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Wow! 2020 is coming to a close. We are ready for a bright new start in 2021! Although this past year was a roller coaster ride of uncertainties, the CANA Team adapted and worked together to achieve our company goals to include starting extremely interesting and impactful projects, diversifying across commercial industries, military services, and government agencies, and growing and investing in our team. I feel that we rose to the challenge in this unprecedented year, and we hope you did too! We can't wait to launch into 2021. We plan to unleash and apply our "Powered by CANA Analytics" people power on existing and new markets, to include our research and development projects, innovative commercial and Department of Defense bids, and strong analytics and data management opportunities. CANA is ready to dive deep into smart cities & installations and healthcare analytics - fields critical to the future, and ones we feel deeply about. We were proud to share with you the accomplishments and challenges of this past year. I know everyone - friends, family, partners, and colleagues - worked incredibly hard to overcome hurdles and maintain a positive outlook. As we reach the last days of 2020, everyone at Team CANA looks forward to new opportunities and successes in the new year! We wish you the very best - Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! ~ Rob Cranston (CANA Advisors President and COO) 2020 (VIRTUAL) INFORMS ANNUAL MEETING By Walt DeGrange 2020 is the year of the virtual conference. The INFORMS Annual Meeting is usually an in-person conference with a typical attendance of 6,000-7,000 attendees. This was my 13th straight INFORMS Annual Meeting and the first virtual one. Was it different? Absolutely, but different isn’t necessarily bad. The major difference was that most of the presentations were recorded. If you registered, then you received access to the recorded presentations for the next three months. This is a very nice feature since this is a huge conference. With over 70 tracks and special events occurring at the same time over a five day period, there are always conflicting interesting presentations, and you can’t visit them all. Of course, in-person, you may not be able to get from one location to another in time to see a presentation or an event. The virtual conference solves this problem. It also allows multiple attendees to share their favorite presentations with other attendees. These briefs can then be viewed by the other attendees when it fits their schedule. If most of the briefs were recorded then why didn’t INFORMS just post the videos and hold the conference asynchronously? If you did attend the listed time slot for the presentations then you were able to participate in a live chat with the presenters. The element that no virtual conference can replicate is the chance of interaction with new and old acquaintances. There is really no way at a virtual conference to accidentally run into a professor that you took a class from fifteen years ago. The INFORMS Annual Meeting did try to inject some of that element by having virtual networking floors. These floors had tables, and you would randomly be assigned to a table. I hung out on the floors for a few hours and met several interesting students and discussed their research. In that respect, it was a success, although I didn’t catch up with any old acquaintances during the conference unless I had scheduled a discussion time with them in advance. The major topics addressed during the conference were quantum computing, the role that analytics has played in dealing with the COVID response, and how supply chain data and models have been affected over the past year. CANA participated in the conference on multiple levels. Norm Reitter furthered the Analytics Capability Evaluation Committee effort by hosting an informational session. He also presented the “Force Closure Modeling To Support Multi-mission Scenario Analysis” in support of the USMC. Connor McLemore briefed his research work on “Operational Readiness Rollup: Modeling Additive Readiness,” and Rocky Graciani presented his work on “Determining Who Pays For Inventory Optimization Made Easy-r.” Walt DeGrange was a session chair for the SpORts analytics section for a session that included a wide range of topics from analytically testing which Dungeons and Dragons character classes perform the best, to how bye weeks affect team performance in the Canadian Football League, and how to use analytics to draft the perfect NBA team. So, are online conferences the size of the 2020 INFORMS Annual Meeting here to stay? I would personally guess - yes. The pace of effectively dealing with the COVID pandemic will determine when the world will return to in-person conferences. That being said, the ability to interact with attendees around the world given current travel limitations makes this an excellent way to present new analytics. Also, the ability to interact online with presenters and review presentations up to three months post-event is very nice. Perhaps in the near future, we will see a hybrid model that melds in-person and virtual attendance, giving us the best of both worlds. #informsannual #informs #virtualconference #operationalreadiness TEAM CANA MEMBER SHOWCASE Kassie McRostie and Koa Beam | Team CANA Digital Media CANA Advisors The year 2020 has brought with it a lot of changes. One of those changes at CANA Advisors was the broadening of our social media efforts, to include more focus on our CANA team members and their areas of expertise, sharing relevant industry tips and media links, and sharing information with the greater logistics analytic community. Part of the reason CANA has been able to do this is our dedicated social media team, and the focus and expertise they bring to our social media efforts. We want to highlight two of those team members: KASSIE MCROSTIE Digital Media Coordinator This year we added Team CANA’s youngest member, Kassie McRostie, as our Digital Media Coordinator. Kassie McRostie is a 2020 graduate of UNC Charlotte with a Bachelor’s in English Language and Digital Technology. She participated in many virtual world studies throughout college and interned with a women’s sneaker platform managing their social media. Kassie made her way into coaching (she’s an elite volleyball player!) and running social media for small companies. She is uniquely positioned to give CANA a fresh perspective on maximizing social media platforms and has broadened our reach into new arenas. Kassie helped to develop an internal dialogue with Team CANA members to support new media ideas and bring their knowledge into our shared social media postings on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Her exuberance, innovative perspective, and virtual storytelling skills are a tremendous CANA asset. “I've learned a lot throughout my life, but the most important thing I've learned is to keep creating.” - Kassie McRostie As our Digital Media Coordinator, Kassie is helping to spread the CANA story. If you would like to get in touch with Kassie, you can reach her at kassmcrostie@canallc.com. For a fresh look at the analytics industry through a new graduate’s eyes, check out her article from earlier this year on our CANA Connection (our resident blog) - Congrats Graduates! What's Next? Make sure to follow her on Instagram @kassiemcrostie. KOA BEAM Lead Graphic Artist The other important half of the Digital Media team is our Lead Graphic Artist, Koa Beam. Koa is an artist with over 30 years of experience in a vast array of media. His career has spanned the many facets of the design community and includes everything and in-between, from t-shirt design, cover art for music and books, fantasy illustration and concept art, to traditional business graphics and multimedia design. The bulk of Koa’s graphics career for the past 20 years has been in support of various military and government projects with graphics and multimedia design work. Koa prides himself on being able to make the complex easy to understand, beautiful to view, and elegant to use. It is a skill that has helped transform seemingly impossible to understand data assortments into easily viewable and understandable infographics. "Try not. Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda Outside his work at CANA, Koa is an accomplished fantasy and sci-fi cover artist. In his off-time, he stays active in his local creative arts community, offering his friendly knowledge in illustration and design to the next generation. With some help from the CANA Foundation, Koa provided a day of Comic art and drawn fun for the students of the Richland School District. You can read more about it in our CANA blog post, Art Is For Everyone. If you would like to contact Koa, you can reach him at kbeam@canallc.com, or follow him on many of the popular social media platforms @koabeam. #canaadvisors #teamcana #kassmcrostie #koabeam The Virtual Experience CANA Offsite Highlights from 2020 By Cherish Joostberns The year 2020 brought about many new business practices, and with those came an assortment of old-ish and new business expressions. While no one wants to be the recipient of TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) or EMBM (Early Morning Business Meeting), the one seen most frequently, WHF, or Working From Home, was almost inescapable. If you type in the three letters - WFH - in your search engine, you probably get something like this - Interestingly, the CANA team has always “WFH.” Our SMB (Small to Medium Business) has thrived in a virtual environment where SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) can BID (Break It Down) and create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) products. And, with the onset of the novel coronavirus, we kept on trucking - continuing to provide our clients with uninterrupted expert support, collaborating together “virtually” using a matrix of effective remote systems, and creating opportunities for our team to “bond” in our remote workplace. Yet a hallmark of our 100% virtual company has been our semi-annual, in-person, all-hands offsite retreat. We’ve hosted these four-day offsites all over the United States (our team members live and work virtually anywhere they want!) to include Washington, DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, with the onset of the pandemic in February and March of 2020, our planned St. Patrick’s Day offsite was canceled - just four days before its start. Within those next four days, we swiveled quickly to host our first “virtual” professional retreat. Instead of four days, it was two days; instead of in person, we were on a video conference line; instead of families, it was just the CANA team. So many things changed in an instant for even this highly experienced remote workforce! Yet, we found our virtual offsite worked! During those two days, we found opportunities to share information, collaborate on new ideas, be vulnerable and open, and celebrate each other, our company, and our culture. Fast forward to October of this year, we held our second “virtual” offsite event. This time, we had the lessons learned in our back pockets, and once again, we rocked it. We wanted to share some of our offsite highlights with the acknowledgment that it was not necessarily easy or BAU (Business As Usual), but adapting to our new normal - a new expression in its own right! - has proven fertile ground for personal and professional growth, ideation, and collaboration. 