Hi Jane - thank you for joining us! Please come to our Eastside Entrepreneurs events - they're usually FREE and always have great people in attendance.

The good news is that I have great people like you to look out for me. Thanks so much for letting me know and making the invite.

cheers...Steve Gilbert

I signed on as Maybe for now depending on my changing schedule. My current project will actually be training and employing people with disabilities in Virginia. Hopefully it'll lead to more work like that nationally.

Check out our preliminary site and you'll get an idea of what we're doing. We'll be working with the Virginia ARC for the deaf and helping train some people to learn about digitization and archiving services using computers. It's all about developing some IT skills that don't necessarily require hearing. Their director told me that their organization is currently contracted to clean over 1 million sq. ft. of office and warehouse space in Virginia and that's what a lot of the hearing impaired have been relegated to do for employment currently. With new computer skills, we're hoping to bring more people into the mainstream by building on what they can do well instead of what they can't do. It's always a matter of helping people find their own potential.

We're just in the final stages of wrapping up our early stage round and it's been tougher going than I've encountered in my years of building businesses.

Actually the link is under the Profile Information section on my Profile page but here it is: TVDeeBee.com

The site will give you a preliminary idea of what we're trying to accomplish for everything television, just as IMDb is now the site for everything movies.

We're just in the final stages of trying to wrap up our seed stage funding so I was hoping this network will also be helpful in getting that done sooner. We're hoping to get the rest of the work completed before summer so the site gets finalized and we're up and running. This was originally a side project that took on a life of its own over this past year.

P.S. - On a side note, my fiance is hearing impaired since losing her hearing when she was 8. She was poster child for Seattle Children's Hospital for two years in the 60's and has fought passionately to live a "normal" life. I have many first-hand experiences now of seeing how people treat hearing-impaired citizens differently from those with more visible impairments. Even the Human Rights Commission violated her rights in the past when she went to them looking for help.

Among other things, I'm currently also helping her in her lawsuit against her former employer (23 years with them) after they kicked her to the curb following 7 (seven!) failed carpal tunnel surgeries that were a direct result of work conditions they forced on her over the last years of her career with them. It's a big Seattle company so you'll be surprised when you hear who it is!