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September 11, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording | Otter.ai

September 11, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording

Steve Peters51min

Steve Peters

00:01

John, okay, good morning. Everybody. Glad to see you. Got a nice turnout this morning, so I want to do a couple of things. First of all, was there anybody who's new to us this morning?

Speaker 1

00:15

Steve, you want to turn on the recording? I guess I did. Or did you okay?

Steve Peters

00:21

Yeah, I just didn't hear me. Alright.

Kristen Bitgood

00:23

Hi everybody. My name, sorry. My name is, my name is Kristen bitgood. I'm a workforce specialist with Pima County in at community and workforce development, and I was invited by Amber wells this morning, and I'm happy to be here. And thank you.

Steve Peters

00:42

Cool. And you should be getting our notices too, aren't you?

Speaker 2

00:47

Um, let's see. I don't think I received any

Steve Peters

00:51

notices. Okay, so I have to make sure you're in there too. Okay, thank you. I must be slipping

Kristen Bitgood

01:01

Thank you for having me. Sure.

Steve Peters

01:04

Anybody else that's new this morning take that to be a no. Okay. Well, let's start with a couple of things this morning, just a quickie of what's on the agenda. This morning, Kelly's here and get some updates from the broadband office. And also welcoming Beth this morning to get a quick update on on the Department of Education. I appreciate Beth that you being here this morning, and then we're going to hear from our friend Rory Conaway, who is now the Chief Technology Officer. Is, am I correct, Rory, that it's triad wireless by wi fiber. Is that the way you're identifying?

Rory Conaway

01:56

Yeah, yeah. That's the way they're Yeah. But I'm holding now I'm carrying two hats again. So okay, this presentation isn't so I am the CTO of triad wireless by wi fiber. So that's correct, because you might want to change the well anyway. But I'm also has started another company called triad Net Solutions. Okay, triad wireless was, it's wasn't uh, sold the So technically, Philz are unit counting. It's basically, we sold the assets of triad wireless and you and temporary use of the name as they, uh, expand out the operation.

Steve Peters

02:35

So Corey, we're gonna, I mean, Rory, we're gonna give you time later, as you know, to kind of be our our lead here. And then Lucy, we want to hear from you. And I think that's kind of the key, key points at this point. So let's go ahead and get started. And Kelly crucey, or pirate crew See, as we're calling her this morning.

Kelly Krusee

03:01

Thank you, Steve. Hi everyone. Good morning. My name is Kelly cruci I'm the Community Engagement Manager for the state broadband office. I am wearing an eye patch for my surgery. This is why Steve is calling me a pirate. So this is also why I'm not turning my camera on. It's my gift to all of you. So updates from us, as you all know, we did submit the final proposal to NTIA last, last Thursday. It was a week ago, September 4, and so now that kind of triggers some some next steps for us internally. First and foremost is being in communication with NTIA. This does now to start the the curing process, where they review the final proposal, they go through the data, all of it, and start reaching out to us to make changes, or, you know, changes that are recommended. And so we have not really heard anything official yet, and we know that they have 90 days to approve. So 90 days is their shot clock, and we are on standby because we know that those communications will come and then there will be urgent action needed. Once we get those communications, also be permitting. We're starting to get procedures. We're not starting we've been doing this for a while, but now that the final proposal is submitted, we are moving forward in some bead permitting work, and that is again, with the state, with the counties, with the tribes, and with federal and state agencies. So that's a that's a big undertaking, and we do expect some some maps and some information to be available, probably, I would say, by the end of October. And then we're also working with providers to finalize those sub grantee selections. Um, so or not even finalized, but get those started. So that's in the process collaborating with providers and also enhancing the broadband mapping. So a lot of work behind the scenes, while we're waiting and working with NTIA on that final proposal. And I would say to keep your eye on the website. And you know, communications from us, we will communicate when there there is something new to share, and at this point there is nothing new. So we don't want to send out emails for for no reason other than sharing new, exciting details. So that's where I say, keep an eye on the website as well.

Steve Peters

05:30

Okay. Thank you, Kelly, any Hey,

Kristi King

05:32

Kelly, yeah, sorry, Steve, I have a question for you. Kelly, um, what is the situation with this new best and final offer thing going on within Tia. Have you heard anything about that, or how that's going to affect your bead offers?

