8/3/2012 New Interim Officers elected by WCOE Board

New Interim Officers elected by WCOE Board

At the WCOE Board of Directors meeting on July 24th in Los Angeles, Lee Cunningham was selected as President-Elect and Deborah Bradley was selected as Treasurer. Both members will serve in their respective capacities until the April, 2013 annual membership meeting when the annual election of officers will occur. Lee who is the President of Bay Tank & Boiler Works in Eureka, CA was previously Vice President. Deborah is the President of Deborah Bradley Construction in New York City and was previously Northeast Regional Director.

CA High Speed Rail project zooms ahead

After years of controversy, the California High Speed Rail project is finally on track – and they are pounding the pavement looking for women-owned companies to work on this massive infrastructure project. Phase 1 of the project is located within the counties of Madera and Fresno and the City of Fresno with a price tag of $1.5 to $2 Billion (yes with a B). The stated goal is to achieve 30% participation of small and disadvantaged businesses on the project. The California High Speed Rail Partners (Fluor, Skanska, PCL and HDR) are inviting WCOE members to attend a “Bidding Preparation Boot Camp” on Monday, August 6th at the Hyatt Regency in Valencia or on Monday, August 13th at the Woodlake Hotel in Sacramento. Both events are from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. Details are on our website or you can email chsrpartners@fluor.com.

Stand and be counted

After years of attempting to get the US Census Bureau to focus on the status of women-owned businesses – women are doing what they always do: “Forget it, we'll do it ourselves”. Now we need to perform. A consortium of dozens of professional women's organizations including WCOE have banded together to canvas their members to find out the trends, operations, opinions and behaviors of the women business owners who power the economy. The non-political and non-partisan Center for Women's Business Research is conducting the survey. As a participant you will have access to the results allowing you to easily compare your business to other women-owned businesses. It's a quick and easy on-line survey available at https://www.w-bizinsight.org. Then in the lower right hand corner click on the “Not a member? Click here to register”. The website will guide you the rest of the way.

The survey is completely anonymous and our only intent is to learn more about the amazing women who inspire the world through their innovation, action and resilience.

ARTBA hosts conference on P3s

In government-speak, P3 is the Public-Private Partnerships in Transportation, and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association is hosting a conference on transportation construction.

The24th Annual P3 conference brings together more than 300 industry-leading professionals and public officials from around the country. Whether you're a contractor, investor, consultant, engineer or entrepreneur, you won't want to miss this valuable opportunity to hear the latest updates and network with thought leaders and innovators in the P3 arena. The date is October 10-12, 2012 at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington DC.

More information is available on their website.

More from the Los Angeles Conference last week

If you haven't yet seen the photos of the conference on the website, you should definitely check them out. But there is more: also added is a copy of the beautiful California State Assembly Certificate of Recognition presented to WCOE by Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III. It will hang proudly on the WCOE office wall along with others from Kansas and Nevada. Yes, we are a small, specialized organization but as Board President Rosie Privitera Biondo says, “we are mighty”.

Recognition of our strength and the importance of “WCOE Women” to the economy are exemplified by these states' interest in recognizing WCOE members' accomplishments and influence.

Tax Policy Recap from Madison Services Group

Are you confused about this “fiscal cliff” you keep hearing about? Are you a member of the 1% that is in the tax crosshairs? Is January 1st really “taxmaggeden” for small business owners? WCOE's Legislative Advocate has put together a terrific analysis of what the issues are and how you might be at risk – or how you should approach tax planning as the end of the year approaches. One thing to keep in mind as you review the information: all tax bills must originate in the House which is currently controlled by the Republicans and the bill must then go to the Senate which is controlled by the Democrats. It is highly unlikely that anything substantial will be done before the election on November 5th. That gives Congress about a month after they return from the election recess to accomplish what they haven't been able to do in two years. It will be a very interesting fourth quarter. You can review the analysis on our website.

August Recess Advocacy Packet from Madison Services

Congress is headed home – and now it's your turn to take the reins in making sure they know what is important to you and the future success (perhaps even survival) of your business. Our Legislative Advocate, Ann Sullivan, has prepared a “talking points” memo of the issues that WCOE will be working on as the 112th Congress finishes up their term and, sadly, more than a few issues will carry over to the 113th Congress starting in January. When you have an opportunity to meet with your Congressman/woman and Senator when he or she is back home in your state(or a candidate for either office), this document will give you the background you need to focus your elected representative on issues that WCOE has deemed to be critical to ensuring a robust construction industry recovery for our members. Don't be shy, they want to hear from you when they come home. Washington DC is a fishbowl and reality rarely intrudes. It's the only way for them to know what your life is like and it's important you share the facts and figures behind your positions. If you need more information, just give us a call and we'll provide whatever you need – 202.276.0646!

SBA reports no lending to/no borrowing by small businesses

The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy recently released its 2010-2011 lending analysis. The report indicated that economic uncertainty has led to a continued deficiency of borrowing and lending throughout 2011 by financial depository institutions and small businesses.

» More information

A double-dip is good, but a triple-dip is better

Announced in last week's Turning Point newsletter and at the Los Angeles conference on July 23rd, the new rewards program available to WCOE members is truly a phenomenon. Everyone has rewards cards and a lot of people use them for purchases exclusively in order to accrue points to be used for future travel, hotels or any number of other special “treats”. WCOE's new rewards program opens up a whole new way for you to earn reward points just by buying something at your already favorite store or vendor – like for office supplies, travel, business services, construction materials and dozens of other categories. You still earn your rewards from your credit or travel card that you use to pay, but you also qualify for special discounts plus earn separate reward points from WCOE's affinity program. But here is a real life experience that shows an easy triple-dip. One member logged in to Hotels.com through WCOE's web portal. She booked the hotel stay (at a rate that was $15 lower than an earlier Hotels.com search outside the portal) and she paid with her American Express rewards card. The results: she earned miles on the AmEx card, she earned reward points on the WCOE Affinity Center program, AND because she had an account with Hotels.com she earned a free hotel night. Now, what is not to like about that?

Whoops – we had the wrong email address last week

If you were trying to connect with the work boots for women request in last week's newsletter, you probably got a bounced email. We got a little carried away with our “I's” and put an extra one in the email address. So, if you want to contact The Union Boot Pro to express your interest in producing a work boot for women, send an email to Lynda@theunionbootpro.com. Sorry for the confusion.

Free Prevailing Wage Conferences

The Department of Labor has announced the next free prevailing wage conference in Seattle on August 7–9, 2012 and more to come in Chicago and then Houston.

Check out the details on their website.

Do you care about SBA's size standards?

As mandated by Congress, SBA must review all size standards every five years. Some NAICS codes have been completed and it appears that Construction, NAICS 23, is now coming up for review. The Size Standards division of SBA released new proposed size standards for Land Subdivision (increasing from $7 million to $25 million) and Dredging/Surface Cleanup (increasing from $20 million to $30 million). You can read the full report on our website. If you would like to comment on the new size standards, please submit your responses to penny@wcoeusa.org and we will hand deliver them to SBA's Mr. Sharma. For your general information, WCOE is attempting to change the entire NAICS 23 standards to be FTE (full time employee equivalent) based instead of revenue based and will be filing this request with Mr. Sharma as each of these construction industry proposals are released.

Women Construction Owners and Executives
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