Off the CUPF: Community Use of Public Facilities

Getting Locked in for 2026!! | Closing the Year Strong

• Derek Ross and Emily Brewster-McCarthy • Season 2 • Episode 2

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In this podcast, Community Relations and Special Projects, Emily Brewster-McCarthy and Communications and Outreach Program Manager Derek Ross will be discussing their plans for 2026. During this discussion we will learn more about what it will take to get ready for the New Year, starting right now. Listen as they share some of their fondest moments, thus far, from 2025 while working at CUPF.

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Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Welcome to Off the CUPF, a community use of public facilities podcast, the show where we explore, discuss, and introduce you, our listeners, to the wonderful world of community use. I'm Emily Brewster -McCarthy.

Derek Ross:

And I am Derek Ross. Together, we are your host, and we are here to provide you with some of the most up-to-date news and information about CUPF. Emily, are you ready to get started?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Absolutely, I'm ready to get started. Listo para Mambo?

Derek Ross:

Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm ready to Mambo. Welcome to season two, episode two. You know, we're getting locked in for 2026, closing the year strong. Well, that's what the title of the podcast is. So we'll go with that. We'll probably do a couple more episodes about just the new year 2026. 2026. Yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Woo!

Derek Ross:

Mm-mm-mm-mm. Think about all the other new years. Anyway, getting straight into it. Emily, how are you doing?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm all right. You know, I'm all right.

Derek Ross:

I'm all right. Since we already asking how we're doing, highs and lows, you want to get into that?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah, highs and lows.

Derek Ross:

Let's do it. Let's just jump straight into it. Highs and lows, Emily. You want to start first? Uh, I'm gonna shoot it to you. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Uh uh uh sure, let's do this. Highs and lows. Uh, you know what? I I I have a low. I think I just told you before we started. You know, I chipped my tooth. I'm glad it's okay now, but that was a very much a high-pressure situation. I was looking at it in the mirror, and that tooth was just slowly, slowly disappearing. And I was like, let me go ahead and make a call. Oh, yikes. That was a low. That was a low, but we good now. We good, we good. Um, high is that you know what? We are together and we're doing this podcast.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Oh, yeah.

Derek Ross:

That's a good feeling. We're closing out 2025, feeling good. We have a full room of so many different people. We got Tebs here. It feels good. It feels good. Now you back to you now, highs and lows.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

All right, my high is going to be actually tooth-related as well. Uh, my daughter just lost her uh two top, like the top two teeth. Let me say that again. My daughter just lost her top two teeth.

Derek Ross:

Top two.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

So she looks super cute. And yeah, we're living it up. Um, my low is, you know, I don't know that I ever have really a true low. Okay, okay, I like to be on the up and up.

Derek Ross:

I like to be positive.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah.

Derek Ross:

We could do that. We could do that. You do you remember losing your two front teeth?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I don't.

Derek Ross:

Really?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I mean, I do kind of, but I think I more or less remember like the the lisp that you gave.

Derek Ross:

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. I remember sticking a straw and drinking my milk through my teeth and stuff like that, and all I want for you know, that whole song about missing two front teeth and stuff like that, but I don't want to remember reminisce about that because that was a different time as well, too. But as we go around, you know, we want to definitely tell people welcome. Welcome to the podcast, off the CUPF podcast, of course. Um, let's get into it. Let's get into it. We we we were doing something about a did you know? Well, we did it last season. So, a did you know, we could talk about um the blogger and how we're always posting information, but our recent one was discussing kitchen facilities, FAQs, frequently asked questions. So we just wanted to definitely let people know that there are questions being asked about facilities and kitchen facility usage and stuff like that. Now, Emily, I know that this blogger was just posted not that long ago, but there are questions that are on this blogger, like what type of equipment can be used in the kitchen? Um, what's included in the reservation fee if you wanted to know? And can I use the school loading docks to bring in my items? Questions like that. Emily, I know you've done so much in the community and stuff like that, especially with Cov. What is your take on schools and stuff like that and kitchen usage and facilities or anything?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I would honestly, I would encourage the community to get out there and use those spaces. Uh, there's a lot of really cool spaces that we have available. And we're talking specifically uh MCPS right now. Absolutely. Um, and so we have classrooms, auditoriums, gyms, fields. Um, again, like Derek was saying, we have kitchens. Uh, if you go on our frequently asked questions on our blogger, uh, it will tell you more information about all of the things and requirements that we ask of uh people that are permitting the space.

