So, good morning, everyone, and welcome to this week's Fireside Chat. I'm Lisa Stearns, and with me is Dr. Tim Cross, our leader, Senior Vice President, and we just want to thank you for joining us each week for these Fireside Chats. We really do appreciate the participation, and we hope that this is helpful to you in some way.
We'll be discussing an update to our COVID-19 guidelines and taking your questions, of course, and we'll also be discussing the most current issue facing our country and our communities. But first, just a few reminders. Remember to please keep your audio muted during the chat. If you do have a question for Dr.
Cross, please use the chat function. You can post that question publicly, or you can send it to me privately, and we'll try to get to as many of those as we possibly can. A recording of this session will be made, and it will be posted on the coronavirus website, which you can find at UTIA.10c.edu. So, Tim, we do usually use this time to talk about COVID-19, and of course, we will get to that here in just a minute.
But first, our world has changed once again since the death of George Floyd on May 25th. I know you wish to share your thoughts on how we as an organization can contribute to the solution in this matter. Do you want to share some of your thoughts? Yeah, thank you, Lisa.
And good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us once again. And I do think it's entirely appropriate, if not absolutely essential, that we start today by thinking about what's transpired over the last 10 days, in particular, about the incident that triggered this reaction of the unnecessary death of George Floyd. I don't know about you.
I'll be honest, when I heard about that incident 10 days ago or so, my first reaction was, oh, I'm so happy that wasn't here. And I'm so glad that it's not something that happened in our community, our state. But, you know, I think that's exactly why we've got the problems we've got, is that folks like me have responded that way. And what we forget, what I forget, I'll keep this personal, what I forget is I have those thoughts, is that, well, maybe it didn't happen in the Institute of Agriculture, it happened in Knoxville, Tennessee, maybe it didn't happen in the State of Tennessee, but it did happen in the United States of America.
It happened in our country and it happened to an African American who was entitled to the same justice, the same equity that we all expect. So I feel like from that standpoint, then we see the protests that have occurred, the marches that have occurred and continue to occur, and other events going on. And those are not just in the big metropolitan areas either. I know there's been small rural communities where there's been a lot of public expressions of an outcry.
I think sometimes we also then tend to focus on, well, those marches led to violence, they led to clashes with police, they went to some unruly behavior. But we've also observed, I think, over the past 10 days, the violence has subsided, the real confrontational classes have subsided. But what has not gone away is the really national and even worldwide recognition that this needs to change. We do need to address equity and justice for all.
And so I feel like maybe, at least in my life, this ought to be a turning point. It ought to be a time when we say enough is enough. It's been a long time that we've struggled in this way. I don't want to pretend I can in any way, shape or form, understand how our black friends, our black employees, our black students feel.
But I think it's time we make sure in the Institute of Agriculture we're part of the solution. Our tagline is real life solutions. So this is one of those areas we need to be providing solutions. So that much, I think, is really clear to me.
Again, I'm trying to speak personally, but I also hope that we as an Institute can embrace those thoughts and philosophies as well. And I believe we can, because since the deans and I sent out the message earlier this week, I've had many, many replies of support, of encouragement, positive response to that message and to the notion that, you know, words are great, but we need to act. And so that's really, of course, what is on my mind currently as well. So I think the question is, how do we act?
What do we do? How are we going to organize that? We've said for years and years, you know, eliminating racism is everybody's job. That's, that's well and good.
But how are we really going to go about doing that? It'll take a commitment from each of us. I'm not going to roll out some big plan today and say, here it is. This will solve it.
This will fix us forever. What I'd like to do is continue to work with the deans, our department heads, directors, other leaders to flesh out a plan and then engage the whole Institute in responding to that plan and helping to improve it. And then really embrace this as one of our major initiatives, just as we've embraced initiatives like genomics, like one health and so forth, we can get behind this with equally, if not more enthusiasm, more commitment and really make a difference. So we'll, I'm committing to make sure we bring to you some ideas and plans that not simply say we're going to do a training.
