WEBVTT 00:00:00.354 --> 00:00:09.742 - Hi, everyone. Thanks for making it. It is February 11, 2026. And this is the meeting of the Bloomington 00:00:09.742 --> 00:00:18.950 - Urban Enterprise Association. We do have quorum. And yeah, go for it, Heather. Hi, welcome, everyone. 00:00:18.950 --> 00:00:29.150 - Thanks for being here today. We will start with roll call. Kate, you want to kick us off with roll call, please? 00:00:30.466 --> 00:00:41.420 - Hey, Rosa Barger. How are you? Felisa. Hi, Felisa Spinelli. Michael Hoever. Brad Whistler. Heather Robinson. 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:51.570 - B-U-E-A. Teagan Garner. Little louder. Teagan Garner. Say staff. Staff. Sorry. Did you know it's OK? 00:00:51.570 --> 00:01:00.414 - We didn't give you the two first notes on that one. Two first time. D. Del Rosa, staff. 00:01:00.994 --> 00:01:09.440 - Jane Coopersmith, BUBA. And then we have Emma Yoder, CBFI-friendly. And Brad? Brad. I'm Brad McConnell 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:17.804 - from LICB Business. Great. Is it too of a form if I step out for a call? I'm sorry. There's an urgent 00:01:17.804 --> 00:01:26.168 - item. If not, that's OK. I'll just call them later. Sorry. There was an emergency. Sorry. Sorry. Once 00:01:26.168 --> 00:01:29.694 - we get through the minutes, then yeah. OK. 00:01:30.594 --> 00:01:39.367 - 12 minutes. All right. December minutes. Did anyone have any questions, comments, corrections to the 00:01:39.367 --> 00:01:48.140 - minutes? Bless you. If I'm hearing nothing, I will ask for an approval and we will need to do a roll 00:01:48.140 --> 00:01:56.217 - call on that as well since we have folks online. So again, Kate, do you want to lead us off? 00:01:56.217 --> 00:01:58.302 - Kate Rothenberger, yes. 00:02:01.602 --> 00:02:10.181 - Melissa Spivali, yes. Michael Hover, yes. Brad Whistler, abstain. I wasn't here for that meeting, so 00:02:10.181 --> 00:02:18.760 - I can't tell you. You were. It was December. Oh, this was December. It was the budget approval. Yes, 00:02:18.760 --> 00:02:27.849 - yes. Heather Robinson. Yes. OK. Heather Robinson, yes. Jane Goober says yes. All right. And it's approved. 00:02:27.849 --> 00:02:30.142 - Oh, is it really approved? 00:02:30.434 --> 00:02:40.326 - You can't talk about business if you don't have a quorum. It's okay. Thank you for trying to accommodate. 00:02:40.326 --> 00:02:45.086 - A lot of things going on today. Director's report. 00:02:45.858 --> 00:02:54.941 - Some general updates. Working on the loan conversion program right now. We do have six applicants. I'm 00:02:54.941 --> 00:03:04.288 - slowly working through redacting information to get it to our little advisory committee. So still working 00:03:04.288 --> 00:03:13.370 - on that. We do have a BUBA board calendar. I have worked that out and it is in the online pack and I'm 00:03:13.370 --> 00:03:15.134 - sorry I did not get 00:03:15.522 --> 00:03:21.953 - copies of it to you. But my general question is whether you would like a living calendar, and you don't 00:03:21.953 --> 00:03:28.384 - have to decide now, or just like a static spreadsheet that I can get to all of you. So just think about 00:03:28.384 --> 00:03:34.753 - what works best for you all and I'll make that happen. And I can accommodate each of you individually, 00:03:34.753 --> 00:03:36.670 - however you'd like to do that. 00:03:37.026 --> 00:03:47.654 - So in progress, we have some changes to the consultant RFQ that is on the calendar today for me to present 00:03:47.654 --> 00:03:57.885 - or at least share. We've changed that up a little bit because I would like to introduce Tegan Gardner. 00:03:57.885 --> 00:04:03.646 - She is my O'Neill fellow for the rest of this year, next. 00:04:03.842 --> 00:04:12.208 - Highly capable and has been absolutely wonderful and helping me getting bored documents organized. Just 00:04:12.208 --> 00:04:20.413 - helping me get myself together. So it looks like we don't actually need necessarily the position that 00:04:20.413 --> 00:04:23.550 - we agreed upon in the budget. However, 00:04:23.810 --> 00:04:31.141 - I will probably need assistance with the marketing aspect that we've talked about many times. So because 00:04:31.141 --> 00:04:38.401 - it is in the budget, I will be asking the board to approve a change to that budget line for a marketing 00:04:38.401 --> 00:04:45.732 - assistant since we do have the administrative assistant covered. And the hope is that you'll mark you'll 00:04:45.732 --> 00:04:52.574 - focus on marketing since you've determined you don't have an operations administrative need. Yes. 00:04:52.994 --> 00:04:59.979 - will grow grant participation and will grow, hopefully, revenue through? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that 00:04:59.979 --> 00:05:06.427 - having someone who can help me constantly get the word out about these grants and scholarships, 00:05:06.427 --> 00:05:13.211 - because A, spending the money is what this is kind of about, and B, getting people to see what we do 00:05:13.211 --> 00:05:20.062 - so that they will be more willing to participate as far as our EZ program would be absolutely lovely. 00:05:20.866 --> 00:05:27.713 - What else is in progress? We're working on ease of reminders and invoices. Hopefully we'll be sending 00:05:27.713 --> 00:05:34.627 - them at the beginning of March. We'll say it's the second week of March. Those are a little bit harder 00:05:34.627 --> 00:05:41.340 - to get together sometimes. But what we do with that, if you're not familiar, actually I'll just say 00:05:41.340 --> 00:05:42.078 - it because 00:05:42.274 --> 00:05:49.327 - You might not know of Dagen. How we get our revenue is through the enterprise zone investment deduction 00:05:49.327 --> 00:05:56.244 - program. Certain businesses participate within the zone and it works sort of like a tax payment where 00:05:56.244 --> 00:06:03.161 - they get an 80% discount and we get the other 20% to make like grants and scholarships and that's how 00:06:03.161 --> 00:06:10.079 - we're funding. We send out communications and correspondence to remind people that this is coming up. 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:11.774 - It's very much courtesy. 00:06:12.002 --> 00:06:21.912 - to do that, but we get response from it and we'd like to get that revenue so we can continue to do the 00:06:21.912 --> 00:06:31.630 - work that we do. Additionally, I have mentioned many times that we have a very tight quorum now that 00:06:31.630 --> 00:06:39.038 - Mary's term is up and Phil has resigned and we've also always had a resonant 00:06:39.522 --> 00:06:48.405 - seat open. Please, if you have any recommendations, please have people apply. They do need to be residents 00:06:48.405 --> 00:06:57.122 - within the zone. So we are looking, as far as the council appointments, they need to be of two different 00:06:57.122 --> 00:07:05.590 - political parties. It doesn't matter what the political parties are, but each resident has to be from 00:07:05.590 --> 00:07:07.998 - a different political party. 