Welcome, everybody. Glad to have you here today. Do we have anybody new who's on this morning Iwas expecting a few people to join us. Just a reminder, if you haven't done so please go to our database and fill out the contact form. So we have your contact information really helps to have phone numbers and email and all that sort of stuff. So just to jump in, right into the program here. So as you know, we were scheduled to have Sandip here this morning, and i just got a text from him, that he had a family issue came up, and will not be able to join us today. But just as good, Karen, just as not second string, just as good. Karen Ziegler is here again with us. And she's gonna give us an update on what's going on with the broadband office and Bead and digital equity planning and all that kind of good stuff. So Karen, I'm gonna just turn it over to you.
Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it. So again, as Sandip apologizes he had a family issue this morning and wasn't able to attend. So I will do my best to kind of capture what he had intended to talk about today. So as we've reported, before, we are in the midst of all of the planning for BEAD and digital equity, the digital equity plan is being derived being drafted right now. And we are expecting a draft for review next week. And then you know, there's a volume of information that we have to, you know, read through and get that ready for publication for public comments. We are expecting to release that for public comment sometime mid October. But I do want to mention that ACA has submitted an extension request that has not been approved at this point. So we are not going to, you know, we're not going to update that timeline until we actually get the approval from NTIA. You know, as you know, we've had a little bit of staff change over at ACA. And so we just want to make sure that we do a really good job, you know, with this digital equity plan in coordination with the governor's office and the digital equity Institute. So we get the best document that we can for Arizona. So, as far as, you know, digital equity, we also have that position posted, I believe it's posted on Indeed, and I think Steve has shared that with all of you. So please, if you know people that are interested, have them, you know, submit, resume via you know,
Karen and Sandip for begging.
I am pleased I am doing my best to kind of fill in that area. I'm the first to admit I do not have you know, that background. And so it's such an important role, you know, in all of this broadband deployment, so we really want to get someone good on board, you know, to help and it isn't just for the planning processes, since long term for, you know, the duration of all the work, you know, that we're going to be doing. So that's digital equity. As far as the bead program, we have posted the five year plan. So we've got that task out of the way. And now we are fully engulfed in what we call the initial proposal Volume One and Volume Two, Volume One is the challenge process that we are going to release for public comment first. That hopefully will be the first part of October. Both Volume One and Volume Two are due December 27. So both require a 30 day comment period. So we're going to stagger Volume One and Volume Two, just to make sure that you know, we don't overload you and us as far as getting those documents together. Volume One has a set as the challenge process, but it also includes a list of community anchor institutions. Sandip wanted me to to ask all of you, if you have community anchor institution list that you utilize in your organizations. We would love to get a copy of that List, what we're doing is compiling these lists from all these different sources, duplicating it and you know, categorizing them the way NTIA has defined community anchor institutions. So I pulled up from the NOFO, a community anchor institution is defined as an entity, such as a school library, health clinic, health center, hospital or other medical provider, public safety entity, institution of higher education, public housing organization, community support organization that facilitates greater use of broadband service by vulnerable populations. And then it goes on to describe the vulnerable populations. So it was what we're calling covered populations. So so that is the list that we're looking for, if you have one, and are willing to share that, if you could send it to broadband@azcommerce.com, I will share that in the chat or Steve can share that with you. And just go ahead and, and send those list through, if you have them by name, address and type, that would be great. If you don't have all the information, that's fine, please just send it in anyway. And then we'll you know, sort through it and add it to the greater list. So we want to caution people, though, that the bead programming equires us to prioritize unserved and underserved first, once those definitions are covered through the bead funding, then if there's additional resources available, then we will take a look at the funding the community anchor institutions that don't currently receive one gig, or where one gig of service is not available that we clarify that. So, as we all know, you know, the 993 million is a lot of money, but it's not likely to cover everything with fiber to every, you know, premise, including community anchor institutions. So there's a lot of work that's going to happen with the data analysis and the mapping to determine how best to distribute, you know, the funding. But the first step is to capture the community anchor institution lists that we know what we're dealing with. And then we'll take that data and do the financial analysis from there.
Karen, interrupt for a second Mala she's got her hand up? And then also, I believe in the NOFO, there was a list of anchor institutions that are eligible, and I think Sandip was going to send that to me. And then if you if you could, then I'll send it out to to the taskforce,
I will do that. Yes, it is. That's the list I just read off. But I'll certainly send that to you. So you can share that. Mala. Did you have a question?