We're going to write a pledge and we're going to call it good. I'd like it to be much more substantial than that and something that doesn't happen one time. And then we move on. This needs to be something pervasive, something embedded in all of what we do and embedded in each of our expectations.
So that's going to take a little more thought than I've had the time to give it in the last few days. But again, I feel like we are at a turning point. Let's make that turn together and let's be part of the solution across our nation. And really, as we've seen recently, even across the world with protests and marches taking place in other countries as well.
So forgive me maybe for using this as a soapbox, but I'm not going to apologize for it. I think it's a time when we need to all get on board and make some changes. And I know I can count on you to help in that regard. Thanks so much for that, Tim.
And I know you would welcome ideas from people in ways we can improve. Absolutely ideas, personal stories, suggestions, and we probably need to have a structured way of doing that. But I'll tell you right now, if you want to send me a note, I've just started a folder in my email. And I am capturing and keeping every message about this, and we'll figure out some systematic way maybe to make it even more better, more structured in the future.
But for now, I welcome your thoughts and really do value each of your opinions, just as we value each of your lives and each of your contributions to the Institute. Great. Well, thanks, Tim. Well, moving on to what has also been a pervasive issue, and that is COVID.
We've had some updates to our guidelines and phase two of re entering the workplace. What are some of those key changes? Yeah, we've been, I think you probably have seen that we do plan to move to phase two on campus. That was expected and we have stuck with that.
And so I think then the question is, all right, well, what does that mean? Well, as we described last week, largely it means we can scale up in terms of the number of individuals at the workplace, but it still does not mean everybody back physically, at least. So we're going to continue working remotely, but we're going to look to our direct supervisors to indicate at least on campus as we interface do if we really do have individuals who can't do their jobs from home, let's reconsider whether some of them might be needed back on campus. I know in our extension offices and our research and education centers, we're still tracking things locally to determine whether we moved to phase one or two in terms of extension and and ag research.
So we're making those decisions more and more locally watching local data watching county government decisions as well. I know that as we think about scaling up a little more couple of things. One, are we seeing actual declines in the number of cases. And I would say we're really not seeing that as a pervasive trend, but we are seeing again county by county that the situation differs immensely.
And so we still have to approach things across the entire state looking at local conditions. I also see that because the across the whole state, there are a lot of differences. We're starting to receive invitations or even expectations to participate in meetings or events or activities. And I know we're starting to get questions.
You probably have questions about can I attend should I attend must I attend, you know, what exactly should we be doing. So, in my opinion, it's really hard to provide one side fits all answer to that. So what we've talked about amongst our executive committee is really the fact that like the decisions related to office staffing office openings, these discussions really are most appropriately held with direct supervisors who have the most information about the employees about the opportunities they they're facing and about the constraints, maybe, or the restrictions that should be considered. So, instead of dictating a set of rules, we really feel like in this case, what we want to encourage is if you're considering going to a meeting or any vendor activity, talk with your direct supervisor about it.
And we've revised our guidelines to provide a little framework about that conversation and basically it includes seven questions. I'll read them fairly quickly, but but know that they're in our new revised guidelines and you'll be able to see them in more detail shortly as soon as they're posted. Questions like if you're an employee wanting or having been invited to an event. First question should be, do you want to attend it and do you feel safe if you attend it.
You know, I think your voice matters. So, you know, let's let's start from there. How large is the group that's meeting and how large is the venue that it's taking place in. Are you putting others at risk if you attend and not only thinking about coworkers because after you attend, you're going to return conceivably to an environment that may result in direct contact with others.
So, you're going to have your own family. You attend this meeting or event. Is that going to jeopardize in any way those those in your home. Are there measures in place at the meeting or event that provide things like requirements for masks that provide assurance of social distancing hand sanitation all the CDC guidance, you know, to what extent have the meeting organizers consider that and make that available as part of that meeting.
