for to start a project okay let's go some problems with connection anything else René, Rita do you have something to say about that not about Serbia but in general the relations between hi Max is back the relations between twinning and the official curriculum I would say that's impossible but we have something that leads to a twinning which is that schools must have a European project so it's not only about a twinning but it's a bigger issue so a twinning somewhere it's there but no I don't see it in the future the word a twinning in the national curriculum I would like to be optimistic but taking it to account all the changes that are taking place in the Ministry of Education these weeks days anyway yeah okay I would like to be optimistic that maybe yes one day we're going to have a twinning school and it can be very well implemented in the curriculum but at the moment I don't know if this is possible but you already have in manuals right in books at least that's a good thing that I found out in the students books for English and another one it's in the book a twinning and there's a whole chapter how you can register a twinning and how you can start a twinning project and it was really fascinating about that so at least it's in the books and in a certain way related to what we were talking before regardless the relation or how often the word twinning appears in official curriculum a twinning is not curriculum a twinning is a tool to deliver curriculum so regardless the curriculum in your country you should always consider a twinning as a way of developing this curriculum it's not an addition it's not extra work it's not doing what you have to do when doing other things in a twinning it's not that a twinning is a tool to develop what you have to do in your official curriculum so even if it's not officially fostered in this or mentioned in this sense this does not make a twinning less valuable for the national curriculum not at all any more opinions about that we are about finishing and there is one last question here I have okay if there are more questions we'll go on but there is I see one question here which is maybe the question which gives sense to this to the name of this hangout of this emission which is and now what the panic that you feel okay you have finished the MOOC in a twinning and now what shall I do where shall I go and the question is once the MOOC is finished what steps do we need to take to flesh out our projects and make them come true not an easy question who can give some advice here you don't dare okay how to make our ideas real how to take these ideas for example that we have been developing, discussing evaluating in the MOOC how to take them into our classrooms with our students how to do that how should we start first of all I would like to say that they are lucky because they have the whole summer they have their holidays and think carefully how they can work on that maybe they are lucky and they have met other teachers in the MOOC that they would be interested in working together so if they have partners this is good if not they can just go to a twinning if they have an idea they can just post their idea in the follow and they will find other teachers and then they will have the time and enough time to discuss how they can work together and then they can just register a project and they can start simple they don't need to do something really complicated they can start with a small project see how this works learn how to use it in space the different tools experiment a little bit with their students and then while time passes they can do more and more things when I did my first twinning projects it was about with a Portuguese teacher and what we actually did was exchanging photos of our everyday life in the kindergarten school and that was it it was the first project and then I started to learn and learn and meet other teachers taking part in courses, learning events different things and you see that you can go on and try different things so my advice is to start simple don't try to do difficult things and be crazy with all these that simple and you will find your way in the twinning world while I was thinking about the question I looked at Max and I remember something he always says in his workshops which is take it easy take it easy and have fun okay and don't be afraid to try and make mistakes and don't stop at the first mistake learn from it and go on and I subscribe everything that Imini said okay one question, one more question Isabel Maria Garcia is there a minimum or maximum of participants in a project can you have two partners from the same country okay there are two questions let's go for the first one is there a minimum or maximum of participants in a project who wants to do this there is a minimum that is two because of course you cannot run a collaborative project alone you have to be at least with someone else so in two the two co-founders of the project should register the project in the platform and then you can invite you know you can invite there is no limit but of course consider that you have to invite people invite teachers, invite partners only if you can afford this collaboration with all the partners so don't exaggerate with partners this means also that you can invite all your colleagues in your school so in order to have a multi-curricular project you can invite all your colleagues from your school and so of course the other partners can do the same and you can also have a project with teachers from your own country there is national project so you can work in your own language with only teachers from your countries but be careful about this because once you register a project as a national between a project it will be national forever so even if you can invite later on foreign partners you cannot for example participate to a European quality label so decide before the secret is always in the planning of the project so just to recap the minimum is 2 you can invite other teachers with no limits but of course this should have a sense okay thank you very much and I think we are done for today we have been talking for an hour now thank you very much to all of you who have been watching us and we remind you that all this hangout will be available on youtube and we will share the link with you on the facebook group and also on twitter with the hashtag twimook and thank you very much Natasha, Massimiliano, Irene, Rita thank you very much for your collaboration it's been a pleasure and I hope we will meet very soon goodbye goodbye everybody see you soon on facebook and twitter goodbye thank you everyone bye bye


