Good afternoon.
 Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service.
 I'm Steve Wicks and I'm appalled to serve as your president this year.
 All right. Just checking to see who's listening.
 I'm actually honored to serve as your president this year.
 Please silence your electronic devices.
 Our moment in history.
 On this day in history in 1609,
 French explorer Samuel de Champlain shot and killed two Iroquois chiefs in Ticonderoga, New York.
 These shootings led to 150 years of conflict between the French and the five Iroquois nations.
 Sarah Cochran will deliver our reflection this morning.
 Thank you, Steve.
 Good afternoon, everyone.
 So thank you.
 My students don't give me that kind of response, so I was not expecting it.
 So how many of you know someone who has been impacted by IDF?
 So I would imagine that it's probably a lot more of you than you may realize.
 In fact, you know me and you know Maisie.
 So this week, we celebrated World IVF Day.
 It's celebrated each year on July 25th because on that day in 1978, the first baby conceived by IVF
 was born.
 And this day gives us an opportunity to reflect on how far reproductive medicine has come and how
 many lives have been changed because of it.
 My sweet Maisie wouldn't be here if it weren't for this medical innovation.
 And my story is actually much more complicated, so we'll save that for another day.
 But just know that it definitely took an entrepreneurial mindset, much like that was that the
 scientists and innovators who developed IVF had.
 So in the 1960s, there were these scientists and they had this crazy idea.
 And they said, what if we took eggs and sperm out of the body and tried to create an embryo?
 At that time, that was like the craziest idea ever.
 It took them a while to refine it, obviously.
 But once they refined it, it has now led to 13 million babies being born worldwide thanks to this
 medical advance.
 So now nearly almost three percent of the births in the United States result from some form of
 assisted reproductive technologies.
 However, each try doesn't always work.
 It's reported that in the in the last recent years, every year in the United States,
 there are about four hundred thousand IVF cycles that result in under a hundred thousand live births.
 The average cost for one cycle of IVF is usually upwards of about twenty thousand dollars.
 And it's often not covered by insurance.
 Indiana is one of the many states in the U.S. that does not mandate fertility insurance to be
 covered.
 Infertility impacts one in six people worldwide.
 And IVF can, of course, help heterosexual couples who are experiencing infertility.
 But it also helps gay couples, single parents by choice and anyone who is using donor gay mates or
 surrogates to conceive their children.
 And while I've given you some some tough statistics about it not always working,
 there are still over five hundred thousand babies born worldwide every year from IVF.
 So IVF has turned what was once impossible into a reality for millions.
 So for World IVF Day, we celebrate the families that it has helped as well as the innovators and
 brilliant scientists and medical professionals who have made this possible.
 So the next time you see that family that it is impacted, tell them that you celebrated World IVF
 Day.
 Sarah brings a very important issue close to home.
 Dave Meyer will introduce our guest today.
 I'd like to start by saying welcome to our guests.
 If I read your name, if you would be so kind as to stand so that we may recognize you.
 So the first guest I have is Brian Fox-Paul Kowalski, who's a guest of John Pannell.
 Thank you.
 Next guest is Shiana Servil.
 Shaina, thank you.
 And that's a guest of Sally Gaskell.
 She's a guest of Sally Gaskell.
 Shelly Stramatistus, guest of John Pannell, and Perry Mall, a guest of Judy Schroeder.
 Lucy Deckard, guest of Trenton Kyla.
 That was pretty quick.
 Okay, Maisie Cochran, a guest of Sarah Cochran.
 Yeah, Maisie!
 Stand up on your own, Maisie.
 Okay.
 If any of you are interested in learning more about Rotary, please look to your left or
 your right, and I'm sure someone at your table would be glad to tell you more.
 Are there any guests online today?
 Yes, we have two.
 One is the first, it's Kathleen Hardy Hansen from IU's IIDC, and was invited by Yolanda
 Trevino, Shakur, and Katie, but wasn't able to come in person.
 And then Luis Enrique Becerra-Garcia is also a guest of Professor Jerome.
 Wonderful.
 Rodich.
 Excuse me.
 Sorry, I didn't see the full name.
 So Professor Rodich.
