Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

A Goodbye Worth Remembering, Wishing Ramona Bell-Pearson and Ron Maxson Jr. a Happy Retirement!!

• Derek Ross and Ramona Bell-Pearson • Season 1 • Episode 11

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In this episode, we are saying goodbye to our podcast co-host and CUPF Director, Ramona Bell-Pearson. Please join Communications and Outreach Specialist Derek Ross, along with CUPF Summer Fellow Sarah Hoffman as we say goodbye to Ramona and Ron. On this podcast, we will be joined by CUPF Program Specialist – Childcare & Special Projects, Emily Brewster-McCarthy. Plus, the questions are rolling in regarding school reservation policies and procedures. We are here to help!!

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Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Welcome to Off the CUPF. This is the community use of public facilities podcast powered by the Interagency Coordinating Board, also known as the ICB, and that is our governing board. Did you know you can reserve indoor and outdoor community space in a school? Well, schools are great places to conduct a wide variety of activities, classes, performances, camps, and cultural and religious programs. How about regional service centers? They provide an opportunity for bringing together county resources, community activities, and support groups. Available venues are here to be reserved, and we are the office that can make it happen. We are CUPF, and thank you for joining our community podcast. Let's get started.

Derek Ross:

Welcome back. Here we go, here we go. You know what? We just had another, another wonderful, wonderful voiceover by director Ramona Bell Pearson. And you know why I like saying that right now? Because the title of this episode is A Goodbye Worth Remembering. But do we really want to say goodbye? I'm not too sure, but we'll just go along with it. And we're wishing Ramona Bell Pearson and Ron Maxon Jr., you know, a bon voyage and all of that good stuff. But I'll save it because that's my opportunity just to jump in a little bit. But hello, Ramona.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Hi Derek. How are you doing?

Derek Ross:

I'm good. I'm good. I like to talk like that as if you're not here and just you just trying to jump in like that. But yes, yes. But how are you feeling, Ramona? Let's let's get into it.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I'm feeling very busy right now.

Derek Ross:

Yes.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

But um I'm I'm okay.

unknown:

Okay.

Derek Ross:

Okay. Do you want some highs and lows, or you just want to Sure. Okay.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Um, I guess the highs would be I'm looking forward to retirement in two days if you don't count today.

Speaker 02:

Okay.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

The lows are retirement in two days if you don't count today. Um, and that's largely because it's it's hard to leave. It's always hard to transition. We're gonna miss you. Got a lot of good people at CUPF. We do some really good things for our community, and I'm gonna miss that, but I'm sure I'll find other ways to serve.

Derek Ross:

Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Very talented individual, very talented, our director Ramona Bell Pearson. Uh, I'll I'll I'll make it quick. I'll make it quick. My highs and lows, my highs. Uh, I think we're we're we're on to some great things. We're onto some great things. We have awesome leadership, and this leadership has been very supportive of the communications department. We have uh, well, we have annual reports coming out, we have uh virtual tours we're working on, we have a lot of things that are we're working on to try to get it done, and we're gonna get it done as fast as possible because we just want to make sure the community's happy and all that good stuff. Lowe, I think I made a mistake. Um, I think last podcast, Ramona, I said my son kind of, you know, aggressively woke me up and stuff like that. It wasn't aggressive, everybody. What I did was I actually closed my eyes and I waited for him to approach me while I was sleeping so I can kind of fake. And then he tapped me very aggressively, Ramona, just to wake me up because he had he wanted a snack. So I I think I was overly playing it up as if he had, I mean you know, he woke me up pretty rough. So that was my low. I think I over-exaggerated something that my son did, I hope.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

But it was so did your son listen and say, Daddy, come on.

Derek Ross:

There was a look. You gotta be thinking about it. There was a look. You're doing too much, Daddy. There was that look. But yes, highs and lows. So yeah, everything is going well. Everything is going well. So let's get around to the round table discussion. Who do we have here? Sarah.

Sarah Hoffman:

Hello.

Derek Ross:

Welcome, Sarah. Sarah, if I and I'm gonna repeat it again, or I'll just let Sarah say, you know, our summer fellow, Sarah, by all means, highs and lows. How are you doing?

Sarah Hoffman:

I'm doing great. Today was our big day for a summer fellowship. So we got to present our research project. So that was definitely a high to be done with that. Low, I would say we were just talking about, but I feel like the summer went by really fast. And so everything's already wrapping up again. So another transition.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You did a five fabulous job.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. She did. She did.

