Eugene Steuerle and John Porter

00:03 John Porter age 64, it's October 15th. 2012 Arlington, Virginia my relationship to the person I'm with today is that I'm executive director of act for Alexandria and he's the board chair more than that though. We're friends we go back about 20-plus years.

00:23 The my name is a gene sterle. I'm 65 years of age the date as John just mentioned is October 15th 2012 here at a location in Arlington, Virginia. I'm a chair of the Community Foundation for which John is executive director act for Alexandria. And in my day job on an economist and nasty fellow at their bidding to studying a lot of issues having to do with budget and is related to finish Foundation studying the chart of a sector.

00:53 And with that will get started who kg go find it. Okay, what we're going to talk about a little bit today is about what a community can do when it comes together and protect me in relation to community foundations. And I'm going to try to give a little background information on and early history of act for Alexandria Brewer only 8 years old, but egg for Alexandra's inspiration came really from Gene sterle. Although he would be too modest to really get too much in detail as to his being really found the founder of this organization, but the jeans wife unfortunately Norma was was killed on the plane that hit the Pentagon on September 11th to cancel once and I still remember to this stage in coming into my office. I'm a former educator. I was principal at TC Williams High School is daughters went to the TC and Jean came into my office one day and we were talking and he said that he and his daughters were we're coming into some settlement as a result of enormous death. This was probably a couple of years later and and they wanted to do something to give back to the community.

01:53 They wanted to make an impression in a lasting impression on the community and the question was sort of from both of us for what we do or what are you do where do we go with this and that led to where we are now, but it wasn't that simple. There were a lot of steps along the way to get us there Jean after you and I met that day we ready to go. What was the next step for do you remember his next steps will alarm you just say down you're being very modest. John was principal a teaspoon High School those of you who aren't smooth Alexander, Virginia may remember TC Williams is the high school that was featured in Remember the Titans and John was there for 22 years and then head butting nothing about education knows the invite can survive its principle and its readers for 22 years has something going for them. So wondrous. Came to John with John do everybody in the community. And if anybody could help make things happen, it would be John so after my wife died the

02:53 I came forward with a fair amount of money for almost all of the families of the people who died in 9/11. My wife was on the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon. We were going to meet up in Singapore. My daughter was a doctor in the Navy stationed in Okinawa and we were all going to meet up in Singapore and go to Thailand and if it's turned out it is they did after her death my children and I my two daughters Kristen Swanson and Lynn Schofield and I determined that we a did not want our wife. I mean my wife and their mother defined by one accident her life is defined by something broader in the same way. We didn't want our lives to find us some sort of victims of what was a great tragedy but in our minds,

03:53 In many cases, no greater tragedy than many other people suffer through it with the loss of a loved one. All those are a national tragedy. And so we thought that the best thing we could do at least initially would take some of this money and do something with it. We didn't really want it for ourselves and we ended up trying to create to Charities which we're not going to talk about much today, but it's called our voices together. We thought that we could gather together other like-minded people like ourselves. We could really have an impact around the world by showing that Americans can really come together to do good and we still have a lot of communication in contact with groups like The Alderman Foundation that's created mental health clinics around the world with globalgiving within we still sponsor schools in Afghanistan and

04:48 Pakistan and then my daughter has been a vice chair for Americans a farm farm democracy, which is a network-based organization that tries to educate students and actually help them take informed actions as citizens of a world Community effort. That's not the one I'm going to talk about today. The other one was the Community Foundation for Alexandria and that just came about through several years of searching John and I and a couple of other people in the community and particular Andrew Blair who have been head of the Chamber of Commerce and Kathy Thompson who had been head of a live which is a church based organization that supports the poor in Alexandria put our heads together for a couple years and debating what to do. We went around we searched a lot of things on the side. I study the trouble starts. So I had some idea what community foundations could do and never really came together till we went to the Community Foundation of the national capital region.