 Welcome guests.
 We have a few birthdays to celebrate this week.
 Amy Kendall on July 31st, Tracy Yovanovich on August 1st, and Bill Perkins on August
 2nd.
 A couple of anniversaries to celebrate.
 On the 1st, Patrick Smith sitting there in the back will be four years with Rotary.
 And then Mike Baker also on the 1st celebrating 33 years of Rotary.
 Announcements, don't forget to buy your tickets for the Rotary Toast Friday, November 7th.
 You can see Natalie or you can go to RotaryToast.com to get your tickets.
 Give the date for the club holiday party, December 11th, at the Bloomington Country Club.
 We still need a roundabout reporter for the month of December.
 December is a great month to cover.
 You only have three meetings.
 Please see Marilyn Wood if you can help.
 Some of the club committees are still organizing while others are up and going.
 If you haven't done so already, please join a committee.
 See me if you need more information.
 We have a few committee chairs in the room.
 Can I ask them if they're able to just stand for a minute?
 So we have Joy Harder, who is co-chair of youth services.
 Dave Meyer and Michelle Cohen are co-chairs of community services.
 Andrea Murray is co-chair of Fun Family Fellowship, and I may have gotten that in the wrong order.
 And then Patrick Smith chairs our DEI committee.
 So if you have any interest in those committees, catch those individuals after the meeting.
 Youth Services Committee will meet via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 14th.
 See Joy Harder or Leanne Ratcliffe or me for more details on how to participate.
 Peace Building Committee met last week, and our book discussion group also met last week.
 We've already set the date for the next book discussion group, the Friday, October 5th.
 It'll include a dinner, a Buskirk Chumlee conversation with the author, and see Sally
 Gaskell over there for more details.
 And now I guess we call this a celebration of service.
 I'd like to go ahead and recap the Community Service Project Friday at Hoosier Hills Food
 Bank.
 So here are the individuals who participated, the Rotarians Jim Bright, Michelle Cohen,
 Liz Fiddle, Sally Gaskell, Jim Harvey, Rex Hillary, Liz Irwin, Dave Meyer, Cindy Neidhart,
 Tim Thrasher, Steve Wicks, Winston Schindell, and Marilyn Wood.
 And we also had friends of Rotary, Anne Bright, Sue Schindell, Marty Wood, and then Marty and
 Marilyn Wood's grandson Jacob.
 And here are a few pictures.
 So here's the volunteer coordinator at Hoosier Hills Food Bank instructing us on how we were
 supposed to pack the boxes.
 It was kind of rough at first, but we sort of got into a rhythm.
 As you can see, we're paying very close attention.
 You know, and there are three Rotarians looking at the box, wondering how all the food is
 going to fit in the box.
 And you'll notice these aren't pictures that have us smiling.
 We're all looking down because we're all working.
 Here's Cindy.
 Cindy was the cereal specialist putting two boxes into every box.
 Art and Tim, Tim was in charge of beans.
 I figured that he packed 400 cans of beans.
 I asked him what he thought about the nickname of beans thrasher.
 He said he'd get back to me.
 And here's the afternoon.
 We only have one picture of the afternoon crew, but here's the afternoon crew.
 I can tell you it was very warm working in the morning.
 I have so much respect for those Rotarians who worked in the afternoon.
 Special thanks to co-chairs, committee, Michelle Cohen and Dave Meyer.
 And then Liz Irwin wearing two hats, one her rotary hat and the other Duke Energy.
 And we worked alongside a number of Duke Energy employees.
 So thanks to those three for making that happen.
 Our shift packed 200 boxes, five pallets for each.
 So now we're ready for today's mystery Rotarian.
 So this Rotarian, now retired physician, practiced at the Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Children
 Home in Knightstown, Indiana for many years.
 If you know the answer, put up your hand, but don't shout it out.
 Those on Zoom, put up your electronic hand.
 This Rotarian has been a member of the Bloomington Rotary Club for over 20 years.
 You know who it is, put up your hand.
 Third clue, according to IU legend, this future Rotarian, as an underground, climbed several
 stories up the outside of Briscoe Quad during a panty raid.
 Okay, lots of people know this one.
