All righty, good. Hello, everybody. Welcome. So, before we get started, I just want to tell you, you just got to bear with me. I think those of you have been on the calls in the past. No, I've been suffering from long COVID for probably a year now, and have been having all kinds of related issues with that. So just bear with me here. So let's talk a little bit about the agenda today. First of all, thanks to our sponsors, actually, we need to re refresh our sponsors, but CareFirst healthplan Valley, the Sun United Way, Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, the Kajeet, Triad wireless and Karen Ziegler consulting services. And we do Miss Karen. Now she's had all kinds of health and family issues. So she has not been around much. And we do miss her. And hopefully, she'll be back. And do we have any new people joining us today? Chris, you've been here before, but you want to introduce yourself, since people probably don't know who you are.
I'm sure. Hello, everyone. It's Chris Johnson, recently retired from University of Arizona, where I was the director of the last thing I was the director of the Arizona where we shoot a name I forget the name of the program I taught him for 11 years. I was in Arizona. It's a technology program and had some other fancier title than that. And before that I was involved in getting the integrative learning center off off the ground. And before that, working with the College of Humanities for a number of years.
So as I was commenting earlier, Chris was an early pioneer and adopter of technology and education before most people knew what the hell that was. So he's been around for a long time. Okay, and we have anybody else new joining us today. If not, let's let's move on. So I don't believe Sandip is here. Nicole, I know you're online. You want to kind of give us an update, please.
Sure. Good afternoon, everybody. You know, it's pretty hot in Phoenix here. I have my fan going. Are you able to hear me okay? Yep. Okay.
Just Just introduce yourself. I know most people know who you are. But
sure, yep. Good afternoon. I'm Nicole Umayam. I'm the federal program officer with NTIA. And I support the bipartisan infrastructure projects on broadband and digital equity here in Arizona. I live in Phoenix. I really am passionate about this, this important responsibility to bring high speed affordable broadband to every single household in Arizona. It's been an interesting journey so far. I do get to support. In my role I support the broadband office in administering these project funds for both beed the broadband equity access and deployment program. And the digital Equity Act. And I support support a number of other NCAA broadband projects in the state as well. I wanted to just give an update to this group on a little bit on some Federal News and on the broadband office.
And Nicole, just FYI, Cindy, is also on the call and she's kind of
excellent. Maybe I'll switch my points around so I can hand off to Cindy. But this group may have seen the FCC released a federal funding map that shows different layers for different broadband project areas, including capital project plans. So I think I'll go ahead and drop that link in the chat when we're done with the updates. But that's a fantastic resource for those of you who are looking at what's coming down the line for your areas or, you know, you're interested in some of the fun or map projects and topics that we've had. There's also a broader guide from Nga on the internet for all sites that talks about different things. Federal funding for both digital equity and broadband that municipalities are eligible for as well as state entities. I'll go ahead and show that next. I did want to remark on the broadband office, they've actually been working in pretty close step with the governor's office on a lot of their stakeholder engagements. So that includes the tribal consultation that was held last Friday, in in partnership with the InterTribal Council with Arizona, with the governor's office and tribal relations. So that was a pretty strong partnership. And they'll continue to, you know, engage with different news, municipalities, counties, and other stakeholders with the governor's office. So that's, that's a great thing to see. And then, finally, I'll kind of queue this up for Cindy. The state is rolling out some of their in person and virtual meetings for stakeholder engagement. So we'll go ahead and put Cindy on the spot here to talk about some of those, because we've got a couple coming up in just a couple of two weeks.
Okay, yes. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, Nicole, anything else? Or any questions for Nicole before we turn it over to Cindy? Okay, going once, going twice. So Cindy, you're up? And again, would you introduce yourself, please?
Absolutely. I'm Cindy Hogan. I work with the Arizona Commerce Authority broadband office, and the Arizona digital equity program manager managing the digital Equity Act and the development of the digital equity plan for the state of Arizona. And let's see. So we have been meeting and planning and developing a listening tour throughout the state of Arizona, there's a lot of really key outreach that needs to happen as part of as part of both the bead program and the digital Equity Act programs. And so we are scheduling some listening sessions. The first one is happening in Flagstaff in June, on June 5, we did converse with the digital equity Institute is actually running is actually the contractor doing the digital equity plan for the state. They were instrumental in in pulling some this these outreach activities together, sponsored by the ACA. And they are they're doing they're actually collecting data as part of these community events. So they are and they have limited space in the halls and the rooms that they're that they're getting for these events. So we can't say they're open to all, if people have an interest in attending, they can contact myself, I'll put my email in the chat. And because they're very kind of, because their data collection, there's kind of a set of organizations and individuals that they're looking to speak with. So they don't want to have to have the the invitations be kind of overwhelmed. So we were asked to make that clear. And in what but what just for information. There'll be two sessions each day, I believe one of them will be for community members so that we can get lived experience of barriers that that individuals are experiencing. And then the other group will be community organizations that are working with the populations that we're trying to address in the digital equity act as an underserved population. So it's kind of a it's community listening, but it's also data collection, and there's kind of a prescribed way to do that best practice. So that's just explain how that's going. We're also holding monthly stakeholder table conversations, virtually, I believe Steve has the invitations for that and emailed them to this list. I will put the I will put again, put my email on the chat so that if you are interested in attending those they're every, every third Tuesday, I believe from three to four. And we're going to have topics that we discussed each month and we're going to put our heads together this week and kind of look at a way to get those those topics out established and out to you all. Um, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the tribal consults on Friday. It was a really good experience. I was really glad to see so many people there and hear the things that are going on on tribal on tribal lands. They're doing some really innovative things that that we wouldn't know about if we didn't have this outreach and engagement. So it's really, really critical. I just Just a note, I heard a gentleman speak from the the action, tribal community, they are, they have their own tribal refurbishing effort going on, where they're where they're taking in, older, you know, equipment that's that's aged out, and they're refurbishing it and selling it back to tribal members for $50. Ready to go. So we it's really exciting to hear how communities are dressing their own needs, and to get ideas and to kind of spread that enthusiasm around to make us all know that we can all be part of this thing and make a real difference in Arizona.
