Copyright © 2006 AICAE rights reserved.
Revised: 01/23/06
Clay Griffin

From: Nicole Bowman <nbowman@NBOWMANCONSULTING.COM>
Date: December 30, 2005 2:26:08 PM CST
To: MINN-IND@lists.umn.edu
Subject: Important Notice for Potential Federal Contractors (Small, Minority, American Indian, Woman, Veteran, or Disabled Owned Businesses)
Reply-To:
Nicole Bowman <nbowman@NBOWMANCONSULTING.COM>

Hello Educational and Business Colleagues:

Every two or three years the US Department of Education puts out a request
for proposal (RFP) on Fed Biz Opps. This RFP is a competition for their
MATO contract. MATO stands for Multiple Award Task Order. Through the use
of a MTAO competition every few years, the US Department of Education does
not have to post any RFP's on Fed Biz Opps. It took me a couple of years to
figure this out and to eventually get to visit with the right person in the
US Department of Education.

At any rate, the MATO competition/RFP is the mechanism that determines the
contractors for the next 2-3 years who will work with the US Department of
Education. This competition is open to any size business. Last year while
working in Washington D.C., I visited with the head procurement officer from
the US Department of Education and he strongly, strongly encouraged any/all
American Indian, 8A, small, disadvantaged, veteran, disabled, woman owned,
etc. businesses to watch for and apply to the next MATO competition.
Currently there is only one American Indian contractor on this MATO award
out of 104 possible contractors, according to the US Department of Education
Records. These active MATO contractors are at:
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocfo/contracts/mato2004vendors.xls.

Many of these current MATO contractors are large and handle multi-million
dollar awards. However, the US Department of Education is ESPECIALLY
looking for more small, minority, Indian, 8A, etc. owned businesses to apply
as I've learned from my many conversations online and on-site with the
procurement office at US Dept of Ed. In addition to this, you can market
yourself to the prime contractors who are on the MATO award (past or future)
as a subcontracting agency if your company can't handle a very large award.
Please encourage any/all small, minority, American Indian, 8A, disabled,
veteran-owned, etc. businesses to apply to the 2006 MATO competition!!! The
next MATO competition RFP and all related attachments are posted at:
http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/ED%2D06%2DR%2D0004/Attachments.html and
the due date is 2 p.m. Eastern time on February 6,. 2006.

In closing, I wish you well and also ask that you forward this to any/all
interested parties, procurement offices, listserves, etc. This is a good
way to bring the federal dollars back to your community and help support
small, minority, disadvantaged, veteran, disabled, etc. owned businesses.
SUPPOSEDLY America is, "built upon the small businesses". Let's see if this
is the case. We won't know unless we try. Take care and HOYAN (Happy New
Year). OH....and GOOD LUCK!

Respectfully,
Nicky

PS: If anyone wants to chat off line about MATO contracting, please email
me directly at nbowman@nbowmanconsulting.com.


Nicole R. Bowman (Mohican)
Owner, Bowman Performance Consulting, LLC
Federally Certified 8A & Native American Business
271 River Pine Drive, Shawano WI 54166
URL: www.nbowmanconsulting.com
Phone: 715-526-9240
Fax: 715-526-6028