New Address: Two Embarcadero Center, 8th floor, San Francisco, CA 94111     

Approps Battle Begins

In this week’s Must Know:

  • The Appropriations Battle Begins
  • CAMEO and AEO Awards and Conferences
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs. This week’s highlight is a free webinar: What Health Reform Means for Microenterprises and Entrepreneurs tomorrow, Thursday, March 15th from 10:00-11:00 am PST /1:00-2:00pm EST

The Appropriations Battle Begins

Hopefully, by now you know that the administration’s budget has been released. Unfortunately, PRIME is slated for elimination. Our efforts to restore that money has begun. The next opening is for individual legislators to make programmatic requests to the Appropriations Committee. House members have until March 20 (next Tuesday) to submit programmatic request letters; Senators have until March 29 to do so. Use this template to ask your representative and senators to support micro programs.

Find out who your representative is (top right-hand corner). Contact information for Senators Boxer and Feinstein are in the template.

Let us know if you sent letters.

CAMEO and AEO Awards and Conferences

Time to make travel plans to Sac and DC.

First, mark your calendars for CAMEO’s Annual Meeting in Sacramento, June 6-7, 2012. Expect an ‘official’ invitation in early April. In the meanwhile, you can book your hotel room at the discount rate until May 15, 2012.

The conference will feature the 2nd annual Faces of Entrepreneurship Awards on June 6, 2012 at a reception following CAMEO’s Annual Meeting in Sacramento. Legislators from the business owners’ districts will present awards. This is a great opportunity for your clients and will help CAMEO build strategic connections with several legislators. Award winners will be selected based on the following criteria: type of business, region, demonstrated growth and job creation, and contributions to their community. Nominate your businesses by April 15, 2012.

A month before CAMEO’s conference is the AEO 2012 National Conference: The Power of Micro-Business on April 30-May 2 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Register for the conference and book your plane flight and hotel early for the best prices. CAMEO members will receive a $75 discount off their registration. Also CAMEO offers some scholarships.

AEO wants to recognize and reward your entrepreneurs, and the organizations that serve them, with the first-annual Power of One Awards – celebrating micro-business excellence. The awards, supported by the Citi Foundation, celebrate the spirit of innovation, collaboration and imagination in business. This is serious money, my friends – $75,000 for MDO’s and up to $25,000 for entrepreneurs. The awards will be given out at the AEO national conference. The application deadline is Friday, March 30 at 5:00 p.m. EST, so fill it out today. We want a CAMEO member to win!!!

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything!

Job Opportunities: Check out our jobs page as I’ve added a few in the last couple weeks.

Free Webinar: AEO and Small Business Majority present What Health Reform Means for Microenterprises and Entrepreneurs this Thursday, March 15th from 10:00-11:00 am PST /1:00-2:00pm EST. This webinar will focus on what the new healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, means for small businesses. It will focus on both federal and state provisions to help local small businesses understand how the law will affect them. Register and learn more.

Free Audio Conference: The Federal Reserve invites you to participate in Connecting Communities: Strategic Use of Data for Transforming Community Investment. This moderated audio conference will explore creative uses of data and technology to promote public and private investment in transitional communities, or those areas with significant, perhaps erstwhile, strengths and assets but also declining housing values and population. Learn more or register for the call on March 21, 2012 at 11:00 am – 12:15 pm PT //2:00 – 3:15 pm ET.

Micro 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.

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.

Grant Opportunity: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced the availability
of approximately $75 million in YouthBuild grant funds to develop programs that will help out-of-school youth complete high school or General Educational Development programs, as well as learn critical occupational skills in construction, health care, information technology and other fields. I’m not sure if entrepreneurship training is one of those fields, but it should be! Check it out. The Solicitation for Grant Applications is available on the Employment and Training Administration website. The deadline is May 8, 2012.