Category: Speaker Announcements (Page 15 of 27)

Hugh Seaton is the General Manager at the Glimpse Group, a virtual reality and augmented reality company based in New York, NY, and a lifelong technology marketer. Prior to Glimpse, Hugh founded and grew Aquinas Learning, an e-learning software company that leveraged virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which he sold to Glimpse in 2019.  Before Aquinas, Hugh – a fluent Mandarin speaker – spent 5 years in Shanghai, was a senior marketing executive with BBDO running Pepsi’s advertising, and founded his first company, specializing in social media. He has also held various senior positions at Sony Electronics, AOL Time Warner, DraftFCB and Havas.

Hugh holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, has been an adjunct professor at NYU, and is the author of the Construction Technology Handbook (Wiley, 2020).

Arranged by Douglas Campbell and Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of the talk:

Hugh Seaton cast some light for us on the arcane subject of artificial intelligence – intelligence demonstrated by machines and applied to a variety of situations to augment human activities. Hugh stressed that the highly advanced computers cannot think like humans and that the tasks AI machines perform are based on the use of vast amounts of data acted upon by algorithms, so it comes down to mathematics. That said, he identified the advances made in AI in recognizing and classifying data, determining patterns, producing designs, managing language functions and carrying out tasks via robotics. Performance of the activities carried out by AI improves as the machines are fed more data, either by experience or from an outside agent. Hugh cited Siri and Alexa as uses of AI that have been improved through experience. Human designers focused on enhancing the applications’ abilities by concentrating on accomplishing fewer tasks more successfully, rather than by a broader brush approach that resulted in a poorer response following the instruction to the machine. He pointed out the difficulties in designing self-driving autos, where significant progress has been made, but not enough to allow the general use of these vehicles on the open road at present: predicting an introduction date is hard since making further progress toward the autonomous auto is exponentially more difficult.

Hugh described the AI experience in the construction industry in maintaining a record of work accomplished throughout the process to assist in planning subsequent building stages, rapidly finding specification documents, and defining realistic schedules. He described a practical example of using AI in the development of machines that can manage the tying together of rebar used for reinforcing concrete, resulting not only in performing the tasks efficiently but also alleviating the problem of labor shortages to carry out this specialized function.

Link to the video of his talk: https://youtu.be/7q0FePlJQqI

Art Gottlieb is a local historian on subjects from political and military history who has frequently given talks to the DMA over the past few years. He was formerly a professional curator of naval history and the Technical Director of Exhibits at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NYC. In these roles, Art worked regularly with veterans of all services towards the creation of exhibits accurately illustrating the history of 20th century warfare.

From 1989 through 1997, Art coordinated with all branches of the armed services and National Guard towards the preservation of historic ships, aircraft and armor from around the world, and has facilitated the recovery of scores of artifacts from warships slated for demolition from reserve fleets.

For the past fifteen years Art has refocused his professional efforts towards reaching out and addressing the growing needs of aging veterans and their families.  He maintains a private practice as a Counselor and Certified Senior Advisor in Norwalk, CT, and offers pro-bono counseling services to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Art served as an Auxiliary Officer of the United States Coast Guard for 17 years and for 4 years was Commander of Flotilla 7-2, 1^st District (Southern Region), Sector Long Island Sound North.

His last talk to the DMA in February was about US Pacific fleet submarines, and this week he will be relating the epic story of the desperate six-year struggle between allied forces and the German navy to control the sea-lanes between America and the British Isles – a battle that, had it been lost, would have profoundly changed the course of World War II.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Art Gottlieb made his 16th appearance before a DMA audience. The subject was the role played by U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II, a battle that lasted the entire length of the war from September, 1939, until May, 1945. The talk highlighted the contrast between the relatively low-tech environment of the submarine and the increasingly effective use of high-tech countermeasures against the deadly raiders. We learnt that the U-boat of that era was essentially a surface attack vessel that could escape detection by its ability to quickly submerge and maneuver under water; that life on board was an endurance test of various stages of wet discomfort; and, that optically-advanced binoculars frequently helped make up for a lack of radar to find and identify targets.

