Hey, good morning, everyone. Good to see you all today. Want to get started? We have a pretty interesting program today. Katie McCown who's going to be here? She won't be here till 830. And she's going to have to leave at nine. But it's really great to have her back. Again, this is probably, I think the third time that she's attended one of our meetings and provided input. But I think it's particularly important time to hear about what the resources that they have to help local organizations, local communities, with planning, so I'm not going to say any more about that right now. But I do want to make sure that we leave plenty of time for her to to do her presentation. So with that, we'll just jump into we have that well, Doc doc is back but we haven't heard from him for a while. So Doc, you want to introduce yourself?
Absolutely. Yeah, thank you, Steve. I'm Doc Wininger with Allo fiber. Doing businesses out of Arizona. In in Arizona. We're a fiber to the Prem provider, currently building in the city of Yuma, City of San Luis, Lake Havasu City, Kingman, will be going to the Somerton City Council meeting on December 19, to announce that we will also be beginning construction soon in Somerton have also in working on behalf of Yuma County to build about 140 mile middle mile network throughout rural Yuma county. And we'll manage and operate that on behalf of the Yuma County, who will own the network. That will be primarily for precision agriculture, as well as connecting areas such as San Luis Fortuna foothills in Somerton, we will be announcing after the first of the year, additional markets, probably close to half a dozen additional markets around the state of Arizona. So we're ubiquitous fiber to the home builder fiber to the premise builder, go into a community and build all schools, homes and businesses. So we're headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. We are 20 year old company. And have we have a couple 1000 customers now in Arizona as we build out our markets in Mojave, and Yuma county.
Awesome. Well, it's good to have you back back, hopefully, as much as time permits sounds like.
Yeah, I'm located in Phoenix. So. And I also have some responsibilities in Colorado and Nebraska. So I do quite a bit of traveling, but I am located here in Phoenix.
Great, thanks, Doc. Appreciate it. We have anybody else who is new or fairly new today.
Good morning, working like I was able to jump on a couple of calls with you guys last week. So just managing some competing schedules here. Black and White Consultancy, Senior Manager partner that handles all things on the technology and operations side of the world. Here. We have a small office that we're literally trying to put furniture in Phoenix and we are coming in to work with a few clients in the market space to assist with Digital Equity, not just for minority communities, but just working also with minority serving institutions. And then some nonprofit organizations that have a focus on trying to directly bring BEAD solutions to some overlooked communities. So we can be that voice for them. So I'm very happy to be here with you guys again, and I look forward to gaining wisdom and insight. And if you need anything if I'm not talking enough, just wave at me. And I'll chime back in
We'll get you back on at some future time, Ricky. But can you just talk a little bit more about when you say you're working with these organizations? What does that look like?
So our work with organizations starts with truly understanding how BEAD can be impactful not just to their communities or to their clients, but also starting with trying to track down the funding and helping them to show where the funding can be beneficial to their organizations until their communities. Some of those spaces involve organizations that support justice impacted individuals who are looking for higher education attainment that can help reduce recidivism, through education and workforce development. Some of those communities are also associated with MSI minority serving In institutions, some of the work we're doing in Alabama, working with minority serving institutions to help those SKUs meet schools and universities, as anchor points for communities, as most know, oftentimes HBCUs, HBCUs, PBIS, PVC, CS and Arizona who also has HSI and TBS, are normally located in places where you have a large population of low to moderate income. So if you look at the BEAD process and infrastructure, if you can empower anchor institutions like that, you can use them as a hub and spoke method to bring connectivity, whether it's temporarily using the school as a baseline, and then work out towards the community. Because sometimes we look at things from such a large, tactical perspective, with infrastructure, we're not looking at it from a true community perspective, because again, some of us are individuals like me, I don't live in the same place for the individuals I'm trying to serve. But I've grown up in this space, I have tenants in this space, and we work in that space. So I wanted to be that voice of reason when necessary, to try to help communities make sure that minority and just get I'm sorry, minority communities have a voice, and that we can get a little bit more granular here in the definition between served and unserved.
Great. So Ricky, are you nonprofit? Or are you a for profit organization?
No, we're a for profit organization. And we work heavily with municipalities, nonprofits, and other for profit organizations.
Well, you will be, I think, interested to hear from our presenter today about what they're doing, because I think there's intersections they do have and hire consultants, to help communities who don't have funding to be able to hire their consultants. So I think that might be an interesting relationship and partnerships
Definitely that's one of the projects that we took on here in Alabama, was working with a municipality that receives some what does it call entitlement city funding, and they literally get together with the county to help pay for the smaller cities so we can come in and consult on their behalf, because they didn't have anyone that can come in and help them understand how to even go and write their plans or how to tackle funding. So yes, I would look forward to this.
