00:00:07,700	Good morning. It’s February 4th. Uh, we’re in the Tom Baker room of the City county building. This will be the Bismarck Event Center Authority Board meeting, regular meeting, uh, it’s 11 o’clock. so this will, we’ll call the meeting to order first if we can call roll.

00:00:34,430	Members Gardner Grossman here, Castelecki Tomonic here Wachter here, Wilson here Ma Smith. He All right, at this point in time we have public comment, so anyone who wished to speak uh regarding the agenda item listed here or a prior meeting, please come forward, state your name and the topic and sign in. a second call for public comment.

00:00:58,900	A 3rd and final call for public comment. Seeing no one approaching and hearing no one online, public comment period is closed. Next item would be approval of the minutes from last meeting or and make any amendments.

00:01:27,730	I’d ask for a motion I move to prove Is there any discussion Hearing none will call roll Grossman Yes, Kosselei, yes, Tomonic Yes, Wachter, yes. Wilson Yes, Gardner Yes. Na Schmitz, yes. Item 4 is a capital improvement plan update, and I think we have our architectural team here. um, Jeff, are you going to lead this or are you gonna turn it over. I know, I’m, I’m gonna take this one. OK.

00:01:57,170	Um, I got, uh, uh, some support though if I find myself getting into trouble. So, um, appreciate you guys, uh, having us here today. Uh, I had reached out to Jason a while back.

00:02:16,370	um, to at least start this conversation with the advisory board to give you a sense of some of the things that we started before this group was put together and just kind of bring you up to speed with with some of the progress and some of the things that are happening from a capital perspective at the event center.

00:02:34,000	The other reason I reached out to Jason is we’re, we’re at a crossroads in our design in that there are some decisions that need to be made that are more, I would call them operational decisions that might influence, uh, your contract conversations with the Oakview Group um, that I’ll, I’ll bring up at the end that we can have a little discussion around. OK.

00:02:53,730	And so, um, I don’t want to take up a ton of your time, uh I will go through the capital improvement plan and kind of a higher level, but at any point just feel free to stop and, and ask any questions. So this was the capital improvement plan was assembled, um, really it came out of, of a look at a variety of other studies that had been completed.

00:03:14,000	uh for the city regarding the event center, and there’s been countless studies over the years. Many of them were master plans. There were some studies that were prepared by the city that looked at very specific capital projects specifically related to what I would call mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.

00:03:32,800	um, what the city realized and, and what we realized as, as a part of going through this process is that we really need to take much more of a global view of the capital improvements, uh, particularly given this, the fact that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done just to

00:03:49,970	maintain the facility as it is today before we start looking at, at doing a future expansions and so, um, capital improvement plans themselves are, are somewhat vague when you start talking about them, because that can really mean a lot of different things.

00:04:10,800	It can mean anything from being very loose like a like a master plan to something very, very highly detailed where you’re talking about replacing this valve and that door handle and those types of things. Ours is, is somewhere in between because we looked at the facility as as there’s a lot of things that need to happen.

00:04:33,100	We need to understand what those things are from a from a certain level of of specifics, but more of what some of the impacts are going to be in terms of moving the event center forward. And so that’s where this is a little bit leans more towards it’s a capital improvement plan because we’ve identified an an approach to solving capital projects, but at this stage they’re bigger capital projects.

00:04:52,000	We’re not getting into those minute little things that that the event center has to repair on a daily basis. So we established uh some planned goals, um.

00:05:12,100	the goals, the idea behind this was really to look at, like I said, a broad-based uh, set of criteria that we’re going to use for decision making when we get into starting to talk about the specific projects, um, things like visitor experience, which is very different than looking at energy efficiency and operations. We wanted to really encapsulate all of those things that might contribute to our decision making and not make it just so much about the financial implications of the, of, of the plan.

00:05:32,900	Uh, we had a timeline that was uh it was fairly condensed, but given the, the, the type of plan we were working on, um, it really worked out pretty well.

00:05:53,730	I think the main thing here that I want to identify is that we started out by doing, uh, uh, a comprehensive review of the existing conditions at the facility, so that included not only looking at the prior plans that had been prepared, but also walking through the facility and looking at any conditions that it may have changed, uh, along the way and gathering all of the information that the city had available regarding the facility.

00:06:11,330	And so this is decades of information that we pulled together to, to start our evaluation. Following that, we went through a variety of listening sessions. We had a core group which was primarily made up of, of admini city administrative staff, so Jason, uh, Mayor Schmitz, uh, Eric Lund, Dmitri when he was here, um, Doug was a part of it.

00:06:33,270	That was kind of the core group that we met with on a very regular basis to not only discuss progress but also to to have general conversations about information that we found.

00:06:51,370	In addition to that, we went through all the departments of the event center, um, staff met with them individually as groups to talk about the, the, some of the things that they’re seeing in regards to not just capital things but operational things that might be influenced by capital projects. Um, so we went through that process. Each one of these steps was done, uh, independently of another, so we built on each one of these steps.

00:07:11,100	Following that, then we started to go through the assembly of the Capital Improvement Plan, and this was really kind of a, uh, it was a scenario-based assembly process that actually took some twists and turns that we didn’t expect.

00:07:29,270	The idea was to look at how do we approach this and then how do we start assembling these capital projects together in a way that makes logical sense. Again, not just from the fiscal piece but in terms of keeping the building operating, um, where, what components of the building generate the most amount of revenue, all of those sorts of things, basically aligning our project goals or utilizing our

00:07:49,700	project goals to assemble these, these scenarios As we started building out the scenarios, then we started working with that core group, specifically the, the finance department on looking at how we’re going to fund this capital plan We had some sense of what was available in reserve funds, but then, but knowing that these

00:08:08,730	are gonna be bigger projects, how are we gonna, how are we gonna fund this? and then from there we were able then to start tweaking our scenarios to align with what a funding plan might look like for the city, so we knew we had a process that was going that we knew we had

00:08:23,730	something that was gonna be uh able to be implemented in a way that worked for the, for the city. And then finally we completed the plan and we made this presentation to, uh, the the the city commission and from there then we went on to the process of starting the

00:08:40,900	implementation of the first uh the first year really of the, of the plan. Uh, so we, we categorize our needs based on um if there was going to be a new space requirement if we were going to be modernizing some component of the event center and or if

00:09:00,470	it was a deferred maintenance need. This gave us again a a way to prioritize the needs to align with what was really in the best interest of the events Center moving forward.