The conquest of France in mid-1940 opened the door for Admiral Karl Dönitz to operate his growing U-boat fleet from five bases with direct access to the Atlantic. As their attacks became increasingly effective, the need for more and better protection for convoys of goods to the UK and USSR became essential. This was achieved through lend-lease arrangements authorized in 1940 which gave the UK use of 50 previously mothballed US destroyers, and the introduction of destroyer escorts once the USA entered the conflict in 1941. Additionally, the use of huff-duff, the quaint name for high-frequency direction finding technology, coupled with the decryption of the Enigma-coded German radio communications with the submarines significantly aided in locating the U-boat wolf packs. The introduction of longer-range air support, improved depth charges, and the hedgehog weapon with its array of mortars added even more effectiveness to the countermeasures, and by late 1943 the battle had turned in favor of the Allies.

The statistics Art provided about the Battle of the Atlantic are sobering:

• 2900 ships were destroyed, totaling 12 million tons of Allied shipping

• 141 escort vessels were sunk

• Almost 800 U-boats were destroyed

• 28,000 U-boat crew members died

• At 75% this was the highest casualty rate of the German armed services.

Video link to Art’s presentation:  https://youtu.be/Mwh61wlXAnQ

Robert Whitby grew up in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah, and holds an economics degree from Yale College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has had a diverse business career spanning some 40 years, primarily in the investment banking and management consulting sectors, working in senior executive positions at Arthur Anderson, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen Hamilton, Citicorp and Thyssen-Bornemisza Group. He has lived and worked in the United States and several countries in Western Europe.

Robert is a past Board Member of the Inner Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich and The Explorers Club. He has served as Board Chairman of The Mountain Institute (TMI), a world-wide NGO established to preserve mountain habitats and to help mountain people achieve sustainable mountain livelihoods. He has led TMI Board expeditions to visit their project sites in Peru/Bolivia and Nepal/Tibet/Bhutan.

Robert is currently a director of several not-for-profit organizations and an active leader of Community Partners, a service auxiliary of Harvard Business School alumni. Through Community Partners, he has led substantial pro bono consulting engagements for the Explorers Club, the Hispanic Federation of New York, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Catholic Charities of Connecticut, and Armstrong Chamber Concerts. He has lived in Greenwich since 1981.

A world-wide mountain-climber, Robert set out in his 50s to climb the highest peak on each continent, a feat known as “The 7 Summits.” He successfully climbed six of the seven, but failed on an Everest climb in 1994 and required medical evacuation. Robert will talk about each of his Seven Summits climbing adventures.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Robert Whitby exemplified the calm, stoical, persevering character you need to be to climb any mountain, and the toughness, experience and boldness you need to attempt climbing the seven major peaks in each continent in the world. Robert’s upbringing in Utah led him to start climbing mountains at the age of ten, beginning in the Rockies and moving on to the Grand Tetons, the Alps, Mount Washington and Mount Katahdin in Maine as preparation for setting out to meet the challenge of scaling the seven key peaks in the mountaineering lexicon.

Commencing with climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and ending at Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, his story is fascinating to hear, not only for the description of the details of each ascent, but the intriguing relationship he developed with Rob Hall, a professional guide who encouraged and inspired Robert in the scariest climb of the seven, Mount Aconcagua in South America. Hall was leading another expedition at the time Robert was attempting Everest, when Hall’s wife, Jan Arnold, a doctor, helped keep Robert alive after he contracted salmonella poisoning on the mountain. Sadly, Hall himself succumbed on Everest a few years later after staying overnight to tend to one of his client climbers near the summit. The event is described in Jon Krakauer’s book, “Into Thin Air.” Robert and a friend attended the memorial service for Hall in New Zealand, and as a tribute climbed the peak in Australia at the end of that visit.

Robert’s advice to those wishing to emulate his feats are to take the dangers of altitude seriously by undergoing intensive endurance training – and never to underestimate the importance of an ice axe!

Here are his slides:  _SIX ½ SUMMITS Darien Men_’sAssoc.

Here is the link to his talk: https://youtu.be/boX9wpmm3Ac

DMA member Jim Cameron has spent over 40 years in broadcast journalism. While at NBC News, he received a George Foster Peabody Award. In conjunction with INC. Magazine, he also wrote and hosted the syndicated radio series, Minding Your Business. For 12 years Jim ran JFORUM, the pioneering online service for journalists and communications professionals worldwide, on CompuServe.

In 1982 Jim transferred his journalism experience into a new career:  training people to deliver their messages effectively to the media and the public. His media-training clients have included hundreds of CEOs, scientists and authors. He has trained every kind of spokesperson imaginable—from athletes to marketing experts, from celebrities to farmers. His trainees have appeared on 60 Minutes, 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, CNBC and hundreds of radio stations. They’ve been quoted in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, trade journals and lifestyle magazines. Additionally, his clients have testified before Congress, made presentations to financial analysts and given speeches at major symposia. He has dealt with environmental crises, food tampering scares, insurance reform, employee healthcare, and workplace safety issues.

