On February 27th Gene Strupinsky met for several hours with Dolcey Chaplin, Director - Defense Procurement Technical Assistance Center (DPTAC) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Her website is www.njit.edu/dptac.

Ms. Chaplin is an expert in helping small businesses learn how to obtain contracts with the government and large businesses. She has offered to conduct a free 3 hour seminar in Hillsborough for manufacturing businesses to explain the process to them. Much of the seminar will be done with a computer. For example, she will show you how to fill out your Central Contractor Registration (CCR) form which you will need when dealing with the government. She will show you how to use SIC->NIC codes to maximize your access to available contracts. You will also be given a free package to take away with you.

The seminar will not be limited to the Department of Defense but to the government in general and also to getting contracts from large businesses.

Please keep two important concepts in mind:

1. The government wants to give contracts to small businesses and will
   set aside a portion of a large contract for small businesses.
   
   
2. The government is made up of people and it spends hundreds of billions of dollars using everything from pencils to toilet paper, so don't limit your thinking to contracts for items like tanks , ships and planes.

The seminar would be held in the Multi-Purpose Room in the Municipal Building. We are considering two timeframes: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM.

I urge you to take advantage of this free opportunity even if you've never dealt with the government before. Please take advantage of this offer.  It has the potential to enormously broaden your market base.

Please email Gene Strupinsky directly if you are interested in attending and the time which would better suit you; either a morning or late afternoon seminar.  Gene's email address is gstrupinsky@hillsborough-nj.org.   He can be reached at (908) 369-4313 x106.

Additional information will be posted once a date and time has been determined for the seminar.