 My name is Ann Thomas. I'm the president of the Hearing Loss Association of America, the Diablo Valley chapter. And we'd like to welcome you to our August monthly Zoom virtual meeting. Before we get started here, we'd like to give you some directions on how to use Zoom. We know that a lot of you are really up to snuff and have everything down pat. But there are also some new people who are going to join us today. We want to make sure that everyone really knows how to be able to use Zoom. And it's not going away. The pandemic is not going away any time soon. We keep going back and forth here. We were hoping to be able to maybe start in-person meetings in September. Well, we're going to have to wait and see. So these are going to be the directions on how to use Zoom. So the things that you need to know is how to turn on the captions, how to view a full transcript, the chat window, and to raise your hand for Q&A. So Corey Dostey is live captioning our meeting today. And most of you, I believe, it's set up now that it automatically starts streaming on your screen. But if something happens, then it's not doing that. You click on the CC icon that's on this slide that you're looking at, and click on subtitles. If you'd like to increase the font size for the subtitles, you can also do that. And you can also view a full transcript. So one of the things about viewing a full transcript that can be beneficial to us is that sometimes Zoom is only giving you a couple of sentences. Sometimes a part that you didn't understand has already left the Zoom window before you actually realized that, oh, what I'm thinking was said, that can't be right. So if you have the full transcript up on the side, you can scroll back and forth to see what that word was, what the concept was that you may have missed. We'd like everybody to know that we welcome you to use the chat feature. And that you can say hello to your friends. You can say hello to any of us. You can ask a technical question. You see the picture of where the chat icon is. You need to click on that. And originally, when we started using Zoom, if you didn't open the chat window, every time someone would post a chat, it would bounce up and cover the captions. But today, you can move the captions anywhere you want on the screen. If you would like to make sure that you could move the chat window, when you click on the chat window, there's a pop out little window that looks like the window to the side here that says chat. If you click on that downward-facing arrow, something pops up again and says, pop out. And you click on that. And then you can drag your chat window anywhere you want and move it away from anything. If you'd like to make the font size bigger for your chat window, the way you do that is, if you're on a Mac, you press the Command button, which has this kind of squiggly on it. It's on the bottom of your keyboard. If you want to make it bigger, you do Command plus. If you want to make it smaller, it's Command minus. On a PC, you press the Control button. And it's Control plus to make it bigger, and Control minus to make it smaller. So we already said, please, I'm using the chat. We'd like to ask that you identify yourself in the chat and possibly say, where you're from or what part of the country. Because people have joined. I mean, this has been the wonderful gift of the pandemic. You can attend a meeting anywhere in the United States about hearing loss for HLAA almost any day of the week. So we'd like to know where you're from. Generally, we have a lot of people in our meetings. And it makes it really difficult to figure out who to call on first. So we require that people use the Raise the Hand feature. And it's currently located in the Reactions icon. It's the smiley face with the plus. And when they click on that, another window opens up and it says, Raise your hand. When you click on Raise your hand, what happens is you get a hand that's on your thumbnail picture. And you also get a hand that is in the Participants window. And the order in which someone raises their hand is how you show up in the list. So we don't need to worry about trying to keep track of ensuring that the person who raised their hand first gets called on because that's the order that they're in. A feature for those of you when there's a PowerPoint, we like to reiterate this because a lot of people have missed it, is that if you have clicked the screen sharing piece that's up in the right hand corner, what happens is you'll be able to see the PowerPoint presentation on the left and the person who's giving the presentation on the right. If you see between those two screens, there are two lines that run in this direction. If you take your cursor and you put it over those two lines, you can drag the windows back and forth and make them any size you want. So if you would like to have the presentation window be larger, you can make it larger. If you would like to have the presenter window be a little larger to make it easier to lip read, you can do that as well. Now this is a big one for all of us. I don't know if you're like me, but when I get a little nervous or I get excited, I tend to speak faster. So this slide is a reminder for me as well as everybody else, but speak a little slower. It makes it easier for all of us to understand and it also makes it easier for Corey to caption accurately. If you have an external microphone, it's recommended by all of the virtual meeting companies to use an extra microphone to increase the clarity of the audio, laptops, iPads, desktops, all computer, all smart devices do not have the best microphones. So if you use an external microphone, you're increasing the clarity that we get to hear and also what Corey hears for the accuracy in her captions. And if by some chance you have a meeting where you don't have a paid live cart provider like Corey, the clarity of your microphone, that's tied to how well the automatic AI captions can understand what you're saying. So they're more accurate if you use an external microphone. I've been really excited to have Christine come and give a presentation to our chapter. I first heard her, I believe it was the July East Bay chapter meeting, and she subsequently gave a meeting to the North Bay chapter as well. And since I attended those meetings, I was able to see that many of our chapter members didn't attend them. So I wanted to make sure that we wanted to make sure that you knew about this wonderful opportunity that's available to us through CTAP and the accessories that are available that we can purchase and have Christine give us a presentation about home aware. Now the reason that the image here says home aware ring signaler with bed shaker is because that's actually the base device that the California telephone access program provides for us free of charge. So it's my great pleasure and great joy to introduce Christine Miller. Christine, it's all yours. Oh, wonderful. Hello everyone. I am joining you from the wilds of Michigan and I hoping someday that I'm going to actually get to come out to California and then we can all meet in person. But until then, we're going to be doing this all virtually. That is a fantastic introduction by Ann. It's probably the best introduction I've ever heard about how to use Zoom and I will be stealing from it frequently in the future. Yes. So we work part of my role here at the company is I work with large entities all across the country and actually across the world providing assistive devices for various programs. One of those programs is in California for everyone who is joining us who is not a resident of California, your state probably has a program where similar equipment is available. CTAP has a lot of, I mean, they're known for their amplified telephones but there's a lot of other devices that they have that will allow you to be notified of other things are occurring around you. Our product is one of them but as we always encourage everyone find the equipment that's going to work best for you and use it because equipment that is sitting in a corner doesn't help anyone. So I'm happy if you get our equipment but I really want everyone to find the equipment that is going to keep you happy and safe and secure in your life. And that's the important part. So we're going to talk about home aware today. So I'm going to actually be switching my camera. So the first thing we're going to show you is what you can actually receive from CTAP if you are qualified for their program free of charge. So if you are already part of their program you actually can request this equipment. I know several people in your group have as well as the other two HLO departments. So they already have this. It's the friendly people at CTAP are happy to assist you if you've not been qualified for the program contact them directly and they'll walk you through the process. It's not difficult for my understanding but I don't really want to talk too much about their process because I don't work for CTAP but I do provide equipment for their program. So let me switch cameras and we're actually going to take a look at what you get from them directly. So we're just going to switch here. So this is the home aware base unit. I just need to bring my mic with me. This is the main. So the home aware is an entire