Jim taught broadcast journalism in Tunisia and the Philippines under the auspices of the U. S. State Department. Born and reared in Toronto, he speaks English and French. He graduated cum laude from Lehigh University with a BA in sociology in 1972.

A resident of Darien, Jim is founder of the Commuter Action Group, using social media to advocate for mass transit in Connecticut.  He is also an elected member of the Representative Town Meeting and program director of the town’s government access channel, Darien TV79.

Jim currently writes a weekly column, “Getting There,” for the eight daily and 14 weekly newspapers published by Hearst CT Media across Connecticut. In 2020 Jim published OFF THE RECORD: Confessions of a Media Consultant, sharing true stories about training the famous and the infamous.

Jim Cameron will be updating us on the future of transportation in Connecticut in the wake of the Covid-19 virus.

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s summary of his talk:

Jim Cameron, media consultant and DMA member, covered the transportation situation in Connecticut with a well-researched set of data and considerable enthusiasm for his subject. Jim took his audience back to the good old days when the New Canaan branch line sported its own private railcar for the select few on the commute to New York, but brought us down to earth and back to reality with statistics on the current ridership situation on MetroNorth, which was last counted as 218,000, compared with 3.1 million in March this year – a drop of 93%.

The MTA is projecting a deficit of $16 billion by 2024, and in 2020 alone the fare shortfall from reduced ridership will be approximately $4.2 billion. Currently, there seems to be no way out of the dire financial situation given the movement of commuters out to the suburbs, increased use of the roads, and a lack of urgency on the part of legislators to take action to remedy the situation either now or in the longer term. There is little appetite in an election year to raise gas taxes 60% back to 1997 levels, or to reinstate tolls in an effort to refund the State’s Special Transportation Fund; also, exacerbating the position, Federal spending on infrastructure is woefully low and unlikely to increase in the short-term. Overall, a sorry situation for which Jim sees no relief in sight.

Here is a link to a recording of his talk:  https://youtu.be/veanWAofvUY

Judge Myron H. Thompson is a United States District Court Judge for the Middle District of Alabama. He was nominated to that seat in September 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. He served as Chief Judge of the Court from 1991 to 1998.

Judge Thompson is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. He served as Assistant Attorney General of Alabama from 1972 to 1974. He was the first African-American Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama, the first African-American bar examiner for the State, and the second African-American federal judge in the State. Judge Thompson was in private practice from 1974 until 1980.

Over the course of Judge Thompson’s 40-year career, he has presided over many challenging cases, including those involving separation of church and state, employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, voting rights and racial discrimination in the appointment of polling officials, policing practices and the use of deadly force, racial diversity of Alabama’s post-secondary education system, redistricting issues in the City of Montgomery, gay and lesbian rights, restrictions on abortion, racial diversity in the ranks of state troopers, and troubled conditions in the Alabama prison system.

Throughout his life, Judge Thompson has represented an extraordinary combination of courage and integrity. One of the last generation of children exposed to polio, he was stricken at an early age, bedridden or confined to a wheelchair at first, but fought back, ultimately being able to walk with only a minor limp. Judge Thompson has said that the challenges of polio, as well as growing up in the Jim Crow South — going to segregated schools, using segregated water fountains, and being treated as sub human — made him who he is.

In 2017, for having made a substantial contribution to public service and the legal profession, Judge Thompson received the Yale Law School Award of Merit, the highest award the law school may give to a graduate and faculty member. He was also named a 2017 Alabama Humanities Foundation fellow in honor of his noteworthy achievements and commitment to the advancement of the humanities in Alabama. In 2015, Judge Thompson received the National Public Service Award from Stanford Law School, in recognition that his “work on behalf of the public has had national impact.” In 2013, he was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award by the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council in recognition of his “personal contributions and extraordinary commitment to the advancement of civil rights and for being a role model for members of the bench and bar.” And he received the 2005 Mark De Wolfe Howe Award from the Harvard Civil Rights – Civil Liberties Law Review “for his Unyielding Commitment to Advancing the Personal Freedoms and Human Dignities of the American People.”