Derek Ross:

Yes, yes, yes, yes. You were on TV. You know, I mean, we we have an ongoing joke here, but yes, you were on TV. You were having a good time. You spoke the questions and everything like that. So everything is going great, and it's wonderful. Once again, thank you, Sarah, for being here. And those weeks went by pretty fast. But as we go around the table, we have another person here, a new new person. Ramona, would you mind, you know, introducing this person?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Certainly. Emily Brewster McCarthy comes to us from HHS. She's been with us about a year. Um, she was with the Street Outreach Network and the Child Welfare Division, and now she is with our child care division. And Emily has been doing great things with child care. She's working closely with the providers that go into our elementary schools and one middle school, I think. Um, and so we we've been learning a lot from Emily because she brought a lot of knowledge with her, but we're also teaching her a lot from the child care perspective.

Derek Ross:

Emily, Emily, Emily.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Hi.

Derek Ross:

Hi, Emily. Hi, how are you? How are you? Highs and lows. We could just get into introduce yourself. Let's just just just tell the world about yourself.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh well, I want to thank Ramona first. That was a wonderful introduction. Uh, I wouldn't, I mean, thank you so much for speaking so highly. I will take that. I will take that. So let me sit with that for a little bit. Okay, that's good. Um, so my highs, uh, it's a good day. It just feels like a good day. Yeah, I have nothing to complain about. Lows, I will say, kind of like Sarah. Summer's going by really fast. And also Ramona's retiring. And I think that has us all a little bit, you know, I don't want to say down in the dumps, but you know, kind of, you know.

Derek Ross:

Oh, yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

So uh, but yeah, I think Ramona said everything that I could say about myself professionally. Maybe not everything, right? We'll keep some things, you know, for future episodes if you if you'd have me on.

Derek Ross:

Save some. Yeah. If. If. Okay, we'll talk about that later. Yes. So, well, welcome, Emily. Thanks. Thank you so much. I know that, you know, I I I want Ramona to be around here forever and just enjoying this, you know, picking her brain. Because I would jump in to just say that Ramon and Ron have so much information. There's just so much. I'm thinking about if there's a way to plug in and get this information from them, like sync them and then also plug them into a computer. I think we can make a movie out of it. It's probably already been done.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Upload.

Derek Ross:

But hopefully we can do that and get the information from them. But while they're here, and we're we're getting so much from them and we appreciate them so much. But we'll do so much more later on and giving them the flowers. I think Ramona, we're gonna just yell out speech so we can get all that from Ramona. But let's jump into it. Let's jump into it. Quickly, we're gonna do a did you know? A did you know? Did you know or do you know about CUPF School and County Facilities user guidebooks? The Fula facility use license agreement. Very important, very important uh reading and going through it and understanding a lot about CUPF, but I'll stop talking. Ramona, what about this FULA? What about the user guidebooks? What do you think about it?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, FULA stands for Facility Use License Agreement, which in the name is the word agreement, which some people may not realize is a contract. So when you decide to permit a facility, we require you to acknowledge on your application that you have read the agreement. That means you understand and accept once you check the box the terms and conditions in that agreement. There are many people who don't read, and I'll admit, you know, like you get those Apple agreements every time it's time to do a no new iOS, and you there's like six pages and you scroll through them all and get to the bottom and click agree and you don't look at a single word. Well, a lot of us do that with the FULA too. But that doesn't mean that you're not bound by everything in that agreement. Um, we often find that people will be held responsible for doing something that they didn't realize was a violation, and they'll say, Well, nobody told me, and we'll direct them to the Fula, and then they'll say, Oh, I didn't know that was in there. So ignorance of the law is no defense. That's true in CUPF. It's true in court. Um, so unfortunately, we do have to hold people to that. So I would recommend that people make sure they look at their license agreement, especially if they have a question about something they want to do. And most likely it's covered there because we've had a lot of experience with different types of events and activities and special interests that people want to do, and we've had to incorporate that into the agreement over the years. So it's probably there.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think for me too is realizing that there's two different ones specifically because there's a lot of information. So you had to split it up. Sarah, I know we've done it before talking about all the information and stuff that you're looking up. So when we mentioned like fulas and user guidebooks, and even when Ramona mentioned like Apple, I was thinking about it. I was like, I don't even think I've read through. I don't even want to tell it myself. Never mind. Sarah, what do you think about a lot of this stuff?

