Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be Last

Making Robots ~ Building Leaders, Gracious Professionalism, and Coopetition  are just a few terms you'll hear during this episode.

Morgan Everett, Lead Mentor with Red Nation Robotics, is our special guest!  More than just robots and more than a student run enterprise, FIRST® Robotics & Red Nation Robotics has it all. 

Listen to hear how tomorrow's leaders get real-world opportunities to build a robot in six weeks.  But that is NOT their biggest challenge!

Communication, problem solving, working together and planning - the soft skills.  Students gain these valuable skills as well.  Red Nation Robotic team members participate year-round in FIRST® activities that range from robot design, building, and programming to website and branding to networking.

Morgan's passion for learning and the well-being of the students is contagious!

FIRST® is a global, youth-serving, nonprofit robotics community that advances STEM Education.  Learn more about FIRST® and find your local community. 

Discover more about Red Nation Robotics Team 4576 and the amazing things our future leaders are doing!

Follow the RNR 4576 team on Twitter, like the RNR 4576 team on Facebook,  while you're at it, subscribe to the RNR 4576 YouTube channel.

There are more acronyms.  Here's the list:

FIRST®:  For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
FRC:           FIRST® Robotics Competition
RNR:          Red Nation Robotics
STEM:       Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

If you aren't fired up about what the future holds, listen to the episode again.  Reach out to your local team to see how you can help them.  Empowering others!

#omgrobots #morethanrobots #rednationrobotics #hallshighschool #stemeducation 

Transcript

Brandon Ellis  0:26  

Hey everybody, this is Brandon Ellis with elliTek and the "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To..." podcast and with me is our marketing manager, Miss Beth Elliott.

Beth Elliott  0:37  

Well, hello Brandon, how are you?

Brandon Ellis  0:39  

Good. Listen, check this out. You ready?

Beth Elliott  0:42  

Oh, nice. Got a new sound, huh.

Brandon Ellis  0:43  

Got a new sound, so more sound more, more fun. We need some laughter. We were at the time of this recording, we're coming Texas, Louisiana, all those folks the Midwest are just coming out of this man alive, polar vortex freeze, horrible things. So, our thoughts and prayers are out with those guys. So, guys, hang in there. You're thawing out as we record this this session. Good things are coming. So, keep your heads up. 

Beth Elliott  0:49  

Spring is around the corner. 

Brandon Ellis  1:04  

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is they've been through it down there. So, but today, we have some exciting stuff going on. So, Beth, take us there.

Beth Elliott  1:20  

All right. We're super excited today. We have a special guest. And before we get into what who our guest is, I'm going to the topic today is "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be Last", and that goes with our special guest is Morgan Everett. He's the Lead Mentor with Red Nation Robotics. And they are with Halls High School, a local high school here in Knoxville, Tennessee. And we want to say a big congratulations to the Red Nation Robotics team for winning the Little Rock Regionals last year. So

Brandon Ellis  1:59  

Red Nation Robotics. 

Beth Elliott  2:00  

Alright. So, without further ado, Morgan, why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your background, and how long you've been volunteering with FIRST® Robotics?

Morgan Everett  2:13  

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, my name is Morgan Everett. I'm an engineering teacher at Hall's High School. I've been teaching here at the high school for 14 years. So Red Nation Robotics Team 4576, FRC teams with FIRST® robotics, we have been up and running at Halls High School for nine years now. This is our ninth season. We started in the 2013 season. And so, me my background, my background is not related to industrial automation or robotics at all. I got into teaching engineering sort of accidentally and have picked up tools of the trade along the way. For a number of years, I participated in TSA, which was Technology Student Association. And they began adding a robotics competition to that, and some students I was working with, were really excited about getting into it. And sort of out of the blue was approached by some science teachers here that had heard about FIRST® Robotics and wanted to get started. And I tried to talk them out of it. I said guys, this is way too much work. I've talked to colleagues that have done it. And they assured me they were down to help, and the rest has kind of been history. So

Beth Elliott  3:22  

So, what did you do before you were a teacher? 

Brandon Ellis  3:26  

Yeah.

Morgan Everett  3:26  

Yeah, so what did I do before I was a teacher? So, I worked in chemical engineering, I worked in Rohm - at Rohm and Haas here in Knoxville. And I've got to be perfectly honest with you, I found myself really interested in my job for the first several years, particularly when I was learning, and a combination of kind of boredom with that, and not really learning and advancing the way I wanted to. I sought out teaching and I haven't worked a day since. 

Beth Elliott  3:26  

Awesome. 

Brandon Ellis  3:26  

Yeah, that's

Morgan Everett  3:26  

In that I love what I do and that's not work. Yeah, 

Brandon Ellis  3:35  

That's, that's really, that's really pretty awesome. I mean, you know, for the people that are listening, a lot of us are engineers, and chemical engineers. First of all, that speaks well of he can say, I'm not really you know, blah, blah, blah, but he's a sharp guy. Number two, though, he's really found his passion in teaching. And for many of us, once we have that piece of paper, like it or not, whether you're an engineer or not, it's very difficult to make a decision to choose against what you just, you know, set as your career path to something else. And then especially, unfortunately, there's a pay cut most likely between chemical engineering and being a teacher whether you agree with that or not, which I largely don't. That's the reality of it. But that's what I admire about Morgan is that he chose his passion. And I think you would say happiness. Like he said, he hasn't worked a day since by not sticking with his piece of paper.

Morgan Everett  4:57  

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Beth Elliott  5:00  

Well, Morgan, do you want to tell the listeners a little bit about what FIRST® Robotics is?

Morgan Everett  5:06  

Absolutely. So just a quick history lesson on FIRST® Robotics. FIRST® Robotics was founded by a guy named Dean Kamen. Most folks know Dean. He's invented lots of technology that has helped and advanced the world. From the micro chemotherapy delivery pump that he developed for his brother, who was a neonatal oncologist. Technology from that has actually spun off into the freestyle, the Coca Cola freestyle machine where you can pick you know, like 100, and something different flavors from one machine. That uses his technology. He, he's the inventor of the Segway, and I'm leaving out numerous more important contributions to society. But one of the things that Dean set out with, along with his co-founder Woodie Flowers 30 years ago, was to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated, and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders. And so, what they really, really wanted to do was to sort of teach kids to idolize not just movie stars and rock stars and artists, but also the people that really are behind the scenes making our world what it is and developing tomorrow. And so, he has Dean has always pulled in folks from film and art and music, just you know, to show that the two can exist hand in hand. And as a matter of fact, when they started this robotics program, they called it FIRST® which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. And 

Beth Elliott  6:38  

Another acronym 

Brandon Ellis  6:38  

Acronym FIRST®. 