Derek Ross:

Absolutely, absolutely. There are there's gonna be so many more frequently asked questions popping up on our blogger or on our social media because we're just trying to find ways to kind of answer those questions before you kind of get to us a little bit. You know, you just want to search and find it. We'll have those questions up, but we'll just try to get more and more done. Shout out to the core services team for providing us with so many different questions and different ways that we can present this to the community. But thank you so much. Emily, you want to talk about New Year's?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah. Um is it too early to talk about New Year's? No, I think, you know, we have a lot of really awesome things happening at CUPF. Uh-huh. We have some, you know, almost like New Year New Me, you know? New Year New Us. Um we're really excited. We have a lot of new changes going on, uh, new director, new operations manager. We have a whole new like sub-department under CUPF, uh Community Relations and Special Projects, which is what Derek and I are now under. We're very, very excited uh for the community to see our revamp and to get to know the new faces of CUPF. Uh we are so, so uh happy with all of these changes and we're excited for the community to get to know us. Do we are? Again.

Derek Ross:

We are. What did you say? You said the new new new us, or what was that? New Year, new us. New year, oh my goodness. I feel I feel good. I feel good. We're gonna go back to highs and lows. I feel good right now. I feel I feel good. I'm I'm feeling good. You know, we got all of this going on and stuff like that. But as we get locked in for the new year, I wanna, how does Emily get locked in for the new year?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh, my family, actually, so my family does something pretty cool. Uh, we all get together, uh, cousins, family, like grandparents, everybody, and we just throw a big uh New Year's Eve party. Nice. And it's just uh, and we wait till midnight, all of the kids stay up. Uh, it's really nice. Okay, okay. But yeah, I mean, I have a couple, you know, funny stories that maybe maybe we'll we'll we'll touch base a little bit. I want to hear about what your New Year's looks like.

Derek Ross:

Oh, oh, my New Year's? My New Year's, I just bring it in and just look at the clock at 1201 and just be go back to sleep. No, I don't do that. 1201. All right, welcome, welcome. I love it.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I love it.

Derek Ross:

Back to sleep. But no, uh, actually, uh New Year's for me is definitely just a reflection moment. You know, just start to think about what 2025 was about, 2020, or whatever year it is and what we're going into and stuff like that. But that is the New Year's. And if I want to go from a professional standpoint, it's just growth. You know, we get we get an opportunity to reflect and do stuff like that. I have, you know, my own reflection on New Year's, but you know, we we're gonna keep it as as comfortable as possible discussing our experiences in New Year's. Did you want to go first if you have a story? Did you want to go?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Um, let me think about it a little bit.

Derek Ross:

So I'll make this quick. I'll make this quick. So I I definitely have enjoyed going out on New Year's Eve. Uh, I tried to go out as early as possible. I made a mistake one year thinking I was gonna leave out around 7 p.m. from home. I was gonna go to D.C. I was gonna bring in a New Year's. I did not find a parking space until 12:30. I never forgot that day. I was driving around trying to find a parking space in DC to get ready. And my friends were wondering, where was I at? The ball had dropped, and I parked so far away from the location of where I was going. After that, I was like, you know what? I I made a mistake. I made I made a mistake. I should have, I should have done something. And I'll throw this in because somebody may be like, well, why didn't you car share or do anything? There was no car sharing at that time. There was no real anything that I can do. You just had to get there and find your way and do whatever was possible. But I've never forgotten that, Emily. That was such a traumatic moment for me on New Year's driving around. Your turn.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Uh like I said, I don't really do too, too much for New Year's. We typically spend with family. Um, I have spent it with friends here and there. Uh, but I'm not, you know, you would think that because of my personality, if you guys have seen me out and about, I'm very friendly, I'm very outgoing, but I'm a homebody. Oh. Yeah, I'm a homebody. So I really like to, whenever it can be quiet, uh, you know, I'll I'll kind of like nestle it or what is it? Nestle? Nestle.

