do introductions first so that way we can all at least know cordially with. My name is Mary Norris and I am co captain of open Fresno as well as code for Sacramento. Let this work and I'm in California. And excuse my bed I have been to nursing a broken leg and COVID at the moment so sorry about the the very lacks background there. So I'm gonna hand it off over to Lake
Hi, everyone, you can hear me all right. Yes, yes. Awesome. My name is link. I am here to join for the talk story about my life. Well, I am also a brigade captain for code for Denver. And I'm very excited to meet you all. Oh, and my pronouns are he that?
Very good. And we'll go with Nicole.
Hi, I'm Nicole. I am in Florida. I work for the government on broadband programs. Obviously here in my personal capacity, since this is being recorded. And I'm also vice president of Florida community ovation, which is a organization in Florida that works with university students on civic tech projects. So that's sort of the context that I'm in the Code for America. space. So excited to learn more about how everybody has been doing through the course.
Thank you. Let me get
everybody. My name is Mika. And my pronouns are she they and I'm a researcher at a university in the state I'm living in. And I'm a member of the code for Denver brigade. And it's lovely to meet you all.
Same here. Thank you, Nate.
Hello, my name is Nate. I'm based in Northern California. And I'm recently a co captain of open personnel with Mary so yeah, and I code software stuff. So I'm really interested in all this research. So I've been learning a lot. Just hearing people share their stories and experience
if Chris Christine,
hi again. Aloha. I am also a brigade leader. I'm based in Orlando. I'm enjoying the nice change in weather with Nicole and I'm really excited to see how we all can contribute to this space and use our newfound knowledge and expand it within the network.
Well, first of all, I'd like to welcome all of you thank you so much for coming. We really appreciate your time really appreciate you're just going ahead and making time for the space here just to get to know one another. But first of all, I'd like to say what was it that made you interested in the course to begin with? And anyways, couldn't start the cover. Everybody would be willing
I, I I'm sorry. I was interested in the like I worked for a year with a farm in Hawaii. And it was next to like some of the kind of like the people on Oahu that it's like the native kind of community. They had some housing projects and stuff. And I really was like, Man, I'm in California, like how can I? How can I get these people involved? That are right next door to this farm, you know? And so I'm trying to learn how to do that. I haven't made any any progress on that specific thing, but I'm still involved with the farm.
So it's great I work with I've been a independent authorized rep for Social Security social services, and I'm now Grand Jury member as well for my community. And I think that for me, it's just knowing that I can make those connections with my community and how I can transform some of these methodologies into a little bit more of a partnership with the community rather than just the partner, but with the community as well. And I believe that's really the first step because we can make solutions, but if it's not going to actually help those people that are using it, it's really not a solution
I can go next um, I am a student at the universe at a university in my state and I'm studying anthropology and women and gender studies. And I'm also recently became a research assistant for a project in the anthropology department, specifically with archaeology. Thank you. So a lot of what we've been studying has been really relevant and something that I really care about, particularly for anthropological research research. Ensuring that the community is a part of research is a key point of like making sure that it's ethical and that it involves everyone and that it benefits the community that it's coming to. So I really value that part of the course and I think that it's all very intricately tied together. So I think it's very cool.
Thank you for that very nicely put.
I can go next Oh,
sorry, Nicole. Sorry. Okay.
So one of the reasons why I joined the course was just to be think about being more intentional with reading with projects and sort of how we interact with the community. I think that's an important aspect of my opponent.
Absolutely
hidden. So I took an interest in Hawaii Bono because as a Filipino researcher, it was important to me to understand research in my icon like tried to bring my context to research and not just come to research, and I found that since I've, I've been doing my undergraduate studies in information science, there's a lot of emphasis on how we know anything to be true. And I think that I think that a lot of science nowadays is done at a distance from the community like observing people from afar rather than working with them, and providing the tools for them to make their own science. And so I came to the course with the interests of like, learning, learning ways that I can dissenter myself as a researcher, and then also, like, empower and center the community that I'm trying to serve. So grateful to be here.