Morgan Everett  6:43  

So yeah, FIRST® is an acronym. And we throw around some others like FRC. FIRST® actually has, they've developed now, let's see, five levels of competition. And FRC, which is FIRST® Robotics Competition is the flagship portion of their competition designed for grades nine through 12. They also offer a Tech Challenge for grades seven through 12. Lego League, or what they call, they've changed that to Lego Challenge now for grades four through eight. Lego Explore for grades two through four and Lego Explore and Discover for pre-K through first grade. So, this this vision that started 30 years ago, is getting kids to idolize science and technology artisans and leaders has expanded and grown really, really big. There. It is a global organization with almost 700,000 students involved worldwide. And yeah, it's it is it is massive. And it's, you know, our hope as parts of FIRST® are to make, to make our vision and our ideas pervasive in the world. So, does that kind of hit a good background lesson?

Brandon Ellis  7:57  

Absolutely. Well, so what I heard was, that the point of FIRST® Robotics was to cause the kids to maybe idolize us engineers, like they do the movie stars, and we need all the help with that as we can get us nerds.

Morgan Everett  8:09  

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I would 

Brandon Ellis  8:14  

Go ahead.

Morgan Everett  8:15  

I was just gonna say I would probably be remiss to not mention, I forgot to mention the late Dr. Woodie Flowers, who was the co-founder. So, Dr. Woodie Flowers was also a co-founder of FIRST® Robotics along with Dean Kamen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. And he coined two phrases that also permeate our culture and one is gracious professionalism. And this is the idea that while we may be competing, we are on the same team as the human race. And we can benefit from our own competition by helping one another and lifting one another up rather than trying to defeat someone in a downtrodden state. And so that has led to this word that they have coined coopertition. And most of our competitions, you will see coopertition embodied in that, you know, if there's a team that shows up, and maybe they're a new team, or a team that's met with some hardship, and they show up at a competition and they don't have a ready to go robot, you're going to find that the teams at that competition are going to do everything they can to help them, you know, do this last ditch effort to bring the best they have to the competition, because it is about working together. And it's about you know, I don't want to say this is not everybody gets a trophy, because obviously there are winners and losers, but along the way, we learn to give, you know, a hand up to those that we're competing against, rather than trying to defeat them or take advantage of some weakness. And I think that, you know, that follows really the core values of FIRST®.

Brandon Ellis  9:58  

Well, I know it derives from STEM. So, STEM, another acronym, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. And of course, specifically Red Nation Robotics, but the FIRST® Robotics group here locally is near and dear to the hearts of us here to elliTek. We're a sponsor of Mr. Everett, and his group and I have I've gotten been privileged enough to be allowed over in the FIRST®, the Halls FIRST® Robotics lab last year and a bit this year. It's been a little bit different this year. But those kids are extremely impressive. What they, I'm an electrical guy, and, and so watching what they're doing from the mechanical side of things, is really impressive, and a lot of the things that they've pulled together. And I really appreciate that, you know, when I was talking to, had the chance to talk to some of them, Morgan and I was saying, you know, where did you come up with this idea? This is a great idea this, this little, you know, linkage here or things of that nature. They were quick to say, you know, we got that from another, we got that, we're given that idea from another team, if that was the case, and so that's that work together attitude that they wanted to make sure that not only they help other people, but that they, that they let us know, he they wanted to let me know that, that this was someone else's idea that they were privileged to have. So, it's a really good, it's a good program in a lot of ways, I think.

Morgan Everett  11:26  

Yeah, absolutely. 

Beth Elliott  11:28  

You already talked about what, why FIRST® was created. Do you want to go into who Red Nation Robotics is?

Morgan Everett  11:35  

Yeah, so absolutely, I probably should have opened up with this in the beginning. I'm honestly, I just I get so excited when I talk about FIRST® and the values of FIRST® that I kind of out punt my coverage. And so, I really should have started by saying thank you guys. We are really, really honored that you would let us be part of your podcast. We're very thankful that you are one of our many sponsors who pour time and effort into what we do. As a matter of fact, we are almost wholly funded by sponsors like you. And so, thank you again, man. So, who is who is Red Nation Robotics? So, we've mentioned Halls High School many times, and I teach at Halls and the team is based out of Halls, Halls High School. But I would like to point out that we, our team, is open sort of to the community. Really, the only rule we have is if you go to a public school and your public school has an FRC team, you need to be part of that team. We're not here to rob talent from anyone, we don't feel like that that fits the model of gracious professionalism. But we do open our doors to currently Gibbs and Powell. They don't have teams. And so, we've welcomed some of their students onto our team. And we hope one day to see them grow their own teams. And we've also, throughout the years had some homeschool students join us. And it's been, that's a really neat part. Because it's, you know, it's not just about FIRST® with them, it's, it's, you know, social and interactions and friendships and things that they make there as well. And so, we were founded, like I said, in the 2013 robotic season. And we have been represented at World Championships for four of the nine years that we've been a team. This year, technically, judging and things have not finished, so who knows, we may see a return this year. But again, I was one of the founding mentors along with two science teachers, and we've gone and grown and just, you know, happy to be where we're at.

Brandon Ellis  13:41  

So, let me ask you this. Within, well, first of all, I think it can, it's, I can make the general statement disagree with me, of course, if you'd like, many of our guests have, that when we're talking about Red Nation Robotics, and how its structured that largely would exemplify how most of the other FIRST® Robotics groups and schools with throughout the throughout the globe are structured. But what's, what's it look like when you have, I know you have team members? You have sub teams? What's, what's that kind of org chart look like? And what, what does that do?