Derek Ross:

Yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Nestle in?

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll kind of, you know, just get comfy and cozy and it's it's uh it's chilly, you know, typically. So yeah, I like to just be home. Oh, there is a tradition though. I I don't remember how many grapes it is, but there is a tradition where like you eat a certain amount of grapes for like how many months, so maybe like 12 grapes in the whole year. So like you eat them at midnight. Um, there's a couple of other like cool little like traditions. Like oh yeah, yeah. One is kind of like wild. It's like wearing some different colored undergarments, like yellow can bring in the new year, like pretty nice. Okay, okay. Yeah, so there's really cool things. Um, but transitioning to work, new year, new us.

Derek Ross:

New year, new year, new us, uh-huh.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I think 2026 is gonna bring a lot of really wonderful changes to Cove.

Derek Ross:

I think though. I think so. I think so.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

What are some of the things that you think are gonna be happening with us that are unfolding? Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Derek Ross:

Uh sure, sure. You know what? As I bring out my crystal ball, and you know, I'm trying to look at it and figure out what's going on. But I think for us, especially during, you know, comms, communication, community relations, I'll put it like that. I think that we're preparing for some amazing things that are aligned with the county, meaning that there have we have a new website coming soon, meaning that we're gonna allocate a lot of time to making sure our documents are are also translated. I think that's an important thing, working with you as well. Um, I also want to give credit to so many different departments we've been able to partner and collaborate with to prepare us for all of these new changes going into 2026. There is a lot going on. I want to get specific, but I don't want to get real specific because I really do want to surprise people. I want people to just come to our website and be like, oh, CUPF. Okay, CUPF, I see you out there, but we don't know. We don't know because right now it's all work in progress. I guess if we can hold a sign up, we'll say, well, excuse our dust, but there's really no dust technically. It's just we just doing some work. But what about you? What we got?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

I mean, I think a good, a good word, not that things weren't going wonderfully before, because CUPF has always been a smooth working machine, right?

Derek Ross:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

But I think we're doing like an upgrade. I like that. You know, we're upgrading, you know, it's it's new tech.

Derek Ross:

Okay, new tech.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

New um web page, right? New episodes of the podcast, new, new, new, new staff, new everything. And I think we also have some really good new energy, like good energy. I I do, I do see that. So we're excited. And I think one of the biggest things that we've been working on at CUPF, while, like Derek said, like while the dust kind of settles, while we're shifting things around, is we're we've been really working on um just team work within our entire staff. We've been doing so many awesome collaborations with staff, getting to know what staff is good at and what their purpose is and what drives them. And we're really just using all of the strengths of everybody on our team to make CUPF incredible. Uh so yeah, we're looking forward to that.

Derek Ross:

Sure, sure. And it and if you didn't know, and I'll I'll throw this in there, Emily, is that I think for the past few days, this is the most we've had a chance to really, really bond with the Civic Building team. I think that for me, it's always cool to go down to Silver Spring. And just in case the community didn't know, that the Silver Spring Civic Building is a wonderful location to do some reservations, weddings, you know, bar mitzvahs. Ah, I got it right this time. It's the inside joke because last time we recorded, I was just I was fumbling that word so much. But you know what? I didn't, I was practicing today, practicing today. But shout out to the Silver Spring Civic Building, uh Veterans Plaza as well, too. Shout out to the team out there. Uh, we've had a chance to really, really kind of network and work with a lot of other staff and our our team. Uh so it's been a lot more out, out, and inner communications and stuff going on as well, too. So as we continue to go through this and start to wrap this up, what about, you know what, what about experiences? Do you have any fond memories right now, 2025 that you've done? Because I've I know I put down one of the greatest things I've seen you do, and I thought you did an amazing job, uh, is definitely the Ramona thing, you know. Her retirement. Your retirement. You MC that did it. You did that. So it was really, it was really great. But do you have any fond memories of 2025 thus far working with CUPF?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah, actually, I wanted to bring up um you made note of it. Uh actually, I don't think we spoke about it, but we had a outreach event, um, one of the budget forum meetings. Oh, yeah. And we ended up doing a little cosplay.

