today as i was reflecting on the theme of the conference it was obvious to me the importance of that team at this juncture of our society nation and indeed all of our communities in recent months i would say years there has been an upsurge of racial bias racial hatred leading to racial violence and so i really commend the collaborative to focus on this important issue and indeed to facilitate the dialogue around racially accurately i see the dialogue and conversation which will occur over the next two days to spawn many further conversations and indeed you all have taken the commitment to lead this conversations often very difficult conversations but much needed so thank you for your work because of your work we will be better as a community as a state and indeed as a nation and as a world so i also at this point want to acknowledge the leadership of dr sue hammersmith in not only bringing this conference to metropolitan state but indeed providing critical leadership and sustaining this dialogue and conversation so time members two who are who helped plan this conference to the stage i want you to see that these are some of the faces of the members who created this year's overcoming racism conference and we are here we want to give special thanks to rose it chandler who is not able to be with us today but we want to recognize her for her years of leadership in a member from minnesota philanthropy  and the st paul foundation at the end of september two thousand and fifteen rose it was appointed deputy commissioner of the minnesota department of human rights we extend our love appreciation and congratulations to deputy commissioner rose that ship chandler her  thank you thank you you thank i want you did know that my co host here along with marjorie i started the roots of this conference eight years ago so would you please share a synopsis of the history of frac the facilitating racial equity collaborative thank you gloria marjor and here's the story behind that crazy math you will have before you an image of page five the graphic that she will see in your  conference materials if you'd like to take a look at that graft you also see it in the image before you hear the story of frick begins with a two thousand and eight gathering united church on the west side st paul the purpose of the two day event was to provide advance training for antiracism facilitators advance training for facilitators in two thousand and nine with the success of that event we had the house full there at the church a group came up and many of those people are on the stage or on the stage today small group of people that said how can we be a part of this how can we advance this work and make it more widely available this was in two thousand and nine we changed the name from advancing training to facilitating racial equity from the beginning we understood that f r e c was to be a learning community from the from this beginning then we said that our relationship with the conference attendees would be that of phil learners nationally the primary audience was intended to be facilitators educators and activists and then we expanded and said all those who are engaged in this work will be our audience and these would be individuals and organizations and communities and so this is who you are today in this group f r e c members included representations f many organizations f r e c has become a community with a unique culture and identity and that's been reflected today in this opening ceremony in that we've tried to remain true to our origins and sense of mission we continue to be identified with practices of facilitation and transform ation today f r e c is a dedicated collective of organizations and individuals committed to overcoming racism in minnesota arkell our collective mission is to work against structural racism and racial disparities we are an anti racism organization in anti racism organization our collective mission then brings us together to this particular conference this commitment we strive to deepen our understanding of and improve our capacity to counter racism we organize for racial justice and best practices we are committed to engagement with multiple communities and ways of knowing we are resources to each other in this anti racism work with all of you the over coming racism conference is and is in other opportunity to speak and hear the truth of our history and experiences to continue the learning and to facilitate social transformation to gether we do this together as a learning community note the objectives that are laid out on page four the learning objectives everyone is welcome to join us in this work those you saw on stage earlier they accept that invitation to be part of this work in terms of the organization that you see that has happened today and yesterday and many months before merely requires your coming to this meeting the second thursday of each month nine to eleven