Kelly Krusee

05:47

Nope. Arizona has heard nothing on that. Okay, so, like you, we have been reading things about it, but we've heard nothing. Okay, it's

Speaker 3

05:55

crossed. Yeah, all right, thank you. Yes,

Kelly Krusee

05:59

and I do want to think we did get a number of public comments and and many from the group here. Those comments came in from from everywhere, from local government, from tribes, from counties, from community members, nonprofits. Everyone really did a great job of participating and sharing their input in that so thank you to everybody on this call. You all have been a great part of this process and provided great input and feedback along the way, and that is essential. So thank you.

Mark Goldstein

06:28

Kelly Mark Goldstein, will those public comments be aggregated and made available, visible publicly, or they were internal consideration only?

Kelly Krusee

06:41

You know, I'm not sure on that. We according to the, you know, final proposal and the guidance, it is not a requirement. So we're, you know, working through that, and have provided all of that information as a part of the final proposal. But at this point, there are no plans for that. But I am taking notes that people are starting to inquire. So good feedback. I think Corey has got his hand up too.

Corey Christians

07:05

Yeah, go ahead, Corey, yeah. Thank you So Kelly, I would be keenly interested in seeing what everybody else's comments are the compiled version of that. So if there's a way that you guys can provide that, I would definitely be interested. Also, I mentioned this at the attic meeting yesterday, we received a number of our locations that had a reason five. So it's a little confusing the way that this was all put out by the ACA, because all those locations show is being funded on the Broadband Map. But then when you look on the Broadband Map, they're they're highlighted with the circle, and they say code five under review, or something like that. So that's when I look at our locations. That's a bulk of our locations are under that review code five, or reason five. So how do I know what's actually funded, what's actually been approved and what's actually going to go forward?

Kelly Krusee

08:10

Great question, and that is something we're working on right now, uh, behind the scenes, so that the the navigator map that you're referring to, where it has, like the the two colors for those reason, code fives or under determination, that is something, again, that we're working on, and I think that you can expect to see a change in that coming soon, so that there's more clarity, because we understand that right now, there's, it's confusing, And we're trying to get that updated

Kelly Krusee

08:41

quickly

Corey Christians

08:42

well, and we also don't know why they're under review. So is there multiple ISPs that put in for it? With that said, they're providing service, even though they were determined to not being providing, to not providing service during the previous process, with the challenge process, you know, and who's making this determination. How do we have any input in this process? Who do we have to talk to to make sure that we're listened to on this because, quite frankly, we didn't even know it was happening until I looked at the map last week, and then saw all these locations, which we thought were free and clear, were suddenly under review. So we're obviously very anxious to talk to the right people to make sure that our county does get served with bead funding, because many of these ISPs that have claimed they're providing service now I'm assuming, because I don't know who they actually are, have had decades to actually provide service and refuse to do so. So I would really appreciate those locations, those citizens, those residents, actually getting this, the bead service that they should the funding for the service from bead that they should be getting. So any insight, i. Can get on that. And then also, I asked for this previously, but haven't received it yet, if I could get a list of all the locations in an easily understandable format that are like, how many locations in Sedona, how many in the village vote Creek, how many in Wilhoit that are under review and which ISP has put them under review. That would be very beneficial information. We have yet to receive that. So thank you.

Kelly Krusee

10:26

Okay, so Corey, I want to know that number one, yes, heard what you're saying. Reason code five, and what are the reason for the changes, and then the list of all the locations that are under review. Yes, heard, and I will be in touch with you for sure. But also this is something I can report back on next week. Okay, so

Corey Christians

10:48

if I can get it broken down by community, with the number of locations and ISP, that's a lot easier to understand than what's ever in the Excel spreadsheets, because we've had other stakeholders throughout the county that have tried to decipher that information and not had much luck, and some have said it's not up to date either, so I'm not sure.

Kelly Krusee

11:10

All right, thank you. I appreciate it. Kelly, yeah, thanks.

Steve Peters

11:13

Corey, okay, Thanks Kelly for being here this morning, and I hope your healing goes well with your eye. Thank you, sure. And Randy, I see you're online. Anything you want to add to what we were just talking about this morning? Yes.

Randy Luening

11:30

In fact, my ears have been on fire. I a couple of minutes late here. I've been just looking you want to

Steve Peters

11:40

introduce yourself real quickly.