Wonderfully said that is fantastic. Yes, and I can agree with your sentiments there. Yeah. It's really how do we all get to relate with one another? Without having to think of it as a business or a anything that it's going to be? As you said, just just standing back and just viewing No, you have to be involved because every thoughts
Yes. I thought it was interesting that when mica mentioned disputes, it's a way to dissenter themselves. And that's something that I've been torn about because as a person of color, I guess I would be considered under and part of the underserved community but and I guess my background, like there's like a disconnection that I have at least with my, I guess, indigenous roots. And I just torn out how like how can I fit within this space and still uplift those within the community without being a I can't, not a white savior but a savior. That savior complex that I at least I found some of my peers and I like kind of possibly have as like that problem solving mentality. It's like we have coming in with the solution before really getting to know be the problem. Does that resonate with anyone?
I know it doesn't be especially because I'm Hispanic. Yes. I've had I've been in and out of the system for 30 plus years as a single parent. But I do understand that even though I can identify I still have a life of privilege in a sense, because the fact that like I got a laptop and such but I think when things go that is a very key thing that I've learned is that even though no matter what, you may learn how to eat for the table full of keys, but you never forget that you are a peasant. And I never forget that I always remember my roots because hey, you know what Been there done that the minute you forget who you are admitted is that you can identify with others. And that's the big thing. And the key here is really not just identifying more or less but it's just hearing them out really kind of soaking in everything so that you could come up for the best solution I actually choosing to do one of the hardest solutions there is because I don't speak Spanish, but I know how hard it is for those especially with my my grandmother world her name with an ex. She didn't know how to read or write. So I know that the difficulty is there, but how can we make it more attainable to where we can all communicate a little bit better? So I yeah, I could definitely understand you because how am I going to go ahead? I don't speak the language but here I got an interpreter so yeah.
Anybody else want to share before we go in
Okay, well, I don't know exactly how far everybody is into the course. But maybe may already have an idea here. Where do does anybody here see this course going? In the future? Do you see you could use it in your own work. Do you see how you could use it? How is it that you see this being implemented for yourselves?
I can go ahead. So this course has actually really motivated what I want to do for graduate studies. I've been thinking about doing my PhD in the Philippines, which meant I was also looking at master's programs and it was making me think about what I want to do and in what situation like what context I would like to be that like to do the work in and I think I would like to do work that is concerned with like historical preservation cultural preservation of groups, but on their terms like on a group's terms rather than shuffling somebody away into like a database of languages and they're lost, you know, lost heritage that we get to just keep in a database somewhere. It's like, I'd rather this be a community asset, something that communities know how to make. And so for me, I see it like informing what I want to do with like historian ship in the community. And then further in my studies, like carrying on the traditions of the indigenous cultures in the Philippines and trying to keep our memories alive. So
that's beautiful, that strategy of lesson. The last lesson where what you're doing is you're thinking about the longevity. You're not thinking about what it is at the end for me at the here and now and only then know about what it is for generations. On. And that's fantastic. Great point of view anybody else
I was wondering, or I was kind of imagining this course like expanding beyond Hawaii. I was wondering what your thoughts on that. Like it was so specific to Hawaii. And I heard maybe there was some kind of friction with that I heard. But obviously I'm here in Northern California. And so I look at the native reservations and stuff that are in my area. That's what I that's where I would go first you know so is there Yeah, I guess I'm I don't really know where I was going with that but expanding beyond Yeah, I guess in lieu mica like with the with the Philippines. Like would it be like a like a specific version like can't because you can't really group like something that's all the way across the world into some kind of indigenous course. Right? I mean, it makes sense that it was so specific. So I was wondering how it branch off
could I tag onto that a little bit. So it was already said a little bit ago that like, we if we don't identify ourselves, we can identify with others. And I think that's where I find like that it's valuable is like tracing them my own roots and understanding what I bring to the conversation. But I think like, like you were saying like situating it in your local context is absolutely important. Because who else would know? The lay of it better, you know? So that's my thoughts like, I'm currently in Denver, Colorado. So I'm not. I'm not within a Philippines. Within the context of the Philippines. However, I bring the context of the Philippines with that's how I put it so
nice. It's very nice this head
on I think, I think it starts with meat. You're right, just starting like acknowledging who is within your with your space. We have so many tribes without across the nation that like haven't been recognized and like there are tools to find out but I can honestly say I know maybe a few yet. Was it yesterday it was Wednesday. Nicole and I we used this website called like land acknowledgement, by code for Anchorage. And we Oh, you're getting it. Great. When you enter your your location and it gives you an idea of like, who's within your area so like just acknowledging that this is the land but you're you're taking space on I think it's part of that getting started mate does that. I guess was that were the direction that you're going in.
