Mindy the Farting Dog

Join Marc and Rachel for this inaugural episode that focuses on the people and love for ACPE, our professional community that is now 50+ years in the making.

Guests Shelby Reynolds and Derek Stewart join to chat about the excellent 2025 CoSN conference, School Library Month <3, continued classroom cell phone debate and conversations, the ACPE conference—past, future, fun, food, learning, community. 

*Oh, and one farting dog.

Transcript

Marc (00:00)
Look at. It's fancy. Okay, ⁓ so do we want to do like a welcome?

Derek (00:00)
that.

Rachel (00:07)
Howdy, howdy, Mark Elliott. ⁓

Marc (00:09)
Howdy, howdy Rachel.

Can I be totally honest with you? ⁓ I can't believe they're letting us do this.

Rachel (00:14)
Why?

Marc (00:15)
I can't believe that they're trusting us to have a podcast that represents ACPE, but I'm super excited about it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Rachel (00:24)
it's going to be a lot of fun. And did we actually ask permission or are we just kind of

Marc (00:31)
I think you asked permission. don't know that they would even allow me to do much of anything. So, ⁓ but yeah, hey, the sun is out. It's a beautiful day up here in Washington. And I'm sounds like it was for you down in Oregon. So love it. I wonder, well, we have some friends today. I wonder what they thought of the weather today as well. ⁓

Rachel (00:43)
beautiful day. Yes, really good.

Marc (00:53)
for anybody or everybody who is watching or listening. ⁓ Rachel and I picked some friends that have been long time ACPE conference goers that we have very fond memories about. And they're going to join us for the ⁓ inaugural episode today to talk about some of our relevant topics and some of our favorite memories of the conference. that correct?

Rachel (01:15)
Yes. And maybe we should introduce ourselves first, since we are kind of just dropping in cold. Hi.

Marc (01:24)
Hi, Rachel. ⁓ I'm Marc Elliott. the chief information officer for the Olympia School District. ⁓ And I have been there for 11 years. And we'll get to my ACPE length later.

Rachel (01:38)
OK. And hi, everyone. I'm Rachel Wente Chaney, CIO at High Desert Education Service District in Central Oregon, almost at 20 years, even though I'm not that old. I really am that old. It's hitting really hard this year. Everybody in my circle, I'm sure they're tired of hearing me say, like, how am I approaching 20 years? ⁓ And love the work that I do, which is how I'm approaching 20 years. And I am on the board of ACPE.

Marc (01:48)
you

Rachel (02:06)
and ⁓ love this organization, love our community, and am excited to start telling the story and meeting and showcasing some of our members the next however many months and years that we sit in these seats, Marc Elliott.

Marc (02:20)
I forgot to mention that I'm on the board.

Rachel (02:21)
Yeah, I knew what you meant.

Marc (02:24)
Shall we bring our friends in because I miss them already.

Rachel (02:26)
think

we should. we do like, I think we were in the pregame chat, right? We were talking about maybe smart less Do you want to tease out who your guest is this afternoon?

Marc (02:35)
Sure.

Um, the guests that I have today, I would say that he and I have gone to the conference together for probably close to 20 years. Um, and the thing about my guest that I thought was fascinating and I really wanted him to be on our first podcast is that he started at his school district as a field technician.

and has worked his way up to I think he's the executive director of technology now ⁓ and has been in that location the entire time and has represented their school district of ACPE that entire ACPE that entire time as well. ⁓ So without further ado, I will bring or I would like to introduce Derek Stewart from North Thurston School District who's joining us now.

maybe. there is Derek Stewart from North Thurston School District. Derek, missed it, but we did a big, really long and extravagant introduction about you.

Derek (03:37)
That sounded like trouble.

Rachel (03:38)
But Mark left out dapper hat wearer.

Marc (03:41)
Yes, Depper

hats.

Derek (03:43)
Only the finest hat for my friends'

Rachel (03:46)
the finest hats. So now I'm excited to bring my ACPE friend on. So Mark, when we were first talking about this, like we have so many stories to tell in ACPE and so much good work to celebrate and lots of stories. You had this beautiful idea of like, let's start at the beginning.

Marc (03:58)
Yeah.

Rachel (04:04)
Right? What are some of our first ACPE memories and connections? And the person who I am going to bring out of the waiting room, and actually, Mark, do you want to get the waiting room queued up? And then I'll do a little intro. Will, I think, as a stranger to no one.

Marc (04:21)
I'm going to start bringing her in now.

Rachel (04:22)
in the technology community in the Pacific Northwest. She is a collaborator, a leader, a thinker, a raconteur, stylish, stylish, a fierce protector and inclusion advocate for all. Wicked smart at technology, the best snack it, bracket, march madness maker that I have ever met.

and some of my earliest memories in ACPE because she would actually go on the dance floor with me and do the electric slide before it started becoming cool at ACPE. It only took like 17 years. ⁓ And so it was Shelby and Andrew and Dawn and a few others of us who have been out there from the beginning. And I knew Shelby a little bit beforehand, but those ACPE early year memories are dear. And I'm proud to call her my friend and colleague.

now as we sit here in 2025. Welcome Shelby Reynolds.

Shelby (05:16)
my goodness, what an introduction. Thank you so much.

Marc (05:19)
Derek, I swear yours was just like that.

Derek (05:21)
I'm sure it was, I'm sure it was. He didn't want me to hear it, that's why he didn't let me in until...

Shelby (05:26)
So the introduction, I kind of assumed you were talking about Derek and then the pronouns.

Marc (05:32)
I mean, the number of times I have seen Derek do the electric slide is, I mean, I can't count on two hands.

Derek (05:40)
One time's too many, honestly.

Rachel (05:42)
So I'm hearing a challenge accepted for the two of you for ACDE 21.

Marc (05:46)
Yeah,

that's...

Derek (05:47)
May all your feet be

saved from me dancing.

Marc (05:51)
I might have to excuse myself for a moment.

Rachel (05:54)
Mark knows that I'm going to put him on the spot to the electric slide, which is why he's going to excuse him.

Marc (05:59)
I will have to magically find a refreshment somewhere and we'll be good.

Rachel (06:04)
Yes. So Shelby, I talked about you, the human being, but I didn't layer on your title and what you do.

Shelby (06:11)
Well, currently, my title is the as the assistant director for instructional technology and library services in the North Shore School District. ⁓ Which people joke that there's a lot of words in that title, but ⁓ I don't know that it. Captures all the hats that I tend to wear. And I don't say that as a brag, just because I'm I'm proud to say that I've had opportunities to.

learn different areas of work and different content areas just by virtue of being in one might say the wrong place at the right time or the right place at the right time. I'm not really sure. But I never imagined when I was ⁓ beginning my career in instructional technology that I would end up in a role that deals with ⁓ distribution of curriculum materials, making sure consumables end up where they need to be at our 35 campuses every summer.

