May 15, 2025 AZBSN Digital Access Task Force Recording
5:03PM May 23, 2025
Speakers:
Steve Peters
Erin Lorandos
Paul Ross
Shereka Jackson
Mala Muralidharan
Lucy Howell
Fernando Roman
Traci Cox-Ortega
Maryanna Milton
Kelly Krusee
Reetika Dhawan
Jon Haass
Maryanna Milton
Joseph Sepp Sprietsma
Grace Tepper
Keywords:
Digital Equity Act
cybersecurity
broadband manager
legislative session
grant writer
BEAD updates
Digital Inclusion
cybersecurity summit
workforce development
wireless broadband
telehealth hubs
digital navigators
AI regulation
spectrum funding
cybersecurity education.
Okay, good morning, everybody. We're going to go ahead and jump in. We've had a little good change of agenda this morning. And Kelly and Erin, thanks for arranging have Nick here this morning. So we're, we're glad to welcome Nick Capozzi, our broadband manager, back again. He was here last week, and then lots of change since then. So Nick, I'm just going to turn it over to you and let you know have anything more to share? I assume you don't have, yeah. I mean,
the big update, obviously, we did receive that letter last Friday from US Commerce. So you know, at this point, we're still trying to assess what impacts that's going to mean for the state. But while we're doing that, the application window is closed for the Digital Equity capacity program on our website, you know what we'll say here, $16 million isn't a small amount of money. So you know it's it's difficult to backfill with any resources that the state has, and especially just during this time here, when we're right in the middle or towards the end, I hope, of the legislative session at the Capitol. So, I mean, we, I'm happy to take any questions on it right now, but that's kind of where we're at from the state side. Okay,
so that was quick and dirty. Any questions for Nick. So I get Nick, I don't know if you want to address this at this point about what's that you're going to be the situation with Erin, of course, is on this call soon. Hopefully she's going to still be around.
Yes, Erin still on the call, which means she's still employed with Arizona Commerce Authority. You know, we're working together to keep her on board. Obviously, her her skill set is is wide and strong, so she's going to bring value to our organization. So, you know, we're happy to keep her on right.
Okay, any questions? I'm sorry, go ahead.
I was just curious what an official because I know the newsletters go out from you guys quite often, and so will an official email go out in regards because I know when I was on the website the other day, it was still up, and I know things don't move as fast in government side. But just because my grant writer was going to start. And I was like, Hold on, let me get some more information before you start.
Yes, good question. So the website is updated as of last night, and we are going to send out some official communication today. Okay,
appreciate it. Thank you. Okay,
anything else we need to know at this point? Nick or yes, we well, there's still a lot we don't know, I guess
we I don't have any, Erin, I don't know if you wanted to jump in on anything.
No, that's it. Thank you.
Erin Kelly, you're, I think you're on too. Do you have anything you want to add?
No, on the the BEAD front, you know, things remain the same. So the application window remains opening on June 3, and we're moving forward with pre registration webinars this week and application webinars next week. The website has all those details that. So that's it on on my end, as far as the bead updates.
So So Kelly, Nick, I think I saw that it looks like the feds are going to delay any more changes to bead until at least June or July. Uh, last I saw Have you heard anything more about that?
So what I've heard from the assistant at the acting assistant secretary at NTIA, is that it will be weeks, not months, and you can count the weeks on your fingers, not your toes.
That's a great line and
weeks, but yeah, so that that's that's their official communication on time. Okay,
that's funny.
Okay, any other questions for Nick, Nick or Kelly or Erin? It's just too bad we're having to go through all this, but I guess that's the way life is which we're going to hear a little bit more about what's happening at the federal level this morning, as I said in my communication, the good, bad and ugly of what's going on at this point in time. So with that, I'm going to Nick thanks for dropping in. I know you got to got. To run. I don't know, Erin and Kelly, you may have to go also, but appreciate you guys being here this morning. All right, thanks, Steve and Erin, I sent you a note. If there's anything we can do personally or professionally to support you, please let us know.
I do appreciate that. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. Anyone on this call is welcome to and I welcome that very much. Thank you.
Yeah, well, you've been a longtime friend here, even before you came over to over at ACA. So just want you to know we were helping. We're behind you. Okay, so let's, let's move on. So we have a couple of folks who are joining us this morning to talk about what's happening, the good, bad and ugly of what's happening with at the federal level. And so glad to welcome grace. Tepper, Grace, good morning, and where's my other speaker this morning? Don't see her yet? I don't think so. Why don't we grace? Why don't we go ahead and get started with you, and then we'll see if our other presenter is going to join us this morning.
