Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

Connecting the Dots | Sharing Community Engagement Stories and the Power of Community Service

• Derek Ross and Ramona Bell-Pearson • Season 1 • Episode 12

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In this podcast, CUPF Director, Ramona Bell-Pearson and Communications and Outreach Specialist, Derek Ross, will be joined by Summer Fellow, Sarah Hoffman and Program Specialist – Childcare & Special Projects, Emily Brewster-McCarthy. Listen as we exchange stories, sharing more about our backgrounds, focusing on our community involvement. Learn about each of our experiences and how they have played a key role in helping us thrive in Montgomery County Government. Plus, there are new changes to our PTA/ PTSA reservation process. We are here to help!!

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Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Welcome to Off the CUPF. This is a 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:

Here we go, here we go. Another phenomenal voiceover by uh director Ramona Bell Pearson. But you know what? I know what, you know what? Last episode we were talking about retirements. You know, I was crying in the background and stuff like that as we were talking about Ramona because Ramona is such an awesome director and awesome person. But Ramona's still here. She's not she's not gone. So we're back doing another one with Ramona. Yes, yeah, yay for us, but hi Ramona. But you know, I suspect Derek, this is the last one. Oh, why you had to be why you had to do that?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I gotta, I gotta temper the you know, the expectations.

Derek Ross:

Oh, okay. Well, what are your highs and lows? How are you feeling, Ramona? How are you?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

The highs are it's been a nice summer. It's been hot, but not too bad. Um, because you know, one of the things that happens in summer when we have really bad temperatures or high temperatures is we have to cancel community use or at least invite permit holders to cancel without a penalty, no cancellation fee, refund of their money, which means we don't make money. But um, so that's a low. Um, but a high is we haven't had that many days this year like that.

Derek Ross:

So that's pretty good. Okay, okay. I think a high for me is that you're you know, you're still around. That's a good high for me. I feel good. I feel good. I feel good. Uh but a low for me is that I our summer fellow is leaving soon. No, yeah, yeah, you know, you know, Sarah, Sarah's been rocking it. Sarah's been rocking it, been doing great work. I'm not even gonna look over if Sarah's not here, but how you doing, Sarah?

Sarah Hoffman:

I'm I'm doing great. Um yeah, I'll go through my highs and lows too. Yes. Um, high is that I do have some time before the school year starts to, you know, do things for myself. Um, so I'll go on a trip somewhere. Um, lows, though, was this program's ending, and I have to go back to my regular insane school schedule. And I've really enjoyed just being able to work for CUPF during the summer. Um, so that's a low for me, is having to go back to school.

Derek Ross:

Oh my god, you gotta go back to school. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, Ramona, Ron, Sarah. Wow, this is, you know what, this is we just going down the list. But we got Emily though. Hey, what's up, Emily? Emily's back every Emily's back, everybody. Emily's back. Hey, Emily. Emily, I'm sorry, go ahead. Highs and lows. Just give us everything.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Highs and lows. Highs, um, I went out and I bought a whole bunch of rubber ducks uh and I placed them on our manager's desks. I uh gave Derek one. It's right uh in front of us.

Derek Ross:

Thank you.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh so that's what's his name? I don't know.

Derek Ross:

I was gonna say Howard.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Howard it is. Howard, the duck.

Derek Ross:

I was afraid he was Howard.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Marvel's gonna call.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

We get a call from Disney immediately. Uh no, I um and my lows, honestly, I don't really have a low. Well, I can say that it's Tuesday, and I wish it was a Friday. But that's not really a low. That's just like any day that's like a Friday. I wish it was a Friday.

Derek Ross:

Well, here we are, here we are. We're just we're just gonna keep laughing and just having good times. But this episode is, you know, connecting the dots, sharing community engagement experiences and how it aligns with our our current titles and stuff like that. But we're gonna jump straight into it. We're gonna talk about uh uh like a did you know, did you know? And Ramona, this is a big one. We we actually got a couple topics going on here, but let's get into our uh to the community, our listeners. Are you familiar with our emergency closing policy? Woo! Do you know about it? It is a very intense conversation when it comes to closings. I'll stop there because I wanted to bounce back to Ramona just to get this conversation started. We have closing policies, Ramona. Director, give it to us. Please, let's talk about it.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yeah, we do, we do. Well, first of all, let me say a lot of people get very upset, concerned, confused when we have inclement weather and they don't exactly know what to do. And the decisions about how the day will go start in the wee hours of the morning, like anywhere from 3 to 4 a.m. Um, there is a 4 a.m. call. There are many executives on that call, including the National Weather Service and the Highway Patrol and the County Executive's office and county council and the school system and fire and rescue and police, because they all need to make decisions about how the community will be protected and directed to handle themselves once the day starts. Decisions as to whether schools will close, it's not the end, um, even as it relates to schools, because often the schools will close for educational purposes, but the administrative offices will be open. If the administrative offices are open, then we are entitled to have our child care open. It opens on the same schedule as the admin offices. So if admins opening two hours late, then the child care can often open two hours late. The significance of that is parents still need the coverage that school that a school day would normally cover. They have to go to work, they have responsibilities outside of the home, and they need that support. And our gracious child care providers are right there ready, even though their workers have to get out on those roads, which is why we have to make sure that the roads are safe. The school system has to make sure the parking lots and the sidewalks are clear and the building structures are clean and dry so that people won't slip and fall. So there's a lot that goes in to those emergency closings and the inclement weather notices. Wow. And as I said, it starts, if not the night before, definitely by 4 a.m. then that morning, it's it's already on.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah. And I I was looking down, I was like, yeah, because you you talk about snow, freezing, rain, school delays, and then you have I'm talking just for the winter. I mean, I I hope I hope it's not snowing in the summer. Anyway, then the summer emergency, we have heat advisories, high temperatures.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, in the summer, we have hurricanes, Durangos or Durantos, or what are they called?

Derek Ross:

Something.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

It's the summer storm.

Derek Ross:

Yeah.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

You know, like a small hurricane or whatever. Uh, and we often will have to close for that.

Derek Ross:

What was the last one during our stat? What was the fires or was there something that happened that like there was there something? I'm I'm trying to remember.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

There was a smoke problem from fires in Canada. Thank you, thank you. Wildfires, yeah.

Derek Ross:

Thank you, thank you.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

And we had to close outdoor and even some of the indoor things because gymnasiums in some areas don't have air conditioning.

Derek Ross:

And that was what I was thinking about when I had school buildings and ventilation, but I know we're jumping around, we're talking about it because emergency closing policy is such an important conversation. But I also had down our circle that because we were talking about is childcare. Uh Ron from a childcare standpoint. Yeah, I know you mentioned it, but I know we have Emily here too. But bouncing it off of the both of y'all, like, how does that work? You know, childcare, emergency policy, is it does it are we good?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Emily, you want to jump in? Yeah, I can talk a little bit about that. Really, it's it's not super complicated. If you have a child in childcare, we really just asked to um for you to communicate directly with the childcare provider and uh your school, because they they really um take the reins there. We're here to make sure that we give them a safe and secure space that is usable and you know, that makes sure everything is covered, you know, with their license uh and all of that. But really, when it has to do with closing, uh it's on a case-by-case uh situation, like kind of like what Ramona was saying. Uh, if the admin um administration is in the building, then childcare is in the building. Uh and it typically depends, like that's why I said please reach out to your child care provider um directly and they would be able to uh let you know what the move is for that day, or if they're gonna be open all day, or just before and after care, or maybe just before care, maybe not after care. And it really depends on if the school is closed in the middle of the day or if it's closed, you know, from the morning. Uh and we just have to wait, like Ramona said, those meetings happen at four o'clock in the morning, and typically the public doesn't get um is not aware of the closings until 5:36, 6:30 in the morning. So really just make sure that you're on it uh to check with your child care provider to see if they're open.

Derek Ross:

Wow. Wow. Yeah, that that's a lot. That I'm listening now and looking at the both of y'all that is a lot of information retaining and coming from the communications avenue and talking about it, it is a lot. I will I will definitely say that. And and working with Ramona and hearing it, it's one of those ones where you got you gotta stay ready. Especially, I think this last winter, I I I I felt like I had to stay ready, be ready, and and and I've haven't had so we had so many conversations with Ramona. I was texting Ramona so much, you know. We I was like, wow, we are texting, we are BFFs.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

We are friends. And that's at like 4 30 in the morning.

Derek Ross:

What's that? Oh my goodness.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yeah, and then it changes.

Derek Ross:

What's happening? Is it snowing now? Is it not? Anyway, Sarah, I know you've been here with us and we've talked about it. You've seen the policies and stuff like that. What is your take on anything emergency closing related and stuff like that?