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I think yeah, Ramona said it's important to read about it just to know whether the event or the program that you're planning for, if anything that is being planned falls within or outside of those guidelines. And I mean, I I guess the question I would have for you guys is like sort of what what happens if someone like breaks the terms of the agreement and like sort of what happens. I think that's something that I would be interested to hear more about. But um, in terms of the work I've been doing with you all, I think highlighting some of the areas that people seem to have like repeated questions about is something that maybe I can help create for these last two weeks that I'm part of the program. I think a big one that we talked about earlier was field use and people having a lot of questions about field use agreements.

Derek Ross:

Yes, there are a lot of questions, a lot of questions. Before I jump back and get back to Ramona, Emily, I know you do a lot with the childcare and everything like that. But when we mention stuff like FULAS and user guidebooks, how does what does that do for you?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Well, uh childcare's FULAs are a little different, uh, but everybody should read over the FULA. Uh and when we say FULA, I actually just want to uh clarify you can actually go on whatever browser uh you have on your phone, laptop, and you can literally just type in C-U-P-F FULA F-U-L-A, and it will take you straight to our FULA. Thank you. Uh, which is super awesome because it's, you know, just you don't even have to write out the acronym. You just put in, you know, our stuff and CUPF FULA, and it shows right up. So just please read it.

Derek Ross:

So I know we're we're still on the topic, and I know we're gonna just jump back to Ramona. I know Ramona, what we're looking over. I'm looking over the script like you know, it's a ton of questions, but based off of just a few of the questions it had, even what Sarah just throwing through in there. Is there anything specific about the FULA? I know I have down, you know, the benefits of having it, you know, how do staff utilize the guidebook, you know, why should the community read? And I think we went over a little bit, but I would love to hear from the director, you know, just just what is your take? If we dive a little bit deeper into your take on that.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Sure. Well, first you mentioned there's two, and you're right. We have two separate guidebooks and two separate FULAs. One is for school use and one is for government building use. With regard to Sarah's question, which is a great question, what happens if you breach or violate the FULA? Well, we have a process, and the process is the core service staff manager will review the complaint or the concern. We often hear the information about the breach or the the violation from the school because either the building service people will have observed or a principal will come in the next morning and there's damage or there's some incident that has to be corrected. We then will communicate with the user group, um, the permit holder is the one responsible, and indicate to them what the problem is and come up with a plan for either a restitution if there's some damage, or we might have to ban the group if it's a violation that's serious enough that the school's saying they're no longer welcome to use our facility. Um sometimes that's on a case by case where it'll just be one school, so we have to move them to another school, or it could be serious enough that even though it's only one school saying it, we know that there's not going to be any other school that's gonna accept the group. So once they're banned, there are various lengths of banning. It could be for six months, or it could be as long as as 18 months. The maximum is 18. If you want to appeal that decision, you can have request a meeting with the director, me, and I would sit with the core services manager to hear the explanation and the discussion. At that point, we would make the group aware that we would consider their mitigation or whatever information they gave us, take it back to the school, deliberate with the school because it is school property and it is their decision as to whether they will permit people to come back. If the violations are such that they're on the fence or not quite as serious, we may be able to make the decision without having to consult with the school and just find another school to place the the group in. But but that's generally how we handle it when there's there's a breach. We try to be as fair and open as possible, but at the same time, you have to respect the property of others. And the school has as its main priority educating students. So when you have community use coming in and doing something that takes away from their ability to educate and have a safe, clean environment, then you're no longer welcome.