Absolutely. Thank you so much. Steve, do you want to introduce
yourself, grace and and spotlight you and there you go.
Um, yeah, I can introduce myself. My name is Grace. I'm from the Benton Institute for broadband and society. Um, seeing friends on this call. So that's that's lovely. Hope everyone is doing well and taking care of themselves during all this crazy news at the Met Institute. I'm, like I said, a writing associate, so a lot of my job is spent kind of looking at state and federal policy, breaking it down so anyone can learn about it. Advocate for it, advocate against it, I guess, if that's your point, yeah, I so when as all of these rulings are handed down, whether it's with the USF update, which should be the summer for a ruling on this case, or whether it's bead or da, we just try to stay afloat. Yet the most updated news out there. Well, y'all already heard about the Digital Equity Act. There's not much else that we know, either, but we are trying to compile resources on our site that might be helpful for people to learn about exactly what the Digital Equity Act is and whether it's constitutional and who it's there to serve, which really is everybody. So I can send some of those resources out as well, on bead, just to echo, yep, I think we're also under the understanding that new guidance will be very soon, and I will be counting on my fingers, not my toes, for Universal Service Fund The Supreme Court case ruling that should be this summer. And also related is the hot spot update that Senator Cruz led the Senate to vote C program by the Congressional Review Act. This was an extension of E Rate funding under universal service to provide hot spots outside of the school setting. Under cruises motion this and using the Congressional Review Act, they would get rid of the stipulation preventing people from using hot spots off of premises receiving the E Rate funds themselves. So this actually would end that program, and because they use the Congressional Review Act, it means that the FCC can't do something substantially similar in the future. So that's kind of the update there. I'm not sure exactly if the House has reviewed this,
but the Senate has voted on that stipulation. That's something else that we're keeping an eye on here at Benton.
Those are kind of my high level, I guess, points to provide. If anyone has any questions happy to answer. Oh, thank you. Some saw someone in the chat said that the house does not review until May 20. I think here at Benton, we're spending a lot of our time focusing on the Digital Equity Act, just trying to be as supportive as we can. I can send some of these resources, including an article that we sent out yesterday, just going over what it is and why we need it. Yes, that's right. Erin in the House Budget Reconciliation meeting, they shut down a measure to try to bring back the ECP. So immediately killed. Yes. They also talked about AI, right? Regulation for the States as part of the budget reconciliation that the house was reviewing this week, they supported a measure that would prevent the states from doing any regulation on AI for the next 10 years, and also would enable the federal government to take off the shelf AI platforms so not specifically designed for government to be used into government services. There was also a measure about opening funding up to spectrum, and we are also working on writing something about that that will be on our site tomorrow for a little bit more in depth for the budget reconciliation hearing. Does anyone have any questions? I do?
This is Tracy over here at TNT solutions. So I joined these because I help businesses with technology and telecom as a consultant, and I think it's important for me to know these things. And I have several non profits here in the valley, such as hard Museum and the Archdiocese of Phoenix that I work with. So when I'm listening to you, it sounds like some of the things you're saying could actually be beneficial for them and potentially impact them from some of the programs you had. So I'd like to connect with you, because I'm going to be meeting with her next week, and I like to share things like that with them. The second thing is, and I'm just throwing this out here, I don't know how many of you have heard of RSA, but they're a top cyber security conference platform and training certification platform. They meet in two places in the world, and they have one here in San Francisco on an annual basis. And I am certified through them for AI, data governance, generative AI and zero trust. And the only reason I mention this is if you start hearing these words a lot of times when we're unfamiliar to the techniques speak, it sounds kind of garbly. Or can you say that again? Or what exactly does that term mean? Like, AI hallucinations? What does that really mean, right? So I just want you guys to know that on one of these calls, if you have like terms and you want me to help explain them, or if I can be of a resource, I'm here to help. And if I don't know the answer, chances are somewhere in my network I can get it okay, because I think that's going to be really important as people are making decisions and moving forward, making sure they understand some of those little jargons, or the complete connection from a holistic standpoint of how it's integrating, especially with so many telecom companies saying we have AI, and because I work with so many different ones, that means different things to different ones. So when you talk about the state being able to open up, that really resonated with me, and I just really appreciate that, but I just wanted to throw that out there and make sure I'm tracking with you on letting my clients know about these programs and then just offering services to anybody has questions.
