When we recorded this interview, the Washington State Emergency Management Association was striving for 300 members. I am so thrilled to announce that they have since surpassed that goal and continue to grow. If you join the association before September 22, 2025, I’ll still give you a free one-year subscription to State of Disaster where you’ll be able to watch the extended interview with my guest Alysha Kaplan, my talk at the conference this year, and more exclusive content. Just send your proof of membership to Matt@stateofdisaster.com.
Alysha Kaplan is the current president of the Washington State Emergency Management Association. She's been an emergency manager for almost 20 years, and she's also the Deputy Director of King County Emergency Management. In this episode we start with her incredible journey through the field, her experience coordinating with FEMA to manage disasters locally, and of course, the (potential) power of your local emergency management association.
Transcript
Matt Green (00:13):
Hello and welcome to season two, episode two of State of Disaster. This is a great episode with Alysha Kaplan, President of the Washington State Emergency Management Association. And at the time of this recording, only about a week ago, the association was at 290 or so members and trying to hit 300. And they have now officially surpassed 300 members, but I'm going to keep the promise I make later in the episode. If you join WSEMA before September 22nd, 2025.
I'll give you a free year of premium content and you can see all the behind the scenes stuff at State of Disaster, including a continuation of the conversation that I have with Alysha and it's a great one. about 15 minutes long. You're also going to get access to my talk at the conference from later in the month. This is going to be premium. It's my first new talk I've given in a while about ⁓ the past, present,
and future of grassroots emergency management and about how communities can be empowered to take care of themselves. And it gets into a little bit of theory on ⁓ complex adaptive systems and a few things that come from guests that I'm really excited to publish their episodes as well. But I think this is going to be a really cool call to action for a new grassroots emergency management framework.
that's different than what we've done in the field in the past and I'm really excited about it and that will only be here. I'm going to record my talk and you can listen to it, you can watch it if you're a premium member and if you join WSEMA by September 22nd, 2025, I'll give you that premium membership for free. There are going to be other opportunities to get a free premium subscription with a few of my other partners as well. So stay tuned, it's going to be great.
if you're out of state. But if you're in state, join the association, come hang out with me. We do some really fun stuff.
Matt Green (02:01):
Alysha Kaplan is the current president of the Washington State Emergency Management Association. She's been an emergency manager for almost 20 years, and she's also the Deputy Director of King County Emergency Management. And now we get a little deeper into her bio at the top of the show, and I hope you enjoy it. It's a great one.
Matt Green (02:23):
All right, Alysha Kaplan, welcome to the show. I feel like this was kind of inevitable because we work together in a couple of different ways. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself?
Alysha (02:34):
Sure. My name is Alysha Kaplan. I'm the current president of the Washington State Emergency Management Association. I'm also the deputy director at King County Emergency Management. And I've been doing this about 20 years. So prior to King County, I was with the state and I had the honor and privilege of serving as the state coordinating officer and the governor's authorized rep for about
15 declared disasters. So yeah, it was a lot of a lot of work and a lot of fun. But one of the things I found was that it was in a lot of ways really removed from what was what you were actually doing because as we all know all disasters starting in locally. So I thought, know what? It might be time to try to do something that's a little bit closer.
to the communities we're trying to serve. And that's when I went to the county.
Matt Green (03:33):
So what does that mean as the governor's authorized rep? What's your role during a disaster?
Alysha (03:40):
so I was the lead interface with FEMA for declared disasters, representing the governor's priorities, decisions, and on the ground in the joint field office with FEMA at the disaster sites. Basically, the state person who all decisions went through.
Matt Green (03:58):
So it sounds like you had a pretty big job and you said 15 declared disasters over maybe just as many years, right? And so and Colorado and I've worked around the country and on a bunch of disasters and I have to say, and I'm hoping you could prove me wrong a little bit, maybe debunk my theory that nothing ever happens here.
Alysha (04:20):
well, I'm going to knock on some wood. No, like for example, in 2015, we had four declared disasters in one year. So the difference with places like New York are that Washington is significantly smaller in population as well as square miles, right? So when you have an event, actually impacts you.
Matt Green (04:20):
What kind of work were you doing? Sure.
Alysha (04:43):
impacts a broader swath of the population than it would in a place like New York, right? So our threshold or indicator of impact, not a threshold, is significantly lower. But at the same time, we also have a well-developed and very proactive public assistance program in Washington that works the damage assessment process.
very effectively. So we were able to garner a number of disaster declarations by being able to demonstrate what those impacts were. Because it's not just, A, we have a road out, right? It's here are the people who are impacted. Here's the economic drivers. Here's what resources have been thrown at it. Here's what it's going to do to lose seven bridges in Lewis County. It will bankrupt the county, right?
Matt Green (05:33):
Yeah.
Alysha (05:33):
So
if you're able to tell that story so that someone in Washington DC can understand it and feel it, then you have a very effective program. And a lot of states don't have their own PA program. They basically turn it over to FEMA when they come in and FEMA project officers and FEMA staff who are not from your area, who don't understand the impacts, are going out and taking a look at what your damages are. And so a lot of times,
They don't fully grasp the larger impacts without somebody to tell that story for them.
Matt Green (06:08):
I know recently we're even, to talk about a contemporary incident where we've been working on a bridge outage, just one bridge and being able to see the economic impact between counties to be able to see the people who rely on the mobility. And what's really interesting to me is how well the impacts are being captured.
Alysha (06:16):
Yep. Yep.
Yep.
Matt Green (06:30):
and communicated and how collaboration is working between two very robust counties here. And it really is, for me, it's one of the first since moving to the state, it's one of the first like coordinated incidents that I've actually got to have my hand in a little bit. And I'm very impressed.
Alysha (06:44):
Yeah, well, I think that's what maybe some of the national dialogue about emergency management is missing is that emergency management happens all the time around you. And most of the time you are not aware that it's going on. But the things that we rely on to train to and develop the partnerships and the networking that you need to coordinate effectively so that it doesn't become a larger issue are
the things that we get from federal funding, right? Preparedness grants, training, all of those things happen because we have the money to do them from the feds. But if we didn't have that, then our effective coordination is hampered because you have less opportunity and less capacity to do the preparedness activities, the things that go into building your readiness before something happens. So
I've been watching and following a lot of the federal conversation and it is, I think, a turning point for us here in Washington, especially, where the state has not prioritized funding, emergency management or preparedness at all. And we have made ourselves dependent on a third party to provide us the things we need to be effective and respond to our communities.
