 Good morning and welcome to the Nebraska Library Commission's webinar on the new FCC Emergency Connectivity Fund. Wonderful new acronym we have to remember and learn about, the ECF. I am Krista Porter. I am the Library Development Director here at the Nebraska Library Commission. And I will be taking you through the basics of this new program. What we know now, there are some things that are still unknown or to be seen how things will look and how things will act when you do have the ability to apply for the emergency connectivity fund. So, but we'll try and give you all the basics that we can about it everything that we that has been released from the FCC. If you have any questions throughout the session type in your question section and you go to webinar interface and I will grab them. If you have a microphone, type in please unmute me, I have a mic, and I will answer your question that way. Officially, we are scheduled this webinar is scheduled for an hour and a half. So we will go as long as it takes to get through all the information I have here the information I have won't take that hour and a half, but to answer any questions you guys may have I won't cut things off. Just because if we reached the end of our official time. Any questions you have right now that you're thinking of I want to make sure I get them answered for you. So, let's get to it here. What is this emergency connectivity fund that you've heard about. This is a new program, a one time program this is a one shot deal this is not going to be an ongoing program that comes up every year for you this is one time program. This is part of the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA. There's lots of funding opportunities and lots of money that is in ARPA as you may have heard from all sorts of other resources and and other money's being offered. This particular one we're talking about today is money that was allotted to the FCC to help libraries and schools. It's $7.1 billion is has been allotted for schools, specifically K through 12 schools. And public libraries and the purpose of this is to close what is known as and talk about as the homework gap or the connectivity gap. Those of us in libraries have known for a long time that there is that this gap of students and citizens, not having adequate adequate access for the internet at home. The students, they have access to it in their school and then as soon as schools out they come to the library to use the internet there because that's where it is available in the town. We've been dealing with this for years and doing and you know trying to come up with ways in public libraries to help increase our internet connections increase the computers we have available to them to help these students and close that homework gap for them. And when the library closes at whatever time it does and they go home, then there's the, what the schools refer to as that also that connectivity gap. Some people at home do not have an internet connection to not have devices that are strong enough or updated enough to for the students to be able to do their homework or for the library patrons to do anything related to library services at home. So we've known about this for a long time in the school and library world. The 19 pandemic has brought this to the forefront and got it in front of other people's eyes, who are realizing, Oh, this is the thing. People started working from home students started doing remote learning from home. And everybody suddenly discovered, Oh, it doesn't work all the time does it. The digital divide is even more obvious to everybody else now. So now with ARPA the FCC has $7.1 billion to help close this and the official purpose there is that last bullet there to provide adequate internet access and devices to library patrons. So anybody uses a library and from a school students and school staff who don't have access at home, or at other off campus locations and we'll get into that. To be clear, I want to clear up some misconceptions or just some confusion that may be out there about this. This is not erate. You may have heard it called the erate emergency connectivity fund it is not erate at all it is not an extension of erate is not a replacement for erate at all in any way shape or form. The erate and the emergency connectivity fund are two completely separate programs with completely separate purposes related to each other, but separate. They will the new emergency connectivity fund will how however will be administered by usack the universal service administrative company for those of you who don't do erate that is the company the not for profit company that FCC set up to run the erate which provides internet connections to schools and libraries, and then within the schools and libraries getting that internet to the computers or the devices. Any of the equipment and cabling of things internally in this library school building that they would need to do that. Because they know how to do that and are good at it. The FCC said usack you'll also now run this new program because it's similar. It's related, and you guys already know how to do this really well. So let's have you run this new program as well. The big difference between erate and the emergency connectivity fund is where this service and these devices can be used for erate it's about bringing connections to the library and school buildings and then within the building making all those connections work. The emergency connectivity fund is specifically for off campus use, not in the library not in the school. In the order from the FCC it does say these device this service and these devices are not to be used in the school or the library. They may have to bring them there and they may originally be checked out from those locations of course, but the purpose of for their use is to get these internet services elsewhere in the community. It could be at home for students doing remote learning at home or library patrons just trying to do live access library services at home, but it can be anywhere on school buses wife hotspots on school buses. If you have community centers or other shelters that homeless shelters that need internet service for the community, things that libraries may do if you have a mobile. Bookbikes pop up libraries somewhere anything and everything you can think of that's just not the library and not the school that needs a better internet connection. That's what the ECF is for. So that's a big difference between the two erate is for in the schools and libraries ECF is for outside and extending both school and libraries connections out. But it is, it can get confusing, especially with them both being run by the same organization, the same company usack. But hopefully it'll become clear when you start doing it. So who is eligible for these funds. This is specifically anyone who is currently eligible for erate support is eligible for the ECF support as well. It's you do not have to be currently participating at the rate so you don't be a current participant that's not it it's just if you're eligible to get you rate, you can get ECF. This is specifically for K through 12 schools only so only up through that so this is not go up to colleges and universities who can apply for this and public libraries. An extra thing I've added to this one as well tribal libraries historically in the erate program have been. And maybe or maybe not, they are all tribal libraries are also eligible for this the FCC has said this, let them apply as well. I'm here in Nebraska specifically for public libraries all pub that makes all public libraries are eligible all public libraries in Nebraska all schools and libraries, all public schools and K through 12 schools and public libraries in Nebraska are eligible for erate. So they're as well to apply for this. Excuse me, if you are not a current erate participant, you will need to create an account to use the new portal that's being created for the ECF. And we'll talk about how you do that in a little a little bit here. So, current erate people you're already good to go new people to new new people to erate you have to get set up to do that. You're eligible to use these services and things that you do apply for these through the ECF. The purpose of this is for individuals who do not have internet access and or devices sufficient to meet their needs. So this is about the patrons or the school students or the school staff who are, as I mentioned in need they're needy, they do not have a strong enough internet connection or any internet connection at home. Or they do not have a laptop or tablet at home that can be used to do the schoolwork. You know, as people went home, and over this past year and everyone was at home working. The need could be we just can't afford it, or the need could be we have it but now that everybody's at home, all at the same time, multiple children using the internet service, multiple adults working from home. What we currently have no longer works it's no longer a strong enough or fast enough internet connection, or we now don't have enough computers for everyone to do it because there's too many of us at home. So you're the need could be varying types of need not just monetary need that we can afford it but everything changed and now we can't do what we need to do at home. So schools and libraries will whoever applies to receive these this service from the school or library will sign off on all the documents saying you're just certifying yes I am in need. You don't have to prove no requirement to prove. You don't have to give what the reasons are, or say, you know, here's my income. It doesn't work like that it's a sign this form you're legally saying you're needy that's all we need to know. The wording here now is awesome that the rest of the slide is specifically from the FCC order about this and I wanted to bring this to your attention because it is different from school to