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I think something that you have down here that I think is really useful is like the resources for people to be able to stay on top of like whether there's gonna be a closing. So social media, the CUPF um, like blog, that's helpful. And then like other like county government resources. So I think like just having that like bookmarked or like somehow saved on your device to be able to get those reminders is like definitely gonna be very useful.

Derek Ross:

Oh, yeah, that's very important. And and for more information about it, like we have a lot of our emergency closing or emergency cancellations and modifications and information, it's on our website. It's it's it's every we try to keep the information is is possibly in a place where you may just like, where is it at? Oh, there it is. There it is, there it is. And same with social media, and thank you, um, Sarah. We try to put it there. Uh the gov delivery, social media, and every other place like that. We try to get the information sent out as much as possible. But as we continue to bounce around, I wanted to jump in this question real quick, Sarah, because uh let's get into this Axe the Summerfellow series. I know we didn't do it last time, but before we jump anywhere else, Sarah, did you have any kind of questions you want to ask? We have Ramona here.

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I have a question for Ramona as you're reflecting like on your time here with CUPF and thinking about all the different great facilities that we get to work with. Is there like one facility that you've really enjoyed working with or that you just is your favorite?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I guess I've probably been to more events, uh, which probably suggest that's a favorite. And that's the Silver Spring Civic Building in the Veterans Plaza. Oh, yeah. They have such a variety of things. I've been there for winter markets where they're having indoor like flea market or um a fair where there's you know different vendors that have different goods. Some are Etsy type goods and some are like vendor professional store type things. Uh, not to say that the Etsy's aren't professionals because I love makers. And then I've been out to the the plaza where I guess the most recent thing my kids and I went to was the um Pride in the Plaza. And it was fabulous to see the colors and the artistry and the talent because they had a drag show fashion show. I don't know if it was a fashion show, but it was it was hilarious. And and they did a really good job. I just can't imagine them on their heels jumping on and off the stage like they were. It was it was really good. So that's that's a favorite facility for me.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I would like to add, we also had your retirement celebration that's true at the Civic Center at the Great Hall, which is beautiful. Absolutely. Yeah. And we uh just a quick uh tidbit in here. We were you are able to split that room in half. If you don't need the whole room, you can you know open it up. There's some super amazing uh spaces for use there in civic. I mean, along all of Montgomery County, but specifically we're highlighting uh civic center. And shout out to Eric, he does an awesome job.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

He does, he really does. Yeah, he's had weddings, bar mitzvahs, bot mitzpas, yeah, retirement ceremonies, church religious events, all kinds of things there.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, it's it's and Sarah, thank you for that question too. Because I mean it I know Ramona could have gone any other way. She could have said any facility that she wanted, but Civic Building is an awesome facility. But before we jump down and keep going, and thank you for bringing that up too. Uh, so when we were chatting a little bit on the sidelines, Emily brought up one. I I missed a few. I missed a few in regards to anything emergency related. Is there something that I missed?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah, we just wanted to uh just let everybody know, the listeners know, that you can sign up for uh weather alerts and other emergency alerts through Alert Montgomery. So that's always a really good tool to use. Uh if they'll send you a text, uh if you sign up for text or an email, and they will let you know if things are closed within the county. They'll let you know if there's a thunderstorm on the way and you need to, you know, go somewhere, take, you know, hide or do whatever you need to do. So that's uh always a really good um tool to use. And it'll also uh obviously help you know whether or not things are happening. So if schools open, uh not, childcare is open, not. So that's always good to have.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, that's always good. And thank you for that, Emily, too. There's so many, what is it? I guess it's your your cup of tea, wherever you want to go to get your information and get the emergencies and the news. But the county has some great resources as well, too. You know, the it's Montgomery County has some resources too as well. So going down the line, going down the line, let's get into it. I mean, we did talk about, we're talking about a little bit of the community engagement and sharing experiences. And I and I know we have, I have Sarah here with me, and I say I have Sarah here with me because we we were able to bond over a couple different uh things that we've done in our past or stuff that we've done currently and all that stuff. And we're gonna talk about AmeriCorps, our AmeriCorps experiences. We're not gonna go deep into it, but I would probably say my AmeriCorps experience, I did two different terms, uh, one doing playworks and another doing um public allies. Uh both programs were more or less leadership programs. One was working in a school for a year, the other one was a 10-month leadership program, and all both were in DC, but those programs really helped me understand a little bit more about myself, probably what I can and can't do, or what I should understand more about who I should ask. You know, I think I've learned a lot about thinking what I can do and more or less understanding that there's a team, there's a community and stuff like that. And I think America helped me understand that, you know, you can try to do what yourself. You can go and find out the hard way that you probably want to understand how to link up with people and do stuff. But that's how I was able to kind of connect the dots with my experience. This to kind of shorten it a little bit, to say from a communication standpoint, I started to understand that how you get out there and do some outreach and stuff like that is that you gotta get out there. That's that's the only way I was able to kind of get that, get out there and do some stuff like that. But I want to give a shout out to AmeriCorps being an alum. I also don't want to put too much time on it, but I'll bounce it to Sarah before we get around because I would love to hear everybody's timelines and stuff like that. But Sarah, I know we talked about AmeriCorp, but I know you've done other stuff too.