I love that. Oh, I see the link. Cool, cuz yeah. Just real, brief anecdote. I've seen a lot of Australians. I don't know if anybody's seen that they kind of shut out the land. I've seen people do that. And I'm sure in an Australian context, so I would love to kind of bring that more to America. Be like, oh, you know, we're speaking from California, which was originally I don't even know the history, but shout it out kind of when we talked about it. So. Yeah,
I wonder it was it was is that something that you'd be interested in every time like, I guess,
totally, especially in the farming context, I think is when I heard it, too. It's even more relevant, like but yeah, I'll be curious how to do that. I don't really know.
Yeah, I can agree that I have two links that I put there. The one is the code for Anchorage and that one takes you to the lead acknowledgement. And then there is the native land. So both of those will help you and no, I can understand that. I'm of the mindset to me, this is something that is a specialty type of research to be offered because I don't I think it's hard for really some people to wrap their head around this because we're so used to having deadlines. We're so used to having timeframes. So it has to be done within six months. And I think with the knowledge that hey, this is not Yeah, it is amazing. I like that this really is. This is not to where you don't put timeframes on. You don't go ahead and there's no telling if it's going to take six months, nine months a year. And I think with that type of more things with that type of knowledge from both partners, they partner in community to know that it's really important because really what happens if you don't think of anything well thought out of when you're looking for solutions, having to revisit it. Why would you want to revisit it another two, three years from now, when you could go ahead and actually take the time to really hear the resources that you've got taken the elders opinions. I can understand exactly what you're saying. And yes, there's a lot of funding right now. For the American Indians. They're really looking forward to their their communities to be researched and assessed.
I'm kind of bummed that this is ending because I could kinda see myself needing like, support if I'm actually gonna, like, do that. Like, you know, kind of, kind of actually.
You always get our support at least you got my support, no matter where I know, Christina is the same way. It doesn't matter what it is. We're here,
Nate, when you say support, what, like, Can you expand a little bit on that?
I guess just I mean, hearing people's voices is pretty cool. Seeing what people say and don't say and then yeah, I guess these meetings have been kind of what I would imagine as support. Also text. Obviously, you guys are great at sending texts, but then I kind of kind of digest that in my own way as opposed to when you're talking it's more you learn from other people
thank you. Yeah, I'm there with Mary like, even though Mary and I won't be like officially project managers after this. But like we're still this is you are all part of our community and where we see it like we've we've just started these relationships and like if we continue nurturing it and and checking in on by not checking in on one another, just sending memes, or whatever you're working on. Like, we can continue to sustain this knowledge and the, the, I guess this feeling of belonging and community for a long time.
In code for sec, this is our is our platform. We could come here anytime we gave and keep this cadence. For free, but not a problem.
I think another important point about the land acknowledgments is that when Christina and I looked at it, like there were so many more tribes than we expected. And I think it's kind of important because, you know, at least I wasn't I don't think I don't think this is really prioritized in school to like teach the history of those communities. So it's definitely like a, I think a useful jumping off point for just learning about where you live.
So why is it important like, Okay, why why should we decide to like acknowledge the land like, is, I would be if, like, if I were trying to learn how to do it. There has to be some purpose. Like if you're trying to reach out to, let's say, a community member or community leaders best specializing in land acknowledgement. What do you say?