schools and libraries. For staff at schools, it's for activities that are integral immediate approximate to the education of students. So if a student or staff member says to the school hey I'd like one of these devices or I'd like to have this hot spot at my house. It has to be for using it at that location to do that remote learning, or for a staff person to do their job from home whatever they can do from home for libraries is different. It's for activities that are integral immediate approximate to the provision of library services to library patrons. And that is for any service that the library offers, not just educational. So if a library patron comes into the library and says I'd like one of those devices or that hot spot to bring home and use. It can be to you. The purpose can be to do anything that has to do with library services logging into the library's catalog to look up books to check out books but books on hold logging into the library's databases they offer any other online services they may be offering that our library services so that's a big difference between the school need you know purposes of using them and the library's purposes for using them. So libraries need to be very open and thinking with more than schools of what their patrons can use this the device or the hotspot or whatever they're putting out there for there's really no restriction on it if it's a library service or something to do there that they're doing they want to access that's the libraries. It's perfectly fine. Some of the things you may see that are talking about this talks about the ECF is for remote learning and for education and that is the basis of it but the FCC if you if you care to read the entire order. They read up on that they do sped they do differentiate between how it is done through the schools and how it be done to the libraries and understanding that libraries have different services as they offer. And this is what people coming to the library are perfectly allowed to do use this services for anything they want. What is the equipment what can you get with this funding. Something that is completely different from erate so anybody who's an erate in in the know the rate will notice this actual devices laptops and tablets in erate it's only for this internet service and anything that makes that internet service work the cables the routers the switches and all of that computers, tablets, all of those laptops are not eligible for erate funding that is different for the ECF. They know people need the devices as well or they need even just a better device and they may have so lap any type of laptops and tablets, smartphones and desktop computers are not eligible, making that clear here. So, yes, some people do use their smartphones to access things some things that are the library website or school things. Some people do have a desktop computer that they have or use, but for this particular purpose about something that's more portable to carry around and go not just a home but to a community center to wherever they are out and about. So it specifically is for laptops and tablet tablets. Also Wi Fi hotspots, you know, hotspot lending programs that many libraries are doing now. This is another way to get some of those modems. You're doing things in other locations like setting up an internet connection at a community center or at a homeless shelter, whatever you need for that modems routers and devices that combine those. So that is the equipment that is available. The services are internet access services so your internet connection commercially available internet service so any type of connection pretty much that's a good commercially available, providing broadband. You know, cable fiber, etc, etc, just has to be commercially available out and about there. Any fees involved with setting it up are also can be covered by can be ECF funds can be used for us that's installation activation. Any other pieces of equipment that might be needed for to get that internet access service set up wherever it's being installed. There is also a little exception for new construction generally speaking it's not for news construction it's for just taking the library or the schools internet connection that's already there and extending it somewhere else running a cable to another building or having you the hot wifi hotspot sending it home to someone. However, if there is no commercially available internet service available somewhere, then you can request use this funding to do new construction. You must provide proof, definitely very important that you have to prove prove prove that there is really nowhere else that we could get the service from at this particular off library and off school campus location. We have looked we have searched we have contacted service providers who are in our area and there just isn't an option. So, for our very very rural areas that we have this may be the case sometimes that the interest just run to the city buildings but nowhere else so if there is no in no commercially available and you've got your proof files paper or something that you've tried, then you could have brand new construction done, just had a brand new connection rather than just extending what is already available from the school or the library. Now there are some officially this is 100% covered of the cost is covered, but there are some funding caps that the FCC did put on part of this to for a laptop some tablets. Up to $400 will they cover, you can buy something that costs more. Totally, you know, we know there are tablets and Chromebooks and laptops out there that do cost more than 400. But the ECF will only provide $400 worth of that, you'd be responsible for the rest of it for hotspots that they limit the funding cap is $250 per hot spot. So that is for the device only, not the service. The actual service plan would be part of the services part of it which is covered by 100% it's different. So it's just the physical laptops and tablets up to $400 they will give you for them and Wi Fi hotspots up to $250 for those. There are some restrictions on how many of these can be given out to individuals. It's one laptop or tablet and one Wi Fi hotspot per students, school staff person or library patron that request one. So each individual can only have one of each of those so you could get a laptop and a hotspot from the school for your students take home. The interesting thing to notice here is the SC does not limit does not restrict duplicating borrowing these, meaning your student can go to the school and say I need a tablet and I need a hotspot and then the parent can go to the library and I need a laptop and I need a hotspot, both from the same program but one the school applied for one the library applied for and is perfectly okay, perfectly okay for that household to have then two laptops and two hotspots in it. Because they came from the two different locations the FCC actually did specify that it is perfectly okay that a library patron may need one and a student may need one. So you could end up with that if both your school and your library in your community apply for this for the other services everything beyond the actual laptops and tablets themselves and the Wi Fi hotspot itself. There is 100% reimbursement of reasonable costs. It's not fine. There are no rules yet of how what the speed must be what the maximum they will pay there's no budget maximum with e rate for those of you that know, and there's a limit to how much money each location will get there isn't any of that in this It's going to be done in a case by case basis when you put in your application you sack staff will review it and decide what they think is reasonable. If you have the amount you applied for for the internet services reasonable or not, and will either give you the full 100% or we'll say, well, let's talk about this, I think that's a little too much or we'll give you part, whatever it comes out to be. So does anybody have any questions right now. Anything you want to know more anything you are confused about or wondering about what the ECF is for what you can apply for. What kind of the amount of funding you'll get anybody have any questions type into the questions section of your go to webinar interface. I can see that here and I am monitoring that. And I was gonna say if you do have a microphone just let me know and I'm moving around my windows here so I can see what I'm doing. And I can unmute you and you can ask your question. That way. All right, so there you are. Okay. All right, so Sicily, I've unmuted you should be able to talk. Hey, yes. Thank you. So you were talking about funding caps and the restriction so one laptop and one hotspot per patron. And then my computer kind of went funky on your voice. So you said something afterwards and I wasn't sure are you taught is does that include what's also currently like if I have a student who you know who borrows a laptop and a hotspot from their school and then comes to the library and borrows another one is that. Does that matter. Um, I would say that's the way phrase I don't honestly I'm not sure because the way they phrased it is I would say yes. Because it is and actually what is what I talked about right after that and it's probably you guessed that one of the things that interesting about this is that the FCC has said that it is okay to duplicate the library borrowing these from this if you have and your library like the parent at the home and a student, student goes to their school and the parent goes to the library and they both ask for a laptop and wife hotspot and both bring those home and you end up with two laptops, two laptops, and two hotspots that is okay yes. I said specifically if the student goes to the school and then the student goes to the library. I would say yes to in the FCC, I'm just thinking of it through as you asked it that way the FCC and the usaker using the phrase library patron