Quality Indicators for AT Reuse Webinar

March 31, 2009



CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Hello everybody. Just want to

welcome you to our webinar. We're going to get started in

just a minute. Just want to make sure that everybody's

logging in and everything's going smoothly. So give us

just one second.

Okay. It's getting almost to 2 o'clock, according

to my phone, which is right on time usually. And want to

welcome everyone.

Sarah, I see that you signed in. Hello. Good to

see you again.

And Colleen, welcome.

Bob Rust, I see that you're on.

And Ron, hello, hello.

I'm glad that everybody's with us today.

We're very excited that you're with us. We have

got some amazing updates and some really cool tools to

share with you. And looking forward to this day for a long

time. So welcome.

And let us know if you have questions throughout

this presentation. I'm happy to answer them whenever you

have them. And we'll also save some time at the end for

more of your questions.

Caroline, do you mind doing -- walking through a

little introduction on how the webinar works for us? I'm

not actually sure if Caroline's on -- oh, there she is.

Okay. So I'm going to toss this over to Caroline right

now.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: No worries. We'll actually walk

you all through a basic introduction to the webinar just to

make sure that everybody's comfortable with the way this

works.

And so it has a lot of -- we have a lot of

accessibility features built in our ATIA webinar system

here that we use. And as you can see, there are lots of

icons up top.

If you wanted to record this yourself -- and we --

you can actually see that several folks are recording this,

and we're actually recording this for our transcriptionist.

Kimberly Griffin is actually on, and she's recording this

so that we'll be able to make our transcript available on

our website. So we appreciate Kimberly joining us.

But if you wanted to record it for your own

records, you can actually go up to the menu and hit

"Recording" and come down and record it on your own

computer.

If you -- everyone should be able to see the first

slide, which is the slide -- an introduction to the Pass It

On Center knowledge base and quality indicators. If you

don't see that, let me know, and I can refresh. That's no

problem.

If you move over to the right, you'll see up above

it says "Public Chat." And in that box is where everything

that's being said that you want to -- if you want to type

something, what have you, you can actually -- and read what

other folks have to say, it'll post up there.

If you move to the box right below that, that's

actually where you can put your cursor, and you can type

and join the conversation. If you don't want to use your

voice and you just want to join the typing, that's no

problem. And whatever you type will actually be posted up

in the public chat.

And then if you move below, you can see all the

folks that are on right now. We have 29 folks that are

with us. And we're really excited that we have those folks

with us. Welcome.

If you want to IM -- instant message -- somebody or

contact somebody behind the scenes, you can actually click

on their -- the icon next to their name, and it will bring

up a little box. And then that way you can communicate

behind the scenes.

But really hope that you'll pay attention to our

presentation. So those are the basics here.

If you want to adjust your speaker volume, feel

free to do that. You can actually -- if you move to the

box right below where the moderator and participants are

all listed, then there's a slide bar, and you can actually

adjust your speaker volume that way.

If you actually would like to join the conversation

and you have a headset, then you can actually push down the

"Control" key on your keyboard, and it will raise your

hand, and we'll know that you want to speak. And then

we'll release the mic so that you can actually speak. Just

make sure that you release the mic back to us so we can

move forward with our presentation.

I'm going to go ahead and introduce the copresenter

with me today, which is Liz Persaud. She is with the Pass

It On Center, and I'm so thankful for that. She does an

outstanding job, along with our other team members, Trish

Redmon and Lindsey Bean.

They have all three put amazing time and energy and

thought into the tools that we are about to show you --

(audio skipped) is on with us today.

And Joy, feel free to jump in at any time.

And Liz, is there anything else you would like to

say before we move forward?

LIZ PERSAUD: I think you covered everything,

Carolyn.

Thank you guys so much for being here with us. And

we hope that you'll certainly benefit from this. We're

really excited to actually watch the knowledge base and to

talk to y'all about quality indicators. So with that being

said, we'll jump on.

We're going to cover our agenda. And hopefully

that will be popping up in just a second. But just so

y'all know, we're going to be talking about the Pass It On

Center knowledge base.

This is the introduction, first launch for the

public. For all of y'all, this is the tool that y'all will

hopefully be using to gain information about AT reuse

across the country and to go and grab tools and resources

and get any questions answered that you need.

We'll also be talking about developing quality

indicators for AT reuse, the process with that, and the

plan and kind of where our vision and goals are headed with

that. And we certainly need y'all's feedback with that as

well too.

So I'm going to pass this on to Carolyn now.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Great. Thank you, Liz.

The knowledge base is really designed to be a

one-stop shop for you to meet your AT reuse needs. We have

listened to you. We have interviewed a lot of you. We

have had long conversations with a lot of you, gotten

E-mails.

And our knowledge base is actually your knowledge

base. It's based on our conversations. And what we see

this as is something that actually grows and develops. And

it's not something that's static. It's actually dynamic.

And it's something that you can actually go to at

any time. It's online. And you would be able to download

the information that you need and also be able to give

information to us as you grow your program.

It's a detailed database of information for current

AT reuse programs for anyone interested in AT reuse. As

y'all know, we actually have a wide range of folks that are

using AT -- that are doing AT reuse around the country.

Some folks are just focused on PDAs, and they're

only reusing those -- or computers. Some folks are just

doing motorized wheelchairs. So some folks have gotten

very specific with what they're doing. Other folks are

doing any and all AT.

So what we've tried to develop is something that

actually would meet all of your needs in some way. So it

provides a framework for policies, procedures, and

activities.

As you know, we had a whole policy series last

year. And Jessica Brodey, who's on our Pass It On Center

team, actually coordinated that, did a great job. And she

continues to work with us, as you know, to develop, you

know, and work with us as we try to develop this knowledge

base, working on policies, fine-tuning those things, and

making sure that we're, you know, working together to keep

y'all, you know, working effectively in your programs.

And also the knowledge base helped us identify

quality indicators. These, as we started investigating

more in depth, kind of rose to the top, if you will.

Successful practices. Ways that you're doing business.

And we wanted to be able to create an easy place, one site

where you can go, grab some ideas, try them out, see if

they work, you know, and then go back and get more

information and then also contribute.

It creates an Internet venue for sharing the best

practices, and we really see this. Trish Redmon, who's on

our team, is actively providing information and giving more

information. The knowledge base is growing every day, and

that's very exciting.

And it links to resources. We try to keep those

links active and connecting you to any numbers of different

media, whether it's a brochure or a video. We've connected

to YouTube and all kinds of different tools that are out

there that can help you improve your program.

LIZ PERSAUD: So as we said, this knowledge base is

for you out there working on your AT reuse programs. And

this is something, as Carolyn said, that is very dynamic.