Okay, question
to your question about like, why it's important. I think that it's important just because of a lot of patterns in history. And, you know, like, I, you know, I think that, in a lot of ways, what's happened with the native Native American communities since you know, the origin of the United States or even before that has been just as bad if not worse than some other recent events in history, and we just don't hear about it in that context. Right. So I think that for that reason, it's just important to know. Because, you know, like, ultimately, like, it's important to know the context that like, certain communities were here. And it really changed history when colonizers came. So I think it's just important to be aware of that history.
My understanding why they can be important is that like, a lot of this land treaties that we're talking about in land acknowledgments have not historically been honored and are still not being honored. So I think like, it may be calls like it's a call to action today, to see what we can do about decolonizing land, like, I think, yeah.
I also think maybe to also for me, not just to maybe it is to also make sure that we preserve that for the younger generation, those that are that are still young enough to be taught the fact of what their heritage is and what it is that they have, as far as a community to offer to teach us to really be rich in their culture.
Let me go You said honor and it just triggered what we're learning through kilo is like when you're showing gratitude and then we're greeting the land, the the environment, greeting ourselves. And just it's that form of acknowledgement that that recognition that we're we're showing gratitude to everything around us inside it now. Yeah, these are these are all great reasons. Eight, i Another thing that popped up for me is Betsy is one of the qualitative researchers at Code for America and are in a lot of other cool America staff. They're working on I believe a land acknowledgement toolkit. I believe for brigades. Speaking with Betsy, she could speak more on it. But I wonder like, is that something of interest like is what would you like to see like what it like? I guess like how do you feel about it? Just just the idea of something like that
and I really liked the idea of like our land, planning augment. toolkit, and I think that kind of something that I've been thinking of throughout this conversation has been that part of what's important about land acknowledgments is that they're not a one time thing is that they're the kind of thing that it's by nature cannot be performative. Because it requires that we continually recognize that recognize history and recognize where we are within history. And I think that something this is another connection I've been making is I've been recently reading the book braiding sweetgrass, by Robin wall, Kimmerer. And there's a lot of connections there about like how acknowledging, not acknowledging Indigenous histories and things like that can be really meaningful for how we conduct our whole lives. So in the book, she kind of brings up this this anecdote of these environmental students, and how they, how they relate to the earth, and a lot of them would like how their their experience was that there was a negative relationship between people in the earth. Whereas it was like, the author was kind of question like, wow, these environmental students who care about the Earth so much have such this perception that people are the worst thing for the earth. And so I think it's the kind of thing that land acknowledgments with acknowledging Indigenous histories can kind of bring us into the space where we can acknowledge how that informs our view, and informs every part of our research and every part of our studies as as people.
Link would you be willing to share like a link to that like book?
Yes, absolutely. I like to It's really wonderful.
Yeah, feel free to add it to the notes. So like, we can pass this on like, I'd love to have everyone.
Betty.
Everyone, sorry, I'm late. Yeah. Okay. before New Year's travel. Everything is just wild right now.
No worries. No, we're just glad you made it. Yeah, you
came out the perfect time. We mentioned your toolkit that just the highlights. But if you'd like would you mind introducing yourself and possibly even mentioned like talking a little bit about the toolkit that you're working on?