00:09:19,170	And then from that, then this is where we kind of landed in terms of our priorities and the fact that we were going to address deferred maintenance items first then we were gonna move on to any modernization of items, so that’s a little bit of a combination of taking care of something that that needs to be fixed right away versus upgrading or improving something that’s currently there before we start looking at space.

00:09:37,430	So conceptually, we’re taking care of the building before we’re looking at adding anything new to it. So then it came down to our strategy. and this the building that, as you all know, um, is really divided into two pieces. There’s the arena, and then there’s the convention center side or the exhibit hall side, as some people refer to it.

00:09:58,170	Now in some cases, the building operates as one building, but in most cases it operates as two separate buildings, and I’m not talking necessarily about finances. I’m talking about event mix.

00:10:18,500	Um, and so we wanted to start looking at, um, if we start taking care of those taking care of the building today, whether it be those urgent needs or modernizing the building, is there a strategy that makes sense in terms of the impacts that it’s going to have on the building and so the obvious two strategies are do we take care of the arena first, or do we take care of the convention center first.

00:10:35,600	So in this strategy, we looked at, OK, what we’ll do here first is we’ll take care of all of the urgent needs in the convention center So that’ll take care of those things that, that will allow the building at least on that side to keep moving forward, but we’re not necessarily

00:10:51,800	addressing big topics, and then from there we shift all of our attention which includes not only the work but the financial, um, uh, the, the, uh. the financial components of that to the arena. So we’re basically going to shift everything over towards taking care of the arena. The second strategy then was essentially the opposite.

00:11:12,970	We take care of all the urgent needs in the in the arena, and then we shift all of our financial resources over to taking care. of the um of the uh convention centerer side. So we went back and we looked at our planned goals. How do these align with those two strategies.

00:11:30,500	and what we decided to do is we’re gonna focus on the focus of the financial resources onto the convention center side. after we take care of what the urgent needs are for the arena.

00:11:49,270	The idea being that the convention center side while we were looking at the study, and I would probably say, I would argue to say today is still true is the convention center site is the revenue generating side of the building for the most part and so building that side up makes a lot of sense for long term revenue generating potential for the, for uh the events or for the, the, uh, event center.

00:12:08,970	So once we had the strategy established, then we started looking at the plan, uh we wanted to, uh, create a five-year sort of, uh, near term plan with a 10 year overall plan.

00:12:27,330	Part of the, the discussion there, and you’ll see it when I go through this a little bit is that it’s a little bit easier for us to predict what costs are going to be and create a funding plan in a near term 5 years than it is 10 years. 10 years, even 5 years right now gets to be very unpredictable, but 10 years is just, it just doesn’t make sense to try to put numbers out that far.

00:12:42,070	But we wanted to at least have this, give the city the ability to still understand what the direction is after this first 5-year period. Um, it was important that the plan in line with the funding strategies and at the same time knowing that we’re not going to be able to fix everything and, and, and

00:13:02,370	uses and operations evolved down at the event center. We wanted to ensure that the events center was preserved an emergency fund in the event that there’s a part of the building that we’re not working on, that has a piece of equipment go down.

00:13:17,870	There’s a way to pay for those things to keep the building going. So we’re not using every financial resource. specifically for the plan Uh, so what came of that, um uh, was this strategy is, um, and really we started this in, in, uh, in 2025.

00:13:42,530	We’re gonna do, uh, a couple of things over this first five-year period, and I’m showing 6 years because really our 5-year period starts in 2026, but technically we started in 2025. So the focus was gonna be the immediate need that was identified through our plan was the doing an HVAC modernization of the arena.

00:14:03,430	The arena is the oldest part of the building, um I think it goes without saying and, and Andrew’s our mechanical engineer. He would probably even say it more firmly than me is that none of that equipment has been touched in 50 years, aside from regular maintenance, which means that it’s much less energy efficient than what we have and then just operationally it’s stuff that’s ready to fail.

00:14:22,970	It’s way past its life expectancy, and so that, although it’s a large project, became a very immediate need. And so we’re focusing in on doing a uh HVAC renovation project, which I’ll give you an update here on a little bit.

00:14:39,630	Um, in addition to that, um, we wanted to provide a project that we knew was, um, overdue, but that one, it may not be a big project, but it’d be one that would contribute to the guest experience in the building.

00:14:58,330	So if you remember, that was a part of one of our goals was to contribute to the experience of a visitor, something that we could all recognize. And so from that we looked at doing a facility-wide wayfinding project.

00:15:16,900	This is one of the uh uh complaints that the event center has heard frequently over the years is that the signage and the wayfinding is really not that great in the building, so trying to get from one point to the other point can be confusing. And then there’s also ways that you can modernize that to elevate the experience, particularly in the convention center side by using things like digital signage where now instead of the Event Center staff going around and taping up.

00:15:36,170	a piece of paper that says where your meeting is, they can have a digital sign that that which you would see in any modern convention center that would tell you where your meeting is. So that’s a smaller project, but it’s a project that we felt would create a big impact on the operations of the building. Um, so those were really kicked off in, in, uh, 2026.

00:15:55,900	Um, there’s a third project that came in after the study that it’s that’s the study was done that we’re actually added to, um, our current, uh, project workload that’ll that’ll identify and it’s really an example of why we have that emergency fund because it ended up being a

00:16:12,700	project that came up at the end of the study that all of a sudden became an emergency. So so we focus on the convention center, uh, HVAC project. While we’re doing that, we work on the facility-wide wayfinding plan.

00:16:31,900	Uh, in 2027, we look at what is also another urgent need in the arena, which is the restrooms, um, and, and, uh, and really a concourse project And so in 207, we moved towards starting design on improving the restrooms in the, in the arena. This isn’t necessarily um a, uh, we’ll call it an aesthetic project.

00:16:53,730	The reason that this is important is because this is an accessibility project. Um, this is ensuring that the building is universally designed so that anybody who utilizes the building can use it. And so that’s really what the focus is. There’s certainly a part of this where we know there’s not enough restrooms to serve the building, but a bigger opponent of this is meeting uh federal and state laws.

00:17:14,370	Uh, 2028, we go on to make those improvements and then we look at the arena roof replacement, which is a project which is really was scheduled for uh, 2025 budget, but we’ve worked with the event Center to move it further down the line so that we could, um, tackle

00:17:34,800	this HVAC project, but the arena roof needs a replacement. So we’ll start that in 28, finish it in 29, and then parking lot D repair, which is another project that was scheduled to happen.