00:07:08.514 --> 00:07:18.972 - Then we also have, I'm also working on a downtown action plan. It's still in its draft phase. It's with 00:07:18.972 --> 00:07:28.122 - the consultant right now. This is a project to revitalize the downtown through programming 00:07:28.122 --> 00:07:31.742 - and not necessarily infrastructure. 00:07:32.002 --> 00:07:39.865 - So a lot of business involvement, community involvement. So we're working on a draft of this with Downtown 00:07:39.865 --> 00:07:47.287 - Bloomington, Inc. The consultant that we are working with is Downtown Strategies, which is a part of 00:07:47.287 --> 00:07:55.150 - Retail Strategies, who helped us implement a small business technical assistance program. It's all online. 00:07:55.150 --> 00:07:59.486 - So people and residents have been utilizing that, and it's 00:07:59.650 --> 00:08:07.094 - It's been really great. And I've taken the course and it's fantastic. So if you're interested, I am 00:08:07.094 --> 00:08:14.910 - happy to talk to you about it. We have that service for free to all residents of the city of Bloomington 00:08:14.910 --> 00:08:22.353 - until August of 2026. So they've helped us with this action plan. They do this in several different 00:08:22.353 --> 00:08:28.606 - cities. They've done this with all sorts of college towns. And so it's very robust. 00:08:28.738 --> 00:08:34.952 - There are some things that are very, very bite-sized for the community. There are things that are much 00:08:34.952 --> 00:08:41.347 - larger that are policy changes that could really help revitalize the downtown. So once that final version 00:08:41.347 --> 00:08:47.622 - is available and presented by DBI, I would like to give a presentation to the BUEA because I think that 00:08:47.622 --> 00:08:51.966 - this organization could do a lot of really great work within that plan. 00:08:52.610 --> 00:09:00.806 - Other than that, unfortunately, we will not have a financial report today. There were some transactions 00:09:00.806 --> 00:09:09.001 - that need to be finalized and Cheryl is under the weather, so we will not be having that. We were going 00:09:09.001 --> 00:09:10.814 - to push that to March. 00:09:11.042 --> 00:09:18.093 - Does anyone have any questions about anything before I ask the board, once again, to vote on changing 00:09:18.093 --> 00:09:25.074 - the budget? Yeah, just to back up a little bit. I know we did a roll call on minutes, but didn't you 00:09:25.074 --> 00:09:31.848 - need an approval before? Oh, sorry. Oh, do we? Sorry. Did I not get a first? I motion to approve. 00:09:31.848 --> 00:09:35.166 - Thank you. Sorry. We need a second. Second. OK. 00:09:35.394 --> 00:09:43.071 - great. We had the roll call. May the minutes reflect the first and the second on that. Sorry, amount 00:09:43.071 --> 00:09:50.749 - of practice. We didn't meet last one. Yeah, we are a little rusty coming back. I did have a question 00:09:50.749 --> 00:09:56.830 - on, well, actually, let me back up as well. One quick thing. I know Mary Morgan 00:09:57.058 --> 00:10:04.237 - her term ended, and so she's decided not to continue on the BUAA board. And she's not with us today. 00:10:04.237 --> 00:10:11.345 - And since we didn't get to meet last month, which would have been her last meeting, I just want for 00:10:11.345 --> 00:10:18.453 - the minutes to acknowledge Mary and the work that she's done on the committee and just to thank her 00:10:18.453 --> 00:10:22.078 - publicly for her time and all of the work that she 00:10:22.274 --> 00:10:29.975 - she has done for the BUBA and we wish her well and hope to see her again in other capacities. So just 00:10:29.975 --> 00:10:37.826 - a thanks to Mary noted for the minutes. That does actually bring up one more item that I forgot to add. 00:10:37.826 --> 00:10:45.527 - Mary was the secretary of this board. We will need to elect a new secretary. However, I would like to 00:10:45.527 --> 00:10:48.094 - wait until we have the additional 00:10:48.674 --> 00:10:56.496 - board members before we do that. I think that we can probably go at least one meeting without that happening. 00:10:56.496 --> 00:11:03.820 - Okay. But, um, regardless by April, we will have to probably make a decision on that. Okay. That seems 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:11.998 - good. Yeah. Um, and then I do have a question. I know you're looking for an approval to change the budget. So the, 00:11:12.226 --> 00:11:21.094 - The budget for the admin originally was $25,000. Am I remembering that correctly? OK. And I see you 00:11:21.094 --> 00:11:30.495 - have the draft in here for what you're seeking for either a marketing assistant or potentially contracted 00:11:30.495 --> 00:11:39.541 - services. Is that fair to say? That's within the realm of reason, for sure. OK. And so I wonder, does 00:11:39.541 --> 00:11:41.758 - it make sense for us to, 00:11:42.050 --> 00:11:49.641 - approve the change today, which I mean, the money essentially is already allocated, you know, through 00:11:49.641 --> 00:11:57.380 - the budget, because you don't know exactly what you might end up like as you cast the net, so to speak, 00:11:57.380 --> 00:12:04.971 - which may be, you know, a person who does marketing out of their home, it might be, you know, a local 00:12:04.971 --> 00:12:08.766 - firm that does some work. And so depending on what 00:12:09.538 --> 00:12:17.703 - that result is it may change the need. So I don't know. I'm not trying to hamstring you. I'm just asking 00:12:17.703 --> 00:12:25.634 - the question. So if you come up with a firm who can do this work for you, but they say, oh, hey, this 00:12:25.634 --> 00:12:33.565 - is going to be $35,000 to do that, but we can do all of this and more potentially, do we want to then 00:12:33.565 --> 00:12:35.198 - have to come back to 00:12:35.842 --> 00:12:42.653 - to maybe make another adjustment. That's my only thoughts. I see what you're saying. So would it be 00:12:42.653 --> 00:12:49.873 - better to have Dee move through the RFP process and then come back to affirm? Yes, once she's identified. 00:12:49.873 --> 00:12:56.957 - Because I understand this isn't going to be a city employee, correct? Correct. So that to me then makes 00:12:56.957 --> 00:13:00.158 - it a little bit uncertain as to what you might 00:13:00.418 --> 00:13:08.601 - you know, find in the resources you need. So really I want to just offer the flexibility to seek out 00:13:08.601 --> 00:13:17.027 - what's needed versus. I'm happy to go through the RFP process and then come back to the board with what 00:13:17.027 --> 00:13:25.209 - may be the max goal. I know that within the RFP sometimes, I think sometimes I have to state what my 00:13:25.209 --> 00:13:28.126 - cap is or something to that effect. 