students can be library patrons to so yes. So yeah so the max well per person, one laptop and one hotspot per person. So, but there's no limit per household how many can end up there. So. Well, well that makes it easier so we don't have to like connect with the school to see if they are already borrowed a laptop. And yeah, so that works. Okay. And you know, and you don't even even get into this if both the library and the school because it's a separate thing schools and libraries each apply for this, do they each even apply for this funding at all. Yeah. And then you'd get into that. Yep. Yep. Okay. Absolutely. And let's see. Okay, I got a lot more questions coming in here. Let me check off the ones you got here. Okay, question. Someone has been in and out popping in and out our community college is eligible. Unfortunately, no, not for this program. The ECF the emergency connectivity fund is specific specifically for K through 12 schools and public libraries. So nothing above grade 12. If you're teaching anything above that is not eligible for this program for people who are attending the community college like if you have students who are attending your community college that need a device or a hotspot to use at home. I would send them to your local public library to get it from there because then they could use that to then do community college work if they want to do. If they need it for, but the community college, no, is not eligible to apply. Oh, oh, Tammy interested. Okay. I'm reading the questions here. The question is, can several household members or bus riders, you know, where we have it use one hotspot at once. It does not depend on what hotspot, how good a hotspot you purchase but yes, hotspots can have multiple people on them at the same time. It was just depend on how strong hotspot you have and how strong the internet services that you have to that location. Oh, and okay so I see a comment here I'm kind of jumping down here because we've got a comment from Gail about the library and they just having a student check out from the library from the school and then the library. A public library. Yeah, I would not know if a student checked one out from the school and that's not something you need to worry about know you're just dealing with your patrons what they want the schools doing with students what they need. And yeah, there's doesn't need to be any as you mentioned Leslie any coordination amongst them know. Let's see what else we got here. Well they allow cellular carriers for hotspots that is probably all that would be available or work here. So yes, like data plans and so yes the cell the cell phone the cell carriers that whatever whatever kind of connection you get for the hotspot. That is what you could you could apply for that as the as your service absolutely. Air cards things like that. And Jesus duplication there and different plans. Oh you're talking about the school and the library each having their own internet connection internet hotspots that's true they're going to be different from entirely what you get from the school and the library because the library will. The school contract with somebody to provide their hotspots and their service and the library will contract with somebody and have a different account so it will be two separate plans correct. And I see your question Donna and I am going to get to that so I will hold off on answering that right now because I do have a slide all about that that we are going to talk about any other questions anybody has right now about what's going on and what you can do best. A few more things we will still discuss at here funding caps. Okay, so on to the application process. We know some about this. We don't know, or have access to as much as I would like. So, let's say we'll give you what I got here. So the filing window for this opens next week, June 29, Tuesday, 9am Eastern time, which is 8am for us central time. And we'll close on August 13 at almost midnight Eastern time. This is similar to the way he rate works. So it's a 45 day filing window to apply for this funding, opening up starting next Tuesday. This is going to be for future purchases only to start with. So this is your thinking about things that we need for the upcoming summer and the upcoming school year, you know, next year. So for anything you buy between July 1 of this year 2021 and June 30 of 2022. So, and it can be anytime during that time frame that you make the purchases. You just have to submit the application between June 29 and August 13 August 13 is a deadline to submit an application or wanting the funding for things that you may purchase going on as far forward as June. End of June of next year. This is something that was a change from when the FC, the, this was this first came into ARPA and the FCC first had their put out their order and their questions or what people might want. And they whenever FCC does something, there's always the comments that you can put into it and lots of organization schools libraries will comment on things they do relate to this. Originally, this was this was thought it was going to be a retroactive type thing, because it's in response ARPA and this funding is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We were a thought it would be, we know you've already bought some of a lot of they have bought this from already bought these things already last year, and did not have grants or funding that used it for you can get reimbursed for things you'd already purchased. However, when the final rule came out the FCC switched all around and said no first window it's going to be for future purchases let's get things going for what's coming up in the next school year. So this is you cannot submit use this funding for things you've already bought any before July 1. However, if there is still funding remaining after this first window, they may open I should say may a retroactive application window for you to apply for funding, starting as far back as March 1 of 2020, when, right about when everything started locking down and going through June 30 of this year. So, we'll see how much money is left of that 7.1 billion after the first go around. And if it is that then you will be able to apply and get reimbursements for anything you didn't that you purchased previously. Many people, if you have applied for grants and things to us the library commission or other places and had it already covered and that's fine if you already got it paid for, you cannot get it covered. Again, you can resubmit in places for this. This would be for the retroactive one, if it is able to be open for things you just had to pay out right but for the library funds and did not have any other source of funding that paid covered it for you. And I have some questions came about this so I will actually answer these now as I'm seeing these come in. Yes. How long will they fund the cost of monthly service for hotspots. This would be through that June 30 2022. So this is, that would be how long this would cover for you anything beyond that would be then for you to continue it afterwards. This is a, as I said in the beginning is a one time program for a specific reason because of coven and it has a limited lifespan, I suppose I can describe it as so the cost of the monthly service be through that June end of June of 2022 they would cover for anything you purchase from this of services. And that would museums be eligible. Museums would not be eligible this unless they are like a public library slash museum type thing. And we specifically, it's, you have to be a legally established public library in Nebraska that's the kind of key that this is. So it's not for just just museums know it's really specifically K through 12 skill schools and public libraries. And that's it. So the application process the window opens next week. There will be a special emergency connectivity fund portal, ECF portal that is not available for you to use or see yet. This is one of the things I wish we had right now. I have not even seen, and I'll be honest, I have not seen even any screenshots or demos of what these forms will look like. I was asked about that and it's, they're working on this like right up to the minute of opening the window. Usac is so they did not want to share any sort of like here's a draft version of it because things could change at any time between now and next Tuesday morning. So we don't know exactly but it's going it is going to be a modified version of the current erate form, the 471. So you're not aware what you rate how it works the 471 is a form or you let us know who you have chosen for your service service provider and what services you'll be getting from them. It is the second form in the era process for the ECF process. It's the first form. It's, it's they're doing it differently for the mercy connectivity fund. There are no competitive bidding requirements, meaning you do not have to put out saying you're looking for a service or looking for someone to buy this from and then receive bids and then decide if you're going to go with you get you skip that completely. So for those of you in erate no 470 no comparing all it is is you just do the 471 saying I want to buy some laptops and I want to buy them from this company or I want to get internet service and for this from this particular company you just start right off with that. After and then you sack will evaluate your application maybe ask you some questions might be some back and forth. And what if they've approved it, then you will have also modified versions of the right invoicing forms to then receive your funding. You can either get the reimbursement after you're paying your bills in full or get a discount on your bills when you receive them from your service provider or whoever you purchased laptops and equipment from. Different versions to different forms depending on your situation the 472 the bear form for reimbursements