Legion class teaches entry into federal contracting
Service-disabled veteran small business owners and veteran business owners recieve instruction on preparing and submitting GSA Schedule proposals from Scott Davidson, president of Vets GSA. (Photo by Andrea Dickerson)

Legion class teaches entry into federal contracting

More than 20 service-disabled veteran small business owners and veteran business owners attended a free two-day class on drafting General Service Administration Schedule proposals (GSA Schedules), sponsored by the Legion and Vets GSA, LLC, at The American Legion's Washington, D.C., office, Oct. 28-29.

GSA Schedules, also known as Federal Supply Schedules, are long-term contracts that schedule indefinite delivery and indefinite quantity of items or services from private contractors to the federal government. GSA establishes long-term government-wide contracts with commercial companies to provide access to millions of commercial products and services at volume discount pricing.

The class provided veteran business owners instruction on preparing and submitting GSA Schedule proposals. Vets GSA provided templates, completed proposal examples and instructions that were tailored for each business.

The GSA Schedule is one of the most popular contract vehicles the government uses to purchase over $40,000,000 worth of goods and services from government contractors, said Scott Davidson, president of Vets GSA and member of the Legion’s Small Business Task Force. Davidson shared much of his knowledge and expertise in the subject while teaching the course.

“During this class I walked the owners through the entire process and provided them all of the required documentation to submit the proposal,” he said.

Attendees came from all corners of the country to participate and brought a sense of nostalgia to some, said Paula Gibb, who made the trip from California.

“As usual, when you go to a place where there are a lot of vets, people are really friendly,” she said. “I saw some old friends and some new friends. It was nice to see people I haven’t seen in years.”

Although the course was geared more toward businesses that are not already on the schedule, businesses that are currently on the schedule also found value in the course and benefitted from participating.

“We are already on the GSA schedule 70, but there is some new information we wanted to learn about,” Gibb said. “There is enough information out there that would allow you to go and do this on your own, but all of the ‘gotchas’ were distilled into the class. Over the course of the past two days, Scott was able to go through the entire process of getting on the schedule, and he told us the issues to really pay attention to in order to alleviate the problems of getting on the schedule.”

Davidson said he feels that entrepreneurial spirit is alive in most veterans. He says he believes they will continue to have a positive impact on the U.S. economy, and it is the duty of other businesses and organizations in the spirit of “we take care of our own” to ensure that veteran business owners have all of the tools and resources to succeed in business after they have sacrificed so much for this country.

"This kind of stuff helps the bottom line businesswise,” Gibb said. “People will always remember what the Legion has done to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate themselves.”