2020 forced CANA to go outside its own comfortable virtual space and work with the unknown. So much so, our autumn offsite theme was “A Galaxy Far, Far Away…” Here’s what we discovered: Icebreakers still work! Yes, they are still often the subject of office jokes, but they can be engaging and inclusive. CANA made a game of matching childhood pictures and “dream jobs” to the current team members. This really brought out some insights into people that would not be easily discovered in watercooler conversation. Our small group breakout sessions worked because we knew how important it was to maintain participation and keep things moving. Team members alternated between extremely different sessions - Space Logistics and Self-Awareness Practices - and each session used a variety of presentation tools such as themed Mural boards, podcasts, live discussions, and exercises. This ensured there would be at least one method to give and share information that would appeal to virtually everybody. We maintained an attitude of fun and not-so-serious activities throughout, such as sending everyone a box of cookies and swag prior to the offsite, holding a virtual pumpkin painting contest, and building an online company epic poem that grew from person to person. These proved to be the true heart of our offsite. The dedicated, project-free time provided the opportunity for CANA to share its company vision, mission, values, and goals. It provided space for questions and candid discussions that are often not possible during “billable hours” and scheduled meetings. We focused on the opening and closing hours to build engagement. Several CANAers shared their morning coffee and views with others through online chats and pictures. The different perspectives of snow, sunshine, mountains, and backyards gave team members a peek into one another's routine. On the last day, we held a happy hour - yes, the infamous virtual happy hour - it can really work! Conversations moved quickly from the daily grind to personal stories and laughs. The feedback loop is important for every company event. Once the post-offsite, rosy glow faded, we made sure to ask, and follow up on, what did we do well and what can we do better? CANA is no stranger to the virtual world, but we discovered many new things during this challenging year. We hope our hits and misses are useful to anyone navigating the WFH environment, and that the new year finds us all happy, healthy, and still LOL. Happy Holidays from the CANA Team! #virtualconference #workfromhome #teamcana #WFH CONNECT WITH CANA ADVISORS CANA Learning and Development Interested in upcoming analytics training or webinars? You can find a list of upcoming and past Learning and Development events on the CANA Advisors website at Learning and Development | cana (canallc.com/learn). The Learning and Development program at CANA Advisors would like to hear from you. Please take this survey to share your thoughts! The CANA Foundation CANA Foundation was established on the premise that we are blessed with individual talents, financial resources, and a successful company that provides a platform for the CANA family to connect with and give back to community areas we feel passionate about and care about. If your organization or group feels that CANA Foundation might be a good partner for you and your mission, please reach out to the CANA Foundation at CANA Foundation - Giving Back (canallc.com/giving-back). Do you enjoy an insightful podcast? Then why not give a listen to our podcast The CANA Connection Podcast on your favorite podcast streaming platform. Click here to listen to the latest episode Smart Cities, Analytics, and the Future of Healthcare: A talk with Data Analyst Rachel Stuve Happy Holidays! You can follow us on social media at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter, or join our community forums. And as always remember. Analyze, Assess, and Execute.

At CANA, we provide logistics operations and data analysis to clients that span across both federal and commercial markets. We have observed some differences in the understanding of terminology and processes between markets and realized it might be helpful (and informative) to explore the term logistics in both the military and commercial contexts. As we will discuss, logistics has rich, nuanced differences depending on who is using it. The term logistics is thought to have originated among French military writers of the mid-19th century and was originally used to refer to the art of coordinating troop movements and lodging. It was French Emperor Napoleon, in fact, who is credited with well-known maxims as, “[a]n army marches on its stomach,” and “[t]he amateurs talk tactics: the professionals talk logistics.” Despite its military origins, the art of logistics has grown to encompass a very wide variety of activities in both military and commercial endeavors. Military Logistics Military logistics provides the means to translate national resources into combat power. Specifically, logistics transforms human effort, natural resources, and industrial capacity into personnel units, weapons, equipment, and supplies. In military-speak, these elements are colloquially known as the three B’s: beans, bullets, and band-aids. Logistics delivers these elements to the training area or battlespace as required, and then sustains the military forces throughout the course of operations. Logistics then returns those forces and materiel assets to their home bases once operations conclude, re-arming and re-equipping them as needed. Well-known historical examples of military logistics in action include the American supply and support buildup during Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990’s and from a slightly different and unsuccessful perspective, the Siege of Stalingrad in World War II. At the basic level, military logistics includes: transportation - moving personnel and supplies between locations; supply - the requisition authority, distribution, and care of supplies; maintenance - actions taken to keep materiel in, and return material to, serviceable (or usable) condition; general engineering - construction, facilities maintenance, obstacle removal, explosives ordnance disposal, fuel handling, water production and power generation; health services - activities and organizations that address wounds, injuries, and disease; and general services - command support and services including administrative and civil actions, billeting (or lodging), food services, mortuary services, and contracting. Additionally, military logistics organizes supplies into ten categories referred to as “Classes of Supply” (also referred to as “CoS”). These classes run the gamut of things from a Meal-Ready-To-Eat (MRE) in Class I, to screws and nails in Class IV, or medical supplies in Class VIII. The military, of course, also supplies munitions and explosives, with those being counted in Class V. Military logistics also organizes activities along strategic, operational, and tactical levels and handles most logistics planning and management separately for each military branch (i.e., Army, Navy, etc.). The holistic management of the military supply chain is challenging, particularly considering the enormous scale and scope that characterizes military operations. Management roles, services, functional areas, and/or CoS lines are compartmentalized and do not necessarily support unified understanding or control of the entire military logistics enterprise by any single organization. For what it lacks in efficiency, military logistics makes up for in robustness and adaptability. The military logistics approach in Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 4.1 says that, “[w]ar is conducted in an environment of complexity, fluidity, disorder, and uncertainty.” War and the preparation for war are inherently unstable as the competing actors involved have different and opposing end states in mind. Military logistics’ emphasis on effectiveness over efficiency is indicative of the fact that a failure end state can be a matter of literal life or death. It makes for an exciting, but very serious enterprise. Commercial Logistics In the commercial world, logistics includes the procurement, maintenance, distribution, and replacement of resources conducted by corporations, firms, or industries. Generally speaking, commercial logistics often tends to imply the functions of transportation or warehousing. But, the commercial industry has greatly expanded on concepts of logistics to include modifiers like inbound, outbound, global, local, reverse, green, and circular. Concepts such as reverse, green, and circular logistics are more pervasive and critical in today’s world, as companies focus on reducing waste, and supporting regeneration and their global environmental responsibility. These few examples of modifiers refer to nuanced functions or concepts that are not necessarily replicated (or even valued) in a military context, where the warfighting purpose, which defines military logistics, is fundamentally different from commercial logistics. Those of a certain age in the early 1990’s will remember when McDonald’s stopped using the burger packaging plastic clamshell. Although great for hot hamburgers, the containers, at over 10 million polystyrene boxes a day, filled landfills and damaged the ozone layer. Changing to a different wrapper served to help green a huge conglomerate’s logistics practices. If the current McDonald’s wrappers were reused/recycled into something that could tangibly re-enter the global supply chain, McDonald’s logistics could be defined as reverse and circular. These are important concepts, but present ongoing challenges for the commercial logistician. A typical commercial logistics department is often oriented on a narrower goal of supporting the operations of its particular business. Due to its focus and more stable working environment, commercial logistics can tend to be more efficient than the military. The commercial