Judge Thompson and DMA member Tom Igoe, who were roommates as undergraduates at Yale, will engage in a wide-ranging dialogue about (1) their fundamentally different backgrounds and evolving life-long friendship; (2) Judge Thompson’s perspectives, developed in his early years, that shaped the course of his life; (3) his return to Alabama to practice law and appointment to the bench as the youngest Federal judge in the US; (4) his experience as a jurist serving in a Southern state; and (5) his abiding philosophy on the importance of public service.

For some perspectives on the import of Judge Thompson’s judicial opinions, click on the following link: Judge Myron Thompson — Selected Judicial Opinions.

Arranged by Tom Igoe

Speaker summary by Bryan Hooper:

Our speaker’s virtual podium was graced by Judge Myron H. Thompson from Alabama in conversation with DMA member, Tom Igoe. This was an incredibly honest, open and frank discussion of a bi-racial friendship that started at Yale, developed when they became roommates, strengthened as each became the other’s best man, and deepened further over the years since. It is impossible to convey the genuine emotion and intellectual content of that discussion in these notes, but you can get a much better idea from the recorded conversation and subsequent question and answer session posted on the DMA website in the speaker section.

In particular, you will gain an impression of Judge Thompson’s humanity, honesty and humor. As you watch and listen to that video, you will observe some of the judge’s life attitudes which were conveyed with such conviction and applied in his judgments, particularly the two cases discussed involving promotions within the ranks of state troopers, and the removal of the stone monument listing the Ten Commandments from the Alabama supreme court building:

• You don’t have to be white to be a snob (learnt from his mother!)

• Show courage and do the right thing

• It’s a question of respecting the rule of law.

We received more comments than usual about this session, and they reflect the emotional impact on the audience:

“You don’t too often see two men share such deep personal reflections, thoughts and feelings in front of so many strangers … I felt privileged to be a part of such a group.”

“The genuine depth and intensity of their friendship really came across.”

“Simply one of the best speakers/presentations!”

“Today’s discussion was just amazing and very timely given what’s happening in the country.“

Here is a video of the Zoom meeting: https://youtu.be/lpOZfNfum4o

Here is the transcript along with some additional material:  Darien Men’s Association — Judge Myron Thompson Talk with Tom Igoe

“Person-to-Person: Creating Economic Stability for Vulnerable Residents During the Pandemic.”

Nancy Coughlin, CEO of Person-to-Person, and Juri Garone, Manager of Volunteers & Community Relations, will be speaking to us about the organization and its mission. They will discuss food insecurity and poverty issues in Fairfield County and how P2P is addressing them.  Additionally, they will talk about the role of volunteers and how the community helps P2P meet its mission, and suggest ways people can get involved.

Nancy Coughlin joined Person-to-Person in June of 2019, bringing expertise and experience in food insecurity, anti-poverty, and women’s and children’s issues. Prior to joining P2P, Nancy served for seven years as the Executive Director at Neighbor to Neighbor, a Greenwich-based organization dedicated to providing food and clothing to low-income families and children. She began her career in human services as an advocate for battered women and their children, and later practiced law in civil and employment litigation at Baker McKenzie.  Ms. Coughlin received a BA in psychology from the University of New Hampshire, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.  She resides with her husband and four children in Darien, where she co-founded the annual July 4^th “Push-n-Pull Parade” and was active in her children’s schools.

Juri Garone joined Person-to-Person as Manager of Volunteers and Community Relations to recruit volunteers for the local non-profit. Before starting with P2P last September, Juri worked in the Library Learning Commons at Weston High School for 7 years. She spent a decade in broadcast journalism, working as an Emmy Award-winning television news anchor and reporter in Westchester, New York and Bergen County, New Jersey. She has won numerous television industry awards from the Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists among others. Juri and her husband, Christopher have two children, Lilly and Renzo, and a dog named Luna. They live in Weston.

Person-to-Person

Arranged by Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s notes from the talk:

Nancy Coughlin, CEO, and Juri Garone, Manager of Volunteers and Community Relations, spoke to us on the operations of Person-to-Person and how the novel coronavirus has forced them to adapt to new conditions to manage fulfilling the mission.

P2P was founded over 50 years ago by the director of St. Luke’s parish in Darien following the assassination of Martin Luther King, and was intended as a commitment to enhance understanding of civil rights issues and to respond to the needs of the less economically fortunate members of the community. It was originally established to provide food and clothing (and, according to DMA member Bob Baker, not heavy furniture!) to low income people, but has since expanded its remit over the years to include financial assistance to needy families, scholarship and mentorship to aid students to obtain better and higher education, and camperships to help children attend camp during the summer months. Additionally, it has expanded geographically beyond Darien and Stamford to include Norwalk, New Canaan, Weston, Wilton and Westport. There are over 4000 volunteers helping P2P complete its tasks.