And it's, I think, incumbent on our legislature to finally put some priority on what's basically they consider it this hidden insurance policy that they never have to worry about and they never have to pay for. Right? Well, you're going to have to do something about it now if you don't want to be in a similar situation when we have a large scale event where you have no preparedness and your cross industry capabilities are completely decimated because they've had to
get rid of people and programs because there's no funding, right? I think states do need to put more towards emergency management, and the preparedness piece of it. Then they have it currently. Many states don't do anything just like Washington. And it's only when they learn that lesson that they do it. Yeah.
Matt Green (08:55):
Also that kind of misnomer from like the public perspective, right? Where FEMA
is perceived as kind of the white horses that come in and respond and yeah.
Alysha (09:04):
Tommy Lee Jones on the
Jersey Barriers saying move that bus.
Matt Green (09:09):
Exactly. But when I
think of my major intersects with FEMA on the left of bang, right? Of like the left of the bad thing happening, it's things like the building resilient infrastructure and communities. It's preparedness grants, UASI and Urban Area Security Initiative and Homeland Security. it's the
Alysha (09:17):
Right. Yep.
You're much,
you're much kinder than I am because I kind of see them as that, that manager in office space walking around with a coffee cup. Like, yeah, I'm going to need you to work on Saturday.
Matt Green (09:41):
We're actually gonna need you to write a letter about why we should fund this program. And also it's due yesterday. I know you're in the middle of a disaster, but if you can get us to.
Alysha (09:44):
Yeah, exactly. Yes. And I
know you like to not tell us everything, so can you make sure to add four paragraphs to explain why? Yeah.
Matt Green (10:01):
There are some P
codes that need your attention. But from a state and federal perspective, you've worked across the spectrum, Your career started in the Coast Guard.
Alysha (10:04):
Exactly.
Yes, yeah, six years did primarily drug interdiction and law enforcement off the East Coast. there's a barn kitty. Sorry.
Matt Green (10:21):
No,
no one ever has to apologize for a cat appearing on the show, especially since it gives me an out because mine has and will.
Alysha (10:24):
you
Okay.
Okay, good. Well, yeah, so Coast Guard, that was a lot of fun. I was very young when I started in the Coast Guard. I was 17 and a half when I joined. So I learned very quickly that while I really loved the community and the work, I did not enjoy the kind of the military do as you're told, don't ask questions. And people who are senior to you.
even if they're stupid, you have to do what they're telling you to do, right? I really struggled with that and I recognized it well enough to make a decision to make a change and not make that a career path. So, yeah.
Matt Green (11:08):
Okay, was there any
intersect in emergency management at the Coast Guard? Because I know now, contemporarily, I really do enjoy what they bring to the table as far as their kind of unique ICS forms and the way they conduct emergency management.
Alysha (11:20):
Mm-hmm.
Not at the time. You know, I mean, that was quite some time ago. I'm not going to give you the years.
So yeah, no, we were at a small boat station at a Cape Hatteras and you know, it was search and rescue and law enforcement. That was really what our focus was. And I think the mission of the agency has changed over time and become more intertwined with emergency management. But like I was there, oh boy, I'm going to date myself. Hurricane Hugo was my 18th birthday and
we were evacuating the Coast Guard stations off of the island. And we moved inland to get away from the hurricane. That's how disconnected it was from emergency management. Yeah.
Matt Green (12:13):
nowadays whenever I'm deployed, whenever I had been deployed and whenever I find myself in an EOC, was like, ⁓ the instinct banders are coasty. We're okay. We're good. They get it. ⁓ But then you moved on to response and recovery for the state. And I understand that like your job as a recovery unit manager, response recovery is probably just kind of arguing with FEMA, right? In that capacity, or am I wrong?
Alysha (12:21):
Yeah.
That's a lot of it. It depends on who you're partnered with. You know, the federal coordinating officers who's in charge of the entire disaster and makes all the decisions once the presidential declaration is made. And if you get a federal coordinating officer who is responsive and communicative and willing to partner with you, because that isn't the case in every state, right? That is how it worked here in Washington. We were partnered. In other states, it's
not really like that relationship doesn't develop that way. So it really depends on who you get and whether or not they're there to make cogent decisions about disaster recovery. that sometimes you'll get people who are just there to find a way to say no, because they don't think it was warranted that you got a declaration in the first place.
Those are the most difficult, right? But for the most part, the FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer cadre is pretty good. And I was fortunate to have a number of really excellent partners.
Matt Green (13:31):
Yeah.
That's fantastic.
And then when you move on from there, see a role. Well, A, you intersect a bit in the private sector. ⁓ Do want to talk a bit about owning a company, being on the other side of the public-private partnership?
Alysha (13:48):
Mm-hmm.
Sure. My husband and I have had our own business for since 99, I think. Yeah, yeah, fairly successful. And, you know, I actually found that recovery and disaster response was very much like building a store, setting up a location, right, getting a new location started. We had, I think, 26 locations
before we decided that that was crazy and we preferred, yeah, quality of life over quantity of funding. Game and toy stores, some seasonal locations, coffee shop, and like lots of different things that we did. ⁓ Well, and it's a lot of fun, especially if you do some seasonal work, right? Because...
Matt Green (14:31):
What kind of stores were these?
Wow.
That's my retirement plan. That's...
Yeah.
Alysha (14:48):
You go in, you build out this beautiful location, you hit the high holiday season, and then you close it all down. So it's a lot of logistics, right? Planning. Then you have your operational phase, and you have to staff up immediately and train. And then you ramp down, close it all out, and put it away until the next season. So it's very similar, I think, of a process.
Matt Green (14:58):
Yeah.
You know, I,
I've spoken to a lot of emergency managers
around the country and I think we all have this idea of one day I'm going to stop doing this and I'm going to do something that is so less stressful. ⁓ For me, it's like a bookstore in the used bookstore in Northern Washington that has games and it's a community center and it sounds like to do that at scale.
Alysha (15:26):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Matt Green (15:40):
the way you've done it can be equally as stressful as managing any emergency.
Alysha (15:45):
Yes.