industry embraces “Supply Chain Management” (also referred as “SCM”). This also came to prominence during the 1990’s, and is described by Investopedia as the “management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products.” SCM tends towards a holistic approach to managing the logistics process, including all the different aspects, to include information flow and technology. This applied science is an arguably better approach to achieve consistent results over time than the military’s compartmentalized approach. This is notable in corporations such as Amazon, which has refined the efficiencies of supply chain management to the point of, in some instances, requiring only a one-hour window from a consumer’s computer click to home delivery. It is important to note, however, that SCM oriented on efficiency objectives will typically result in supply chains that may be too “fragile” for military applications. The logistician must balance these trade-offs on a daily basis. Similarities Despite differences, military and commercial logistics have many points in common. Each can serve as a source of concepts, techniques, and technologies for the other. In both military and commercial settings, it is not uncommon for the logistics stakeholders and planners to be less influential than the primary operations functions. Few people applaud the Napoleonic era French Head of Army Supply, Claude-Louis Petiet, or know off-hand the Director of Supply Chain Operations at Microsoft (it’s Jonathan Allen), but their contributions were, and remain, important. In the military, logisticians often have a much wider perspective of the battlefield than the tactical commanders they support, but they are also not critically considered in initial planning sessions and sometimes receive almost insurmountable timelines. In the commercial world, logistics and its many variants may be viewed as a secondary, but necessary, cost center. Few companies realize their logistics department probably touches every aspect of their operations and is an excellent source of information that can drive operational decisions. While there are obvious technology leaders in commercial logistics, it appears both military logistics and the wider commercial logistics market tend to be slower to adopt new technology. In the case of the military, this is often due to funding priority going to other operational priorities; whereas on the commercial side, it can be driven more by a reluctance to invest large sums into untested or niched technology until it is well proven and widely used. This being said, both military and commercial logistics are undergoing a digital and information revolution as emerging technologies such as machine learning, blockchain, robotics, and automation are finding ready use cases in logistics applications. Although challenges such as siloed data, cyber-security, and counterfeiting issues are evident, the anticipation of exciting logistics innovation is real. In Summary Logistics in both military and commercial spaces continues to be both an art and a science. Logisticians are hardworking and important contributors to organizational success. At CANA, we support these unsung masters by providing a blend of both best in class commercial and military-based tools and services that simplify and automate logistics processes and promote their capabilities. What do you see as the differences and similarities between military and commercial logistics? We’d love to hear from you in our CANA Forum found here - CANA Connect Forum (canallc.com) Article by: CANA Advisors’ Jason Fincher (Principal Logistics Analyst), Terry Hagen (Principal Logistics Analyst), and Joe Moreno (Director of Development)

By Kassie McRostie Throughout the year 2021, we have seen our team put in efforts like none other. To be a part of Team CANA is something special, not only because of our values, hard work, and uniqueness as a remote company but also due to the people who make this team special. We wanted to highlight four of our team members who recently were awarded the 2021 CANA Excellence Award for their significant efforts this past year. The awardees include Dan Sterrett (Principal Software Developer), Kristin Fairman (Senior Contracts Manager), Renee Carlucci (Principal Operations Research Analyst), and Aaron Luprek (Senior Software Developer). We asked these team members a few questions about receiving their award. The first question we asked was, ”what did winning your award mean to you?” Dan: “It was great to be appreciated and recognized for my personal achievements this year.” Kristin: “Winning a CANA Excellence award for 2021 was an amazing experience. To be recognized for the work that I do was a wonderful feeling and being surrounded by my peers at the CANA offsite was truly a sweet experience.” Renee: “It was an honor to be recognized for my work. There are a lot of great things happening at CANA, and I am thankful and excited to be a part of some revolutionary products we are creating for our customers.” Aaron: “It meant a lot to know that leadership at CANA has confidence in me and the work that I've done. "Impostor syndrome," where you doubt your own abilities is very common in the tech field, and with recognition like this it is helpful to know that people you respect trust in you.” Most successful people could usually tell you that they have some sort of “secret” to their success. For some, it may be their routine, mindset, or even the environment they are in. We asked our team members to share their “secret” to their success at CANA: Dan: “My success at CANA can be attributed to all the great people whom I get to work with every day. We have a really talented team of individuals who all contribute to making each project successful.” Kristin: “The secret to my success at CANA is to appreciate what each individual brings to the team, always ask a lot of questions, and know that it takes teamwork to be successful.” Renee: “I am only successful due to the great team we have here at CANA. What a wonderful, brilliant, and collegial team we have - we inspire each other and together overcome the challenges presented to us.” Aaron: “My secret to success at CANA is communication. It's an extra challenge at a remote company, but communicating freely with the team is essential to developing a quality product. Ask questions early when you don't understand something. Share what you've learned with the team. It's amazing how breakthroughs happen when you collaborate.” In further recognition of these team members, CANA gave them a monetary award as well as a matched donation to a charity or foundation of their choice. We asked our team members who they decided to give their matched donation to and why? Dan: “World Vision because they help people in impoverished areas across the world in a variety of ways from providing clean water and schooling to helping disaster survivors and refugees.” Kristin: “I chose the Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Cancers. This center is located at Hillman Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, and is open to children and adults for treatment. https://mariolemieux.org/cancer-research/mario-lemieux-center-for-blood-cancers/ My Mom is living with and being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and we are thankful for each day that we spend together.” Renee: “I selected to donate towards the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Eugene P. Visco Prize. This prize recognizes excellence in research quality, contributions, and presentation. Promoting international collaboration, the Visco prize provides for early career and junior analysts conducting impactful, technically rigorous, and multi-disciplinary research to share their work at the International Symposium on Military Operational Research (ISMOR). This prize was established in March 2019 to honor and memorialize Gene Visco, FS, a personal friend/mentor of mine, who was an ardent supporter of collaboration within the international operations research community.” Aaron: “I chose St. Jude Children's Research Hospital because I'm so moved by the work they do treating both in treating children and in research that helps people around the world.” As a fully remote company, even before the pandemic, we like to get together in person at least once a year. This past fall we went to Austin, Texas, for our annual offsite, but what made this one unique was that it was the first offsite we have had since 2019! We asked the awardees, “how was it getting together again after so long since the last offsite?” Dan: “It was great to see everyone in person after such a long break. The company offsites are always a highlight of my year.” Kristin: “The Texas offsite was my first offsite with CANA and what a great adventure it was. The Team dinner was wonderful and being able to meet everyone in person and make memories together was priceless.” Renee: “Alas, I was unable to join everyone at the offsite this year due to a previously scheduled family vacation to Costa Rica. However, I did get to enjoy many photo and video recaps of some of what I missed.” Aaron: “It was incredible to see people from the team in person again. I love the flexibility of remote work, but periodically meeting up in 'real life’ is essential to building bonds with people. Since CANA has grown a bit since the last offsite, there were quite a few co-workers I had never met in person. This also is a great chance for catching up with people at CANA who I don't get to work on day-to-day projects.” Every year is another year to get better and look forward to the future, so we asked our awardees, “what are you most optimistic for this New Year?” Dan: “I'm looking forward to continuing the great work we are doing for our clients by creating amazing applications that exceed their expectations.” Kristin: “I am looking forward to saying thank you and goodbye to 2021 and ready to jump right into 2022 with the excitement of what the new year will bring!” Renee: “Like most Americans, I am optimistic that we may finally weather the end of this pandemic in the coming year, with vaccinations, boosters, and treatments available to render COVID-19 sufferers at most similar to flu sufferers.” Aaron: “Going into the New Year, I'm most optimistic that we will continue to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, and have more opportunities for in-person events, both with work and personally.” Needless to say, we are very proud of these four individuals, for all their efforts in making CANA the high-performing organization CANA is, and the hard work they put in day in and day out. We are looking forward to what 2022 brings and the growth of each of our CANA team members individually and collectively!