05:48 So-called cfnc are and the people there were of enormous help to us and helping us start off as a situated subsidiary them. They had us City reason in various communities near by Washington DC and they put us together with the group of just outstanding people. I hate to mention name cuz all you leave some out but it included Lori Morris and Lauren Garcia in Lyles Carr and David Speck and Don Beyer and Alyson Cryer. Dinardo and Lisa Collis. All of them are very influential people in their own their own right side stomach been major participants in shining business why these peoples who is the wife of US senator Warner so on and so forth another was a farmer city council member and they were searching for something to do as well. And when these groups came together it was it was Synergy, you know, there's there's some luck there is Iceland distinguish between Serendipity unlock. I think we had a lot of good things going and Serendipity came to help us out.

06:48 Thought they wasn't your luck but when these groups got together, we clicked and my kids and I were able to put forth a little bit of money, which is the end of the day is only a very modest portion of what the Community Foundation was doing, but it was it was a catalyst to get the the Community Foundation started. So we put half her money there in half the money we got we put into these other International efforts and it took off from there. I think I think when we were first talking about what to do, I mean we we bounced around a number different ideas. We talked about that the scholarship fund of Alexandria and we can put it all there or dividing it among the charities in Alexandria. But as we began is this begin to jail, we talk more and more about trying to make it a long-term long lasting a proposition instead of money given and money out where would be used and and the the true meaning of making a lasting impression in our community my

07:48 I think we had to be forgot you. I forgot to mention one other person who is crucial is Bill you all the mayor got involved with this very early on so from the very beginning we had really good contact with the city to make things happen. Well, and we also if I get arrested just got off the ground wheat we selected as an exceptional first executive director our founding executive director John L. Walmart who really let this organization for the first 5 years put all of these pieces into place made it work in this community. She was terrific right there from the start. We had a super staff Brandy. Ye who who works on almost everything in the program in Alexandria knows about Brandy and how she makes things happen and then later Tracy percelay and Heather Scott and just night shift. So, we really they been very lucky to have this. This is just great staff working on thing. Yeah, it it's been a it's been a Continuum if you will the boards remain fairly constant throughout this with the some members moving to a

08:48 Advisory Council that we created but that the board as we talked about before is a very active or they will probably get into that in a few minutes. But Community Foundation Street. I mean, I know we bounced around and we came back to Community Foundation then we found somewhere else and then we came back to Community Foundation maybe a brief description of what a Community Foundation does and and you're working the Community Foundation Arena might give us the broader View and then I can talk a little bit about act will the competition with the Community Foundation meeting so far this way foundation's try to draw people together the community to do things for the community more broadly. We stayed our mission is actually to raise the level of giving an effectiveness of giving for all of Alexandria and this includes a lot of efforts working with the city, but also to really Foster and developed the charities in Alexandria, but what it means is we both have to raise money for ourselves just to support your salary among other things.

09:48 Very important. I still have to pay you something and then the young people we have probably couldn't live we didn't I am so so we have to raise money to ourselves to even though they can be nice and other things but then our main goal is to raise money for the charity stand for the other activities in Alexandria. That's done two ways. When we raise it directly for a particular Outreach activities such as capacity-building grants and other things but secondly we try to get get people to put money in what's called a donor-advised fund which is like a little endowment where people can put money aside now and then decide how to allocate it later and they decide how to allocate it we set that up. So we have to raise money for the Donor advised funds we have to raise money for the capacity-building grants. We have to raise money for a lot of things and we have to raise money does basically support ourselves and sometimes it's hard to explain but when it gets going in the number of communities that have really outstanding Community foundations know it can really make a huge difference in a city because you have a power to convene and gather and weighs a lot of the people.