⁓ dealing with warehouse stuff in terms of storage space for all those consumables. A million curriculum items that I never thought I would put my hands on. So it's been a pleasure and you know, my career continues.

Marc (07:17)
And Derek, I did share a little bit about your kind of when we first met and why I think fondly of you at ACPE is that you started at you started coming as a field tech. Yeah, I hear technician because so take it away. Tell us a little bit about your journey.

Derek (07:28)
Yeah

Yeah, I was I was a little baby technician. So you know, I joke with North Thurston Public Schools. I'm Derek, Derek, sorry, Director Technology, North Thurston Public Schools, Mark's neighbor down in Lacey, next to Olympia. ⁓ And when I started at ACP, I was doing the math in my head earlier. It was, think, 22 years ago, I was just turned 21.

Marc (07:55)
You

couldn't hear it, but I was close. said 20 years. I think we've done this together for 20 years.

Derek (07:59)
Yep, yep, yeah. It's yeah, somewhere in that ballpark. So I think it was 2002 or 2003 was my first ACPE. So I was a little baby, 21 years old. You know, I joke with the school district. I actually came up through the school system. So North Thurston is where I went to school at. And I started as a field tech when I was 18. I never actually like, basically they just started paying me. So I was a student intern, networking intern, and then I stayed and here I am 25 years later doing this. So, but yeah, as far as the ACPE side goes,

I was really fortunate that ⁓ my boss that hired me was ⁓ really wanted us to be able to see what else is going out there in the world and on the technology side, whether districts are doing. And so we've always been blessed to have kind of a big cadre. You know, the TPS crew, there's usually at least six or seven of us ⁓ that go and it's great. We have really good, you know, PD.

resources for my tech stuff. So we send field tech, we send sysadmins, that work admins, and I came up as a field tech and I did that for, gosh, I was a field tech and a lead tech for 14 years, and then I took over as director about a decade ago. And I only missed one ACP, and it was for a good reason. actually had my graduation at WSU, was on the exact same weekend, and it was a hard call. Am I gonna go Marx or am I gonna go to ACP? don't know, I don't know. WSU went out on that time, so yeah.

I've been going for, yeah, 20, 22 years now somewhere in that ballpark, Mark. And you've been there with me the whole time. Back in the hotel room days, back when the vendors all had hotel rooms.

Marc (09:20)
It is true.

yeah, was, ⁓ I mean, Shelby was there too. ⁓ You know, long time.

Shelby (09:32)
I was, but I will say, you know, as much as we joke about the olden days and the shenanigans that folks got up to, I, I attend a lot of conferences. You know, I got to go to Coeson this year. I go to a lot of library conferences. go to, I went to WIRA. I've been there a few times. There really isn't a conference that I can think of in the, you know, 25 years that I've been doing this work where,

The quality of the professional learning that happens coupled with the intentional networking of this conference, there really isn't anything that compares to it. The size is really important. The relationships that are built at this conference is really important. And ⁓ I just feel like there's there's.

know, even though we've had changes in the board for years and years, I just feel like there's a level of care that goes into curating the experiences that people have at this conference that goes beyond dance floors and electric slides and hotel rooms, the cocktails and things like that. just, I really

Marc (10:38)
⁓

Mechanical bulls.

Derek (10:40)
Mechanical muscle.

Rachel (10:42)
I would like to remind everyone that I am the current record holder on the mechanical both.

Marc (10:47)
Alright,

alright.

Derek (10:47)
My old lead tech, Andrew, might argue with you on that one.

Rachel (10:50)
Don Wolf has the ledger.

Shelby (10:53)
⁓

It's important to say that the quality of the learning that happens at this conference is, it's really incomparable. It's such a gem and so special. And when I go to national conferences like ISTE or regional conferences like NCCE, or even our local, know, statewide or regional library conferences, I just, I feel like the quality is unmatched. It's an amazing conference. It really is.

Marc (11:19)
I a thousand percent agree. mean, my, it's the only conference that I know that for years and years and years for the months leading up to it, I was excited. I was like, I can't wait for this to come. I mean, other conferences were fun. ⁓ there were good opportunities to learn and share and, and do all that. But ACPE was always the one that I was like, I can't wait for this to get here because it wasn't just you learn during the sessions. It was you learn the entire time all day, all night.

you know, with your colleagues, with your friends, and you make some incredible relationships, ⁓ at least in my opinion, ⁓ at the event. So I could agree with you more.

Derek (11:58)
It's hands down the best conference in our region for IT professionals to come together. As far as the networking goes and the connections, like you said, the connections you made, there's people who, you I email on the ACP list and it's like every year look forward to seeing them in person. like, they're actually there. know, in the sessions are all bespoke to what we do, which is amazing. There are friends and our colleagues that are running them. And there is no, there's no conference I've ever been to that has had a better.

networking with peers than ACP. And vendors too, know, just having that time that, you know, having all the vendors in one place that most of us do business with is great. It's awesome to able to walk down the hall and, I need to talk to this guy. There's been so many things I figured out talking to vendors at the conference that otherwise would have been some separate call or something like that. the, you know, the interpersonal connections with peers and the opportunities with the vendors that we have are just, it's just huge. It's absolutely huge. it's

The one thing I will not miss, like my prior trip forms are done like two months ahead of time for this conference.

Yep, no chance of staking.

Shelby (12:58)
Not.

Marc (12:58)
⁓ go ahead Rachel, I'm sorry.

Rachel (13:00)
I'm

to say not only does Derek wear dapper hats, but he gets the Word Nerd Award for this episode, ⁓ dropping in Bespoke.

Derek (13:08)
you like

that?

Rachel (13:09)
And I agree with that as a great way to describe really the heart and the knowledge and the skill and the sharing that just I think over 100 right ACPE members put into getting preparing and sharing during that conference. It's yeah and then the the vendors and our sponsor partners at night so they're able to right like get our full attention instead of us peeling away a minute here or there right.

to leave another session to go talk to them. It's just been, we inherited a conference and a structure that is unique. We've all touched on.

Marc (13:45)
Absolutely.

Shelby (13:47)
I would also say, though, that there has been obvious intentional effort over the last, I know, 10, 12 years to create a community outside of the conference, whether it be through the email, you know, simple email lists or, you know, meetups or discord or whatever. think there's an intentional building of community that I think is one of the aspects that makes this conference so important because it unlike an NCC or an ISTE or COSIN, when I show up at ACPE, I'm looking for people.

and people are looking for me and we're making those connections to continue a conversation not to start a conversation or to try to determine like what's going on with somebody in another district but to continue that conversation in person which i think is really important.