Sarah Hoffman:

But please. So yeah, I'm also a proud AmeriCorps alum. I did three previous programs with AmeriCorps. They're yeah, they're all education related. So I did um one called Generation Teach. They are like a um teaching fellowship, but they run like a summer, like Steam camp for middle school students, and they have different programs around the country. That was a great experience. Then I went on to do a mentorship program in Columbus, Ohio, working with like fifth and sixth graders, doing like one-on-one mentorships. And then I did sit most recently, I did Cityer in DC, which is also like a national organization, but they have uh locations throughout the country. And yeah, those were just I learned so much from all three of those experiences. Like I definitely can't even summarize all the things that I learned, both like about myself, like my values, the kind of work that I enjoy, but also just about the about each of the communities that I worked in and just the different issues and assets that these communities are facing, especially working with youth, was very enlightening about things that are impacting their lives that I even being a young person myself that I haven't thought that much about. Um, and I just feel like my experiences they inform everything I do and you know the path I took for my education and the jobs that I choose and the kind of work that I hope to do in the future. So it, those are very valuable experiences for me. And I'm like a big advocate for young people like getting involved at Americor. I think it's a really great way to like give back to communities, but again, like we already mentioned, like get the um experience and learn about yourself and the path that you want to take in the future. So yeah.

Derek Ross:

Absolutely. Fist bump on that fist bump. Blah doubt. There we go. There is some love in the room, love in the room. As I bounce around, Ramona, I'm gonna save you for last. Cause I know Ramona, you got 35 years. You got so much experience, but we're going to save you for last. But you know, Emily, Emily, I know we we've talked a lot about some of the work you've done in the community, but share with the world what you've done. Share it.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Well, before I share it, I wanna um I mentioned to Sarah a little earlier, but she's such an amazing person. She's such an amazing uh young woman. And it's just it's awesome to just be in her presence, just to hear her speak. This is, I just have so much hope for the future for humanity, and this is just awesome. I'm just really happy that you were with us. Um, but as far as my experience in terms of community uh work and community outreach, uh Ramona mentioned it, I think, in our last uh episode that we recorded that I worked with HHS for almost 10 years. And that first half, uh, I did community outreach work um with Street Outreach Network, and I worked uh with young people for, like I said, almost 10 years. And I ran a rites of passage program for uh young women, which was amazing. Uh, and we did something similar. I mentioned it before. You guys do highs and lows, and we used to do roses and thorns. Uh so that was pretty cool, pretty neat. Uh, and then I worked with child welfare for um maybe like five-ish years, and I did a lot of community uh support there. I did some parent education. Um, I worked closely with the kids that were in foster care, and uh it just I think it takes a special type of person to work with people. And we're really fortunate to on our team here at CUF, we have people that have a lot of experience with people. Uh, and it shows because we take really good care of our community and we really care about what we do and all of the, you know, even though we put some boundaries up, we have a lot of rules. We were talking about Fulas before, we're talking a whole bunch of, you know, other stuff. Uh, we have a group of people here that really care for their community. And, you know, I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside Derek too on some of our community outreach stuff that we've done, our events. Uh, we're very, very excited. This is just, I I love talking to people, so that's kind of my strong uh, you know, point. And and I'm just super excited uh for what's to come. So we'll see. We'll pass it back to Ramona.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, Ramona.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

So you're interested in background? Is that what you're interested in? I was so enthralled by the stories, I was just enjoying listening to Sarah and Emily talk about their past.