00:13:29.154 --> 00:13:34.186 - Or is that old procurement process? I'm not... Let's talk to the controller's office about what has 00:13:34.186 --> 00:13:39.320 - to be indicated. I've only done a couple of them so... If you have to indicate a number, just it will 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:44.453 - indicate the budget number that was approved. Okay, for sure. Okay. All right. Just offering that, is 00:13:44.453 --> 00:13:49.686 - that helpful? I guess that's... Yeah, I actually hadn't really thought of it that way, but yes, I think 00:13:49.686 --> 00:13:53.662 - that that would probably be helpful instead of having to do two motions. Okay. 00:13:53.890 --> 00:14:02.972 - So changing it and then coming back for more money if the board is okay Okay. All right. Great. 00:14:02.972 --> 00:14:12.433 - Good deal. Thanks All right. Well then Since we've gotten through that and we don't have financials 00:14:12.433 --> 00:14:22.366 - then I guess allies for community business and CDFI can take it away My name is Emily I work at CDFI and 00:14:23.650 --> 00:14:29.169 - Yeah, if you don't know anything about us or you just need a refresher, we are a nonprofit 00:14:29.169 --> 00:14:35.718 - here in Bloomington that connects small businesses, affordable housing developers, and child care providers 00:14:35.718 --> 00:14:36.446 - with CDFIs. 00:14:36.578 --> 00:14:43.232 - which are community development financial institutions. And they specialize in flexible, affordable 00:14:43.232 --> 00:14:50.085 - loans for underserved communities. So we're trying to bring those CDFIs here. And we've partnered with 00:14:50.085 --> 00:14:57.271 - Brad at Allies for Community Business. And he is the CEO there. And he's going to give a short presentation 00:14:57.271 --> 00:15:04.058 - on what they do and how we're partnering with them with our loan. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you 00:15:04.058 --> 00:15:05.854 - to all of you for the time 00:15:06.178 --> 00:15:11.725 - Um, what I propose to do is then somewhere between five and seven minutes walking through what we do 00:15:11.725 --> 00:15:17.271 - and how we do it and then stop. And then to the extent they'd like to have a discussion about any of 00:15:17.271 --> 00:15:22.763 - those points, I'd be delighted to do so. But obviously I'll be respectful of your time since you've 00:15:22.763 --> 00:15:28.090 - been so graceful, uh, in allowing me to just take it all. So I'll begin by sharing a screen, uh, 00:15:28.090 --> 00:15:31.934 - which I will, uh, ask if you can give us this too, please. Thank you. 00:15:42.594 --> 00:15:49.239 - Do you see that? Yes. So start, as always, with who A4CB is and what we do. Our vision is that entrepreneurs 00:15:49.239 --> 00:15:55.397 - from any background, any background at all, can start to grow a business that can create true wealth 00:15:55.397 --> 00:16:01.494 - for their families and their communities. And importantly, our mission here is to provide all three 00:16:01.494 --> 00:16:07.651 - of the capital and the coaching and the connections that entrepreneurs need to grow great businesses 00:16:07.651 --> 00:16:11.614 - for jobs for all their communities. So since the pandemic began, 00:16:11.810 --> 00:16:18.736 - talking just this 2020, we've dispersed about $8 million and helped 25,000 businesses with our coaching, 00:16:18.736 --> 00:16:25.465 - over 36,000 businesses and funding. We serve all of Illinois and Indiana, and we're based in Chicago. 00:16:25.465 --> 00:16:32.193 - And frankly, in my humble opinion, an overweighted amount of those dollars have gone to Illinois. And 00:16:32.193 --> 00:16:39.185 - I'm taking it by myself, we have much more of our work focused on Indiana. And there's one of the reasons 00:16:39.185 --> 00:16:41.758 - why I'm delighted that we partner with 00:16:42.114 --> 00:16:47.372 - Emma John and the rest of the folks at CBET-Friendly Bloomington, the same way we're doing in Evansville 00:16:47.372 --> 00:16:52.529 - and in South Bend and in Michigan City and in Gary and other places, where we recognize that there are 00:16:52.529 --> 00:16:57.587 - entrepreneurs that A4CB doesn't directly reach because we're not physically present, and yet we want 00:16:57.587 --> 00:17:02.695 - to serve, and therefore we need to partner with people like yourselves who know the entrepreneurs and 00:17:02.695 --> 00:17:07.752 - know the area, and we can be there right behind you in order to provide these services. So it's like 00:17:07.752 --> 00:17:09.054 - all the services are now, 00:17:09.218 --> 00:17:14.658 - And again, I'll do this quickly, and then we'll go to whatever questions you'd like. So the capital 00:17:14.658 --> 00:17:20.424 - we provide is a form of loans and grants. We provide a lot of money and grants in partnership with either 00:17:20.424 --> 00:17:26.190 - governmental entities or philanthropic entities, banks, whoever wants to get free money, an entrepreneur, 00:17:26.190 --> 00:17:31.957 - we're here to make sure it happens as a program administrator. But we spend most of the time here talking 00:17:31.957 --> 00:17:38.430 - about our lending. And our loans are between $500 and $500,000. And we do so in a way that's a lot different than most 00:17:38.754 --> 00:17:45.516 - lenders because we're not a heavily regulated financial institution in the way that classic banks and 00:17:45.516 --> 00:17:52.279 - credit unions are. We can be more flexible, and I'll tell you how we go about using that flexibility. 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:58.908 - So let's start with the fact that we don't use credit scores at all. We don't put liens on cars and 00:17:58.908 --> 00:18:05.737 - houses. It leads up to $250,000. We look at how well the entrepreneur, the business owner, has managed 00:18:05.737 --> 00:18:08.190 - their debts over the last two years. 00:18:08.418 --> 00:18:13.790 - And whether there's a plausible path based on the cash flow of the business, to be able to repay us. 00:18:13.790 --> 00:18:19.215 - That's how we do it. We'll talk more in detail about that in a second. We're quite happy to work with 00:18:19.215 --> 00:18:24.587 - folks who have ITINs around social security numbers, who need smaller loans that banks typically can 00:18:24.587 --> 00:18:30.065 - provide, who don't have great credit, collateral and such. And we try very hard to be fast. We totally 00:18:30.065 --> 00:18:35.384 - recognize that our competition, in our view, is not the traditional bank branch. If you need a loan 00:18:35.384 --> 00:18:37.086 - from a bank, you should get it. 00:18:37.410 --> 00:18:42.220 - because you want that long-term relationship. We'll help entrepreneurs get connected to banks that we 00:18:42.220 --> 00:18:47.361 - think will be eligible. Our competition is the online lenders who typically hedge fund back, fintech-driven, 00:18:47.361 --> 00:18:52.218 - who will provide you with quick money, but they won't tell you how much it's going to cost in a really 00:18:52.218 --> 00:18:57.406 - transparent way until you get down to fine prints. And then you're going to struggle to repay that typically. 