Yes, Karen. I was on a webinar where they mentioned that they, that community anchor institutions, they listed even a pharmaceutical pharmacy in a Target store, for example, that they you know, they made a list of those institutions, and those pharmacies as anchor institutions, because they served, I know. And then tutoring organizations, you know, they're like, magnesium and Kumaun, and other places like that. And they talked about apartment complexes, not just low cost housing, and Boys and Girls Clubs, senior citizen centers, and all of those. So I'm wondering, are we using those? Are we collecting those as well?
So that's a really great question, Mala. And it kind of goes back to what I was saying, you know, I just want to caution that just because we put this list together does not guarantee funding for or, you know, providing fibre broadband to these locations. It is a compilation of a list so we understand what we have in the state. So then we can make some decisions on if there's resources available, you know, identifying which ones don't have a gig service today and then seeing what we can fund. You know, like you said, the main community anchor institutions are defined as schools, libraries, you know, health, public safety, police, fire, you know, those kinds of things. And so, you got to get through all of those the ones that you have described There's a sentence in the NOFO that says, an eligible entity may propose to NTIA that any additional types of institutions should qualify as a community anchor institution within the entity's territory. So that's pretty broad. And I think maybe the, the institutions that you are describing may fall under that category. To be honest, I'm not sure if Arizona is going to have the resources to go that deep, you know, with that said, if there's only one particular organization in a community that's able to provide, you know, greater use of broadband service, which is the definition, then we probably need to take a look at it. But, like the pharmacy and target, I don't think that that was designed to provide broadband to vulnerable populations, and you know, that greater? So, you know, it's, it's hard, but some states will maybe define it that way. That's the whole purpose of gathering the list.
That's it, and I entirely agree with you, you know, because if it's a pharmacy in a Target, somewhere in a rural area, then it could be, you know, defined that way, but not, you know, not Chandler or Tempe or something. And the pharmacy, is there today, gone tomorrow, it's always there and in the same location.
Yeah. I'm sorry, go ahead. No,
I just want didn't want us to spread ourselves too thin, you know, trying to do this, but at the same time, if we're laying fiber, and it is on the way in, then maybe it could be a point of presence from where it can they can draw later, you know, whatever the options are. But I just want to know, at this stage, are we collecting even that kind of data?
If, if an entity has the data and wants to submit it, I would say go ahead, I wouldn't. I wouldn't encourage you to go out and and list every pharmacy that's in your community. You know, it's a whole lot of work that I don't know would be, you know, very useful. Cindy has her hand up. Let me call in Cindy and see if she's got something to add.
Just actually a point of reference, from information I believe I got from Mala Mala. Did you say that only two libraries in the state have gigs service?
i Yes, I think that is true, but I'd verify it now. You know, I think that was true. When I checked the last time that was
just as a point of reference, just just for the to understand how many places have really level to have gig service. That's two libraries out of the whole out of the whole state is. So that just gives you an idea how uncommon it is.
It's the affordability, not just the availability, right? Yeah, right. Well, yeah,
I can take on that from the city of Phoenix lens. No, none of our facilities have gig.
Let me clarify that there's a difference between availability and affordability. So the NOFO says available. So if it's available, and just not affordable, that's not going to qualify for a bead.
That's true. That's true. Because again, it for schools and libraries, like Sharika pointed out, the schools don't have it most not none of them have it. The reason is also because they cannot afford their share. After eat, it pays for the restaurant, so they will not subscribe to it.
And I'd seen Nicole posted the definition in the chat. Thank you, Nicole. And Nicole, do you have anything to add to? To this?
Yeah, Karen, I really appreciate your through understanding. And you know, especially those some of those tricky areas, it is about availability of service. So even if, even if it's not subscribed by the school or library, if, if that service is available, then it's not eligible in that case. And as you can see, the the NOFO was pretty expansive in terms of what types of entities are already included. So I think there's some confusion because states do have the opportunity to make the case for other types of anchor institutions that are not included on this list already. And that's where, you know, discussions around like, where might the broader use of broadband be facilitated? In a pharmacy or basketball court or you know, places where people gather and make use of the internet, but of course, the state so the state can consider all of that, and stakeholders are welcome. But you have to have justified reasoning. So you can't, as a blanket, say, every single Minute Clinic in CVS is an anchor institution, you'd also have to be specifically defining which locations confirming their level of broadband availability, and making the justification about, you know, maybe that CVS is the only location in town that could provide free Wi Fi, that's more of a case then, by virtue of the fact that it's a CVS with Wi Fi. So it's, it's a pretty lengthy task, but I'm just hoping that we can, we can have some clarification around it.
Yeah, thank you, Karen, and, and Nicole. So a lot of times when we talk about anchor anchor institutions we talk about To and Through. So is that part of looking at these anchor institutions is who can actually provide, it's not just connecting those organizations, but how they're going to jam and will serve their communities.