Derek Ross:

I I love it. I love it. I know that this it's just so much. It's just so much. It's so much. I don't know if it's tailored like that, but that's some of the information that we get out. And I know that when we've talked about stuff in the past too, I'm always interested. Like when I've gone in your office, even though your office is kind of empty right now because you're retired, I put it out there like that. But when your office was full of all of these paintings and different frameworks and stuff like that, I was like, Ramon, what is that? What is that? What is that? So I'm always intrigued to hear. I know you've talked about it before, but I think a lot of that work that I've seen or that you've talked about, it it it I see it when I talk to you as a director. I'm like, I I I see it. Now, I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but I would love to know is there something about it that has shaped you as a director? Like you've been doing this, you've been in a game, Ramon.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, you know, I started in high school being interested in community service. I they started a uh crisis helpline when I was probably a sophomore in high school. And by my junior year, I was volunteering. And by the end of the junior year, I was like on by myself, you know, because it was hard to get people to work shifts. And I ended up doing the weekend shifts because nobody else wanted to do them. And you're in there, you're pretty much by yourself, locked in the building for safety. Um, and and I learned a lot about myself in in talking to people. And the main thing I learned was people just want to be heard. Um, even if they're they're threatening to do harm to themselves or others, or if they're um in a mental health crisis, or if they're which isn't synonymous, those things are, you know, collaborative or whatever. Um, if you listen to them, you'll learn a lot and you'll help a lot. And then I moved from there and and after college, I went into law enforcement, which again was an opportunity to work with the community as the way I saw it. I knew I wanted to go to law school, so I had only planned to do that for a couple of years. And I did do it for a couple of years as a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent criminal investigator.

Derek Ross:

What?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

So it wasn't uniformed, it was undercover, it was uh white collar crime, just you know, a lot of we were talking before about trigger pull, and I was saying I used to have to exercise my hands to make sure my finger was strong enough to pull the trigger uh when we had to qualify every few months or so. Um, but then I went to law school, which is where I had intended from probably high school on. And I didn't have a specific area, except I knew I didn't want to do criminal law because I had been working in criminal law for a few years at that point in law enforcement. And then I ended up first with the Federal Election Commission because I was a political science major and undergrad. And I thought politics was just so amazing and the way it changes the country and how everyone has a voice. And then I really saw the dirty side and said no. Uh so then I ended up um in litigation, which I really did enjoy. And I did that for several years, first with the federal government, going from um circuit court to circuit court, arguing for the Social Security Administration. And then I went to county government and did litigation there and represented the school board and the teachers and police officers and board of education and just a lot of different clients. And then I ended up in management, and that's how I got here.

Speaker 03:

Wow.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Um, so all of those things I had a common thread, I think, and that was community service. Um, I think when you work for a government, you don't just do it because it gives you a a chance to have a life, because it does. You you pretty much have a nine to five for the most part, but you also have to be dedicated if you stay with it. And you have to want to work with your community and hear them and and and understand them and try to service them. Because I'm a public servant.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah. Wow, wow. And you know what? It's great. We've talked about it before, and I think we've heard about it even from the retiring party as well, too. And you were, I guess we've been getting some more information about Ramon. We know we didn't know that. We didn't know that. But it's it's it says a lot. It says a lot. And I kind of felt that when we've talked before many, many moons ago, about some stuff like that. And I got an idea of like a lot of the work you were doing it that you did in the past too. And I I never got, I can never get over that, all that extra work you were doing with the police and stuff like that. I was like, what? That is intense, intense. But as always, thank you, everybody. Thank you for sharing. You know, I know I think Emily, we can go into this even more later on because we've we've talked about stuff like this for forever, forever. But as we continue on, let's let's let's see if we can get back on track. You know what? Sarah, I think uh what what what is your last day?

Sarah Hoffman:

My last day is next Friday, the 8th of August.

Derek Ross:

8th of August. So that means compared to us doing this show or this podcast episode and now, so it's possibility Sarah may not be here. Well, I won't say it like that. Sarah would not be around for the podcast. So Sarah.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

She'll be here. She'll be with us. Yes, thank you.

Derek Ross:

