< PreviousFeatured Columns - LongevityHow would you define legacy? I think a legacy is the cherished values and traits that come from an ancestor, predecessor or community. It reflects sacrifice and effort to improve the lives of generations to come. Our tribe, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, follow the Seven Generations Principal. That is to say, that anything we do today will leave a lasting improvement upon the seventh generation to come. This being our guiding principal, you can see how everything we do is for the well-being of our people not only today, but infinitely into the future.When you reach out to someone and ask them, “what was your legacy?”, they typically have not given it much thought or consideration. Most people wake up every day and do the same thing: get up, get dressed, get some breakfast, head to work, come home, and do it all again the next day. They may have an idea of what they want: work thirty to forty years, retire and move somewhere warm and fade off into the sunset, giving little or no thought to their legacy over this period of time. No matter how we live our lives, we will all leave a legacy, good or bad. It’s important to have a master plan in order to leave a positive legacy. A set of rules that one lives by in order to leave things better than when we arrived. Rules like, wisdom, humility, honesty, family, respect, love, and courage. These are the Seven Grandfather teachings that guide us here at the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. These guiding principles if followed, can be the foundation for building a positive legacy.There was a dream here at the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indian Tribe for many years. That dream was to build a health facility to take care of our Citizens. The dream could only be imagined for the longest time. Elders had hoped, but time kept moving by, then the dream started to become a reality. Finally, in November of 2014 we opened a brand new beautiful health facility for our citizens. It finally came to fruition and was much more than anyone had ever dreamed or hoped. It was our own.How do we get from a dream to opening the doors of a new building project? Projects like these take time, planning, designing and building. I was involved in a few different ways: as Director of Information Technology, as Chairman of the Heath Board, and then as Director of Health Services. During this entire time, I had three different hats to wear, and three distinct roles to play. As Director of IT, my focus was low voltage and making sure there were enough data drops in each room to meet the needs of the person who would occupy that room. This was a challenge in itself as I needed to understand the role of each staff person and how he or she needed to be integrated in their space. I had to think about the future, how could we expand? We planned from the beginning for expansion, we ran extra drops, extra conduit, and pulled cable to be stored in the ceiling in the event we ever needed to grow. As Chairman of the Health Board, I needed to consider the needs of Citizens. How would we utilize the space to accommodate our needs? As Director of Health Services, my focus became the entire project. When I came into this role we were about half way into the construction phase. This was a challenge to get up to speed on all of the other areas, as my previous focus was narrowed by those roles. I went to the job site almost daily to get up to speed and worked closely with 7Gen A&E, our tribally-owned architect and engineering firm. I would walk the building with 7Gen’s lead architect and discuss various aspects of the project. Then one day, I saw something I wanted to change. At this stage of the game, it is very difficult and tedious process, but I knew it would be better for Pokagon Health Services. So what does it take to build a new health facility? First, you need to start with a purpose. Why are we building this facility? Our purpose was to provide Building a Legacy60TribalNet“How do we get from a dream to opening the doors of a new building project?"MATT CLAY, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH SERVICES, POKAGON BAND OF POTAWATOMIMatt ClayDirector of Health ServicesPokagon Band of PotawatomiFeatured Columns - Longevitytribal citizens with quality health care, complete wellness, and have total integration of care. Secondly is planning. You need, a vision, goals, a project champion, an understanding of what services are being provided, participation from staff and citizens, time to review, and management of the budget. Third, we looked at sustainability. Site selection and utilizing maximum open space, using indigenous plant species as part of the landscape to reduce the need for pesticides and no permanent irrigation (reduction of potable water demand by 36%), and optimizing energy with geothermal and solar panels. We also have individual controls for heating and cooling. Next we started to design. This required the input of several stakeholders: Tribal Council, users, staff, maintenance, and patient input was vital. 