So, you know, I'm going to have a meeting that maybe has all the right things in place. You feel safe and so forth. But after the meeting two days later it's announced that three people were tested and are now positive for COVID-19. If that's the case, do you have, you know, an approach or a plan for yourself that you would then, because you potentially were in direct contact would self isolate for 14 days in recognition of the fact that you might have been in direct contact with people at this meeting.
How, how are you going to contribute to this meeting or event or how will you benefit or how will the university or the institute benefit from your direct physical anticipation. Does it warrant, you know, going through all this or is it really something that, you know, you can get the information some other way or you can present the information some other way. Have you thought about alternatives. And then finally, if you can participate from a distance, why would you want to attend in person.
So those are questions that we think, you know, make sense, there may be other questions to ask as well. But I think the way to approach these these meetings events and activities is to think through those kinds of questions think through the answers of those questions discuss them with your supervisor and come up with a decision that's appropriate based on those questions and their answers. And then move ahead. So, and these, of course, all pertain to insight meetings we still have restrictions on how to stay travel and international travel.
So right now that's still off the board but for instant meetings were, you know, really a point where I know a lot of those meetings are starting to take place. And we just, I think, need to use this approach to guide our participation in such meetings. So I know there may be a lot of questions about that happy to discuss those a little bit further. So let me also talk to them about the other restrictions on engines out of state travel and international travel.
Those are remaining in place. And they currently are through July 31st. We're right now, I think, trying to determine will they remain in place beyond July 31st. Will they be changed before July 31st.
Really difficult decisions to have absolute clarity about what's best there. But we're looking at those now. In the meantime, I know I've had some questions from some individuals who have said, well, I really need to go to this meeting. In some other state and it starts on August 2nd.
Should I plan to go or can I plan to go in cases like that. I think, again, right now I'm not in a position to say no, you can't go and neither is anyone else. I think. But it's also, I think, a situation where I would delay making financial commitments to such a trip as long as as possible.
In other words, if even even if it might require an increased registration fee by delaying this, I would put off registration fees. I certainly put off any airline purchases and so forth until we get closer to July 31st. Expecting that, you know, the situation may change. And if it does, and you're not allowed to participate in that meeting, then there's already been substantial expenses incurred.
It's going to be hard to turn the clock back on that. So what I'd ask is that we'd be really diligent about seeking travel authorization in advance before making any financial commitments. So submit your out of state or international travel request, even if it's beyond July 31 submit that now or soon and let's have those conversations with your director, your department head in the deans and try to make a decision in advance before any financial commitments are made. So that's where we're at on that.
And there's some slight revisions in the guidelines that speak to that as well. So again, if you got questions, I think it's your direct supervisor you need to be in touch with. And if you have questions about how to submit that travel authorization, you can check with your business manager regional office HR manager or finance manager within your unit to get help with those questions. As far as phase two, the other thing folks have, I know I've heard is, well, you say we're going to have more at the workplace how many more, you know, and I think that is really hard to answer but I also think saying well it depends it's not a good answer either.
My perception of phase two is that we're going to approach somewhere around 20 to 30% of our workforce on campus being present back in the office, if you will. That doesn't necessarily hold for an office with two or three people that those percentages probably don't have any meaning there, but overall I expect we'll be moving towards potentially 20 to 30% of the workforce back on campus throughout the course of phase two so it doesn't mean necessarily day one of phase two we don't have that many individual back but I think over time we'll be moving that direction. Having said that I still want to emphasize, first of all, protection for our most vulnerable employees anyone with underlying health risks anyone at years of age closer to mind, so forth. They need to be the last to return so no change there and we need to continue to remember that one of our commitments is flexibility.
So those that have no daycare for children really are not in a situation where it's going to be very conducive to return. So we're going to work with those individuals just as much as possible. Those individuals that maybe have someone living with them that you know return to the workplace might put someone in their home in at higher risk as well so so that hopefully captures some of the high points with regard to phase two. Again, we'll have the guidelines posted today and send out a message with with a link back to those guidelines but they're in the same place they've always been and the changes are highlighted so that it's easy to see.