Derek Ross:

Wow. Wow. And thank you for that too. Sarah, that was a good question. I think it was a lot of people that wanted to know that answer. So I think a lot of us wanted to know. Um, so jumping around, jumping around, we're going to keep it going. We're still talking about schools and we're still gonna, you know, of course, go back to Ramona as well, too. So, Ramona, we had a couple lists, you know, and I think this list was kind of created from core services team about certain topics that are I would are they just being brought up or just how does this work? Or is it just something that just continues to happen or is just noticeable situations that are happening at schools? Uh so we have food trucks not being permitted, uh light portables, we have parking, uh, alcoholic beverages and smoking. Uh I'll throw the last one in there is pickleball fields as well, too. And I'm being loose about it because I I know that we have like a little bit of a breakdown for, but when I'm throwing out those topics like food trucks, light portables, parking, alcoholic beverages, smoking, uh non-pickleball fields, is there something specific about it that you want to jump in on it or just let us know?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Sure. Um, I will say that some of the things that I'm gonna mention that are for the general public have some exceptions for the type of permit holder it is. For example, Emily could jump in and tell you with the providers they're permitted to do and permit things that the general public isn't permitted to do because they have, as a mandate, their safeguard of children for a specific period of time before and after school, and they have to meet exercise requirements and food requirements that are different from the general public. But food trucks are something that whether you're on a public street or at a plaza, a county plaza, or at a school, you have to have a permit. And the permit isn't from CUPF. The permit is from HHS because they manage certification and licensing of food to make sure safe handling occurs, make sure it's it's um clean, sanitary, et cetera. There also may be a permit needed from permitting services, which is not CUF, but a county agency that permits events functions, building stages at concerts, dealing with crowd control, noise. Well, noise is environmental protection, but but generally they will deal with a lot of different things related to um that type of thing that could include food trucks. Um, and that includes the vendors. Um parking is something that has always been an issue. We cannot sometimes permit a school, even if it's available online, because we know that there's a field next to it, that there's a game going on or a league that's using, and they have a lot of parking needed for that. So the school can accommodate both for parking. While the facilities might be empty, the parking lot will be full. So we have to think that when we're considering what we will agree to permit. Wow. Um, alcoholic beverages are something that if you look at our facility use license agreement, the you'll see that it does not permit alcoholic beverages on school campuses. And that is because MCPS has made a pretty um straightforward rule that that's not to be permitted. You can understand why. There are children around. Yeah, these schools are in neighborhoods right next door to homes where kids live. Um, the streets are community streets, so they don't want people who may be inebriated driving up and down, et cetera. However, the school makes the final decision on that. So we have in our FULA a general announcement that there is no alcoholic beverage permitted. So that's that's the general rule. I got you. The pickleball courts are something, our fields are something that we have seen a rise in from uh MCPS. And it's really nice because there's more and more coming, although it's re-lining or whatever they call it, restriping the tennis courts. So we also hear from the tennis community that, you know, they want their tennis space and then some people want their pickleball space. So, you know, it's up to you. But Emily, do you have anything to add on the child care in terms of how their permits might be different?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I think childcare really the biggest difference is because we have to follow the child care licensing, uh, everything that goes along with that. Um, so they have to submit um via MSDE. Basically, the school system and childcare have an agreement uh and they're allowed to use spaces that maybe the public wouldn't have access to. So, like the kitchen sink, uh things like that, because they need access to running water, they need access to a bathroom, everything that pretty much states uh that they state on their license for childcare, uh, they need to have available to them at the school. So it's a little different than the public, but uh we still have the opportunity for the public to rent like bat a bathroom inside or a kitchen space. Uh, I believe we spoke about it in uh an episode or two ago. Um, so you can go ahead and check back uh to those episodes for more details. But available on all platforms, available all platforms. Yeah, so there's definitely a a smaller um, there's a small difference, but it's typically the same uh for all users.

Derek Ross:

Wow, wow. And and thank you for that too, Emily. It's always great. And and Ramona, when you mentioned that too, it's there's so many different divisions of CUPF that it it it I wouldn't say the rules change a little bit, but when you look at the fool and stuff like that and the guidebooks and stuff, it does matter. So when you when you want to reach out to CUPF communities, the public facilities, about any questions, reach out to us and we we encourage you to reach out, email us or call us because there some of these questions about facilities can get a little detailed, and you know, we're here to help. We are here to help. But Sarah, Sarah, I know when I'm always referring to you for the new eyes and perspective, when we're mentioning facilities and portables and food trucks, beverages, well, alcoholic beverages, um, and pickleball fields and courts and stuff like that. What what for you when you're hearing all that, what what how does that how do you read that? How does that make you feel?

Sarah Hoffman:

Uh, I mean, I think it uh I think something that Ramona mentioned earlier that really like helps inform me while I'm reading these is like this is property of either the schools or the government. So like there needs to be sort of these set of guidelines and rules in place to ensure that like the facilities are still being able to be used for like their primary purposes. So I think that's sort of the motivation behind these rules and regulations is to like help ensure that the facilities are able to like still do those purposes, but also offer opportunities for the community to get involved. So I think that's how I sort of read through these rules as you're going through them.