Derek (14:30)
Yeah, just the opportunity to network with people outside on the email list serve, the discord channels, it saved me hundreds of hours of work of not reinventing the wheel because we're all doing the same things. And, you know, I don't know how many.

policy paperwork and, you know, COPPA pages and all the other resources someone else has already done, which I was going to build the exact same thing all over again that I haven't had to do because of this networking and the opportunities that we have. And when I go to other conferences and I meet maybe people that are new to K-12 IT administration, I'm like, you need to get on the ACP list. You need to attend ACP.

If you can, if minimum, try to get on the list or the Discord because you're going to save yourself so much time and resources to be able to talk to all these people that do the exact same work that we do and collaborate with.

Marc (15:21)
It's huge. It's I will say that having been around it, you know, for as long as we all have, it's even funny that we have begun to know who's good, who's really good at what. And so we know that if it's a policy thing or if it's a, you know, cybersecurity thing, or if it's, you know, imaging or whatever it is, we know who to reach out to at this point in time.

⁓ for that help and that's just part of the community. And I do want to transition just a second here, Rachel, if we can, to talk about our community. Because we did have the National CoSN Conference was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago. And ACPE is the local Oregon Washington affiliate chapter for CoSN. And being the local, we were asked to do some volunteering, which people did, which was terrific. But what really happened was ⁓

We had quite a few members come, quite a few members volunteer.

Derek (16:19)
We

Marc (16:20)
Basically the ACPE, don't know, Rachel and Shelby, you were there, can chime in on this, but I feel like our organization spirit was there pretty heavy. Like people could kind of tell. I had a lot of questions, we did our own vests, we did special edition vests that said ACPE, not CoSN and a lot of people were walking up to me and asking,

about our organization just because of what I was wearing and the fact that they were hearing about things. We did a social ⁓ on the very first night at kickoff that was, I think the best attended ⁓ party, let's just say at CoSN of all of them. It was amazing. And with that, I would just like to thank, because in true ACPE fashion, we reached out to the partners that help us put these, help us put our conference on. Can you mind if I just share the list of who helped us at that?

⁓ So Advanced Classroom Technologies, Jar Systems, Juniper, Linewise, Magic School, Managed Methods, Micro K12, Parent Square, Poweragistics, Securely, Technagon, Zao. And then we had a very special guest who was our very own Julia Fallon, who is the executive director of SETA and a stellar DJ. She DJed the event for us and it was at KEL's Irish Pub and Restaurant. So thank you to everybody who pitched in with that.

and helped our ACPE spirit really get out there and spread kind of the word with people from all over the country. It was really amazing.

Rachel (17:46)
It was fantastic. Mark, this was your brainchild and your idea and your sharing is caring spirit. the nerve wracking part, right? And thanks Shelby for showing off the Seahawks jacket that has the ACPE logo on

was, just, that whole couple weeks before we're like, well, we might have four people there, we might have 400 people there, and I counted noses all through the night, and I know that we were definitely over on the 400 side. Maybe not all at the same time, but it was usually, it was like a couple hundred at the same time rolling through the whole evening, and to pull that off ⁓ and to get these sponsors to say, yeah, I'm in, right? And ⁓ it was really, really

really great.

Marc (18:31)
I wasn't alone in this, Rachel. You were very much on the back end of things making this happen. So thank you. And thank you to Shelby and our whole membership who made it to CoSN and our whole membership for making ACPE for what it is, because without that, we wouldn't have been able to share ⁓ just the wonderful organization and the relationships that we have. And it's even gotten to the point where in talking to other organizations in other states,

I talk about exactly what Shelby said, which was kind of how we go about approaching our organization through networking and collegiality and things like that, and how to grow, not that we're perfect, but how to grow their organizations in a similar way and make some of those relationships happen. So thank you. I just wanted to throw that out there really quickly.

Rachel (19:17)
Yes.

speaking of, we'll do a little bit more of a CoSN and recap, and then we'll get back into some of the ACPE

Just shout out to some of our ACPE colleagues. Chris Bailey was in a session with Amy McLaughlin on the business impact

Chris was also on a panel about AI in network administration, using everything from deploying to managing networks. I'm super eager to catch up with him. I wasn't able to attend, super eager to hear more about that. Kathy Echimendi was with Linewise, our friends, Teresa and Adam and team Jordan from Linewise. And they were talking about future proofing student safety and including some of the cool tools in the web filters Linewise being one of those.

Kris Hagel, our all around town, man of the town, new CoSN board member, longtime ACPE member, was the closing keynote moderator, and I thought it was excellent. Chris, it was probably my favorite hour plus of the session, and usually I'm not a big closing panel type of person, but it was a really good conversation on AI and where we're going from here.

And then Mac McMillan from Beaverton School District, cyber in the age of Gen AI also on a panel, Russell Rubrecht from ⁓ Lane ESD in Oregon. And I like went and stalked Russ because he did a panel in eduroam. They're taking the lead in our state on figuring out how to deploy this to their districts. My region is eager and is headed that way next. So I'm trying to. ⁓

take shortcuts and steal like an artist from the work already done there. And then there's a session that I attended that I wanted to spotlight. It wasn't done by ACPE members, but there was a data governance session with Sarah Radcliffe and Kelly Mae Volmer, which I just thought was really good. It's always great to hear how other districts are wrangling process and policy and also not getting in the way of people being able to do their job as we continue to accumulate mountains of data.

So one last quick thing and that is earlier I just opened up Discord because there was a funny moment just this afternoon. So we have a new channel in Discord thanks to Jake Shaw who's one of the originals right he's like hey can we have a programming channel back so we dropped one in there a couple of weeks ago and Joe Towns from Snohomish was talking today about some programming and working with APIs and SQL and dropped this whole block of code in there and

Owen Craig from Nooksack one word reply, what? And I can hear the like, like happiness in that what when I read it, having seen Owen on the list and in his replies over time. And so it was just a really lovely moment, heading into this evening that that sharing and caring, sharing is caring and that spirit that the these all these tools knit us together in before we head to the conference each year. Yeah, but that what?

For two

Marc (22:17)
Well, and you know,

we've been talking about Discord. We talked about it at Cosen quite a bit. And I do believe we intend to still do this. I really hope we do, is open up a channel for our national friends to jump not directly into our entire Discord, but have a channel that is run off our server that we can all engage together. There was a lot of interest when we brought that up and we just need to put that together and get it out there.