that you would submit and the 474 is the spy form service provider invoice is what that's for that your service provider would submit to usack. So they are taking the erate as I said in the beginning FCC knows erate knows how to distribute this kind of money so they're taking what they've been using for erate modifying the forms to fit the ECF program. It will not be through the same interface that you use to do your it's a whole new portal that they're have created specifically for this purpose. I have a question I will jump back to now before I go ahead so I make sure I grab it lower still kind of close to that question about purchasing laptops it is up to is it up to $400 per laptop, or just to purchase one laptop only. You can purchase as many laptops as you want, and you will receive $400 per laptop. So, the idea of this program is to think about how many laptops do we think we might lend out for this purpose for people to use at home. And you'd use your statistics that you know inquiries from a lot from patrons schools will know pretty easily we have this many students. We know which ones need, you know, laptops at home. So we need to a lot that we need to purchase that many laptops. Some of our schools already do that one to one where they provide their students with laptops or tablets so that's covered. They might just do the hotspots. We have, and this is a made up number so don't, if I'm not, you know, we have 500 students in our school, we need to purchase 500 hotspots to potentially send home. And you would get 250 per each of those hotspots you can do that for laptops you would decide how many do you think will not will loan out 20. Okay, you can say I want to apply for 20 laptops from the ECF portal and they will give you $400 for for for each of those laptops. That makes sense. So, you're going to have to think before you apply for this how many do we need because that's what's going to ask for how many laptops you're going to purchase in the next year for this reason for this use. Now that's key to this is for the laptops to lend out for people use at home, not for people to use when they're in the library. You may have that as a program to that in order to have social distancing. And a lot of libraries pulled out their desktops and had more laptops or Chromebooks so people could space themselves out and go elsewhere in the building. That's okay. This money can't be used to buy laptops for that purpose. The whole purpose of this is we're lending them and you're taking them somewhere else to use them. Awesome question Katie because I also mentioned that later. Do laptops and tablets have to be connected to internet service. No. You just want to provide the service of lending out devices and not a connecting and also the hotspot for the service that is perfectly fine. You can pick and choose. So you just say I'm just applying to have a bunch of laptops to lend out to people we're not even we don't want to get into the hotspot and data plan issues at all. And now Donna here we have the answer to your question. I asked about SIPA Children's Internet Protection Act, one of our favorite topics controversial topic sometimes. So. Okay, hang on a sec here we got some. All right, let me go through the SIPA thing here and then I'm going to jump back and grab your questions that you guys are typing in because after this slide I'm going to we're going to kind of switch gears a little bit. So, let me go through SIPA and then I'll answer questions and then any SIPA questions you might have to. So, let's do this. So, so SIPA Children's Internet Protection Act, if those of you have been involved in e-rate or in any money you've received from federal funding like when we give out grants from IMLS LSTA funding, requiring having filtering on your internet service that you were, if you're getting an internet service that is paid for with federal funding, or buying a computer. And from a grant we might give you that will then use the internet that the money is coming from a federal program, you have to have filtering on these computers. So SIPA only applies to the use of, first of all, only the computers owned by the school or library, so not for any people's personal computers they might bring in. So, only in this situation if the school or library receives the ECF funding or e-rate funding for the internet access or internal connections and this relates to your question, Katie, about, can we just do laptops and not the internet service. Yes. So if you are receiving e-rate, you're already filtering, if you're receiving e-rate for your internet, you already got this covered. If you're new to this whole concept and everything, you will need to be in compliance with SIPA having filters on your computers or on your internet service if you decide to use the ECF funding to buy anything related to getting internet service. However, it does not apply to computers if you're not receiving ECF funding or e-rate funding for internet access. So that's what's very important here. You can just purchase computers, laptops, tablets, and that's all and don't have to worry about using the ECF funding and do not need to worry about dealing with SIPA at all. So if your library, for schools, most of them just do this so it's not an issue, but for public libraries it does vary whether they want to do filtering, agree that it's a good thing to do at all. Their board may not want it, their community may not want it. It may be just something too hard for you to figure out and decide what do I use, what product, what service, how do I set it up, how do I monitor it. There's a lot that goes into it. That's something you don't want to have to worry about that is perfectly fine now. In this case, with emergency connectivity fund monies, you can just apply for money to buy laptops and tablets and stop there and SIPA is not anything you have to worry about. However, if you do want to use this money to increase internet service to get hotspots and service and or extend, you know, put service out into other area buildings in your community, then you're needing to be in compliance with SIPA. And we can talk more in detail about that if it does come up for you. There'll be some information about that from the USAC as well explaining more about it, but I have more information on our websites as well. So that is how SIPA works. Now let me see here. Okay. So, Donna, does that answer your questions? That is the SIPA differentiation there. So hotspots are considered internet related and internal connection so they you are required for ECF. It's just computers that you don't have to have SIPA compliance with. Karen. So hotspots provide internet service. So if you're going to be purchasing a hotspot, you're going to be purchasing service. And in that case, yes, you would have to be SIPA compliant for what you're applying for. Okay, Karen, I'm jumping down to your second question that you just asked here, and I don't know. The question is, do Verizon or mobile beacon monthly services provide filters that qualify as SIPA? Oh, well, I can talk about what qualifies for SIPA as filters. I don't know if Verizon, I don't know what Verizon or mobile beacon provide you for, provide along with their service. So I can't say answer it that way. But what I can tell you is that filters that qualify, there is not a list of filters that meet the requirements. It doesn't work that way with SIPA where they say, here's the ones you have to choose from. The way SIPA works is it has to be something that block, that it's all about, SIPA is all about children's internet protection act. It's all about providing blocking access to unsavory things on the internet to minors so that minors can't get to them. Violence, pornography, whatever. So the actual wording in SIPA states that it is to, it must block visual depictions of anything that would be harmful to minors, that's the wording. So you're talking about videos and things like that. However, in at this moment in time, we do not have any technology that can do that, that can only look at a visual depiction and know, that's actually pornography rather than, oh, that's just a woman in a tan-colored dress. We don't have technology that can do that yet. So the filters that we do have look for websites, certain blacklisted websites or certain domains you know are bad or certain words and terminology somebody might search, you don't want them to look up. Anything that does that meets the criteria of SIPA and does work. What level of sort of filtering you do is up to you at the library and your community. There's no rules about it must be at this high level or this, you know, these many things. There's no list of websites that must be blocked or don't, you know, that comes from SIPA or from USAC or from the government saying these are the ones. It's a very vague, extremely written law, which is good for us, because it is, it actually says community standards will set the standard for what you filter for. So you can install filters on your computers or on your internet service or however you do it, put them to the lowest level possible of filtering, which may not block very much at all, and you are in compliance. It may not be for communities who I know some people do not like the idea of filtering or blocking anything at all that it is censorship that it is against intellectual freedom that everyone should be able to access whatever they want. And I understand that and that is a perfectly valid way to go. But if you want to get federal funding for anything that is internet connected, you need to figure out and you want to really do that you need to figure out how do I you do how do we become in compliance with SIPA, but still make things as open as possible and that is how you do it install the filters get them on there put them at the lowest level possible. And nobody ever notices and you get your funding. That is how it works. So, as far as your