The arrival of the virus and the attendant shutdown of many activities in Connecticut created severe problems. Unemployment in the State hit 19% and demand for P2P food services doubled; 90% of P2P volunteers were forced to stay home; and social distancing standards made it impossible to operate meals-on-wheels service. Also, the price of healthy fruits and vegetables rose 10% forcing some families to switch to less healthy carbohydrates, corn-based products and other processed products. Food banks ran out of food as surplus supplies from groceries and other sources diminished, and packaged goods that became available due to lower restaurant food demand had to be re-packaged into smaller sizes.

In the face of these multiple challenges, the response from P2P has been remarkable:

•  180,000 meals, with 9000 people being fed per month
• Financial assistance to needy families has doubled
• Four times as much rental assistance provided compared to last year

In the 2020-2021 period, P2P expects to provide almost $1 million in financial aid; one-third of those now seeking financial support have never been to P2P before.

P2P, at this critical time, has been engaged in a dedicated effort to prevent people from becoming homeless. In this context, the immediate future presents a continuing threat, particularly the potential wave of evictions expected this fall, the inevitable dispersion of many needy families to other geographic areas and the consequential loss of P2P’s contacts with these families. Much uncertainty remains regarding a return to normalcy and P2P still needs volunteers to help with its Door2Door food delivery service, and, of course, more money to meet the increased expenses. Door2Door provides contactless food deliveries to 3500 clients.

Here are the slides used in the presentation:  Person-to-Person 2020 for DMA 7.15.20

Video of their presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSSsH-2EqLs

Sam Hornblower joined 60 Minutes in 2006 and is the winner of three Peabody awards, a DuPont-Columbia award, and two Emmy awards for outstanding investigative journalism. He has reported on stem cell therapy charlatans in “21st Century Snake Oil,” fabricated clinical trial data in “Deception at Duke,” fraudulent hospital billing in “The Cost of Admission,” and excess formaldehyde levels in flooring in “Lumber Liquidators.” More recently, he has been producing an award-winning investigative series on the opioid epidemic and is covering the Covid-19 pandemic.

Before CBS, he was with PBS broadcast Frontline, with reporting credits including the 2004 documentary “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?”, about the impact of China and big box retail on manufacturing and jobs in America’s heartland.

Sam will be speaking with our group about the current opioid crisis and is urging that DMA members look at some of his prior work as background to his talk and watch “60 Minutes” appearing on Sunday June 21 (7 pm Eastern time) to see the first part of two episodes giving the latest on the opioid crisis. The following links provide a synopsis of the project so far:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-opioid-epidemic-who-is-to-blame-60-minutes-2019-08-25/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pharmaceutical-sales-exec-lack-of-conscience-key-to-success-in-selling-opioids-60-minutes-2020-06-18/

Arranged by Alex Garnett

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

Sam Hornblower, a producer at CBS, took us through the key points of several episodes of “60 Minutes” covering a long-time investigative series into the opioid crisis.  Hornblower pointed the finger at the drug manufacturers and distributors, and highlighted the incentives to sales representatives to increase revenue through payments to doctors to write prescriptions for more patients and to increase the dosages prescribed for patients. He identified the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Justice and the pharmaceutical lobbyists as bearing responsibility for going too easy on the opioid industry and expanding the availability of ever more powerful synthetic versions of the drugs, such as fentanyl, which is 100 times more powerful than morphine. The illustrations from some of the “60 Minutes” episodes included several trials of major producers and distributors that resulted in prison sentences for senior executives and multi-billion dollar settlements. You can see these episodes by logging on to the CBS News website and searching the subject.

As a welcome change to the grim stories told by Sam, his father, Ray Hornblower, formerly a lawyer in the Justice Department who then took up a second career as an opera singer, treated us to an aria from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni.” The subject of that aria was, fittingly, planning vengeance for an untimely death!