It is changing. So it is constantly a working version.

And with that being said, we have some goals in

mind. And these are to determine information and resource

needs. And we can do that by defining the content modules.

And a little bit later on in our talk, we're going

to go into detail about the content categories, the

modules, if you will, and what makes sense.

Does it really pertain to your program? Are y'all

able to find the information that you need, categorized

under these broad headers, if you will?

Identify the audiences. Who are we serving? Does

it make sense to say "consumer" or "user"? So all of that

is the feedback that we need from y'all as well too.

And we want the site to be easy and accessible and

very friendly as well too. We want y'all to be able to get

there and get the information that you need now, in a

timely manner.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: So when we were first talking

about the knowledge base -- and as many of you know, we

were originally calling this our content management

system -- it led naturally to helping us develop our

quality indicators.

And basically what we -- when we're saying "quality

indicators," we don't want this phrase to throw folks off.

It's really guiding your organization. It's norms,

criteria, standards, qualitative and quantitative measures

to determine the quality of your organization, what you're

doing.

It gets very specific in some areas and then pretty

general in some other areas. And it's hopefully something

that we're going to be able to use to guide you in

conjunction with our knowledge base and really improving

what we're all trying to do.

So -- and I know, when we met -- we met last week

with a group of folks from across the country to develop

more of the quality indicators. And we were very excited

about the way that that meeting went. You're going to hear

more about that from Lindsey Bean.

But one of the things that we said, you know, on

the last day is, it's not what you start; it's what you

finish. And my dad actually raised me with that. And

every now and then I wake up, and I hear Rob's voice in my

head or Jeremy Buzzell's voice in my head saying, "Finish."

So we are finishing. And I'm very excited about this.

So the vision and the goals from our QIAT-R -- and

we're going to explain in just a minute where we came up

with that acronym -- but it's the quality indicators for AT

reuse -- is, as we see it, a cycle.

If you look over to the left, successful practices

should have formed the knowledge base, and indeed they do.

And that flows naturally if you go over to the right of

this little cycle here.

The knowledge base develops the quality indicators

for reuse self-assessment tools, which we're actually going

to share with you, our beta version of that.

And then the QIAT-R and the knowledge base work

together to inform successful practice. So we see this as

a continuous loop and something that continues to evolve.

The QIAT, the quality indicators for reuse, as we

see, it's going to be dynamic, an interactive tool. When

we're talking with you, that's what you say you want. And

that's what our vision and our goal for the QIAT-R is so

that you can actually assess -- you know, assess yourself.

And it will provide helpful feedback and link

directly to the Pass It On Center knowledge base to assist

with improving your reuse program.

We wanted to give you something that's -- will give

you information instantly, not something you have to wait

for or you have to call us about or anything like that. We

see it as, as we said, a living document that grows and

develops.

So as we were developing all of this, we really

wanted to make sure that we were in the right step, you

know, headed the right direction, making sure that we were

accessible. And we spent a lot of time looking at this.

And so I'm going to actually pass this over to Liz,

who headed up this effort with Sharon Meek.

LIZ PERSAUD: Thank you, Carolyn.

I'm going to talk a little bit about the usability

studies.

And first off, I wanted to say thank you so much to

Sharon Meek and Trish Redmon, Team Get It Done. If it

weren't for y'all gettin' it done, we wouldn't have these

usability studies to really help us enhance the knowledge

base.

So again, this knowledge base is for you. We

wanted it to be friendly and accessible and to really be a

quick, easy point for y'all to get your information.

So we had three different phases to the usability

studies. The first one was a web-card-sort activity.

Phase two we did some interviews at ATIA, which turned out

wonderful. And in phase three we actually did some on-site

testing here at Pass It On Center.

So the phase one aspect of the usability study,

which was the web-card-sort activity, folks -- participants

that were e-mailed this activity were asked to arrange

virtual index cards in order under a specific category.

And all of these were terms that are found on the Pass It

On Center website and categories that are related to AT

reuse.

We wanted to see, how do folks, when they see

information and when they're going through websites and

going through the knowledge base or database, if you will,

how do they work this in their own brain, if you will? How

do they actually categorize all of this?

So the second phase was interviews that we actually

did at ATIA. We recruited eager, excited volunteers to

share their experience with AT reuse and to actually answer

some questions about the knowledge base.

So they actually were able to -- they sat with us

at the Pass It On Center booth in the exhibit hall and had

some paper and actually went through and answered all of

these questions looking at the Pass It On Center knowledge

base. And all of these questions pertained to the

organization, look, feel, and content on the knowledge

base.

And then phase three was on-site testing. So we

actually had participants come to the Pass It On Center and

run through a series of scenarios related to the knowledge

base and scenarios dealing with AT reuse.

So, for example, "Where would you look on the

website to get information about maintaining and cleaning

your wheelchair?" And so again, folks were going through

these scenarios, and each question was based on how they

would go about finding it on the website.

So how did we do? We actually did amazingly well.

The Pass It On Center website ranked well among the

national average. And these are some statistics that we

actually found, that, amongst government websites, their

actual rating was 86 percent; and then among industry

websites, their average rating was 85 percent.

And so this next slide just goes into a little bit

more detail on what we found with the knowledge base.

These are actually some of our lowest scores, which is

great. So again, with the average score being 85 and 86

percent. Across the board we did 82, 83, and 84 percent

all the way across.

So some of the things that we found out that we

need to do is working on searching in the knowledge base.

So more explanation, just a little bit more detailed

information on there so folks can find it, and then just

making it a little bit more pretty with our photos and

everything.

So as you can see, on the left-hand side we

actually put some checkmarks there because, as soon as we

found this out, Team Get It Done -- Sharon, Trish, and

Alan -- all those folks that have been working behind the

scenes to make this come to life, have already been putting

all these things in gear. So these are just some things

that we've actively been working on right now.

And then this is just another visual way to go

about looking at the results. And so these -- this is how

folks actually ranked as they were going through finding

some of this information on our website. And this was done

during the on-site testing. So, for example, Google Earth.

Folks found that on there and knew how to use that the

most.

And then these are just some recommendations that

we found. So with the knowledge base, folks wanted to have

a blog. They wanted an E-mail reply form. And they

needed -- they wanted to, for example, have -- instead of

having "disaster response," they wanted to change it to

"emergency preparedness," which actually makes more sense.

And as far as accessibility, just to have things a

little bit more emphasized. They wanted to be able to

access this information easier.

So for example, the text sizer. We had it on

there, but some folks missed it. So that just told us that

we needed to move it into a different spot. So just some

recommendations that we found to be very helpful.

And so now we're going into how we actually

identify and create the content within the knowledge base.

So we have some steps that we follow to go about doing

this.

