In this week’s Must Know:
- Unlucky Number 13 as in President Obama’s FY 2013 Budget
- Writing Tips Webinar
- The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs. This week’s highlight is the AEO 2012 National Conference: The Power of Micro-Business on April 30-May 2 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Register for the conference and book your plane flight and hotel early for the best prices. CAMEO members will receive a discount off their registration.
President Obama’s FY 2013 Budget
As Claudia extolled the virtues of our collective work and emphasized the importance of business technical assistance to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors (see pic left), I was reading the President’s recommended budget for FY 2013. You can read the SBA budget starting on page 191. It’s not good. PRIME is eliminated. Please don’t shoot the messenger. Martin Feeney, our guy in DC, put together this budget chart.
CAMEO issued a press statement* on Tuesday about our disappointment over the SBA budget.
President Obama’s FY 2013 Budget will not help nine-tenths of small businesses. The Budget contains support for small business in name only. The recommended cuts to programs will hurt the majority of small businesses.
On Tuesday Claudia met with several members of the appropriations committee who helped save PRIME for FY2012 including staffers for Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and Representative Jose’ Serrano (D-NY), respectively the Chair and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, i.e. the main appropriations people for the SBA budget. Claudia thanked them for their support for FY2012 and expressed our desired for their continued support. We intend to pull off another herculean effort.
In the meanwhile, if you are a PRIME recipient, let us know how this is going to affect you and how you might diversify your funding stream. If you aren’t a PRIME recipient, send suggestions and collaboration ideas for your colleagues.
*FYI: as part of our communications effort this year, we are issuing weekly statements on the days news – feel free to mine them for talking points, quotes from Claudia, statistics. I’m particularly excited about a side by side look at Venture Capital and MDO impacts.
Writing Tips Webinar
Learn how to write those love letters, um, I mean better grant reports and brochures.
Whether you love to write or love to hate to write, good writing is an important skill. How you write says a lot about you and good writers are highly prized. In this webinar, we will go over a bunch useful tips to making your writing stand out. We will also engage in interactive exercises to practice what we’ve learned. Register for the Writing Tips webinar that will be held on February 24, 2012 at 10:00am PT. The webinar is free for CAMEO members. If you are not a CAMEO member and would like to audit a webinar, please contact us.
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.
Member Conference: A whole bunch of CAMEO members in San Diego (ACCION San Diego, CDC Small Business Finance, Foundation for Women, International Rescue Committee) along with other partners will host the 2012 San Diego Microfinance Summit: Technology and Innovation on April 4, 2012 at the University of San Diego. Register and learn more.
THE CONFERENCE: AEO 2012 National Conference: The Power of Micro-Business on April 30-May 2 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. Register for the conference and book your plane flight and hotel early for the best prices.
New Report: Small Business Majority released Making California’s new healthcare exchange work for small businesses. The report includes discussion on providing insurance at an appealing rate, providing valuable services to small businesses, constructing a successful marketing and outreach strategy, offers recommendations on how to create a robust exchange.
Free Webinar (hosted by AEO): Due to the state of the economy, accounts receivable (AR) management is one of the most pivotal and valuable traits for companies and organizations nationwide. Every 30 days receivables go down 12% in value. As lenders, effective AR Management can be the difference in your growth as an organization. In this webinar you will learn specific ways to improve your revenue cycle while at the same time gain experience in good collection techniques. Join AEO in taking a deep dive into the heart of valuable AR management and collection skills. Register for the webinar on February 16, 2012 from 10:00-1:00a.m. PST // 1:00-2:00p.m. EST.
California Small Farm Conference: The California Small Farm Conference will take place on March 4-6, 2012 in Valencia. It is the state’s premier gathering of small farmers, agricultural students, farmers’ market managers and others involved in the small farm industry. The three day educational conference includes day-long short courses and on-farm tours; focused workshops; engaging keynote addresses and numerous networking opportunities. Call 888-712-4188 to learn more about the conference.
CDFI Conference: Registration for the 2012 CDFI Institute is open! The Institute will take place on March 7th and 8th in Washington, DC at the Embassy Suites Convention Center Hotel. Learn more and register.
Free Legal Workshop: Attention business trainers and your clients, the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights are holding STARTING A BUSINESS 101: A FREE Legal Workshop to Help Your Business Idea Become Reality. The workshop will be on Thursday, March 8, 2012, 6:00-8:00pm at Mandela Gateway Community Room, 1350 7th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. Register and learn more or email for questions.
Grant Opportunity: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced the availability of $20.6 million in grant funding for the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Adult Program. DOL expects to award 17 grants of approximately $1.2 million each for 27-months. Any non-profit organizations with IRS 501(c)(3) status may apply for these grants to provide pre-release and post-release services (including job training) to ex-offenders returning to high-poverty, high-crime communities. The Solicitation for Grant Applications is available on the Employment and Training Administration website. The deadline is March 13, 2012. Note to CAMEO members: you may want to partner with other prison groups to go after the funding and provide self-employment training.
Small Business Loan Fund Conference: The NADO Research Foundation’s Economic Development Finance Service (EDFS) will host a conference on April 24-26, 2012 in Burlington, VT. The event includes sessions that offer best practice examples from peers, plenaries that bring in top notch leaders in small business finance and technical assistance, a roundtable of federal agency program staff and many opportunities for attendees to share and exchange information, suggestions for problem solving, and a format for learning about new programs or solutions that can be replicated in your region. Register and learn more.
Grant Opportunity: In 2012 the California Consumer Protection Foundation will be accepting applications for approximately $1 million of grants under the Telecommunication Consumer Education Fund (TCEF). Successful TCEF projects will support the efforts of community-based organizations to ensure that Californians become more informed, savvy consumers of wireless telecom services. The next 2012 application deadline is May 1, 2012. Learn more.
Open Source Entrepreneurship Curriculum: C.E.O. Women was perhaps most noted for its groundbreaking ESL (English as a Second Language) entrepreneurship curriculum designed for entrepreneurs with limited English skills. On December 21, 2011, C.E.O. Women unfortunately had to close its doors due to funding cutbacks and the difficult economy. Believing that their work and innovations could still be of great benefit to the micro-enterprise industry at large, they decided to open source their most valuable assets. CAMEO is proud to host CEO Women’s assets.
Take Action: Two-thirds of American small business leaders believe the controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United v. FEC case hurts small companies. Our friends at the American Sustainable Business Council wants to overturn the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision. Learn more.