How 65 Volunteers Rewired Four Buildings To Restore Safety And Dignity

We share how 65 volunteers rebuilt four Sojourner House facilities with secure networks, access control, and intercoms so staff and survivors feel safe. The result: reliable connectivity, better screening at the door, and a playbook any community can use to scale impact.

• who TKW is and why TEksgiving exists
• nomination and selection of Sojourner House
• the mission and programs across four offices
• pre‑upgrade pain points with keys and Wi‑Fi
• full scope of cameras, intercoms, access control
• standardized networks and clean cabling
• logistics for four sites and 65 volunteers
• craftsmanship in historic buildings
• operational wins for safety and workflow
• Amazon wish list drive for client essentials
• how to join TKW and help future projects

If you're watching the show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being created?
If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating?

While this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, make sure you click on that QR code right there. You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me. You can even buy Let's Talk Cabling t-shirts.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome, Community, And CTA
• 3:40 Meet TKW And Texgiving
• 6:30 Why Sojourner House
• 8:50 Who Sojourner House Serves
• 11:30 Immediate Impact: Safety And Speed
• 15:20 Scope: Four Buildings In One Weekend
• 18:45 Security, Networking, And Cabling Overhaul
• 22:00 Logistics, Volunteers, And Playbook
• 25:30 Craftsmanship And Community Moments
• 28:20 Operations Transformed
• 31:10 Two Efforts: Tech And Essentials Drive
• 34:20 Human Stories And Mission Alignment
• 37:10 How To Get Involved With TKW
• 39:20 What’s Next For Sojourner House
• 41:00 A Thank You To The ICT Community
• 42:30 Closing Reflections On Service

Transcript

SPEAKER_06: 0:00

Hey Wild Monkeys, welcome to another episode of Let's Talk Gabling. This episode, we're talking about an event that if you weren't there, dude, you missed out. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions on installation, design, certification, communications. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching the show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being created? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? The simple little steps help us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage, and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry. Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, what are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and every other place I can think to send a live stream to where you get to ask your favorite RCDD. And you know I'm your favorite. Don't even try to pretend I'm not. Your favorite RCDD. Questions on installation, design, certification, credentialing. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now. But check them down, I'm driving with it in the TV. I don't want to get in an accident. Take a breath. I record them and you can watch them at your convenience. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, make sure you click on that QR code right there. You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me. After hours, of course. You can even buy Let's Talk Caling t-shirts. So recently there was an event that happened in Rhode Island. TKW's doing it again. They did another one of their Text Giving events. This one was a really, really good. They're all good ones. Let me let's not let's let's listen to the sound. But this one, it struck the heart of a lot of people, and I'm so sorry that I missed it. Unfortunately, I was at traveling for the day job and I couldn't get back in time to be able to go up to Rhode Island to be able to do this. But I was able to get some people to volunteer to go there in my place. So let's go bring on the guests. We're gonna bring on Ray Klein, Jeff Day, and Gloria Greenfield, the the the freedom of people you want to talk to about this event. Welcome to the show, everybody. How are you guys doing?

SPEAKER_04: 2:34

Hey Chuck, thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_00: 2:36

Not a problem. Hi Chuck.

SPEAKER_06: 2:38

Pleasure to meet you, Gloria. Let's go ahead and do introductions. Um, let's start off with we'll do we'll do Ray, Jeff, and then we'll save the best for last, Gloria.

SPEAKER_03: 2:49

Uh sure. Ray Klein, you guys have heard me enough. Uh TKW Libertas Consulting. Uh, thrilled to be here. Thanks again for having us, Chuck.

SPEAKER_04: 2:56

Hi everyone, and um, Jeff Day, owner of Better Days Technology here in Bristol, Rhode Island. Uh, we were honored to be the host of this year's TKW charity project, and we nominated Sojourner House in Providence.

SPEAKER_00: 3:10

And I am Gloria Greenfield. I am the Vice President of Operations and Community Programs at Sojourner House. We were the recipient of this year's Text Giving Project.

SPEAKER_06: 3:21

Yeah, I think this is the first time I've actually had a recipient on this show. This is gonna be so good because we're gonna be able to get the the full free 60 views. I'm excited about this episode. But let's uh let's start off with the with the basics, you know, because I do get new listeners all the time. Um I just put out a post, I don't know, earlier this week. I just hit 19,000 followers. So I'm growing every week. So there's probably people out there who may not have heard of TKW, may not have heard of Ray. So let's start off with the basics. Ray, why don't you give us the the 50,000-foot view on the timer, on the 30-second timer, okay? Well, who is TKW and what is Text Giving?