Tracy, I would love to connect with you, and I really appreciate that as someone who's always trying to learn more about exactly what the AI system ecosystem looks like. And also, I know as a lot of digital navigation programs and digital skills training programs are trying to integrate more artificial intelligence into their programs, I think it makes it particularly interesting for the Digital Equity field.
It does. And I just
want to tell you guys over and over and over, data governance, data governance, data governance, what that really means is rules and process. That's what that really means. And as long as you have those clearly defined you'll be fine.
One thing I think we all know, and there's several people on this call this morning who are actively engaged in cybersecurity issues. There's Sep there and John Haas and so forth, and that is a really important issue for us as we move ahead. Okay, Grace. Anything else, any other, any other questions for grace,
I think that's really all for me. Let me know. Anybody has any questions or, yeah, if there's any, you know, the bet Institute, we're trying to just share everything that's going on with the field all the time. So if there's any work that we are somehow missing, please send it my way. I'll put my email in the chat and appreciate y'all listening to me. Yeah, about this today?
Okay, thanks grace for being here. So we were expecting Amina to be here this morning, but apparently she has not been able to make it. So we'll just chart. We'll just charge ahead. Steve, yes, this
is Mala I just wanted to know if Grace could shed some light on Senator Mullins bill. I put that in the chat. I.
Yeah, I'm looking at
your comment in the chat right now.
I will say I think USF is maybe not my my in depth area of expertise. So other than the broad kind of timeline overview, I'm not sure if I could really give all that more than than what the Summary provides on this bill, but I'll definitely look into it, and if you want, I can send some resources out after this call.
That'd be great. It's very interesting because USF reforms was suggested a long time ago, almost 18 months ago, by Shelby, the school's health, libraries, broadband coalition, and some of those things are surfacing through Senator Mullins bill on lowering broadband costs for consumers act 2025 and here he is talking about Expanding the base of contributions from just the phone or landline phone providers to the things that we've been suggesting all along, you know, Netflix, Google and such other such mechanisms that he calls edge providers, and I'm not sure how and when it's going to come to the floor. It's being reviewed right now, so it's a ways away from coming through, but it would be interesting to see how that is that juxtaposes with the Supreme Court decision that's likely later in the summer, as you mentioned. So that's another thing to watch out for, because if we didn't have those USF reforms, then that puts paid to E Rate completely and the four other USF programs Absolutely.
Hey, any other questions or comments for grace. So Mala, this is a good transition. Anything? Any other things? There's so many things going on, and I know you're in the heart of a lot of this stuff. Do you have anything else that you want to share?
I'm going to share a couple of links in the chat right now. One is something that shall be put out as a fly in magazine. They had the fly in on in I don't remember the eight now it's also blended in one into the other. But it was a couple of weeks ago that they had the fly in to talk to Senate and House staff and the details of that they they actually put out this magazine to talk about both protecting USF as well as IMLS funding. The second link that I've put in there has examples and case studies on USF, talks about protecting the USF and how important it is. So it's really interesting reading for anyone interested, especially Benton, because you're so interested in a lot of things that are going on in this area. And the other good news that I wanted to share, among all of the other craziness that's happening is that Attorney General Mays, who sued the Trump administration for protecting libraries and museums funding through IMLS, they won that case. So this case talks about the administrative administration to stop dismantling these federal agencies that provide funding to crucial services, critical services to libraries, museums and small businesses and several others. It's not just libraries and museums that they were fighting for, but it's key to what we do. So I just wanted to bring that to this group that now we have to wait and see how, how that gets enacted, how it would get reinstated. But the good news is at least that, you know, she won her case.
You just took the words right on my mouth. Mala, so what's going to happen? What happens now with imla? And I guess we just have to wait and see. With a lot of
we have to just wait and see. We don't, you know, Humpty, Dumpty is broken, how he gets put together.
We need to figure it out,
one piece at a time.
Anything else? Mala,
no, that's all I have. Thank you.
Okay, well, let's, let's move on and so. Since we have a little time this morning, I'd like to do a couple of things. First of all, Reetika, if I can put you on the spot to just introduce yourself as we were talking earlier. We don't see you very often, but you're doing some really important workforce development work. So would you mind kind of just telling people a little more about you?