This study investigates the relationship between cesarean section without medical indication and severe maternal outcomes. The study used a multi-country, facility-based survey to obtain data from 24 countries and 373 health facilities worldwide. A total of 286,565 deliveries were analyzed with an overall cesarean section rate of 25.7%. The results showed that all other modes of delivery, including antipartum and intrapartum cesarean sections without medical indications, were associated with an increased risk of death, admission to ICU, blood transfusion, and hysterectomy compared to spontaneous vaginal delivery. The association was stronger in Africa than in Asia and Latin America. The study concludes that cesarean sections should be performed when a clear benefit is anticipated as the higher costs and additional risks associated with this operation may not justify its use without a clear medical indication. This article was authored by Karoli G., Leopaybun M., Lumbigan N.P., and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


learning everyone. I think we can get started. I'm not the only one that that happens to me as well. And I didn't know why. I have no idea. I just pulled it off the printer because I have it electronically, but it's my backup. And I can only see half of our meeting. So Gail, you may have to fill in the pieces. Well, mine all printed today. So happy. I did, I am responsible for having loaded the toner. So that might be part of the problem. Okay, so we'll get started. Good morning, everyone. It's just after 10 o'clock and a reminder to anyone attending publicly. This meeting is being recorded through a streaming process. It's also accessible through streaming. If you go to our website today, our meeting is public meeting number 354. And I'll let commissioner Cameron note that today we have a record-breaking moment. And that is up here on me. No, no, we just, we have our three female commissioners who will be presiding over this meeting today. And that is the first. So that's nice. I think we're up to the challenge, frankly. Yes. An all women majority today. And I think that commissioner Zuniga is celebrating his dad's 81st birthday, which is lovely. So we'll get started with a call to order number, public meeting number 354. Today is Thursday, September 9th and we'll get started with the minutes. Welcome back, commissioner O'Brien. We hope we have a nice vacation. Oh no, we don't have any minutes. No, just a roll call. We're all here. Just a roll call. Commissioner Cameron. I am here. Good morning. Commissioner O'Brien. I am here. We're all set. And Todd, you'll be keeping track of us today. We're gonna get started with the administrative update. Good morning, Karen. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. So for the first item on the administrative update, I'm gonna turn it over to Loretta Lilios and Bruce Band to give you an update on what's going on at the casinos. Thanks, Karen. Good morning, chair. Good morning, commissioners. So since Bruce and I gave our last administrative update three weeks ago, things are continuing to go well. All three licenses are continuing to monitor any updates to COVID-19 related orders and guidelines. At Encore, the IEP issued an approval last Friday for expanded space in the former buffet area that was renovated. And that approval allowed Encore to open its sports bar and for the sports bar to commence operations over the weekend. I understand it was very popular and has allowed for the addition of about 14,000 square feet of space. There are two casual food amenities in that area that will have their grand opening this Saturday. That's the Shake Shack and the Frank and Nix. Those amenities have been in the process of hiring new employees who have been in the registration process. At MGM, August marked its third anniversary of opening and last weekend, the Commonwealth Lounge and the Knox Bar reopened to guests. The Commonwealth Lounge did have and is expected to have live entertainment in the nature of jazz type music on weekend evenings, Friday and Saturday evenings. This weekend, MGM will be assisting the Mass Mutual Center in hosting the Basketball Hall of Fame and Shrine ceremonies. That's a collaborative arrangement with the center to collaboratively attract visitors together. And Saturday is the induction ceremony where the 21 Hall of Famers, including the Celtics' own Paul Pierce and Bill Russell will be inducted. I think Bill Russell must already be in the Hall of Fame and that this is as a player and this time is as a coach. At Plain Ridge Park Casino, they had a second public vaccination clinic on site at the property yesterday that was conducted in partnership with the DPH. It was open to team members and the general public. And I understand it did result in the addition, allowing them to boost their vaccination rates among their employee population as well. They are in the process of expanding hours of operation at some of their amenities and adding beverage servers as they are able to get additional staff. I did wanna mention that this expansion of some operations has led to the addition of some new employees. I did wanna recognize our licensing team and GEU who have been responsive and flexible to accommodating those increased numbers in a timely way. I know Bruce is on the call. He's available to give you some operational updates on the gaming side as well and happy to try to answer any questions that you might have. Operationally during the two weeks, there really hasn't been anything substantial to report. Operations has been going very smoothly at all three properties. The Encore was highly successful. Large crowds were there. Things were very smooth operationally. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Commissioner's questions for Loretta or for Bruce. No questions, but just an interesting report that it sounds like they're remaining to keep things safe as they do open a few more of their facilities. So that's good news. Yeah, and interestingly, the opening also allows, the more space allows people to have more space to spread out through the property as well. So good point. Thank you. And some new jobs, correct. So that's great news. Excellent news. Yeah, Commissioner O'Brien, are you all sad? I am, I just, I wanted to make a note. I noticed an article recently too that when Memoir went big night is reopening some of their facilities. Memoir being one of them, they're gonna be requiring either proof of vaccination or proof of a negative test. When they do some of their events, I was pleased to see that. It'd be interesting to see how that implementation happens in October when they actually start, but I was actually pleased to see that they're taking it. Okay, we'll follow up on that and try to report. Yes. Anything else, Karen? Okay, so the next item on the administrative updates, just an internal reopening plan update. So as you're aware, the commission voted at the last meeting to reopen our Boston offices on November 1st. So just want to give you a few little updates on that progress. The commission did vote on a policy, so that policy was finalized in accordance with the commission's directives at that last public meeting. And that has been provided to staff. HR is working on a template for hybrid work requests. So anyone that has a job that may be appropriate for some kind of hybrid work, there's gonna be a process to work with your manager and come up with a request for that. And also HR is in the process of verifying the vaccination status of our team and that the way they implemented that has gone very smoothly and there's been really good response by the team here at MGC. I think their expectation is that that will be completed later today. We had a deadline of November 9th, and if there's any any stragglers or anyone that's not captured by today, HR is gonna follow up with those individuals directly. So that process has been going very well. I think the only addition is that we will continue to monitor the public health metrics and public health recommendations as we go along. We know that there's a lot going on and we'll continue to monitor it and keep staff updated on what's going on with our plans and with what's going on in the commonwealth. So that's sort of where we are available for any questions and then Patricia O'Brien and Patricia Cameron are also on that working group. So they're available to comment as well. I just wanna commend the HR team and the working group and you Karen for the process that you came up with for the verification of the vaccine. I thought it was really practical, smart and I know it was consistent work for the HR team. But I think I heard Trupti say that it also gave her a chance to see folks. And so there was some good fallout by just being checking in the way that they arranged to do this. So very smart. Gail, I mean, commissioners? Again, I would just like to thank the team. I know that I'm part of it but the team is that they come up with all the good information. They're well researched, well thought out by the time we even have the meeting to be honest. So I just wanna thank everybody for their work in collaboration because it's really helpful to us moving forward as an agency. Really, really concerned with keeping everybody safe. And I just want everyone to know that. So thank you. And a special shout out to HR because of they've had, it's maybe short 10, 15 minute meetings but a lot when you add up everybody in the agency. A lot, including evenings. They did accommodating the shift work, et cetera. So they've done a really great job to get that done and get it done by close of business today, which is what we were asking for. So a special thank you to them. And a thank you to the entire team too for getting your appointments made. As commissioner Cameron said, everyone's concerned about our safety and our health in making a return to the office, an appealing option. And as Karen said, we're gonna continue to watch the public health metrics. I wish that they were steadier in the right direction but things are really still in flux. So I appreciate the policy that we've executed. And as Karen says, we'll continue to monitor everything. All right. Okay. So then the final item on the administrative update, I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. Lillios to introduce Heather Hall publicly. Thanks again. So I am really pleased to officially acknowledge attorney Heather Hall who recently joined the commission as the new chief enforcement council for the investigations enforcement bureau. The position heading up the IEB's office of the chief enforcement council plays a critical role for the IEB and for the whole commission. It's a legal role and it's also an investigations role. And in the position, Heather will manage the background review process that's performed for suitability and licensure on qualifiers vendors and casino employees. And she'll also oversee the administrative hearing process involving applicants and licensees who seek review of IEB decisions on licensing matters. She'll work closely with the senior enforcement council and with all the other divisions in the IEB, licensing, state police gaming enforcement unit, financial investigations division and the gaming agents division. And her responsibilities will require her to work with all divisions in the agency really. She has a wonderful skill set and background for the position. For the past three years, she's been the chief of investigations at the Massachusetts commission against discrimination, the MCAD. And before that, she worked for the Middlesex Sheriff's office first as deputy chief legal counsel and then as the director of the internal investigations unit there. She also served as deputy chief legal counsel for the state police and as assistant general counsel for the parole board. She counseled law students and alumni at the Boston college law school office of career services and she was a law clerk for the New Hampshire superior court. I knew her at the very beginning of her legal career when she worked as an assistant district attorney in the peels and training bureau with the Middlesex DA's office. And I first got to know her at that time and as she has progressed in her career she has really acquired a unique blend of legal experience in the public sector that includes criminal, civil familiarity with regulations and as I mentioned earlier that legal and investigative components. She has a quick legal mind. She's a hard worker, high standards and I know she'll be an excellent colleague. As you know, I've held the position of