00:18:57.406 --> 00:19:02.452 - We've seen it over and over again. So we need to be fast and present wherever we can be online and offline 00:19:02.452 --> 00:19:07.262 - for entrepreneurs. So they borrow from us instead of from those other options because we will provide 00:19:08.194 --> 00:19:13.402 - mission-focused pricing in a way that retains the wealth with the entrepreneur, rather than extracting 00:19:13.402 --> 00:19:18.712 - the wealth and taking it elsewhere. So our APRs will range from 6% to 15%, just depending on what you're 00:19:18.712 --> 00:19:23.870 - trying to do. We'll always talk about, first, what an entrepreneur's trying to do, and what structure 00:19:23.870 --> 00:19:28.977 - is best for them. We'll talk about more details in a second. And then we'll tell them upfront, okay, 00:19:28.977 --> 00:19:34.286 - given that, here's how much it's gonna cost. Is that interesting to you? And if so, we'll proceed. Okay, 00:19:34.286 --> 00:19:37.118 - first of all, I should say, all of this is at a4cb.org. 00:19:37.474 --> 00:19:43.321 - where we list every single word of our credit policy, all the services we provide, so that any entrepreneur 00:19:43.321 --> 00:19:48.843 - who wants to, if they feel like it, can figure out for themselves how they're talking to us, how much 00:19:48.843 --> 00:19:54.365 - should they be eligible for, and what structures are available, what price that would be, in order to 00:19:54.365 --> 00:19:59.995 - be kind of as present and as transparent as it possibly can be with everybody they're seeking to serve. 00:19:59.995 --> 00:20:05.409 - So, when I went here briefly, specifically for Bloomington, the relationship we have built with CFI 00:20:05.409 --> 00:20:07.358 - and Bloomington, and I'll note that 00:20:07.522 --> 00:20:12.688 - different than we recently made a $50,000 investment in us, which we're going to repay at 2% interest. 00:20:12.688 --> 00:20:17.704 - So we can take those dollars and plow those dollars into the entrepreneurs we want to lend to. So I 00:20:17.704 --> 00:20:22.920 - view that as really important and interesting seed capital. But know that we're going to bring in money 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:27.935 - from elsewhere and we're going to serve absolutely everybody we can in the greater Bloomington area 00:20:27.935 --> 00:20:32.951 - using other funds as necessary in order to make sure that everybody who's available to us to serve, 00:20:32.951 --> 00:20:37.214 - we can serve. So we're not limited by the $50,000, but it's a very, very good start. 00:20:37.570 --> 00:20:42.808 - so it gets moving. Okay, so how do we do our lending? Three types. Term loans, it's functionally kind 00:20:42.808 --> 00:20:47.994 - of you can think about like a mortgage, where it's you get all the money up front, repay it, and fix 00:20:47.994 --> 00:20:53.232 - the basis all the way through until it's fully advertised to the last payment. Lines of credit, which 00:20:53.232 --> 00:20:58.573 - function more like a credit card, you can borrow, repay, borrow, repay, borrow, repay. Or revenue-based 00:20:58.573 --> 00:21:04.478 - financing, which is very different, in which you get all the money up front, but you pay back on a variable basis, 00:21:05.058 --> 00:21:10.275 - each month depending on how much you earned the previous month. So in that case, for growth businesses, 00:21:10.275 --> 00:21:15.341 - we're trying to match the dollar they need to repay to us with the speed at which they're generating 00:21:15.341 --> 00:21:20.607 - the revenues. And if they have a bad month, pay us very little. If they have a great month, pay us more. 00:21:20.607 --> 00:21:25.724 - And that way, we match their on cash flow basis with the needs of that entrepreneur. So I'll talk for 00:21:25.724 --> 00:21:30.840 - a minute about how does we evaluate for these entrepreneurs? What does it be also for? As I mentioned 00:21:30.840 --> 00:21:32.094 - before, we're looking at 00:21:32.642 --> 00:21:37.440 - your credit over the last two years, and you're available on cash. This is how, and I won't drain all 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:42.379 - this detail, because I'm gonna share this presentation with you afterwards, so you have all this detail, 00:21:42.379 --> 00:21:46.847 - so I'm gonna tell you to take, like, just so you know, so again, all of this is A4CB door, uh, 00:21:46.847 --> 00:21:51.268 - slash loans. But principally, we're looking at your credit report, you click a box, we go get 00:21:51.268 --> 00:21:56.113 - that information for you electronically, bring it in, we evaluate it about 60 seconds' time, and we're 00:21:56.113 --> 00:22:00.958 - looking at the three things you see on the screen for the past 24 months, the past 12 months of today, 00:22:01.250 --> 00:22:06.865 - What is it that we read off of your credit report? We did size the loan based on 150% of what you have 00:22:06.865 --> 00:22:12.534 - already successfully proven that you can repay in the form of a month of payment in the last 12 months. 00:22:12.534 --> 00:22:18.149 - There's a cap to startup businesses. We're delighted to help people who have nothing more than an idea 00:22:18.149 --> 00:22:23.709 - but write a line as much to them because there's nothing to evaluate on track record there other than 00:22:23.709 --> 00:22:27.198 - the entrepreneur's own credit history. So if that doesn't work, 00:22:27.330 --> 00:22:33.079 - we wouldn't switch to looking at financial statements. In this way, we ask for authority from the applicants, 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:38.306 - go pull their bank account information. There's sort of a third widget, secure widget, ID password. 00:22:38.306 --> 00:22:43.114 - We would be able to do four of them to keep it easy as possible. We do a quick calculation, 00:22:43.114 --> 00:22:48.497 - global debt-to-income ratio using that information. And that doesn't work either. Then we move to what 00:22:48.497 --> 00:22:52.574 - we call our step three. These would be very small loans, but really for here, 00:22:52.770 --> 00:22:57.559 - Anybody who's got debts that are current and they've got more than $1 in the bank, yeah, we're gonna 00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:02.347 - make a small loan to them to help them to build their credit over time because they couldn't qualify 00:23:02.347 --> 00:23:07.468 - in any other way for us and presumably anybody else. And in this case, we're gonna help folks who otherwise 00:23:07.468 --> 00:23:12.209 - can be ineligible for capital at all and give them something to get moving to help to rebuild their 00:23:12.209 --> 00:23:16.998 - credit and be able to give you that street pay. So that's how we think about term loans and lines of 00:23:16.998 --> 00:23:21.502 - credit for the smaller size of $25,000. And for term loans and lines of credit, they're larger 00:23:21.858 --> 00:23:26.741 - It's exactly the same logic, except for it being an or, it's an and. So take the credit policy side 00:23:26.741 --> 00:23:31.819 - of it that I just mentioned, and the financial statement side of it, from the combination of both, your 00:23:31.819 --> 00:23:36.799 - bank time information, we also collect tax returns through larger loans. Put it all together, we give 00:23:36.799 --> 00:23:41.975 - them out for you and say, here's the amount for which you qualify for either term loan or line of credit. 