Morgan Everett  14:15  

Sure, so we actually, and this is true, you hit the nail on the head, this is going to be a general model for most FIRST® Robotics teams around the globe. We are a small enterprise. Not every FIRST® team is associated with the public or private schools, some exist sort of standalone. But either way, you have to be an enterprise in this and when I say an enterprise, we don't just design robots and compete. We have a technical and non-technical side of our team. So, what you would expect on the technical side, we have programmers who are working with our design and build team to design, build and make work these electromechanical machines. But we also have our non-technical side. And that is our business team and our media team. We have to we have to, as a FIRST® Robotics team, we have a brand. We get that out there. We want to be recognized. You know, it's nice when people go, Oh, yeah, I remember competing with them before, they're the team that does this thing, or they're the team that, you know, this is their uniform. So, we build that brand and brand recognition. Our business team works tirelessly year-round. Our budgets, I don't know if you want to get into that on the air. But we have a massive budget. We're very thankful that Knox County Schools helps with that. But it's unfortunately, less than 10% of our budget comes from the school system. 

Beth Elliott  15:38  

Wow.

Morgan Everett  15:39  

So yeah. It's absolutely

Beth Elliott  15:41  

You've got a lot to make up.

Morgan Everett  15:40  

Yeah, we do. We do. And the great part is, guys, one of the things I want to say that I'm really proud about with this team that we have is, you know, FIRST® Robotics applauds and encourages people, folks from industry to come in and work with a team. But we have always been a team where those folks are very hands off. We teach the students, show them, you know, where to go, but we don't tell them, you know, we say look over here, but not this is how you do it. And, you know, so that's one of the things that we've really, really prided ourselves in is, you know, yes, we mentor the students, but at the same time, we encourage them to grow the way they want to grow and pursue, you know, their passions as well.

Brandon Ellis  15:45  

That's something I'd like to expand upon. And certainly spotlight. You know, I've made the statement to you, multiple times, Morgan, as far as mentorship that I feel like that I'm a little when I go over there, I'm a little inept when it comes to some of some of those kids and what they know. Because again, there's on the engineering portion of it, there's, there's a lot of mechanical kind of things going on there. But I do think that and so anybody listening, me listening to this, that is thinking about becoming a mentor, don't think that that means you have to have all the goods. Because a lot of the time just me saying explain this to me. Where did you come up with this idea? Why did what and whether I know the answer not. Why do you, why did that work better than the other idea? I think that kind of stuff just helps them develop their own perspectives and ideas. And so, I would encourage anybody that has the opportunity to mentor if you're on the fence, you know, give it a shot. It's not, it's not an intimidating thing. And the kids don't make fun of us old folks too much when we don't know the answer. But we don't have to know the answer. The other thing that I was extremely impressed with was the non-engineering, the business side, the marketing side, the, you know, we talked about Kanban boards and kaizen processes and things of that nature that you all are using. It just it's, it's really neat. We've I mean, website development for the marketing and the brand building. I mean, there's so many things. The fact that it's an enterprise and not just a bunch of engineers building stuff, is really what I think a lot of people probably miss.

Morgan Everett  18:10  

Yeah, absolutely. That. Like I said, it's, it is so much more than robots. And I mean, that's a that's a huge segue into

Beth Elliott  18:21  

Yeah, what is the value of FIRST®?

Morgan Everett  18:23  

Yeah, what is the value of FIRST®? So, FIRST® is and that's, that's another slogan or motto that you'll see thrown around is more and more than just robots. And, and it goes, it goes beyond more than just robots and more than just a robotics team or, you know, a student run enterprise. And people I know, I'm biased. I know I am because I've done this for almost a decade now. But as an educator, I'm a parent myself, as an educator, as a citizen, FIRST® robotics -- it just has it all. It really does. I have not seen and I'm not downplaying athletics or any other organizations that that school aged children are involved in. But I have yet to see an organization that brings so much to the table for students. This is a real-world opportunity for students to learn real world problem solving. I mean, you may not be fully aware of this, but some of the biggest problems we have on our team is not creating a robot in six weeks. And that's saying a lot. You know, to turn to design, build, prototype, test, program. To deliver a robot in six weeks-time would be a challenge for somebody that had been in the field for 30 years. That's not our biggest challenge. Our biggest challenge are some of the soft skills like communication and planning. And you know, we continue to make improvements and the students are learning about this at you know, at what I would call a key developmental point in their life. And, you know, even when mistakes are made, they're learning, hey, mistakes happen, we're going to look for a way to correct this, we're going to try it out and see what happens. And, you know, that plus all of the enterprise experience, the project management, the problem solving, the late nights, the extra effort, you know, having something that's on your mind around the clock, you know, that's all great. But at the same time, these students are learning, you know, to work together, to problem solve, and to do really all the stuff that only experience really can teach. You know, you can't sit in a classroom, and tell somebody how to get along with somebody from a different background or a different culture, or with conflicting ideas. It really is the experience that teaches that. And, you know, guys for that reason, and this is not, I bring this up a lot, not because I want somebody necessarily to do something about it. But what I do, the hundreds of hours that I pour into this, the time I spend away from my family, which is a lot, I do this for free. Knox County and the state of Tennessee don't structure - this is not football, I don't earn a stipend for what I do. You know, I, at times, I felt like I've barely earned respect for what I do. But it is my passion for the results of this program that drive me to do what I do. I mean, it's, you know, the just, I can't say enough about how good FIRST® is for, and I'm gonna be honest, guys, it's not just the students, it's the parents, the mentors, we all learn from each other. And I and again, I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but the number of times, I've had a parent, say, Thank you, my student did not care about school. They didn't want to go. But they came and tried out this robotics thing, and now, because of, you know, we hold our students to high standards. You know, my student is interested in coming to school, they're wanting to learn more, so they can contribute more to the to the FIRST® team. It just, the effect snowballs. It's the growth is exponential that I see in my students. From the time they show up, whether they show up as a senior and they're with us one year. We occasionally have some Junior members that will have an older brother or sister on the team that'll show up, you know, early as an eighth grader and watch and get involved. Without regard to how much time a student spends with FIRST®, the growth is measurable. And it's obvious, you don't have to use some formal scale to say, well, this student has grown based on some test score. I can watch a student grow and their ability to talk to adults their ability to have, you know, because we have sponsors like you all the time that will come in and talk to the kids. And I'm sure you noticed, these kids, because of the way FIRST® puts you kind of out there, they don't have a problem telling you about what they're doing. You know, and many of them came in, and they were too shy to even speak to me. And, you know, they're just they're used to talking to strangers, and you know, with just letting the passion bleed. Kind of like I can't shut my mouth right now. I feel like, I feel like Tom Cruise on Oprah. It's just it's so exciting to talk about, you know, it gives all the good feel. 