Randy Luening

11:42

You've got Randy leaning broadband toolkit, and we do sort of deep analytics of basically, and everything that has numbers attached in the broadband space. And I guess, and I think I missed, I think Corey was in, in going full throttle when I dialed in. And I guess the it sounds, it sounds like, I know that in many states, a lot of locations dropped off, you know, because of the reason codes and people are starting to look at that, is it? And I guess it's sort of a question of just, just the why behind that, or, or, am I? Am I understanding it correctly? Well?

Corey Christians

12:27

I mean, from my perspective, perspective, it's more of the why, the if, the when. I mean, we've basically received zero communication on on any of this. So I've got people looking to me because I'm running this project for Yavapai County, and I have no answers for them, and unfortunately, we're relying on the state to get those answers. And with this particular issue, I will say the communication has not been good. That being said during the challenge process and everything in bead before that, the ACA communication was top notch. We were included in every step of the process, and that was really great. We felt like a true partner when that was happening. So when it comes to these reason code fives, we're basically just trying to figure out what's the impact on our project, because we had 1000s and 1000s of locations, but now, when you look, I would say the bulk of them, the majority are under this reason, code five. So that could definitely impact our funding. Because if, right now, if we receive, I think we receive 50, $60 million in funding, not us, but the ISP ecom to provide service, receive that funding, but if it should receive the funding, but what if those areas that are under review and they're determined to be served now take away from that funding, which then impacts their ability to go forward with the entire project? So a lot of questions on that front, and I just don't have enough information to be able to answer them.

Randy Luening

14:02

And to two things. One is just nationwide. A lot of states, you know, the number of eligible locations dropped precipitously. And you know, some it's a little bit, but a lot of states, it's really, really a large number. And in most cases, you know the number change has occurred with without a lot of sort of narrative explanation. And right, right now, you know, you've got got all the reason codes, which I think will help explain it. So that's one thing. The other is, there have been some articles coming out talking about a an NTIA review based on cost quest, cost models of existing awards. And so broadband breakfast just had an article on that yesterday, and that is something that is potentially very consequential and and completely new. And so that that's that. So I've been, um, emailing and talking to people. Uh, behind the articles and behind the research to sort of try to understand what's happening. But that's a that's a brand new moving part in this equation that needs to be examined.

Corey Christians

15:13

Yeah, and we definitely want to be a partner in this. So we'll communicate with anybody. We'll write letters. We'll get we'll get ACO involved, the Arizona association of counties. We'll get the National Association of Counties. We'll get the county supervisors Association, the city county Managers Association. We all these folks. We can get involved in this process. We just need to know what it is we're actually getting involved in and what our argument is going to be. And unfortunately, we need additional information for unfortunately, we need additional information

Rory Conaway

15:44

before we can do that. Sorry, Randy.

Randy Luening

15:47

Go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, I don't know if Kelly is still online, but when I go back and look at the NTIA guidance for states, you know, it basically says any location that is currently served. You know, with with, I think a non subsidized provider should needs to be removed, but it doesn't give a lot of color in terms of, does that mean served at a qualifying rate? Does that mean, how do you certify that? So I don't know if there's, and I know the NTIA often does office hours and stuff like that for states, but I'm not sure if there's any other color on, on sort of the meaning of those few paragraphs in the guidance.

Mala Muralidharan

16:34

And I think we need to qualify and see who is making those decisions. Are they making those decisions based on what dark fiber they have in that area. Is it lit fiber? Are people getting the service there and that, and what speeds are they getting because it this is not just a Yavapai County thing. You know. It's happening all over the state, and probably in other states as well. But we really need to know how these decisions are being made and to understand why they're under code five.