So first of all, the Pass It On Center team

actually creates an outline, and we have our folks working

on the team -- myself, Carolyn, mainly Trish and Lindsey --

who go through and critique the information and refine all

the information on there and just kind of do some

wordsmithing getting all of that up.

And then we have folks that will contribute their

content from across the country, different AT reuse

programs, models, forms, suggested resources.

So for example, in the knowledge base Kansas has

their example of their PSA, their public service

announcement, their radio spot. So y'all can go in, listen

to it, and also be able to grab that and listen to what

they had.

And then again, somebody on our team who is

assigned to each module will go in, review everything, you

know, edit stuff and then get it up -- loaded up there. So

that way it's available for public use.

Trish, we see that -- your comment, and I just

wanted to read it out loud to everyone. Trish said that,

"Yes, we always credit the organization or author that

donates content to the knowledge base. Your name will be

attached to the content."

So again, we're going to talk about this a little

bit more detail. But we certainly want you folks out there

to give us your information. If you want to share it with

other folks, we'll definitely attach your name to it.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: So our content modules really

should look familiar to a lot of you because they reflect

very closely what it is that you said you wanted over the

years.

When we were in Atlanta in 2006, most of these

actually came up as issues that y'all wanted us to address

in -- first and foremost as we created the Pass It On

Center. And also the national task force has focused on

these also. And we continue to grow these.

Jessica Brodey has a whole list that we're actually

working with -- a checklist that we're actually working

with and knocking these off one by one.

So here are our major content modules that you can

actually go to, find content, very detailed content and a

lot of content right now.

So emergency preparedness; finance and accounting;

human resources; marketing and public relations, PR;

organizational structure; program operations;

sustainability, something that all of us are focused on,

obviously; and user services.

So as we said before, we really need you. We would

like you to think about this more, as we grow and as we

develop, what modules are we missing?

And I'm going to turn this over to Liz for the rest

of this part.

LIZ PERSAUD: So, again, we need you. Give us your

feedback. As we go through this presentation, as you're

playing around with the knowledge base, let us know things

that can enhance the knowledge base.

So for example, are there any modules that are

missing? What content would you like to see in the modules

that we currently do not have in there? How should the

modules be organized? Do they make sense the way they are

now? Do they need to flow in some sort of order? Do they

need to be in alphabetical order? Any of those things.

And how are these modules applicable to your

organization? So again, what is it that y'all are

constantly needing that you're looking for that we can put

in there?

So now we're going to turn this to Lindsey Bean,

who's going to talk a little bit about the

emergency-preparedness module.

LINDSEY BEAN: Thank you. The

emergency-preparedness module is one that I've been trying

to work on. It's definitely in its developmental stages

still. Doesn't have the most content, but it does have a

lot of quality content right now. And that's one of the

big things, like Liz was saying, you know. We need your

help.

What do you guys want in this module? This is some

of the things that we came up with that we thought would be

helpful and from other talks and meetings at conferences

have come up with.

How to become a first responder; having a plan for

dropping off equipment, getting equipment; matching the AT

to person.

Things really have to be outlined, and it can't

just be a thrown-together effort and kind of show up and

drop it off. There's lots of things that go into it.

Even we talked about having personnel selected and

being committed to being, say, on call for an emergency.

Who would be there to match the AT to the person if they

needed to?

Also some people also brought up, you know, how to

know your inventory quickly or how to get equipment --

having a shipping agreement to get equipment to the area.

Even it came up where some people were saying their

shelters aren't accessible. Yes, maybe there's those

"special-need" shelters. And I did use air quotations

there.

But how about all shelters be accessible. And a

lot of people were saying just about how can they help with

that? So that's what we're thinking in this module.

LATAN has donated some great -- I don't know if

donated's the word -- information about memorandum's of

agreement with people. And we have a good start. So let

us know.

Thank's, Liz. Back to you.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Good job, Lindsey.

This is Carolyn. And the next one that y'all

wanted us to focus on is actually finance and accounting.

And lots of things that we've covered in there and

examples, all kinds of things: preparing budgets,

identifying legal and compliance issues.

Thank you, Jessica Brodey, for that. We appreciate

all our contributors.

Managing payroll, tracking income, approve

contractual relationships, and also identify -- and how to

identify and acquire essentially insurance coverage. And

that continues to evolve as that conversation evolves.

Human resources is another one of our categories.

I just wanted to give you a little idea of what's in there.

Specifically we've got in there how to identify compliance

issues, write job descriptions.

As y'all recall, that's one of the big issues is a

lot of folks -- you know, mom-and-pop operations all the

way up to huge organizations doing AT reuse, a lot of folks

don't have job descriptions because we're actually pioneers

in this field and creating a lot of this.

So a lot of folks have contributed their job

descriptions, so go there and borrow them, steal them, what

you want, however you want to do this.

How to train employees and volunteers; how to

recruit employees and volunteers; and also how to manage

their performance and recognize employees and volunteers.

And I'm going to turn this over to Liz.

LIZ PERSAUD: So under our marketing and public

relation module, we have information on how to develop

community awareness; how to develop key event promotions;

how to really grow your relationships with media in your

community and also just partnerships in general; and then

examples of what is working in the AT reuse community

currently.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: So back to the organizational

structure. How to write bylaws and find leaders, identify

leaders and work with them and choose board of directors.

Those are some of the things that folks really needed some

support with.

Some of this stuff is actually a red flag. If you

haven't covered this and you don't have bylaws and you

don't know what your mission and your vision is, then how

can you really focus on sustainability?

So we did start with some basics and have moved

through those. And we're excited to have those modules

moving right along.

Program operation. This is obviously one of the

ones that all of us have been super interested in. And

we're very excited to see this continue to grow daily.

And we've got tips in there about how to accept and

value donations. That's a big question. How do you want

to spend your time on donations? How much time do you want

to spend on repairs? Tracking your inventory.

Sanitizing donated equipment. We even have some

links to videos on how to do this. And we're creating some

videos on how to do this. We appreciate Paraquad and NEAT

and other groups around that are helping us do this.

Store devices. Making sure that you're doing that

in a safe way that's compliant with OSHA standards and

other standards that might be out there.

And also supporting exchange services. So if

you're running an exchange program, an online exchange

program, we've got some program operation information up

there for you too.

And also supporting classified ads and all of those

different ways that we're reusing -- our programs are

defined.

So sustainability. Obviously this is one of the

hot topics and one of those things that we build our

success and your success around is, are we going to be

sustainable?

So what we've tried to do here is identify ongoing

sources of funding. How to build partnerships with other

organizations. We really help you analyze potential income

streams from operations, you know, various types of

operations.

