So

pleasure.

That'd be

fun.

I know.

And then my brother, whatever my other brother in law just had my niece.

So I mean it's very good for me.

Oh, that's right.

Maybe that

lots a little slow.

So it is five nuts.

All righty.

Almost ready.

Oh

yeah, sorry, no gavel, because it's

alright.

You can use a donut.

Okay.

I know the side

done.

And

it's

six o'clock.

Okay.

Well, good evening, everybody.

Thank you so much for being here and joining us in this um change of venue.

Uh, this is our join city council uh retreat on July 30th on 20 uh 26.

I will remind folks that we are recording and that this will be posted uh live to the website sometime soon.

I wanted to reiterate and just also add a couple of uh wishes for today.

We had talked about at the end of our um early year retreat.

Was that the end of January or end of February?

And figured, sorry, thank you, about how getting into different space, getting down on the floor and the same level as everybody else, and having the opportunity to have some ad hoc or informal conversation in small groups, really added to our communication, getting to know one another and realizing that we are going to be working together as a team uh for the next two years, if not longer.

And I wanted to continue that opportunity to make sure that we could be uh a cohesive group that understood the strengths and weaknesses that we brought to the team, the different communication styles, uh your outlook perhaps even on life in some ways, knowing that we're heading into our big B budget season, which means we're gonna put together a budget for the next two years, not forever, but for the next two years.

And I really felt like many of our conversations at that retreat really honed in and focused on the fact that we have a lot of alignment when it comes to budget, some of our wishes, our desires, being able to confront some of the realities as well.

And I really find that that's a time that um if we could find our cohesion, that would be one of the topics.

And it's also one of the bigger challenges that we have as a council that we have direct direct control over.

Like I would say um, in the top two things that we do, uh creating the budget is probably number one, make sure city manager is here and functioning as number two, right?

Because budget will go on whether or not we have a city manager.

So because of that importance, um, we sat down and said, let's come up with some more opportunities for us to uh come together as a group, uh, have some chances to share, get to know each other, and then really be able to drill down on some of the work ahead of us when it comes to that big budget season.

So thank

you.

Oh, well, you refer it you there.

Okay, sorry.

So I mean you all saw my email today.

I know this is a little different.

There's some apprehension of what's gonna happen, why are there blocks?

Um

this is something that really I heard from you all universally in February is you wanted more opportunities for things that weren't a script agenda, more opportunities to spend time together in a way that didn't feel so formal.

Um, this is a tool that I did use for many years in Texas, and we enjoyed it.

I thought it gave us a common language to say Robin is a red, and we all know how reds are a loving way because everybody's multi-dimensional.

Um

if this is not your jam, give me that feedback after.

We'll make sure I'll take that into consideration.

Um, but it's really just meant to be an opportunity for you all to kind of um talk about communication and decision making uh in a way that I think is a little more fun but just having a conversation about governance.

So Kelly is our facilitator today.

She's been doing this for a long, long time.

Uh and so she has been through the ropes and and knows what apprehension is, you know, how to deal with that and everything.

So

um, we're gonna turn it over to her.

Amazing.