Derek Ross:

Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

We we dressed up. Uh, I don't want to give it away because I definitely want to have Derek have his time to shine because I think he was the one that had the shining moment during this.

Derek Ross:

Yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

But, you know, there was a little bit of nervousness uh in terms of us dressing up because it was around Halloween.

Derek Ross:

Yes, it was.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Um, so we wanted to, you know, just be welcoming to the community and we were giving out little treats and uh it was nice. It was nice. It was nice. Would you like to disclose what we were dressed as?

Derek Ross:

Well, well, I can say because I think you did a great job too with your outfit as well, too. But you know what? I think what made me so nervous about dressing up for Halloween, because we are government.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah.

Derek Ross:

You know, we were trying to definitely be professional. So when the community sees us, but I dressed up as an astronaut. I think that that the the the my shining glory was my helmet. My helmet had the visor, it was well lit, as what the kids say. It was definitely a lot going on with it, meaning lit, meaning that it had a light up. It did a whole bunch of other stuff. But it definitely was a talking piece or starter with the community and other people that were actually a part of the government, you know, doing everything with that budget form. So I had a good time dressed up as that. I actually went to a happy hour. I've done so many things in that out. Actually, I wear the outfit all the time right now. I wear your new uniform? That is my new uniform. If you see me dressed up as an astronaut, best believe it's about to go down. Okay. I don't know what is about to happen, but as an astronaut, I feel like it is. But for you, can you tell us what you were dressed up as, Father?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah, so I dressed up like Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus. Magic School Bus. I had my lizard purse and everything. It was really cute. Um, we had fun though. Um, there were some littles that were coming around and asking us what we were, and we gave some candy out, like I said. It was really great. Actually, this is uh that was one of three uh budget meetings that we were at. Absolutely. But it was the only one that we dressed up for because of uh the season that we were in. Um but yeah, we've done some really, really awesome outreach work. I'm sure if you haven't seen us already, that you know, you will uh and you'll get to know our faces. But we're so excited about meeting new people, people coming up to us, asking us all these questions about CUPF. Um, we've just been showing up for the community a lot. So we've had a lot of uh opportunities to meet people from all over the county. Absolutely. Uh community members and permit holders from all over the county, people that have been using CUPF for years and years and years and are getting to know the new faces of CUPF, the new representation, right, uh of CUPF. And it's it's gonna be a great ride.

Derek Ross:

It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. If you can't hear it in our voice, we are excited. We are feeling good. I can also bring up the fact that, you know, some of the other parts that I can highlight is that I I enjoyed the TGI summer series at Wheaton.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

They were great.

Derek Ross:

I enjoy the music. I feel like it's a great opportunity for the community to just jam out a little bit. Oh, yeah.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

No, no, no, I got to, I think I got to share some dances with some community members. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You was out there. Yeah, it was really nice. It was really, really nice. Um, we walked out. That was a great, actually, you bring up the the concert events and we did some amazing outreach. And I keep using that word amazing, exciting, but it's because that's what it is. That's what it is. That's what it is. There was one point where we were walking around, and when we looked around, we saw everybody with all of our information just walking around. I think there may be like what, 60, 70 people that had blue bags and they were our our bags. So it was really nice to see that uh all of our efforts are just we're really reaching out to the community and they're getting to know us. And, you know, like I said, we're we're sharing dances with people in our communities. We're sharing jokes, we're trying to, you know, relate back to we are the community, right? So we want to have them see us as them because we are them.

Derek Ross:

Yes, we are, we are. We we utilize facilities or like I know I've taken buses, DOTs, I've done stuff with recreation. We do stuff, we do stuff, and shout out to all the other departments in the county as well, too. We we we we be out there, we see y'all doing your thing. So we just want to be able to be a part of all the things, if that makes sense.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Yeah, and we'll we'll have some opportunities too. Like I said, new year, new us, and that also means new lineup of special guests, perhaps, right? We're gonna keep repeating that. And we're gonna be introducing a lot of people that work all over the county. We want to. And so, yeah, we're we're just looking forward to all of the new collaborations, uh, all of our new projects, and we'll just be looking forward to meeting all of you.