Some of the lessons learned. We've actually had

folks that say, "Hey, I tried that. Don't do it." And

we've put some of that information up there on the website

and the knowledge base. And also using, obviously, the

quality indicators to drive outcomes.

It looks like, Ron, you had a question. And I'm

going to have Liz read that real quick.

LIZ PERSAUD: Ron's question is, "Does the program

operations module contain specific examples on

procedural -- does it have specific examples of procedural

manual?" Excuse me.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: And it sure does, Ron. Yes.

And that's one of the things that I know you and I

have had conversations about and other folks. So yes it

does, and it continues to grow, which we're excited about,

and we want to continue to grow that.

Trish is actually answering that question, too, in

the public chat. And we appreciate you doing that.

And you're welcome, Ron. I saw "thanks" up there.

Okay. So we'll move forward.

LIZ PERSAUD: So under our "User Services" module,

we have some things on there that just discusses

determining eligibility; matching the user to the device,

because that's obviously very important; and then training

the user as well too. So once they get the device, where

do they go from there? And then providing technical

assistance and following up as well too.

Knowledge base content. Again, we want y'all to

contribute to this if you would like. If you are

interested in submitting any of your articles, documents,

any information that you have to share with folks on --

across the board, please go ahead and e-mail either myself,

Liz, or Lindsey. And Martha is actually going to be typing

it in. We apologize that the font did not show up well.

It's a very faint yellow.

So we've got all of our e-mail addresses up there.

But it's liz@passitoncenter.org and then

lindsey@passitoncenter.org. And it's up there in the

public-chat area. So thank you for typing that out, folks.

So again, liz@passitoncenter.org and

lindsey@passitoncenter.org.

So any contributions that you would like to give

towards the knowledge base, please send that our way.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: So we're back to our little flow

here of our vision for the quality indicators, the QIAT-R.

And actually, this acronym came from a conversation that

Lindsey and Liz were having at ATIA.

As everyone knows, or probably knows, Joy Zabala

and a whole group of folks developed the quality indicators

for assistive technology. And actually Lindsey is going to

go over that in just a few minutes.

And Lindsey and Liz were talking about, you know,

why don't we just see if we can attach an R to that and

call it the "QIAT-R." So -- and I whispered that for

everybody, "the QIAT-R," and just add "reuse" to it.

So we're actually checking that out with Joy

Zabala. She's checking with her board. At least it made

her smile. And as we said, it's going to be a dynamic,

interactive tool, a living document.

The QIAT-R, as we see it, will include a web-based

self-assessment tool. And that's key to the success of

this. We wanted to create something where you could

actually interact with this. And it would be based on a

profile that you could -- you create, and it would help you

identify areas that you need to work on, areas that you're

really successful at, and it would be your self-assessment

of your project.

And so the Pass It On QIAT-R and the Pass It On

knowledge base really are interrelated in helping develop

that self-assessment.

So the assessor is actually guided through

different questions. Anybody could be the assessor. It

could be a board member. It could be a -- the executive

director. It could be somebody who's actually

volunteering, cleaning your wheelchairs.

And they could actually go in and take different

pieces of this. We wanted to make it as user friendly and

accessible, obviously, as possible. And we wanted to

create something that would allow somebody to get good

feedback.

So the assessor -- the only thing we really ask for

them to do is use their skills of evaluation and critical

judgment and really take a step back from their program and

be honest about their assessment.

All of our tools, as you can tell, are really

connected to customized resources. And we're really

encouraging excellence. That's what we're driving towards.

So I'm now going to turn this actually over to

Lindsey to talk about our process for developing the

quality indicators. I think that helps a lot of folks

understand how these came about, why they came about, and

why they're important.

And Lindsey did an outstanding job. As y'all know,

she stayed with us, did her internship here, and we miss

her deeply. But she's still working with us with the Pass

It On Center, and she just did an outstanding job.

So take it away, Dr. Bean.

LINDSEY BEAN: Thank you. Thank you. I couldn't

have done it without you.

And I saw some of you guys were saying that

Carolyn's voice was very good. Let me know if you can or

can't hear me. I have my mic all the way up. So let me

know if I need to maybe adjust my mouthpiece or something

if you can't hear me.

So the quality indicators, yes, I was introduced

to -- while I was there for my internship, and I had done

some research on survey development for Paraquad's AT reuse

program. And so I was happy to jump on this and take it

on.

And basically the beginning was creating quality

indicators from what we already had on the knowledge base.

So we had already figured out that this content was

important. And I went in there and tried to, you know,

make some levels of what it was.

The next step was I developed the first draft. And

then we had this great AT reuse meeting in Atlanta just

recently, only a week or two ago. And we had occupational

therapists there, different program directors and other key

informants. And it was just a great, great, great time.

So you can flip to the next slide.

While we were there, what we kind of did was we

reviewed quality indicators -- past quality indicators.

Carolyn briefly talked about the QIAT, which I'll go

through next with you guys.

Then actually reviewed some guidelines. Carolyn

will throw some out at you during this talk. And then we

actually broke into small groups, kind of put people in

their specialty areas, and kind of added, edited, deleted,

and made new drafts of these quality indicators.

And then each group that created one kind of

switched and read with other groups. So it kind of was a

double-check.

So you can go to the next slide.

So the first one that Carolyn already talked about

is the QIAT, quality indicators for assistive technology

services. And again, this was created by Joy Zabala. It

was actually her doctoral project. And this one basically

focuses on more of the school aspect and gave us the matrix

idea.

But you can go to the next slide.

This began in 1998, and it was a grassroots effort.

It was a core group of 14 individuals that came together to

work on this. We had about 17 people at our meeting. They

do have an e-mail list, which was began in 1999.

And again, like I said, it was Joy Zabala's

doctoral research that created this QIAT. And you can go

online, and you can sign up for the listserv. And you can

see they have matrixes that they created, which gave us

kind of our idea and format.

They also just have a list of the quality

indicators in kind of almost like a little quick-fact sheet

on there too.

So you can go to the next slide.

The next slide just addresses the eight topics that

the QIAT specifically addresses. So this kind of, in our

aspect of the QIAT-R, would coordinate with our modules on

the knowledge base.

And you can go to the next slide.

The other quality-indicator project, the S.M.A.R.T.

Exchange, which actually happened before QIAT, this was a

project funded by the National Institute on Disability and

Rehabilitation Research.

Joy Kniskern was actually part of this effort. And

she always has good things to say about this and was really

excited to be a part of it and I think really helped her

give input on how to do this process for us.

You can go to the next slide of it.

And really this kind of just sums it up that they

developed this set of quality indicators that identified

models for successful assistive technology programs,

components, and practices. So this one isn't specific to

the school setting and actually just once goes through the

information.