Matt Green (15:46):
we're going to talk about WSEMA as well, of course, the topic here. And I'm a member of the Public-Private Committee. We come together and try to connect to the Public-Private
entities within the state and provide resources and communication and benefits. I think what's really great is the fact that I do as well have a private sector. I've run a couple of businesses and I think that it's really fun to be able to connect that experience where it's so different from emergency management. There's so many different rules
I will talk about more about that as well, but I think there's so much to be learned to borrow from other sectors to borrow from like the project management of it all and, ramping up and closing down 26 different locations. and what value there is for emergency managers and business owners to be able to connect and share.
Alysha (16:20):
Mm-hmm.
Matt Green (16:31):
across those industries and that talks to the power of local collaboration in WSEMA and a state, any state association. And we're gonna pivot right to that in just a minute. But first I wanna talk about your experience as an operations unit manager and then into the county. Because what I think of you Alysha I think of an operations person's operations person because you are a, from my perspective, I've known you for maybe about a year now, since I've been working within the state and the county.
You're a I'll just do it. You're a person who's like, you know what? I'll do it.
Alysha (17:03):
But I found that that's actually what people need in the moment, right? I'll just go to COVID, King County was kind of the epicenter of COVID for the nation. We had the first case, but even before that, we were working repatriation of people out of other countries who were flying into SeaTac and trying to... ⁓
at the request of the state and the feds we were locating places to put them that were appropriate So we were already in it and then one day we get this call hey we need to set up an isolation and quarantine site for 300 people and we need it in a couple of days can you do that? Sure not a problem right and then you just turn it on and you go and that doing
is sometimes what needs to happen in your operations, right? You always, you have stuff going on in the EOC, but you have to have a recognition of when you have to move and get things done. But you need to do it in an effective way that's not going to create a legal issue for you later, right? And if it is going to create some problems, then you need to feed that up chain and let them know that this is what the ramifications could be. Do you still want us to do it?
And that is how I've always operated. And you have to be able to make decisions and be confident in the decisions you're making as you're moving. I remember when it was, I think it was the 2016 Cascadia exercise. was huge, right? We had all the feds here. We had all these people across the state. Everybody was involved. I think
The number was around 2000 participants at state, local, and federal levels. It was a very large national scale exercise. And I had just gotten back from vacation and my brand new boss said, by the way, you're in charge of Cascadia Rising. I was like, what are you talking about? you're going to be the state coordinating officer for this event. Like I haven't even looked at the exercise playbook.
I never dealt with that. I was recovery I had nothing to do with it. And I had a brand new deputy and he was the DSCO the deputy state coordinating officer. I had the EOC manager and I had my human services person and I had somebody, one other person. So we called ourselves the hand. I had them on my phone and all we did was text back and forth across every single thing so that we could make decisions.
in the moment with none of us having ever operated or looked at the playbook for this exercise. And, you know, was it totally successful? I don't know. I think it could have been better in certain places. But I think the decision making was good, that you had to make on the fly in the moment and it was, I believe, a simulation of what you really do experience.
Matt Green (20:01):
Yeah, there is something to be said about like low notice, no notice exercises if you can do them safely.
Alysha (20:06):
Yep.
Yeah, I think ⁓ cold call or cold drills are actually underutilized in our field.
Matt Green (20:10):
Even if just certain elements, yeah.
I mean, that that gets to, right? I mean, either way, right, that that gets to like, the overall risk aversion, I think we have, and then I've talked about on my show all the time, which is, we're a little afraid to take the risk of surprising people we're a little afraid to have what the liability might be if people get their heart rates up a little too much. ⁓ But then you made the switch over the county, you were deputy director role.
Alysha (20:16):
or hot drill.
⁓
Sure. Yeah.
Matt Green (20:40):
October of 2019, I mean, going into 2020 where like nothing happened, right? I mean, 2020, another boring, another boring year.
Alysha (20:43):
Okay.
Yeah, nothing. Nothing whatsoever.
I thought I dodged a bullet because I had actually turned down a position at the Department of Health. But no, we did not dodge a bullet.
Matt Green (21:00):
So I'm sure that was fascinating. And now you've been in the deputy director seat for a while. And you're also the president since, you're the president-elect in 2023, and you are coming up on your second year as the president of the Washington State Emergency Management Association.
Alysha (21:08):
Yep.
Yeah, and I get to step out of that role on October 1 and turn it over to Kyle Bustad from Gerson County. So I'm very happy that that date's coming up really quickly.
Matt Green (21:31):
That is fantastic.
Who preceded you as the president?
Alysha (21:37):
Ross McDowell from Lewis County.
Matt Green (21:39):
so why don't we tell the story of WSEMA? Because I really want to make sure in this episode, we really set the stage, right, of the federal resources and the disconnect between states and their own preparedness activities. And in what I've seen in, again, I've lived in a bunch of different states and I've seen the power of an association when used correctly.
And when fully engaged by the emergency managers within the state to have agency within their own careers, within their own journey, within their own network. So Alysha, why don't you paint me a picture of the history of WSEMA and how long you've been serving the state.
Alysha (22:10):
Yeah.
you
So WSEMA, I believe, was founded in 1970. And its original name was the Emergency Services Directors Association. And at some point, they decided to change that because most emergency managers aren't directors. And emergency services, things kind of evolve over time, right? And so it became the Washington State Emergency Management Association, which
was a broader aperture to reach the community, which is what I believe the intent was behind shifting it. It's been around for a long time. And in my tenure at the state, I was actually never a member. I never attended a conference. I would attend the director's meeting on the Monday pre-conference at the request of the state emergency management director.
And that was really it. And it looked like it was kind of from the outside. You didn't really see a lot of activity. There she is. That's one of them. That's Minnie.
Matt Green (23:25):
adorable. This
is the best plug for people to actually watch the video. This is the best.
Alysha (23:33):
Well, she's a little bit crazy, so I'm really hoping she doesn't like jump on me because they want outside bad. So I took their cones off just because I couldn't take it anymore. So anyway. Yes.
Matt Green (23:42):
⁓ you were telling me before we started recording they were recently
spayed off. They toppled. it's so good.
Alysha (23:52):
Yeah, they're just barn kittens that we captured and they said that, it'd be nice if they didn't have to run for their life for a couple days. You could just keep them inside and it's going to totally distract me now. Yeah. So, yeah, so it looked like this little thing that some of the locals did where they had a conference every year. And, but I never really saw.
Matt Green (24:00):
Okay.
That is so, it's so good though. my God, this is the cutest thing in the world.
Alysha (24:20):
what was generated out of it, right? It didn't seem like there was a program associated with it where they provided services to the members. It seemed like, hey, hang out with us, network, which is an important aspect, and get to know people in your community. So it seemed more like a networking event than an association.