system and I'm going to be showing you a bunch of accessories that go with this but this is the part that actually is provided by CTAP and it's great because this is the decision-making center for the entire system. So if you have this, you can add any of the other things that I'm going to show you to it. So you can have as simple a system as you'd like or as complex as you like but you need this piece to start because this is where all the decisions and actions of the system are going to take place. So let's talk a little bit about this. What it is is a notification system and the reason it's part of the CTAP program is that you can connect your direct line telephone to the back and it will notify you if you're receiving a call using sound, light and vibration. The sound comes from 103 decibel alert. The light comes from a strobe and the vibration actually comes from a bed shaker. I'm going to make sure I'm still in camera. Bed shaker that you can connect to the back of the device and put either underneath your pillow or between your back spring and mattress. Now, this is a little device I'm going to talk about in the future but we already have it connected so we're just going to leave it there and then turn the device around. So you'll notice that I just connected this and it's not exactly showing the correct time for us here because we're at 115 and this is still showing 12, 17 because I just turned it on 17 minutes ago. To set the time, you just hit the time button and you'll notice that the colon is flashing. This means that you can take an action and you'll notice every time I'm showing this that something will start flashing. To adjust the time, you're going to use these little blue keys to just move it up. Now, there's no PM indicator light here so we know we're still in the AM so we need to move this up a few hours and we actually need to come down two minutes and then we hit enter and that's how easy it is to set the time. So the funny part about this is is while this is an assistive device it has the easiest alarm clock that we produce and if any of you are familiar with our company you know we make the sonic bomb. That is the in the top 10 clocks on Amazon and this is the easiest clock that we have. It has a double alarm and what it's meant for is to be your day to day alarm clock so that it's right by your bedside and you're very comfortable with it and you're very familiar with it. So this is what's actually provided by CTAP so you get this device plus the bed shaker. That's what you get from CTAP. Now, we're going to go on to the accessories and all of this would be items that you can get to add to this through our company and yes, I have a discount code so don't worry about that. Let's see, we're going to talk since I already have the cell phone and see the cell phone connector to it we're going to go ahead and show that one and then we're going to show Smoke and CO. Very important to show Smoke and CO but since we already have the dongle for the app attached we're going to go ahead and show that. What this will allow is for you to get notifications from the system on your cell phone and for cell phone calls, text messages and even Gmail messages that you might receive to trigger the system. It goes both ways. It connects to the back. You'll notice that there's a little port that's dedicated to this. Everyone asks, can you get these plugs wrong? You cannot, they're specifically sized. This little dongle clicks into the back much like a phone cord. You then download the app from either the Apple Store or from Google Play. Let me go ahead and open up my phone here for you and let's see, can we see this or is this a little? And this is your base screen. I have it set right now to notify the system if I receive a phone call or a text message and then if I go to home, this is the main screen and it will notify me here. So as we're adding other accessories I'm going to leave this connected and you'll notice that what's displayed on the main is also going to be displayed on my phone. So if I'm around the house like out in the garden or out of the patio or even in the basement or in the garage or some place where I don't have other notification devices but I have my cell phone with me I will always know what's going on with the system. So I conspired with Anne earlier and I asked her if she would mind texting me and you'll notice that it's going to come up on both the device and it's going to come up on the screen. So if you would like to go ahead and either call or text me either one should trigger the system. I need to go get your phone number. Oh, okay. Well, while we're doing that we're going to go ahead and set up the smoke and CO. So I'll just leave my phone just sitting nicely there. And. Got it. Okay. So everything should go off when the system is triggered. So we're going to see the strobe light. We're going to hear the alarm. And it says phone. And it's going to say call and it's going to actually give the number but I don't know if Anne wants that out there. So I'm just going to let you see that it's scrolled and then we're going to go ahead and shut that off. So that would actually notify me that I'm getting a call. And the thing is, is that I would have it also on my screen but let's say I didn't want to have that all the time. If I wanted to have that on and off you simply toggle the options on and off as you need them. So from a lot of customers, what we're hearing is like if they're expecting the call or someone's traveling or you know, something's going on they will turn it on and off when they need it. However, they don't usually have it on all the time just because if you have your cell phone you're probably going to receive them then but it does give you some peace of mind especially if you're going to be in an area where you're not going to receive notification or if you're going to bed at night and you're taking your hearing aids out then you're worried you're not going to hear your phone directly. So this is a wonderful, it's available on both iPhone and Android. So we're going to segue from there to the smoke and CO sensor. And what this does is it will hear the T3 and T4 sensor alarm from your smoke and CO to connect any of the devices. We're going to go ahead and connect the power cord. And you'll notice that there's a little button on the back of the device. You hit setup, you hit enter, it'll start flashing. You're going to press the black button and it's connected. You would position this as an external somewhere where it's going to clearly hear your smoke and CO sensor. And to test that you use the test button on your actual device to make sure that everything's positioned correctly. For right now we're actually going to use a recording of the sound pattern of a T3 and T4 to test it. This is how we actually test it in the office when we're doing demos and things like that. So this is actually, and you'll notice that my alert also went off for the, okay I have to shut this off otherwise it'll come triggering. It also went off on my cell phone through the home aware. So not only did the system trigger, but because this is connected to my cell phone through the home aware app, it also triggered on the screen. So I'm going to switch between these two so you can actually see what the display screen would be. So that would be the display that you would actually see on your display as well. I don't usually switch between these two. Hang on, there we go, shut off, there we go. This also will work with your smoke detector. So one of the advantages of this is that this is listening for the sound and pattern of your smoke and CO detector. So it's listening not only for the pattern, which is very distinctive, but it's also listening for sounds within that 70 decibel range. So if you have something like a burglar alarm or you have storm sirens or other notifications in that range, this will also pick it up, which you would get instead of the CO or smoke notification is you would get a general alert notification. This is the device telling you, I heard something really loud, I need you to go and investigate. Especially as we're in, unfortunately in the fire season once again, here in Michigan, we are in the storm season once again. These sort of notifications are very key, especially if you're having difficulty and you know you're maybe not going to hear the smoke and CO or an alarm if you take your hearing aids out. This allows the system to sort of do that for you. As we were talking very briefly before the presentation, and I work with a lot of fire departments across the country, one of the things is this device is actually provided through the CTAP program, which is a sort of telephone access program. But a lot of times this equipment is provided by fire departments as part of their smoke and CO installation programs. And the reality of the situation is, is that the deaths that occur often are due to smoke inhalation. This will notify you in less than 10 seconds that your alarm has gone off. It's a key piece of equipment and I think every house should have it. And unfortunately, as we were mentioning, I've had to ask the fire departments to stop telling me the stories about the people who didn't make it because I end up being like kind of a crying mess at the end of every