2021 Austin, Texas Team Offsite By Liz Cranston, CEO As a 100% virtual business since our inception, meeting in person once or twice a year has been a strategic imperative. Since the onset of the global pandemic, we have shifted to virtual offsites, which were excellent in many ways and helped maintain routine and consistency and provided unique opportunities for relationship building and continuous exchange of ideas. This past November, we were fortunate to celebrate our CANA team’s first in person offsite since 2019 in Austin, Texas, and the goal of this article is to share the positive highlights from our team’s recent gathering. This being said, I started writing this before the holidays, and since that time, once again the world has changed. Most of us are again feeling slightly and/or greatly overwhelmed by uncertainty, frustration and at times, fear. Although the world seems to have shifted in a span of a few short months, it strikes me that our team is more resilient and more “in tune” than ever because of our ability to spend time working and enjoying each other in person in November. We often refer to times to bond and celebrate each other as “bringing the campfire closer” - our Austin offsite was that and more! If you didn’t already know, the city slogan is “Keep Austin Weird,” and we boldly adopted a similar slogan for our southwestern in-person offsite. Our hotel was, as is standard for the area, a blend of uniquely historical and funky design, and its downtown Austin location was inspired. We were alongside the 400+ acre Lady Bird Lake, and within walking distance to a foodie's paradise of restaurants and shopping. COVID remained an ongoing concern, and members of our team stayed safe cruising the trails and roads on rented bicycles, e-scooters, and on foot. We have a great mix of runners, walkers, and taco eaters on the CANA team! One member of our team drove cross-country to Austin, bringing her well-behaved pup along for the trip. Although the offsite was a much needed breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively, it was still an important time to get down to work. We had a jam-packed schedule that went from morning to late evening each day. Given our significant growth over the past year - over 25% - we felt it was important to start with a deep dive into the CANA “story” - what CANA is, what we believe in, where we have been, and where we are headed. It was an opportunity for the CANA leadership team to talk candidly about our mission and ethos; important topics, but not always easy to fit in with everyone’s varied day-to-day schedules. During the first day after a two-hour ice breaker of CANA Bingo (who knew one of our team members had met Margaret Thatcher??!) and a series of company presentations, the CANA team broke out into three groups and rotated through three 45 minute break-out sessions, each with a distinct focus. This framework has worked well for us in the past, even during the virtual offsites, allowing for more variety and robust, engaged group dialogue. Session leaders were tasked to generate discussion and activity on several themes: A CANA Talent and Skills Marketplace; Designing a ‘Smart’ Solution; and Exploring CANA’s Branding. We rounded out the workday with a guest speaker who is a vanguard of military technology innovation in the southern California region. His insights into how to connect people and ideas and to drive change, provided some great food for thought. At the dinner hour, the CANA team broke bread at a fantastic private meal, shared our “favorite songs” playlist created from an earlier team survey, and individually recognized members of our team. You can read more about these special team members and their accomplishments next in this newsletter. On day two, the routine was geared specifically to the needs of CANAers. Individuals and/or teams pre-identified topics for discussion, training, and collaboration and were given the uninterrupted time to address them face-to-face. We are great at virtual work, but this provided a refreshing and productive change of pace. Without a doubt, one of the most rewarding aspects of this offsite was that it brought the new and old together. Not only did we get to hear the CANA origin story from the founding members of CANA, but at least one member of the team had, in fact, literally started the day prior! Watching the team blend seamlessly together was a testament to our strong foundation and our team’s ability to weather change. We know that, no matter what, we can support one another and always deliver for our clients. We hope 2022 will be somewhat more predictable - fewer surprises and fewer mountains (and molehills!) to climb - but we simply cannot predict the future. We know, however, that CANA’s resiliency, commitment to excellence, and thoughtful teamwork ensures it is very well prepared for anything. But, don’t listen to just me - at the close of our offsite, we asked our team to describe their offsite experience in just one word, and here is our CANA team’s offsite word cloud -

In this episode of the CANA Connection Podcast our host Rob Cranston and a few other members of the CANA Team talk with the Leaders of the SoCal Tech Bridge Brandon Newell and Steve Harvey about Unmanned Logistics, Microgrids, and Electric Vehicles and how those systems are being put to use at MCAS Miramar now and into the future. Podcast episode link: Podcast | cana (canallc.com) Podcast transcription link: PDF If you would like more information on either the SoCal Tech Bridge events mentioned in this podcast visit the following: Electric and Unmanned Logistics Demonstration at https://www.canallc.com/eul-demoday Electric Mobility Symposium at https://www.canallc.com/electric-mobility Again, a big thanks goes out to LtCol Brandon Newell and Maj Steve Harvey of the SoCal Tech Bridge for this enlightening and fun conversation. If you would like to carry on the conversation with them about the Future of Unmanned Logistics visit SoCal Tech Bridge (navy.mil) To listen to more CANA Connection, head on over to canaadvisors.com/podcast while there also consider signing up for our CANA Connection newsletter, or join in the conversation in our community forum. And as always remember; Analyze. Assess. and Execute.

14 October 2021 NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge and CANA Advisors is pleased to congratulate BEAM Global of San Diego on their recent sale of 21 EV ARC electric charging stations to the United States Marine Corps. The EV ARC is, per Beam, “…an American made, rapidly deployable, transportable, off-grid and solar-powered EV charging system that supports the accelerating integration of electric vehicles into the Marine Corps’ non-tactical vehicles (NTV) fleet.” These charging stations will be distributed across 14 military installations within the continental United States and Hawaii. This was no coincidental acquisition, but the result of efforts by Marine Corps Installation Command (MCICOM), SoCal Tech Bridge, CANA Advisors, and many commercial, federal, and local stakeholders committed to finding dynamic approaches to introduce emerging technology. SoCal Tech Bridge, the regional arm of the U.S. Navy’s NavalX program, has been operating for several years to promote and validate a non-traditional partnership of ‘Industry, Installations, and Research’. CANA Advisors has worked closely with them to advance their innovation mission with technology and market research; modeling, simulation, and analysis support; event planning and marketing; and stakeholder engagement. MCAS Miramar, San Diego, California, has been the test bed for much of the work. Successes there include the development and establishment of an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Proving Grounds, a 5G Living Lab for 5G technology innovation, and an Electric Mobility Living Lab to support knowledge transfer, testing, and refinement of electric mobility employment concepts. The research, analysis, and planning and execution of these ideas, and more, have been supported by numerous public-facing, learning and collaborative events. Most recently in June of 2021, SoCal Tech Bridge and CANA Advisors held an in-person, two-day, demonstration and symposium event to highlight electric and unmanned logistics and electric mobility. The intent was to promote the synergy of vision and resources resident within military, private industry, equity investment, technology, and local governmental organizations. One of the Electric and Unmanned Logistics Day and Electric Mobility Symposium highlights was BEAM Global and its demonstration of the EV ARC charging system. Soon thereafter, the Marine Corps purchased 21 of the units for nation-wide distribution. The ability to directly connect the Marine Corps’ electric vehicle charging needs with commercial industry solutions - BEAM Global and its turnkey, adaptable, charging station - is proof positive the SoCal Tech Bridge innovative operating model works. SoCal Tech Bridge is an integral part of an approach that make things happen. CANA Advisors is proud to be a part of that team, and to collaborate with the people and organizations committed to innovative energy and mobility transformation within the military, local, and global communities. Congratulations, again, to BEAM Global on a job well done. #socaltechbridge #renewableenergy #solarpower #electricvehicles #navalx

Why We Give By Kenny McRostie Why do we help others? Why do we pass on our knowledge and experience? Why do we Give Back? We do it because we are thankful; because we are blessed; because everyone benefits from generosity and shared knowledge. Let us be clear…2021 was a HARD year for everyone. Sure, some made it through unscathed, but everyone knows someone who suffered hard times. The world groaned in 2021, and our communities winced at each headline. Yet, people are amazingly resilient, and the CANA family was no exception. In spite of the setbacks, 2021 was an amazing year of giving from the CANA family. Almost one-third of the company nominated and participated in initiatives that gave back to professional societies, veterans-focused non-profits, youth from elementary to college-age, local educational institutions, community service organizations, and most importantly, to the individuals within our local communities. Not only was participation at an all-time high, but the initiatives spanned four of the five CANA Foundation focus areas - advancing veterans support & activities, advancing health & wellness, advancing civic duty and education, and advancing environmental sustainment. I am fortunate to be a part of a company that is more near a family than business. Sure, we work hard and earn a paycheck, but the real joy is when we have the opportunity to use our skills, our time, our resources, and our passions to pour into others and give back. When Rob and Liz started CANA back in 2008, they were driven by a purpose and a vision - to create an organization that was innovative and devoted to excellence, but also supportive of an environment where generosity would flourish and overcome the negativity and heartache that surrounds our world and our communities. That desire to do good, to see a smile on someone’s face when they receive an unexpected gift, or when they learn something new is why we work so hard. Giving back is our raison d’être. Three initiatives stood out in 2021. Not because they gave the most money, nor because they impacted the most people, but because the CANA employees who led those initiatives gave from their heart and were compelled to share their gifts, talents, and passion with others. The first initiative was led by Renee Carlucci, one of CANA’s principal operations research analysts. As one of the leaders of the Women in MORS (Military Operations Research Society) Community of Practice (COP), Renee wanted to do more for a community that seeks to recognize