Rory Conaway

17:11

We looked we were involved in in seven states, and I will tell you that when the NTIA came out and said, hey, you've got, you know, a week or two weeks depends on the state, somewhere between seven and 14 days to try to remove sites that you already cover, we we couldn't do it because the rules the requested amount of information that they were asking for. And this is not just Arizona. Arizona my hot button because we gave up on that in the middle of the night before they were due. But we could have removed 52,000 homes from the state list. We just couldn't get the information down fast enough the way the state was asking for it, and our opinion was, and they're not unique. Other states did the same thing, but the way they were asking for it, the quantity of information they wanted, was similar to what you want they wanted for fiber, and there was literally no chance, even with the size of our company, to get that information in. So we basically walked away from it for that reason. In other states, we found significant amount of errors or locations that were randomly added that weren't even houses, which are now under even deeper review from the IG in that particular state, that clearly there were some things going on in the back end, but, but the way that the state asked for the information to be provided to both remove areas that you already covered and to provide new service into those areas was not reasonable for the amount of for for what we could have done. And keeping in mind, we deliver services at one gig already in some areas, but we could not do all the paperwork that was necessary to make that happen, which was significant loss to the state, and it's going to end up wasting and over building a lot of areas that already have significant, you know, great services. So, you know, we're highly disappointed in the office for do for the way it was handled. Now, given the amount of time they had, I understand it, but they really needed to reach out to the wireless industry and get more information on how to do that properly. Okay, so I said my piece, because I've been holding that in for weeks since this started. Well, you're

Steve Peters

19:33

going to get a chance to say even more. Well, we're

Rory Conaway

19:37

going to go to a different topic. But Arizona wasn't unique in this. We were able to get some into some states that were more reasonable. Others, they were literally asking for the same information. They we had two and three years to put together for fiber deployments, but they wanted in seven to 10 days, and that just wasn't reasonable well.

Corey Christians

19:56

And I just have one final comment on this. Apologize. Using for kind of making this longer than then. I'm sure it was intended. But when we went through the process of challenging locations, we that was a comprehensive process for us, and there was an opportunity for the internet service provider to respond and and they did, and some many of what those responses were were deemed by the NTIA to not be correct, and those locations all went through, so there was due diligence that was done to verify these locations. And then in the 11th Hour, the internet service providers all of a sudden have an opportunity to say locations are served where local, community residents, citizens were not included in that process. So all the work we had done previously was then undone. I mean, it could be undone, and I don't even know what what evidence was submitted to over to override our evidence. I mean it, and I realize every situation here is going to be different, and I also believe but I'm not sure not all of these reason code fives are going to go through, some of them will not be deemed to be correct. But if what you're describing is seven days not having enough time to put evidence together, I'd like to know how so many of our locations are then under review, because I'm sure there were 10s of 1000s that had to been submitted with appropriate evidence within that seven day period. So I'd like to know how those other ISPs were able to make that happen.

Rory Conaway

21:37

They go. I can plan. I'll tell you, because I'm reviewing across multiple states, they just pulled it out of thin air, you know, because that was the only way that you could not legitimately submit your your covered areas accurately based on the information that was requested, the way that the state was asking for it. We they were asking, I'll tell you, this is, they were literally asking for Financials, full financials, um, projected out to 10 years. Now, who can provide a wireless projection, and I can't, business plans don't even go out 10 years. But that's what they were asking for. The best part was the ones who were asking for PES PE sign off reports in the States for any area that we challenged. And again, this wasn't every state. I don't think Arizona had this, but other states, and if anybody knows a professional engineer report looks like to get their sign off takes, you know, you've got to give them a lot of detail, because they're basically putting their reputation on this. There's almost no, there was no chance to get that in several states. That was, that was just one of the criteria, but the rest of them Corey. I mean, I could have made up stuff all day long, and it would have looked great when it got to the port and get under review. But that was literally, that was the only way we could have accurately gotten all the areas that we do cover with services at that the speed, you know, the 100 by 20 minimum, anybody else who tells you something different just flat out lying. It was too onerous for most ISPs, and most ISPs. I mean, heck, we brought in the best guy out there, Mark Goldstein, to help us out. We still couldn't do it. If that tells you anything, you know Mark, Mark worked 24 hours at one point. I mean, it was insane, and so Mark Goldstein couldn't do it. That tells you how hard those rules were. There's a

Steve Peters

23:34

little plug for you, Mark. I

Rory Conaway

23:36

feel so much better. I was thinking I was going to need counseling to get this off my chest, but yes, it was the one to two week period between the different states and the PE sign offs. And again, I go into 10 other things Corey that had the same issues. But it was not, it was not a fair ability for us to to do this accurately for the state of Arizona or any of the other states.