meeting. But so many people have been positively affected by this. I cannot encourage you more to make sure that you have something in place to assist you with this. So kind of a key piece of equipment. Some other things that will be very beneficial to you that we didn't really show in the other things is that these are some other devices that you can connect. So if you're in a multi-room house where you have more than one room or you have multiple floors, you can actually connect other devices to this. So we're gonna just start connecting a bunch of different things. One of the things that you might need is a doorbell. And this is where the only specialty tool that you need to install this entire equipment comes into place is you'll see this is like a little external doorbell has a little gate in the back. If you have nails and you want to keep them, get yourself a paperclip and just open the little gate. It allows you to keep your nails nice and you get access once more to that tiny little black button. So what we're going to do is hit set up once again. We're gonna hit enter. Link is going to flash. Then we're gonna push the little black button. And now it's going to ask us to pick the device. So this has door, motion, we'll get to that in a second, storm, we'll get to that in a second, alert, help, burglar, door four, three, two, back door, front door. We're gonna go with front door and we're going to hit enter because this now when it's triggered, if you have a guest or if you have a delivery and they press the button, it'll say front door. And everything will go off. Come on in, Jennifer. Shut up. Yes, guys, I know, I know. There we go. It's one is notifying, the other is notifying the other. One of the things that you can do is that some of our customers will say, yes, but I have a really pretty door and what I would really like is just to use my regular doorbell outside. What you can do is connect this to the chime box. This is included with every one of the devices. It's basically a three and a half millimeter cord. You connect this to the chime box and then when they press the outside door button, it will notify the system. This allows you to have it a little bit more invisible, but it still will connect to the system. What this will also allow you to do is connect other devices to your system. So one of them is a very simple door latch. And I'm sure many of you are familiar with this, where it's a two-part magnet. It's mounted on either side of the door and then when it opens, the connection is broken and this allows you to know that the door has been opened. This is very helpful if you have persons who you're caregiving to and they perhaps are getting out of bed in the middle of the night and you need to know that they've gotten up and opened the door. If you have small children in your house and you wanna make sure that they're not going into the kitchen or other areas, this is a very simple device to let you know that that door has been opened. So much as we did before, because it's the same sort of device, is we're going to hit setup, we're gonna hit link, we're going to hit the little button and then we're going to pick the device. In this case, we're going to pick door four. So let's say this is an internal door that you have. Maybe it's to the basement or maybe it's to the garage or tool shop or some other place where you're like, I really don't want people just casually going into there. So what you would do is this is very quickly and I'm sure if there's anyone out there that you're going like, you could have done a neater job of this, but it's just connected very quickly with two different screws. And the connections are on there. You connect the three and a half millimeter connection to the device. Now I'm holding them together to replicate that the door is closed. And now I'm gonna set everything off because if you break it. Yes, I know, I know. Turned on my phone. There we go. I know it was very loud. But yeah, this allows you to very quickly. And one of the great things that I just saw a customer did is she actually put together this in a delivery box outside her front door. So this you have to imagine is in the lid. This is in the base. And then when she had a delivery come in, it would break and she would know that she would know that, yes guys, I know, that she would know that her Amazon order had arrived or her DoorDash had arrived. And she was always concerned about them also because they were putting it inside of a box that it wasn't visible to anyone passing by and she was concerned about people taking things off of her front step. So little innovation, clearly out there, she was tickled as all can get out because she figured this takes care of a lot of things. I know it's there and it's not visible. And all I could think was is my grandmother also had milk delivered in a similar container and we're going right back to that. It's just DoorDash now. So that is a very simple device. I'm gonna go ahead and disconnect this because if I don't hold it together, it will trigger. And let's see what else I have fun for you guys today. One of the other things that if you have a multiple level onto your residence or if you have a secondary bedroom, we have actually two additional receivers. So if you wanna expand your system, there's ways of doing that so that it's very easy. You're gonna notice this looks really similar. If you don't know what you're looking for, it can actually fool you. So this is the main and this is the Lex receiver. And this would be as if you want a bed shaker and a light and an alarm clock and everything else, basically that you can do on this unit in another room. So this would be the more complete of it. We often have people who are saying, well, I need a second main that you can't have because you can't have one main making the decisions, but this allows you to have a second one. So you'll notice that the little colon is flashing, you hit setup, enter, and then hit enter. No, sorry about that guys, link here. And you'll notice in just a second that the time will show automatically on both. Now you can have separate wake up alarms in case people aren't getting up at the same time. But one of the ways that you can tell that the system is still linked is that the time will appear on both of them. This also allows you if you have to, if you have this lovely daylight saving time and you only have to adjust this and it takes care of all of them in the house. And this is part of the mesh technology of all the devices is that the more devices that you have, the stronger your system actually is because these will communicate and this will communicate and everything will keep notification together. I know, you don't have batteries, I know. One of the other things you'll notice is that it just notified me that it had a low battery. All the devices have battery backups, which means that if you do have a power outage that your system will continue to function for up to seven days, depending on your usage, just as if it was powered in. The only thing you'll notice is that to save the power is that your numbers will become a slightly dimmer unless something's happening. So if there's a notification, they'll become brighter. If you check the time, it'll become brighter. I have a bunch more things to show you, but I'm wondering how we're doing on time. Yeah, actually, Christine, we're to 1130, but I know I made a mistake on the registration. Actually, we're really here at our 12, so you're fine. Just keep going. Okay, we're gonna keep going. I've got two more things I wanna show you and then we're gonna kind of open it up to question and answer because I feel like people are gonna have some questions and we'll show some additional things, but there's two other sort of specialty items that I wanna show you. One is the blink and the other one is the vibe and then we'll kind of go through there. So this is the blink and what this is is you'll notice that it's a very different configuration than a lot of the other devices. This was designed to be placed in an area where you need like a little bit of notification, but probably not a primary area and maybe even some place where you don't have a lot of counter space. So like a bathroom or a kitchen or maybe an office or something like that where you just need to kind of know what's going on with the system. This works with light and strobe alone and it's a little bit different because you can actually take this with you. So this is very mobile. This is the recharging station. So that actually stays plugged in and then when you're not using it you actually pop it back in. So it stays charged and it's ready to go. This one, we're gonna go ahead and turn it to receiver. We're gonna do the exact same thing where we're gonna hit link and then there's this little button here. And I'm gonna turn it sideways because this is gonna turn purple. Christine, can you push the device further forward? Yeah, we can't see it, thanks. Okay, okay, I haven't done it yet. Okay. There we go. So we're gonna, this is gonna happen very quickly. So I always like want to, all right. So you'll notice it like turn purple and then like linked very quickly. So this actually, when we're going to do something like the door is going to be pressed or something