Well, so BEAD is already prioritizing at the household level. So the the model of using funds to connect that anchor institution and then pulling that out to households, it's a little bit reversed in terms of the prioritization of BEAD already, but in the initial proposal, the state has to have a plan for connecting, you know, 100% coverage, using bead funds and otherwise and getting creative. So we are going to see, I don't know if the state is going to adopt the language to and through, because they are already on the hook for the household level. But we do have to see a plan for 100%. Connectivity.
Any other questions? So any other questions for Karen?
So if I can just follow up a little bit, you know, with that? So like I said, we're asking if you have a list, you know, to please, you know, submit them. We have a contractor that is going to assist with identifying, you know, the level of service that's available. So if you have it great if you don't, that's okay. I think there is a template, I'm going to try to track that down. And then Steve, I can send it to you if someone doesn't have a format, you know, just send that in. That would be great. But again, like I said, I can't stress enough that just because this, that the list is compiled does not guarantee, you know that that is the definition that Arizona is going to us and that that will relate in, you know, funding, you know, for that organization. It's just a, you know, another example is Facebook, faith based communities. There are that's just a massive list. And you know, that alone would probably burn up all of the money. You know, that's available, and as Nikolas said, and we've said several times the priority is the address level residential, unserved and underserved. We have to do that first before we go to the next year.
John, you have your hand up?
Do Thank you, Steve. Thanks, Karen. I saw a LinkedIn post that flew by and I didn't grab the information. Can you tell us a little bit more about the governor's Interagency Council on broadband and the various categories of things that the different agencies are going to be attacking? Or is that within your billet?
I can give you a yes, I can give you some information. Let me pull up the slides. So the governor's office has convened and interagency and community broadband Advisory Council their first meeting was on Monday, and not a lot of action at that first meeting other than, you know, introductions and try and just, you know, giving an update on the planning process and then talking about some workgroups and asking, you know, members to identify the workgroups that they're interested in participating in. So the council is going to meet quarterly. But the intent is for those workgroups to meet more often, and then to, you know, provide, you know that that feedback to the governor's office and ACA, so let me pull up the workgroups here.
Karen, you have some slide that you want to share?
Oh, Um, I can I have to? Yeah, like, I was just gonna read the workgroups off real quick and I can probably put them in the chat. And these workgroups may change. That was something that was offered either to the council, do these workgroups work for you? Or is there you know, additional workgroups that members may want to get involved in. So the first one is infrastructure and permitting. The second one is mapping. The third one is digital inclusion. And then the fourth one is affordability. The fifth one is workforce. And then the sixth one is outreach. So those are the proposed workgroups at this time. And so like I said, their first meeting was Monday, so I don't have a whole lot more to report. But that is I don't, I don't think there's a date set for the second meeting yet. But they will be quarterly. John, Was that helpful? Or did you have it is,
I think, if I can, if I can go through my LinkedIn feed quickly enough, there was somebody posted pictures of some of the slides, and I saw that plus, I ran into the director of OEO, who I think has a responsibility for the workforce piece. And I think so I think there's plenty of work that this group has done to contribute to this baseline and maybe in the future will continue to contribute to it. So that's a good opportunity.
John I actually sent to Karen and to Sandip, the link to the document that we did back in 2020. is, you know, that provides a good framework. Obviously, lots have changed since then, but still provides a great framework that may be helpful to that task force planning.
Yes, Steve, I was just gonna mention, I did forward that to our, our partners, you know, so they can review it. And you know, just make, you know, references back to that document, just like we did with the five year plan. It's just acknowledging some of the work that was done in the past, and then, you know, either building on that or, you know, using that going forward, so that document has been shared.
Right. Thank you. Any other questions for Karen. So a couple of quick things. And then Nicole, if you have anything else that you want to add, but the BEAD plan is on the ACA website, I've shared that link. And you're welcome to provide input. Secondly, having conversations with Sadip and Karen, that I would like for this taskforce to host probably later, maybe October, a couple of sessions, a couple of sessions, where we can actually not outside of the Monday meeting, because we just don't have the time for that. And maybe actually even a two hour meeting, where we actually go through in detail what's in the BEAD plan, and digital equity, and an opportunity for people to provide input. So I'm not thinking a webinar, webinars, just presentations are where the real opportunity for people to share information and ask questions and so forth. So if anybody would like to help me plan, and again, that will be in conjunction with AZBSN, broadband office, and any others of course the State Library and any other organizations that want to help and of course, to promote that and we want to promote it as widely as possible. So just wanted to mention that. Okay, any other questions or comments?