chief enforcement counsel for her and I'm really excited to have her fresh perspective at this important time in the agency's life cycle. She's only been here for a little over two weeks and I can attest that she's jumped right in and it's already making important contributions. So it's really my pleasure to introduce chief enforcement counsel, Heather Paul in this forum to you. Thank you so much, Loretta. I am so happy to be here. I definitely had some big shoes to fill knowing that you've been in the role for some time now and I definitely feel fortunate for this opportunity. So I have been here for a relatively short time but I've been learning a lot and I really appreciate how helpful everybody has been. And I feel very impressed at the different people that I have interacted with so far and I'm really looking forward to continuing to grow and learn more as I continue on the path of the commission. So thank you so much again. Heather, welcome. I've already had the chance to sit down. We thought we were gonna be meeting virtually and we actually were able to meet in person which was a real treat as we've been working. So much virtually to see somebody and spend time with you personally as a treat. Welcome. The good news is Loretta's around the corner. The good news for Loretta, you're now around the corner. So we're very excited to build this role and know that it's going to be an exciting challenge but one that you're fully supported by a great team. Commissioner O'Brien, Commissioner Cameron. I just wanna say welcome. What a resume. It sounds like we're very lucky to have you on board and already I see a really positive attitude and wanna dig in and learn. It's a great team. I think you'll find that with interesting work. It's never the same. So just welcome and thank you for being interested in joining our team. It's a really excellent team. Thank you, Commissioner. Just welcome. I know you know how lucky you are to be working for and with Loretta from your past experiences and she says the same about you. So I look forward to meeting you at some point face to face in the near future but it sounds like you have the capacity to hit the ground running and already have. So welcome to the MGC. Thank you, it was all for you. Yeah, so that concludes the administrative update for this morning. Thank you. Great and I know that the entire team joins us in the welcome. The virtual setting is difficult but hopefully be all gathering together and getting to meet Heather in person as well as the other individuals who've joined us during this time. All right, moving on to Dr. Leibhund's report. Good morning, Alex. Good morning. Today the topic we're going to discuss is the Racehorse Development Fund benefits for jockeys and drivers. This is part of statute chapter 23K, section 60C, number three. The Racehorse Development Fund, as Commissioner is aware, is split into three different buckets, 80% to purses, 16% to the breeders and 4% to health and pension benefits for the horsemen. Part of that also says that the commission will determine how much shall be paid annually by the horsemen's groups to the thoroughbred jockeys or the standard bed drivers organizations for health insurance and other benefits. So today we're here to discuss that. The commission did ask for public comments and they were due March, May 18th. We did get comments from the New England harness horses Association, meaning harness horsemen, the New England HBPA representing the thoroughbred horsemen, the jockeys, starting the jockeys. And then we did get comments from jockeys Abba Kabasa and Edwin Molinari. And those comments are all in your packet. We did ask for further information from the jockeys HBPA. So there is a second memo from each of those groups in your packet as well. So I'm going to start with the harness horsemen's Association of New England. They do provide retirement savings plans, vision benefits, their party liability insurance, et cetera, for all of their members. The horsemen's world, the drivers are part of the harness horsemen's organization. So they fall under basically the same type of benefits that are available to trainers, et cetera. And in their memo, they describe all the different benefits that they offer. They, since they're covered basically, the same as other members of their organization, my recommendation for that is that the commission does not seem to, it doesn't appear that there needs to be a separate amount determined by the commission for the drivers. The thoroughbred industry is a little different. Typically the jockeys do not belong to the horsemen's organization. And that's similar to what happens in Massachusetts. The commission met earlier this year for a couple of different meetings in regards to a second statute, 128A, that provides for $65,000 to go to the organization that represents the majority of the jockeys for benefits to active, retired and disabled jockeys. And the commission did determine through those meetings that even though Suffolk is no longer racing live, there was simulcast money coming in still and that could be used to provide the 65,000. And so that money did go out to the jockeys and the benefits for the jockeys that qualified under this for this year, we're gonna be a little over $4,000, $4,300 and something. This is an increase over what they've typically received in the years before, the years before it was around 2,000 to 2,300, rounded map. So in your package, HBPA and the jockey guild both talked about a insurance plan that the HBPA provided for the jockeys that was above and beyond what the Suffolk Downs insurance provided and they gave out between 1991 and 2019, the HBPA says they've spent over $5 million in payments for this insurance and then out of that, the policies have paid out over $18 million in benefits to the jockeys in this time. So the jockey guild and the HBPA didn't pursue any funds for the jockeys out of the resource development fund since the HBPA was already providing this extra coverage for the jockeys. So what has changed now? Obviously Suffolk's no longer racing live. The HBPA no longer has that policy because that policy was in place for, in case jockeys got injured during racing and since there's no racing there's no need for the policy. So the question has come, should there be some money directed from the commission the jockeys out of this fund? Let me say for not just the on the thoroughbred side but also on the standard bedside, I wish there was an unlimited pool of money. I know the needs are great for everybody. And so certainly in the perfect world there would be unlimited funds and everybody could get whatever they needed out of those funds. And obviously if we're taking some funds and giving them to one group we're taking them away from another group. So looking at these the HBPA does still have some of their funds for this project in reserve about 300,000, which is prudent on their part because as we know the racing is uncertain on the thoroughbred side, even the amount of money that comes in from the resource development fund can change. We saw this with COVID.  