Thank you. Steve. Hi everyone. My name is Reetikaa, and I'm a CEO of entrepreneurial college and vice president over Workforce Program and healthcare program in Yuma, Arizona, Arizona, Western College. The work we are doing is we are working with we are the first one who created a fiber optic certificate, even the apprenticeship for fiber optics. And we have done more than 180 students go through that pipeline, and we use quest funding, if you are aware of it, at 100% covered free of cost. We have created, also other program like cybersecurity Pathway Program, and for cybersecurity, we are working with Fort net, and if you read I shared a few weeks ago, Google even have done study on us, and then with ASU and us are the two institution in Arizona which are Bringing the IT and the Digital Inclusion together in the state, moving forward, the maximum of number student trained in a in a professional IT support certificate was through us, strong dual credit pathway for our IT support. That's what we're doing, working on some other certification. And I saw Tracy was talking about AI. We are starting a new a center of future, where we going to have emerging technology, our director of AI. So anything you guys need, we will be happy to have a very stackable Fast Track credential to support all of you. Some other great stuff is coming. Love to give you guys to I know Ryan muri was here recently and with his team to come to our campus. We are doing cyber criminology as well, just not the cyber security piece for the companies, but also for the border security. How can we embed that? There's a huge need on that area as well. So we are working on those certification as well. Happy to add anything or meet with you anyway, wherever we can support on any kind of work. So great.
Thank you, Steve. Good. Thanks. Appreciate it.
So I would just like to add really quick how exciting that was to me, what she said. So I love that. And when you said the cyber criminology, my heart leaped with joy, because I've been part of data breaches where travelers insurance has brought me in. We have to go right into data forensics. I love that. I'm excited to see what you put together. That's wonderful.
We have a chief who retired from the border patrol, and he is helping us with creating all the curriculum. So it's amazing, and I'm not going to take a credit as all his work bringing all the expertise. So Dr, love to share with you once it's ready to get your feedback.
Oh, thank you. That's exciting.
Okay, great. So we're I'm going to pick up a little bit on the cyber security. Cybersecurity issue in just a minute. But Holly or Anthony, do either of you have anything more to regarding the State Library at this point?
Hearing nothing, I assume we're ready to move on. So in the last couple of weeks, I have been in touch with a number of people, the Center for the future of Arizona, the Center for the future with John Haas and several other people to explore the possibility of some kind of a cybersecurity grant using the Digital Inclusion money, which, of course, now is a mute issue, where waste for the time being, but we do have a lot of exciting stuff happening in cybersecurity in the state, and I'm hoping that we can continue the discussion about some collaborative effort regarding cybersecurity, particularly as it relates to some of the populations that we've been interested in. And so I'm going to ask John, I'm going to put you and step on the spot here a little bit and just kind of talk about what you guys are doing, and also to just kind of give people a little bit of a view of the kind of the collaboration that you guys already have going on with you and several other university of Arizona and others. So Seth, you want to start
well, John will probably reveal or. Least I will. I am no cybersecurity expert or, you know, have any major background in that. I really act as an intermediary, bringing people together and facilitating conversations and meetings. And so that's, that's kind of my role with Center for the future of Arizona. But John and I and a group have been meeting, I think, now for about a year and a half, maybe two years, pretty, pretty regularly. We're going to meet tomorrow. We've we took a month off just kind of sharing resources, events, initiatives and opportunities across the state, specifically around cyber security education. And it's K 12 and post secondary and and even you know folks from things happening in industry or statewide conferences, my focus area really is like trying to connect the dots between cybersecurity education opportunities, things like easy cyber initiative, boot camps, cyber patriots. All some really great work John has happening up in the in the Prescott area with with college students and community organizations. But, but statewide, you know, and down in Yuma, Pima County, really just looking for opportunities to connect the dots between, you know, k 12 post secondary non profits and cyber security education opportunities that are happening, just as an example this summer, thinking of you retika there at Arizona Western Manny Felix and his team from AZ cyber initiative are going to be doing a boot Camp for middle school, high school students. I think it's going to be the first one they've done in Yuma. And so that's an exciting, you know, opportunity to kind of create connections between the middle schools, high schools, Arizona, Western U of A, ASU, NAU, others that are in the cyberspace. And then we'll be doing one in Cochise County for the first time in Sierra Vista with Manny and his team, in a direct collaboration with Cochise College's early college program. And this is just, you know, kind of testing things out to see how we can build these kind of bridges between organizations that sometimes either don't know that they exist, or they just haven't been in communication with each other. So that's really my, my main goal. And again, just emphasize I do not have, you know, like a background in cyber security, you know, analytics or training. It's it really just as an intermediary and collaborator. And always love working with with John, and he's got amazing things happening up in Prescott, at the Center for the Future of Prescott, and also at Emory riddle and other other places. So that's kind of my, my, my, my two cents,
right? Take it away. Thanks. So John, you want to add? I'm sure you got lots to add about that.