And that's exactly why we're having Katie here today. It's perfect timing with the both the BEAD and Digital Equity funding that's coming down the pike. So we need to move on Ricky. But we'll, we'll talk some more about we can collaborate with you. Thank you, Kelly. I see you're online. Good to see you. It's been a while how many 20 years or something?
indeed. Yeah. My name is Kelly Boan. And in a previous life, I was the western US business development person for a company called con Terrell Broadband. Charlotte, North Carolina. We built a lot of microwave and a lot of fiber in New Mexico, Arizona, California. Knew Steve from some activities around Tucson. We built a network for the amphitheater schools there. We also have real retail, and Nogales and I know I got bought out of the last ownership change at Conterra. Now back to being a consultant working with a company called geo links of cameras to California. There are a fixed wireless provider doing high bandwidth and for residential small office home office. They also have a bunch of hard off holdings in the state of Arizona, New Mexico, not sorry, not in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California. That's what I'm working with is trying to monetize and develop those art off. holdings. They have an Arizona we've got one up on the Navajo Nation, we're working with cell one, to try and do something with that we've got another one on the Tohono O'odham Nation. We got to possibly yaki Indian Village, and I'm sure we're gonna do that. We have a rather large chunk of nothing Northlight 40, between i 40, and the Grand Canyon, which may get given back to the FCC because there's nobody living there. And we've got some animals around Phoenix and Tucson. So I've been hiring along with another couple of people to try and monetize those and figure out what we can do to help out get some Broadband in different places in Arizona and satisfy our requirements while we're at it. That's what I'm doing here, Steve. Okay.
Thanks, Kelly. Good to see you again. Is that Marie Gardner is that you drew or is that another gardener? Marie, you want to introduce yourself, please? That's not true. It's not true. Okay. Just want to make sure. Marie, do you want to introduce yourself please? Okay, well, we shouldn't be back on in a minute. We have anybody else who's new to us today. I think that's pretty much it. But we'll ahead and get started. Again, we don't have a lot of time until until our presenter joins us. So Perla you want to start with giving us an update with with the Broadband office please.
Hello, everyone. My name is Perla I am the Broadband Program Manager with the Arizona Commerce Authority. Updates are that Volume Two is officially closed. And we will be incorporating the feedback and submitting that to NTIA. Next in January, we'll be starting the pre challenge process and then the full challenge process and March. And then. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of the timeline there that we spoke about last time. Again, the challenge trust is where permissible challengers can challenge their existing Broadband. If you're wondering what the challenge processes, and yeah, we will be submitting Volume Two feedback to Nicole sorry, to NTIA. And we wait to hear back. NTIA seat back.
Great. Thanks. Thanks, Perla, anything else? You have a couple of other people from the Broadband office who are on the call this morning. I don't know if you guys want to add anything. Aaron, you want to say anything about the Digital Equity side of the fence.
Morning, I wasn't sure if I would be here today. But thank you for giving me the opportunity. We're working hard on getting the plan ready for public comment. You'll get more information about that soon, it will be posted and very early January so that everyone has time to celebrate all of the many holidays that are happening in December before you dive into looking at that. And we'll have further updates on that as we get closer. Thank you. Okay,
thanks, everyone. So we don't have a lot of time today. But can you talk a little bit more about is Nicola in line. I don't see her this morning. I don't think about the intersection of the anchor institutions, in terms of BEAD. So I know that the plan was that after we connected everybody, if there was money leftover, we could connect anchor institutions. However, I believe that in the BEAD plan, that there is also, I believe, five 5% Or five points that are that a provider could be awarded, if they serve anchor institutions within their project area. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Is there money that they would have to specifically allocate to an anchor institution or just as a part of the plan? Or can you explain that a little more please?
Yeah, hi, Steve. This is Krystal Saverse, the Broadband data and GIS analysts. And the reason I'm trying because I've kind of been designated to take over the collection of the anchor institutions. So yeah, you're perfectly right. During that sub grantee selection process, what we've done to sort of promote sub grantees to try to connect as many anchor institutions as possible is baked it into our scoring criteria. So that will be I think it is 5%. If I'm not mistaken, we've made some minor, very minor changes. And I don't think that that particular change has impacted the community anchor percentage, but yeah, basically 5% of the scoring criteria for those sub grantees to basically connect as many community anchor institutions as possible, that is those that do not already have one gig symmetrical Broadband services. And another important distinction is that the community anchor institutions have to have to have a greater Broadband need. So they have to be legitimate. community anchor institutions, meaning they serve the population, bring Broadband to covered parts of the covered pop relation as well.
Thank you, crystal. So moving on anything else from Broadband office? Karen, I saw that you were here. You have anything you want to add?