And then the other thing worth mentioning in the Discord was this podcast in particular. We talked about how we wanna have relevant topics for our membership and maybe we might use Discord to hear what you wanna talk about and what you want to discuss with us. So we may use Discord for your topical ideas if that works. So.

Rachel (23:04)
definitely watch out for a plugged in channel, the ACPE podcast in discord. I'm also wondering about like a, ⁓ word or connections channel, because I have so many people in my life who have like trash talking channels and griping about.

Marc (23:19)
We have wore the Wordles Nerdles

shirt. We should have wore a Wordles Nerdles shirt.

Rachel (23:25)
So we'll check the temperature on adding a few new channels this spring.

Marc (23:30)
So that's kind of the nuts and bolts stuff. ⁓ And our nice little discussion about ACPE. Should we pick that back up or move into like a little bit of some other things? Rachel, what do you think?

Rachel (23:41)
I kind of wanted to highlight, we're forever, people might that might not know this, this is our first official episode. And

Marc (23:48)
No. And our

guests with us are sitting here slowly sitting through the train wreck.

Rachel (23:55)
⁓ Mark and improv troupe. So it's always going to be a yes and here. And it's school library month. So we we talked about doing some of these like little intro little news clips or things that are notable. And I'm kid who grew up being a library nerd.

Derek (23:57)
I can't stop watching.

Rachel (24:17)
Shelby does have library in her title, I think, has talked about, her job. And so to all the school librarians out there, whether they be technically focused or paper book focused, they're kid focused and learning focused, no matter what, happy school library month.

Marc (24:33)
And it's a scary time for them with budgets where they're at.

Shelby (24:38)
It is.

was just at the Washington Library Association Conference last Friday and Saturday and the pervasive theme throughout sessions and award speeches and keynotes was just the sort of the collective spirit that our library friends need to hold tight to, which is someone referred to them as the sacred keepers of stories.

And that just resonated with me so, so much and so deeply. But also just the heartache that comes with this particular time that we find ourselves in, where it's not just about budget cuts and losing librarians based on FTE and shrinking budgets, but also increasing attacks on freedom to read and intellectual freedom for adults and for students. ⁓

Washington Library Association is a combined association of both public libraries, well, public libraries, academic libraries and school libraries. And to see that many people in a room together just sort of holding their hearts close and taking care of each other in a time that's really ⁓ feeling kind of tragic and hopeless in a lot of ways was really inspiring and also really heartbreaking, you know. I went to a session on fighting book bans.

and the strategy and the leadership around getting your policies in place, being able to have conversations with pressure groups, getting in touch with legislators, having hard conversations with principals, board members, and other leaders within a school system. mean, all of these things are strategies that you know are important, but you don't spend a lot of time talking about unless the environment is.

causing you to have to have those conversations and it's a really, it is a really tough time. echo the hearts out to librarians time during this month.

Marc (26:41)
Yeah, actually, uh, pseudo have librarians under in our department. We, they have their own committee and, but they, kind of speak to the cabinet level and district through us. And I am very fortunate to have a past teacher librarian as a tech Tosa for us, who has been in our department now for nine years, maybe 10. Um, I always joke with Shelby. don't, I'm like your friend Sharon.

⁓ I don't know if Shelby remembers Sharon, but Sharon was the president of Wilma actually one year and just an amazing

Shelby (27:13)
still

comes across my communication channel.

Rachel (27:15)
Okay,

wait, how do you get the cool acronym WILMA? Best Organization.

Shelby (27:19)
I like...

Marc (27:21)
Well,

it's no longer.

Shelby (27:23)
It got absorbed into WLA. So it used to be the Washington Library Media Association. And it was all school librarians. by the way, school librarians can put on a hell of a conference. I mean, close to the chops of ACPE, I will say. If we're going to talk about a bespoke conference, was a big ass conference. Yeah, Wilma got absorbed into the Washington Library Association.

Derek (27:43)
I've heard some stories.

Shelby (27:48)
a number of years back and you know as part of the power and numbers conversation but also just sort of dwindling resources to be able to maintain separate organizations. ⁓

Marc (27:58)
Yeah.

Derek (27:59)
I don't know how we could run a one-to-one program without our amazing librarians like the devices. They're basically adjunct technicians for us. ⁓ On top of all of the other million things that they do, they're just a huge resource and it breaks my heart when I see other districts have to look at budget cuts and loosen those people. We've been very fortunate, least in NTPs so far.

Marc (28:17)
Mm-hmm.

Shelby (28:17)
That's

right.

Rachel (28:19)
⁓ Yeah, so there's another topic kind of that's big this month and I see it in headlines in the national news. see it headlines in the headlines in regional news and in state news. ⁓ Lots of districts discussing cell phones. It was a hot topic last spring as well. And is it the yonder pouches? Is that right? The ones that took off like wildfire.

where this is how we're going to do it. ⁓ Still lots of gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands on what is true, what to do about it, how we feel about it, ⁓ safety now that smacks into learning and mental health considerations and just expectations of parents who like being able to get their kids at any moment during the day and have grown accustomed to that now. So we are...

We're navigating it. I hope that the messages show on the recording.

Shelby (29:16)
Ha

Marc (29:20)
do too, Shelby, you might as well just say it. Now you know why she's covering her face.

Rachel (29:24)
Not about the cell phones, possibly about the cell phones. Maybe not about the cell phones. ⁓

Shelby (29:28)
It's making my eyes water.

Marc (29:30)
Nobody knows what you're talking about.

Shelby (29:32)
My, ⁓ this particular dog that's in my room right now is gassy. don't if he got a special treat earlier today from my son or what the problem is, but she is happy. She's got a treat and she is ⁓ letting it fly. ⁓

Rachel (29:49)
There's a, so speaking of library month, there's a great book called Walter the farting dog. ⁓

Derek (29:56)
yes, my

eight year old loves that one.

Shelby (29:58)
my God.

Marc (30:00)
Also one my favorites was everybody poops. ⁓

Derek (30:05)
Another good one, yep.

Shelby (30:07)
It's really ⁓ bad. ⁓

Rachel (30:12)
Shelby, can we ask the dog's name?

Shelby (30:14)
That is Monday. When she's naughty, we call her Mindy is like alternate personality. So Mindy was the parted.

Rachel (30:17)
Okay. ⁓

Marc (30:19)
case on the Mondays.

Rachel (30:28)
Okay, so Mindy the farting dog may be the subtitle of this episode.

Marc (30:31)
I love it.