Now, this one doesn't have a matrix of sorts. It's

just more of a list but does give specific rationale as to

why they think that those would be good quality indicators.

So you can go to the next slide. And I believe

Carolyn is going to take this one on and talk about kind of

our wording and format that we use for the quality

indicators.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. I am being told this is

really hard to see, and I think it is too. So I'm just

going to go through this pretty quickly just to give you an

idea of what we really tried to do when we were writing

these quality-indicator questions.

There is a whole field out there of folks that

actually write questions for exams, for certifications, all

of that. And so what we actually did is followed the way

and studied a little bit of how they do these things.

So items is what we started creating.

And Trish, I appreciate you writing that up there.

"Items equal the question."

Stem is the question itself. Alternatives are the

measures or possible answers. And that's really what they

are. They're alternatives. It's not necessarily right or

wrong, just alternatives.

And then we have promising practices. And that's

where we want to help all of you head, is towards promising

practices. It doesn't mean best practice; it's the

absolute best practice. But it is a promising practice.

And then we also have references with everything

that we have put up there. As far as we're concerned, if

it doesn't have a reference, then it's not worth sharing

because we want to make sure that everyone can go back and

check the source and all of that and communicate with each

other as we create this national network of all of you.

So basically the stems are no more than 30

questions -- I mean, 30 words. It doesn't ask all or none

or anything like that. It's really looking at your

specific policy, your specific procedure, and giving you

variations along the line as to what the -- where you are,

you know, moving towards the promising practice.

The alternatives. It's once again just sharing,

you know, different alternatives and different ways that

you could actually answer these questions about who you are

and what you're trying to accomplish. And we'll show you a

couple of those in just a little bit and the references, as

we said.

Should support the promising practice. There are,

as you know, lots of different ways to do things. And so

what we've tried to do is vet these with a lot of different

folks, get ideas from you, and move towards what is indeed

promising practice in various areas.

So I'm going to turn this back over to Lindsey.

LINDSEY BEAN: Thank you.

So the results of the meeting, like I said, it was

a great, wonderful meeting. Had to be done. It was

wonderful.

We came up with about a total of 45 quality

indicators for AT reuse, which is great. I am currently

going through each -- we had three groups of quality

indicators and then my first draft and kind of seeing what

people changed on my draft, what we added, what we deleted,

and making it into one whole document. So I'm currently

working on that.

We kind of saw this need for maybe a rationale.

Like I said, the S.M.A.R.T. Exchange did have some

rationale before they listed their quality indicators. And

we really thought that was a good idea. You know, instead

of just telling people, "This is what we think is a quality

indicator," let's tell them why.

And we even talked about, you know, having a

two-sentence little summary of what it was, you know. And

then if you want more in-depth rationale for why we picked

it or why we have it that way, you know, click a link, and

you'll have more information.

Another thing was the glossary of terms. We would

be in a group, and we'd start talking about something, and

actually one person was talking about one sense of a word,

and one was talking in another sense.

So we thought kind of creating a glossary of terms,

something easy. You know, have the word highlighted so you

can click the link and see exactly what we're defining the

word as and so we'll all be on the same page.

Then ideas for how the quality indicators will look

and interact with you on the website. Carolyn's going to

give you a little tour of what we have so far at the end of

it.

But like she said before, we really want it to be

something fun and quick, not time consuming or bored that

you think, "Oh, I just don't want to do that." But

something that's really useful and, on the same part of

that, you know, giving you something right away to take

back.

Okay. So maybe there are some areas that I need to

improve on. Well, instead of just saying, "Good luck.

Find your own way," you know, "Here. We'll give you some

links to the knowledge base right here. What are your next

steps?" And kind of help you out with that.

And then again, like I said, everyone at the

meeting said, you know, this really needs to be done. It's

very important. And hopefully it becomes a national --

useful for everyone.

So you can go to the next slide.

Which the next one is, What's next? What's coming

up next for the quality indicators?

Like I said, I'm currently working on putting all

of these together, filling in some gaps if we left any

gaps, and making it one solid document.

Trish, I believe, is going to be helping me with

definitely the grammar and tenses of all of the quality

indicators but also just reviewing for quality and making

sure, you know, we don't have any repeats or anything like

that.

Then we're actually going to pilot it with some AT

reuse programs. Let us know if you'd like to be one of

these programs to pilot it with us. You know, like I said,

hopefully it's not going to be this -- we don't want it to

be this time-consuming thing. But we really would like

some feedback from programs before we launch it all the

way.

So then continue some revisions. And then finally

have it on Pass It On's website for anyone and everyone to

use and make it accessible and promote it at different

conferences or different programs or anything.

So that's the plan. Let us know what you think.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: We're going to actually walk you

through the knowledge base first, and then we're going to

actually visit where we are with the quality indicators and

get an idea from you as to what you think about this.

We have already had -- we've got seven centers, AT

reuse programs, all different sizes, across the country who

have agreed to be in the pilot, and we appreciate that.

And some folks we're going to actually be getting in touch

with to see if you want to participate. So that would be

great.

And I think, Sarah, you asked a question of what's

exactly involved in being a pilot program. And what

exactly is involved is that you actually would go in and

take the self-assessment, you know, be honest about it,

research the resources and links that are provided, and see

how they fit with your program, and then actually try a

couple of them out. See if this actually does help you and

if it's actually something that makes a difference for you.

So, yea, Sarah. Thank you. We will definitely

count you in. Thanks for jumping on that. That's great.

So Lindsey, you've got your first one -- your first

new one. Okay.

And we -- before we jump in, we want to thank you,

obviously, for your time and participating with us.

So -- and here we go. Liz and I are going to go

back and forth as we walk y'all through the knowledge base.

I hope that everybody can see it up here. We are very

excited about this. This is our launching of this, as you

know. We're having Chinese food to celebrate.

So here it is, the knowledge base. We have looked

at a lot of different designs for this. We've played

around with different language. We're exploring those

things. And we have come up with something that seems to

pass well with you, and that's what the usability study was

telling us.

We wanted to get -- you know, y'all had things that

you really wanted to see first. And so building a

statewide program, you know, on a shoestring budget. And

there actually was a presentation there.

So what we actually did is, if you click here, then

you get to see what Heather and Alma did at ATIA. And you

can actually view their presentation. You can click here

on the presentation, and it will come up.

And you can also get a session description down

below. You can get more information as to what their

session objectives were, what they thought was the most

important thing out of the session. And I attended the

session in person, and I thought it was outstanding.

So Heather, good job there.

Also, a lot of people have asked us -- we get a lot

of questions, especially around Earth Day, which is coming

up in April, the 40th anniversary, by the way, of Earth

Day. A lot of things turning 40 this year -- but how do

you plan a -- how do you plan a donation drive?