This is Mark, I have a question. Perla on something he said, about a January breed challenge versus a march challenge period. What is a pre challenge period? In January,
I'm gonna chime in again, because this was also something that I'm working on to the. So based on a lot of the feedback that we've received, a lot of people just said 30 days is not enough to do the challenge process to challenge. So what we've done is we've actually extended that timeline to 75 days. So what we're saying is we're gonna get we're gonna allow, before March, this is going to be a pre challenge process. So it's a time for everybody to get into the portal, figure out what's going on. And for. So there's also a, the the portal, the challenge portal is for challengers. And so that that's going to be your nonprofit organizations, your local and tribal government, and then as well as Broadband service providers. So for to conduct, like, let's say speed tests, you know, we're saying these folks have to gather speed tests, or maybe even do a speed test campaign, it's a chance for them to collect as much of that data as possible, and put it into the portal. But the challenge is have a hard start and stop date. So, you know, we have to allow time for those Broadband service level providers to rebuttal. Any challenges? So it's just really it's just an extension of the challenge phase. Thank
you. That's helpful.
This is PJ's wonder if I might be able to ask you a quick question as well.
Sure.
So the 30 days, that I understand, it seems like it makes sense because the portal is open in January, but the actual process won't begin until I believe was March for the for the 30 days to begin. So there's there's a 75 day window. Do the providers still have 30 days to respond to any presented materials to them? That is the challenge? And what type of evidence do they need to provide versus information that's been provided from field or other or third party acquiring of that data?
So that's a that's a great question. So let me I think there's three parts to that question. So. So the the window for internet service providers, because we've extended it for challenges, we've actually had to shorten it for the Internet service providers. So an Internet service provider, let's just say, as soon as that challenge is pinged, you know, the internet service provider is immediately notified. So then, wait one second, please?
Sorry, I'm having phone issues. So the next part of that question, could you repeat that?
Sure, gladly. So I was just curious if they still had to 30 days remaining to respond and what type of evidence they need to grow.
Okay, so they have now 15 days to respond, but they're notified immediately. The types of evidence that they will have to submit, it's all laid out in volume one of the initial proposal, the only minor tweak we did is to the the timeline of those phases. So for example, I'm not going to get into speed tests, because they're very, very complex. But say, there's a challenge about, you know, let's say someone happens to know that a type of service or service provider is already getting funding for a specific area. It would just be like a letter that was maybe submitted to the community that says, you know, like, this internet service provider plans to provide service here. Thank you. Have a good day. Guess. And then a third part of that question. Those specific evidence is laid out in detail in volume one, and there hasn't been any. There hasn't been any changes to it since we've submitted it to NTIA.
So I and that's that's kind of where my question would came from Crystal and I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to to address the question is that the ISPs when they laid out their their claims to the FCC of where they provide service and what type of service they're providing, there was no evidence that seemed to be required in their claim was simply a statement that they would make based on even if they say they're planning, are they required to submit plans and evidence of actual construction? Before they can say that they have planning? Because planning is, you know, hey, I plan on going to Italy, I don't have tickets. I don't have a vision to buy the tickets yet. But someday I'll go to Italy. So that Italy, so how do they how to how is the requirement going to enforce them to? If they make a claim they're not in an area, then they're not in the area? You know, if they say that they are planning well, they're not. They're not physically there. That's still challengeable? Correct? Right.
Yeah, absolutely. So I know, there's been a lot of information that's come down from NTIA about enforceable commitments. And so I'm actually a little bit I wish Nicole was on the line because I, I'm a little bit confused as to what qualifies as an enforceable commitment. She was supposed to be handing out this information to us pretty soon. But, yeah, that we've gotten a lot of feedback about that, and not to throw our off under the bus. But you know, these rural communities are concerned, you know, if, if a provider, you know, has said that they were going to provide service by a certain time and date, like, not time, but a certain date, they want to make sure that they're not being excluded from being BEAD eligible. So basically, that's gonna be tough art for our office, because we're we're ultimately doing the adjudication. So we we have a lot of data from NTIA about other types of Broadband funding. So I mean, it's not like we're going to just accept it or dismiss it, it's going to take a lot of evidence from our office, sort of going over that evidence.
Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate you taking the time on that. Yuma County, I've hired a consulting group that's performing our BEAD challenge process, they reviewed the BEAD challenge, it has been presented in the volumes that have been offered. And they're doing that that legwork to address where claims are versus where actual infrastructure exists. And they've already identified a couple areas where there is no, there is no submitted plans publicly, there is no information related to claims that are being present in an area where they may not be located. So we're moving forward with that as as being if they don't have a public plan that's been displayed. And if they don't have a, they certainly don't have an infrastructure already in place. We're immediately challenging that. Because we know there's a lot of opportunity to serve the underserved and for claims that are not substantiated. It makes it really tough. So I appreciate the challenge that you are up against in your office. So thank you. Yeah,
and, yeah, I certainly do encourage you to challenge those. You know, don't don't just let them sit. You know, it's it's our offices job to make sure that, you know, folks that are underserved are getting that Broadband using BEAD funding. Christmas's marketing, I guess more questions, more of a finite
Yeah, Mark might just make it quick because we need to get on to our presentation. Yes, Mark. No, right. No, skip. Let's get it done. We just got to move on. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Appreciate it. So let's, let's jump in. I see Katie was here. You're here somewhere, Katie. There you are, up there in the corner at sea. So, again, we're pleased to welcome Katie McGowan back from the I'm gonna let her introduce herself. But as I mentioned earlier, this is the third time I think that Katie has been here with us. And I think it's a particularly important time right now, as we've been talking and heard in various areas that particularly for the small communities that don't have a don't have staff don't have funding to hire consultant is to help with Broadband and Digital Equity planning that the their organization can be a great resource. And so with that, Katie, I'm just going to turn it over to you. I know you've got limited time. So I'm going to turn it over to you and to introduce yourself and give us an update again, on how people can take advantage of your resources. All
right, sounds great. Thank you, Steve. And thanks, everybody, for fitting me into your schedule here. Let me just share my screen. All right, can everyone see my presentation?
Let's There we go.
There we go. Okay, perfect. All right. So hello, everyone, for those of you that I have not met yet. My name is Katie McCown. And I am coming to you today from local first Arizona, I run our Arizona Economic Recovery Center Department. And as Steve mentioned, we are all about grants and helping small organizations access grants. So today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about who we are and what we do and how to connect with us, in hopes that we will be able to work together to further all of your grant funding needs, whether it's for Broadband, digital access, or really anything under the sun, we are here to help with that. So to start off, I'll just take you back a little bit to give you some context as to why we started this and what the purpose is. So the, the Recovery Center is a fairly new department for local first, we came out of COVID. We saw back in 2020, and early 2021, how there were lots of new grant opportunities coming through, which was wonderful, but for some reason, our organizations in Arizona were not getting access to those funds. And so we were we took a step back and thought, Okay, what is happening here? And what is the challenge? What is the gap there. So we went throughout the state, we talked to as many people as we could, and we came back with these three main challenges. People are overextended, you've got to wear five or six hats in an organization just to get jobs done. We've got budget constraints, you know, we're being asked to do more and more every year with less and less money. And then an interesting situation that happened was that because there were so many new grant opportunities coming about, it was great, but it also led to a more competitive landscape in Arizona with organizations competing against each other. So we took these challenges back, talked through what we could do, and came up with the idea for the Recovery Center as a way to fill the gap between the organizations that need the funding and the funders that are providing it. So the way that we can help is basically from A to Z, anything related to grants. On the front end of a grant application, say for example, your organization has never applied for a federal grant, or maybe never applied for any grant at all. As long as you have your entity established, we can work with you and we can make sure that you have all of your registrations complete any systems, you might need to be set up in all of that, so that you are ready to go when we find that right grant opportunity, you're ready to just apply for it, and you're good to go. So that's one way we can help. Another way we can help on the front end is by conducting research, we can conduct research on behalf of your organization. We will look at federal, state, local and foundation grant opportunities. We put together a curated list of everything that you qualify for whether or not it's open right now or projected to be open in the future. And we will send that over to you to take a look through with all the links and everything and help you make a decision on a grant or a couple of grants that you might want to move forward with. And this is only if you don't know a grant application you want to go after. If you already know of one, then that's wonderful. And we are happy to support that. Another way we can support on the front end of an application is putting together partners. And this may be of interest in your area of work as well. Some grant opportunities either require partners or they give more points to applications that include more than one organization. So if you ever find an opportunity like this that fits, but maybe you don't have the right partner to connect with that is something that we can help with as well. Then what we spend the majority of our time doing is working on actual grant applications. We have 30 different grant writers on contract. They all have different areas of expertise, when it comes to both the types of grants they like to write, and the types of content they like to write about. So once a grant opportunity or couple of opportunities is identified, we will pull that grant writer in who's the best fit for your organization, make an introduction between the two of you, then they will meet with you hold your hand through the whole process of getting everything written and submitted. And then we pay for their services out of our budget. And then the last way that we can support is on the back end of a grant win. And if we work with you on an application that is then chosen for award, we will not just leave you to be on your own. At that point, we will connect with you. And we can assist on the back end with anything like financial reporting, or narrative reporting, or even just getting organized to figure out what reporting is required from the funder that you have just received funding from. So we really are here to help you from A to Z, front end of an application during the application and after the application as well. This is something that I'm going to actually bring up here on our website to show you a little bit of an easier way to view this and I am sorry about my dogs, their basset hounds, but they're acting as if they are very serious dogs. Okay. Let me share. Okay, so couple things I wanted to share with you that are new since the last time I was here presenting. Okay, can you see my screen again? Okay, so this is something that we have developed, that we're calling our process for winning grant funding. This is something that we review with all of our clients during our first call with them. And it is something that is intended to be helpful to provide you with information on exactly what you can expect when you work with us. But it is not intended to be overwhelming. So I know this is a lot of information, I will send this to Steve so that you can all take a look at it after the fact. But it's resources and things that we have organized based on where you are in the funding process. So for example, phase one is when we meet with a client, we vet them to make sure they're ready for grant funding and get them scheduled for an introductory call. Then we would move into phase two, where we have our call with you, we conduct our grant research, complete the grant application. And then we all wait to hear if a decision is made or not. Depending on the type of funder sometimes it takes a few weeks, sometimes it takes a few months. But as you can see, as we go through the process, it shows you on the left hand side all of the steps and the amount of time it will take and the amount of time that we are requesting from you to complete the information. The middle section shows you everything we will provide to you as a client. And the right hand section is everything that we are asking for you to do at each stage in the process. Again, this is really just intended to help you keep on track and know what you can expect from us as we work together. Then the final phase of working with us is the post award phase. So if we get an award decision that was not funded, then that's okay, we just take you back up and we start back at phase two, again, if it was funded, then phase three is the time when we check in with you make sure you have everything you need. And make sure you're set up for success to execute on that grant that you've just won.