Shelby (30:33)
You can cut all of that out. I was trying really hard to like wait for it to so I could be like, hold on, fart, and then you could cut all that stuff out.

Marc (30:40)
This is

not getting cut out. I'm sorry. ⁓ Back to the cell phone things though. When I kind of popped in, you were talking about it, Rachel and Shelby, you were talking about the meeting you were just at, right? Was that correct?

Shelby (30:51)
Yeah, I've been co-facilitating a task force this year to ⁓

right policy and procedure related to limiting personal. We're not so much calling it phones, we're talking about personal devices, inclusive of phones and smartwatches and glasses and angel sense things and laptops and tablets and all the things that are coming to school with our kids. ⁓ And I met with my superintendent yesterday, meet with him fairly regularly, especially on this topic, and I was telling him this is

one of the most challenging leadership assignments I've been given in a really long time. I don't know how much the three of you are spending talking about this topic in your own communities, but the difference of opinion across the continuum about personal devices is ⁓ not surprising, but when you bump into it, when you're trying to write policy and procedure, the passion that people bring to this topic is, well,

kind of alarming in some

Marc (31:56)
And I am curious, Derek, what you're doing, because we're next to each other. So I'm sure you hear as often as I do, what is North Thurston doing? Let's do the same thing.

Derek (32:06)
So I text Mark like, hey, what are you guys doing on this? Like two or three times a week. Northurst, so we went head long into the off and away all day policy. Since the beginning of school, there's been no cell phones in the classrooms. ⁓ It was actually an ask from the teachers union. They really pushed for it. ⁓ And also obviously distractions from instructional.

ramifications that come from kids using their cell phones. Not to say that I don't see some cell phones out in classrooms when I'm out in the building still. ⁓ And the teachers haven't reminded the students of doing that. ⁓ Obviously, there was some pretty significant pushback, just like Shelby mentioned, especially on the parent side of being able to reach my kid, being able to have contact with my kiddo at any given time if I need to get a hold of them. And the district really pushed the messaging of if you need to get a hold of your child, call the office and we will.

track your kid down just like all of us had to do when we were ⁓ going up through school and whatnot. And for us, it's worked out and the kids, the feedback for the most part is a lot of students like that that isn't a factor now. Like the pressure amongst friends to have yourself and not be reached 24 seven, like that some of that is taken off because of the policy. ⁓ There's kids that absolutely hate

Marc (33:19)
it was very interesting. know we don't have a ton of time left, but I really want to steer us back to the conference because I a ⁓ question of our guests and you, Rachel. I just simply, I want to be done today feeling with some warmth in my heart about the conference itself and what your favorite memories are. Like that is really kind of what I'm...

And you know, if there's some censoring that needs to happen, I think that's fine.

Shelby (33:50)
my NS not safer work. ⁓

Marc (33:54)
⁓ but you know, we all have, we've all been there for so long. And, you know, I think of, there's just so many memories, whether they're blurry or not, of the conference. And I just, I love sharing stories with, with people about our times there. ⁓ you know, when it was the parties in the houses and when it became the block party, and then when it was, you know, just the evolution of everything.

⁓ I want to hear it. I want to feel it.

Shelby (34:25)
⁓ I have kind of a collection of favorite memories. They all kind of fall into a category. ⁓ And that is ⁓ bringing new folks to ACPE. There's something really magical about bringing a noob to ACPE and having them experience not the parties and the shenanigans and all of that stuff, but ⁓ it's sort of like... ⁓

don't know, like taking my kid to the toy store for the first time. There's something really special about seeing people's eyes light up because they made a connection with somebody that does what they do. And there aren't many spaces where the nerd, like the true, like deep nerds that I work with, there aren't many spaces in education where they find their people other than in their department. But when we go to ACPE and

Marc (34:52)
I love it.

Shelby (35:17)
you know, one of my, like my email administrator, one of my sysadmins finds his people for the first time. It's like this magical, you know, I took him to Disneyland, you know, and there's all kinds of questions like, how does this work and who are, you know, whatever. And to be able to shepherd somebody's experiences like that is, is really goosey, you know, for me, because it means that we're.

⁓ creating a succession plan. We're creating community that will last beyond the time that we are invested and beyond the time that we're in these roles. And so those are my favorite experiences is bringing new people in, having them excel, and then maybe a year or two later, seeing them be a presenter or running a think tank or contributing to the community in a really productive way. Those are my favorite opportunities.

Marc (36:02)
Part of that, brought a new person last year and it was terrific. And Protector Marc sees him talking to another person that I don't know. And I'm like, who is he talking to? What is happening right now? Should he be talking to this person? And then I'm like, yes, he probably should be talking to this person because they probably did find each other. And it was true. He found another programmer and they had a great conversation. He couldn't wait to tell me all about it.

Derek (36:26)
Thank you.

Rachel (36:28)
I want to hear about chaperone Marc

Derek (36:30)
You're chaperoning us to a drink station.

Shelby (36:35)
Like were you upset that he might be recruited by this other ⁓

Marc (36:38)
No,

no, no, no, I'm just like, who's it does. But no, it was, ⁓ I don't know this person.

Shelby (36:41)
What happens at ACPE?

I

read up! ⁓

Rachel (36:49)
I

would know. No, no, no, no. What I heard there was a little bit of jealousy. Like, wait a second.

Marc (36:53)
no, no, no, no, no, no, I just was like, who's he talking to? Yeah, like nosy, nosy Mark almost like, should I be part of this conversation? Well, I don't know if it was that, but yeah.

Rachel (36:55)
person doesn't know me.

Go Social Marc

Shelby (37:07)
It does make me wonder, ⁓ have we ever had like a newcomer session? This doesn't ring a bell with me.

Rachel (37:14)
to for

a few years at least.

Marc (37:15)
Yeah.

Derek (37:16)
I know we have the women of technology one, but I don't know if we've ever done, I don't remember a newbie one recently at least.

Rachel (37:21)
It was at the mountain. used to ⁓ do, it was like stand up snacks and a kind of here's what the schedule's like. Here's what to expect in the gold showcase. ⁓ Here's what the chips mean and what the economy is. It was back before we had some of the digital tools and the social tools to really get the message out ahead of time. So there was like, it was like a couple tables at the lunch, like the.

the opening lunch after the Wednesday morning activities type of thing.

Shelby (37:51)
In my opinion, as we move forward, and especially as budgets are tight and people can only send like one person, and that person might rotate, it might be interesting to have like ACPE ambassadors or, you know, your friend for the week or something like that where maybe it's not a session that people go to, but maybe it's like, I wear a t-shirt that says ask me questions or I can help you figure out the conference or I know what the chips mean. That might be kind of interesting for folks that are new to the conference.