And so this gives some information about who you

want to consider getting in touch with, what possible

population, what region, what types of equipment. And then

it gives a timeline, planning the timeline. You know, six

months out, four months out, two months out, one month out,

two weeks out, day of event, and then what you need to do

after the event also.

Also gives a budget. This is very, very helpful.

And of course we want the thank our friends in Kansas for

sharing all this information with us. And we think it

looks really good.

Oh, and Jerry, it looks like that you -- yes, I saw

you. We were there together. Yes. And you attended the

ATIA conference and logged onto the site and got tons of

useful information from it. Great. That's, oh, so great

to hear. Thank you. Thank you so much.

So -- and this continues. We put icons up, as you

can see, and they actually have tags. So I use a screen

reader. Other folks use screen readers. And so if you

actually move over these, then it should say what it is.

The first one is emergency preparedness. And this

has all those different files that Lindsey went over with

you.

This is definitely the one that we don't have the

most information on. And that's okay because we are

building that and continue to build that. And we've got

some good conversations going around that.

Up top you'll actually see this thing that -- it

says "Home," and then it's got schedule -- I mean "Module

Selected Emergency Prep." Those are actually breadcrumbs.

So as you go deeper into this -- so, for example,

if we wanted to look at AT needs for the shelter process,

then you'll see that this -- these breadcrumbs actually

grow. And you click to get back.

One of my pet peeves is getting so deep into a site

and then saying, "Oh, gosh, I want to get back to the home

page," or what have you. So we tried to make it really

clean and make it something that is interactive and really

responsive.

And Deborah Buck, thank you for the kudos. We

really appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

That means so much.

So we can keep going through this. We've got

checklists down here. There's a little icon. And as we

said, it's got the tag that says "download checklist." And

sure enough you can download checklists here.

So if you wanted to know about sanitizing durable

medical equipment, you can click on that, and it will take

you to a checklist that actually goes through that.

And we've actually had some folks that are actually

posting these checklists. And feel free to do that. Do

whatever will make your program work because that's what

we're focused on.

We also have here, "How to get help with." And

then we've got very specific things: device donations;

device exchange; refurbishing equipment; end-of-life

recycling.

And once again, you click there, and it gives an

explanation of reuse versus recycling -- you know, what --

how do you decide. You can click there. And it just keeps

taking us deeper and deeper into this, into tools that we

hope will really help you.

I was trying to count the other day how many

documents we have, and we have hundreds of documents now,

which is wonderful. And we're so excited. And we really

want y'all to start using it now. This is now your tool.

Share it with other folks. And let us know what you think

because that's why we have it here.

So I'm going to go ahead and -- oh, let's see here.

LIZ PERSAUD: Deborah asked, "Can you address the

quality-assurance component to review what is posted to

ensure that it is accurate?"

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Yes, Deborah. This is Carolyn.

And thank you, Liz, for reading that question out

loud for me.

What we actually are doing is, we get content in

from folks, and we're actually looking at it, reviewing it.

We are starting to divide it up so that we are getting

other folks involved in this in a much more significant

way.

Where we're going to be giving the information out

to folks and saying, "Does this indeed work?" That's part

of actually that pilot process, if you will. Because we

know that a lot of folks have some good ideas, and they

definitely work in their own community, but who are we to

say that it's the most successful practice?

Something may definitely work in the backwoods of,

you know, North Georgia, and it wouldn't work necessarily

in Miami, Florida.

So what we're trying to do is get folks who are in

that same situation and for them to help us as we're coming

up with what are these promising practices and all of that.

So it's more peer-to-peer right now, and it continues to

grow.

And Sarah, it looks like you have a question too.

LIZ PERSAUD: This is Liz, and I'll read Sarah's

question. Sarah asked, "If we send something in and you

see a problem, do you offer solutions?"

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Absolutely. This is Carolyn

again. Yes. We've actually been in that position several

times where we have seen something -- either Jessica or

Trish or I or Joy, Liz, somebody has seen something, and

we're like, "Hey, let's address this."

So, yes, absolutely. So feel free to send it in,

and we can review it. Jessica, one of the valuable

services that she's offered for a long time is to look at

your policies, your procedures. And obviously we can all

do that.

And you have another question. "Who do we send it

to?" And I'm going to pass this over to Liz so she can

give you her e-mail address.

LIZ PERSAUD: Sarah, you can send it to me. And

we'll have those -- type in my e-mail address, but it's

liz@passitoncenter.org. L-i-z, Liz, @passitoncenter.org.

And that should be coming up. There you go.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Okay. Thank you,

Martha.

If you look over to the left side of the Pass It On

Center knowledge base, up top we have a glossary. If you

click on that -- and I'm going to click on it right now --

we actually have a glossary of terms. There are lots of

terms that are used in the world of reuse and recycling

that we don't always interact with.

Wanted to make sure that you were aware of those

things. Like biodegradable; what does that really mean?

And the list goes on. We continue to add to that.

We also have our modules lined up over there, very

clean. And you can go down. And as we said, we're

continuing to add modules.

And then we also have audiences. So for example,

if you are an administrator, you can come here, click on

this, and you can see all the different documents that we

thought an administrator would want to know.

We have asked other folks who are executive

directors to look at this and tell us, you know, is this

indeed what you need to know? And sure enough, it is. It

seems like it's right on target with a lot of what folks

want to know.

And you can see up here the topic -- well, over to

the left it says "view." So you could click on that, and

you can view the document immediately. It lists the topic,

the audience, what module it is in. And that's as much

information right now. We are considering whether or not

to put the author there, you know, so that you would know

instantly what organization this came from or what

organizations. We have often many authors for several

topics.

And so you can look at those. You can also go to

links where we have links to publications and different

resources, videos, and all of those things.

So I'm going to pass this over to Liz and see if

there's anything else she wants to add.

LIZ PERSAUD: I just wanted to point out, on the

home page of the knowledge base, underneath the icons for

the modules, we have an "at" symbol, "at," just like you

would find in your e-mail address. So if you need more

help, feel free to get in touch with us at the Pass It On

Center.

We have our 800 number there and our information

at -- info at passitoncenter.org website. So again, any

questions that y'all have in regards to the knowledge base

or as you're looking at it as well too. We really

appreciate the wonderful compliments that are happening

over there on the right-hand side in the public-chat area.

But if you guys see anything that you think would

be more helpful or just something that would be a little

bit more visually pleasing, then please let us know. We'll

be happy to put that up there and to consider that.

Jerry had a very sweet comment. He said that

Jessica and Liz are great about helping out and how we

recently helped him beef up his policies and waivers for

DME. So you're certainly welcome, Jerry. And just let us

know if we can do anything else for you.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. So the next thing we

were going to do is actually show you our quality

indicators.