like that we're just gonna have all the colors. We're just going to go ahead and get this. And you'll notice like how everything is going off. Yes guys, I know, I know. And you heard something loud too that's wonderful that you're reacting. Great. Yeah, so every time my phone goes off it hits the decimal mark and it also hits alert. So close proximity. So that actually will turn green for the door or it'll turn red for alert notice. And there is a general like little key right here but basically it's going to strobe. So even if it's behind you the flash of light will catch your attention and then it'll actually cycle through the color. So it's great for those areas where it's like I don't need a lot here but I need something. And it's a very compact little design for the fully mobile. And also this is the one device where you can actually trigger the system also is the vibe. We're going to put you back here. There we go. We're going to set everything off. It's going to be beautiful. The vibe actually uses vibration, sound, flash and color or any of the combination of those to let you know that something is happening with the system. We're going to go ahead and put color and flash on. We're not going to do vibration and sound just yet. You turn it on. We're going to do the exact same thing, set up link. Then you actually hit the page button. And now it's going to ask you what message do you want for this? So we're going to actually put help because this device as well as notifying you like when the door is coming, it's going to turn green. It's going to flash. This is the one where you can actually trigger the system. So if you have someone who is maybe has low mobility or you're getting cared to and they need you to come to them because there's an emergency of some nature or they just need help. They can actually hold the page button down. Yes guys, I know it's all very loud. And it will actually trigger the entire system. So those are two really great innovations. There are some other things that we have that you can even set up that will assist you if you're taking care of a baby. We have ones where depending on where you need to use them they can be set up to hear if a sub pump is not working or if you have a medical device like an oxygen machine or some other thing like that. So there's a wide variety as you can see of things that you can mix and match to make your own system. I'm going to like, well, let's jump to like questions now because I'm sure that we're going to do more. We'll go back once we have some questions but I want to give plenty of time in case anyone wants to ask something specific and then we'll show it. Okay, so everybody raise your hand for your questions. The way you do that it's in the reactions but in the reactions icon at the bottom of your screen. I know it's a lot. Oh, well, listen, I have two questions then. Sure. I'll get it going here. Okay. So, you know the different labels that you have can you create a custom label? So like when you were talking about basement so rather than door four could I change that to say basement? Not right now. However, one of the things that we're working on is kind of a twofold. One is adding a lot more designations to the current list because that's something that can just be programmed. The second thing that we're working on is a way for you to interact with the system possibly through the app. So you might have noticed on the back of the device there's a USB connection. Right now that's just a means for you to like, you know, have some place to plug your cell phone in. What we're looking at is developing that so that you can actually use your cell phone to enter information because this is a great device that allows you to record things and enter things very quickly. So right now, the next evolution would be additional options. And then eventually I think it's going to be where you can really customize it. Where you can say, this is a great example. We had a lovely woman who had twins and she had two baby monitors and she wanted to be able to say, you know, Charlotte and Charlie, you know, so versus it saying just baby. She wanted to actually have the children's names. Can't quite do that yet, but we're working on that. I can't believe nobody has any questions. Oh, Steve Kinsey has a question. He put it in the chat rather than actually raising his hand. And it's a CTAP question. And he wants to know if CTAP will come to our home to set up this system and answer questions. So Steve, I know a little bit about that. So I know that CTAP will come to your home and assist you setting up your amplified telephone. You might be able to get them to come, plug in and set up the basic base unit. But CTAP is not connected to the accessories. So the part that Christine is sharing with us today is using the system as a full system. And CTAP isn't distributing the system, they're only distributing the alerting feature. Does that answer that question, Steve? So what I can add to that is that's absolutely correct. They actually will assist you if you're having any trouble with your amplified phone or the base unit, which is the equipment they're providing. If you're having any issues, even with the other equipment, you can contact us also. But you would contact us directly if you're having any trouble like connecting any of the other devices. But I think you saw that it was pretty easy to really connect them. And all of them connect in a very similar way. So you don't have multiple ways of, well, this one connects one way and this one connects the other. So that's the great thing is it's very, very simple. So after I saw this at the East Bay chapter, the next week I absolutely went to CTAP and picked up my unit. I wanted to try things out before I contacted Christine to give us a presentation. And there are some things that I really, really like about it. It really is quite easy to set up. When you press the buttons, I've done other devices before that you had to be an engineer to do it. This is not like that. The bed shaker is the strongest, most powerful bed shaker I have ever used. I used it the morning before my second cochlear implant surgery. And I used it just to see how it would work because I'd never previously could ever count on anything like that. I had to have, I mean, I have a little one, but for something really important, I'd have to have three or four things. And my husband is the most important one. I'm telling you, it lifted the bed. It was really, really powerful. I thought it was fabulous. Yeah, let's see what, oh, Christine, something that I didn't hear you mention is the fact that you can connect it also to a lamp. You can. There is a means of doing that. This one, the little more, there's another device that you can connect to this that you can then plug a lamp in. For anyone who is more familiar or if they have a setup in their bedroom already for a lamp flasher, you can connect it. With the strobe though, with the strobe though, that already has a built-in sort of light source. So there isn't the, for anyone who has our 1000, which is, you know, has been around for 30 years, that actually had a plug in the back where you could actually plug a lamp in. This one has an extension that you can plug one into. So there is a means of doing that. Hi, Steve, do you have a new question? Yes, I do. So the question is, you're showing many different, and thank you for doing this, Ann and Christine. So Christine, if we get this unit from CTAP, you show us a bunch of accessories. Does the basic unit come with the accessories or do we then contact you to get these other pieces? You would contact us and you can actually order them through our website. And I do have a discount code. All those other things, you can kind of a la carte, put a system together for yourself. Many people will get the base unit and they'll get the smoke and CO sensor and that's everything they want it to do. Speaking of which, did I speak too loudly? Okay, okay guys. It hurt me talking. But many people will just get the smoke and CO sensor and that's everything they want or they'll get a doorbell and that's everything that they want. So you can make the system as expansive as you would like it or as small as you would like it. But the great thing is through CTAP, you're getting the main unit, which is key because you have to have that to do everything else. Steve, if you go to their website at the moment, a lot of the devices are sold out just like everything else in the pandemic. They're having problems getting components but I checked and Daiglo has almost everything at the moment. And Harris Communications changed names and I'm having a terrible time remembering that name. I don't see how it connects to devices and things but it's called Daiglo. So that's the new Harris Community. And they had everything so. Yeah, they also have them. And one of the things, and if I do get one because I work very closely, Daiglo is one of our biggest wholesalers and we've been with them forever. If I also get a discount code for them or any of our other wholesalers, which I put out to them saying, I'm talking to a lot of groups, do you want to offer a discount code for them? I will pass it on. I think as we go more towards the end of the year that you might see more of