Brandon Ellis  20:03  

Well, you're exactly right. And I'll echo that point going and talking with the kids over there is a pleasure. I mean, you know, I'm, I'm old enough that I'm not cool anymore, I've not been cool for a couple of years now, with that age group, but over there, you know, I could ask them a question, they would respond. And I'll tell you this, from an employer standpoint, that being able to deal with, like you said, to not be the person in the room that everybody agrees with, all the time, or your idea is being challenged by someone else, or, or just understanding how to fit into, you know, kind of I don't want to generalize, but kind of be the cog your, your, your, the particular cog in a machine, but you have to live with all the other cogs in the machine. Those types of interactions and whatnot, that that's worth its weight in gold, in my opinion, as an employer. And so, anything we can do, and of course, you know, that I'm passionate about development of our, our kids as they're coming out of high school and college and, and even those that don't go to college, that's where my even more of a soft spot I've got for those that are meant to be, you know, on the on the more hands on side and not so much into the computer side, at least as far as design and theoretical type things that us engineers and scientists get into. That, you know, we you got to have both, and you've got to have those skills to do that. And so, so what's the situation now? So, we've just come through 2020. 2020 and 2021 hasn't started off great especially if you're in in the Midwest or Texas or Louisiana. It's not been too good. But, but as far as FIRST® is concerned, how have you all, I know last year you won. You won the Little Rock Regionals. And then and then that was kind of it all of a sudden, right? And 2020 

Morgan Everett  25:21  

Yeah, so, we were in Arkansas. Oh, almost this time last year. It was it was in March around March the sixth, I think. And, you know, we had come off of really, really tough year with a lot of like I said, a lot of our issues are not building a robot and six weeks, they're working together and, you know, solving those soft challenges, soft skill challenges. We had come off that, and we had really learned, and our team was evolving and working in new ways and it showed. We went to a competition in Little Rock, Arkansas, there's a team there that that we look forward to competing against every year, Team 16 Bomb Squad, they've been around that team's been around since like, year one or two with FRC, and you know, they're always sort of like the gold standard for us to compete with and against. We get there. And you know, we're, we've just developed a good product. And you know, even the shortcomings of the products that kids are aware of them, and we're able to troubleshoot and do things like that when we're there. But you know, getting back to, you know, what did 20, what did 2020 do, to us? Well, we ended up competing with Team 16 Bomb Squad and winning the winning the competition there in head-to-head play and super exciting. Brandon, this was going to be the first time that students you know, even though we've been represented at Worlds several times, this would be the first time that I had students, my seniors would have gotten to have gone to two World Championships. And that was that was such a letdown, you know, to watch what's these young folks do such a great job have such a great comeback. Our 2019 season was wrought with failure. And you know, just to see these guys overcome all that, and you know, get the kind of get the proverbial get the rug yanked out from under them. You know, World, again, pales in comparison to those who've lost their lives and the family's struggles with COVID. I don't want anybody to think I'm trying to downplay that. But you know, seeing these young folks do so well. And then our competition here in Knoxville was slated two weeks after the Little Rock competition, that got cancelled almost as soon as we got back. And then, you know, Worlds would fall to closures as well. And, you know, we just, the fallout continued from there.

Brandon Ellis  25:21  

So, what about 2021 now, so?

Morgan Everett  27:47  

Well, so yeah, let's continue with that. One of the, one of the issues that that we ran into is, for us FIRST® robotics is year-round. We work, we work in the offseason to continue developing our wheelhouse and toolbox of tricks programmatically and design and mechanically. Our business and media teams are continuing to do their thing year-round. And you know, we got shut down. We weren't allowed to meet. And, and Beth, you may have to edit this part out for me, because one thing that I am is pretty transparent. And I was very disappointed. The school system allowed athletics to come back in limited capacity and outright told us No, you can't do it. And so, you know, unfortunately, public school becomes public sports in the South sometimes. And we, felt we felt that and fought that for quite some time. And with surprisingly little support, honestly. But we ended up, we ended up back in the lab, we you know, we worked virtually as best we could in that time. It's really hard when you work hands on to have to work from the living room. But we did what we could. We

Beth Elliott  29:19  

So, did they take. I don't mean to interrupt.

Morgan Everett  29:22  

No, no, no, no, please ask.

Beth Elliott  29:24  

So, to do the members take pieces and build them in their, in their living rooms. And then? How does that look?

Morgan Everett  29:31  

Yeah, so when we, when we did, I'm afraid to answer that question for legal purposes. But let's just say that as students, if students wanted to get some mechanical stuff together on their own and work, they could, and they would, and their passion for FIRST® Robotics certainly wouldn't stop them even in the face of a pandemic. So, I'd say that kind of tongue in cheek Yes. Um, some students were continuing to try and get materials as they could. And, you know, in the absence of our fabrication shop and stuff like that, and work. And then, you know, obviously we, we did some virtual meetings and things like that. And we were very fortunate we did finally get to come back in person, the very last week of July. And there are teams in Knoxville that still haven't been able to meet in person. Yeah, so maybe under some, some more conservative safeguards, they haven't been able to meet in person. And I will say that, in all honesty, as much as I say, Man, I hate that we didn't get to come back sooner and sooner, you know, it still wasn't normal. You know, we were we're dealing with, you know, what we've all gotten used to now with COVID. But it was, it was still kind of new to us back then. With social distancing and mask wearing, you know, and we still weren't at the point with COVID, where, you know, now I feel like we kind of know that it's, it's contact spreading isn't really much of a thing in this area, you know, so we were sanitizing surfaces, and really changing the way things were done. And if we fast forward now to 2021, we're still feeling some repercussions. So, we are getting to meet in our lab. And one of the things that we've always done in our meetings is we typically meet from right after school until 7:30, 8:30 at night. And you know, during that time, we've offered tutoring for our students. Parents have, have signed up to cook meals and bring them in. Local companies, I really want to give a huge shout out to my friends at Halls Deli. They provided one to two meals a week for us last year in our build season. And, you know, just I love those guys to death for that, because you know that that's something. They couldn't provide anything mechanically or financially for the team or mentorships, but they knew they could feed us and they stepped up and did that. And that's one thing. Yeah, go ahead.

Brandon Ellis  32:01  

I like Halls Deli.

Morgan Everett  32:02  

Yeah. 