Derek Ross:

Yes, yes, yes. And once again, this is us getting locked in for 2026, closing the year strong. Probably gonna do a few more episodes, you know, try to give some more people on as we close out the year and stuff like that.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Boom. Maybe do a countdown to the new year? Oh, can we do a countdown? Yeah.

Derek Ross:

Oh, yeah, that'll be so cool as we get ready. Do maybe a countdown and some, oh, yeah, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna plan out. I like that. I like that. I like that. Well, you know what? As we get ready to close this out, you know, we want to also say, you know, give our high fives. I want to give a high five to you. You know, I want blah blah ow, blah owl, blah owl. Boom. I just want to say thank you so much for joining, doing communications, working in so much at you do so much. You do so much. Appreciate you. Uh I want to throw it out out there as much. I also want to make sure that we shout out everybody at CUPF. You know, if you don't know, and when we say CUPF, that means community use of public facilities. That's what we want to do. But we also want to make sure that there is that CUPF Avenue when people ask, Who's CUPF? Community Use of Public Facilities. But also again, want to give a shout out to the staff. Uh, howdy to all the new faces. So many new people, so many new people, so many new names. So it's going to be so much information being circulated. We're just taking it a step at a time. We don't want to bombard you with too much. And then, of course, Emily, you know, I'll throw that out there because I know you've done it so much. You know, subscribe to our podcast.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

Oh, yeah.

Derek Ross:

Absolutely. But subscribe. Yeah, subscribe.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

You know what? And here's the other thing. Some people just, every time anybody asks, Well, what are y'all about? You know, at new people that we haven't uh met before that haven't heard about us, I direct them straight to us. I direct them straight to our off the CUPF podcast. Please subscribe. Please listen. You know, you're gonna, if you haven't listened to us before and you've met us, please listen, like I said. Listen. And we're fun. We have fun over here. We okay. Yeah, we have fun. We okay, we cool. And listen, if you don't, if you don't wanna uh walk up to us because you're shy or whatever, we have snacks. It's fine.

Derek Ross:

It's okay. It's okay. Come to the table, we'll talk, we'll do stuff. We'll we we we can do something. We will dance. We can't. I can dance at you. It's I can dance, especially at Wheaton, Silver Spring. There's festivals and stuff like that. You may catch us dancing and having a good time because we're gonna have a good time. But is you do you have any closing words?

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

No, I'm just um I mean, I guess I'm excited for this episode. Yeah. And I'm excited for what's to come for CUPF, and I'm just looking forward to meeting all of y'all.

Derek Ross:

And what was that you said? You said new, new, new New Year, new us. New year, new us. I'm I'm gonna keep saying that. That may be a good slogan to have as we prepare for that stuff. But once again, well, I don't have any closure. I I don't I don't have anything. I I'd want to get us locked in. I want to get us ready. I know 2026 is what? Not that far away, but as we get ready for it, we want to make sure the community knows that we are getting ready. Like we're not just just chilling. You know, we we just not bringing in the new year, doing, doing, doing whatever. We we we doing stuff, y'all.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

You know what? Actually, I do have some closing words just because you gave me my flowers just now, and I want to give you your flowers. Oh, flowers. You have been incredible on this whole journey, and I'm so so happy that I get to sit here with you and record these podcast episodes and just do outreach. And again, if you haven't heard his name. You know, that's Derek Ross for you.

Derek Ross:

For real? Oh my goodness. Okay.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

And he's he's wonderful. And I'm just, we're very, very grateful to uh have him on our team.

Derek Ross:

Look, look, I am not trying to cry. You know, I know it's a matter of fact, we need to talk to Tebs. It's like it's something in here is making my eyes open. Cutting onions. It's fine. Cutting onions. This is supposed to be a professional place, and somebody's always cutting onions every time I come in here. Anyway, once again, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. This is Off the CUPF Community Use of Public Facilities Podcast. Thank you for checking in.

Emily Brewster-McCarthy:

And we'll see you next time.

Derek Ross:

Yeah.

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