00:17:52,370	um, in 2025 that we also asked the event center to move further down so that we could accommodate the HVAC project, and that’s an overall parking lot replacement project which is a um, a challenging one And that work would take place in, in 2030. So, you know, we’re talking about a 5 year span here when we get to the end of this, we’ve got parking lot D replaced, we’ve got restrooms dealt with, and we have an HVAC project.

00:18:12,070	pretty close to done. So you can start to see that we really have only. this is like the tip of the iceberg of the work that needs to happen here.

00:18:33,330	Um when we move into the, the following 10 years, um, one of the things that we’ve recommended to the city is that every 5 years they come back and they do a review of the capital improvement plan. What we’ve actually said is we should look at it every year, but every 5 years we come back and we take a closer look at what did we accomplish and then establish a plan for the next 10 years so that we’re always moving the plan forward, taking

00:18:49,900	one, putting 1 ft in front of the other to try to accomplish these projects. So the hope is that 2031, we take a pause in spending um, to try to help the city start to build up some reserves again and start looking at what a funding plan would look like,

00:19:04,900	and then this is where we then shift over towards putting all the resources into the convention center side. So now we’ve taken care of the immediate needs in the arena, and now we start putting the financial resources towards the convention center.

00:19:24,730	and so here we’re talking about starting the budget for uh a whole building modernization of the convention center side. So this is everything if you think of the new lobby up to the 2ndlo treeros and how that interaction happens. It’s renovating that side of of the building.

00:19:45,600	Uh, that carries us through, uh, 2024 and then following that, then we’ve made the recommendation at that point that now we’re at a point where we can start to look at doing a overall facility master plan that could then start to conceive of additional space that might be beneficial to the building. So now we brought the building at least up to a level that makes it easier to operate.

00:20:07,900	We have less concerns about operational issues, particularly those mechan ical electrical, and plumbing issues. Now we can start having discussions about what’s the next generation of that building. uh look like The other thing that was extremely important that helped make some of these decisions is that currently exhibit hall, um.

00:20:30,800	uh, A and B, when that project was built, uh, that was project was bonded and those bonds are set to expire after 2034. I assume that’s still correct, Eric? Yep. So, so that then gave the, at that point that gave the city some additional revenue through um through the uh liquor and lodging tax then to start looking at what some of those future projects, expansion projects might be.

00:20:53,730	In addition to that, in addition to the big plan, we did identify a series of smaller, what I would consider, uh, miscellaneous projects. These are little projects that can happen, um, if there is additional money available within a given, uh, budget year.

00:21:17,000	that would certainly provide uh some benefit to particularly the users and help maybe with some of the operational issues. So we wanted the event center to have a list just in the event that there was some money available that they could at least pick away at some of these smaller projects.

00:21:35,500	Um, so our recommendations, as I mentioned, uh, we wanted to ensure that we look at this plan on an annual basis in alignment with the city’s budget so that we’re ensuring that not only are the ongoing projects aligning, uh, particularly from a funding perspective, but that we’re looking at what those future projects are going to be uh, renew the capital improvement, start the process

00:21:54,630	of renewing the capital improvement in, um, year 4, so that we’re continuously looking out, um, additional 5 years. Um, we wanted to, uh, continue to maintain a fund for one-time expenditures and emergency reserves.

00:22:18,100	There are expenditures at the event center has that they can are classified as one-time expenditures that are used for operational things. So for instance, um, they might need to purchase a Lyft or, you know, or uh uh TV for the, for one of the lobbies or something to that extent um. we want to work with the city to develop tools and policies for the staff to identify and track specific projects.

00:22:37,900	So for instance, if, if staff is continuously dealing with a, with a, a project that that might be an impediment to either a visitor or to something that they have to do, creating a procedure in order for that staff member to bring that project up the food chain, which ultimately I think would

00:22:58,170	maybe land with you guys so that you understand this is an ongoing problem that is creating a tremendous amount of efficiency if we did this, we could fix that.

00:23:14,270	So I think having now having the advisory board, there’s probably a better way to create a policy or a procedure in order for those things to come up to this level so that you understand what some of those, those challenges are, and I imagine if when the Oakview Group gets involved, that’ll be a part of that process too.

00:23:28,630	Um, this is a little thing, but it ends up being a really big thing is uh we wanted to help the event center organize and digit digitize their existing building information. Um, we’re still sorting through this. It’s been a heck of a challenge to gather all of this information. um it’s been scattered to the wind. We’ve gone in every corner of the building to grab this stuff. There’s still piles of it there.

00:23:49,370	The important point is that if somebody needs to maintain this building we wanted to help the city get this stuff put into an organized and structured way so that somebody could find it, what they’re looking for.

00:24:07,000	Right now if you had to find something to fix that building, um it would be a challenge You’d have a better, you’d probably have better luck coming to our office to find it versus we run running around the building. And so that’s a process that’s still, that’s still ongoing.

00:24:28,430	Um, and then at the time we had suggested that the city look at an IDIQ style contract, which is an indefinite, uh, quantity style contract where essentially they hire a a select and hire a design team for a term rather than a specific project to allow some continuity over the projects that happened in the that five-year capital improvement plan which the city uh which the city did eventually go to.

00:24:51,000	Um and so along that, these are all kind of steps that have been done. And so, um, that gets me to more of a brief update on what we’ve done. And so, uh, the as I mentioned, there are 3 projects ongoing right now with the Event Center. Um, the first one is the HVAC project.

00:25:09,470	We’ve actually divided that into two phases, and so we’re working on design of phase one of that project. which is largely what I would call the major equipment in infrastructure that is serving the arena. and so that engineering project is going on right now.

00:25:31,600	Um, it’s, we’re well into it, up to our, up to our, uh, elbows and pipes and air handlers and chillers and all those sort of things. Um we broke that into two phases just simply because we wanted to make sure that we had some flexibility on the funding depending upon the cost of this first phase, but the other reason is, is, is uh, well, two reasons.

00:25:53,870	One is it’s a major mechanical upgrade project and by breaking it down into two or two smaller bite-sized pieces. We’re able to ensure that we have local contractors that have the ability to a bond for such a large project. If we didn’t do that, we might end up with some major mechanical contractor that’s not from our community, which would be a challenge.