Well, so yesterday was the, I think, 13th cybersecurity summit for the spring. And so there was a lot of good discussion there, including a talk about workforce development and how we're going to train the future, because, as most of you know, we have more jobs than we have qualified applicants. So we're trying to figure out, how do we have certificates and badges and training that doesn't require somebody to necessarily go and get a four year or a bachelor's or master's, however, we always caveat that by saying, if you want to advance, you need to get the good education, because it's always changing. So that's one of the both the good things and the bad things about cybersecurity and the the theme at this year's RSA conference was agentic, AI for cybersecurity. What the heck does that mean? So the idea is that maybe we can replace some of the less skilled work that SOC analysts, that's the security operations center does, and have it be done by machine learning, and then when an alert comes up, the human who is the only one that can really figure it out, because we don't have robots yet that can go around and hunt, but who knows, Maybe that's coming. So the important thing is that starting to tell people young and Cyber Patriot, which Sep, Sep mentioned, starts now in elementary school. It used to be high school only, and then it went to the middle school, and now it's in elementary school. So if you're not familiar with cyber. Patriot.org you can go there and learn about it. Every year they have the finals for the high school students in DC, and then that helps people learn about the industry, learn about the opportunity, because it's a big tent. You don't need to be a geek to be in cybersecurity. You can be a process. Person A proposal, person A planning there's lots of different areas that need that need help, and as we've seen, even though I think CISA was lost some of their funding.
John, you want to tell people what CISA is. Oh, CISA
is the Cybersecurity Information Agency that was stood up to try and look at critical infrastructure. Because, as we pointed out yesterday at the conference, we have some adversaries that are putting stress on our infrastructure, which means water, natural gas, electricity, things that kind of we need, and without those things, we would be in a position of being blackmailed by nation states, were we to come up against some big problem. So CISA, we have a regional we're part of the western region, Arizona, California, and Nevada. And there's 11 regions, I think, in the United States. And the challenge that we have is that there are at least four agencies in charge, quote, unquote, of cybersecurity in the US. And so if something happens, who are you going to call? So CISA tries to provide services for any public, state, local, tribal entity, including schools and libraries, to give them training software to be able to be more secure. And on their website, you can also see things for consumers. But of course, imagine you're just coming, just coming on to the network. Hey, Mr. 480-300-9561, mute yourself.
I just muted him.
Thank you. So it's an exciting time, because we're seeing them the emergence of an awareness, I think, of the need to train the human, the everyday user. They talk that in Arizona alone, we lost nearly 15, $15 million which doesn't sound like very much, but Arizona is not that big, and it was targeted about half of it to the older population that are just coming online, that are just learning about how to browse, and they get a phishing email that says, oh, wouldn't you like to invest in Bitcoin? Haven't you heard all about it? And then they sucker them in. So we need to train people. There's so much to talk about. I think, even if without the broadband, I think that this is an initiative worth investing in.
Yeah, thanks. John is Jerry still with CISA or not
our former State Rep? Yeah, no, I think that he's moved on. I met our new CISA rep at our workshop that we had in the fall, and I can't remember where Jerry went.
I knew he was going to be changing, but I didn't know where. I actually tried to reach him to kind of get an update on where he is and what's going on.
Yep.
So I just want to say a couple of things. So Sep and John. Thank you very much. And there is lots of folks who are doing cybersecurity, as you can all see. And again, many of those groups are meeting already collaboratively, but I have been in touch with them about what can we do to address the population of folks that we've been. Really interested in the new users. People are just getting the computer for the first time, and how do we help them? I mentioned this before several times that I created a cybersecurity Alliance back in the 80s to address the needs of small businesses, which I still think is an issue. Though, what we saw that there was a lot of people who had no idea about cybersecurity, what they should do, what the basics are, and all of that sort of thing. And we've been, I know many of you, we've been, we've talked about this to some degree in the past, but it's still a big issue for us, and so I'm hoping that even though we may not have the Digital Inclusion money, that we can still work on the collaborative with the organizations that Sep and John and others represent to figure out how we can more effectively address the cybersecurity needs of our organizations. So that's that. So anybody else have anything else that they want to Connor, good to see you. We haven't seen you in a while.