Corey Christians

24:05

I do acknowledge, I It really feels like I'm dumping on the ACA here, because I am, but, but, but I do acknowledge you guys were put in a very difficult situation with this benefit of the bargain round. It was really dumped on you, and they're asking you to undo or rethink or whatever you want to say months and months and months of work that of well thought out work that was previously done, and you're expected to just pivot in a matter of weeks. So I do get that as well. I'm I'm that is not lost on me. So thanks for your efforts all around even if I'm not happy with some of them, I do appreciate your

Steve Peters

24:47

efforts. Okay, we need to move on. We've gotten several things to cover this morning. But Corey, glad you were here and obviously shared some important information with us. So appreciate you being. Here this morning. So next up on the agenda, we're pleased to welcome Beth Neely back with the Arizona Department of Education to kind of give us an update. Many of you may remember that Michael Kendall was was attending our meetings. He is no longer with the department, and so Beth is the CIO probably wears a bunch of hats over at the Department of Education. So with that, Beth, I'm going to turn it over to you.

Beth Neeley

25:29

Okay, thanks. I've not been far. I've always been here, but Michael did leave the agency. I believe it was about mid August. So as I've been telling everybody, I'm kind of back in the E Rate saddle for a little bit. I hope again, I will be doing some recruitment and hoping to find someone that can manage the E Rate work. So I had a great conversation. First, I'd like to say with Steve prior to this meeting, and I'm going to work with Steve to come up with maybe some additional content that you guys might be interested in hearing from a D, E about I've always come here, you know, with the intention of talking about E Rate or any, you know, special construction projects that might be going on. So I will work with Steve, and we'll kind of figure that out on what maybe else I can bring to the table and the conversation here regarding what else we do within Ada, because obviously it's more than just broadband, but I'm just going to give you a quick update today. Yes, Michael is no longer with us. I am still listed as the state E Rate coordinator. So any E Rate questions related to the schools, anyone can reach out. Hopefully everybody knows that our email address is broadband@az.gov uh, Steve, I'll put that in the chat if you want to use that. So anybody with any E Rate questions broadband questions. Can always use that email box. I prefer that you do because we have more sets of eyes on it than just going straight to my email address. We're sitting on about $2.4 million still for special construction projects. Of course, that is not money that we give back. So we've got quite a bit of money left. Couple of the projects for funding your 25 have already completed. So couple groups already making progress and completing some of their special construction projects already this year. That's exciting. And I'm here. I'm available, um, helping with any E Rate questions that you guys might have. Of course, I always support Mala if it's library related, please. You know, always remember that that Mala is there for the library. A questions. But I work with Mala is necessary. Hi, Paul, yes. Hi.

Paul Ross

28:10

So when you talk about special construction projects, can you give a couple of examples of those? Because it sounds like if you got money available, why isn't? Why isn't it being used or applied for. But could you give a couple of examples?

Beth Neeley

28:24

Yeah, well, cat one, dark fiber, lit fiber. Remember, you guys, and I always used this disclaimer. I don't know a lot of the technical terms, right? So I like to think about from the street, someone professional can help me with the technical terms from the street to the building, not from within the building. So if you've got an E Rate school doing a project and you need any type of category one construction projects, the school can apply for the the E Rate discount, then the state matches that up to 10% of that discount for them as well. So I can also put some links in here, if you kind of want to read

Mala Muralidharan

29:12

about that. Let me, let me expand on what you're saying. Beth, and that is several years ago, E Rate actually put out the special construction, additional funding for areas that the ISPs were finding hard to reach, and especially if the libraries or schools were did not have the budget to pay for their share of the special construction funding. So just to keep it simple, if a library or a school had 80% NSLP discount, then they had to actually pay the 20% but under this special construction. Uh, project, they said, USAC said that they would pay 10% if the state paid 10% or if the the library or school was able to pay the 10% so the library then had the special construction done at no cost to them. So if they if they were a 90% discount library, they paid, the state paid the additional 5% and USAC waived the 5% so it was again at no cost to the library or school. So this actually was a project to help reach hard to reach rural libraries and schools. So it's applicable only to libraries and schools. It has been used for a variety of reasons. I mean, purposes like from the point of presence that Beth was talking about to the school or library if already fiber existed in that rural area, but mainly it has been used we I actually worked with Milan to use it more collaboratively for schools and libraries together. So if there was a special construction going on for a particular school in that area. Made, I made sure that the libraries in that area also got on board and had, again, from that point of presence to the library, special construction

Paul Ross

31:32

done. Can the schools use it to connect a school to another school?

