Women owned businesses are the fastest growing segment of the US economy and the LI economy. Minority owned businesses are the second fastest growing segment. In recognition of the importance of these business segments, the LIA established its Women Owned and Minority Owned Business Committee, chaired by yours truly. The committee got up and running last year and identified four issues of importance:

1. Enact legislation to require a specific percentage of Long Island county and town contracts be awarded (through a combination of set asides, goals, preferences and incentives) to minority and/or women owned businesses on Long Island.
2. Enact legislation to increase enforcement of set aside and prompt payment rules on all levels of government contracts and to increase the penalties for contracting companies which do not comply with said rules in their subcontracting actions.
3. Work to increase representation of women and minorities on corporate and other boards of directors in order to increase opportunities for women and minority owned businesses on Long Island.
4. Catalog and work to increase the availability of, access to and awareness of business training, mentoring, financing and other resources for minority and women owned businesses on Long Island.
Recently, the committee reconvened for the first time this year and discussed progress on these issues and what other issues should receive attention. While some progress was made on these four issues, the committee agreed further work is needed and these issues remain the paramount concerns of the committee's work for this year.

On the first issue concerning county and town contracts going to MBE/WBE's- model language was presented to the various Towns and to the Counties last year. Nassau County approved legislation requiring various things, the first step being a diversity study which was completed. Further action is still needed. Suffolk County has appointed a new head of its Minority Affairs Division who is working on a directory of MBE's as a first step. On enforcement of set aside and prompt pay rules, the committee met with various federal,state and local legislators to raise awareness on this issue. Statistics show that there are more women and minorities on corporate boards on Long Island (albeit a very small increase). The committee worked with groups such as Women on the Job, the NAWBO LI Investment Club and others and likes to think such efforts had something to do with the changes. For example, the NAWBO LI Investment Club met with the CEO of a bank in which it held stock and strongly urged him to bring women onto his board of directors for all the right reasons. Later in the year, that did take place. More success was had with the fourth issue, cataloging information. Members of the committee worked to enable the Middle Country Library business database expansion, expansion of the successful LI Small Business Assistance Corp. and Procurement Technical Assistance Program business seminars. Most recently, members of the committee worked with Citibank and the LI Partnership to create the Citibusiness Connects-Long Island- a comprehensive directory of resources.

There is still much work to be done. Anyone interested in working on these issues with the committee is urged to join and provide input. The committee meets the last Tuesday of every odd month at the LIA. If you would like to join, e mail me at roz-goldmacher@lidc.org