00:23:41.975 --> 00:23:47.004 - Okay, so that's what we think about credit policy. There's no kind of backroom committee where we then 00:23:47.004 --> 00:23:50.910 - sort of value all kinds of other things that are non-financial and non-factual. 00:23:51.234 --> 00:23:56.175 - It just is what it is, and we do this in this way, so we strip out bias, we try to be fast and present 00:23:56.175 --> 00:24:00.971 - for entrepreneurs, and we communicate really clearly what it is that's required in order to be able 00:24:00.971 --> 00:24:05.960 - to borrow from us. So that's the story on turbulence lines of credit. To finish the overall story, I'll 00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:10.757 - talk a little bit about revenue-based financing, which is different. That's different by design. So 00:24:10.757 --> 00:24:15.697 - this is for the entrepreneurs who are really ready to grow, but who don't want to give up any of their 00:24:15.697 --> 00:24:20.542 - upside in the form of taking venture capital or equity investments, where, sure, you get that money, 00:24:20.834 --> 00:24:26.124 - We also give up some ownership. And so if you end up doing great later, you have to give a lot of that 00:24:26.124 --> 00:24:31.517 - to those other people. And in our case, road abuse financing doesn't require that. You get all the money 00:24:31.517 --> 00:24:36.704 - upfront, you're paying, you're done. Like all the money, all the upside, all the profit you generate 00:24:36.704 --> 00:24:41.942 - is yours. So here's how it works. We are requiring that you are really sizable, and we've got a track 00:24:41.942 --> 00:24:47.078 - record here. So at least two years of history, at least $40 million of revenue last year, we didn't 00:24:47.078 --> 00:24:50.622 - work with you to find a growth plan that we use as a basis to create 00:24:51.138 --> 00:24:56.217 - a sensible estimate for your projections wherever we grow over the next five years. We then calculate 00:24:56.217 --> 00:25:01.247 - gross and net margins for you in order to figure out, what can you plausibly repay here based on the 00:25:01.247 --> 00:25:06.227 - last 12 months of your business and where you think you're going over the next five years. And then 00:25:06.227 --> 00:25:11.206 - the way the repayments are structured is that repayments will be somewhere between 5% and 7% of the 00:25:11.206 --> 00:25:16.584 - previous month's revenue with a minimum and maximum that we would take in a month. And we had this maximum, 00:25:16.584 --> 00:25:17.182 - by the way, 00:25:17.378 --> 00:25:22.664 - So that if you had this huge month where you did like a million in revenue, because all these crazy 00:25:22.664 --> 00:25:28.004 - contracts came in, we want you to keep most of that. So we put an unofficial cap on that rather than 00:25:28.004 --> 00:25:33.290 - taking full, you know, 5% to 7% of that revenue. The APR for the whole one is going to be somewhere 00:25:33.290 --> 00:25:38.735 - between 6% and 12% typically, particularly with that cap in place on that given month. So you pay 1.25 00:25:38.735 --> 00:25:44.286 - the initial principal. Once you do that, you're done. You can pay any time you want. No pre-band penalty 00:25:44.286 --> 00:25:45.502 - or anything like that. 00:25:46.018 --> 00:25:51.283 - Obviously that will change the calculated APR because of the fact that if you pay faster, that means 00:25:51.283 --> 00:25:56.653 - that the APR will be higher because of the term, but we'll work with the entrepreneur to explore that. 00:25:56.653 --> 00:26:01.970 - And then at the end of the term, which is somewhere between 16 and 72 months, depending on who you're 00:26:01.970 --> 00:26:07.183 - working with, the entrepreneur, if any left, that's okay. We'll then take what's left and just turn 00:26:07.183 --> 00:26:12.500 - that into a normal old three-year fully advertising term loan so they get way more time than even the 00:26:12.500 --> 00:26:14.846 - original term in order to repay the balance. 00:26:15.522 --> 00:26:21.414 - And the only time we take any collateral is for the loans are about $250,000. We'll look for some security 00:26:21.414 --> 00:26:26.920 - against that because those are really large loans for us, given that our average loan size, they've 00:26:26.920 --> 00:26:32.592 - received like $15,000. So we're making a loan that big with some security, but otherwise we don't care 00:26:32.592 --> 00:26:38.098 - about that. Okay. So I want to wrap up by saying that the capital we provide is complemented by the 00:26:38.098 --> 00:26:42.558 - coaching that we provide. And so we have group coaching and individual coaching. 00:26:42.690 --> 00:26:47.246 - But most importantly here, whenever an entrepreneur is looking for any assistance at all from us where 00:26:47.246 --> 00:26:51.803 - they're trying to figure out what should I do next with the business or how should I get that business 00:26:51.803 --> 00:26:56.271 - started or all the way to the end of the spectrum. I've been around this business for four years and 00:26:56.271 --> 00:27:01.004 - now I'm trying to think through how can I monetize that asset and retain that wealth for me and my family. 00:27:01.004 --> 00:27:05.737 - All throughout that spectrum, we've got four full-time business coaches really experienced through nothing 00:27:05.737 --> 00:27:10.205 - but have conversations with entrepreneurs all day every day, helping them think through what they're 00:27:10.205 --> 00:27:12.638 - trying to accomplish and what the next step should be. 00:27:12.770 --> 00:27:18.395 - completely unrelated to whether or not an entrepreneur is interested in or eligible for a loan or a 00:27:18.395 --> 00:27:24.301 - grant from us. We've read this coaching, regardless, and we're delighted to help anybody in Boone Center 00:27:24.301 --> 00:27:30.432 - who's interested in it. We also do run a group, kind of class-based, a group program. We talk to a classical 00:27:30.432 --> 00:27:36.113 - kind of mother webinarers, that kind of thing, for particular subject matter, and we do cohort-based 00:27:36.113 --> 00:27:41.850 - work as well. All of that is largely focused on the Chicago land area. And finally, A1CB.org contains 00:27:41.850 --> 00:27:42.750 - all this stuff. 