 We're talking about Dr. Craig Spence.
 Lynn, you and Art and Jim Cryaway, I think, were the first in the room.
 Leslie, who was first online?
 Oh, well, might not have had any takers online.
 We did not.
 Okay.
 Craig, it's hard to find a picture of Craig.
 This is one that I found in the Rotary archives.
 Looks like he's up in front of the group making a presentation.
 Is that Sarah Cochran next to him?
 Sorry, Laughlin, I'm sorry, Sarah Laughlin.
 So talked about in practicing in Knightstown, the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's
 Home was founded in 1865 to provide care, education, and maintenance for the orphaned
 and destitute children of Civil War Union Army veterans.
 I don't think Craig was practicing at the founding, it was a few years after that.
 And then after nearly a century and a half, the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's
 Home closed in May of 2009.
 Knightstown loss was Bloomington's gain.
 After moving to Bloomington, Craig, Dr. Spence practiced for both IU Health and Monroe Hospital,
 eventually specializing in burn and wound care.
 So congratulations, Craig, Dr. Spence.
 And now the Rotary International Minute, Tyler, could you cue up the video?
 I was actually born in India and adopted when I was two and a half to Whitehorse, Yukon.
 Go back to India.
 What I witnessed was a polio survivor crawling and that's when I did research and was so
 excited to learn about Rotary and its commitment to a polio-free world.
 As a polio survivor, to be able to help a child not have to go through what I've gone
 through, it's incredible.
 When we cross over that end-polio finish line, we're telling the world anything's possible
 through continued commitment and daring to make a dream a reality.
 I just think that's an amazing testament of Rotary, the power of working together for
 a polio-free world.
 And if you look in the issue of the roundabout, most weeks the Rotary International Committee
 will put a little teaser in talking about different things being done by the Rotary
 International Foundation.
 Okay, we're ready for Happy Dollars.
 Is there anyone happy in the room or online?
 Well, I'm kind of opposite of happy, a very, very important member of the Chicago Cubs
 passed away yesterday from cancer.
 I had the honor of meeting him twice, and I am celebrating the greatest second baseman
 of all time, Ryan Sandberg.
 So I understand from my husband's cousin that his grandson, Andrew Fisher, is now playing
 for the Milwaukee Braves.
 I'm sorry, brewers, brewers, brewers.
 Yeah, I don't have it right.
 Yeah.
 Actually, Liz, in the 1950s, you would have been right.
 That's right.
 Okay, I am happy because on Friday, our good friends and former sponsored international
 refugee family, the Muhammadis, moved to their new apartment.
 They are now behind the post office on the east side in a bright and shiny new apartment.
 I'm happy because the fundraising event I'm planning for my organization, the Lake Monroe
 Water Fund, is called the Beach Bash, and unfortunately, you know, the beaches are under
 water right now, but the party will still go on.
 We have a lawn.
 We looked at it, it's perfect, so I'm happy we still can have our event.
 Well, I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor.
 And I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor.
 And I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor, and I'm happy because I'm a polio survivor,
 Good afternoon, Rotarians. It is my pleasure to introduce today's speaker, a true leader
 in public transportation, and someone who continues to shape how our community moves
 forward literally and figuratively. And when Michael Shermas offered me the chance to do
 this introduction today in his place, I jumped at this in a second. John A. Connell brings
 more than 35 years of executive experience in the transit industry with a career rooted
 deeply in both innovation and service. He holds a master's of public administration from
 Indiana State University and a bachelor's degree in public administration with a concentration
 in transportation from Indiana University right here in Bloomington. John has served
 in key leadership roles across the state from Evansville to Lafayette and now serves as the
 general manager of our own Bloomington Transit. Since taking the helm in 2021, he's already
 made a significant impact. Under his leadership, Bloomington Transit has launched a battery
 electric bus transition plan and developed B-Link, an on-demand microtransit program
 expanding mobility options for all of our community. He's been at the forefront of
 sustainable transit, implementing Indiana's first soil diesel bus project, and managing
 the bus's, the system's transition from diesel to compressed natural gas. Certified in everything
 from ADA compliance to system security and transit technology, John brings not only experience
 but deep expertise to his work. And I would offer additionally, John has an amazing tact
 in the face of adversity and in the face of difficult situations of really rising to that
 moment in a community that doesn't always see change as the great opportunity, and he's
 tenacious in that, and I've always appreciated watching that up close. Rotarians, please
 join me in welcoming today's speaker, our tireless advocate for accessible, efficient
 forward-thinking public transportation, Mr. John Connell.