Jayme Stevenson will update us on Darien’s plan to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

She has been first selectman since 2011 and has been a member of the Board of Selectmen since 2009. Jayme is vice-chair of the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, having served as chairman from 2017 until 2020, and has been chairman of the Southwestern Region Metropolitan Planning Organization since November, 2016. She is a board member and second vice-president of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, and board member and chairman of that organization’s municipal risk insurance agency, the Connecticut Inter-Local Risk Management Agency. Jayme has served on a variety of Darien nonprofit boards, including The Depot, the Darien Nature Center and the First Congregational Church Nursery School. She also was co-chair of the Parents’ Association for Royle Elementary School and co-president of the DHS Parents’ Association. She has been a member of the board of The Center for Sexual Assault and Crisis Counseling since 2017. Jayme and her husband have lived in Darien for 29 years and have five children and one grandchild. Her husband grew up in Darien and is a graduate of Darien High School.

Arranged by Mike Heitz

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

Two important subjects are currently top of mind for Jayme Stevenson, First Selectman of Darien, and she reviewed the current situation on covid-19 and policing, and her plans for both areas going forward.

The first US death from Covid-19 was determined to be on February 6^th in California, and the first case in Connecticut was diagnosed on 3/8/20 after the patient returned from a trip to California. By March 10^th, Governor Lamont had shut down the State, and three days later the President declared a national state of emergency. By 6/17/20 the USA had recorded 2.1 million cases, comprising 25% out of a worldwide total of 8.3 million, and 120 thousand have died out of a worldwide total of 440 thousand. Connecticut has had about 44,000 cases resulting in over 4,200 deaths. Darien cases total 202 to date with 5 deaths. The main cohort affected has been the 40 to 69-year-old age group: the last recorded case in Darien was 5/29/20.

Due to good adherence to health regulations and recommendations over the past three months, Connecticut now has around only 200 patients hospitalized and lockdown restrictions are gradually being eased in a coordinated manner between state and local governments. In fact, 6/17/20 marked the introduction of phase 2 that allows for opening of non-essential businesses with some restrictive guidelines in effect. Jayme thanked Mike Heitz, Gary Banks, Bob McGroarty and Bert von Stuelpnagel for their help working with smaller businesses in town to cope with shutdown and the re-start.

The First Selectman also pointed out the progress made in providing testing facilities at Darien High School, ensuring assisted living facilities were included in enforcing healthy protocols, and announced the opening of a new testing facility around 7/4/20 that will administer tests for both covid-19 infection and antibodies to the virus. Phase 3 of the re-opening of the State is scheduled for mid-July to open more establishments (including bars), but is conditional on continued progress being made with the earlier relief phases. The details of school openings remain unclear at this point and are dependent on improvements being maintained. Overall, vigilance is essential to monitor the situation and react appropriately.

Jayme was very positive on the policing front. She stated that Darien has a zero-tolerance policy for bad policing. The town administrators and the police department have already identified and implemented a number of best practices over time. As a result, they are regarded as being leaders in effective policing oriented to more tolerance and understanding of different cultures. Jayme’s future approach is to continue listening to ensure problems can be treated pre-emptively and to partner with the YWCA, religious communities and other interested parties to address racial inequalities.

Thomas Madden will speak to us about the robust economic health of Stamford and the surrounding towns.  He brings a portfolio of facts to support his message – education, transportation, corporate moves, incomes, occupancy rates, … A good news story when we often focus on the negative.

Thomas Madden: Director of Economic Development, City of Stamford

Mr. Madden was appointed Director of Economic Development for the City of Stamford, CT in June 2014. Previously, he held the position of Commissioner of the Department of Community Development and Conservation for the Town of Greenburgh, NY. Prior, he has worked for the Westchester County Planning Department, Maricopa County Department of Transportation and several private consulting firms.

Thomas has been instrumental in the development of new environment standards including the adoption of Green Building code for new site development, revisions to the Energy Star code and a Smart Growth Development Study.

Mr. Madden was a steering committee member for Westchester County’s Central Park Avenue Bus Rapid Transit Study, Greenburgh Comprehensive Plan update and a member of the two Stakeholders’ Advisory Working Groups for the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Environmental Review. Thomas co-chairied, a seven county planning consortium to develop a Regional Sustainability Plan that tied into the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council’s 2011 Strategic Plan.

Thomas is a member of the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners.

Mr. Madden graduated from the University of Victoria with a BA in geography (Urban Studies) and attended Dalhousie University’s Masters of Urban and Rural Planning Program, where he was awarded the Harry Kitz Park Development Scholarship for Park Design and the Mobil Oil Canada Scholarship for Impact and Design Studies for his graduate thesis on the potential for eco-industrial development in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In his spare time, he enjoys coaching youth hockey and is a Director for the Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research in NYC, raising more than 2 million dollars for cancer research.