That Steve, when you mentioned the sessions, there's different versions of these the like the, as Karen is saying, the initial proposal is not going to be ready till December 27. I don't know if you're talking about reviewing the five year plan or getting into this initial proposal and then the digital equity plan again, she says the earliest it'll be available is mid October, it may be delayed if they get an extension. So you're gonna have to, you know, think about what timeframe you're looking at.
So Henry, all of these documents that we talked about how the public comment period before the actual submission. So like the initial proposal, we talked about volume one and volume two. The estimated date for the public comment period is October for volume one and November for volume two. Again, we are just starting to put that timeline, you know, together. But that's that's our estimate at this point. The plan is actually due December 27. But we have to by NTA requirements do that public comment period.
Oh, right. I forgot about that. That's right. Okay.
digital equity plan as well, you know, there has to be a 30 day public comment period. Right now, you know, our target date is October 16. If that extension is approved, we may push that back a little bit, just to ensure that, you know, we have, you know, coordinated, you know, all of those resources that we need to get into that plan. But, yeah, well, I
guess what I'm saying, though, generally, is Karen, you probably should coordinate with Steve, but what the ideal time is to have these sessions to provide?
That's a really good point.
Yeah, well, we'll get together and kind of map out what, what the timeframe is to do these sessions, and and what we should include when so but good point. Thank you. Other questions or comments for Karen.
So I'm also going to put in the chat, the email address, if you have any lists that you want to forward to us.
And of course, also included in a follow up, email, follow up with a meeting. Okay, if nothing else, for Karen, Nicole, do you have anything else other than what you've already shared?
Sure. So on that point of trying to inform everybody around the complicated bid process, all these different dates, as we've mentioned, and as you know, as I've discussed with you, Steve, I'll also be hosting an information session, in my capacity as NTIA about all of the requirements involved in the initial proposal, and be available for, you know, some in depth discussion, we get a lot of all sorts of questions from many, many stakeholders. So just making myself available for this group and for all of the different types of partners that will be inviting, that will be sort of a standalone. But of course, it's always in partnership with with the broadband office and their aims as we get closer to public comment and beyond. So the purpose is as many intervention points and opportunities for for people to get educated in this process as possible. And I'm certainly coordinating with Sandip and Karen, as we we plan more public outreach engagement with the office too. So there's going to be a lot of a lot more information. So hopefully, when you're all speaking with your communities and the people you work with, you'll feel very informed about how to line up these expectations and what's involved. So I just wanted to make that clear. I also posted in the chat, the, the spreadsheet template for the anchor institutions. If you are interested in compiling a dataset that you think the state may be missing, you're welcome to use this, this template. It's actually exactly what's required for the state to submit to NTIA. So that and I'm happy to talk offline about some of those columns, because they may not be applicable to everybody. So I also put my, my contact in there for you. Karen gave us an overview, I shared some updates from NTA. Yesterday at the APEC meeting, but I'll I'll go ahead and do a quick overview of that for this group. The no phone number two for NPAs tribal broadband connectivity program is open. And that's been posted, that window will close January 23. This is $1 billion in new funding from the infrastructure act that's going to funding broadband deployment programs for tribal governments, tribal colleges and tribal organizations. I don't see any of those representatives on the call, but certainly partnerships that are available or other ways to support some of those communities. That funding will also fund standalone broadband use and adoption pieces. So that was that's a little bit of a departure from no phone number one, but they can they can fund basically Digital Inclusion projects. The other difference is that standalone planning projects are no longer eligible as part of NOFO to because there will not be a no four three. So funding planning doesn't doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm also going to share link to the methodology for the bead high cost areas. And this is pretty important for this group. Well one because the this definition of high cost And of area actually, is was used in 10% of the allocation formula for the bead program. And so this is the explanation of how and TA made that decision. But also importantly for this group, these exact identified high cost areas are what the FCC is using for expanding the affordable connectivity $75 A month discount, it's the same, the both agencies have have coordinated in identifying and confirmed these groups. So that's of interest to this group. And I'm happy to, to chat more about that if if people have questions.
Yeah, Nicole, you might just want to clarify, I think most people probably know about the change in ACP and $75. Cost area, so you want to comment on that.
There are so households that are in located in these high cost areas, as identified by NTIA and confirmed by the FCC are now eligible for a $75 discount through ACP. Before that $75 was available for tribal households, and 30 $30 off for qualifying households. And now in that, with this expanded definition, it it increases it to more households, it's not a guarantee that they would get a full $75. But for as I understand new subscribers, the where that service is available at that tier can now qualify.