So I show you all of this to then show you some resources we have organized on our website. So can you see now that I have changed? That's great. Okay, cool. Okay, so we have organized some resources on our website to coincide with the phases of the process for grant funding when so what I mean by that is if you go to our website, you can see right here, this red button is the framework for grants, which is what I just showed you. Then if you move down, you can see in phase one, we have gathered together all kinds of resources that might be helpful to an organization in that first phase. So it's things like making sure your grant ready articles on how to work with a grant writer checklists for what you need to include in each different type of grant application. So just anything that might be helpful to you when you're in that phase, then of course, we go down. And we've got these two resources as well. So this is all while you're in the application phase. So it has things like how to write a budget and a grant proposal, what does a match grant mean? All that kind of stuff that you might need while you're completing the application. Then Phase Three coincides with the post win section. So for this, we've got resources on how to report on a grant, you know, tips for grant management, anything that might be helpful to an organization after they've been chosen for award from a particular funder. So this is all on our website. And I will send all of this to Steve so that you can take a look at it when you have a chance. But these are just some additional resources that we have put together this year, to provide a more comprehensive approach to working with our clients. So now that we've talked about what it is that we do, let's talk about who it is that we work with. So at the Recovery Center, if you are a nonprofit, a municipality, or county government, or a tribal organization that is based in Arizona, and does not have your own grant writer on payroll, so you're small enough that you do not have a grant writer as a full time employee of your organization, you qualify to work with us. That and that means that everything that we provide comes to you at no cost. We have a focus on rural Arizona. However, we have recently received some additional funding to work within Maricopa County as well. So even if you're not in what we would call a rural part of Arizona, we can still assist you. Again, that qualifier is you just have to be one of those types of organizations and small enough that you don't have your own grant writer on staff. In addition to the one on one services that we provide, and the resources on our website, we also have a couple of other ways to get information out. If you go to this website link here, you can sign up for our newsletter, we have a newsletter that comes out every Monday that we have loaded with opportunities that we've been able to find. And they are all organized by category based on the most common types of requests that we see. You can also go to our website, where we held all of these things as well. On our website, we have a list of all of the grants that we've been able to find that are still active that we think are a fit to our clients, again, organized by category. So those are some additional ways that you can very easily get grant funding ideas. And again, want to reiterate that everything that we do comes at no cost to the client. This is a little bit of information on what we've been able to accomplish so far. As I mentioned, we started this in May of 2021. And to date, we've been able to help win 162 grants for just over $46 million. So we show this to you to let you know that you have a lot of volume going through we work on a lot of different kinds of projects. So you name it, we've probably done an application for it. And the other reason we like to show this is because one of our goals is to spread our services as evenly as we can throughout the state. So we are very happy that we've now won at least one grant in every county, but we're pushing it forward to try to get some more in these smaller places like La Paz, so if you know anyone in the PAs send them over my way. Then these are our sponsors. So I always want to take a minute to thank these organizations because they are the ones that funds the Recovery Center and allow us to offer all of our services at no costs. And I do want to mention that we we pay for the grant writers out of our budget, we pay them what their current rates are, and so they are not getting shortchanged in any way by working with us. And then I will put my contact information up here and I can pop that in the chat or send that to Steve as well. But here's my contact information, my email address and my phone number, please feel free to reach out, call me email me anytime with any questions that you have. Or if you want to get together and work together on an application or a few applications, you can connect with us directly this way. Or you can go to the website and there's a button that you can push that says free consultation, you fill out a form that comes directly to our email as well. So either way, doesn't matter to us, whatever is easier for you to reach out to us, we're more than happy to connect with you that way. And then the last thing I want to mention is that we are not a one and done service by any means. But we're also not an unlimited service. So the way that our budget will work for 2024 is that we can support up to four applications per organization per calendar year. We can assist each organization with up to four applications within a calendar year does not matter to us what those are, they can be for federal, they can be a mix of anything. We tell you this, because most of the time when we conduct research on behalf of your organization, we will send you more than four opportunities, we will send you everything we find. So in that case, we'll just say, Hey, if you want to go after all of these awesome, just prioritize maybe the four most difficult ones and have us take those off of your shoulders for you. So just a couple of other side notes, I wanted to make sure that I mentioned I will go ahead and stop sharing. So if anyone has any questions, I would be happy to answer them. And again, Steve, if you don't mind, I'll send this to you fliers slide deck everything and you can share out as you like.