Matt Green (24:23):
Yeah.
Alysha (24:46):
And it was still a way for people just to know who was who in which jurisdiction. So when I went to King County, Brendan, who has a background in local emergency management, my boss, Brendan McCluskey, the director of emergency management at King County, he's kind of a big deal, I think. He comes from the East Coast. He's heavily involved in EMAP. But more importantly, he is
Matt Green (24:59):
Yeah, yeah, who is this Brendan character?
Alysha (25:12):
at his core an educator and a true believer in the emergency management process So he is...
Matt Green (25:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's like
an academic. He's a what is it? a pracademic, a practitioner academic.
Alysha (25:23):
Yes. The pandemic. Yeah.
And I told him when he, we were, you know, he was interviewing me. He was like, you know, I'm not an emergency manager, right? That's not my deal. I'm not formally trained in this. I don't really care about planning. I couldn't spell, THIRA if you asked me. And he was like, that's okay. I am. I need you to do the other stuff. And I was like, okay.
So it's a good working relationship between the two of us. Now I'm joking, I do know how to spell THIRA But it wasn't my focus and it's certainly not my passion, His passion is the process and the planning and how you get to where you pull somebody like me in who does and gets new stuff.
Matt Green (26:08):
Who does the thing? Yeah.
Alysha (26:11):
All right, so how did I get into this?
He said, you have to join the WSEMA And I said, why? And he's like, because it's the local association and you have to support it. And I was like, okay, seems kind of silly. I'm not going to join IAEM either. Why do you want me to do this? Why? not going to, I don't want to go to conference. I don't like conferences. They're kind of a waste of time.
And he's like, no, we have to join.
so we went in, oh, I want to say 2020, might have been 2021. Because there was one year where it was canceled. I think 2020 was canceled because of COVID. Yeah. And we went to the next one and I was like, okay, this isn't that bad. This, there's some interesting information, but
Matt Green (26:50):
That tracks.
Alysha (26:58):
Seems like a lot of repetitive stuff that you hear in other forums. So it would be really neat if we could like, if this place had some different presentations, right? Then I'd be more interested in coming. And in 2022, when we were at the conference in Spokane, they were, we were at the membership meeting, which he said, you will also have to go to the membership meeting. Okay.
They said, yeah, we need a nominee for president-elect. somebody, Brendan leaned forward to somebody and said, you should nominate Alysha. That somebody nominated me. Brendan seconded it. And then they asked me in front of the entire group, right? Like, well, do you have the permission of your leadership to do this? And he was like, of course she does. I'm right here. And.
It's really hard to say no to something like that when you're kind of on the spot You don't really have an easy excuse to say no Because your boss literally just told everyone that you have no reason to say no other than you just don't want to. And so I was like, okay, I'll accept the nomination thinking I can I can just quit if I want I don't I can bail out of this, right? and
Matt Green (27:56):
Yeah.
Sure. So, I mean, that kind of speaks
to the state of the association at the time, right? I talk about a little bit of a building. It sounds like some growing pains when you're kind of a reluctant leader at this point.
Alysha (28:14):
Thanks, all.
Yeah,
and I believe the previous president had been president for like five years because nobody wanted to do it, right? Or four years, something like that. Because they couldn't get anybody who wanted to do it. You can't transition out of the board if you never get anybody who wants to participate. But I also find that that's because it's a volunteer board.
And so you get people who will volunteer who are willing to do the work and honor the commitment that they're making. And then you've got other people who go, nah I don't want to do that. And so you want to make sure that your volunteer board has people who are going to ⁓ do the role that they have volunteered to do. And one thing about me is that once I am actually in something, I'm not going to
not do it with as much excellence as possible. And I kind of got sucked in watching, Ross as the president-elect, which is the purpose of that first year, right? Where you learn the back end so that you can do the front end. watching how he was doing things, what was going on. I was like, oh, you know, this really isn't that much of a time commitment. There isn't like really that much that we're doing.
And he was trying to bring in educational presentations for the quarterly meetings to try to engage the membership. And going back all the way, I think, to 2019, you can look at the membership meetings where there's like 20 people, maybe 30. It really wasn't indicative of the full membership. So I started looking at the membership numbers and it's been 80 to 120.
for years under Ross, the high, was the high point at 141. And it's like, you know what? I think that if I'm going to do this, I wanna do something with this board and with the incoming president-elect, somebody who I can partner with so that we can be a force multiplier, and that's Kyle, And we can do something that's gonna bring value to the membership and demonstrate it in a way that will build the organization.
Matt Green (30:06):
Mm-hmm.
Alysha (30:34):
so that it's fiscally healthy and not reliant on other agency funding, right? So I think that was correct. But the other thing too, our members were all using agency funding and if their agency didn't pay for it, they didn't join. To me, that was a demonstration that there was no value. You're not gonna put your own money into something that doesn't have a value that's being returned to you.
Matt Green (30:42):
Yeah, no strings on us, right?
Alysha (31:01):
And one of the first things that I wanted to start working on is you do not need to use your agency funding. What happens when you leave your agency? You lose your membership because you lose access to it because it's on your work email. And it's all well and good if your agency is willing to pay for it. But if you want the connections, this is something you should value and you should pay for. And in the past year, we've gone from
141 members to 291 as of yesterday. And the majority of them are on their own personal dime.
Matt Green (31:34):
wild.
Me included.
Alysha (31:40):
Yeah. And so we've got a lot of personal emails, which is why we had to password protect the member directory. So it's, you know, I think it's been, it's been a good shift in thought process about what it is and what the association is. It's something you want to be part of because you are in this industry and it goes with you regardless of the agency you work for.
Matt Green (31:46):
Yeah, yeah.
I only know this version of WSEMA and it is so cool to see the growth journey and how intentional it was and seeing behind the scenes of an organization that like the rest of us, I mean, it's been a weird couple of years in emergency management. I would say even before the administration change, right? Of us kind of having to be introspective about who we are even as a field and what value all of us are bringing to the table.
Alysha (32:16):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Matt Green (32:35):
And I think any organization, any association has had to pivot to meet the moment of where we're at. And I can tell you, and let's get into some of the things that WSEMA does. And I'll start with the fact that I am, you're on my show, right? I'm pretty well informed about what's happening in the field, but every Friday I am surprised.
Alysha (32:35):
Yeah.