And, Nicole, if I can add for high cost areas, NTA has also said that those areas are not required to make a match. So for B, there's a 25% matching requirement. So when we take out those high cost areas that are no longer required to make a match, that kind of changes the funding structure that ACA was looking at. And so that's why it's so important to do the financial analysis of the the premises that are unserved and underserved and identify which ones are high cost, because we can't use that additional 25% match that will like stretch the dollars a little bit. So all of that work will be underway here as we develop, you know, this initial proposal.
Exactly, exactly. And more reason for everybody to get involved in the public comment period for the initial proposal as well. And, you know, for those who are interested, there's some interesting models from other states as well, who've began posting their drafts of volume one, we've seen, I think, one posted for volume two from the state of Virginia as well. So as you prepare to engage in Arizona's process, you can take a look at some of some of the they're they're all unapproved, but they are publicly posted. So you can kind of see what other states are considering.
You know, how many high cost locations are in Arizona out of? I'm just wondering, how do you get a handle on how big this is? And I know, the ACP piece program itself is they were talking about running out of funding by mid March, if you expand the subsidies, will that make it run out? Assume quite a bit faster. But, you know, what percent of the locations are high cost?
Henry, I don't have that data. I believe ACA does and but you make a really good point. You know, when you expand the availability of the ACP program, there's a limited amount of funding, but I know there is just a massive amount of work and advocacy being done today, you know, to extend that program and to, you know, increase the funding. So I think that's really important for everyone on this group to through whatever organizations that you're associated with to continue to advocate, you know, for that program.
Yeah, Henry, I don't know that I have the number of households at the ready, but I'm just going to post the allocation. So this is the percentage of those high cost areas proportionate to all states and territories that Arizona received. But it's not it's not the numbers. I'm gonna have to dig that up for you.
And this is Mark Goldstein, there is a company called ACA connects and they partner with a mapping company Cartesian. They have state by state, fairly detailed analysis of the beat allocations and the impact including estimated costs to service, unserved and underserved locations, I just posted the link to that whole collection and to the Arizona specific PDF deck on allocations. So some, some details there have been,
if I could call them thank you, Mark, for posting that. But just I just want to caution that ACA is doing their own analysis with software and using probably the same information that is available in this particular link, but providing much more detail because some of this national analysis really didn't take into consideration some of the uniqueness of states including Arizona with terrain and you know, different things. So it's a it's a good high level, you know, target of cost, but Arizona is going to do a very specific Arizona analysis. So that
understood, just it is something available now. But caution is recommended on that kind of source. Absolutely.
Yeah, that's, that's only for fiber deployments. Right mark. They're estimating what the cost is providing
right. And you're right high cost areas will have more flexibility depending how the state chooses to utilize it to allow or encourage wireless in licensed spectrum. There still remains the Bugaboo about wireless using unlicensed spectrum in the whole equation.
Okay, anything else? Or Karen or Nicole? If not, let's move on. So, Sharon, if I can put you on the spot? I see Sharon motiva I believe sharing your with EDA, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't seen you in a long time. Do you have anything you'd like to share with us? Or at least introduce yourself?
cheering you there. Okay, so moving on. So mom, I know you're gonna have an update in a little while. But you want to talk about the Google have Anna Gomez for the FCC.
Sorry, I was on mute and didn't realize that. It always happens right? At least one once on every call. There the news from FCC is that Anna Gomez had was confirmed as the fifth commissioner on September 7. The confirmation fills all fi commissioners seats for the first time in two years, and how to remember run through 2026. Of course, the fact is that this this could be short lived in there is a Democratic majority but this could be short lived. Because the Senate the Senate has to confirm Commissioner Starks who was the nomination will happen in January. And otherwise he left leave and then FCC was brought back to the to to split of Democrats and Republicans. And arguments is priority priorities. As mentioned in her Senate hearing, net neutrality that she's going to open that to open that up and that could take a long time to get get through but that is a priority for her school bus. Wi Fi is a priority again. That is also the that's been a priority for a while now. Waiting, discussion and voting ERate hotspots for the ECF program. There was some Republican opposition but this might move that forward. The cost of the program and at all that the funding of it is still to be addressed. And cybersecurity is also another priority. And hopefully, that pilot program that was proposed the 200 million pilot program that was proposed will go through. But there has been a lot of discussion on that saying, shorten the timeline, let's not make it a three year pilot program. Let's try over here. And make sure that whatever data we gather at that time can be reused quickly, because the need is now. So that's an A Gomez. Oh, there's one more thing that that that is a priority, but probably not going to be discussed. And that is the USF and that's a whole nother discussion. We'll talk about that when time permits, or when, when, when the agenda permits.
