Webinar! Mentor Protégé and Legal Aspects To Be Mindful Of on June 5, 2024

Please join Federal government contracts attorneys John Holtz and Stephanie Ellis for this informative webinar, hosted by the Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship, on June 5 at 10:00 am CDT.

The SBA’s Mentor Protege Program allows two or more businesses to come together and form a joint venture to bid on small business set-aside government contracts. One of the most advantageous aspects of this program is the ability for a large business to mentor a small business through the use of a joint venture. When a large business mentors a small business, the SBA approved joint venture can obtain and perform small business set-aside contracts despite the size of the large business. Join us as we discuss the recent changes in the SBA’s Mentor Protege Program and explore how you can use this program as a tool for scaling your business (whether large or small). Register here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 13-17, 2024

It’s Friday and time for another week in review. The kids are finishing up the school year, so get ready parents! There are lots of activities happening in town and as I drive by our local ice cream shop it seems to be constantly filled with kids as they celebrate the beginning of summer. We hope you are looking forward to a lot of fun summer activities, as well. Enjoy the weekend!

This week in federal government contracting included updates on veteran-owned and WOSB contracting, as well as concerns about the ranks of DoD contracting officers getting thin.

Continue reading

Govology Webinar: Small Business Subcontracting Plans: What SBLOs Need to Know, May 16, 2024, 1:00pm EDT

Steven Koprince, Govology Legal Analyst and retired founder of Koprince McCall Pottroff will be presenting this webinar to help you understand when a small business subcontracting plan is required for a federal prime contractor. Additionally, the course will cover common oversights and mistakes made by prime contractors in connection with establishing and implementing small business subcontracting plans. Please join Steve as he walks you through the process. Register here.

SmallGovCon Week in Review: May 6-10, 2024

Happy Friday and Happy Mother’s Day! Celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Did you know that the most phone calls are made in the United States on Mother’s Day? We hope you have a wonderful weekend and please acknowledge all those mothers and mother-figures in your life. Have a nice weekend.

And now in federal government contracting news this week, some of the interesting updates included GAO’s look at waste in federal programs (they found some) as well as a push to lift budget caps on the DoD.

Continue reading

SmallGovCon Week in Review: April 29-May 3, 2024

Happy Friday! And just like that, it’s May! Hope you had a wonderful week and have some fun plans this weekend. This week in federal government contracting news included updates about small business federal contracting dollars (see our blog here) as well as new contracting bills coming out of Congress.

Continue reading

Clearing Things Up? A Quick Look at the Proposed Plain Language in Contracting Act

In 2010, Congress passed the “Plain Writing Act,” which essentially requires that federal agency communications to the public must be in language that “the public can understand and use” and is “clear, concise, well-organized, and follows other best practices appropriate to the subject or field and intended audience.” In other words, the idea was that agencies should stop using so much jargon and legalese. However, this arguably didn’t apply to contract opportunity notices. Congress is now looking at making sure that omission changes with the proposed “Plain Language in Contracting” Act, at least with regards to small business set-asides. We explore this more in depth in this post.

Continue reading

SmallGovCon Week in Review: April 22-26, 2024

Good day and happy Friday! We hope you had a very productive week and are looking forward to the weekend. We have been, and will be, receiving some much-needed rain, so outdoor weekend activities might be a bit hit or miss here. It’s wonderful weather for all those recently planted gardens, however, as long as the storms aren’t bad!

In federal government contracting news this week, be sure to check out the stories about the new sustainability rules (and our recent blog), as well as new legislation on solicitation language and buying technology.

Continue reading