SPEAKER_03: 3:59

So clearly, I've been on your podcast before, and you know I can get long-winded, so I appreciate the uh the timer there. Uh so TKW is a community, um, you know, online networking community uh in the low voltage and technology space, uh, whose mission is to give back uh to the members of our community, give back to the industry, and give back to worthy recipients like Sojourner House each year. Uh Textgiving is our initiative that happens every year in the fall, always between uh Canadian Thanksgiving and United States' Thanksgiving, which is why we deemed it Taxgiving. And it is uh an event where we allow members of our community like Jeff to submit um an organization that's near and dear to their heart that needs a technology overhaul refresh. And this year, so Journer House was the uh fortunate recipient of Texgiving this year, and you know, it was an absolutely amazing event. You know, we did four sites in the span of a weekend, and that is all a credit to the members of the community, to Jeff for his organization with his team and and to Gloria and her amazing staff there as well, and her willingness and her team's willingness to put up with us while we were there and cause all the chaos that we did. But it was a lot of fun and it was amazing.

SPEAKER_06: 5:13

Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that because um the thought did cross my mind because I've been at a couple of Text Giving events, and the thought did cross my mind oh, they don't know, they don't know the the herding of cats that's coming to their location because there's a lot everybody shows up to help with this thing. Um and and I know that you you guys have a process for picking recipients. Um, why was the Sojourna House picked this year? And let's talk a little about what about their mission that resonated with TKW?

SPEAKER_03: 5:45

So I think uh Jeff, I mean, I think you were best to be the best person to answer that.

SPEAKER_04: 5:49

Yeah, sure. Uh so we have a nomination process where a few months before the event, we put a call out to our 400 plus members that asked them to nominate an organization that it would need a full technology makeover. And we this year had, I think, somewhere around nine applicants. Uh we whittle it down to the top three, and then we put the uh vote out to our 400 plus member community and let them vote on which organization they think is most worthy of our amazing charitable donation. And this year it was Sojourner House in Providence.

SPEAKER_05: 6:30

Excellent.

SPEAKER_06: 6:30

And I I I gotta admit this, and you gotta be fully transparent. I had never heard of Sojourner House before this event. I had never even heard of them before. So, Gloria, can you tell us a little bit about Sojourner House? Paint a picture for us. Who who do you serve and what challenge do you face when people walk through your doors?

SPEAKER_00: 6:48

Yes, of course. Uh we are a domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking organization based in Rhode Island, and we have been in existence for 49 years at this point. I joined the organization in 2011, so I've been there for quite a bit of time. And um, as the intro tells you, we serve people in their most vulnerable times. We have programs from drop-in center where people can come uh Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, to get services. We get a lot of people in crisis, people actively fleeing domestic violence, people coming for support, for guidance, for housing. And we also have the largest housing program in the state of Rhode Island for victims. And we are right now we own about 13 properties in total. We have about 42 apartments for families, but we also have a multitude of programs that are run throughout the state. So the reason why we have four sites going at the same time is because we have four offices across Rhode Island, and each building has different types of staff, but we have clinical services, we have housing programs, we have two different legal teams, we have um obviously our administrative offices, we have education, sexual education, maternal health, we have support groups. I mean, uh we I think we are at 31 total programs in our agency. And we work non-stop. We are about a staff of 65 people. Our services are 24-7 because we have three safe homes where we house people that are actively fleeing domestic violence. So it is a very, very difficult job. But when you add the fact that we had very limited functional technology in our buildings, even though we are a medium-sized organization, the problem with nonprofits is a lot of the uh donations and grants and foundation money does not cover this kind of program, this kind of project. So um when Jeff and I first connected, I wanted to do it all. I looked at the proposal, I'm like, I want this all, but we just cannot get the money to do it. It was very heartbreaking, and our staff were always showing concerns about the lack of access control that we had. The internet in our buildings was horrendous, and it didn't matter how many um additional routers we added or repeaters or like nothing would fix a problem because we have all buildings, we have all facilities, and uh it just needed a real project going on. And I mean, well, I'm sure we're gonna talk more about this, but the the way we were and the where we are right now is like night and day completely.

SPEAKER_05: 9:46

Well, that was actually my next question. You already read into it.