Here are his slides: Tom Madden Presentation

Arranged by Gary Banks and Bryan Hooper

Bryan’s notes from the talk:

Thomas Madden, Director of Economic Development for the City of Stamford, remains upbeat about growth prospects for businesses in the area despite – and maybe partly due to – the impact of the novel corona virus. While unemployment in the Greater Stamford area is currently 11% compared with 3% pre-covid, the employment situation has begun to improve since late-April, and there is optimism that the implementation of the various recovery phases will prove successful in restoring the economy – always provided that people take the advice of the Governor and follow safety guidelines. Stamford has taken remedial action to assist residents living in area where there have been spikes in viral cases by promoting safe practices and providing appropriate information and equipment.

In the longer term, Thomas stated his opinion that the impact of the virus will continue to encourage some CEOs to move out of the immediate New York City area and migrate to places like Fairfield County, which has a highly educated, tech-savvy workforce, good housing, transportation facilities and cultural amenities. He also made it clear that his target prospects to entice to Stamford are not firms currently within Connecticut.

While the Stamford office vacancy rate is relatively high at 27% and more space is being developed, he firmly believes that workers, especially the young, will want to return to offices, so demand will increase.  In terms of the return to normalcy, Madden stressed that we are still in the process of running a marathon, but approaching the mid-way mark: stabilization has to occur before we can enjoy a full recovery.

Recycling is important to us both ecologically and economically.   A well designed and operated solution will:

• Enable the maximum number of products to be recycled thus avoiding land fills;
• Be easy for residents to participate in the program; and
• Economically convert recycle streams into valuable materials.

The result being the town gets paid for recycling waste vs. paying to haul away waste. Van Dyk Recycling Solutions designed the facility that City Carting uses to process Darien’s single stream recycling. Van DyK Recycling Solutions, is a world leader in designing and supporting MRF (Material Recovery Facilities) with over 200 sites.  Besides residential recycling his company provided solution for composting, commercial waste, waste-to-energy, and more.  In his talk Pieter Van Dijk, CEO, will cover:

1. the changing global market for recyclables – specifically China.
2. the engineering challenges of handling the variety of materials, including single stream, in a recycling program and converting them into usable product.
3. issues specific to Darien and surrounding towns that use the local facility –  including educating the public to be active and responsible participants in the process.

Pieter Eenkema van Dijk grew up in the Netherlands where he received a Masters degree in Economics at Groningen University in the Netherlands and an MBA from Insead Business School at Fontainebleau in France.

In 1984, he founded Van Dyk Baler Corp. in North America and is the company’s current president. Now Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, the company has distribution rights in the United States and Canada for the industry’s best manufacturers, including Bollegraaf Recycling Solutions, Lubo Systems, and TOMRA sorting solutions.

He is located at the Van Dyk headquarters in Norwalk, CT with regional offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston.

Here is his slide presentation:  DMA VAN DYK Presentation

Time lapse of building the facility at Santa Barbara:  Santa Barbara

Arranged by Alec Wiggin and Cliff Van Voorhees

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

There’s an old Yorkshire expression that says ‘where there’s muck there’s brass,’ which in essence means that you can make money out of other people’s garbage.  Our speaker last week, Pieter van Dijk, of Van Dyk Recycling Solutions illustrated the truth of that saying with a densely packed, detailed description of the history of the recycling industry and his company’s leading position within it. He described the origins of modern recycling processes which started back in the 80s for residential waste, and developed further from two-stream (one for paper, one for plastic, glass and metal containers) into the current more efficient one-stream process using big bins. He highlighted the problems caused by plastic bags which clog the processing machines and asked us to keep them out of our blue bins to avoid contaminating the good products. The growth of the business was driven by demand for paper products for pulping by China and the recycling of metal containers, both ferrous and aluminum. The recent cessation of purchases by China depressed demand so much that average prices received by recyclers for their material dropped from $110 per ton in 2005 to $21 today.  With costs increasing from $40 to $45, payments to cities  such as the $25 per ton to Stamford are no longer viable; margins have dropped from $45 to a negative $24, resulting in charges to cities to compensate. Van Dyk develops processes and systems at their facility in Norwalk, and supplies plants to recyclers in North America. We have been invited by Pieter van Dijk to view his plant once the virus allows, and we have posted his slide presentation with videos on the DMA website.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art possesses the finest, most comprehensive collection of Medieval and Byzantine art in the western hemisphere. It is held in two locations: the galleries of the Met’s main building on 5th Avenue and The Met Cloisters in Fort Tryon Park. This talk will explore the history of these two collections, and consider a selection of outstanding works of art that bring the medieval period compellingly to life.  Dr. Mann will focus on works of art in the collection with a connection to plague, and look at some objects before and after the Black Death.

