Veteran Business Network of Southern California

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A great mixer tonight. See you at the next one.

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WE ARE BACK!!!

Dear VBN Members, Over this past year, your VBN Board has met regularly. On several occasions we thought we may be able to host an event however, the spread of the virus simply made it unsafe to do so. The seriousness of the virus hit home with the passing of one of our fellow Board members, Al Souza. Al Souza was born on February 28, 1937 and passed away on November 14, 2020. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1957, his military occupational skill was Comba...t Medic, and he attained the rank of Corporal (E4). He received the Army Service Ribbon and the Army Good Conduct Medal. Al lived to the ideals of the Army slogan Soldier for Life, he deeply wanted to give back to the military community and share is business experience with fellow veterans. Al owned several companies throughout his career to include Stonehill Industries (1971-1974) a plastic extrusion business, Tillermaster (1992-1995) a manufacturer of sailboat auto-pilot systems and Industrial Cleaning Supplies (1996-2020) a pressure washer, water purification and reclamation business. Al held a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Clark University and a Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University. Throughout his life Al was active in the community; pee-wee football coach, science fair judge, Bear Valley Christian Faith Center keynote speaker and finally board member of The Veterans Business Network of Southern California. Al is survived by his wife, Marjorie and five children: Laurie Moore, Ellen White, David Souza, Kristin Davis, Dennis Long; his eight grandchildren: Aaron Gray, David Moore, Mark Wyse, Daniel Souza, James Moore, Kaylie Long, Riley Davis; and three greatgrandchildren: Mackenzie Gray, Kaitlyn Gray, Rebecca Gray. The VBN Board extends our deepest sympathies to the Souza family.

OCVeterans & MilFam Collaborative: Construction & Building Trades Careers Tuesday, September 29th, 2020... Time: 6PM to 7:30PM Join us for virtual first-hand overview of career possibilities within the construction & building trades who are in search of talented veterans with skill like yours. Learn about the current job opportunities and career paths. Have your questions answered about what they are looking for, first steps and how to best navigate their hiring processes. Click the register now button in the flyer below:

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a US Government program administered by the Small Business Administration that helps businesses keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. The program is a business loan that can be forgiven if specific metrics are met, namely maintaining employees or quickly re-hiring and maintaining salary levels. https://www.sba.gov//coronavir/paycheck-protection-program If you are a small business owner and have not ...Continue reading

VBN Members: Check out this great opportunity! A Veteran Career Boot Camp! The Orange County Veterans & Military Families Collaborative (OCVMFC) with its Convener, UCI is hosting a 5-night employment readiness series for veterans and their families. Get ahead of the crowd and be interview ready before those COVID stimulus checks stop coming!... To find out more and register, click link below: https://lnkd.in/g2cQneg #OCVMFC #VBN #VeteranshelpingVeterans #employment #backtobootcamp

VBN Membership: Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation declaring July 2020, as California for All Small Business Month today as the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery launches a new campaign encouraging Californians to help small businesses in their communities operate safely during the pandemic. Below is the link to the website for a number of free resources for small businesses.... #VBN #veteranownedbusiness #veteranshelpingveterans #smallbusinessowners #resources #shopsafeshoplocal https://lnkd.in/gfyZP-S

VBN Members: As businesses and non-profits across the Los Angeles region continue to face challenges in response to the public health and economic crisis of COVID-19, partners across government and philanthropy have come together to deploy $3 million dollars in grants for small businesses, non-profits, and microentrepreneurs in a newly launched LA Regional COVID-19 Recovery Fund. The $3 million dollar Recovery Fund, established as a joint effort by the County of Los Angele...s, who have contributed $2 million dollars, and the City of Los Angeles, who have contributed $1 million dollars, as well as additional support from philanthropic partners, aims to assist small businesses, nonprofits, and microentrepreneurs that have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, providing $5,000 grants to microentrepreneurs, and $15,000 grants to non-profits and small businesses. To ensure equitable access to capital across various demographics throughout the region, grants will be distributed through an equitable lottery system. REGISTER FOR AN UPCOMING WEBINAR Tuesday, June 30, 10 a.m.: REGISTER HERE Wednesday, July 1, 5 p.m.: REGISTER HERE Tuesday, July 2, noon: REGISTER HERE Click for more details.

Dear VBN Members, The Veterans Business Network of Southern California remains committed to providing networking opportunities to the local veteran community and frankly, our events are needed now more than ever. Your board continues to meet to discuss how we can move forward. We are hopeful to be able to once again host networking events very soon in the month of July. Events may look different and may be held in unique locations with appropriate measures in place to mini...mize the risk of infection but rest assured, they will be resumed very soon. A message will be issued in mid June as to how and where we can conduct an event on July 16. In the meantime, I encourage all members to join our new LinkedIn group at: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13842664/ We recently created a new updated page, if have not yet joined the group please do so now. Unfortunately we were unable to transfer members from the prior page, so if you were a member of the old group, please go to the new page and ask to be added. We also have a well represented Face Book group page at: https://www.facebook.com/thevbn/. If you are not yet following this group, please do so. Our nation continues to be faced with serious challenges to our health, peace and prosperity. We shall endure as long as we can remain true to the aspirations of Declaration of Independence; that all men are created equal. Members of the VBN share the common bond of military service; the oath we took to support and defend The Constitution of the United States is still in us. That brotherhood is our center of gravity and will enable us to strengthen our nation and each other through these difficult times. I look forward to seeing you all very soon. Sincerely, Daniel T. Monaghan President of the Board The Veterans Business Network of Southern California Colonel, USA (RET)

VETERAN BUSINESS FRAUD ALERT: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) is alerting the Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) verified firms about schemes related to fraudulent solicitations where the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Procurement Executive Director, Ricky Lemmon is falsely portrayed as owning and issuing the solicitations. Scammers are pretending to be Mr. Lemmon and are requesting Vete...ran-Owned Small Businesses (VOSBs) ship computers and other IT equipment to them but the VOSBs will never be paid by VA because this is not a valid solicitation and the Department is not associated with these actions in any way. Mr. Lemmon will never personally issue any solicitations; therefore, if a VOSB receives a solicitation that appears to be from Mr. Lemmon, please do not respond or ship any products but report it to the VA Inspector General Hotline at: https://lnkd.in/gnhcFZ3 or 1(800) 488-8244. #veteranshelpingveterans #veteransupport #badactors #procurementfraud

VBN Members: Please see this article regarding the PPP program and some recommendations for small businesses and sole proprietors. #veteransmallbusiness #ppp

VBN Members seeking employment: VetsinTech West Coast Virtual Meetup Join VetsinTech West Coast Chapters!! We plan to have a great panel of leaders and recruiters in tech as well as several members from the VetsinTech Employer Coalition which includes Google, Facebook , Adobe, Cloudera and Genentech to discuss opportunities at these companies and in the tech ecosystem in general!... #vetsintech #employment #careers #veteranshelpingveterans #vbn #veteranemployment #militarytransition #militaryspouses #transitioningmilitary https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vetsintech-west-coast-virtual-

VBN Members: COVID-19 Small Business Forum Webinar Series Designed for small businesses, this weekly virtual forum features the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Wells Fargo, the City of Los Angeles and Dr. Lucy Jones translating the science of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other experts to provide resources and insights specifically for small businesses. These facilitated virtual forums will allow for Q&A as appropriate, with questions being collected and posted after... each week's forum. Topics to be discussed: - A step by step walkthrough of how to apply for the COVID-19 SBA Disaster Loan. - Update on the new Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act Link: https://lnkd.in/gYb8cw

VBN Members: New Small Business Grant Opens Today The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce announced a new Small Business grant from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.... The Foundation set up a new Save Small Business Fund in partnership with Vistaprint and a coalition of supporting companies, foundations and donors. The fund is providing $5,000 in short-term relief to employers across the country. These one-time supplemental cash grants are for businesses that have between three and 20 employees and operate in an economically vulnerable community. The grant application will go live TODAY, April 20 at 12:00 p.m. PST. Link below: https://www.savesmallbusiness.com/

TIME-SENSITIVE: New L.A. County Paycheck Protection Program Application Portal The County of Los Angeles, in partnership with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses initiative and Community Reinvestment Fund, USA (CRF) has created a new application portal for small businesses seeking to apply for the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a forgivable loan product created by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The online portal will open... TODAY, April 15th at 1 p.m. and can be accessed at https://lnkd.in/gfKkaZq. Business owners who access the application portal will initially submit an inquiry with CRF. Business owners should be prepared to provide information on their business. After successfully submitting an inquiry, loan processers at CRF will follow up directly with business owners to obtain necessary documents and information to process the loan request. All eligible business owners who have been unable to apply for a PPP loan through a bank or other financial institutions are encouraged to submit an inquiry. We urge you to apply at your earliest opportunity. If you have any questions, please contact the Los Angeles County Disaster Help Center at (833) 238-4450.

VBN Members: Please see this job resource below. Onward CA is a one-stop resource for the people of California impacted by job loss during the COVID-19 Pandemic... OnwardCA is an initiative of companies, foundations, and humans to get California workers displaced by COVID-19 essential life services and back to work as quickly as possible. https://onwardca.org