Matt Green (32:58):
by the quality of the information that was in that who writes who writes it that you. No kidding you so you do all those. ⁓ Tell me what about your process for your Friday notes and not only are I know I'm monologuing a little bit but like not only is it great really great references but I think your commentary is fantastic as well so.
Alysha (33:07):
Yeah.
.
Matt Green (33:22):
Tell me about what you put in the members emails every Friday.
Alysha (33:25):
Sure. Well, it kind of evolved because one of the things that I recognized was that quarterly communication wasn't going to cut it. And I also am a firm believer that it's that storytelling, right? Like what you do in a disaster declaration, you have to tell people your story. You have to make connections. And if you're doing that remotely, you have to find ways that are going to draw people's interest.
Matt Green (33:38):
Yeah.
Alysha (33:51):
I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying them because I never know if it actually hits the mark or not. There's one or two people who provide feedback and, but most people don't say anything. But then when I say, well, do you want me to stop sending them out? They're like, no, no, no, I read it all the time. So I'm like, okay, so it must be, must be doing some good out there. ⁓ When I started it, I knew I wanted to talk about what was going on inside WSEMA what's happening in the state. And then,
Matt Green (33:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Alysha (34:21):
The federal landscape exploded. I like, we got to talk about feds, but people also want jobs. They want professional development. These are the same things that we were doing with the website that we were trying to update our website and provide connection and information on the website that wasn't there before. So I signed up for probably every emergency management subscription.
that you can find in the known universe and floods my inbox on a daily basis. And I will start on Saturday, And they'll start coming in. And I'm like most emergency managers, I have two phones and I look at my phone all the time, even when I'm not working because I'm salary, I can do that. There's no violation. But there's always something going on where you have to.
Matt Green (34:47):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Alysha (35:12):
I just don't feel comfortable not understanding what I'm walking into on Monday, So I'm always looking at email. So I'll start sorting and I'll flag the ones where I think there's something interesting. I'm also a speed reader, an avid reader. So I process information very quickly, visually, and as I'm taking it in. And so I can go through an article and I can like, okay, this makes sense. This will work for...
This area this has interest over here, right? Because you can't think about it in terms of what is Alysha Kaplan like? It's how is this gonna serve across the state? Because this role is not about who you are in the job You do this role is about representing the interest across the state East West North South, public private and Health it we have a quite a broad swath, So
How do you tie those things together, but also highlight things that are happening in individual communities? So I start pulling articles that I think are relevant to our field across the state. I pull local articles that I think are interesting. And probably a couple months in, I was like, you know what? This is so doom and gloom. And everything was so negative with what was going on at the federal level. There's so much anxiety that I really felt it was incumbent.
Matt Green (36:26):
Yeah.
Alysha (36:32):
on me to bring some joy into what we're doing. So I don't know if you noticed, but I shifted the tone of things that I was including. And there was a article that I highlighted on LinkedIn that I thought was such a, it spoke to me, it really did speak to me. It was, why are we looking at this in a negative way? We need to look at this as
Matt Green (36:40):
Yes, yes, yes.
Alysha (36:57):
Positive juncture where we can make some changes in how we do things to better serve our communities Because emergency management is about serving people it is not about serving yourself It is and most people who do it do it with a heart of service ⁓ Obviously there's egos involved and then you've got your you know, your adrenaline junkie first responder dudes and whatever
Matt Green (37:14):
Mm-hmm.
Alysha (37:23):
who just love doing operations and response. Okay, that's great. That's a component. But why do they like it? it's also because they're reaching their communities. So I try to take it from that aspect and how do we provide some positive connection as well as information? Because information's great. Anybody can get information anywhere. But making a community requires connection. And I think that is the biggest achievement.
frankly, is feeling like we've actually formed a solid community that's willing to come together and not just share data points.
Matt Green (38:00):
Yeah, it really adds like a personality to the association, I think. And we work in a very human field that sometimes feels very disconnected from humanity.
Alysha (38:05):
and
You
We're a coordination point. And people seem to think emergency management is about first responders. That is not who we are.
We're the ones who help get the emergency responders, the first responders, the things that they need in the field so they can respond. We're the ones who clear obstacles. We are intense, creative problem solvers for every agency under the sun. And if you don't understand that about local emergency management, especially, you shouldn't be in this field. We are not the jockey, right? On the horse. ⁓
Matt Green (38:46):
Yes.
No, I've always, I've always
seen this as like chess players, right? Like if, if first responders, hospitals and nonprofits NGOs and those types of like on the ground resources are the pieces on the chess board, then we're kind of like the player. We're the one who's like, I'm going to consider this classic opening and see how that goes.
Alysha (39:05):
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Yes.
I actually used Brendan's analogy while I was in Turkey speaking to the Turkish FEMA, It's called AFAD And they pulled, the president of AFAD pulled all of his top leadership together for a presentation that I had no idea that I was giving until literally the night before.
Matt Green (39:13):
No, no, no, go ahead.
Yeah.
Alysha (39:32):
I use his analogy, was like, look, emergency managers are the conductor of an orchestra. We don't play the instruments, right? We are not the brass section, we're not the strings, that's not who we are. We're the ones who can see the bigger picture and we can say, hey, this needs to happen, now this needs to happen. And if you practice together and you conduct your orchestra really well,
It doesn't mean you're in charge. It means that you're showing the way, and your music is beautiful. If you don't practice together, if you don't know each other and you haven't seen the music before, it's just noise. And they looked at me like, well, how's your music? Like, it depends. It depends on, you know, the specific situation. But they were totally blown away by that concept because,
Matt Green (40:15):
That's right.
Alysha (40:27):
emergency responses, very federal. It is a top down, no local. When there's an emergency, AFAD is in charge across the country and they can move and they can do crazy, amazing things that we could never accomplish here because they don't have to worry about legal authorities. It's a centralized operation. And when, Dr. Tatar spoke at WSEMA last year, he had people in tears.
Matt Green (40:45):
Well, yeah. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Alysha (40:53):
But he also had people, I could hear them, I had multiple conversations and feedback that came later where they're like, we could never do that. We could never do that. We could never do what they did. And that's true because we don't have that same type of system. That doesn't mean it's better because their preparedness is complete crap, right? They can't get people to do anything. So you kind of have like...
You gotta recognize where your strengths and weaknesses are. And I just thought it was interesting that this concept of coordination is so foreign in other countries, where to us, it's the central point of what we do.