Brandon Ellis  32:03  

I love Halls Deli. 

Morgan Everett  32:05  

Yeah, so and so one of the things we've had to do this year is we had to, had to realize that look breaking bread together as much as it builds the family atmosphere. And you know, that's one thing I haven't really stressed yet our team is like a family. You know, I don't want to come across as a weirdo. But man, I love these kids. They're like nieces or nephews, you know, to me. And you know, it's one of the things I always tell their parents, I'm going to take care of your kids like they were my own. You know, I'm not going to put them in, you know, physical harm's way. This is, you know, a thing we do. And I've really, we've really missed that this year. We've had terminated our meetings at 6:30 this year, in order to not have that close, unmasked contact. You know, you can't really eat through a mask. So, we've eliminated that. And you know, that's forced students to have to carry on some things virtually into those hours after dinner that normally we would have done in person. And then probably the biggest the biggest felt repercussion is we still can't compete in person. FIRST® Robotics did a great job of responding to the pandemic as a robotics competition. And they said, Hey, we're gonna develop challenges and things that you guys can do and be judged on from home. And we're going to keep open in the back of our minds that, you know, if, if the pandemic begins to dwindle, if, if vaccines are highly effective, maybe this coming summer, we can have some officially sanctioned, you know, head-to-head competitions. And unfortunately, while they were optimistic about that, the reality of the matter is, it became apparent that we couldn't do that. So that's all been kind of canceled. There will be no officially sanctioned head-to-head competition in 2021. So as a team we are preparing. They introduced two new challenges this year. One was a game design challenge. So, we have a subsection of our team that's working to develop and write the rules and develop game pieces and play for an FRC game. And that's been really neat to see the kids get involved in that.

Beth Elliott  34:17  

Is it like a video game or?

Morgan Everett  34:20  

No, no. So, like the kind of game that we play, you know, we call what we do a game. A robot has to complete, it has to complete tasks in a competition, right? So that game, that element of it. Every team that that that is registered and competing in the game design this year is developing their own their own FIRST® game. And you know, for FRC teams, it's gonna be really interesting because I mean, my team blew me away. Not that I don't have the highest expectations from my students, but what they put together was beyond my, so far beyond my own imagination, that I mean, it's just it's awesome. And I'm sure 

Brandon Ellis  34:58  

I saw some of it when I was over there. Just some of the stuff that they were getting into with the drive systems and everything like that.

Morgan Everett  35:03  

Yeah.

Beth Elliott  35:04  

Are those on YouTube?

Morgan Everett  35:06  

So, it's not, it's not going to be up just yet. People may have published some of their stuff. But we turn all that in for judging and schedule our interviewing next Thursday. And so as soon as that's done, I'm sure that we will, we'll release our game out there. And I don't know if FIRST® is going to host those in a repository some way. But they kind of have made promises that, hey, we're going to do our best to take some of these top ideas and work them in, in years to come. And so I think that's amazing.

Brandon Ellis  35:38  

Well, at the time that this this podcast drops, you will have already done that. So

Morgan Everett  35:43  

Yeah, I apologize. I forgot about that. 

Brandon Ellis  35:46  

No, that's good. It's good that so what we should do is what I challenge you with, is if those are available, Beth, we can add them to the to the comments section. So those links are there so they can see them. I'll tell you what it really is. I'm glad I'm not the only one that was blown away with what what's over there. Because it, they're just they're sharp bunch of kids and they're just one team. I mean, that it's just a really exciting program. So, the damages of COVID. I've got one question that I'm kind of interjecting here. So, I remember this 

Beth Elliott  36:21  

Going off script. 

Brandon Ellis  36:22  

Yeah, I'm gonna freestyle here.

Beth Elliott  36:25  

Freestyle.

Brandon Ellis  36:27  

Freestyle. So, Morgan, when you have students that go through, and then they graduate high school. So, they do their senior year in there, and then they graduate move on to bigger and better things. But are they typically, do you see them come back as I guess, mentors after to help the because they know, they know, a lot of the kids that are already there they able to come back in? And work, you know, kind of be a mentor? At that point? 

Morgan Everett  36:54  

Absolutely. Absolutely. That is one of the great things about FIRST®, you know, FIRST® we haven't talked about this yet, but FIRST® is, is almost completely volunteer run. And, you know, that's from volunteers for, you know, mentoring with, with individual teams, all the way up to volunteering to judge a competition and things like that, and help set up competitions. But we've been really blessed. A lot of we have good engineering schools in the area, and not all of our students go on to be engineers, I have students that are in law school, students that are in vet school, you know, students that have gone straight into the workplace, you know. But, you know, with, with what we have locally, a lot of these, my students that have stayed local, have come back and helped. And you know, it, that's a rough time to volunteer, I can remember being their age, and I've, you know, especially being in college, or first out of college, not having a lick of free time. And you know, I watch these kids, they work it into their schedule to come back and help. Because, you know, they're self-aware, they're aware what the team did for them. They're aware that they were taught by, you know, not just the adult mentors, but the alumni mentors that were there for them, you know, with the exception of our very first year's team, and they do graciously give back and I have students that are giving back a couple places across the nation, you know, that have moved away from Knoxville, and they have found FIRST® teams to get involved with where they're at. So yeah, it's, it's amazing. 

Brandon Ellis  37:17  

Well, when I was there, one of the first visits that I had to your alls lair last year

Morgan Everett  38:29  

I like that, lair.

Brandon Ellis  38:33  

The there was a there was a, in my mind, a student there, and I was talking to him, I'm sorry, I don't remember his name. But I was talking to him for a while and we just talked, talked, talked and then I'm like, so what you're you and he's like, Oh, I graduated last year, the year before something a couple years ago. I'm just, I'm just back here and but you know, he knew everybody knew him of course. And so, it truly is like you said it's a family. It's a family. So that said, RNR well not just RNR but yeah, probably because and just we make this our podcast goes out globally, but Halls High School is not in Halls, Tennessee. It's in Halls Fountain City or basically Knoxville, Tennessee, Eastern Tennessee. There's a Halls, Tennessee in West Tennessee, but that is East Tennessee is where we're based out of in Knoxville. And so, Halls High School is certainly actually in our backyard from our, from our offices here, but what can we the businesses, the individuals, the citizens, the various and sundry folks that are right here in this community in the East Tennessee region, and then you know, this this, of course, includes other folks that are in areas with high schools that have their own FIRST® programs. Again, I think it's going to be similar, but what kind of things can we do to help you all, especially considering the ramifications of this pandemic and all the changes?

