A Monthly Newsletter for the GBT Communities and Patrons

www.gbta.netHelp Desk: 800.432.7965

St. John OfficePO Box 86 • 602 N US Hwy 281

St. John, KS 67576620.377.5555 • 620.377.5556

Hours:11:00am - 5:00pm

Mon-Fri

Rush Center OfficeP.O. Box 229 • 103 Lincoln

Rush Center, KS 67575800.432.7965 • 785.372.4236

Hours: 8:00am - 5:00pm | Mon-Fri

Ness City Office114 W. Main

Ness City, KS 67560800.966.5186 785.798.3100

Hours:8:00am - 5:00pm

Mon-Fri

Ellis Office101 W. 9th • Ellis, KS 67637

800.966.5183 • 785.726.3200Hours: 8:00am - 5:00pm | Mon-Wed-Fri

Closed for lunch 12:30pm-1:30pm

Larned Office122 W. 5th

Larned, KS 67550800.432.7965 • 620.910.7676

Hours:8:30am - 11:30am &

Noon - 5:00pm Mon-Fri

ConnectionConnectionNovember 2019 | Vol. 24, No. 11

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Why be a Member of the GBT Cooperative?Welcome to the team!

Once again, GBT is utilizing the skill-set of our local high school students with our GBT Junior Board.

The Junior Board is a team consisting of current high school youth that provides us with a perspective

on students’ priorities, preferences, challenges and opportunities regarding technology, leadership,

community service,marketing and much more. Our mission of the GBT Junior Board is to educate and involve high school

Seniors in the scope of our service and obtain ideas, suggestions and options from student leaders. This

is the 6th year for the Junior Board, and we are extremely excited to have these students be a part of

the GBT team!

Pictures L to R: Bailey Baalmann, Dawn Harrison, Rylee Werth, Harleigh Flax, Seth Hoopingarner, Gabe Woolf,

Harrison VanMeter

All GBT offices will be closed for the Thanksgiving holidayNovember 28-29

It pays to be a customer of Golden Belt Telephone Association. If you are a member of our Cooperative, you get paid back for dollars spent on your phone bill. Few Cooperatives still pay out capital credits to their members due to financial stability, and instead have to reinvest these dollars back into their company to help them operate. GBTA sees the importance of rewarding our customers for being loyal and helping make GBTA the company it is today. Checks will be delivered or mailed the 3rd and 4th weeks of November to customers who have a capital credit balance of $5.00 or more. GBTA does its best every year to ensure members receive their Capital Credit checks. Typically the biggest reason we have returned checks is because we do not have accurate addresses or forwarding addresses for patrons who might have moved. If you feel you should have received a check but did not, you can email customerservice@gbtlive.com and we will check the status of your account, or you can go to http://gbta.net/about/capital-credits/ on our website to see if you have any unclaimed capital credits available.

2019-2020 GBT Junior Board

ALBERT (620)Bart Oetken 923-4253 Shawn Jetton 923-4233

BAZINE (785) Alex Lopez 398-2119 Mike & Joyce Tyrell 398-2142

BISON (785) Deanna Petty 356-2039 Lana Medina 356-2041 Stephen C Creamer 356-2036

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BURDETT (620) Randy & Heather Archuletta 525-6204

LARNED (620) A.T.R.A. Service Center LLC 285-0101 United Methodist Church 285-3183

LEWIS (620) Glen & Shannon Campbell 324-5186 Misty Stone 324-5443

OTIS (785) Adrian Ramirez 387-2314

RANSOM (785) Jeff Jones 731-2243 Owen Freiburger 731-2212

UTICA (785) Utica Rural Fire District 391-2391

Directory Updates+

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Just a reminder that in January Windows 7 will be considered End of Life, which means your computer could have security isses and vulnerabilities if not upgraded to Windows 10. If you have questions regarding this, please call our our office and speak to one of our Computer Technicians.

GBT HuntingGhost Hunting

Carl Nelson - St John

October’s Newsletter had a total of 13 black Ghosts! Carl won a $10 bill credit from GBT just for playing!

Count this one too!

It’s time to count... throughout this issue of the Connection there are many Black Turkeys. Can you count them? When you find them all, e-mail us by the 10th of the month at marketing@gbtlive.com with the total number of Black Turkeys, and you will be entered into a drawing to win a $10 bill credit on your next GBT bill!

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*Some restrictions apply. Contact us for complete details. $25 Bill Credit requires sign up for both auto pay and paperless billing.

Switch to paperless billing & auto pay and feel good about saving greenDo something great for the environment and your bank account:

• Get a onetime $25 GBT Bill Credit.* • Save time paying your bills.• Save money on stamps and checks. • Save trees by helping to reduce paper use.