00:26:10,900	and then I guess the second part is, is really we can’t take the building fully offline in order to do this, so we need to stage the construction.

00:26:31,170	So strategically determining these two phases ended up being a good solution for us so um so that that phase is going on, um, and that’s going to lead to some of the, the questions that we’re gonna have for you. The second project, as I mentioned, the Wayfinding Project is going really well at this stage. We’re at the point now where we have um the signed package essentially assembled and we’re working on the fun stuff which is the graphic components of the science at this point.

00:26:51,530	So we’ve gone through that process of identifying all the signs, where they’re at, how they communicate with the public. um, uh, that part of it, that data-driven more part of it, um, but now we’re at the stage where we’re looking at uh incorporating the graphics to really make it more of an

00:27:08,100	experience. So that part’s going on, um, and we’re getting really close to that one being wrapped up. The third one, which is a project that kind of came on at the tail end. was doing a lighting upgrade and lighting controls upgrade in halls A through D, exhibit halls A through D.

00:27:25,100	right at the very end of the study, the event center started having um, some challenges with the control system to the point where they actually had to use breakers to turn the lights on and off. Now, to some degree, that’s been resolved, but the problem hasn’t gone away.

00:27:43,270	It’s just that we’ve sort of short circuited the solution in order to to solve that problem and so. the decision was made to add that in as a project at the end uh in order to get that taken care of. And so that project’s uh moving along really well.

00:28:01,600	It’s really well too, and that project, we will have a base bid which will be a brand new control system for Haul A through D. and then a alternate bid, which should be replacing the lightings in hall AN. um A and B to align so that essentially you have consistent lighting, packaging controls for all four hulls.

00:28:26,000	So, uh, we went through all the vendor interviews with that and have a vendor selected for that and so that project is moving on, uh, moving along really well. So that’s kind of the overall summary. I’ve done a lot of talking. If anybody has any questions before I bring up our other discussion items.

00:28:41,470	I’d be happy to take them. So, like, I guess the question I have in just to make sure it’s out there is how far away are we from going to bid on the first phase of the HVAC because that. I mean, I think it’s a knowing the condition of some of the equipment.

00:28:57,970	is a urgent Yeah, we’re getting very close to that, um, and we’re at the point where, and that’s really kind of what brought us here today is there’s some operational controls discussions that we need to have in order to start to close out out that project, but all three of those projects, um,

00:29:16,170	are getting very close to being ready to bid. It’ll, it’ll, it’ll definitely be here in the next few months. OK. Thank you. Yep.

00:29:35,330	I don’t know if others have questions So the other part of this and this, and this is really uh uh Andrew’s world is um you know, we’ve taken a step back to look at how do we do a new mechanical system for the event center that um meets all of what we would consider to be project goals for a project of this type. So how do we do on that? Obviously we want it to be energy efficient.

00:29:53,630	We don’t want the city to spend any more money than they have to operating it. But along with that, one that’s uh easy to operate and maintain, uh, easy to uh has reduced life cycle costs, so it’s easy to take care of over time.

00:30:11,370	um, and a lot of that comes down to decisions in terms of how the building is going to be controlled. It’s not as easy anymore. It just plugging a computer in and saying, OK, um, we’re gonna set the thermostat at 72 and just let this sucker run.

00:30:30,270	This building is way more complex than that, um, uh, it’s really a science in terms of, you know controlling, controlling, uh, temperature and ventilation as you’re leaning up to an event, what happens after the event? I mean, you use a rodeo as an example this weekend, it’s going to be a dusty dirty. That’s very different. than having a concert or a conference in there.

00:30:48,730	um so as a result of that though, the controls then very much contribute to the efficiency of how the building is operated and ultimately what the city pays to operate the building. And so the, the challenge that we’re running into at this stage is uh, we have a system that’s designed, it’s a great system.

00:31:08,170	It’s going to be energy efficient and it’s gonna have all kinds of possibility built into it in terms of operating the building we’re just not sure yet who’s going to be operating the building and how what type of a control system to establish in order to give whoever that operator is, the ability to do it.

00:31:27,530	So if I use an example, if if the city’s gonna continue to own the building and pay the bills is the city going to be the entity that’s going to maintain and operate the system.

00:31:48,870	That’s a little bit easier or is it going to be the third party management company that’s going to operate and maintain the building on behalf of the city. In that case I could see the city maybe wanting to put some guardrails into the controls so that you know, the management company has the ability to adjust the building operations for whatever the event is, but not to the point where they just let it go and this city ends up

00:32:07,470	paying a lot of extra energy or gas costs. So there’s a there’s a piece of that that we need to have a little better understanding on in terms of who’s going to operate and who’s going to maintain. Is that fair, Andrew? I’m not sure we have a complete answer to that yet.

00:32:27,970	I think there’s some things that we’re working on internally with regard to facility management as a whole in the community for the city, all the city buildings.

00:32:42,370	I know we’re gonna own the building so I don’t know, Jason, if you’ve got any further update Maybe just a little, uh, context for the rest of the authority. So in the past, the event center has had a dedicated staff person, uh, who is responsible for managing the HVA system, uh, that individual retired in October of last year. Since that time, uh, the position we have advertised to fill it on multiple occasions.

00:33:01,100	We have not had, uh, the best applicants in the position has been left empty, uh, in the interim, we have a different HVAC tradesperson who has been primarily assigned to all the other buildings within the organization.

00:33:23,270	He has been, uh, working, uh, predominantly at the event center to fill that, excuse me, fill that gap that was uh left behind by the um. retiring outgoing employee and uh in conversations with Amanda and and others, I’ve learned that a good bit of his time has been spent there because of the, as Jeff has said, the, the attention that’s needed to maintain the system.

00:33:42,870	So going forward, I think this is one of the conversation pieces that we’ll want to have with OBG to say, are you capable of finding an HVAC person, or are we the right entity to be doing that? And if so, how responsive does that person need to be for events and activities and afterwards, after a concert’s over, there’s

00:33:59,730	things that they would do to cycle out the air, refresh the facilities, all of that, uh, it’s back to Jeff’s point of how much how much autonomy do we want to provide, uh, versus how much, um do we rely on that third party to truly operate the building on our behalf with all the efficiencies in place. So.