Good to see you as well. Yeah, happy to happy to be back. Just yeah, I'll introduce myself just real quick, give a brief update. I'm Connor Osgood. I'm the Ag tech program manager for the Yuma Center of Excellence for desert agriculture here in Yuma, Arizona. We're part of the University of Arizona's system down here in Yuma, as some of you may or may not be aware, we're building a very large scale wireless broadband system for agriculture down here we grow on about 200,000 acres of of land. Down here we produce about 90% of the United States winter vegetables. And so all of our farmers down here are very forward thinking, really charging hard into adopting a lot of novel technologies for agriculture, like robotics, drones, different informatics systems like sensor networks, decision support, software, AI, the whole whole spectrum of things that we've seen and haven't seen yet. So that system, it essentially piggybacks off of the middle mile system that we've that that allo has installed here in Yuma. It's going to be 10 gigabits per second to each tower. Let me see, since I've Yeah, and I haven't been here to these meetings in a while, since the last time that I've been to this meeting, I would like to just provide an update that we've increased the number of towers to our system from the 27 original towers that were in the original proposal, we're Now up to 34 the engineers that we've been working with have been hard at work doing their propagation maps, and we've had a lot of meetings moving moving tower locations around and so forth, to really ensure that everywhere in that intended coverage zone gets good, gets a good, good connection, so that we don't have gaps in our fields. The last thing I'll the last note of import that I have is recently, we had a bill that was signed by the governor SB 1661 that allows us to form a broadband service district authority for this project. So what that allows us to do is to essentially lease the towers, which are owned by Yuma County, form an authority so that the people, so that the people who are using this system, ie the farmers, the irrigation people, and everybody else involved in the ag industry, that they can be actively involved in the management decisions. They can contract out who the network operators are going to be, make decisions about what technologies are going to go on the tower, all that kind of stuff. So we are, yeah, I mean, busy, busy at work with that project. We're hoping, or we're optimistic that we're going to break ground late this fall on the first towers, with an intended completion of the whole project about two years following that. But yeah, a lot of progress on that front. So hopefully you'll hopefully you'll be hearing more from us about our wireless ag towers project
and Connor, I owe you a meeting with Caterpillar and Mary darling and some other folks, so they were all interested in talking with you. So I will try to get that, get that happening,
looking forward to it. That'd be a great conversation. Yeah, I'd be excited to to hear what they have to say. To share what about what we're doing.
Sounds good. Connor, are you going to be at the conference next week?
I could you share me more information?
Well, actually, that's a good segue to I was going to ask a couple of people. Maryanna since you've been actively involved in helping to plan this conference, if you want to kind of give people a quick update, the digital net Inclusion Conference next week here in Arizona, national conference, Mariana, do you want to just give people a quickie update?
Mariana, unmute, I'm very sorry my track pad is not in line, you know, with my fingers moving or something. Yeah, super excited. Next week, the conference starts Tuesday, through net inclusion, this will actually be, I believe, my sixth net Inclusion Conference, and it's the topics range from cyber security, digital navigators, all kinds of programming. And leaders from all over the country will be in attendance. So I will drop the registration. The registration is still open. It's going to be at Gila River, the wild horse pass Sheraton and yeah, just lots of networking and great sessions. We also have the site tours on Thursday following the conference. That's a an additional registration. People may not have seen that because it used to be part of the conference. So if you're interested in the site tours, there will be three busses going out to different sites. One tour is specifically Hilo River community. Another tour goes to ASU idea, a hive from idea, and I believe it's a library on that tour. And another tour goes to several active nonprofits, AZ strut that I'm part of Arizona students, recycling, use technology, also Chicanos Por La Causa and welcome to America Project, and a few more. So really excited about the conference, and I'll drop the registration link into the chat. Any questions,
are there any scholarships for attending at this time?
Wow, we did have scholarships. Gordon, I'm so sorry, and I did send an email to the organizers to ask recently if there were any more. Oh, and somebody else dropped the link. Thank you, John, yeah, so I will let you know, Gordon, if I hear anything else.
Okay, so if I'm not mistaken, Mariana, that there will be for at least some of the sessions that people will be able to participate online?
Yes, live streaming. Yeah. Let me find that link as well and send the it's a there's a YouTube channel set up for live streaming. So definitely, if you can't attend in person, you can see some of them are popular sessions live streamed.
Obviously, they can't live stream all of the breakout sessions, but the main presentations and so forth will be live streamed.
Yeah, yeah. They've chosen a variety already. They tell you exactly which ones are going to be live streamed.
Okay, any other information about the conference? So, Fernando, I see you got your hand up, and I was just about to pick on you anyway. You haven't seen you in a while.