 Come around this way. Thank you, Trent.
 Thank you. John Connell, General Manager, Bloomington Transit. I graduated Indiana University
 in December of '87, December 18th. Started working in the industry on the 21st of December.
 I've never looked back. Started out in a metropolitan planning organization in northwest Indiana
 a year later. Moved to Evansville to run the system there. And next stop, Lafayette, and
 I'm back here in Bloomington to finalize my career in transit, and I'm just going to end
 where it all started. So thank you very much. Enough about me. I'd like to just talk about
 public transportation in general. So go ahead, Brian. So public transportation can be a lifeline
 for many individuals. It connects people to jobs, educational opportunities, services,
 cultural appointments, entertainment opportunities. It eases traffic congestion and promotes a
 cleaner environment. Home values, studies have shown home values on average increase
 approximately 24% when they're near public transportation opportunities. Every dollar
 invested in public transportation generates $5 in economic returns. There are over 100
 Indiana companies that provide supplies and services to the public transit industry. Bloomington
 Transit does business with many of those Indiana companies. So what exactly is Bloomington
 Transit? Bloomington Transit is not a department of the city. It is a standalone municipal
 corporation with property taxing authority. We also receive local income tax. It is guided
 by a five-member board. Those board members are appointed by the mayor, two appointees,
 and the city council, three appointees. And the board of directors are responsible for
 the policy and financial oversight of the corporation. So in 2023, the board of directors
 adopted a strategic plan. And that plan was entitled Transform BT. And as the name implies,
 the plan set forth a bold vision to transform the corporation. The plan calls for bold service
 expansion, introduction of new mobility options, and outlines a schedule for fleet and facility
 improvements. To date, consistent with this strategic plan, Bloomington Transit has accomplished
 the following. For the first time in history, we have expanded service outside of the city
 limits to serve the Park 48 area, which includes Ivy Tech and Cook Medical. That was a cooperative
 effort between the city, Bloomington Transit, and Monroe County. We've introduced zero-emission
 battery electric buses. We currently have 18 battery electric buses in the fleet with
 a goal of 100% emission-free by 2050. We are currently planning for the design and construction
 of a new administration, operations, and maintenance complex. So, a little bit about Bloomington
 Transit services. 16 fixed routes operate throughout the city, with one operating into
 the county that I mentioned. We operate on-demand ADA paratransit service, which is a curb-to-curve
 service for individuals who have a disability, and that disability prevents them from accessing
 the regular fixed routes. And then we have our BLINK program, and we're still trying
 to get the word out on the BLINK program. I'm going to talk about, well, what is BLINK?
 So there's three components to it. The first is our microtransit component, and if you
 look at the map on the left, you can see there's three shaded areas. Those are the zones. And
 if you're in that zone and you want to book an on-demand trip, you can do that through
 an app. And you can make trips within the zones or from one zone to the other zone.
 And you see the zone downtown is there for people to get to our transfer center so they'd
 have access to the complete fixed route network. So if you look and you say, well, how did
 you come up with those two zones on the north and the east? We looked at areas where there
 was a population that didn't have access to existing services. There may be a fixed route
 in the area, but it was simply too far to walk to use the service. So over 9,100 additional
 individuals now have access to some form of public transportation because of the microtransit
 program. The second component to our blink umbrella services is our BT late night program.
