Below are the minutes from the recent conference call meeting of NAWBO's Public Policy Forum.

NAWBO Public Policy Forum
Conference Call Minutes, November 1, 2007

I. Call to Order 9:00 a.m. Pacific time; 12:00 noon Eastern.

II. Roll call – the following people were in attendance: Deborah Wilder, Susan Shargel, Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, Marion Hook, Holly Luisi, Kathe Mayer, Kirsten Osolind, Lavette Malloy Smith, Devona Williams and Michele Jerome.

III. Legislative Update
NAWBO recently sent out an action alert regarding two bills -- HR 386 and S 2239.

Since the SBA has failed to implement the Women's Procurement Program for nearly seven years, resulting in the loss of $33 billion dollars since 2001 for women-owned firms and their communities, the House of Representatives Small Business Committee has included provisions in Download file: HR 3867, The Small Business Contracting Program Improvements Act, which will enable agencies to implement this program before the SBA completes the necessary regulations. NAWBO has been an advocate of this program since it was legislated and it was the top recommendation of NAWBO's Procurement Task Force in 2006.

S. 2239, Equity for our Nation's Self-Employed Act of 2007, will amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow self-employed individuals to deduct health insurance costs in computing self-employement taxes.

Please visit the web links above to read more on these bills and be sure to encourage your representatives to support them. In addition, H.R. 1023 was noted as a bill that NAWBO members should be supporting as it repeals the three percent withholding for the IRS on federal contracts.

IV. Report from Procurement Working Group
Headed by Lisa R. Pierce, lisarpiece@aol.com
The group is working on a best practices manual for state level public policy events with a goal of having it prepared for debut at Public Policy Days in February.

V. Report from Health Care Issues Working Group
Headed by Susan Shargel, sshargel@shargel.com
Susan reported that her group is currently putting together two sub-committees. One will work on the health care session at Public Policy Days and the other will focus on a member survey related to health care. The Health Care working group meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Their goals are posted on the NAWBO website.

VI. Report on Virtual Public Policy Day
Headed by Deborah Wilder, dwa@wilderlawfirm.com
Deborah reported that the Virtual Public Policy Days presentation was positively received by the Board of Directors at their October meeting. The program will be launched at the closing session of Public Policy Days.

VII. Public Policy Days Update
Michele Jerome reported that the planning for Public Policy Days is nearing completion. Speakers are being finalized and the full agenda will be posted on NAWBO's website very shortly. In addition to our amazing keynote speakers -- Sandra Day O'Connor and Bonnie McElveen-Hunter -- breakout session topics include advocacy training, health care, immigration, HR2020 20th anniversary, accessing federal procurement opportunities, and more. Everyone was encouraged to bring one NAWBO member who has never experienced the event.

VIII. New Immigration Working Group
Staff will put a call for volunteers in the Weekly Digest to recruit interested members to participate. Marion Hook volunteered to lead the working group as immigration is an important issue for business owners in Arizona right now. If you are interested, please email Marion at innkeeper@aroseinn.com.

IX. New Business
Public Policy Forum members were encouraged to email Deborah Wilder with any suggestions or ideas to encourage chapters to engage in Public Policy.

Please note that the next meeting is Thursday, December 6, 2007--you must be a nawbo or nawbonyc member to participate.