Thank you. You you saw what I did. I was like, well, I don't want to say it like that. Because it was in any way, Sarah, Sarah, you know, we I I do believe in giving flowers. And I do believe that, you know, we're all here, you know, we're enjoying this moment together. But thank you so much. Thank you so much for all the work you're doing. Thank you. I mean, you're still here, technically, right now. We have a few more days, you know, that you know, we're going to get stuff done. But the work that we've been able to accomplish now, what we're going to continue to work on even from a sustainability standpoint, best believe it was much appreciated. And it will be used. I don't want you to think you're just going to do your work and roll on out and it's just going to be put in a file cabinet and get dusty. Uh I'm going to make that promise to you that it will not be. It won't get dusty. We're going to take that work. But thank you so much. Thank you so much for all that you've done. That is me talking greatly about you. I want to keep talking about you, but I feel like I'm the only one in here with the water work's about to come. So, Ramona, is there anything you would like to say about Sarah?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I would like to say thank you to Sarah. Uh, thank you for selecting CUPF because you did have choices. Um, thank you for working as hard as you did. We are still in the formative stage in terms of how much and what kind and where and what we will do as far as outreach goes. It's not an easy topic. Some people think, I'll just put some stuff out there or blog it or you know, get a social media page. It's not that easy, as you well know. And uh, you did really good work for demographics with us to help us understand where to do outreach and how to do it. You did good work documenting things that we probably already had in existence somewhere, but because it wasn't in an intelligible state, we weren't actually using it. So I do appreciate all your effort and I wish you all the best in your coming ventures. And um, I don't won't say adventures, I'll say ventures. Um, because that suggests money. Never thought about it like that. Yeah, yeah, that's the way I think of it. So I I think you will um be a success at whatever you want to do.

Sarah Hoffman:

Thank you. Thank you all. Um, yeah, it's been a really great summer. Went by really fast, but it's I've really learned a lot through this experience. I think something that I've really appreciated, both like during my time with CUPF, but also like the research project that we each had to do as fellows was just the opportunity to be able to connect with like different people in the county government. So obviously with CUPF, like working with everyone in the office and talking with them. And through like the fellow program, we've had the opportunity to like chat with a bunch of the council members, which has been really amazing, and to ask them questions and learn more about sort of their journeys to public service. And then for our research project, we've each had the opportunity to like interview different people in the communities that can provide us guidance on our research. And so I feel like within these past like eight weeks, I've built a sort of like network of all these people that I've been able to talk to and reach out to. And like that's definitely something that I feel like happy and like proud about that I can like walk away with at the end of these 10 weeks and definitely like gonna be looking to Montgomery Gaunty for like future opportunities, maybe. Um, so yeah, it's just been really great. And I'm I'm very like grateful to be to have been placed in CUPF to be able to work with all of you guys.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Thank you.

Derek Ross:

Oh, thank you, thank you so much. So I dear, I have to tell a story.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yes, school is starting, right? Um, I'm originally from Tennessee. And I have a great nephew who started first grade yesterday. He had his little sign. I got a picture of him with a sign on said his name, said first grade. He gets to the school, and apparently they have this process where you roll up with your child in the car and the teacher opens the door to greet the kid and then takes them into the school. Well, my nephew's name is Jace. So the car pulls up, he's getting out, the teacher, and he looks her in the eye and he says, You know, I still can't read. And she said, That's okay. We're gonna teach you. And he was like, Well, okay. Like, like, you know, he's telling her, setting those expectations from the beginning. But that's the way Jace is. He's like a, you know, about the facts, just the facts, man, type kid.

Derek Ross:

I like that. I like that. I mean, okay, okay. I'm I'm with you on it. I'm with you. I like that. I like okay, okay. Emily, I I mean you've you've been speaking so highly of Sarah and we appreciate it so much. Is there anything you would like to say one more time or you're good to go?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

No, I just wanted to say she's a major trailblazer. This is like uh if you haven't already. Please follow her journey because I'm sure she's going to do amazing, amazing things. Uh, so I I'm like we said, we're super fortunate to have had you uh, you know, with us for the summer. You're all the research and stuff that you did, invaluable, like completely just amazing work. It's gonna help us major, majorly. Uh and yeah, I mean, I I think everybody has said some pretty amazing things. I don't know that I can say too much more. They took all the words for me. Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

Derek Ross:

But we're going to talk about a big update that just recently happened. Well, wouldn't say recently, Ramona, I guess it happened what, months ago a little bit. Um, but the PTA, PTSA changes regarding priority use and dates and how you reserve in schools and stuff like that. But Ramon, I'll bounce it back to you. Like I know we've done it and it was part of the whole fee structured stuff like that, but please jump into it a little bit more just in case, because I know it's a tough topic, but an interesting one.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

It is. Um, and and I think it it might uh confuse the community a little bit. But the uh Parent Teachers Association, um, PTA, PTSA, is an organization that is partnered with Montgomery County Public Schools. They do a service to the schools because they provide forums for the parents, information for the parents, they support the students by having fundraisers and different activities. They are informational sources, um, all types of resources that fully support the educational component that schools have. Because they're partnered with schools, we had the understanding from MCPS that they wanted to facilitate their use of the facilities as much as possible so that they would have the ability to do all of the outreach and the things that I just mentioned. On that vein, a when we did the fee schedule, we reorganized locations and how groups are put together and established fees based on the placement of those groups. One of those groups that was put into a category as a partnership agreement with uh MCPS was PTAs. And those PTAs in that partnership are now entitled to have free use of facilities. When we say free use, free is not necessarily free.