 This is available in the area C, pretty, pretty large area throughout the city, and it's only
 available from 9 p.m. to midnight. And we launched this service when we were struggling
 with a driver shortage. So we had, we looked at our ridership by hour. The 9 o'clock hour
 ridership really starts to dwindle. And we know early morning hours is when our peak
 demand is. Given the driver shortage, we had those precious resources, those human resources,
 those drivers work until midnight. And come the next morning when we needed extra drivers,
 they weren't available. So we thought, well, how can we right the ship here? So we come
 up with this late night program. We partner with Uber and Lyft. So we wanted to provide
 a safety net to those individuals that still needed service during those hours. So you
 can go to our website, you can download a voucher, and BT will subsidize up to $12 of your trip
 through Uber or Lyft. More importantly, we have those drivers available in the morning
 when we need them the most. All right, so who rides Bloomington Transit? The majority
 of our riders are related to the university, Indiana University students primarily. We
 also have faculty and staff. We have a partnership with the university where they prepay for
 the fares. So if you are a student, faculty, or staff member, and you have a valid Indiana
 University ID, you can ride any of our routes for free. We also have many people that use
 our services to get to work. We are a critical provider for entry-level positions for
 transportation
 for those individuals either just starting off or working minimum wage jobs. Seniors
 and the disabled individuals have limited mobility, a big part of our ridership. Basically,
 we have a cross-section of the community that use our services. A little bit of everybody.
 That's what we tell our new drivers. You are going to be interacting with a little bit
 of everybody. So, what are some of the new technologies we have implemented? Part of
 our strategic plan was to improve efficiency through innovation. So, we have launched new
 electronic fare collection equipment. So, instead of having a traditional old fare box
 for drop cash filters in, we have electronic validators. And once again, through an app,
 I know everything is going to app-based services, but through an app, you can load value onto
 your account 24 hours a day and you don't have to worry about exact change or having
 the exact change when you board the bus. You can use that app, use your phone on the validator
 and you're good to go. More importantly, what that technology allows us to do is what's
 called fare capping. So, prior to having this technology, we had a discounted price for
 a monthly pass, $30. And there are a lot of individuals who didn't have the financial
 wherewithal to come up with $30 at once. So, they couldn't simply afford to spend $30
 to get the discount. So, what they would do is they'd ride to work, pay a dollar, ride
 home, pay a dollar. After the 16th day, they're losing money. They're not getting the rewards
 of the discount. With this new system, if you create an account, it's going to track your
 usership and when you hit that $30 mark, you're going to ride for free during the rest of
 the calendar month. And that's been very well received by the public. The other technology
 we implemented, our microtransit booking platform. This has allowed us to optimize the scheduling.
 It's a very dynamic process now. Prior to having this software in place, drivers would
 be given manifests for the demand response type trips. And if someone cancelled, they
 need to have a void in the schedule. This continues to optimize the trips. So it improves
 the efficiency and it's worked out really well. The CAT AVL system was recently adopted
 here within the last year and a half. It's a computer automated dispatch, automatic vehicle
 locating system. So once again with another app, you can track where the bus is in real
 time. More importantly, if you're a regular user and you need to use the app, you sign
 up for notifications. If there is any type of service disruption or anything that's going
 to affect the route that you're using, you're going to get an immediate notification in
 real time. So you know there's times when buses traveling the route, utility company
 comes out of nowhere, they're excavating, we've got to do a detour. Getting that information
 out to the passengers in the past was next to impossible. Now it's instantaneous. And
 then what we're currently working on is a driver telematic system. And this component
 of technology uses AI, and it monitors the driver. And it looks for any type of unsafe
 behaviors. And it immediately notifies the dispatch if there are any of these unsafe
 behaviors happening. In addition to that, in a crisis situation, if there was an emergency
 on the bus, we can do a live look in now. So you can see exactly what's going on in
 the bus in real time. All right. So what's in the future for Bloomington Transit? We
 want to continue to expand our service to provide transit services, not just within
 the city, but throughout the entire urbanized area. We want to expand our fleet and align
 it with the needs of the services we offer. Next year, you'll be seeing 60-foot articulated
 buses operating within the community, you know, the kind of bend in the middle. So we
 have issues currently on various routes where we have capacity issues. So your bus pulls
 up and there's 60 people, one on the board. You've already got 40 on board. You've got
 to turn people away. Typically, what we do is we send another bus out with another driver
 to meet the capacity. With a 60-foot bus, you can meet the capacity with one driver
 instead of two, saving the operating costs. So that's the motivation for that type of
 expansion. We want to continue to acquire zero-emission
 buses. So the battery electric buses, we started off with two. First generation, they had their
 challenges. We had a lot of challenges. The second generation that we received, we have
 16 of those. Fantastic. The cost per mile to run a diesel bus is $0.85 per mile. We're
 at $0.29 on a battery electric. Battery electric, you're not changing any fluids. It's a very
 simple process. We want to continue to explore our expansion for a new facility. Our existing
 facility on Grimes Lane, we're at capacity. We're running out of room. And in order to
 expand service, we need additional vehicles. You need additional vehicles. You need additional
 space. And then lastly, we're in year two of a three-year project to improve accessibility
 at bus stops. So you may have seen some new passenger shelters that have been installed
 and more importantly, accessibility concrete works being done for the disabled community.
