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

Jobs. Period.

Today this year’s PRIME awards were announced. Congratulations to: Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program/Little Tokyo Service Center, CAMEO, Central Valley Business Incubator, C.E.O. Women, El Pajaro, MEDA, OBDC, Opportunity Fund, Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment, Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, VEDC, Women’s Economic Ventures, and Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. Learn more about this year’s PRIME awards.

In this week’s Must Know:

  • Jobs. Period.
  • District Meeting How-To Webinar. Register now for this free training on September 14, 2011.
  • The Goodies: information on important opportunities like trainings, funding, scholarship programs. This week’s highlight is the SBA Policy Summit for Women Entrepreneurs on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, from 9am-12noon in the Presidio, San Francisco Film Centre, Palm Room, 39 Mesa Street, San Francisco. RSVP by email.

Jobs. Period.

The top issue for most Americans has been jobs. Finally, with Labor Day week upon us, the focus of our country is on jobs. Yesterday, President Obama presented a strong vision for job creation. He called upon our electeds to rise above the politics and pass the American Jobs Act. The plan has a lot of elements, but I’d like to point out one specific bullet of interest.

Start-up Assistance: States will have flexibility to help long-term unemployed workers create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses. Read the details.

WOW! CAMEO has worked for several years to convince the Workforce Investment System that self-employment is job creation and a viable option for the unemployed. Last year, we convinced the Department of Labor to issue a guidance letter and this year, the President included it in his jobs plan!

Also, CAMEO placed an op-ed by Kurt Chilcott, C.E.O. of CDC Small Business Finance, in The San Diego Union Tribune on Sunday that should kick off any conversation about jobs.

In California, there are about 4 million micro-businesses…. Their potential is significant. If one out of every three of these businesses hired one employee, our economy would recover. Strengthening very small businesses is key to generating jobs.

District Meeting How-To Webinar

How did CAMEO get what it wanted in President Obama’s jobs plan? We knocked on doors. We spoke to everyone we could. Now is not the time to rest on our laurels, but to ensure that implementation is effective. Our leaders need to hear from us. We need to educate our electeds about job creation through micro-businesses. We need to pound the pavement, knock on doors, shout from the rooftops, so that our electeds champion our field.

I will say it again. Legislators welcome visits from constituents. Now is a great time to meet with state and federal electeds. California legislators are on break after September 10 (next week). It’s especially important to visit new members of the California legislature. Congress is back from DC in the fall as well on the following dates:

  • September 26-30
  • October 17-21 and
  • November 7-10

Learn how to make your district meetings effective. Register for the free District Meeting How-to Webinar on September 14, 2011 at 11:00am.

Don’t wait until the webinar. Start to set up your visit now. Call the district offices and ask for the scheduler. Be persistent, as it might take a few tries to to make an appointment. For more on district meetings, see the Must Know that discusses them. And please email me when you set up an appointment.

The Goodies

New opportunities for trainings, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. A running tab of current Goodies is on the CAMEO website.

SBA Policy Summit for Women Entrepreneurs: Join the National Women’s Business Council and the U.S. Small Business Administration to discuss ways that we may support women business owners and entrepreneurs as key contributors to our nation’s economic recovery. Findings will be reported back to the White House. Let the voice of Micro be heard. (Yes, CAMEO will be there.) Details: Tuesday, September 13, 2011, from 9am-12noon in the Presidio, San Francisco Film Centre, Palm Room, 39 Mesa Street, San Francisco. RSVP by email.

Rural Conference – The 2011 Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference: One of the highlights is CAMEO member Catherine Marshall’s Essential Elements of Coalition Building workshop that will give community leaders a simple check list and a step by step guide on how to create a movement that makes the desired change. The conference is September 14-15, and costs $249 (CAMEO offers scholarships.)

For your clients: CARAT has funding from the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) to provide technology training to small businesses in California. This is stimulus project funding through the US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA). CARAT is collaborating with partners in six regions in California to administer the targeted technology training program for free. Check out the schedules for September and October.

Free Webinar: The Connecting Communities webinar series is a Federal Reserve System initiative intended to provide a national audience with timely information on emerging and important community and economic development topics. The current webinar is on microfinance and took place on September 8 but you can listen and download the presentation as well as learn about future webinar series.

Free Webinar: The How-To’s of Distance-Based Microenterprise Training by the Field Institute on September 13, 2011 at 11:00am PT/2:00pm ET.

Federal Hearing on Capitol One-ING merger: The Federal Reserve has announced that public hearings will be held regarding the proposed merger between Capital One and ING Direct on October 5 at the Federal Reserve of San Francisco. Alan Fisher, Executive Director of the California Reinvestment Coalition says, “With zero branches and zero community investments, the proposed bank currently has no responsibilities to California’s communities. We need these hearings in order to obtain serious community commitments from the bank.”

Member Events: CAMEO members are busy showing off their clients and their work. Check out the CAMEO event calendar to find upcoming events from Opportunity Fund, Renaissance Center, NAAC and more.