00:34:22,530	and it could be, you know, the third option is it could be a hybrid too, where it’s a, it’s a, it’s a little bit of both. I did the, the interesting thing is, and is, is control systems for these buildings can be very sophisticated and I don’t want to say complex because because it’s not necessarily that it’s

00:34:42,370	sophisticated in the sense that if the city, let’s say, is an example is maintaining and operating the system um, it could also be done in collaboration with OVG so that the building itself is prepared to adjust scheduled, if you will, to adjust to an event schedule.

00:35:03,730	We can build an event schedule into the control system so that it can adjust on its own without a lot of extra effort that’s going to probably be my preference because I personally would like to see the city maintain as much control over the operations of that piece of our investment um, knowing that we’re also trying to operate more

00:35:22,970	centrally or citywide from facility management and operational standpoint, but I think we need to have more information on that, and we still have some ongoing stuff with with a third party that we need to probably get through as well. Hopefully, we have some direction for you though within the next couple of weeks.

00:35:42,430	Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s, and that’s really, I wasn’t expecting any answers today. I want to just get it out there it’s good to know for everybody here to understand and. it’s uh yeah, thank you, Jeff. OK.

00:36:02,970	Any other questions? from anybody No, I’m just glad to hear we’re proceeding and getting close to going to bed because I do know that we’re gonna have a, we don’t want to have another event, which we probably will have before we get it done or we have an emergency and have to deal with it. Yes, we’re trying to avoid that as much as possible, so, um, if, if, uh, the advisory committee uh group.

00:36:21,100	Jason knows how to find us, um, if you need anything else or, or want additional updates as we go along, don’t hesitate to ask more than happy to come and, and provide whatever information we can to help you guys out, so just let us know. Thank you for coming today. All right, yep. Thank you all. All right.

00:36:39,800	Um, I 5 is Oakview Contract. negotiation update and do we have someone from JLL online. Mitch is online, um, so, um, one thing I’m gonna probably ask if this is going to get into some detailed negotiation strategy.

00:37:03,270	Um we need to pause and probably schedule a separate executive session for that because there could be some back and forth that is we don’t have ready yet, um, so if it’s a quick update, and then we need to do that, that’s, that’s my preference, and then we’ll just have to have, when you work with us to get something scheduled very soon for that executive session.

00:37:18,170	So go ahead, Mitch Yeah, hi, everyone. Good to see you. Um, Mayor, you’re right. We’re aligned with you there in terms of just providing a quick update for the group here today.

00:37:40,730	and it comes, it comes timely because we did just receive our first, I guess, rendition of the negotiations from OVG so we do have something to compare our initial contract to some of their initial counters, so we received that yesterday. Myself and Dan are meeting internally with Matt from OBG at 4 o’clock Eastern today. So we’ll we’ll talk through that a little bit more.

00:38:05,270	One other piece that we’re thinking through internally just to maybe pick up speed up this timeline a little bit in terms of the negotiation to this group would be to come, you almost have a come to Jesus meeting for lack of a better term, and get OG, get the city and Jllll in one room together to identify maybe some of those sticking points that we can all agree to on a, on a,

00:38:25,530	if it’s a team’s call um and start to check off some of some of those boxes. So from the from the initial um document that we’ve received from OBG where we’re confident and that we can continue to move some of the more strategic points forward internally and then come to this group, um,

00:38:45,270	hopefully you know, with some sort of meeting where we can all collectively speed up some of those decision making points so we are not doing it back and forth over email, but um that put, we’re at February 4th, so it took about 2 weeks for them to turn around the first contract negotiation, so that’s why we’re thinking

00:39:05,000	through how to proceed moving forward, knowing that we want the timeline to be expedited here. So, happy to answer any questions So I will say it needs to be expedited because I know our authority is from the city commission as timeline for getting this done and and with

00:39:22,600	working with you also, um, I think the sooner we can accomplish that, the better. So probably, can you work with Jason as soon as possible so we can start to coordinate what we can have, and maybe it is the joint meeting right away. I don’t know.

00:39:37,100	I need to figure out what we can do in the executive session versus non-executive session, um and so forth. So. Yeah, and should be able to provide a bit more of a timeline update after that call this this afternoon, um, to get an understanding of what they’re thinking as well, so can circle back with Jason and make sure that message is

00:39:58,070	relayed. OK, any questions, others? Well, I think we would have a meeting prior to meeting with them as a group, our group are the authority board and the city would meet prior to like once we once we hear the review from JLll that we would meet as a group prior to going into a meeting,

00:40:16,100	a big meeting with OVG. so we can kind of all be on the same page, most likely, yes. Yeah. But I think the timeline between those meetings has got to be really short. Oh yeah, I think a truncated time. February 28th is our deadline, basically. Right. Yeah, Joe, that’s a good point.

00:40:33,700	I think we, I might have skipped over uh one step getting directly to that meeting, but yes, we should all make sure we’re aligned internally, whether we can do that over email if we can get together quickly. We’ll, we’ll see where we’re at there OK. Thank you. Just work, Jason will help coordinate.

00:40:51,070	I know I put a lot on him, but it happens to be a. It’s his role here. All right. Thank you. No, any other questions? OK. Thank you, Mitch. Um, we’ll move on to item 6, Event Center operations update, and I asked this to be put on.

00:41:07,900	I don’t know how much information we have or not have, but, you know, we’re one month in to kind of be in the authority board going on and we had some events at the event center, so I thought it would be good if we just got an update and I don’t even know who I put on the spot for that.

00:41:21,630	I Mayor and authority members, uh, we had talked with Amanda and Eric a little bit for trying to pull together some some data and some year-end stuff and, and based on the most recent concerts, I think we’re still waiting for some of that final information to come across.

00:41:39,330	I spoke with Amanda just before the meeting and asked if she could maybe just share with the group what is coming. Yeah. Uh, as some of us may know, these are really the busy days for the event center.

00:41:49,730	There’s a lot of activity going on through, and I think it would just be good for the rest of us to, uh, kind of get our heads around what the schedules look like, what some of the challenges are, uh, I’ll be honest, there’s some, some staffing shortages that are being faced and they’re, they’re working their best to

00:42:02,370	overcome some of those things and Amanda’s got a much better perspective being in the trenches, and this will give us a taste of how we’re going to have to start looking at stuff in the future. So Amanda, thank you for being here. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity to speak.

00:42:16,100	So I just kind of wrote down just a quick list of what we have coming up on the calendar for our February and even into some of our March days. Um, as Jason had mentioned, this is definitely our turn and burn time.