This is basically a prudent business decision on their behalf. So looking at all these factors it looks like they would be able to give a small amount of money to the jockey guild to pay out of this resource development fund money that they receive. I'm suggesting $100,000 each. There's four jockeys that would qualify under this. Reminder that under this, we're talking about we're talking about active jockeys and disabled jockeys according to the statute. And in our earlier, the commission's earlier discussions about the 128A funding, jockey guild basically determined that there wasn't a way to really quantify what an active jockey was considering there is no live racing at Suffolk. So for the purposes of our discussion today, we're only talking about the subset of jockeys that are disabled. So there's four of them. And if each of them was granted $1,000 out of the resource development fund money, it would be a $4,000 that the HBPA would give to the jockey guild to disperse to the jockeys. Do the commissioners have any questions at this point? Commissioner Cameron, do you wanna add to Dr. Lake-Bounds report and recommendations? The only thing I could add and certainly Dr. Lightbaum can speak to this is how much effort went into this item meeting. Everybody cares about the disabled jockeys and what is the best way to move forward. There's no simple answer, but numerous meetings were held between the Horseman's Association. And I wanna thank General Counsel Grossman who really delved into this issue and was there with Alex in meetings to talk about the issues, to answer questions for those who didn't really understand the law. And the jockey guild, they have been gracious enough and that this is an organization that really cares about jockeys and that's all they've concentrated on for decades and decades. And they have, they do not benefit from assisting us in dispersing these monies. And they have been very gracious in their letters, explaining and assisting us as well as others, jockeys, Horseman in understanding and helping us get to where we are. So I just wanted to just point out how much work and there is no one right answer or perfect answer as Dr. Leipman pointed out. But I think the explanation was excellent and as well as the recommendations, I think make a lot of sense. Thank you. Commissioner Bryan, any questions or comments? I don't, I'm glad that we allowed for further public comment and vetting of this, particularly for the people that are most knowledgeable on it. I hear Alex, I agree. I wish that the funding were greater and maybe a little more flexible in terms of what we can do and what they can do. But I think the recommendation she's making, given all the circumstances, it seems appropriate right now. And I thank her and everyone else who's been involved for the work and getting here. I agree, just a fact check, Dr. Leipman, for the amount that the four jockeys would receive, be $1,000 today, that would be on top of the $4,333 for all four. Yes, and I should add a lot of the HPPA members may only qualify for the $200 vision benefit. Some of them may end up topping out around 2000 benefit of that. And so, you know, just to keep that in mind that the money, we have a lot of different constituents to consider in this. And so we don't wanna take too much money from the HPPA. They've already had to drop some of their plans. But it would be $4,333 plus 1,000 for the- Exactly, they would still get there. They've already gotten there or should have received their 4,300 from the 128A. And then this would be $1,000 on top of that through the 23K section 60. I wanna point out too that this is a really hard decision because resources are limited. It's a little bit like a selfish choice. And I wanna acknowledge that we appreciate very much all of those who contributed public comments and those were all taken into consideration. I do understand that awarding one group may mean others get less and that is difficult. I also appreciate the fact that the Jockeys put themselves at considerable risk for our entertainment and for the benefit of the horse industry and community overall. And these four Jockeys are all disabled to the extent that this amount can help. And we know it's not a big amount, but it is an additional dollars of a limited amount. I hope that's helpful. And at the same time, I recognize that means that somebody else may get less. But again, given the risk that they took and the risk that they actually endured, I think this is an equitable recommendation and a fair recommendation. And I really wanna acknowledge Commissioner Cameron's comments because I know a considerable amount of thought went into this decision and I think it will help us in the future. It will inform future decision-making. So I think that you do need a vote today, Alex. Yes, please. I wanna thank you, Dr. Leiphahn, for the thoughtful recommendation. Thank you. Madam Chair, I move for the reasons discussed today and outlined in the documentation in the commissioner's packet in accordance with chapter 23K section 60, paragraph C subsection triple I, I move that the commission direct that the NEHBPA pay $1,000 to the jockey scale this year. So that would be 4,000 total for each disabled jockey. I further move that the HHANE be directed to pay $0 this year for such purposes. Just to clarify, it's a $4,000 total. Correct. Correct. Thanks. $1,000 each. Yeah, second. Thank you. And if that motion needs any clarification to that point, Todd, I think if the minutes could reflect that, we're all comfortable with that. Thank you. Commissioner, and no further discussion with the three of us, I'm assuming that's the case. Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. And I vote yes, three, zero. Thank you. Thank you everybody for that important work and also, Caitlin, thank you for jumping in yesterday when we had a question arise. Appreciate it very much. Takes a team. All right, now we're moving on to, this is a remarkably controlled agenda. In terms of numbers, Mary-Anne, I think you're appreciating that as well. Item number four, Mark Vanderlinden. Good morning. Good morning, Madam Chair and commissioners. I have three agenda items for you today. First will be an update on the Public Health Trust Fund, MOU, followed by a discussion about play my way. And then finally, an update on the Addiction Subcommittee, which is a subcommittee of the Gaming Policy Advisory Committee. So first we'll tackle the Public Health Trust Fund. Chapter 23K, Section 58, establishes a Public Health Trust Fund with social service and public health programs dedicated to addressing problems associated with compulsive gambling, including proper gambling prevention and addiction services, substance abuse services, educational campaigns to mitigate digital addictive nature of gambling and any studies and evaluations necessary, including the annual research agenda, which is overseen by the Gaming Commission, to ensure the proper and most effective strategies. The trustee of the Public Health Trust Fund is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In 2014, the MGC and the EOHHS entered into an MOU to memorialize the shared interests, goals and responsibilities relative to addressing problem gambling and promoting responsible gaming. And the years that followed the Massachusetts Department of Public Health acting on behalf of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services has built considerable capacity to serve Massachusetts residents who are impacted by gambling related harms with a specific focus on communities disproportionately impacted by gambling. At the same time, the MGC has implemented several innovative initiatives aimed at promoting responsible gaming and reducing gambling related harm. Additionally, as you well know, the MGC has established a comprehensive research agenda to study, assess and prepare for the social and economic impacts of casinos in Massachusetts. Since recognizing the changing needs of each agency while maintaining a shared commitment to mitigating gambling related harms, the MGC, the Mass Department of Public Health and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services set forth to update that 2014 MOU. I've included that updated MOU that's been fully executed in the packet of material today. This was no small undertaking. The leadership of our chair, Jud Stein, Commissioner Zuniga, Secretary Sutters and Associate Commissioner Lindsay Tucker. I also want to recognize the contribution of our general counsel, Todd Grossman, in navigating and negotiating the MOU that was executed that month. So with that, I turn it over if there are any questions about the Public Health Trust Fund, the intention of that MOU or nearly anything else. Director, thank you for explaining that and also taking the time to explain how much hard work went into this agreement that's noteworthy and sounds like an agreement into the future. So thank you for that and thank you for everybody involved. Thank you. Yeah, I want to acknowledge Associate Commissioner Lindsay Tucker who recognized that the benefits of the early arrangement were very well suited for the times and now moving forward, this new arrangement will serve both entities well for us to each accomplish our missions and yet take advantage of those important intersections where we can collaborate successfully on behalf of the Commonwealth to advance all efforts around responsible gaming and mitigating problem gambling. And I acknowledge Mark Vanderlund's leadership as well as Victor Ortiz's leadership. There's been great growth over the last two and a half years since I've been here where we've recognized the benefits of that intersection. So it's a good step forward and I appreciate, of course, Secretary Sutter's leadership here and acknowledging and executing the MOU. Thanks, Mark. If we can move on to Commissioner O'Brien, I don't know if you have any questions or comments. No, I just know a lot of work went into it. So thank you for the update and thank you again to everybody. Commissioner Zuniga has included who participated in it. If I may say just something closing on this, it's unusual for a gaming commission to be involved in developing and implementing a public health approach to mitigating gambling related harm. And I think this commission has taken that mandate incredibly seriously to even be a part of an MOU, being a part of a solution or a response the way that we have, I think is really important. And I think just a great step forward in how gaming commissions respond to these issues. Excellent, excellent. Moving on to item 4b. Right, so let's talk about Play My Way. Last month, I had a presentation for you updating you on the implementation of Play My Way. I come back today with some additional information, not necessarily good news, but we have a path forward here. So as you're aware, both MGM Springfield and Encore Boston Harbor are engaged or in an MOU with the gaming commission to implement Play My Way at each of their facilities. Play My Way, as you know, has been active at Plain Ridge Park Casinos since 2015. The development of Play My Way for the other two properties, MGM and Encore required a significant amount of additional development because they use a different player management system. So we've been, the MGC, MGM and EVH have been working closely with IGT to develop Play My Way, and effectively at each of their facilities. Certainly, COVID has impacted the rollout of this. And in fact, it was originally scheduled to launch. There was an agreement within the MOU to launch in September of 2020. And COVID delayed that, and the commission agreed to extend that for MGM until September of 2021. As with many projects, as technical as this, we hit a road bump in the development. And there was a technical issue that we discovered shortly after my presentation to you last month. It was my opinion as well as with the advice of our director of I.T. Katrina, Jaguaro Jones, and Scott Hellwig, along with our partners at MGM, that this was a significant enough technical issue that we would not recommend that we would launch it in September of 