the contributions and challenges facing women in the OR field. Renee wanted to increase her capacity to showcase women in the OR community and, by doing so, give back to the community to which she has devoted so much of her professional career. Supported by Cherish Joostberns, CANA’s Resource Lead and one of CANA’s lead writers, Renee used time allocated through the Foundation to interview female OR trailblazers, gather professional development materials for future COP training, conduct COP-related analysis, and write and publish articles related to COP objectives. These efforts resulted in two published articles highlighting women in OR as well as developing and hosting an interactive panel at the 89th Virtual Military Operational Research Society (MORS) Conference. This Women in MORS Special Session on Effective Networking Strategies brought together a diverse group of women and men leaders and thinkers to share their successes and failures with a live audience. The impact was immediate and widespread. The second initiative was nominated by Norm Reitter, CANA’s Chief Analytics Officer and Senior Vice President for Analytics Operations. An avid outdoorsman and fierce advocate of outdoor conservation, Norm recognized an opportunity to give back and educate the younger generation in his mountain community of Leadville, Colorado. His passion for mountain biking and the snow hatched the idea to educate local high school and college students on conservation awareness such as trail use and the impacts of recreational activities, as well as promote mountain biking for health and wellness. He brought together several other Leadville-based organizations – Cloud City Wheelers (a local non-profit), Cycles of Life (a local bike shop), Colorado Mountain College – Leadville, and Leadville High School – to help local students become more aware of outdoor resources close to their home, provide an introduction to different outdoor leadership opportunities, and introduce them to a new, sustainable, outdoor activity. What stands out about Norm’s initiative is how he shared his passion and experience with the students, realizing an obligation to ensure the next generation understands nature’s gifts and the need to preserve them. Through education and activity, Norm passed on a culture of health, wellness, and environmental sustainment. The third and final initiative that stood out in 2021 belonged to Koa Beam, CANA’s immensely talented Lead Graphic Artist. Koa has been involved in the art and art education culture of his community for many years in local schools, community arts centers, and through showcasing his own personal work. Koa was presented with an opportunity with the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA) through a grant provided by National Geographic (NatGEO) Education to produce and publish an educational children's book that explores the laurel highlands of Pennsylvania and its rich history. The book was also intended to educate readers about some of the modern environmental issues of concern in that region. He was asked to lend his expertise on graphic design and publishing towards the project, but Koa saw a unique opportunity to take his involvement farther and give back to the Johnstown students and teachers working on the book. Over a period of eight months, Koa worked with students and teachers providing illustration, storyboarding, and layout tutorials both online and through an in-person workshop. Koa’s contributions were instrumental in bringing together the many facets of producing and publishing the book that will serve to educate and inform children and many others for years to come. His eagerness to pass on his knowledge and passion for art and for his community shone through in this initiative. CANA Foundation is beaming with pride at the initiatives it has been able to support over the past year, through the selfless and dedicated people on the CANA team. They are the reason it is possible. The giving spirit is alive and well and amplifies the passion and excellence of the CANA family. We wish you a Happy New Year and hope that 2022 will bring many more opportunities to Give Back and impact our world for the better.

Happy New Year!! Saying those words never gets old (or new?!). As we launch into 2022, our quarterly newsletter takes a moment to reflect on the goodness and productivity of 2021. Our team celebrated with each other and our communities in various tangible ways last year - we connected with each other at our first in person offsite in two years in Austin, Texas; we rewarded the exceptional efforts of several of our team members for their contributions to our projects and our company; and for the fifth year running, CANA team members supported various community engagements as part of our CANA Foundation. Connecting, Recognizing, Giving Back. These are the hallmarks of our remarkably resilient and hard working team. Cheers to 2022! Keeping CANA Weird 2021 Austin, Texas Team Offsite By: Liz Cranston, CEO CANA As a 100% virtual business since our inception, meeting in person once or twice a year has been a strategic imperative. Since the onset of the global pandemic, we have shifted to virtual offsites, which were excellent in many ways and helped maintain routine and consistency and provided unique opportunities for relationship building and continuous exchange of ideas. This past November, we were fortunate to celebrate our CANA team’s first in person offsite since 2019 in Austin, Texas, and the goal of this article is to share the positive highlights from our team’s recent gathering. This being said, I started writing this before the holidays, and since that time, once again the world has changed. Most of us are again feeling slightly and/or greatly overwhelmed by uncertainty, frustration and at times, fear. Although the world seems to have shifted in a span of a few short months, it strikes me that our team is more resilient and more “in tune” than ever because of our ability to spend time working and enjoying each other in person in November. We often refer to times to bond and celebrate each other as “bringing the campfire closer” - our Austin offsite was that and more! If you didn’t already know, the city slogan is “Keep Austin Weird,” and we boldly adopted a similar slogan for our southwestern in-person offsite. Our hotel was, as is standard for the area, a blend of uniquely historical and funky design, and its downtown Austin location was inspired. We were alongside the 400+ acre Lady Bird Lake, and within walking distance to a foodie’s paradise of restaurants and shopping. COVID remained an ongoing concern, and members of our team stayed safe cruising the trails and roads on rented bicycles, e-scooters, and on foot. We have a great mix of runners, walkers, and taco eaters on the CANA team! One member of our team drove cross-country to Austin, bringing her well-behaved pup along for the trip. Although the offsite was a much needed breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively, it was still an important time to get down to work. We had a jam-packed schedule that went from morning to late evening each day. Given our significant growth over the past year - over 25% - we felt it was important to start with a deep dive into the CANA “story” - what CANA is, what we believe in, where we have been, and where it’s headed. It was an opportunity for the CANA leadership team to talk candidly about our mission and ethos; important topics, but not always easy to fit in with everyone’s varied day-to-day schedules. During the first day after a two-hour ice breaker of CANA Bingo (who knew one of our team members had met Margaret Thatcher??!) and a series of company presentations, the CANA team broke out into three groups and rotated through three 45 minute break-out sessions, each with a distinct focus. This framework has worked well for us in the past, even during the virtual offsites, allowing for more variety and robust, engaged group dialogue. Session leaders were tasked to generate discussion and activity on several themes: A CANA Talent and Skills Marketplace; Designing a ‘Smart’ Solution; and Exploring CANA’s Branding. We rounded out the workday with a guest speaker who is a vanguard of military technology innovation in the southern California region. His insights into how to connect people and ideas and to drive change, provided some great food for thought. At the dinner hour, the CANA team broke bread at a fantastic private meal, shared our “favorite songs” playlist created from an earlier team survey, and individually recognized members of our team. You can read more about these special team members and their accomplishments next in this newsletter. On day two, the routine was geared specifically to the needs of CANAers. Individuals and/or teams pre-identified topics for discussion, training, and collaboration and were given the uninterrupted time to address them face-to-face. We are great at virtual work, but this provided a refreshing and productive change of pace. Without a doubt, one of the most rewarding aspects of this offsite was that it brought the new and old together. Not only did we get to hear the CANA origin story from the founding members of CANA, but at least one member of the team had, in fact, literally started the day prior! Watching the team blend seamlessly together was a testament to our strong foundation and our team’s ability to weather change. We know that, no matter what, we can support one another and always deliver for our clients. We hope 2022 will be somewhat more predictable - fewer surprises and fewer mountains (and molehills!) to climb - but we simply cannot predict the future. We know, however, that CANA’s resiliency, commitment to excellence, and thoughtful teamwork ensures it is very well prepared for anything. But, don’t listen to just me - at the close of our offsite, we asked our team to describe their offsite experience in just one word, and here is our CANA team’s offsite word cloud - 2021 Excellence Awards 2021 Austin, Texas Team Offsite By: Kassie McRostie Throughout the year 2021, we have seen our team put in efforts like none other. To be a part of Team CANA is something special, not only because of our values, hard work, and uniqueness as a remote company but also due to the people who make this team special. We wanted to highlight four of our team members who recently were awarded the 2021 CANA Excellence Award for their significant efforts this past year. The awardees include Dan Sterrett (Principal Software Developer), Kristin Fairman (Senior Contracts Manager), Renee Carlucci (Principal Operations Research Analyst), and Aaron Luprek (Senior Software Developer). We asked these team members a few questions about receiving their award. The first question we asked was, ”what did winning your award mean to you?” Dan: “It was great to be appreciated and recognized for my personal achievements this year.” Kristin: “Winning a CANA Excellence award for 2021 was an amazing experience. To be recognized for the work that I do was a wonderful feeling and being surrounded by my peers at the CANA offsite was truly a sweet experience.” Renee: “It was an honor to be recognized for my work. There are a lot of great things happening at CANA, and I am thankful and excited to be a part of some revolutionary products we are creating for our customers.” Aaron: “It meant a lot to know that leadership at CANA has confidence in me and the work that I've done. "Impostor syndrome," where you doubt your own abilities is very common in the tech field, and with recognition like this it is helpful to know that people you respect trust in you.” Most successful people could usually tell you that they have some sort of “secret” to their success. For some, it may be their routine, mindset, or even the environment they are in. We asked our team members to share their “secret” to their success at CANA: Dan: “My success at CANA can be attributed to all the great people whom I get to work with every day. We have a really talented team of individuals who all contribute to making each project successful.” Kristin: “The secret to my success at CANA is to appreciate what each individual brings to the team, always ask a lot of questions, and know that it takes teamwork to be successful.” Renee: “I am only successful due to the great team we have here at CANA. What a wonderful, brilliant, and collegial team we have - we inspire each other and together overcome the challenges presented to us.” Aaron: “My secret to success at CANA is communication. It's an extra challenge at a remote company, but communicating freely with the team is essential to developing a quality product. Ask questions early when you don't understand something. Share what you've learned with the team. It's amazing how breakthroughs happen when you collaborate.” In further recognition of these team members, CANA gave them a monetary award as well as a matched donation to a charity or foundation of their choice. We asked our team members who they decided to give their matched donation to and why? Dan: “World Vision because they help people in impoverished areas across the world in a variety of ways from providing clean water and schooling to helping disaster survivors and refugees.” Kristin: “I chose the Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Cancers. This center is located at Hillman Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, and is open to children and adults for treatment. https://mariolemieux.org/cancer-research/mario-lemieux-center-for-blood-cancers/ My Mom is living with and being treated for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and we are thankful for each day that we spend together.” Renee: “I selected to donate towards the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Eugene P. Visco Prize. This prize recognizes excellence in research quality, contributions, and presentation. Promoting international collaboration, the Visco prize provides for early career and junior analysts conducting impactful, technically rigorous, and multi-disciplinary research to share their work at the International Symposium on Military Operational Research (ISMOR). This prize was established in March 2019 to honor and memorialize Gene Visco, FS, a personal friend/mentor of mine, who was an ardent supporter of collaboration within the international operations research community.” Aaron: “I chose St. Jude Children's Research Hospital because I'm so moved by the work they do treating both in treating children and in research that helps people around the world.” As a fully remote company, even before the pandemic, we like to get together in person at least once a year. This past fall we went to Austin, Texas, for our annual offsite, but what made this one unique was that it was the first offsite we have had since 2019! We asked the awardees, “how was it getting together again after so long since the last offsite?” Dan: “It was great to see everyone in person after such a long break. The company offsites are always a highlight of my year.” Kristin: “The Texas offsite was my first offsite with CANA and what a great adventure it was. The Team dinner was wonderful and being able to meet everyone in person and make memories together was priceless.” Renee: “Alas, I was unable to join everyone at the offsite this year due to a previously scheduled family vacation to Costa Rica. However, I did get to enjoy many photo and video recaps of some of what I missed.” Aaron: “It was incredible to see people from the team in person again. I love the flexibility of remote work, but periodically meeting up in 'real life’ is essential to building bonds with people. Since CANA has grown a bit since the last offsite, there were quite a few co-workers I had never met in person. This also is a great chance for catching up with people at CANA who I don't get to work on day-to-day projects.” Every year is another year to get better and look forward to the future, so we asked our awardees, “what are you most optimistic for this New Year?” Dan: “I'm looking forward to continuing the great work we are doing for our clients by creating amazing applications that exceed their expectations.” Kristin: “I am looking forward to saying thank you and goodbye to 2021 and ready to jump right into 2022 with the excitement of what the new year will bring!” Renee: “Like most Americans, I am optimistic that we may finally weather the end of this pandemic in the coming year, with vaccinations, boosters, and treatments available to render COVID-19 sufferers at most similar to flu sufferers.” Aaron: “Going into the New Year, I'm most optimistic that we will continue to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, and have more opportunities for in-person events, both with work and personally.” Needless to say, we are very proud of these four individuals, for all their efforts in making CANA the high-performing organization CANA is, and the hard work they put in day in and day out. We are looking forward to what 2022 brings and the growth of each of our CANA team members individually and collectively! CANA Foundation – 2021 – A Year in Review Why do we help others? Why do we pass on our knowledge and experience? Why do we Give Back? We do it because we are thankful; because we are blessed; because everyone benefits from generosity and shared knowledge. Let us be clear…2021 was a HARD year for everyone. Sure, some made it through unscathed, but everyone knows someone who suffered hard times. The world groaned in 2021, and our communities winced at each headline. Yet, people are amazingly resilient, and the CANA family was no exception. In spite of the setbacks, 2021 was an amazing year of giving from the CANA family. Almost one-third of the company nominated and participated in initiatives that gave back to professional societies, veterans-focused non-profits, youth from elementary to college-age, local educational institutions, community service organizations, and most importantly, to the individuals within our local communities. Not only was participation at an all-time high, but the initiatives spanned four of the five CANA Foundation focus areas - advancing veterans support & activities, advancing health & wellness, advancing civic duty and education, and advancing environmental sustainment. I am fortunate to be a part of a company that is more near a family than business. Sure, we work hard and earn a paycheck, but the real joy is when we have the opportunity to use our skills, our time, our resources, and our passions to pour into others and give back. When Rob and Liz started CANA back in 2008, they were driven by a purpose and a vision - to create an organization that was innovative and devoted to excellence, but also supportive of an environment where generosity would flourish and overcome the negativity and heartache that surrounds our world and our communities. That desire to do good, to see a smile on someone’s face when they receive an unexpected gift, or when they learn something new is why we work so hard. Giving back is our raison d’être. Three initiatives stood out in 2021. Not because they gave the most money, nor because they impacted the most people, but because the CANA employees who led those initiatives gave from their heart and were compelled to share their gifts, talents, and passion with others. The first initiative was led by Renee Carlucci, one of CANA’s principal operations research analysts. As one of the leaders of the Women in MORS (Military Operations Research Society) Community of Practice (COP), Renee wanted to do more for a community that seeks to recognize the contributions and challenges facing women in the OR field. Renee wanted to increase her capacity to showcase women in the OR community and, by doing so, give back to the community to which she has devoted so much of her professional career. Supported by Cherish Joostberns, CANA’s Resource Lead and one of CANA’s lead writers, Renee used time allocated through the Foundation to interview female OR trailblazers, gather professional development materials for future COP training, conduct COP-related analysis, and write and publish articles related to COP objectives. These efforts resulted in two published articles highlighting women in OR as well as developing and hosting an interactive panel at the 89th Virtual Military Operational Research Society (MORS) Conference. This Women in MORS Special Session on Effective Networking Strategies brought together a diverse group of women and men leaders and thinkers to share their successes and failures with a live audience. The impact was immediate and widespread. The second initiative was nominated by Norm Reitter, CANA’s Chief Analytics Officer and Senior Vice President for Analytics Operations. An avid outdoorsman and fierce advocate of outdoor conservation, Norm recognized an opportunity to give back and educate the younger generation in his mountain community of Leadville, Colorado. His passion for mountain biking and the snow hatched the idea to educate local high school and college students on conservation awareness such as trail use and the impacts of recreational activities, as well as promote mountain biking for health and wellness. He brought together several other Leadville-based organizations – Cloud City Wheelers (a local non-profit), Cycles of Life (a local bike shop), Colorado Mountain College – Leadville, and Leadville High School – to help local students become more aware of outdoor resources close to their home, provide an introduction to different outdoor leadership opportunities, and introduce them to a new, sustainable, outdoor activity. What stands out about Norm’s initiative is how he shared his passion and experience with the students, realizing an obligation to ensure the next generation understands nature’s gifts and the need to preserve them. Through education and activity, Norm passed on a culture of health, wellness, and environmental sustainment. The third and final initiative that stood out in 2021 belonged to Koa Beam, CANA’s immensely talented Lead Graphic Artist. Koa has been involved in the art and art education culture of his community for many years in local schools, community arts centers, and through showcasing his own personal work. Koa was presented with an opportunity with the Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA) through a grant provided by National Geographic (NatGEO) Education to produce and publish an educational children's book that explores the laurel highlands of Pennsylvania and its rich history. The book was also intended to educate readers about some of the modern environmental issues of concern in that region. He was asked to lend his expertise on graphic design and publishing towards the project, but Koa saw a unique opportunity to take his involvement farther and give back to the Johnstown students and teachers working on the book. Over a period of eight months, Koa worked with students and teachers providing illustration, storyboarding, and layout tutorials both online and through an in-person workshop. Koa’s contributions were instrumental in bringing together the many facets of producing and publishing the book that will serve to educate and inform children and many others for years to come. His eagerness to pass on his knowledge and passion for art and for his community shone through in this initiative. CANA Foundation is beaming with pride at the initiatives it has been able to support over the past year, through the selfless and dedicated people on the CANA team. They are the reason it is possible. The giving spirit is alive and well and amplifies the passion and excellence of the CANA family. We wish you a Happy New Year and hope that 2022 will bring many more opportunities to Give Back and impact our world for the better.