those. And so now that I have everybody on my email list as I get them in, I will disperse them out. So you can pass them around to each other. At the moment, we have a 35% discount for you. You can order the items and as soon as they come in, they will be shipped. We are looking at right now for October for the smoke and CO sensor and also for the cell phone. So, and I know those are very popular ones, but some of our suppliers still have stock in them. By all means, they will all work. Any other questions? Is anyone here from a state other than California? I might be able to tell you about a program in your state. If anybody is here, I can tell you about a few of the other programs that are available just so that you can get kind of an idea of maybe some of the areas to take a look at because that is where I work. So everybody who I see who's our participant today is in California. Okay. CTAP is a great program for you to give you an idea of some other ones. If anyone is in the Ventura or Oxnard County, the Ventura fire department actually did a fantastic program with most of the stuff that I showed you today. And if you contact them, you have to be a resident of their area, but they actually did a vibe, a blink, a main unit, like two other things. All is all in one box. And that would be a tremendous advantage to anyone who's in that area. I think there's some restrictions to that. I recently heard that if you're in the Los Angeles County, that they too are running a smoke and CO program. I would reach out to them. Please make sure your smoke and CO detectors are working. They're absolutely essential to keeping you safe. So if your roots is not working, reach out to your fire department. If you are having some concerns or you're having some issues, making sure that they're installed properly or if you even have questions, they're there to keep you safe. Please reach out to them as a resource. Let's see what else in California. Christine, thank you very much about that because we have two, most of the people here are in the Bill Valley chapter, except for the Kinsies who are in San Jose. And we have basically two fire departments here and I've approached them on and off for different things. So maybe we can put, I'll contact you later. Maybe we can put together a package and get them to come on board. Yeah, one of the things that I work with, interesting enough, along with Diglow, is assisting fire departments with writing grants so that they can get equipment for themselves. And part of that is also running community support projects like smoke and CO detectors. It is fundamental that if you have a smoke and CO detector, that the odds of you leading your residents if there's an emergency alive is, it's not even a question. It multiplies it to the point of almost being like for certain. So making sure that you have that is key. If you need an assistive device, that is the other part of it. So you need to make sure that you're going to be notified if it is triggered. So if any of you who are living, like Ann said, and you have a fire department in the area and you can find someone there who wants to even find out about the process of writing a grant, they can get some fantastic equipment and funds for their day-to-day operations. And we're happy to walk them through the process as far as how to do it. It is a, what I'd like to call it, it's not a legal document. Lawyers don't have to get involved. It's more of an academic document. So if anyone here has written a thesis paper where you present an argument and then defend it, that's pretty much what you need to do when you're writing the grant. So it's detailed, you have to get some information, but it's something that anyone with reasonable writing skills can do successfully. And most of the time it's just allowing them to know what the process is. So it doesn't seem so intimidating. Okay, well, Christine, thank you very much for sharing all the devices and coming to talk to us today. I really loved it. I'm really glad to see everything again. I'm hoping that next week everybody runs out to CTAP. Now I wanna let everybody know that once you're registered with CTAP, and I think maybe everybody here except one person might be, you can actually contact them and they'll mail this to you. I didn't wanna wait, so I had another something that I was doing. So I went by and took 10 minutes and went by and picked it up. So there's a CTAP location in Berkeley where you can go ahead and do that. So Steve Kinsey is shaking his head. Are you shaking your head? Can you unmute yourself? Steve, you're mute. You're still mute. Can you unmute in the bottom left? Are you, there you go. That's the picture. I have no picture on my screen. Oh, we can still see you. Do you see the questions and answers? No, we don't know. I just didn't go with the hand. We're okay. Okay, okay. So we still see you. Yes. Can you see us now? Yes, yes. Okay. Okay, we're comfortable. Okay, so we have some announcements to make. Oops. And these announcements are things that we want everybody to take action on. And the first one is big, really, really big. So at the moment, there's the first round of the Medicare bill to cover hearing aids. So it's finally time that we need to contact our senators and House of Representatives, our legislative officials, to ensure that they know that we want them to vote yes. So I'm going to quit sharing this screen and I'm going to go ahead and take you to our website so that you know how to go ahead and... So if you go to our website right now, if you click on the left hand... Right hand side here, this is a direct link to the HLAA message that we all received about the Medicare coverage. If you click on this, this takes you directly to HLAA. There are even sample letters to write. If anybody is interested in possibly putting together a sample letter that we would distribute from the Diablo Valley chapter, please let me know. So if we ever think that we're going to get Medicare coverage for hearing aids, now's the time to take some action. I don't know what to do. She made me. Steve, were you trying to say something? My mistake, Ann. Oh, it's okay. Okay, the second thing that we want you to do is we want you to submit a review of our chapter to great nonprofits. So we have an account in great nonprofits and every year you need to have a minimum of 10 positive reviews to be able to include the great nonprofits on your website. So this is the great nonprofits logo. And the last few years, we haven't been able to get 10 people to write reviews in enough time to be able for us to use the current symbol. And when other agencies are looking to donate money to us, there are two ways, actually probably three ways that maybe four ways that they look to find out whether they think that we are worthy of donating money to. The first one is that we're visible in the community. So all of you know that we do historically, we've done at least five outreach events in the community every year. We have two events coming up. We're still keeping our fingers crossed that they'll take place. One is an emergency planning special event and Alan Kutzer and I will be working that. And then another one is an event all about falls. And so people with hearing loss can't hear people. And Christine, I didn't know that there was the peace for the help. That's perfect for to go along with. Did we lose him? She appears to be frozen. Okay, well, let's give her a minute. I did put in chat. If anyone had a question. To make sure that our logo here for great nonprofits is current. So right now the logo we have is 2018. And we want to have a 2021 great nonprofits logo that we can put on here. And you did cut out there just a little bit in the middle when you were talking about your outreach program for about 30 seconds in case you want to double back. Yeah, what part got caught out, got cut out? You were talking about, you do about five outreach programs and then it froze for a little bit and it came back just as you were saying that you have your 2028 seal on your website from the organization. Okay, so we have been asked to participate HLAA Diabla Valley Chapter has been asked to participate in two upcoming outreach events. One is a safety and emergency event at Rossmore. And the other one is an event that's focusing specifically on falls because it's such a devastating experience for all of us. And as we know, our ear controls our stability. And so there's a link for hearing loss with falls. There's also a whole nother place about the fact that we can't hear people behind us generally. So if something is in front of us and someone would call out to us, we can't hear them. So to raise awareness about those issues. And the piece that Christine just brought in here was with everybody could have the home aware and then they could purchase the help feature to be able to notify people that they needed assistance. And so the other ways that donors are notified is that we do write grants. So we generally write at least three grants a year. And so they may go to our website because nobody will give you a grant today if you don't have a website and look to see what logos you have on there for GuideStar and great nonprofits because everybody's trying to determine are you worthy of receiving their money and can