Speaker 03:

Okay.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Because with any entity, if you have free use of a facility, you still have to pay if staff are needed, if cleanup is needed, if a security is needed, any incidental, if you need audiovisual, you need a media specialist, all of those things come with additional fees. Those fees are not waived. Okay. It's the fee for the facility. So that's where the support of PTA comes in because the average PTA meeting doesn't need additional support. Um so it it would be a free venture for them to just have a PTA meeting, but they often have other things. They have fundraiser events, they have activities, and when they do that, they do incur those additional fees.

Derek Ross:

Wow. Wow. And Emily, I know you're here too, and we're talking about PTAs and PTSAs. Is there anything that you want to jump in, especially from the child care angle and stuff like that?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Um, so if you check on our website, uh you'd be able to see our list of priority users, I would say. Uh so the first on the top of the list is obviously MCPS for MCPS use. So if the school has use within if there's like a play or something going on, they could obviously book their own school or use their own space. And then comes child care. So child care, that's before and after uh school, sometimes during admin days, and then comes PTAs, PTSAs. Uh and one important thing that we want to just continue to say is that if you need to reserve a space within a school, you have to do it through our website, through CUPF. You can either call us, you can email us, you can put it through Active Montgomery. And then PTAs would basically, I don't know if Ramona mentioned this uh just now or not, but um would then go back to the school and figure out a payment plan with the school. So the school will book the space for the PTA typically, or they'll request, uh, and then the PTA will have an agreement with the school in terms of how they're gonna pay for the space or anything like that. But it's really important to um make sure you book the space online because then we know that the space is uh reserved and we don't give that reservation to somebody else or we don't book child care or somebody in that space uh when they need it. And typically, if let's say one of my childcare uh providers is in the space that a PTA needs, uh, they can just call CUPF or email CUPF and say, hey, we have something going on. We have a big event going on, we need the gym space from I don't know, five to eight. Uh we're very easy to, you know, move things around and we really work with um whoever needs the the space. We really try to get everybody in to make sure that they can run their event. And that's just as easy as moving childcare to another space, so another classroom, another, maybe the gym or something like that. But yeah, we just ask for everybody to please reserve using our online format.

Derek Ross:

Okay, okay. Sarah, I could bounce it back to you before we close out about anything PTA or PTSAs or anything in regards to priority usage. And I know, Emily, thank you for that too, about breaking down the priority use and how it goes for CUPF like that. But is there anything from your angle, Sarah, as well?

Sarah Hoffman:

Yeah, I think um, I mean, something that I've you know have learned um through this summer looking at some of like the facilities and um their sort of their usage is like a lot of times it's these priority uses that um impact whether or not like a space is available or not or whether they're being utilized. So there are certain spaces in the county where when we like initially looked at the the like usage data, um, we thought that maybe oh, they're underutilized. But um upon like further, like you know, we look at the data a little more and think about what the facilities are, figured out that oh, it's just it's because they are being utilized for sort of these like priority things. So whether that's like the schools using them for storage or it's like aftercare space. Um so yeah, it can impact like sort of like which facilities are more available and have more times open. So that's something to consider, like when looking at what's available in reservations.

Derek Ross:

That was spot on. Boy, she's learned a lot, hasn't she? Well, you said 10, you may hit 10 weeks. You made 35 years, right? Because that sounded like a Ramona answer. 35 years of the world. Well, you know, we're gonna close out this show. We're gonna close it out. We we've spent some good time on it. You know, we try to bounce in a little comedy, a little some, some, some, some realness in regards to PTA, PTSAs, and everything else and our experiences. We try to give you a little bit of some of everything. But Ramona, I think we're just gonna close it out and we're gonna, you know, give a shout out to our Summerfellow. You know, you know, why not? Why not? You know, why not? Sarah's here. So why not? Why not call y'all while you're here? But thank you so much, Sarah, once again, for all of the work that you're doing, you continue to do, and we wish you so much, so much success. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, everybody in the world that you're listening to it, yes, we are gonna continue to give flowers and love because it's the only right thing that we can do as we continue to um give support to so many different people. But Ramona, I'll start off with you because I I really want to hear your your last last. Is this your last last? He keeps saying that, right?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Like as if saying it will make it not be true or something.