Okay. Thanks, Marla. Appreciate that. So a couple of other things. Just again, a reminder that the the broadband office is looking for a digital equity program manager. I've included the link in our announcements at this meeting and will begin after this meeting. Okay. Oh, just want to remind you about that. And let's see what else so So Kurt, and Mark, we want to talk about the tech Council. Smart City coming up next week.
March billion dollar Fireside Chat with Sandeep.
Right, I just posted what we have been posting the top level description. So this is the seventh year the tech Council has done a smart city and IoT event. It runs from one to 6pm. It is on site only hit ASU, Skysong and Scottsdale. But Kirk has made arrangements to capture the video from my Fireside Chat with Sandeep and we will make that available. In the days following next Tuesday's event. There is an AZ BSN discount code. So I believe the nominal attendance fee is $40. For Tech council members that does include a GIC board members and $55 for members of the public who are not tech council members, minus $10. For the discount code. Kirk is moderating one of the two panels, and now has information about the keynote. I querque. Want to give a little more color on that
or not.
Anyway, the program is up at the link I provided in registration from there. So Steve, are you manning a table at the event? Are you coming up?
I am coming up. I don't know if I'm adding a table. I haven't heard from Kirk if that's gonna happen or not so but I am planning to be there. And while we're while we're mentioning that it's a good opportunity since we do you know all of our meetings virtually. But it is a good opportunity for people to just come and meet other folks and particularly folks who have been participating in the task force and couldn't get to know each other personally. So I encourage you to to attend if for no other reason, besides my works, fireside chat and other kinds of things that I'd encourage you to to attend that conference. And I want to say one thing before I forget is that I do as you know, I do download and share the chat. But if you want any of the files that are in chat, and I will also download those and include make them available. But if you want those files, you can't get you can't get those from the chat once I download it. So if you want them you need to do that now and I will stay online for a while. And you can also save a chat to again I will do that and share the chat but if there's anything you want, you can download the chat and make sure that you download the files. Okay.
Thanks Steve and Mark and I did find that mute button finally TIM ROEMER is the keynote speaker Tim Romer is the past. Chief of homeland security for the state of Arizona has a long history in security ex CIA X Whitehouse x x x amazing guy, amazing speaker, and he will be delivering the keynote, a lot of a lot of security issues, obviously, with smart cities and IoT devices and the more devices we have, the more the more security issues. So it should be a great event. And I still don't have any feedback formally on a table for you, Steve. And I see, I see Elena in here asking about a table. Also, there's nothing formal on the registration. They sell sponsorships that are very pricey. But I'm still working on it.
Okay. Well, I'll wait to hear from you. Okay, anything else? Okay, so moving on. Mala Mala and Aaron Javi. Guys have things that you want to share with us, please. Molly, you want to start?
Oh, where do you want to start?
Whatever you wherever you want to start? I don't have much to share. But
yes, you know, I did share a lot yesterday with the ATI C. Meeting. One of this was the end of government. News. But also, I wanted to share a little bit about the USF us FSD Universal Service Fund. And that's the fund that is, that's the pot of gold from which ERate high cost program, the Lifeline program and rural health care programs are funded the EDID program, as you all know, funds, schools and libraries for their internet and connectivity equipment. The high cost program fund subsidizes the deployment and operating costs for telecom companies that seek to serve customers in rural parts of the US. The Lifeline program subsidy is the benefit program for low income customers. And it provides phone and internet services for $9.25 per month. That's the Lifeline program is very, very basic, but it does provide that service. The Rural Health Care Program subsidizes eligible healthcare providers like hospitals, community health centers, in the remote parts of the country that are there is that the whole the fund itself is in jeopardy because some conservative activists claim that it is unconstitutional. And it's a tax on the phone services, because it's the phone service providers that are collecting this money, the landline service providers that are collecting this subsidy money and paying it into the USF funds. And from the USF funds, it's distributed through these four channels, the contribution factor has risen remarkably in the last few years and the reason is because many of us are cutting back on our landline. So, the landline share is the contribution from us to that is decreasing. Hence, the contribution that the service providers have to make to the pot is increasing. So this is therefore of course they are fighting it and they are a big lobby against this. And there has been there was an appeal in the 11th circuit court and it was ruled against the judge ruled against the appeal. But now it's gone back to the Fifth and Sixth Circuit Courts where the appeal is being heard. Now, so the very existence of the USF program is under threat, and there is a lot of concern about it. Senator Doohan has voiced concerns of the financial stability of making the landline paid for for this service and once it's spread out, and USF Okay, that's your boss. That's the intern. Can you Oh
Teresa, you need to mute Teresa Gault mute
medically. Thank you Uh, let's go. Let's you want to go do the meeting together? Yeah. Okay.
Where's it trying to find her here? There we go. Okay.