00:27:42.946 --> 00:27:49.286 - So as usual, there's the usual kind of suite of ways in which people can stay in touch with us. And 00:27:49.286 --> 00:27:55.625 - that's probably the first port of call. I'll send back to Bob on any details, or he can directly to 00:27:55.625 --> 00:28:01.965 - me. Thank you, Brad. I think it hit five minutes. So I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can if 00:28:01.965 --> 00:28:08.494 - there's any questions. Do any of you guys have questions for him? So the partnership between our local 00:28:08.494 --> 00:28:10.206 - CDFI-friendly Bloomington, 00:28:10.850 --> 00:28:19.491 - Is that focused specifically here in Bloomington or is that in the region? If it's kind of in the Bloomington 00:28:19.491 --> 00:28:27.581 - area, what are some of the other community organizations that you might be connecting with? Of course, 00:28:27.581 --> 00:28:35.593 - I'm thinking about the mill, our local incubator and startup for startup businesses and so forth. Are 00:28:35.593 --> 00:28:40.542 - you guys also marketing this and promoting that within our own 00:28:40.674 --> 00:28:47.170 - our local community of entrepreneurs. Yeah. Yeah, I can start and I'd love for you to add, please. Yeah, 00:28:47.170 --> 00:28:53.481 - go ahead. We're really excited about this because one, the dollars that we borrowed from CFA Friendly 00:28:53.481 --> 00:29:00.038 - in Bloomington, we're going to invest within Bloomington Proper. But all of the rest of the entrepreneurs 00:29:00.038 --> 00:29:06.844 - around the kind of the greater area, rich in serving, again, through dollars that we've gotten out otherwise, 00:29:06.844 --> 00:29:09.566 - and the coaching is political to everybody. 00:29:09.698 --> 00:29:14.967 - You know the area better than we do. And that's saying the fact that I find myself in Bloomington a 00:29:14.967 --> 00:29:20.290 - lot, personally, because my son's a freshman. But going back and forth, that's not the same thing as 00:29:20.290 --> 00:29:25.770 - being president and working with entrepreneurs every day, hardly. So we're really excited about working 00:29:25.770 --> 00:29:31.092 - through that, through yourselves, through everybody else who is local and much more knowledgeable to 00:29:31.092 --> 00:29:36.414 - help us to get connected to all their pieces of entrepreneurial support within the Bloomington area. 00:29:36.930 --> 00:29:42.394 - So that we can, first of all, make sure that people know we're here. And secondly, provide really good, 00:29:42.394 --> 00:29:47.753 - timely, responsive service to any entrepreneur who expresses their willingness to work with us. So it 00:29:47.753 --> 00:29:53.270 - can be a mixture of the two, I think, where we do our part, but also work through yourself to get closer 00:29:53.270 --> 00:29:58.682 - to it. And what would you add to that? In terms of promoting it here, we're partnering with the ISPDC, 00:29:58.682 --> 00:30:03.358 - the Indiana Small Business Development Center. So they know about this loan partnership. 00:30:03.650 --> 00:30:10.041 - They've started on their social media. If there's anybody that's interested in financing, I know that 00:30:10.041 --> 00:30:16.370 - they would share it with those people. I hadn't thought of the mill yet. I don't know why. So that's 00:30:16.370 --> 00:30:22.699 - something. The go-to place. Definitely. If you want to find entrepreneurs in Bloomington, you should 00:30:22.699 --> 00:30:29.278 - definitely go to the Dimension Mill and talk with those folks there. They're always, I know, looking for 00:30:29.410 --> 00:30:35.685 - capital and so forth. So that could be definitely a place to stop in there after this meeting. So that's 00:30:35.685 --> 00:30:41.722 - someone that we can be advertising these to. And then we're putting it on all of our socials. It was 00:30:41.722 --> 00:30:47.938 - already in the Bloomington Chamber newsletter and on their website. So we are trying to promote it here 00:30:47.938 --> 00:30:53.974 - in our community. We could use help. If you guys know of any small business owners or someone that's 00:30:53.974 --> 00:30:57.022 - wanting to start up a small business, feel free to 00:30:57.122 --> 00:31:03.312 - point them in our direction, we'd be happy to talk to them. Can I ask a question? Yeah. Brad, thanks 00:31:03.312 --> 00:31:09.748 - for that presentation. And I know the answer, but this comes up from the public. And so I think it would 00:31:09.748 --> 00:31:16.245 - be good to answer it on the record. And then the board can know it in case it comes up in other settings. 00:31:16.245 --> 00:31:22.742 - But the interest rates are high right now, relatively high. But CDFIs tend to have higher interest rates. 00:31:22.742 --> 00:31:26.174 - And so we're trying to obviously facilitate capital for 00:31:26.466 --> 00:31:33.502 - businesses who need it and maybe haven't had great access to it, can you talk about the 1.25x or the 00:31:33.502 --> 00:31:40.050 - higher interest rates and how we get there and just, yeah, communicating about that a little? 00:31:40.050 --> 00:31:47.225 - Great question. Thanks. So a couple things. First, we try to make sure that our rates are roughly half 00:31:47.225 --> 00:31:54.539 - as expensive as the average credit card rate. And we pin it that way because credit cards are typically, 00:31:54.539 --> 00:31:56.350 - although not exclusively, 00:31:57.026 --> 00:32:02.476 - The only way that small business owners that we serve are able to access any capital involvement because 00:32:02.476 --> 00:32:07.771 - they are inundated as a personal matter, not their business, personal credit cards get in, and that's 00:32:07.771 --> 00:32:13.273 - what they use when they need liquidity that they don't have directly from the business. Again, to repeat, 00:32:13.273 --> 00:32:18.620 - if somebody can get a traditional loan from a bank or a credit unit, we want to encourage that because 00:32:18.620 --> 00:32:24.018 - that establishes the long-term pathway towards having a long-term relationship, hopefully not just with 00:32:24.018 --> 00:32:26.302 - the institution, but with an actual banker. 00:32:26.626 --> 00:32:32.745 - And that's where you can go to get continual kind of service as your business is used to grow. But most 00:32:32.745 --> 00:32:38.688 - of the people who we work with are not eligible and can't get anything at any price from a bank or a 00:32:38.688 --> 00:32:44.689 - credit union. And therefore, we're trying to make sure that we're pricing appropriately to help those 00:32:44.689 --> 00:32:50.867 - folks. So roughly half of the average rate of credit cards we're trying to pin are rates. And the second 00:32:50.867 --> 00:32:56.574 - part of it is that A4CB will not charge the rate that would be necessary for A4CB to break even. 00:32:58.050 --> 00:33:04.377 - So we intentionally lose money on every loan. And the reason why we do that is because if we were to 00:33:04.377 --> 00:33:10.642 - cover all of our costs inclusive of the loan losses that we intend to potentially take, but we know 00:33:10.642 --> 00:33:16.969 - we're going to take, we take so much more risk on entrepreneurs than any other financial institution 00:33:16.969 --> 00:33:23.233 - we ever can even consider, if you include the loss rate plus the interest we pay on our debt, which 00:33:23.233 --> 00:33:24.862 - is very low but not zero, 00:33:25.794 --> 00:33:30.859 - You kind of, to add those, before you even get into paying for staff or technology or any of that, like 00:33:30.859 --> 00:33:35.778 - separate, we're already above what we charge. So then I gotta go off and raise all the land to be as 00:33:35.778 --> 00:33:40.648 - necessary in order to cover the difference, but that's my job, so it's fine, I'll do that. We gotta 00:33:40.648 --> 00:33:45.713 - raise five and a half million dollars a year to cover the cost that we otherwise would charge in higher 00:33:45.713 --> 00:33:50.631 - interest to the entrepreneurship circle, but we're just not gonna do that, because that's not who we 00:33:50.631 --> 00:33:53.310 - are. So that's why the range will be somewhere between 00:33:53.986 --> 00:34:00.501 - 6% APR, not interest rate, APR is inclusive of all fees, everything. So we're in between 6% and 15%. 