Absolutely, we will definitely share it out. And also just excuse me, everybody, I'm suffering from some kind of crud for the last couple of weeks. So it might have to pardon my sniffling and coughing and stuff. I'm trying to control but but just wanted to apologize, Katie, great presentation. As always. I have a couple of things. And then I'll see if anybody else has any questions. So Perla if you're still online? Can you talk? And are Erin, both of you about sub grantee processes? And are people going to have to submit proposals for Digital Equity and or BEAD funding for sub grantees. And because it seems to me that this fits right into the need, particularly in the Digital Equity space, or Digital Inclusion space, that we have a lot of small organizations, small communities who have to do to have to have a plan in place to be able to apply for that funding. Am I correct about that? Perla Aaron? Can you correct me if I'm mistaken?
Either they're not here, or I'm on target. But that was one of the reasons for asking Katie to be here with us, again, is that this is really a critical time. The other thing is when we did our strategic plan back in 2020, we were very specific about the need to have an organization like what what Katie represents, and really glad that they are on board and available to do this. Related to that is the fact that even with all the quote, federal money that's coming down, all the Digital Inclusion money that's going to be available, it's not going to be the end all be all. And we know that there's lots of other funding opportunities, there's foundations, there's corporate funding, and so forth. And so for, again, for a lot of those smaller organizations, where government is really good at funding, infrastructure, but the Digital Inclusion money is only going to be a limited amount of money. And so we need to be looking at how do we help these other organizations to get the funding they need to expand, and at least in my opinion, that be part of that is going to need to be that they have to have a plan in place to be able to apply for both federal and state funding, as well as corporate and, and, and foundation funding. So that's why I wanted to do this today. And we may even bring Katie back again, and maybe even do a special workshop on this. But But anyway, Katie, thank you and Heather. I see you have your hand up.
Yeah, I just want to share the city of Safford did use the Arizona Recovery Center successfully to get an Arizona State Broadband development grant. They got funding for Wi Fi in their downtown Heartfilia and it was through the local first resource, and I applaud them for that. Excellent work.
Thank you. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Heather. Anybody else have any comments or questions? So, Kelly, go ahead.
Yes. Quick question for Katie, have you done any work with the reconnect program out of USDA? Did you as I did,
yes. But yes, we have a couple of our grant writers that are completely experts in USDA. And so yes, we have done work with reconnect, we've done so much work with USDA. So we have some great grant writers who don't find it as frustrating as you and I might.
Thank you, I have a client that I may send your way. Perfect,
love it. And I just wanted to make one quick comment off of what Steve said, we have lots of experience in pulling different funders together to get the funding you need for a complete project. So whether that's you know, getting part of it from the federal government part of it from a foundation or something like that, we have a lot of experience in doing that. And so we can absolutely help put a plan together to kind of, you know, sometimes we have to piecemeal the the grants together to fund what it is that you're looking for. But we're happy to do that.
So as I said, now is really important time, both because of these federal fundings coming down the pike, but also, again, with other opportunities for funding. So let's not just assume because we got the federal funding, that we don't have to pursue other resources, because there's a lot out there. Shereka, you have a question?
Hello, Katie. Hi, question, because I just thought about and I've never asked you this before, I always come to you for program. But do you all are for capacity building? As far as that because I think that's the point I'm at now is capacity building? And what that will look like? So I'll set up a conversation with you then.
Yeah, yeah, we can help with that in a few different ways. We can research for capacity building grants. They don't come around very right. But we do. As soon as soon as we find them, we shoot them out to everyone that we can. And then we can also help, you know, internally with planning and that kind of thing. But as far as funding for that goes, Yes, we can absolutely look for that. Okay, thanks.