2021. We've been working closely with I.G.T. on a solution. And in fact, I got an update today that that solution looks like it's moving forward quicker than I had expected. But in the interim, we received a memo that I've included in your packet from MGM, requesting an extension to that for 2021 date to launch Play My Way. The new, the extended date is now April 1st, 2022, with the understanding that we are moving this forward in as quickly as we can. And with the attention to detail that is necessary, we will launch it as quickly as we can. I failed to mention, I'm sorry, Daniel Miller, MGM Springfield Compliance Director and Augustine Kim, Vice President and Legal Counsel for MGM Springfield are on the line if the commissioners do have any questions at all. And so just to conclude, I think this is the right decision to delay. I think it would be my recommendation that we grant this extension request by MGM with the understanding that we will expedite this as quickly as we can. Questions for Mark. Commissioner Cameron. Yeah, Director Vanden Linden, it sounds like you got some pretty good news today even. And so this may be the technical issue, may be able to have a solution in place sooner rather than later or is that, I wasn't sure if that's what you were trying to say. Yeah, that is what I'm saying. Understanding that once this technical solution is in place and it's been installed that there is significant testing of the entire system again, working with GLI, MGM and our own gaming lab that we would pay very close attention to making sure this fix actually worked and that it didn't create any other problems along the way. I don't have the technical language for that, I apologize. But there would be a significant amount of testing once that fixes in place. Sure, well, thank you. And it sounds like all parties are in agreement that this is the best way to move forward. I think any rollout, it's critical, right? To the use of it, that it runs smoothly. People have confidence in using it. So it sounds like a really good decision. I think it's positive to hear that it's not just MGM, it's our team, it's the technical folks, everyone who agrees that let's make sure we get it right. So thank you for that update. Sounds like a sound decision. Thank you. Commissioner O'Brien. As I would defer to the people who are on the ground and the IT people involved in it, I would say, given what you said about good news, six months out for the request today, I think we should internally calendar this for maybe a three-month check-in to make sure we're still on that trajectory because it is delayed in being implemented. So while I absolutely obviously defer to you guys on the ground in terms of what is a reasonable extension, I would wanna have a calendar to touch base on this, probably at the midway point, if it's not launched by then to make sure that there's nothing else that needs to be prioritized to make it happen at six months. I think that's a great suggestion. If I could just ask for a reminder, Mark, EVH has got a further extension. What is their expected rollout? Because I suspect EVH is gonna be the beneficiary of some of this IT trials and errors that have occurred. Can you remind me of their launch date? Yeah, that is certainly the case that they will benefit from that. We, the MGC, the commission granted an extension for EVH until September of 2022. So, it's a yes. Okay. So I appreciate Commissioner O'Brien's check-in suggestion, Karen, if you wanna, this is of course a cross-departmental effort and it includes a third party. So, if you could help monitor that check-in, I have to acknowledge that MGM has been a great partner in its responsible gaming efforts and certainly in game sense and with respect to play my way as these technical roadblocks occur. And the most important thing is for us to get the technology right so the program is right. On the other hand, it's such a great tool. I appreciate Commissioner O'Brien's sense of time recognition we'd like to get this installed in timely fashion. So I appreciate the update. We didn't have it marked up for a vote, but I do think that it would be perfectly okay for us to vote on it without notice. I think we're all in agreement for the update, Commissioner O'Brien, do you think it's appropriate to go ahead and move? Certainly. I would sort of amend my prior comment too. I think that the status of EVH should be included in that status check three months from now for the same reason that we make sure everyone, to your point, if they're gonna be benefiting from the work that MGM's putting in right now, maybe they can expedite the launching prior to that September 22 date also. And certainly not extend it. Correct. Yeah. So do you- For our language for a vote, Madam Chair? Yeah, do you have one? I think it's okay that it wasn't marked up. Madam Chair, for the reasons discussed today and outlined in a letter that is included in the commissioner's packet, I move that the commission allow MGM's request and extend the date for implementation of play my way as described in the MOU between the commission and MGM and extend the date to April 1 of 2020. Second. Thank you. Assuming no edits or questions, Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. And I vote yes, three zero. Excellent, thanks for the update Mark and good luck to MGM and all parties involved. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. And now you have the addictive services update. Yes. So 23 quay section 68 establishes the gaming policy advisory committee to discuss and provide recommendations on gaming policy. That same section also establishes a subcommittee on addiction services to develop recommendations to address issues related to addiction services as a result of the development of gaming establishments in the Commonwealth, including but not limited to prevention and intervention strategies. The addiction subcommittee consists of five members representing the MGC, the department of public health, the mass council on gaming and health and two appointees by Governor Baker. Governor Baker has just recently announced his two appointees for this important committee completing and activating the subcommittee for the first time. So these members include the gaming commission appointed me to represent our investment and interest in that. Victor Ortiz, director of problem gambling services at the mass department of public health