00:34:00.501 --> 00:34:07.015 - Our average APR will land right about 9%, between 9% and 10%. And that's very, very competitive with 00:34:07.015 --> 00:34:13.594 - the way that you can borrow from banks right now if you can get a loan at all. And again, most people 00:34:13.594 --> 00:34:20.173 - can't. So that's how we think about pricing, which is hard to put on a postcard, but it kind of gives 00:34:20.173 --> 00:34:22.366 - you a feel for what the nuance is 00:34:23.010 --> 00:34:33.228 - Thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate it. Can I follow up on that? On your revenue-based loans, the 1.25x 00:34:33.228 --> 00:34:42.904 - payback, was that over six years? Is that what I understand? Yeah. So when we listen to what entrepreneurs 00:34:42.904 --> 00:34:52.670 - are trying to do and calculate with them what their plausible growth path is going to be, we will either do 00:34:52.834 --> 00:34:58.926 - a 60 month, 66 month, or a 72 month term, depending on how much time we think they're gonna need. So 00:34:58.926 --> 00:35:05.018 - it's between 16, it's between five and six years, that's the length of the term. And we do that in a 00:35:05.018 --> 00:35:11.109 - way that again tries to marry up what we think will be the average payments, it's always gonna go up 00:35:11.109 --> 00:35:17.201 - and down, it's the whole point of the product, but it's gonna be an average down over that say five, 00:35:17.201 --> 00:35:21.182 - five and a half or six year term. And if we hit it exactly right, 00:35:21.570 --> 00:35:28.561 - than in like, say for example, the 72nd month, they'll make their last payment, they'll never happen, 00:35:28.561 --> 00:35:35.484 - because a lot of it will be a little faster or more because of Google nature. But yes, that's how we 00:35:35.484 --> 00:35:42.543 - think about it. So yeah, but it's, regardless of the timeline, when you hit that 1.25x, it's done. And 00:35:42.543 --> 00:35:50.014 - if I'm right, that's a substantially lower equivalent APR, right? If 1.25x over six years is like 4%, right? 00:35:50.370 --> 00:35:56.407 - Yeah, it works out to about 6%. We're including in that not just the interest, which is what you're 00:35:56.407 --> 00:36:02.504 - thinking about there, but also the origination fees and stuff. So there are some fees upfront on top 00:36:02.504 --> 00:36:08.118 - of that? OK. That's right. Yeah. Got it. So the all-in cost APR fees and everything. Most of 00:36:08.118 --> 00:36:14.335 - those revenue-based financing loans, we're going to assume we're going to do an estimated APR of about 00:36:14.335 --> 00:36:18.078 - 6%, which is damn cheap money on flexible payments like that. 00:36:23.938 --> 00:36:31.625 - Yeah, I had a quick question. I know that ISBDC does business valuation. They give those services. Do 00:36:31.625 --> 00:36:39.237 - Allies for Community Business offer that in the coaching, or is that something that you would want a 00:36:39.237 --> 00:36:47.301 - lender to have when they come to you guys? Yeah, I'm up two minds here. One, we're always eager to provide 00:36:47.301 --> 00:36:52.350 - our services. This is free. It's really high quality and so forth. 00:36:52.930 --> 00:36:59.960 - But I do think that having a local, present, on-site business coaching mentor, however you phrase that, 00:36:59.960 --> 00:37:06.991 - the local business development center, there's a real value in that. So maybe the best way, in my view, 00:37:06.991 --> 00:37:14.021 - to position A4CVs for coaching services is to add extra capacity to the coaching that's already present 00:37:14.021 --> 00:37:19.902 - locally. And so we're always there and delighted to help, but we don't want to sort of 00:37:20.738 --> 00:37:26.742 - serve ourselves in front of the local people, because we're out there working with them when they can. 00:37:26.742 --> 00:37:32.746 - We're always there. And yes, I think we think about the coaching we provide along a continuum of time, 00:37:32.746 --> 00:37:38.749 - and think about the entrepreneur journey. So the very first coaching activities that we typically work 00:37:38.749 --> 00:37:44.986 - with entrepreneurs on, and then nothing other than an idea, is let's talk about establishing the business. 00:37:44.986 --> 00:37:50.174 - How do you do that? What's required? And so we talk about those basic building blocks of 00:37:50.658 --> 00:37:56.181 - the registration insurance, the basics, getting into that account, and so forth. And then over time, 00:37:56.181 --> 00:38:01.703 - we'll grow and have more sophisticated, complicated conversations about business planning, strategic 00:38:01.703 --> 00:38:07.390 - planning, pricing, and the rest, depending what industry you're in. So we're always eager to have those 00:38:07.390 --> 00:38:12.967 - conversations at whatever timeline that the entrepreneur needs. But I would like us to be supportive, 00:38:12.967 --> 00:38:18.654 - I think, of others rather than sort of stand in front of the services globally, if possible. Thank you. 00:38:22.434 --> 00:38:28.589 - Does anybody else have any more questions about this? I do. You spoke briefly about grants. What type 00:38:28.589 --> 00:38:34.624 - of grants do you provide? We provide grants based on the partner who's going to provide the dollars 00:38:34.624 --> 00:38:40.960 - and for whom we are serving as program administrator. So we give you a couple flavors of that that we've 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:47.598 - done recently. One, we partner with City of Chicago in order to provide grants in order to help entrepreneurs 00:38:47.598 --> 00:38:51.038 - who have a physical storefront to be able to rehab that. 00:38:51.330 --> 00:38:57.242 - City didn't have any idea how to manage pay applications, GCs, all kinds of stuff. So we did that on 00:38:57.242 --> 00:39:03.447 - behalf of the city. They gave us the money, we took care of the rest. So that's just kind of one example. 