Any other questions, comments for Katie? Apparently not. And, Katie, I know you have to take off for another, another meeting. Thank you, again for being here again with us. And I'm sure we're going to be in touch with you even more after the Digital Equity plan is released and people start thinking about, well, how they're going to apply for funding. But again, I think it's really important that people start thinking about that now, and not wait and wait to get time to get your act together, get your plan in place, and so forth. And apparently you still online. And of course they are in this certainly relates to you being able to reach out and help people to find this as a resource for for funding. Okay, well, thank you. You bet. You bet. 80. Thank you. It's always good to see you. Really, it's awesome the work you're doing so we appreciate it. Okay, so is mama still here? Oh here your mama. So Mala you want to give us an update what's happening with the State Library?
Yes, I can start off and have others do the rest. For my part. We are right right now having the administrative window open. And this for E Rate application for next year. So this is the time when to update addresses contact information, latest student numbers, the square footage and libraries. Also the responsibilities and roles because staff change and administrators have ERate in any organization may change as well. So this is an opportunity that taken that libraries and schools can go in and make their own changes on the portal. After this. It gets locked down and it's more difficult to make those changes. But it's not that it can't be made until the application deadline when Just likely to be mid March. It's also RFP time for schools and libraries. They're putting out what their needs are for 2425. Some working with our libraries to do that. Last week we shall be some of us shall be members had a meeting with the staffers of Commissioner Symington and chair, person Rosenworcel and Commissioner Stark, and we alerted them about the pole attachment issues, they are aware of it. But we spoke in depth about the pole attachment issues, mainly three, three main issues. One is the cost allocation, which is the biggest source of disagreement and delay between pole owners and the the attaches. We shared with them an example from Vermont State that had a formula that determines the annual rental costs on the poles and the space used on the poles, the net investment, and also the maintenance and depreciation costs. So that was the cost allocation point. The second issue we raised was tracking the condition of the poles, those are really not being done on a regular basis. There is no inspection done or even if it is done, the reports are not shared with a poll attaches. There is no requirement to do that. The third issue we raised was about creating a rapid Broadband assessment team. And this team would be the one that that's that is the intervention, a team that works on the problems caused and maybe has, you know, good practices that we can follow in other states as well. So those are the three issues that we raised with the staff staffers and they seem pretty open to the suggestion. So let's see where it goes. The The other thing that we next week, we do have a meeting with FCC. This is on hotspots on the NPRM for hotspots, and there's a separate team that's meeting with them for hotspot lending through libraries, and hotspot lending through schools. The issues that again, we are planning to raise are keeping track of who's borrowing this isn't a huge issue for libraries keeping record of for 10 years of who borrowed these hotspots, how long they borrowed it and the return of those library, learnings loan systems are not used to keeping track. As soon as the book is returned, or the media, whatever media is borrowed is returned, we usually purge it out of the system. So it's the it's not retained for obvious reasons. We really don't want that tracking. But and that was the reason why hotspot loans from libraries were not as popular as we, as was expected. Hotspots through schools is different. It's it's good to track who's borrowing it, and you get it back at the end of the year and all those kinds of things. But we really don't have that capacity or the willingness to do that for libraries. There was also another issue about the unused hotspots and tracking them the lost and damaged hotspots. And the unused hotspots was a was a big issue. You know, if they're not being used a particular few months, then FCC rules of say that they should not be paid for during that time. So it's very hard to track, you get 100 hotspots and and maybe 25 of them are used or are not used a particular month, another 30 a different month, and it's very difficult to keep track and not get that reimbursement for that. There's also another issue about patrons having to sign to say they have no other access before they are loaned one of these and that's a difficult thing to do and track and keep those records as well. So those were taking up next week. In the meanwhile, I'm also working on gathering workforce training. For all the work that's coming up, you know, fiber laying in the ground polar tattooers what kind of training do they need the offshore training that they may need to stay safe and know their rights and engineers inspectors billing and a whole Most of other job training to prepare for the work ahead. So if any of you are doing any such training, let me know I'm trying to create a spreadsheet of an of all of the training that is available, paid training, free training, whatever your you're doing, it would be awesome to have a master list ready. So and to have the workforce trained, before we actually get all this money, and we have the workforce ready, and good to go. And you any questions? Back to Holly, any of this? Do you
have anything else? Holly?
Oh, no, I was just going to say that. We really appreciated the opportunity to participate in those study session conversations and the roundtable that ACA had related to BEAD Volume Two, and then then also the ability to be able to submit the written feedback on that. And so we were, you know, busy with all of those. And then I think that Megan is on and may have an update about hiring digital navigators.
That was my next question. Go ahead.
I think we received 30 applicants, and we are getting ready to identify who will be interviewed. So I'm hoping to send out an interview invitations today.
Oh, imagine you might just want to explain what those positions are. Again, please.