Cool. Exciting stuff.
Hey, Cindy? Yes, Rika.
Cindy, for the February or February? Where am I at? Um, for the June 5. The fifth? Can we send you organizations that we know of? Or how do you want
that time? Yeah, that would be fine. If you want to if you have an interest in attending, or if you think of an organization that you know, close by that that you think should be included? can certainly you can certainly contact me
because I'll be up there doing a stim event with their community center that services the south Flagstaff community, so I can definitely let them know. No kidding.
Great. Excellent.
Okay, any questions for Cindy? Okay, Mama, did you have something? I think so. Looks like you were okay. Yeah. I'm sorry.
No, I just said that. I was just going to add that. Yes, the tribal consult, although I couldn't attend it. I know. There is a lot going on. Not where you have been trying to get a meeting together, where we will talk about the tribal updates. So let's plan on doing that maybe another week from now. Not not the coming Monday, but the week after that. If you'd like then we can put some updates together both friend Cindy and from others who were on that call. And that would help us stay on top of what is happening in the tribal world.
Yeah, good. Good morrow, probably not that following week. I've got Craig Suttles scheduled for that following week, of course next week, and actually reminded me that we are not meeting next week, obviously. Because because of the holiday. Yes. Okay. Okay. But let's, let's talk some more. And I'll talk with, with Cindy and, and Nicole, about how we can best do that. Man, it's not going to be the big roundtable. They just did, but but we can get a better view of what's going on. Okay, so So before we move on to the agenda, I just want to remind you, if you haven't seen the notice that the agenda for today, instead of a presentation every once in a while, you know, we kind of do a roundtable sharing. And I know most of you kind of know each other at this point. But we do have some new folks and, and so forth. And so it's an opportunity for people to just tell people who they are what they do. And if they're looking for relationships, partnerships, or whatever, that that's an opportunity to do that. So we're going to in just a little while, I'm going to open that up. And you know, we're coming for I'm not looking for a big dog and pony show or anything else. And so you'll get a chance to either volunteer or volunteer you to share some information. So just giving you a heads up. Okay, moving on, I don't believe Aaron's on the call today or incar, Jeremy Jordan, I'm going to have to reach out to her about participating in this meeting. So moving on, Aaron, can you give us a little update on what's happening with the Medicaid and ACP campaigns and I know you've been doing a lot of work related to that. And I believe you have a workshop are coming up for your for the librarians. Yes,
that's correct. So I'm all first of all, do the ACP but because not much has changed. I agree should be starting to receive print material directly from the FCC with local contact information that was an exciting addition to the materials that they printed. That they can distribute directly in their spaces. And the local contact information that will point people to the Kinect Arizona digital navigators as well as to the digital equity Institute's. Up For help with with that, and then back to the change in Medicaid, of course, was at the beginning of April, the continuous enrollment process that was in place during the pandemic was no longer happening. And so, basically, what we're hoping to do, next week, we have, we have the 30th. Next week, Tuesday, we have a webinar, we're hosting Alan drew civic from the Children's Action Alliance, to kind of go over some of the changes and some resources for library staff. And so I can drop this information, if anyone is interested and able to share it with their networks, we would greatly appreciate it. It is meant, you know, we're saying it's for library staff. But really, it's for anyone who's providing high level information to, you know, potential customers or consumers who might be in a place where they have lost their benefits. And so it would be accessible for folks who are, you know, that high level information?
I did, I did include the information about that, in this meeting, and will again this week.
Fantastic, thank you so much for that, I do appreciate it. You know, it's been shared through our newsletter as well. And I know you know, it's it's hard to think past a holiday. So you never know, folks might just join us as well. But I joke but you know, there's so much going on and so many things so it is difficult, but we do have a few folks registered already. So that's fantastic. And of course our webinars are recorded and put up on the the State Library's YouTube channel as well so it'll be accessible after the fact as well. Um, so if anyone has