Marc (37:51)
None about it.

Great idea. Thank you for volunteering yourself.

Rachel (38:21)
Derek. ⁓

Derek (38:24)
Yeah, my side.

We thank you. you know, we'll shall be saying about bringing newbies. That's always awesome, too. I'm going to have, think, one newbie with us this year. And I always like putting the fear of God in that I better see my breakfast in the morning, You better not sleep through breakfast. And then I'm not there.

Shelby (38:36)
You

Marc (38:40)
I think this

last year was the first time I made breakfast. Did you? Like 15 years.

Derek (38:46)
Good, I missed that. You know, it's being, like Shelby mentioned, it's getting to be with your people. Because we get in our little silos. You my team's, I have 17 staff members and we see the same people day in, day out. And it's great to be on the Discord channel. great to have the email list, but being able to sit down and talk with these folks that do what you do. ⁓ My sysadmins being able to talk to other sysadmins and get new ideas and new approaches.

having one of my guys or gals grab me and pull me over at the gold session to some table they want me to talk to somebody because it's a new solution or a new way going at something that we're currently doing. We already have a list of four vendors that we currently don't have relationships with. We are going to find at ACPE and we're going to talk with them and see what their offerings are. ⁓ Just having all of that under one roof is huge. You go to the other conferences and they're spread out across a campus or between buildings.

You know, go to Seattle ISTE or NCCE and it's, you just don't have that, that under one roof place with such great networking and such great collaboration with your peers. Now I remember ACPE is where I've posted my first session. You know, I've done a three or four of them at this point and I did a session on VMS when we were bringing on an exact vision for our cameras. And we were one of the earlier districts to do like a big district wide implementation. And I'm sitting there in the room talking to.

40, 50 of my peers, I'm like, I finally made it. I'm not the 21, 22 year old kid, even like they're listening to me and actually like getting something out of this. And it was really cool to have that checkbox in my IT career, my professional career, and to be able to share some of the experience that we had with the other districts. ACPE is the place to do it. I mean, plain and simple.

Marc (40:30)
Yeah. I mean, I can think that ⁓ Kris Hagel and I did a session last year that was so unstructured that we were walking to the room and he goes, we're talking about AI and don't everybody don't take this the wrong way. And that we were super unprepared. We were super unprepared. ⁓ We definitely were, but it was probably one of my favorite. I've done, don't know how many sessions I've done at ACPE and other conferences, but

We knew that we've known for a while that we had opposing viewpoints when it came to the ethical side of AI. ⁓ And I will say that my viewpoint has changed since then, but we sat down with probably 40 people in a room and we started talking about our particular viewpoints on the use of AI in schools. ⁓ And we started talking about products that were coming out. And it's the first time I have seen

probably close to 20 people come into the session in the middle because people were texting each other saying, hey, come join this session. And like, it was vendors. It was vendors saying, come join the session because they're kind of talking about our product or your product or whatever. But it was such a comfortable session because we said, it's just not me and Chris, it's everybody. Everybody needs to jump in and be part of this. And it really was an authentic learning experience, I think, and discussion experience.

for everybody.

Rachel (41:57)
So this was like, this is the Mark and Kris argue about things. I thought it was coming back this year. I think it should be an annual thing.

Marc (42:01)
Yeah, that you guys did not want this year.

I do too. And I was told no. So if there's space, Kris and I will argue about something. He went skiing in the Alps and I can argue with him about how much that probably isn't as good as Washington. And then I'll lose that argument. So, don't know, Rachel, what are your things?

Rachel (42:23)
So many. It's so people-based and the relationships. And so I know we've touched on that, but I have some specific things. When we were at the resort at the mountain before we moved to Skamania for this next generation of ACPE conferences, my region, our four districts, we used to rent a house. You could say it was a cost savings. Sometimes it were very funky, like on the...

like backside of the golf course, right? There are some that are like ramblers and it was always fun and an adventure. And then we would have coffee together in the morning. It was, you know, we get to see each other fairly regularly in our region. I have the engineering team, That supports the network administrators and systems administrators and then the student information system support team. And so.

Just being able to do some really good team building each year at ACPE was a joy. And then I have to say early on in my ACPE membership, I wasn't on the board, but Michael Wesch was a keynote speaker. And Michael Wesch is the one, he's an ⁓ anthropologist ⁓ kind of studying digital. It was Web 2.0 at the time. He's the one with that video that is the machine is using.

us but it's also like the machine is us talking about the and this was it's 18 years old it has like 18 million views on youtube one of my favorite videos i used it to teach all the time and then i walked into ACPE and he was the keynote speaker and got a selfie with him and then Amber Case and calm tech like we've had some really great keynotes over the years i really appreciate Amber Case's take and it actually kind of touches back on the phones

⁓ But really it's the people, it's the hallways. I love that we had an inaugural Women in Tech session a number of years ago and it was in one of the baby rooms. is again, we were still back at the mat and it was like overflowing and we had to. And it was 5,000 degrees and it was fantastic. then Shelby and Ellen and several of our peers are continuing it on each year and it's just, yes,

Shelby (44:17)
was like 5,000 degrees in there.

Marc (44:29)
By the way, I get super aggressive when I see other people's women in tech things. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, I get to call it that. That's that's Shelby's. And I honestly, I say a lot. And because I'm that is a thing that I am so fiercely proud of of ACPE. It's the first place I saw it. Just the the.

Rachel (44:31)
What are your memories?

Derek (44:42)
You

Marc (44:56)
camaraderie from my viewpoint that I've seen from it is just is truly amazing.

Derek (45:01)
The two women on my staff went to that session. loved it. They also did say that their face was melting off, but they said it great. was like a million degrees in there.

Shelby (45:09)
It was really hot. And I'm not going to take, I will not take credit for starting that effort. Rachel has been a lead in this work for many, many years and definitely an inspiration to me. And I know Rachel has a lot going on on her plate. And so I have tried desperately to try to keep the momentum going. And we've had a couple of ⁓ sort of meetups, if you will, in Zoom these last couple of months. And

I've been very clear with the folks that have shown up that there is no agenda. This is not meant to be like a presentation or a leadership workshop. It's really just a place for people to come and have conversations. And the first couple were a little awkward. We started a ritual called the sharing of the tchotchkes, which was lovely and hilarious, but it wasn't very deep, you ⁓ But I think it set the stage for a comfort level that allowed people to, yes, thank you.