Today is the first official day of summer in 2022! There’s plenty to do during the longest sun-lit day of the year besides look at the computer screen - enjoy the warmth, take a walk, light the grill, and talk with family and friends. Of course, we will get some work done, but it’s nice to know there will be a few more hours in the day for some much needed vitamin D. We’re always grateful for the ability to work virtually, and even more so when we realize the spread of our amazing team. On this summer solstice, we realize just how diverse our days can be. For our CANAer in Hawaii, sunset is 7:16 pm and the Southern Cross is visible in the night sky; in San Diego, our team will see light until at least 8:00 pm along the eastern edge of the Pacific; our Virginia team is awakened by daybreak at a very early 5:43 am, and our Northern Michigan CANAer can see out towards Canada until well after 10:00 pm. Of course, we’ve got a lot of folks in-between and across the U.S., and they all keep CANA moving through a wide variety of hours. Not only is it wonderful summertime, but June is proving to be as productive and exciting as the months’ previous. In this newsletter, we offer onboarding insights from Tristan Rentsch, one of our newest software developers who joined us this past year right out of college; we talk about the accomplishments of the past five fantastic years of our "give back" CANA Foundation arm; and we share the highlights of our most recent in-person team offsite in Virginia. Finally, we provide a little teaser for our upcoming podcast with the CANAers who are ‘real’ Top Gun graduates. They will have lots of fun insights into the summer hit, Top Gun: Maverick. It’s exciting we have CANAers old enough to have watched the original in theaters, talented enough to have experienced it in real life, and young enough to wonder what all the hype is about! As always, we’re thrilled to share the CANA team with you. Have a wonderful summer! Team CANA Five Years of the CANA Foundation By Kassie McRostie Our mission is simple – We are committed to creating positive change and providing creative solutions to problems to enhance the lives of people, organizations, and the environment in our communities. 5 years. 5 ye ars of purpose. 5 years of connecting. 5 years of giving. When Rob and Liz Cranston started CANA back in 2008, they were driven by a purpose and a vision - to create an organization that was innovative and devoted to excellence, but also supportive of an environment where generosity would flourish and together we could take on the tough challenges our world and our communities face. That desire to do good, to see a smile on someone’s face when they receive an unexpected gift or when they learn something new, is why we work so hard. Giving back is our raison d’être. The CANA Foundation was established in 2017 on the premise that we are blessed with individual talents, financial resources, and a successful company that provides a platform for the CANA family to connect with and give back to community areas we feel passionate and care about. We believe we have an obligation to use those skills and resources to help individuals and organizations in our communities overcome the barriers they face. This year, in 2022, we celebrate the 5 Years of CANA Foundation! These past five years have given us opportunities to give back to our communities in more ways than we could have imagined. Our team has turned their passions into purpose with over 45 completed initiatives. From helping students create their own children’s book to creating an analytics course for veterans, we have seen our team make a positive change in their communities. For the rest of 2022, we will commemorate the 5th anniversary of the CANA Foundation by showcasing some of our initiatives, the people behind them, and the future of the CANA Foundation. Stay tuned for more of 5 Years of CANA Foundation. To learn more about the CANA Foundation visit the Foundation webpage at https://www.canallc.com/giving-back Fresh Perspectives from a New Developer By Tristan Rentsch When I first joined CANA, right out of college, it was a bit overwhelming. Transitioning from attending classes and completing homework assignments to attending meetings and completing Jira tasks was a deceptively big change. Although college taught me in theory about programming and software development, I didn’t have much firsthand experience and wasn’t familiar with the technologies being used at CANA. Luckily, CANA had a training schedule ready for me to get me acquainted with the development process and the technology I would have to use. During this training process, I learned JavaScript and TypeScript. In addition, I completed the official Appian training course from their website. Appian is a Marine Corps-approved platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that provides the capability for enterprise application development in a cloud environment. I have found this training to be especially helpful, since Appian is mainly what I work with every day, and I haven’t used TypeScript or JavaScript yet. However, I didn’t feel like I had a real grasp on the concepts until I put them into practice. I gained this experience working on real bugs and features for the Integrated Materiel Analysis Toolset (IMAT) system which is designed to replace the Marine Corps’ legacy war reserve. I started with pair programming. Two senior programmers helped work me through some small bug fixes and taught me how they usually approach these issues. There were some differences between how they approached development and what was taught in the official Appian training. In particular, they taught me how to use the hidden Appian lambda functions, which weren’t mentioned in the official training. This training and the experience of working on actual software systems, with paying clients, has been effective in making me much more confident and knowledgeable in the development of software. Besides the training, another challenge was working from home. However, this wasn’t actually a big change for me. In college, I had to work from home during my last semester due to COVID restrictions. In addition, I had experience working from home from my internship with the startup, Northland Creative Wonders. However, with the startup, I occasionally met with my boss in person. At CANA I never meet anyone in person, as a result, I must rely more on Zoom meetings and chats to keep in contact with coworkers. I think the biggest challenge of working from home is keeping a schedule. If I was working in an office, the manager would tell everyone when it was time to attend a meeting or do other activities, but when you work remotely, you need to keep track of these things yourself, and it can be easy to get engrossed in a task and not notice what time it is. I have dealt with this challenge by setting up alarms that notify me when it is time to start a new task or join a meeting. I’ve enjoyed working at CANA so far and think this is a great start to my professional career. My favorite things so far have been the friendly company culture, the kind people, and the ability to work from home. My fellow programmers have been very nice and helpful to me during my time working at CANA. They have given me helpful tips and feedback on how to do the best work I can and have assisted me when I was struggling with hard tasks. Although I didn’t get to go last year, I look forward to meeting everyone in person at the next offsite. My advice to a new developer joining the company is this: make sure to manage your time well, try your best to become very familiar with the new technologies we use, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are stuck. Together Again - Virginia Offsite By Connie McKissack Our Project and Program Management (PPM) and Business Operations (BusOps) teams recently met in person for a team-focused offsite in Haymarket, VA. We focused on information sharing and collaboration, leading to a greater understanding of our teams and their particular talents and challenges. On the first evening, our BusOps team met at a fantastic outdoor brewery for a thought-provoking discussion about their DiSC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) Assessment profiles - a pro tool that CANA uses to dig into personal work styles and effective relationship building. This has been particularly important given our remote and virtual operating model. During our Day One Collaboratory, both teams spent the morning breaking the ice and using a campfire approach to get to know each other. After that, Senior Project Manager Hannah Wallace, Principal Program Manager Will Berry, and Principal AI Analyst Chris Cichy tag-teamed for an exciting deep dive into NextStrategy, our ongoing project in support of the Miramar, California - based NavalX SoCal Tech Bridge. We’re particularly excited for this upcoming year as we work with the Tech Bridge to bring innovative 5G services, autonomous and electric vehicles, and AI capabilities to the modern warfighter. We are seeking to continually improve our CANA business development and proposal process, so Senior Operations Manager Kenny McRostie next provided a refresher on the opportunity development process and management of the CANA tracking system. Hannah Wallace explained the work and effort a project lead must put into planning a project and understanding it from the top-down and bottom-up - it’s no easy task, but always easier when we share best practices. Our Digital Media Coordinator, Kassie McRostie, followed with a presentation on the CANA Foundation, its history, and a summary of the impact this give-back arm of CANA has had in the past five years. When Chris Cichy took the podium, he shared his CANA independent research and development project (IRAD) to use virtual gaming as a tool for product research, development, and marketing. It generated excellent questions and excitement (some of us need to invest in virtual real estate…now). Lead Graphic Artist Koa Beam then demonstrated the capabilities of our new Social Media hardware kit - a full complement of digital audiovisual equipment - that we anticipate will travel as widely as our CANA team! Day Two, we jumped into the CANA Deliverable Tracking System collaboration session, led by Senior Project Manager, Stephanie Allison. This was so timely - getting both teams' input, understanding, and buy-in to drive better solutions. With upcoming proposal efforts, we used our last hours to get the proposal team together for some outstanding, face-to-face, cowork. It was a great time collaborating and sharing. While the BusOps team had to say goodbye, the PPM team gathered for a little friendly competition and battled it out through ax-throwing and go-carts (but not at the same time!) before saying goodbye. Can’t wait for the next offsite! To learn more about CANA visit our website at www.canallc.com

What an AMAZING event the Warrior GMR Foundation Armed Forces Esports Championship was! This event was a two-day esports tournament featuring the game Rocket League and five branches of the U.S. Armed Forces - the Air Force, Coast Guard, Army, Space Force, and Navy! The U.S. Air Force ultimately dominated the tournament, going undefeated on their journey to winning the championship! This event also hosted a bracket for the Gold Star Gamers, a wonderful esports organization “helping military kids that lost a parent find hope and healing through competitive gaming”. The four Gold Star Gamers branches of the Armed Forces that competed in this bracket were the GSG Army, GSG Marines, GSG Air Force, and the GSG Navy. CANA was honored to be a part of this event, as Nick Pakosky, Jack Murray, and Koa Beam provided gameplay analytics support for the tournament. Below are just a FEW examples of the support CANA provided - the "MVP" leaderboard and "Top Scorers’" leaderboard, for both the adult AF bracket and GSG bracket. The team members of the Air Force find themselves at the top of both leaderboards, due to their outstanding performances; while the members of the GSG Army and GSG Marines are highly represented on the GSG leaderboards. We will be releasing a blog post soon that goes into depth about the other statistics and analytics we created from this event and how each was calculated. So stay tuned for more unique Rocket League analytics from the Warrior GMR Foundation Armed Forces Esports Championship! Again, huge thanks to Warrior GMR for putting this event together! It is amazing to see how esports is being utilized to create these outstanding communities and act as a method to support mental health among our nation's Armed Forces. #esports #esportsanalytics #warriorgmrfoundation #goldstargamers #CANAesports #CANAanalytics #armedforces #rocketleague #airforcegaming #coastguardgaming #usarmyesports #spaceforcegaming #usnavyesports Jack Murray is our Business Analyst here at CANA. You can contact Jack at jmurray@canallc.com or on Linkedin.