00:39:03.447 --> 00:39:09.418 - Another is we recently worked with Etsy in order to help artistic businesses. And that had nothing to 00:39:09.418 --> 00:39:12.638 - do with physical infrastructure. Instead, it was about 00:39:12.962 --> 00:39:18.140 - an artist who had an idea that they wanted to be able to invest in and grow with a small amount of free 00:39:18.140 --> 00:39:23.418 - capital where they would have no logical way to repay, because it's so speculative of what they're trying 00:39:23.418 --> 00:39:28.397 - to do with their art. And so NT worked through us, and we were to find entrepreneurs and serve them 00:39:28.397 --> 00:39:33.376 - in a way that was really efficient, that got the dollars that NT would like to give to artists, but 00:39:33.376 --> 00:39:38.006 - had no idea how to do. We helped them to sort of do both finding and disbursement, and after 00:39:38.006 --> 00:39:40.446 - that pre-coaching, we helped those artists grow. 00:39:41.058 --> 00:39:47.506 - So all sorts of flavors aside from that, but I want to give you kind of an idea of what our administration 00:39:47.506 --> 00:39:53.653 - might be doing with credit. Great. Thank you. Any other questions? I don't believe so. OK. I have two 00:39:53.653 --> 00:39:59.860 - more announcements. So to go along with everything that Brad has been saying, we are hosting a webinar 00:39:59.860 --> 00:40:05.886 - with Allies for Community Business for anyone that is interested in small businesses or anyone that 00:40:05.886 --> 00:40:10.526 - just wants to learn more about what they do. And that's going to be March 5. 00:40:10.626 --> 00:40:16.804 - at 11 a.m. It'll be a Zoom, so we'll have that information on our social medias. And then, I also did 00:40:16.804 --> 00:40:23.103 - want to say we recently announced two new lending partnerships, one being the one with allies, and then 00:40:23.103 --> 00:40:29.401 - the other is a 2.25 million line of credit with Old National Bank, German American, and First Financial 00:40:29.401 --> 00:40:35.518 - that can be used for all of our focus areas, so outside of small businesses, affordable housing, and 00:40:35.518 --> 00:40:40.606 - childcare. It's great. And that's all over the region. That's not just Bloomington. 00:40:40.898 --> 00:40:47.915 - So yeah, we're really excited for that partnership and this one as well. And Brad, thank you for sharing 00:40:47.915 --> 00:40:54.664 - everything that you did. That was insightful of you, so. Yeah. Thank you, Brad. We really appreciate 00:40:54.664 --> 00:41:01.681 - your time. Thank you very much for it. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks. Thank 00:41:01.681 --> 00:41:08.030 - you guys so much. Thank you, Emma. Thanks, Brad. All right. All right. All right. What's left? 00:41:09.186 --> 00:41:17.968 - One from last year, this is from this year. We have any general discussion or any general items that 00:41:17.968 --> 00:41:27.011 - the board would like to present? Does anyone have anything? Yeah, I just have a little something. Just, 00:41:27.011 --> 00:41:35.358 - is that okay? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, okay. It's just about the vacant council seat. As always, 00:41:35.970 --> 00:41:43.025 - Usually it's easy for us to find a Democrat living in the zone and then it's impossible to find a Republican 00:41:43.025 --> 00:41:49.498 - or other political party person living in the zone. So right now I just want to update you all. I'm 00:41:49.498 --> 00:41:56.165 - doing an interview with someone who applied and hopefully I can make a case to council that we can get 00:41:56.165 --> 00:42:03.156 - this person recommended by my little interview committee and then approved before our next council meeting, 00:42:03.156 --> 00:42:04.062 - which is next 00:42:04.386 --> 00:42:11.696 - Wednesday, and then they would be able to then be at the March board meeting. It's a little bit hard 00:42:11.696 --> 00:42:19.079 - because council likes more leeway time than what we're going to be able to give with our interview of 00:42:19.079 --> 00:42:26.679 - the people. So hopefully, they'll understand that we have quorum issues and we can get that done. Great. 00:42:26.679 --> 00:42:32.542 - Kate, does that word D, does that mean the neighborhood? And thank you for that. 00:42:32.706 --> 00:42:42.343 - The neighborhood resident spots, are those both council appointments? Yes. Okay. Yes. Yep. Thank you, 00:42:42.343 --> 00:42:52.264 - Kate. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kate. Thank you. Anything? Anyone else? Oh, I do have a question about 00:42:52.264 --> 00:42:58.878 - the loan forgiveness. Are we having, I know we've got six applicants. 00:42:59.042 --> 00:43:05.274 - Are you having any movement on those that maybe had fallen delinquent on their previous? I am still 00:43:05.274 --> 00:43:11.693 - making efforts to contact them. Okay. I didn't know if, yeah. Whether it was just those that currently 00:43:11.693 --> 00:43:17.924 - still have an outstanding balance or? We have had a few that are delinquent. We also have some that 00:43:17.924 --> 00:43:24.219 - have dissolved their businesses and I'm just trying to get them to just go through the process so we 00:43:24.219 --> 00:43:27.646 - can get it done officially and get the paperwork done. 00:43:27.778 --> 00:43:33.819 - appropriately. So yeah, it's been difficult trying to contact them because some of their emails are 00:43:33.819 --> 00:43:40.101 - now defunct. And so it's a little bit of investigating and trying to figure that out. So and, you know, 00:43:40.101 --> 00:43:46.141 - you can't, I wish I could just call the Secretary of State and be like, Hey, can you give me all of 00:43:46.141 --> 00:43:52.484 - this person's information so I can find them somewhere? But that's just not how how that works. So yeah. 00:43:52.484 --> 00:43:55.806 - Yeah, it's nice to at least that we have six that have 00:43:55.938 --> 00:44:03.383 - submitted information, so hopefully through your continued contact communication efforts, we'll have 00:44:03.383 --> 00:44:10.901 - more. I don't know, do we put a timeline on that at all, or is this just kind of a rolling, you know, 00:44:10.901 --> 00:44:18.273 - I don't really remember if we had like a goal in mind of like by summer we'd like to air something? 00:44:18.273 --> 00:44:25.054 - So the loans are to be paid back by the end of June. Okay. So I really feel that, you know, 00:44:25.442 --> 00:44:32.114 - By mid-second quarter, I don't think that by mid-second quarter, I'm just going to have to have to cut 00:44:32.114 --> 00:44:38.721 - it off because we need to get everything processed and moving along. And so I mean, I'll still try to 00:44:38.721 --> 00:44:45.393 - make attempts. But yeah, I think that mid-second quarter is probably when I'll get full participation, 00:44:45.393 --> 00:44:51.547 - if there is any. And I will make that known to those that I am reaching out to. So. OK. Great. 00:44:51.547 --> 00:44:54.462 - Thank you. All right. Anything else, anyone? 00:44:55.554 --> 00:45:01.342 - All right, great. Hey, we're in the meeting early. Thank you so much, everyone.