SPEAKER_00: 9:49

It said there are better days now because we have all this. So you you already read in my next question.

SPEAKER_06: 9:54

I was gonna ask you, you know, yeah, because the Thanksgiving event happened, you know, it's it's already past us. We it's a few weeks behind us now. I was gonna ask you, what can you give us some changes that your residents feel now because of this but this event where all these people came down and and blessed you guys with all this technology and all this labor?

SPEAKER_00: 10:13

We now have access control, so we are able to see in real time, intercom. Uh, we are able to screen visitors, so there's a sense of sense of safety across the board that we didn't have before. We also have the fastest internet we could have dreamed for. Um it was so bad that if you had three people in a Zoom call in the same building, it would drop. Like we all had to shut off cameras, or some people would have to go to the coffee shop across the street. So it was just it just takes the fun out of whatever we're doing, even though our job is not fun, but uh because of the the kind of work that we do, but like it just it was not effective for what we needed. And so that alone was um completely life-changing. And having access control, people feel like like I I'm seeing now, like I I can actually you know feel safe when I come to work. And there was one thing that we actually didn't realize was such a difference is having an access control that actually light up when you're all being let in, because we serve people who are out of hearing or they're deaf, and there was no way that they could actually see when the door was being opened for them. So it's those little things that we don't think about, and now that we have them, it's like, oh my gosh, that made such a difference.

SPEAKER_06: 11:42

Yeah, TKW has lots of strengths, but one of the ones that I admire the most is is Mick and and the whole access control thing with these events. Because he is a he is a wizard at that kind of stuff. I just kind of look at that and I go, yeah, one day when I grow up, I want to be able to do that kind of stuff, too. Jeff, this one is for you. Um before we get into the technical details, um, I know that you know, a lot of the people, a lot of other things got submitted for consideration. What drew you personally to get involved with this year's uh initiative with uh So Journal House?

SPEAKER_04: 12:15

Well, you know, I mean I think we were just all listening to Gloria talk, and those are the things that really uh all the all the things that she just uh complained about were the things that drew me to them. The fact that we're in 2025 and we have employees that have to go across the street to a coffee shop just to complete a work task. Uh, yeah, we we had to do something about that. The crazy part about all of this is she says uh we we have faster internet than we've ever had. That's not true. The internet was always there, it was always the speed that it was, it was the infrastructure that needed to be taken care of. So um I knew that this was something that CKW could tackle. Um, I knew that all we had to do was get Gloria in front of a camera talking about the all the hardships that her staff has, and then couple that with the fact that their mission is just such a heartwarming uh body of work. Uh I knew this was gonna be a slam dunk.

SPEAKER_06: 13:13

Oh, absolutely. So let's dig into the project itself. Let's talk about um um what was built, what was upgraded, what was installed. Um give us a give us a breakdown of the scope for us, Jeff. What exactly did you all do there?

SPEAKER_04: 13:26

Yeah, um, so uh we like we've kind of talked about, we put in a full security and surveillance package. So we have uh cameras at every doorway. Uh we have uh cameras that are pointing to their parking lots. We have access control at all of the uh egress doors on each building. Uh we have intercom, uh two-way uh one-way video, two-way audio video intercoms at each uh door, at each front door of each location. So though a person coming off the street can touch a button and interact with the front desk, and the front desk, like she said, could feel safe and they can decide if they're gonna let people in or not before they actually open the door and let people in. Right.

SPEAKER_06: 14:09

And this is for all of all the buildings, it wasn't just one of the buildings, right?

SPEAKER_04: 14:13

Correct, yeah. So we we actually, yeah, so we did four buildings, and you know, that was one of the obstacles that I felt. I really had to convince a lot of people at TKW we have traditionally done one really big building. Um, this was four medium to small size buildings. So, and I think you know, the best part about it for me was when people came to me, especially even like the the doubters, the naysayers who are like, you know, I didn't think four buildings was uh doable, but you know, thank you so much for persuading us because it if we did one of the Sojourner House buildings, we would have had 65 volunteers just on top of each other. So having the ability to divide this up over four buildings, I don't know if that's something that will be done every year, but it certainly was what we needed done this year. Um, so like uh we've talked about, we did the full security and surveillance package, and then we also came through with a high-end network package for all four buildings as well. So that's gonna be new switches, new gateway, uh new access points, all donated by Alta Labs. Um, the security and surveillance hall was donated from Vercata. Uh, we give each building a full cabling upgrade, too. I think that's something that maybe kind of gets lost in the fold. And that was all donated by vertical cable as well. Um, we had so many other donations. I I really hate when I start rattling off the vendors because I always leave somebody out. But um, that's the body of work that we were able to put together on this.