Does anybody have any questions that they would

like to ask at this point regarding our knowledge base as

we move away from that?

And as we said, this is now open to you. So you

can do what you want with that. And explore it. Let us

know what you think. And as it grows, we'd be interested

in hearing what you have to say.

Okay. I'll wait for just a minute and see if there

are any questions. Okay. I don't see any. And I don't

see anybody raising their hand.

So all right. So this is a rough, rough draft. I

want to make sure that you're aware of that. And we are

excited because we are ahead of our schedule for getting

this out. We look forward to actually getting this out and

making it live towards the end of May. That's what we

really are shooting for. Want to make sure that everybody

can have access to this.

And this is the quality indicators for AT reuse

self-assessment. It's based on the quality indicators.

There are three different ways that you can actually

interact with this.

You can take the self-assessment without

registering or without logging in. We did that because we

know some folks are sensitive, and they may not be as

honest in going through a self-assessment if they knew

that, you know, maybe we can see their answers or what have

you. And they may just want to be able to, you know, find

this -- you know, find -- you know, go through this and not

register.

Then the other option is you can take the

self-assessment, register, save a profile, and return later

to update it and actually see how you're growing and how

your project's growing, if you're making changes and how is

that making a difference, and how do you answer these

questions differently.

And then the third thing that you can do is you can

take part of the self-assessment. And we're going to

actually show you why you might want to do that. Because

there are different modules, and you may feel like you have

a specific area that you really need to beef up.

And we know a lot of folks, one of the first things

that they come talking to us about is policy or program

operations. And when we dig deeper, we find out, oh, it's

really an organizational structure issue. And so that's

why we wanted to give people this option also, that they

could register, save their profile, and complete these

self-assessments at their own time, or if they don't want

to complete all of them, that's okay.

So right now, as you can tell, our knowledge base

has informed how we develop the self-assessment. And what

we actually have done is created these different

categories, so organizational structure. And then if you

look below that, it actually has the mission, the board,

and a model, like what model are you using.

That's actually going to be a lot deeper after last

week when we developed even more quality indicators, which

we're thrilled about. And these questions actually go

pretty deep. And I'm going to walk you through an example

of that in just a moment.

So as you complete your sections through your

self-assessment, then you get a check. And that just

means, yep, you indeed did that. And then you move on to

the next one, if you want to.

You can skip around if you want to. I know a lot

of us like to skip around and, you know, hit what we feel

is most important to us. We did not want to direct you as

to what's -- what we think is most important to you.

So there's the financial self-assessment. And you

can look at state and federal compliance and budget.

Program operations. And this is actually a very

short list of a long list of quality indicators that we

have. So evaluating donated equipment, storage, inventory,

disposal.

And then policy. The volunteers, clients, privacy,

and subcontractors. And then human resources. And

actually looking at hiring, job descriptions, just like we

were talking about, new employees, termination plans, user

services, you know, assessments, all of those things. And

then, once again, emergency preparedness.

And it looks like we have some comments, so I'm

going to get Liz to actually read those out.

LIZ PERSAUD: Well, Trish put up the website for

the knowledge base. Again, it's

passitoncenter.org/content. And then Kathy Valdez with

Project MEND said, "This is so cool. Carolyn, you and your

team just rock. Thanks for all you do."

And Kathy, we want to say that you rock because you

were on fire last week working with us to develop these.

So thank you so much for everything.

And Sarah said that she -- thank you so much, that

she had to leave.

And Joy just said thank you to Kathy for being part

of the (inaudible).

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you.

I apologize. As a lot of you know, reading quickly

is not my skill set. So thank you, Liz. All right.

So the next thing, let's say, for example, you want

to actually look at your organizational structure, and you

want to go through the self-assessment for your mission.

You click on the "Mission Statement," and what

happens is a window is brought up. And it walks you

through questions related to your organizational structure.

And as you can see, up here at top it says, 1 of 9,

and it gives you a little bar. And so you would click

"Next." And it asks, "Do you have a mission statement?"

And you can say either "Yes" or "No."

The reason why this is important, when you choose

"Yes," you have a different set of questions than if you

choose "No." If you say "No" and click "Next," then it

just takes you on to the next question.

If you click "Yes" -- and we'll click "Yes" so you

can see what happens -- and hit "Next," then a series of

alternatives come up and a question. It says, "Select the

choice that best describes your mission statement."

"The statement includes wording that states." The

first one is "AT enhances the lives of people with

disabilities but not their families"; the second one is,

"AT can enhance the lives of only certain people with

disabilities." The next one is, "belief that AT can

enhance people with disabilities and their families in

school, work, and community." And then the last one is,

"AT can enhance the lives of individuals with disabilities

and their families."

This -- you know, we see all different mission

statements, all different -- I could see a lot of folks

checking these, you know, and that's okay.

So we would click on whatever we think our mission

statement says. Hopefully you know what your mission

statement says. And then you move on.

And it actually gives you the opportunity -- and we

encourage people to do this -- to put their mission

statement in here. The cool thing about this is that

technology has changed and developed so significantly over

the last -- over the years, but especially over the last

few years, where we can do a word match, and we can

actually see if -- and hit -- look for key words.

We can do this with policies. We can do this with

procedures. We can do this with obviously mission

statements. Just to make sure that the terminology is in

check, that the content is in check with what perhaps

should be there.

And so they can actually input their -- copy and

paste their mission statement, and then we'll kind of bump

it up against what folks around the country think that a

mission statement for an AT reuse program should indeed be

doing -- should indeed say.

Then the next question -- it takes you to the next

question. "Do you have a board of directors?" You can say

"Yes" or "No." So if you click "Yes," then you can go to

the next. And once again, it will walk you through what

is -- a series of answers, alternatives for a question, and

hopefully lead towards the promising practice.

So, "What is the process for getting board

members?" The first option is, "We are recruiting, but we

don't have formal job descriptions." "We have job

descriptions but no formal interview process." "We have

job descriptions but an informal interview process." Or,

"We have job descriptions and a formal interview process."

So once again, you click wherever you are and hit

"Next," and then it takes you on to the next. So I'm just

going to, in the interest of time, just move through that.

And as you can see up above, it actually -- the bar

now says that I completed 9 of 9, 100 percent of this. And

then I'm actually given some recommendations.

This is actually going to change significantly, the

recommendations and all of that, so don't pay too much

attention to that right now.

And then what we did is we actually have a bar down

here that will say, Is our, you know -- What's our

organization's -- you know, are we in the green? Are we in

the red? Are we in, you know, the yellow? Do we have some

issues we need to address? What are those issues?

