 about the reboot Marshall took over the program on behalf of the agency on October 1 and we've got went through quite an extensive rebranding effort of all the documentation and that took place over about a six month period and then once we had got through that process we opened the door on March 1 last year to start receiving new metropotage agreements. We go to the next slide here is a list of all the documentation that you can find about the program information that will be very important to you as a mentor potential mentor as well as potential protege the one dock piece of documentation here that I would certainly encourage you to look at first and foremost would be the metropotage program guidebook and you can again access back gain access so again we are here streaming the NASA office small business programs learn event small business town hall for metropotage program any questions you might have we also have a dedicated inbox and that's the easiest way to make contact with us if you're interested in any aspect of the metropotage program the way it's set up right now I have my office has 30 days to review that's 30 working days to review any any agreements that come our way or 45 calendar days we also minimal on a minimum amount of time on a MPA today is one year max is three years we changed the reporting requirements from semi annual to annual and we've also lifted lifted that restriction on protege as to the number of metropotage agreements you can have over the life of the program and used to be limited to there is no limit now however you can only have one metropotage agreement at a time and the developmental assistance that had been provided by the mentor on any previous agreement that you've had in place we won't allow the duplication it had to be totally different okay let's go the next slide this is our active metropotage agreements when we inherited the program back in October of 2019 we had several that were new agreements that were in place since that time since rollout of March 1 we have received five metropotage agreements mentor Southern University those have been approved by our office again there's five let's go the next slide a continuation and you will see the final one listed there sure secure solutions okay next slide is our mentor eligibility if you are a large company and interested in participating as a mentor in the program you're going to have to of course be a large company you need to have a NASA contract in place a contract that has an approved subcontracting plan as a part of that contract and also you must be an approved mentor in other words on the approved mentors list to participate in the program because the next slide you will see a listing of those approved mentors and we've got quite a few I think there's in the upper 20s on the number we've added several once a mentor is approved to participate in the program it's approval up to five years that day if we get into the five years they can renew it for another five years and we've had several of those that have taken place this is actually a really good list okay let's go ahead and go to the next slide it's just gonna be your mentor's day if you're a really good list if you're a small company and interested in participating as a protégé in the program you'll see the classification types that are available to participate in that program I say I see the next slide is getting started and as you look at the list of things here was want to highlight a couple of them one thing that we don't do and that is we don't put the relationship together that's strictly between the large company and the small business and we encourage you to sit down and work through that if you're if there's an interest in participating in the program one of the most important things that would happen at that point is the needs assessment and so if a protégé mentor have come to an agreement hey we're interested in putting this together they need to sit down and identify what the needs are of that protégé things that the mentor could mentor them on over the life of the mentor protégé agreement once that happens the mentor needs to sit down at the center where that agreement would be would be in place with and would need to talk with the SPS at that center very important to get the CO involved the one is administering the contract where the agreement would reside as well as the contracting officer representative and once you get through all of that it's just a matter of you know pulling the package together sending it to the center the center will review send it to our office and hopefully we can get it reviewed in a timely manner and also you know get it approved let's go the next slide a few things to consent to consider in a mentor protégé agreement as you're pulling it together is that 70 30 split very important we look very closely at that and if it's a small business a large business relationship it's 70% technical 30% business and of course that's of the direct labor cost direct labor hours kind of flips over to the other side for HBC use MSIs where they become the protégé it's it flipped over to the 30% technical 70% business also if you're looking at pulling this to pack pulling the package together and put an agreement together be sure to take a close look at your ODCs here we like for those to be at 10% or less of that direct cost and very important that you stay as close as you can to that that would be one of another thing that we would look very closely at another very important consideration is with the agreement itself once it's locked in what's going to be the benefit to NASA as a result of this relationship and then I think secondary to that was going to be the benefit to you the large company the small business to the program that the contract is supporting at the center where the route you know where the contract resides again all of these things are very very important also said making sure that the milestones are valid obtainable and then you know once they all of this is cleared through with we get everything in place the last thing remaining would be the CO would have to mod the contract with the clause and at that point no no no earlier than that point at that point or after we will start the agreement the time line or the the clock will start on it and I believe that's my last slide last slide well last slide here last slide is the contact so again if you're interested in participating in the Metropolitan J program please give us a call we'll be glad to discuss any aspect of it thank you thank you so much David for that wonderful presentation at this time we'll begin our former Q&A so it's interesting is that they talked about the men are produce a program this is actually what we had this is so secure solutions and this is not just our lead one of our podcast guests that's on there and it was interesting to see her feature so that was a great go ahead so just thought I would plug that in we haven't answering questions live via the chat so we will try to answer some of the questions that we received in advance as well as some live here today and post event are practices to follow up with any questions we weren't able to answer during the event so our first question is going to be directed to Ms. Joyce McDowell she's a small business specialist at Kennedy Space Center and the question is I have tried to establish contact through the small business reps at various NASA facilities they provide contact points that I email but no one ever gets back to me it seems like a broken system do you have any suggestions thanks true my recommendation is to know your market and do your research as Mr. Godelado spoke earlier about so reaching out to some of those small business representatives at various facilities may prove to be not as fruitful as opposed to those that can actually assist you while some of the NASA small business specialist does not have any control over the various small business liaison officers but if you are trying to reach out to some of the various centers from contractors and can't seem to get in contact with them maybe contact the small business center and see if they can assist you in reaching that representative thank you I think that's a good answer she kind of diverged from it but I think it's a good answer overall program manager in NASA office of small business programs headquarters the question is most small businesses set aside contracts at NASA are in the 541 715 NAICS which is a competition for mid-sized businesses what opportunities exist for emerging small businesses Richard thank you true it's an interesting question and Glenn spoke to this earlier when he's talked had that top 20 NAICS code slide so the 541 715 is the R&D NAICS code and NASA is a research and development agency so it follows that between 40 and well actually on that on that chart it was like at least half of the money that we spend on contracts is falls within that R&D NAICS code now the small business size standards for that NAICS code can either be 500 employees a thousand or 1500 employees and so it's understandable that the person that asked the question would consider that to be mid-sized businesses so SBA considers that to be small business and so SBA is the one that establishes the size standard so that's somewhat beyond our control now the second part of the question is what opportunities exist for emerging small businesses so that I can only answer that generally because overall what we spend is roughly 70 75 percent of what I call space stuff so it's that R&D it's engineering it's the building of the hardware the rockets the spacecraft the manufacturing everything else the remainder 25 to 30 percent would be the everyday government stuff and there are opportunities on both sides of that for small businesses whether it would be a prime contract or subcontract opportunity depends on your industry so we really in order for us to answer what opportunities we have we have to know what your industry is first before what your small business size status is so when you ask about what opportunities we have please tell us what your industry is and then we can answer the question a lot more specifically great thanks Richard the next question is for me will there be any will there be information provided on how to register as a small business with NASA and we believe this question is referencing the NASA small business our vendor database I believe Mr. Delgado mentioned it earlier in his presentation and absolutely there is a way to register through our website I will provide the link in the chat but the website is www.nasa.gov backslash backslash osbp backslash nasa hyphen vendor hyphen database so again I'll put that in the chat and please do register for a NASA vendor database yeah thank god you're putting that in the chat that was too long for me I know thank you glenn um so next up we had a question from the chat and I'll come back to that because well here we go this question is going to be to Mr. Rob Betts who is the small business specialist at NASA Langley Research Center and this is from Jose Gonzalez thank you very much for a great presentation to to you Rob do you see NASA acquiring any professional services such as contract managers construction auditors etc thank you in advance Rob there's certainly opportunities a specific opportunity I don't have any right off the top of my head but absolutely just you know monitor sam.gov look at look at the acquisition active contract list to see what's out there right now and how you fit into that but yeah sure I'm sure NASA would be looking at those kind of opportunities thanks Rob the next question is for Mr. Robert Medina who's a program manager at NASA's headquarters osbp office and the question is it is refreshing to see the acronym PSL rather than hear the term map MAP can you advise what PSLs may be set aside for small business prime contracts Robert yes as I mentioned in my presentation the office of procurement has identified which requirements are going to be set aside for small business in the NASA farce supplement appendix a within that you'll see that protective services requirement has been reserved for small businesses so this means the set of sites could be either small business 8a services a one veteran on small businesses woman on small businesses or hubs on small businesses the centers that will be buying this are aims Goddard in Kennedy with Kennedy also buying a fire protection in addition to that you'll see the multiple award construction contracts can be set aside to small businesses as well and these are managed out of the NASA shared services center Armstrong Flight Research Center and Glenn Research Center though each of the different mine offices at the agency can issue task orders against these multiple award construction contracts the acquisition support services contract which is managed out of the NASA shared services center is an 8a set aside the contract audit support services also managed out of the NASA shared services center is a small business set aside the financial support services that Marshall is handling is a small business set aside and then we have the project planning and control services also out of Marshall's Space Flight Center which is a small business set aside the custodial services which are being will be bought by the Glenn Research Center will be a small business set aside which could include an 8a hub zone or there could be an ability one requirement that will be set aside for custodial services ground maintenance will be managed out of a Langley research center and this can be again a small business set aside 8a hub zone or ability one logistics management services out of Marshall Space Flight Center 50% of these requirements can be set aside for small businesses including 8a and hub zone that means more than 50% can be but at least 50% will be set aside for small businesses and the last one is communication services which will be bought out of Kennedy Space Center and at least 50% of these requirements have to be set aside for small businesses that's future failure all right thank you Robert the next question is from Mr. Glenn Delgado what construction with construction consolidation excuse me the opportunity for small small businesses is getting fewer is there any long-term planning of ways to help this in the future yeah that's actually contract consolidation but yeah what we're looking at is said before we had to find ways to reduce our expenses basically as far as not having 10 contracts at 10 centers but I can assure you that I am in contact religiously with the office of procurement Robert just told you about a lot of things that are being set aside and Richard did too we're in negotiations of you know trying to set aside quite a few things more as I said during my presentation if small business is doing the majority of the work already you know have the dominant number of contracts in that area when we're looking to consolidate them down they have a very good chance of being set aside so the long-term planning is Bill and I Bill Rhodes or William Rhodes as you might know he's the actually deputy assistant administrator for procurement so the number two person in all of procurement at NASA him and I have a great relationship and we sit and talk a lot about what's going to happen in the future what we might be able to set aside and if not what we can do for subcontracting in that arena so the planning is going on and every time Robert explained to you about appendix a we are constantly updating appendix a over the NASA farce up to show you what the next PSL is and how it's going to be procured and what center is going to be cured so hopefully that answered that question but I do want to go back to the very first question that Joyce answered our SPS is do religiously answered people that contact us and we get back to them and if you know NASA you know we have these things called small business tech coordinators that what we try to do is get a person in every technical code at each center as a person that we can contact when people come to us that want to talk very specific projects so we have a link or police a person in each one of those technical offices if you know the small business specialists give you their name and number because that would be the person who's handling the requirement and they do not get back to you this best thing to do is get back to the SPS and say I emailed the guy twice I called them once or twice and then they will recontact the person to try to facilitate them chatting with you most of them are very good about doing it but every now and then you know as Joyce said we don't have control over them they're just a resource for us but just keep getting back to the SPS the small business specialists and eventually if they're really having a lot of issues they usually come to me and say I'm having an issue and then if I contact them you know the tech advisor usually things will happen that they'll get a response to you so hopefully that'll answer that question for you too stay persistent back to miss Parker that's what that means okay thank you Glenn stay persistent the next question is for Mr. Troy Miller and he is a small business specialist at the NASA shared services center the question is how do I get introduced to buyers of services for my firms in addition what is the best way to make connections with the people with the person involved in buying the service we provide the first thing you need to do is understand what each center buys in order to match your capability with that center and once you can match those capabilities or identify opportunities contact your SPS at that center and he can probably do an email introduction to a prime contractor with your capability statement so you can start discussions at that point and I also recommend that you attend outreach events since they are virtual now be on every virtual event that we are having so you can do a matchmaking in those events so again I would say start with you with matching your capability with the center and then contacting SPS so you can get that introduction with the prime vendor all right thanks Troy um I'm gonna move ahead to some more of our questions too you gotta start by doing your homework do your homework market research understand what they buy understand how they buy before you start reaching out to them is a program manager at the office of small business programs in nasa osbp headquarters and the question is what if any are the biggest disqualifiers and qualifiers for winning a contract with you with nasa I was gonna say I hadn't let a contract out in a long time um so some of the things uh and I think uh I'm sure uh Glenn and some of the other folks spoke to already one is a lot of times uh folks are not specific um in addressing the requirements that are in rfps um or uh some of our incumbents um seem to think well they already know me or folks think that since you talked to the specialist you've been to a couple of meetings that nasa already knows you or you're a small business and we should already know you really have to be specific and you really have to read the rfp um typically retail folks in presentations like this the first thing you want to do is read the rfp once you read the rfp you start thinking about your team you need to read the rfp um and once you've read the rfp you're starting to put your team together uh you need to read the rfp uh so you really need to continue to read the rfp read rfp to ensure that you really understand what's being asked for and what the requirements are then we have industry days uh you need to participate in those and ask your questions to ensure that you have a full understanding but responding to the rfps be specific uh address um what the requirements are specifically and if you haven't things anyway um provoked efficiency cost savings be sure to to point those out and demonstrate those things and so uh again uh nasa is a very detailed technical organization and so if you when you're very general that kind of puts you into that you're leaving it out to to the folks to determine what is it that you really mean that you're trying to get across to us and so um i would say the biggest thing is just be specific and make sure that you address the requirements in rfp and again read the rfp thank you true one thing i like to say if you can read and write you could do government contracts so as he stated reading is fundamental and then writing is fundamental is kandace sheppell she is a small business specialist at goddard space light center and that question is what's the best way to break through the email noise to the small business specialist to receive a customized response instead of an email kandace hi good afternoon um the best way to break through the noise would be um uh a phone call i would also um do your research ahead of time and make sure that your email is perhaps pertinent to an upcoming requirement um um or acquisition of something that would catch the attention of the um the small business specialist good answer because we are often inundated with many um emails many emails and so if it's pertinent to an upcoming requirement um you may get a faster response good i like that answer okay thank you kandace so many people out here you like to send emails send emails send emails i always tell you sending emails is great but it's ineffective unless you make phone calls so you've got to take your emails get a couple of phone calls and do them back to back tend to keep it successful mentor protege program as a unique nasa program independent of other federal programs yeah um we think we've got the best mentor protege program out there and sba would obviously would probably talk with us about that a little bit and say no maybe ours but anyway we we feel very confident that the program that we currently have at nasa a program by the way that was brought in back several years ago when glenn took over as the head of our program hi david i think we lost your volume for a second and we may have lost david he has disappeared from my screen so we'll well i can finish answering it for him trip okay thanks for okay as david said this is one of my favorite programs and pet programs ran it at navy as well as here um the answer is yes we are going to keep it unique to ourselves um and sba's already blessed us when sba began their all small mentor protege program and doing all their paperwork for it there were 10 or 12 i think other federal agencies out of the 24 cfo agencies that had mentor protege programs they shut down all but three of them and ours is one of the three that they left standing because it was being run properly properly documented and all that stuff so sba has already blessed us i think we're good through 2023 where we have to go get another approval to keep maintaining our program but yes we're going to stay that way and the way that david is running it now i don't it's even getting better than it was previously so i don't see the sba not granting us another two to three year extension to keep our program unique and separate you know up and running and not merging it into their all small mentor protege program okay thanks glenn for that response and stepping in for david next we have another question for rob betts the question is can i compete for can i compete for contracts before my sdvo sb is confirmed um on that one i i know the the rules are are adjusting on that one as far as the uh service disabled that certification through the ba and that's changing i don't know 100 if that has changed so uh can you compete yes but if it's uh sdvo sb set aside i'm not 100 sure the answer right of course you could compete for contracts because they're not all set aside so if they're not set aside what difference does it make so yes there's the answer to email us at smallbusiness um at nasa.gov and we'll be sure to reach back out to you and in your email if you could direct it to you if it's intended for a specific individual if you could not take that as well thank you um next we're going to move on to another question um and this one is going to be directed to robert watz who is a small business specialist at johnson space center the question is i am interested in learning how space vita corporation can partner with nasa to further human health research for deep space missions to protect astronauts against space radiation aging and to support immune health i believe their question is how can they facilitate that at johnson thanks true uh jsc is the hunt is the home of you know astronauts and uh is the home of human health performance so if they're specifically interested in that what i'd invite them to do to is first to contact our office and we can put them in contact with the folks there at the hhpc also you know they want to come and introduce themselves to our office that's always who i recommend that they start and then if we have some other opportunities where we do some joint counseling sessions and we kind of get them involved with the center itself so they can do that i think that'll that'll get them started okay i don't know if my video came up but it's up but i don't see it i don't sorry if it didn't come up well we see you now but we definitely heard your response so thank you for for that information um the next question is going to be for richard man and the question is what are nasa's plans to consolidate administrative support services contracts in the future this thing is okay and there is a question in the chat way way back in the chat so here's here's what we can tell you which is not a complete answer because we haven't figured it out yet there is a so while they're talking about this just want to share that all of these questions that people are asking a lot of this information is already publicly posted somewhere so you just got to do your research and dig around for it when you get to this particular point you right you want to have very specific questions that you're talking to these people about because on something like this where you have generic questions all they do is they put you in a group of people where you know ultimately they're putting you in a lumps you in a group of folks that are not ready to start doing business and you don't want to be lumped into that group so for me what i like to say is while that you have the opportunity to don't you know you're not supposed to be on these calls to ask questions about uh you know generic about base closures and you know a day program and meant to present that's not the intent of this you're supposed to be gaining insight into specific opportunities and projects things like that otherwise this is a waste of your time so this is not actually work this is busy work but an actual productive work so just want to say that protege program and i think david did a great job of explaining that so a lot of those questions were answered um so we're kind of pass those um richard this is another question for you this is regarding cyber security um what cyber security opportunities will be in the forecast for nasa so this is uh it's you know this is a easy one to answer because uh there's an rp on the street right now and the acronym for the contract is called cypress c y p r e s s it's an agency-wide contract or uh cyber security the rfp closes on july 12th uh if you're just looking at it now it may be hard to get in because it's likely that the team's been made and and you know this is why clinton says you gotta kind of find out about things you need to be in a loop but you need to find things out about you know year or two years in advance um but anyway there is rp out now and again it's called cypress and the rfp number is 80 tech tech 21r 007 should be on so everybody's time by trying to do this at the last minute it's it's it's not even open for discussion it makes no sense while we're even talking about this okay thanks richard if you just learn about now at this event you can um let's see this next question is going to be for mr robert medina and the question is will nasa have procurements specifically set aside for service disabled veteran home businesses thank you yes sir triphilia the agency looks at each of the requirements that it has and determines its market research on these to determine which ones would be set aside i can't take this in historically we've had a service disabled set of sites on the protective services requirements silly questions that they can get all this information we'll have set of sites for service disabled veteran small businesses but a lot of of this is glendo goddell says how firms respond to the source of thought synopsis that is out there listen to this to help you out if you are a service disabled veteran on small business business you see a source of thought synopsis that is issued out there you know respond to that along with any other service disabled veteran on small businesses right you have so a determination can be made to set aside those requirements good answer okay yeah thanks robert um and we do have a lot of questions regarding the menoprotege program um in the chat um so we are going to ask a couple of those and this question is going to be directed to um david brockett he's here and then true i just got a message from david the cable people are across the street working on someone's house and knocked out his internet so they cut his cables but any menoprotege uh questions i can take care of for you sure thank you and this i just had it and it's it's moving around um this question was about the menoprotege experience um at nazisom