Morgan Everett  39:59  

Sure, absolutely. So, it's gonna be a gamut of things. And one of the first things I would say, and don't stop listening here, don't T, don't TLDR, if your steaming the podcast. But if you go to FIRST® Inspires, and I'm sure that Beth will put that in the in the comments section or somewhere where folks can follow up very easily, they have a get involved button, and it will hook you if you don't know where FIRST® is going on, it will show you FIRST® near you, and you can find someone to get involved with. So how can you get involved? You know, I'll start out on the big, probably the larger scope, and then I'll refine down to the most probably intimate way to be involved. One thing that I would say to anybody that is, is looking to give to workforce development, unfortunately, like I said, we have to earn greater than 10% of our own budget. And so, if you have a business, that, and I'm not saying your business has to necessarily donate money. You know, you guys have been great to support us in multiple ways, you know, elliTek has, you know, whether it was time, or materials or machining. You know, not, we're really fortunate Halls, we've been around for a minute. We've raised quite a bit of money, you know, we have quite a bit of fabrication capability in our own lab. But you know, if, if you're a machining company, you know, offering some time to turn out some of the designs the students have made for them, you know, that's one way to get involved. So, these kind of like in-kind and service donations, monetary donations, I hate to talk about it, but unfortunately, the world runs on money. And, you know, if you get a solicitation from a FIRST® team, just think about it. Give it give it a second thought, and I know these times of COVID are tough. And you know, we've seen that as a team, you know, through seeking our regular sponsorship and in our, in our fundraising drives and things, you know, we've seen, we know, it's a lean year, and everybody is operating in a more lean capacity with giving and you know, maybe it's because larger companies, maybe they're there, they redirected they're giving to the to the pandemic efforts, rather than, you know, something like FIRST® and totally understandable. But, you know, one of the things that I try to try to really teach my students is, you know, if you get somebody that donates, and I'm gonna throw out a massive number here, somebody donates $10,000 to the team, I'll probably get their name tattooed on my cheek, if you want me to advertise for you. elliTek logo might look good on my face. 

Brandon Ellis  42:43  

I'll think about that.

Morgan Everett  42:47  

In all seriousness, you know, we ask every one of our students to get involved in networking, you know, it's all about networking. And yes, we say, Hey, we want you to bring in, we want you to do your best to bring in $50, you know, $50 to the team, and it's okay, if it's 10 sets of $5 donations. And so what I would say to a business or an individual that has the capability, you know, $50 to a team is amazing. And, you know, FIRST® teams are very good, we're good stewards of our money and our sponsorship, you know, because we have to work so hard to get it. And, you know, the other thing is, you can volunteer, you know, if you don't have time to mentor a team, or you're not in a position where you make financial decisions, or decisions to donate machine time or whatever, to a team. You can volunteer at the competition's, Knoxville, we're really fortunate we have an FRC competition in Knoxville. It's the Smoky Mountain region and in fact for the last several years is taking place at Thompson Boling arena. And it takes hundreds of volunteers to put that to put that competition together. And so

Beth Elliott  43:58  

How could people volunteer this year? What would I mean mentor or volunteer this year? How would that look like?

Brandon Ellis  44:03  

Because they're not they're not doing the Smoky Mountain thing this year, right?

Morgan Everett  44:04  

Yeah, so probably I and I'm not gonna say this for sure, you can probably still jump in and get involved. But when we turn in things to be judged this year. We're still turning even though it's electronic submission. There are volunteers judging it. And we had to do, yeah, our students are gonna have to do zoom interviews. And so there's still there's still ways to volunteer with the events this year. And I'm sure they're still trying to fill some of those slots. And then lastly, probably the most intimate way and also the toughest way to get involved, would be to mentor. And what I would say to someone who is thinking about mentoring, come as you are. Like you said, Brandon, even if you're just someone there to talk to the students, ask them questions, you know, provoke thinking, be someone for them, you would be surprised being a mentor. And I don't want to scare anybody away from it. Being a mentor, in a lot of cases is like being a teacher and you become a second parent to some of these students. And you know, we are so much more than robots. I mean, yes, our motto as a team is, is "Making Robots ~ Building Leaders".

Beth Elliott  44:08  

I like that motto.

Morgan Everett  44:21  

Yeah. Thank you.

Beth Elliott  45:01  

Did you come up with that or the kids?

Morgan Everett  45:21  

No, I didn't. That's the kids. But, you know, being there, being somebody that kids can talk to. Because, you know, here, some of my, some of my kids are leaving sports practice to come, leaving, you know, practicing a musical instrument, studying for AP classes. You know, just having a, an adult that they can confide in, you know, that's huge. Now, if you can bring to the table, technical skills. And when I say technical skills, I mean, you know, skills that are related to what you do every day in your job, whether it's managing people, or business or marketing, or mechanical engineering, or programming, you know, teams need that help and that input. And you know, our team right now, if we want to get really specific to Halls High School and Red Nation Robotics, we are experiencing mentor drought. I am the last teacher at Halls High School still involved. I have another teacher, that that was one of the founding mentors with us here at Halls years ago, who teaches at Powell now, and he's still giving his time with us and has while he was teaching at Halls and while he transitioned and is at Powell now. But you know, some of my best help over the years have been parents. And you know, they'll come in and bring the skills they have, and things like that. And, you know, there is a learning curve. Brandon, and like you said, you've been in our lab, and the students really know what's going on. And that's because we have this tribal system of passing along knowledge. But if you had to sit down, I mean, as a matter of fact, one of the probably the most overwhelming things I do is hand a kid a handbook, and say, Hey, to apply to our team, I need you to read this handbook. And it's, you know, it's 50 pages long. That's overwhelming. But you know, so is building a robot in six weeks with high schoolers. And so, we really encourage, you know, embracing the idea that you can't boil an ocean, you know, you can get a pot of water out at a time and put it over a fire, right? And so, if you're thinking about mentoring, yeah, there's going to be a learning curve. Yeah, it's going to be steep, but one pot at a time, you can boil that ocean. And the difference that it makes in the lives, you know, these aren't just young people, this is the future of the world. These are the kids that are going to break down the walls of, I can't help you because you don't look like me, because you don't speak my language because you don't support the same political party I do. These kids are going to overcome the crap we hold on to I believe right now. And that's because of the mission and values of FIRST®. They understand that coopertition, not only helps you, but it helps your competition, it helps society, it helps you know, mankind, and these guys really are going to going to mold and shape a world that's different. And you know, they need.