Matt Green (41:20):
Yeah.
Yeah, and it's just cool to understand and respect a system in the context of itself. Even if we can't duplicate the model fully here, it's just really cool to be able to see and learn and respect and take note of what they can do. We may not be able to copy their entire symphony, but there might be some stuff they're doing with cellos that we might want to think about here, right? ⁓
Alysha (41:48):
He says yes.
Exactly.
Matt Green (41:54):
So where does WSEMA fall into the spectrum of the state? What is WSEMA 2025? What's our role in the orchestra here?
Alysha (42:03):
Well, I see us as a convener for one, an advocate. It is, I think, going to be our main role moving forward in 2026. We started this year with the congressional delegation series because of what was going on in the federal landscape. And the intent behind these was to sit down with our congressional delegates one by one, district by district, and say,
Here's who we are. because none of you understand who we are. I think Rick Larson was the closest that we came to a delegate who understood some of the nuances of emergency management. And maybe representative DelBene. Because she has direct personal experience. But the rest of them, nobody really understands who we are and what we do. And they think, it's just a funding ask. No, we're not asking for funding.
I want you to advocate for us and for you to advocate effectively for us, you need to know what we are and who we are, what this industry is, and it's not FEMA. So that was the intent behind the congressional series. think it.
Matt Green (43:11):
I want to put a real quick pin in that
and really double down for the listeners to understand. The national prerogative has been, the state of emergency management and the state of funding and the understanding of what we do, and we need an awareness month and we need to do all these things and write your congressional leaders. WSEMA put us in the room with them individually. Said, here are your reps from each of the regions and areas within this state. You are going to sit down with them?
and you are going to share your story one-on-one. That is so cool.
Alysha (43:46):
Well, I didn't think it was such a radical idea. But I think for 2026, I do believe and I, you know, I can't speak for Kyle, but I believe our focus needs to be on state legislators because they're the ones who can hit the funding for us. And it's not about
give us money. It's here's why you need to prioritize this effort at the state and local level, right? And it's not just the state level. It's also at the local level. There are very few counties that actually fund their own emergency management. They are reliant on grant dollars because they don't want to pull from their general fund. Understandable. And when for the past 25 years, you've had somebody, big brother willing to hand out the money so you don't have to.
you put your money into other things. But when that guy says, hey, I'm not giving you anything anymore, you're going to decimate your capabilities. the thing that I wish people understood is you're not just getting rid of some, you know, government worker who sits in an office and doesn't do anything when you get rid of your emergency management program. Here's a great example. I don't think anyone is aware that the National Defense Medical
Matt Green (44:35):
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Alysha (45:03):
System is reliant on local health care capacity for large-scale health events. That's DoD. That's the military. So when they need to repatriate soldiers out of an area where they've got multiple injuries and medical needs, fatalities, all of those things come back to the local level because they come back to the local health care system.
The Seattle region is one of seven regions in the country. It's number four on the list for medical care for soldiers. Okay, great. DoD says very clearly, we do not have the capacity to do this. We don't have the capability. We need to rely on the local healthcare system. So they're gonna flood the healthcare system with soldiers who need care, who need hospital beds. Who do you think the healthcare system relies on to coordinate that?
to deal with the housing, feeding, the sanitation, the staffing up, all of that happens at local emergency management. So the healthcare system, that's right. So once you degrade emergency management, you're not just degrading our capability to put on a training or to do an exercise, you're degrading our healthcare system and capability to acquire beds and resources necessary to take care of our service members.
Matt Green (46:03):
Surely sounds like an emergency management role.
Alysha (46:23):
That's one connection that I can say. And so if you don't understand what we do and who we are and how we are integral to the machine to get things done, then you don't understand why we're necessary. And so our state legislatures need to understand why we are important because we are not flashy and we're not front of the show.
Matt Green (46:49):
And now we are nearly 300 strong as part of this association. And we have a shared mission of promoting emergency preparedness and enhancing public education and encouraging planning preparedness and providing training. I love getting the updates of what trainings and resources are available to me. And I'm a member of
Alysha (46:54):
Yes. Yep.
Matt Green (47:16):
several committees now. Can you tell me a little
Alysha (47:19):
I do like to use
people who are willing to give me labor.
Matt Green (47:23):
That's right. That's right. Can you
and I am more than willing, you know, I the people who listen to the show. No, I don't sleep. I don't do that. I just I love doing all this stuff. And thankfully, I have a very sweet wife who understands that Matt's crazy. if I were to join right now, I'm new member of listening to the show. I'm like, cool. I really want to hang out with two people.
Alysha (47:31):
Thank
Thanks.
Matt Green (47:47):
who represent right now in this small microcosm, 300 other crazy people who really love emergency management and doing this job despite literally everything about it. What can I do when I join? What does membership look like for me?
Alysha (48:02):
Well, so you can serve on any of the committees. We're working on doing some quarterly events in the next year, like social events for people to come together in their specific areas. You've got conference. You've got professional development opportunities where we lift every training site in the state for every jurisdiction that I could find. If you think I missed one, let me know.
as as state and federal, We are developing a certification program. It is in its pilot stage. I'm very excited about it. And we'll be announcing the pilot results at the conference in September, September 22nd. If you haven't registered yet, you can still do it.
Matt Green (48:41):
tell me, Alysha, tell me more about this pilot.
Alysha (48:46):
Well, we have this incredible group of volunteers who came together to develop a certification program. So one of the things I noticed was that the biggest need seems to be trainings that you can't get. And it was a personal frustration because at the time the state couldn't book certain courses that people needed and it didn't make sense to me, right? If this is something that your communities need, then why can't you
like book a course. Well, you gotta have instructors, you gotta have time, gotta have funding, blah, blah, blah. So was like, maybe WSEMA can fill that gap and we can look at courses that can't get hosted anywhere else. That's how I started on this particular tangent back in November. And I sent out some surveys and I was actually surprised by the results. There was not a desire for WSEMA to hold a bunch of trainings.
Right? just, that wasn't how they saw our role. What they wanted was a clearing house of information about trainings and how do you get to be a PIO, for example. So I started with the virtual mentoring board and the updating the training on our website. And the virtual mentoring is members who are SMEs, subject matter experts in a particular area.
I was like, tell me how you did it, not the courses you have to take. Yes, I want that, but the stuff that nobody tells you in a course to get to where you are. And that's what's up in our website. And from there, what I found was that most people were really looking for, I wish I could get a CEM, but I don't have the time or the money and it's not really applicable to some of the things I do.
