And is it starting this coming Thursday?

That's correct, that's correct, Alan, yeah.

So a big thanks to Frankenstein, he's been a great supporter for us.

But yeah, we're launching details of this exciting project, Alan.

It's a circular economy initiative to increase the usage of reusable coffee cups in the town.

So we're absolutely delighted.

We got grant funding from Wexford County Council under their Circular Economy and Waste Prevention Grant to purchase some reusable cups.

How will the

Can you explain this concept and what kind of argument actually gets an administrator's attention?

This is such an important concept to understand.

Sometimes we'll summarize this as the idea of the difference between hard dollars and soft dollars.

Often the C-suite might perceive a cost savings as soft dollars, whereas things coming from a fee-for-service revenue as hard dollars.

Those value-based care contracts, those models of care, population health, those cost-saving opportunities, that doesn't make them less valuable.

But when we're trying to make the dollars and cents account, there are challenges to those mechanisms.

And it also doesn't mean that we have all of our eggs in one basket in either-or scenario.

What are some of the key findings of that review? And what should every pharmacist know about the current landscape of state-based payment and parity laws?

And to- can- to- I guess to get us started, can you tell our listeners just a little bit about MEFA and about your role at MEFA?

Yeah.

I'd love to.

Uh, so MEFA is the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, as you said.

Uh, we were created back in 1982 by the Massachusetts state legislature, and, uh, we were created with a, a public service mission sort of to help families to plan, save, and pay for college.

And what we were initially created to do was to, uh, offer a loan, which we still do, a fixed interest rate loan.

Um, but as I like to say, as if you've been paying attention since 1982, the cost of college has continued to rise, and just offering a loan was not, you know, sufficient to, to really meet that, uh, mandate of ours.

Yes

So many opportunities, eh, Jonathan?

Yeah, we always talk about the point of difference.

I mean, obviously, I mean, there's some challenges out there in terms of intermediate schools as there is with any schooling, but, um, yeah, I mean, in terms of full primaries versus sort of intermediate schools and, you know, you know, that point of difference, the aspect of specialist acts, a sense of belonging and all those other extracurricular things you can provide, um, only helps academic success as well.

So, you know, we do a lot of work around making sure that, um, you know, kids take risks, kids put themselves forward, all those types of things as, as we talked about, about that transition into schools.

Um, you know, obviously intermediate schools are a, a really important partner.

I remember how many years ago, 15, 20 years ago, when, uh, the government at the time trying to challenge intermediate schools and, um, you know, the parents stood up and said, "No, no, we wanna keep intermediate schools," and that's really important.

Um, and as New Zealand AIMS, we, we're constantly advocating and, um, you know, working with the ministry and working with the government around, you know, what's best for intermediate schools as well in terms of some of this curriculum change that's happened.

Jonathan?