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History

CAMEO’s history, like that of many entrepreneurial endeavors, can be traced back to long planning sessions at the kitchen table. Its four founders usually met in Santa Rosa at the home of one of their parents, who put them up, fed them, and let them hold their day-long meetings in the kitchen. At our 2018 Board Retreat, facilitator Judy Hawkins drew this time line of CAMEO’s History.

Idea

In 1993, a grant from the James Irvine Foundation brought together four pioneering leaders from around the state:

  • Mimi (Lufkin) Van Sickle of Women’s Economic Growth (Weed)
  • Sheilah Rogers of West Company (Ukiah)
  • Debi Clifford of Women’s Initiative for Self Employment (San Francisco)
  • Forescee Hogan-Rowles of the Coalition for Women’s Economic Development (Los Angeles)

Each founder was determined to create and enrich business development programs serving low-income women entrepreneurs. They quickly realized that in order to serve this population, there was a pressing need for advocacy work. “Several regulations affected the ability of low-income women (and particularly welfare clients) to even imagine starting their own business,” remarks Rogers, “and these needed to be addressed.” Welfare clients, for example, were not allowed to hold assets, presenting a major barrier to business ownership. “We realized that if we were to move forward, we needed to start some kind of trade association that would let us do it.”

They called their new endeavor the California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity.

Start-Up

“We were developing without a lot of other pioneers, so we were really learning from each other,” Rogers explains. “This was a time when we were introducing ourselves to the legislature and trying to get this concept out, and we always had a fairly decent reception. It seemed to be an idea people could understand: we’re talking small business development, we’re talking about opportunity for people who haven’t had access, and we’re figuring out ways to make it happen for them and to improve their families’ economic and social conditions. And that rang true.”

The next step was to create a stand-alone nonprofit with a board of directors. “Our board has always been one of our strengths; we’ve always managed to bring in professionals from all sectors of economic development, including government and private industry.”

By 1994, it was time to complete the process and hire a full-time CEO, who could be an advocacy person in Sacramento and develop the organization into a true statewide association of microenterprise development organizations. CAMEO found its advocate in Laurie Pantell. During her tenure,

  • CAMEO was incorporated,
  • held its first two conferences in Sacramento,
  • grew from a handful of members to over 100, and
  • introduced state-level microenterprise legislation.

Sustainability and Growth

In August 1997, Catherine Marshall took the helm. She established CAMEO as a premier training and capacity building program, expanding the scope of its advocacy and hiring the association’s first staff. Sheilah Rogers says of those years, “We felt the spirit of being pioneers, forming this association in such a large state, and we had actually pulled it off. Even though it wasn’t a rich organization, it benefited from our experience of working together—it had a solid base.”

The original concept held true; microenterprise development programs needed advocacy and capacity building. This field was different from other forms of business development, and there was a lot to learn. The programs were working with a target population that faced barriers that other people going in to business wouldn’t necessarily encounter. They didn’t have access to capital and training and often didn’t even know that self-employment might be an option. They also didn’t have much self-esteem or self-confidence, and might encounter personal, family, or social obstacles. These difficulties made the need for capacity building—supporting programs’ work and exchanging best practices—critical.

The organization began to look beyond the boundaries of California, toward building institutional support for an entrepreneurial culture in the United States. In 2007, CAMEO hired Claudia Viek as CEO to build the organization into a national voice. 

During her 10-year tenure, Viek made considerable contributions as a tireless advocate in support of microbusiness owners and entrepreneurs and expanded funding opportunities for members. Her creative thinking brought new programs to members and created new roles for CAMEO. Her skill as a networker and convener forged new partnerships, and connected members and other stakeholders to better leverage resources.

Under Claudia Viek’s leadership, CAMEO became an innovation lab, creating novel approaches to start, scale and continuously improve business assistance and microlending programs. By the end of her tenure, CAMEO and its members were in a strong position to meet the needs of micro-business owners and independent workers, to grow the sector, and to advocate for supportive policies.

Carolina Martinez took the helm in 2018 with three goals in mind: capacity building, advocacy, and network development. Facing challenges and then the 2020 pandemic, CAMEO did not slow down. Martinez doubled the organization’s budget and staff, while overseeing a transition to remote work and supporting our members and their clients every step of the way.

Today, CAMEO is the largest state micro enterprise association in the country, and serves as an industry leader from San Francisco to Washington, DC. It continues to highlight best practices within the sector, and to advocate for an increased awareness and support of the nation’s smallest, most fertile businesses.