SL News Brief Starts Its Fifth Year

Welcome to the fifth year of the Schools and Libraries News Brief. We will continue to provide you with up-to-the-minute news on developments in the Schools and Libraries program along with guidance materials that will help both applicants and service providers through the application process.

We email SL News Briefs to subscribers on Fridays. If you are not receiving your own copy of the News Brief, we encourage you to subscribe. You can view previous issues by topic or by date on the Schools and Libraries News Brief page, and print a copy of any issue you missed.

USAC IT Upgrade Reminders

The USAC IT upgrade is well underway with a targeted completion of Monday, September 14 at 9:00 am EDT. At that time, online forms and search tools should be available to both USAC staff and program participants to file forms online, check the status of applications, or perform searches. If the schedule changes, we will notify you via the USAC website and a Special Edition News Brief.

Remember that the following cannot be issued or will not be available until the upgrade is complete:

• Previous year funding waves.
• Appeal waves.
• Payment files.
• Most search tools.
• Forms status, either online or through the Client Service Bureau.
• Submit a Question.

Forms 470 posted on or after July 21 – including paper forms received after the upgrade started – can be viewed as *.PDF files in the Form 470 Table posted on the USAC website.

Please check the USAC website for any late-breaking developments.

Fall Training Update

Some training sessions still have space available. For some training sessions, we are still maintaining a waiting list and will continue to accept registrants as cancellations occur. If your plans change and you are unable to attend a training session, please email USAC to cancel your registration.

The hotel cutoff dates are listed below. We suggest that you make your hotel reservations as soon as possible to take advantage of the negotiated conference room rate.

You should email USAC if you have difficulty making a reservation and the cutoff date has not yet passed.

For registration and hotel information, go to the 2009 Fall Applicant Trainings page on the USAC website.

Looking Ahead

In the next two weeks, the SL News Brief will be devoted to a detailed discussion of the various activities applicants and service providers should be undertaking to finish up program activities for FY2008 and any activities that can be completed for FY2009. Following that, we will provide suggestions and reminders about getting ready for the FY2010 application filing window.

Now would be a good time to start gathering up documents that will allow you to easily and correctly complete invoicing activities for any previous funding years. Examples of these documents include customer bills, descriptions of service, BEAR Forms already submitted for the funding year, BEAR Notification Letters, and Quarterly Disbursement Reports. In addition, you should start collecting important documentation before it gets lost or misplaced. The E-rate Binder on the USAC website contains a suggested list and organizational format that should help you comply with the program's five-year documentation retention requirement.

We will start next week with a discussion of the program activities that applicants should be working on for FY2008 and FY2009.

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