It set the stage for people to kind of open up a little bit and share some things. And this last session that we had in March was lovely. We had a participant share a particular challenge that she was having in her workplace. And the community just swept in and in a lovely, classic ACPE community fashion did not jump into fix, but jumped in to get curious and kind of lean in and support, which I think was a really beautiful.

experience and one that I hope we can continue. We've got another one next week and then we'll be in person at ACPE and then hopefully continue that momentum throughout the year as well.

Rachel (46:41)
Once we get out of this legislative session, cannot wait to join the

Shelby (46:47)
I'm

going to go back to the sharing of the tchotchkes for just a minute because it is. It's it's remarkable to me how how much I thought that I was just the collector of little trinkets around my laptop in this is my home office, but also my office office. And like I have a coaster from Alderbrook.

Marc (46:52)
Use the chips, Rachel. ⁓

Shelby (47:16)
staring at me, you know, just sitting in this little basket that nobody can see. And it doesn't really mean much, but it represents an experience that I had. And one of the lovely things about this ritual, despite its hilarity, I mean, we saw ⁓ appropriate and inappropriate tashkies being shared, but the personality that comes by sharing those things that people don't often see on a screen or get to see in a meeting or even get to see at ACPE because you

you curate your persona and you bring it with you into a meeting or you bring it with you into a space. But when you're vulnerable enough to like share a cat coaster from a hotel, from an ACPE board meeting that was really amazing, that's a very different sharing of something than just, I get to say what I feel comfortable saying at a meeting or a think tank or whatever. So it's important. I think it's important work that we do.

Derek (48:09)
As I was going to say, it's been great the last, again, 22 years I've been going to see our demographics change over, it used to be like 95 % white cisgender males. I felt like, it did, way back in the day. It's to be more reflective of the population that we serve. And I'm super excited that two of them, that attend are on my team and we need more.

Rachel (48:33)
Yeah, We have been quite intentional in trying to make different spaces and even different events and sessions. Yeah. Yeah.

Marc (48:45)
Yes. I wasn't intending to go last, but I am going to go last because I want to talk about the fun things that I love.

Rachel (48:52)
We left that for you.

Derek (48:54)
Yeah

Marc (48:55)
⁓ And this is a fun reminisce for those who may be watching and listening about our old and older times, I should say. I'm just going to say glow in the dark golf ball hitting ⁓ was amazing, which then transitioned into toilet paper roll hitting off a condo deck. That was always fun. ⁓ Jeez, what was another one? ⁓

More recently, and this is the last two years, I would say that probably my favorite social thing that has happened were the tree houses. The tree house event last year was so cool. It was, you know, for those who may be going for the first time or haven't been, who didn't make it last year, we did a late night event ⁓ from about 11 till what was supposed to be one o'clock. And I think it went to like three.

Shelby (49:45)
It's all late.

Marc (49:48)
But you better be.

Rachel (49:49)
I'm gonna take a late afternoon nap.

Marc (49:51)
Yeah. But you know, there was always late night stuff at the conference, but there was usually 30, 40 people, you know, who were really hanging in there at the end. And, you know, I think Rachel kind of pointed it out to me the morning after she goes, there was, there had to been 120 people there just having a wonderful time ⁓ by the fire pits and just enjoying each other's company and kind of back to something that Shelby and Derek both hit on at the very beginning of this episode.

was the same conversations were happening around those fire pits at one o'clock in the morning, where everybody was in a very relaxed and friendly state, a place where people could just jump in and out of conversations, ⁓ you know, and nobody was like, my gosh, you're interrupting or, or why are you talking to us? It was just, I have never at an ACPE seen that many people at an event that late at night, just enjoying the company of each other.

And that was truly a ⁓ really big heartwarming thing for me. But so many other memories, you know, if anybody wants to catch me, I'll share some of my absolute favorites outside of that. ⁓

Derek (51:02)
Offline.

Rachel (51:04)
Is Scotch eggs going to be on that list?

Shelby (51:09)
Wait, is there going to be like a blooper reel for this episode where we talk about the worst food at ACPE?

Marc (51:17)
Well, we did talk about putting a discord channel in

Shelby (51:21)
I am ready.

Marc (51:23)
We'll

bring it. Let's hear it. I want to know. These are our favorite things. Let's hear the worst food.

Shelby (51:29)
OK. It was either the first or second year after the resort was sold to somebody else. I don't know. The kitchen situation changed. And there was like an attempt at ⁓ turning the volume up on like healthy things, vegetarian-y, vegan-y things. And there was a lunch on

Marc (51:36)
Which time?

Shelby (51:56)
the Tuesday, think, where you play bocce ball or whatever. The box lunch on that day ⁓ goes down in history because it included something that my team continues to refer to as the balls. They were supposed to be like protein balls or something, but they were like ⁓ mush nut ball.

spheres. I don't even know what was in them. They were so bad. Like everybody, we all sat around the picnic table and it was sunny and it was beautiful. And we all open up our box lunch and everybody pulls out the balls and we're like, what is this? And then I thought, ⁓ you know, where's a hit and a know, swinging a miss or whatever. So I set my balls aside and I open up the, ⁓ there's like a wrap with grapes and some sort of unidentified brown stuff in it.

And like, you know, points for ⁓ health or whatever, but that was the worst box lunch I've ever had at the resort. Like, give me, can I just have a sandwich? Like, what is this? What is this? And then there was like a, there was like a little cup with a lid on it that had peeled grapes or something in it. Like, who peels their grapes? I don't understand. It was not great. And then that same night, the same kitchen put out a shrimp.

skewers that had been marinating in pineapple all day, and I don't know if you know that there's an enzyme in pineapple that breaks down protein, they were complete mush. yeah, it was really bad.

Rachel (53:28)
Shelby is activated about this. Thankfully in a new facility, we're in a new facility now that we... ⁓ it's so good. Yes.

Shelby (53:36)
And the food is phenomenal.

And you know, the resort had years of wonderful food and then.

Rachel (53:45)
Yep. Yeah. And you have to stir the almond peanut butter, right, Shelby?

Shelby (53:50)
Yes, you have to stir the almond, you have to stir the salad dressing. I'm okay with

Derek (53:55)
I will miss the on the fun side Mark the you know back of the old little place of the resort like the just torrential downpours and we're like in the tents. I'm just thinking we're all gonna get electrocuted here we're all gonna fry.

Marc (53:54)
Ugh.

We

talk about that. That's talked about all the time how the water was running over. It was a great box. Yeah. Like right over the power. That was the year that the dance floor was out on the, was out in the parking lot and the wall. was just wet. Yeah. And it was, and people were just falling everywhere because you just, it was so slippery. Um,

Shelby (54:29)
stupid me one of those years that it was all soggy like that the only footwear I brought for the whole thing were flip-flops. feet were so disgusting by the time I leave the event that night.

