Participants

Task Force:   Marianne Hamm – AccSys Techonology
                        Bob Bilbrough – Qualcon
                        Bob Ulrickson – Shielding for Electronics

AeA Staff:      Matt Page – D.C. Office
                        Rhonda Star – D.C Office
                        Maryann Fiala – Florida Council
                        Nicole Simon – Orange County Council

Old Business

Based on the feedback of the November 2000 Small Business Advisory Task Force teleconference with the Small Business Administration Office of Government Contracting, a meeting is being scheduled for February 2001 in Atlanta.  The purpose of the meeting will be to bring SBA field representatives from the Southeast region to meet with small and emerging growth AeA members from the same area.  Expected to be in attendance from the SBA are Procurement Center Representatives (PCRs), who monitor contracting activity at many military and civilian buying offices to identify procurement opportunities for small firms.  Additionally, Commercial Marketing Representatives (CMRs), who work with large business prime contractors to identify small business subcontracting opportunities on Government contracts, will be invited to attend.

Mike Levin, Executive Director for AeA’s Southeast Council, is helping to organize the meeting.

New Business

The focus of the December 2000 Small Business Advisory Task Force teleconference was a discussion of the Small Business CyberCenter (SBCC) content.

The Task Force toured online the new content of the SBCC. New additions include an exclusive series of articles on employee retention by Dr. Fred Mael.

Features of "The Bottom Line" will include:

• Business Topic of the Month
• Announcement of new information on the SBCC
• Highlight a current/new Member Services program or service
• List of upcoming events (National/Regional)
• Announcement of new small business members each month

The Bottom Line will be distributed by email and all editions will be archived in the SBCC.

A suggestion was made that the SBCC needs a "killer application," something that will continually drive members to the site.  One potential application could be a networking calendar of events, containing information in addition to AeA sponsored events.  This could be beneficial for generating interest in AeA’s councils.

Another application with strong potential will be the online small business discussion forum.  A beta version of the discussion forum was operational in 2000, but technical issues have precluded the SBCC from launching a fully operational forum to date.   This problem should be resolved in the first part of 2001.

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