00:42:31,870	We’re doing a lot of the overnights, we’re doing a lot of the flips, um, Jeff even alluded to earlier, we’ve got dirt moving in right now. We’ve got the rodeo this weekend, um, over in our exhibit hall, we have a Pheasants Forever Banquet, um, we’re flipping the building around on Sunday evening. because we have egg expo moving in on Monday.

00:42:50,000	um, and then following with the A expo, we’ve got a capital Career Fair, um, same time, or excuse me, right before then the sports show moves in the day after that. Uh, we are hosting the state team pool tournament again this year and that will be taking place in the arena, February 19th through 22nd.

00:43:04,900	Um, then we have a dance competition over in the exhibit hall the very next day. Then we have Safety counsel the next day after the dance competition and then we’ve got gorilla wrestling taking place over in the arena. That is a club wrestling, not real gorillas, just for people that usually look at us weird and we say gorilla wrestling.

00:43:20,230	Um, taking place at the Bell during all of this stuff down in the arena and exhibit hall. Uh, we have the Symphony taking place, uh, this weekend, same time as a rodeo.

00:43:35,170	We have a dance competition, or excuse me, no, this is Dance Plus that’s taking place up at the Bell February 21st or 20th and 21st, uh, we have Reed Timmer, the meteorologist, that is a storm chaser coming into the bell on the 23rd, and then we have two nights of come dy on the 27th and 28th, uh, with the two groups, I Mom So Hard and Demitri Martin.

00:43:50,070	So that’s just a, that’s just an outlook for our next kind of three weeks that we’ve got coming up here in the building. Um, rolling into March, just high level quick mention of those activities. We got West West Region basketball again this year.

00:44:05,170	Um, then we’ll have Globetrotters sneaking in right on the tails of that right before the state class AA basketball tournament. Uh, we got a Broadway show, Hades Town, which is our last Broadway show of the season for 25, 26, and then we have Matt Pack wrestling. These are all just arena events heading over to our exhibit hall.

00:44:24,800	We have a car show, we have the transportation Conference, AEC conference, Ho show, and then music educators Conference all taking place in March. Then at the Bell we have 3 dance competitions. The band Rains, another symphony performance, and the You Mary Theater.

00:44:47,270	So we are running and gunning like Jason had mentioned, um, staffing is getting very, very tough for us, um, being down, I mean, what are we? 8 full-time positions right now with the ability to not rehire those positions currently where we’re running on fumes at times, but, um, relying heavily on our part-time staff to support us with a lot of these events that we have coming in, um, and trying to find ways to be

00:45:05,500	creative to kind of get us through those times when hopefully we’re getting some support from OVG to come in with some, some ideas of how they’re going to bring us support through people or processes or whatever they can do because um we are ready to hear their their advice on that.

00:45:24,000	Any questions? Any questions for me Yeah, thank you. And I know January was busy because I know we had some sold out events so, thank you All right, uh, item 7’s a third party survey discussion and not I think we ultimately need to do that, but Jason. you might have an update. They to 30 members.

00:45:46,100	The city commission has talked about a third-party survey entity as well, um, just to try and increase the efficacy of the surveys and and the the value that comes with the feedback, um, in this particular situation, um, I think we had talked about with uh JLL.

00:46:06,800	potentially they could be the ones to facilitate this third-party discussion, survey discussion, or it might be something that we look at organizationally, uh, for the entire year of 2027 when we develop our budgeting.

00:46:25,700	But I think in this particular situation, OG had prepared a very comprehensive survey, just a draft of a survey that they had shared with me and I, I guess my only concern would be that the, the volume of the questions would be such that it’s not just something you just say yes, no, score it 1 to 5. Uh, if you received the feedback, it would be tremendously valuable.

00:46:41,000	The concern is how willing is a customer or a promoter or an entertainer going to be to sit down and put in a half hour 45 minutes of thoughtful responses into these surveys, so I think that might be our, our challenge.

00:46:57,500	Um, I can certainly share it with the group just for um just for your edification and if we do go down this path of exploring, uh, uh, the need for a third party to do the survey. This would be a good place to get started and just kind of think of some of the questions that are coming along with it, some of the topics, it’s not just how was your experience, it’s even things to say.

00:47:12,470	one of the questions, for example, was did the, did the general manager of the facility go above and beyond your expectations, and if so, how? And so it’s just even those little things that help make that user experience better, um.

00:47:29,000	we can certainly bring this back for the next meeting if, if everybody would like to take a look at that draft, I’d be happy to send it around. So I think that would be good, and then hopefully by then we have I mean, our next, our regular meeting. because I would hopefully work under contract. um, because I think OVG needs to be a part of that.

00:47:45,070	Agreed and, and I would like to have the survey not just, you know, we have to make sure the survey is reaching the demographics that truly is given a true presentation, not just people who have a special interest answering.

00:48:10,870	OK, thank you Uh, moving to other business, uh, first item is um a Western North Dakota Honor Guard flight request and so you’re here and thank you for being here and this is, um, go ahead and make your presentation and then we’ll, we can discuss what, what we need to do. OK. Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Diane Martin.

00:48:29,000	I am a board member with the Western North Dakota Honor flight, and I am also a veteran. Our mission is to transport veterans from Bismarck Airport to Washington DC. We usually do this about twice a year, April, May, and then in September.

00:48:54,000	to visit the memorials that they have fought for and to give them 2 days of pampering and red carpet treatment, so we leave Sunday morning at 7 a.m. we fly, we charter a plane and we fly directly to Dallas International Airport. We hop on buses, we go visit.

00:49:18,900	all the memorials on, well, not all of them on Sunday, half of them, um, Sunday night we have a banquet for the veterans and then Monday we um wait for the Capitol Police to come and inspect our buses and then we get a personal escort to the capital.

00:49:40,870	So one of the things we do is, um, we have a pre-flight meeting and what that pre-flight meeting is, is we contact the veterans that are eligible for the flight and we bring them to Bismarck. um, we’ve, we’ve had a location, but we recently lost that location. Um, we usually take about 101,520 veterans and it depends because our um the airplane passenger load is 177. So we have to take X amount of support staff with several of the veterans want to bring a guardian.

00:50:08,600	They can bring one guardian soul. We take a medical staff with us. We take media and we’ve ran into an issue with a location. um, at this pre-flight they are allowed to bring in their family if they want to bring 10 of them in, they can, so that they can all hear what is taking place.