And we also need to remember that regardless if you are one of those employees who is returning to the workplace or not, the COVID-19 training needs to take place. Yeah, good reminder. Thank you. And you know I think a lot of you have completed the training.
In fact, as of this morning, over 74% of our 2100 employees have been through that training. So that's great. So I think that's a really compliment you if you've gotten that training done. Thank you.
It's 15 minutes and I think it summarizes everything about the practices we're following very nicely provides helpful background as well. So if you haven't done it yet, when we sign off today, take 15 minutes and knock it out and you'll be done for the weekend. And again, that doesn't mean just because you've done the training now you have to come back to work. It's really just a reminder that when you do come back, these are the practices that we're going to be following.
And it includes reference to our daily check. So those of you that are coming back to the office, remember before you return each morning, you're to fill out that self screening form so that your supervisor gets a note that says you're clear to work and is reminder to yourself that you've done those things that we need to be following in terms of practices before we interact with others. So thank you. We'll send out a reminder soon to those who have not completed it to encourage completion.
We'll be reaching out to that small number of folks who may not regularly use email to enable them to complete the training in some other way. And I'm very confident we can get to 100% by June 10, which was our completion date. So that's coming up next week. And I thank everyone again that has completed it.
Very, very encouraging that we've got so many done already. And we might remind everybody that Knoxville is sending out a notification that there is a training that needs to be completed, but our employees do not need to do that training as well. Correct. Yeah, and they're largely largely the same information.
They were based on the same information really that started from our Hill Science Center. So we started with our health experts and putting the training together as every campfire. And so no real need to do both. If you want to go through the Knoxville training, that's absolutely fine.
But as long as you've completed the training, then we think you've got the information you need. Very good. Well, this will probably be no surprise, but travel does. It's such a difficult topic in a situation anyway, but we have had never questions related to travel still.
So just to clarify, if you travel out of state, no matter if you are going to a remote location, you still have to self quarantine. Yeah, and I think the question must be if you travel personally out of state, because we're not traveling on YouTube business out of state. And we're coming into obviously peak vacation season. All of us want to get away.
I think all of us want some time to wind down and relax and oftentimes that may be at a location that's outside of the state of Tennessee. Right now our guidelines still require that if you travel outside the state of Tennessee, when you return, you're going to work from home for two weeks. And I know that's may seem like overkill. It may seem like way way more restrictive than what's needed.
We're going to look at that closely as we look at the out of state travel restrictions and think about how we handle that in the future. Think about it from the perspective that right now, and we don't think from a business perspective, we feel good about you traveling out of state and returning directly to the workforce. So if that's the case, why is it any necessarily any any different if you travel personally and I know we can all say, well, I'm going to a Jones house and I'm going to be, you know, with no more than two other people. We're not not going to be in direct contact with any positive cases.
And, you know, I'm going to follow the right practices. But when you return to the office or return to the workplace or your community, all folks know is well cross with and traveled out of state who knows who came into contact with. And now he's right here amongst all of us. You know, I'm not feeling real good about that.
So we're going to try to keep both the personal restrictions associated with return from personal travel are in line with our restrictions on business travel, I think, and we'll try to keep those together. So I know it probably feels like we're penalizing people for taking annual leave and traveling out of state. That is not at all the intention. The intention is to protect everyone, whether they're traveling personally or not.
And we'll commit to re looking at that actually next week and we'll see CDC guidance needs to be reconsidered. I think the number of states that are actually showing declines in cases is increasing. So, you know, nationally, it seems that the situation is improving. So we need to look at that and consider whether we can relax that.
But for right now, that is still the restriction. So here's here's the deal. If you can travel out of state is make arrangements when you come back to work remotely two weeks and life is good. We'll carry on.
We've been working remotely for months. So it's two more weeks going to really be a major detriment to what we're doing. I don't think it's much of a price to pay right now. So let's think about it that way.