Verizon mobile beacon services provide filters that qualify. If they have filters that work, they would qualify. There's no list that I don't, and I don't know what they do but if it's a filter, and it does what it's supposed to, that would be considered qualifying under SIPA. Let's see we have some other questions here we're going to get into. Before we get to the last section of how you get ready to participate and what we know you need to do to start participating in this program. Yeah, okay, so. Okay, good question barbie is a question here, which I just to make it clear for myself, we need to. You need to wait on approval before purchasing laptops. Um, no. Actually, you can, you can, you mean approval, you mean getting your application for the ECF approved before you actually buy anything. No, you can buy something ahead of time. It's only open to August so there's that to consider. But if you buy something if you're like you're ready to buy and you've already got this kind of organized. July 1, you can, you know, make your purchases that's no problem, and then apply for ECF to cover those purchases you made that is perfectly fine so you don't have to wait. However, do understand that there is an approval process and there's a potential that you'll buy some laptops and then get denied for some reason for the ECF funding. It's not something you'd need to weigh how risky is it, but you do not need to wait to buy the laptops know you will need to keep receipts and invoices and things to. And this is one thing that we do not have all the details on that I wish we did, but it, they're working on it. There will be some documentation you will have to provide showing here's the invoices here's what we bought. You know, how we're lending them out that kind of thing but that's, you know, to be to be learned but keep keep your paperwork. Good questions lean how do you control if they use the laptop in the library. Yeah, good question. Can you, you can tell them when you check out this something that is a requirement in the FCC order is that when a student or when anyone takes one of these devices they are going to have to sign an agreement of your use policies and states what it is to be used for. And so they will be signing off on this document every time they check it out that they know these are the rules and this is what it's to be used for. So ideally that should, and then, you know, when you explain it to them you say, we have these computers and therefore this purpose you can take them home you can take them to the park you can take them to wherever you're doing your work that's not here. We're trying to help you, you know, when we're not available when the library is closed you need to have something to do to somewhere. It's not a way to use the internet and a device, or if you just want to be home rather than sitting in our parking lot. So, as far as controlling if they use it, unless you want to walk around and double check everyone in your building and saying, where'd you get that laptop that be on you. You decide, but you will have to have them sign a document every time saying we understand what the use of use rules are for this particular laptop. And then, you know, however you guys decide to be, how strict you guys decide to be about it. Karen, yes, if you purchase laptops now with this money, can you later say three to five years later decide to use them in house. Yes, future use of them beyond the COVID pandemic and 19 pandemic is would be totally up to you. Yes, I believe me. There is. I think there is something really specific I got some cheat sheets here of. I just want to make sure that I, if I have this info that I get it right. I think there was something about a three year use and then after that you can do you want I can't find it on this little short sheet here but I'll say yeah at some point yes you can do whatever you want with it. I will check the exact timing but yes down the road. Of course you yes you can. There is something there that you can use it for whatever you need for. Like I said, like a lot of things that are coming out now with money when it's in response to the pandemic, when the pandemic's over things all change. Yes. Jeannie asked about the service plans that some are three years long. That's true. This money is just really would be just for the first year though, and you would have to then after that cover this, the cost, your, your welcome to sign up for a three year plan. This money will only cover it through the end of June of next year. Good question. Okay. Do we buy laptops just to be used as laptops and not connected to the internet. Do we have to ask the need question. Yes, for all of the anything that comes from the ECF the emergency connectivity front it is in because there's a need the person has a need. So yes it's a it's that's a need and sip but that's two different things. Anything that you purchase with this money you will have to have them sign the document stating that I am needy, and they don't have to say what their need is but yes I haven't I'm not able to have my own laptop, my own internet connection. But it was just even just laptops that you're lending out that comes from this money. Yes, they'd have to sign off on that. Yes, I have the need that your stating is a valid need and they will have to sign off on something that says that yes. The whole purpose of the emergency connectivity fund is there is a need that isn't being fulfilled and we're going to try and help cover that whether it's for the internet connection itself or just having the physical device. Good question. Yes, is the wording for that coming or do we go around way you mean like what do I write up in this piece of paper in this document yeah. Yeah. We're looking for some of that that's actually questions that are going around right now with some of the other erate coordinators like myself. I help our libraries supply for erate. We're the ones because you know usack is doing this program we're helping you guys do it are amongst ourselves trying to figure out is there wording for that because anybody drafted anything yet. I don't have anything in hand yet, but we will work on getting something I'm hoping to that we will have more clarification from usack on what needs to be in those documents. That's one thing we actually don't have is. Here's a list of what it has to say when you do ask them, you have them sign off on it. That's something they have not provided to us yet either so we're kind of still in limbo right now on what usack thinks needs to be in them. Typically FCC orders are more broad and vague just saying here's generally what we want to have happen, and then usack figures out all the day to day nitty gritty. And we're still waiting on some of that day to day information. So yes, we will try and provide you some samples and what other libraries have put together, but we just don't have it yet. Like I said, it's all new we don't even have access to looking at seeing we're not going to have they are actually told us this, we will not have a preview of what these forms look like or what the ECF portal looks like before it opens the before the window opens next Tuesday they're just they've already said, you'll just see it when it's open. No pre planning. That's okay, you know you got 45 days to look at it and figure it out so we have time. We'll be here looking at it for you and getting anything everything I can from usack to help you guys apply for this and know exactly what you're supposed to do. Alright, so there is some there are some things you can do now. The window doesn't open till next Tuesday to actually apply but there is some prep work that you can do and you will need to do before you can apply and even use the form and you can do that right now. You're ready to participate. And I'm going to get into the details of each of these and separate on more slides explaining more. So there's some numbers you need to have some you might already have some places you need to register and sign up in. And you can do all of this right now before the window opens and we recommend you to get on top into doing this as soon as possible because there is some some of it does take some time to have it done. And you'll need to have all of these things done before you can actually go in and do that emergency content connectivity fund for 71 form you have to have all these done and you can start working on them right now. So FCC registration number, having an epic and ECF portal account, a DUNS number and signing up at the sam.gov website and I'm going to explain all of that now. So FCC registration numbers. Anyone who does business with the FCC has to have one of these. And they asked for it. If you've done been doing erate you already have one and it's already in your account information because they've been requiring that for quite a few years. And you may already have one of these at your even if you're not doing erate your library may also have one of these and you just don't know it. I've had many libraries who didn't realize that their city or the library had had already been assigned one of these, just because at some point they had done some sort of business with the FCC regarding money and had one set up for them. So there is a website you can go to it's called the cores website that you can look up your FCC registration number it's one link to go to to both look up see if you have one. If it doesn't come with anything for you, go ahead and apply for one. So you will need to set up one of those numbers we've found the first step one is setting up and getting a registration number or check in to see if you have one. If your library has one already. The second step is having so many acronyms, EC, EPC, ECF account. Alright, let's do this. The rate productivity center is the portal, the online location where people and libraries and schools go to apply for erate funding. The USAC is basing