A Message from the President
Evaristo "Tito" Bonano

We are reporting on a number of major on-going and upcoming activities of the NM 8(a) & Minority Business Association (Association). I want to encourage all our members to get involved in these activities. The more members get involved in these activities, the more credible our efforts become and the more successful we will be as an Association.

We have been working closely with Bennie Gonzales of LANL’s Small Business Office and Dennis Roybal from the BUS Division to ensure that procurements are structured in a manner that will allow our member companies to compete for those contracts on a leveled playing field.

We have invited Bennie and Dennis to meet with the general memberships. They will be briefing the Association on Monday, September 11. We are delighted Congresswoman

Heather Wilson will join us. She has demonstrated her strong commitment to minority business on legislative bills affecting minority businesses.

We have continued interacting with Sandia National Laboratories in various areas. Most recently, we focused on the MESA Project Specifically, we followed up on the SNL briefing on this project with several actions.

We met with Frank Figueroa, SNL VP & CFO, and Al Romig, SNL VP, to share with them how procurements related to that project could be structured so that our member companies could be afforded the opportunity to bid on the procurements.

SNL was receptive to our suggestions and has agreed to set up a task force to review the procurement process for the MESA project.

The Association has teamed with the American Institute of Architects and the Association of General Contractors on this effort. SNL will convene the task force in October.

At the last board meeting Ron Taft, Small Business and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Specialist at White Sands Missile Range, presented a summary of the procurement activities

small, minority-owned, woman-owned, and 8(a) companies. Ron has set up a meeting with the new WSMR Commanding Officer, Brigadier General Steven W. Flohr.

The meeting is scheduled for October 5, starting at 11a.m. We will kick-off the meeting with a high level briefing by General Flohr.

The Association plans to meet with Flohr at White Sands Missile Range to encourage WSMR to utilize all the federal procurement programs that assist the SDB and Minority Business Community. We also plan to meet with officials at Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base and Cannon Air Force Base in the Fall and will structure the same format for the membership.

Your Association plans to stay very focused on our mission to increase procurement dollars to New Mexico 8(a) and minority businesses.

We will be meeting with top level procurement and government officials at the state and national levels to promote and increase contracting opportunities for our constituency. We will work diligently toward achieving those goals in 2000.

We are also very proud of the fact that New Mexico, once again, will shine at the National MED Week celebration later this month in Washington, D.C.

White Sands Missile Range is hosting our board of directors meeting. Ron Taft, Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Specialist at White Sands, and Brigadier General Steven W. Flohr will be our featured speakers. General Flohr will present a high level briefing for the board and general membership.

We are inviting 8(a) and SDB firms that are interested in marketing opportunities at WSMR to join us for this high level meeting. Ron Taft has scheduled meetings with contracting personnel, contract POC, technical and construction personnel to meet with 8(a) and SDB firms. Seating is limited to 60 and for Association members only. Please call Maria at NEDA to make reservations 843-7114.

Three New Mexico residents were honored as being the best and brightest at the 2000 Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC). Each year the award honors the nation’s top Hispanic engineers and scientists. New Mexico’s winners were:

* Francisco A. Figueroa, Vice-President Business Management & CFO at Sandia National Laboratories for Executive Excellence.

* Cesar A. Lombana, Manager, Manufacturing Development, Engineering Programs at Sandia National Laboratories for Professional Achievement.

* Dr. Evaristo (Tito) J. Bonano, President of Beta Corporation International for Entrepreneur.

MEDWeek 2000

MED Week is an annual nationally recognized celebration of minority business accomplishments co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

An important element of MED Week is a celebration of the leaders and supporters of minority business enterprise. The awards ceremony acknowledges the achievements and contributions of minority entrepreneurs, minority business advocates and leaders in the corporate community.

There is a large delegation of New Mexico 8(a) and SDB firms that will be attending.

The New Mexico 8(a) and Minority Business Association will be prominently featured at the event. Tito Bonano will moderate a roundtable session entitled "New Realities." Anna Muller will moderate the SBA "B2B Workshop."

The Association and LAMA are planning on hosting a breakfast reception on September 27th for Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez and culminate the event at the Gala banquet honoring Ching Ching Ganley, National Minority Female Entrepreneur of the Year. We are very proud of her accomplishments.

Albuquerque’s MED Week awards celebration will feature national and regional award winners.

The awardees are:

* Ching Ching Ganley, Abba Technologies, Inc.,National Minority Female Entrepreneur of the Year.

* Steve Pacitti, Attorney at Law,Minority Business Legal Advocate Award

* Dan Mayfield, Small Business Reporter, Albuquerque Tribune Minority Business Media Advocate Award

* Theresa Armijo, Chief of Contracting, U.S. Corps of Engineers,Federal Leader in 8(a) Procurement Award

* Ching-Ching Ganley, Regional Minority, Supplier/Distributor of the Year and National Minority Female Entrepreneur of the Year

* Steven P. Roche, Tecumseh Professional Associates, Inc., Regional Minority Service Firm of the Year

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velasquez Sounds the Alarm

Small, minority-owned firms are losing ground to large companies in the competition for $200 billion in annual federal contracts, two new studies of the U.S Small Business Administration programs conclude.

The number of individual contracts going to small businesses fell from 6.4 million in 1997 to 4.9 million in 1999, down 23 percent, according to a recent report by the staff of the House Small Business Committee.

"What that means is that (federal agencies) are combining small contracts that used to be provided to small businesses and giving them to larger firms," charged Rep. Nydia Velasquez (N.Y.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Small Business Committee.

The impact of the practice known as bundling small contracts into larger packages is particularly damaging to minority-owned and women-owned firms, said Velasquez.

Bundling has had a negative impact on minority-owned companies. Those businesses participating in the SBA’s 8(a) preference program received $6.3 billion in federal prime contracts in fiscal 1999, down $204 million from the previous year.

The New Mexico 8(a) & Minority Business Association in conjunction with the Latin American Management Association (LAMA) is working closely with Rep. Velasquez’s office on major bills affecting minority business.

One of the critical legislative initiatives is the amended regulations on contract bundling. We strongly support the Congressional efforts of the Senate and House Small Business Committees to amend the FAR Regulations on contract bundling.

On July 26, 2000 various FAR provisions were amended to require agencies to avoid the unnecessary bundling together of separate contract requirements that can preclude small businesses from performing government contracts.

To insure maximum small business participation in bundled acquisitions, agencies must justify bundling requirements together, meet specific estimated benefit thresholds before bundling, assess the impact of bundling on small businesses, and include in negotiated competitions for bundled requirements a source selection advantage for offerors proposing small businesses as subcontractor s.

During the MED Week conference in D.C. the Association and LAMA are hosting a reception to honor the contributions Velasquez has made to small, minority and women-owned business interests.

Hopewell to Head Government Contracting

Luz Hopewell, a former New Mexico resident and former SABUS director at the U.S. Department of Transportation, was selected to become associate Small Business Administration Administrator in charge of the office that oversees all federal procurement programs.

Her appointment to head the Office of Government Contracting in Washington, D.C. is important to New Mexico’s 8(a) and small disadvantaged business firms.

Her professional career includes having served as the president of the Latin American Association (LAMA) in D.C. and working at the University of New Mexico.

Anna Muller, who has been working on minority business advocacy issues since 1970 applauds the appointment. "Luz’s appointment is greeted with great enthusiasm by the national Minority Business Summit Committee, which represents every national minority business trade association," says Muller.