Okay, so thank you. So US political had an article on the USF it's a really good article, and I'm going to post it in the chat for you to look at. And this, this is a really big concern right now, the very existence of this, this is a concern. And next we have to think about the contribution factor shall be is also done a report on the USF contribution reform. And I'll post that link, they then study and publish the study as well. And have good suggestions on improving the base of the contribution. Now, I'm not quite sure this is going to make it to the FCC. They're rather reluctant to take it up right now. Because it's so political and controversial. So I just want you to be aware that we're talking about all these universal service money and who knows how long it's going to exist. So back to USD, right. Oh, there's one more thing I wanted to mention. And that is, and probably Aaron would talk about it. more in detail. We do have an event coming up on September 21. At tuberosity. It is a telehealth event. It's Health Connect as the program is called. And, and we will have a demo of the equipment the tele telehealth equipment that we have, and a lot of other things. You know, vendors having the tables there, we are trying hard to get the lines, we're still working on it, to do a nice screening there, a dentist to come and do some dental checkups and screening. And the local health service providers also have a table that talks about their services. So back to you, Steve, or to Aaron, if you want to
elaborate Jamala Oh, Aaron, anything you want to share?
Yes. Thank you, Mala for talking about the Tuba City event. We're super excited about that. That's coming up on Thursday the 21st. And then following closely on its heels on Tuesday, the 26th. The following week, we are going to be supporting the Navajo County Library District which was one of the ACP outreach grant recipients with their first event they are hosting a community gathering where they will be sharing resources from the library as well as information about ACP. Their their tactic on the ACP outreach, I think is really unique. Because they are directly tying it to digital navigators who will pick up the digital literacy skills training and all of that directly with with the ACP signups. So we're really excited to be supporting the library district on that. Let's see what else. I'm not sure if I don't want to steal Elena's thunder talking about digital inclusion
week. But I'm also very excited about that. So I'm just really quickly going to mention
that we are we as in the State Library are providing some ideas around programming to our libraries for digital inclusion week through a programming kit that is linked on the Kinect Arizona website. And I'm happy to drop the link, if anyone would like to take a look at that. A couple of our partners in that work, of course, are also doing events and I'm off offering programming that week as well. And so soon we will have a list of all of those events through the Aden website as well. Oh, okay.
I will I will share that.
Thank you. And so those are the next kind of big things that are coming up. Any questions or comments around that? Otherwise, I will turn it over to Holly for anything else.
I think mama and Erin have it all covered. Thank you. So Aaron, Elena's gone cuz there's another meeting going on right now. So she had dropped off for that. So just FYI.
Yes, I saw her message. me let me just drop really quick. This is the link to the Digital Inclusion week page on Connect Arizona and if you scroll down, you'll see a link to download the programming kit. If anyone has difficulty with it. Let me know Oh, it is a Google Drive doc. And I know some folks sometimes have difficulty with Google Drive at their at their work. But so then we'll also have a list of all of the the events and whatnot, which will live on the Aden website soon.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. And Steven, in that light, I did post again in your caring now in your announcements for digital equity Institute's Digital Inclusion celebration. That's a virtual event on October 3 at 10am.
I didn't include that on that. So it was on my list of things if Mark, thank you.
One more thing, I'm sorry, just since Elena won't be able to share it herself. She is on the NDIA Planning Committee for National Academy for digital inclusion week. So if your organization does have any specific questions about how to engage, she would be a great resource for that.
Good. Thank you. Anything else? Dan? It's not here. So you guys have already shared anything you wanted to talk about regarding the telehealth projects. Already done. Okay. So Karina is not here today. Just FYI. That BLP office of the Arizona Department of Education has changed the Office of Digital Teaching and Learning to the Office of Educational Technology. And I don't want to say anything more about that. I'll wait. Hopefully, she'll be here in the next couple of weeks. And we'll be able to hear from her. So moving on. Cindy, do you want to talk about what's happening with Aiden?
Sure, like my camera. Sure. Um, so eight, eight in the Arizona Digital Inclusion network is we support and amplify and provide networking opportunities for community leaders interested in advancing digital inclusion within their communities. So if anyone would like to like to join us, we meet every other Thursday, and I can put my my email in the chat and you can ask me for the link to the meeting. I've also we've also got a website. And yeah, we're working on digital inclusion week supporting Digital Inclusion week. Programming, like Aaron talked about. And we're not doing anything specific ourselves, except for one event that we have engaged. A fellow who is a four h tech change maker from the Gallus, Arizona who has been doing great work working with older adults and digital literacy, Cooperative Extension and four h are really, really present in rural communities, including tribal lands across Arizona. So we're thinking, this pilot that the solid did was so successful, and we're thinking it makes a lot of sense to, to see what we can do to increase capacity perhaps for that, and I wanted him to have a chance to tell his story. So I sent that out via email to a lot of people, I think I sent it to the link to Steve so he can send it to this group. And like Aaron said, we will have a listing of all the Arizona offerings in for digital inclusion week, forthcoming on the website, the Aidan website. And that's about all I have for now. Okay,
thank you. I'm sorry, Michelle dropped off earlier. I wonder what's happening with the being without and we'll get her on at a future meeting. Yeah,
I think that makes sense.