you use it well? Are you organized and have things together so that if we give you something that you will use it well? And historically, Bob Zastrow, if you don't know him, you can look for the thumbnail. Probably for 15 years or longer, makes homemade muffins and distributes them at all of our in-person meetings. And so this is from Bob to everybody even though he can't give it to us in person. Now we'd like to ask right now, we know that there are some new people at our meeting today. Does anybody have a question about anything having to do with hearing loss, hearing devices, CIs, our chapter meetings, anything else? Please just raise your hand, okay? So nobody has, does anybody have any other announcement to make about something else that they're doing? Does anybody wanna share how they've been surviving their people I haven't seen for a while, how they've been surviving during the pandemic? What you feel about having to go back and wear masks again? Hi, Barbara Bottomley, please. Hi, I just wanted to say thank you. Wait a minute, let me see if I've got my, yeah. I just wanted to say thank you, Anne, for continuing to have these meetings and pulling us together. It's not easy at this time, especially when this drags on and on and on to keep people together. So carry on, you're doing a great job. Thanks. Susan Beck. Hi, I wanted to thank Christine for that amazing presentation. I had no idea that all those things were available. And also I have this smoke alarm system along with the alarm clock and stuff that I got through something through the city of Concord. And I worried that the strobe would not wake me up and when a battery went out, I could not believe how that strobe woke me up. So if anybody thinks that it won't, believe me it will. So thank you, Christine. Oh, I'm so happy that you have it and that you're using it. It's very key. One of the things I was gonna mention is that I'm happy if you get our system, I'm delighted, but CTAP actually has several notifications that similar systems that you could also build upon and they have them at the centers. If you wanna go and take a look at what else is out there before you make your decision, by all means do that. If you have any questions about the equipment or how to put your system together or you're thinking of some use and you're not sure exactly what to get, you can send them to us. I threw the customer service email that's our front-facing email. You can say this is for Christine. They're very happy to say not mine and send it to me. So it will get to me. And we're happy to help you with any of that sort of things. And not only for when you just get it, but going forward. So if your needs change, we're here to assist you. So fun, it's a good way to connect with people. I'm glad to be able to talk to all of you on those rare occasions where I get to actually see the people who are benefiting from all these programs. And it's one of the reasons why when Anne asked me that I was like, yeah, I will do that. I'm happy to see that people are utilizing the equipment because that's why all the programs are there. So that's good. So Barbara and Susan, can you lower your hand? I know, I always forget too. So Julie Johnson, you're next and welcome. It's so nice to meet you. And you need to unmute yourself. Hi everybody. I'm so new to this. I've had sudden hearing loss. But the doctors can only explain by saying probably caused by chemotherapy drugs and permanent and irreversible. So at the end of this month, I'm looking at a scheduled for a cochlear implant. The pandemic has been really difficult for me. As I imagine it may be for some of you too with everybody wearing masks. And it's like people don't really understand even though I say I'm hearing impaired, they just yell louder at me. And so standing in the line at the store, everybody in the line hears what my issue is because they're yelling the answer to me. I don't know, I'm just trying to figure out how to live as a deaf person. I wanna be happy. I wanna live my life for something good. Just wondering if you can share any kind of encouragement with me. I can share tons of encouragement to you. So first of all, masks have been absolutely over the top devastating to our community. I mean, it's estimated that by wearing a mask, it decreases the sound by 15 to 20%. Well, for all of us, we couldn't hear before. And that's just really made it impossible. So I'm really happy you came today, Julie. There are speech to text apps. And I absolutely could not have functioned in the world outside my house without them. And we have a YouTube channel and one of the only speech to text app that you can maintain social distancing is called Ava. There are additional ones that you can use, but that's the only one that you can have a conversation between two people. So theoretically, if you have Ava on your phone and I have Ava on my phone, I can communicate to you where you live. Okay? So what happens is you all pull it up for you just so you can have an idea. Okay, so this is the app. And obviously, you know, the light's terrible on all of these things, but you can see it's captioning exactly what I'm saying. So they've made it so that the closer you are to the microphone, the greater the chance is that it's accurate. So most, do you have an iPhone or an Android? iPhone, okay. So on an iPhone, the microphones are on the bottom. So what you need to do is rotate the phone, okay? So there, the microphones are down here. You rotate the phone and the screen rotates with the text. And so when I'm in line at the grocery store, and I'm gonna try and demo it so you can get an idea. So the grocery counter is right there. And I reach my phone out so that the microphone is closer to the person talking so that it's easier to get the text. And I just tell people, I'm hard of hearing. I can't understand anybody in a mask with a mask. Now, I have had almost everybody be very nice about that. If I, something that's important, I say, could you please write that down for me? You know, somebody can write down if I was buying, if I visited TJ Maxx or something and I couldn't understand the person and I couldn't see something. I say, could you write that down for me? And they just write it down. When I came to HLAA, I came because my audiologist actually had a friend, I mean another, a client who was looking for some other young people. I started losing my hearing in my late 40s. And I could still hear pretty well. If I had not come to HLAA when I happened to come to our chapter, I would never, ever, ever have had the wonderful life that I've had even though I haven't been able to understand tons of things, even though my hearing loss deteriorated and Julie and I communicated via email recently and I told her that in this past six months I've gotten two cochlear implants and I'm telling you my world is radically different. But one of the things that I learned is every single person I met, every single person who's here today, I know them personally. I know them as friends, I know them as colleagues, I know the level of their hearing loss, I know that if there's anything that I need having to do with my hearing or in general, all of these people are here for me. It turns out that most people who you're gonna visit about your hearing loss aren't gonna tell you all about the things that you need, the additional accessories that you need, like Ava. Your doctor didn't tell you about Ava. And so if they were doing what we all think and I think everybody here would agree with me, we think that's their job to tell us, but they seem to be too busy to do that. So if they were doing that, there probably wouldn't be a need for our organization to exist. But since they're not doing that, where else would you hear about what Christine talked to us about today? And you're so new to having this happen to you and I'm so sorry that you found yourself in this situation. So I haven't been able to hear my doorbell unless I'm standing right underneath the doorbell where it rings in my kitchen for so many years. I've had a flashing light for a long time. So I learned all about those things from HLAA, from other members, from going to our convention. So you're welcome from all of us and there's all kinds of help here just waiting for you so that you can learn how to live your best life no matter what it is. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. AVA is the name of the app, Apple Victory Apple. Correct. I will email you the link. Okay, I'm gonna get it today. Okay. Yeah. And actually Julie, if you wanna, Julie wanted to hear all about my CI experience because she's approaching potentially having that. If you want, it's on the app store and when you look, you need to put AVA 24-7 for it to come up because there's another AVA app that's for women's fertility and when you get there, you're gonna go, oh, that's not what I'm looking for. Okay, so if you have that, when we connect, if you wanna connect later today, we could even practice AVA together and I could walk you through how it works and everything and you'd be ahead of the game. Okay, great. Tomorrow will work better for me because I'm expecting some friends. Fine. Okay, definitely. Okay, so I wanna remind everybody, this is my soapbox. Hearing loss is a disability. We need to ask for communication access. We're a disability covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act and a variety of California civil rights laws. If you don't ask for it, they're not gonna give it to you and you may have to work really, really hard like all of you know that I have been doing for years. At the moment, I'm actively advocating at UCSF. I've been asked to lead a disability access committee for people with hearing loss, family and friends. We're working with John Muir. We have all kinds of things in the fire here. So you're going okay. So I'm supposed to ask for communication access, right? Well, where? It's everywhere, oops, sorry, everywhere. So any place that you can't understand, we're supposed to be able to function just like everybody else. We'd like to remind you that we're a member organization and that if you haven't reviewed, if you haven't renewed your membership or joined, we'd like to ask you to do both and you can do it very easily on our website. This is what our website looks like and you can see where it says membership and it's circled. And when you click on that, you can either download a form that you can mail to us or you can do it right online. Does anybody have anything else to say to do to whatever? I think that Christine. One of the things that when you were just talking about, this is something if you were talking about the access, if any of you have alma mater, if you can contact the college and universities from which you've graduated, ask them what their program is for incoming students that are having hearing issues and ask them what sort of accommodations they're making for the dorms. This is an area of particular safety that we have been working very diligently to make sure that people are taking care of it because many young people just are like, hey, I'm gonna be fine. But it can be an area where they need to be aware of if there's a smoker CO issue, if there's a lockdown issue and to ask how that information is being communicated. So that's one area that you can contact your alma mater. The second thing is, is if you have any other organizations or any other chapters, much like Ann heard my previous talk, that you feel like this equipment would be at least beneficial for them to kind of see what's out there. Please let Ann know, she'll get in contact me and I would be happy to do that. I kind of do this as my part of my activism because this is over and on top, everything else I do. But it's nice to see the equipment really being effective in people's lives because that makes it all worthwhile. So once again, thank you so much Ann for asking me. I really do appreciate it and it's wonderful. I hope to get to see all of you in person at some point when they allow us to do that again. Maybe at the next convention, right? Yes, that would be fun. Julie, I'm thinking about things that's coming quickly through the floating through my head, right? And I'm sure it'll benefit other people too. So Steve is holding up, it's a clear mask. So we frequently ask people to use clear masks because that aids with lip reading. The problem with clear masks is it decreases the sound more than the cloth mask. So there's nothing that's perfect. But so Steve, so there's suggestions. See people are coming up with suggestions. So I don't know Julie if you're having problems with your telephone if you can understand on the telephone. So there are captioned telephones and I'll tell you all about that. We'll get you lined up with one of those. Zoom has been just a fabulous resource for all of us with hearing loss because you can see everybody. As a whole, HLAA and hearing loss people across the country advocated to Zoom for complimentary AI captions for Zoom, which are available. Now initially they rolled it out. They were for everybody who had a paid account but they have provided them to anyone who notifies them and I'll give you the link when we connect more. Usually Alan could serve us here and he would be getting the link for us and putting it in the chat. And this is Steve. Lynn tried to get that about four months ago. She still hasn't received anything from them. You guys need to follow up because so that you know we have a chapter account which we're using today which is a paid account. I know we have that. But I have a personal account as well. And Steve, I contacted them and I got it within three weeks. Lynn hasn't gotten it. So send it. Oh, maybe it went to your spam. No, I'd recheck spam on it. In Julie, there are other apps. Ava is good, but my wife Lynn uses Otter. O-T-T-E-R. It's $99 for a calendar year. It's unlimited use. You can also use it free 600 minutes a month. I have it on my phone. Lynn is the one that has the two cochlear implants. I have hearing aids. My hearing is still pretty good. So as Ann said, the HLAA community is really good. The one thing it doesn't have that I've advocated for for 30 years and I still can't find it is support for me. The spouse or the partner who's living with someone that has a hearing loss, I'm a person on an island. And I don't have anybody to communicate with. I don't have anybody to ask for assistance. I've asked national. I've been to national conventions. I've put it out in chats and I still haven't been able to find a support group for people like the helper. And that would certainly be beneficial to me. Dave? Why don't we start one? Well, I've tried. I've asked through California, HLAA, through national HLAA. I've mentioned it to many individuals. But Steve, you never asked me. No, I haven't asked you, dear. I off the top of my head can think of five to seven people who I know would be interested in joining up to do that. So if you were serious about this, I'm definitely willing to help me organize that. You know how to reach me. Okay. So we have, I think four people in our chapter at least. So then there's you. Then I know the guy in Monterey and his wife. So you guys are on a roll. Okay. Okay. And Julie, maybe your husband or your partner or your mate, whatever that is. Or another family member could be children, whatever. Cause it's difficult. The change in our life is also a change in their life. So, okay Steve, we got a new project. Not like I needed one, but we have a new project. Okay. And so Julie, you can see that came out of this conversation that we're having together today. You know, something new, something more. Now Steve, I'm thinking off the top of my head cause you know, we have time we're good today is that we could create a group's IO for spouses, you know, all of the new HLAA communication groups that are through groups. Oh, did you know that we have all kinds of new communication tools? You talking to me? Uh-huh. I'm not aware of what you're talking about. Okay. So you need to sign, you both need to sign up for the HLAAE news because there have been several announcements recently about that. And so we have, I advocated for setting up these groups for HLAA and we now have an advocacy group. We have a leaders group. We have a newsletter editors group. We have a get in the hearing loop group. There's a veterans group. I think that there should, the possibility of having a family members group should be possible. So Steve, I'll connect with you later about that, okay? And oh, we can't get HLAA to do that. We'll do it under DV. I'll just create a groups IO for spouses, okay? And then, we need to expand that not just spouses for family members. Okay, so I don't have anything. Oh, maybe I have one thing, one other thing to share. So almost everybody who's here has been with me through my journey from my CIs. And I have known a wide range of people who've gotten cochlear implants. Some people are helped a little bit. Some people are helped off the chart and they have no way of knowing who you're really gonna be. And so I have known people who were helped a little and I have known people who have been helped like they almost have normal hearing. Even though you'll always be a late deafened person and as it turned out, I had no idea what it was gonna be and I turned out to be one of the lucky ones. And I had to do some initial oral rehabilitation but my brain just decided it was gonna do this and I've just moved forward and my, so for those people who are here, it's like I could have almost been a poster child for everything that everybody dreams that you would want to have happen to you, that you don't know whether it's gonna happen or not. And so within six months, less than six months I had my second one and it's going, Lynn's looking cause she was in my second one that's going along, not quite as good as the first one dude but it's going along fine too. So I am so happy. I'm like every single day when I put my processors on I'm like, oh my God, I just cannot believe this to have gone from and I didn't, I was in denial about how bad my hearing had really gotten and to have what I have now, it's like so obvious how bad it had gotten and I should have done something a lot sooner. But anyway, over the moon happy. Thank you to all the other people who are here who, oh, so Julie as you're facing this, okay so I have two implants. Lynn Kinsey who's behind Steve in the picture there, Lynn has two implants. Bob Zastrow has one implant. Susan Beck has one implant. Julie O'Brien who's here has one implant. So