Marc (54:35)
That sounds like something I would do.

Derek (54:44)
I

think like 25 districts are going to lose their directors in like one fell swoop here. That electrical connection makes it to that flop bottle. ⁓

Marc (54:53)
No more. more.

Shelby (54:54)
We

don't do that. That doesn't happen at Skamania

Derek (54:57)
Yeah, that is an evidence committee. We're moving on now. We got roofs over our heads. Even the outdoor area has a roof. I come on. We have pavilions, yeah, because we're fancy IT folk now. marshmallow kits and everything.

Shelby (55:02)
We have pavilions

Marc (55:09)
Well, as a little bit of a teaser for folks, we're going to be using a different pavilion this year, not the lower one, but the upper one by the golf course, because it's a little closer. Okay. Also has a fire pit. And we're going to move some fun stuff out there that I think gives us some more space for dancing and singing. So excited to yes, Rachel, sorry.

Rachel (55:31)
⁓ So I think now that we have like a solid base of electric slide, I think this year we need to introduce the hustle. ⁓

Shelby (55:39)
Yes.

Marc (55:40)
You are absolutely

overestimating whether people are gonna like I'm not doing the electric slide or the hustle.

Shelby (55:47)
Yeah, that's better.

Rachel (55:47)
That's

because you're Mark and we like, you to Marc

Derek (55:49)
If you wait until late enough, maybe not.

Shelby (55:53)
suggest that you post videos of these the dances so that people who don't normally do them can practice them?

Rachel (56:00)
That

I, Shelby, thanks for reading my mind that I have two of them starred that I am going to put in the, the channels open up this next week. ⁓

Shelby (56:10)
You sent me one a few years before we went to this committee and you're like, we're going to do this at ACPE. And I'm like, great. And I watched the video. I'm like, what the f**k is this? I'm not coordinated enough to do any of

Derek (56:21)
Especially three hours into the evening.

Rachel (56:23)
It gets better. It gets a lot better.

Derek (56:27)
Man, I really nailed that. Man, that was good.

Marc (56:29)
I'd be impressed if the four of us learned how to do some sort of like Irish, you know, dancing thing. That was how we just like Michael Flatley, the Lord of the dance.

Shelby (56:35)
What is wrong with you?

Derek (56:36)
break an ankle man

I can't do that sober.

Rachel (56:44)
Mark, your jacket is meant for the hustle, right? It's your John Travolta go to no moment.

Shelby (56:49)
I will see you at

Marc (56:49)
You

should see the pants.

Rachel (56:51)
It is programming.

Shelby (56:54)
I wait.

I did buy some more appropriate footwear that has maybe some sparkle to it.

Marc (56:59)
Yeah,

everybody you're supposed to bring sparkles. I might if I'm lucky, I might have a fur coat.

Rachel (57:05)
Shine on.

Derek (57:06)
You might. You're gonna- Come on. Yeah, like-

Rachel (57:08)
It be like a sweat ball.

Marc (57:09)
All right. Yes, Derek, you're absolutely correct. I do have like three of them.

Derek (57:13)
Don't lie to your friends. Come on,

Marc (57:15)
But this one, if I were not to the tree houses, I might get mistaken for a bear.

Derek (57:20)
Which is

Marc (57:22)
I really do hope it's here. It's gonna be awesome.

Derek (57:25)
Sparkles, I had no idea. didn't get the memo on that, so it's good to know.

Marc (57:28)
Yeah,

spark

Rachel (57:29)
Yep.

And there we just Jennifer and I met this afternoon and she's got her Jennifer Clouser's the president of ACPE and the president like your job. The only power that you really get as president is you get to like lead the conference and she has such an amazing vision and dream for this and the spirit of it. So those week before emails, right, that kind of lay out what's what are in the can ready to go as of this afternoon. So you'll hear all about the sparkles

and things on multiple ⁓ channels.

Derek (58:03)
We'll start the dazzling in earnest.

Marc (58:04)
I'll let you wear my disco ball helmet.

Derek (58:07)
So good to me.

Shelby (58:09)
excited to see at the end of the night the trail of like sequins that fell off people's jackets and the gobbled little gems that fell off.

Derek (58:19)
It'll be easier to find him in the bushes.

Shelby (58:21)
going to breakfast with like a sparkle stuck to their face or something. I'm so excited.

Marc (58:25)
So I've never had the pleasure of wearing something that's just been super sequins. And so I wore it at an RTM, which happened to be St. Patrick's day. And then I wore it a CoSN just kind of as a thing to like promote ACPE. I have never had so many people, strangers touch me, just start like rubbing me like down my arm. And even when I was like, they were like this jacket's so great. like, you know what the best part of it is, is when complete strangers just start touching you.

Shelby (58:43)
⁓

Marc (58:54)
and

And it just like right over, right over the head. They're like just nodding. They're like, uh-huh. like,

Derek (59:02)
Oh boy. Oh boy.

Shelby (59:03)
Do we need to have ACPE rules about not touching people's sequins?

Marc (59:06)
I'm not going to say that we need the rules.

Shelby (59:10)
Yeah, just ask permission before you

Rachel (59:13)
But if there's a FERC-

Marc (59:14)
I, yeah, the first

Rachel (59:16)
coats and boas and things like that. That's hard. like tactile. Like tactile people are going to be like, and asking permission is always, always

Shelby (59:20)
You're right.

Rachel (59:29)
my gosh, Derek and Shelby, this is has exceeded. I'm speaking for Marc and me, but I think I feel confident saying this has exceeded any expectation that we might have had about this evening. And what perfect first guests.

Shelby (59:47)
So

I'm grateful for the invitation. Thank you for the opportunity.

Derek (59:50)
happy to be here. is

Marc (59:52)
Well,

I mean, I'll see you guys in three weeks, right? so much fun.

Shelby (59:58)
It's gonna be.

Marc (59:59)
to be a long one. One three weeks, Okay, well thank you all so very much.

Derek (1:00:01)
Yes.

Rachel (1:00:03)
you at the lodge.

Derek (1:00:06)
See everyone at the lodge. Yeah. All right, friends.

Marc (1:00:09)
Rachel, we don't have like a sign off. Are we supposed to have like a sign off?

Rachel (1:00:12)
Well, we have like 12 pilot episodes to figure this out Marc Elliott. So get your brain thinking on a sign off.

Derek (1:00:12)
Is there like listener mail or something?

Marc (1:00:19)
Okay, well again, thank you. Thank you for anybody who made it this far watching and listening. ⁓ And we'll see everybody in a few weeks. Can't wait.