Rory, I don't think you're here today, or he's not here today. So just a couple of things that Mark had mentioned already. There's a mention. So on November the second, there'll be the eighth annual cyber southwest symposium is going to be down here Tuesday in Tucson. At the science and tech park out here. You have a science and tech Park, down here in Tucson. I put the link information into the into my email and be a really good, really good event. The keynote is going to be Ryan Murray, who you probably all met with Homeland Security. So we got events free. And again, I put that information in the in my email announcement. And then Mark already mentioned the digital equity Institute celebrate Mission. Kirk, I know you want to say something about the Cytec Institute, stem and Innovation Summit. You still there? Okay. I'm sorry, go here,
save, I'm gonna go ahead and post that you've carried my announcement. Now in your chat for that stemmen Innovation Summit. I'm not sure if the there is a cost to attend that. And I'm not sure what that cost is because you have to go through the first parts of the registration to get to see the ticket pricing. That is at the Arizona science center for a full day. It's usually a rich program. And there is a link there for those that want to submit proposals and be a speaker of some sort at that event. They are open to speaking proposals encouraging them.
Thank you, Mark. Any other announcements? And sorry about
that, Steve, I was running around the ranch and couldn't find the mute button. Okay. But yeah, Mark, hit market it well. And we'll have a lot more information. Next week on that.
Yes, go ahead.
This is Mala. Yeah. Quick, I want to do a talk quickly about some conversations that I've been having with about cybersecurity. What you introduce Mark Kelly from fortnight, I think last ACBS, when are a couple of ACBS and ago. And he reached out about this, the security awareness training that they have. And they were willing to do that. And he mentioned in the in the meeting that they were willing to do that for school personnel. But now they've included library staff as well, to do it free. So this is, as the title says it security awareness training, they have a package. And that can be used by the staff to train again, to retrain others, it's on staying safe. Like, you know, being aware of weak passwords. And the difference between a weak password and a strong password. Phishing, how do you recognize bad actors multifactor, authentication and things like that. So it's a whole suite of training that they have available. I've also been looking around for other such training and merlot.org has some training, I'll put those links on the in the chat. Skills calm. commons.org also has some free training, and cast C A S T, all caps. cast.org also has trainings available. So you know, this is something that we need to talk about, see which ones are better, I have not had a chance to evaluate them. But I've only been looking around for trainings that we could put together as a part of as as preliminary work for the cybersecurity team that you are setting up. So
just Just a reminder that actually for about four weeks, we have presentations about cybersecurity and resources. So Sissa is offering excuse me, cybersecurity training, and a number of other organizations have presented to us, and they're all providing resources for free. So there's a lot of stuff out there, sort of out of your league to recreate the wheel. But I'm glad to hear that you followed up with working toward an app that hopefully they're going to be a benefit.
Right? Yeah, they were really excited about working with library staff and spreading, spreading the training. You know, and going deeper into the community to do the training. Right.
So, so the last thing I just wanted to remind you, and I've been encoding this or and a lot of our information. But if you're looking for funding for your organization or your community, that the Arizona Economic Recovery Center, grants resources is a great place to find both Funding Opportunity resources, and also too if your need to have help with with your planning, grant writing, etc, that they do have three resources available consultants that work for them. them correctly, or that they contract with. And so it's a great resource that really encourage you, you know, we're hearing about all this government funding, but there's a lot of other funding out there to support particularly smaller organizations, and particularly for digital equity and, and so forth. So I encourage you to check them out on a regular basis. And with that, anything else? Any other announcements that people have?
Yes, be that daddy, going back to the a grant you just mentioned? You may want to get on their website, they send out information about grants weekly. So that's a great source for grant information.
Yep. It's been a great source for grant information as Andy Sinclair, who sends me stuff all the time and I tried to get that included in our newsletter also. So thank you, Andy, for that. Sure thing. Anything else? Anything for the good of the order? Okay, so I'm gonna stop recording. And if anybody wants to stay online and kibitz for a few minutes, or else we're going to be be done for the day. I do want to cut it a little bit sharp because I'm going to try and jump on the on the legal cities and towns meeting that's going on right now.