Thank you, Mister Steve. No, I was following that SB, 1661, closely in the ledge through the legislature, and I wonder if, if Connor could share his contact information with me. I'll put mine in the chat. Like to discuss more about the technology, because there was some specific things that some of the people in the legislature were asking me regarding, and we could talk offline. But I think it's a good thing that, you know, Yuma is going to lead the way across the country in this technology, you know. So I wonder if we could share contact information, yep.
Can you tell Connor who you are, please? I
work, yeah, yeah, sorry. Fernando Roman, I work for the Communication Workers of America labor union we represent, you know, large internet service provider workers like AT and T Verizon, lumen, Frontier, Windstream, zipley, yeah. Call center workers, yeah. So you know, we've been following, we follow broadband legislation around the country, so
sounds good? Yeah. I'll shoot you my email. Thank you.
And Paul, you have your hand raised. I
do. We've got a program that we've been working on for a while that has now come to fruition.
Introduce yourself, please.
Yeah, certainly. Steve from Phoenix College, I'm the Associate Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and longtime participant in AZ BSN and involved in various projects
over the years. And he's done an amazing video, okay, every week,
until I do really version two. But anyway, what we've I'm also leading a grant right now that we got from the NTIA called Connecting minority communities. Now, part of that grant was to create a couple of new CCL certificates of completion. And so we've got two certificates that we've now finished creating. And unfortunately, due to the extreme timeline of the the grant and how we can get things put together. We're actually going to start having these two positions available to courses available starting this June. So I'm going to just share my screen very briefly to show you the outline of the program. I'm going to share. Probably I'll share the email, not the email, the website address, via Steve in the next probably today, hopefully will be done with our website to support it. But we're going to start in June one CCl, and it's going to go from June to December, and the second one is going to go from August to January. Basically, we've got our CCl, and when I share, I'll just share my screen right now, so you can see the structure of what we're talking about. There it is there. And you should be able to see the Yep, the program. Now, hopefully you can see that. But basically, it's two CCl. Each CCL has six credits in it. We're delivering the six credits as one credit courses, one credit per month, and basically it's being delivered in a format where we're offering it live online, two and a half hours per week for three weeks, and then a six and a half hour session on a Saturday. And that's has a lot more of their their hands on. So it's synchronous online, so it's not by it's not just by reading and writing that will be instructor led and mediated. And so we've got six courses in each of the CCLs. The first course there is digital and wireless technologies, and the second one is wireless optimization. Now the second course, primarily is a lot of the practical hands on looking at the actual technology. CBRs technology is also embedded into it, and also an opportunity to get their CPI certification as well for CBRs, and that's in the second one. The first one is really when you look at the courses intro, Intro to digital divide, digital literacy and access, wireless site surveys, infrastructure and planning while security. So there's a lot of opportunities here. And it is, there are two CCLs. They are full credit, and the eligibility is Arizona and the GPA there, but basically Arizona residency, and so this is available to anyone across Arizona. The best thing that I want to mention about it as well, because we are running it through the grant. The grant is actually going to help pay for the first 48 students who sign up to be able to undertake the program. And so 48 students will be grant funded, no tuition cost to be able to do this. And so I will send out a link via Steve. Either I'll send it to Steve either today or early tomorrow with how to access that information and be able to sign up for the program. But we're going to start the program this June, so in just a couple of weeks. So I know it's a rapid turnaround, but we are going to do some pretty heavy outreach in the next few days to try and get students to sign up for it, because this grant is got a limited timeline, and so it's taken quite a bit of work to get to this point, to write all the curriculum and prepare all the case studies and to document what's needed. So exciting, exciting opportunity here.
Great. Hey, Paul, if you could get that with a short description to me ASAP, since I'm going to be gone most of next week for the conference, that I want to get my newsletter out tomorrow with the latest so today, Steve, if you could send that to. The ASAP.
I greatly appreciate it. Any questions, anyone? Okay,
any questions. So, so Sep and John, let's talk offline. I'm thinking that you know you guys gave a quickie, quick and dirty overview, but there's, as you indicated, there's so much going on in the cybersecurity space that I would like to devote a good deal of time to talking more about, you know, who's doing what? I was actually trying to catch up with Ryan, because probably Ryan is into everything cybersecurity that's going on. Ryan is with the with home, with Arizona Homeland Security, but, but you guys with, particularly with the kind of the collaborative group that you got going on, it'd be really good to get a more in depth overview of who's doing what, and then talk about, where do we go from here, with with cybersecurity. So maybe not next week, obviously, which, by the way, no meeting next week, because many of us will be at the conference, so no meeting next week. Yay. I'm sorry, gotta get a little break from coming to do another newsletter right now. But anyway, we look forward to so I encourage you all. If you haven't registered yet for the conference, please do so ASAP, and we hope to see you all there. Okay, anybody have anything else that they want to share? Grace. Thank you for being here this morning. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me, isn't it fun to be able to track everything going on in Washington? What a wonderful time.
