Meeting — Sep. 27, 2023

The GSA Acquisition Policy Federal Advisory Industry Partnerships Subcommittee convened for a public meeting at 3:00 PM on September 27, 2023, virtually via Zoom, with Kristin Seaver, Chair presiding.

In accordance with FACA, as amended, 5 U.S.C. App 2, the meeting was open to the public from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST.

Meeting agenda

Committee Members Present:

Kristin Seaver, Chairman — General Dynamics Information Technology
Susan Lorenz—Fisher — AmerisourceBergen Corp.
Mamie Mallory — Mallory & Associates, LLC
Deryl McKissack — McKissack & McKissack
Nigel Stephens — U.S. Black Chambers of Commerce
David Wagger — Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries
Dr. Kimberly Wise White — American Chemistry Council

Absent: Farad Ali, Denise Bailey, Gail Bassette, Stacy Smedley, Keith Tillage

Guest Speakers & Presenters: n/a

GSA Staff Present:

Boris Arratia — Designated Federal Officer
Stephanie Hardison — Deputy Designated Federal Officer
David Cochennic — GAP FAC Support
Sylvia Yang — Closed Captioner
Rene Devito — ASL Interpreter
Scott Merk — ASL Interpreter

Call to order

Boris Arratia, Designated Federal Officer, opened the public meeting by welcoming the group before reminding the public that there will be time for comments and statements at the end of the meeting. Roll call was performed before the meeting was turned over to Chairperson Kristin Seaver.

Welcome and opening remarks

Chairperson Kristin Seaver welcomed the subcommittee and shared that they will be discussing the recommendations the group is looking to present to GSA at the upcoming full committee meeting.

Subcommittee business

Kristin Seaver provided an overview of the work plan calendar, highlighting the scheduled dates for upcoming meetings featuring guest speakers.

Nigel Stephens mentioned he has a small business in Arizona the group should hear from that does battery recycling. The business would discuss how the government can better identify and recruit those firms to join the federal marketplace from a small business standpoint.

Deryl McKissack mentioned the Executive Director of AEC unites has agreed to meet with the group if they would like to hear from her. They are an architectural engineering and construction minority firm who can speak to the group on their barriers to getting into the federal government.

Troy Cribb is laying out feelers in the private sector in cybersecurity. She will discuss later with Kristin to see if it makes sense to have them speak at a later meeting.

Kristin moved back to the work plan to discuss the three recommendations the group has.

1. Innovative new entrants
2. Climate and acquisition maturity model
3. Lighthouse (network of networks) recommendation.

Nigel Stephens, who is working on the lighthouse recommendation, proposed leveraging a structure similar to the Community Navigator Program the Small Business Association (SBA) has. The subcommittee can tailor it to their specific, environmental and sustainability needs to help them further develop the lighthouse recommendation. He suggests a strategy for the government to leverage trusted advisors, trade associations, and membership organizations to connect with smaller innovative companies and provide technical assistance and guidance. The idea is to tap into these intermediary groups, which have regional expertise and can facilitate the process.

Kristin Seaver suggested gathering a list of all the groups the subcommittee should be tapping into and being inclusive of. Kristin and Nigel suggested construction, environmental remediation, office products, technology, consumables, larger DocuSign Envelope ID: F50B9922—D2C4—4F42—9484—C08B29A3FE10 companies doing things that have big environmental impacts, small minority owned businesses, women owned businesses and even the investment community.

Nigel Stephens suggested reaching out to NBDA and FBA since they have points of contact the group can hear from on the Community Navigators Program with regard to a template and structure.

Looking at next steps for this, the group would look to hear from Antonio for the outreach perspective. They are looking to engage other trade associations as well. It would be good for the group to look within their network to have these conversations.

Kristin Seaver discussed the sustainability climate model and challenge.gov. She mentioned the need for a maturity model for climate and sustainability in government procurement. She expressed concerns about the readiness and capacity of GSA to implement the comprehensive recommendation and suggested involving experts from NIST to refine the maturity model.

David Wagger provided input regarding the ongoing reorganization of FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) and the new executive order to use the social cost of carbon in budgeting. He emphasized the importance of considering how these changes might impact the maturity model recommendation and how the model could help organizations align with new requirements.

Kristin Seaver called for input from other committee members, asking for their thoughts on refining the maturity model. She emphasized the importance of collaboration with experts and other organizations to create a useful and practical model for government procurement.

Mamie Mallory emphasized the role of academia and suggested that academic institutions could play a vital role in the development of the maturity model. She also highlighted the importance of aligning the government’s requirements with academic programs.

Stephanie Hardison suggested considering the initiatives lighthouse and challenge.gov as small components within a broader maturity model. Kristin agreed and mentioned that these initiatives would provide insights into how to support the maturity model effectively.

The group members moved into discussing challenge.gov. The subcommittee was encouraged to explore challenge.gov to understand how it works and to identify potential challenges that could be recommended to GSA.

Boris Arratia provided additional information about the challenges listed on challenge.gov, their phases, and the prize money associated with each challenge. He explained how challenges are open to the public and offered insights into how challenges could target specific groups or communities. He clarified that challenges can target specific communities, and it is not limited to GSA as the champion. He also explained that the number of participants varies for each challenge.

The committee discussed the idea of running challenges as pilot programs to expand new entrants with sustainable products and services. These challenges can serve as pilot programs to meet specific objectives and send a demand signal to the government. The group will explore case studies of previous challenges to gain a better understanding of how they are structured and executed.There will be prior examples of challenges shared with the subcommittee.

Looking to the next meeting, the subcommittee agreed to brainstorm and propose potential challenges for GSA as well as review previous challenges. They were also encouraged to look within their network and find groups they would like to include in their lighthouse recommendation.

Public comments

Troy Cribb felt the subcommittee was moving forward in the right direction with refining their maturity model recommendation. She will start to reach out to folks to brainstorm for the lighthouse and challenge.gov recommendation. She thanked the subcommittee for their discussion today.

Closing remarks

Kristin Seaver thanked the committee members for their active participation and collaboration and reminded them to prepare potential challenge ideas for the next meeting.

Boris Arratia adjourned the meeting at 5:00 P.M. ET.

I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete.

Digitally signed by Kristin Seaver 3/25/2024
Kristin Seaver
Chairperson
GAP FAC Industry Partnerships Subcommittee