the new emergency connectivity fund portal on the e rate portal, the epic portal. That's what EPC is actually pronounced epic. It's going to be a separate login though a whole separate place to go to so those of you that do erate you're not going to log into your same place you're going to have a whole new place to go to to log in. But if you are a current erate participant, you're going to use whatever your current erate login is, whatever you use to log into Epic now, you just go ahead and use it on the ECF portal when it's ready next week. If you have never done erate before you don't have anything set up in that the way they're doing this is they're having you get a an e rate productivity center account. That's where they're holding everybody's profile info in the epic system, and then you'll be able to go into the ECF system using that info to do your applications. So if you're brand new and have never done anything with erate, though you will have to set up an epic account for yourself. And then use that will take all the epic accounts and transfer them into the ECF portal for everyone to use them there to apply for this new fund. It sounds weird and confusing and what why why can't yeah but that's just how they set it up behind the scenes. Like I said, this is a brand new thing. ARPA is brand new that they had to kind of scramble and they are scrambling like crazy to just make this work. And this is the easiest way they can figure out they have a way and epic already the erates productivity center to set up accounts will use that existing space to do that. And then we'll just put everybody into and then we'll just transfer them over into the new portal we've created quickly for the emergency connectivity fund. So it sounds a little weird, you're going to be if you're new to this setting up as if you're going to do erate but you're not going to do erate you're just going to use that to get this going and then use the ECF and set up unlike many things on the internet you don't go to a website and just sign up yourself you have to call them on the phone is you're going to have to talk to somebody and they have an a rate 800 number specifically set up for the emergency connectivity funding. So this is a number specifically to anything related to ECF. So and that's the hundred number there 800 234 9781. It's available right now, they're open 8am to 8pm Eastern time. If I call it correctly and so you can call right now and have them set you up with an epic account that will then be transferred automatically into the ECF portal. You will need this FCC registration number before you call them to set up your account. So if that's why I've got these in this order. Step one you've got to get this number. Step two, are you already erate, you're good to go. If you're not set up an erate call with all your library info and that FCC registration number and have them set you up with the erate productivity center account that will then be what you will use to do your ECF account. Yes, and exactly if you have a current epic account it will just automatically be transferred into the ECF portal and you'll just use that same login credentials to log into the ECF portal that you use now to log into the epic portal. So current erate people don't have to do anything just hopefully the idea is next Tuesday you can log in using whatever you currently use to do erate into the new ECF portal. Fingers crossed that everything will work. So third thing you need is a DUNS number. Another thing used to do business done in Bradstreet data at universal numbering system. This is something that's required to have. If anyone is required to register with the federal government for contracts or grants, which is what this kind of money is for is required to have one of these numbers. All of this is one time thing too so don't get whoever want to do all this stuff once and then you're done. You can check and see they've got two separate websites on the done in Bradstreet web page website one to look up and see if you already have one of these same kind of thing as the FCC you might have one you just didn't know. If you don't have one or you can apply to get one. This is all done online pretty easy. Generally the FCC registration number and the DUNS number comes pretty quickly. Not even a few days. It's all done online. But you will need one of these in order to do the emergency connectivity fund. And then the last thing you need to set up is an account in Sam.gov. This is the system for award management. And this is the official US government website for anyone that is receiving your support from the US government. This is where all the funding is going to actually filter through. And this is where you give them all of your your all this funding is being sent to you directly as done as like a direct deposit electronic payment. They don't send us that doesn't do checks or milling out checks or anything anymore everything is done electronically. This is where you will provide your banking information so that they know where to send the funding to this one can take time. And this is the one that you sec is saying get on to this ASAP, because it can take more than a week to get this register the setup. Until you have this setup, no funding can be sent to you so you definitely need this you need all those previous three things I just mentioned to but this is the one that takes can take time. They said more than a week, it can take a couple weeks it depends. So, you know, do all these things you've been doing and definitely get on top doing this one. Now, you can apply for your. You can submit that 471 for the emergency connectivity fund before this is all done that's okay. It's just you won't get the money until you've gotten this done so even if you just start working on this you haven't received your confirmation that your Sam dot gov account is set up. It's okay to submit your 471 like next week, at least get that in. All this is still processing. That's fine. You just have to wait until you get confirmation that this at your Sam dot gov is set up, and then they will be able to send the money to you. Oh, it's a lesson interesting questions Leslie. Is there a wrong way to apply to Sam. Have you had problems with that is that why you're asking or you. Yeah, I applied last Friday, and I like I did it properly like I got through the whole thing. But, you know, there are just some parts of it that I wasn't sure if I answered it correctly if I'm like selected the right type of entity. You know, there, I mean, it's, it's really long and there it took me like an hour to do it and then all of these things that kept coming up and like the, you know, the different parts of it I just wasn't sure for those were the correct answers. So, I mean, I registered I made my way through it, but, you know, so anything I need to look out for or. See, this is new to me to this Sam dot gov is something we've never had to do with erate before so it's this money is coming in a different way that erate usually comes to usack that's something that is something to understand to and that's why there's these different things you have to sign up for the way it's been being a lot of distributed to them works differently and that's why we have to be in this. I would say if you did something wrong, they, they'd let you know you'll receive some sort of confirmation saying yes, it worked or no it didn't. They will send a confirmation so if something was missing. They'll they should let you know. I know that I actually do have and I think what I will send it all out to you guys when I send you the information about the recording and everything we do have a guide to signing up. For a Sam dot gov account is provided to us by our MLS person. This is because those of you may have heard, we at the library commission also have funding from ARPA that we are going to be distributing to all of you. In order for you all to get it, you're going to need the Sam dot gov account for that as well. I do have a step by step guide that I will we're going to be putting it up with our ARPA page that we're working on. It's coming from us. But I can it's needed for this to I will send that out as part of the ECF stuff. So you can see what are the steps and you can confirm and see did you do the right things or not. But like I said, they send a confirmation to you and letting you know if it's been set up. So I would assume if something didn't go through correctly or they're confused, they'll reach out to you. And you'll find out if you need something. Well, if I have a good question, Katie, my city clerk just notified us that she has set up a Sam account for the city. So I'm going to go into the library need a separate account. The account needs, there needs to be an account for wherever the whatever bank account you want the money to go into. So that's kind of the way to think of it. If, and in the same as it says society, you're going to enter into the same account, the actual bank account number and routing number that the money will go into. If it is supposed to go into a city account and then they distribute it to the library for its use, then you would use the cities. If it's a whole different bank account that the library has that you want to use to have this money go into the library's own bank account or in many cases libraries have this kind of funding go into a friends or foundation account instead, then you'd need to set up the Sam dot gov that does that. So it's the key is where is this money going to finally end up and whether or not you need something separate from what the city has or not. And as you can see here to register for this account, you need that done number that you've already applied for, you need a taxpayer ID number or employee ID number this is number as you can get from your city or your HR, something you'd already have, and then all your bank account info to set up that electronic funding