Brandon Ellis  48:09  

Coopertition.

Morgan Everett  48:19  

Coopertition, gracious professionalism. They really are, they're gonna, they're gonna shape a different world. You know, as an educator, one of the things I tell my kids are, you know, by the time your kids are college age, diplomas may be worthless. You can already get a PhD on YouTube. Let's be honest, if you want to learn it, the world is out there. And so, you know, these kids, they really are, the world will be different for them. It's going to be much different than what it looks like for you and I, and Beth and it's going to be different, you know, leaps and bounds, I think, because of what, what they embrace.

Brandon Ellis  49:02  

Well, and I'm going to go on to say that if you're thinking of mentoring, and you think that your attitudes gonna be I'm going to show up and show them how smart I am, don't. The idea is you don't the more the less you come there to show them your stuff. And the more you come there, just to show up, is really what you need to do. Because what I noticed when I walked in there, the first time, I was pretty overwhelmed. And so, I went into 100% question mode, because I was just overcome with Wow, look at all the stuff that's going on. I mean, you all had teams and a lot of different rooms. Of course, this was 2019. Before, before the pandemic, so they were thick as thieves. Now I've been over there, I don't want to say that I haven't been over there in 2020, but or 2021 but this was actually it was 2020 before the pandemic, I guess not 2019. 

Morgan Everett  49:54  

Right, right. 

Brandon Ellis  49:55  

But they were I was just really taken back by the fact that that there were just, there was activity going on in a lot of different spaces, a lot of different places. And it was like it, but it wasn't the same activity. Some of it was the business side, some of it was programming, some of it was mechanical, some of it was on the computers, and we were at the 3D printers. You know, we did our "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be Machined" episode a couple of weeks ago, where we talked about additive manufacturing. And I did a shout out to you and the FIRST® Robotics folks over there, because I remember when I came over there, I told you and your crew that I was, I was curious about how you all were using 3D and, you know, the additive manufacturing, 3D printing, and began to quiz you specifically, Morgan, with a lot of your experiences, and because a lot of it's trial by fire that you all have done and, and we were, we were, had come into additive, but from a professional engineering, you know, build for use in production kind of standpoint, you all actually were, were a good research project for me, because of a lot of the things that you all did. Now and then, that led to, we picked up an internship last summer, an intern from the University of Tennessee in the Mechanical Engineering department, Matthew Stuckey. And Matthew was my guest in that, that podcast and, and so it's just, it's just an, you know, shines a light on what you all with your kids, what you have shown them what you all have learned together, and then and then kids like Matthew, that are at the at the college level, really getting into that stuff. And, and me setting here, you know, 20 many years into this, and, and having the opportunity to learn from them. And so that really, I think, as a mentor, is the best attitude you can have is to come in ready to learn, ready to see ready to be enamored with, with what they're doing. It's different, a lot of it's different. Now, the other thing I'm going to put a challenge out to, to the manufacturers that provide a lot of the stuff for the FIRST® teams from an engineering standpoint, us electrical engineers are getting the shaft, you're not making them do enough electrical stuff.

Morgan Everett  52:16  

Yeah.

Brandon Ellis  52:20  

Getting some good programming, some good mechanical, and the business and the project management. But us electrical guys, we're more than just a fuse.

Beth Elliott  52:28  

Awe, left out in the cold, are ya?

Brandon Ellis  52:29  

I don't have that sound effect today. Okay, so, there you go.

Beth Elliott  52:35  

I love your passion that you have Morgan, it's awesome. It's fantastic.

Morgan Everett  52:39  

Yeah, thank you. And just really quickly, I do I want to echo what Brandon is saying about the mentorship. You know, in my time, I have seen teams where it was a playground for adult engineers, and man the kids suffered. Man, the kids suffered.

Brandon Ellis  52:56  

There's nothing, there's nothing good about, I mean as fun as it sounds that, you know, get together with all your buddies, you know, at the end of the cul-de-sac or something and do your stuff there. But just show up for the kids just to be there. I mean, like you said, just being there to ask them what's going on. And then if they say, what do you think this means? I don't know. What do you think it means? You know, have that conversation. If anything, it's just a social interaction. And, when they get out into the professional world, that kind of stuff is golden. It really is, it really is it makes all the difference. We can teach. As we hire new employees, especially if they're coming out of school. It's expected we're going to spend some time teaching them and I enjoy teaching. I actually started in physics, believe it or not, I was going to be a physics teacher. And then you'll respect this, Morgan, I found out I had to take organic chemistry. And I was just like

Morgan Everett  53:51  

I love organic chemistry. 

Brandon Ellis  53:52  

Yeah, I was like, Nope, that's not gonna happen. So, engineering, here we come. And so that, that really was what caused me to not be a physics teacher was that watching those cats come out of the organic classes in the chemistry building, carrying those big models of I don't know what they were molecules or DNA

Morgan Everett  54:12  

Molecular. Molecular models. Yeah.

Brandon Ellis  54:17  

That intimidated me to death. Absolutely. And so, so at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, I changed my major and went engineer the whole way. So, it's been good, but Okay, so going forward. Let's talk about a couple other things as we are coming to the top of the program. We'll kind of wrap up here. So, what kind of things can we tell people about so they can get in touch with you? You mentioned the FIRST® Inspires? 

Morgan Everett  54:41  

Yes. 

Brandon Ellis  54:42  

But Red Nation 4567.com. That's one that I'm more 

Morgan Everett  54:46  

4576 

Brandon Ellis  54:47  

Oops, sorry. I had a

Morgan Everett  54:48  

That's okay.

Beth Elliott  54:50  

We'll have these in the show notes.

Brandon Ellis  54:52  

Make sure you do. Let me say that again. 

Morgan Everett  54:54  

If anybody's curious about that number, when new teams sign up with FIRST® they're assigned a serialized identification number. And so, 4576 was us.

Beth Elliott  55:03  

Okay. 

Brandon Ellis  55:04  

And you were talking about that your competition out there. 

Beth Elliott  55:06  

16 

Brandon Ellis  55:07  

Was 16. Yeah.

