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

2013 Advocacy, Photo Contest

In this week’s Must Know

  • 2013 Advocacy Priorities
  • Facebook Cover Photo Contest
  • The Goodies: This week’s highlight includes two CDFI-related items – a conference and grant application.

2013 Advocacy Priorities

CAMEO has three major advocacy priorities for 2013.


1. Our number one priority is to bring a Self-Employment Assistance program to California. The bill has been written and will be introduced in the next few weeks. Claudia is heading to Sacramento next week to meet with key legislators for support of the bill, the first of many trips. We are engaging key allies for support. While the vast majority of people we talk to support this, passing a bill in Sacramento means jumping through a lot of hoops.

2. The second priority is pass the Entrepreneurial Training Improvement Act (Capps), which directs the U.S. Department of Labor to establish alternative measures for the success of entrepreneurial training programs, making it easier for local WIBs to offer these programs. This small piece of legislation is crucial to WIB-MDO partnerships. While a couple of our members are working with their WIBs, performance measures are cited as one of the big obstacles to embracing self-employment within the workforce system. Representative Lois Capps introduced it last session, but bills need to be re-introduced when there is a new Congress.

3. The third priority is to support the federal budget lines related to micro – PRIME, WBC’s, SBDC’s, RMAP, RBEG – the alphabet soup of what supports micro enterprise. We are also working with the SBA on funding to serve veterans.

Facebook Cover Photo Contest

Be the face of Micro! The time has come to update CAMEO’s Facebook page. Help us choose a new cover for our page by posting photos that you think best represent the micro sector. Comment on the other photos. The expert panel (CAMEO staff) will consider photo originality/uniqueness, composition, quality, content, relevance to micro, and comments by your peers. Deadline is January 24, 2013 at 5pm. The winner(s) will be featured in the following Must Know and have the satisfaction that their photo graces the CAMEO Facebook page and represents the sector.

Don’t forget to ‘like’ CAMEO’s Facebook page while you’re there.

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, 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 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!

Check out CAMEO’s 2013 calendar for supporting micro-business in last week’s Must Know.

Member in the News: Entrepreneur explains Opportunity Fund’s new EasyPay service service in which borrowers pay back their loan from sales. (Brilliant, wish I thought of that!)

Conference Call: Small Business Majority and the Small Business Administration are hosting a series of FREE Business Leader Briefing calls. The remaining two are: Contracting on January 17 at 10:00am PT and Capital Access on January 31 at 10:00 am PT.

Renaissance Online Business Prep Class: Attention service-starved areas, the webinar-based classes are scheduled from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. PST one evening a week for 12 consecutive weeks, with two optional 30-minute individual telephone consultations. Clients are expected to participate in every webinar and complete about 3 hours of homework weekly. The next one starts on January 26, 2013. Learn more and register for the Renaissance Online Business Prep Class.

Agricultural Risk Management Workshop: AgriLogic Consulting, in coordination with the USDA Risk Management Agency, will be hosting educational workshops throughout the state of California targeting local Hispanic, women, and new agricultural producers. Check the workshop schedule and find out more information. The are also looking for speakers.

CDFI Conference: The 2013 CDFI Institute will be held on February 28 – March 1 at the Capital Hilton in Washington,DC. The agenda includes the 2014 federal budget, expansion to rural areas, and private sector sources of capital.

Grant Opportunity: The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) released Notices of Funds Availability (NOFA) for the fiscal year (FY) 2013 funding rounds of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program). The CDFI Fund expects to provide up to $165 million in Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance awards for FY 2013 (funding is subject to Congressional appropriations). Learn more and apply (search for CDFI) by February 28, 2013.

AEO Conference: AEO’s national conference, Tilt Forward, will be May 5-8, 2013 in St. Louis, Missouri. If you’re not an AEO member, CAMEO members receive a $75 discount with the code SMA2013. If you’re an AEO member, registration fees are 50% of the full conference price – another reason to join.

AEO and FIELD Membership Discount: You save $100 on AEO membership and $100 on a one-year MicroTracker Premium Plan subscription – that’s a total value of $500 for only $300! Learn more about the AEO/FIELD Membership Bundle. This is a must-buy, if you are not already an AEO member!

Non-profit Know How: Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio offers “Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%.” If you don’t have the budget to hire experts, you can listen to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Trusted experts and leading thinkers join Tony each week to tackle the tough issues such as board relations, fundraising, volunteer management, prospect research, legal compliance, accounting, finance, investments, donor relations, public relations, marketing, technology, social media. Listen and subscribe to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio on iTunes or check out the show on Facebook.