Okay, anybody have anything else that they want to share this morning?
Steve Mark, I don't think we've discussed Senate Bill 1322, in Arizona here today, we did discuss it at some length at ATC board yesterday, with some of the same people, but this was the bill that would move the Arizona broadband office from the commerce authority a quasi public agency under state control, directly at the Department of Administration. That Bill did eventually pass, both legislative houses go to the Governor at IC and the tech council took positions against the bill in the legislature, and then both of us by letter to the governor. The governor did veto that so that issue is settled for the session, and a win for those of us that believe the commerce authority, with its broader economic development focus and engagement outside of government, is the right place for the broadband office.
Thank you, Mark, I meant to bring that up earlier, so thanks for bringing that up. Lucy, do you want to say anything about where we are with our healthcare initiative?
We are just going along. We've had three sessions already with a small but mighty group. We're hyper focused on making Mala dream come true, which is kind of the telehealth hubs through the libraries, which a lot of that has to do with access funding and then prepping people to be able to actually help and facilitate that to focus on rural project success, scalability, led by Heather and we were recently joined by Gordon Fuller, that brings a focus on disabilities and access and the and Paul Ross actually joined us last time. And so yes, I think that even if it's a small group, when you show up, there's a lot to take away, a lot to contribute. And if you're there and you have an important objective, then we are trying to work as a team to really root out. Is this something we want to put action towards and see if we can actually impact the objective? So I think that we will have a very soft meeting. The next one is on May 20/22, which Mala reminded me yesterday during the board call, that that is the last day of the conference. But many of us won't be there, and it's too much of a gap, and there's too many things happening. So I'm going to be there. My partner, Rob's going to be there. And if anybody's not going to the conference, I encourage you to attend. So that would be May 22 I should probably pop that link into the uh. So I'll pop that link into the chat. And I think, Steve, I think just, I'm just going to say something, because there was some confusion. You know how you send out your weekly meeting and let until we get it up on the Arizona broadband site. I know Paul and Gordon had a little bit confusion. Where's that link? Where's that link? It is on my calendar, but maybe we send it out in advance when it's happening too, so it's in people's inboxes and then so I'll talk to you about that later.
Sounds good. And Lucy, do you have anything? We're going to be sharing a table with several other organizations here in Arizona who have been part of the planning team for the conference. And I'm going to have some AZ BSM flyers, which, by the way, if anybody would be willing to make about 50 copies of that flyer for me, I would greatly appreciate it. But if you have anything that you'd like to share, I'll put it on on our space, which is very limited space, by the way, but
that's actually an awesome offer. Thank you, because for you know, our little startup over here, $1,200 conference fee. I mean, I want to jump on it. I'm a conference junkie, but it's just it was a little hefty. So I'll go out there for the Arizona piece of it. But thank you. I will take you up on that. Get you some tickets. We can
work on that, Mariana, we can work on the on a cheaper $1,000 is not what you need to be paying for that conference. So if you still want to go, we can see if we can work that out. Mariana, do you know what the latest is with nbia and what they're trying to do to get people there,
I will try to get an update to people today. I haven't heard anything. We did have some scholarships that we announced probably a month ago, but they have been grabbed. Last I
looked at was $1,200 to attend, yeah,
but I think they may have
some arrangements. Maybe I will let I will let everybody know what I find out. Thank you.
Okay, anything else for today?
If that's the case, then the call will be canceled. I And stay tuned. Yeah,
okay, anything else for the good of the order this morning? Well, we'll see you all in a couple of weeks. Well, hopefully we'll see many of you at the conference next week, and if not, we'll see you online in a couple of weeks. Fernando, good to see you again. Been a long time.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. You bet. Thank
you. Have a great day. Thanks everybody.
Take care.
Okay.
Bye. Now. Mike Rorbach, good to see you. Thank you. Yep, good to be able to listen in for the first time. Yeah, so I'm sorry if you've had some problem getting in, but it looks like you got in today. Finally figured out the technology. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, so Erin, good to see you, like I said, anything we can do to help support you? I don't know if you can say anything yet about what's going to happen and what's going to happen with you, and we obviously want to make sure that you're hanging around. So