 All right, so what are the challenges moving forward? You know, establishing a dedicated
 source of local revenue, very critical. And with Senate Bill 1, the recent property tax
 reform bill, the rules of the game change in 2028. We will need the county to assess
 the special tax for transit in order for us to continue to receive our lit funds, local
 income tax funds. And if that happens, people throughout the county will have skin in the
 game, so to speak. So obviously, we want to provide services to everybody that is contributing
 to the funding the service. Another big challenge for us is at the state level, the public mass
 transportation fund is our source of funding we received through the state. That has remained
 stagnant for 10 years. And during those same 10 years, the costs, the inflationary costs
 of our products and services have skyrocketed. So we made a strong effort at this last legislative
 session to increase the PMTF. Minor victory, as everybody else was getting cut, we remained
 at the same level. So they said chalk it up as a win. But hopefully we can get some movement
 on that in the future. Another big challenge we continue to face is employee recruitment,
 skilled employee recruitment. So maintenance employees are the most difficult currently.
 So years ago, you're looking for qualified mechanics, you're looking at the size of their
 toolbox and sizing them up. Nowadays you need to see not only a toolbox, but a laptop. Technology
 has become as important as turning a wrench. So we're struggling based on the nature of
 our schedules to attract qualified people. We haven't had any issues or concerns with
 pay. It always gets back to the scheduling. Since we operate from four in the morning
 to midnight, weekends, a lot of people don't want to work weekends. So that's a challenge
 for us. And then, and lastly, what we'd like to close with is just ask you, what would
 you like to see from Bloomington Transit? What can we do to make your lives better in
 our community? Thank you very much. Yes. We're about 38 percent right now. What percentage
 of our fleet is now battery electric? We're not quite 50 percent, but we're getting real
 close. Yes, sir. Busses are clean nightly. We have a wash crew. As far as the limitations
 in some of the areas, Penn Street overpass is an issue. This has been an issue when we
 had the hybrid buses, the height. Big concern. Matter of fact, we're making route changes
 to address in the fall because the electric buses were going to be the same type of issue.
 So we had to make route changes. But yeah, it continues to be a challenge. And I think
 that was a challenge back when I was at IU. So we'd really love to see some movement on
 that project. Yes, they're mopped in the whole nine yards. Yep. Wonderful. That's how it's
 grown. It started way back once upon a time when I got on the city council. But what we
 haven't done, I think, what are we doing to coordinate with the county? Do we still have
 county buses under a different program? So moving forward in 2028, you know, that's going
 to be a big, big consideration for the county. If you recall, in my presentation, I talked
 about Bloomington Transit wanting to provide service throughout the urbanized area. And
 the reason I use those terms, the urbanized area, when you look at the federal funding
 that we receive, it's based on the urbanized area, which includes Ellitsville and areas
 outside of the city. Now, with that being said, there are a lot of property outside
 the urbanized area that's still in Monroe County. So we have rural transit. We coordinate
 with rural transit to make sure everybody in the county has access to public transportation.
 So our role is the urbanized area. Their role is those rural areas of the county in my opinion.
 I just wanted to share some history. My first real full-time job was working in the office
 as staff for Bloomington Transit and was on staff when the Public Transportation Corporation
 was formed. And one of our fellow rotarians, Monica Kroner, was on the original Public
 Transportation Board when I was a little staff person. And we all learned how to use MS-DOS.