Derek Ross:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And you see, see, this is why you're on the podcast. You were doing all this research and looking up stuff on the website. You're just getting all of this information, just a book. You just got it all down packed. So we're here at this point now. We're here at this point where you know what? The goal, Emily, I think, is for us to make Ramona cry in a good way. We want to give Ramona so many flowers. We just want her to sit at the end of the table and be like, just stop, guys. Just stop, everybody. I just can't take it no more. But Ramona, you know, this is our time to just say that. Also, too, also too, that you did a great job, Emily. You know, Ramona had an awesome, it was a retirement party or celebration. Yeah, we'll call it celebration. Yeah, I would say celebration. I don't want to say that because I feel like, you know, Ramona's such a great person. I definitely hope we get to see see you after all of this is over with. Oh, you will. Yay! But I just want to tell you and tell all of the crowds that Emily did a great job. Were you the MC host?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh yeah, I think I played a little bit of every role uh for Ramona's uh retirement celebration. So thank you for that.

Derek Ross:

That was I I was passing it back to you because I I I want that same energy that you get. Emily brought it. We had what the CE was there.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well what the former county executive, yeah, the current county executive for both things.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

That was a really wonderful surprise. Yeah. Um, former county executive Ike Leggett was there and he spoke for a little bit. Um, you guys have a wonderful history. I had no idea.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

He even remembered me from law school.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

That's like, geez. That was such an amazing moment. I'm just really glad that I was there to explain.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

He didn't even teach me, he taught my husband. Yeah, which is even so better for us getting together. Yeah, basically.

Derek Ross:

Of course, of course.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh yeah, that was really, really nice. And then obviously, we had uh our current uh county executive there, Mark Elrich, and he was wonderful.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

He was.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

And we had your other bosses, I guess. We had Fariba and Rich. We had Rich, and we had a whole bunch of other people. We had staff. It was just really wonderful. Uh, the energy was amazing. Uh, I think we all just gathered and we love Ramona. This is something that we took a lot of time and energy to plan, and this came from the heart. It was a lot of love. Yeah, the staff, we really we got together secretly a lot. Uh, Ramona was giving us eyes a lot.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

We were hiding our people shuffling stuff.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

We were hiding our laptops, our phones. I mean, I'm pretty sure she walked like right by me when I was doing the um welcome sign design. So I was like, let me just close this real quick. But uh yeah, and I had to obviously, she already knew that why I would be asking her these questions. But I'm like, Ramona, what's your favorite kind of music? Ramona, what's your favorite type of cake? Ramona, do you love to eat? What's your favorite food?

Derek Ross:

Yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh so we made sure we got things, you know, as tailored as possible uh for Ramona for her celebration. And like I said, I mean, I could shout out the staff that helped, uh, but it really everybody had their hands in this in some capacity, in some way. And you didn't get to see this, but I got to experience it this. And I know Derek got to experience this a little bit too. But the team got together and it was all hands on deck for Ramona. We were very much like, it doesn't matter if we sleep, we, you know, eat, we want, we want to get this done and we want to do it right because you've dedicated a lot to us. And we can tell, I've only been here for a year and some change, and it feels like I've been working with you for a really, really long time. Like I've known you for a long time. No, but it's but it's it's such a comforting and amazing feeling to me to have somebody like you to not only look up to professionally, but to just spread your, I said this at the celebration, but I need everybody to hear this. Ramona's such an amazing human being. This is not just for show. This is not just her persona at work. She is genuinely an amazing human being. And you could tell by being at that celebration, her friends and family came up and they shared. And when I tell you, if you didn't cry, you were on the verge of crying when when whoever came up and said thank you. Literally, everybody had the most beautiful things to say about Ramona. And in a way, as a person that like, when I go up and meet somebody new, you know, you try to be on your P's and Q's and everything. And hearing that other people in her personal life had the same experience as we've had here at work just proves the type of person, the type of woman, the type of human being that Ramona is. And I am so fortunate to have been in her presence, let alone have the honor to host MC her retirement party. That's amazing. Uh, so we're we're sad to see you go, right? But you're stuck with us. So, you know, whether, whether, you know, just checking in or uh we we really we know you're gonna have an amazing time during your retirement and traveling and doing all of these things that you don't have to worry about, you know, little CUPFf anymore. Um, but we're here and and we plan on carrying the torch, and we're just so happy and so proud to have you as our director. So I just those are the flowers that I want to give you. I'm sure everybody else has something to say, but I mean, you you say it a lot.