These are digital navigator positions with our connectors on our program. And so they are it's basically helped us for anybody who calls in from around the state with any tech issues or information literacy issues.
Thank you, Megan. So Mala a couple of things. And, Jennifer, this relates to your question also, I believe I sent in one of my newsletters, that there is actually a webinar, I believe either happening or happened, specifically talking about the pope attachment issue. And so I'll have to go back and check and check it out. And might even be in my current newsletter, who's tracking stuff after a while, but But anyway, there is a workshop coming up specifically talking about that whole attachment issue. And then Manuel about the workforce development. So my understanding is, unfortunately, the Broadband folks are gone. But if I understand correctly, that within the BEAD, that there is some money for our workforce. Right now, they talk specifically about the issue you talked about in terms of workforce development, and there are a number of different institutions that are now we're already starting to work on. Specifically the issues that you that you've talked about, but I believe that there's going to be funding, specifically, from BU, specifically to address the issues that we talked about.
That's, that's right, Steve, before they funded, we need to know where they are available. Even simple things like resume writing some, some of our people like the polar tattooers, or the ones who are doing the the underground cabling and digging, have never written a resume in their life, you know, and for them to know how to do it. And many of our libraries are already offering those kind of services free of cost to the patrons as a part of their of the training that they do. So it's just it's, it's good to gather it all in one place and make it available either through ACA or connect Arizona or, you know, wherever we can make it available, make it available in multiple places, so that anyone who's interested in doing some training like that, getting trained, you know, and being ready for the job can make it happen. Yeah, I
believe. And I don't know just how depth she's getting into it, but I believe, I know, this was an issue that came up in one of Maggie's sessions. And she may have she's got some of that information. So if you you know, I know you're, I'm sure.
I'm in touch with many. Yeah.
Okay, so moving on real quickly. Anything else? Any questions from Mala? If not, Elena, do you have anything that you want to share?
Um, no, not this week. Steve. I think we're just rolling along here with holiday last week. You know, I don't have have a big update. Okay,
thank you. And Marilyn Anderson, have we seen you before? Can you introduce yourself? Oh, she Oh, oh, there she is.
I think I attended one other thing. My name is Marilyn Anderson, and I'm the blended and Virtual Learning Specialist with adult education services at the Arizona Department of Education. So, just here to kind of get information and see what you all do. So
sounds great. Thanks, Marilyn. Okay, anybody have anything else that they want to share?
And Steve, real quick on the pole attachment. I'm on the Mala mentioned, they're about to show me I've been having meetings with FCC staff. I've been on those meetings. I'm the subgroup that's working on pole attachments and right away with SHLB. And if there is going to be an amended ex parte date from SHLB that will address all the things that we discussed with staff and with the wireline Competition Bureau yesterday, will be filed has to be filed by 5pm today. So if anybody is curious for the details, then that ex parte will hit the public record sometime at 5pm. Today, if you'd like when I get a copy of I can send it to you, Steven circulated. That
sounds like a plan. Thanks. Thanks, Kelly. Appreciate it. Okay, anything else for today? Steve
Mark Goldstein. Kirk was on for a while, but he's not anymore. Though it's, I would say last call to ACBS and boek. For next Wednesday's national data center AI, high performance computing and cloud summit out in good year by Big Data southwest. There isn't really lots of direct Broadband content content this year, like there has been at some past ones, but it's still may be interest to people, you've been publicizing. And I put in the chat today the 50% discount code for that event. And there will not be a Broadband provider breakout session. Because it turns out that the facility doesn't really have a suitable breakout room and other logistic issues Kirk was facing. So I know we talked about having that kind of live and remote session anchored from that event. But that is now off the table. I'll be there. And perhaps some of you will be interested in joining. Sounds
great. Thanks Mark for the reminder. And Mark, I would like to talk with you about I want to do maybe within the next couple of weeks, or maybe after the first of the year. And I mentioned this before that I want to do a discussion with providers about their role and engagement and Digital Equity, Digital Inclusion, some of our providers are doing some really awesome stuff, and some who we don't know what they're doing, and what they should they be doing and can be doing as we move ahead with the Digital Equity plan. So I'd like to talk with you maybe we can do that. So together. Short, glad to. Okay. Okay. Well, if we have nothing else for today, thank you all for for being here. And we'll hopefully see you next week. So I want to ask a question. I think I'd put what the 28th is that that's between obviously between Christmas and New Year's. Is that a date that we want to meet? It's still a Thursday Christmas and New Year's or are on like Sunday? I think so. Is that a good time to meet or not meet or here we'll take a break or what what are your what's your thoughts?
I'll be around but it is not uncustomary to take breaks from regular things that week.
Okay, well, I think maybe the 28th we might add meet that. Okay, that's it. I'm done for today. We can if anybody wants to hang on and kibitz for a while. We'll be we'll be done.