Matt Green (50:18):
Yeah.
Alysha (50:32):
or right, I have test anxiety and it's stressful and what they want you to do is too high of a barrier for me personally. It's like, well, why don't we have a state certification? And was also at the same time, I'm thinking through all of the state credentialing and all of these things that are going on locally here in Washington and how the state doesn't actually have the authority to do a state credentialing program. You have to.
opt in at the local level, right? So there's all these things that were kind of swirling around in my head where I said, you know what, maybe we need to shift away from offering trainings to offering an opportunity to certify what you've already got in a way that is low barrier, that is recognized in Washington as something that makes sense for Washington.
Matt Green (51:02):
Mm-hmm.
Alysha (51:29):
and that's the genesis of the certification program.
Matt Green (51:34):
And I think, I think that's incredible.
I recently ran a feedback session for the pilot. am, I am one of those volunteers who is, is helping to craft and run this pilot. ⁓ voluntold, but I am, I am honored to have the role because I get to see what this means for our state and I get to see what this means for practitioners within our state. And that was made very apparent to me in the feedback session we just had.
Alysha (51:41):
voluntold
Yeah.
Matt Green (52:01):
because the members of the pilot are one, they created great feedback. And that's the best part about being a member led association is that even to go to pilot, we got feedback and agency and engagement through the membership of determining this is something that they do want. And we offered three very distinct options for what type of certification they may want to go towards, whether it was endorsement or taskbook style, or whether it was.
specialized or whether it was aligned with other national programs. The members chose, members elected themselves to be part of the pilot. We accepted everybody who wanted to be part of the pilot. They've given incredible feedback. And what this looks like now is a program that celebrates work done, identifies work done for your employer throughout your career. I'm a professor. have a master's degree and
And I can say what a barrier the education, the higher education requirement is, especially in more rural areas, especially in people with people who have started their career in emergency management or through first response. And the only reason they'd have to get a degree now is to be able to check a box because they've been doing this for so long. They don't need to learn the basics of emergency management. They don't need to be taught. These are people who
Alysha (53:09):
your resume.
Matt Green (53:15):
are teaching. And I think it is kind of an unfair burden. And I'll just speak locally within the state, we can create value. And we can demonstrate value without having to backtrack to get a degree. I highly advocate for people who want to get into the field to learn the basics and the doctrine and to do all these things in an environment where you can fail and learn and but for those who've been doing the job for so long.
I don't see any reason why we should encourage them to amount 40 grand of debt just to check a box to...
Alysha (53:45):
We would never qualify for anything if I was trying to apply for a job based on my education, right? My career path is based on experience. people look at it go, well, she's got, what is it, communication theory and Spanish, right? Those are not, that's not emergency management, but.
I've been doing it long enough to recognize that there are skill sets that exist outside of the academic theory of emergency management, which is what so many degrees offer, right? It's for crusty old people like me. You know what you know and you know how to do it, but if you had to try to reflect that on a resume, it would not resonate next to a master's of emergency management, right?
Matt Green (54:24):
Right.
yes.
Alysha (54:40):
So, yeah.
Matt Green (54:40):
So now we have this very, we're working on a very accessible certification program and we're working on a program that is aligned with the talent that hiring authorities within the state want to see. And we've even postured the, contributions, your industry contributions to how have you helped our community.
Alysha (55:00):
Yes.
Matt Green (55:02):
and our state in a certain way. I think a certification only goes as far as the people who decide it means. And now when you marry, you have 300 people within this association, that's very powerful for a state like ours, where...
Alysha (55:11):
Sure.
No, hang on.
have 290 and I really do want to try to get 300 by conference So if you can get me 10 more people.
Matt Green (55:24):
Well, here's the deal.
You heard the call to action and I will, and Alysha, please hold me accountable. Anybody who joins with WSEMA I don't know if I can do this, I don't know if you have rules. Well, anyone who joins, I'll give a free year of premium to the show. You have until September 22nd.
Alysha (55:38):
It's only $80.
Matt Green (55:47):
I will give you a premium behind the scenes action and that is some great stories with our guests. That is you get to ask questions. You'll get a letter when I'm planning to interview folks. These are leaders in the field. These are authors. These are really cool people like Alysha and you get to be a part of the conversation by subscribing.
And you'll get a free year subscription if you join WSEMA by September 22nd. And not only that, you'll be part of a really great group of people and you'll have direct access to all the things that we're talking about, including being a part of crafting and iterating on our own state certification where this is recognizing you for being a professional within the state. And it's not only going to be recognized by your peers, but also the people who
Alysha (56:17):
you
Matt Green (56:33):
where we're going to be engaging with the hiring authorities to say, when you put this requirement on your job postings, this is what it means. And we encourage you to do that because these are the candidates you're looking for. So I that's really cool. And you do have the, we talked about the conference. What's the conference? What's the conference coming up? How many people you got registered?
Alysha (56:49):
How many do we Yeah?
Working around, well let's see, on Friday we were at like 210. We have a waitlist for vendors. We have a waitlist on sponsors. Yeah. And.
Matt Green (57:05):
What?
That's actually really
intimidating because I'm speaking at this conference because I like to torture myself and that is I'm going to be speaking. everybody's going to be there.
Alysha (57:12):
Yeah.
No,
one big room. We've toyed with the idea of doing breakout sessions, but I think there's a lot of value in the format that we have. And we also have modified our agenda. So a lot of times the Eastern Washington side has a lower attendance because fewer people travel. And so this year was a particular concern because so many people were worried about
Matt Green (57:26):
Yeah.
Alysha (57:41):
funding and whether they'd have the ability to travel. So we actually started like cutting back on stuff thinking we weren't going to get people. Last year, 232 or 35 attendees for conference was the high point. We're almost there and it's on the East side in a challenging funding year where travel is restricted for many people. I'm still blown away by that.
Matt Green (58:07):
That's so cool.
Alysha (58:09):
but I attribute it to some of our social media exposure and the campaign that we've been running for the past year on social media and the commitment we've made to being visual and providing value via social media especially. we also have some, yeah, oh, Lexi's awesome. Lexi's awesome. She's gonna take over the world. That's my opinion.
Matt Green (58:26):
Yeah. Shout out to Lexi too.
I
have no doubt.
