WCOE Member Kudos and messages from major prime contractors

A hearty congratulations to WCOE member

This week at the WIPP Annual Leadership conference in Washington, DC our very own Julie D'Agostino was named the WIPP Education Foundation's Give Me 5 Award recipient. Julie is the President of JMD Enterprises in Leawood, KS. Julie was recognized for her winning strategy to seek and procure federal contracts while effectively leveraging Give Me 5 tools, resources and member instructor guidance. Well done, Julie. We are very proud of you. You can connect with Julie by emailing Julie@jmdenterprises.net.

More member kudos

WCOE Council of 200 member Karen Barbour was just featured in an article in the prestigious Forbes publication. Karen is President of The Barbour Group, a private surety bonding company that counts many WCOE members among its clients. The article is all about how to build a solid business reputation which is critical in any service business, and the end of the day, which business isn't about service? You can read the full article on our website. You can contact Karen at 410.876.9610 or Karen@thebarbourgroup.com.

WCOE major prime contractor member has a question

Stalwart supporter and long-time WCOE member and Past President, Carole Bionda (Vice President of Nova Group in Napa, CA) wants your feedback. Following is her message and you can respond directly to her at carole@novagrp.com.

Presently, the feds track small business subcontracting but only first tier subcontractors, defined by the feds to include anyone, including suppliers, with whom the prime has a direct contract. Many of large businesses have tried, unsuccessfully, to have the feds count small business subcontract participation at lower levels. The reasoning or rationale is that on many larger projects, especially, the mega projects, the prime self performs only G & A work and subs the project to one or more large general contractors who, in turn, sub the work to many small businesses. If the Government is interested in small business participation in the sense of how many federal dollars are actually going to small businesses, it would make far more sense to tract small business participation at lower levels, which, in fact, was done with ARRA funds.

Do you have a position on this? If any of you are a small business who performs as a prime and/or a sub, I am especially interested in your position.

As Nova is not a mega contractor, does not perform mega projects, is more of a niche contractor who self performs as much work as we can and subs directly with self-performing subs, it is unclear whether our small business participation would be really affected, but we are not the typical general contractor

 

Women as Political Football

Nothing like being tossed around the Congressional floor like a worn out old football to make a lady feel good. Remember that the House passed 8 bills a few months ago that would help strengthen the small business government procurement goals and finally put some teeth into making sure federal agencies make those goals (23% small business and 5% WOSB plus others). These 8 bills were tacked onto the must-pass NDAA (Defense Authorization) bill and were approved in total. The NDAA then went to the Senate where the first thing the Senate did was strip all 8 bills out. Last week stalwart WOSB supporter Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) offered them in total as an amendment to the Small Business Jobs Bill (S.2237) which provides incentives to keep jobs onshore instead of offshore. WCOE is on record with Senator Landrieu as a supporter of the 8-part amendment.

Sadly, S. 2237 has been shelved. The Small Business Jobs Bill is mired in election year politics and its future is unknown. Where that football lands next is anyone's guess but it's doubtful it will get into the end zone this election year.

SBA issues proposed new 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 industry proposals are released.

California High Speed Rail project is looking for YOU!

All subcontractors, including WBE, SBE, DBE, are invited by California High Speed Ventures to an event on Wednesday, July 25th at the Kaiser Center in Oakland, CA from 4 to 7 pm to learn more about the project and the multitude of contracting opportunities being made available. Future events will be held in Los Angeles and Fresno but that information is not available yet. They are specifically looking for Structural Concrete, Minor Concrete, Engineering/Design, Geotechnical, Grading, Metal Beam Railing, QA/QC Inspection, Reinforcing Steel, janitorial, Underground Utilities, Sound Control & Vibration Monitoring, Survey, Environmental, Trucking, Traffic Control, AC Paving, HAZMAT Removal, Security, AC Paving, Signage, Striping, Fencing and (whew) Electrical. More information is available on their website at www.highspeedventures.com. They have a 30% set-aside goal. Let's make their job easy by reaching out to them and letting them know you are available and capable.

Cook County (IL) helps WOSB

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a law last week that will allow the county's forest preserve district to take into account whether businesses are owned by women or minorities when they are awarding bids for construction and purchasing contracts. The bill brings the county's forest preserve district in line with the county, city of Chicago and Metropolitan Water District and other local government agencies.

US Chamber Small Business Survey Results

Yesterday, the U.S. Chamber released the Q2 Small Business Outlook Survey results and found that 72% of the small business surveyed stated that the health care law will make it more difficult for them to hire. 77% support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and 90% expressed concern regarding the impending fiscal cliff. You can read the full report on our website.

Women Construction Owners and Executives
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