When I was in business that question was in the bid documents for most larger jobs, especially any that were government. 5% preference IIRC. Ironically being female owned qualified as minority owned as well, even though there are more females than males.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Do you mind if I ask just who is asking you such a thing?

All fed.gov procurements have requirements for participation by:
- Woman owned
- Minority owned
- Disabled
- Service disabled
- HUBzone
- Ability One (in their new name I can’t recall)
and other businesses.

In addition there are set-aside, often no-bid contracts for those groups.

Para, as Sig2340 points out, it's pretty common in our area here around Washington, D.C. Large Prime Contractors are ofter required to award a certain percentage of subcontracts to small, disadvantaged, minority businesses. It gets stipulated in the contract.

I think you also have Native American owned and Native Alaskan Tribal owned.

8(a) businesses is an industry unto itself around the Washington D.C. area.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Place I worked in the late 90s was owned by a couple. In order to get a leg up on contracts, they set it up with the wife as “51% owner.” Worked like a charm cause they could say it was woman owned.

I have seen that quite a few times, especially with Government bids or contracts.

Lol, I'm picturing a meme of the Ghostbusters standing atop the building and Zool asking "Are you a minority vendor". When someone asks if you are a minority vendor SAY YES!

Dont worry if you arent. In our wacky world you can now just identify as undecided.

My FIL was working for a company that managed to get the absolute best when it comes to minority owned business.
The owner set up a Native American (Indian for the rest of us) woman veteran as the head of the business.
They got all kinds of business because of the stupid rules the .gov uses for contracting

I won an AZ gov't. competitive bid long ago, even though I'm as white as the day is long and had the highest price. I was the only bidder who correctly filled out the affirmative action form for the bid, so they had to award it to me. That was a sweet one.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Do you mind if I ask just who is asking you such a thing?

A charity buys ice cream from us, at cost, for a program which is operates at public schools.

The email came from someone at a school, which the charity has never heard of, and who is employed at a school which is not part of the program.

In that case, it's none of their freakin' business, is it?

Minority vendor?
Sure, we sell to anyone.

quote:

Originally posted by Broadside:
8(a) businesses is an industry unto itself around the Washington D.C. area.

Who says the government doesn't create jobs

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
A charity buys ice cream from us, at cost, for a program which is operates at public schools.

The email came from someone at a school, which the charity has never heard of, and who is employed at a school which is not part of the program.

Perhaps someone who either has a friend or relative in the business that provides the service for marketing purposes, or He/She/It/They are part of the administration that monitors this and thus any school or state rules on minority involvement in any vendor that supplies the school system.

Is the charity using the school’s money to buy the product?

What kind of world is it where a person can’t even be charitable if they don’t check the right boxes?

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Perhaps someone who either has a friend or relative in the business that...

Perhaps this is just a typically meddling woke nitwit with nothing better to do, who needs to be put in their place.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Perhaps someone who either has a friend or relative in the business that...

Perhaps this is just a typically meddling woke nitwit with nothing better to do, who needs to be put in their place.

There is always that, the person in charge of checking these things, the title probably is Chief Wokeness Officer...

Aglifter, what school district is this happening in, can you get a copy of the districts vendor requirements from the main office. Is the Wokeness Czar from that location?

I worked for an 8A firm in Columbia, MD in 1980. We did work for the FAA Communications Division.

Some of the proposals had the price increased by 100 percent or more. Additional people were hired that didn't have the experience to do the job.

Two of us that did all the work left and the firm nearly went under when the FAA canceled the contract. They also treated some people bad that were in the typing pool by not paying them overtime.

Interesting how many guys here have been involved in 8A contracts.

8A = $800k of profitable work, for $2.8MM from you the taxpayer.

That’s goober math all day long.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Is the charity using the school’s money to buy the product?

What kind of world is it where a person can’t even be charitable if they don’t check the right boxes?

So, welcome to the joys of the school lunch program - one of the more crooked things in government.

No one can donate more than $1000 of food, per year, to a school. So, the charity donates the money to the school, with the earmark that it be used to buy ice cream from us, since the founder of the charity “won’t serve anything of lower quality than she would serve her own family.”

(The charity is a really nice group, run by lovely people. I have employees who remember the charity, warmly, many years later, from their elementary school days)

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Perhaps someone who either has a friend or relative in the business that...

Perhaps this is just a typically meddling woke nitwit with nothing better to do, who needs to be put in their place.

There is always that, the person in charge of checking these things, the title probably is Chief Wokeness Officer...

Aglifter, what school district is this happening in, can you get a copy of the districts vendor requirements from the main office. Is the Wokeness Czar from that location?

She’s a secretary for a principle at a school which is not part of the program.

quote:

She’s a secretary for a principle at a school which is not part of the program.

Color me shocked.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
Place I worked in the late 90s was owned by a couple. In order to get a leg up on contracts, they set it up with the wife as “51% owner.” Worked like a charm cause they could say it was woman owned.

This is super common. Why not take advantage of their stupid rules?