 Our manager decided to bring us into the computer age. So that's where I started.
 I remember those days. This is what I get for sitting with Sam. I am accompanied to
 rotary every week by Wendell St. John who gave up his car long ago, walks a lot, arranges
 transportation with me, and I said, "Have you ever used the bus?" Hardly ever. I know
 lots of people in this town when I say, "Do you ever use the bus system?" No, not at all.
 My wife and I use it regularly. How can we get more people to use the bus system instead
 of it just being conceived as only for the poor and the students?
 So one of the things we need to do a better job at is getting the word out on the services
 we have available. So for example, the BLINK program with the three microtransit, the three
 zones, I would imagine the majority of people in here is first time you've heard about that.
 We were making an effort in our 2026 budget to increase our marketing efforts. But getting
 back to like how do we get people out of their cars and into the buses, the service has to
 be convenient, has to be very convenient. And when we talk about convenience, we're
 talking about frequency of service. So throughout my career, all the best performing routes
 had one thing in common. They were the ones that ran the most frequently, every 10 minutes,
 every 15 minutes. Our goal is to provide service at least every 30 minutes. In an ideal world
 if funding wasn't an issue, we would want to see 10 to 15 minute headways. So you don't
 need a schedule. We know I'm going to get out there and the bus is going to be rolling
 by soon. So that's a big challenge.
 We have a couple of questions online. We do. Go ahead, Sandy. Hi, I appreciate your talk
 today. Thank you very much for being here. I'm Sandy with My Sister's Closet. I'd like
 to know if you have a free training program for nonprofit clients like My Sister's Closet
 who would like to provide jobs for applications for them to apply at Bloomington Transit,
 but they still need to get their CLD. Do you have a way of helping them with that and also
 do you accept applications from individuals that might have some past felonies?
 So the first part of the question, we do provide CDL training. So you don't have to have the
 commercial driver's license to be employed. We do have a background check, and there are
 just disqualifying felonies that we do have in place. As far as opportunities, I would
 encourage anyone that's interested to apply, and it's really a case-by-case basis. You
 don't have to have commercial driving experience. Sometimes we prefer you come in without any
 type of driving experience. There's a lot of people bringing in bad habits, right? Well,
 we want to mold you. And we provide the training for the CDL. So if you have individuals and
 they're interested, have them apply, and we can use them.
 Thank you.
 How much money do you make on the advertising?
 We were about $285,000 a year, and our advertising program was wide open. And what I mean by that,
 we didn't have any limitations on the number of full wraps, and we didn't have any limitation
 on how many one single advertiser could advertise on the fleet. And that became an issue earlier
 this year with our board. And I said, "Hey, we need to rethink this." Because quite frankly
 there were people thinking Ken Nunn ran the bus service. And I wouldn't be surprised if
 his office didn't get a couple of scheduled inquiries. And it was a situation where that
 advertising policy didn't have any guardrails. And what I mean by guardrails is the very
 thing. And this gets back to the marketing concept. We need to do a better job of branding
 Bloomington Transit. We live in a community where you have new freshmen come in every
 year and they see buses and it's Ken Nunn, Ken Nunn. There's no connection to Bloomington
 Transit. So as we've introduced our battery electric, there's no advertising on those.
 But at the same time, there's a big loss in revenue. So we have to find that balance.
 So you may see some, what we call the tail signs on the back of the buses, but as far
 as the full rafts, those are going to be limited.
 Okay. First is a comment, a compliment. I have an experience with a refugee, international
 refugee that was hired by Bloomington Transit as a driver without a commercial driver's
 license. In fact, he only had gotten his operator's license a few months before. And I wanted
 to compliment you on that. He had a very positive experience driving for Bloomington Transit.
 And I think he still does a little part-time work with them. The question I have is about
 light rail, which may seem like trying to talk about laser cannons in the age of bow
 and arrow, but I am curious about a route like the east-west route along 3rd Street,
 whether you can imagine that that could ever be a corridor for light rail in Bloomington.
 I don't think it's going to be a corridor for light rail, but our goal is for bus rapid
 transit, which is basically, it's geared up like light rail. You have raised platforms.
