Dear SBAIC Members,
I hope that this newsletter finds each of you well and busy implementing new programs as a result of the end of the Government fiscal year!
SBAIC has been making significant progress on many important small business issues and are excited to embark upon FY19! Our organization is continuing to work on your behalf to address the rules and regulations that may have negative impacts to small businesses with the key stakeholders across the Government. SBAIC is also actively engaged in conversations with the SBA and GSA related to category management and the impact that procurement consolidation will have on our community. As part of these efforts, stay tuned as we will be announcing a special event in December with Tiffany Hixon with the GSA who is a leader in category management within the Government.
Earlier this month at our October 3rd membership meeting, we had the pleasure of having Mauricio Vera – OSDBU Director, Kimberly Ball – OSDBU Deputy Director, and Teneshia Alston – OSDBU Senior Program Analyst, who provided SBAIC members with USAID’s Small Business Performance for FY 18 briefing (USAID Small Business Update for SBAIC Link). They enlightened us with upcoming contract opportunities and answered many questions regarding the future of USAID’s mission transition and funding. They further discussed what category management will mean for small business utilization.
Mauricio Vera also drew our attention to USAID’s SBMART resource. SBMART is a new resource which allows small business to register their capabilities directly with USAID. USAID’s acquisition and technical staff use SBMART as their market research tool to help them identify small business and Minority Serving Institutions with the expertise and capabilities to perform on USAID requirements. If you have not already registered your small business in USAID’s SBMART, we encourage you to do so at the SBMART Link.
SBAIC also hosted a fantastic new Cultural Awareness Session focused on learning about how to do business in the country of Jordan. on October 10th, 2018. The purpose of the session was to inform SBAIC members on topics that impact doing business in Jordan. The session included special guest, Wanneh Dixon, Corporate Engagement Manager for FHI 360, and Speaker, Taroub Faramand, CEO of WI-HER. During the session, Taroub provided information about the regions geography, culture, people, and current issues in the healthcare sector. The communications committee is excited about future sessions and will be putting out a survey shortly to understand what members would like to see related to our new events and training opportunities in 2019.
These meetings once again demonstrated to me that it is very important that you either attend in person or send a representative on behalf of your organization. Meetings like the one with USAID is exactly why your organization joined SBAIC. Membership meetings present a unique opportunity to hear directly from these USG Executives and gives you a chance to ask important questions in a small group setting. Please mark your calendars for December 4th, FHI 360 will be joining us at SBAIC’s next membership meeting to talk about ways to do business with our members. Our former Vice-Chair, Janel Poche will be debuted as the new FHI 360 Small Business Specialist, this will be a wonderful opportunity to market your business to a large international NGO.
In this newsletter, we would like to announce some changes to the SBAIC leadership. First, we would like to sincerely thank our former Vice-Chair of SBAIC, Janel Poche for her service on the SBAIC board. Janel’s leadership and support for many years will be greatly missed. We also want to announce that Jasmine Gould will be stepping into the Vice-Chair role effective November 2018! Next, we want to welcome Loren Schulze as a new member of SBAIC’s board. We look forward to working with him in 2019. Lastly, we want to announce some additional opportunities to serve on the SBAIC Board; these include the executive committee roles of Secretary and Treasurer. For more information on these positions, please visit our website.
As you will see, in this newsletter we have focused this issue on the incredible work that our members are doing around the world, highlighting efforts to support Country Transition and Sustainable Development worldwide for USAID, the Department of State, the Department Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and many foreign governments. This newsletter is being shared with our U.S. Government contacts, all member firms, and other external constituents. We are proud to spotlight the innovative partnerships that SBAIC members have formed as well as highlight key accomplishments by some of our member companies. As you take a moment to review these articles, you will undoubtedly note a common thread that runs through all of them - the importance of small businesses and their role as invaluable partners in international development.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Communications Committee Co-Chairs, Jasmine Gould (Strategic Consulting Partners) and Asmaa Idrisu (Inceptima, LLC) for managing the publishing of this newsletter.
Remember, this is YOUR quarterly newsletter. It is your readership, your timely quality input, and your thoughtful discourse that make the publication a valuable and engaging communications tool, reasserting SBAIC’s role as an influential organization working and advocating on behalf of U.S. small businesses.
Sincerely,
 Carlos G. Rivera
SBAIC Chair
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