SPEAKER_06: 15:40

Yeah, you know, a lot of people forget all that fancy equipment is connected with cable. Hello, let's talk cabling.

SPEAKER_02: 15:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06: 15:48

We're the red-headed stepchildren that we get forgotten about until the last moment.

SPEAKER_00: 15:52

And uh can I tell you about two things that blew my mind uh from the get-go. One, how organized the data is right now. I can eat my lunch there.

SPEAKER_01: 16:05

Nice.

SPEAKER_00: 16:05

It is so clean and organized. I have never seen anything like that. And two, not having to carry keys for every single building that we have, it's has been life-changing for so many people. You have your fob, that's gonna give you entry to whatever offices you need to go. It's it's just, yeah, I feel like we're um, I'm like in the century where I belong.

SPEAKER_06: 16:27

Yeah, the beautiful thing about that kind of a security system is um, number one, you know, when you give somebody a key, that gives them the key to pretty much everything with with the with the security access controls, right? You can say, well, you only have access to this building, this building between the hours of eight to five or or something like that, right? So you can actually, there's so much more things you can do with that kind of security system. And then also, too, because because of the critical nature of what you do is, you know, if for some reason somebody loses a fob or a fob gets stolen for somebody for just for getting lost, or maybe even for nefarious reasons, you get on that computer, you can close down that fob, and boom, they don't have access.

SPEAKER_00: 17:03

I did it this week, it was magical.

SPEAKER_06: 17:06

Absolutely. Um, so Jeff, what were some of the the the biggest technical challenges you had when uh when when doing all this?

SPEAKER_04: 17:15

Um, I would say, you know, the biggest technical challenges were really just making sure that we could get four buildings done in a weekend. I think the technical challenges were making sure that we had all of the hardware um organized per building. To me, the the you know, those were the things that actually stood out. Um, because like we talked about, we had 65 volunteers spread out over four buildings. The last thing we need is for them looking for a 35 cent plastic bushing that could be, you know, on the other side of Providence. Right. Uh, because these buildings were not four in a row, they were spread out. One of them actually was outside of the city in a um town called Wind Socket that was actually a solid 25 minutes away. So yeah, organization was paramount for this project. Um, you know, I feel like tech I hate to say, but technically, uh, we we didn't have a lot of hurdles. We were very well prepared for this. We we did our homework with the local ISPs. Um, we we we were ready. Um, and I think that's a testament to you know being the fifth one that TKW has done together as an organization. Um, we were ready. We we we put a lot of this one, we actually developed the playbook for um I feel like all the future projects are going to be able to really benefit from the labor that we put into this project for the first time ever. We actually worked really hard on documenting our preparation for this project. Oh my gosh. And it and it showed in the end result because I, you know, it was effortless. And I, you know, again, we were we were feeling really good about ourselves after the first day. Um, which you could uh being at these for the last you know five years, you sometimes you get into that Sunday and you feel the stress. We didn't we didn't have that the whole time, and it was just really awesome.

SPEAKER_06: 19:08

So you get you kicked, I heard the number 65 a couple times. Is is that the is that the actual count of how many people actually showed up?

SPEAKER_04: 19:15

Uh yeah, I mean it's it's definitely, yeah. You know, we we had a lot of people who are here uh for the entire weekend. We had some people who are only here for one day. We were had people who came for the last day when all the work was already done. But um, yeah, you know, and then on top of it, um Sojourner House was amazing, amazing uh recipient uh to work with. They had a ton, I mean, Sojourner House has a dedicated uh volunteer staff, and you know they have resources that are organizing their volunteers, but they all came out for this project. I can think of one individual that um I want to make sure we call out. Uh Alex, at one point, she We needed a piece of hardware to go from Provenance to Winsocket. And she hopped in the car and brought it there. And you know, it's it's little things like that that just made this project hum. And uh so it yeah, in addition to the 65 TKW people who traveled came, gave up their time, uh, got here on their own dime. Uh Sojourner House also had dozens of people that were ready to help at the drop of a dime. Nice.

SPEAKER_06: 20:24

So 65 people, give me, give me a 50,000-foot view. Um, what kind of skills or specialties did the did the ICT people bring to the table for this project?