Beth Elliott  55:08  

Who's number one? 

Morgan Everett  55:09  

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know, I would have to look, I want to say I don't think number one still exists. 

Beth Elliott  55:16  

Okay. 

Morgan Everett  55:17  

But there's a number two out there, I think. 

Beth Elliott  55:18  

Okay. 

Morgan Everett  55:20  

Yeah. But, you know, some of these teams that have been around for that long, they're there because somebody realizes what a workforce development that team is. And they've put a lot into them. It really is. It you know, one of the things that I find disheartening, sometimes is there's so much effort to start new teams. And there's, it's really, we you know, we call it kind of rookie rich, as a first-year team. There's just tons of resources for you tons of grants and things that are available. And then after you burn that rookie year, it's just gone. And you see a lot of teams that, you know, two they're two years and done. And, and I hate that because like I said, it's so awesome. So is there. I'm looping here, back on mentoring. But

Brandon Ellis  56:06  

Well, also the financial side of it. So that's interesting. So, so there's grants for first year for FIRST® first of year teams, but then they kind of expire after that. Is there is there discussions about especially among sponsors for having a second year grant or a third year grant or something like that?

Morgan Everett  56:23  

You know, honestly, I think, I think and I don't want to speak out, I don't want somebody from FIRST® emailing me and telling me that I've defamed the organization. I think I think that that was probably an intentional focus of FIRST® for a while, because it is one of the things that that stands to be a huge barrier for something like a public school or private group to get into FRC. FRC is not cheap. It is, it is a very expensive endeavor, which is the most unfortunate part of it, because it's worth, there is no value for, you know, what it produces. You can't put a dollar figure on it. But, you know, I think maybe that was intentional and designed that way. And I think we've seen some things change, you know, but again, it's just all about, we really need buy in from industry. And, you know, you know, I've seen Brandon, you blew my mind the first time you told me about you know, what all you do at elliTek just, you know, to improve your industry. And then the first thing I thought was man, this guy's this guy, this is gracious professionalism and coopertition. And, and he doesn't know it. You know, like, like this podcast, you know, in and of itself. And so, you know, just another way for people that are looking to get involved a FIRST® team, it would be an amazing way to do it.

Brandon Ellis  57:41  

Yeah. Well, we're gonna do all we can do. And I'm going to encourage everybody so this is kind of a shout out to challenge to, to all the all of the engineering type companies, the companies, systems integration, machine building, distributors, internet, anybody in industrial automation, industrial manufacturing, if you have an opportunity to individually or as a group or as a corporation to get out and support your FIRST® Robotics, local FIRST® Robotics schools and teams that you should do that it is actually absolutely invaluable what they're doing. And Morgan I continue to be really, really impressed with you. I appreciate your passion. You know, honestly, it wasn't you that introduced us. It was a parent that introduced us, Miss Billy-Jo. And I'm glad she did. And, and then on top of that, your passion has just really, I mean, we're all in. We're really tied in because of that. So, I encourage you to, to keep up the cheerleading, you're a good cheerleader.

Morgan Everett  58:50  

Thank you. Yeah, well, I mean, it's not hard to be passionate about it. You know, it's, it's, it's not like, I don't know, it's just - I smile. I wish we were on camera. The only thing I've been happier about is being a husband and a father. You know, it's such a great thing.

Brandon Ellis  59:09  

Cool. cool. Well, Beth,

Beth Elliott  59:10  

So, to get in touch, if you want to get in touch with the local Red Nation Robotics 4576 Team, their email is rednation4576@gmail.com. Their website is rednation4576.com and they've got a Twitter handle rnr4576 and their Facebook is rnr4576 I think I

Brandon Ellis  59:45  

You got it written down

Beth Elliott  59:46  

I did. I messed that up.

Brandon Ellis  59:48  

I'm not the only one. You did it in writing.

Beth Elliott  59:51  

I did. 

Brandon Ellis  59:52  

It's here on the outline. 

Beth Elliott  59:53  

Again, we'll put these in the show notes. So, I encourage people if you want to reach out to them to check those

Brandon Ellis  59:58  

So, Red Nation Robots 4576 I'll get it right from here on out. Well, Morgan, thank you very, very much for your time today. It's been fantastic. I appreciate your insights.

Beth Elliott  1:00:08  

It's been a pleasure. 

Brandon Ellis  1:00:11  

Yeah, absolutely. And thank you again for all that you do. Beth, it's always a pleasure to have you sitting across the table. 

Beth Elliott  1:00:18  

I feel privileged to be here. 

Brandon Ellis  1:00:19  

Yeah, the elliTek podcasting studios in Knoxville, Tennessee. And I want to thank everybody who has continued to download our, all of our podcasts. And I always give shout outs to Beth but I give shout outs to you all for doing it because she does all the promotion and you all do your part. So, thank you for subscribing, for liking, for sharing, for tweeting, for LinkedIn-ing all the things that that you all do. And Beth, thank you for all that you do. We are, we are fast approaching our 1000, our 1000 whoops, I've got a call coming in, hold on just second. Let me take care of that. Our 1000 downloads now we're not quite there. We're getting close. So, keep after it. And we're gonna keep doing these podcasts. So

Beth Elliott  1:01:08  

Don't forget to, you know, if you got any questions or comments to let us know. 

Brandon Ellis  1:01:13  

Shout it out. 

Beth Elliott  1:01:14  

Yeah. 865-409-1555. And I'm going to make a song out of that soon, so 865-409-1555.

Brandon Ellis  1:01:29  

That used to be applause. I've changed my sound button. So, everybody, Thanks for checking us out today, "Industrial Automation - It Doesn't Have To... Be Last" with FIRST® Robotics. So have a great week. Oh elliTek, elliTek.com if you need us on the website. Guys, we're looking forward to our next podcast. We got a lot of cool things coming. So, keep your eyes posted, make sure that you subscribe to our channels, our RSS feeds, those kind of things and you'll see what's coming. Beth's got some great things on the on the cooking surface. So, thanks again guys. Thanks again. Morgan, give us one more shout out.

Morgan Everett  1:02:07  

Hey, thank you guys. I appreciate you as sponsors, as supporters of everything that we do.

Brandon Ellis  1:02:11  

See ya, Beth.

Beth Elliott  1:02:12  

Later. 

Brandon Ellis  1:02:13  

Later.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai