On Friday, September 8, 2023, we held our Bay Area Member Meeting at the Google Community Space in downtown San Francisco. It was great to see so many of our members in one room and share with them all the exciting initiatives that CAMEO has been working on this year. We are especially thankful to Louise Dawson, Deputy Director of the SBA San Francisco District Office, for joining us to talk about important SBA updates.
Meeting Highlights
- Louise Dawson laid out the priorities of the district – which will be a focus on helping marginalized businesses, something that is important to CAMEO. She congratulated us on our PRIME grant and challenged everyone to nominate a small business for the National Small Business Week Awards.
- CAMEO staff shared updates on our organization’s current and upcoming programs, including:
- CDFI Essentials 2024 Cohort
- CAMEO Impact Fund
- The National CDFI Academy, with a 3-part Governance Series coming November 2023
- CAMEO’s Shared Services Center
- Upcoming CEMI and MEHKO programs
- Upcoming job openings (stay tuned!)
- Heidi Pickman gave everyone a rundown of current and future policy priorities in the state legislature, including SB 33, SB 666, AB 1325, and SB 869.
- To kick off our 30th Anniversary coming next year, we held a brainstorming activity where we asked members to mention three words that best describe CAMEO. Here’s what some of you came up with:
Upcoming Member Events
- Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s Annual Event, “Small Business, Big Impact” takes place September 28, 2023 at the City View Metreon.
- Prospera will celebrate its Cumbre para Latinas Emprendedoras 2023 on September 30, 2023 in Oakland.
- MEDA is commemorating its 50-year anniversary with a celebratory gala on October 12, 2023 at the San Francisco City Hall.
