Small Business Advisory Task Force

November 15, 2000 Teleconference Minutes

Participants

AeA Staff:      Matt Page – D.C. Office
                        Rhonda Star – D.C Office
                        Ann Neeley – Bay Area Council
                        Linda Klose – New Jersey Council
                        Jo Moskowitz – Florida Council
                        Glenda Slovacek – Texas Council
                        Angela Pellegrino – Preferred Business Services
                        Nicole Simon – Orange County Council

Task Force:    Heather Beshears – Duraswitch
                        Sam Haddad – Solectron Corporation
                        Harry Sello – Harry Sello & Associates
                        Bob Bilbrough – Qualcon
                        Bob Ulrickson – Shielding for Electronics

SBA Staff:      Luz Hopewell, Associate Administrator
                        Office of Government Contracting
                        409 Third Street, S.W.
                        Washington, D.C. 20416
                        202-205-6460
                        luz.hopewell@sba.gov

                        Barry Meltz, Deputy Associate Director
                        Office of Government Contracting
                        409 Third Street, S.W.
                        Washington, D.C. 20416
                        202-205-6474
                        barry.meltz@sba.gov

                        Bob Taylor, Program Manager;
                        Subcontracting Assistance Program
                        Office of Government Contracting
                        409 Third Street, S.W.
                        Washington, D.C. 20416
                        202-205-6460
                        robert.c.taylor@sba.gov

                        Oliver Snyder, Pro-Net Program Manager
                        Office of Operations Support
                        409 Third Street, S.W.
                        Washington, D.C. 20416
                        202-205-6471
                        oliver.snyder@sba.gov

                        Jim Gambardella - Deputy Area Director
                        455 Market Street, Ste - 600
                        San Francisco, CA 94105-2445
                        415-744-8429
                        james.gambardella@sba.gov

Overview of SBA’s Government Contracting Programs

Dealing with the Federal Government can be a formidable task at times, but the SBA’s Office of Government Contracting can assist you by opening new avenues of opportunity. To learn more about doing business with the government, and how the SBA can provide small firms with "hands-on" assistance to meet their needs, log-on to the Government Contracting comprehensive web site home page at www.sba.gov/GC. SBA has a nationwide cadre of procurement professionals available to counsel you and help market your firm to the Federal government as well as to large prime contractors.

Located at SBA’s regional offices, Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs) monitor contracting activity at many military and civilian buying offices to identify procurement opportunities for small firms. Additionally, Commercial Marketing Representatives (CMR’s) work with large business prime contractors to identify small business subcontracting opportunities on Government contracts.

From the SBA’s Government Contracting homepage, there is a link to the SBA’s Procurement and Marketing Access Network, or Pro-Net (www.pro-net.sba.gov), as it is more commonly known. Pro-Net is an electronic portal with a wide array of information for and about small businesses. It is a search engine for government and private sector buyers, a marketing tool for small firms and a valuable link to procurement opportunities. Pro-Net was designed to be a one-stop destination for procurement information.

Pro-Net is an Internet-based database of information on more than 200,000 small, minority and women-owned businesses. Accessing the database is easy and free to anyone with access to the Internet. Registration on Pro-Net is also free and is open to all small firms seeking public/private procurement opportunities.

When a small firm registers with Pro-Net, they are able to create a marketing profile for their business. If your business has a Web site, you may also link the site to the Pro-Net profile, creating a potentially powerful marketing tool. State, local and corporate buyers are increasingly using Pro-Net to identify small firms to meet their procurement needs.

Recently, SBA added a new feature to Pro-Net. This system enhancement is called Sub-Net, which is designed to provide prime contractors an opportunity to post subcontracting solicitations for small firms. You can access Sub-Net at web.sba.gov/subnet. At the Sub-Net site, small businesses can review the database to identify opportunities in their areas of expertise.

Following the SBA presentation, teleconference participants discussed the possibility of doing a field meeting with the Procurement Center’s Representatives and Commercial Market Representatives to further explore procurement opportunities for AeA members.

Small Business Committee Name Change

Over a year and half ago, when the Councils Chair Committee discussed establishing a national small business panel, the committee members decided against the idea of granting it the same standing as one of the four board level committees, such as the Financial and Business Policy Committee. Despite its previous reference as the Small Business Committee, it was the intent of the Councils Chair Committee that this body would serve an advisory role to the other board level committees. From this point forward, the small business committee will be known as the Small Business Advisory Task Force.

Comments for the Good of the Order

The often-talked about small business newsletter will be launched in December 2000. Look for it to be issued via email, with all editions to be archived in the Small Business CyberCenter, on AeAnet.

Next Meeting

Tentatively December 20, 2000 at 3:00 p.m. est/Noon pst

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