Derek Ross:

Oh, okay. But please, Ramona, your last before I get around everybody, I want to hear your last, last.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Well, I don't know. We've been doing these for a while now, and I've really enjoyed it. I appreciate the fact that you took it upon yourself to look at things that we needed and get it started. Um, we've been talking for years about doing podcasts and getting on social media, and it didn't happen. It happened under you, and I want to thank you for that. I think that you are a good steward to leave all of this in your hands. And I feel very confident that CUPF is going to continue to be more successful, open, available, which is what we want. Um, so thank you for doing that and for giving us uh a voice and a face that I think people enjoy and that will be successful in communicating our message.

Derek Ross:

Thank you. Thank you. I I I'll take that and run with it and say thank you so much. I I appreciate it. Uh, I like I said, I've learned, I've learned, you know, with connecting the dots, community and engagement. I have learned through my wicked ways, Ramona, that I need to communicate and talk. And and I have Emily here and Sarah's here. And it's like, I cannot block this greatness. I can't block all of this awesomeness that's happening with CUPF right now. So I just wanted to say thank you, thank you. But who do we go to? Emily. Last words, you just want to close out this show.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh, just piggybacking on Ramona, I you don't get a lot of flowers on this show. Uh, so I want to give them to everybody here. Um, but Ramona's heard my flowers a little bit, and Sarah's heard my flowers a little bit. And just to give your flowers, uh, you your flowers, Derek, you have done an amazing job at gathering us, like as a whole unit, uh, and just, you know, sparking this movement of getting connected to the community and really just engaging uh in a different way that's more effective, that's fun, that's lighthearted at times, which is wonderful. Because, you know, in in the world that we live in today, we need a voice and a person like you, Derek, that can really just bring light uh to what we do. So I'm very grateful that I'm here uh on the podcast, but I'm also super grateful that I have the opportunity to work with you. So it's not well.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

And she'll be back, right? Yes, yes, yes.

Derek Ross:

I mean, I'm I'm trying to keep throwing Ramona. We need to do a better job of telling Emily you got to come back. You gotta come back. You're not good. I'll be back.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

I'll be back.

Derek Ross:

You're gonna be back?

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

Yeah, I'll be back.

Derek Ross:

Yeah, like Arnold will be.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

She can even do an episode in Spanish.

Derek Ross:

Oh, yes, that's what we want.

Ramona Bell-Pearson:

That's what we need to do. Maybe, maybe we yeah, maybe anyway. We will we'll we'll do it. You and Vanessa could could team each other. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Derek Ross:

Ramona's because that's because you're not leaving, right? Because this is that was a good idea.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Ramona will be here for the no, I'm just kidding.

Derek Ross:

She's not gonna be exactly in spirit, yeah. In spirit, in spirit, in spirit, Sarah, Sarah. So technically, this is Ramona's last last time. Is Sarah's last last time? Did you have any last, last words?

Sarah Hoffman:

I think, yeah, my last words. I think uh, I mean, to piggyback off of Emily, I think just thank you, Derek, for like really great summer. I learned a lot about like working in county government, but also just like communications, outreach, thinking of new ideas to like present and like advertise information, because this is definitely not something that I have like as much experience in, I would say, at least the communication sides of things. So it's been really great like working with you. And like I couldn't have asked for a better supervisor. You're really great in like, you know, giving me freedom to choose what I wanted to do, but also offering support and like giving suggestions and feedback and like being able to come on the podcast has like definitely been a highlight of the summer. So yeah, just thank you for a really great experience.

Derek Ross:

What C, see, see, see what I feel like I got flipped back on me, but thank you so much. Thank you so much. Once again, we we've done a great job with all that we continue to do as a team. We have so many people flipping in this room as well as we record, but there is also an individual in here named Cell, also part of the county as well, too, has been helping us as well. So we're just gonna keep giving flowers out. We have a lot of things coming along. CUPF has done a great job, our leadership has done a great job. So we're gonna hold strong. Sustainability is going in. Emily's not going anywhere. You're probably coming back again. So thank you again, everybody. Thank you so much. And check in. We have a lot more we're gonna talk about, and we hope, we hope, we hope the community is gonna keep on listening and enjoying it. But thank you so much. Thank you.

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