SPEAKER_04: 20:37

Um, I want to make sure Ray gets a chance to talk about this as well, but I would say, you know, we had a we had we had it all. Any we we put that we put it out there, what we were looking for, and we had a big range. We had, I'm thinking of one team, Ray. It was like a father and son, or yeah, we had we had a group of people from right in my backyard who I had never heard of, but actually saw your podcast that reached out to me directly, um, and you know, wound up bringing his son uh because it was an awesome opportunity for that, right? Something where you could work on something and it wasn't affecting your bottom line. Um, you could take your time and show somebody how to do something, and it and it just it's a perfect opportunity for people to work on things that they don't normally work on. So we had people who normally run cable who were helping out our people who are masters in access control. We had Wi-Fi people that had a person tagging along with them to learn about how to do a site survey. Right. Um, we had people who normally run fiber for a living who there was no fiber for this project, so they just rolled up and started color matching paint swabs for the building so that way the door um the plate for the where the access control um card swipe went. I mean, that was the attention to detail that we had on this project, Chuck. And that was of no asking of me or Ray's. We didn't say, oh, and by the way, we want this card reader to be color matched with paint. The guy took a piece of gutter from the from the side of the building, took it to Home Depot, and got a color matched little thing of paint so he could paint the the faceplate that this uh card reader went on.

SPEAKER_06: 22:20

It says a lot about quality, it truly does.

SPEAKER_04: 22:22

It was, it it was. It was it was awesome to see.

SPEAKER_06: 22:26

Well, one of the one of the people who attended the event, I don't I don't know if you guys know this, but one of the guys who attended the event, I I he lives in Rhode Island. I reached out to him and I said, Hey, this is something in your backyard. You might want to check this out, you might want to go volunteer. And his name was Bob Hurling. You may not know this, but you know, our industry relies on documents like the TDMM, the It's a manual, and all this stuff. He is the head subject matter in charge. He's the guy that wrangles all those people together to write all those standards, and he was there to help you with that. I mean, he's forgotten more about this industry than I know about this industry.

SPEAKER_04: 23:03

And he showed up and helping. And Bob was amazing, and you know, it was kind of like having you around, to be honest with you, super intimidating. You know, you don't want to mess up around you or Bob. But uh, you know, Bob was such an awesome guy. I can't wait to meet up with him. Being right in Rhode Island, uh, you know, a handful of these people that I didn't know existed came out of the woodwork for this project, and I'm really looking forward to continuing that connection with Bob.

SPEAKER_06: 23:29

Yeah, when I talked to him after the event, he's he's he's excited. He says, Well, I'm he goes, I really want to attend the next event. I I hope I'm able to, because you know, you can't really say where you're gonna be a year from today, right? Or where the next project's gonna be. But he's he's definitely interested in continuing doing that. Ray, let me ask you a question. Can you walk me through how this project, the this journey house, supports the long-term vision of TKW and their commitment to service through technology?

SPEAKER_03: 23:55

You know, it's it's really simple. We like to work with organizations to give back to their community in in you know small and big ways, right? And so Journer House does that in spades. I mean, if you look at their volunteers and their staff, and you look at people like Gloria, they are embodying their mission. And I feel that's that's something that TKW has in spades as well. Like our members that really are active and really are paying attention and come to these events, they embody our mission of just uplifting an industry and uplifting communities in need. Um, you know, it's it's not just within tax giving. I mean, we just had Giving Tuesday a week or two ago, right? And it's our, you know, every year we we ask for donations, just like every other nonprofit does. And we just did this monster project in Rhode Island where we asked for all the donations of, you know, not only money and time, but but of labor. And I threw out a challenge to TKW on Giving Tuesday. I said, I want to raise$1,500. And within four hours, we raised$3,500. Like it's it's just it's just who our community is. And I think, you know, giving back to places like Sojourner House and and the other recipients that we've had, they're gonna continue doing good and pay that gift forward by continuing to be better because of the gift we've given them. So that that's something I'm super proud of.

SPEAKER_06: 25:22

One of the things I liked about this event that's a little different from other events, or maybe I didn't maybe I didn't notice it in some of the other events, but um there was actually like two things going on, right? You had the ICT stuff going on, and then um uh was it R and R connectivity, I think. That they they they coordinated, I think it was his wife, wasn't it? They they created uh a gift thing on Amazon for people to donate stuff as well. So it was kind of like two things going on at the same time.