00:50:26,800	um, one of the other things we do is we provide the veteran with a goodie bag. In this goody bag is a, a jacket, um, a t-shirt, a polo, and a cap.

00:50:51,870	So we have 110 of those or so 115 of them lined up and then we have about 10 to 15 totes of replacement stuff because sometimes they forget what size they are and so we have to replace, you know, whatever they had told us with what they, well, what will fit them. And that’s, that’s our whole mission for coming, for me coming here is to um we are a 5013C. So every dime we bring into the organization.

00:51:15,370	It’s because we’ve done fundraisers, we’ve, you know reached out to, um, gaming for funds and um we have 12 board members. No one is paid. We do this as a volunteer. So if we do an event in Mayot, we go to Myknot on our own.

00:51:35,730	We spend the night every dime we want to put back into taking a veteran to Washington DC Currently our waiting list is about 400 plus, so we’re doing a twice a year.

00:51:54,330	trip, um, last year we did a back to back and we will never do that again because we left Sunday morning, came back Monday night, left Tuesday morning, and came back Wednesday night. Um, not only was the staff tired, but I think the airline was tired too, because that, that’s a lot of flying um we just, we wanna make this memorable for our veterans and having a location that they can, um, come to an easy access

00:52:16,730	because several of them obviously are with walkers or wheelchairs and so we kind of want a location that they can access One of the other things we started it’s called the virtual Hon flight and what that is is they have programmed goggles, and we did one at the Glen

00:52:36,530	Allen nursing home, um, and this is for veterans who are cannot travel, um, and some of them that will not fly again. They don’t, they don’t want to fly. We go to them, they get the same red carpet treatment as if they were on the flight.

00:52:53,230	The goggles, the only thing they don’t get on the goggles is the Capitol tour, but they get all the other monuments, Iojima, the A, um, the navy, the Air Force and um yeah, E and Arlington National Cemetery, um, we, we take them, they get to see the changing of the guard.

00:53:16,530	I mean, it’s just a memorable weekend for them, and so that is why I am here to see if there would be an opportunity to utilize the civic center or the events center, um, to host one of these pre-flight meetings.

00:53:39,530	We are currently working with the um North Dakota National Guard Army to see if they would be able to, but if they have a drill weekend, it kind of makes it difficult to bring in. um, uh, and it’s about 150, almost 200 people that come to these preflights because um they wanna to make sure that they’re understanding all the TSA requirements and everything else that needs to, that goes in with this, um.

00:54:01,900	so the question would be is roughly how long, how many hours do you need the the space and I mean, I don’t know how much square footage it is, but then also what we would need to have some dates in advance. OK.

00:54:20,100	Um, cause I think the request is, well we give you the room? Correct. OK, which, was why you’re here to ask. Yes. Free of charge, free of charge. And one of the other things is, is, um, you know, they’ll do coffee and cookies, the daughters of the American Revolution and the Women’s Auxiliary normally like to provide that service, and I understand that, um, the event

00:54:38,800	center, they have their own um, food stuff, um, but that would be another request for an exemption. Um we look at, so our upcoming pre-flight is March 14th, and we, we were lucky to get um the Ramada, um. registration starts at one o’clock.

00:55:04,000	The Western North Dakota Honor flight serves a little bit west of Jamestown to the South Dakota border north to the Canadian border and west of the Montana border. So we’ve got 32 counties we are serving and with that our time change, sometimes when we say um registrations at one o’clock. We have veterans showing up at 11 o’clock.

00:55:24,170	So we like to be there at 10 be set up and ready for these early arriving veterans and um the meeting kicks off at 2 and it’s about an hour. So then from 10 a.m. till about 3 is what we would be using it for. OK.

00:55:44,470	Because after the meeting, if they need to exchange clothing, we do it after the meeting. OK. So, let’s say 10 to 4. 10 to 40, yes, sir. Um probably twice a year. Possibly twice a year. The, um, and, and that is contingent on if the army isn’t having a dri weekend.

00:56:07,500	If they’re not having a dri weekend, we were given the blessing to have our, our meetings out there. We just need an area so that for the merchandise alone, I use 8 tables, um. to line up all the duffel bags and the extra stuff.

00:56:27,170	Um, we have a registration table and then we have the 4 bus colors cause they’re broke down into 4 bus colors, and so they check in there, we verify, um, their identification because the manifest and their driver’s license have to be perfect and so we do a double check on that and um so then what we would be up against and what we’re doing is we’re getting much better. Every trip we learn something new and so now because of the military mindset.

00:56:54,370	We are doing trying to do our training calendar to say, you know, a year in advance, if we can get, you know, to coordinate because we have to coordinate with the airline and it’s Ben allegiant, and then we have to coordinate with the hotels in DC to make sure that they have the space and and

00:57:12,630	everything and so. So, so the, the request to this authority board, which would probably be then a recommendation to the city Comm to, to grant it, um, would, and obviously the third-party con contractor is going to have to know this is in place, um, would be if we want to recommend

00:57:30,630	offering the space to the honor guard for free. Go ahead, Chad. Uh, can I make a motion? Absolutely Uh, I would move to approve space twice per year free of charge for 2026 to Western North Dakota Honor flight at the event center at a time and date and space to be

00:57:54,270	approved and coordinated with staff. Can we include maybe through a, a year longer, a period longer than 26. 26 and 27. And then, then we can work from there. Does that work, Diane? That works wonderful.

00:58:17,700	Um, are we, is that including bringing in coffee and and goodies for or I don’t have a particular, but no, I know why we have our own food service, but this is kind of in my mind, a unique thing and we’re trying to honor these men and women who have served our country. So I don’t know if Chadw wants to amend the motion. I would include that in my motion.

00:58:30,900	Second, is there any discussion I think it’s our first request. I think we want to be at least a little bit careful and make sure that we’re aware of what we’re doing. It’s obviously a wonderful organization, a wonderful cause.

00:58:47,800	I’m also a 501c3 organization and I have to pay to rent the Bell, and I have to pay 7 staff people to be there for my event. So this is not just a free meeting room. This is going to cost the Event Center money. I’m not saying I’m opposed to it.