Mala Muralidharan

31:39

Yes, they can. Yep, yeah, they can. Yes, they can. Yeah.

Paul Ross

31:43

I'd like to talk offline a little bit about this, but thank you very much for answering the questions.

Beth Neeley

31:47

Yeah. And Paul, I put a couple links to Mala library site, and then to our broadband site. It's got some great information. You can go out and read, understand the program, understand what's available, defining cat one and how much is available. I think we're sitting on about 2.4 some, some, some, some dollars. Okay, I don't know it to the penny.

Paul Ross

32:09

No worries, no worries. Thanks very much. I'll follow up. You're welcome, right?

Mala Muralidharan

32:14

And this is a one time thing. It's not going to be offered by USAC again, but whatever money has been set aside can be utilized until it is fully gone.

Beth Neeley

32:28

And again, you'll see some good information on our site on kind of how we evaluate because, like Mala said, it is, it is to be geared towards the rural areas. But definitely read Mala site has got some awesome information. Our site, I hope we've been building it over the last year. It's got some great information and guidance, and yes, I'll send me an email if you'd like to schedule any conversation.

Steve Peters

32:55

Okay, Thank you Beth for being here today, and look forward to talking with you some more about, you know, your participation with us and giving us updates. Again, I knew there was so much stuff going on, Department of Education, good stuff that we just weren't hearing about. I get your email so I know about them, but a lot of people don't. So we appreciate you being here and willing to come give us more updates in the

Beth Neeley

33:19

future. Okay, and I hate to jump off, but I'm going to go back to CIO and today,

Steve Peters

33:25

no problem. Thank you for being here. Beth, bye. Guys. Appreciate it. Okay, so moving on. So Mala, you have anything else with the libraries?

Mala Muralidharan

33:41

Just wanted to add that let me get to the right place on my computer. Yes, here it is that E rate has been funded for about 42 million so far. That's approximately about 50% of what we had applied for. I'm sure there are a lot of applications. There are, I know lot of applications that have still not been funded. But E Rate funding happens in waves. They release a wave every week, sometimes in the middle of the week as well. If they have reviewed whatever they've reviewed during the week is released. The commitment is released. This is just a commitment. For those of you who have been following the E Rate process, it takes three years from the time you do an RFP to your application to getting the funding for one year. So we are currently in the process of working our way through billing cycle for 2024 the the year that ended, July, 3, June, 30. But we're also in the process of doing RFPs for 2025 and. Getting the applications ready to in 2025 March. They haven't announced what the date is. Usually the deadline for application is around March. So it is. It is a program that stretches over three years for a single year's funding cybersecurity pilot. Program that FCC had announced. September 15 is the deadline. The window closes for those who have been selected. There were 699 applicants that have that had been selected in the first round. The total amount available is $200 million and we are we'll wait to see how many applicants among the 699 actually apply for the amounts that are available. A little bit of disappointing news is that FCC has voted, is voting to reverse the hotspots and school bus Wi Fi eligibility from the E Rate funding process. This was started by Jessica Rosenworcel, put forth by her and hot spots were funded through the E Rate program. Book, mobile still get funding through the E Rate program, but school bus, Wi Fi, they somehow seem to be against it. And by pay, I mean Chairman Brendan car as well as it's a Ted Cruz initiative of saying that, you know, we don't have eyes on what's happening on the school bus, and it that FCC, like lacks the legal authority to spend funding outside of the school or library premise buildings, so that's why they are totally against this. But of course, there have been studies done and for arguments for it saying that the school bus is a property of the school children. Some of these children don't have access at home. The access is filtered. The rides are long, and they do need to occupy themselves productively during that time, it has increased the discipline in the school busses, and there's been a less turnover of bus drivers, less stress on them having their Wi Fi on the school bus. But it's almost certain that it's going to be turned down. It's not a question of if it's going to happen. It's a question of when is it going to happen. Another project deadline for September 15 is that Congress is seeking comments on USF, the Universal Service funding that that actually funds not only the E Rate program, but the high cost program, the Lifeline program and the Rural Health Program, the funding base for this is has been under discussion for the last couple of years, because the ISPs, ISPs contributions to this has been pretty high. It's over 30% so I think Steve, you had included the questions that they are asking us to look at. Have you in the in the last minutes, I think I've been seeing so many things. So I'm not quite sure

Steve Peters

38:38

that I was only going to ask Mala, but we do need to move on. Okay, yeah, sure. So a couple of things. There are a number of federal bills that are floating around. I've been trying to get a handle on what is and isn't and could be and couldn't be, and so I'm probably thinking next week, we're going to actually do another one of our what we know, what we think we know, what we don't know, because there's just a lot of stuff happening at the moment, but we do need to move on. But before we do that, I see our old friend is here. Mala Milan, you want to say hello, welcome. Glad you could join us this morning.

