New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Productive Regional Collaboration

In this week’s Must Know:

  • North Rural and Sacramento Regional Meeting
  • District Meeting How-To Webinar
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs. This week’s highlight is a free webinar series to Launch and Grow an EITC Program for Your Community on Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

North Rural and Sacramento Regional Meeting

Marc Nemanic, CEO of 3CORE, hosted 12 CAMEO organizations from Arcata to Sacramento at the Chico Chamber of Commerce for a lively discussion on what is working and what isn’t. We learned about possible new funding streams, discovered why other funding streams are not flowing as they should, figured out some new programming possibilities and partnerships. We were heartened to hear about all of the collaborations between members. Some other details from the meeting:

  • Bob Nash from Superior California Economic Development District uses CDBG funding for small grants up to $5,000 to small businesses in his distressed rural communities. It’s the best kept secret that CDBG funds can be used for this purpose.
  • Opening Doors and 3CORE are collaborating on getting capital into the greater Sacramento area.
  • Four CAMEO members have formed the Northstate Collaborative. JEDI, Northcoast SBDC, Arcata EDC and West Company are collaborating to expand IDAs and loans.
  • We learned that despite promises to stop doing the secondary underwriting on loans under $70,000, the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is still performing this unnecessary and time consuming process. A small loan takes up to four months to be approved. CAMEO was asked to continue to press for reforms on how HCD staff are deployed.
  • Michael Kraft from Northwest SBDC reports that the six SBDC regions are collaborating on four statewide initiatives to support business growth in technology, procurement, green businesses and exports. Should be helpful to all MDOs to collaborate here.
  • Michael Kraft also describe their new Local Receipts Project sponsored by Humboldt Made and our local members. The project will introduce a tally on how many jobs will be created by a purchase.

CAMEO listened and we will be working on your behalf to further the field and bring in new resources. To that end, this we contributed our our suggestions for small business as being presented by Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy (JEDE) to Mike Rossi, Governor Brown’s new senior advisory on jobs. And as a reminder on the federal level, CAMEO is closely monitoring the upcoming federal appropriations process; working on adding new language on self employment measurements to WIA; and advocating for RMAP funds for California.

District Meeting How-To Webinar

Legislators welcome visits from constituents. Guess what? Now is a great time to meet with state and federal electeds. California legislators are on break after September 10. It’s especially important to visit new members of the California legislature. Congress people are back from DC in the fall as well.

  • September 26-30
  • October 17-21
  • November 7-10

Learn how to make your district meetings effective. Register for the free District Meeting How-to Webinar on September 14, 2011 at 11:00am.

Don’t wait until the webinar. Start to set up your visit now. Call the district offices and ask for the scheduler. Be persistent, as it might take a few tries to to make an appointment. For more on district meetings, see the Must Know that discusses them.

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. A running tab of current Goodies is on the CAMEO website.

Julie Abrams, C.E.O. of Women’s Initiative is featured in September’s More Magazine as a job creator for women.

For your clients:CARAT has funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) to provide technology training to small businesses in California. This is stimulus project funding through the US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA). CARAT is collaborating with partners in six regions in California to administer the targeted technology training program for free. Check out the schedules for September and October.

Free webinar series: Launch and Grow an EITC Program for Your Community on Thursday, September 1, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. PDT. By participating in free tax preparation programs, community-based organizations can help their clients access and leverage tax credits to attain financial security and build assets. Sign up for this first of four webinars (other dates: September 22, October 6, October 20) which will show you how to launch an EITC program and/or VITA site.

Celebrate ‘Small Business Month’: The Oakland Merchants’ Leadership Forum, comprised of all the business districts in Oakland has designated September as ‘Small Business Month.’ Events will kick off at Vo’s Restaurant at the corner of Webster Street and Grand Avenue on September 1.

Build the field and promote your clients: Have them register their business with AEO’s business directory. The collective story of these businesses and their impact on their community show the power of Micro.