Work together and continue to keep the Institute at zero positive cases. So someone is asking, does the 50 mile rule still apply for that would be for work related? Yeah, so the 50 mile rule has always been there in recognition of the fact that I believe it's 39 or 49 of our counties border another state. And, you know, that border, I don't know the coronavirus actually respects borders.
So, you know, that has always been in recognition that if you're living, especially if you're living in one of those border counties, I mean, it does make a lot of sense to say, well, you can travel south 50 miles, but you can't travel north 50 miles. So that's that was the basis for actually granting out of state travel within 50 miles for employees of the Institute because so many of us live and work in those border counties. And then a lot of our extension specialists, especially, but also our research education center employees, you know, in those border areas or conducting programs that may be planned and organized across state lines. So all that said, we have, you know, always said that our approach is, you know, the 50 mile rule applies and we're going to respect that and continue to say, even if you're, you know, traveling out of state, if it's within that 50 mile range.
And it's for university related business. That's absolutely fine. And maybe talk to all the way around it and didn't answer that question. I'm keeping accountable on that.
Did I get an answer or not? We said you got an answer. Yes. But here's just one step further.
We did have a question about considering the changes made to the students false semester schedule. Do you see this traveling out of state rule to be extended after July 31 or could that be reconsidered? Yes. I think there's a strong case to be made actually both ways on this.
I actually think CDC guidance no longer places travel restrictions domestically. So from a national perspective, you know, maybe we're on solid ground to say we don't need to prohibit that traveling more. But then on the other hand, as a good economist, I have to say that right, Dr. Ernst Smith.
On the other hand, from a campus perspective, what we're trying to do is reduce the number of interactions between our community and any other community. And so that may be calls for restricting travel and say, look, let's keep our little campus community here. If you will isolated and safe. And then if we don't have people going out and coming back, that's going to reduce the risk of bringing virus back to campus.
So I can make a case both directions and I'm not sure which will ultimately carry the day here at this point. But I think we'll consider both dimensions of that and other dimensions as well as we look at those travel restrictions. Well, one more in travel. This person said that they had seen a girlier email that talking about in state travel, even from work that they would have people would have to quarantine if they went to what is considered a hotspot in Tennessee.
Yeah, that is still stated in the guidelines. And, you know, I think at this point then the question is, well, are there hotspots and that I think is we're going to rely on individuals to make that judgment call and again probably work with their supervisors. So, you know, it could be that downtown national is the safest place in the world to go right now because nobody's out and about you be alone if you were down there. On the other hand, if you go to downtown national and meet in a hotel meeting room with 300 other people who are local residents, I'm not so sure that that would be, you know, a wiser practical thing to do.
So I think it really comes back to that conversation we had earlier about questions asked specifics about the venue about the benefits of attending. And maybe we should add to that question list. Is it in an area that has a large number of cases and then make a decision on an individual basis about participating in locations that have had a higher number of cases. So, I told you there was only one more question on travel, but that's not true.
That's all right. We're our businesses to be out and help and to serve people so travel is part of us. I understand. Let's ask the questions and try to, you know, work together to figure these things out.
No problem. So the question posed that if we were to do if we were to travel out of state, for instance, and came back and actually got a COVID test. Could that reduce the number of days that we'd be required to be in quarantine. Well, I'd probably have to run that by our health science professionals because I think there's, I mean, the reason we've used 14 days as an isolation period is because I believe that's seen to be the likely period of incubation.
In other words, you could break positive show positive symptoms anytime from from day one of exposure to day 14 of exposure. So even if you've got a test on day one, I'm not sure that gives us assurance that you won't wind up, you know, as a positive case 13 days later. So I'm afraid the concepts good, but don't think from a science perspective from a health perspective that that actually gives us assurance. I think you'd have to get a test every day for 14 days, but I'll make a note on that and ask our science professionals or health professionals out the health science center and see if they have any any thoughts about that.
I'm afraid it seems like a simple solution and one that would be good and I'd love to have it, but I'm afraid it over simplifies the problem. So you talk about the importance of our organization particularly about that is what we do to curling an extension. And this person was curious about restrictions on face to face meetings and I think, you know, they were probably referring somewhat to large meetings but maybe even one on one meetings with clients. How do we feel about that at its end state?
