Spring Is Here –
Grow With Us At Our
April Meetings &
Annual Sacramento Legislative Day
Joint SoCal/SD
Chapter Meeting
Wednesday, April 24th
El Adobe is the place for our
annual joint SoCal/SD Chapter meeting hosted by the
great folks at Southern California Edison.
The
agenda of this meeting will be:
“Pitch Your Perfect
Pitch”
Our Chamber businesses will have
the opportunity to pitch their business to everyone.
We will have a number of our corporate partners
on hand to hear your pitch and provide feedback.
Our goal is to also have these
pitches recorded for your use.
Don’t be bashful, this will be a
great exercise that we will all benefit from and is an
awesome way to obtain more business while getting to
know our fellow members better.
Everyone is welcome to attend, even
if you do not want to “pitch” as we need great audience
members to show support – and it will be also wonderful
to see everyone there!
Also since El Adobe is adjacent to
the Amtrak Train Station in San Juan Capistrano –
BE GREEN & TAKE THE
TRAIN!!!
Joint SoCal/SD Chapter Details

Location – El
Adobe Restaurant
31891 Camino Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
Time – 11:30 am to
1:30 pm
Cost – No charge
courtesy of SCE
Annual Legislative Day
& Northern Cal Chapter Meeting
Thursday, April 25th

Join us for our Annual Legislative
Day at the State Capitol in Sacramento with Northern
California Chapter meeting hosted by the great folks at
AT&T.
We will have a great Legislative
day with the luncheon at and hosted by AT&T with two
great speakers:
Legislative Day Luncheon Presenters:
Senator Joel Anderson (R, El Cajon)
Assembly member Isadore Hall (D, Compton)
The Details
Morning Capitol Meeting
Walk – TBD
Special Legislative Day
Luncheon
& Northern Cal Chapter Meeting
Location – AT&T
Office Building
1211 K Street, Suite 1800
Sacramento, CA
Time – 11:30 am to
1:30 pm
Cost – No charge
courtesy of AT&T
Afternoon Capitol Meeting
Walk – TBD
Join us, there is no cost to attend either April meeting
and it would be great to see everyone at both meetings.
PLEASE RSVP TO
STATEADMIN@AICCCAL.ORG
OR TO
Sophia Gleich at
EVENTS@AICCCAL.ORG
It Was The Event of
March-- The Sold Out,
American Indian National Chamber Dinner
The American Indian
National Chamber dinner at Cabo Wabo on the Las Vegas
Strip on March 12 was a sold-out matchmaking,
procurement networking, good food, and breath-taking
view success.
American Indian Chamber members from all over the U.S.,
joined together with our corporate, government and
tribal leader partners for this annual dinner meeting
which featured a three-course meal, a spectacular view
of the Strip and, of course, unparalleled networking
access to decision makers sourcing Native businesses.

The presidents and board members of the California,
Rocky Mountain, New Mexico and Oregon American Indian
Chambers provided attendees with a short update of their
Chamber activities - with Oregon's Herb Fricke,
California's Tracy Stanhoff, NACA's Denise Pollock and
New Mexico's Russell Pedro - shown above.
A big thank you to our partners from SCE, SDG&E,
Boeing, NAFOA, NACA, Verizon, SoCalGasCo, Comcast,
NBCUniversal and more for
conducting matchmaking meetings and supporting this great event.
Dawn Gilbert of Verizon, was so committed to this
National Chamber event, she flew in just for this
afternoon/evening to help our businesses connect with
Verizon.
We are looking forward to 2014's dinner and to planning
a first ever annual American Indian National Chamber
meeting/procurement conference - stay tuned.
A Huge Thank You!
Southern California Edison Supports Chamber at
RES Conference
The Chamber thanks Dennis Thurston and our great
partners at Southern California Edison (SCE) for their
support of our Chamber trade show booth space and
registrations.

Craig Hayman (above) from SCE was one of several SCE
attendees who worked the booth and conducted several one
on one meetings with American Indian business attendees
during the show.
We also thank, Jaymee Lomax of SDG&E, who also assisted
the Chamber by staffing our booth and meeting with many
of our businesses there for the events in Las Vegas.
Venessa Gleich, below, manager of our Procurement
Technical Assistance Center was also on location at the
conference and at the National Chamber dinner to help
facilitate the matchmaking and provide on-site technical
assistance consulting to our businesses.

And, kudos, to Chamber intern Sophia, who coordinated
the National Chamber dinner with the attentive staff at
Cabo Wabo. Great job Sophie!
Native Nations
Inaugural Ball at National Museum of the American
Indian, Washington DC
Picture Highlights
Sharing some
photos from the big day/night of activities.

A view from the balcony of the NMAI of the U.S. Capitol
and inauguration activities – SoCalGasCo’s Jeff Thorsen
(not pictured) joined Chamber members in the fun.

NMAI Executive Director,
Kevin Gover; Chamber President, Tracy Stanhoff; and
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief, Gregory Pyle; enjoy
that evening’s Native Nations Ball.

(front row) San Manuel’s
Audrey Martinez; Agua
Caliente Tribal Council Member, Jessica Norte; NMAI
board member San Manuel’s Lynn Valbuena; (back row) NMAI
Resource Council and Chamber Member, Allison Hicks; and
NMAI board member Brenda Pipestem

Native American Finance Officers Association Vice
President, VaRene Martin; and Pechanga Band of Luiseno
Band Chairman, Mark Macarro.
Final Update
Regarding the Chamber’s Non-Award of the
MBDA Native American Business Enterprise
Center Grant - Our Debrief
Thanks to Dee Alexander, Native American
Policy Advisor at the Department of
Commerce, the Chamber received our non-award
debrief.
In our debrief teleconference, we were
provided with a number of where we ranked on
the list of bidders and with the notes from
the three panelists reviewing the proposals
submitted.
Although we can take issue with many of
the proposal reviewers' points, there were
other notes of where we could have done a
better job of documenting our case studies
of our great success in business
development, access to capital, and other
capacity building functions we do through
our Procurement Technical Assistance Center
and the Chamber itself - however, the
feedback was useful.
So this debrief was extremely helpful for
any future proposal writing with the
Department of Commerce.
However, from what we can gather, no one
who bid has anywhere near the expertise,
connections and community partnerships with
our people, like we do.
Again, to avoid any confusion we are
providing you all with the following
information.
The Hispanic Chamber of Arizona has
opened an office in Pasadena to provide
services under this grant. AGAIN,
PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NOT THE CHAMBER
PROVIDING THESE SERVICES.
Asian, Inc. will or has opened a Native
American Business Enterprise Center in
Fresno. Asian, Inc. will also have to
charge for its services.
We are still not happy with the non-award
-- as the monies for the Native American
Business Enterprise Centers have been
awarded to fine organizations whose
expertise and mission are
not Native.
But, we do have a clearer sense of the grant
panelist's expectations.
We still believe that Native dollars
need to stay in Native communities!
Our Chamber’s PTAC provides services free
of charge. Bottom line – call our PTAC
for business consulting assistance
213-341-0104.
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