SPEAKER_03: 25:50

Yeah, and I'm I'm glad you brought that up. Gloria, I don't I mean, maybe you can talk to that a little bit. I know that you know there was a couple people, Nikki, Gina, um, and um, I can see her face uh Abston. I as she did the scare cam. I can't think of her name off the top of my head. I feel terrible right now. What's that? Seely. Shirley. They all got together and they decided we're gonna do this thing. We know the kind of things that they need. And, you know, Gloria, I don't know if they interacted with you to kind of help to figure out what was needed, but they put this amazing list together. Not only did we get everything that we wanted from a hardware standpoint and then infrastructure standpoint, but there we have this picture in this video that we made. There was just floor-to-ceiling boxes from Amazon with supplies that sojourner house needed that people in the community donated. Like it was it was one of the cool you you want to hear a funny story about that?

SPEAKER_06: 26:45

So I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to attend, and then when they put out when Ryan put out that thing, I was like, that's how I can contribute. So I went on immediately went on Amazon and I ordered a bunch of stuff. I forgot to tell my wife that I was ordering stuff on Amazon, uh, so you know, stuff that I wouldn't normally order, like it was diapers and a bunch of other stuff. So she saw all this stuff come across and she thought somebody hacked our account.

SPEAKER_05: 27:10

So she went on and she canceled all the orders and and canceled the credit card, and then she hadn't say something to me a couple hours later at lunch. I was like, no, no, no, no, no. That was for the event. I had to go back and reorder everything.

SPEAKER_04: 27:23

So, pro tip here. Oh, Chuck, I I do want to stop you there because um, you know, that was very generous, of course, but you had your fingerprints all over this event. So by you saying I wanted to give it away, that that I simply can't let you get away with that. Um, you you had you had your fingerprints all over this event. You uh made sure you had the right people come out to this event, and um, you know, we you were you're certainly there in more ways than you really realize.

SPEAKER_03: 27:50

Yeah, yeah, Chuck. I think I shared with you. Um you had some fanboys that were there looking for you specifically. Yeah, yeah. Like, where's Chuck at? Is he at one of the other properties? And I'm like, uh, Chuck didn't make this one. So we appreciate you getting the word out.

SPEAKER_06: 28:05

It was one of those last minute things that my day job came in, and I had to go to Chicago to support something that I don't normally support, so I wasn't even on my radar. And just it was like, there's no way I could have gone from Chicago back to Florida, turn around, gone back up again. It just, I mean, they're they're back to back, and just it wasn't possible for me to actually be there. And and uh you're aware of it. You know, I thoroughly believe in in the mission to so join our house, and uh, and I feel because you know, one of the things I do, and I don't broadcast this because I don't want ac accolades for this, but I do a lot of men's ministry stuff and helping broken men. So I see this is the same urgency level as that, and and I couldn't, I couldn't I really wish I could have done more. I I really do. I really do. Let me talk to you about this. Let's get these guys out of the conversation. Let's have let's have a real impact. Now, you already talked about how it made you guys feel safer. You know, one of the things that gets left behind is people you know, especially with nonprofits, is the whole operations that goes on behind the scenes that people don't see. So has this this upgraded infrastructure, has it impacted your operations and your staff?