I think it's actually that's pretty clear to me. We can have group meetings right now of up to 10 individuals and actually never restricted anything beyond or less than that. But they should be done with face masks with six foot social distancing provided if it's going to be more than a 10 minute interaction. So that can be done right now and we can follow that with, I think, good success and good evidence that those practices really do provide considerable protection.
So from Dr. Marci Suza, chair of our coronavirus task force, she forwarded me a journal article that indicated there had been some assessments of practices like face masks and social distancing, and they were in fact found or demonstrated to be very positive in reducing the risk of contracting coronavirus. So I know it's tempting to think this really isn't much, it doesn't do much, but those practices can make a huge difference. So if we follow those practices, we can have those small group meetings right now and we'll look towards assuming we continue to make positive progress enabling larger group meetings in the future.
So just to clarify, a person has asked that does this mean that if the group meeting is 10 or less, the policy that we had a place before that all programming should be canceled through the 31st is no longer in place. That we now can have a meeting if it is standard. Sorry, I was, I thought the question was about staff meetings. We're still restricting it to staff meetings at this point for those gatherings.
So as we look ahead and look in the face to a little further, we'll consider whether we can also start to begin to plan public meetings. So this point, all of our buildings are restricted access so you know having a meeting but not allowing folks to enter would be a little bit self-defeating. So we need to consider both of those things at the same time. So we're just reversing this lightly somebody is asking about those best that will be back in offices and workplaces.
What about people then who are visiting the campus for instance if they are students visiting professors. What's, is there a quarantine policy if we are encountering groups of people like that. So there's a set of guidance on visitors that there's some initial guidance and then there's a group working on visitors to campus specifically so some of that still be developed in our research offices have slightly different guidance on visitors as well visiting scientists or you know professionals that we need to have come in to work on equipment and that sort of thing so there are provisions to allow visitors to campus. And obviously beginning about August 8 we're going to see thousands of folks on campus again so in about eight weeks you know a situation is going to change very drastically.
I think for right now to the extent possible if you know of a visitor that plans to come make sure they're aware of the requirements of face masks, social distancing and be ready to assist or convey them where they need to go and otherwise. I think their presence as long as they're following those CDC guidelines should pose no more risk than any of our presence as well. We had an earlier question and this person states has there been a revision in the plan and outline phases it seems even with the latest increase of cases offices are moving through the phases without really taking the rise of new cases into consideration. If there has been a revision where can we find that information.
So do you want to talk a little bit about that. Yeah and I think if the question is about offices on campus I think we're all in the same boat there so no change there. The metrics that were being looked at that were on rolling averages have not changed and I think the data supports moving to phase two. So on campus that hasn't changed nor have the guidelines off campus.
I know the county extension offices were under the guidance of looking at the number of active cases and whether there have been increases or not. And I think that factored in with what county government is doing in terms of office openings and staffing and coupled with knowledge of county had one active case two weeks ago and one day during that two week period there were three active cases. I don't think that was seen as a spike in cases that was largely seen as a very, very modest increase. I think those are still being looked at case by case and my understanding is county directors and regional directors are talking about those specific counties in the data that they're seeing and the incidents of COVID-19 in those counties and then making decisions based on all that information.
So it's really hard to pick one number and say this is the number we're looking at. It's tempting to do that. But invariably when you do that then you realize there's three or four or eight other factors that really ought to be considered as well. So we're trying to again be thoughtful and be logical, be quantitative whatever we can and then ultimately do what's right, do what's best for health and safety and for delivering programs at the same time.
So let's switch gears lightly and that is do you have any updates on the budget? Nothing much more than what you've seen in the newspaper. So even even at this morning's meeting with President Boyd, we really didn't have any additional guidance at this point. What I've seen thus far is that the governor proposed elimination of capital maintenance projects from the University of Tennessee budget that would have an impact on the Institute.