Milan Eaton

39:20

Hey, Steve, Hey, good to see you guys. Yeah, I'm busy, and today I had a few minutes that I would jump on and say hi and check in and just, I'm basically just listening in today.

Steve Peters

39:31

So most of you probably know that Mylan was the E Rate, I don't know, coordinator manager with the Department of Ed and you are now living where.

Milan Eaton

39:43

I'm now living in Jacksonville, Florida, but I spend, I still spend half my time in Arizona. So cool. Well, I still have a place in I still have a place in Arizona, but I bounce back and forth.

Steve Peters

39:57

Great. Well, good to see you. Milan. Thanks for joining us this morning. Me. Thanks, Steve, you bet. And so quickly we have a couple of quick announcements. Erin, you want to do a quickie announcement?

Erin Lorandos

40:09

Please? Yes, please. Hello everyone. Good morning. My name is Erin Lorandos. I am former of many things. Currently I'm here as me and my consulting group, the Plataea group. So part of that work is I have, I have a job here with Mission Telecom, who has come to the space and might be a name that folks recognize. They are hosting an event in October here in Arizona that I have permission to share with you all. I'm very excited about this. This is actually going to be part of a staff retreat for them, but they are having a panel discussion and reception on the 21st of October, which is a Tuesday, from three to 6pm here in Phoenix, at the Embassy Suites. And I'm going to drop a link with all this information. Don't worry. And the panel is really a conversation to restart the digital equity conversation. They want to learn about us here in Arizona, and they want to hear from the folks that are doing the work. So when you click into this link, you'll see some familiar names. Christy from Yavapai County is actually going to be on the panel, as well as Jared from AZ strut and a few other folks that you know who are either working with Mission telecom or doing amazing things in the digital equity space. And so the the audience is going to consist of people from mission, telecom, and hopefully people like you all who are, you know, doing this work here in Arizona. So I wanted to drop a link. Registration is pretty limited, as this is just kind of like a one little part of a bigger event. For them, they don't have an entire, you know, ballroom worth of 200 people space. So if you are interested in attending, I would encourage you to register soon. So take a look at that. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm helping facilitate, but I definitely don't have all the answers so I can, I can get those for you. I would also, if I can like to plug an event for the for for Aiden, the Arizona Digital Inclusion network. We are working with, with Kyla Williams Tate, who is a name known to some folks in this group. She is in the president's office in Cook County in Illinois, and she has a monthly web show that highlights people who are artists in the digital inclusion space. And we've decided to partner with her for a special event for digital inclusion week. It will be the Friday of digital inclusion week. There's going to be a special Arizona showcase, so if we have any visual artists, people who are writers, people who are creators in any way, shape or form, and would like to be involved in this nationally televised showcase, I would love To have you consider joining us there. I have another link for you. I'm just going to just spam the chat here with all of these links. This is a sign up form. We encourage people to be a part of this live, because there's a really great quality of, you know, back and forth conversation. I don't have it prepped here, but I'll grab a link to her webcast so that you can see kind of what it'll be like. But this is very special, because, yes, agreed, Kelly Paul absolutely needs to be a part of this 100% so what she usually does is has only like one or two artists in an hour long presentation. And we're hoping this to be many people from across Arizona and like shorter little bits. So take a look at that. Let me know if you have any questions on that. And then, last but not least, one more thing for the writers and library lovers in the room. Tomorrow afternoon, the library associations, Central Regional Rep is hosting a writer's workshop at the Prescott Valley Public Library. And so if you are a writer and you'd like to get together with other writers who also love libraries, I would encourage you to come to that and I will share that information momentarily as well. Alright, now I owe you at least two links, so let me know if there's any questions or anything else I can provide, and just happy to