To go green and save green, visit www.gbta.net today.

800-432-7965www.gbta.net

Lifeline ChangesThe Federal Lifeline Program is phasing out telephone credits and transitioning to broadband credits. • Effective 12-1-2019, the telephone credit will drop from $9.25 to $7.25/month; • Effective 12-1-2020, the telephone credit will drop to $5.25/ month; • Effective 12-1-2021, the telephone credit will be $0.00.

Effective 12-1-2019, participants whose broadband speed is 20 Mb x 3 Mb or greater can transfer the telephone credit of $9.25/month to broadband service. The broadband service rate will remain at $9.25 through 11-30-2022.

Lifeline participants will continue to receive KUSF credits of $7.77/month, ARC credits of $2.74/month, and FUSC credits of $1.63/month on their telephone bill.

The Federal Lifeline Program will be sending re-verification paperwork within the next 60 days to all current participants, which must be completed to remain in the Program and receive discounts on their GBT bill.

If you do not re-verify your Lifeline information, you will no longer receive this discount on your GBT account.

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Ham & Cheesy Crockpot PotatoesSubmitted by Amy Murray - Ness City

If you have questions or comments about this newsletter or any of our services,

please email us at marketing@gbtlive.comKelly Baalmann, Editor

Kyle Bahr, Editor

Ingredients:3 pounds of potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (be sure to slice thin or they won’t cook well and be too hard)1 cup shredded cheddar cheese1 small onion, chopped1 - 2 cups cooked ham1 can cream of mushroom soup1/2 cup water1/2 teaspoon garlic powder1/4 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon black pepper

If you have a favor i te r e c i p e y o u would like to share to be featured in an upcoming newsletter, send it to marketing@gbtlive.com.

Directions: Place the thinly sliced potatoes in the crock pot. In a medium bowl, mix together the shredded cheese, onion and ham. Mix with potatoes in the crock pot. Using the same bowl, mix together the soup and water. Season with the garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over the potato mixture. Cover, and cook on high for 4 hours.

This weekend I was watching my nephews football game and happened to be visiting with a guy who lives in Wichita about his TV service. He gets TV from a large company and said his prices continue to go up, and more and more of the stations he wants to watch are being dropped, blacked out, or are only being provided by a way of streaming. He made the comment how mad he was the KSU Football game a couple of weeks ago was only on ESPN+. When I asked him what he paid a month he said his bill was right around $200 a month for TV & Internet services. I then asked him if he was aware of how many Big 12 basketball games will be on ESPN+, and he gave me an upset look. Why do I bring this up? TV has been a hot topic at GBT, as we have worked hard to deliver a product that is cutting edge and financially affordable. In carrying out our mission of being at the forefront of technology, it sometimes comes with a learning curve for us and our customers. We know how much people rely on TV as an information & entertainment platform, so making these transitions as easy as possible is always at the top of our mind. GBT understands and wants all your services to work 100% of the time and will continue to strive for perfection as we navigate through one of the biggest transition’s TV has ever seen since its creation in 1927.If you have read articles online or watched the news lately, you may be aware of several factors putting strain and pressure on traditional TV. The number of entrants has really fragmented the market and there are many different strategies being played out. As a result, the number of homes subscribed to traditional TV service peaked around 2010 but has been in a steady decline since then. Eight media giants own 90% of the channels and that is where most of the revenue from your monthly bill ends up. This vicious cycle continues to repeat itself; more customers disconnect TV for streaming platforms because TV has become expensive and the media giants keep raising their rates to make up for lost revenue. GBT launched StreamIT because that is the preferred choice for many across the country, especially our younger generation. Society today often expects entertainment to be available when we want it to be, wherever we may be, without commercials or delays, and StreamIT offers many of those features. These new streaming platforms come with a lot of exciting features, but also bring challenges and change. As I look back at history, a similar transition is the landline phone to cell phone. Did you ever drop a call on a landline or have broadband on the go 20 years ago? So why has GBT rolled out our StreamIT TV? To help answer the upset look from the guy I was talking to at the ballgame; it isn’t where TV is headed, it’s where it’s AT. Does GBT like the fact that the Big 12 signed a multi-million-dollar deal with ESPN to broadcast games that are only available on ESPN’s streaming app? Absolutely not, but we know our coop members enjoy these KSU & KU games, and we want to help assist them with learning how to be able to watch these games. Why did we decide to discontinue carrying Viacom channels? Because this is the only way we can help minimize yearly rate increases by making our channel line-ups skinnier and not offering as many channels. GBT wants you to know that we do listen and fight for our customers so if you have questions, call or email us at customerservice@gbtlive.com or visit www.tvonmyside.com to understand the landscape of TV.

TV: Then and Now