7Gen did a great job of bringing multiple conceptual designs that would work for our building. We considered patient flow, ease of use, and most importantly, making it Pokagon. Once we had the design selected, we had a weekly construction meeting to collaborate on the project, review documents, sign off on changes, maintain the budget, and get an update on progress. This was a long and tedious process but we learned some important lessons: understand the roles of the professionals, make changes early as they can be costly, always sign off on change requests, and probably the most important, improved communication. Once the building was erected, we planned a week to move out of our old buildings into the new one. What is our legacy? It is the improved health and well-being of our people. The Pokagon Health Services facility provides the high standard of medical, dental, and behavioral health care our Elders have envisioned for many years past. Our people are greeted by improved customer service and directed to medical, dental and behavioral care programs of the highest standards. I think we all can respond with a great deal of pride and satisfaction that we set the foundation for provide great health care to our people for generations to come – a legacy I am deeply proud.Matt Clay is the Director of Health Services for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. He was formerly Director of IT and Chairman of the Health Board, and currently sits on the Land Use Board. Matt has been involved with many projects including, restructuring of the Department of IT, building a new health facility, among many department specific technology upgrades. Matt enjoys the challenge and looks forward to new projects in the future.61Spring 2015Quadraflex DN100Rugged 2 Radio Wireless SystemQuadraEdge ISMIntelligent Subsciber ModuleQuadraLocalIntelligent Subscriber ModuleE-6060 GHz Wireless LinkEarthprint Technologies is a 100% Native owned technology company.Being a native owned company our team understands that our tribal communities have their own unique needs and thus “one size does not fit all.” Our team are all very familiar with working in Indian Country and thus make it easier when working through tribal policies, working with your local TERO/TANF departments to ensure local hires are included for deployments and training, tribal enterprise, healthcare and gaming.Earthprint Technologies is a 100% Native owned technology company providing best of Breed wireless equipment. We provide free initial consultation for wireless network design and engineering. Feasibility studies, market studies, business plans and even funding can be provided by our sister company EnerTribe Inc. Together, Earthprint Technologies and EnerTribe work closely with customers to help them through every stage of the process in delivering a complete communications infrastructure to their communities.• Point-To-Point• Point-To-Multipoint• Two-Way Communications Public Safety• Distributed Antenna Systems - for indoor coverage of two-way and cellular• Millimeter Wave P2P• Licensed Microwave Forest James Founder, Earthprint TechnologiesPresident, CEO, EnerTribe IncContact usTel: +1 541 999 6861 Email: forest.james@earthprinttech.com www.earthprinttech.comTribeEnerQuadraflex DN200Rugged 4 Radio Wireless SystemQuadraSphere NMSNetwork Monitoring SystemQuadraPowerIntegrated UPS & PoE SwitchE-8080 GHz Wireless LinkDistributed Antenna System (DAS) Engineering & Integration• DAS Design and Engineering for IB Wave• Turnkey DAS Solutions• Site Surveys / Data Collection• System Testing• Commissioning / Carrier and Public SafetyTwo Way Radio Specialist• Design and Engineering• Motorola and Kenwood Authorized Dealers• Portable Radios• Mobile Radios• Base Stations• Dispatch Consoles• On-Site Multi Channel Digital Systems• FCC LicensingearthprinttechnologiesTech News & FunWhen I say JETSONS you think…flying carWhen I say 1.21 Jiggawatts you think…flying carWe’ve been imagining these for decades…and soon they may be a reality—checkout the AeroMobil. Transforms in seconds from an automobile to an airplane and could go from prototype to consumer vehicle in just two years!Spring 2015Since we are heading to Austin, TX this year, we thought we’d share a bit about some of the tech news in TribalNet’s 2015 host city:• The City of Austin’s Chief Information Officer, Stephen Elkins, was been named the Public Sector Information Technology Executive of the Year in 2014 by the Association of Information Technology Professionals• In 2013, Austin was named one of the top tech-savvy digital cities in the U.S. by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government and the Digital Communities ProgramAustin has emerged as a center for technology and business.A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin including Apple Inc., Cisco, eBay, Google, IBM, Intel, Texas Instruments, 3M, Oracle Corporation and Dell’s worldwide headquarters is located in nearby Round Rock, a suburb of Austin.What billion dollar market was a hot topic at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2015? Take your pick…but the one we want to highlight is on “Smart Homes”Take a look at some futuristic and emerging technology on the plate for 2015 and beyond as reported by Digital Trends.Voice controlsImagine saying, “I’m hot” and a fan turns on or turning your oven on 350 degrees by yelling from across the room. Com-ing soon to a kitchen near you!Home tech outside the homeControl your thermostat, security system, lights and more with your phone. Expect more of your home to have the ability to be controlled remotely in the near future.A healthier youExpect things like smart air purifiers to clean the air and alert you when your allergies may start acting up. Motion detectors to keep track of your movements so you can ditch that arm band. A microwave oven that keeps track of your calories…”maybe skip those nachos tonight”!Smarter outletsOutlets that can be remotely turned on and off and are network-connected so to analyze users’ behavior and modify their behavior accordingly – saving money and considered safer since they are “off” when not in use.WILL YOU BE THERE?The 16th Annual TribalNet Conference is one of the best MUST ATTEND events of the year. Don’t wait, attendee and sponsor/exhibitor registration is open.www.tribalnetonline.com • info@tribalnetonline.com • 906-630-3134Next >