And so this should be customized and actually

changed according to what it is that we need to change. So

we're very excited about this and where it's headed.

We -- let me see if -- actually, Liz, do you have

anything you want to add to this?

LIZ PERSAUD: I think you covered everything.

Again, we just want to know what works for y'all. So we

really worked hard on the scoring process down on the

bottom. And I actually should not say "scoring process."

We wanted to keep it very general so y'all are comfortable

as you're using the self-assessment tool.

So as Carolyn pointed out, you'll see that we've

got, you know, color coding. Green for go and red for

stop. So just very easy ways to go about finding where you

are with the process and recording your information and

being able to save that information so you can go back

later on down the road in six months or a year or eight

months, however long or little, and to reassess where you

are and to get your information up and going as well too.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. I am actively

getting -- trying to get back to our passitoncenter.org.

And so I'm going to break for just a moment and see

if y'all have any questions. So let us know what you

think. We're very excited about it. We do know that, as

we said, that's a rough draft, but we'd love your feedback.

Hey, Ron. That's actually an excellent question.

And we have thought about this quite a bit. And we're

actually working with a lot of different folks on trying to

answer that question.

Joy, would you like to weigh in on this? Or Rob or

anyone else that's out there? And I can also weigh in on

it too.

LIZ PERSAUD: Again, Ron just asked, "How will the

knowledge base be supported after the federal support

ends?"

So Joy, are you there? Can you -- and Joy is

answering.

She said, "Our grant is five years, and we have

some time to figure this out more."

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: And one of the things that --

when we initially wrote the proposal to create the Pass It

On Center was we wanted to make sure that this didn't go

away. So we definitely want to work with folks to make

sure that we develop partnerships to keep this work alive

and continue it so that it can continue to grow. Yes.

And Ron, I see that you made a comment. And it

says you assumed the funding was ending after this year.

So yes, it's actually going to be around for two more

years.

Jeremy -- actually Jeremy Buzzell at the RSA,

Rehabilitation Services Administration, when he was working

with this team in developing this whole process, one of the

things that he had in his vision as he shared it with us is

that the Pass It On Center -- it was important that the

Pass It On Center go two more years in order to support the

work that, you know, the grantees are doing and also just

continue getting the information out that we have learned

over the last two and a half, you know, going on three

years.

So I think it was a really brilliant plan, and

we're seeing that that really does make a difference.

So -- and Joy has another comment.

LIZ PERSAUD: Joy's comment says, "We have another

two more years, and it is a cooperative agreement with RSA,

so not specifically a grant."

And Kathy Valdez has a question. "How soon can we

take the self-assessment?"

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: And Kathy, the answer to your

question is, we are hoping to have that self-assessment up

by the end of May. That's what we're shooting for.

We're actually going to be meeting with our

National Task Force, and we're going to be meeting with

them in the first week of May. We need to get more

detailed information from them about what they think about

these tools and all of that.

We want to do our pilot. And obviously we're

hoping, Kathy, that you'll be a part of that. And then

we'll go live with it towards the end of May, early June.

That's what we're shooting for. And I'm glad to see that

you're going to participate.

LIZ PERSAUD: And Joy also made a comment. And she

said -- this is true. She said, "We are also seeing some

good data on AT reuse coming forth."

And so that's obviously very important as we're

building the knowledge base and as we're moving forward

with our activities.

So does anyone else have any more questions or

comments as we're trying to pull up -- we're having a

little technical problems getting the Pass It On Center

website to pop up again.

But any other questions or comments out there?

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Okay. Rob, I think Liz said

that you were on, and I don't know if Brian's on. I wasn't

sure if you wanted to share any thoughts with anybody. No

problem if you don't want to.

LINDSEY BEAN: Thank you, Rob. Definitely

appreciate that positive feedback. So looking forward to

all of you interacting with this.

Well -- and you're at a computer that doesn't have

a mic. I understand. No problem. So -- and thank you for

weighing in.

And I also -- Liz just told me that it looks like

Jeremy's on.

So Jeremy, good to see you. We love working with

Rob and Brian, but we sure do miss working with you too.

So Heather, you have a comment here, and I'm going

to get Liz to read it out for us.

LIZ PERSAUD: Hey, Heather.

Heather's comment says, "If possible, it would be

helpful if you could e-mail us when the assessment is

available."

So we'll be more than happy to do that. We can

send an e-mail out to our regular e-mail list, and y'all

can send that out to folks that you interact with as well

too. And so we'll launch that self-assessment tool for

y'all to use.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. I'm glad Heather --

helpful to get -- glad to get that out to you. No problem

at all. So --

LIZ PERSAUD: And Heather also said, "Thank you.

The knowledge base is amazing. This has been a lot of work

on your part."

So thank you so much, Heather. We certainly are

having a great time building this.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Yeah, actually we were talking

about this just the other day, how much we love our job.

So, yeah, it's very cool to work on this and especially to

work with everyone around the country to create this cool

tool, these amazing tools.

So any other thoughts? Any -- any other comments

that y'all would like to make? We're going to be here for

a little bit.

Joy, any other thoughts you want to share as we

close?

Lindsey, anything else you want to say as we close?

Feel free to jump in.

LINDSEY BEAN: I'm good. I just wanted to say

thank you again for everyone and everyone's ideas. And

thank you to Carolyn and Sharon and Trish and Liz because

they're -- you guys are an awesome team. So thank you

everyone.

LIZ PERSAUD: And again, thank you everyone for all

of your input and feedback. So feel free to get in touch

with us, give us a call, contact us. You can get our

contact information on the passitoncenter.org website. And

just give us your feedback as far as the knowledge base is

concerned.

We're here for you, and this tool is for you. So

we definitely appreciate and need your feedback. So just

feel free to be in touch with us and let us know whatever

we can do for you.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thank you, Liz. And

thank you to Lindsey. Great presentation. Really

appreciate it.

And Liz, it looks like Heather has a question.

LIZ PERSAUD: Yes. Heather is asking about

policies and procedures. And, yes, please send that our

way, and we'll be happy to review them for you.

So just shoot them to me in an e-mail, and we'll go

over them and get back in touch with you, Heather. No

problem at all.

CAROLYN PHILLIPS: Excellent. Yes. And we're very

thankful to Jessica for helping us out with that so --

along with Liz and everybody else.

No problem, Heather. Happy to help.

All right. Well, if y'all don't have any other

questions for us, we really appreciate your time, and we

definitely appreciate your interest.

Please keep contributing. Our knowledge base is

as -- it's really as good as the content that you

contribute. So please keep contributing, and we will do

another official launch of the self-assessment tool when

that's up and running.

And thank you. Y'all take care and keep in touch

with us. So take care.