Steve Peters

44:45

thanks Erin. Appreciate the update, and all that stuff will be included in my newsletter. And I also want to remind all of you, and I just remind, try to remind people all the time. Okay, so I just got a note from Rory. You that we've kind of running out of time for him to do a presentation today, so we'll plan to do that again next week. Rory, thank you. Sorry about that. So a couple of things are just a reminder that all the stuff that you heard about, all the links and stuff that you can as you know, I do send out the chat and and the video and everything after our meeting, but if you want any of those links that you heard about today that you can download the chat to your computer today. And so if you go to the chat and you go to the top, you'll see three ellipses, and you can click on that, and it says, download the chat. And you can go ahead and do that. So anyway, that's that's that. And then John Kelly, you have anything, any updates, or, I don't know if you're still online or not. I It looks like he may be gone. Lucy, are you here? Still here?

Lucy Howell

46:11

I am here, Steve and I will be very, very quick. So thank you for the opportunity. Just for those that don't know, my name is Lucy Howell. I'm the co founder and CEO of the force for Health Network. I have been co leading a task force on behalf of the AZ BSN focused on health and education. It is a bi weekly Task Force. We are We completed 10 sessions, which was more planning. And what do we want to do with this thing, and do we even need this thing? And so we have recently decided yes, and we have about four to five focus points that we will be implementing for the next 12 weeks, one of which will be an exciting kind of fit family force type of challenge, with a focus on digital connectivity in digital health literacy. We had a pretty cool meeting yesterday with Mala and happy to announce that the Douglas library, Sedona library, wachuca City Library. Now I think Corey is on with Yavapai. We met with Christy King about a week and a half ago. I believe she's in, but I don't want to be premature on that, but it's very, very interesting how even within just five rural libraries, you had five very different, distinct set of needs, distinct set of interest and distinct implementation routes. Not everything fits one whole, and so I'm just excited that that is one product coming out of the Arizona Digital Health and Education Task Force, or the ACBS and Health and Education Task Force. The focus points were, let's do something in the rural community that is replicable and scalable. And this is one of those things. The other focus was, let's do something to activate these health backpacks that got delivered to the libraries. Can we get something to possibly train or bring some resources to there so that they can actually be utilized as health hubs? And so we're kind of getting those in a couple different two birds with one stone type of deal. Another area of focus has been on accessibility, and the other area of focus has been launching what Erin was also referring to earlier this concept of a live broadcast. And so we were having some hesitations there, but now everything's working out, because we can just go ahead and schedule that first live, you know, and during October with National Digital Inclusion week, and we kind of can, like, wrap that all up. So they're bi weekly meetings, Thursdays from three to four. Everybody here is welcome. It's on a zoom, but we do go ahead and manage it within the force for health platform. So it's like a digital like a Facebook group and and Health Academy, and so it's nice and easy to keep notes there, and the today is going to be a critical meeting where we kind of finalize the badges that we'll be doing and launching for the October event. So welcome, anybody. I put the information, my phone number, my email, and then the link for the for the information is in the chat. Okay, same thing. Kelly or Mala, anybody.

Steve Peters

49:51

We need to move on because wants to do a quick commercial before he leaves, and he's gotta be out of here in about five minutes. So Rory.

Rory Conaway

50:00

Yeah, my apologies. I unfortunately, I'm going to share this real quick, just kind of give you idea what we're what we actually are going to cover, or what I'm planning on covering is, is basically what triad solutions is focused on for the next, you know, to start off with. And this is basically it is, you know, we built, we built an infrastructure for schools. And I've lost my my zoom here is we built an infrastructure for specifically to apply AI into schools. Schools that have have no IT departments, or have limited IT departments, or even the ones that have them don't have the don't have the resources they need to fully implement what they want to do. That's what we're going to cover on the presentation next week.

Steve Peters

50:50

So sounds great, Rory. Look forward to it, and I apologize that we kind of ran over today. Yeah. No worries. Obviously, have some important stuff to talk about. So so thank you for being understanding about

Rory Conaway

51:03

that, not a problem.

Steve Peters

51:07

Okay, well, I think we're done for today. Any any other announcements that people need to know about, going once, going twice? Okay, I'm going to stop recording. And if anybody wants to stay in kibbitz, you're welcome to do that. Thank you all.

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