 You have bus-only lanes in what we call the pinch points, or in some cities, it's the
 entire corridor. We did do a study, did a phase one and a phase two, and the results
 were not quite there yet. And in order to make that happen, you have to reach certain
 criteria in terms of potential ridership, population density, because to tackle that
 type of project, you have to get a capital improvement grant. And there are qualifiers
 to receive those funds, and it's strictly on a discretionary basis. But we have the
 study in place, our long-term goal is to phase in components of the green line over time.
 Leslie online.
 Yeah, our next question is, how is your ridership on the microtransit, and do you plan to expand
 it? And then I have one more after that.
 So the microtransit is still relatively slow, and the idea behind it when we launched it,
 our biggest concern, it was going to be overused. And the last thing we wanted to do is overpromise
 and underdeliver. So we originally started off where you had to go to a bus stop within
 the zone, and Shelly, she's shaking her head. She talked me out of it, but that's just between
 us.
 So now we've changed it. So it's curb to curb. So you can get picked up. It's just like Uber
 and Lyft. It's going to find you, and we're going to send the vehicle. But once again,
 the marketing and getting that word out is what we're going to really key on in 2026.
 And then what was the second question?
 The second question was as far as drivers and recruiting qualified drivers, what's the demand
 or shortage for drivers and with the expansions plans that you have or the turnover of drivers?
 So the turnover is, like I mentioned earlier, when we do exit interviewing with the challenge
 we find, I've yet to have one person tell me that they were leaving because of the economics
 of the job. It's usually the lifestyle of the job. So we work on the weekends. You work
 late at night. It's a union environment. When you get hired in in a union shop, everything's
 done by seniority. Where do you land? You land on the bottom of the seniority list. So you
 end up with the most challenging schedules and that's, that can be problematic.
 Thanks John for the presentation as well. Good to see you. Back when we had an opportunity
 to work together, and of course many of us here knew Lou May, the previous general manager.
 So we're glad you're here. But I just wanted to make a complimentary comment. First of all,
 thank you for your knowledge, expertise and efforts and being able to compromise and work
 with many others in order to reach some of your goals. But the question I have, I think
 it's a question. The city is currently having a rebranding committee to work on rebranding
 the city, and it just occurred to me that there might be an opportunity for you to maybe
 save some dollars on marketing if you were to partner with them. So has anyone ever thought
 about BT's branding to be part of the city's rebranding, which might make both efforts
 a little bit more efficient? Yeah, and I think that's a great idea. We have worked recently
 real closely with Gold Bloomington on a shared video about our Blink program, because you
 know, the goals are parallel. You know, they're trying to get people on public transportation,
 so that was a good partnership with the city. And you know, I just would like to, one of
 the things I should point out is this Transform BT strategic plan and all the things we've
 got accomplished to date really is a result of the city council that Jim was part of at
 the time to enter into a five-year agreement with Bloomington Transit. And that five-year
 agreement moved $3.8 million of LIT funding to Bloomington Transit for five years. And
 we were able to leverage those funds, those 16 battery electric buses, you know, $18 million
 project as a result of the council stepping up and saying, "Hey, we recognize how important
 transit is, and we're willing to make this commitment." And that's helped us Transform
 BT, quite frankly. So thank you. John, thank you very much. I especially enjoy just hearing
 about your innovative approaches and the use of technology. In honor of your presentation,
 a donation we've made this quarter to Off-Night Productions. So I'd like to thank the club
 members who volunteered to help with today's program. A few of them did it on very short
 notice. Art Omec, Dave Meyer, Trent Deckard, Leslie Kosenko, Sarah Cochran, Jim Bright,
 Sam Udek, Dave Meyer. And also like to thank our staff, Tyler Martin Nichols, who was challenged
 for the second week in a row. Did a great job. And Natalie Blaze. So our next meeting will
 be August 5th in the Georgian room. Our speaker will be Dominique Domornay, whose topic is
 Chamos for Change, Rotary Support for Positive Parenting. So Tyler, if you would pull up
 the four-way test, please stand if you're able.
 Of the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all
 concern? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial
 to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?
 Thank you all. [Music]
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