00:59:05,600	I’m just saying, given that it’s our first time is any nonprofit going to be eligible for this? I mean, that’s a fair question, and I think it’s probably going to have to be specific requests with a pretty specific need behind it. or reason behind it So you know, I, I think like they’re not selling tickets they’re not raising any money at this event.

00:59:29,100	You know, I think that’s part of it and this is you know, for when I said go ahead and bring it, I looked at this as a community service project and so go ahead, Jason.

00:59:47,800	Naor an authority board members, Amanda, please correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s currently one other situation where rent has been waived and it is for the um the Christmas event, uh, with the Santa breakfast and all of that.

01:00:03,270	Historically, that request has come to the city commission at the uh at a regular meeting, the very first time there was a brief presentation as to why this would be different and yes, Mike, to your point, there, uh, the, the question was raised, are all nonprofits eligible? Will, will there be other questions, um, I guess I can’t speak to how many other groups have asked for free or reduced rent in this location, but I’m just aware of the one situation that has been approved for the last 5 years

01:00:21,470	or so with the Christmas event on the day after Thanksgiving. So just a little more context for everybody else. So so I I guess we’d have to be careful in using um whether they sell tickets or not.

01:00:39,730	I mean, our youth orchestra, for example, has concerts in the Bell that are free and open to the public as a service. but same thing, I’m paying rent and I’m paying 7 city staffers to be there. I’m not opposed, I’m just pointing out the fact this is our first time and we’re, we’re pouring concrete here. Understood.

01:00:56,630	So if we want to put some restrictions or governance around it. I’m fine with that. I just, I said it’s only, she has to bring it to us, like that’s, we, we couldn’t just say do it.

01:01:11,100	but it’s The only thing we sell is if a family member wants to buy a t-shirt or a jacket, but it’s only an honor flight apparel that we would sell and that and I understand, I’m understanding. I think we understand the whole purpose behind this. It’s just we have to, as Mike has mentioned, we have to be cautious of what we because this building does cost money to operate.

01:01:32,100	but go ahead, Chestermere, uh, members, I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be a good idea at some point in time for us to generate some type of a policy or some, some guidelines I do think that needs to happen. Yeah, that, uh, if, uh, certain boxes are checked, then there’s going to be rent that’s due or vice vice versa, wouldn’t be due, so.

01:01:49,600	As well as the food element cause that will be a problem with others asking OK, so we have a motion in a second We have this any further discussion? um, I think we set that as another item agenda item, Chad. OK, I’m gonna call Roll Costeleki Yes Moick Yes. Dr, yes. Wilson Yes, Gardner Yes.

01:02:22,070	Grossman? Yes, Schmitz, yes, and I would like to put it as an agenda item that we do develop a policy on when we would maybe, and it’s gonna be pretty restrictive, I think. So you might not get it beyond this, to be honest. That’s all right. Thank you so very much.

01:02:38,230	We appreciate this more than you know. Go ahead, Jason. Again, just for, information sharing, so for the authority board members, how this will happen next is city administration staff will prepare a memo that will end up on the consent agenda for city commission’s next meeting, and it’ll come in the form of a recommendation from this board

01:02:56,870	with a little bit of background information that Ms. Martin shared and, and we’ll go forward. Should there be any questions at the city commission meeting when this comes up, uh, being on the consent agenda, it would need to get pulled for discussion at the onset of the meeting with

01:03:09,730	both the mayor and I being a part of this authority board. I would hope we should be able to answer any questions the city commission members may have. OK All right.

01:03:25,100	Next item is, is member terms and you know we have to, we have to ultimately set those, um, on, so we have rotation, but we also know that as part of our ordinance we have specific positions that are kind of identified as um you know, there’s always going to be somebody from that particular group or organization on the, on the board because of because of the unique nature of, of their position, so

01:03:48,070	um I didn’t even think about it with the process and I don’t know that we ever came up with a process how to determine the terms. So Mayor and authority board members looking back, um the mayor’s right, we would stagger the terms, um, for the position that the mayor holds

01:04:03,170	and the position that I hold, they would be really term less, uh, well, the, the mayor’s term would coincide with his holding of the portfolio, so at the soonest it would be a change in July of this year, uh, when new portfolio assignments would go out, um, but for the rest of you, what we would

01:04:21,170	typically do is stagger the term, so recognizing there are 5 other termed positions. any number of them could be for 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years, and just so they’re not all the same, so that way if somebody turns out after this year.

01:04:39,470	they can reapply, of course, but we’re not all leaving at the same time, so, um, I don’t know that we ever set the length of the terms for the authority board. In many cases we have some physicians or 3 years, uh, planning commission I think is up to 5.

01:04:54,370	So, so my thought would be is they should all be the same term but we just need to stagger the start date and they’ll ultimately cycle on the same. Yep. Is it a three year term, four year term, 5-year term, I think that’s one determination, and then who gets the first one-year terms, 2-year terms, and 3-year terms from there.

01:05:10,530	just to stagger them out So what is the length of the term and then which of the five is 1 year, 2 years, 3 years. Yeah, and I’m open to still hold this over to the next meeting and to have everybody give thought to that. I think we to have some consistency.

01:05:24,630	you know, not less than 3 years, I would think and I don’t know, our other boards are pretty much that. Between, between 3 and 5 years typically. And then we’ll have to come up with a process of how we kind of draw the straws. um, for that rotation. So I I ask everybody to give thought to that.

01:05:44,530	so we can maybe decide that at our next regular meeting. Does that make sense OK. Go ahead OK and then Code of Conduct, we should have a code of conduct that’s already available. It was a, I believe it was attached to the agenda. Yeah.

01:06:07,900	Uh, when it was updated and the code of conduct was something that was approved by the city commission in 2024, I want to say. Yes. It was written primarily for the Board of City Commissioners, but sharing it with this and other authority or advisory boards is important just for, uh, the professional conduct that occurs at the meeting. If you have any questions, staff was part of the development.

01:06:28,470	The mayor was a big part of the, uh, the drafting of that and, and the baseline document actually came from the North Dakota League of Cities, which is a member organization that we are part of.

01:06:46,600	They represent hundreds of cities throughout North Dakota, 4 situations just like this, so, um, just there for your awareness, no, no need to sign or take an oath to that particular um document, but we just wanted to pass along as we do to all the authority board members. It would be the expectation that we are adhering to that. So.

01:07:05,070	um, does anyone else have any other business? If not, we are Adjourned and uh we’ll be in touch on our upcoming special meetings. OK,