is the DPH appointee. Marlene Warner is the executive director of the mass council on gaming and health. The two governor appointees are really no strangers to the work of the gaming commission and of DPH. And they include Dr. Rodolfo Vega who is a senior consultant at JSI. He has also done some really interesting research and work on understanding the impacts of gaming in Massachusetts, as well as Man Yong Yao or Yo-Yo who is the director of programs at Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Also an incredible champion to try to understand the impacts of gaming on the Boston Chinatown neighborhood and more broadly throughout the region. She's been an incredibly strong voice. Dr. Rodolfo Vega and Yo-Yo Yao are the two Governor Baker appointees. And I think those were great appointees for this group. So as the gaming commission appointee, I'm thrilled to be able to activate this group and work with them as we develop recommendations, understand what the evidence is telling us and further a public health response to mitigate problem gambling and prevent. If I could just add Director Vanderland and this subcommittee is a subcommittee under the gaming policy advisory committee. Of course, we're all familiar with the subcommittee on community mitigation. And Commissioner O'Brien, the subcommittee on public safety is the second subcommittee under that advisory committee. And this rounds out the third subcommittee. So all three subcommittees are now fully activated. We will have the benefit of the expertise that comes from external stakeholders and experts to help advise us on our work going forward. So this is exciting news and I know particularly exciting for Mark. So excellent. Thank you. Thank you. So does that conclude your report? I just wanna ask first any questions, commissioners, I'll set. Okay, yeah, great news. And we'll stay tuned on the work ahead of the three subcommittees. Then we're on to Commissioner Update, Karen. I know. It's 1055. I know. This is sort of magical for all of you who are attending to have a commission meeting or hover around an hour, particularly the virtualist. It's just really a well-being check-in for us. So thank you. Commissioner Cameron, you have a commissioners update on the conference, which is- Sure. Yes, next Monday we, the conference, the joint conference kicks off. I gave a longer update last time. I just, this is really a thank you. You know, we had lots of our folks are participating. So thank you for that. I think we will add great value to those listening from around the world. Many of the attendees will not be able to travel here, but are participating virtually. So I think our participation will be well noted and as that of all the other presenters. So the topics and the agenda for both organizations look really strong and timely. So I know I'm looking forward to it. I just want to thank all of our folks who have participated, volunteered to assist with this and we'll be doing so next week, as well as a thank you to Director Lilios for her stepping in, adding her leadership for coordination purposes, as well as decision-making purposes. So all around team effort. And I know I am looking forward to this event next week. I think there's over, there's well over a hundred participants now between in-person and virtual. And I think the virtual numbers have gone up in the last week or so. So it will be in some ways well attended, just not in-person as we expected here in Boston. And people are very disappointed they're not able to come. But we are trying to keep everybody safe. The organizations are both working are very mindful of keeping everybody safe with masks, with distancing, with sanitizing. So I think for our people attending, I think you'll feel safe coming in and learning in this environment. So thank you to everybody. Commissioner Kim, can you just, first off a big thank you to everyone involved, including Karen Wells is involved on the board of one of the organizations which prompted her to have to be accused. But she's been a voice for international gaming for the last couple of years. And that has been, I'm sure informed, informed the conference going forward. She's, her work is not disregarded. It's just been done according to our conflict of interest rules. So congratulations to you, Karen. I know your tenure might be, I don't know, it's two years or three years. It's three of my 10 years as treasurer. And is this, this- Got it. And anyway, congratulations to you. Commissioner Cameron, for those of us, many of us will be attending because we wanna hear all of the excellent panels and the speakers. And then also many of us are presenting. Can you tell us what the rules are with respect to COVID? Have they gone over that with you? For mask wearing or? Well, I know the plan, and this has been discussed with the hotel and with both organizations is to have, the mask will be worn by those attending and the panelists will be distanced and be able to give their presentations in a panel discussion without the mask. But they will be distanced from not only the audience, but from one another. Okay, that's really helpful. Commissioner O'Brien, do you have any questions? I know you're presenting. No, I don't. Yeah, I will be there on Friday for the IMGL, one of those panel discussions, but I will probably be attending mostly virtually. But thank you for the other information in terms of when I'm gonna be there in person. I'm looking forward to it. So the option is to attend virtually as well as in person. And for those of the group who are assisting, I hope that it's meaningful to you as well. With that it's Commissioner O'Brien or Commissioner Cameron, do you have any other updates? No. Well, it's been historic to have just three of us anyway is always different, but to have three women in the gaming industry with an executive director and a deputy director who are also women. I'm going to recognize that as exceptional with respect to this industry. So thank you all for your leadership and your good work. And most of all, thank you for an 11 o'clock finish. May I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Okay, all those in favor, Commissioner Cameron. Aye. Commissioner O'Brien. Aye. And I say, well, yes, and thank everybody for your good work today. Interesting and everybody stay safe. We'll be seeing many of you in person next week. Thank you. Thanks everybody. Aye. Thank you.