Alysha (58:35):
And some of the material and the content, I'm flashing back to what I told you before. It's like a lot of the presentations were very repetitious of other forums. You'd see the same thing over and over and over. So I made a big push with Ross to bring different speakers in different perspectives, not just, you know, the same things we see over and over. So we brought in some really excellent keynotes last year.
Matt Green (58:47):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alysha (59:02):
We did the same thing this year. I was super excited to get Eric McNulty he's doing us a solid coming in and I'm really excited about his keynote and We've got Glen Woodbury coming to do a three-hour seminar I don't know if people know who he is. He used to be the director in Washington and now he's down at the Naval
Matt Green (59:10):
Yeah.
Alysha (59:23):
postgraduate program. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he, he's an instructor there and so I'm really excited for some of the things that, that we've got on the agenda this year. Plus we've got a lot of local representation, on the agenda, people like Matt who are new and fresh and bring a different perspective. we've got a nice mix of
Matt Green (59:24):
⁓ Naval Postgraduate Academy.
Alysha (59:50):
private partners as well on the agenda who also I think in the past it's been kind of frowned at like you don't want to put consultants on your agenda. Well, but they have value to us and we need to hear some of the things that they're saying because they have a broader perspective. So we're opening up that aperture of the spectrum of people that we want to hear from. So the agenda is really jam packed and it's also a really fun theme.
We've had these excellent Mission Possible videos going. I just, it's kind of fun to watch. And I don't know if you saw episode five yet, but the strudel killed me.
Matt Green (1:00:21):
Yeah.
I just, no, I, that is so good. If you, I'll link
the WSEMA Instagram in the show notes because it is really fun. It's so thoughtful and engaging and representative of Washington as a whole.
Alysha (1:00:38):
Yes.
Matt Green (1:00:43):
the theme of this year's conference is Mission Possible.
Alysha (1:00:47):
Mm-hmm. Yes. Wanted to keep it Yes, positive and happy. you know, I'm not trying to criticize, but I was so disappointed in the first video for National Emergency Management Awareness Month that IAEM put out because to me it struck a negative chord, right? And I was like, we are already there. We're saturated in the negative.
Matt Green (1:00:48):
⁓ Very encouraging.
Alysha (1:01:12):
We're saturated in the, my God, our world is falling apart. This was supposed to be a celebration and an exposure of who we are. And that I just really, it's been my theme this year is like, it's not falling apart. We have an opportunity. Let's change the narrative. It is, we're amazing and you need to know that we're amazing. And here's why we're amazing.
Matt Green (1:01:37):
burnout is so prevalent in our field. And to be able to have an entity that is positive, and I'll just speak directly to my experience with WSEMA which has been a very positive and friendly environment. It's been, every time I run into you guys or Lexi or something, there's always like, hey, I wonder, can I record you doing a thing? Because this is something really fun that we're working on. The energy is so high. The positivity is so high.
Alysha (1:01:40):
Yes.
Matt Green (1:02:01):
you what you haven't seen actually is the and don't know if you get reports out on it but the speakers knew matthew uh... who's been helping us were on the speaker side uh... gathers every every couple weeks we get together and we collaborate a little bit and those meetings have been so fun uh... we've been we've gotten really great advice from the conference uh... from the association on you know what is expected and resources that are available to us to make sure that we put on a
a really great event and really great presentations. But the networking, even within that context, has been really positive and inspiring.
Alysha (1:02:39):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's like I said, it's been my focus this year, especially when, you know, I saw the response to the new federal administration coming in and, you know, kind of some of the anxiety around it. I was like, we need to rise above this. And how do we do that? And unfortunately,
You know, mental health in emergency management is not a topic that people like to focus on, right? There's no crying in emergency management. We're tough. are. Yes. Yes. And you don't take the time to recognize the needs of your community, not just the, what they need in their job, but what you need emotionally. Right. Even the tough guys.
Matt Green (1:03:08):
Yeah.
when in fact there is plenty of crying in emergency management.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Alysha (1:03:31):
need emotionally and as an association, we're trying to take into account the breadth of our membership and be something that they can rely on.
Matt Green (1:03:41):
Yeah, it's been a really positive light in the middle of a lot of negativity and confusion, right? And when you don't know, when there isn't a lot of consistency, it's really good to have an organization that meets the tone, meets the moment. The vibe is good, you know, hard to put it in many other ways. But, you know, even when I'm trying to block out a new news show offering from
Alysha (1:03:49):
Yeah.
Matt Green (1:04:05):
from State of Disaster and I keep referencing the communication I get from WSEMA as like, is the vibe, this is the tone I want to meet and the content's great. So is there anything you want to?
Alysha (1:04:15):
Did you like
the history of the pixie haircut? Did you like that one? Thanks. It's in a very, you know that little teaser I do with the did you know or? Yeah. Yeah. Well, fun fact. Yeah. You should check that one out. It's gruesome. Yeah.
Matt Green (1:04:19):
I haven't read that yet. Was that in Friday? Was that in?
Did you know? Yeah, a little fun fact.
Well, that was in yesterday's, right? Okay, I'll get out. I'll do that right now.
I don't know why I usually
Alysha (1:04:38):
Like something so cute.
cute short, kitty hair. That even has a cute name. Horrifying. Horrifying.
Matt Green (1:04:42):
I love that. Okay. Horrifying. All right.
Listener, dear listener, if you join WSEMA, you too can know. You too can have access to ⁓ the history of the Pixie haircut. You heard it here first. So my question, Alysha, we're just at about time. Is there anything else from WSEMA as the president that you'd like to leave our listeners and our viewers with?
Alysha (1:04:50):
What history do you think we're in?
No, I just it's been an honor to serve. It was an unexpected honor. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have. And I'm really, really excited to see what Kyle does in the next year.
Matt Green (1:05:19):
really cool and Kyle will be, Kyle already said Matt I'll see you next year. I'll see you on the show. We'll be right here.
that way i can i can offer some more incentives for for joining next year see you at four hundred members next year so i as as promised for our own our first off thank you and and i'll cut here for for those who are listening on itunes or spotify or on youtube but for those who are premium subscribers I like to make sure we
Alysha (1:05:32):
I like that.
Matt Green (1:05:49):
record a little extra, you know, because all of our guests are so experienced and they've done some really cool things. And I want to make sure that the people who are helping to keep the show alive get to benefit from a little bit of extra content. So thank you, Alysha, for bringing us all this awesome, awesome stuff about WSEMA and your background.
Alysha (1:06:06):
Thank