Overview One of the largest and most educational esports conferences came to the Washington D.C. area last week, from May 16-18. The Esports Insider Washington D.C. conference began with esports focused D.C. embassy tours with panels, a networking lunch, and a late night social at the Crimson Bar. Day two of the conference, May 18th, was held at the National Press Club and included all-day educational panels and networking breaks, and socials. This event hosted over 400 attendees made up of colleges and universities, professional esports teams, esports specific companies, and non-endemic companies trying to get into the esports industry. To learn more about ESI Washington D.C. and the reach it had, click here. I had the honor of representing CANA on day two of ESI D.C. As we here at CANA continue our journey in the esports industry, this event was extremely beneficial to us. From the moment I arrived for the networking breakfast, to the event ending evening social, I was blown away by the efforts ESI and Events D.C. put on to host this event. It was well run, well organized, and overall just an amazing experience. The eight panels held on day two covered some of the most important and influential aspects of the esports industry. The three most intriguing panels, to me, were: “Can esports be a building block of real world communities?”, “Esports and the collegiate experience - providing pathways and foundations”, and “How best can traditional sporting entities make waves in the esports space?”. While I found these panels to be the most intriguing, all eight were phenomenal and extremely informative. It was amazing to meet, and chat with, many experts and leaders in the industry in person, rather than the new normal of over the phone or email. This was truly an outstanding event, that not only provided plentiful networking opportunities, but it also provided top tier insight and education on the current and future state of the esports industry. Takeaways Overall, this conference greatly enhanced our knowledge and understanding of the entire esports industry. There were three main themes throughout all the panels and discussions held at the conference; education on esports, toxicity and diversity, and data accessibility. Education on esports was a main topic of conversation throughout the conference, as the lack of it is one of the most prominent factors prohibiting the growth and development of esports. It was stressed that everyone needs more education on esports, no matter how involved they may be. There is a need for more qualified and educated esports staff at schools, more educated moderators in streaming and everyday online communities, and an overall greater knowledge base of non-endemic companies joining the esports space. The bottom line is, the lack of education on esports is hindering every aspect of the industry, but it is something that can be fixed with more effort and resources. Toxicity and diversity was mentioned to be another large challenge and obstacle the esports industry faces at every level. Esports is a sport that has no physical, gender, or racial barrier, yet there is still much harassment and exclusion occuring. It was discussed that game publishers can only do so much to help this cause, and that it is everyone’s job to cut out the toxicity in gaming and esports. The last major topic of discussion was the lack of accessibility to data. This is a common challenge in the industry as well, as every game publisher is unique and offers varying levels of access to their API and data. The lack of game specific data also leads to restrictions on data available to measure ROI on sponsorships and partnerships. Thus leading to a snowfall effect of challenging situations, where more data accessibility is believed to be the solution to the problem. This event also gave great insight on the collegiate esports space, more challenges facing each sector of the industry, and how and why traditional sport entities are making their way into esports. Again, this was an absolutely amazing event that was extremely educational and beneficial to everyone involved. Whether you were an expert or leader already in the esports space, just beginning your journey in esports, or a non-endemic company wanting to learn more, this event provided the tools and knowledge to help you and the esports industry succeed. Conclusion As stated many times before, this event was particularly beneficial to us here at CANA. We are now much more educated and informed about the specific areas we believe CANA’s services would be the most beneficial to the esports industry. We will continue our efforts and look forward to being part of the growth of such an exciting industry with endless possibilities! Thank you Esports Insider for bringing this event to the Washington D.C. area, and thank you to all the attendees who contributed to such an amazing learning and networking experience. Check out our latest episode of the CANA Connection Podcast our Host Rob Cranston President and COO of CANA along with CANA Business Analyst Jack Murray, talk with Rebecca Dixon, Co-Founder of The*gameHERs. the*gameHERs organization is a women-led community dedicated to amplifying and centering the voices of women gamers and gamers of marginalized genders, who are comfortable in spaces that center on women. Listen here: https://www.canallc.com/podcast/episode/1d063d57/talking-thegamehers-with-rebecca-dixon Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUBznNoKiQ You can contact Jack at jmurray@canallc.com or on Linkedin.

Team CANA would like to proudly welcome our newest business analyst, Jack Murray! From intern to full-time, Jack tells us about his journey with CANA and what he is looking forward to in his new role. After two amazing years at CANA, I am excited to say that I have transitioned from being an intern to now being a full-time Business Analyst with CANA. Switching over to this full-time position is a new challenge that I look forward to. As a Business Analyst I will be supporting, and contributing to, CANA proposed technical and/or business solutions. This includes, but is not limited to, conducting research, performing analyses, and developing reports to support business strategy and to capture value in specific CANA industries and markets. I will also conduct opportunity assessments on CANA's strategic business-to-business (B2B) partnerships and work with the Business Development team to identify program highlights and key performance milestones for marketing and sales objectives. Additionally, I will continue my efforts on getting CANA immersed in the esports industry. I will be working closely with multiple agile teams here at CANA, but I will also be expected to work independently. This mix of independent and team-based work will allow me to enhance both my independent and cooperative professional skills. During my time as an intern with CANA, I had been working heavily on our esports front. As a company with analytics expertise, we believe that with the completely virtual environment esports offers, we can be of immense support and help to the industry. Much of my work as an intern, on the esports front, aligns with the work I will be doing as a Business Analyst. I have been heavily involved in conducting research on the esports industry, analyzing where we best fit and developing reports on business strategies that will help us best utilize our capabilities applied to esports. During this time, we have hosted an esports tournament of our own, made relationships with key esports industry leaders, built out a beta esports service platform, and partnered with Warrior GMR, an esports company that hosts esports tournaments for the branches of our military and utilizes esports as a means to help with mental health. I am confident that my work, and overall development, as an intern with CANA will not only help us make more progress in the esports industry, but it will also help me apply my capabilities to other areas of CANA, as I now join as a full-time Business Analyst. I am grateful for this opportunity and very excited to begin my new journey here at CANA! You can contact Jack at jmurray@canallc.com or on Linkedin.