SPEAKER_00: 29:09

Well, safety and access control, it's right up there in the operations um scheme of things. And I said this at the event when we had um the when they did the wire cutting. Jeff and TKW made me look like a hero because everybody in my agency would come to me. This is amazing. This is amazing. Oh my goodness. And I I have to say something about the um additional donations from Amazon. I remember um they reached out to me, oh, do you have a list of things? I'm like, sure. And I put them in contact with Alex and they share the wish list. I forgot about it. And then during the implementation, Jeff says to me, You know, there's a bunch of boxes downstairs that this from us. That I'm like, wait, what? So I go downstairs, it's this monster pile of boxes, and it was completely unexpected. It was the cherry on top because again, they didn't have to do any of that, like they were already donating their time, their resources, and all that. And then on top of that, they donated directly to our clients. That was unbelievable, unbelievable. Like, I think I was on cloud nine for at least two weeks, and then uh to put me back on cloud nine, Ray would share with me the videos. And then when I saw this uh highlight of uh you guys interviewing some of the uh volunteers, it was incredible to see them talking their lingo and jargon, but it was I was there, I saw it in real time, and then hearing exactly what was happening, it was really, really impressive. Uh, and I think one thing Jeff forgot about the project is that our one of our main buildings, which is the one that's open to the public, is a historical building. So it required a lot of planning and a lot of knowledge from specific person to work on that door because we have to follow regulations. And um, it's a gorgeous building, but it's old, it's from the 1800s. So that presented a challenge. I think a lot of people learned a lot of things from uh plaster because they were like, What is this? What did they use to build this house? It's yeah, it's I maybe it's New England, right? So we had different caramaterial, but uh back to your point, Chuck. I feel like operationally it's just making us um is it's making my life easier because I'm not lying to you when I I had complaints about internet connectivity at least once a week. And then we had issues with people losing their keys or not even knowing what the keys were. I I have keys in my keychain that I don't know what they're for because every time you change a log, you get a new key and you don't know what was removed. So I feel like um having everything in one platform, being able to log into my Vercat account and see everything where they should be, and we can actually account for people if in the case of an emergency, like nobody thinks of that kind of things. You know, we're able to backtrack if things happen, or Gaffer, we had some like an abuser showing up. Now we have a record of that. We are a domestic violence agency, things happen, we are vulnerable, we'll we serve vulnerable populations, our staff is at risk every single day. So I feel like this has taken the stress out of it tenfold. I mean, we have many more things to worry about, but at least we don't have to worry about this part.

SPEAKER_06: 32:41

So you you basically had ICT professionals from across the across the country, and even some from out of country. You can't forget about our Canadian guys who came down, right? They always show up for the stuff. Um how how do you think that this is how do you think the people that you serve, how do they how do you think they feel, or if you had any feedback from them about all these people who showed up just to do this for them gratis, just just because it's the right thing to do?

SPEAKER_00: 33:08

Well, I don't think our clients can actually um think that we had 65 people coming to to do this for us because the upgrade was done to our offices, not necessarily to our residential um buildings, but I can tell you that our clients having able to do this two-way intercount, that is incredible. Before we had a ring camera with a little echo thing that didn't work half of the time because the internet was terrible. And you know, we couldn't it's so difficult to open the door for someone blindly, not knowing who's coming through the door, uh, not knowing if it was someone that shouldn't be there or law enforcement, or who knows? Like it it was it was always that sense of I don't know what's behind the door. And even for our clients, like being able to know that someone is talking to them before they are let in, and that there are cameras, that the we're you know, we're we're we have some sort of control. We can control everything, but now we have some sort of control. And I think for the staff, feeling safe, it makes you show up different for work.

SPEAKER_06: 34:26

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 34:27

In my opinion.

SPEAKER_06: 34:28

This question is for either Jeff or Ray. I'll let one of you guys answer this because I I know if I asked you Gloria, you'll you'll probably give me a million reasons. So this is for Ray or or or Jeff. Is there a moment either during the planning or when you were actually doing the actual project? Is there a moment that when you the thought crossed your mind, yeah, that's why we're doing this?

SPEAKER_03: 34:51

I mean, for me, uh Jeff, you're gonna have to answer this one too, because you know, this is this is your backyard. But it's every moment of these projects, you know. When when you purely see, you know, uh, I I bring up Alex again because Alex is the is a memory that I have just getting to interview her and seeing how happy she was to be a part of Sojourner House, you don't get that. Like you don't get that in every organization. I mean, she is legitimately happy to be giving of her time and to be a part of you know that project and to be a part of us, and and and that to me is amazing.

SPEAKER_04: 35:29

Uh yeah, I think uh for me it was uh probably before the project started, but after we had announced that Sojourner House was the recipient, I uh had to visit for something. I can't remember what it was. And there was a person that was in the waiting room that just you could just see the the panic in their face, the just the like the the hardship that they were going through, and knowing that Sir Journa House was a place that they were gonna come to that was going to at least try to restore some type of faith in in their their day. Um that's when I realized more than before we're doing this for the right organization. Um unfortunately, there were also some Instagram posts that Sojourner House had to do around that same time that dealt with the death of a person in the uh locally. And that really, those two things um in preparation for this event really reminded me of you know, we're we're we're doing this for the right place.

SPEAKER_06: 36:38

Right. You know, the um the you know TKW always steps up and helps you know the the the the the organizations that that are in need, and and I'm always I'm not surprised because I yeah, I've I've been to a lot of the events, I've met a lot of the people involved in it, and they all have hearts as as big as as big as my 20-year chicken coop out in the backyard. They're willing to give, you know, above and beyond. So, Ray, let me ask you this question, because they're still again, I'm picking up new listeners all the time, and so somebody may not have heard of TKW or or the these events. If somebody wants to get involved, what's the first step?