you're with all kinds of people today who are here to support you. Okay, well so that was my last, I wanted to share my excitement all over again. I'm hearing sounds in my house. I'm telling you, wandering around and not being able to figure out what they are. One day we have a place that, where our garbage disposal gets turned on is underneath the lip of the sink. So it's really easy to bump against it and turn it on, right? Well, I must have done that and before I could hardly hear it. Well, I was walking around my house for an hour trying to figure out what the sound was and the water wasn't running. God knows that the garbage disposal should have burned out, right? But it didn't. So it's running with no water. I couldn't figure out what that sound was. I did not know what that sound was. Could not remember that. And when I finally figured out what it was, I was so tickled. I mean, I was like jumping up into, I was like a little kid, you know, that this was what that was. So I think that wraps it up today unless somebody else has something that they really want to change. They really want to, I think she'll release the hand. So Susan Beck texted me, chatted with me. Susan, I'm happy to give you the directions for how to ask Zoom for the AI captions. Kathy Fairbanks, hi. Hi, Ann. Ann, Christine and all of you at the DV chapter. I'm on the leadership team from the East Bay chapter, as Ann probably knows, because Ann usually joins us for East Bay chapter. And I want to thank both Ann and Christine for giving once again, a marvelous presentation today. Christine gave us a great presentation last month at the East Bay chapter. And I always learned so much from the presentations as I did from Christine's. And I even picked up some additional information today when I heard it a second time because you always add in some new information or answer different questions from different folks. So I appreciated that. I also happened to be the co-editor for our newsletter that we put out every month. And we also put it on our website and send it out by email and also by papermail. And I wrote up a nice one page overview or summary of Christine's presentation in our last month, August newsletter. So if you want to go, if you haven't already received it in the mail or in the email, it will be soon, if not already posted on our website. So you can go back and review that. I don't know if you do that, Ann, or not haven't reviewed your newsletters in the past, although I should do that. I should go to your website and check that out. But I want to thank you, but I also want to announce that next week, next Saturday at 10 o'clock, our East Bay chapter is going to have a follow-up meeting on CTAP. So please join us so you can follow up and hear more about how they provide all this wonderful free equipment if you qualify. And there's only three requirements for qualifications. So it's not that difficult to qualify, especially if you have a hearing loss and already probably have been to a doctor or an audiologist or some other licensed professional to get that verified. And you can probably take care of that and get all kinds of free equipment from them to help you monitor and improve your hearing. So please join us, but you do need to register. Just go on our website and you can register. The registration form is already on there. And you can do that very easily if you haven't already. So please join us. And I look forward to seeing you next Saturday if you wish to join us. And otherwise I'll see you next month probably because I like to join in. I always learn something from your presentations and you bring in some wonderful speakers as we do. Thanks, Kathy. And thanks for inviting everybody else to join your meetings as well. I'm actually a member of your chapter, and all of which you might not know. So I actually joined all the chapters in Northern California, except San Jose, I think. Maybe it's time I did that. So it's a way that we can all support each other. I mean, I think that in our chapter the requirement is that one needs to be a member of HLAA as well because we determined that if it weren't for HLAA, we wouldn't have captions on TV and everything else. And we absolutely need a voice in Washington. But for a lot of other chapters, the fee is $15 to belong to the chapter. And all of us can afford that. You asked about our newsletter. So I did the newsletter for our chapter for, oh God, maybe eight years, six years, something like that. And I could never find anybody else to take it over. And so at the end of that period of time, I decided that there were other things that I was interested in more than doing the newsletter. And so the only thing that I have control over are things that are in and about me. So I spend more of my time advocating now than what was in the newsletter. Now we have newsletters on our website that go back all of the years that we did them. So take a look at them sometime and see if there's something there that you might like or maybe a trick or a tip on how to format your newsletter so that it might be more appealing or something like that because we won numerous awards for ours. So thanks very much. We also put all of our past newsletters on that, go back years. So feel free, even if you don't join us for a meeting to go back and review the newsletters, they provide a lot of announcements as well as a summary of the prayer month's meetings. But I wanna give a little plug here for Ann. Ann came to our meeting. She's come, have you come more than once? You've come at least once and gave a wonderful presentation on technology and a number of the apps were available. Oh, I was just blown away when I heard about all those. But Ann does more than her share in all kinds of ways. You're involved in all these different projects that HLA has going on, hearing loops and on and on. And so you do need to find somebody to be maybe a co-editor. I work with Nancy Edmondson and she is a co-editor with me for the newsletter. We work hand in hand and it works really well. We keep each other motivated because it does take a substantial amount of work and time, but I find it fun. I've always been involved in writing and editing and I do a lot of that as a former professor. I'm retired now, but I used to do a lot of that when I was teaching at the university and editing master's ceases and things like that. So I'm beyond that right now, but I do it now and then and I love doing it as a volunteer. So if you ever want me to edit something for you, Ann, send it my way or contact me. I'd be glad to help you out, boys. So Kathy, it was really weird, you know, when to decide not to do the newsletter. Do you know that not one person even missed it? Now that surprises me, yeah. So I mean, I did extensive, you know, six and eight page newsletters and things like that. No, not one single person communicated that they missed it. That's surprising. I was actually quite happy. Yeah. I don't think I had, I don't know if I've ever seen it. I actually didn't go on your website and look for that. So are some of the old ones on there? Yeah, all of them. So it's under the press tab. Okay. I will definitely take a look at that. Thanks for mentioning that. So once again, I hope I see all of you next week for our CTEP presenter. It's going to be Elizabeth Wong, who was one of the outreach specialists. And I'm sure she'll do a fine job. And then you can look for my summary thereafter, usually the month after newsletter that you do miss it. Watch what? East Bay chapter next Saturday. Yeah. And what you do is just go on www.hearinglosseb.org. I want everybody to know that HLAA now has a calendar of events of all of the chapters across the United States. So if you go to the HLAA website, and actually maybe I can pull it up here. If you go to the HLAA website, I'm inputting it into my browser so I can pull it up and show everybody. And I can't type very well. It's not my strong suit. So of course I made a typo. A typo, transcript, NGA. Don't know what you said. Okay, so this is the HLAA website. And see here where it says calendar? You click on calendar and find an HLAA chapter and state online meeting here. You click on that and everybody who posts a meeting and the leaders of all of the chapters are responsible for posting their own meeting. So as you can see, and this was the summer, this is our slow time for all of us. Other months you can see. Like in June, the calendar was jammed. And here was May. So you could go to an HLAA event about almost any topic, almost any day of the week. Okay, so of course, if it weren't for Corey Dostey, all of us would be SOL. And she is our wonderful, wonderful captioner. And so from all of us, Corey, to you, it's a huge, huge, huge thank you. So everybody in the bottom corner where your reactions are, if you click on that, you can either clap your hands, you can do a thumbs up, you can do a heart. And it's a way of teaching you something else you can do. So see, I just put a heart for my reaction. So Corey, I can't give you a hug and I can't thank you in person. And this is the best I can do. So thank you very much. And we'll see everybody again next month. Thank you. Bye everyone. Bye. See you next Saturday. I'll be up at the feet of baby bye. Christine. Okay, and that was a great meeting.