Derek Ross:

I mean, I've had a chance to be around Ramona for a few years now, a few years, even prior to even being hired by CUPF. Uh, my experience in trying to understand and being on the board, my experience of just witnessing what Ramona was all about. I was like, oh, okay, okay. So there's that fine line. You know, there's that fine line when you're cool with somebody, but you don't want to be rude because you respect them so well. So you want to get the work done. That is Ramona, too. So he was like, I respect her so much, but I don't want her to think I'm that cool. I want just get the work done, Derek. That's what we're gonna that's what we're gonna do. Um, but that, but yeah, Ramona, I hope you know that. I hope you know that we really do care. We appreciate you a lot, a lot. If you haven't heard it, and it's funny how you hear it now, we can I guess we could have been saying it for a couple weeks.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

You think you have to.

Derek Ross:

We're just doing it now, y'all. We're just gonna put it right here now. No, we've been we've been we've been saying that for a long time, and we want to continue to say that. But I know Sarah, Sarah, you've been around for a couple weeks now, and I know we've had a chance to meet with Ramona, and I know you've been with Ramona on different occasions, but how do you feel about Ramona Bill Peterson, Cup Director? Don't put her on the spot.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I can speak. She's actually So I mean, yeah, I joined only about eight weeks ago. Um, but within like this short time, these two months, it's been like a really great honor to be able to join this team and to work with you. And like like what everyone else has said, like you're really inspiring, both like personally and professionally. And as I'm like sort of navigating me entering the workforce, like I definitely feel like I have so much to learn from you. Um, so I just like want to say thank you for bringing me onto the team and like showing me the ropes and like guiding me through this journey of this summer, but also just as I enter my adult life into the, you know, enter the workforce, it's it's been a great help. Yeah. So thank you. Well, I hope so. I've enjoyed working with you too. Yeah, thank you.

Derek Ross:

Oh, see, we we we just just look, we holding hands, y'all. We we just having a good time, but we're gonna we I know we're gonna end this podcast soon, but for a moment, I I put speech down. Dude, would you like to say speech? Give us something, please.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, I will say I have been with the county for 35 years now. Wow. Um, I had just gotten married when I came here, didn't have any children, so I went through all of that as a county employee, and it was a great opportunity. It's a great place to live in this county, it's a great place to work for the county. The government is fantastic. CUPF is unique, which is very inspiring because when we started doing research for our fee study, for example, we found there was no other entity like us in this country. And we couldn't even find anything close by in other countries, like looking in Canada or Mexico or anything that borders with us. So we should be proud of what we do. And I'm very proud of what we've accomplished in the eight or so years that I've been here. Um, I'm also proud of the other years I had with the county, working with the county executive's office under Ike Leggett, working with the county attorney's office, working with HHS as the privacy officer, working with uh Office of Human Rights, dealing with their as their compliance director. So I had a lot of experience moving around. And what I always tell people when they talk to me about how can I advance? How can I motivate my career? How can I stimulate myself? I always tell them when you are in a position that you feel like you've learned pretty much everything and you're starting to get bored or you're starting to be antsy, thinking, you know, what else can I do? How can I make this exciting? Reinvent yourself. Reinvent yourself either in that position or find something else that's within the county because there are so many opportunities in this county. Um, you should also be open to change because I've gone to positions where I didn't know anything about it and I had to rely on what I had learned previously and use those skills to learn and to adapt and and you know do a new job. So I guess I would say 35 years goes very fast. If if you learn to be flexible and motivated, because transition is hard. Um, this is hard for everybody because I guess they feel like just as soon as you've gotten to know me and comfortable with me, then I'm moving on. But that's the way life is. I mean, when you're raising children, as soon as you get to be the point where you feel like they're friends and they don't need as much guidance and maybe you can let go a little bit, then they're gonna move on. And you have to be able to let go, but you're never really gone. You're always around, and that's what I'll be. I'll be here in the county, I'll be at least for several months doing a contract to uh help with the knowledge transfer to the new director. So I'll be here. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll be there.