10:48 So for instance, you know, I we can go out and ask people to support charities in general around the city and even if they want to drive by so I'm sure he's outside and that gives us a little more of an option to tell people we can help you do what you want to do with all that particular Charities have the problem they going to say will you give to me that people do I give the three other Charities with that's fine. We'll help people help you do something for all four of them and whatever you want to do. So we we we have that we have that big Advantage going for us and I would say in our particular case even more so than most many foundations. We haven't really yet build up that much in the way of Donor advised funds. Were you take a little bit of an administrative fee we would never get by with that. We've been lucky enough to get a much larger donations from a lot of our participants and we've been playing a major role on the convening and and and in a lot of other things for which think we're still fairly young Indiana life. If you will have a Community Foundation. I think this this year this coming year marks 200th anniversary of community foundations play. The first was in Cleveland where 8 years old.

11:48 And if they usually from what I understand that you're looking at a much longer life span before you actually become viable in the sense of being able to be sustainable long-term and continue to do what you do. It's funny having been an education people ask me. What are the differences in in your old job my old job my first life as I call it in your second life for my second life in this case and I always talk about how I got your 5th job, but I always talk about how I'd learned how to spend money fairly easily in my first job in my first life and now you got to raise it to to spend it and and that is a a different animal that truly is a different animal particularly when you're raising it not just for your organization, but you're raising it for it to help other organizations be able to do more with what they do that. That's the one thing about trying to raise money for a Community Foundation trying to get people to understand. What a Community Foundation is.

12:48 Don't feed hungry people. We help the organizations that feed hungry people to do it better and we help them with their capacity to provide their services as effectively as they can. I should we take good or we take good nonprofits and we we we work to make them better at what they do, but sometimes it's just very briefly mention Alexander Alexandria is a very very unique communities about 230,000 340340 thousand citizens. We consider Washington DC are suburb that's because we were we were a city before they were right and a part of our city to make their city. And so it has great Unity. It has a long long history people are really very actively engaged in a community of people love the community another hand and it's got a huge transient population like many metropolitan areas in this case, especially so both in terms of people coming in and out of government, but also enter

13:48 Immigrant populations that settle here and then move on and we are have well above average income on average but we also have above-average a number of people who are poor are get free lunches at schools. And I respect that are public school. So we we actually have both into this of the spectrum. I think a lot of us feel that Alexandra has extraordinary potential and in some ways if we can make a city work here we started feel like where else can they do it, right? We have the talent we have the resources highly educated population money least in pockets in the community and the in and I would say that a lot of people settled Alexandra settle because they really like having a mixed Community. They don't want to segregate themselves out in any particular.

14:36 Fabric high-income pocket which witch is which is very nice and we have a lot going for us and we have a lot of problems there. A lot of people out there number of people that care very much about various causes and in the city has become very much a partner with the nonprofit Community understanding the city cannot by itself deliver all the services that are needed you'd mentioned about Alexandria having a a being a wealthy community in many many ways. But also if you go to the school system's website, you'll see that 60% of the kids are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The message is that those people in our community particularly those families in our community with children and predicted with young children are in need or at least 60% of them are indeed and and that it was the deal with that. You may remember that when you long before setting up the beauty Foundation 20 years ago, perhaps when I always on your Advisory Board as a child

15:36 But it was maybe longer I bet that but what I think we did we worked on celebrating the diversity we put up with it the 80-85 flags because we had we had kids from that many different countries around the world in in in the high school right with that. Ground. So we thought we we should celebrate we put flags up throughout the school have to try to say that we had a kind donation from someone in the community. I'm trying to remember who I was I think I might have been jinxed Ehrlich that helped us move that forward in a number of people that build but yes it in you known for years after that. I talked about how we had 90 different countries represented 60 different languages or dialects of languages ever spoken in the mobility. Right? Like you talked about Alexandra's population turns over 60% of the population turns over every 5 years lot in a lot out but in many leaving and do come back and so there are a lot of very very

16:36 Positive things that say one Community very geographically compact at the same time issues that some might not Envision would be in Alexandria. They are you like to sketch people eat out on each of you came to settle here. Months really easy. I was my family lived in Alexandria and I was born in Washington DC but came back quickly as his mom came home from the hospital. So it was fairly easy for me to settle in Bella's increase. What did you go to school with Mama Cass Elliot much was much older than I was much older. Jim Morrison was much all of it much older than than me. I'm famous singers in my case with my wife. We both finished about the same time the University of Wisconsin at Madison and my wife had an offer to do an internship. She's a psychologist at the Children's Hospital later went down and worked in Mount Vernon Community Mental Health Center, which is just south of the valley side effects in the

17:36 Bookstore Alexandria, but not in the formal city of Alexandria. And that was that was by far the best job offer either one of us had I had an offer of some small colleges in that offer Treasury Department and we thought we would come here for a couple years and then maybe move on and you know, we love we love Alexandria and actually joined our work. It's actually the broader metropolitan area is a very good place. If you're a true career family to to be able to work without nets for having to move. We be able to raise our kids especially in the same house entire time, even though my wife and I both change jobs two or three times. So, you know, it wasn't really intentional other than it's a week. I got a government job. She got a job with the Children's Hospital in Washington DC and and settled in apartment from Alexandria never moved several times and housing but never more than

18:28 I would look at my my life being very confining in some ways and that I've spent most of my life here travel some but but never lived really other than College never lived somewhere else to tell active as bored as we meant me to lose into it earlier when we talked about just all these be great people that we got together, but the but basically speaking most charity succeed with one of three ways. Either have this really Dynamic leader. Not that I wouldn't put you that category, but what is a shin and it's pretty much staff-led but there's a third type of Charity that succeeds and I'd say that we fit

19:11 How do I say holy but but largely and that we have a board. I just a very very active board. We did a tremendous staff. Don't get me wrong. I don't have a great leadership by / but the activity the board is really crucial that are staying this Community Foundation even relatives. I think some others very very much. So it's funny. I when I first took this job in and got involved. I had some nonprofit like should say I just don't know how to get my board active and involved. I just don't know how to get them to do this or understand this and and that's not a problem that we had. I was on the board before I became the executive director and and new a number of the different people that were involved and I'd have to say from what I hear from my callings. This is the most active board and in active in a way that ends up with positive results for what we're trying to do and where we're trying to go. We don't always agree. We don't always get to exactly the spot that we want to win. We want to

20:11 But we work together to try to get there and everybody plays an active role in helping us to make that happen from committee work to volunteer work to ideas to to support funding support and volunteer support along the way. It's been tremendous been trying to send the leadership on the board side. You are a leader now. Don Beyer was our leader before their number peoples and Garden Show in a number of other people that played vital roles in the organization over the years.

20:44 But you know what I think tours in addition to Donor advised funds which is what nonprofits nonprofit Community Foundation to generally have been known for over history of connecting people with some wealth and and some desire to be philanthropic with causes and and with knowledge of those various needs in the community. We also attacked and have created some initiatives of our own there different things that we have felt very strongly about over the years that have helped guide where we have placed some par funding and made some of our Bard largest impact in the community. I mean it started with the given Circle I think back in dash 2004 on from not mistaken where number of women in town got together and and and kind of coalesced around the idea of helping others in the community and it's grown to most recently where we've had action Alexandria webbed.

21:44 Platform that was designed to get more people engaged and involved with the genius you do that history all along the way. Picking of of picking us old people who made things possible. I mean Christmas lost car who actually units day job ends up recruiting for off of for Charities staff know stuff like that. There's a point in time. We will try to pull these things together and with the girls will two of the girls that were involved there by the name of Lori Morris and barn Garcia. And when I think of these these activities are mentioning, they probably started half of them people live in addition giving giving money and time and rental space to us and everything else right has been intellectually real leaders from the developing capacity-building grants for a lot of our Charities. They actually I think I did a lot on the initiative create the center for Alexandria's children children who were subject to child abuse.

22:44 Different agencies. In fact sometimes even sent outside the city to put the handle things off and head to tell their story more than once and they helped create this. So the center of Alexandria's children that really made a difference. They actually have been instrumental in creating this action Alexander this so-called Web 2.0 platform, but it's basically a way to try to bring people in the community together to try to solve problems together. We're still working on. It. It's it's actually it's actually a big item in a lot of community foundations around the country. They're all trying to figure out how to make it work and we actually have about 2% of the population on already signed up with you pretty pretty high but we have a small population and then part of the what happened there in this is also due to a particularly to one of our staff people is is this spring to action which is which is using a web-based platform to route to do basically an online fundraiser once a year and first year, we did a hundred thousand and then the next

23:44 Target 200,000 we all said our other dog. I said, it's too much too much. I was scared and then we ended up getting huge amount of credit for that. But it also goes back to people like Lori and Lauren who really said, hey we can we can do these things but also board initiated in in in in a in a lot of cases and that that's energy between board and staff has been very very positive in in your right Lauren Lauren Have Been instrumental in in both seating some of these ideas and helping helping push these efforts along at the same time understanding and then I've heard it more than once that if it's not something that works if it's not something that proves valuable ore viable, we don't need to be doing in that direction. But but much of what we've Touch Too Much what we tried to do has been very very positive spring2action this year by the way. Brandy still scares me because she says this year this coming year meaning to

24:44 1013 we're shooting for a half a million. She's already done it she put it out there. So now what you got to do it then we're going to be shooting for that. So hopefully we will get there. I told her, you know, everything relies on it. Everything yet everything relies on it now and what she's going to do to help us get their spring Dash was exceptional spring2action was also very very good from the status of again the Pfeifer this is the platform. This is the one day of giving me to give to the max day which is what it's called in some communities across the country and it was very valuable for us also sharing that we have been working with nonprofits to get them done first and that we are here to help them be better at what they do. And I think this was one of the clearest ways for them to see that this effort this initiative on our part was to help them not only raise money that one day but to develop some skills in the social media Arena the online Arena

25:44 That would help them be able to better do what they do throughout the year and in the future and the training that we provided it went along with this day of fundraising was as valuable if you will as this is the money that they got but the but we made it exciting we offered prizes and we offered leaderboards and people can be watching. It's like watching a ball game and death and the competition was fierce and it it all just pulled together in a way that that not only help the nonprofit Community. I think it up or Community together to go back to the issue of of how you get a Community Foundation to survive and I'm sure anybody involved in Charities would sympathize with this for us to do spring to action. We actually end up having to raise tens of thousands of dollars of prizes, which is an investigation for this and then we also both have all the staff time. So the end of the day, you know, a lot of what we raise goes back out to the Charities, but it still means we have to raise

26:44 Tens of thousands of dollars to make this actually actually come up with names that that that that people want to make donations, but they want their money to go directly to provide the service that is needed that and and I've heard many a person say that it did that we need to take a step back and we need to understand the importance of making sure you have the infrastructure to be able to deliver those services and pay to open the doors and turn on the lights. If we don't operate that way in the for-profit, where are we don't expect that. It's it's all just going to happen and therefore no one should either get paid or are or we we don't have to deal with those issues but good for most nonprofits in most nonprofits in our community, but knows most nonprofits in general that sustainability issues one that constantly comes back to address is partly when you go to daughters.

27:44 I could myself but I especially includes a lot of the foundations that I deal with not just for ACT, but actually my day job at the urban Institute people want to feel that they really created something new and they all that don't actually want to continue to give you something that's been going on going for a long. Of time. What they do is for a few years and they want to move on but it doesn't mean to charity does it still have all those issues of stuff to pay his staff and if those are good activities they're doing if they're educating people. Well if they're feeding the hungry, well, whatever housing them whatever else it is, you know, those activities still cost money and they might not be new anymore. They might not be a new initiative and that's the issue are still there and supposedly the Community Foundation. We can help out a little we know the community and we can help connecting with those causes to which they have a distinct interest in and where their money will be. Well spending put to good use

28:43 We actually work very closely in collaboration with the city itself or they put in money yet and some of them. Only the ones that are on going but some of the ones that were worth tempting to get going and we have a number. I mean, it has been a very definite partner with all that we do and we have partnered not only on the financial side. There are numerous and numerous areas. One of the first Partnerships we develop with the city was to convene the Alexandria cancel Human Service organizations drawing all of the Human Service organizations that before we were together on the center part of our role is convening and collaborating and so it was the pulling together of of the various Spirit organizations are not the spirit organizations that organizations that didn't have the opportunity to get together and talk about issues of mutual concern and the opportunity to do that prove very valuable for the nonprofit Community would kind of tie that end with a program that would provide some sort of educational component, but

29:43 It was two networking and talking with one another and learning that you're not out there alone that we're all going through some of the same problems and issues that we're going through.

29:56 Well it did.

30:02 Gosh what actually I think certainly even the founding of the center for Alexander's I think that came from from from sort of that collaboration. It was it was the city and I sitting down we used to meet we meet we didn't used to we still do we need annually with we need annually with with the nonprofit Community. We meet and Lee annually with with City agencies to ask what keeps them up at night. Where are the problems that they see that they can't quite get a handle on it and the issue of child abuse and the the Footbridge Enid alluded to earlier that children would be torn between various agencies and or would have to repeat their story over and over became very important and meaningful to our organization and individuals with an argument or organization to the point of wanting to do something to lessen that burden and make that work more.

31:02 In terms of creating it but even ongoing support to this day exactly in for the first few years. We have to pay the executive director salary for the city provided the space for this opportunity to take place and helped create that space in a way. That's where I call it one stop shopping and I mean that in a very positive way where people could come if they were any situation of the alleged abuse and deal with that issue all at one time and one location with all the people that need to be involved in that issue. It's taken on much a much broader roll now to deal with Abuse Prevention and a variety of other social issues that that. Come to place in addressing that impact families and Family's need to address Now assistant.

31:52 City manager city manager is actually actually not only on the board, but even on our executive committee and she serves as a and she's the person that's responsible for social services in the community and Health Services and so forth oversees all of that Deborah Deborah Collins. I'm so she has a distinct. I to do the remainder the community on the issues that that we we focus on work in the city on on trying to build this this web-based platform as well. They have they were very involved to help Finance it and in in the sense of partnering with us for that and also in providing some some support from staff members in the sense of they are giving their advice on how this might better work. We're also working with them on a community indicators project at this time to try to get input from the community on what's important in our community and how can we judge ourselves? And whether we are being effective it will drive some budget decisions and we're hoping to actually figure out a way to let people comment through the web of groups is a

32:52 Opposed to just to ever still out as being the one getting say a city council meeting questions. That's that's that's an ongoing thing how to how do we get other information from citizens in the community and pull it together in a way where we the people Foundation are making a judgment. We're helping. We're helping to help the city council know, you know what the views of the people in the community are that there is actually information within the within the community off of that can be helpful for making decision. I may just help for the sense of who going to vote for against something like that, but actually helpful in terms of what the what the citizens actually want, right? It did the the online platform to allow that engagement has been very valuable as we talked with the city about it and its infancy we talked about it before it was born. Shall we say we talked about how wouldn't it be nice that you had a broader expanse of people to draw on for where they were and what they felt needed to be addressed. Then those who generally would show up at a city council meeting or show up at a better town hall meeting or

33:52 Start some sort of public forum. There's a broader Community out there. That's probably not going to do that. But we'd be happy to go online and offer their opinion on what's important to them in this community and with the mobility of our community. I think it's all the more important to provide as many Avenues as we can to allow that to take place. We're still looking at issues and our community both on the social social services side. I need the basic human needs are the work. We're also kind of expanding some thoughts and working at education and how we might be able to have more of an impact particularly in those early early years of of development and Emperor else. We might go where else there are needs in our community and we shouldn't tell this is it this is this simple story of things come together and everything's fine and all the lot of work to do work. We're still just short of sustainability in terms of our internal finances. We're working on that. We are trying to work closely on issues of Volunteers in the city. There's new effort.

34:52 The various organizations that are trying to Foster volunteers, but we're trying to get do more there as you say, we really haven't been able to have as big an impact in the hole. I say it's okay. She'll feel that I've got to talk. I'm going to spend that even early childhood development. How can I get some more development and what role can we play because you're now you're talkin about huge amounts of money and estate investments in and how can we play a role to really make things better the city? I think it's done. Okay is done. I think modestly well there but but there's a lot more that needs to be done summer is we might have even fallen behind and so there's a there's a whip. There's a lot of lot of lot of issues there that we we still need to work on in addition to our internal needs. But in terms of the the needs of the community and I think the idea that we began this with and that is the idea that it's a community if you can come together as a community people with like Minds in the sense of wanting to address with those issues are in our community. You've got a better opportunity of being able to actually make a difference in

35:52 Change things where they need to be changed and sustain things where they need to be sustained be clear. It's not us. Maybe we can Empower our help for facilitate our give information to or see if we can get some little more money from our donor advisors to it states the people in the community who really make it happen. There's no way a few people sitting around a Community Foundation. No can do things but we can serve as a catalyst and we're all in this together as we say and it takes everyone in the community to do to make that impact to make that difference. And in that that the real Advantage we have is we have a community that is of the persuasion that that's what they want to do some have more of a means of being able to help do that and or different ways to help do that and we all need to go together to make it happen for the benefit of the doubt the larger Community, but it's all of us. It's certainly not just us.

36:51 But again, it goes back to the issue of of working together and I'm pulling together and it goes back to the issue of how this all came about. It came about by the conversation or to the developed in the more conversations that got more people involved brought more people into the fold and and decisions being made that were for naught the short-term gain, if you will love of a few or few and there are few organizations in the community, but the long-term view of where we might be able to make a sustained difference overtime and addressing some of the issues that that about community space from Celtic things for the community David specs of a former council members actually very too early.

37:51 People like Tom and bag of the first two really came in and really help fund the number of of items in the city. So it's it's been a lot of people I actually always feel badly any second like this. We don't know don't mention we're going to miss but but but they go to Community Foundation is to empower people like that to do, you know the to take take their ideas their resources, they're human abilities and talents or money and do things in and I I like your like you feel very fortunate that we're able to do that though. Cuz when a community pulls together, it really can make a difference. I look back and I always love to run into former students and hear what they're doing and how they have become successful which can be a variety of different things successful can be defined in different different way. I also now enjoy looking back at what act is done in its first eight years and where the successes have been and where some lessons have been learned and hopes that we can continue to two.

38:51 Help this community do the great job that everybody wants to do for the benefit of all I know is that I invited a job. I work a lot on public policy issues and I'm a child of the sixties and my senses in the sixties. There was a lot of effort to save everybody but not to say one person at a time until there's a line on control from the top and listen to some communities much less on families. And I think what's happening and Community Foundation is just one of many vehicles for that. I think what we're discovering society as we have enormous power as individuals families and communities to do things that some ways Never Can Happen top-down that's not meant to be a conservative or a liberal statement. It's just that we have these enormous opportunities to work together to it. We're rediscovering that I guess we've always known it to some extent but we're rediscovering it in ways that we had in the past and working with you John as well as all these other people in act for Alexandria this Community Foundation. It makes me

39:51 Realize just how much how much we can do together. It's it's fine.