Not a surprise, honestly, you know, that's sometimes one of the first areas that are cut back on. So that's not certainly not good news, but capital maintenance, we can we can hold off a little while and do those projects a year from now beyond that. I think the governor also recommended this will not be good news. The governor recommended eliminating the salary increases for basically for all state employees, including higher education, probably not a big surprise or shock to anyone that that raises wouldn't be included in a budget when they're looking at reductions.
So again, this is all proposals that the House and Senate both have to pass the budget and that does not happen yet. Beyond that, that's all the information really that I've heard or seen that has direct bearing on the Institute higher education funding in general. I think the there will be at least again, the governor's proposed funding would be flat relative to last year. So no increase in formula funding relative to last year.
So for our public college of agriculture that that, you know, has some implications that basically mean, you know, no, no significant increases to our UT Knoxville budget, but that's still obviously working progress. So stay tuned. We'll try to keep you informed as soon as there is additional information. And we're thinking about how to handle a budget reduction if there is one, but I don't want anybody to panic and think that we're going to be caught by surprise and have to take drastic draconian measures immediately.
We're going to be again thinking about how to handle as much as possible centrally. If there are reductions and then engaging you if the reductions are larger. So I'm not, not sure what what the future might hold, but that that's all the information we have as a Friday morning that 1145 Eastern time. There you go.
Well, those are all the questions we have on COVID. I did want to make sure before you because I know you do have some final thoughts, but I want to make sure that we didn't miss Julie Carson, who earlier in the chat on race relations suggested that difficult conversations between the races might be an important step in the solution. Just understanding each other better really quickly to some excellent dialogue and and better relations. So I just want to make sure we acknowledge that I know you would want that as well.
So, so thank you for that suggestion, Julie. So, 10 final thoughts as we enter the end of this week. Yep. So, you know, this week I think back and our world has changed again.
And yet we're still in the midst of this coronavirus, even as we're also now really working to determine what we can do to make the world better with regard to race and diversity. We've seen cases of active cases of coronavirus in some states increasing we've seen some states decreasing some about the same. That seems to vary every day almost. So, you know, I think one thing we got to be careful about is concluding a whole lot from one day's data.
It's really trends that are most important and we got to remain focused on that. And overall it does still seem that the trained intensity is is at least constant, if not decreasing. So I think that's some positive news. Please stay in touch with your supervisor so much of what we talked about today.
And last week as well really hinge on cash it depends on the situation in terms of the questions that we've been considering. And I really have a lot of confidence and faith that as we work directly between supervisors and employees will make good decisions. We'll do things in the best interest of our employees, their families and the people we serve. So don't lose touch.
If you haven't been reached out to for a checking in sort of conversation lately from your supervisor take the initiative and reach out to them. It's hard for all of us to remember to reach out to others regularly and if you feel like gosh I haven't haven't had much of a conversation lately. Take today to, you know, use take some initiative and reach out. Please continue to share success stories.
We've got a good number of examples and I know there's still a lot of good creative innovative ideas being followed out there. So don't forget that we've got a way to, for you to submit those success stories and I'm thinking that we're going to use one of our chats here in a couple of weeks to feature some of those success stories and we can't feature them all. That's, that's what worries me. I don't want anybody to feel like well I sit mine in and it didn't get featured so I guess it wasn't valued.
They're all great stories but you know I'd like to share maybe three or four of them and have the folks doing those innovative programs actually share with you. I think that might help to maybe first of all recognize people doing great work and second of all maybe we can all get some ideas on it. So continue to share those. And then finally please plan to join us next week.
We're going to have a special guest. I won't say too much more about it right now but it'll be a different sort of guest and I think it'll be a message that you'll enjoy. You'll appreciate it'll be different than anything we've done before but I think again it'll be one that you'll get a lot out of. So plan to join us next week.
Let us know if there's questions. We appreciate all you're doing out there and stay safe. Stay healthy. Have a great weekend.
Bye everybody. Thanks.