Dr. C. Griffith Mann was appointed The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and the Met Cloisters in September, 2103. In this role, he is responsible for the medieval collections and curatorial staff in the Met’s main building, and for directing the staff and operations of the Met Cloisters, the branch of the Metropolitan Museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Dr. Mann received his B.A. in art history and history from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in medieval art from The Johns Hopkins University. A specialist in the arts of late medieval Italy, he has published on civic patronage, painting, and devotion in Tuscany. As a curator, Dr. Mann has worked on exhibitions on the medieval cult of relics, the art and archaeology of medieval Novgorod, and French manuscript illumination of the 13th century. Dr. Mann formerly served as the Chief Curator and Deputy Director at The Cleveland Museum of Art, where he helped to lead the museum’s reinstallation, acquisition, and exhibition programs, and as medieval curator and Director of the Curatorial Division at The Walters Art Museum, where he worked on exhibitions and the permanent collection.

Arranged by Gary Banks

Bryan Hooper’s notes from the talk:

Dr. Griffith Mann, the Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and the Met Cloisters, last week described the origins of the medieval art and architecture collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and took us to Tuscany to highlight the development of art in the time of the Black Death in the 14^th century. The medieval art at the Met was initially gifted mainly by J.P. Morgan, and The Cloister’s collection was established by sculptor George Grey Barnard, a friend of Rodin, on a property overlooking the Hudson. This was acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated it to the Met in 1925, and built a new museum set up as a monastic cloister containing gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Dr. Mann concentrated his review of art during the plague years on the cities of Massa, Siena and San Gimignano, which were on the pilgrim trail from Pisa south to the Holy Land. The Black Death struck all sectors of society (sounds familiar) from nobles to peasants. The art of the time, particularly in frescoes in the duomos, the Italian cathedrals, addressed the subject in detail: the mainly illiterate population found stories in art that they could not access easily in any other way. Dr. Mann has more to tell on the Met and the medieval collection, and mentioned J.P. Morgan as a potential subject for a future talk to the DMA.

Efforts to get out the count for the 2020 Census are moving forward in the face of severe headwinds, from the coronavirus pandemic to confidentiality concerns to the lingering effects of the citizenship question. Getting the count right is crucial: the census will determine the distribution of political power and trillions of federal funds for the next decade. Census specialists from the Brennan Center will join us to describe the challenges facing this decade’s count and how to surmount them.

Thomas (Tom) Wolf is counsel with the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, where he focuses on the census and redistricting.

An experienced constitutional lawyer and strategist, Wolf advises civil rights, immigrant rights, and good government groups on litigation strategy and legal policy. He also leads amicus campaigns and authors amicus briefs for lawsuits in federal and state courts throughout the country, including high-profile cases before the United States Supreme Court.

Wolf’s articles, op-eds, and commentary on the census, redistricting, and other legal issues have appeared in major media outlets nationwide and globally. He routinely speaks and lectures on law and policy at leading universities, law schools, and public policy schools.

Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Wolf was a member of the Supreme Court and appellate group at Mayer Brown LLP. He began his legal career as a clerk for Senior Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Wolf received his JD from Yale Law School. He also holds advanced degrees in political thought and intellectual history from the University of Cambridge and urban development planning from the Bartlett faculty of University College London, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude with an AB in history from Harvard College.

Brianna Cea is a research and program associate in the Democracy Program, where she focuses on the census and redistricting. Cea’s work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Atlantic, and other outlets. Cea is also the cofounder and CEO of Generation Vote, a millennial outreach and mobilization project.

Prior to joining the Brennan Center, Cea interned with the New York Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, the New York Governor’s Tenant Protection Unit, and the Office of Broome County Executive Jason Garnar. She also served as the Roosevelt Institute Regional Coordinator for the Lower Northeast region.

Cea graduated summa cum laude with a BA in political science and philosophy, politics and law from Binghamton University, where her honors work focused on democratic theory, political philosophy, and democratic governance. At Binghamton, Cea founded the Roosevelt Institute at Binghamton University, the Broome County Student Board of Advisors, and served as a Newman Civic Fellow.

Arranged by Gary Banks

Here are their slides:  Darien’s Men Brennan ppt_5.19.20_public