in for that direct deposit. And once it is done, as we said this one that can take more than a week, you'll get a confirmation email so you know that your registration is good to go. Oh, good question. Okay. The question and has if you're using a village entity tax ID number or employment ID number do we set up a DUNS number for the library or the village. I would say make it match. The library uses the villages. I don't think honestly I don't know that it matters. I've seen libraries that have their own DUNS number and then because of how they're accounting and finances work, they use the villages ID numbers and it hasn't been an issue. Check and see. When you're looking at DUNS website to look up and see if there's a number that exists already you can look up your village. You'll look up just by the name of the village and see is there anything already in there that you could use. Yes, having different names. Okay, really all that you sec wants to know is, who is the entity that gets the money. And that's what is the key of this is where does the money need to end up in what billing entity that the library is the one getting the service and the device, but where does the money end up or come from is the key at the other and it's okay if it's different. Yeah, for e-rate we've got many some libraries that it's all the villages info because that's where the money goes. And that's perfectly fine. Yes. And it says, does this money have to be a part of the library budget for the upcoming year. Honestly, that would be up to you. We try to recommend we like at the library commission, I'm talking now. Because we consider this as extra money, something in addition to your regular library budget, the city should still support the library and still, you know, keep, you know, providing the same support it has. This is extra grants we give out other green over the years any grants is is you try to, you know, think of it as it's extra money if you do something you couldn't normally do with your current budget not a replacement for that budget no. However, we understand that this past year has not been normal, and budgets have been cut, and that is the purpose for a lot of these. This new funding is to help make up for those budget cuts. Tax revenues have gone have been less and so there's less money for everybody to go around. And this may be something that gets your budget back up. I would try not to the problem can happen is if you say, hey, we have this big chunk of money for laptops. Let's put that in our library budget. This is a one time deal though. Next year, what happens with that chunk of money that you had in your budget for these, you said you had this money, it no longer it's going to exist in a future year. So you don't want to see that you suddenly lose that money, that amount of your budget because the money no longer is out there. So the fact that this is a one time deal, it's not a regular thing that you can depend on every year. You know, we give you guys state aid money every year, you can pretty much depend on that and you know what's coming. This is not that kind of situation I wouldn't want you to kind of risk your budget being cut permanently, because you put this into it as a big amount. And then, well, it's only for one year. It's a one time thing so I think about that. Ah, yes, Celine, lots of questions. All right, I'm going to rattle off these questions. I do not have all the answers to these but this is something that we have had other libraries. I'll talk about hotspots just questioning Celine's asking about hotspots. How much are hotspots? Where do you get them? Do you have to buy cases for them? If lost, does the patron have to pay for replacements? So many questions. Absolutely. Hotspot lending programs are a big thing to get into if you've never done it before. We do have a few libraries here in Nebraska who have done it, have been doing it previously, or have done it through using our, we did the CARES Act grants last year. So I can give you some names of information about some other libraries who have already done this. I know Norfolk did it. Think Beatrice. Trying to think of the top of my head, of course. You can get them from places like what Karen mentioned, Mobile Beacon offers them Verizon. Your general service providers will sell you, you know, 20 hotspots and the service for a year as a package deal. That's an option. I don't know about cases for hotspots. I know cases for laptops. Does anybody know if hotspots do cases too? And if it's lost to the patron, you have to pay for it. That would be your policy. How do you deal with anything that patrons lose or damage? The FCC does understand that that will happen over the lifetime of these and that's perfectly fine. Just keep records of what happened if something got lost or damaged or went missing, just like anything else that you lend out. But that would be based on your policies for anything that you lend. Does anybody have any tips for Selene about how much a hotspot does cost? Where you get them? Have any of you done this already? Like I said, I know we had some of our CARES Act grants went out for that purpose for libraries to do it brand new or for libraries who had been doing it and just wanted to expand because people weren't coming in. They couldn't come to libraries. They needed the internet at home. Tammy says some libraries charge a $50 deposit at checkout as a like just in case something happens to it. That could be something you could do to help just in case something, yeah. Or you could have, I mean, when you check these out, you could have rules for how they get used. And just like anything, I'm sure you've got policies for if you damage this book, if your dog pees on it or whatever happens. Here's what you'll be responsible for. You just have to set up the same kind of thing for the hotspots and laptops. All right, good. About 10 minutes left officially. But as I said, I will answer any questions you have as long as it takes here. The last few slides I have are about training and websites and everything and what's coming for that. Any other questions you have about, before I get to that last bit about the emergency connectivity fund about what you can apply for, how can you apply as much as I know right now. Any little things that you're curious about. Go ahead and type me the question section if you want to talk like like this lead it I can unmute you. Sorry, I'm reading this question and thinking about it. Okay, so Donna is another question about SIPA. If we purchased a laptop and a hotspot, only for staff to use at a pop up site. That set would need a filter but not the whole library system of computers correct because you're just at that particular location. You're not getting ECF or e rate funding to get the library is internet connection to start with. It's just that outside computer that's the one that would need it yes but you don't suddenly have to filter though. I can't see if you guys are typing like in something so if you're typing something and I'm waiting for it to come through so I'm going to give another second here a minute or so for anyone has any questions that you want to get answered now before I talk about something and how to keep up on new things coming out about this. As I said, I'll just chat a little bit here when you see if anybody has any questions. I wish I did have actual my eyes on the forms themselves because I know a lot of people that's what I know I'm getting lots of questions on is what is in the form what do I need to reply how does that actually work. On Tuesday we'll all find out. Hopefully with some of the basics about what the program is that I started. I can tell you this though the forms, the forms online that these are being based on are some of the easiest simplest ones and really basic info. Very nice slick online system that they're based on. And these are modified versions because there is less they need this and less information for this than for the full rate program so I think it should be okay. Yes, Tammy, please repeat the final application date. Yes, the application filing window opens next Tuesday and closes on August 13. So that is for this first filing window so August 13 is your ultimate deadline for applying for this. And hopefully we'll have more money left over afterwards and there'll be another window that will open up for potentially retroactive. Alright, let's go on to the last few slides I have here. So, training. People want to know how does this all work how do I use this. Those of you have gone to E rate trainings, you know I usually do a lot of screen shots and you have to do everything. As I said, don't have any of that. They are doing a slightly different thing they are not even themselves doing any live training sessions on this on the emergency connectivity fund. They're creating self paced e learning modules. They're not available yet, at least not as of this morning when I looked. And they're on the emergency connectivity fund website on the training section I've given you've got you the URL here. Wherever you'll do your own self paced training, there will be, you know, different videos and things you can go through to with screenshots and I assume demos of actually doing it. But there will be online training that they will have that will show that the coming soon so keep an eye on their website keep on their announcements. I'm sure going to have weekly office hours where you can call into them for of any questions you may have specific to your application anything you're wondering or wanting to know about. You're welcome to call me of course, but any questions you have, but you also can call them at that customer support number that they have and this is the number specifically for the emergency connectivity fund. If you do erate. There's a different number for erate related questions so they have set up a whole separate set of people a whole separate