SPEAKER_03: 37:14

Admitting they have a problem for not already knowing who we are. I mean, I think that's always the first part, right? Um, no, it's simple. I mean, you know, go to techknowledge.org, uh t-k-n-o-w-l-edg e dot org. There's a as soon as you get there, it's a big join now. We're a free community. We've always been free, we'll always be free. Um, the only thing we ever ask our members is when we do projects like this, just show up. And when they do, they realize why we're doing the things that we're doing.

SPEAKER_06: 37:43

Excellent. Uh, Mr. Jeff, is is the project done? Uh do you have all the material you need? Is all the work done on this project? Is it is it wrapped up?

SPEAKER_04: 37:52

Um, the like Gloria said, there are 13 buildings. We did four of them, so uh never done, right? But uh the the scope of this project has been well over, uh has come been completed um more than we envisioned. There were a lot of add-ons that were able to slip in over those three days. Um, so this project is done. Uh my commitment and dedication to Sojourner House is far from over. And you know, Gloria and I are working together on trying to get um funding for a few more buildings. And when the time comes, I do plan on reaching out to TKW and you know, no pressure, no hard feelings. But you know, if anyone wants to continue, uh, I know that um, you know, we'll we'll have another event next year and it won't be Sojourner House. But um, you know, there are places that people just feel attached to. And I had a lot of people who said to me after the project was over, uh, please let me know if you're doing any more work for this organization. I want to help out.

SPEAKER_06: 38:54

You read my you read my mind and my next question. I swear we're on the same wavelength. I really do. Because I was gonna ask you if somebody is in the Rhode Island area or one of the areas that's close enough that they're willing to drive and they want to still help you with this, is there a way should they get in touch with you? Should they get in touch with Ray? How should they do that?

SPEAKER_04: 39:11

I mean, they they should be invited, if they should get in touch with uh Ray to be part of TKW on no matter what. Um if you know they want to stay connected to Sojourner House, um, they certainly should stay in connection with me. I I would imagine uh there are people at Sojourner House in the development office that would love to uh have a connection with that, uh with a person who would want to stay connected with Sojourner House. Um, but yeah, I just think it's um I could tell people were almost sad the weekend was over. They were sad they had to go back to their their regular jobs on Monday, they were sad to go back to work. Um I could tell this was one of those ones that uh people wanted to stay connected to.

unknown: 39:50

Right.

SPEAKER_06: 39:51

Chloe, I'm saving the last question for you. Okay. Um if you could just say one thing directly to the ICT community who's listening. Right now, about the impact that they're making, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00: 40:04

Oh, please join TKW. I mean, what these guys do goes above and beyond the one weekend event. I know everybody leaves feeling amazing and we did a good thing, but it's the impact that lasts for years and years and years that is gonna make the biggest impact. And the only way you can do something like that is by joining this organization, contributing, showing up. I actually have a funny story. My husband is in IT, he used to run cable for Avaya, and we went to the um appreciation dinner, and he heard Ray talk and Trish and Jeff, and he said to me, He's like, I want to do that next year. So I already sent him the information. Like he was there and he saw the community and the friendliness and people just being happy to show up and do the work. It was it was really, really incredible. And I wish I was a technical person because I was like, I want to do something. Because if if this is what happens once a year, I want to be part of it. I saw with my own eyes. And I feel like if you are in this community and you're able to contribute, please do. You are not gonna regret it.

SPEAKER_06: 41:19

Well, the the beautiful thing is we we accept everybody, for everybody from the apprentice who has only been on the job one day, to even the seasoned people like Bob, who has 50 plus years of experience. TKW accepts everybody in the community and and everybody can help. Okay, there Wyoming is just to kind of wrap up here, you know, our industry is more than than cable, it's more than connectors, it's more than equipment, it's about people. And if nothing else from tonight's show, I hope you got the understanding that we make a difference. A lot of times the difference we make is to make you know law offices work better or or whatever. But this kind, these kinds of projects, you know, I love with TKWs because they make a statement, they make this commitment, and they show up and they serve, and they're building the foundations for people to help rebuild their lives. So I hope that you continue to you know support DKW and their events and look up So Joiner House. I'm pretty sure they might have mechanisms for you to maybe take care of somebody else's wish list. So until next time, remember knowledge is power.