- Learning Opportunities in May
- CAMEO’s Annual Meeting – Register Now and Reserve Your Hotel Room
- Claudia Weighs in on Net Neutrality in Huffington Post (please share)
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight includes an interview with Claudia for #SFSBW2015 to share insights, best practices, stories and resources to help small business owners flourish.
Learning Opportunities in May
CAMEO has three learning opportunities for you in May. Sign up and mark your calendars!
1. Excellence in Lending (EiL) Peer Call, May 13, 1:30 – 2:30pm.
Our great discussion at the January Microlenders Forum on the results from CAMEO’s EiL assessment raised all sorts of food for thought. You asked for follow up, and we’re providing it. The purpose of these calls are to have high-level discussions on issues that affect the organization and the field. They are most appropriate for director-level staff, but all staff invited to get a broader understanding of the field. RSVP for the EiL May Peer Call.
2. Webinar – CEDAH, the Uber for Jobs – Another Tool for the DIY Economy May 20, 11:00am – 12:00noon.
The number of Californians working part-time when they would like to be full-time is 1.2 million. Governments spend billions to create jobs and make their jobs market more efficient. But markets for irregular work remain lopsided to the benefit of the employer, time consuming to use, uncertain and devoid of data. Find out how California’s cities and counties can harness technology to help the labor market become more efficient for workers and employers. RSVP for the CEDAH, the Uber for Jobs webinar.
3. Cash Flow Projections webinar, May 27, 1:30 – 2:30pm.
This webinar will help train your staff on projections and give you a format for teaching projections to your business clients. Susan Brown will answer questions such as: What is a cash flow projection? Why does a business owner need one? How is it different than a P&L projection? If cash is tight, what are some cash management strategies to stretch each dollar further? We’ll provide a couple of sample spreadsheets to ‘take with you’ to use with clients. RSVP for the Cash Flow Projections webinar.
4. California’s GO-Biz Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) is celebrating National Small Business Month with a series of free webinars to educate small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs on important requirements and available resources. Space is limited and registration is required.
CAMEO’s Annual Meeting
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
And book your hotel! CAMEO has reserved a block of rooms available for attendees on June 8 (Single and Double rate: $183-191, tax not included in this price). Please make your arrangements early (the block room rate deadline is tomorrow, May 8), but may sell out as space is limited. Call the Sterling at 1-916-448-1300 to make reservations and be sure to mention “CAM15” to receive the reduced rate or book online.
For other lodging options visit the annual meeting page on our website.
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!
Take Action: SB 197 (Block) goes to the Appropriations Committee on May 11, 2015. If you haven’t already, please submit a letter of support. Download the SB 197 Support Letter Template. Put it on your letterhead and edit to fit your needs. Then email to: Senator.Block@senate.ca.gov, Lance.Chih@sen.ca.gov, Eileen.Newhall@sen.ca.gov and cc me!
Small Business Week: #SFSBW2015 asked small business owners and the organizations that support them throughout the year – like CAMEO – to share insights, best practices, stories and resources to help small business owners flourish.
Small Business Week: In case you missed it last week, Maria Contreras-Sweet, Administrator, U.S. Small Business Administration, writes in a guestblog post, “Dream Big,” in honor of National Small Business Week.
Member Kudos: Congrats to our colleagues at Women Impacting Public Policy with their policy win! The SBA issued a proposed regulation to bring sole source authority to the Women-Owned Small Business Program. The proposed regulation seeks to implement sole source as soon as possible and issue this regulation separately from future regulations addressing new certification requirements.
Free Webinar: The Federal Reserve has a great train-the-trainer webinar for those of you who serve retail businesses. Curious to learn about how consumers use mobile phones for banking, make payments for goods and services, shop, and make other financial decisions? Join them to discuss findings from their recently issued report, Consumers and Mobile Financial Services 2015. Register for this session on Thursday, May 14, 2015 at 12:00 noon PT // 3:00 pm ET.
Free Webinar: Register for 2015 Nonprofit Benchmark Study with M+R Strategic Services s on Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 11:00am PDT/ 2:00pm EDT. M+R has done the research, crunched the numbers, and analyzed the data from 84 different organizations, which means more data, greater insight, and more takeaways about better ways to run your organization and create greater impact.
Support a CAMEO Member: CNBC’s reality show, The Profit, which offers struggling small businesses around the United States capital and expertise, has selected Accion to be the beneficiary of their very first #ShareTheProfit campaign. This means that every time anyone shares content (
or 
), from the campaign, CNBC will donate $1 to Accion’s work in the United States, up to $100,000.
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.
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.