support center specifically just for the emergency connectivity fund, completely separate from the support center and the calling people that you call to talk to about erate. So if you call this number 800 234 9781. So just be there to answer your ECF questions. It is Monday to Friday at 8am to 8pm Eastern time that that is available. Also, to keep up on what's going on. I will try and push out as much information as I know of course through our as I have been through our blog and system mailing lists and everything. But check out their the website for the emergency connectivity fund. They'll be adding things to it regularly. They have been doing they started last week doing their own one hour officially one hour webinars with a very high level overviews. Not a lot of specifics in detail but letting people know they're doing multiple webinars at different times. One of them is now up as a recording. So if you want to see what you sac said, I'll, I'll own up right now a lot of my presentation here is just borrowed from there. So you'll see a lot of, you know, they're the experts there the officials in charge of this. So I depend on them for all of my information to give to you, along with some other resources I have. Welcome to watch their recordings if you want to. They also have a specific newsletter and emails are sent out that are specifically about the emergency connectivity fund I signed up for that and I got a notification about these webinars they have so if you want to. That's a web URL to go to just sign up and get those notifications yourself. Ooh, that link should continue to that emergency connectivity fund bit in the bottom there I'll fix that. So it makes it an actual credit for sending this out. And also FCC is just announced they are going to be doing a webinar tomorrow at 1pm central time. I did change that one to central time. If you wanted to hear what they have to say about this program and ask them any questions. I'm just specify general questions. Not, they won't be answering a lot of specific to your situation questions because it's going to be a huge event. But I'm going to be attending it to see just to see what they actually say. Thanks for watching these webinars and have this, you know, these events talking about it, things have changed because as the USAC is creating more of the background database and getting things going. And we're learning more about it. You learn more information so hopefully it won't be drastically different from what I'm telling you today. But you may want to check in on the FCC webinar tomorrow afternoon and keep an eye on that emergency connectivity fund website on actually under the training link there. That's where they are posting any web other actual webinars are doing in addition to these learning modules, which are the train real training trainings, their quickie webinars are listed there and the recordings of them are listed on that training part of their BCF website. So keep checking back there to see if new ones available there. Okay. Okay, so I will be sending you all a copy of you all have access to this PowerPoint presentation afterwards. So don't worry about trying to scribble down all these links you'll have them when you get this after the recording is available. And lastly there's my my contact info you guys all know where to find me of course but just in case there's the 800 number here for the library commission and my email address. All right, so anybody have any questions. We are just at 1159 it says on my clock here but I did start at about five after the special start time for this and that's okay. But as I said I will answer any questions you have right now we don't have to cut off so if you have any questions you want to ask me go ahead and get it in, type it in here and I will keep going until we have any everything you ask answered. And looking at a question that did come in here from dialysis. There have been any reports of what is happening with I am less funding not used in their individual funds, as you just mentioned ECF money may have around two billions of dollars is hard to spend it is. Yes 7.1 billion is a huge amount. I'm less actually has its own grants that they're giving out as well that libraries can apply for. In addition to the money they gave us as a state library agency to give you money grants for. There's a lot of money going out there. I don't know about what's having on this funds haven't been used. I do know there is some. What's going to happen with this 7.1 billion from this emergency connectivity fund, and it'd be interesting to see some people are concerned that the schools who have, as I mentioned earlier, you have 500 students, I want 500 tablets and I want 500 laptops, and every school is going to buy one for every one of their students, and every one of their staff, and the money is just going to disappear. So poof, and it will actually all go out, and there will be nothing left for another round, or for libraries. I don't know. Usack has not told us about also their priority prioritization of how the funding will be awarded. So that's something, you know, if you know with e-rate it's there's discount levels and sometimes prioritization there's no information yet from usack about that. So some people think the billions of dollars will go like that. And some people think no way that we can ever spend this at all. Until the applications start coming in, we won't know. It is a lot of money. Anybody have any other last minute desperate questions you want to ask of me? Stop the sharing for a second here. And switch over. Go ahead and get them typed into your questions section. And I'm just going over here. I wanted to show you the emergency connectivity fund website, the main site to keep an eye on. Oh, not yet. Yes, I know. I'm sure you will have questions and that's, you've got my contact info. What are you, if you can't think of things now, that's fine. Call, email me with any questions you do come up with as you start getting into applying for this. Feel free also to reach out directly to usack at their numbers. Well, that's perfectly fine. And we'll all work through this together. But this is the website for the program. Definitely the main place to keep an eye on things. And this is specifically for the emergency connectivity fund. They've got some basic info as you can see here coming soon getting started with the program. They have about the program information about the dates what you're asking Tammy June 29 to August 13 that is your filing window. What about eligibility, the application process right now is just some general information as I said there is no details specifics yet. If you look at the homepage here they do have a kind of a here are the steps that will go through but no specifics yet because the window and then the form not being open for people to look at but similar processes the rate you apply. It'll be reviewed they'll make a decision and then you'll get your funding. The resources they have here the training that I was talking about this is where those e-ling modules will be as you can see nothing is linked yet coming soon. The webinars I attended last week and actually this week are under what they call their live sessions. So you can see what they have upcoming and here's recordings of previous ones they did they did a general overview and they did one specifically for tribal applicants. They're focusing on what tribal libraries may need to know. And then they do have a link here to that same thing that the FCC is doing a webinar tomorrow. There is this isn't a thing you read you don't have to register for the FCC one it is just you go to the web page and when it starts and just start watching it. The FCC is live streaming page that they have. So you just kind of put it in your own calendar at one o'clock p.m. central time tomorrow I should go to this page and start watching what they're presenting and it will be about the emergency connectivity fund. And then there is the link here to sign up for that newsletters the link that I put in your PowerPoint, and then they also have the phone number where you can reach them. Once you do and this is something that you mentioned this year, you're right now you call the number but once you do have that merged the connectivity fund portal setup, there will be a way within that system to send questions and contact us and ask questions about it. Until you have access to that next Tuesday, you don't, it's not available though right now you just got to call a phone number. So those of you who are not current erate, you have to call the phone number to get set up for the first, get that account set up in the first place that is the only way to get this portal set up is to call that 800 number. All right. Doesn't look like anybody has any other questions you've typed in so I think we'll wrap it up for our webinar this morning. Thank you everybody for being here today. I hope this was helpful and not too confusing. We'll get some of you to try out and see if you want to apply for this funding next week. Go to it try it out get those things set up that you need to do to get ready. Start doing that right away so you have all those steps done and all those numbers and registrations and Sam dot gov already and good to go. And then we'll see what comes next week. When the recording is ready, I will figure out where we're going to post this on our website, and I will send everybody who attended this today and everybody who registered for today's session and email let you know that it's ready for you to watch if you do have need to watch anything that I said here. I think what I will do though I'm going to proactively email you all the PowerPoint and that Sam dot gov guide that I mentioned I have so you have that right away. I'll do that as soon as we're done here. All right. Let me know if you have any other questions or comments, or anything. And good luck. Bye.