Derek Ross:

Okay, okay. I don't want fully sing and all that stuff anyway you know what we're gonna try to end this on a good positive note we're gonna close out this podcast but we also mentioned another name as well too and i i'll save some time for that as we close it out because i'll actually you know i'll actually leave that for the end so so let's just jump into like a little bit of a positive note emily do you have any ways do you want to close this out with anything do you have anything you want to say uh i'm just really grateful to be here to be a part of our team we have a lot of wonderful things coming up uh we're revamping some stuff so you'll see us in you know hopefully a new fresher capacity uh when we're out you know and about doing outreach or community events if you haven't you know seen me before you will at some point uh or you'll know my name at some point uh just because we're gonna work really um hard on on getting the word out to the community and making sure that we are reaching out in the appropriate way and in the most effective way.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

And you know the last little bit we're gonna miss you so much Ramona. I'm so grateful to have you know been on the team for the last year and some change and I'm excited for what's to come. Transitions are hard, right? But you know the next person that's gonna come in, I'm sure, you know, as long as we meet them with the same energy we'll be fine. It'll be great. So and I'm just excited for you Ramona you get to start you know fresh you get to travel you get to do all these fun things that I don't I have to wait like another 15 years or so until I retires so yeah I'm just dreaming via uh vicariously through Ramona right now.

Derek Ross:

Sarah Sarah any last words?

Sarah Hoffman:

Uh just yeah enjoy uh retirement and take advantage of everything that you'll be able to do and uh I mean I'm way farther away than Emily so I'll also live vicariously through you um but yeah just it's been a great adventure starting exactly that's true yeah oh yeah your movie just started yeah we in it we in it uh so and the reason why I did that just getting the last few words from Emily and Sarah is because we also shouted out Ron Ron Maxon Jr.

Derek Ross:

If I'm saying this I'll just say his whole name just get it out there is not currently with us on this specific podcast I feel like if I said it in a certain way I'm like where is he at? Anyway what do you mean? But I want to also give this opportunity to give a shout out to Ron Ron thank you so much thank you so much for everything Ron is one of those individuals once you get the chance to understand him just like Ramona that you know it's we business. We about to do this. CUPF was really really really had the we really had the honor I'll probably say of having people that are involved with this this company this business this industry 35 plus years wow I don't know why I'm looking on looking off like that like it's not far fetched to believe and the same with Ron too Ron put in a lot of years as well too in the county and I definitely want to tell Ron that I mean I I I don't want to cry so I'm not gonna cry but Ron I appreciate you man really do Ramon I appreciate you y'all have done so much for CUPF and y'all continue to do so much for the county as well too I get surprised when I talk to you and you bring up your name drop I'm like well Ramon who who don't you know Ron who don't you know y'all just just know y'all know everybody but Ramon I'll leave it up to you is there anything you would like to say on behalf of Ron just anything sure when I came eight years ago Ron had been here for over 10 years.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I think he's been with CUPF for maybe 20 years and he was with the police before he was with CUPF. And he was invaluable I could tell from the minute I walked in the door he not only knew people, he knew how to do things. And it wasn't necessarily that he knew them because he had been here for so long it was because he has a style and grace that gives him the ability to manage and to organize and to just be good. We're definitely going to miss him. I can tell you when our boss in um the counting sex office heard we were both leaving on the same day she was very upset. She was concerned nervous worried what's going to happen we kept saying we got it we got it we're gonna you know we'll both be here we'll work through it and we have but I can understand her concern because and everybody's concerned um because he he's a um a pillar for CUPF has been for years uh but he he deserves to move on um he's moving out of state and he's got a new grandbaby and so he's got bright ventures ahead too so he'll be good.

Derek Ross:

Oh yeah see see thank you for that that's a good word pillar that's a good way to describe both of y'all yeah yeah 30 anyway anyway well that is it that is it we were going around with that with Ramon was that your last words too did you want to have give it good close us out with anything I'm good okay okay I I you know I had to double that back just to make sure just to make sure because this is this is we are celebrating so this is it everybody this is it for the podcast want to say thank you so much and check in next time thank you this podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery your source for news and information from the Montgomery County government connect with us via cable Facebook Instagram or YouTube by searching for County Cable Moko