Yeah. So I'll introduce myself, my Betsy volley. Roni, are you she and they pronouns? And I'm a qualitative researcher at Code for America and I work on their tax benefits team. And yeah, I'm also kind of like the founder of indigenous at CFA, it's like a kind of like an erg, or like an interest group, basically, where like, indigenous folks and allies can come together, and it's basically just a Slack channel. But we do have meetings like every other week. And I consider myself indigenous. I am Pacific Islander, my family's from Tonga. And the reason why I created indigenous at CFAES because I felt like there weren't a whole lot of us in the civic tech space. And I really wanted to create a space where we could all come together and especially since I Code for America, I know that we work with indigenous communities and so I feel like this is a kind of a place for all of us to get together. And yeah, just like talk about ways that we can be more culturally sensitive, I guess, like with the communities that we work with. And then as a part of that, we created this land acknowledgement Toolkit, which was basically you know, like something that we've been thinking about I know at Summit, I think it was in 2020. We had our first land acknowledgement, which was really huge. And so me venture venio and then another person on clearness Oh, Lachlan, she's a Blackfeet Nation. She identifies as Blackfeet and so we all came together and basically drafted, you know, this is kind of like, you know, like, what it means to you know, have a land acknowledgement how to be respectful, but also acknowledging that this is kind of like the first step and that Aled acknowledgement isn't enough. It's more of just like acknowledging that the land that you're on and we link the, like the native land website where you could, you know, find where you're located and learn about the indigenous peoples there. But it's also kind of a way just to give back and just just just to make sure that we're just acknowledging, you know, like who we are, like, you know, as settlers and I'm including myself in that because I'm not Native American. I'm from the South Pacific. So it's really just kind of like a conversation starter for all of us at Code for America and in the brigades too. So that's kind of like where we're at right now. It's kind of like not really quite finished, because like we were, we designed this just for Summit. But then we realized that we could go so much further and so there was kind of a pause. We're kind of in hiatus right now, especially with the end of the year. But yeah, we're hoping to start the meetings back up. And if anyone has any questions or wants to talk about it, like happy to share it and share what I have so far with all of you, and I'm also just happy to chat about it to
anybody have any questions or anything they'd like to ask?
I do have a question. Where's everyone at right now? In the course because I I'm still on like less than for your Muslim three and less than five. Doing all the reflections. That's where I'm at. Tomorrow is where I guess our our final milestone
technically Yeah, he
technically, but it'll that Yeah. But yes, where's everyone at right now?
I've been thinking of various lessons. Yeah. Okay. Don't hate me. I finally finished day before yesterday, but it is after like three hours of fighting. Because I'm gonna do right, right. I just needed to get it off my plate. But no, it's very, very hard. Thank you. It's it's definitely a hard it's just that it's time consuming. At least that's been my my issue. Anybody can relate or can give their point of view on that.
Yeah, um, I haven't had enough time in my personal life to give it to give the course as much attention as I'd like. And so I I reflect that. And I've just finished the second lesson. So I'm working my way through the last three. We're working through as I'm able to, like give them the time they deserve right.
Yeah, I want to echo that too. I feel like I really want to come in and like really like spend time on it. Like I feel like it's like not something you really want to rush. And so yeah, I've been trying to like spend as much time but I'm also just like, so curious and hungry for like the next lesson. So I've been kind of like clicking around and kind of like going back. So yeah, doing doing what I can I feel like the observation activities are probably the most time consuming just because you have to really be present and really there
so when would be the right time
work on the course.
Yeah. What Yeah, what is it that you feel that you you feel that you are you believe would be? Is it sectioning off time is it just doing it wherever you're at least you got some few minutes to kill and you're just happy to be there in the moment.
I think for me sectioning off time is very helpful. I'm I echo a lot of what everyone else has said and I'm in a similar place to Mica. And I think that sectioning off time is helpful and dedicating specific time to to the course and to actually getting out what you want to get out of it. Because I think it deserves time and it's also the kind of thing like with kilos you need, like to actually experience it. You have to give it time and you know, fully allow, allow, allow yourself to hear what's within yourself and to see your environment. And so I think I think that it's it helps to like dedicate time to it which like granted it is difficult in in a world that is constantly moving, but yeah
so would one year be enough time?
Okay. You cut off and
would one year be enough time because I know when we started the course it was in like around July or June or July so it's like six months since the course opened but I know we started at different times. So I'm wondering what what is that like Right? Or what feels right to dedicate time to this.
I feel like for me one thing that could help I think definitely extending the amount of time we have to work on it. But also one thing that helped me with the like the project workshop that we had was just that we had this discussion and we were expected to be at a certain point. And so I think that helped sort of facilitate the discussion that everyone had made it to like a minimum step. And so I think maybe having more of those where we all make sure we're at a certain point or tried to make sure that we're at a certain point beforehand will sort of help us discuss more of like the specifics of that of what's in the lesson and I think that'll be very motivating. Good point.
So having a target milestone that everyone can or like, everyone can check in on.
Yeah, but I think specifically like having the space to discuss because I think that gives you because you want to be able to keep up keep up with the discussion. So
that's a very good thought. Actually. We were under the wire. We didn't know we were going to have it extended. So I didn't I was being kind of back against the wall to do my second kilo. Believe it or not. My observation I did it in a courtroom. with my son and it was actually one of the best ones because I was able to actually see my community in action. So you don't necessarily have to be by yourself but that that right there I can Yes. And having a day Yes. We all thrive on having deadlines to know that okay, we have so much time to do something
I'm sorry, I was thinking but something I got out of what Nicole was saying was that making participation in the course more of a collaborative thing amongst people taking the course I think it really helped a lot. I wasn't able to participate as much as I would like to for personal reasons. But so like, I also say that it's hard for me to gauge how much time would be enough, but if it could be extended, I think that it could be valuable to allow people to have more time to internalize what they're working on. Because I yeah, I would hate to try to rush kilo, you know, because it's, we like I wouldn't be able to recognize that I'm not getting what I'm sitting down to do and forcing myself to do you know, so yeah, but I think that like the coming together and working on it together aspect could be very, very motivating and help people feel like, like they have a sense of progression, or belonging. So I think those would help.
Nicole, you said yes, I like the participation idea. Maybe it could be more synchronous. Also in Slack. Would you mind elaborating on that?
Yeah, I was thinking about the project workshop that we had and how and the discussion of sort of ideas that came in that. And so I think maybe like encouraging discussion in Slack and as something that people can go back to even if, even if we're at different points in the course. So that if someone sees a post about lesson five, and maybe they're on Lesson two, they they'll see it and they can go back to it later and reflect on that together.
How many of you are within the course are aware that we have a Slack channel dedicated to the course 1234 Okay, how many of you are participating are in that channel? up let me get just one perfect. So within the channel, there are threads for a discussion. Would you be interested in engaging with that? Even though the course is ending,
yes. And how we would a study buddy help Christina and I That's how she and I got together on this. She asked for some a study buddy. I volunteered and I we bounce ideas off of each other. We made each other accountable, hold each other accountable. And it's been I don't know if I would have finished the course quite frankly, with some of the things I've had to deal with. Personally. If it was not for our our study buddy mechanisms in place. Would that be interesting to anybody or interested or anyone to do?
Think that that would be good. I also like I'm realizing now that like, just having solidarity with you all right now and having like this community to share with also makes me feel a lot better. Because it's good to like recognize that. We all have a lot of things going on in our lives. And we all are where we are in the course. But we all care about this a lot. So yeah, I think that realizing that there's people that want to help that aren't scary to talk to. That's another thing is I like it's just it's anxiety ridden to do to ask for help. But I think it's really valuable. So I appreciate this space.
Appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. Thank you that's great. Is it is it important that we that we have a strong community here? It really is. We want everyone to feel supported and want everyone to know that that's what we're here for. To support. What do you think about that Betsy about having like a study buddy or anything else? You could think of that could possibly be helpful?
Um, I can't think of anything right now. I really liked the study buddy idea. Yeah, um, I really liked that idea.
You know, it's kind of reflective of like our our communities like it's intimidating to ask for help, or I think link use Word. Anxiety anxiety ridden, or was that was that the word?
Yeah, that was correct. I said, Yeah, I said anxiety ridden? Yes.
To ask for help. And like, putting it in, into perspective of underserved communities. Like, how have you reduce that fear of like, within your communities, I guess. Like, there is there is a need for help, but it's scary to ask for help. How do you How can you give the support?
I can say that yeah, please do we can go for
I'll keep this one short. I don't have a perfect answer. And I don't know if there is one. But in my experience, leading by example, and showing people that we can need help goes a long way.
Yeah, that was it.
So I'm looking at the time it is close to the end of our session, or by too fast. I know. I have one last question. Does anyone have any other last questions before we move on to highlights?
Okay, I'll go ahead. What is your relationship like with the course instructors?
I recently reached out to one of the course instructors, um, I don't remember her name. But um, if any, I think began with n but she had been Oh, yes. Nice. That was her. Um, she has been so wonderful. I mentioned that I was struggling with a few things in my personal life that made it difficult to finish to finish the course by now. And she she told me to that I don't have to apologize that things come up. And it was really an like space of that made me it made me feel very like welcome and understood. So my relationship with the course instructors, although up until now it hasn't been very close. I feel much more solidarity with the with them now.
Anyone else had interactions with their instructors
I only met the eye once and I think it was this week because I joined this course very late like maybe two weeks ago. But I would she she seemed like a really like a really great person and I was hoping to get to know her better.
I'm sure you will.
You all have her have their emails, if not like we will provide them out again. And they are also in the Code for America slack to Lonnie and I. Another question I'd like to pose is what is the relationship? What is your relationship like with your community now now that you've you're at a certain stopping point within the course
you repeat that again. Now that you've reached a certain stopping point within the course, quote, we're close to the end of closing up the course. What is your relationship like now with the community with your community?
So when I think of my community, I relate this to the people that I'm doing research with right now in my work. And I think about how how I am expected to engage with the people that I do research with, through my work is at a distance. And I think that it is a distance that if I know how to set up correctly in the future, that I can bridge that gap with my participants and make them co researchers instead of keeping that relationship distant. So I think I think it's that my relationship with my community isn't perfect but hopefully getting better and something to work on all the time. And in general I think your relates back to the point that you were talking about earlier, Christina that like making myself less of the hero about it. Because I'm not saving anyone. I'm helping them do what they need to get done. And I think that's that's changed a lot of my perspective.
I love that. I can relate because I started the course in July, but in August, I became a grand jury member. The only reason why I joined it was because I wanted to see what I could do locally, which is a great day. It's been a very high title apparently here, but I don't see it that way. I'm just here to go ahead and make sure that the community is taken care of. Make sure that we're able to go ahead and call out those things. But it's nice to know that I had that avenue to be able to go ahead and give those recommendations if needed. So it's been helpful on that.
Thank you everyone. It is a little past time. You are welcome to hop off. But before you go or if you can stay with us. I'd love for us to kind of reflect back on the highlights of our time together. Considering you know what is a challenge or a win or an appreciation that you'd like to highlight and please add that to the chat. And spend like one minute on that. That that'd be great. Sorry,
can you repeat that one more is a highlight about our experience
or Yeah, yeah. So I can type it in chat. What is a challenge? appreciation or when I could copy it from the
the notes here yeah, what what is a win or a challenge or appreciation that you wish to highlight from our time together
today. Thank you for staying with us. And I'm muted. If you need more time, you're welcome to add it within the chat. For those who are ready to share. Like if you'd like to voice your highlight, you can do so now. Raise your hand and we'll go around
is our excellent sorry for my nonsense
go ahead and I just appreciate the mica and link for the first time. I think just the more I hear from people doing research, which is this really cool people so and I have so many. I mean I just have more, a lot more questions. I feel like the mica kind of brought up a question for me so I'll keep struggling with it. I guess.
Thanks. Yes, yes. Quite frankly, we we have this space anytime we'd like and Nate, you're you're welcome to reach out anytime you like. Without a doubt. You don't have to go hit in struggle with anything
who appreciate it marry
well, if that is all. Thank you again, so much for showing up especially during the holiday
season. Actually, if you would all stay for a minute admits that we stopped the recording so I can go ahead and get you something real
quick. Yes. Oh, before I forget. Feel free to share what you're working on your stories in Slack. We're going to send out some updates on Slack discourse email. Be on the lookout for that. And if you can, please take this post session survey.
We will be collecting responses and we'll be gathering this information to share with the network team and also the rest of you. Because you are also are co researchers within the space and you deserve to know what's happening. But that is all I have. I'm going to stop the recording is there anything else before I do so that you'd like to share? Cool great