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Small Business Technical Assistance Act Passes 1st Hurdle

  • Small Business in Sacto
  • CAMEO’s Annual Meeting and Faces Award
  • The Goodies – This week’s highlight is to vote for the San Francisco Business Portal. It has been nominated for a Webby award (think Oscar for the Internet) for “best city & urban innovation.” They need your vote to win over London and New York by 9:00pm PT tonight, April 23, 2015.

Small Business in Sacto

On Tuesday, CAMEO testified on Tuesday at the Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy (JEDE) hearing in support of AB 184 – the Small Business Technical Assistance Act (Garcia). The bill will recognize the federal business assistance programs – SBDCs, WBCs, SCORE, VBOCs and PTACs – and enable state agencies to directly contract with these programs and pave the way for budget appropriations. The bill received overwhelming support from the committee and passed with an 8-0 unanimous vote. Assembly member Cheryl Brown called it a ‘great bill’ and most of the committee members decided to sign up as co-authors. CAMEO also supported the following:

All bills passed out of the JEDE committee unanimously. The next stop is appropriations.

Next week, Opportunity Fund and CAMEO will be testifying in favor of SB 197 (Block), which will allow CAMEO’s microlenders to pay referral fees to consultants, non-profits (e.g. TA providers), and others who refer successful loans. For more information check out the Must Know that featured it.

CAMEO’s Annual Meeting and Faces Award


Join us at our Annual Member Meeting in Sacramento to learn about business pollinators!

June 9, 2015
8:30 am – 6:00 pm
Sterling Hotel
1300 H Street, Sacramento

The meeting will be a full day – first, member advocacy followed by lunchtime keynote, Michael Shuman, speaking about his new book, The Local Economy Solution. We’ll then break out into rich discussions about the five “P”s of business pollinators, that will give you tools to make the case for your work. We end our day in Sacramento with the Fifth Annual CAMEO Faces of Entrepreneurship Awards and reception.

Nominate your businesses for the award by tomorrow, April 24.

The Goodies

New opportunities for training, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!

Member in the News: Marc Nemenic, Executive Director of 3Core and CAMEO board member, writes Investing local money in the real economy frees up capital for community business.

Take Action: The San Francisco Business Portal has been nominated for a Webby award (think Oscar for the Internet) for “best city & urban innovation.” They need your vote to win over London and New York by 9pm tonight, April 23, 2015.

Business Conference: NAWBO California ‘Propel Your Business’ Conference takes place on April 27-28, 2015 at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. The theme is Think Bigger- Grow Strategically-Network Statewide.

Industry Conference: The 13th annual BALLE Conference is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and inspiring yet. The leading lights of the local economy movement will gather June 10-12, 2015 in Phoenix to inspire, learn, and connect around What’s Working — tangible solutions that are paving the path to real prosperity for all people. CAMEO followers will receive 10% off current price when they use the discount code BETTERTOGETHER when registering for the BALLE Conference. The $100 early bird discount expires May 1, so if you can promote this special offer to your network soon, they’ll receive additional savings.

For Your Clients: Our colleagues at Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) have opened its annual survey of women business owners, to gain insight and information, assess the importance of economic issues, and evaluate policy issues. The information provides WIPP, policymakers, the media and other key stakeholders with viewpoints on issues such as the economy, access to capital, government contracting, and more. The survey informs WIPP’s efforts to create an economic and regulatory climate that helps women successfully start, manage, and grow their businesses. Please forward WIPP’s 2015 National Survey to your clients. This survey will take approximately 20 minutes of your time and all responses are anonymous. The survey will be open until May 6, 2015.

Funding Opportunity: The USDA has opened two funding opportunities: Rural Business Development Grants (RBDG), formerly known as RBEG and RBOG, and Value Added Producer Grants (VAPG). RBDG is a competitive grant designed to support targeted technical assistance, training and other activities leading to the development or expansion of small and emerging private businesses in rural areas that have fewer than 50 employees and less than $1 million in gross revenues. VAPG program helps agricultural producers enter into value-added activities related to the processing and/or marketing of bio-based, value-added products. Deadlines are June 19, 2015.

Conference Scholarship: Credit Builders Alliance hosts the 2015 CBA Credit Building Symposium on Wednesday, July 8, 2015 – Thursday, July 9, 2015 in Washington, DC. They have 10 scholarships ($250 per organization) for interested groups on a first-come, first-served basis to help defray some of the costs related to the registration fee, travel, and lodging. Email them ASAP if you are interested in the scholarship.